Shades of the New World

Chapter 125: Karma

Only this brief moment when Evin would come to drink coffee would give him the strength to plow through the mountainous task. At one point, he started to bring some food to Rhea and talk a bit before leaving. As for his flattering tone when he talked to Rhea, it had its reasons.

'Since everyone thinks I'm infatuated with the woman, why do I have to act differently?' Evin decided one day and started fawning over Rhea. After a few days, Evin found the reactions of the other men and the stall owner herself to be truly amusing and invigorating, so he's been keeping at this act of his for quite a long time. Eventually it became a bad hobby of his. 

Rith came out of his shadow and awaited her own coffee cup. Evin managed to pull the Cosmic into the 'Coffee Side' thanks to his frequent visits to Rhea's stall. The Cosmic did not enjoy a normal Americano, her cup of coffee was a bit special. She had Rhea boil milk and drank her coffee without any water. Evin pestered the Cosmic a lot for this sacrilege, but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"Do you have any news from the main branch?" Evin asked Rhea.

"Nothing worth mentioning, master Evin. Though they seemed to be quite shocked that the only customer of the stall is a young mage. I've also heard that our boss was just glad that this branch didn't do too badly," Rhea explained. She wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. The price of coffee was truly too much for common folk to handle and the ones who were brave enough, they could only afford to buy coffee without sugar and milk. As for the wealthier patrons, there weren't any, since none of them wanted to drink inside an open stall surrounded by a bunch of thirsty fellows, who doggedly eyed at the stall owner.

"Is that so? Well, I'm glad I'm keeping your business floating. It would be tragic if you left so suddenly, I'll probably die or something. Look at these fellows who only come to look at you. So pathetic. Don't they realize that if they don't support this business, they won't be able to keep staring at you anymore? If they don't like the bitter coffee, they should at least buy one cup of flavored coffee every week! Ke-ke-ke," Evin said loudly with a repulsive snicker.

Evin knew he was being extremely embarrassing, but who was he to care? How many embarrassing things had he done as a spirit? He was completely able to pretend that no one could hear him and say these cringy lines. And at some point, he started to enjoy it.

"Thank you, young master" Rhea's voice trailed off as she put the cup of coffee in front of Evin. She then put another flatter cup in front of Rith for the Cosmic to lick from.

"Is there something troubling you?" Evin noticed something was wrong and asked in a low, normal tone. He knew when to stop joking around.

"It's nothing, young master," Rhea replied.

'If it's nothing, then don't act like that!' Evin exclaimed inside, but outside, he was as tranquil as a monk. But in the end, it wasn't his place to care. 

'Or is it? Since I'm technically chasing after her?' Evin frowned.

"Is that so?" Evin said and took a sip from the cup. Subconsciously, he brought out the Book of illusions and opened it. 

'Oh wait, I don't have to read this thing anymore,' he realized and put it away.

"It's so great to be done memorizing these stupid illusions" Evin said while stretching and yawning.

"Truly," Rith added from the side. She was forced to learn of these illusions as well at some point in her life, so she was quite bored most of this month. She would teach Evin some parts of that the boy didn't understand, but most of the time, she would be teaching Runa and Enri about worldly matters. The two sisters were becoming more and more intelligent as the days passed. Especially Runa. Enri was still hellbent on calling Evin her mother, so she fell into Evin's naughty list most of the time.

"What will young master do next?" Rhea asked with interest. Evin would show Rhea some of the more presentable, or entertainment like illusions to show off. Obviously, the Oaths inside Evin weren't that happy about it, but since Evin didn't explain how it worked exactly, they let it slide. This made the woman slightly interested in the topic of magic. 

"Hmm, I'm not really sure what my master will teach me next. But whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to tell it to you," Evin said. Rhea was familiar with this answer. Every time she asked for details, Evin would gracefully dodge the answer. Lately, the boy didn't even bother dodging and just outright refused.

"Are all mages secretive like this?" Rhea asked.

"Yep. Too bad for common people like you, huh? To always be in the dark like this," Evin said with a sigh and sipped at his cup.

"I feel that a relationship between young master and me would be impossible due to all these secrets," Rhea said wistfully.

Evin almost spat out the coffee in his mouth.

'Is she serious?! Did I overact?!' A mess of thoughts appeared inside Evin's head. He took another look at Rhea's face and found the other's clouded eyes, which stared earnestly at Evin. He didn't want to assume anything, but he was pretty sure the other was serious.

'Nooo-no-no. First of all, I'm a 6-year-old and you're over twenty. And on the other hand, I'm a 300-year-old and you're twenty. Either way it's super bad! Don't ruin your life like this!' Evin screamed internally and began to think of ways to resolve this mess. Truly, playing around too much caused huge disasters.

As Evin's scalp was going numb, he heard a giggle from Rhea.

"Look at your serious face! That's what you get for playing around with me," she said, failing to suppress her charming laugh.

Evin, understanding that he was had, calmed down, wiped the proverbial sweat off his forehead and sighed deeply.

"Hmph, don't' joke around with your young master. I'm only 6, I'm allowed to play around, but not you," Evin said shamelessly.

"Idiot" Rith said in-between her sips from the coffee.

Rhea giggled and started brewing another two cups of coffee.

"Since you always overpay, this one's on the house," she said with a smile.

Evin was a bit scared to increase his daily intake by another cup, but he couldn't make himself refuse the offer. He was very carefully monitoring his body when it came to his hobby and was proud that he managed to only drink a single coffee cup a day. It also helped that Evin had to come to Rhea's stall to drink coffee as his lazy personality did not wish to make two trips to one place in a day.

'And no, I only pay in silvers because I can't be bothered to carry around bronze coins,' Evin retorted in his head as he drank the other cup of coffee, savoring the taste, as Evin knew that soon his tongue would stop registering this bitter taste.

Evin talked with Rhea a bit and was teased endlessly by the stall owner. But Evin knew that he could only grit his teeth and call karma a bitch.