"Isaac, wake up!"
"Ugh, huh?!"
Suddenly jolted awake by the puny voice of his employee, Isaac, who had been taking a sweet nap upstairs, appeared a bit dazed.
"What is it...?" He asked, groggily wiping his eyes.
"A new wave of customers just came in!" Paimon exclaimed, stomping her foot midair. "And you're over here sleeping!"
"New customers..."
Now that he thought about it...
Due to his recent stunts and promotions, his dream of harboring new customers had come true! Albeit... Only now did he realize how understaffed he was.
As a result, he, Lumine, and Paimon, who were the only staff around, ran around the café at the sudden influx of customers these past few days.
Yae Miko and Xiao couldn't come since both of them had personal matters to attend to, while Klee and Nahida were... well, Isaac might be many things but child labor was not something he'd stoop so low for.
Professionals have standards.
He released a coarse chuckle. "Aha, sorry. The nap was just too good."
Paimon rolled her eyes and spoke sarcastically, "Oh, really? And let Paimon guess... You even had a good dream, didn't you?"
"That I did." He replied with a cheeky smirk. He then continued as if they didn't have anything to do better right about now. "In that dream..."
"I seem to have become a first year college student, and left for eight months or so. Life became busy, and academics haunted me day and night."
"College? Why that of all things?" Paimon raised a brow. "And what could someone like you even take?"
"Nursing."
"I don't believe it. Devil."
He then winked at the little fairy. "Well, good thing that I've woken up from that dream of mine."
Just then, a voice reverberated from the café downstairs.
"Mr. Isaac! Two more orders! And three more pending! Come quickly!" Lumine briefly exclaimed.
"Ah! The traveler! I have to help her!" Paimon panicked. She then looked back at Isaac. "Let's get back to work, Isaac!"
"...alright." He nodded slowly as he sat up, following the fairy back down to his beloved café.
And so, another wave of customers was to be dealt with today.
It was a stressful situation with him going back and forth, yes, but did it bother him in the slightest? Absolutely not. To be a proper business owner, you have to overcome small hurdles like this.
Even if that hurdle included realizing they'd run out of coffee beans halfway through the lunch rush.
"Paimon, the emergency beans!" Isaac called, sliding across the floor to the storage room.
"They're in the vault!" She yelled back, pointing dramatically at a suspiciously secure-looking cabinet marked 'Do not open unless absolutely necessary (or out of beans)'.
With an unnecessarily comical spin, Isaac yanked the cabinet open, pulled out the golden reserve of beans, and, very careful as to not waste anything, loaded the beans into the grinder.
Meanwhile, Lumine was trying to balance three plates, a teapot, and a customer who just had to ask if the café had gluten-free bread.
Back in the kitchen, on the other hand, Paimon was floating in circles. "The mixer's stuck again!"
"Use the spoon!" Isaac yelled.
After a brief moment, Paimon yelled in response too. "The spoon is stuck too!"
Isaac barely flinched. "Then use your hands! Channel the whisk within!"
Surprisingly, she did. Even more surprisingly, it worked! As for how she was able to with that small build of hers, Isaac really wasn't curious enough to know right now.
However, despite her intentions, her output was... chaotic, to say the least.
"Paimon can do this!" She declared, flinging the batter she was whisking like confetti.
Isaac ducked just in time, but not with a pained expression. Then, he yelled at her.
"Be careful!"
And so, for the better part of that day, the café remained busy until late noon.
---
Wiping the last table clean, Isaac heaved a soft sigh before finding himself a seat to sit down on and taking a short break.
His eyes then shifted to Lumine and Paimon who were also cleaning. "Good work today, team. Since it's Sunday tomorrow, let's have a meeting and... I'll train you how to properly handle situations like earlier."
If he had realized that what happened today was the true face of business, he would have trained them much earlier before any of this mess could have occurred.
Lumine stopped wiping the counter and turned to him, her voice somewhat subdued. "Mr. Isaac... shouldn't we also rest tomorrow?"
"She's right! This is blatant exploitation of your crew!" Paimon backed her up, protesting. "Do you have any conscience, Devil?"
"Still with that nickname... Haha, I might really grow attached to that." He smirked after hearing Paimon's protests.
Following that, his voice suddenly became mischievous. "Well, I never really explicitly stated your work days schedule in our contract, did I? Seriously you two, you should really read your terms and conditions well."
Unbeknownst to Isaac as he spoke, whether it was intentional or not, both Lumine and Paimon saw illusory horns grow on his head and a devilish tail from his back swinging side to side. Indeed, this look suited their boss well.
Even if what they saw were just illusions they conjured to depict him, it felt very much real.
Paimon groaned. "You really are the devil..."
Lumine sighed. "It's our fault too, Paimon..."
"Exactly." Isaac declared triumphantly, standing up with renewed vigor. "Self-awareness is the first step to improvement! Now, who wants to go over emergency pancake recovery drills tomorrow?"
Lumine blinked slowly. "Emergency... pancake what now?"
Paimon raised a hand like a student being forced to participate. "Is this going to be one of those weird roleplays again? The last time, Paimon had to pretend she was the batter in distress and Lumine had to rescue her."
"And she failed the mission." Isaac pointed out, winking. "The pancake was lost. Tragic."
"I didn't want to play along!" Lumine shot back. "You gave me a spatula and told me to 'listen to my heart.'"
"And did you?" He asked, his voice suddenly full of faux wisdom.
"..." Lumine stared at him, then at Paimon, who slowly shook her head like someone who had seen too much.
"Okay." Isaac clapped his hands. "Training starts at 9 sharp. Bring your game faces. And maybe, just maybe, Paimon won't get metaphorically baked this time."
"Paimon's calling human resources." Paimon muttered.
"We are human resources, Paimon..." Lumine replied tiredly, already accepting their preeminent defeat tomorrow.
"Then I'm filing a complaint with the Pancake Protection Agency!" Paimon persisted.
Lumine raised a brow. "Paimon, that doesn't even exist."
At her words, Paimon scoffed. "It will. Just you wait."
And with that bizarre yet strangely normal exchange, the café finally fell into a well-deserved calm. For now, the Devil and his weary crew could rest, well, at least until tomorrow's totally optional but definitely mandatory training began.
The shift continued until nightfall when Isaac finally let them go, with Paimon even triumphantly and openly celebrating her escape from the Devil's clutches.
Perhaps Isaac really should embrace that role.
After that, with him managing the café, it soon closed for the night, ready to take a break tomorrow.
Isaac did his daily routine for the night then went upstairs to his room, ready to enter the realm of slumber.
As he sat on the white sheets of his bed, he couldn't help but let his thoughts wander, his eyes staring out the window.
The moon hung like a silver coin in the sky, just as it had ever been. A breeze slipped through the window's crack, brushing past the curtains gently softly, but cold.
Isaac sat there, half-slouched on the edge of the bed, eyes fixed on the window like it held answers he didn't dare speak aloud.
He smiled all day.
No... he laughed, teased, ran around, and even played the part of the "Devil" to keep spirits high.
Paimon danced on her way out, waving her tiny fists in some dramatic parody of victory. Lumine had tried to keep a straight face, but the grin tugging at her lips gave her away.
They were happy.
That alone should've been enough.
But Isaac's smile had vanished the moment the café lights went dark.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands loosely clasped together. His reflection in the window was faint, almost ghostlike.
He was supposed to never be this tired-looking, but...
"How long can I keep doing this?"
The thought swirled in his mind for a while now escaped his lips.
There was still work to be done.
A plan he had already set into motion for the past three months would soon come into fruition.
Small moves, tiny pieces, conversations disguised as jokes, meetings hidden between deliveries, whispers carried through cups of tea, and casual strolls through Fontaine's plaza...
It will be soon.
A dramatic unveiling of his grand plan, enough to send ripples across the nation.
Enough to make the wrong people take notice, at least. That was the point. No... that was the whole point since the beginning.
To minimize the tragedy of the nation in the future he already knows.
"I've gone and done it..." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "I'm derailing the original course of events completely without any way back... Well, I should have expected this the moment I transmigrated, to be honest..."
He couldn't afford to fail.
Not when the cost would be paid by people who didn't even know what was coming.
Everyone he knew during his time here... People who trusted him, believed in him, bickered with him, fought beside him, shared jokes and late-night snacks with, and...
And the one he loved, Furina.
He clenched his hands.
They can't know. They shouldn't.
Not about the sacrifices he'd already made. Not the ones he was about to do.
There were certain roles that required smiling through pain and carrying burdens in silence... and this was one of them.
"I can't believe I'm having thoughts like Otto... How ridiculous of me." He inwardly lampooned.
His gaze then dropped to the floor. The room felt colder now. Or maybe it was just him.
After several minutes of silence, he stood and walked over to the window, pushing it open slightly. The night air met him like an old friend.
He stared out at the city. The lights were dim and the streets quiet. All at peace... for now.
He lowered his voice, a whisper lost to the wind.
"...It's for the best."
And with that, he closed the window, letting the curtains sway behind him as he turned back to the darkened room. A single light from the bedside lamp flickered before he turned it off, casting him into shadows.
Sleep would come eventually. But peace? That was another matter entirely.
* * *
A/N:
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...due to the popular demand...