Vol.1 Ch.12 - Setting up shop

Not too long after, we had made it to our first stop – a small little boundarytown that served as the gate between Secundis and Tertis. The town’s name?Station Arfa.“Whoaaa~!” Ed could only look around in awe of the place, “This is somesight, isn’t it?”“I know, right?” Anna agreed, “It’s smaller than Stringwood, but it’s like,way more charming. I’m really digging it!”There was certainly no objectively correct way to describe the place, givenhow unconventionally it was built. There aren’t really that many houses inhere, and even the ones that are here only have one story to them. Since it’smostly a pitstop of sorts where weary travelers stop by to get some food andrest, Station Arfa only really has restaurants and motels in it, with only theoccasional convenience store.But the simplicity of it is what gives it its charm, as it’s got a lot of hillyterrain over which the roads have been paved through, giving way for somequite interesting tunnels that got dug out, with some people even getting theidea to make a restaurant inside them. Other interesting details include usingthe nearby riverbank and digging out irrigation systems that would flow rightnext to the pavement. It was as if this entire place was in the middle groundsof existence – Too grassy and isolated to be considered a town, but tooadvanced to be a village. But then again, if we look at it from a differentperspective, it really isn’t either, since there are barely any people thatactually live here long-term.“But damn, with the Sun setting just over these nearby hills, the reflectionsfrom the riverbank are really making a beautiful orange scene.” Anna noted.“Wow, I never would’ve noticed that if you hadn’t pointed it out!” I lookedover at where she was pointed, “Damn, how do you notice all theseseemingly random details?”“Hmph!” She donned a proud smirk, “Well of course you wouldn’t notice it!You’re a guy after all, and everyone knows guys don’t mind the smaller, moreintricate details that girls do.”“Like how you tied your hair in a higher ponytail today because the weathergot warmer?” Ed suddenly spoke up.“That’s… yeah, actually.” She lightly blushed, “Good eye, Ed!”“I noticed because you always let your hair flow down, but this is cute too.”He continued on the attack.“A-Ah, no time for chitchat!” She sped up her pace, “Didn’t we say we’regonna be opening an Arthur’s chain here? We should think up a strategy firstand foremost, no?”Heh, she thinks she’s being slick by dodging the question, but even thebiggest of idiots would realize how embarrassed she is from Ed’s suddenpraise. Go on, Ed, now’s your chance to deliver the finishing blow…!“Oh, you’re right.” He shied away, “We should first look for a good locationif we want the most traffic, I think.”Hitting him on the back of the head for being so dense, I then continued theirconversation with a sigh. “Oh whatever. There’s tons of signs and billboardson the buildings here, so we shouldn’t encounter that many problems infinding a good place. That being said, what are we most looking for?”“Location! In other words, to have a convenience store nearby from wherewe can buy all the materials!” Anna said with a matter of fact tone.“Uhm, wouldn’t we get more foot traffic if we set up shop near the gates?That’s where all the people will be passing by, so I think that’s the safer bet.”“What will that do for us if we have to trek a mile a day every time we runout of materials?” She shot back, “Lune, you settle this! Which of our ideas isbetter?”“Yeah Grim, tell her that she’s wrong on this one!” Ed also turned to me foranswers.Looks like once again, I’m gonna have to be the one to decide. Geez, whycan’t they just think for themselves and settle the dispute without me havingto guide them all the time? Obviously I wouldn’t expect such actions from thealways shy Edward, but I at least had some hope for Anna. Alright, to beginwith, I think they’re both wrong on account of them forgetting we’re kids whodon’t really have that many options.“Are you two crazy?” I tilted my head before walking up to the signs, “We’repoor as hell, so the only thing you should be focusing on is this number herethat says “Monthly rent”. Make sure it’s as low as possible, and we’regood.”Sighing after getting a surprisingly realistic and reasonable answer from me,they stopped bickering and immediately made up with one another before westarted the hunt for a good place. Geez, these guys really are too cute to notbe together…***In the end, we were split between two options, both having equally valuablebenefits, thus making it pretty hard to compare and pick one over the other.The options were the run-down building near the gates where there’s like tenother restaurants already, and the run-down building that’s pretty far from thegates, but has zero competition. Basically the only thing that they share incommon is the “run-down” attribute, but that’s basically a given when youtake into account our budget for this. Once again, I found myself to be thejudge while these two bickered on.“All I’m saying is that we should focus on not going against the grain!” Edexplained to Anna, “Why do you think there’s so many restaurants near thegates? Obviously, it’s because it works for them, so why should we bedifferent?”“That’s exactly the kind of mentality you’ll come to regret later on, Ed!” Shegave her own two bronze coins on the matter, “The more isolated building isliterally right next to all the stores in Station Arfa, plus we wouldn’t everhave to worry about competition!”It was quite interesting, hearing them bicker I mean. Actually, something inthe back of my mind already knew what was coming, so I braced myself forthe most inevitable question of all.“Lune, you settle this!” They both turned to me and spoke at the same time,“Tell him/her I’m right!”“Sigh, alright, settle down.” I pinched the bridge between my eyes, “Listen,why don’t we just make everyone happy?”“And how do you suggest we pull that off?” Ed asked.“Well…”And so, we settled on the building that was a bit further away from the gates,but it was still on the main road. This way, it wasn’t that far away from thestores, meaning we could still buy the groceries regularly, whilst at the sametime still being in any potential customers’ field of view. When it comes tocompetition though, we certainly don’t have too much to worry about, butthere is this restaurant across the street called Carl’s that’s sort of worryingus. Eh, that’s a problem for another day. Right now we need to whip thisbuilding into shape and buy the food for tomorrow’s grand opening!It took us a couple of trips to the market and back to get all the food andutensils, not to mention we spent almost the entire night cleaning it upafterwards, but it was definitely worth it. We then wandered the streets allnight, setting up posters and other placates we made ourselves so as to attractas many customers as we could before heading to bed. Well, I say bed, butsince we rented out a diner and not an inn, the best we could do is sleep onthe seats.“Rise and shine!” Anna clanked two pans against each other so as to wake usup, “Come on, guys! The early bird gets the worm, now let’s make somecash!”“Ugh…” We slowly arose from the hard to sleep on seats, “It’s the crack ofdawn, dammit…”Well, it turns out that waking up early was the right choice after all, as we gotquite a lot of customers showing up, despite it only being our first day here. Itwas nothing too amazing, but for us who only just got here it was a treat and ahalf. That being said, maybe we overdid it when we said that everything ishalf off for today, given it’s the grand opening and all…And so we worked and worked, steadily making back our money we spent onrenting the place out, and then some. Even still, we knew all too well that wewere just riding off of good luck when it comes to the restaurant’s success. Infact, we would sometimes get months where we turned a huge profit, but onother months we would just barely break even. This wasn’t going to do,we’re still the only workers in this Arthur’s, and half of the customers thatcome to this part of town go to the restaurant across the street. I suggest wego pay them a visit if we are to stabilize the situation.“Oh, good day!” A worker of the rival restaurant welcomed us, “Please havea seat over there. What will you be having?”“I’ll take a…” Ed began his order, to which I promptly interjected.”Hey, we’re not here for that!” I turned to the manager, “Sir! We’d like tospeak to your manager! We’re from the restaurant with the huge letter A on itjust over there!”“Oh, is that so?” He chuckled, “Well then, I’m Carl. What do you need?”“We’re looking for tips on how to improve our sales.” I decided to be frankin my approach, “The money we make just isn’t sustainable, I’m afraid.”“Oh ho! A bunch of kids set up a restaurant and are wondering why it’sflopping?” He laughed and laughed, “Now why doesn’t that surprise me inthe least?”“We’re not flopping!” Ed got all teary-eyed.“Yeah!” Anna yelled out for everyone to hear, “We make a good 20 Goldcoins per month!”Almost immediately, absolute silence befell the restaurant as all of theworkers stared on at this surprisingly successfully bunch of rowdy kids. Theyimmediately turned to Carl, who could only sweat from hearing suchshocking news.“That’s no good, Anna.” I reprimanded her, “Don’t you remember whatArthur taught us? Never tell people how much money you make, nor shouldyou ever ask someone that. It’s really very rude!”“I know, but these guys were annoying!” She tried to make up an excuse.“H-Hold on, even we only make around 25 Gold a month, how can a bunch ofkids be on equal footing?” Carl gave us their monthly earnings as well.“Oh, so you’re not that successful either…” I genuinely soundeddisappointed.“Err, right. So now that you have your answer, kids, please leave…”“Hold it!” I yelled, “I have a proposition! If we merge the two restaurants,all of our problems will be solved!”“Phah!” Carl couldn’t help but to laugh, “Kid, you do realize it’s not thatsimple, right?”“Well why not? Firstly, we’ll double our earnings and halve our rent, not tomention that you’ll be getting three extra workers who have an amazing knackfor advertising. Second of all, we really only want enough money to last usuntil our next stop. That, and for the restaurant to be named Arthur’s, nothingelse.”“Hold on, that makes no sense. So you’re saying you’ll practically take asmaller wage as long as we inherit your restaurant name? You’re soundingreally crazy right now…”“Hm?” Anna replied, “Why should you care? Just accept Lune’s deal andenjoy the benefits!”“Well, it’s not the first time we’ve been called crazy…” Ed scratched hischeek, “Oh, but if you do decide to accept us, we’d be really thankful!”“So Carl, what do you say we make some proper bank?” I extended my handover the table, “For the new and improved Arthur’s family restaurant!”