...Make Lemonade

The following day, I attend the Isekai House’s regularly scheduled meeting. As planned, this is to be followed by the fundraising for charity. Now, thanks to the help of my adventuring team, we’ll be able to do it with a stylish lemonade sale. It’s nice to see that all the leftover lemon juice from the slime fight will be put to good use.

Unfortunately, since that one resident cottage was destroyed in the fire yesterday, the fundraising goal ended up being even higher than previously anticipated. There’s a lot of need in this community and the Isekai Anonymous group does their best to help everyone. It’s really sweet of them.

I’m ashamed to admit, I didn’t really understand why we went so far to help these townsfolk at first. My first assumption was that if people weren’t from the real world originally, that they were kinda like mindless NPCs in this one with only a few lines of dialogue. That couldn’t be further from the truth. A local shepherd named Beth baked a pie for the adventures who found her missing sheep, thanking them profusely. The farmer we helped with his slime trouble is typically grumpy, but has a soft spot for a select few people. And the father of the little girl we saved was in tears when we returned her safely. His gratitude was so immense. These people, they feel everything. Just like we do.

If I recall correctly, Minerva also said that some isekais likely go unnoticed by our group. So who knows? Some of these people that I assumed were background characters in the book, may very well be just that well-adapted. Now they’re everyday taxpayers of this world, just like everyone else.

The meeting concludes and setup for the sale begins. Once the lemonade stand is ready in the front yard outside, I’m free to go. I should make sure to buy a cup of lemonade before I leave though. After all, if we reach our fundraising goal, any leftover money will help Frank’s magic shop. The place is all fixed up, but he could definitely use some coins to buy more supplies to restock. Luckily, I have a few pieces of silver to spare.

I walk over to the lemonade stand to find that Spector has been left in charge. He sits behind the stand in his dark cloak looking especially broody today. It’s a funny contrast seeing this edgelord try to hand out cups of lemonade with a smile. I feel strangely giddy to buy one from him now.

“Hi Spector!” I wave with a smile. “What do you have here?”

He sheepishly points to the lemonade stand sign posted below him. I tilt my head to act confused. I know what it says, but I just want to hear the words come out of his mouth. I gotta tease him a little.

“It says ‘lemonade sale’.” He says, the gray skin on his cheeks turning red from embarrassment. “I know you can read June…”

Wow, someone is touchy. However, he did give a great jumping point for our next conversation.

“And I know you like to read too!” I add cheerfully. “A lot of folks have basic knowledge of the Emperor of the Lantern series because it’s popular, but Minerva said you’re an expert! So, what’s your favorite chapter? Oooh or line of dialogue?! What are your thoughts on conflicts between the elves and orc species throughout the-?!”

My voice cuts off. Oh God. Looking at his face I clearly overwhelmed the poor guy. I forget that not everyone nerds out the same way I do. Some people are way more cool and understated about stuff like this. Not me. I just exposition dump all of my interests until I scare people away. Damn it! I wanted him to like me, but I ran my mouth like an idiot.

“Personally,” Spector starts. “I think the books would lose a lot of its character without the elf-orc conflict being a central part of the story. Gelogas the elf nobleman and Azogret’s bickering is not only funny at times, but a highlight of the central theme of the series. The Emperor of the Lantern wouldn’t be the same without it.”

Damn. Why was that kinda hot? His voice is cool and smooth like butter when he explains the way he thinks about the series. He should seriously consider making review videos of books on social media. Oooh or even better, voice an audiobook! I’d buy that thing fast.

“But-” Spector continues.

Aaahh and there’s more?!

“As far as the conflict goes, I usually tend to side with the orc clans even though much of the feud falls into a gray area of morality on both sides. The elves are just too high and mighty to offer assistance despite their well-standing. They’re total pricks.”

DAMN Spector! Tell ‘em how you really feel! I could genuinely listen to him talk like this for hours. I can’t help but feel a little sad that he got isekai’d into this world as an elf then. But we all know gray night elves are the much cooler cousin of the prissy sun elves so I wouldn’t think he’d mind too much. Honestly, assuming monsters aren’t off the table, he could have been isekai’d into a lot worse things.

“Yeah, the orcs are pretty cool, but I personally have a soft spot for night elves...” I make known with my full chest. I want to cheer him up.

Spector listens to these words and smiles. I hand him a silver coin, take my cup of lemonade, and start to walk out the door. Then Minerva stops me.

“Hi dear, I’m so sorry to ask, but would you be available today to help with the lemonade sale?” Minerva asks.

Oh crap. I was kinda hoping to just get back to the inn and take a fat nap, but I really don’t like disappointing her.

“You see, we originally had someone sign up to help Spector, but they got sick. As I’m sure you know, he sometimes has a hard time talking to others, so sales aren’t always his forte. He could use a hand and you two certainly get along well!”

“Oh I don’t know about that…” I say in a downplaying sort of way that I hope will get me out of community service.

“Well I do!” Minerva chimes in happily. “That’s the most talking I’ve seen Spector do in months. He’s really warmed up to you dear. He could use a good friend like you.”

Damn it.

“Well I guess I can help…” I hesitantly let the words slip out of my mouth.

“Perfect, thank you June!” Minerva coos. “I’ll be walking around town to let others know about the sale. If you need anything, we may have a few volunteers coming shortly. If you have any questions, be sure to ask them!”

I awkwardly make my way back over to Spector.

“So you know how I took my cup of lemonade and left? Well, I’m going to be back helping you sell the rest…hahaa…”

I sit in a chair next to him and quietly sip from my lemonade cup. The silence is strange now. I think he wants to talk, but I don’t know how good he is at starting conversations. My questions are usually much too personal I’m afraid. Like this one.

“Y’know for someone who clearly likes the books as much as I do. You don’t talk about them a lot or super enthusiastically either. How come?”

Surprisingly his answer comes quickly.

“I guess it’s different when you live them.” Spector replies. “I’ve been stuck in this world for a few years and while we haven’t had to go on a quest quite like in the story, I have been on some intense adventures. Some are a lot of hard work. Some are scary. I think the wonder of it all kinda faded on me. Now I miss the real world.”

He’s probably terribly homesick. Anyone with a family would be.

“Do you miss someone?” I ask.

“Yeah…” He responds looking into my eyes then quickly averting his gaze after the word falls from his lips. “Anyways, sorry I’m not the best at this whole selling thing you’re probably pretty bored right now.”

I’m about to say “what do you mean” until I look around to see that the Isekai House is entirely empty. It’s just the two of us. Alone. in this room… wait a minute. We’ll never hit our sales goal at this rate!

“Spector, you hold down the fort. While I go do some advertising, okay?” I say with confidence.

I get up and walk around to the front of the stand. I clear my voice, taking a deep breath before I begin my eloquent sales pitch.

“LEMONADE SALE! GET YOUR ICE COLD LEMONADE RIGHT NOW!!” I shout in my loudest carnival barker voice. Or the hot dog vendors at baseball games. One or the other.

I look behind me to see that I startled Sector completely. He pulls the hood of his cloak over his ears and cups them as I yell into the sky. Oop- should I be quieter? I look at him again closely and it looks like he’s smiling. Laughing even. Aww I’m glad I could make that happen. Alright June, you’ve got the go ahead. Time to go full throttle!

I pull out all the tricks I can think of to get attention. Singing, dancing, playing games with customers, you name it. When I advertised for my book club back home I used some of these for recruitment. Given our low member count, they uh… haven’t always worked. Thankfully though, lemonade sales seem to be picking up!

Spector continues to do the money handling, while I fill the cups and chat up the donors. We might just reach our target.

An hour goes by and we have a special visitor come to the lemonade stand. It’s the little girl Jet saved from the fire yesterday.

“Hi there!” Her dad speaks in a friendly tone. “We just wanted to say thank you for all that you’re doing to help our family. We honestly don’t deserve the kindness you’ve all shown to us.”

“I’m sorry your house got attacked in the first place…” Spector says in a solemn and respectful tone. “That never should have happened. Not in this town.”

“It’s alright,” The dad responds. “The criminals who started it must have been eyeing my place for some time I think. I should have known better. I hear the guild is looking for them now.”

“Good.” Spector responds directly.

“Before we go, my little girl wanted to give something to you, Miss June.” The dad explains. Me? Why me??

The little girl approaches the stand and hands me a piece of parchment with some letters scrambled across it. It’s a little hard to read, but I think I can make it out. It says this:

Yew are my herow.

The little girl says “thank you” and also hands me back my wizard hat. I would have been fine with her keeping it, but her father insisted I may need it to save someone else’s daughter. My heart has absolutely melted. I try to keep calm, but I can’t help the tears that well up in my eyes. I’m so happy to be one of her “herows”.

Spector looks at me with a proud smile across his face. I didn’t do anything too special though. I was just in the right place at the right time. Anyone else would have done the same. Right?

I realize that I’ve been looking at Spector now too. Our eye contact must have been held for a while. Spector snaps back to reality and averts his gaze first, his elf ears point down in embarrassment. Holy crap, I didn’t know elf ears were that flexible!? That’s adorable!

We have a few more visitors arrive at the lemonade stand. My favorite was the lizard man coming back for seconds and later thirds. Every time he got a new cup he let out his trademark “YEAH!” That guy is hilarious.

So, we wrap up the lemonade stand with just enough sales to help that family rebuild their home. And I wrap things up getting a little closer to one of my adventuring companions. Today was nice. I can’t wait to see where my journey in Tauwren takes us tomorrow.