章節 14: Cracked Heart
08:22 - No. 7 Water Maiden Street
"Annie! Let's go play!" Robyn exclaimed while knocking vigorously at the wooden door. Behind her, Lalatina is desperately trying to stop her from keep banging on the door. "Annie! Annie! Annie!"
"Robyn, please stop! You're violating article seven, paragraph two of the section twenty seven state law!" Lalatina exclaimed, though her cries fell on deaf ears.
"You can't sue me, I'm still a minor!"
"That just means I'm the one getting arrested!" Lala turned towards Ender. "Miss Light, help me!"
Ender didn't hear her however. She's busy checking on her hand drawn map and to the house in front of her. She really couldn't believe her luck (or bad luck), somehow the house in front of her is the one marked by Marshall as the house with the cracked heart.
Just what is going on here?
After a few minutes, the door finally opens, revealing an old man holding a rolled up newspaper. He took one look at Robyn before smacking her face with the rolled up newspaper. "Morning," he said towards Lalatina who's muttering apologies over and over again.
"Old man Clover! Good Morning!" Robyn exclaimed with an excited smile. "Is Annie around?"
Old man Clover smacked her face again with the newspaper. "She's inside," he said before turning around and motioning everyone to follow him.
Ender followed closely behind Lalatina as they stepped into the two story wooden house. It's a pretty small, the entrance led straight towards the living room that's connected straight to the kitchen/dining room. There's a stair in the corner that led upstairs.
Ender and Lalatina sat down on the sofa near old man Clover. The former took her time looking at the interior designs of the house. It might be a wooden house, but it has this overall modern theme and atmosphere.
"Annie's upstairs, why don't you go get her?" Clover said towards Robyn who was about to wander into the kitchen.
Robyn grinned and quickly ran upstairs to get Annie.
After sure that Robyn's upstairs, old man Clover sat down on the sofa facing Lalatina and Ender. "Welcome, my name's Clover Garisson, some call me Mr. Garisson, others," he jabbed his thumb upstairs. "call me Old Man Clover."
Ender chuckled a little. "Thank you for the warm welcome, Mr. Garisson. We're just here to pick up Annie, she's told you about our plan today right?"
"I've heard," Clover cleared his throat a little. "Well, she's twelve now, she can do whatever she wants," he then gave the two of them a sharp look. "Will there be anymore grownup aside from you two?"
Ender and Lalatina shook their heads.
"Then I trust you'll take care of her."
"It's alright Mr. Garisson," Ender then remembered about her map. "So, do you live here alone with Annie or…"
"No, my oldest is upstairs."
"I didn't know Annie have a biological sister,"
"They're not related," Mr. Garisson leaned on his sofa and sighed a little. "Neither are they to me, but I'd be damned if they're not my daughter," he said.
'Interesting', Ender thought to herself. 'So good old Clover here picked up an elven slave and a human child. He must have quite a story, but…' she looked around for a bit, trying to find any trinkets that might connect him to being a traveler of some sorts.
'A pretty darn dull boring house for a former adventurer… So maybe he was a traveling merchant when it was still a thing? Wait, didn't that Elena person read the elf's mind? Then maybe I can just text Marshall to… Nah, I'll figure it out myself.'
"So, what do you do Mr. Garisson?"
"I was a messenger," Clover replied.
'A messenger huh? That explains the lack of souvenirs. Professional messengers have no time for sight seeing as a late reply can mean the downfall of a dynasty and it's too risky for them to be identified in any country,' Ender thought to herself.
"What about you? Been a while since I've last seen a foreigner butting into other people's business," Mr. Garisson said.
"It's uhh… personal matter but," Ender looked at Lalatina before sighing a little. "I was very close to Emilia's father."
Sometimes, the best spoken lie was the truth.
"Ender, there's someone I want you to meet!" a voice called out from the stairs.
Ender and Lala turned around and saw three girls walking down the stairs. It is Robyn and Annie, each one of them holding on to a certain elf's hand. The little girls have that excited look on their face while the elf looked like she wants to be somewhere else.
"Come on Sanae! Ender is so cool, you're gonna like her!" Robyn exclaimed while dragging Sanae to the seat beside Old Man Clover right in front of Ender.
Their eyes met. For Ender, seeing a former slave is nothing new. In her line of works, she had seen humans and elves alike turned into mere cattles. Heck, she's pretty sure Marshall has some of those up and running somewhere in his hometown.
But to see a former slave with a wound this deep actually recovering, now that's rare. Most goody two shoes Ender knew would rather mercy kill than trying to heal this kind of people. She couldn't even imagine just what kind of condition Mr. Garisson found this elf in.
Then, Ender glanced at Mr. Garisson. The old man is staring at Ender with a calculating yet worried gaze. It's obvious that the old man didn't expect Ender to meet Sanae so soon after her arrival.
"Hi, the name's Ender, what's yours?" Ender asked while holding out her hand.
The elf carefully took her hand. Her movement was stiff and careful, like she's been practicing it for a while. "Sa-Sanae…" she spoke in a soft voice. "It's a pleasure."
Ender noticed that the elf hasn't broke her gaze since they get here. Almost as if she's too scared of looking away from her. "So, Sanae, what did this…" Ender looked at Robyn sitting beside her and lightly bopped her head. "this little gremlin here roped you into?"
A nervous look appeared on her face. "N-no, I mean, Robyn just wanted me to talk to you and…"
"She's coming to work at the cafe!" the gremlin exclaimed.
Ender raised an eyebrow after hearing that. "Really now?" she looked at Sanae who looked extremely nervous under her calculative gaze. "You think she has what it takes?"
"I believe she has untapped potential, miss Ender," Robyn pointed at Sanae and the elf eeped a little. "She has untapped moe factor!"
Of all the things Ender thought Robyn would say, that is not one of them. "Elaborate, dear Robyn," Ender replied in her best faux professional tone.
"Citing from a documentary of a themed cafe I watched every Friday noon," Ender noted that there's an anime about a multidimensional cafe. "A good cafe needs diverse character personality. All staff members of the black cat cafe has diverse and distinct personality, however…"
"However?"
"There's only two of them!!! Emilia the shy snowflake and Rena the cheerful sun. We need the one whose helpless gaze struck deep into even the coldest heart and drove the primal instinct to PROTECC!!!"
"Right…" Ender looked at Lalatina who's looking at her cousin with a flat look on her face. "Do you know what she's talking about?"
"Definitely too much TV," Lalatina muttered.
"Aww come on Miss Ender! How can you not know about Fantasia Brew? You look like Agent Zero, the Daydream Cafe's personal Spy!"
Ender blinked a little and couldn't help but look at her own attire. To be fair, her clothing does look like what most TV show spies would use. Though she was a bit surprised that there's a fictional character from a children TV show that has her wardrobe.
"Good to know," Ender cleared her throat and looked back Sanae. She's clearly afraid of the thought of working in a cafe. So perhaps Robyn's ambition is a bit too much for now. "I think Sanae is not confident enough for the job, how about we look for someone else? Of course, Sanae could come with."
Robyn pouted a little after hearing that. "Well…" she looked at Sanae who nodded furiously in agreement. "Okay, fine, but I still think that Sanae is the best person for the job."
Sanae looked between Robyn and Ender, her expression that of doubt and confusion. "A-ano… I don't want to be a bother, you don't have to take me along…"
"Nope! You are coming with us!" Robyn exclaimed. "This is serious matter Sanae, Emilia only wants the best of the best, we can't just pick some random girls off the street," she folded her arms. "We need you and your all powerful wisdom as an elf to help us find the greatest waitress this city could offer!"
The elf gulped a little and looked at Ender. The agent, to her dismay, just nodded along with Robyn in agreement.
"Elves are known for their longetivity, wisdom, knowledge, connection with nature, and their power over magic. They are one of, if not, the best candidate to help pick the greatest waitress this city has to offer."
Sanae turned to Lalatina and the old man, but the former just averted her gaze and the latter just nodded approvingly.
Finally, Sanae turned to Annie, her last hope. "Well, I mean, we can't really force Sanae to go if she doesn't want to," she said to Sanae's relief. "But I believe that Sanae has been cooped up in her room for too long and she needs to get some sun."
"Then it's settled!" Robyn jumped on to her feet and grabbed Sanae's hand. "Let's go!"
With that, Robyn, Ender, Sanae, Lalatina, and Annie started their adventure to find the perfect waitress.
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