"..."
(′~`●)
At noon the next day, Annie swung on the swing and stared at the silent balcony on the second floor of the apartment building next door. There wasn't a sound from it, and she couldn't help feeling a little puzzled.
"Teacher!"
"Your lu... breakfast is ready. Please enjoy!"
Just then, Fubuki—an apprentice in name only, but really a maid—came out of the house carrying a plate of food she'd cooked herself. She set it on the table in the garden and gestured for her teacher, who had slept until noon, to come and enjoy her "breakfast."
"What a strange thing..."
(?~?)
Annie hopped off the swing in one go, but still feeling a little puzzled, she muttered in a contemplative tone.
"??"
"Tea, teacher, is something wrong?"
Thinking that there was something wrong with the food she'd made today, or that her teacher wasn't satisfied with something she'd done, Fubuki hurriedly asked, sounding nervous.
"Something wrong?"
Σ(°△ °|||)︴
"What's wrong?"
(??????)????
"Oh! I wasn't talking about you just now. I was talking about the bald uncle next door. It looks like he hasn't come back all night... Think about it, that robot uncle isn't a stray cat or dog. Is it really that hard to find him?"
Sigh...
Last night, the bald uncle had come all the way to her house, then gone back out to search after not finding that robot, Genos. Judging by the completely silent balcony and the lack of any of the sounds you'd expect from a shut-in coming from the apartment, Annie knew he definitely hadn't returned.
"Ah..."
"So that's what you meant..."
"Maybe they went to fight monsters?"
"Yesterday, Mountain Ape and Lily told me that for some reason the monsters suddenly went berserk. Most of them soon retreated, but quite a