Shades of the New World

Chapter 147: Ofi Pasha

"And he decided to get you to change your workplace in the process? Well, I suppose you can't work a stall in the winter, huh?" Evin asked amusedly.

"He can be quite an eccentric person. Also, he has the resources for it, since the brand seems to be doing quite well all around the world," Rhea said with a smile.

"Anyway, do you need help with something?"

"Oh, I can't have you help out with the setup, don't worry about it. But you should talk to boss, he seemed eager to let you try out some new kind of recipe," Rhea said and lead Evin into the small shop.

Inside, a short, 30-ish man with a healthy tan was supervising some construction workers. His moustache moved about in a lively way as he spat out orders like the long-accomplished captain of a shipping boat. 

"Boss, the young mage I was talking about is here!" Rhea shouted out.

The mustached man turned his towards Rhea and Evin, before putting on an amiable face. 

"Hello, young master! I've heard great things about you! Thank you for your continued patronage to our store!" the man said loudly.

"I just like the drink and Rhea here, so it's a win-win for me," Evin laughed, and winked at Rhea. The latter sighed exaggeratedly and lightly pinched at Evin's cheeks.

The man was a bit angry at Rhea's rude behavior, but noticed that Evin didn't seem to mind it and calmed down.

"Honestly, I was not very confident in this branch, as you might guess, but since it's helped another coffee lover like yourself to sate your thirst, I simply couldn't get myself to leave it unattended. Since winter was coming, I searched for an indoor shop area and found this little spot here," the man said emotionally.

Evin was a bit moved to hear that the man was willing to lose some profit for a single customer.

"By the way, what's your name, Sir? And how did you find the idea to start a coffee shop?" Evin asked curiously. 

"Oh, I go by Ofi Pasha. My story began from a small village that lived near a small, but rather thin and long Oasis. One of the families there, worked a coffee plantation that he would sell to some of the bigger Oasis cities near the big lakes. He would also prepare the coffee in a very peculiar way, which I wanted to let you try out," Ofi said with a smile. 

"Wait, now that I think about it, how do you grow coffee in the desert?" Evin asked. To his knowledge, most oases had a few palm trees surrounding the water, and there were practically no dark soil to speak of.

"Oh, young master must've never seen an actual Oasis city before. Ha-ha-ha, if I wasn't born in one, I suppose I would be quite surprised as well. The Oases in the East are very special, as they are a patch of green fertile land lodged right in the middle of the vast landscape of sand. Us, Easterners call them the 'Islands of the golden sea'. And truth be told, it does look quite off-putting when I look at it from afar sometimes the unnatural way grass green mixes with the yellow sand," Ofi said with some nostalgia.

"But that's so unscientific" Evin couldn't quite imagine it. Sand and soil could be called the same thing, since soil was just 80, or 85 percent sand mixed with other things, but a land which had both green patches of grass and sandy areas right next to each other was just unscientific.

"Hah, some smart people do say that, but us little men, just chalk it up to the one of the miracles of the Empress," Ofi shrugged.

'Ah, yes the Empress' will,' Evin thought, and for some reason, seemed to accept the fact. He soon gave up on thinking much about it.

"I thought you guys were against the Empire, with your declaration of becoming an independent Empire and everything," Evin asked.

"Ah, don't associate me with those idiots. A bunch of bored politicians who got nothing better to do. If they've got the time and gold to write up a bunch of new and useless laws and regulations, they should've spent it on coffee beans!" Ofi said angrily.

"Well, us little men have no say in those things, so it's usually best to ignore it. More importantly, what's this new way of brewing coffee you were talking about?" Evin asked.

"Oh, that. It's very simple, but it's quite strong compared to a normal dripping method. Please, sit down, I will prepare one for you," Ofi said and ran outside with light steps. 

Evin noticed a bunch of stuff inside the cart, and wondered how the man was going to get it from there. Evin would've helped, but he didn't want to bother, as he lazily looked around the area and watched the workers setting up the coffee beans in glasses and some other shelves. There was also a big stone oven in the shop, as well. 

"Are you going to work a bakery on the side?" Evin asked. 

"Oh, we would love to but that's from the old owner of this place. So, that oven will probably have to collect some dust for the time being," Rhea answered. 

"What happened to the previous owner?" Evin asked.

"Sounded like they were pushed to bankruptcy by a bigger bakery nearby but I couldn't quite hear the full story"

Hearing about a bakery, Evin thought about his family. 

'Maybe I should visit them when I get the chance' he thought idly. He still had the Velvet Contract with the Artificing skill to give to Sasha Arza needed to visit the serpent as well And Evin himself was thinking of buy some kind of communication device and leave one with his family. 

Evin could technically use a portal to go back and forth occasionally, but the price was a bit too big, even for Evin. By Rith's calculations, she would need about 120 kgs worth of lodestones and the help of another Cosmic to maintain the portal as well. Even though the gift she got from Kena helped her greatly with her control and accuracy, her raw power output was still lacking.

'Arza should get a holiday at some point, right? Guess we can go during that. Wait, no, he's under Deminte's care now... Speaking of him, I wonder what happened with Deminte,' Evin wondered idly.

[Ah, this kind of lifestyle is so peaceful... right? Sometimes, I wish I could go out and have some fun and search for Selat a bit... The Authorities give me lots of good stuff, after all,] Evin thought out loud inside his shadow.

[I suppose that's so, but isn't being peaceful the best? Sure, you got a lot of useful things for going around and meeting powerful individuals, but most of the time it was overly dangerous and you even almost died that one time,] Rith reminded.

[I really don't think anything was overly dangerous aside from the lesser-imposer incident, though... And it's not like things will always be dangerous...] Evin retorted.

[You should always remember that the strong don't really think too deeply about the weak. Something that's insignifant to them could very well be lethal to people like us]

Evin fell silent at those words, and fell into thought.

He then saw Ofi bringing in a small burlap bag, which dripped some sand down to the floor. He then ordered Rhea to put fire to the stove. Rhea smiled lightly and 

"It's a bit unauthentic, but please bear with me," Ofi said and poured a bunch of sand into a big metal wok, before putting it on top of the stove to heat up. He then brought out a cone shaped bronze pot and just mixed some powdered coffee with some water and put it on the side.

'Ooh, Turkish coffee?' Evin looked with interest. To help speed up the process, Evin added some fire to the stove with his magic. After a few minutes, the sand had heated up, and Ofi put the bronze pot inside the sand. Almost instantly, the insides of the pot boiled up and Ofi would pull the pot back up. He repeated the process for four more times, before pouring the content into a white cup.

"I heard you like strong coffee, so I wanted to let you try this one out. Let it still for a bit and drink it in a single gulp, though do be careful of the loose coffee ground. After you finish, put the cup upside down and maybe I'll do a little fortune telling for you," Ofi said with a laugh.