Black Tea/Story

I. Delegating

II. Rubus

III. Past

IV. Now

V. Black Tea

### I. Delegating

I take a break at ''Satan Cafe'' after training every day. This is a coffee house opened by Food Souls. Apart from selling Coffee, it also takes commissions from humans to complete things that humans cannot handle.

"What is it?"

The manager of 'Satan' is a Food Soul great at running business and management. He wears a smile on his face day to day, but at this moment, he frowns a bit, looking at a commission.

"Is it a tricky one?" I asked again.

"Hmm," shop owner Coffee replied to me finally. His frown isn't letting go, however. "This will burden you again."

"What is this commission about?" I occasionally take over some commissions from them. If all goes well, the shop owner will pay me part of the money. Though money does not mean much to Food Souls, it is a necessity to interact with humans in a human community.

"I need you to go to Light Kingdom for me." Coffee puts his trust letter down, looking up at me. "Among the Food Souls who come around here, I believe only you know Light Kingdom the best."

"What do I need to go there for?"

"Search for a missing human female who is about 18 years old."

"Got it. I am ready to go now." At the time I take the letter from coffee and prepare to leave, I hear a clear but cold voice calling out behind me.

"Please wait. I'm going with you. This is all right with you, Mr.Shop Owner?" That's Milk's voice. I turn around to face her. This friend of mine seems hard to get along with, but in truth she is a Food Soul who cares about her friends with a gentle heart.

"It's okay." I understand what she's worried about, but it's already a thing of the past. "I'm going to be fine. Well, I am setting off now."

"Thanks for that." Coffee touches Milk's face lightly, with a look as if saying "I am sorry".

I am fine really. People love to worry over me. While thinking this, I am already on my way to Light Kingdom.

### II. Rubus

Stepping into my homeland where I haven't been back for a long time, the familiar surroundings and scenery fill my heart with emotions. Looking at the large Rubus flower field, my thoughts start taking height, "Is it Seishin already?"

The humans on Tierra continent have finely divided a year into 365 days and 12 months, and Seishin is the 4th month. After that, it is Blue Sky, a summer month. I squat down and touch those little white flowers, with a fuzzy image surfacing in my mind.

"Hi there, nice to meet you. I will be your Master Attendant ~ but don't you call me a princess. It's much better to call me Rubus ~"

"Hey, don't keep a poker face all the time. Relax. Give me a smile? Haha, it's great you look so much like me; don't waste a good looking face."

"My parents died from protecting this country. I felt so lonely for so long, but since Black Tea's appearance, things have been very different."

"I want to be a qualified king like my parents too, so I can protect everybody here. People here are like family to me."

"Oh? So you mean, this country is mine to protect, but I'm yours to protect? Haha."

"Thank you, Black Tea. I feel like I owe you when you tell me that in such a serious way. Well, you do look serious all the time anyway. Haha, don't get mad. I'll stop teasing you now."

The vague silhouette is becoming clearer and clearer. That's a face that looks very much like mine but with totally different expressions. She always smiles in a way that reminds people of spring. She always calls me to be by her side even when there is nothing to do. She was the very first Cooking Attendant I met when coming to this world.

She is the reason I love Light Kingdom, but also the cause of worries by people in 'Satan'.

### III. Past

"Work on finishing the commission first," I am thinking while taking out the letter of trust from Coffee.

According to the letter, the missing girl is an ordinary human studying in Light Kingdom. She does not have the ability to summon Food Souls. She is believed missing because she would send a letter home every month, but there has been none since last month. From the clues gathered by the client, the place mentioned in the girl's last letter is near a vast bamboo forest.

"A bamboo forest? That can only be it..." I have a general idea of this case now. Like humans who are divided into types, it isn't much different for Food Souls either. That bamboo forest has been included into 'their' scope of force.

Just when I am mulling over how to get around to finish this commission without alerting the Food Souls in the bamboo forest, an annoying face comes before my eyes.

"Haha, isn't this a coincidence?" Bad luck, I call it. I can't help but press my hand on the flintlock on my waist while looking at the smiling face of Sweet Tofu.

"Don't get all nervous~ for the sake of us knowing each other from the past~" Sweet Tofu's eerie smile raises the hair on my arms, as if I had spotted a venomous snake. In broad daylight, I am feeling the chill on my back. If I had to name any Food Souls I prefer to keep distance from, he has to be among the first few.

I raise my flintlock, "I don't think we have much to talk about."

"Ahhh. That's a scary face. I just wanted to say hi to someone I know." He was smiling, moving to the side.

"I still think that you were much more attractive before~" He is glancing at me up and down, "you could've made me so excited before."

As I want to stop him from continuing, I suddenly feel dizzy. What's going on? I hold my head with my hands, feeling all the energy escaping me.

"Wow, it is finally working!"

"What.. is... working..."

I see Sweet Tofu retrieving a perfume sachet from his chest, extending it before me, "It's worth it taking me so much time talking to you up close. Hee hee." He sniffs at the sachet and continues, "This is good. It can let you see what matters in your memories."

The rubus flowers on the sides are swaying, as if telling me to stop listening to Sweet Tofu.

"Ha. Isn't it a good thing to let you see that person's face once again?"

### IV. Now

The peculiar smell of that sachet hit me in a place deep down inside and evoked images of that I wanted to forget but couldn't.

"So who cares that our country is closed off? Isn't it so good for our nation? And anyway, it's hidden off from the world, there is no need to try to keep up with the powerful countries."

"Black Tea, I think you know that the people of our country have become complacent, so opting to hide from the world is the best choice."

"What you are worried about will never happen. The roads here are steep, and this place is impregnable, it's easy to defend, hard to attack. My parents wanted to set up contact with other countries. That's what killed them."

"Okay that's enough. I'm the King around here. I'm in charge and I decide how to rule."

Memories of those ordinary days gone by that I had so desperately tried to recall came flooding back, and Sweet Tofu's chiding tone filled my ears. "I never expected the sachet to have such a strong effect, heh heh."

"How...could it make your wishes come true?" I wanted to destroy that crazy sachet with the flintlock in my hands, but I couldn't even see the one belonging to Sweet Tofu, what with all those images of days gone by swirling about in front of my eyes.

It was the attack from Fallen Angels that destroyed my country.

"You're right, Black Tea...our country is so weak that it has only one cooking attendant...and that's me."

"I even said we could do this all by ourselves! Ha ha!"

"If I had only listened, no one would have been hurt, and they wouldn't have died."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't do that, don't say you're sorry, I just want to hear you say you'll survive!" It looked like Thimbleberry wanted to put a gun to her head again, I reached out my hand and said, "Please, promise me you'll live." But, I felt I needed something to hold onto to prop myself up, but there was nothing.

"Everyone died because I lacked the strength to save them. It was because I'm so weak. This is on my head, it was all my fault."

"Thimbleberry, you're not the one who should disappear from this world, I am!"

I felt an impulse stirring in my heart that wouldn't go away. There was something terrible in my mind calling out to take over my body.

"Is this an awakening?"

I could hear Sweet Tofu giggling, but the very next second, pure, unadulterated power came at me, and then all of a sudden the aroma of Sweet Tofu just disappeared from around me.

"It's nothing!"

I felt woozy, like my body was failing. I was engulfed by an unending blackness, but then someone caught a hold of me and whispered softly in my ear,

"It's okay, it's all okay, it's not your fault, Black Tea."

"Nothing to worry about, nothing at all."

The soft words echoed in my ears over and over, and those memories that had kept me tied down for so long gradually began to dissipate. And just when my consciousness began to fade away with those vanishing memories, I caught sight of the source of the soft voice. From the pit of an icy cold valley, my body fell into a warm embrace.

When I came to, I realized that I had returned to 'Satan'.

Milk breathed a sigh of relief when I woke up, and the began criticizing Coffee for entrusting this task to me. Coffee pacified her with a look of regret darkening her face. Then from the midst of all the noise something came through loud and clear, it turns out it was Tiramisu who had come to Light Kingdom and rescued me from Sweet Tofu's hand.

"And my assignment?" I looked toward Coffee inquisitively.

"That was just a trap set for you. So sorry, I let that one slip by me."

"Really?" So that was why Sweet Tofu suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

I think it was actually good that I went to Light Kingdom. If I hadn't, maybe I wouldn't now be able to face up to my past.

I remembered what Coffee asked me when I accepted the assignment,

"You can't change the past. What matters is what you do in the moment. What else do you have, but the moment?"

I laid there in bed looking out of the window at the deep blue sky.

I felt ashamed to speak.

### V. Black Tea

In the 320th year of the King's calendar, there was a small country hidden in the steep mountains of Light Kingdom that suffered a devastating attack by a the fallen angels. The lone cooking attendant in the country fought valiantly until the bitter end. Although he beat back the fallen angels, the country had already been decimated. This small, feeble country has perished from the face of the earth, and even its name was never recorded in the annals of history.

The country’s young King could not accept this fact that his country was in ruins, so he shot himself in the head right in front of his own food soul, opting to die standing with his countrymen on their own land. Seeing her cooking attendant lying in a pool of his own crimson blood, the badly wounded food soul went mad – her mind overcome by darkness. She transmogrified, and was left to wander around Light Kingdom living out a half-fallen-half-food soul existence; killing wild beasts and satisfying her ravenous appetite with their raw flesh and warm blood.

Her gleaming black pupils degenerated into blood red, looking like a bloodthirsty demon in the dark night.

After losing her mind, the food soul turned into a being resembling the walking dead, a member of the fallen angel race— her transmogrification complete. But her ending was exceptional.

Before her transmogrification, the food souls happening to pass by her had tried to bring her back to the light with the purifying power and had brought Gloriville's treatment to use on her. Although they were able to expel the dark breath from her body, she had become like a rag-doll, her life energy spent.

She couldn’t speak, dress herself or eat. She was like a stiff cadaver lying in bed day after day, but the food souls who had rescued stayed by her bedside day and night taking turns caring of her. Catching glimpses of the unfamiliar food souls coming and going, a bit of life returned to her eyes.

Finally, one clear and sunny day the weather was just as fair as the day she first met her cooking attendant. She looked at the figure at her bedside and in a dry, husky voice asked,

“Who are you?"