"S-So let me get this straight..." I whimpered out yet again, "You singlehandedly earned enough to pay for nine tenths of THE ENTIRE CONTINENT'S tuition fees!?"
"Well, earned is not quite the word I would use to describe it, but... Yes, in essence." He sighed.
"I don't believe it." Ed crossed his arms.
"Huh?"
"I said, I don't believe you, so prove it." He pointed with his chin to the bustling cityscape a few blocks away from us, "I can see from your drip and killer tats that you may possess immense material wealth, but I fear that in the process you have lost sight of your golden heart."
"In other words, you just want him to treat us to some good food, don't you?" I smirked defeatedly.
"No, no, do not judge him, Lune!" Meil instead told me off for whatever reason, "He is correct, the reason I called you here was to help me deal with this money problem in the first place."
"Eh, that's all?" I chuckled, "But why do you wanna spend it so badly anyways? And how did you even get ahold of it in the first place?"
"Hrm..." He looked torn before postponing the topic for later, "I-I will tell you everything at a later time! For now, it is not a good idea to stay here in the Sun for too long. Here, give me your suitcases, and let us go to a good restaurant of your choosing."
Glancing at each other, I had began to slowly mimic the same eager grin Ed was growing on his face. Nodding earnestly as we accepted Meil's request, we practically skipped and danced all the way to the most expensive looking restaurant we could find - Jours étoilés!
"Bienvenue, chers invités. Avez-vous une réservation?" The waiter approached us at the door.
"Shit, I forgot they don't speak Entropic in Simpleton." Ed cussed under his breath.
"Geez, what gave that away?" I mocked him, "Clue's in the name, by the way - SIMPETONese."
"Alright, screw you too. I was talking about the fact that I barely got used to some basic Cardinic phrases, so now I gotta learn this too. It's tough, y'know?"
"It is not that difficult, really." Meil chuckled, "Though I am not one to talk, Nelly is quite well-versed in it already." He then turned to the waiter before clearing his throat to machinally repeat a sentence I presume she had taught him, "Ahem! Nous sommes des étrangers ! S'il vous plaît, parlez Entropique!"
"...Okay?" The waiter swapped to Entropic all of a sudden, "Ahem, as I was saying, monsieurs, do you have a reservation?"
"Monsieurs? Ooh-la-la, I'm already digging this place!" Ed got stoked, "To be called such a fancy word by a waiter, they must really treat their customers as royalty!"
"Edward, monsieur means mister..." Meil looked at him weirdly, "E-Everyone with an XY chromosome is called monsieur here..."
"Quit it with the funny words, magic man!"
Realizing the waiter was getting antsy waiting for us to reply to his question, we hastily explained that we did in fact come here without reserving a table. He didn't mind though, because they thankfully had a smaller table spare that no one was using because it was apparently considered "too broke" in his words. Obviously, to us foreigners, this didn't mean anything, so we happily sat down at our broke table and ordered as much food as we could eat. The waiter gave us a weird glare, not believing we had enough money to afford all that we ordered, but all issues were resolved when Meil tossed a hexagonal coin with a triangular hole in it at the waiter. Masterfully catching it before he looked it up and down, the waiter's jaw dropped as he clapped his hands and alerted the entire staff to help him make our experience worthwhile.
"What the hell was that all about?" Ed asked.
"That coin is worth 1 gigabyte." Meil explained, "Which is equivalent to 1024 megabytes, or 1,048,576 kilobytes."
"In Entropic, please."
"Right, assuming the current exchange rates of 1 shil being worth 1 byte, and one kilobyte having 1024 bytes, that's... 1073741824 shils."
...EEEEEH!?!? O-ONE BILLION SHILS IN SINGLE COIN!? And what's worse, he just gave it away without asking for change!? That's more than enough to buy a house in this economy! No, not a house, a mansion! A mansion, I say!
"What the hell, so you really are too rich for your own good..." Ed smirked before shouting for the waiter, "Well in that case... Waiter! Over here! Give us everything you've got! Literally, clear out the entire pantry! Come on, don't give me that bewildered look and make it snappy, cocksuckers!"
"E-Edward, please refrain from excessive vulgarities...!"
"Shut up, Meil! We paid for the entire restaurant, so I want the entire damned restaurant!"
Needless to say, the food was delivered to our table in a flash. Actually, they quickly ran out of space to put all the food on the table, so they had to take other people's empty reserved spots and join them to ours, hoping we would finish before the guests had arrived. Before long, our little "broke table" had been upgraded to the biggest one they had, ammassing a large scale that took up a quarter of the room we were in. In the end, we obviously couldn't finish any of the food in time, so we offered the staff to join in and take a break after all the hard work they put into making this a day to remember.
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"Burp. Hoo-wee!" Ed patted his belly as if imitating a pregnant lady about to burst, "I am SO gonna hate myself later when I have to go take a shit, but for now I'm the happiest motherfucker in the world!"
"Right, it seems she took that horrible vocabulary from her uncle..." Meil finally connected some dots in his head, "In any case, I hope you two have enjoyed yourselves, but I assume you know by now that this has not even dented the entire total I have with me."
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Yeah, and that's exactly what we wanna know." I continued to steer the conversation towards the correct topic, "How in the world did you get this money?"
"I was at the wrong place in the wrong time, and that led to me accidentally uncovering a ragtag underground crime organization." Meil then scratched his nonexistant beard after, "Or something like that, ha-ha..."
"Damn, you're serious." Ed read his mind with ease to confirm it, "Well, I already know the full story now. I'm just glad you got out of it safe. But isn't this good, though?"
"I agree, why would you want to spend that money now that you took it for yourself?" I wondered too.
"You do not understand?" He raised an Eyebrow at us both, "Money makes the world go round, no? In other words, what I am essentially doing by keeping all the money away from circulation is laundering it - A very serious crime that could at worst get me deported."
"Mhm, that'd be horrible for you." I nodded along.
"No, not for me, for Nelly." He bit his lips, "If I get deported, she will be left all alone. Well, I made sure to introduce her to a small group of individuals that would take care of her, but I just will not be able to live with myself if I am not with her!"
"Hmm, is that so..." Ed and I suspiciously looked at each other before asking, "By the way, how has it been, living with her this past year?"
Nelly seems to have planted her roots deep into him already. The Meil I know always treated her as a promising student or apprentice, but the person standing in front of me now almost looks like he's experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not seeing my daughter. I can understand him wanting to keep her safe because of the promise he made to us, but that is no excuse to get this close to her. As a father, but also as a friend, I sincerely hope he chooses his next words carefully.
"It has been difficult, especially in the beginning." He regaled us with his experiences, "Just getting her enrolled required a lot of time and effort, but she persevered and now she..."
"Who cares about that." Ed got straight to the point, "What Grim's asking is how's you two's relationship going?"
"Ed!" I warned him to shut up.
"Hm, our relationship..." He pondered for a while before answering, "I would best describe it as depressing."
"Depressing?"
"Do not misunderstand. We always got along great, even now. At first I wholeheartedly believed she would remain dependant on me until the very end, but already she has made a good deal of friends, each of which she spends a lot of time with. I know it sounds rude of me to say, but when I see how often she leaves home to be with them and leave me alone, I experience this horrible... pain in my chest."
"Yeah, yeah, tell that to the cops, perv!" Ed immediately accused him of preying on Nelly.
"Hey now, shut up for a sec." I interrupted, "Meil, ignore this bozo, I completely understand what you're talking about."
"You do!?" Ed jolted, "Don't tell me you're a perv too, Grim! That's your daughter you're talking about!"
"Didn't I tell you to shut up? This is something only a father can understand, idiots like you jump to all sorts of wild conclusions." I retorted.
"No, but you are mistaken." Meil shook his head, "I am not a father."
"Oh, but you are." I patted him on the shoulder, "Yeah, I think I finally get it now. The relationship you have with Nelly. I'm not sure if you get it, and frankly I doubt she gets it either, but in one way or another, I think you became a real great father figure for her."
"A father..." Meil seemed stunned, but ultimately cracked a smile in the end.
"Ooh, I get it!" Ed got the memo as well, "So that's what's going on! You're just a replacement Grim in her Eyes! So that's why she's so clingy towards you... Not! What the hell kind of mental gymnastics are you playing at, Grim!?"
"Dude, it's high time you stop spreading misinformation." I got pissed at him, "It's obvious to anyone Meil and Nelly aren't like that."
"Hm? Like what?" Meil tilted his head.
Turning to Ed with a "See? I told you so!" type of shit-eating smirk, he fumed before ultimately letting the topic go. After that, we wondered where else to go before heading back to the University.
"Many of the actually fun things in life are probably banned on University grounds, so let's use this time we have as an opportunity to let loose a bit whilst helping Meil spend as much money as possible." Ed said before pointing to another building, "I suggest we hit up the strip club."
"What the hell, you're married, jackass!" I admittedly got flustered, "A-And so am I, remember!?"
"Cool it, I was just joking." He calmed me down, though his Eyes seemed a bit disappointed, "In any case, I feel out of place standing next to such a dripped out Meil in these commoner rags."
"But we are all commoners here, are we not?" Meil asked, checking the time on his pocketwatch made of pure gold, "In any case, we have time, so check out whatever you want."
"You're no commoner..." Ed grumbled, "Well, even the most expensive suits can only get us so much closer to our goal, so you got any ideas of your own, Grim?"
"Humu, of course I do..." I chuckled to myself mischievously, "You know, that idea of yours, the one about visiting the strip club... It got my cogs turning."
"Wait, you really mean it!? So you're interested in going!?" Ed's Eyes jumped out of his skull as he showed his true colors.
"Hell no, I'm a devoted husband. Super serious." I gave him a deadpanned glare, "But think about it - When you think of spending ludicrous amounts of money for no reason, what are the two things that come to mind? Meil, do you know?"
"Regrettably, I do not." He sighed, "I am not all too experienced in said fields."
"Two things that come to mind... Well, the strip club, and... Gasp!" Ed figured it out immediately, "The casino!"
"Gold star for you, haha!" I dapped him up, "Mathematically speaking, they say the house always wins, right? So let's have ourselves the time of our lives in there, shall we?! Yeah, we're not leaving until we're down to our last byte!"