Merry Christmas!

Chapter 15: Here It Goes Again

"Please accept my sincerest apologies."

"A-ah, it… it's fine, pl-please stop with the bowing!" I say, feeling incredibly uncomfortable with how Lady Blanc is the one bowing so deeply to me.

To make a long story short, Lady Blanc and the two twins came by to visit approximately two weeks after my return to the coffee shop, which has been a bender in and of itself. Some… mischief was had from the twins which resulted in…

...well, let's just say I'm glad I had insurance and can easily replace the tables and some of the machines here. Unfortunately, while I tidy up and get everything back in order, I've had to close down the shop for the day.

In the background, as Lady Blanc rises elegantly from her bow, the twin CPU Candidates of Lowee look down at the ground, probably not having anticipated this.

"Rom. Ram. Please go back to the hotel. I will talk with you there."

The two of them do so, but with a look of fear in their eyes. I don't think Lady Blanc is going to do anything harsh, but I imagine that a very strict lecture is coming their way.

"Please don't be too harsh on them, Lady Blanc." I say after the door closes behind them.

"I have to be, or they won't learn." She says, crossing her arms. "Please do not file an insurance claim. I will personally work this matter out and have your shop restored at my own cost. It is the least I could do."

"No, please, you don't have to—"

"I'm going to." She says in a very manner that indicates she will not budge on this. "Additionally, I will have Financier run the numbers for any losses to business that is the fault of my younger siblings."

"Lady Blanc, please, you don't have to do that much."

She raises an eyebrow at this. "This is your livelihood, isn't it? Shouldn't you value it a little more?"

"That's true, but…"

"But?"

I look away, withering under her inquisitive gaze. "I have a bit of pride in being able to carry on the legacy of the shop, is all. That and, it's..."

What goes unsaid is that I'd feel bad asking something like this from the goddesses. Even if she's offering, it still feels… I don't know quite how to describe it, but something in me doesn't like the idea of a lot. I guess it's still stemming from hiding who I was away from the public, that surely, the humble coffee shop owner couldn't really have taken Lady Noire to the ball, in a way. I'm humbled by the fact Lady Blanc is offering to help, but...

I hear Lady Blanc sigh in frustration. "I see. Then, can we compromise? While I respect that you have your own pride in the shop, I have my own pride as well. Leaving you without any recourse at all is simply unacceptable."

"What did you have in mind, Lady Blanc?"

"I will cover the more expensive things, such as the actual redoing of the floor, machines, and any infrastructure damage. On the other hand, you will still submit a claim, but only for the furniture that was damaged."

"I… that sounds fine with me, Lady Blanc."

She nods once. "Very well. Do you mind if I take a few pictures, so I can send them off to Financier?"

"Go right ahead." I say, gesturing for her to walk around the cafe as she needs.

I also take a few pictures of the tables that were destroyed so that way I can file the claims accordingly. Thankfully, the jukebox was undamaged, as that would have been very difficult to have repaired.

Most of the damage is cosmetic in nature, I think. Nothing essential to my business was really harmed, but I will probably need to check that the register is still functional and I'll have to replace the coffee pots that were damaged.

My work is done fairly quickly, but Lady Blanc is very extensive about her photographing of the scene. While she works, I quietly prepare a cup of mocha for Lady Blanc, still remembering what she ordered the first day she came here.

As she sits down to rest at a table, her job likely done, I then place the cup of mocha, sitting elegantly on a saucer, in front of her.

"On the house, Lady Blanc."

"Oh, thank you."

Unlike when it's quiet with Noire or IF, it's not so much an awkward silence or a well-known silence where we're thinking. In fact, it feels almost strangely comforting sweeping the store while Lady Blanc sips on her mocha.

"Is everything else going fine?" She asks, breaking the silence.

"Hm? Well, I suppose so."

"I meant if anyone is still bugging you about the gala. I've seen it surface on occasion, is all."

"Oh." I pause in my cleanup, thinking on it. "Well, every now and then, I suppose. It's been three weeks since then, so while the news cycle has mostly moved onto new things, someone tries to 'get the scoop'. I mostly just feed them the lines that IF has told me to or politely ask them to leave if they aren't willing to order something. I'm getting a bit better at that, thankfully."

"I see."

"Thank you for your concern, Lady Blanc."

"Well, if IF is still concerned, I would be, too." She says, a knowing look on her face. What exactly she knows about, I'm not quite sure.

"That's true, I guess." I say, smiling a bit. "Despite the fact she's still on vacation, she'll try to get status updates from me."

And like that, my phone buzzes multiple times. Lady Blanc gives me a nod as I check who it is, which of course, it's IF calling. Almost as if she knew we were talking about her.

"—iot are you okay?!" is what I hear after I answer it.

"I'm fine, IF. It's nothing major."

"Nothing major?! Don't tell me that, that's not what I heard from Nep!"

I pause, not exactly sure of how to proceed from here. "Um… what exactly did Lady Neptune tell you?"

"She said something about it sounding like there was an explosion coming from your shop, but she wasn't sure of the details. Nepgear also said the fire department had been dispatched."

"Well, it wasn't really an explosion-explosion. Some of the machines had some damage and launched a few sparks. If there was a fire, we put it out preemptively with the extinguisher before it could really go, plus the fire department cleared everything, so it's all safe."

"Are you hurt?!"

"No, I'm fine."

"Are you telling the truth? Be honest with me, Elliot."

"I am, IF. I seriously am one hundred percent fine. All that happened is that Lady Ram and Lady Rom caused a bit of a ruckus. One thing kind of led to another and well, the shop has a bit of damage but no one was harmed."

There's a bit of silence after that.

"IF?"

"Excuse me Elliot, I'm going to need to put you on hold for a second while I phone Nep."

"Okay…?"

It's only about thirty seconds until I hear her voice again.

"That was a quick phone call."

"Y… yeah, it was quick." An uncharacteristically nervous IF responds. "Do you want me to come down there?"

"No, I'll be fine. Look, Lady Blanc is here right now, so I can pass the phone to her if you want her to vouch for the fact I am standing in the shop itself, unharmed, and healthy."

"Sure, go ahead."

I look towards Lady Blanc, who holds her hand out. I hand the phone over to her and try to leave, attempting to give her some privacy, but Lady Blanc effortlessly holds the phone in one hand and me still in the other.

"Hi, IF, this is Blanc. Yes, he's fine. I'll be disciplining them later. No, I did not tell Neptune to tell you that. Yes, he's still got all of his limbs. No, he's not bleeding, he has no broken bones, he is fully fit as a fiddle. You really don't have to come down, I can assure you he's fine. Alright, if you really want to. No, I won't. You tell him yourself."

With that, the phone is handed back to me.

"—ally matter who says 'good night' to—"

"IF?"

"Elliot? Oh, Blanc passed the phone back. I just wanted to say good night."

"Oh, thanks. Good night to you, too, IF."

"And if you're busy, make sure to tell Noire you can't play tonight. She'll get worried, otherwise."

"Right, I should do that. Thanks for the reminder." I say, mentally noting down to text Lady Noire after this phone call.

"What'd you do without me?" Comes a slight teasing tone before a slightly bashful one. "Though, hey, can I call you back in an hour?"

"Sure, what for?"

"Just for some peace of mind, is all."

"Okay, yeah, I can do that for you. If it'd help you relax." I say, trying not to smile at IF showing her softer side.

"Thanks, Elliot. Talk to you in a bit."

I put the phone away into my pocket, turning back to Lady Blanc who has a small grin on her face.

"IF is quite the good friend." She says before sitting on her mocha.

"She is." I say, unsure of what the mood is here. "IF is a very good friend, and I am grateful every day that she's there."

Lady Blanc only nods at this. "I was also thinking of something, if you wouldn't mind me intruding so much."

"What do you have in mind, Lady Blanc?"

"I would like for my sisters to work here for a bit. While I could discipline them normally, I think that by having them understand what they've done and how it can make life difficult, that they might learn an additional lesson."

"That's…"

While it might be nice to have help, I don't think I should…

"Please don't think that it's something below us. If I were to lose all of my shares tomorrow and a new goddess took over, I would be no different than you, Elliot."

"Am I really that easy to read?"

"Not in particular, but you are, no offense, a very simple person."

"None taken, Lady Blanc."

"You should take a little more pride in yourself, Elliot. That, and the relationship between the CPUs and you isn't one way. We aid you in your times of need and in turn, you believe in us. We need each other."

"O-of course, Lady Blanc."

"If it would not disrupt your schedule too much, I would like to ask you at least consider it. Maybe they, or at least Ram, would not be so rambunctious if she knew how much she was affecting people with her occasional antics. And if you're worried, I will be there to supervise them, or we can try to put them into a role that won't cause trouble."

"Well, alright. How about we wait until everything is repaired before we start talking about this, though?"

Lady Blanc nods at this. "Very well. Thank you for your consideration, at the very least."

Though, part of me is a bit hesitant insofar as the publicity will go. It was already a trainwreck considering how all of them showed up here, then all of the business with Lady Noire, and now having Lady Blanc and the CPU Candidates of Lowee working here for a while? I might have to consult with IF about this, but I doubt that anything bad would happen.

Ha… there goes the normal times again. But I guess if I'm going to be kept around the goddesses, I really shouldn't think that my life is going to be that normal. I'm a bit excited, but at the same time a bit nervous, but it seems that… well, here we go again.

"How are you holding up?" IF asks as I plop down in my bed, looking up at the ceiling.

"Well, other than the brief scare earlier today, I think I'm good." I say, stretching my legs. "How's your vacation going?"

"Well, it is starting to get a bit lonely, but I'm happy to have some relaxation time."

"Should we save up to go on a cruise together?"

"Maybe we should, actually. Again, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm not in a hospital, I don't have a single scratch on me. I'm actually lying in my bed right now. Instead of you know, a hospital one."

"Didn't need to know that, but I'm glad to hear that you're okay again."

"You don't need to worry so much about me, you know?"

"Look, it's just… you're not like the others." She says, sighing before speaking again. "Nep and the others, they're strong. And I mean really strong. They fight things that launch lightning bolts at us, shoot massive lasers, and hurl fireballs. Compa and I occasionally join them, but they're the ones who do the heavy lifting."

"Compa fights?"

"She is surprisingly tough, actually. And you should see the size of the syringes she carries sometimes. There was also one time she slapped a dragon out cold?"

That's an incredibly terrifying mental image to have.

"But, that aside, look, we've been in some pretty bad scrapes and most of my friends can take that sort of thing. But you, well… you're not a CPU, Elliot. Compared to them, you're pretty fragile, so when I heard there was a fire, I… I panicked, okay? Normally this sort of thing doesn't get to me, but it hit a little too close to home."

"Hey, it's fine, IF. I'm actually really glad you're concerned, but take it easy, okay?" I say, trying to convey as much of a feeling as I can of patting her on the shoulder through my voice, as silly as that sounds.

"Well, it's comforting to at least hear you're unharmed."

"Glad I could do that for you. Oh, and thanks for reminding me to tell Lady Noire I couldn't play tonight."

"Noire hasn't called back? Not even a text?"

"No, I'm pretty sure Lady Noire has more important things to be doing, anyways. She did say thanks for letting her know and that she understood I get busy every now and then."

"Thought she'd have been all over you once she heard the news. I'll check if she has."

"You don't have to." I say, getting a laugh from IF.

"But all joking aside, is your shop going to be okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Lady Blanc is covering most of it, but I wanted to at least cover a bit of it myself. Consider it that I've felt like I need to compensate for being away for a week."

"Geez, you really are too kind for your own good."

"Well, I wanted to get some new tables anyways."

"You probably just feel guilty about asking it from the CPUs." She says in that nagging 'You know that I know that I'm right' kind of tone.

"Am I that easy to read…?"

"I just know you very well, Elliot." IF says, chuckling. "Anything else?"

"Well, Lady Blanc also asked if I might be willing to let Lady Ram and Lady Rom work here as a bit of a punishment. Sort of just learning how it all works out and what they're disrupting."

I hear something that sounds like coughing, laughter, and choking on a drink from the other side of the line.

"IF?"

"S-sorry, I'm just, oh… yeah, let me find a paper towel real quick. I just coughed my drink all over the desk."

"Um…"

Somehow, the aura of a smug smile manages to come through on a purely audio call. "But, hold on. Tell me you didn't say yes."

"I said I'd consider it…" I say, already regretting admitting it.

I can already picture IF's face as laughter comes from the speaker on the phone.

"Oh, Elliot, here we go again…"

"That's actually what I was thinking."

"Well, this one should be less of a pain. It's a much more reasonable ask. Did Blanc say she'd be there?"

"Yeah, she'd be there to supervise them."

"There shouldn't be that many problems, then."

"You sure?"

"Well, it's Blanc. If it was just the twins, yeah, you'd have some problems. But if she's watching over them, you should be fine. I'd try to find a position they won't cause too much trouble if you're going to say yes."

"Should I?"

"Entirely up to you. Just know what you're signing up for."

"I doubt it's going to be as bad…" I say, closing my eyes as I think about it.

"Haha, I know. Well, my vacation wraps up this week. If you feel like you want to say yes, but also want some help, I won't be out for too much longer."

"Don't feel like you need to come back just for me, though." I say, rolling over to check on my alarm clock. "You should enjoy your vacation."

"I did say it was getting a bit lonely, though. Probably shouldn't have taken off for this long."

"Haha, well, I'm sure you'll find yourself missing it when you get back."

"Yeah, that's true… oh, right, the time. I'm sure it's getting late for you there and you need to be up early, so I won't keep you up too much longer."

"Alright. Thanks for checking in, IF. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Good night, Elliot."

"Good night, IF."

"Oh, and expect a call from Noire."

"I wanna sleep…"

"Hahaha, alright, alright. I'll let her know tomorrow, then."

"Geez…"

With that, I end the call and plug my phone back into its charger. I really just want to rest for a bit after the wild rush that was today. That, and if I say yes to Lady Blanc, well, as IF and I already know… it's going to get pretty wild again.

Fortunately, I don't have to close the shop despite the damage, plus it doesn't seem like most people seem to mind. My main complaint is that I'm operating at slightly reduced efficiency due to some of the equipment damage, but nothing I can't make up for with diligence throughout the day.

I pause after the evening rush to the sound of some light clapping. At the entrance is Lady Blanc.

"Impressive."

"T-thank you, Lady Blanc. It's nothing major. May I get you something to drink?"

"Ah, of course."

She places her order and sits down at the counter. Lady Blanc asks for a mocha and the cinnamon crumb muffin, apparently having been told to try it out by IF.

It has been quite a while, but I did get some practice in…

"You've improved."

"Thank you, Lady Blanc…" I say, trying not to sigh in relief as the rose at least looks like a rose this time around.

"Last time I saw, it was… when IF brought us here." Lady Blanc says with a nod.

"Ah... " I say, laughing a bit at the memory. It was kind of nice, haha… except for the part where I got interrogated afterwards. I suppose it was what kickstarted this whole adventure as well. I wonder if I would have become good friends with Noire had that day not happened.

Speaking of Lady Noire, I'm fairly certain that the now twenty three texts that I have received since lunch were from her, but due to the business of the store and having to work with a less than optimal setup, I haven't had the time to read them.

"So, have you given it any thought? Also, I've brought the assessment from Financier. If you'd like to approve it, then that will help speed things along."

"Oh, of course, yes. It shouldn't be too busy now, so I don't mind. Ah, hold on, it looks like there's a small group about to come in."

Fortunately, they're all to go orders and they're quickly out the door, taking the last of muffins with them. There's a few whispers if that's "really Lady Blanc" and "what's she doing here", but Lady Blanc likely pretends not to hear them and doesn't seem very phased as they leave.

"Sorry. I should have put on a disguise." Lady Blanc says after they're completely out the door. "I've been making too much trouble for you."

"N-no, you're fine…" I say, shaking my head. "Besides, I… don't want anyone to make this place somewhere you can't relax. I'll deal with it, don't worry."

Lady Blanc gives me a curious look as she then takes out a few forms and slides them forward.

"Oh, and as for your request, um… I guess it should be fine?" I say, taking them and starting to scan over them. "IF said that if you're supervising, I won't have to worry too much."

"She would say that." Lady Blanc notes as I notice a few more lines. "Is something wrong?"

"There's a mistake, there has to be. This is way too much."

"Part of it is compensating you for your lost business as part of your reduced operability both up to now and during the reconstruction. As to present minimal disturbance to your customers that choose to sit-in, the calculations were done for if you had to close the cafe entirely." Lady Blanc explains as I put the forms down.

"It's still…"

"I refuse to go any lower."

The tone of her voice says there will be no arguing and frankly, I don't have the heart in me to argue with one of the CPUs.

"Okay, you win, Lady Blanc. Where do I sign?" I say, reaching for a pen. I notice her give me another look, eyebrows furrowed as I take the cap off.

"Just the final page, once you're sure."

This is still like… a lot of money. And I mean a lot more than what I thought I'd need. Is this a test? But Lady Blanc knows I'm a bad liar.

I glance over at her again, where she seems to be paying attention to her drink, yet I can't shake the feeling that she's watching me. My hand hesitates to move despite the fact it's right over where I'm supposed to sign.

I…

"Is something wrong?"

I can't bring myself to look up at Lady Blanc, but I push the form away. If I look up, there's just no way I can say it directly to her face. I try to summon up every last bit of courage that I can, trying to pretend this is like when I was with Lady Noire at the gala. It was utterly terrifying, but it was just the right thing to do. It was the most terrifying night of life despite all the excitement, wondering if I'd make a mistake for part of it, yet I pushed through regardless because I wanted Lady Noire to enjoy herself. Therefore, for something like this, for something with much lower stakes, I can push through as well. Holding onto those memories, I finally open my mouth.

"I can't say take this much, Lady Blanc. I humbly make this request of you, but please reduce the amount." I say, bowing as deeply as possible despite the counter in my way.

I close my eyes and try not to imagine what her face looks like as the silence creeps down my spine. However, I feel a single finger touch my chin.

"Elliot, look up." Comes a much kinder tone than I expected, but I can still feel myself frozen rigid.

I follow the guided motions and slowly bring my head up.

"Now, stand up straight."

I do so, partially dreading what the next request will be.

"Open your eyes."

Despite it being the simplest, this is admittedly the hardest of the tasks, knowing who is sitting there in front of me. However, I force myself to do it, however long it takes, knowing who's asking me.

Lady Blanc is sitting there, nodding as I do so. She takes the forms back and exchanges them for what appear to be a new set of forms, which I notice the numbers are dramatically lower and more in line with what I would expect, if not just bumped up a bit more.

"You passed."

"I… what?"

"I was prepared to part with that much, but I needed to see." Lady Blanc says, pushing the new forms forward. "Please accept my apologies."

"What did you need to see?"

Lady Blanc only gives a small smile in return. "That you are starting to see us as more of partners than as distant goddesses you always must follow the will of. It would not be of any help for Ram and Rom if you simply rolled over because they're CPU Candidates. But, you've shown that you have the requisite backbone."

"I… I see, Lady Blanc."

"I'm sorry for having to test you like this, but it was the only way."

"No, it makes sense, Lady Blanc." I say, scanning through the new forms and feeling much more comfortable with signing them. "However, may I make a polite request?"

"Very well, I'll hear it."

"Can you not test me in this regard ever again?" I say, trying to give a smile that doesn't express how much of a weight I felt lifted off my back.

She puts a hand to her mouth as if thinking. "Unless it absolutely requires it, you have my word."

I sigh, trying not to give a laugh of relief. "I guess that's as good as it gets."

Before any of us can say anything, I hear another buzz. Oh, that's right…

"May I?"

Lady Blanc simply nods as I reach for my phone. When I check, there's twenty four unread messages, all of which are from Lady Noire. They're all rough variants of "Are you okay?!" along with an explanation that she just got the message from IF, along with a few ones of "Answer me already, Elliot!". I quickly text back an apology, saying that I was working and try my best to give the explanation.

"Um, Lady Blanc?"

"Yes, Elliot?"

"Would you mind, um… explaining that everything is okay to Lady Noire?" I ask, holding the phone out to her. "She um, doesn't seem to believe everything is okay."

Lady Blanc gives me a look that screams "You have got to be joking" as she takes the phone in her usual somehow expressionless yet entirely expressive way. She then uses it to dial Lady Noire's number, putting it up to her ear—

—before promptly yanking it away as a loud shouting comes through the phone.

"...hello to you too, Noire." Lady Blanc says after the yelling subsides. "Yes, I have Elliot's phone. Yes, I'm at the cafe—there's no need to get so bothered about it. Yes, it was my younger sisters…"

I decide to go into the kitchen to give them some privacy, where I also check I'm still well stocked on everything for tomorrow. I guess it won't be so bad if Lady Blanc is supervising Lady Ram and Lady Rom, but I'll probably have to work a little harder each night since the publicity is bound to attract more people again. Fortunately it shouldn't be as bad as when all four goddesses visited, though.

With that, I start preparing, grabbing more flour and other ingredients than usual. I'll have to hurry just a bit, as I'm already late tonight.

After preparing several mixes and batches, my routine is interrupted by a voice that can only be Lady Blanc's.

"Are you busy?"

I turn around as I close the fridge, seeing Lady Blanc standing at the entrance of the kitchen with my phone, door slightly pushed open.

"Noire wants to talk to you." Lady Blanc says, holding the phone out towards me.

"Oh, right, of course." I say, walking over and taking the phone. "Hello, Lady Noire."

"No-i-re." She says, emphasizing the syllables. "You keep forgetting."

"Sorry…"

"...Blanc told me what happened. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm totally fine."

"Are you sure?"

I laugh, hearing Lady Noire laugh a bit in reply on the other side. "You know I'm a bad liar."

"I know, but I also know you try your best not to make anyone worry about you."

Sometimes it really does feel like talking to IF, haha. Despite knowing me for far shorter, Lady Noire seems to have come to understand me fairly quickly.

"I'm allowed to worry about you, don't forget that."

"Well, it wouldn't be easier for you if you didn't…"

"No good. I absolutely refuse."

"Ah, well, I guess I can't really fight that." I say, getting a light laugh from her. "Thank you for your concern."

"You're, um, a friend, right?! Of course I'd be worried! This is why you couldn't come on last night, though, right?"

"Yeah, was busy squaring things away and making sure I could still open up the shop today." I say, leaning back against the wall. "Is everything okay over there?"

"Yeah, everything's going fine. I was going to try to visit this weekend, but it sounds like you have a lot going on."

"Oh, I see… sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"I know, but I just feel that maybe if I had been a little more diligent…"

"Stop with that." I hear, already imagining her chiding face in my mind. "I'll find a different weekend off to visit. Maybe I'll bring Uni as well."

"That sounds nice. Just let me know, I'll be sure to keep some extra pastries in stock."

"Thanks, Elliot. Good night, then."

"Good night, L… Noire."

I hear a small, happy giggle as I end the call, putting my phone in my pocket. When I leave the kitchen and head back out to the main cafe area, Lady Blanc has a pensive look on her face, but she shakes it off when she sees me.

"Is something wrong, Lady Blanc?"

"No, just thinking. So, have you given any thought to what Ram and Rom can do?"

"Hmm…" I put my hand on my chin and try to think about it. I don't know if I can trust them with serving customers and I normally just use visual spotting or call names for people who sit down to eat, so trying to come up with some kind of way for them to find who placed an order in the span of a few hours would be rough. Definitely not going to have them prepare any orders or take them, it'd take a while to train them…

Well… huh.

"Well, Lady Blanc, how does advertising sound?" I say, raising a finger in a lecture-style pose.

"Advertising?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you know, just calling people out onto the streets and stuff like that. They can be right outside the store, too, so you won't have to worry too much and it's easy to keep an eye on them. It's still springtime as well, so it won't be too hot. And it's a harmless enough position, right?"

"That is true." She says, though I can feel that she wanted to work them a little harder. "Do you have anything else?"

"It would take some time to make sure they are able to do it right and Lady Blanc, while I don't mean to imply that they aren't capable of learning it properly, you are all very busy."

"No, I understand." She says, nodding. "It does work. Then, next question."

"Yes, Lady Blanc?"

"Do you have a work uniform? I know you had a part timer before."

"Ah, I shouldn't…"

She narrows her eyes at me, making me lose all my nerve to try to evade the topic.

"It wasn't a uniform as it was a general guideline. When my mentor ran the place there was a uniform, but I've changed it up a bit. Just business casual, to fit the kind of atmosphere the cafe has."

"I see. Then, I'll have them dress to the guidelines as well." She says in a voice that indicates that there will be no arguing over it. "Are you free this weekend?"

"Er, I suppose so, yes."

"Then, will you come with me to ensure that whatever clothes I pick out suit the guidelines?"

...Eh?

"L-lady Blanc, I'm sure that you won't need me there. I trust your judgement." I immediately say, getting a shake of the head from her.

"It's your shop, so ultimately you'll have final say. This will make it easier on both of us."

"Alright… but, um, are you sure if…"

"Ah, of course. We'd be out in public." Lady Blanc says, putting a hand on her chin. "Would you like for me to disguise myself?"

"That's up to you, Lady Blanc. I'll deal with it."

"I am asking for your opinion, Elliot." She says, a bit more forcefully. I can almost feel that Lady Blanc is starting to lose her patience with me and if there's anything I've heard about her, I'd rather that not happen.

...or I might not have a coffee shop for much longer.

"I don't… particularly mind. If it's too inconvenient for you, then I won't mind." I say, trying to add a conditional. Lady Blanc sighs, almost as if to say "That's as good as it's going to get" before nodding.

"Very well. I'll see what I can do."

After that, Lady Blanc leaves the shop. I lean up against the wall and sigh heavily. Here it goes again, huh…? Geez, I really can't catch a break. But I guess it's what I signed onto when I became friends with them.

Let's just hope this time it's not as chaotic as when I was with Lady Noire…

Finally back to a much more low tension chapter. Mostly just setting up the next mini-arc with Blanc. I wanted something a lot less uh, intense, I think, compared to the rising tension that was the Noire arc. I think it also fits Blanc's personality as well, being much more laid back and calm, matching to a more calm arc as well.

I was also using this to start highlighting what I would call the "overarching" plotline, though it was a lot more direct in this case, especially when Blanc keeps attempting to get Elliot to show more spine for himself when it relates to the goddesses. You can kind of see this overreaching story from the start, wherein Elliot is utterly terrified that the goddess are showing up to eventually being able to talk to Noire and then go with her to the gala, and now starting to snowball when Blanc pushes the issues onto him. As I have part of the next chapter written, I would say that her motivations start to come a bit more to light there, but you're free to figure out why she does, haha.

First off, as well, HOLY SHIT you guys are out of control. My phone kept blowing up after I posted the last chapter to the point I thought I did something wrong. Seriously put the pressure on for this chapter which was mostly just setting up the arc and meant to be more low key in nature. However, thank you all for such an outpouring of reviews, I was glad to see that everyone's been enjoying the ride.

Second, oh God, it begins. I've already seen comments supporting the IF ship and ones supporting the Noire ship. Oh lawdy what have I done to myself this ain't good chief. I will now laugh my way through this and attempt to fool everyone into thinking I've had this all meticulously planned from the start (or is this all part of the plan). Regardless of which ship you're on, I hope you're enjoying it still. I do plan to move Noire into a more secondary focus as we move onto the Blanc arc, however I think I may slip in a chapter here or there that touches back onto Noire and I do plan to have her tie into the overall "story". If you wanted to think of it in another way, the Noire arc is what sets everything off and is the action portion, and the Blanc arc is a bit more introspective, focusing more on people reflecting on actions. Kind of fitting to each of their personalities, a bit, but the Blanc arc isn't going to be all sitting around and whatnot. Blanc's arc is almost more simple in nature, so I wanted to mix it in with segments where we kind of explore the history of the cafe.

Regardless, I suppose I'll see you all in the new year. Thanks for sticking with me this whole time. It really does mean a lot to me. Oh, and if you happen to be going to Tekkoshocon in 2020, I'm trying to get a Neptunia panel in there so we'll see how that goes. Catch you all next time!