Heartbeats Amid Fire

5 - Routine

Alysa pov:

Resting my chin in one hand, I held open the book I was reading with the other as I sat at the counter in the empty café. It was ten in the morning, just a little past the time I usually opened the café, and customers were yet to come in. Well, it's not that I had many customers, considering the small populace of Amzell, but I had enough business to not freeload off the townspeople anymore.

Most of the crowd came in the evenings after everyone had finished work on the fields and, in general, their daily work shift. The men and women enjoyed some leisure and light food before they went home for the day. In fact, milk tea and scrambled eggs with spicy sauce on the side had become the popular dish for the evening snack. Some preferred soup or sandwiches or a simple version of hotpot that I had come up with that was more filling than the other dishes, and that sometimes served as dinner. I also served juices of the fruits available in the town, coffee and sweetened milk with grated almonds for flavoring.

The café's ambience was pleasant and comforting and one that everyone enjoyed while they were here. Along with the interior lighting and simple décor of a flower vase on each table, I had also set up a small bookshelf on the side – the shelf itself was being thrown away by Mr. Luther and I had taken it from him, painted it neatly and kept it in the café. The varieties of books stacked in it were donations from the townspeople – mostly books they no longer used and that they wished to throw away. While they served as casual reading for me, they were nostalgic reads with tea and coffee for those who dropped by for a time of relaxation.

Though there was not much work for me even with running the café, Mr. Luther and Arran had insisted on having Lyle help me with cleaning every other day. He often dropped by early in the mornings before opening hours and helped with sweeping and mopping and cleaning any lingering greasiness in the kitchen. Both his help and his company were appreciated, and I suppose it was apt to say that I had come to consider him as a good friend despite him being a Zero.

After all, I didn't really have anything against Zeros like the others of this world, and did neither Mr. Luther nor Arran either.

Lyle and Kian were the only Zeros I had seen so far in Amzell. Arran had mentioned that there were only four others but I was yet to get even a glimpse of them in the time I had been here. Two of them worked in the fields while one worked in Rose's workshop and another served Uncle Hugo and Aunt Sohpia. The others disliked Zeros so much that they didn't want to have anything to do with them at all...that, and there was the fact that buying a Zero from slave trading wasn't easy or very affordable for anyone in this small town. The Zeros already here were ones that had been thrown away or given away because they were no longer as useful as they were before.

Two weeks had gone by since His Holiness' visit and the so-called awakening of my healing mana. I had only used it once, rather successfully, to heal a small cut that Callum had got on his knee when he was playing. It had made me even more the center of attention and adoration – though awkward and unnecessary, I had accepted it over time to an extent.

Arran's words had only been true in this matter – I had been silly to feel burdened by the words His Holiness had spoken about destiny. Despite suddenly becoming a healer, there had been nothing out of the ordinary that had happened to me. I had only settled well in Amzell, settled into the slow, leisurely lifestyle against the busy schedule I had been keeping up with in my world. However, I did miss my busy schedule, more so the painting part than anything else, and I wondered if there would be any time when I would be able to paint again.

The jingle of the bells I had hung against the entrance doors of the café had me looking up from my book. I greeted Mr. Albert with a smile – he was a kind, middle-aged widower who worked on the fields and was a regular in the mornings before he went to work, though there were occasional days when he didn't come. I suppose he found cooking for himself every day quite a hassle and was relieved and thankful about the opening of the café.