“Order up!“

  The night at the ‘Frilly Ribbon’ was lively. The customers were enjoying the moment and forgot about the reality on the other side of the wall, while the maids served the food with their hands full of plates or engaged in small talk with their masters in a topic that the outer world would not fully understand. As the butter sizzled on top of the steak passing through the hallway, the steam carrying a sweet aroma rose into the ceiling and spread out in the room by the ceiling fan rotating counterclockwise.

  As if to prove what Eskandar saw within her was true, Foreigner became proficient in the job during the past two weeks. Although it had been tough at first to get used to the unique terminology and atmosphere, the work became surprisingly enjoyable once she got a grasp of the task. While it was true that there was barely any time to rest during the work due to the nature of a busy restaurant, the mere fact that she could work to earn budget for the upcoming journey was enough to motivate her to move her feet busily. Plus, by the time it became unbearable to resist the urge to dine in the food on the serving tray, she got a break time involving anything she wanted on the menu cooked by Chef Eskandar himself, and this alone was worth the time spent in the restaurant.

  “Order up!“

  “I’ll take it!“ As Foreigner took charge of serving the fresh food, she looked into the kitchen through the opening in the wall between it and the maid’s area.

  The kitchen was cleaner than any other place in the restaurant. Unlike the walls colored in cooling white, the room was gaping out tremendous amounts of heat with five stoves turned on, and Chef Eskandar was right in front of the burning inferno with his bucket sitting on his head as he performed the art of culinary. Even from a fair distance, Foreigner could see the metal on his head turning red hot, and sweat was pouring down his neck from within it. She once asked Chef Eskandar about the bucket, but he never gave her an answer but a loud laugh to pass away the topic.

  But that would be a topic for another day, and the food in her hand was not getting served by itself. As she turned her back and walked through the door to the dining hall, she drove her nose into the bosom of another staff member coming from the guest area. She couldn’t help but flinch a bit, as the maid in front of her, or perhaps a butler would be more fitting, was someone she was not too fond of yet.

  “Ms. Amonet. Are you greeting masters with that face?“ A Gelip, who was wearing a black butler’s suit with a white dress shirt beneath it and a black tie crossing her chest, stopped Foreigner from exiting the area in a cold voice.

  With a height that was about one and a half heads taller than Foreigner, she looked down upon with three silvery eyes that resembled comets flying within the icy darkness beyond the sky. As if to demonstrate what a true servant looks like, she had her grey hair tied in a ponytail on her back without a single strand of hair escaping from the band holding it together, and her suit and gloves were devoid of any wrinkles or stains. The watch in her chest pocket showed the correct time to the second, and every tick of it echoed through Foreigner’s heart, making the short time they spent together feel immensely longer than the actual flow.

  “N-not at all, Ms. Sakurako! Here I go with a smile!“

  Foreigner made the best smile she could, but there was no way for her to make a proper smile when she was forcing herself to, similar to when being asked to breathe. The third eye of Sakurako gazed upon Foreigner and pierced through her forged smile, who was nervously twitching the right corner of her mouth to endure what felt like an eternity.

  “Order up!“

  At the powerful voice coming out of the fiery pit, Sakurako moved past Foreigner and towards the plate without another word or glance. Foreigner quickly moved out of the area and into the dining hall, where the gravity felt lighter. After a short sigh of relief, she placed a proper smile on her face on her way to the customers. But when she rolled her eyes to the other side of the room, she knew that the peace would not last any longer.

  “Please, don’t do this!“

  A single plea was enough to splinter the room filled with chattery into silence within a fraction of a second. Where the voice came from was a maid and a customer, grasping her wrist and forcing her to get closer to him. And even though Foreigner was about two tables away from them, she could smell alcohol emanating from his foul breath.

  “Come on, don’t be shy! Let’s have some fun together. You want that too, right? Of course you do; why else would you wear a short skirt like this?“

  The drunkard was insistent in his foul demand and stretched his bony hand to the maid’s thigh. The poor maid in his grasp could do nothing in fear, and a tear that she held back desperately in front of other customers was about to fall, but soon found its place back behind her eye when Crescencia showed up between her and the drunkard.

  Just like her sudden appearance, Crescencia moved quickly to grab the drunkard's wrist in midair and pushed the maid further away from him. On her cue, two other maids approached the maid who had been violated and brought her to the back of the room. Only then did the maid with a teary eye found comfort and released a cry of relief, and the room fell silent with a regret floating in the air for not acting sooner when they noticed the sign from the drunkard, even though they were not responsible for any of the incidents.

  “Physical contact and harassment are strictly prohibited in our restaurant. We ask you to leave.“

  With resolute eyes that did not falter, Crescencia proclaimed the first statement to the drunkard. But the drunkard did not oblige, and instead got free of Crescencia’s grasp with force and picked his nose only to flick it onto Crescencia’s face.

  “And what if I don’t?”

  The drunkard smiled insidiously as he scanned Crescencia’s body and scratched his crotch while putting his hand behind his pants. The murmur of the people grew at his sickening behaviour, but Crescencia did not falter.

  “Then we will call the police.“

  She proclaimed the final statement with an unwavering voice, leaving no room for negotiation. This short interaction with the man was enough to trigger something in his mind, as he crumpled his face in an erupting rage and smashed the table with a plate housing half-touched food and an empty bottle of wine.

  “Police? You mean those sly leeches sucking our bones to fill the pride of the pig with a crown? Sure, call them! Call all those bastards as you’d love to! Then we shall see whether they will act for a whore as you.” The drunkard laughed frantically in front of Crescencia, who stood still without a shudder.

  Despite his efforts, it was the drunkard whose eyes and hands were trembling, and any sane person could tell that was not an effect of alcohol poisoning his brain. After the clock ticked four times, the drunkard flinched his finger amidst the pressuring gaze coming from above, and then snatched the wine glass next to him to throw it at Crescencia’s face. The entire chain of events happened too suddenly, and there was nothing Crescencia could do other than closing her eyes tightly.

  The glass remained intact until it struck the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces. Crescencia heard the chilling sound of glass shards splattering all over the place, but there was no pain on her body anywhere. When she slowly opened her eyes back, what she saw was the tip of the grey ponytail behind the back of the black suit and the side of the face of Sakurako with a single stream of blood dripping from a tear on her forehead.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Sakurako, you are bleeding!“ Crescencia shouted with her voice vibrating slightly on the last word of her sentence, but Sakurako did not respond and instead turned her face completely towards the drunkard.

  The drunkard kept his mouth open with a foul odor spreading from his tiny uvula, but no words came out of his throat. He was simply there on his chair as he watched over at the towering Gelip in front of him, casting a shadow over his head with a suffocating gaze backed by the torrent of wrath. Even without conversation between them, it did not take long for him to understand his position, and he slowly stood up from his chair and limped to the exit.

  However, when there was only one table between the drunkard and the door left, he saw a knife placed on top of the table for another customer, who took a peek at him with disgust in his eyes. Even though this interaction took place in no time at all for most people, it acted as an explosive catalyst that erupted within the drunkard’s mind.

  What happened next was utter chaos. With his pupils shrunk in the absence of a fair conscience, the drunkard grabbed the knife in his vicinity and charged towards Crescencia with a cry filled with murderous intent. Before anyone dared to scream in fear, Sakurako covered Crescencia with her own body and closed her eyes tightly to brace for the sharp impact coming on her back.

  In the next moment, a gasp was heard from the surrounding, alongside the faint sound of flesh being carved away by the blade. Yet, there was no pain coming from the spine, and when Sakurako turned her back to see how the situation unraveled, she saw Foreigner standing between her and the drunkard, intercepting the knife with a bare hand.

  “Wh—what is this? What are you doing? What are you people?!“

  The drunkard panicked as the warm blood of Foreigner flowed along the blade onto his hand. He tried to pull the knife out to attempt a second try at his despicable action, but miserably failed as Foreigner did not allow the blade from escaping her grasp. The grotesque sound of skin being stripped away vibrated through the knife as the wound on Foreigner’s hand got deeper, but it was the drunkard who shivered in fright as he watched Foreigner’s oddly calm eyes.

  Amidst the traumatic escalation, the path was being made for the gigantic shadow to cast upon the two, yet neither of them noticed until it fully emerged above. It was the drunkard who spotted the figure first, and soon Foreigner turned her head to witness a colossus standing behind her. Then, the next moment, the colossus spread out his arm towards the drunkard to seize his head with a single hand.

  “How dare you cause a commotion in my store…“

  At the growling low voice, Foreigner lifted her head to see Eskandar, and she saw the wrathful eye and the gritting teeth through the opening on his bucket from below. Crescencia used the moment to pull Foreigner away and hastily brought her and Sakurako into the back of the restaurant while covering Foreigner’s hand with her handkerchief.

  “How dare you disrupt the night for my guests…“

  The drunkard was lifted into the air by the hand of Eskandar, pulsating vigorously with the rush of adrenaline and blood to pump his muscles beyond limit. For the first time in many years, or perhaps in his life, the drunkard released a voice of apology, but no one could hear it through the domineering aura of Eskandar.

  “And how dare you lay a hand on my staff!!!“

  With a cry thrice louder than the first two, Eskandar swung his arm, and the drunkard flew across the room. Alongside the weeping scream of a pathetic man, a chill gush of wind blew in the room, surprisingly being pleasant as it carried the smell of delicious food and remarkable justice. The man, who was now a mere projectile, struck the window next to the entrance, and the glass shattered onto the street filled with people as he went through the air until he finally came to a halt after crashing on the wall at the other side of the building.

  The silence swept into the restaurant and the street. However, when the crowd in the restaurant realized there was no one involved in the incident other than the drunkard himself, someone tentatively clapped, in a manner only audible due to the total silence. Then another followed, and soon another. Shortly, the restaurant was filled with the sound of acclaim for the justice being served, while the audience gathered around the drunkard outside looked at each other in confusion. And amidst the split party, Eskandar stood between with his posture fixed at the moment he threw the drunkard, in disbelief at what he had just done to his restaurant with his own hand.

  “Oh.“

  “If you say you are fine one more time, I’ll be seriously mad at you!“

  Crescencia raised her voice in the staff room while searching through the cabinet for the first aid kit. Foreigner and Sakurako were sitting on chairs, one scratching the back of the head with her unwounded hand and making a shallow smile while the other remained silent with her arms crossed and her eyes closed.

  “Ms. Crescencia. I’m telling you, I don’t need your help. This is nothing but a scratch, and I can take care of myself.“

  Sakurako threw out at the back of Crescencia cynically, with Foreigner looking at her with shock and awe of how she could say that just after Crescencia said not to. Crescencia replied by slamming the first aid kit she found on the table, flinching both Foreigner and Sakurako in surprise. She pulled out the disinfectant, medicine and gauze and then went for Foreigner first, but her eyes were focused on Sakurako as she snapped at her.

  “No! I said you are not doing it by yourself, so you are not doing it by yourself! Did I make it clear?“

  At her words, Sakurako did not reply but dropped her eyes to the floor. She released her arms and touched the wound on her forehead, feeling the stinging pain that echoed through her spine and reached the tips of her fingers.

  “Don’t touch it!“ Just before Crescencia started her treatment of Foreigner, she snapped once again at Sakurako for her actions.

  Sakurako again did not respond and averted her eyes away from Crescencia while releasing a long sigh, but, for some reason, Foreigner felt Sakurako was enjoying the moment, even if it could be the slimmest emotion. However, she soon lost spare time to care about others when Crescencia poured water on top of her wound, and the sharp agony entered through her veins and spread to her brain.

  “Owowowowow! It stings way too much! Is it supposed to do this?!“

  “Hold still! Or you may get an infection!“

  Foreigner gulped down the pain by biting her own lips, and Sakurako watched over the treatment while secretly being worried about the upcoming care on herself. Once the process of disinfection was over, Crescencia applied the medicine and wrapped the wound with the gauze carefully but still swiftly, then she found her smile and bright voice back.

  “Alright, you are all set! But this is first aid, so you should visit a doctor tomorrow. Sounds good?“

  Foreigner watched over her hand covered with gauze and slightly clenched a fist in her hand. Even though she couldn’t make a full fist without going against the pain, she felt the care and thoughts poured down in this small treatment. Alongside her own pride in this honorable wound, she somehow felt grateful for the moment she was cherishing right now.

  “Thank you, Crescencia! It’s almost like you are a doctor!“

  “Well, thanks! I suppose all those years of studying weren’t in vain.“

  Crescencia moved to her next patient, who was clenching her three eyes tightly while raising her bangs with her hand. She was smiling as she said so, but her eyes were filled with sorrow, or perhaps it was regret.

  “Are you studying to become a doctor?“

  Foreigner asked carefully, as she knew that she probably shouldn’t pursue further, but couldn’t resist the urge. Sakurako was acting indifferent, but her ears were twitching faintly, and Crescencia noticed the interest.

  “I used to, not anymore though.“

  Crescencia mumbled the last part of the sentence with a smile dissipating from her face. Foreigner felt uneasy at the heavy atmosphere she had brought in, but before she could do anything to make up for her action, Crescencia returned with a smile and spoke in a light voice she forcefully produced.

  “Oh, I know! Why don’t the three of us hang out this weekend? The truth is, you two are the only people working here I haven’t spent a weekend together! Well, minus Chef Eskandar, that is.“

  “I’m busy this wee—“

  “O-Oh! That sounds fun! That sounds fun, right? Ms. Sakurako?“

  Foreigner quickly disrupted Sakurako trying to reject to ease the mood of Crescencia and sent an urgent help request by winking to Sakurako, who corrected her statement after a shallow sigh.

  “If we are talking about three days later, I have some time.“

  “Perfect! Then it’s sett—“

  The conversation got interrupted by the creaking noise of the door, and the three diverted their attention to see Chef Eskandar entering slowly with the energy drained to the bottom. He first spoke in a gleeful voice to join the chitchat, but it steadily turned into gloom as he knew there was news he needed to deliver to the three.

  As he shared the news, the three lost the smiles they were hardly maintaining on their faces. For Sakurako, she knew this was how things would unravel. For Crescencia, she knew this was how things would unravel, but she had a hope in the corner of her heart. For Foreigner, she never expected this would be how things would unravel.

  That she would become jobless once again.