82.

After they ate their breakfast, Noctis finally opened the door and he is surprised to see August and Brandish once again as he thought that they left already.

"Come in." He motioned for the customers to come in. The chipmunks seeing Brandish is stumped as well. Brandish said she'd be leaving with her grandfather and is confused as to why they are here.

Noctis thought of cooking for the morning session but seeing the tension between the chipmunks and Brandish, he knew he had to make a move. He went up to the 2nd floor and summoned the two androids. They aren't doing anything currently according to the system so he called them over. A space rift opened up and the two androids came over.

"I need the two of you to man the stations down below for the time being. I have an important job to do." Noctis said and the androids nodded their heads.

When Noctis came down, the two followed him. The customers saw them and theu are surprised to see two new people from the inn. Irene in particular, continued to stare at Android 18. She then looked at 18 and Noctis for quite some time but didn't say anything.

Noticing Irene's gaze switchinf from him and 18, Noctis smiled wryly and he'll have to explain it to her later but he needs to focus on the important part for now. He gathered everyone's attention and dropped a bomb.

"These two are my disciples. They'll be the one serving the dishes today." The crowd were surprised, even Irene is surprised. She doesn't know what Noctis is doing when he said he'll put the two to work at the kitchen.

Noticing the bewilderment of everyone, Noctis has a pleased smile on his face.

'Its been a while since I dropped bombs like this. Maybe I should do it more often.' Noctis thought as he patted the two androids' back and let them do their thing.

He then called the chipmunks and Brandish to the backyard and sat down on the hammock his father made to rest in.

"Uncle why did you bwing us hewe?" Asked Brandish.

"Is it true you're leaving, Brandish?" Noctis asked and the chipmunks' ears perked up.

"Gwandfathew said we'll leave aftew eating bweakfast." Brandish said and the mood of the chipmunks fell down.

"I see. I'll bring you some breakfast, for the meantime, why don't you guys talk about it." Noctis said as he let the children deal with children's problem BUT... he will be supervising their talks.

Noctis wants to help the chipmunks socialize and talk their problems with each other while making sure that no bad blood or tension will happen between the two parties. He wants the chipmunks to learn that whenever they have problems, they can always talk about it so that they won't burt the problems down for themselves. He has seen in his past life on how bottling yourself up will make you self-destruct. Depression, anxiety, fear of rejection, he had seen and experience it all that's why he wants the kids to learn as early as possible to stop such incidents from happening.

He went inside and told them to make a breakfast for Brandish and quickly whipped one up. He then brought it outside and saw Irene, supervising the group's talks. He sar down beside her while he feeds Brandish since she can't handle the utensils firmly.

He then listened to the group, talk for an hour, while making some comments from time to time. After they talked, Noctis saw August leaning on the wall and watching their discussion and he looked happy to see Brandish play with someone of her own age but they need to go now.

Noticing August, Noctis decided to end up their discussion.

"Brandish, looks like its time to go." He said and the chipmunks looks somber.

"How about this. There is a saying that I've heard when I was travelling. They said that if you promise something and interlinked your pinky finger, you must do what you promised, or a big bad wolf will take you." He said to the chipmunks and they were scared hearing the big bad wolf.

"Promise, you'll be back, okay?" Kagura said to Brandish as she raised her little pinky finger to Brandish.

"We'll still be friends after you return, okay?" Erza said as she raised her little pinky finger as well to Brandish.

"Let's play when you come back." Pitou said as she too raised her little pinky finger to Brandish.

"Un!" Brandish nodded her head and interlinked her pinky finger with the three chipmunks.

Noctis is about to enter the kitchen to fetch some pretzel to give to Brandish as a gift, when August spoke up before he passed him.

"Sorry, for the sudden leave...." August said but Noctis cut him off.

"Old man, its fine. You should spend time with your Granddaughter, not waste your time working, you should teach some young people and let them handle your job. Besides, they have promised each other, and I'm happy that the chipmunks found a friend outside of their circle." Noctis sincerely said to August as he nodded his head. He too, felt happy, seeing Brandish interact with someone of her age.

Noctis then put some pretzels in a bag and gave it to Brandish as a gift and she was elated when she saw the bag full of pretzels. She hugged Noctis, Irene, and the chipmunks before leaving.

"Bye-bye Uncle, Bye-bye Auntie, Bye-bye Pitou, Bye-bye Kaguwa, Bye-bye Ewza." Brandish said her goodbyes and they finally left but the chipmunks were not down anymore, instead they feel happy and light.

"Have you forgotten the game you want to play? Go on and play, come here after the batch of customers leave and tell me about it. Your mother here will be the referee whether you got it right or wrong." Noctis said as he let Irene be the referee since she can sense and hear the words of the people inside while he suck at long range sensing but if it is near his attack range, no one will be able to escape his senses.

"Okaaaaay!" The chipmunks said as they ran inside, full of energy as they played the game.

"You look exhausted, dear." Irene said as she patted my back.

"Children problems drained my energy reserves. *sigh*" Noctis said.

"How about you tell me about those two 'disciples' of yours, especially the girl?" Irene said with a big smile and Noctis, instead of being mesmerized by the cuteness of her face, he felt threatened as he gulped seeing Irene's smile.

'This is going to be the hardest battle I'm going to face, since Zangetsu and Hollow Noctis.' Noctis thought to himself before explaining to Irene.