Chapter - 31 - Matchmaker (2)

James had come to the Eclipse Restaurant for a simple purpose. He hypothesized in his spare time with Fox that there was definitely a reason behind Victor's behavior.

Since James thought he had done everything that could be done, and thanks to the forced leave that Lucy gave him, they should stop by this Eclipse Restaurant, find out the reason and, if possible, repair the relationship between Victor and Lucy.

So yes, they were really going to do that. Because James knew he had to take precautions in case of failure. At least he didn't want Lucy to be left alone if something happened to him, and as a result, he didn't want her to ruin the restaurant again. It was unlikely to happen, but not impossible.

But in the meantime, he didn't expect to meet the girl who had almost hit him again.

Whatever had happened by the time he arrived, her expression of panic had been replaced by anger. James was intrigued by this.

As he walked over to her with a little curiosity, he heard this black, short-haired girl grumbling:

"Oh mom! Who gets sent to work just because I watched the match? Where am I going to work?"

James paused. He found what she said strange. Fox, meanwhile, explained:

[Some people have families like that. Going to the match is probably just an excuse].

He nodded his head in agreement, approached her, and asked:

"Excuse me, do you have business here?"

It wasn't a very good introduction. But it was out of curiosity that he approached her.

The short-haired girl looked at him curiously with her deep blue eyes. But her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw and she stammered.

"J-James, what are you doing here?"

James realized now that her voice was quite familiar. He raised his eyebrows for that reason. He didn't remember hearing her voice, even though he had seen her before. How was her voice familiar?

While thinking about this strangeness, James smiled and spoke:

"I'm going to see the owner of this place. For a trivial matter. But who are you? And what are you doing here? You were just running around."

The girl remembered that she was about to bump into someone earlier. She hadn't even looked who it was because she had left in a hurry. She put her hand to the back of her neck, scratched it slightly and laughed embarrassedly.

"I'm sorry. Ha ha. I came here to work, but the criteria they were looking for was even stricter than I expected. I just got stuck."

James's eyes lit up. There was a shortage of intermediate staff to work in their restaurant when he was not there. Like an investor, his eyes were shaped like dollars. This was the perfect opportunity.

She was surprised by the fact that his eyes actually glowed, but her expression returned to normal with surprising speed. As if she had seen it before or took it for granted.

James, not noticing this, asked:

"Hm, you know the restaurant where I work. We have an opening right now. How would you like to work at the Moonlight restaurant?"

James was not good at beating around the bush. That's why he got straight to the point. And as he had learned from Volt, it was better to get straight to the point.

The girl looked at him in surprise. She was obviously not expecting such a sudden offer. James realized that she was surprised and started to explain the conditions:

"You can relax as you won't have much workload. The robots and I are already doing most of the work. Besides, you can leave whenever you want, and the pay is quite generous compared to the job."

With that, he began to wait. Surely he would be able to solve one of the problems preoccupying his mind in such a serendipitous way, and he didn't want to miss it. He couldn't always keep up with everything, whether it was him or not, and he would undoubtedly have to make up the shortfall somehow.

He was already thinking of putting up an ad for that. But that would not be necessary if this girl accepted.

Her expression became thoughtful and skeptical, with her thoughtfulness more prominent. If anyone else had asked her, she would undoubtedly have refused. But coming from someone like James, who worked in a popular restaurant, she couldn't refuse.

It would also be a perfect opportunity to indulge his own curiosity. But at the same time he thought it was quite risky.

He hesitated while wearing a troubled expression and expressed his hesitation as follows:

"Well... I was surprised by your sudden offer. Thank you, but sometimes I have to go because of a special need. So... If you don't mind, only then I can accept."

It was clear why she had been thrown out. No workplace, let alone a restaurant, hire someone who went back and forth on his own accord.

Still, James smiled and said it was fine.

"I also have to go somewhere sometimes, in the same way. As long as we don't both go, it'll be fine. You know..."

He raised his hand and pointed to his gauntlet.

"I'm a brawler."

She looked excited for a moment, but then shook her head from side to side. She opened her mouth. She was about to say something, but then she coughed slightly.

"Uhm, okay then. I don't think it'll be a problem, I'm Esther, let's get along, shall we?"

James extended her hand, ignoring the weird sense of familiarity he felt on Esther's face, and they shook hands.

At this moment, Fox's mumbling was heard.

[This girl... She looks familiar, but from where...?]

Immediately after Fox said that, an image of someone appeared in her mind. But she didn't say that. She saw no need to distract James with unnecessary speculation.

While James was experiencing similar feelings, a new and quite unrelated quest appeared in front of him.

<Quest: Matchmaker>

<Description: As if you had nothing else to do, decided talk Victor and find out about the state of his relationship with Lucy, are determined figure it by day Tournament.< p>

<Requirement: Fix their relationship before the day of Tournament, at least to point where they can help each other.>

<Reward: 2,500 SP>

<Penalty: None>

<Do you approve the quest?>

This was clearly a quest that he expected and wanted. If such a mission came up, it would mean that there was something different from what he thought and something he could fix. That was what he inferred from the system.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he smiled and shook hands. He had no idea how to solve this. But if he was lucky - and luck was one of the factors he relied on the most in his recent experiences - he thought he would find a way to talk his way out of it.

Of course, that didn't mean he was leaving everything to chance. He hadn't come to the restaurant unprepared.

James sent Esther to help Lucy after they had finished shaking hands. After all, he wasn't the boss, it was Lucy who would decide whether or not to take her on. He walked into the Eclipse Restaurant as she approved the quest.

He asked the first waiter he saw where Victor was. He was already more or less well known here, having been there and back a few times. So, without much trouble, he learned that Victor was resting in his room.

Although he usually met him on the top floor, this time he went to his own room. Well, it was in a back room on the second floor. He asked the guard waiting there to tell him that he was there to see Victor and waited.

The guard came for a short while and said these words:

"You can come in."

James grinned and started to walk inside with the guard.