Ryker ignored the two women and focused on the last pieces.
A snort came from the short-dress beauty. "It's just a watch. Can't you take a few minutes away from it?"
Ryker didn't seem to hear this at all, his hand and mind having entered a state of focus once again.
"Sofia!"
Rosemary pulled her friend back with a hushed whisper. She knew how important this watch was to her grandfather. Nothing could ruin it.
It was enough of a surprise to her that her grandfather wasn't watching Ryker like a hawk from start to finish.
"What's the big deal? The street is making more noise than me by a mile," Sofia spoke with dissatisfaction.
First she had been ignored, and now she was being reprimanded. Plus, she wasn't the biggest fan of this place to begin with. She had no idea how Rosemary, with her family background, could possibly have a grandfather who lived and worked a shop here. Just the dirtied streets and concentration of people made her skin crawl.
"Done."
Ryker looked up with a smile, sliding the casing back over the watch and shutting it. After placing it back in the box, he looked up toward Rosemary and handed the box over to her.
"Ah…"
A feeling of anxiety came over her as she accepted the box, shifting the little bunny in her arms. She was very much afraid of dropping it and ruining everything.
"Well, aren't you two looking quite beautiful today." Ryker beamed.
Rosemary flushed, but Sofia only snorted again.
"At least you know."
Ryker clicked his tongue. "I might have to take away a point for that attitude."
"What did you say to me?!"
Rosemary panicked, stepping forward to mediate between the two. Her slender arms struggled to juggle her Spirit Beast and the pocket watch, her face flushing with hints of anxiety.
"Don't fight! Ah, I, um… Ryker, I wanted to thank you for yesterday. How about I treat you to a meal?"
Ryker's amused expression morphed into a bright light.
"A meal? I accept!"
He had already been wondering where he would get his meal from today. Now that such an opportunity had fallen into his lap, an invitation from a beauty no less, how could he not accept?
Rosemary's small face flushed with a hint of excitement. She didn't notice as the poor little bunny in her arms was squeezed between her forearm and chest, turning what should have been a soft touch into a guillotine of flesh.
Forgetting to say a word of explanation, she dashed into her grandfather's shop with his watch in hand.
Sofia didn't seem very put off being left alone with Ryker though this could be said to be their first time in such a situation. She watched as he packed up his things, taking a curious glance at some of the delicately carved wooden sculptures that peeked out from his large wooden box.
"Rosemary is too good for you," Sofia suddenly said. "Though, I have to say, your sculptures are very good. Maybe if you could afford some better materials your future would be brighter, but you might not have the strength to carve so well if you used them given your cultivation."
Ryker stretched his back, placing his two palms behind his waist and pushing. He always maintained perfect posture even when sitting on the ground like this, but that didn't mean he could do without some stretching.
"There's only one woman in this world too good for me, and she happens to be my fiancée, not your little friend." Ryker replied casually. "So, you could say there isn't a woman in the world that I want that I can't have."
"Fiancée?" Sofia blinked in surprise. She scanned Ryker up and down as though this was the first time she was seeing him. "You have a fiancée but you spend your daily wages on food and women? What kind of man are you?"
"Hey, hey. A man's got to eat."
"In a brothel?"
"Have you tried their chicken wings?"
Sofia's eyes almost rolled to the back of her head. She was the subject of not a small number of looks as people busied the streets, but she had almost not realized that her entire focus was on the young man sitting before her despite the fact he hadn't looked up even once.
"Do you really expect me to believe that you only go to the brothel to eat?"
"When did I ever say that? Are you slandering me?"
Sofia was left speechless. Saying that he didn't do anything but eat in the brothel was slander? What was wrong with this man?
"Either way, don't go harming Rosemary. She's too innocent for the likes of you and her mother would probably try to kill you. Focus on your fiancée."
Ryker stood and Sofia found herself with a large shadow cast over her. The sight of Ryker's twinkling, pale blue eyes looking down at her made her frown.
He found Sofia a bit cute and amusing. That line about Rosemary's mother was especially touching. In her own way, she was trying to help.
Unfortunately for her, she had no idea who he was.
"Sure, I'll leave her alone as long as you go on a date with me."
Sofia scoffed. "You want to take me out on a date wearing that?"
"I don't have to be wearing anything if that's what my little temperamental queen prefers."
"What did you call me?!"
Ryker burst out into a fit of laughter. Sofia seemed like an annoying archetype, but she was quite soft on the inside. That said, Ryker would much prefer to play around with her than Rosemary, not because of the mother Sofia mentioned, but just because she really was too innocent.
…
"He really fixed it?"
Old man Bowan looked down at the ticking watch in shock. He would usually be doting on his granddaughter by now, but at the moment he didn't even have eyes for her. He rolled it between his fingers as though he couldn't believe it.
The shop was filled with a billowing heat, a roaring furnace churning in the background and glowing red metal sitting off to the side where Bowan had left it. Any other young woman who walked into this place would have long since been dripping with sweat. Rosemary, however, seemed unaffected, her pretty brown eyes blinking in confusion as she observed her grandfather.
"Isn't that what he was supposed to do?"
"No… I had already thought of it as a scrap metal ornament when I handed it over. I already handed it off to Master Aylard for weeks, but he said it was a lost cause. I thought that since the brat helped you out the other day and since he's been hounding me for so long, I might as well let him ram his head against a wall. But this…"
Rosemary didn't know what to say.
Master Aylard was a Mystery Craftsman, one of only three their Smoke Tower City had. Much of the industrial machinery that their city rode the backs of were designed by those three, making them three of the most important figures here.
Rosemary couldn't believe that she had forgotten something so important. It was rare for her grandfather to contact her mother these days, but he had made an exception just for this pocket watch. She hadn't seen his reaction when he learned it was impossible, but he must have been devastated.
To accomplish something that Master Aylard had failed in… It could only be said that this was either a miracle, or Ryker's skill was shocking to an extreme.
"Grandpa, he…?"
"Don't ask me. I have no idea where that kid comes from or what his purpose here is, but I would advise you against getting too attached."