Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Bakery

In front of Fang Yu and Felix was an old house. If they didn't ask Aunty Vilma and Aunty Susan beforehand, they would think that they went to the wrong place. The structure was old and there were some cracks on the walls.

Felix and Fang Yu went inside. And in the room, some old tables, chairs,  a counter, and more importantly there was some bread on the baskets in the counter table.

“Hello, is anyone here?” Felix said loudly. Because beside the two of them, there was no one else in the room.

“Coming!” The sound of a young voice was heard from the back room. The door behind the counter table opened and a young beastman came out.

“Hi? Do you want some bread?” The beastman was a teenager, from its looks, he maybe was the same age as Felix. He had very colorful orange hair and a pair of round ears on top of his head, it looked like hamster ears. He also had some freckles on his face. Looking at the bags under the brown eyes of the boy, even if he had a smile on his face, everyone could see that he was very tired.

“Yeah, some Aunties recommend the bread of your place. Can we have two loaves of bread, please?”

“Oh! You should be talking about Aunty Vilma and Aunty Susan.” The boy stopped for a second looking at Felix and then at Fang Yu, and like a light bulb lighting on his head, an idea came to his mind. “Are you Felix and Fang Yu?”

This time, Felix and Fang Yu were surprised, so they could help but asked. “Do you know us?”

The boy only laughed a little, the tone was mocking, just like a silly child remembering something funny. “Yeah. Aunty Susan said that a troublemaker rabbit had finally found a good husband. She said that he was tall, handsome  and full of vigor, it was a good catch.”

Fang Yu wasn't surprised that the two aunties with loose mouths would mention them, but what caught his attention was “Full of Vigor?” What was that word related to him?

“Well, she said that you two had fun for several days, and that she was going to sew some clothes for the upcoming baby.”

“Coff Coff” Felix, he choked on his own saliva, hearing that.

That pair of gossipers! So shameless!

But Fang Yu wasn't embarrassed at all. He remained calm, like hearing the most natural within the world.”

Noticing Felix's embarrassment, the boy didn't tease him anymore. So he smoothly changed the topic. “ Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm Henry. Welcome to my humble bakery.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Felix said with gentleness. Maybe it was the air around Henry, but he was very sympathetic about him.

“Well, some bread is coming!” Grabbing the pieces of bread that Fang Yu ordered, Henry grabbed it and put it on a brown bag.

“Thanks.” Fang Yu took the bag. He wanted to ask Henry, but some hesitation was inside him. Looking around the shop, the question could almost answer itself, but he still wanted to confirm it, even if it was kinda ruthless to ask a person you just met. But for his and Felix's plans, he wanted to ask anyway. “Sorry to ask, but…”

“Ahhh!” But before Fang Yu could finish his question, a strong sound could be heard from behind the shop. Hearing the sound, Henry's face changed, from his tired smile to a panicked appearance.

“Sorry, give me a sec.” Without waiting for Felix or Fang Yu to answer, Henry quickly ran inside the room behind the counter. Felix and Fang Yu looked at each other and decided to follow.

On the other side of the room was the kitchen. Even if it was a little old, it was well maintained. A table was in the middle of the room with some ingredients on it. Also, there were cupboards and shelves on the walls. There was even a sink and a pantry. But more importantly, the star of the room was the big stone oven at the corner. Felix could be very happy with all the equipment here, it would be very necessary to make his new recipes.

But leaving that aside, the important thing at the moment was inside the kitchen where the stairs went to the second floor. And in it was a man that had fallen from it.

“Dad!” Henry had already gone to help the man to get up, said worriedly.

The man was no other than the omega dad of Henry, Pathon. He, like Henry, was also a hamster beastman. He was like an exact copy of Henry, just older.

Looking at the fragile Pathon, Fang Yu helped Henry to put his dad on a chair near the table of the kitchen. “What were you thinking when you went down the stairs by yourself?” Henry said with concern and a little bit of anger. God knows how many times he had told his dad to keep still and wait for his help? But this stubborn man was like talking to a rock.

“I heard that we got customers. I had to go down and help. And besides I'm fine. Just a little slip, that's all nothing serious.” Pathon said stubbornly,

“Dad, the doctor said that you have to stay still in order to not to worsen your injury.”

“He was just exaggerating things. I'm fine.”

“Haa.. Fine, I will get the medicine.” Henry sighs tirely, no matter how many times he said his dad, the man always said that he was fine. “Sorry to bother you two, could you watch my father for a sec? I will get this medicine.”

“Sure, go. Don't worry we keep an eye on him.” Felix said.

“Thank you.” Henry said with a smile and climbed the stairs in order to find his dad medecine.

Looking at his son got up, Pathon move his sight to Felix and Fang Yu. “Oh, what a handsome pair. Are you two the newly couple that Susan and Vilma mentioned before? You know, the one that is expecting a son soon. Let me tell you, looking  at you two, surely your child would be very good looking. ”

Felix…

How many people did that pair of gossipers tell about them?

Felix's face was full of red, even if he wanted to correct the stamen of the two aunties, Fang Yu had already talked. “That right uncle. Thanks for your kind words. I'm Fang Yu and this is Felix. It's nice to meet you.” Fang Yu said respectfully. He always had a nice attitude  towards older people. Even if Pathon, want old enough to be call a grampa, he looked more older that he really was.

Pathon was surprised. He always had been a man that said things straight so he didn't hesitate and asked, “Fang Yu? Are you perhaps from the Spear Empire?”

Felix and Fang Yu retracted. Both of the were very confused. This was their first time hearing about the Spear Empire.

The rabbit system that had been quiet eating a piece of bread said.

Certainly this was new information to Felix. This rabbit hasn't told him about the geographical situation of this world. But to be fair, he also didn't ask so he couldn't get angry with his silly system.

Of course all this exchange of information was inside Felix's mind, so neither Fang Yu nor Pathin heard it. So Fang Yu still had some questions.

“The Spear Empire? Where that?”

“Oh you don't know? Is the kingdom next to ours. A lot of the people have names similar to yours. So I thought that maybe you're from there, sorry if I got confused.”

Fang Yu didn't have memories before arriving at Moon Village.  The only thing that he knew was his own name.

Since then he had a very good relationship with the other villagers, and he never hid the fact that his name was Fang Yu. How was it that nobody told him that he may be from another kingdom?

Little did he know that, all the villagers had that guess on their minds. But for courtesy, they thought that it would be rude to ask directly, so everyone had a tasic understanding of not mentioning it.  As for Felix, we'll, he just got the new right now too.

Fang Yu wanted to ask more, but Henry got down the stairs and began to put some ointment on Pathon's leg.

“Now, you have to get some rest. Also, this is the last of the medicine, later I will go to buy some more.”

“Bah, I don't need it. You should save that money. Is not worth it to waste it on me.”

“Dad, don't say that. We'll be fine, it doesn't cost that much.” Henry said with a gentle smile to his dad.

Pathin could only sigh. Henry lost this Father five years ago, since then it was only he and his dad.

At the beginning, Pathon and his alfa husband opened this bakery years ago, even before having Henry. It was very good business. Of course at that time, Turtle Town was that big as it is right now, so the shop was very friendly and opened to all their customers.

Years later they had Henry. They raised their baby in this bakery and taught him all they knew about how to make bread. IBut since the death of his husband, Pathon had a hard time keeping the business running.

His husband was the backbone of the shop, when he left, things got harder. But even if there was only he and Henry, Pathon kept the business running. It was until a year ago that the situation got worse. He had an accident that made his left leg get in bad shape. The treatment to heal it completely was too expensive for them to pay So they had been getting some ointment to give a little comfort, but it wasn't a permanent solution. What's more, since the Cheshire Pavilion started to sell bread, the customers had declined in his shop.

Now he could hardly work, so almost all the responsibility fell on Henry. His poor son had to work day and night to support this old bag of bones, he even didn't have time to find a good husband.

He  now considering the possibility to sell the shop and give to money to his son, and found a good husband for his son son he could live at ease.

Of course, Henry opposed that idea. He loved this bakery, it was full of memories of his happy childhood. Even if it was hard he wanted to find a solution to keep his bakery and treat his dad's leg.

Of course, Felix and Fang Yu had heard that the shop was having a hard time right now. And it was because of that they came here today. “Sorry, maybe this sounds a little disrespectful, but I wanted to ask, we hear that the shop has been facing some troubles lately, is that true?” Fang Yu tried to say to me in a way that neither Pathon nor Henry would get offended.

Henry shaked his head, he felt that the question was not from mockery but from concern. “Is alright, it turns out that the bread that sells the Cheshire Pavilion is cheaper and aparsntly tastier than ours.” Good choice was full of grievances. Like a child that got his favorite toy stolen. He had been trying to improve his bread taste, but it wasn't the same as the one that sold the Cheshire Pavilion.

Felix gave Henry some pats on the shoulder and said happily “I have an idea that maybe can improve things.”