Volume 1 - CH 11

The day has finally come for the opening of “Alme Titty’s Ice Cream Shop”.

The first floor, which had been turned into a storeroom until recently, was neatly arranged as a shop, and it was finished quite nicely.

The interior of the shop is small and cozy, but it is lined with stylish round tables and decorated with table mats with pictures of flowers and plants on them.

A few tables and chairs with umbrellas were set up outside the shop. The furnishings were from the time of the juice shop, which had been in storage, was used as is, and she was sure her grandmother would have been delighted to see this scene.

The counter inside the store is lined with containers of ice cream for customers to see. Mixed berry, orange, coffee, and milk ice cream. For the time being, she tried to prepare these four kinds of ice cream. She chose this menu based on the availability of ingredients, but she will change them as she see how things go.

The ice cream is made in a large square container with a glass lid and stored in a cooling box filled with ice. The temperature is adjusted with ice magic, since she wanted to be careful not to accidentally melt it.

The ice cream is well prepared, and the changes are perfect. The shop looks reasonable, so she thought that’s about as good as it gets.

All she has to do now is wait for the customers to arrive. –It’s the first day of business and it’s still early in the morning, so she didn’t expect any customers to show up for a while.

The real work will begin around noon. Tourists will be streaming into this small plaza from noon to dusk, and she wants to catch their attention. It is a sunny day today, so she can expect people to come here to seek cooler weather.

As she leaned against the counter to take a breather, she saw a brown-haired man appear through the wide-open front door. It was Falk.

“Oh, Mr. Falk! Welcome.”

“Hello. I came here as soon as possible. Was it too early?”

“No, no, I just opened the shop.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I was in a hurry.”

Falk excitedly looked around the store and smiled. Alme didn’t expect to see him here first thing in the morning, almost as soon as the store opened. It seems that he liked the ice cream more than she had expected.

It looked hot as usual, so she decided to invite him into the shop.

“It must be hot outside in the sun. Please come this way.”

“Thank you for your concern. But first…”

Falk straightened himself up and held out a small bouquet of flowers that he had hidden behind his back.

“Congratulations on the opening of your ice cream shop.”

“Wow, thank you so much!”

Receiving the bouquet that was presented to her, Alme smiled. White, pink, yellow, orange, light blue, green—the colorful flowers are so lively that she can enjoy it just by looking at them.

“I had seen very few flowers in the Far North, but this city is full of flowers and it’s delightful, when I was selecting various kinds of flowers, I ended up with a mismatched rainbow of colors that I took away. It appears that flower arrangements requires good taste…”

“Haha, they are lively and nice. I’ll be sure to display them in my store.”

Falk smiled wryly, but if she likes the bouquet, then it’s more than enough –Or rather, to be honest, he doesn’t have a sense for combining flowers, so he didn’t know if it was good or bad…he just thought the flowers were simply beautiful, so he thought it would be good together.

When Alme received the flowers, another small paper bag was presented. A yellow ribbon is wrapped around the top.

“Also here you go…It’s honey. I’ve never had it myself, so I’m sorry that I don’t know what it tastes like, but I bought it because I heard it’s a product that is said to be…undeniably delicious. I heard it is favored by women, so I hope it will suit your palate as well.”

“Thank you so much for the kind gifts! I’ll definitely enjoy it on my break!”

Alme guided Falk into the store while receiving the paper bag. What kind of honey is undeniably delicious? She’s quite curious, so she’ll have to taste it soon.

“Mixed berries, orange, coffee, and milk. –I’m not sure what to choose.”

“You can even combine one ball at a time.”

“Hmm… then milk and coffee, please.”

After a few moments of serious contemplation, he decided on his order. His serious face was sharp and strangely composed. It was a shame that he was only worried about the coffee ice cream, but he looked so dignified.

“Certainly, please wait a moment.”

Saying this, Alme scooped the ice cream with a large spoon and placed it neatly and roundly in a bowl. She placed the milk and coffee next to each other and added a little garnish.

She took out a container stored in a separate cooling box from the ice cream and removed a mint leaf and lemon slice from inside.

The lemon slice is cut into small pieces about the size of a pinky fingernail, and comes in two shapes: round and triangular. Using decorative tweezers, she attaches the slice to the milk ice cream.

A mint leaf is then placed on top of the coffee ice cream to complete the process. After quickly completing the series of work, she put the ice cream in front of Falk, along with the name of the new product that will be on the ice cream shop’s signature menu.

“Thank you for waiting. Coffee ice cream and Shirotaka-chan ice cream.”

When she introduced the ice cream, Falk’s eyes opened wide in surprise and looked alternately at the ice cream and Alme’s face.

“Shirotaka-chan……!?”

“Yes, the milk ice cream as it is would look lonely, so I decorated it to look like a white falcon.”

Alme took the pure white milk ice cream and added yellow lemon peel eyes and a beak.

She thought that “Shirotaka-chan” would be more appropriate than “Shirotaka-sama” because of its loose appearance, so she named it Shirotaka-chan.

Falk stared at the ice cream with a blank expression.

“I thought it would be more appropriate to call it “Shirotaka-chan…this is also quite adorable. I just put eyes and a mouth on it, but it looks a little more falconish this way, don’t you think? I hope it will be popular among women. I’m nervous that they might be offended because I made it a little too cute…also If I’m about to get arrested for blasphemy, I’ll say it’s just a chick.”

Alme heard that merchants are currently riding the “white falcon boom”, so she would like to think that one store in a back alley like this would not be noticed.

But she can’t help but feel nervous when she thinks of…the possibility of allegations occurring.

Falk shook his shoulders and laughed, disregarding Alme’s worries.

“This kind of cute ice cream won’t be disrespectful! Rather, I feel this much is just right, in a white-falcon sort of way.”

“Is that so? I wish I could have made it look a little better, but…it was impossible to make a falcon out of round ice cream.”

“… One unfortunate thing is that it’s cute and it’s a pity to eat it.”

Falk smiled shyly as he stared at the ice cream. His smile seemed more natural compared to the first time they met. Perhaps it is because of his almond shaped eyes, but when he smiles, it is soft and sweet.

It is such a charming smile that even Alme, who does not pay much attention to such things, can’t help but take notice of it.

It is easy to imagine that Falk’s private life must be very glamorous. He must be a magnet for many women.

Falk put his spoon in the coffee ice cream before the white falcon ice cream and bit into it.

“Coffee is delicious too! It has a good balance of sweetness and bitterness, and it’s more refreshing than I expected.”

“Thank you very much. If it suits your tastes, I’m happy to hear that.”

“As for the Shirotaka-chan ice cream…if Shirotaka eats this ice cream, will it be considered cannibalism?”

Alme couldn’t help but burst out laughing because he said it with such a serious face. She was surprised at the seriousness of his question, which made her laugh even more.

In the first place, there is no need to worry at all, since Shirotaka would never come to a commoner’s store at the end of an alley like this.

“Well, I think it’s fine, though.”

“Well, that’s right. Even if it’s cannibalism, Shirotaka would eat the ice cream without worrying about it. I’ll have some.”

Shirotaka-chan’s ice cream went into Falk’s mouth with a lick.

While they were chatting about other things, the bowl of ice cream was emptied in no time.

After paying the bill, Falk left the table with a sense of regret. At the same time, he let out a sad voice.

“I’m glad I came on the opening day. I was able to eat the ice cream.”

“Eh, Mr. Falk, is it possible that you can’t come here anymore?”

She asked him in surprise, perhaps he was going to go to some other city. He was her first customer and she had just become acquainted with him, but…she would be quite sad to see him go.

Falk hurriedly added words to reassure her.

“No, it’s just that I’m going to be busy with work for a while, so it looks like there will be a gap before I come back next time. It’s probably going to be too difficult this month, so I enjoyed every bite right now…”

“Ah, so that’s what you meant. I thought you were going to leave this city –Then, if you have time again, please come by.”

Apparently, it seems that he won’t be able to stop by for awhile, but he had said it in such an exaggerated manner. Alme took out a paper card from the basket. This paper had the name of the shop and the handwritten grid below was a point card. The first square is stamped, and there are ten squares in total.

“Please take this one. If you fill up all ten squares, you get one free ice cream.”

“Oh, it’s an interesting system, isn’t it?”

It was a common system in her previous life, but come to think of it, it may not be so common in this world. Falk smiled as he puts his loyalty card away in his wallet.

“I’ll have to work hard to get the next stamp.”

“Don’t overdo it, but I’m rooting for you.”

Saying this, Falk smiled, squinting his eyes in a somewhat dazzling display of delight.