Having established a brewing industry in the afterlife, Atem turns his attention to the daytime hours.
Market research requires visiting a sa-ten in the mortal world, a word Seto would like to know where he picked up. The parfait is judged divine.
The outing is judged, by Seto, to be a date. What follows is a café designed to enforce silence, a nationwide fashion for drinking coffee as though praying, and an inquiry into the concept of "settling" that goes somewhere else entirely.
his is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 愛と理論 10 王、サ店に目をつける
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
A season has come full circle since the culture of intoxication took root in the afterlife.
At the banquets, liquor connects conversation, and laughter chains from one to the next.
Seto, having finished his inspection of the institute, scrolls through the data looking satisfied.
"Shipping volume, 230 percent against the previous month. Converted into afterlife GDP, the growth rate in the food culture sector is abnormal."
"The happiness liquor brings has a value beyond figures."
Atem answers while tilting his cup at the window.
"People get drunk, talk together, and sometimes weep. That pushes civilisation forward... because luxuries move the heart."
Seto closed his terminal and let out a quiet breath.
"...So you've begun thinking in a troublesome direction again."
"Not troublesome. Interesting."
"Your interesting is generally synonymous with my workload increases."
It had the air of a quip, but Seto had already sensed it.
Now that Atem had noticed the concept that luxuries move civilisation, he would without question reach for another indulgence next.
And that presentiment landed splendidly.
One afternoon.
In the study, Atem was taking notes on something called A History of Luxuries in the Afterlife.
Lined up there were words like "tea," "confections," "rest," "socializing."
"If liquor evolves the night, then tea evolves the day."
Murmuring it as though to himself, Atem turned back toward Seto.
"Seto, let's redesign the tea time."
"You... what are you starting to say this time."
"In the daytime hours, we create a culture centred on sweets and conversation. In the afterlife the concept of a snack is still thin. Diversification of indulgences signifies the maturing of a civilisation."
Seto puts a hand to his temple.
"...Which is to say, this time you intend to start up a confectionery industry."
"Not confections alone. Sweets as an experience."
"That again."
"But this time I want to look at the taste directly and research it myself. First, market research."
At those words, Seto raises an eyebrow.
"Market research... is it."
"That's right. Let's go to a sa-ten in the mortal world."
"...You. When did you learn a word like that."
"A king learns."
At Atem declaring it as though it were obvious, Seto gives a wry smile.
The weekend.
Seto's car stops on a back street in the city centre. Atem turns up the collar of his coat and looks around with eyes that cannot quite hide their curiosity.
Visible through the glass: parfaits, cream soda, seasonal ice cream, cake.
Inside the shop, calm music and the scent of coffee fill the air.
"So this is a sa-ten. Surveyed properly, it's splendid. A place for undoing the human heart."
"It's a kissaten to begin with. Where did you learn to clip it down to sa-ten."
"A sa-ten is a sa-ten, isn't it? Besides, on the mortal world's social media, everyone was writing sa-ten-katsu."
"Because you're the source of the transmission. ...The moment the King of the Underworld is analysing the mortal world's social media, take it that something has gone wrong."
Atem took a seat, and the instant he opened the menu, his eyes shone.
"Seto. Look at this, a seasonal limited edition: grape parfait."
"You. Stop reacting to grapes already."
"I've drunk wine, but the conception of combining it with a frozen confection hadn't occurred to me. A beautiful structure. Art."
Unable to hold back his laughter, Seto murmurs it like a sigh.
"...In the end what you're doing isn't research into civilisation, it's an outdoor-type date, isn't it."
"You could put it that way."
Atem returned it with a full-faced smile.
Once the order is done, light dances on the tabletop.
The layers of the ice cream, the transparent gloss of the fruit, Seto's fingertips reflected in the glass.
Atem takes up the spoon and carefully scoops one mouthful.
The instant the coldness and the sweetness touch his tongue, he quietly closed his eyes.
"...Divine. So this is how people can give happiness a form."
Wearing a wry smile, Seto carries coffee to his mouth.
"You're the one who said luxuries move civilisation. Right now, you are tasting exactly that, presumably."
"A luxury is a means of sharing the heart. ...Seto, what are your preferences?"
"Things that aren't too sweet. The balance with bitterness is..."
"Good. Next, let's bring confections of bitterness back to the afterlife."
Another new conception has budded.
While setting down his cup, Seto murmurs, half exasperated and half looking pleased.
"You'll do it anyway even if I stop you."
"Of course. And you'll taste them together with me."
Atem smiles, and Seto let his shoulders drop.
The sky outside is slowly stained with dusk, and golden light comes through the glass.
Within that light, the shadows of the two quietly overlapped.
The progress of the afterlife always begins at tea time.
Ever since going to sa-ten became a daily routine for the two of them.
Every time they passed through the door of a coffee house, it was customary for the surroundings to stir.
"...Look, isn't that President Kaiba?"
"The person next to him, that's...!?"
"It's Lord Atem... the real one...!"
Amid the mingling whispers, Seto, cup in hand, does not stir an inch.
Beside him, Atem is gazing happily at a cheesecake.
"Seto, today's tea time civilisation is proceeding well."
"What's proceeding well is your tongue and your stomach alone."
"That too is progress."
"...This situation is not called progress."
While feeling the gazes around them, Seto let out a deep sigh.
In the interval before they left the café, several who did not fear for their lives. At minimum four spoke to them, three asked for handshakes, and two took photographs.
"Why must I go into the trends merely for drinking coffee."
"Because it's the tea time of the King and the president, isn't it?"
"...That combination is already the mistake."
At Seto's voice, Atem tilts his head.
"But everyone is delighted."
"I don't want to delight them. I only want to drink in peace."
By that one point, in peace, Seto was driven into motion.
To recover quiet, there is nothing for it but to design it from the environment up.
The following week, a new project was launched in Kaiba Corporation's development division.
The project name: "Silent Sanctuary."
An AI-led resonance silencing system was installed, controlling the sound within the premises and automatically suppressing the vocalizations of visitors.
Furthermore, all ordering is contactless. The instant one takes a seat, the AI judges the drink needed today from the user's pulse and expression.
In the early stages of development, Atem said from across the monitor:
"Seto, this is no longer a sa-ten. It's a place of prayer."
"It's a place for drinking in peace."
"Synonymous."
"...If that's what you say it is, then presumably it is."
By air circulation and lighting control applying afterlife technology, a space was born in which the flow of time is felt softly.
After completion, the first store opened on a trial basis.
The name: Kaiba Sanctum Café. Sanctum Café, now open.
The day of the opening.
The queue had reached several hundred metres.
On social media, words like
"President Kaiba's shop"
"Supervised by Lord Atem"
"The scent of a sacred precinct"
monopolize the trends.
The exterior of the store is a simple black façade.
The interior is stillness itself. The instant they enter, everyone lowers their voice in spite of themselves.
At the counter, Atem was drinking coffee at his leisure.
The customers who noticed that figure caught their breath, and then naturally put their hands together.
It was worship.
Atem smiles at Seto.
"Seto, it's quiet."
"Naturally. I made it."
"This quiet is necessary in the afterlife as well."
"You. This time you intend to start not a tea time civilisation but a civilisation of stillness?"
"Both are filled with love."
Exasperated, and yet somehow looking satisfied, Seto tilted his cup.
The air of the café was like a midpoint connecting the world and the afterlife, and the customers all go home smiling quietly.
One month later.
Kaiba Sanctum Café wins nationwide popularity as a place to drink coffee as though praying.
In the news, headlines like "worship café" and "spiritual reconstruction tearoom" line up, and universities researching the psychological effects appeared as well.
"...The objective was to drink in peace, though."
"If stillness heals people, then it's civilisation."
"You always expand it like that."
"So long as you support me, yes."
At Atem's calm words, Seto let the corner of his mouth loosen slightly.
Outside the window, the night wind strokes the light.
Within the stillness, only the laughter of the two rang out softly.
The sa-ten revolution, accomplished.
A gate of stillness connecting the afterlife and the mortal world has been opened.
Kaiba Corporation, one corner of the afternoon.
The employee lounge.
Atem was sitting on a sofa, gazing at a steaming herbal tea.
At the end of that gaze, employees on their break.
"Everyone says it settles them, don't they."
"Eh?"
says the woman employee beside him, blinking for an instant.
"This tea is delicious, and it settles you, doesn't it. Because the scent is good."
"Oh? Is settling a variety of indulgence?"
"...I'm sorry? Indulgence?"
The employee nodded while laughing lightly.
"Well, a lot of people like it. Because you can relax."
"Relax?"
"Yes. To be settled equals to relax."
Atem nodded and folded his fingers together, looking interested.
"Relax... To think such a concept had developed among the humans of the mortal world."
"The president recently strengthened the relaxation program under employee benefits, too."
"Employee... benefits?"
"A support system for employees to put their minds and bodies in order, I suppose."
The instant the employee started to continue her explanation, Atem stood up.
"I see. Let me demand an explanation from Seto."
"Eh, ah, from the president!?"
With the woman employee's voice at his back, Atem went out at a brisk pace.
That spine perfectly straight, giving off the bearing of a monarch.
Where he headed was the president's office, whose ways he knew perfectly well.
Seto was looking at the next development project across a tablet.
The door is knocked.
There is no need to ask; he knows who it is.
"Come in."
Atem enters quietly and stands in front of the desk.
"Seto, explain. What are employee benefits."
"Where have you procured that word this time."
"An employee was making use of them for the indulgence called settling."
"...I see."
Seto lightly pressed his temple and smiled faintly.
"You want to learn settling?"
"Understanding indulgences connects to understanding culture."
"...Is that so."
Atem's eyes shine and sparkle.
Seto had nothing left but a bad feeling.
"And so, what did you hear?"
"There are apparently such things as relaxation and head spas."
"......"
"Seto, I think I ought to experience it myself."
"Rejected."
"Why?"
"As if I'd let anyone else touch you."
At the immediacy of that answer, Atem blinked for just an instant.
"Seto?"
"Hearing the word relaxation... rest easy. I'll do it."
"You will?"
"My precision is higher."
That night, the Kaiba mansion.
The lighting is dropped, and quiet music plays.
Atem sits on the sofa, in a bathrobe.
Seto is evenly wringing out a towel.
"It's almost like a rite."
"Settling is, in a sense, close to a rite."
"If you say so, then I'm at ease."
Seto skillfully applies a steamed towel to his neck and lightly kneads his shoulders.
The movements are theoretical and accurate. Pressure, angle, temperature, perfect.
"This is... certainly settling."
"No doubt."
"But..."
Atem smiles and looked up at Seto.
"When your fingers touch me, far from settling, it quickens."
Seto's hand stops for an instant.
"...That deviates from the definition of relaxation."
"Which is to say, because of you I can't settle?"
"Theoretically, it isn't my responsibility."
"By the theory of love, it's your responsibility."
Atem's smile was soft, and yet provoking.
Seto exhales deeply and resumes the motion again.
"You can settle me, but you can't settle me. You are that sort of existence."
"That's fine as it is. So long as it's my hand that disturbs you."
For an instant, silence.
The air was quietly taking on heat.
The next morning.
The employee lounge.
For some reason Atem was giving a lecture.
"Settling is nothing other than internal stability, rather than external stimulus."
"Ohh..."
"In particular, relaxation by way of someone's hand is an expression of spiritual trust."
"...Concretely, what sort of feeling is it?"
"For that, you would do well to ask your president."
Several seconds later, the internal chat was in a stir.
[BREAKING] The president apparently completes even relaxation in-house.
[UNOFFICIAL INFO] Lord Atem states it is "an expression of trust."
[CONCLUSION] Quantum marriage, as expected.
A report reaches Seto.
He closes the tablet and exhales deeply.
"...So making him understand settling was impossible after all."
But at the corner of his mouth, an undeniable smile had surfaced.
Kaiba Corporation changed the world one more time.
The new system, designed as employee benefits for employees to work in their finest condition, was constructed with an algorithm that analyses the rhythm of individual neural transmission and leads to optimal rest.
It was something Seto built up in a mere three days.
As a result, employee productivity improved dramatically, and the stress index showed figures that statistically almost do not exist.
Corporations in every nation of the world tried in concert to imitate it, but the rate of reproduction did not reach even a bare one percent.
And once again, the reporters arrive at the same conclusion.
That "in the end, isn't that fierce existence called Seto Kaiba itself in fact the greatest relaxation apparatus of all."
While gazing at a report of that sort, Atem put his mouth to his cup.
"Seto. You don't use the concept of settling much, do you."
"Do you think I need it?"
"I don't. ...Nor do I."
Atem laughed a little and set down the cup.
"When I'm with you, I don't settle. But I have never once thought that unpleasant."
"Not settling is evidence of being alive."
"I see. Then in place of settling, we have going on burning."
The King of the Underworld and the king of humans drink the same coffee at the same table.
A quiet, and yet endlessly hot, afternoon.
An unsettled happiness was certainly there.
