“Are we really gonna do this?” asked Carl as he was busy signing his lease.

“Yep! No turning back now!”

Anna seemed to enjoy teasing Carl about liquidating his staff to our restaurant. She’d make a horrible manager, although I guess managers are meant to be hated, so is she actually doing good?

In any case, with our funds combined we managed to add a lot of things to the new and improved Arthur’s. Most noticeable is the whole building having been repainted to our signature red color. Just looking at the eye-catching restaurant makes you hungry! We also removed the wooden floor that was getting more and more moldy, and instead replaced it with marble tiles. The restaurant now felt a lot more like the one at Stringwood. Another thing we added was some elegant looking seating and tables, although the idea was Carl’s since he had a knack for interior design.

Overall, with their shop having officially closed down for good, their lease expired and they became our employees, so they decided to make the most of their time here. But the thing is…

“Since we’re the ones who employed you guys, our rent hasn’t actually lowered any.”

“Well yeah, but still,” Carl answered my complaint, “since all of our regulars became your regulars, we’re still making a lot of profit. By the way, we’ve been working here for a few weeks now, but we still haven’t met this Arthur person.”

“Ah,” Anna chimed in, “Arthur is our grandpa, the original restaurant is in Stringwood and we wanted to spread his brand all across TN.”

“Oh, so you three are siblings.”

Certainly, we did bond to such a degree in our shared time together, and since it didn’t matter all that much, we never felt any need to correct anyone on it. As such the worker’s too began calling us Big Bro, Little Bro and Little Sis respectively.

As time passed, we had amassed a large sum of money, and the customers kept coming in. The atmosphere was extremely lively, and we always felt like we we’re at home (although that might just be because we still slept in the siderooms there).

Just as things began getting stable again, all three of us became more and more anxious. We knew what was coming up. We need to move on to the next town…

***

As we we’re explaining it to the workers, we we’re hit with a wave of backlash. We really did grow on them, and simply leaving on a whim was like leaving our family all over again. Even still, out of all the workers, Carl seemed like the person who was hurt the most. Since he was the manager of the previous restaurant, it only made sense we made him the manager here. It was honestly quite the affair just to decline his pleas to not leave. The only present we did accept, though, was a considerable amount of money he had kept from the savings.

“So this is it, huh?”

“Yep, it’s been fun, Carl, but we have to get going.”

“The restaurant won’t be as homely without you guys.”

“Guess it’s up to you to fill in for us, then. Also, we’re not gonna be gone for good. We’ll still visit from time to time, you know.”

Walking to the transport station, Anna suddenly started weeping. Ed and I consoled her, and as we looked around the town that we had made so many memories in, the melancholic air breezing through our hair, we had spent the last moments in Station Arfa in complete silence.

Entering the wagon, we passed the gates and officially entered Tertis. Thinking about it now, this was the first time I had actually entered another country, although because of the principles of TN, we we’re still technically in the same country. We had only left one sub-country and entered another. The landscape in Secundis was foresty, but Tertis had nothing but wheat fields as far as the eye could see. The people here respected agriculture.

I wonder if importing meat from our other branches would be a good idea here… Maybe they’re the type to not eat meat, we did have some customers like that show up. Ed was particularly happy about the visit here, since he apparently has an uncle in the village near the capital. We weren’t in any particular rush, so we decided to visit him before we make it to Leins.

As we talked about all sorts of things about Tertis, we slowly drifted off to sleep, but not before discussing our plans first.

“So does that mean we’ll be setting up the next shop in your uncle’s village?” Anna asked.

“As much as I’d like to, the village is pretty small, never mind finding customers, I think it’d be an ordeal finding employees.” Said Ed.

I guess that makes sense, after all. Setting up shop in some remote place would be like throwing our money away, and since our main goal is to set up a network of sorts, then it’s best to make the third branch in the capital.

“When did you last visit your uncle? I don’t remember you talking about him all that much.”

“I visited him with my mom and dad a couple years ago, but that’s the last time we’ve spoken since. I wonder how much he’s changed. He’s this really funny beardy guy who likes to joke around a lot, I’m sure you’ll love him, Grim.”

The road was starting to get a lot smoother, indicating we had officially left the forest scenery. As such, Anna started to get more and more tired as the wagon gently rocked her to sleep. Noticing this, Ed and I tucked her in, trying super hard not to wake her. We whispered a bit about sending some letters of our accolades to Arthur, but seeing as we were probably bothering Anna with the noise, we decided to call it a night and went to sleep ourselves.