We chose to enter the restaurant all together despite the man had been clearly kicked out of there, disrespectfully no less, made me wonder what he had done "I'm only allowing him here because you said so, Alan." The old woman said with a disgusted expression on her face "What did he do?" I asked curiously to what could lead to such circumstances "This pervert was hitting on my daughter, my daughter was obviously annoyed and he wouldn't leave so I had to kick him out but he's back again, with you of all people." She let out a deep sigh "I expected better from you not to hang out with perverts, think of what your mother would think." She seemed oddly disappointed at me while being disgusted at the man in the same time, "Calm down Gran, it's for work, he just posed a good question, that's all." I was quite annoyed she brought up my mother but regardless, Gran was like a mother herself to me, me and her daughter used to play together when we were kids, she's like a sister to me, so I too was sort of mad towards the man I had just met. "Oh my. Such harsh words, my fragile heart can't take anymore of this." The man suddenly interrupted us whining, I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, he was still pretty unreadable, that made me feel sort of uneasy. Gran tightened her fist, anger swelling up, completely changing her expression and attitude, while the man was acting rather silly for someone who had just been branded a pervert no less. I wasn't sure if I was worried about the man or Gran, the situation was too confusing even for me. "How long..." I heard a voice saying that "Hmm?" I looked to my left and it was Lucille "How long will it take for the food to arrive." She yawned as she had rested her face on the table. Gran let loose her fist "Right away." For some reason just a few words as random as Lucille's calmed her down, maybe she has a great impression of her, seeing someone who she looked at like her own son hanging around with a pervert who hit on her daughter was disappointing to her so it's pretty understandable if Lucille seemed like the most normal out of us 3. Gran had left and it was just us 3 sitting at the table, Lucille was practically sleeping so it really was just me and him, we sat there awkwardly but very cautious, he seemed laid back, I felt he didn't think of me as a threat in anyway, which kind of pissed me off but I kept my calm.
"So. Who are you anyway?"
"I am but a man, a man chained by this cruel word, so harsh that I can't even get married." He whined again as he brought himself forward to the table.
"The amount of times I've been rejected is more than a brat like you can even comprehend!" He laughed smugly, was kind of irritating honestly.
"Is that supposed to be a flex?" I replied annoyed, with a slight sign of irritation on my face and tone.
"It isn't?" He asked genuinely, was he an idiot? Probably.
I let out a sigh "Oh lord... Let's get over this pointless topic already."
"C'mon boy, rejoice, these could be the last fun moments in your life, cheer up, don't take life for granted." He confidently told me, though his voice tone and expression changed midway through his statement.
"Speaking like an old man... How old are you anyway?" Though he looked young, his words felt distant and way older than his appearance.
"Age is just a number boy. You'll come to understand that sooner or later."
"Is that why you keep hitting on young girls?"
"H-hey! Don't put it in such a disgusting way!" He got defensive as if he hadn't done so twice in the matter of an hour. "Learn to respect others' preferences-"
His voice muffled as I analyzed what I knew of him so far, actually, there was still nothing I knew about him, besides his preference. But he looked young, even though his speaking fashion was rather old, too old for how young he looked, this leaves two answers,
1. He's actually an old man, using some type of Sol ability to keep himself young.
2. He's actually young and is from a noble family or something of the sort.
But regardless I felt it would be best not to ask about him entirely and just focus on what I wanted from him most importantly.
"So, answer me, how do you know about Elijah and what is your objective." I asked as calmly as I could, holding my emotions in check.
"Oh, wow. Getting to the main dish before the side? You're a rude kid." He answered me in his usual annoying manner, making everything sarcastic for his amusement.
He was pissing me off, but I held back as doing anything unnecessary could lose me some valuable information, I shook it off and asked him again, "Please. I don't have alot of time."
"Woah, are you dying or something?"
"No!" I snapped and let out a deep breath, I sighed and continued "please take this seriously?"
"Fine, fine. Have some fun once in a while, it's a real refresher Det." He answered back letting out a deep breath as well.
"Well first things first, let's introduce ourselves. You may call me Jorm, Jorm Velvet." His name was odd, especially his surname, I felt as if I had heard it before but regardless I shrug it off as I could look into it later. "Alan." I brought my hand forward to shake his hand "Nice to meet ya." He said as he shook my hand. "So, now that's done with let's get over what you wanted to hear." He was finally about to tell me just what he knew about everything that's happened to Elijah and the others, he was opening his mouth until a young girl, barely tall with silky pitch brown hair that radiated the light from inside the place came to our table and started "It's been a while Al." She said placing plates full of food in each of our sides, "It has. How's business coming along?" I asked the girl who was actually my childhood friend and the daughter of the store owner, "It's alright, I guess. Can't say we're not grateful." She replied with an exhausted face but still mustered up a smile as she looked at me. "Well, I better get going. Enjoy your food." She turned around and went towards the kitchen again. "See ya." I yelled as she entered it.
smelling the smell of the food Lucille immediately got up and started munching on one of the donuts she had ordered, still completely distracted from me and Jorm's conversation, "Oh, can you wait a little longer, Alan? The food's here and I don't like to keep the food waiting." I clinched my pants as I was pissed we had been interrupted just as he was about to answer me.
I sighed "Fine." I calmed down and as mad as I was, I just couldn't resist good food, and this place had plenty of that stuff. I started chomping down on the food until suddenly "Elijah was a friend of mine." The brown eyed man said, I looked up "Huh?" Despite what he said about not wanting to keep the food waiting, he was giving me the information I need. "Despite me not working for any agency we used to do some missions together, he had work and I was just busy so I used to tag along." I looked at him in surprise, "When I heard about what happened I quickly rushed into the hospital and saw him in such a saddening state. He was always cheerful and had the resolve of a general, the sight of him left my heart broken." They must've been close friends if it made him that sad.
"My broken heart led me to investigate his case on my own. And the more I learned, the worse the situation got." With a dead serious expression he stared at me "What do you mean?" I asked, my curiosity getting bigger and bigger "It's better if I don't tell you, Alan. The ones at work behind the scenes is not something an amateur like you can handle. So I suggest leaving your nose out of it." He striked such a disappointing suggestion. "I will not." His head turned towards me "Hm?" "I will not back down, for my pride. And even more, family, I will not back down if someone is harming my family." I said slamming my hands on the table, completely irritated.
He got up from his seat, walking towards me "Is that so? Let's test that out then!" He grabbed me by the collar and sent me flying towards the hard glass window "Alan!" Lucille and the others looked at me flabbergasted to what just had happened.
Eventually I was slammed to the window and I had completely gone outside after breaking glass as hard as that. My back slammed to the fence that Jorm was resting on when we met earlier. Ugh I groaned from the impact I had just suffered. Not giving me time to get back up, Jorm came to me at a rapid speed, barely giving my time to dodge the knee kick that he intended to smash my face with. Completely rolling over to my right, I got up and got my fighting stance ready "Not bad." He said sort of praising me I guess, with a sign of excitement in his face."
"Let's see you dodge this!" He kicked the floor, making one of the slobs fly as high as his hand could reach, soon after he sent the slab flying towards me, with not a single sign of cracks in it "Amazing... How did you pull that off?" I said as I completely destroyed the slab with the edge of my right hand. While smiling excitedly, however after destroying the slab, I had lost sight of Jorm, I looked around and he wasn't there, until I looked below in front, I saw him coming towards me at in incredible speed, his right fist made great contact with my stomach and I was sent flying, again by his hands.
I broke the speed I was going backwards in as I sunk my feet under the ground "Oh?" He was surprised looking at me absorb one attack of his after another. I spit out the blood and this time, I charged towards him instead. Throwing the knives I had inside my pocket towards him not even hitting him once. He smirked and prepared to punch me again if I got too close to him, which I was planning to do, not letting myself waver I charged towards him regardless of what he had prepared for me. I shouted as I ran towards him, his reaction not changing even slightly, once I was close enough to hit him, his blow was delivered first, right above my skull, making me stick to the ground, my eyes went completely white until I shook it off and looked at him above me. "Bingo." I said as I lifted index and middle fingers up, "Hm?" He was confused until the knives he had apparently dodged easily were all under plan. The four knives I had thrown came from his back, grazing multiple parts of his body "Nice." He smiled at me despite what I had done, almost as that felt like nothing at all.
"Alright that's all, Alan. You were impressive, atleast your strategy was but you're still pathetically weak, you could never go up against "them" at this level, even a mere butler of theirs could wipe the floor with you." I was barely able to look at him as he was leaving step by step. "Get stronger, I won't stop you anymore, I like your resolve." He said looking back over his shoulder. "You lack something, I won't tell you what it is, It will be something you'll realize on your own, until then, Don't die." His face turned serious for a second but went back to normal afterwards. "Oh yeah, I left a check under your breast pocket." He got on the other side of the road "Wait!" I shouted as he looked back at me and suddenly vanished after a bus went by.
I got up, and cleaned myself up from the dirt and dust that I had gotten on my white uniform, I checked my breast pocket and opened up the check, it said "Good luck with that, Hehe." With a smiling face drawn on the side, "That bastard..." I muttered to myself until I turned it back and it had something else written. "Just kidding, check your right pocket." I immediately checked and there was another check, real this time "A million..." I muttered to myself realizing that the bastard was rich probably, I hurried there and handed the check to Nunnally, the store owner's daughter was completely shocked at the numbers.
I went to Lucille, "You coming?" I asked as she was enjoying her donuts "Yes!" She nodded while still biting on a donut, she looked adorable, almost like a child. "Well then. Let's see what's left for us to do." I said as we got out of the damaged store.