A gorgeous woman with a supple figure and full blood-red lips. The woman was wearing an expensive red dress with various jewelry on her fingers, but the most noticeable feature was her strange grey skin, which gave her an inhuman look but seemed to only add to her exotic beauty. This was The Lost daughter of Clan Song, Saint Seishan, and she was walking through the streets of Ravenheart with hundreds of people looking at her, some respectful, others with gazes of something more.
She was going towards a place she never imagined she would be at: a cafe, well, more specifically, an Emporium. She had never understood what her sisters saw in these things, especially bin; she was only heading here because the entrance guards told her that a young man had shown up out of seemingly thin air.
She had thought nothing of it; people did that all the time looking for shelter in Ravenheart, but when she was informed by the blood sisters that an emporium showed up quite literally out of nowhere a few days ago along with the mysterious man, her curiosity was piqued.
So she decided to take a look. She had a small amount of free time, after all. She knew her sisters would never let her live it down once they got word of it, and word traveled fast around here. She also took advantage of that and got a description of the man, having black hair, eyes, clothing, and pale skin. But that wasn't enough to go on, considering thousands of people, including her sister Revel, had that appearance.
So she went to check on it herself. Her curiosity turned mildly intrigued. In front of her was a small one-story cottage built from what looked to be brown bricks and a sign that read "Sunny's Brilliant Emporium: Cafe and Memory Boutique."
When she stepped inside, her ears picked up a quiet but pronounced short melodic ringing after she opened the door. She saw a small, intricate silver bell hanging above the door frame. She kept looking around, observing the smooth dark oak tables placed around the cafe and the floor that seemed to be made of dark oak wood.
Out of her peripheral vision, she saw someone who looked like they had almost stumbled, putting down a stack of ceramic plates on a counter. She turned to see a delicate young man with flawless porcelain skin that nearly made her envious the more she looked at it. He had long raven black hair that was tight and neatly in a ponytail with a set of onyx eyes to match his hair. As for his clothing, he wore a dark mantle over a black button-down shirt with pants and an apron to match.
She could have imagined it, but strangely enough, his clothes seemed to absorb the natural light pouring through the front glass windows. His eyes met hers, and the strikingly gorgeous young man with his hands clasped behind his back smiled politely at her. He had a very weak presence, so from that alone, she could already tell that he was a master, but despite that, she could feel a calm confidence coming from him.
W- What the hell was she doing here?! Didn't she have better things to do, Like worry about his incarnation in GodGrave?! She was looking around the cafe with a calm expression while walking towards the counter Sunny was behind with noble and graceful steps. Eventually, her eyes landed on him and studied him for what felt like minutes before she spoke with her husky voice
" Young man, I have come here to see exactly what this cafe and memory boutique is. I have been told that it appeared here several days ago. Are you the owner of this place?" She had already moved to stand in front of the counter. Sunny was behind
"Greetings, Lady Seishan, and yes, I own this place. I am called Master Sunless, but most people call me Sunny. Sunny put on his best polite smile and bowed deeply
Please, sit down, my lady. Would you like anything to drink?"
Seishan nodded and sat at a table near the counter while Sunny stood.
"Tea, please, this is quite the cottage. I wonder how something out of place can fit so well here".
She seemed genuinely curious about it, but he knew better than to be fooled by that. From the moment she stepped inside, he had already figured that she suspected he was a spy from Valor. Well, she was going to be in for a surprise!
"As do I. I guess I didn't make the sign big enough."
Seishan didn't react to the icebreaker
"What is your occupation? What exactly do you do here?"
While she was speaking, Sunny brought two porcelain cups and a teapot. He poured tea into both cups, handed one to Seishan, and sat down across from her at the table; his smile widened a bit
" Well, I'm a shopkeeper first, but an Enchanter second; I craft memories! "
Sunny's smile became a bit more reserved
Seishan raised her eyebrow elegantly.'An Enchanter?' They had plenty of those, as well as Blacksmiths. It was interesting but nothing noteworthy, but then again, there was no such thing as having too many enchanters; perhaps Seishan and her sisters could recruit him, ' I suppose we'll have to see from here and cross that bridge when we get there.'
She brought the cup to her lips and set it down.
"I see. What was your occupation before this? Where did you stay before coming here?"
She was firing off rounds back to back!
" I was a scout during my time in Antarctica due to certain events." He took a sip of his tea as well ."I decided I had more than had my share of the waking world, and I set out to explore the dream realm for several years, my lady, before staying outside of Bastion to open my Emporium for several months to get back on my feet and then coming here". He forced out a smile
She was satisfied with the answers he gave her, and she was worried about a noncombatant trying to make an honest living. Considering how much the millions of people had been through in Antarctica, it made sense why he would be one of many people wanting to settle down here. Still, then again, she didn't hear any changes in his heartbeat the entire time, so either he was an excellent liar or telling the truth, and he wasn't a spy sent by valor. Her intuition was nowhere near as strong as her sister Hel's, but it was enough to tell her it was the latter.
" My apologies for interrupting your day. I just wanted to see what all the commotion was about. Thank you for the tea, Master Sunless. Have a nice day." She finished her tea and then stood up, pushing the chair back to its original place
Master Sunless bowed deeply. "It was an honor meeting you, Lady Seishan. Do come back if you have the time; my waffles are to die for! "N-Not that anyone has ever died eating them; that would be bad for the bus— I mean awful, very awful! Yes, it's just that they're so good that someone could die!"
His delicate face shifted to a somewhat nervous expression. She gave a slightly confused look but eventually nodded and left the cafe. 'It makes sense why he would be so nervous; I am a sovereign's daughter, after all.'
Sunny felt like an APC was lifted off of him. Why was talking to those girls always so damn stressful!? But it didn't matter now; he had successfully avoided her suspicion. Now, he just had to wait for Ki Song to send a negotiator to his avatar in GodGrave.
'That Lazy guy has it so easy he doesn't do a damn thing and just sits on his ass all day!'
Speaking of laziness, Aiko, lingering in the kitchen listening the entire time, finally decided to show her face.
"Boss! You didn't even get her to buy anything! Are you trying to have us broke within a few weeks?! She's a princess! She's filthy rich, and yet she's walked out of here without giving us a dime!"
The petite young woman looked at him and floated towards him with an outraged expression
Sunny gave her a halfhearted glare, then smiled
"Of course, I'm not! And think about it, Aiko, hundreds if not thousands of people saw Seishan walk in here. So, naturally, they're going to be curious about us! And then business will be booming in no time. Think about all the money we'll make!"
" Boss, you're amazing; I love you." Aiko's eyes were so wide and bright he could almost see dollar signs within them; her smile was so broad that it startled him a bit, and she floated away, humming to herself. Sunny shivered; that woman terrified him sometimes, but onto more important matters.
Now that Seishan had shown up, he had to be prepared for more of them! And who knew when one of the sisters would pop up? He would rather Kai and Jet show up unexpectedly, but he knew they were busy, so that was extremely unlikely. He only hoped that the Prince of Nothing didn't show up.
It was already nighttime, and Sunny had already shown up. He found himself bored, which was surprising considering he did several other tasks simultaneously.
"Aiko, I'm gonna go take a walk! I'll be back in a few hours," he called out to his assistant
"Sure, boss, don't die!" He heard her shout from upstairs
" I know you'll protect her, buddy." He patted the door frame several times, left the Emporium, and walked into the night.
Thankfully, most people here weren't night owls, so the streets were empty, save for the people closing up or walking back home. Most of them wouldn't see him anyway since he was almost indistinguishable from the night, so he had to be careful not to accidentally give someone a heart attack by not announcing himself if he approached them, but that was the last thing on his mind.
He stopped in place and started to think about how he was going to get inside the Jade Palace undetected; he knew he could ask Cassie for help since they had met when he first came back to civilization and made a deal with each other to help find a piece of weavers lineage in the real Bastion. Still, he figured he would attempt to scout the place out first. Even that was ridiculously impossible because of the Queen living there, and on top of that, he had just moved here, so he would be drowned in suspicion by being this close to where the Queen and her daughters lived.
'Ah, I'm thinking about this way too much. I'll cross that bridge whenever I get there. ' he shrugged and kept walking to nowhere. He took a look at his surroundings. While not as populated as Bastion, this place was as beautiful, if not more than the former, and even breathtaking. He continued wandering through the quiet streets of Ravenheart, enjoying the peaceful silence until he stopped dead in his tracks, seeing a man sitting alone on a bench in the dark. He wore a simple black and white suit. The man turned his head in Sunny's direction and smiled pleasantly.
Third chapter will be out sometime next week, until then have a good weekend!
Update; Fixed Volume number