Taking the container back inside, Ensen checked inside and was shocked that all of the cookies were gone, with only a few crumbs at the bottom.
Assuming that Kaitlin had thrown the cookies out, Ensen was a little disappointed. He reasoned that she did like the gesture though, as evident from the note she left.
Taking the items to the kitchen, Ensen rested the note on the counter as he slowly washed the container.
Afterward, Ensen decided to leave the note there for now and call his friend. Grabbing the phone out of his pocket, he made his way back to the couch and rested on it before opening his contacts and giving Harris Cleveland a call.
After it had rung for a few moments, there was a voice on the other end.
"Hello, who is this?" The voice on the other end said in curiosity. He never gave his personal phone number to his clients so only people he knew had it. Besides telemarketers of course, but the number calling him was local.
"Hey Harris, it's been a long time. It's Ensen calling." Ensen said with a friendly tone of voice, trying to immediately get on Harris's good side.
"Oh, It's… Ensen. Of course." The other voice said trying to fake that he knew who was actually calling him.
Realizing his bluff, Ensen felt slightly offended but still persisted on like a soldier.
"We went to SilverLeaf together, remember?" Ensen said, trying to get him to recognize him.
Harris didn't respond for a few moments before seemingly having an epiphany on who Ensen actually was.
"Oh, that's right. Sorry, it's been a long time since we last spoke so you slipped my mind a bit." Harris said, feeling slightly guilty that he did not recognize his old friend.
"No worries Harris. Do you still work as an interior designer by the way?" Ensen asked calmly, getting straight to the point.
"That's right, the same place too. I've been moving up in the company a bit, so it's been a nice experience." Harris answered with a bright voice.
"I was actually wondering if you had room to take on another client. It's completely understandable if you can't." Ensen said reasonably, not wanting to pressure him into doing if he couldn't.
"Yeah, the business has been quite slow for me recently honestly. I mainly work with bigger clients but we haven't gotten too many this year, so I'm just relaxing at home now trying to draw some in. Who would the client you be like to introduce to me?" Harris answered in a calm voice. It was quite obvious that he was working quite hard to get more business for the company.
"Oh, it's myself. I recently bought a school building, it's being renovated right now but I need somebody to help with the furniture and things like that. Would you be willing to take me as a client?" Ensen asked with a slight nervousness in his heart. Although he had twisted the truth a little bit by saying he bought the building, it was not too important.
After a few moments of silence, Harris responded with excitement in his voice. "Yeah, I can see what I can do. Come down to the office with the building plans and we can discuss what we'll do. I'll text you the address. Anytime after 2 pm is fine so take your time."
After responding in understanding, the call soon ended. Unsure how he could get the building plans, Ensen called out to the system.
"I can get the building plans, right?" Ensen spoke, unwilling to spend any more education points on the matter.
A blue box soon appeared before Ensen. The words were filled with stubbornness and a hint of revenge.
'It seems the system is still mad about me scamming him earlier, huh?' Ensen thought to himself as he turned to read the message.
[8 education points.]
"Wait, why eight? That's all I have! I can't even learn the manual with that. You're a scam artist!" Ensen yelled at the system, unwilling to spend the remaining education points.
[The system has judged that creating a floor plan will have an innate risk of spreading the design elsewhere. This could lead to consequences if not properly taken care of due to a possible leak of the design. While this would not be the host's fault, he is responsible since you created the item. As such it has a higher price tag.] The system wrote, obviously wanting to preserve his objects.
As Ensen was about to respond, the system continued.
[It is fine if mortals manage to copy the design by examining the building, as they will be unable to write it down because of my interference. Not mentioning the fact that it would be a disgrace if an object created by I, The Supreme Academy fell into the hands of a mortal.]
Changing his train of thought, Ensen asked a question "Aren't I a mortal as well, though?"
[That is correct, but once a mortal is granted a system they gain a special privileged status that separates them from the rest of the mortals. This makes it okay for systems to grant objects because of the divide.] The system explained logically.
Nodding in understanding, Ensen fell into deep thought about what he should do.
While he could pay the premium to get a highly detailed and efficient floor plan, it was not really necessary in Ensen's eyes. He could simply tape the various sketches together that he had made of the building beforehand. While they were not 100% accurate due to the slight changes the system made to improve the design, they were very close to the layout.
Ignoring the system's messages, Ensen looked around for his sketches that he had made. Luckily the system had kindly returned them after he had finished his business in the Product market.
Quickly finding the tape, Ensen laid the papers in front of him and began taping them together.
After a few minutes, he had completed his work. Although it did not look great, it was completely free for him to do. While it definitely was not up to standards if compared to a normal floor plan, hopefully, his friend would be lenient with him in this manner.
Looking at the time, he still had a little while before it was time to leave. As such, Ensen decided to continue to read. As he was walking towards the couch to get comfortable, a big blue box that took up nearly his entire vision appeared. The letters were large and had a red outline with drops of red running down the box as if the letters were bleeding.
[You are a terrible person.] The system wrote, outraged at how they were cheated once again.
Reading the blunt message, Ensen was actually slightly hurt from how straight forward it was. Trying to ignore it to not fan the flames under the system's fire, he tried to pay attention to his book.
Luckily the system seemed to have given up, as such Ensen continued to read for a little while before it was time to go.
After quickly changing clothes and putting on his jacket, he made his way towards his car and slowly drove towards Harris's office.
After being delayed by unexpectedly heavy traffic for quite a bit, Ensen finally arrived in the parking lot. Beginning to feel slightly embarrassed at how messy his floor plan looked, he took a deep breath and walked into the building.
Finding the receptionist at the front desk, Ensen was quickly guided to Harris's office where he was waiting.
Although Harris had an odd expression when he had seen the rumpled floor plan, he did not say anything which was good enough for Ensen. After a long conversation that lasted for a few hours, they had formed a general plan for the furniture. All that was left was to pick the specific furniture that would be bought.
Surprised at the fast progress of the plan, Ensen muttered "He really is good at his job."
After their meeting had ended, Ensen shook Harris's hand and returned to his car and slowly drove back home.
Pulling into the apartment parking lot Ensen quickly hurried towards the elevator and returned to his apartment. Once inside, Ensen was met with a message from Harris notifying him of their good progress today as well as a few options for the furniture.
Deciding to look over them before he headed to bed, he slowly browsed his options before picking out what looked visually appealing to him. He picked out a rather simple looking school desk. For the desks that the teachers would use in class, he picked a nice oak desk that would fit in well with the atmosphere of the room and a few other objects.
Satisfied with his choices, Ensen messaged Harris back notifying him of his decisions before crawling into bed. Although he would need to head back in tomorrow for a little more planning, most of the groundwork had already been done so it would not be too bad.
'I'll probably be done with this around the same time the construction finishes.' Ensen reasoned to himself in excitement.
Unknown to Ensen, the system had been working on destroying the old building and constructing the new one overtime the past day to get the building created as fast as they could for him.