After having arrived back at the restaurant, the officer and I had just barely caught Grandpa Arthur right as he was locking the front door to the restaurant. Turning around, naively humming to the tune of one of the local hits that bards would so often sing, the last note had suddenly peaked off the charts as he jolted in surprise after seeing us two. Almost immediately, I could tell that he was calculating all sorts of possibilities.
An officer? I imagined his internal monologue for him, What does he want with me? No, hold on, Arthur, you’ve got decades upon decades of experience, so you should know by now when it’s time to worry and when it’s not…
Actually, I don’t know how long he’s been working in the industry for, I’m just assuming based on his age, but that’s beside the point. Ahem, back to the split-second internal monologue!
Hmm?, He looked down and noticed me waving at him with a smile on my face, Lune? What’d he do now? Didn’t he say he was going to reunite with his friend? Oh, I see, now it all makes sense!
“Good evening, officer.” He calmly replied, “I take it my grandson got lost again, so you’ve come to take him home?”
Whoa, Arthur’s an even better liar than me! Actually, if lying is bad by default, does that make him an even worse liar? Eh, no time for grammar, that’s unimportant right now. What is important, though, is the fact that Arthur had immediately gauged the situation correctly and took proper care to use a vague yet believable enough lie that’d give him some leeway if he was caught.
“Oh, so this kid really is your grandson.” The officer scratched his head, “Apologies for the inconvenience, sir. As you know, a kid matching your grandchild’s description was seen kicking people in the nuts and pushing his friend off a viewpoint, so I jumped to conclusions.”
“Why the hell would I know about any of that?”
“…What?”
At this, Arthur glanced back at me with a frown. I simply stuck my tongue out and winked, signaling for him to just go with the flow, lest he himself gets into trouble with me.
“Never mind.” Arthur composed himself, “I think I recall now, you just surprised me with the question.”
“Right.” The officer blindly believed his words.
This little detail angered me a lot, actually. If it was me who said that, then I’d already be on my way back to the police station to once again get interrogated. But since Arthur has seniority over the officer, that ass of a law enforcer just smiled and agreed!
“Hey!” I piped up, “How come you believed gramps so easily, but you had to take me in for interrogation?”
“Interrogation!?” Arthur gasped.
“Hey, kid! Keep it down!” The officer glared at me, “A-Ahem, as I said, sir, your grandchild resembled the suspect, so I made the executive decision to-!”
“You dragged a kid into an interrogation room?!” Arthur snapped, “What kind of an officer are you? The hell kind of problem can a 13 year old make that’d be oh so terrible?! You’re a grown ass man, yet you’re scared of an early teenager?”
This sudden outburst prompted the officer to feel ashamed of himself, thus he simply tipped his hat while looking away as he scurried back to the station. Hehe, nice going, Gramps!
“So…” Arthur looked on at the officer anxiously leaving the premises before turning to me, “You actually made it to Rule 4?”
We laughed like a bunch of idiots at that exchange.
***
After double-checking that the door to the restaurant was locked, the two of us had begun walking back to his home. Even then, while all this was occurring, I was busying myself with explaining the entire situation to Arthur (although of course, without mentioning any details about me pushing Ed off the viewpoint).
By the way, the reason we were going to his house was because he insisted on me spending the night there. I felt bad abusing his generosity this much, but then again I really don’t wanna spend another night sleeping on a park bench…
“So Gramps,” I asked, reaching out to grab his hand, “How far is your house, exactly?”
“Not far.” He replied, feeling a tinge of joy well up in him, “Just up ahead you’ll see a huge market with the words “SALE” written on it. Right before that is a street to the right. That’s where my house is.”
Actually, I’ve seen that sign before. That’s… oddly close. I mean, I get he’s managing his own restaurant, so it probably helps a ton when he doesn’t feel all that motivated to work, but just how much did he luck out in finding a place for his restaurant, all the while having it be so close to his own house?
“Don’t look at me like that.” He chuckled after seeing me glance at him with suspicion, “Your thoughts are written all over you face, you know? But don’t worry, I didn’t do anything shady to get such a nice location.”
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“Then how?” I asked.
“The answer is Time.” He noted, “I was simply born before my competition. One could argue that that’s nothing more than luck, but to me, it was this Time that I was given, which the others were not. It’s precisely because I was born earlier that I got to experience all the hardships of the world before my peers. Being the oldest meant I had a lot more experience than them, and it was exactly that experience that helped pave the way to new connections, which then paved the way to both my house and my restaurant!”
I see! So basically, it’s nothing more than luck, but Gramps is making it sound like it’s something much more special. Like a power gifted solely to him or something, but in reality he’s just a bit older than his friends. So what, big deal, I was the oldest back in Whitehood as well, and I still got bullied for being the shortest.
“It really isn’t that interesting, being the oldest…” I muttered, “In the end, people still make fun of you if you’re different.”
“Is that how you view it?” He chuckled, “So you don’t even realize it yourself? The fact that the people that made fun of you are back home, enjoying their uniformity, and you’re out here, choosing to follow your dreams and be different. Now tell me, who’s the real sucker here? You, or them?”
“That’s…!” I suddenly felt the world open up to me, “I never thought about it like that…”
“See? You’ve been on your journey for just a couple days and you already learned something interesting which you wouldn’t have if you stayed back home.”
Wait, did I tell him about Ed and I leaving our homes? I don’t remember ever having mentioned that, fearing that he’ll just send us back home immediately if I did, but I guess he figured it out himself anyway. This Gramps is old but wise I see.
“I know I told you about me and Ed going on a journey across the world when we had just met, Gramps,” I wasn’t sure if it was alright to ask, “But are you really okay with that? You’re an adult, so wouldn’t you be against me leaving my family?”
Looking far off into the distance, he sighed once before turning back down to face me with a warm smile, “Kids aren’t raised by their parents. They’re raised by the environment around them. If you just have one teacher, you’ll never know more than them, but if your teacher is the entire world…”
“…Then I’ll learn a bit of everything, and become the most knowledgeable!” I finished his thought.
“Heh, looks like you got it.” He chuckled, “Just in time, too. We’re here, welcome to my abode.”
“You’ve got a lovely house Gramps.” I thought it was a good idea to be polite, “It’s rather tall, too. Got any family?”
“Ah, family’s a difficult topic…” He avoided eye contact.
Damn, looks like I touched a sore spot. Despite his age, he’s rather handsome, so I had no doubts about him having a wife and probably kids. Well, looking at his age, grandkids would be a lot more appropriate of a word to say in this situation. But even still, from his reaction I can assume that he had a family at one point, but now he’s all alone.
“Actually, it’s a rather funny story.” He opened the front door, “That entire attic area didn’t even exist before she came into the picture.”
“She?”
Just then, the doors leading to the rest of the house opened from the inside, revealing a cute girl with black hair and brown eyes, wearing her pajamas and welcoming Arthur in.
“Welcome home, Grandp-!” She went in for a hug, before suddenly jolting back after seeing me, “Who the hell is this?!”
Jumping back like a startled cat, she immediately ran all the way up the stairs into the attic that served as a second floor, presumably to get changed. Actually, right now I’m speaking from a retrospective point of view, because in the moment, I couldn’t even register everything that happened, because it was just that quick.
“That’s…” Arthur sighed, “My granddaughter, Anna. She’s a bit shy, but I hope you two get along.”
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***
After getting dressed into a more fitting, casual attire, she had sat herself down with us to eat dinner. It was quite awkward, at least for me, but I don’t even know why exactly. I mean, she’s the one that got embarrassed, so her reaction rubbed off on me. That damned girl, she’s staring a hole through my skull while I’m trying to enjoy my salad!
“So, Grandpa told me you’re gonna be staying here for a while, correct?” She decided to break the ice, all the while still glaring at me.
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll get out of your hair before long.” I explained, “I’m just here to find my friend and I’ll get out of your hair, so quit giving me the stink eye.”
“I am not!” She raised her voice, only for Arthur to scold her immediately after.
“Anna! What kind of behavior are you showing to a guest? Now, I’m only gonna say this once, but Lune here did nothing wrong, so if I catch you trying to butt heads with him one more time, you’re grounded!”
“Hmph!” She got up from her seat, “You boys are all the same! Always being selfish and not listening at all! How about you look at the situation from my side for once?!”
Storming off, she left after just barely finishing half of her plate. I felt bad, so I tried getting up to follow her, but Arthur quickly stopped me, saying that she’s just nervous and that she needs some time to get accustomed to everything that’s happening so suddenly.
“In any case, did you get a lead on where your friend might be?” He changed the subject, “It’s rather late right now, but we could continue the search tomorrow.”
“Ah, as for that, I actually overheard where they’re keeping him.” I explained, “Ed’s apparently under the care of some lady named Harper. Know anything about her?”
“Oh dear…” He winced at my reply, “He’s at Harper’s clinic, so does that mean that he’s injured? She’s also a rather ‘heavy-duty’ doctor, usually only treating the heavily injured. Oh, maybe we should head out now after all…”
“Ah, ha-ha, about that…” I quickly changed the subject as well, “N-Never mind that, I’m sure he’ll be fine! Oh, speaking of my little outing, I think I found a way to get your restaurant popular again! You just need to…!”
“Don’t mind that, Lune.” He waved his hands as if to banish the thought, “It’s nothing out of the ordinary. I had my heyday, but that doesn’t last forever. If my kids were still here with me, or Anna was willing to take over after me, then maybe I’d humor the idea, but she’s just not at all interested in doing so, so don’t bother.”
Whoa, Arthur’s rather pessimistic about this, isn’t he? He didn’t even hear me out at all. No, instead he just put away the dishes and told me to head to bed in one of their guest rooms. Well, I guess I’ll just listen to him then…
“Psych!” I muttered to myself as I laid in bed, “Like I’m someone who’s gonna give up that easily! Arthur’s my, eh, what’d Schnell call it again, Benefactor? Yeah, that. He’s my benefactor, so the least I could do is set him up for success! Never say never!”