"..."

Orion kept staring at the hourglass in silence. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, the artifact on his nightstand.

Many thoughts came and went as his emotions raged inside.

'I agree that I haven't been rushing things recently, and that I haven't taken time to rest.'

'Without them, I would have destroyed my own body already.'

He clenched his right fist, before sighing.

'I refused to take breaks because it would make me rusty, but instead, I've burdened my body, ignoring the signs of exhaustion.'

"What am I to do with myself today?"

He grabbed the bracelet that was next to the hourglass and stood up.

Right after awakening, he immediately changed to his casual cloths. Just like Amelia guessed, it was a 'grey' day.

Grey jeans, and a grey t-shirt. Very basic, though perfect to move freely in.

'No one's supposed to come today, so I'll do as Amelia suggested. I'll spend some time with everyone.'

Inside, he knew that even if he rushed everything, Elliott wouldn't return until the countdown hit zero. But he still wanted to do as much as he could.

Yet, he had to be reminded that he wasn't alone.

'We- I've left Stella alone for far too long. I haven't even thought of bringing her something...'

Placing a hand on his head, he felt ashamed of himself.

'And I considered her like my own daughter with these shallow feelings.'

He really felt like punching himself.

-

"You know it'll be too late at some point, right?"

-

Amelia's words from the previous day emerged from his memories.

'Are you saying it's not too late for that, even now?'

With mixed emotions, he exited his room.

He opened the door, and walked toward the stairs, before stopping in front of Stella's room.

For a minute, he hesitated.

Was it alright to force his way into her heart? Would she like to spend more time with him?

After standing there for a minute, he finally knocked on her door.

"Y-Yes?"

Hearing the little girl's cute voice, he entered.

"Hi. How are you feeling, Stella?"

After closing the door behind him, he stood in front of the door.

The little Stella was sitting at the desk, writing and drawing in a notebook she received from Amelia. She turned toward Orion with a very subtle smile, but her eyes were still as dark as before.

"M-My stomach hasn't growled since being here."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? I wasn't lying when I said that you would be fed correctly."

"Hmm. Thank you."

That child was able to bring out his wish to protect her rather easily. Maybe because she was a Remnant, or simply because she was a very cute child, Orion was unable to ignore her suffering.

'It's been a few days, but her complexion has already began to stabilize. Amelia trimmed her previous hairstyle, so she looks better. The food seemed to have worked wonder in giving her back some colors.'

'Yet, it is only on the outside. There's really nothing we can do on the inside.'

Thinking that, he hesitated to ask her something.

"Stella..."

She stared at him until the words came out.

"Would you like to go... outside?"

"Outside? The white place?"

Tilting her head, Orion understood that he hadn't made it clear enough.

"I can show you the sea, and the shrine if you want, but I was thinking about going outside of this place. To do some shopping, and explore cities you've never been to."

The girl's eyes opened wide, as she jumped from her chair. She hurriedly walked toward him, and grabbed his jeans with both hands.

"C-Can I?! Really?"

"Well, yes. I haven't been around lately, so I wanted to apologize."

He kneeled on front of her and began to pat her head. She looked very happy being caressed gently.

Before Orion could stand up, Stella grabbed his sleeve.

"What?"

With a smile, he asked her.

"..."

She grabbed her shirt and looked very troubled.

'Is she scared I'm going to refuse whatever she asks for?'

"Hnn~"

Stella lifted her arms above her while making a cute sound.

"?"

Orion tilted his head and began to process what she was asking for rapidly.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

'Wait.'

He picked up Stella by her sides, and made her sat on his right arm.

"You wanted to be lifted up?"

She was very light compared to what he could lift. Almost way too fragile even.

She looked at his face, before snuggling closer to him.

"Yes."

"Haha~"

A very sweet laugh came out of his mouth, which surprised even himself.

'The girls would laugh at me if they had seen that. Good thing it's only me.'

"Alright, let's move downstairs. After eating breakfast, we'll go out all day today."

"Can Sirius come too."

"Sure."

"Hnn!"

She hugged Orion with all of her strength.

A little shocked, he opened the door and walked through the door back into the corridor.

'I could have swore I saw some reaction in her eyes. I maybe imagined the whole thing.'

But he hadn't mistaken anything. He was slowly, very slowly giving back Stella a reason to live.

...

"Amelia, look at that."

Karteira pointed out a very heartwarming scene to her friend.

"Acting like a father, how cute."

They both smiled warmly at him and Stella.

"You think I wasn't hearing your discussion about what Stella liked?"

A vivid red instantly appeared on their faces, as they looked away.

"Huh?"

Stella looked at Orion with a questioning look.

"These two want to know what you like to eat. They've been talking for more than an hour.

"O-Orion! Don't tell her!"

"Why?"

"It's embarrassing!"

He smiled at them and looked at Stella, before placing her feet on the floor.

"Go sat next to them, and tell them what you would like for breakfast. I'm sure Amelia would happily prepare you what you like."

"What I... like."

With fast steps, she joined Amelia and Karteira at the table with expectations in her heart.

"Once breakfast is done, we're all going outside."

"We are?"

Karteira asked, intrigued.

"Yes, we're going to escort that little girl and show her the various city we've been to."

Amelia looked at him with a worried look on her face.

"Isn't it too soon? She might be traumatized by others still."

He understood perfectly the risks.

"I want to believe she is stronger inside. With us at her side, she might be able to enjoy things she's never seen before."

"Haaa~"

Both Amelia and Karteira sighed at the same time.

"Sure. Let's think of it as a date then. You're fine with it Karteira?"

"It's fine."

"Toast!"

Stella's sudden outburst caught everyone by surprise as she looked inside the notebook Amelia had written into.

"That was exceedingly cute coming from her."

Karteira said while smiling.

"Alright, toasts it is. With jam?"

"Jam!"

"Haha~ Sure, I'll bring you everything."

Amelia stood up and moved to the kitchen, but realized that the girl followed her to the kitchen.

Together, they prepared the toasts and everyone ate their fill afterward.

~

"What's this?"

Stella, back into Orion's arm, pointed at a building in the distance.

"That's the Elemental Shrine. We built it when you arrived in here."

"Oh."

She looked at the whirling vortex above it before looking elsewhere.

"That's a big tree!"

"Indeed. That's my mother."

While tilting her head in confusion to Karteira's words, she pointed at the tree.

"A tree is your mother?"

"I told you right? I am a fairy. Our mother is a tree that can create fairies."

"Oh!"

"Let's go say hi to her later, alright?"

"Yes!"

She looked very excited by the things around her. It was her very first time outside of the house.

At one point, she picked up a very strange sound that she never heard before. She looked in the direction of the sea while trying to understand what the sound was.

"That's the sound of the waves. We also have a sea."

Orion opened a portal after Amelia said that, and they all walked through it, appearing in front of the Siren Sea.

"..."

Stella had remained silent for a long minute as she observed the waves crashing on the sand. She noticed fishes swimming around too.

She was completely amazed by the scene in front of her.

"Oh, is that the little girl Amelia has been talking about?"

With a splash that scared Stella back to her senses, Senia popped her head out of the water.

"Sorry for scaring you."

With an apologetic smile, Senia approached the shore before moving on land.

"Stella, this is a siren. They are people Orion saved too."

"I'm Senia. Nice to meet you."

The little stars in her eyes rapidly blinked like Horizon's sky, as her interest and fascination went through the roof.

"S-Stella. N-Nice to meet you."

"What a cutie~"

Senia laughed, and looked at Orion.

"You're showing the place to her?"

"Yes. Staying inside all days is not very healthy for a young lady like her."

"Alright, just like Sirius, if we see little Stella near the beach, we'll keep an eye on her so she won't drown. I'll notice the others too."

Orion smiled at Senia.

"You have my thanks."

Not ready for the smile, Senia blushed.

"M-My pleasure."

She turned around and hid in the water, disappearing from their sight.

"Aaaaa~"

Both Karteira and Amelia sighed loudly after seeing this little scene.

"What?"

"You sure are blind sometimes. Anyways, let's move out."

Amelia left everyone behind and walked toward the portal hub in the distance.

...

Their morning was planned like this.

First, Orion went to Auro, and showed the little girl and Sirius his home. They briefly introduced the girl to the townspeople, being teased at the same time.

.

Next, he went to Logran. Dylan, like everyone else, thought that she was his biological daughter, but once he learned about the truth, he thanked Orion for doing his best in healing the girl's psyche.

Eliza had been particularly enticed by Stella, going as far as hugging her from the moment she saw her, to the very last second.

Dylan and Nylon wasted most of their time petting or playing with Sirius, and were particularly sad to say their goodbyes.

.

The third destination became Hocride. They kept it hidden so that Kamala wouldn't be bothered, and toured around the market and the port while buying some food easy to eat while walking.

Sirius seemed to not like the smell of raw fishes coming from the market, which made everyone laugh. Orion even bought a little bracelet for the little girl, just like he did for Amelia and Karteira.

.

At midday, they went to Albriar. They ate inside one of the restaurants, which was supposedly famous for its pasta. It did not disappoint. Stella seemed to like the food too.

Amelia took note of what she ordered, while Karteira enjoyed every last bite, as usual. As they ate outside, Sirius also enjoyed some meat leftovers that Orion bought from the restaurant just for him.

.

Next stop was Lahro. Stella learned that lamias existed because of her 'father', but never saw one before. She seemed to be really into those slithering tails of them.

They couldn't bother Deveralna while she was in the palace, so instead, they walked around town, enjoying the particular architecture, and the kindness of the most lamias.

Orion noticed that the hate toward humans had been reduced tremendously, and that Deveralna was working very hard toward peace.

Sirius wasn't a huge fan of snakes, though he endured the pets they gave him.

.

Orion showed the real sea to Stella, and returned to Horizon briefly to cover both her and Sirius in warm clothes before going to the south.

Turric was still under large amount of snow, but that stopped neither of them. This was the very first time these two saw snow.

Stella jumped around happily, while Sirius became the master of hide-and-seek in the white snow. After that, Orion began throwing snowballs at everyone, which started the snowball war.

The victor? Stella.

.

At last, Orion returned to the fairy realm. There was no way around it, so he had the sisters, the Queens of the realm, follow him around their town, to the fairies greatest shock.

It was at that moment that Karteira noticed that many fairies were living together. Even the Queens looked surprised. Yet, it was neither a problem, nor something to worry about.

They went around, talked to many residents, and finally, returned home when Stella fell asleep in his arms.

Seeing a dog was a first for the fairies, but they all liked Sirius nonetheless. He was a very good dog.

~

"You've seen her smile all day?"

"I did."

Everyone returned home. Orion placed Stella back in her bed so that she would rest peacefully.

Right now, Orion, Amelia, and Karteira were sitting on the couch downstairs.

Both Amelia and Karteira had their heads on Orion's shoulders, reminiscing on the day.

"Do you think she feels better?"

"I'm sure she's very thankful for what you did. She's ten you know, of course she would be interested in everything around her."

Orion smiled, and slowly drifted into slumber.

"Sleep well."

They both kissed his cheeks right before he fell asleep.

...

"Was it a good date?"

"I think I've rarely had that much fun before. I think it was good."

Amelia and Karteira were quietly speaking to one another with Orion between them.

"I knew it from the beginning, but I was a little scared he would focus on only Stella, yet, he never ignored us. Even Sirius got his fair amount of love."

"That's what I was expecting, but not that much. When was the last he himself broke free of his burden."

Amelia hugged Orion's chest.

"That smile."

She remembered his sneaky yet delighted smile during the snowball war.

"Yes, he doesn't smile like that usually."

"Let's just hope it helped relieve his stress ever so slightly."

They remained locked to Orion until it was time to eat dinner.

The next day, Orion went alone to Ryghs.