"Well, I don't know either…"
Olivier said this sentence only to himself. He didn't want Emmanuel to hear it. The two men continued talking for a couple of minutes more before Emmanuel excused himself. Olivier watched thoughtfully as his customer left through a swirl of black shadows. The door fell shut and Olivier was left alone with the black cat.
"So, what is this about a farm? Do I need to grow my own coffee beans?"
Facing Olivier's inquiring gaze, the feline nodded slowly. She stood up and sauntered towards a door on the opposite side of the entrance. The black cat raised her paw and lightly knocked twice. With a squeaking sound the door slowly swung open, revealing a new room to Olivier.
It was a surprising sight. The small room was separated into three parts. At the front were all kinds of tools for gardening. There were hoes, shares, and even clothes. In the middle of the room were two racks which were currently almost empty except for nine small packs containing seeds. And at the back of the room was a strange machine resembling a small hydraulic press.
Intrigued, Olivier entered the room. He was not annoyed that the black cat expected him to farm. On the contrary, he was glad to have something to spend his time on.
Olivier inspected the room and stopped his eyes on the packs of seeds. They were red, green, and blue, with three packs of each variety. Olivier couldn't hold back his curiosity. He took one of the red packs and opened it. An earthy smell reached his nose as he discovered that the content indeed looked like normal seeds. Just like something you would buy in a supermarket.
[Seeds for Red Beans of Ognaxth
Price: 1 year]
As the information appeared in his view, Olivier almost dropped the seeds in his hand. He turned towards the black cat, asking in shock:
"Do I need to pay one year of my life every time I want to plant some seeds?"
"Mau!"
The black cat shook her head, reliving some of Olivier's worry. However, if this wasn't it, then what was meant by 'price'? Olivier had to ponder for a bit before he came up with the right answer.
"So, if I use up all the seeds and need new ones, I have to pay for it? Hmm, depending on how much beans I get from one plant this should still be a net profit… I hope."
The black cat nodded faintly. Olivier understood the system and placed the seeds back. His eyes wandered through the empty shelfs but there was no signs about any other kinds. Although Olivier was sure that more kinds other than the red, blue, and green beans should exist. Otherwise, there was no need to place two racks in the storage room.
Unable to do anything about it, Olivier went on and studied the small press at the back of the room. Unfortunately, he drew a blank. He couldn't quite imagine what to do with this machine and the black cat also remained unresponsive to his queries. Thus, he could only ignore it for now.
With not much else to do Olivier decided to try his hand at farming. He swapped his fine tailcoat for a simple shirt with black pants, boots and gloves. Afterwards he grabbed all the seeds and the hoe, leaving the café.
As soon as Olivier stepped outside, a meatball growing on a nearby tree swayed and dropped to the ground. Olivier scrunched his nose. When the meatball jumped towards him, he swatted it with his hand and the strange creature exploded in the air.
Instantly a warm feeling filled Olivier's body. His breath became hot, and his body screamed for more.
"NO!"
Olivier let out a shout, his eyes radiating determination. After a short struggle he managed to calm himself down. Just then another meatball jumped at him. Olivier didn't dare to kill it. Instead, he caught it with one hand and, ignoring the nauseating feeling coming from his hand, threw it far into the distance. The meatball sailed higher and higher, eventually disappearing from the asteroid.
Unbeknownst to Olivier the black cat was perched on the café's red roof behind Olivier's back, nodding faintly as she observed his actions.
Olivier took a deep breath as he picked up the hoe he had dropped. He looked around for a bit but other than the barren rocks and twisted trees there was only the café. There was no sign of any soil.
After pondering for a while Olivier suddenly had an enlightenment. He realized that in this place the logic he was used to didn't apply. If Emmanuel said that the old boss had his farm outside, then his seeds might grow even in the hard rock. After all, the strange trees everywhere also grew in the rock.
Thus, Olivier placed the seeds to the side for now and went to a corner of the café. He placed his hoe on the floor and began his first attempt at drawing some ruts. At first Olivier struggled but after increasing the pressure the hoe finally cut into the rocky surface.
The rock was softer than what it looked like. It was more like really dense soil of solid rock. As Olivier worked it with his hoe, the ground softened and more and more resembled a soil-like texture.
With no real knowledge about farming Olivier could only trust his gut feeling. He stopped after creating three ruts, each with the length of about six meters. Next, he took the seeds. Each pack contained ten seeds, so he had thirty seeds per kind and ninety seeds in total. Olivier evenly scattered the seeds in the ruts, sorting them based on the types.
Satisfied with this first step Oliver went inside, switching the hoe for a shovel and a watering can. He used the shovel to fill the ruts back up and generously watered everything. As the watering can didn't lose any water no matter how much Olivier used up, his arm grew tired towards the end.
However, he was quite happy with the result. Now he could only wait and perhaps water the seeds once a day. Or twice? Wait, how would he even know if a day had passed? Oh, right. There was a clock inside the café.
Olivier's thoughts were trailing off, mainly because he felt like there was nothing to do next. Just then another meatball came jumping at him. Olivier caught it leisurely, now already quite practiced. Just as he wanted to throw it into space a low 'miau' stopped him.
"Woah, when did you come out?"
Olivier was taken aback. He only just now noticed the black cat sitting on the roof. The latter didn't give him an answer as she graciously dropped to the ground. She strode in front of Olivier, who watched in confusion as the black cat dug a hole close to his feet. After she was done, she miaued, pointing her paw at the hole.
"What?"
The black cat rolled her eyes as Olivier was slow to understand. She moved her paw, pointing between the meatball caught by Olivier and the hole a few times. Finally, the young man understood:
"You want me to burry this ugly thing?"
Seeing the feline nod, Olivier remained confused but complied, nevertheless. He buried the meatball and filled the hole. Noticing the black cat's content gaze, Olivier only shrugged his shoulders.
Done with planting the seeds Olivier went back inside. While switching clothes he noticed that he didn't smell of sweat but this thought was soon dismissed again. Olivier gradually came to accept all the strange things happening around him. After playing the role of a farmer for a while, Olivier became a barista again. With no customers he practiced his skills until he let out a big yawn.
Surprise hit Olivier. After not feeling any hunger the entire day he didn't expect to experience tiredness. Olivier wanted to glance at the clock, but he suddenly stopped himself. What did it matter what time it was? In this place it didn't matter when he went to bed or when he woke up. Olivier's eyes lit up as he came to realize his newfound freedom. As another yawn escaped his mouth he decided to go to bed now and sleep until he would wake up naturally. Olivier had seldom experienced such a luxury!
Time went on and Olivier got used to his new situation. During the days he would either practice his coffee making skills or take care of the plants outside. He didn't know if there was something special about the environment, but the plants grew extremely quickly. Surprisingly it was the meatball which first produced results. After two days a new tree had grown, producing more meatballs.
Olivier thought that this was basically a never-ending provider of lifespan. Each day he could kill the meatballs and bury new ones. Unfortunately, he quickly had to realize that the meatballs provided diminishing returns. There was essentially no use in killing more than ten meatballs per day, which would increase his lifespan by 0,1 years.
Compared to the meatballs, the other plants were more efficient. In front of the café sixty-five thin bushes were growing. Their leaves were red, green, and blue respectively, with an average of twenty-one bushes of each colour.
The plants took five days to grow and yielded enough beans to fill roundabout three packages of each variety. And yet Olivier was sure that this wasn't the limit. As he improved his farming skills the plants would certainly yield more beans in the future.
However, although the bushes promised a great return of invest, one problem remained. Ever since Emmanuel left a week ago, Olivier didn't have any costumers.