The one who came in was Alexander Winston who was completely stunned by the scene inside the store.
There were dark splotches of some kind of dangerous liquid all over the store, there was Seul Ah and Guang Liang lying together being healed by an A Rank healer, and Maria was there cleaning up the entire mess.
It was almost as if there was a battle in this store.
Alexander immediately released his magic energy to sweep across the store, but he found that there was nothing strange here. There wasn't a single trace of the monster energy, so there shouldn't have been a fight that happened here.
Unless the fight was between Seul Ah and Guang Liang?
But that was even more impossible since he knew how the two of them felt about each other…
So what happened here?
Maria had been surprised by Alexander's sudden appearance, so she didn't reply right away. But after recovering from her daze, she explained what happened here.
Alexander revealed a bitter smile as he looked at the two lying there unconscious.
He had heard about Seul Ah's cooking lessons before and he had personally seen the aftermath of one of these cooking lessons before, so he knew just how destructive they were.
Since that was explained, there was no reason for him to ask any further and instead, he offered to help Maria clean up.
Maria just gave him a mop and a bucket and asked him to clean the floor without any hesitation.
If there was anyone else here, they would have been shocked by this.
Alexander Winston was one of the few S Rankers in the world and he was being asked to mop the floors of this cafe?
If his legion of fangirls were to hear about this, they would definitely storm Maria's shop and crush it to the ground. However, the S Rankers of the store would never allow this to happen, so they did all they could to hide the existence of Maria's store from the outside world.
Just a single S Ranker had enough power to influence a country, so there was no need to mention what a group of S Rankers would be able to do.
With Alexander helping, Maria was able to clean up the cafe in no time, especially with him using his lightning magic to speed himself up. The floors had been mopped clean in an instant with just a yellow flash.
Once they were done, Maria asked, "What are you doing here so early? It isn't time for dinner yet."
Alexander revealed an awkward look when he heard this.
He had indeed come with a reason, but he had been hesitating on how to bring it up the entire time. Even now, he still felt awkward bringing it up because it was a very awkward topic to bring up.
But he also knew that there wasn't a better chance than this since Maria was already asking him why he was here. If he missed this chance, he wouldn't get another one like it.
So taking a deep breath, Alexander said, "Can you come and meet my parents?"
When these words were said, before Maria could even say anything, both Seul Ah and Guang Liang jumped up from behind her.
They had been unconscious up to that point, but the words "meet my parents" entered their subconscious and forced them awake.
They immediately jumped up in front of Maria, but before they could say anything, they suddenly felt sick again.
Even though they had jumped up, they still hadn't been fully healed yet, so their bodies couldn't handle it.
Still, they ignored this and forced the sick feeling down before turning to Alexander and saying at the same time, "Who do you think you are, asking my big sister (my Maria) to meet your parents!"
Both of them even pulled out their weapons as if they were prepared to go all out against Alexander.
But Alexander didn't do anything and just stood there with an awkward look on his face.
If he didn't have to, he wouldn't want to do this either…but his parents had told him to bring someone with him for the family dinner. There was an unspoken relationship between him and his parents, so even if he was very unwilling to do so, he had no choice but to bring someone back to meet them and the rest of the family.
He didn't want to bring a random girl either since he felt that this would create more problems than it would solve, so he had to bring someone that he was familiar with.
Someone from his guild was even more impossible since that was someone that he had to see almost daily and had to work with, so it wasn't as if he could just ignore them after this dinner.
So the only person that he could think of in the end was Maria.
Or rather, she was the only person that had been in his mind in the first place.
But when it actually came to inviting her, he was strangely nervous. Even though he proposed marriage to her every day…
Even he didn't know why he felt this way…
Before Guang Liang and Seul Ah could attack though, Maria came in between the two of them and Alexander.
When they saw this, they immediately said at the same time again, "Big sister (Maria), move out of the way. I'll take out the trash for you!"
But Maria firmly stood in between the two of them and Alexander.
After they stopped moving, she said, "Don't be rash, there must be a reason why Alex would make this request. He's not someone that would do something like this for no reason."
Guang Liang gave a cold snort and said, "What other reason could he have? He just wants to get you alone so he can trick you into marrying him."
Seul Ah nodded along and said, "Maria, don't be fooled by him. People that look like him are always hiding a dark side underneath. You can't let him fool you."
Alexander just stood there with a calm look as Guang Liang and Seul Ah insulted him. He didn't know why, but he didn't care that they were insulting him.
Instead, all he cared about was Maria's response after hearing what she had said.
His heart was tense from the anticipation.
Maria shook her head and said, "No matter what, Alex is our friend and we should listen to what he has to say, right?"
Both Seul Ah and Guang Liang's face twisted when they heard this, but they could only nod with sighs after hearing this.
The A Rank healer knew that this wasn't his place to interfere, so after quickly healing up Seul Ah and Guang Liang, he left the cafe.
Before he left, Maria gave him some muffins she made to thank him.
When he left the store with those muffins, he held them like they were the most precious things in the world and quickly headed back to his guild. He wanted to find a safe place to eat them without being disturbed.
After all, he knew the secrets of Maria's cooking and had been eating her cooking for a while.
He could feel that he was just a bit away from breaking through to becoming an S Ranker, so any food that Maria gave him was his greatest hope.
That was why he was willing to drop everything just to come and help her.
Back in the cafe, Maria and the rest all sat down at a table after Maria made some tea and snacks for them.
Once they were seated, they all looked at Alexander and waited for him to speak.
However, he just sat there with an awkward look on his face.
If it had just been Maria sitting in front of him, he would be able to say something. But with the two outsiders sitting there, it made it more awkward for him.
But in the end, he still had to say something or they would be sitting here forever.
So Alexander explained the situation and then asked, "Maria, will you do it?"
Before Maria could say a thing, Guang Liang moved forward first and said, "Huh? You're saying that you want to bring my big sister to some strange place with some strange people to help cover your lies? Do you understand what you're saying?"
Seul Ah ignored Alexander and turned to Maria to say, "Maria, don't be fooled by him. Once he brings you home, you will be in his territory and there will be no escape. Men like him are all wolves and they can't be trusted!"
Maria ignored the two of them just like Alexander did and looked at him to ask, "So basically your parents want you to bring a girl home and since you don't know anyone good or it would be too awkward for you to ask someone from your guild, you want me to go with you? But why me?"
Alexander hesitated a bit before deciding to tell the truth, "Well, you're my closest female friend and I figured that I could ask for your help."
That was true since most of the time, Alexander avoided intimate contact with females.
It wasn't that he wasn't interested in girls or anything like that, it was just that people that usually approached him had other intentions, so he tried to avoid them if he could. Only Maria was different since she didn't have any other intentions in being his friend, she was just his friend.
Maria was silent for a bit before giving a nod and saying, "Alright, I'll go with you."
Both Guang Liang and Seul Ah were shocked when they heard this, but then they immediately slapped the table and said, "You can't do this! You'll be falling right into his trap!"
Maria looked at them with a smile like she didn't know what to do with them as she said, "What trap? Alex is our friend and if he needs help, then shouldn't we help him?"
Seeing the pure smile that she had, neither of them could bear to say anything. So instead, they turned to glare at Alexander.
But Alexander was completely in a daze and didn't notice any of this at all.
After taking a while to come back to his senses, he asked in a slightly dazed voice, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that again?"
Maria tilted her head to look at Alexander like she was confused as she said, "I said that I'll go with you. Is something wrong?"
Alexander completely snapped out of his daze at that moment and shook not only his head, but his hands as well as he said, "No, no, not a problem at all."
Maria was surprised to see him acting like this, but she chose to ignore it and asked, "When is it? What time should I get ready?"
Alexander quickly stood up and said, "It's tomorrow and I'll come and pick you up at eight. I'll also send a dress for you tomorrow since it's a black tie affair."
Maria just said "oh" before saying, "Then should I dress up for it or anything?"
Alexander shook his head again and said, "No, no, you'll be fine the way you are. Just the dress will be enough."
Maria nodded before saying, "Alright." She revealed a smile and said, "I'm looking forward to going with you."
Alexander was once again knocked into a daze seeing this bright smile before suddenly covering his face and running out of the store. As he ran out, he said, "I'll be back tomorrow."
Maria waved her hand as she sent him off.
After he was gone, both Guang Liang and Seul Ah started complaining to Maria and trying to convince her to reconsider. However, Maria just patted them on the heads and told them that it would be fine.
As for Alexander, he was standing outside the cafe with his hand on his chest, feeling the fast beating of his heart.
He didn't know what it was, but the moment that Maria had agreed, his heart suddenly filled with a strange feeling that he had never felt before.
It was a strange sense of anticipation and excitement, as well as a bit of worry.