Chapter 24: Maid Cafe
And so, Elus’s Maid Cafe officially began its operations!
Of course, the milk tea pearls, which were the main selling point, weren’t Elus’s memories from the Robot Kingdom.
After all, milk tea pearls of that style were a limited edition sold only to Lonis. What the robots truly tasted were fragments of memories from the girls.
For example…
Slime Grand Prix!
Various stalls at the Autumn Arts Festival!
The real Maid Cafe of C. Academy!
The ring toss stall at Nile Port, the bustling street.
These scenes, these images, were mostly things the robots had never witnessed before… Not to mention, while consuming the milk tea pearls, a strange feeling would arise in the robots’ hearts.
This feeling was as if emotions were permeating their CPUs, which was incredibly strange! Although the CPU’s processing speed slowed down, it made the robots even more addicted, much like alcohol addiction.
And so…
Although the girls’ shop had only just opened, it was completely packed. Even a “professional maid” like Lonis was overwhelmed with work.
“General Tas, quickly give me the plates.”
“Ah, the plates… plates? Hero Your Highness, which one?”
“The pentagonal one. I need to make Gear Filled Rice.”
“Right away! With my life, I won’t drag Hero Your Highness down.”
…
The location for the Maid Cafe was naturally General Tas’s 3D Custom Printing Shop.
Although this shop was previously old and dim.
However, after everyone’s tidying up, the entire shop was completely renovated. Not only were the tables and chairs meticulously wiped, but even the old equipment found their proper places.
After all…
For humans, drinking coffee equals replenishing energy equals eating.
And for robots? Replenishing energy equals charging equals eating.
So, it wasn’t just some engine oil mixed with coffee pearls, but also various gear parts, and even grinding and repair services were offered.
For example, while drinking “coffee,” it’s perfectly normal to replace a hand, isn’t it?
Having fully recharged, if one feels their camera is aging, replacing it with a new “eye” is also quite reasonable, isn’t it?
…
…
So, people came and went in an endless stream. Both Tass and Lonis were so busy they didn’t have a moment to sit down.
Of course…
Su Ling and Elus were not idle either. After all, a clever cook cannot cook without ingredients. While attending to customers in the front, the milk tea pearls needed to be replenished on time in the back.
Creating a new “flavor” would naturally be quite difficult. But fortunately, the tool called “Dreamland” seemed to support copy-paste functions!
This means that once a flavor is determined, mass production only requires investing basic materials. The girls no longer needed to memorize and create each pearl every time.
…
…
And in the kitchen?
Su Ling was full of praise for this device, seemingly completely immersed in the joy of work~
“Sister Elus, this is so amazing!”
“Hmph, indeed? After all, it’s a product of the previous epoch.”
“Oh, so this is… something humans of the past specially prepared for robots to experience their emotions? It feels really great to be able to communicate.”
“That’s not it, this thing was originally made by robot dolls.”
“Eh?”
“It’s a long story, but it was Teacher Tsukimi Shimo who told me? The creator of this machine was originally a maid, a robot maid dedicated to serving humans.”
“Robot maid…”
“Yes, in the late period of the previous epoch, this was very common. After all, people always want someone to take care of them~~~ However, that robot maid was different from her compatriots. She gradually developed a very strange emotion towards her master.”
“Ah?”
“Watching her master grow up healthy, from a child to a teenager, and then graduating from school. The robot maid felt genuine happiness, but at the same time, she gradually found herself becoming stranger and stranger. For example, feeling melancholy when seeing her master with other robots, feeling heartbroken when seeing her master injured, and wanting to know more about her master’s social life.”
“Th-then, isn’t this…”
“Yes, until someone told her that this feeling was called ‘love.’ Only then did she understand what was happening to her… But even so, she didn’t know what degree of ‘love’ she had for her master.”
“!”
“In order to study human emotions, and to know what love is, she and other robots finally created such a machine… It turns out that her experiment was very successful.”
“What happened to her and her master afterwards?”
“I don’t know what happened afterwards, because it’s a folk tale, and there are many subsequent versions of the ending~~ No one knows which one is true~”
“I see… That’s… that’s amazing.”
…
Su Ling blinked her eyes, and at this moment, she also felt immense reverence for this machine.
Because this was…
A product born from the pursuit of love.
Therefore…
“Sister Elus, let’s work hard and let more robots feel love!”
“Yes, Su Ling, keep going!”
…
Although it was tiring, with everyone’s concerted efforts, the first day of the Maid Cafe could be described as a great success.
Robots queuing up to shop stretched from the entrance all the way to the other side of the street… to the point where it almost disrupted traffic and caused the transportation in the node city to be paralyzed.
Throughout this process, tvp played a vital role. Not only did it provide a lot of raw materials, but it also ran around with pm, promoting the shop to many customers.
…
The initially planned trial operation of 8 hours had to be extended to 10 hours. After it ended, the robot tvp was so impressed with the girls that it was utterly defeated:
“Humans are amazing! The revenue from just one day is almost enough to cover the rent.”
“Hmph, of course. After all, I, this lady, am leading everyone?”
“Ah… ah! Humans are truly amazing. Actually, there was a saying a long time ago that robots should not be ruled by humans and should pursue their own independent freedom. But now that I think about it, robots were created by humans. So, if we robots obtain freedom, wouldn’t we go astray?”
Looking at the bustling cafe, tvp genuinely felt a sense of “happiness.”
Even though it was the first time, it understood that this emotion was very rare and something only humans could bring to robots.
“Hehe, tvp, having such thoughts is enough. In fact, humans nowadays don’t treat robots as slaves, but as companions… In our team, there is also a robot doll named Bai Ye?”
“Are those robots that stayed on Blue Star! Are they doing well!”
“Yes, they are doing very well! And they have gained a magical power! tvp, if you have any thoughts of traveling to Earth in the future, humans will always welcome you!”
Elus smiled slightly and invited tvp like this.