I had never heard of the Heroine opening a cafe in the game; such a detail didn’t exist in my memories at all.
If a setting like that actually existed, there definitely would have been an event tied to it. It was a fresh, enticing concept, after all. It wouldn't have been surprising if the place became a hangout for the handsome capture targets and turned into a massively popular shop.
But if that happened, coffee would probably become a trend among the nobility... and that was a hard pass. If coffee started getting expensive, I’d be in trouble.
"Just window shopping? Wait... Alicia, is that you?"
As I stood frozen in front of the shop, the door swung open and Mariana poked her head out.
I’d been telling myself there was no way the former Heroine was running a business just because the surnames matched, but there she was—the real Mariana Ocean.
The two girls greeted each other by name, omitting honorifics. The confident way Mariana carried herself here was worlds apart from her behavior in the classroom. There was a jarring disconnect between this version of her and the girl who had been so excessively, almost desperately humble in front of the upper class.
"Is this the coffee lover you mentioned?"
"Yes, this is Ragna."
It seemed Alicia had already talked me up, as the conversation flowed naturally.
"I’m Ragna. Good to meet you."
"Good to meet... wait, hmm? Oh, aren't you in my class?"
Mariana pinched the bridge of her glasses, adjusting them as she narrowed her eyes to peer intently at my face.
"Was he? What an unexpected connection," Alicia remarked.
"Yeah, though we’ve never actually spoken."
As I nodded in confirmation, Mariana’s face suddenly drained of color. She began to tremble.
"M-m-m-m-my deepest apologies! I never dreamed you would be accompanied by a noble!"
"Eh?" Alicia’s eyes went wide at the sudden outburst.
"W-w-w-we might not have anything here suited to your refined palate..."
Watching Mariana fall into a panicked spiral, Alicia shot me a glare.
"Ragna, what did you do?"
"Hey, I didn't do anything."
Unless observing her intently—discreetly, of course—counted as doing something.
"Why is Alicia with a noble...?" Mariana stammered.
"Well, because I am one...? And he’s my fiancé," Alicia answered.
The moment those words left Alicia's mouth, the girl snapped.
"A n-noble?! Hieee! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!"
Mariana dropped into a dogeza. It was a textbook execution, her forehead grinding rhythmically against the floorboards.
"Wait, what?!"
"I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize you were a noble!"
"Stop! Please! This is embarrassing!"
"Auauauau, I’m so sorry!"
"Hey! Come on! Look up, I’m begging you!"
"I completely misunderstood! I thought we were equals! I’m so sorry!"
"Ragna, do something!"
"It’s no use."
I didn't know the root cause, but Mariana Ocean was clearly a person who was pathologically humble toward the aristocracy. We just had to wait for the storm to pass. I’d noticed she seemed different here than in the classroom, but I realized now it was simply because she hadn't recognized Alicia as a noble.
"I-is this lese-majesty? Is it a crime? Will I be executed? Ahhh, Father, Mother, I’m coming to join you now..."
"No one is executing you! There’s no way I’d do that! Hey, stop letting your eyes roll back! Come back to us! Hey!"
"Blub-blub-blub-blub."
"Ragna! She’s foaming at the mouth! What do I do?!"
Pure chaos.
"Is she going to die?! Is she okay?!"
"She won’t die from something like this. She’ll be fine."
After that, Mariana went through a cycle of waking up and fainting several more times. It went beyond mere social anxiety; she was practically allergic to the aristocracy. It was clearly abnormal. Such a trait was impossible in the original game. How had the former Heroine become such a disaster?
"I’m terribly sorry for losing my composure."
Once things finally settled down, Mariana sat with a flushed face, clutching a cup of coffee I had brewed for her.
"I should be the one apologizing," Alicia said. "I never imagined it would cause such a reaction."
"It’s not your fault, Alicia. I just jumped to conclusions on my own."
As I listened to them talk, it turned out to be exactly what I’d suspected.
"I’d heard there were two Sages' Disciples this year. When I saw Alicia studying alone in the library with a cup of coffee, I just assumed she was a commoner scholarship student like me."
Just as Alicia had only discovered coffee after moving to the Brave Territory, nobles in this world generally didn't drink the stuff. Tea was the beverage of the elite; coffee was seen as a drink for the masses. Based on that alone, Mariana had assumed Alicia was a fellow Sage's Disciple and struck up a conversation.
The fact that Alicia was always alone in the library had only fueled the misunderstanding. Naturally, the noble students at the Academy didn't study in dusty corners by themselves. They were usually part of a large entourage of servants and sycophants, with tiered trays of sweets and expensive tea sets.
"I stand out in a bad way at the Academy, so I've been keeping to myself... I just assumed you’d heard the rumors," Alicia admitted. "I'm sorry for not being upfront."
"Please, don't worry about it. I was the one who started rattling on about coffee before even asking your name... I was just so excited at the thought of finally making a friend..."
"Well, I only have Ragna right now... so when another student actually spoke to me and told me so much about the coffee he loves... I was excited too..."
The two of them went back and forth, apologizing in an endless loop of "I’m sorry for letting you misunderstand" and "I’m sorry for misunderstanding." I could only manage a wry smile. Their chemistry was already perfect.
I was starting to feel a bit jealous. I’d effectively become part of the furniture.
"Mariana, the misunderstanding is cleared up now, right?" Alicia asked tentatively.
"Yes. I was raised with the belief that no one who truly loves coffee can be a bad person. I won't lose my head again." Mariana managed a small smile.
"But to think a fellow Sage's Disciple was involved in such an incident... even for those of us under the Sage's tutelage, our only real privilege is the permission to attend the Academy..."
As Mariana heard the details of the Annulment of Engagement Incident from Alicia, her smile faded into a look of distress. The reason she hadn't known about the massive scandal was apparently because the stagecoach she used for school had somehow departed toward the outskirts of the capital instead of the Academy that day.
"I’ve always been bad with directions, but I never thought I’d board the wrong stagecoach. I use the same one every day, yet I still seem to mess it up frequently...?"
Mariana tilted her head in confusion, but from where I was standing, it smelled like a setup.