"Venn! Brother! Are you there?!"
It's only 3:00 in the morning. People in the entertainment district don't sleep, but even during this time, they couldn't muster as much energy as they did during the night, so as a result, the entire street sounded quieter than usual.
Well, quite enough that Yenru's panicked calls outside the pawnshop grabbed other people's attention.
"If you don't answer..." He screamed at the very top of his lungs, his eyes filled with worry, "I'll blast the door open!"
"Vennrele!"
"Oh, fucking shut up!" An irritated voice coming from the inside made Yenru swallow back his clash.
The pawnshop door was pushed open. Inside was a disheveled looking Venn. He was still wearing the clothes from last night, quite not something he'd do in normal circumstances, but his bloodshot eyes that were out for blood made Yenru hesitant to ask any questions.
"You call me this early just to gawk at my face?" Venn scowled, his jaw tightened as he held back the desire to lash out before saying, "Come inside. You're making a scene. At the end of the day, we'd be the talk of the drunkards."
Yenru looked at the slowly gathered crowd and guiltily rubbed his nose before going inside.
"Sorry, I didn't really mean to disturb you but the client, oh shit!" Yenru's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Pointing at the wreckage, his voice rose, "What happened?! Did you get another bout of insanity last night?"
"Give me a break." Venn rolled his eyes and looked at Yenru maliciously, saying, "If I really went insane, I'd definitely go to your office and smash all those antique vases of yours."
He had been eyeing those "babies" ever since Yenru melted the majority of his valuable jewelry as a "prank".
"I, so what happened here?" Yenru was smart enough to change the subject.
"Those sons of a whore. If I really manage to catch them, I'd skin them alive and use their bones to make a new set of jewelry for myself." Venn vowed murderously. He glanced at the mess and felt that his head was about to hurt again, but he still explained.
"Someone broke in last night and when I arrived, they had already escaped. They destroyed everything inside." Gritting his teeth, Venn emphasized, "EVERYTHING. Even my bed was shredded! But those sons of a whore didn't even take anything!"
It's like a dog went inside your house and it didn't take anything but left behind dog shit on everything you owned.
Yenru found a recently fixed chair on the side and sat down. He looked at the devastation inside the shop and came to a conclusion.
"Remember the last client you had last night?" Yenru's voice was grave.
Venn was quick to catch the gist. His breathing slowed as he thought of something before nodding at Yenru's question.
He wasn't surprised that Yenru knew what he was doing, since he was also monitoring Yenru the same.
"I remember it very clearly." Of course, it's memorable. That person just "gave" Venn his new favorite earring. But Yenru wouldn't just talk about this if it was irrelevant, so Venn had a guess.
"He's dead?" That was all he could think of.
"Yes." Yenru took out an envelope from his coat and gave it to Venn. "After you gave him the money for that jewel, he went to the ship station to book a ticket outside Planet Melen. Sadly, before he could even board the spacecraft, he was sniped down by an unknown assailant. He died on the spot."
Flipping through the file, Venn found out that the man was a Hopping Merchant. Typically, Hopping Merchants stay on a planet for a month before moving to another, but this guy seemed to be stuck in Melen since it had been four months since he last traveled.
When he finished reading it, Venn went silent before he sighed, "I accepted a 'bomb', didn't I?" His voice was helpless.
He shook his head and tossed the file back to Yenru. Venn sat back on the rug and picked up the torn bear placed at the side and continued sewing.
"Venn?" Yenru was confused. He scratched his head and cautiously asked, "What are you going to do? Want me to help you investigate the dead Hopping Merchant?"
Venn touched the bear's pink ribbon and abruptly said, "This toy is already very old."
"Ah... Huh? Yeah. It looks scrawny. Why don't you just buy a new one?" Yenru had no idea what this topic was all about, but he still went with the flow, waiting for Venn to get to his point.
"This toy is already 12 years old." Venn continued talking about the teddy bear while stuffing back the cotton inside it.
Yenru noticed the toy bear was wearing a pink skirt, clearly it's a toy for girls, so he couldn't help but ask, "Uh, it's cute but it doesn't seem to be something you would play with. Who does it belong to?"
"My sister." Venn answered. He raised his head and gave Yenru his usual flamboyant smile, "Thank you for your help, but don't worry. I won't die. I'm too much of a menace to die easily."
Although he could have investigated the Hopping Merchant himself, the fact that Yenru worriedly came to check on him was nice.
"It's nothing. You helped me many times before." Yenru was still worried, but he decided to trust Venn.
"Okay. Now scram." Venn immediately took Yenru's help for granted and pushed the baby-faced guy out.
"I still need to fix everything in my shop, so it would be better if you leave." Venn then slammed the door after saying that, leaving behind a dumbfounded Yenru.
...
"Oh my... I'm certainly dead meat." He dramatically covered his face as he slid down on the door like one of those legal wife dramas shown on the internet.
A tiny box with wings hovered in the air before it landed on Venn's knees.
[Ding! Communication mode turned on.]
"Young master, stop it." Little robot Nol said, its screen face showing an angry emoji [•ˋ _ ˊ•]. "You're smiling."
Venn peeked out of his hand and looked at Nol in surprise, "Was it that obvious?"
[ •‿• ] : Yes.
"Don't blame me. I always had a thing for theatrics." Venn smirked as he combed his hair with his finger.
[╬ Ò ‸ Ó]: You're about to die. What are you happy for?!
"A little robot like you wouldn't understand an ambitious man like me." He sat on the table and pulled out a small box containing the suspicious earrings.
[・д・] ? : You gotta at least explain!
"Actually... It's genuinely terrifying to be targeted by an unknown organization." Venn said as he gently picked up one of the pair. Fascination brewed in his eyes.
"That Hopping Merchant came from a CC21 planet. Those suspicious men killed him without hesitation. I don't think they'd have any qualms killing a FE14 citizen like me."
Turning his head to Nol, Venn gave the little robot a bitter smile, "I realized I'm just a tiny ant..." Then he paused and shook his head, "I always knew I'm worth nothing outside Melen. But being slapped like this hurts my ego. I can't just accept being treated like prey."
"I'm not a Fate's Favored, I'm just an ordinary person... Ahem, well maybe a genius and the most good-looking."
[ ಠಿ_ಠ ] : Self-awareness check is important! Don't be delusional.
"Damn it! Don't destroy the vibe of my monologue!" Venn grabbed Nol and gently shook it.
"Argh! I lost the flow of my thoughts." Venn surrendered and went straight to the point, "Fine. At first, I was scared and angry, but later, I got ambitious and excited thinking about how I got something valuable in my hands."
[ ^_^ ] : I don't know how to evaluate you, young master.
"They'd probably kill me either way, so I might as well use this thing to my advantage. Hmm, as for how... Well, there are many ways for that." Caressing the blood red gem on the earrings, Venn giggled, "Hmph! Serves them for underestimating me!"
[ •‿• ] : They probably never thought you'd have a screw loose.
"This is not insanity! I'm clearly being practical here!" Venn defended himself.
He walked towards the shattered mirror hanging on the wall and touched his bare ears.
"Earrings should be worn, right? Let's see what the fuss is all about."