Vol.1 Ch.13 - Arthur's: new & improved

“Is this really happening?” Carl couldn’t help but chuckled from theabsurdity of the situation as we cleaned up the place.“Yep! Remember, no turning back now!” Anna teased.Looks like she’s having fun with the fact that she’s finally got some newbiesthat are under her in terms of rank. That being said, I still don’t feelcomfortable considering her a manager. She’s way too unserious for such animportant role! Ed’s fine though, although I think he still needs to grow in theconfidence department.We had called up the landlord of the building Carl was renting and had himcancel his lease. This way we could officially have everyone move to ourestablishment. This wasn’t the only thing that’s changed since we had Carl’sstaff join us, as we had also now gotten ahold of quite the fortune. We usedthe money they had to fully paint the entire building a bright red color, trulymaking it look like an Arthur’s!“Well, that’s the outside.” I told the others as we entered the place, “But Istill don’t like our interior. Nuts, Arthur’s the only one that knew how tomake the inside look nice, so I can’t even begin to imagine how we go aboutdoing this…”“Oh, I know. How about we first start with properly tiling the floors of thisplace?” Carl suggested, “Now I’m not saying anything to insult you when Itell you this, but I think we should also switch out the seating here. Thecolors are just all over the place, not to mention we’ve still got our old seatsfrom our previous restaurant.”“Whoa, are you a designer or something?” Ed seemed enamored by Carl’staste, “Do all adults just get really good at making interiors look good?”“Heh, no.” Carl waved away Ed’s theory, “I just spent most of my childhoodin a secret base me and a couple of buddies had. They all later left the place,but I just couldn’t get it out of my head, so I would spend countless hoursmaking it look as close to fully-furnished as possible.”“Is that so?” Ed suddenly recalled something, “Oh, I just got an idea! Tocelebrate our merging of restaurants, we should host a welcome party! I’ll goget the plates!”Running along as earnestly as ever, we and the other workers simply staredwithout even saying a word. Actually, Ed’s right. We made some hugeprogress in the last couple of days, but the workers are still a bit stiff aroundus three. A welcome party where everyone got to share some stories wouldmost definitely do us good.“Now, tell me more about that secret base!” I suddenly swung my head backtowards Carl, “Ed and I had one too! Oh, but it got taken over by a Snair andher babies.”“A Snair?!” Anna winced, “That must’ve been scary. How did you escapefrom it?”“Escape?” I tilted my head, “No, we killed it. I do feel bad about its kidsthough.”Now, the table had finally livened up, and by that I mean everyone startedlaughing unanimously at my proud boasting. Yeah, makes sense that theywouldn’t believe me. It’s actually pretty rare to hear of a grown adventurer tofend off a Snair, but for two kids to slay it? Obviously a normal person’s firstreaction would be “Yeah right!”“Mn…! Alright, then ask Ed!” I pointed my finger at him, “Ed, whathappened to the Snair that took over our base?!”“Ugh, don’t remind me of that…” He gave everyone their cups as he pouredthe drinks, “You almost got swallowed whole, and we barely survived thanksto dumb luck.”“So wait, did you really kill it?” One of the workers had no other choice butto ask, “I mean, this kid’s a natural born liar, but you seem honest at least.”Oi, what’s that supposed to mean? Want me to dock your pay for this month,punk?“Haha, yeah.” Ed scratched his cheek and averted his gaze, “We did kill it…somehow.”“That’s…!” Carl wanted to say something, but Anna stepped in.“That’s amazing! You guys actually did that?! Hold on, are you guys actuallyreally cool or something?”“Hey, you picking a fight or something?!” I yelled back, “Of course we’recool! You’ve been with us for months now, how the hell did it take you thislong to notice?!”“Oh, so you three aren’t actually siblings?” Carl thought to ask.“Siblings?” We tilted our heads, “No, we’re just a bunch of friends.”I mean, certainly we do act like that at times, not that I’d know what it’s liketo have a sibling. That being said, we don’t at all resemble each other, so Iwonder where he got the idea from. I guess he must’ve connected the dotswhen we told him Arthur was our caretaker, hence the name of the restaurant.“Of course we’re not related.” Ed briefly glanced at Anna, “That’d just beplain weird.”“Huh?” She misunderstood and got offended, “And what’s so weird about mebeing your sister?”“Just forget I said anything…” He turned his face away, his ears bright red.“As you can see, it’s like that.” I had the other workers understand Ed andAnna’s dynamic.“Ahh…” They couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, “Well, that’s youth for you!”“What are you guys talking about?” These two turned around.“Don’t worry about it!”***With the new and improved Arthur’s family restaurant, we’ve gotten a lotmore customers lately. It seems Carl was right on the money when it comes tohis choices on interior design, as the customers really appreciated it and wegot a lot of compliments on it. Just goes to show how much properpresentation goes into a successful venture.All of the workers have also since gotten to know us quite a lot, and viceversa. They’re pretty older than us, being basically twice our age, but eventhat didn’t stop us from finding a common interest in various topics. See here,since they were also thirteen year olds back in the day, they could prettyeasily understand the topics the three of us were talking about, not to mentionthey would always enjoy sharing some of their experiences about adult life.That being said, a lot of the jokes they make fly over our heads…Since I was in charge of keeping count of our profits and monthlyexpenditures, I knew for a fact that we were prospering with my plan. Heh, Ireally do have my genius ideas sometimes, don’t I? Well, we’re makingsteady profit, but we’re still not in the clear just yet, since our entirelivelihoods depend on how many people are traveling to and from Secundisand Tertis. Given that we’re nearing summer, we’re obviously pretty safe fornow, but come winter I’m sure these guys are gonna have way less customersshowing up at the doorstep. Actually, by winter, wouldn’t we already havelong left this place…?“Hey Ed,” I asked while still counting the money we made today, “Whenshould we be thinking about going to the next place?”“Oh, t-that…” He stopped sweeping the floors for a second as if caught offguard, “I mean, wouldn’t it be alright for a bit longer? To stay here, I mean.”“I mean, we were only supposed to stay here until we found adequateworkers to hold down the fort, so I don’t see why we should stay any longer.Remember, our primary goal right now is to head to Leins and get ourselvessome passports.”“Ngh…” He groaned, “I dunno, let’s just…”“Hey guys, I wiped off all the tables, so I’m gonna go take a shower now.”Anna popped into the room, “Hm? What’s with those expressions? Somethingon your mind?”“Ah, Anna, perfect timing.” I responded, “We’re leaving soon, so-”“Could you hold off on that for just a bit more?!” Ed suddenly whined,“We’re going too fast, dammit! Plus, we just got used to the others here, andnow you wanna throw that all away?”“Ed…”He’s got it all wrong, though. We’re not throwing away the bonds we’vemade with these people, we’re just advancing on our own journey whileleaving the restaurant in their capable hands. It’s nothing bad, to advancefurther. Rather, I’d say it’s a thousand times worse to stand in place as youwatch the people around you make progress. Not to mention, what does heeven mean when he says that we’re going “Too fast”? We’ve been in here for3 months already, dammit!“I think…” Anna uttered quietly, “I think we should go too.”“Grr…!” Ed threw the broom to the ground before lashing out, “But whatabout-!”“Ed.” She consoled him with a teary expression, “The longer we stay here,the harder it’ll be to leave. Lune is completely in the right here.”It seems she too was sad about them leaving the gang here. Don’t get mewrong, I am too, but both Anna and I know not to stray from our original goaltoo far. Ed still seems to be in his little world, but I’m sure he too will cometo appreciate what we’re doing for him.“…” He silently picked up the broom and continued sweeping, “When arewe going?”“First thing tomorrow.” I replied.In that very instant, a ton of men could be heard busting down the door asthey gasped in surprise. Hold on a second, why are Carl and the others hereat this hour?!“Eh!?” They ran into the room, “You’re really leaving that early?! Then wewon’t even get to say goodbye!”Well yeah, that was meant to be the point, idiot. Goodbyes are always so sad,so I’d rather we skip them altogether. That being said, I guess we have sometime to bid each other farewell now that the cat’s out of the bag.“Looks like now’s your chance.” I chuckled, “I didn’t really plan for any ofthis, but now that you’re all here – let’s all throw a goodbye party!”As everyone huddled close to hug us one last time, the emotions kicked inalmost immediately, as I began weeping with an odd smile on my face. Man,this is embarrassing, why did they have to show up this late and find outabout us leaving? Now I feel like a fool…In any case, after the party, they all left for their respective homes and wewent to sleep. Waking up was an ordeal, given how late we stayed up toparty, but I don’t exactly regret it. It was nice, being able to spend time andtalk with them like this just once more before we hit the road. That beingsaid, Carl still didn’t feel like it was appropriate to not send us off with agift, so he gave us a kind amount of money from the restaurant’s treasury.Honestly, he’s way too giving…“Alright, hop in!” The wagon driver said as he picked up our luggage,“Where to?”“Leins, sir!” I proudly exclaimed.“That’s pretty far away, isn’t it?” He cautioned, “Usually when traveling afurther distance, you’d take regular stops in the passing villages and cities,y’know?”“Is that so?” Ed replied, “If I recall correctly, isn’t Wheats somewhere nearLeins? My uncle lives there, so we can stop by there for a couple of days.”“Alright, will do.” The driver revved up the engine.“Hey, hey, what’s your uncle like?” Anna inquired.“I haven’t seen him in a while, since my parents would rarely go in thatdirection.” He shook his head, “But from my memory, he’s this really kindand funny bearded guy. He reminds me of Grim in a way, actually. I’m surethe both of you will love him!”Thus, we had officially passed the border between Secundis and Tertis,making this our first time crossing a semi-national border. Well, I say seminational because, if you recall, Secundis and Tertis are really just subcountries who, in addition to Primis, make up the country of Trivis Numerica.This is also the reason why we can pass the border without passports, but Iheard there are people who want the sub-countries to gain autonomy in thefuture.It’s a whole other can of worms to think about the reasons for such peoplewould think that way, but I’m not one for politics, so I’ll just stay out of it.That being said, I can see why they would think like that, since almosteverything from the culture to the terrain is different between the two. WhilePrimis and Secundis are a lot forestier in comparison, Tertis is basically allwheat fields as far as the eye could see. Even now, the path we’re travelingon is a lot less ridged than it was before, making it way easier to traverse.The people here really respect agriculture.Hm? Agriculture? Wait, does that mean they might not want meat on ourmenu? I mean, from my basic understanding of the people here, they’re allbasically farmers who tend to their fields. Most if not all of the wheat inTrivis Numerica hails from here, so I wouldn’t put it past them to beexclusively herbivores or something to that degree. Ugh… Well, whatever!We’ll think of that once we get to Leins, but for now, we’re gonna take abreak at Ed’s uncle’s house!