Vol.1 Ch.11 - Memories of happy times

Alright, so the new lineup will be as such:Anna will be the waitress, because waitresses attract more attention thanwaiters.Arthur will be handling the cooking, since he’s the only one that actuallyknows his way around the kitchen out of the four of us, but he’ll also be thehead honcho of the place – in other words, the manager.Ed will be the cleaning expert. He won’t be playing that much of animportant role here, but someone’s gotta do the dirty work.“And of course,” I finished explaining the plan to the others, “I’ll be theadvertising aficionado! So, any questions?”“Um, yeah.” Anna raised her hand slightly, “What is it that you do, exactly?”“What a silly question! Why, I have to run around town in this flashy reduniform I had Arthur sew for us while handing out flyers! Well, I dounderstand the confusion though, aficionado is a cool new word I learned ofrecently so I’m using it in my title.”“It does sound cool though…” Ed agreed before lashing out, “Unlike mine!What the heck is “Cleaning Expert”, anyways?! That’s just a fancier word forjanitor!”“Indeed it is. Since you’re injured, we can’t have you running around townwith me, nor can we have you serving people all day with Anna, so this muchshould be just right for you. That being said, just be glad Arthur wasn’t theone giving you your official title, Mr. Boyfriend.”He took a quick glance at Anna and immediately shriveled back down intohis seat as if feeling guilty. Anna wasn’t there when Ed had proudlyproclaimed that she was his girlfriend in front of Arthur, so she was leftconfused by this action of his. Even still, it’s quite the shame that he ran hismouth at such an inopportune moment, as it seems like she quite fancies him,at least in comparison to me. I feel like things could’ve worked out betweenthem if he had just kept his mouth shut, but now I feel like Ed’s gonna do thatthing where he purposefully keeps his distance from her out of pure shame orsomething like that.“Lune, I appreciate you boys staying here for a while to help us out, but youreally don’t have to go through the trouble.” Arthur spoke, “These ideas arenovel, yes, but you should really be thinking of your own problems beforediving in to help others.”“No worries, Gramps!” I reassured him, “Even if we were to do that, we’dstill have to wait here until Ed’s foot properly heals. And since we’realready living here, we might as well earn our stay.”“That’s rather thoughtful of you.” He smiled, “Well, who am I to decline twowilling workers? Ah, but I don’t particularly agree with you changing up theentire employee roster so suddenly. I do like the idea of the advertising,though, so how about we have all three of you do so together? Who knows, itmight even help you strengthen your bonds.”And so, we were all designated the “Advertising aficionado” job title andpromptly sent out into the city to begin our first day on the job. The first daywas exciting, to say the least, as we quickly turned the entire process into agame or competition of sorts. The premise was simple, first one to hand outtheir entire stack would get the other two’s pudding packets. The job wasgrueling, the stakes high, and so we had no other choice but to get to work!A couple of months later though, and things weren’t looking as optimal as wehad originally hoped for. Indeed, we were making ends meet, so to speak.Certainly, it was enough to keep business afloat, and according to Arthur therestaurant was actually doing better than before we had arrived, but theincrease in income just barely manages to outweigh the costs of paying for allthe flyers to get printed, not to mention all the other expenses that were therepreviously.It seems the biggest issue here is the location. Stringwood is the capital cityof Secundis, but it’s still a pretty small place all in all. There aren’t that manyflashy and unique things that merit tourists’ interest, and the locals simplyaren’t enough to get us to the point we’re chasing after. In my opinion, weshould definitely start looking into expanding our branches to nearby citiesand such, because I’m really starting to feel bad for poor old Arthur, who’sbeen giving us a steady salary of a gold coin each (on top of giving us freefood and a place to stay).On the bright side, it seems that Anna’s warmed up to us quite a lot since webegan working, much to Arthur’s delight. She’s quite competitive, and maybeeven standoffish and difficult at times, but in the end I feel like thatpersonality of hers only pushed Ed and me to greater heights. That being said,she’s got a really nasty smug face on when she outperforms us at times…“Phew! Another tiring day of annoying the poor locals of Stringwoodcomplete. Yippee…” I reported to Arthur, “Seriously, I think the people arestarting to get sick of us continuously shoving flyers in their faces. We shouldreally change up our approach or we’ll start losing customers.”“Humu, you’re just saying that because you were the last to hand out all yourflyers today.” Anna flashed a smug grin.“Yep, yep, indubitably so.” Ed chimed in, “And, as per tradition, that meansyou’re paying for today’s pudding packets!”“Gr…! Screw you two and your tandem mocking!” I shot back.“Now, now, kids. No need to bicker.” Arthur smiled, “Come, sit down andhave a cup of tea. Edward, you have a visitor.”“A visitor?” He smiled, “Miss Harper!”“Hello, kids!” She smiled and waved as she took a sip of the tea Arthur hadprepared for her, “I see your foot’s doing well, judging by that spring in yourstep, Ed!”“How many times to I have to tell you?” He blushed lightly, “That happenedweeks ago, it’s already fully healed!”They kept talking on and on about all sorts of medical conditions andterminologies after that, all the while Anna and I awkwardly sat there andsilently drank our tea, trying our hardest to join in on the conversation, butfailing to keep up. Harper would occasionally come over and visit Ed likethis to check up on him, but this soon devolved into her getting hooked on thetea here. Guess we had accidentally found ourselves a regular.***And so, another two months had passed peacefully. We would do our jobsduring the day, enjoy friendly banter amongst ourselves, have fun talking toArthur, then unwind with Harper. It was lovely, every second of life in theGray household was bliss, but we shouldn’t overstay our welcome.Remember, we were only supposed to be here until Ed’s foot got better, soI’d feel bad about abusing Arthur’s and Anna’s kindness any more.“…So that’s why we’ll be departing for the Kingdom of Carmen soon. Thankyou for everything so far, and we wish you the best of luck going forward.”“That’s a rather formal resignation, isn’t it?” Arthur tried to force out a joke,“Sigh, can’t you rethink this in any way?”“I’m sorry, Gramps…” Ed began speaking, but Anna just grabbed both of ourarms and tugged us off to the kitchen without saying a word.“Do you guys realize what you’re doing?” She gave us a nasty glare, “I getyou two are numbskulls, but even someone as dumb as you should know howmuch you mean to Grandpa.”“Ugh, of course we do.” I replied, “But we have to go.”I had half expected her to throw a fit or cuss us out, but she was oddly quietabout the entire thing. She showed absolutely zero emotions, apart from thatrepressed anger you see right now. We had made our way back from thekitchen and were greeted by a somewhat shaken Arthur who was desperatelyclasping his teacup.“Boys, you mustn’t go. I know you think we consider you a burden, but thatsimply isn’t the case!”“Arthur, we’re leaving tomorrow.” I said distantly, “Thank you foreverything.”Just as we were about to turn around and head to our rooms, we sawsomething absolutely heart wrenching. Arthur had begun sobbing to himself.It was a rather stifled cry, obviously because he didn’t want us to hear himand feel bad, but that in and of itself only made it sadder.Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind – This is probably gonna be thelast time we see Arthur ever again. It’s a rather grim thing to imagine, butit’s not so unbelievable either. Anna’s around our age, so I could picture usmeeting up at least once in the future, but Arthur is quite old. Even if Ed and Icome back here when we’re done with our journey, Arthur will have surelyalready passed by then.“Eh?” I wiped the tears off of my face, “O-Oh geez, stop crying dammit…”“Sniff, sniff…” Anna and Ed joined in as well.In the spur of the moment, I had jumped into Arthur’s arms without eventhinking. I didn’t care that it was impolite, I didn’t care if I was burdeninghim, I just wanted to give him this one last hug before leaving. Soon after,though, both Ed and Anna had joined in, effectively making it a group hug. Iwonder, is this also another form of family?Finally, we had composed ourselves, ate, and went to bed. Well, I say that,but neither me nor Ed could really sleep, due to all the excitement andanxiety tomorrow had in store for us. Thus, we decided to come downstairsand join Arthur by the fireplace, hoping for some advice on what to do next.“I don’t know what you’re planning on doing in the Kingdom,” Arthuradvised, “But you won’t have any luck even getting to there without apassport.”“A passport?” We asked, “And how do we get that?”“That’s a bit more of a difficult question, but I think I can help you with it.”He explained, “Basically, you need to sign up for the ITA – The InternationalTravelers Association. Finish the exams there and you’ll get your passports,but it’s a slippery slope, since you need to be 17 and up before you can evenapply for the exams.”“So then, how do we leave the country?” I asked with a tinge of fear in myvoice, “Does that mean we’ll have to wait another four years before we canleave Trivis Numerica?”“Well, that’s where I come in.” Arthur fiddled with his stache, “I’ve got afriend, or rather an old acquaintance that owes me a favor. His name is GraalThurs, and he’s an ITA Agent situated in Leins, all the way in Tertis. That’sof course not the only way to secure yourselves a passport, but it’s one wayto easily leave the country legally.”“Thank you so much!” We hugged him again before going to sleep with a bitmore peace of mind.In the morning, we had double checked to make sure we didn’t forgetanything, and stood outside the wagon to bid farewell the Arthur one lasttime. Anna was nowhere to be found though, she must still be mad at us forsuddenly deciding to leave them. Even still, isn’t it kind of rude to at least notshow up to see us off? Seriously, some people…Entering the transport wagon, Ed and I waved off an oddly smug and contentArthur as he went back inside. Sitting around inside for a couple moreminutes, we found the stress from it all to have made us both quite hungry.“Oi, Ed, hand me an apple from the bag, would you?” I put my hand outwithout looking at him.“Here you go.” A girl’s voice replied, handing me the aforementioned apple.“Thank-wait, huh?” We both turned around in surprise, “Anna?!”“Heehee, did I surprise you?” She began laughing.“What the hell are you doing?!” Ed reprimanded her, “This is no time forjokes, Arthur must be worried sick-!”“Geez, you’re making my ears hurt from all that whining!” She shut Ed up, “Ialready talked to him about it, and he agreed to have me join you guys untilyou get your passports.”Wait, until we get our passports? So does that mean that she’ll be joining usfor the entirety of our stay in Trivis Numerica? That’s…“Epic!” I yelled, “Oh, but why would you do that?”“What a silly question!” She smiled, “Obviously, because I wanna take overthe Arthur’s brand when I grow up! Seeing how fun it is to have worked withyou guys, I kind of get why grandpa was so adamant about not giving up, andwell, I wanna try too.”“That’s nice, Anna. We’re proud of you!” Ed replied, “But that still doesn’texplain why you would want to go with us.”“It’s as Lune said, isn’t it? We’re doing everything right, but the restaurantsimply won’t thrive in Stringwood. We need a better location, so I’m thinkingof setting up a ton of Arthur’s branches all across Trivis Numerica!”Whoa! That’s an even crazier idea than some of mine! Well, I say some,because I’ve got some really crazy ideas in my head. It’s no small feat tosurpass even one of them, so kudos to her for managing it.“Heh, what’s with that ambition?” I joked, “You trying to satiate your desire,hangman?”“Don’t tell such morbid jokes!” She shot back.The ‘joke’ lies in the term I just mentioned. “Satiating one’s desire” comesfrom a book written by famed author Eldenfreud in his book aptly named‘Desire’. In short, it means accomplishing the goal set out to you by your Iro.In the case of the main character of the book, he had managed to climb fromthe ruts to the title of kinghood and thus satiated the ‘desire to hold authority’given to him by his Yellow Iro. The book ends with him realizing there isnothing else for him to do after that, so he goes to the nearby woods,presumably to hang himself. The moral of the story is that, sometimes, thejourney is more important than the end goal. This is where the punchline ofthe joke comes in, as the story ends with the quote: “What is a man, if not abeast with unimaginable desire. Once stripped of the very thing he seeksasylum from, he is naught but a hangman.”