On my way out of the restaurant, I crossed the path of a group going in–Special guests who were actually common customers and who contributed greatly to the continued image of prestige to the restaurant… Namely, the city lord, Einhert Vont Tolten, and his wife, Poppy Vont Tolten. Of course, they were also accompanied by their five children… Or perhaps, I should say six…

  Looking down, the lady of the city was as pregnant as one could be–Not that I was surprised. Ever since those two had gotten married, there had been a steady flow of descendants.

  “Mara! How are you doing?”

  Poppy walked up to me and gave me a hug–I enjoyed a close relationship with her, back when Leton and I had started the restaurant, she and Einhert had still been a young gal and lad. Poppy would often be around alongside four other girls which ended up becoming quite close to me.

  It was actually in the restaurant that the two lovebirds had met.

  “I am just fine, Poppy. I can’t help but notice that your stomach has suddenly increased in size, sweetheart… It wasn’t so long ago that we last met, was it?”

  “Oh, the physician said that I had ‘Cryptic Pregnancy’ or something like this, ahah! We wanted to have a pause, but it seems like this one started right after the last baby was born. Apparently, we women are extra fertile after giving birth or something like that?”

  “Huh… Never heard of this, well anyway… Congratulations on the new baby”

  I looked over at the city lord, who did not seem to be exactly pumped up about it–I think I know who it was who suggested that they slowed down on the baby-making… Poor fool was a noble who had an army of maids to take care of the kids, but he just had to actually try to be a proper father to his children. I suppose this is just the Poppy virus getting to him. She was too sweet and lovable for anyone to want to make her sad, so when she had said that he should spend some time with his kids, he started spending a whole lot of time with them.

  I knew it all, Poppy literally told me everything, even the more private details… I was well aware that Mister Well-Respected City Lord listened to literally everything his wife told him. Perhaps a bit too much, even… It didn’t really project the image I had of a married man. He should be the one calling the shots–At least, that’s what I would want if I were in Poppy’s place, but since my girl was happy, I was happy too.

  “By the way, since I have you right there, Lord Einhert… Last night was actually quite restless around here”

  “Mmh? How so?”

  “The masked creep roamed around the restaurant, and then some lowlife attempted to take control of the Security Computer from the outside. No worries, though. Neither of them actually managed to do anything… It was a great idea to invest so greatly in security”

  “Oh my! I can understand that the prowler would end up here, but why would anyone want to mess with such a great place? So many people feed themselves exclusively here”

  It was true that a lot of commoners would come by morning, noon, and evening to eat something. We had a lot of dishes available, after all. Prices ranged from low to high as well. The only two likely reasons something like this would happen would be if a competitor was feeling bold, or if a certain, half-witted, street-roaming woman had decided to try hiring someone to mess with me.

  …I currently favour the second option, and I didn’t hesitate to mention it to Einhert and Poppy. Although they hadn’t been to the funeral, they had known Leton a fair bit, even if it was mostly through me. My brother had never been one to enjoy social interactions much, so he had always kept away from the public from the very start–While I had been playing the role of Glown and working in the kitchen in the beginning.

  Part of the reason a lot of people came by so often was partly thanks to me. They felt like the restaurant was like visiting a friend, in a way.

  “This Eleanori woman truly sounds like devil spawn! If she really tries to take you to court, don’t hesitate to ask for help. We’ll be here for you”

  Poppy puffed her chest, which brought a small smile to my face as I patted her head.

  “Thank you, littl-”

  I stopped myself and blinked in confusion.

  “Is something the matter, Mara?”

  “Nothing. I think I just got confused. I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately”

  After spouting my excuse, I bid goodbye to the noble couple and their well-behaved children, pressing one hand against my forehead.

  Why did I almost just call her ‘Little Sis’? I never called her that before, did I? I am close to her and the other girls, but never to this point… Yet, it flowed out of my mouth so naturally that it is a miracle that I was able to realise and halt my speech.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  …It must be the emptiness Leton left in my life… Yes, I probably just subconsciously want a sibling… A family to take care of… I suppose those six are the closest that I have to younger siblings… Wait, six? Why six? There are only five of them…

  Poppy, who is happily married to the lord of Tolten. Annie, who is now an athlete who represents Rootriska during competitions with our allies. Gigi, who works as a waitress at the main location. Nessa, who is the manager at the second most popular location… And Elowen, who is currently training in a knight establishment I recommended her to.

  Yep, that’s five… Why did I think there were six for some reason? I felt oddly confident about it as well.

  I really must be tired to be imagining people who don’t exist–I’ll get some rest and then change my mind with some work. I still need to finish the blueprints for some of my clown girls.

  After lingering around the restaurant to make sure the automatons weren’t acting up, I headed back home to sleep in my bed. I fell asleep like a rock, only awakening as the sun was barely below the horizon… Despite the fact that temperatures were quite high, I felt a chill in my room.

  I didn’t think much of it. I just ate dinner, and then retreated into the basement where the workshop was situated, as per usual. Nothing had moved, and since no reports were on the computer and no one had come knocking on my door, it meant that the day had gone by without any issues with the bots.

  My focus fell on the work ahead as I took a seat.

  Last time, I worked on the blueprints for Pink and White, the ventriloquist and the sleepy time attendant… When it came to my clown girls, I considered these two to be part of a group of four, with each of them not really interacting much with one another, but being in the spot as they served unique functions.

  Although the main attraction would be the trio on the main stage, it was likely that people would find their favourite automaton amongst these instead. These clown girls were simply more unique.

  First, to work upon was Black. A magician-clown of a much different design philosophy than the rest. Indeed, until now, all of the robots had been thought out with the younger audience in mind. I did not doubt that teenagers and adults would also like them a lot, but Black was intended to be more ‘interesting’ for adults… Adult males, in particular.

  I was hoping that she would convince fathers to bring their children to the location more often. Unlike the other clown girls, who only had basic female shapes and wore thick layers of clothes, Black would take advantage of the skin-like appearance of the outer shell I was going to use for them.

  Naturally, I wasn't going to be making her vulgar or overtly alluring, which would be in bad taste considering the family audience the location would be aiming to bring in, but she would definitely be noticeably more shapely than the rest, dressed in a mixture of a magician and a magician’s assistant–The kind wearing a leotard and bunny ears–She would definitely catch the attention of male teenagers and even some adults.

  Nonetheless, her main schtick wasn’t her look, but her magic tricks. She would need to be quite advanced to have a big catalogue of tricks and the dexterity to actually perform them in a dynamic manner.

  Somehow, though… The thing that I spent the most time on ended up being an accessory–Her hat. I wanted her to be able to lift it to greet people and to thank the audience at the end of the shows, but I also wanted her to have the bunny ears to really go alongside her mixture of looks between magician and magician assistant.

  The answer ended up being quite simple: The ears and hat were merged into a single piece of headwear, rather than keeping them separated…

  Black would also be a mascot who wasn’t going to be leaving her stage. She would only appear when it was time for one of her shows.

  Last of this group was Brown–Most certainly the clown girl who was going to cost the most at creation and during maintenance. I was actually seeing quite big with her, perhaps even overestimating my capabilities as a mechanist, but for some reason–I couldn’t help but feel confident that my vision would come to pass as I was imagining it.

  Brown was going to be a great presence–Literally, she was going to be a giant compared to the rest. She would tower over the customers, and it wasn’t just her height that would be impressive. She was going to have exceptionally long and spindly limbs as well, all the while dressed in a typical, ample clown attire, accompanied by a huge, round ruff around her neck.

  She was also going to have very long hair. The goal was for her to be an impressive sight to begin with, but her ‘occupation’ was linked to the circus, and it was that of a contortionist.

  Brown was a giant, clown-contortionist. Her steel skeleton would have to be incredibly specialised to be able to bend as I wanted it to, and doing so with such a large automaton only made the challenge even more difficult, but she was certain to make head turns with what she would be capable of doing.

  …Naturally, due to her proportions, she wouldn’t normally walk around the restaurant. She would be just too big and heavy for it to be safe, especially while having her keep a clown-like personality and demeanour–However, I was thinking that during certain special events, allowing her to stand to her full height inside various areas of the location would be a great addition.

  Ahh… I am really liking how my clown gals are turning out. They are all beautiful and cute. I can’t wait to see them built…

  I leaned back in my chair, stretching my arms and back. Thinking about the next sets of automatons. These ones were definitely going to be quicker to get done. The other two groups were made up of four bots again, and then only two.

  All of them were going to be quite different from the regular kind of entertainment automaton, though… But I was going to leave this for another time. I didn’t realise it, but whenever I was down here working, time flew by before I could realise.

  Morning was close by, and it was just as I walked past my front door that an envelope was slipped in. Looking out of the peephole, I saw the back of a regular-looking person walking away carrying a big bag.

  It was just the regular man who delivered letters.

  The envelope was opened and quickly ripped in half.

  This bitch was serious. She really does intend to involve the court in this… How greedy can one sub-human be?