Chapter 136
[Drink To Support! D.D or El, which side do you support? Either way, a glass of alcohol you drink can help them!
Choose which drink to have representing Elizabeth Valentine, who has blue blood flowing through her, or Doi Dexter McMillan, who has red blood flowing through him, and show the power of the Voters! A portion of the sales proceeds will be used as voting funds for the Candidate you choose.]
On the pamphlet, cocktail glasses shaped like the faces of the two candidates and the cool drinks contained within them, with cheerful descriptions, whizzed by.
It wasn’t an event hosted independently by our bar, but rather a Mayoral Election-related event being run by Warawa, a brand company belonging to Ishiho, which was above us.
“Drink To Support,” huh. As Expected of a Cyberpunk World that had reached the extremes of Capitalism, it was indeed a Crazy Idea, and it was just as effective.
With a little exaggeration, these Mayoral Candidate cocktails accounted for about half of the bar’s recent sales, so what more needed to be said?
For Dusk City’s patrons, where even elections had turned into a kind of sport or entertainment, these cocktails were the perfect drinks for this loud and fierce festival period.
“…”
A moment of silence flowed.
The Old Man and the young man stared at me, then soon turned their heads to look at each other and shrugged.
The meaning of my gesture was obvious.
It was a cheerful suggestion to show which side they supported by buying and drinking a Mayoral Candidate Cocktail.
And the slightly more private, subtle meaning was…
“Yeah, well. Since we’ve chatted this much, it’s about time to order our next drinks.”
An implication that it would be good to order some kind of alcohol simply meant paying more money.
If this were a Classic Bar, treating a Customer like a miser in this way would be a huge mistake, but since it was a bar belonging to a Franchise on the Outskirts, and this was the super-Capitalism of Dusk City, this much was Fine.
In the first place, the primary fault lay with the customers who ordered one drink each and only talked about politics for thirty minutes.
Anyway, it was Unexpected. Given his disposition, I thought he would yell in an outburst at any moment.
The Old Man, who understood immediately, unexpectedly didn’t get angry and readily nodded his head. Rather, it was the young man who let out a “Hmm…” sound as if he wasn’t very keen on it.
“Then which side do you want to choose? Didn’t you hate both of them?”
A question was asked whether he wasn’t a hater who disliked both candidates. However, the Old Man answered immediately without even hesitating.
“I’ll go with the McMillan Cocktail.”
His reason was concise.
Words were spoken while the speaker was pointing at the Guide text written on the pamphlet.
“I like strawberries, though I don’t know how much real Strawberry taste it will actually have.”
D.D. McMillan’s cocktail was a red Frozen Strawberry Margarita.
“Then I’m automatically El Valentine, a blue blood. Blue Margarita? Not bad. Then I’ll have that, please.”
Since they ordered the expensive limited Election Edition cocktails without hesitation, they were both political fanatics, but fanatics with deep pockets.
“I’ll prepare them right away. For reference, the price of both cocktails is one thousand three hundred City Dollars. One percent of the total sales proceeds is used as voting funds. Once the intention to order is confirmed, refunds are not possible.”
Your history of participating in the Support Campaign remains in the Brand Database, so you can immediately grasp how many people you helped support a specific Candidate through the site or app. Currently, the El Valentine Cocktail holds the advantage. Thank you.”
After I rapidly recited the additional information to the point of putting the rapid-Fire comments in insurance commercials to shame, the Old Man spat out a word with a flushed face.
“That’s some amazing salesmanship.”
* * *
“Margarita”
“If life gives you limes, make a Margarita.”
-Jimmy Buffett.
It is cool and refreshing, salty, and a pick-up drink.
Variations: Tommy’s Margarita, Blue Margarita, Strawberry Margarita, Grand Margarita…”
It wasn’t a cocktail I could easily challenge.
The Margarita itself was a cocktail that required a bit of work, and on top of that, these event cocktails included an additional show to please the customers' eyes.
That was a bit difficult.
Moreover, considering the fact that in most bars, a Barback did not perform Direct Cocktail Service unless the cocktail was an incredibly simple type…
[You do it.]
However, it was a message from Tony that arrived, and it was completely ignored.
[Me?]
[Then you have to do it. You’re the Bartender right now.]
[I’m a Barback, not a Bartender.]
[But right now you’re playing the role of Bartender in my place. I won’t stop you if you’re going to keep playing the Sidekick from now on, though.]
Tony’s words were right.
Being a Barback was Comfortable.
It didn’t mean it was physically Comfortable, but mentally Comfortable, because in the end, it was just matching the Bartender’s pace and following along.
I was an object, not a subject.
Since it wasn’t a Position that made decisions on its own and acted first, there was less sense of responsibility.
However, I couldn’t just do Comfortable work without responsibility forever.
A Barback was ultimately nothing more than a Sidekick, a helper, an Assistant, and could not become the protagonist.
In the end, the Flower of the Bar was the Bartender. If I wanted to properly play a role in the bar, I had to become a Bartender.
Therefore, even if I hadn’t made my Official Debut yet, there was a need to accumulate Bartending Experience by directly Serving cocktails to customers like this.
From that perspective, Tony was generously giving me a truly precious opportunity, but…
[Isn’t it just because you’re feeling lazy?]
[…]
He was silent for a moment as if I had hit the nail on the head, but soon a storm-like text followed.
[Jeez… Don’t do it if you don’t want to. I went out of my way to help a kid with only one month of Barback experience build up his Bartending Experience, which is an incredibly generous thing that would be truly unimaginable in any other bar, but if you’re going to show such Ingratitude as this, I’ll just stop caring and do my own work. They say you get bitten by the hand that feeds you, and there’s not a single wrong thing in the old sayings. And to think you’d stab me in the back like this after I taught you everything about cocktails from one to ten, grumble grumble…]
No, why did this person become such a child?
It was endlessly childish and overly transparent spam of messages, but with a sigh, I replied that I was sorry and that I understood.
He held grudges for a long time when he sulked. Anyway, Tony made this suggestion with me in mind.
[OK.]
The message came as if he had been waiting.
He really was just feeling lazy after all.
If by any chance I were to ruin it disastrously, all the responsibility would fall on Tony, but it seemed he didn’t even care.
When I briefly mentioned that detail, the reply that came back was a sight to behold.
[So, you’re not confident?]
Of course that wasn’t it.
I spent the past month working as a Barback. My knowledge, Technique, and dexterity regarding Cocktail Making showed surprising progress.
Was this also the Microchip’s doing? Or was the experience I built up as a Chef helpful?
Either way, while working, even if I had been scolded for spacing out while agonizing over various Complex issues or conversing with the Assistant in my head, I had rarely been told off for making a mistake or having slow hands.
Even that picky Sey had said that there would be no problem if I were to deploy as an immediate asset, based solely on my production skills for the cocktails on the bar menu.
Of course, there was still a Minor obstacle remaining - getting approval to serve the customers who would want a cocktail from an Official Bartender rather than a Barback - but that part was resolved more simply than I thought.
“Yeah, try it. But if it tastes bad, I’ll beat you to a pulp. If such a dog-SHIT expensive cocktail tastes bad, you’ll have to spit out all my money. Got it?”
At the Tough Old Man’s browbeating words, I shrugged and spoke.
“As I told you, once the intention to order is confirmed, refunds are not possible, but…”
Seeing that drunkard’s nose turn as red as it could get, and sensing something boiling up as if a lion’s Roar would pop out at any moment, I added my next words.
Anyway, he sure was Impatient.
“…If you suffer damage due to my Inexperienced skills, it wouldn’t matter if I returned a portion of the amount with My Private Funds rather than the Bar’s Funds, right? Of course, that won’t happen, though.”
Because there’s no way a cocktail I made would taste bad.
After speaking deliberately cheerfully with a little - no, maybe a bit too much - bravado, I immediately went into service so he couldn’t say another word.
As I said, the event cocktails were a bit special.
The expensive price included the cost of ensuring the Customers' Visual Satisfaction, and therefore I had to treat their eyes.
The necessary materials were a Cutting Board, a knife, a hammer, and a Pointed Awl.
And two blocks of ice.
I had to carve two ice sculptures for the cocktails using these materials.
Ice sculptures were cut and carved to look exactly like the faces of the two mayoral candidates.
* * *
For Bartenders and cocktails, the ingredient that was just as inseparable as the alcohol was none other than ice.
The taste of the alcohol changed just from trivial factors like the size and amount of the ice, the storage method, and even how a cocktail was shaken and stirred with ice in it.
The shapes and types of ice used were also various: General Cube-shaped Ice, Spherical Ice, Crushed Ice, Cracked Ice, Shaved Ice, and so on…
It was even to the point where ice with added Taste and Aroma using molecular techniques was often used.
As such, the Technique of handling ice was also an essential element for a Bartender.
Ice Carving was a sculpting method used by Bartenders who carved ice to create the desired shape.
It was said that Ice Carving isn’t used often these days because it is much more Comfortable to use a New Ice Maker from the start or order a specific shape of ice, but still, in establishments that valued Performance or tradition, you could often find Bartenders who had learned Ice Carving.
Dragon’s Lair had a classic retro bar concept, and there was also a Bartender working there whose Performance was incredibly flashy.
Namely, Tony was a Bartender with the nickname 'Magician' whose specialties were stirring drinks using his prosthetic arm, a flashy Flame Show, and tricks he showed off from time to time.
His other specialty was Ice Carving.
The sight of him carving out ice in an instant, regardless of whether it was his prosthetic arm or his real hand, to create sculptures of all sorts of shapes like eagles and diamonds, was hard to believe without seeing him do it.
It was incredibly cool and stylish. Admiration naturally arose, confirming that he was indeed the Magician of Dragon’s Lair.
Though the sight of him throwing flirtatious glances while handing cocktails containing an Ice Flower to female customers did make one frown.
Anyway, I learned cocktails from Tony.
Therefore, even if not as much as my Master Tony, I naturally knew how to do Ice Carving.
It was also an area I had practiced while investing a considerable amount of time over the past few weeks.
I hadn’t expected the timing for using it in front of customers to come this quickly.
Well, what’s good is good.
It was time to show off the skills I had polished and refined all this time.
With a confident attitude, I placed the white Block of Ice on the Cutting Board.
And then I boldly struck down with the awl.