You don't even want to call me godfather

"We look forward to better things, which will rise again from the ashes," Jill stretched out her hand and spread it upwards, "I think what you need now is a glass of wine that can make you forget for a while."

"It seems that Koshe didn't scare me. Valhalla Bar..." Laplander raised his glass and took a sip. "And you, the bartender, okay, I'll remember you."

Although she was smiling, she looked very depressed, as if Jill's words had made her fall into some kind of thought.

"Um……"

Jill responded absentmindedly. As a bartender who helped customers solve their problems, she had had similar conversations countless times.

Now she just felt a little itchy because of the bra strap.

"Come to think of it, are you the only one here?" Laplander suddenly started the conversation. "Since this is a bar, it's a bit shabby to have only one bartender anyway."

"It's just a small bar. Compared to those noisy places, the environment here is more suitable for guests to meditate in their spare time after drinking." Jill came back to his senses and replied, "Of course, chatting with guests is also one of my duties."

"It's strange. It's a nice place, but why don't so many people come here?" Lapland felt the cool temperature of the wine glass with his fingers, and sighed. "And I have to say that for a character like you who is good at seeing through people's hearts, it's a bit of a waste of talent to stay here."

"Not everyone knows how to appreciate others. Most of the time, self-knowledge is an important virtue." Jill looked at the bar and shook her head. "And I don't think I have the ability to impress others. That's an arrogant idea. At least I'm not that kind of person."

"Hey~ You're quite modest," Laplander put down her glass. She was becoming more and more interested in this bartender whom she met for the first time. "Bartender, what's your name?"

"Jill, or you can call me Jill."

"Okay, Jill, then don't you have any ideal job? Perhaps bartender isn't the most suitable career for you. With your ability to read people's expressions and your eloquence, there are obviously better ways out."

Lappland's words made Jill raise her head, and she looked at Lappland with a strange look.

"I think you may have a very good idea of ​​the concept of an ideal job, Laplander," she explained after a moment, somewhat helplessly. "Not everyone has a clear idea of ​​what they want in life. Some people can love their jobs, while others can only find their destination after hitting a wall everywhere."

"Alas, why do you keep talking about such profound principles that I can't understand?" Laplande scratched her head. She picked up the wine glass again and drank it in big gulps. "Isn't there any more simple and easy-to-understand explanation?"

"Sometimes, life changes in unexpected directions, and people are forced to change their plans," Jill reminded Laplander as she watched the way he held the wine glass. "If your fingers are in contact with the wall of the wine glass for too long, the temperature of your body will affect the taste of the wine."

After hearing this, Lapland thought briefly and chose to drink the wine in the glass.

"Isn't this enough?"

She slammed her glass on the bar, seeming to be proud of something odd.

"What are you doing?" Jill was puzzled by Lapland's often surprising actions. "You can't savor the flavor of the wine if you do this."

"Hey, I just feel much better all of a sudden," Lappland smiled carelessly. Her face gradually began to turn red, but she herself did not notice it. "If I just drink for the taste, there are many alternatives to choose from. Besides, I believe no one will refuse such good wine."

"You're drunk," Jill said mercilessly, looking at Lapland's tipsy appearance. "If you go crazy when you're drunk, maybe I have to close the shop early."

"Don't worry, don't worry. I still can't do anything embarrassing like that." Lappland waved his hands, seeming helpless about how easily he got drunk. "Although I do feel a little dizzy, I'm not that weak."

"How about I make you a drink to sober you up?"

Seeing Lappland's increasingly blurry eyes, Jill became more and more worried, so she suggested.

But Laplande didn't answer, she just looked at the decoration inside the bar.

"Koshe told me that you're going to close down soon," she turned sideways, leaving her back to Jill, looking at the scenery outside the door and smiling, "Really, with such a beautiful view, how could you close down, right, Jill?"

Jill was silent, a hint of depression and reluctance appeared in her eyes, but it did not last long, and she recovered.

"People will inevitably have second thoughts. Even if they act according to their own wishes, they will still think about things like 'what if this happens'." Like Laplander, she looked at the door of the bar and smiled helplessly. "Of course, I am the same."

White Lady

There seem to be very few guests today.

Jill had been standing in front of the bar, washing the wine glass in her hand countless times.

"Alas..." Faced with such a depressed bar, Jill sighed helplessly, "The boss is not here either, why not close it early."

"Dingling bell~"

Just as Jill put down her glass and prepared to clean up and leave, the door of the bar was pushed open.

"Welcome to the Valhalla Bar," she immediately adjusted her mood and welcomed him, "May I ask what you would like to order?"

"Um, is infection allowed here? Cough-cough-cough-" But after entering the bar, the guest in front of him couldn't help but cover his mouth and nose and kept coughing, "Sorry... Sorry, the smell here is a bit..."

"A bit spicy, isn't it?" Jill raised the corner of his mouth slightly as he looked at the young Wolper girl. "Is this your first time in a bar?"

"Hmm..." The Wolper girl nodded. She lowered her head all the way and sat down on the high chair in front of the bar. After getting used to the smell around her, she spoke, "I've never been here before..."

"Why did you think of coming to the bar?" The girl's face was full of worries. Even without trying to see through her, Jill could see her sadness, so he asked, "Are you worried about something? Or are you having troubles that you can't resolve?"

"Hmm... about the same..."

The girl looked a little shy, and Jill knew that it was not easy to get her to speak so easily.

But maybe wine can.

"Well, since we're in the bar, we should have a proper drink," Jill leaned on the bar with his arm and looked at her, "Can you tell me your name first, beautiful lady?"

"Eh? Beauty, pretty or something... I'm not that kind of person..." The girl's face turned red after hearing Jill's words, but she didn't refuse, "Angelina... Angelina Anshinin."

"Okay, Angelina, can I call you that?" After getting the information she wanted, she selected the wine she wanted to mix based on her first impression of Angelina. "I think there is a wine that would be very suitable for a girl like you."

Jill put the freshly washed wine glasses back into the sink and took out the Cointreau and gin from the liquor cabinet.

Place ice cubes in a cocktail shaker, squeeze lime juice into the shaker, then add Cointreau and gin.

The next step is to shake for nearly ten seconds. After shaking, the evenly mixed liquor is filtered into an iced martini glass, and finally the rim of the glass is decorated with lemon convolvulus.

A cocktail with a herbal aroma was pushed in front of Angelina.

"White Lady, may you keep a piece of white and welcome a brand new future."

"Well……"

Angelina had obviously never seen such a thing before. Besides being curious and surprised, she was more hesitant.

"Such a beautiful wine must be very expensive..." Angelina took out a small sewn wallet with some concern, opened the wallet, and pulled out the few banknotes inside, "Excuse me...is this enough?"

What Jill wanted to say was blocked in his throat by her question. Looking at Angelina's clothes and thinking about her previous reactions, Jill suddenly understood something.

"You... ran away from home," Jill did not answer Angelina's question, but instead began to point out her behavior and identity, "Are you still a student? A high school student, right? Did you have any conflicts with your family?"

"Eh? How do you know..." Angelina was stunned for a moment, and her eyes became evasive when she looked at Jill, "Should I...should I not come here?"

"A person's behavior often reflects his various situations, and all I do is observe." Jill leaned forward slightly with his arms on the bar, "Anyone is welcome here, so don't worry about whether you can stay here."

"But... I have oripathy," Angelina

She looked at Jill uneasily, and after confirming that he was not moved by her identity as an infected person, she continued, "I can't imagine what my classmates will think of me after they know I'm infected. I also can't imagine what my parents will think of me if they know."

As Jill looked at her, she took a sip of the wine in her glass.

"Hmm, so sweet..." Angelina's body trembled. The taste of the wine in the glass surprised her. "It tastes like... orange. I didn't expect it to taste so good. Is this really wine?"

"In fact, in the 'sour wine' series, there is a method of using syrup as a sweetener, but for this wine, the sweetness of Cointreau is enough to replace it." Jill stood up and looked at Anjie, who was a little surprised but didn't dare to show it obviously, and asked, "Angelina, can you answer a question for me?"

"Yes, yes..."

Angelina's nerves tensed again, as if in her imagination, Jill would ask some difficult and harsh questions.

"Do you like the idea of ​​running away from home, leaving your family, friends, and where you live?"

Jill asked, with his arms folded across his chest and his back against the wine cabinet, looking at the anxious Angelina.

"No... I don't like it," Angelina said, holding the wine glass, looking absent-minded, as if she was thinking about something, "If I can, I don't want to leave them."

"I believe that every parent loves their child, no matter what he becomes. This is a nature engraved in their body," Jill continued, "and if you do something you don't like just to make your parents sad or disappointed, that would be stupid, isn't it?"

Angelina didn't say anything. She lowered her head, as if thinking about what Jill said.

"Whatever happened that made you want to escape, at least do something you like, otherwise you are just hurting them for the sake of hurting them."

"But!" Angelina suddenly spoke up. She was a little excited, but then she realized her impoliteness and lowered her voice, "But...what else can I do...I don't know how to fill this empty feeling in my heart."

"Collecting, reading, painting, fitness, fighting, bungee jumping, anything that can relax your mind, you can do it," Jill shook his head and said seriously, "First, give full play to yourself, or at least coax them first, until you grow up enough to live independently, okay?"

"I……"

Angelina was silent. She knew that what Jill said was right, although the way he said it was a bit bad, but she couldn't think of any words to refute it.

"There are many ways to resist the emptiness in your heart. Do something that is appropriate for your age, Angelina," Jill said with some emotion in her eyes. It seemed that Angelina's story reminded her of her past self, "instead of thinking of using alcohol to resist and numb yourself."

Death In The Afternoo

Jill looked out the window and saw it was raining outside.

The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and it seems to be developing into a rainstorm.

The sound of rain continued, and Jill could even feel the moisture spreading into the bar. She lowered her head and continued to wipe the wine glass in her hand. In such bad weather, there were naturally no customers.

"Dingling bell~"

The sound of wind chimes rang out, and a figure pushed the door and walked into the bar, leaving several wet footprints on the floor behind him.

But fortunately, it was not the bloody footprints like those in Lappland.

"Welcome to Valhalla Bar," Jill said, not caring about the rain on the visitors. She welcomed every guest. "What would you like to order?"

The man covered his eyes with his hands, as if the dim lights in the bar were too dazzling to him.

He sat down on the high stool at the bar and took out a few crumpled bills from his tattered clothes.

"What kind of wine can I buy with this?"

He pressed the money on the bar, and Jill saw his hand.

It was a hand covered with calluses and scars.

Gil put away the banknotes, but he suddenly realized that these were not the common coins of Syracuse.

"These are Ursian rubles, right?" Jill put the money on the counter and tried to talk to the man. "77 rubles can only be exchanged for 1 pound in Syracuse. Are you in trouble now?"

"Yes, I am indeed very poor, almost dying of poverty." The man tightened his clothes, and the ears that represented his race were stuck to his hair because they were soaked by the rain. He showed an ugly smile, "Maybe one day I will starve to death on the street, so I want to drink more before I die. I am an Ursus, and Ursus people love wine."

"Really? An Ursus?" Looking at the man, Jill had some thoughts about the wine. "You should be a soldier, right?"

"Soldier...ah...yes, I used to be a soldier, an honorable, Ursus soldier, but I left there."

Hearing this, the smile on the man's face gradually turned bitter.

There was a sudden flash of light outside the window, followed by a deafening thunder.

"Chaos, what about you?"

The man put away his smile and introduced himself.

"Jill, I have thought of a glass of wine suitable for you, but I want to make a deal with you," Jill smiled. She took out the stack of money again, counted it, took out half of it and put it in front of Chaos. "This glass of wine is only worth this price, but I still want to hear your story. Are you willing?"

Jill pulled out a mixing cup and placed it in front of her, waiting for a response.

"Oh, of course. I just need someone to talk to," Chaos nodded, looking at the mixing cup. "Life has been so damn hard lately."

Jill pulled out the champagne and absinthe, the drink was simple, she put a few ice cubes in a mixing glass, added a little absinthe, and started stirring.

The gray wine is like the fog outside the window at this moment.

After the absinthe was emulsified, she took out another glass, filtered the absinthe into the glass, and finally filled the glass with champagne.

The emulsified white absinthe and the golden champagne were mixed in the glass, and she pushed the mixture in front of Chaos.

“Death In The Afternoon, dedicated to you who are profound and sober.”

"Sober...ha," Chaos picked up the wine glass and drank the first sip without hesitation, "Soberness is often accompanied by pain."

The light anise sweetness is paired with the sourness of champagne, the two are intertwined without affecting each other.

For a moment, Chaos felt that a string in his soul was plucked. Maybe he would really die in a certain afternoon just like the name of this wine?

Jill leaned her arms on the bar, leaning forward slightly, the way she does when listening to a customer's story.

"You know about the Fourth Uka War, right?" Chaos said to himself, feeling the sweetness and sourness in his mouth. "I once served under General Hellagur. I participated in that war. I also participated in the Four Nations War. I should be considered a veteran."

He took a sip of his wine.

"I've seen bodies flying around, heard the roar of artillery fire, and met countless teammates, but most of them, I've only met them once."

His eyes were dazed and uneasy. Although he was here, his mind, under the influence of alcohol, had gone back to the past.

"I remember there was a veteran like me who had a medal of honor, but he had no job. The war changed him and caused him to lose his legs. He became a homeless man and lost all his belongings except for the medal. He could have exchanged the medal for money, but he told me that it was the last line of his dignity." Chaos' body shook, his hand holding the wine glass was shaking, and his voice was shaking. "Then one winter, he died, just like that, and the medal was displayed in a store on the street."