Not too long after, we had made it to our first stop – a small little boundary town 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 some sight, 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, given how unconventionally it was built. There aren’t really that many houses in here, and even the ones that are here only have one story to them. Since it’s mostly a pitstop of sorts where weary travelers stop by to get some food and rest, Station Arfa only really has restaurants and motels in it, with only the occasional convenience store.
But the simplicity of it is what gives it its charm, as it’s got a lot of hilly terrain over which the roads have been paved through, giving way for some quite interesting tunnels that got dug out, with some people even getting the idea to make a restaurant inside them. Other interesting details include using the nearby riverbank and digging out irrigation systems that would flow right next to the pavement. It was as if this entire place was in the middle grounds of existence – Too grassy and isolated to be considered a town, but too advanced to be a village. But then again, if we look at it from a different perspective, it really isn’t either, since there are barely any people that actually live here long-term.
“But damn, with the Sun setting just over these nearby hills, the reflections from 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 looked over at where she was pointed, “Damn, how do you notice all these seemingly 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, more intricate details that girls do.”
“Like how you tied your hair in a higher ponytail today because the weather got 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’re gonna be opening an Arthur’s chain here? We should think up a strategy first and foremost, no?”
Heh, she thinks she’s being slick by dodging the question, but even the biggest of idiots would realize how embarrassed she is from Ed’s sudden praise. 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 location if we want the most traffic, I think.”
Hitting him on the back of the head for being so dense, I then continued their conversation with a sigh. “Oh whatever. There’s tons of signs and billboards on the buildings here, so we shouldn’t encounter that many problems in finding a good place. That being said, what are we most looking for?”
“Location! In other words, to have a convenience store nearby from where we 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 run out of materials?” She shot back, “Lune, you settle this! Which of our ideas is better?”
“Yeah Grim, tell her that she’s wrong on this one!” Ed also turned to me for answers.
Looks like once again, I’m gonna have to be the one to decide. Geez, why can’t they just think for themselves and settle the dispute without me having to guide them all the time? Obviously I wouldn’t expect such actions from the always shy Edward, but I at least had some hope for Anna. Alright, to begin with, I think they’re both wrong on account of them forgetting we’re kids who don’t really have that many options.
“Are you two crazy?” I tilted my head before walking up to the signs, “We’re poor as hell, so the only thing you should be focusing on is this number here that says “Monthly rent”. Make sure it’s as low as possible, and we’re good.”
Sighing after getting a surprisingly realistic and reasonable answer from me, they stopped bickering and immediately made up with one another before we started the hunt for a good place. Geez, these guys really are too cute to not be together…
***
In the end, we were split between two options, both having equally valuable benefits, 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 ten other restaurants already, and the run-down building that’s pretty far from the gates, but has zero competition. Basically the only thing that they share in common is the “run-down” attribute, but that’s basically a given when you take into account our budget for this. Once again, I found myself to be the judge while these two bickered on.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“All I’m saying is that we should focus on not going against the grain!” Ed explained to Anna, “Why do you think there’s so many restaurants near the gates? Obviously, it’s because it works for them, so why should we be different?”
“That’s exactly the kind of mentality you’ll come to regret later on, Ed!” She gave her own two bronze coins on the matter, “The more isolated building is literally right next to all the stores in Station Arfa, plus we wouldn’t ever have to worry about competition!”
It was quite interesting, hearing them bicker I mean. Actually, something in the back of my mind already knew what was coming, so I braced myself for the 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 the stores, meaning we could still buy the groceries regularly, whilst at the same time still being in any potential customers’ field of view. When it comes to competition though, we certainly don’t have too much to worry about, but there is this restaurant across the street called Carl’s that’s sort of worrying us. Eh, that’s a problem for another day. Right now we need to whip this building 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 and utensils, not to mention we spent almost the entire night cleaning it up afterwards, but it was definitely worth it. We then wandered the streets all night, setting up posters and other placates we made ourselves so as to attract as many customers as we could before heading to bed. Well, I say bed, but since we rented out a diner and not an inn, the best we could do is sleep on the seats.
“Rise and shine!” Anna clanked two pans against each other so as to wake us up, “Come on, guys! The early bird gets the worm, now let’s make some cash!”
“Ugh…” We slowly arose from the hard to sleep on seats, “It’s the crack of dawn, dammit…”
Well, it turns out that waking up early was the right choice after all, as we got quite a lot of customers showing up, despite it only being our first day here. It was nothing too amazing, but for us who only just got here it was a treat and a half. That being said, maybe we overdid it when we said that everything is half off for today, given it’s the grand opening and all…
And so we worked and worked, steadily making back our money we spent on renting the place out, and then some. Even still, we knew all too well that we were just riding off of good luck when it comes to the restaurant’s success. In fact, we would sometimes get months where we turned a huge profit, but on other 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 that come to this part of town go to the restaurant across the street. I suggest we go pay them a visit if we are to stabilize the situation.
“Oh, good day!” A worker of the rival restaurant welcomed us, “Please have a 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 to speak to your manager! We’re from the restaurant with the huge letter A on it just 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 frank in 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’s flopping?” He laughed and laughed, “Now why doesn’t that surprise me in the least?”
“We’re not flopping!” Ed got all teary-eyed.
“Yeah!” Anna yelled out for everyone to hear, “We make a good 20 Gold coins per month!”
Almost immediately, absolute silence befell the restaurant as all of the workers stared on at this surprisingly successfully bunch of rowdy kids. They immediately turned to Carl, who could only sweat from hearing such shocking news.
“That’s no good, Anna.” I reprimanded her, “Don’t you remember what Arthur taught us? Never tell people how much money you make, nor should you 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 of kids be on equal footing?” Carl gave us their monthly earnings as well.
“Oh, so you’re not that successful either…” I genuinely sounded disappointed.
“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 that simple, right?”
“Well why not? Firstly, we’ll double our earnings and halve our rent, not to mention that you’ll be getting three extra workers who have an amazing knack for advertising. Second of all, we really only want enough money to last us until our next stop. That, and for the restaurant to be named Arthur’s, nothing else.”
“Hold on, that makes no sense. So you’re saying you’ll practically take a smaller wage as long as we inherit your restaurant name? You’re sounding really crazy right now…”
“Hm?” Anna replied, “Why should you care? Just accept Lune’s deal and enjoy the benefits!”
“Well, it’s not the first time we’ve been called crazy…” Ed scratched his cheek, “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 hand over the table, “For the new and improved Arthur’s family restaurant!”