Arthur: Manager/Cook

Lune: Advertising Aficionado

Anna: Waitress

Edward: Cleaning Expert

This is the current lineup for our mission to make it to the top 1%.

“Question.” She raised her hand up.

“Yes, Anna?”

“What is it that you actually do, exactly?”

There she goes, voicing her complaints like a true wage-slave.

“What a silly question! I have to walk around the town in these flashy red uniforms I had Arthur sew us and advertise the restaurant of course! Also, aficionado sounds cool so I put it in my title.”

“It does sound cool… Unlike mine!” Ed jumped into the conversation, “Why do I have to be the janitor?!”

“You know exactly why. Just be glad Arthur wasn’t the one giving you your title, Lover Boy.”

Ed looked at Anna for a split second before quietly sitting back down with a flushed expression. It’s a shame, too, she seems to tolerate him a lot more than me, so maybe things could have worked out between them had he just kept his mouth shut.

“Lune, I appreciate your willingness to help out my restaurant, but you don’t have to go overhaul my entire staff. I like the idea of advertising, though…”

***

With that, our first team meeting, as well as our first day on the job had officially started. Arthur sent the three of us off into the city to go advertise the shop, while he waited patiently for the customers to roll in.

Now, a couple months later, the reality of how hard it is to earn money is starting to set in.

It seems the people were interested in our matching uniforms, but handing out flyers didn’t really work, and the increase in customers probably wouldn’t make up for the cost of printing said flyers.

The only way for this restaurant to prosper is to make it more widespread, if we could somehow or other employ someone to work at a different branch in some other tourist-attractive city, that’d be perfect.

Don’t get me wrong, we we’re getting some customers, definitely more than before according to Arthur, but I can’t help but feel like we’re ripping him off by getting a salary of a gold coin each (with bonuses).

As we we’re doing our best trying to get customers, we would also get frequent visits from Dr. Harper, who came to check up on Ed. He seemed to enjoy her company. Their conversations we’re hard to follow, but it seemed like they we’re both having fun, so I didn’t press him on the matter.

***

Just like that, another two months had passed peacefully. Anna started warming up to us (to Arthur’s delight). We were often confused as siblings, Anna didn’t like that at the start, but she got accustomed to it after a while. So did we, honestly. Ed’s leg was almost completely healed up, but Harper still came to the restaurant to unwind. It seems we accidentally found ourselves a regular. As much as I loved every second of life in the Gray household, we probably shouldn’t overstay our welcome, so I’ll tell Ed and we’ll be getting out of their hair soon.

“...and so, Ed and I will be heading off to the Kingdom of Carmen soon. Thank you for everything up to now.”

“…………………”

Arthur was sipping his tea with a melancholic look on his face, and Anna wasn’t as happy as I assumed she’d be upon hearing the news.

“Lune, Ed, come with me to the kitchen for a sec.” said Anna, leading us away from Arthur, whom we’ve yet to hear voice his opinion on the matter.

“What is it, Annie?”

“Look, to put it simply, I’ve never seen grandpa as happy as he was this past month. The three of us had our quarrels, but he’s someone I think we all care about.”

We both knew the words she was about to say before she even said them. She wants us to stay and make Arthur happy. And trust me, I want that too, but our main goal is to explore the world.

“Arthur is our benefactor, of course we want to see him happy, but we have to go.”

“……”

She didn’t get angry, didn’t cry, nor did she try to stop us any more than she did now. She probably learned from working with us that trying to stop us was a fruitless endeavor. We headed back to Arthur. He put down his teacup with a clank, and promptly said:

“Boys, your help has been immense thus far, and I know you feel that you’re being a burden, but please rethink this.”

He was getting desperate, you could feel the emotions seeping out of his words.

“Mister Arthur, thank you. For lending us a place to stay, food to eat and an allowance that’ll keep us afloat in our journeys for a good amount of time. But we will be departing tomorrow.”

Ed was starting to tear up. This was probably the last time we’ll see Arthur. As I thought up that grim idea, tears started to well up in me as well. Before we knew it, we we’re both bawling our eyes out. Anna, seeing this spectacle unfold, shed a few herself.

This is it we thought. As all the memories of our time spent with them started hitting us like a cart, we could barely keep from falling to the ground in sorrow.

It was a quiet evening, and dinner wasn’t as tasty as it was just a couple days prior.

***

After having woken up in our beds for the very last time, we went to Arthur to ask for guidance.

“If you’re serious about joining the ITA (International Traveler’s Association), then you need passports first and foremost. I have a friend who can help you secure them, but he works in Tertis.” He explained, “It may be a bit of a detour from your destination, but it’ll be way quicker to get the passports this way.”

“Again, thank you so much! We would be happy to receive your help any time.”

“Great! The person’s name is Graal Thurs, and last I’ve heard he works as an ITA agent in Owl Street.”

Saying goodbye to Arthur for the thousandth time, we boarded a transport wagon and set off for the capital of Tertis, Leins.

“This is it, Lune, we finally get to step foot into the world of adventurers. We might actually be the first Green Iros to satiate our desire!”

“Don’t go making such tasteless jokes, Ed, no Iro has ever accomplished that, and you think we will?”

If you’re curious, ‘satiating your desire’ is a term coined 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 from the 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 is nothing 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, the journey is more important than the end goal. The story ends with the quote: “What is a man, if not a beast with unimaginable desire. Once stripped of the very thing he seeks asylum from, he is naught but a hang man.”

I thought about those parting words as we waited for the transport wagon to arrive at our first pit stop, when I heard my stomach make an embarrassing sound.

“Here, have some leftovers from last night’s dinner.”

“Thank yo-”

Wait…

Ed might have a bit of a high pitched voice, but this was definitely not him. This was a girl’s voice…

“ANNA?!?”

With a smug grin on her face that screamed “Did I getcha?” she had suddenly made an appearance in the wagon.

“Annie! The wagon’s already departed, but you can still make it back if you run!”

“You idiot! You think I’m that stupid that I’d accidentally get in the wagon with you guys?”

Per her explanation, Arthur had given us a “Bonus job” of sorts. He let Anna tag along with us until we get our passports, and in turn we teach her a bit more about the country.

“I…wanna take up the family business.” She said with a humble expression.

“Anna/Annie does?” we both raised our voices in astonishment.

“Shut it! I’ll hit you, I seriously will! Listen, I told grandpa I want to spread the business all across Trivis Numerica, and so I need to scope out the place to get a feel for the people who live in the other two countries.”

“That actually sounds like a cool idea! We can even help you attract customers and help set up a smaller restaurant if we’re lucky.” Ed added on to her plan.

“I knew Ed would get me! Come on, Lune, you’re not gonna send me back after making it this far?”

To be honest, I was glad she tagged along. Having no one to speak to but Ed was nothing but a death sentence. I was sort of worried about leaving Arthur all alone, but if he was the one who sent her, then I should probably try my best to not embarrass myself in front of her.

The two idiots looked at me with expectant eyes, begging to hear whether I’ll accept or not. In fact, I think she’ll tag along no matter what my answer is, so I don’t really see the point in asking me. Before I could give her an answer though, we had made it to our first stop, Station Arfa.