As they say, the rest is history. The days that followed were spent in silence, up until one or two days later when Joan mentioned wanting to cut his hair. Alessia then accepted to do it for him, still commenting on how strange it was that he cut his hair but didn't trim his beard. The professor didn't really feel like answering so he simply shrugged and Alessia continued on with her task. He had showed the letter to Alessia, they had read it at firelight. Alessia had been as shaken as Joan. Yet, after all these trials, she remained calm on the exterior. She couldn't allow her emotions to get the best of her again.

She cut Joan hair really short, and as she was working on it she realised that the man was starting to get a few gray hair on the sides.

"Joan, you are starting to look like the old and wise professor you should be" she joked

"I thought you despised the idea of cutting my hair?"

"I still do but I'll be honest it seems to suit you quite well, plus the gray hair on the side give the whole thing a dignified look that would probably has it's place in a classroom."

"Ah, so I am getting old." Joan was smiling at the idea, he knew he wasn't old, he was merely entertaining the jest with Alessia. Yet, knowing that his hair were graying kind off cementing the last events in reality. The trials of the voyage were getting to him in ways he hadn't expected.

"Saying you are getting old is almost as saying that I am getting wise, the day that happens the world will turn upside down!"

"Maybe we should refrain from saying these kinds of things…"

"You're right, let's not give these things new ideas." Alessia checked her work proudly and handed Joan a mirror, "I think I have overdone myself this time!"

"You truly are a woman of many talents!" Joan observed his reflection, more out of curiosity than vanity. His hair, now short and his beard completely changed the way he perceived his face, he did look older and also…sadder…? He didn't really know how to explain his thoughts on the matter. He didn't hate it but he did not recognize himself in the mirror. His face reminded him of his father.

"So what do you think?"

"You're right, maybe I should trim that beard"

"Told you so, well I'll let you to it, while I go checked our bags, see if there are things we can leave behind, we need to make the carriage lighter."

"You go do that yeah, thank you."

The man in his reflection was not his father, he was his own man, he was not like him. Still he trimmed the beard, justifying it by thinking about how he used to be obsessed with the idea of appearing proper. Old habits die hard and he wished this one was still realistic to uphold. He was satisfied with the result and went back to Alessia to help her with all of their belongings and Alexis'.They couldn't part with these, they had to bring them back to his daughter. They did find a way to make the carriage appear les full by relocating things in different bags. It helped with the interior.

A few more days later, the storm was upon them and they spent a whole day crammed inside the carriage with all the luggage. Eventually Alessia had managed to get changed but she caught a cold. Once the storm had passed them Joan had taken care of freeing the carriage and then driving for the day that followed, inside Alessia sneezed and coughed in between short naps. The best Joan could do for her was to brew hot tea every time he could. And it seemed to have a good effect, at least on the moral of the woman who was soon back on her feet. Joan was beyond exhausted by then but he didn't complain, not even once.

"How far from Merriam do you think we are?" He asked as the sun arrived at it's zenith, the plains had morphed into rolling highlands and the horizon was obstructed by the hills covered in crops.

"I'd say anywhere between one and three days." Alessia had taken the time this morning to brush her hair thoroughly and braid them into two long braids, like before, she had even adorned them with little ribbons tied in bows. "With the repeating scenery and the obstructed horizon I can't make good estimations I am sorry, moreover, the days starts to blur."

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"It's alright, I often forget these kinds of details as well. You say it's one to three days and I believe you, it's enough"

"Thank you" She took her pocket watch and looked at the time, for all she knew it could be completely wrong, it read 1.24 p.m. "Did you ever learn how to read time in the position of the sun Joan?"

"I would say that's it's a weird thing to learn but, yes, I have, why?"

"You are also a man with many talents I see, It's just that I wanted to know if my watch was on time." She handed him the watch and continued guiding the horses, despite having very little to do in this situation.

"Hum...It seems correct, the sun is at it's zenith and by the time of the year, we are arriving at the end of June already, so summer is here." He looked at the delicate design in the watch case, flowers and birds it seemed. "It's a beautiful watch, family heirloom?" She took it back.

"Indeed, I took it with me when I left home, they might be looking everywhere for it" she laughed

"You didn't tell anyone you had it?"

"Why would they need to know everything I do? They stopped caring when I said I wanted to study science. "A woman of science? in this family? Alessia, think of your reputation!". That was my gift when I left, anxiety."

"I can understand, my parents were not too happy when I chose history as my passion, see I used to say that I was going to work in a bank and become rich, look how far I've come, eh"

"There is not a lot of field of science or higher study that will make you rich. How did your parents react when you continued on with History? If it's not too personal…"

"It's alright, my parents asked me to reconsider at first, then they begged me to abandon my study, arguing that they couldn't pay for them, so I simply left, I got a job in the university and continued to study. I had to be the best, you understand? Unless I became the very best of my class I would never reach my goals, I needed to be seen and recognized. Needless to say that I didn't have a lot of friends and that the last ten years of my life have been pretty lonely."

"Oh, it had never occurred to me...I thought…So...That's why you were so cold to us at first? You just didn't know how to handle this kind of situations?" Alessia realised she was being rude, not only had she never realised how different Joan and her were, she had also misunderstood his entire personality so far. She thought he was just stuck up and pretentious. Joan laughed.

"Not only did I not know how to act in social situations I was terrified of behaving wrong, I figured that by not getting involved I would reduce the amount of mistakes I would make!" Joan smiled at her and continued. "I had never been good at social interactions but my studies really put me behind, I'm sorry if I came off rude and cold, it was not really my intention."

"I really didn't like you at first! I'm glad we got that cleared up! Also I need to coach you because there is no way you are going to be able to make a name for yourself if you are like that with everyone, some may take it for professionalism but some might hate your attitude to the point of acting against you in situations where you are nominated for a price or something!"

"Oh ! Really? I thought I was acting as expected of a history professor…Do you think that's why carrer is currently facing a halt?"

"I can't say for sure, but yes, it might be one of the reasons!"

"Ah, so I was being a fool!"

"It's alright, you have me now!"

Despite being tired, and needing to nap, Joan spent the rest of the day listening to Alessia present him with a variety of situations and asking him what he would do. He found out that he was wrong most of the time and also complained a lot about people hiding their true intentions. Especially woman in positions of power. Because they had to fight more than any other man to get to where they are, they are the most prone to conceal their true intentions behind fake smiles and pleasantries. Joan cursed the way Suloo's society was because it made everything a thousand times more complicated for him to navigate. Suddenly the equations describing the hidden mouvement of stars and planets felt like something he could grasp. Numbers and laws of mechanics made sense whereas smiles and introductions lost theirs.

Alessia tried her best to coach him, having spent most of her childhood in etiquette classes, but the man was so inept at basic social interactions that she feared for how he would fare once she'd left his side. The number of social cues he could pick up on could be counted on one hand and the number of false one he sent by just being who he was in a conversation was enough to make any lady dizzy, her included. At this rate, she thought, not only will he never find a wife he will also most likely make the whole scientific community his enemy by mistake. Not that finding him a wife was any pressing matter, it's just that it felt so unachievable that she almost pitied him. The worst in all of this, was that Joan, she realised, was not half bad. He was charming, good looking and undeniably well learned. A part of her wanted to accompany him to San Vale just to witness the utter disbelief on any lady's face that he would encounter. Not in a mocking way...yeah, a little bit in a mocking way, but also because it would be interesting to see if he had learned anything from their time together.