Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Episode 4: The Second Guest Is a Raccoon Dog (1)

-Knock knock.

Who could it be at this hour?

It was nine in the evening.

It was far too late for guests, and I had even posted a large sheet of A4 paper on the entrance saying, ‘NOT OPEN FOR BUSINESS,’ so no one should be knocking on the door either.

At least, not if they were a normal person capable of rational thought.

“Who is it?”

“I am an ordinary human.”

“Excuse me?”

If not for the childish voice coming from unusually low down, I might have simply shut the door.

“I am a human!”

No.

This was definitely not a person.

It was wearing something resembling pants, but with its fluffy fur, long protruding snout, and gently swaying tail—

Anyone could see that this was a raccoon dog. One that could even speak like a person.

“Ow ow ow! Let go of me!”

“It’s real.”

Wondering if this might be some malicious hidden-camera prank involving a robot, I grabbed and stretched various parts of it.

It had body heat, and the texture felt exactly like petting the cat at my friend’s house.

In that instant, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.

Should I call the police?

Would they even come if I reported that a talking raccoon dog had shown up?

More importantly, why was it here?

By the time the scattered pieces of the puzzle had begun fitting together one by one, I came to my senses and realized the raccoon dog had already toddled all the way inside the coffeehouse.

“I want to drink that. The warm and sweet thing!”

“What thing?”

“That thing! The sweet thing the nine-tailed fox had here.”

-Tap tap.

Perhaps frustrated in its own way, the sight of it stomping its feet was so cute that I almost burst out laughing.

Fear is relative.

A mysterious creature was speaking human language, so naturally I should have reacted defensively, but I simply couldn’t.

Setting aside the fact that it showed no hostility, wasn’t it far too cute?

“Wait here for a bit.”

“If I wait, you’ll make it?”

“Yeah.”

I went into the kitchen and put water on in the electric kettle.

It was very easy to guess what food the raccoon dog was talking about. And who it had heard about this place from.

I had only ever served coffee to someone else at this coffeehouse once.

That lunatic young man had probably not been a cosplayer either, but a being similar to this raccoon dog.

Since it called him a nine-tailed fox, perhaps he was some kind of supernatural monster?

But was it all right for a raccoon dog to drink coffee?

It was a pointless concern. According to the raccoon dog, even the nine-tailed fox had drunk it and left.

I resumed moving my hands after briefly hesitating and made exactly the same coffee I had served the nine-tailed fox before bringing it out.

“Hmm hmm~ Foxes can turn into beauties~ Raccoon dogs can also turn into scholars~ Foxes can turn into beauties~ Raccoon dogs can also turn into scholars~ Hmm hmm~”

Apparently even the short wait had been boring for the raccoon dog, because it was dancing strangely and even singing.

If I filmed this and uploaded it, I’d become a MeTube star overnight.

-Clatter.

The moment I set the coffee on the table, the raccoon dog stopped dancing and leaped onto the chair.

“Ah! That’s it!”

“It’s hot, so drink carefully.”

“Ooooooh!”

What was so special about this coffee that it liked it this much?

Come to think of it, that young man who had turned out to be a nine-tailed fox had liked the coffee here enough to come back after just one day.

More precisely, the coffee made according to the recipe left behind by the previous owner.

-Sip. Sip.

“Is it good?”

“It’s thiiiiis good!”

As I blankly watched it somehow manage to hold the coffee cup in its stubby forepaws and drink, I suddenly became curious about these creatures.

“Where do all of you live?”

“We live in the mountains.”

“That nine-tailed fox too?”

“The nine-tailed fox doesn’t live in the mountains. He lives with humans in those houses made of stone.”

“Hmm, I see. Then how old are you?”

“I’m three thousand two hundred years old. Ah, n-no! I’m an ordinary human! Uh, um. I’m three hundred years old!”

Seeing how flustered it became, it seemed difficult to question it any further.

It was only fragmentary information, but I still got the general idea.

Apparently, long-lived supernatural creatures possessing mysterious powers had enjoyed drinking coffee here.

Though this raccoon dog was visiting for the first time.

Truthfully, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t worried after hearing this much.

For a moment, I had even considered running away, wondering, ‘What if I get caught up in something beyond my ability to handle and get quietly disposed of without anyone ever knowing?’

But for such incredible beings, all of them seemed to have a screw loose somewhere.

Whether it was the young nine-tailed fox drinking coffee while fluttering his huge ears or this raccoon dog, neither seemed particularly hostile, nor did they look likely to do anything life-threatening.

“Should I just leave things as they are?”

“Huh? What did you just say?”

“...Nothing. You finished already?”

It had.

It had licked the cup so clean it looked as though it had been washed.

“It was delicious. Then I’ll be going now.”

The raccoon dog stood up with a satisfied expression, patting its bulging belly.

“Be careful on your way.”

“Oh! I forgot! I was told I have to pay the price!”

“The price? Oh, for the coffee? Just go. This one’s on me today.”

Naturally, I had no intention of charging for the coffee. Watching a talking raccoon dog drink coffee was the kind of experience that would be difficult to buy even with money.

However, I did attach the limitation of today.

It was so cute that I had ended up serving it coffee without thinking, but seeing how much it liked the drink made me feel that if I kept giving it away for free, it would start showing up every day like clockwork.

Yet despite being told it could simply leave, the raccoon dog unexpectedly took a firm stance.

“That’s not allowed!”

“I said it’s fine.”

“I heard it from the nine-tailed fox. If you don’t pay the price, humans dislike monsters!”

-Rattle.

The things the raccoon dog pulled from the waistband of its pants spilled onto the table.

Leaves, acorns, and round little pebbles.

These were the items it had taken out to pay.

“Look at this one. Isn’t it really big? This is the biggest acorn on our mountain! There probably won’t be another acorn this large for a hundred years! And this stone is······.”

After spending quite some time explaining the value of each piece of miscellaneous junk, the raccoon dog became so proud that its chin was practically pointing at the sky.

It was funny.

Ever since I had taken over this coffeehouse, why did everyone seem desperate to give me expensive things for practically nothing?

The nine-tailed fox who had casually paid five million won for one cup was one thing, and now this raccoon dog was handing over miscellaneous objects that looked as though it had treasured them dearly.

“I’ll just take this.”

“No! Take all of it!”

“Then I won’t take this either.”

What I chose was a leaf. The item that looked the most useless among them. The dried, shriveled leaf looked as though it would soon crumble to pieces and become useless even if it stayed inside the raccoon dog’s pocket.

This was enough.

What I wanted to accept was its gratitude, not something valuable.

“Is that really enough?”

“I’m telling you it is. Now, hurry and go. It’s already very late. No! Wait a second!”

A raccoon dog on a rural road where even streetlights were few and far between.

Feeling a little uneasy, I hurried into the storage room and brought out a headlamp.

It was something I had bought when my department head, who loved hiking, had pestered me into joining him on an early-morning hike.

After buying it, actually putting it on my head had required more courage than expected, so I had never used it even once. Yet selling it secondhand would not even be worth the trouble, and now the moment had finally arrived when this thing could be put to excellent use.

-Click.

I put in the batteries and turned it on, and the LED lit up brightly. Fortunately, it did not seem to be broken.

“Ooooooh! It makes light!”

“It’s dangerous, so turn this on while you’re going.”

I wondered if there was something wrong with me for worrying about a three-thousand-two-hundred-year-old raccoon dog getting run over, but there was nothing bad about being safe.

I briefly considered driving it home myself, but it did not seem particularly wise for a human to go to a place where monsters lived.

-Click. Click. Click.

“If you keep turning it off and on too often, it’ll break quickly, so only turn it on when you need it. Got it?”

“If it breaks, I’ll get in trouble!”

“No. You won’t get in trouble. But if it breaks, you won’t be able to use it when you need it.”

“That’s true. It’s brighter than a firefly, so I can use it to gather mushrooms at night and catch fish in the stream too. If it breaks, I won’t be able to gather them. Oh! And if I do this, this, I can make it look like a ghostly flame! And also...”

I had issued the order to leave long ago, even giving it a souvenir, but the raccoon dog kept fiddling with the headlamp and showed no sign of getting up anytime soon.

Its grand century-long plans for putting the headlamp to good use showed no signs of stopping for quite some time.

It was cute enough that I would have regretted it for ages if I hadn’t given it the lamp.

“Then I’m really going now! Foxes can turn into beauties~ Raccoon dogs can also turn into scholars~ Foxes can turn into beauties~ Raccoon dogs can also turn into scholars~”

Only after watching the raccoon dog disappear into the distance while singing its incomprehensible song did I return to the coffeehouse and lie down to sleep.

Had it really never been discovered by humans even once while wandering around like that?

Well, it would probably be fine. It said it had lived like this for thousands of years.

After experiencing so many unbelievable things over the past few days, it seemed I had grown fairly numb to them myself.

No, truthfully, it was fun.

When I was young, there had been a time when I believed I had to become someone rather special too.

A celebrity, a scientist, or perhaps the president. Back when I was so young that my dream for the future changed after every night’s sleep, I was always the main character in those dreams.

Around the time I entered middle school, I began to understand the harshness of society to some extent and became aware of the weight carried on my parents’ shoulders, and my dreams gradually became more realistic.

Graduating from a good university and joining a major corporation seemed nice. Or perhaps becoming a stable civil servant would be fine too.

And that was how I had lived.

I graduated from a fairly decent university with reasonably good grades and joined the sort of company whose name people vaguely remembered hearing somewhere before.

That entire series of events had been far removed from my true self.

Countless decisions I had made contained not my own will, but the circumstances and conditions surrounding me.

I had to attend a university suited to my grades. The sciences were more advantageous for employment. Of electrical engineering, chemistry, and mechanical engineering, choose the department with the highest percentage of graduates hired by major corporations. TOEIC and TOEFL, because everyone else did them too.

I simply lived wherever the current carried me, and before I knew it, I had reached this age.

There had been nothing special about me in any of it. No, there was not supposed to be.

Because the incomprehensible ability I possessed must never appear special to anyone else.

But now things were a little different. At least one thing had effectively been permitted, hadn’t it?

The tiny special trait of knowing how to make coffee that nonhuman beings enjoyed.

Right now, I felt as though I had briefly returned to my distant childhood. Like this old coffeehouse, back to the time long ago when I had not yet forgotten special dreams like becoming president or a scientist.

“As long as they don’t come too often, maybe it’ll be fine.”

The problem was that it took exactly two days for me to regret muttering those words to myself.

_____________

“Sniff sniff sniff······.”

What was that sound?

In the dead of night, what I had definitely just heard was the sound of crying.

Damn it, I had been careless. This time, it looked like something truly dangerous had come as a guest.

Just in case, I picked up the self-defense baseball bat I had prepared and slowly went down to the first floor.

“Waaaaah!”

When I turned on the light, the crying, having noticed my presence, became clearer and louder.

Something small was pressed against the window.

The creature pounded on the window with its forepaws and wailed pitifully.

“Waaaaah! Ever since I drank that, I can’t sleep! I haven’t slept for two days! I’m going to die at this rate! Waaaaaaah!”

“Ah.”