The two of Althea and Ansel left for the soon-to-open Gaea Supermarket each with a baby on hand. As they walked, Ansel's free hand pushed the empty stroller, in case their arms got tired.
Maya and Theodore, of course, also happily joined in the fun.
Althea smiled at the two children giggling, patting Maya's little head with her free hand. "Hold on to Theodore's hand tightly okay big sister Maya? We don't want him getting lost in the crowd."
Maya bobbled her head cutely, grabbing Theo's hand like the best big sister.
Althea chuckled and continued to give them more precautions. There would definitely be a crowd there.
She then turned to Horus, who had just appeared after a morning of 'work', gathering resources to pay his 'rent', joining them in their excursion.
He was a very diligent little kid.
"As the oldest boy in your group, you will guard your siblings well, okay?"
The little boy adorably straightened up his spine, looking dedicated. "Okay!"
Horus then took the empty stroller to push, eyes not leaving the other two kids.
Satisfied with the arrangement, Althea and Ansel carried the babies by hand and continued on their way.
Because Harold and the others were already in the supermarket, the group was composed of two adults and five children. This alone caught a lot of attention.
Fortunately, no one was too impolite and stared too long. They simply smiled warmly as they sent subtle stares.
"Hmnamma." Ansel felt the soft pudgy Little Pepper shift in his arms and his heart softened into a puddle.
She was extending her small hands in Althea's direction, mumbling continuously. Seeing the little girl call on his mom, they decided to exchange babies to carry.
Little Meatball was startled to suddenly leave the soft arms of his mother to this new guy, staring at him blankly at first as if he didn't know why it happened.
It was super adorable.
Little Meatball seemed to have noticed his 'mocking' eyes and he stared accusingly, tears lining up his big eyes.
Ansel flinched. 'Oh, dear me—'
Ansel was afraid of being framed as a mean boy bullying the weaker kid—something he had done more than once with Garan back when they were children. So, he quickly cooed at the little boy, praying he didn't make a scene and ruin his image.
He tried gently swinging the boy, then when it wasn't working, hastened his pace, and it just made the little guy's eyes even redder.
F—
Seeing that it was useless, he changed his approach and playfully threw him up in the air for a throw-and-catch game.
Fortunately, Little Meatball wasn't sent by a mysterious force to take revenge on him for his father, and the kid actually started giggling.
Althea smiled and the other people around also laughed, complimenting him for being a good father.
This made him pause. They must look like a family of four, er, no, a family of seven and a dog.
Tsk. He should've brought a camera. And then he'd show them to Garan when they finally met—whenever that may be. Since Althea was confident he was here, then Ansel subconsciously believed the same.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know he had children, did he?
"Hey, what are you thinking?" Althea asked, looking back at him and seeing him in a creepy daze. "Let's go!"
"A-Ah," he said, though internally he was cackling.
Finally got to one-up that jerk!
…
The opening of the supermarket would be as grand an event as a Terran store opening would.
Well, relatively.
After all, there was a decisive lack of the usual party items.
There was no more gunpowder so how could they get fireworks?
There was no paper (yet) so how could they have confettis? A lot of the other party items were also based on paper.
There was also a pointed lack of pigment variety as well, so how many colors could they paint the makeshift banners?
All that Harold and Sheila could organize was some manifested gongs by Oslo.
They hired some people from the construction team to hit the gong when the opening time came.
Speaking of Oslo, that guy was seriously overworked lately.
Althea made a mental note to add some special bonuses to particularly contributing NPCs. Should she make an MVP NPC of the month or something?
There was also Brenda who had worked overtime for a few nights with Eugene with the machines for cotton.
Rumor had it that her dating life took a toll because of it.
At this, her emerald eyes looked among the crowd and saw Brenda with her love life (Troy) next to each other and all shy.
They were blushing and giving each other subtle glances, and when their eyes met they would look away with shy smiles on their faces.
Fortunately, whether or not the rumor was true, they seemed fine and happy now.
The seven of them settled somewhere near the stage, waving through the crowd which politely opened to them like a sea parting to make way.
After all, who dared block the big boss and her cute babies?
There were hundreds of people in the area so it was understandably very crowded and a bit chaotic. There were guards around that kept the peace though, so nothing too serious happened.
Anyway, Harold and the others obviously did a good job in marketing.
They even saw a number of the newcomers who came with Ansel, though most of them had obviously cleaned up, though their clothing had a lot of holes (like at least half of the population).
In particular, there was the trio and their older guardian, who were all chewing on something as they waited excitedly for whatever may come their way.
Like them, there were many others who, instead of resting after such a long trip, joined the fun instead.
Althea smiled, recalling how they were when she met them. In less than a day, they were already in the mood to join a random event.
She shook her head in amusement and turned back her attention to the stage. As an opening program, Harold and the others organized a short show in the park square in front of the supermarket.
Even Althea didn't know about the program they prepared, and she was quite excited.
She had a feeling it would be quite... fun.