Harman used the ballpoint pen as a carving knife to deeply carve his emotional handwriting on the paper, "Wu... Wait, wait until you get better, I... I will resign! Humph!"
The thin pen was smashed by the destroyer, and broke into pieces on the floor, revealing a straight core inside. The black ink was almost invisible, and it seemed that it was only enough to write those two words.
Yorktown said nothing and still had a smile on his face. In comparison, Harman, who smashed his pen and burst into tears, seemed like the unreasonable one. This was hard for Harman to accept, and he slammed the door and left sobbing.
The loud noise shook the plastic fragments on the ground. York City looked at the list and sighed helplessly and apologetically.
She struggled to get up and put the list in Rodney's locker. The top compartment was for hats, which were quite high and could not be seen at all when the papers were spread out.
Yorktown took off the hat, closed the cabinet door, then dragged himself out of the lounge and looked at the people in the hall who were surrounding Harman to comfort him.
"Today... ahem, I may have to leave work early today. I have to go see a doctor... ahem, Rodney, I've got your hat out for you. Here's the key to the store. I'll give it to you tomorrow..."
Rodney didn't suspect anything, but was a little confused about Harman's crying. However, seeing that her boss didn't seem to have any intention of explaining, she had to take the hat and keys and nodded in agreement.
The few guests were confused, but seeing Yorktown's weak appearance, they could understand and spontaneously quickened their eating and drinking pace, and left within a few minutes.
Harman and his two friends left without saying goodbye. Nelson frowned, obviously in a bad mood. Rodney was more careful and asked the boss while locking the door:
"Are you...really okay?"
"Ahem...well, it's just a cold and fever, it's normal..."
"...That's good. I'll take you to the hospital. I'm worried about you taking a taxi alone."
"No, I'm not in need of help yet, otherwise... you'd have to call an ambulance right now. Ahem..."
Rodney locked the door and kept the key. After hesitating for a moment, he pulled the slightly angry Nelson away. Yorktown watched them go away without saying another word.
The next day, except for the boss, everyone came to work as usual. Except for Harman whose eyes were slightly swollen, there was nothing unusual.
Due to the lack of cashiers and baristas, Rodney had to suspend the supply of desserts and prepare to sell only coffee drinks.
As usual, they went into the lounge to change clothes. The bedding on the bed was neatly made and the debris on the floor was swept away, leaving no trace.
Rodney didn't dare ask Harman what happened. She thought that when the boss came back, the two would definitely reconcile, so she took off her hat in silence and put it on the grid.
But at this moment, she suddenly touched something different, smooth and slightly rough, and quite different from the texture of the cabinet.
Rodney frowned and squeezed it, then pulled out the thing by the folds. It was a piece of paper with two signatures on the lower right corner and a long text in the middle. The title was
【Property Transfer Agreement】
Chapter 730 Please
This is a very heavy piece of paper, weighing only a few grams, but it can support an entire cafe, or even more.
Rodney's usually gentle expression turned into surprise. After quickly browsing the contents, he could hardly conceal his look of shock, which was seen by Nelson with a sour face.
"...What's wrong with you? Why are you opening your mouth?"
Harman frowned and looked over when he heard that. Just as he was about to ask something, he suddenly found that the piece of paper in Rodney's hand looked familiar. There was a protruding mark on the bottom of the back, which was her name.
"How did you get this?" Harman was sulking, not wanting to see this thing. "Hmph, now you know why I'm angry, right? She doesn't treat us as her own people!"
Rodney had a complicated expression. He lowered his eyes to look at the furious destroyer, paused, and said, "Do you... know what this is?"
"Yes, she said it was an agreement to prevent us from stealing her money. I didn't want to let you know about it, but you found it... Where did you find it? She should have put it away."
"...Did you read the content before you signed it?" Rodney subconsciously crumpled the paper.
Harman shook his head in confusion. "Why should I watch? The more I watch, the angrier I get. Anyway, I'll quit when she comes back. I hate this feeling of not being trusted."
Rodney pursed his lips, handed over the paper, and took out his cell phone to call the number marked with "Boss Cheng".
Harman took it unhappily, glanced at it and stood there in a daze, looking at it again and again as if he couldn't believe it, until a slightly dull ringtone rang in the room.
【Ding Ling Ling—
[Ding-ling-ling——
It was a very retro and boring call reminder, but at this moment, it served as a good reminder, allowing Nelson to easily turn over the pillow and find his phone.
"...It's hers."
Harman rushed over with red eyes to snatch it away. After hanging up the phone, he turned on the screen without any obstacles. Without a password, the phone displayed the interface before the screen was turned off by default.
【Notepad】
[Dear Harman, S**, Bush, and later Rodney and Nelson, it’s a pleasure to meet you. ]
[I'm sorry, I can only say goodbye to you this way, because I don't have much time left. For your safety, it's better to leave early.]
[I originally opened the shop because it was too quiet and I wanted to hear some noise, so I chose a coffee shop that would have customers and where I was good at. 】
[As a result, business was bad and I didn’t make much money. I sat in front of the counter every day, staring at people coming and going outside. I always felt that I didn’t fit in with them.]
[It was magical that you came and used strange ways to make my shop lively. There were customers every day, and every customer was very satisfied.]
[Whether it was mistakes or laughter, you guys added so much brilliance to this place that even I, who was slowly fading, was also dyed with color.]
[I like this kind of life very much, and I hope it can continue forever. I am not a good businessman, but I will try my best to be a good family member.]
[But... things don't always go as planned, and it's time to say goodbye. ]
[Please don't hate my leaving, and please don't waste your energy looking for my whereabouts. ]
[Life is about to come to an end. Too much persistence is useless. It is better to cherish the present and live your life well. ]
[As for Little Harman, I'm sorry for lying to you and tricking you into signing that agreement.]
[After all, if I tell you directly, you definitely won't sign, right? I understand your little tsundere personality better than anyone else.]
[I hope you can accept this gift. It can be considered as... an early celebration of your birthday next year, right?]
[I had nothing when I came here, and I don’t want to leave with nothing. ]
[I don’t like silence very much, it reminds me of my past self, so…be happy, the cafe will always be your home. ]
Thank you.
A drop of boiling water hit the light screen and slid down along the tilted angle, followed by the second drop, the third drop...
“Ha, Haman…what’s wrong with you…?” Si** asked cautiously.
Harman, who was crying silently, paused for a long time before handing the phone to Rodney, and stared blankly at the crumpled agreement in his hand.
There were a lot of words on it, densely packed, but Harman couldn't see them clearly. She only knew that some of the underlined spaces were empty, where she could write her name.
The writing on the lower right corner feels different. One seems to be written with resentment as ink, and the mark is very deep, while the other seems to be filled with something else, light and soft, leaving nothing but color.
Nelson felt uncomfortable after reading it, and looked down at the little cat girl, "Harman...you..."
The hand holding the paper suddenly exerted force, and the fragile agreement was torn apart by her hand, folded, and torn apart again, over and over again. Relying on the power of the ship girl, the paper was torn into snow flakes.
“..what a joke…” Harman clenched his fists and trembled with anger, “You said you didn’t want me, but you gave me a chance to stay, and now you leave me here…”
"You... you are a human being, but you are playing with my feelings like this..."
"Let me stay here obediently? Ugh... Dream on. Why should I listen to a human being's orders? I... I will definitely find you, pull you out, and then..."
"I'll scold you severely!"
"I'm sorry, although I know Boss Cheng, from the existing surveillance records, we really haven't found any trace of her."
After the military police gave the answer, he felt a little reluctant and added: "Of course, we will do our best to follow up. We will tell you as soon as we find any clues. If you find anything, please let me know in time."
"This missing person notice... Boss Cheng? Uh, it can't be the one from the coffee shop? How come the business was doing so well, but he suddenly ran away? Weird..."
"What's so strange about that? He must have owed money and was afraid of being caught, so he ran away, right?"
"Are you mentally ill? How much profit does a coffee shop make in a day? And it's still in debt? Are you kidding me?"
"Alas... it's a pity. I don't know if I can still drink her coffee. To be honest, it's quite tasty."
"No, it's already three o'clock in the afternoon. I've been here four times throughout the day, but they still won't open the door? Don't they usually put up notice boards when they're closed? Why wouldn't they make money?"
"Ah...it's going to rain, I'm going to the store to borrow a - huh? Why is it closed? Isn't today a working day? Wow...it's raining, it's raining, ugh, what bad luck..."
Harman was walking on an unknown street with a dazed look on his face.
She ignored the hurried passers-by around her and let the rain wet herself. She was wondering where Boss Cheng would go.
He didn't go to the hospital when he was sick, and there was no one at his residence. The owner of the barber shop said that he hadn't been there for a long time. In the past three days, this guy seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
"what do I do?"
「Who else can help me?
"...I want to see her again."
"Anyone, please, let me find her..."
The dull eyes suddenly lit up at some point, like the last spark of fire rising from a burnt-out charcoal fire.
Haman took out her phone tremblingly and tried to unlock it several times because of the rain. She was angry and tore open her coat and wiped it hard with her lining. Then she quickly opened the address book and found the contact at the bottom.
【嘟
【beep-】
【Haman? What happened?】
"Help me...Su Xin, help me...'Ye'.....Wu...Please, help me..."
Chapter 731 Miscalculation
"So she is the META ship hiding in this world?"
[Arbitrator] Steliancus used his huge hand armor to hold the extremely weak woman, and turned to look at the Purifier behind him, "Can't you see?"
The Purifier knew this person, Yorktown. He had once been with Su Xin and her group who had come out to seek his help. He seemed to be a retired veteran who opened a coffee shop.
Due to the long period of peace, the Purifiers did not investigate the identities of everyone, but instead focused their attention on Su Xin and all the ship girls in the port.
Until his colleague, Stellenkus, suddenly came to visit and said that he could feel the scattered META energy in this world.
At first, the Purifier thought that Helena and Enterprise were the two guys who appeared again, but unexpectedly, Steliancus shook his head and rejected her guess.
"I've been dealing with them for much longer than you think. This smell... is someone else."
The Purifiers had no doubts about the candidate at the time. After all, even the [Mind Unit] had not yet become popular in this world, so where could they produce a [META]?
The research data she handed over to the human leaders was quite complete, but with the current level of scientific research, it would probably take several more months to successfully develop the [Mind Unit] and complete [Cognitive Awakening].
"So this person is definitely not from this world?"
Stelchencus snorted coldly, "What if it is not? If so, can you still stay here?"
That's right. If [META] was really born in this world, then outsiders like them would be isolated and the experimental site would be abandoned.
She is not a local shipgirl, but she has the power of [META], and she is not [Enterprise] or [Helena]...
The Purifier was stunned. "Are you here on vacation?"
"Heh..." Sternkus sneered, "Vacation? For retirement, right?"
"My own world no longer exists, and I don't want to join [Ember] to make a meaningless struggle. I have no choice but to choose a world that I like and wait for death."
"But I understand why she chose this place..."
Sternkus narrowed his eyes and glanced at the Purifier. "In addition to the lax guarding, it also has the characteristic of [not being able to trace back]... Didn't you notice?"
"......Ah?" The Purifier was clueless.
"I will report to my superiors how you neglected your duties." Sternkus explained with a sour face, "I tried, but I can't go back to the past."
"This is impossible!" The Purifier's eyes widened. "The experimental field is still in the early stages of development. This kind of situation shouldn't happen!"
"But it is true. If you don't believe it, why don't you try it now?"
The Purifier frowned and flashed on the spot for a moment, his puzzled expression was replaced by shock, "This... indeed, I can't enter at the time before the stationing, this, this shouldn't be..."
The restrained York City seemed to be more awake, and asked weakly, "...won't you... hurry up... and finish me off...?"
"I've never seen anyone in a hurry to die." Steliancus glanced at the guy on the hand armor and smiled arrogantly, "Don't worry... I'll keep you for other purposes."
[Helena] is quite familiar with the situation in York City. Since she can enter this world at any time, she is not in a hurry.
She and the Enterprise have a lot to do, investigating traces of spatial disturbances, dealing with strange things caused by disturbances, and avoiding conflicts with the idiots of the Arbitration Authority...
The energy imbalance in York City is a recent occurrence, with a cycle of about one month.
Every month, Helena would take time out to return to this world and use the "ring" left to her by her sister to help York City suppress its energy.
