When Raine’s birthday finally came around, it was finally time to set Irideis’ plan in motion.
‘You’ll be more than capable of distracting Raine, even if you didn’t try at all,’ Irideis had said.
Nikolay didn’t exactly like the tone in which Irideis had said it, but nonetheless — the plan depended on him to lead Raine away from their apartment. While they were out shopping, Irideis was in charge of decorating the house’s main room with balloons and streamers.
“So- why are we going grocery shopping, anyway?” Raine crossed his arms. “Irideis has always kept the fridge and pantry stocked, even if we never see them. I thought you’d be the type to call this a waste of time.”
Raine was right, of course. He expected nothing less from the person who he’d spent all of his current reincarnation’s life with.
All he had to do was convincingly lie to keep up the illusion. Unfortunately, he was exceedingly bad at lying — especially when the person he was trying to deceive was Raine.
“We can’t keep relying on Irideis,” Nikolay reasoned. “If we haven’t seen them at all, who knows when they’ll suddenly disappear for good?”
Given that he actually had seen Irideis, the lie sounded all too fake. There was no chance that Raine would believe him-
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t like putting my life in other people’s hands, anyway.”
Surprised at the quick change in heart, Nikolay looked over at Raine to make sure he wasn’t being sarcastic. Sure enough, the latter looked as honest as ever.
“What?” Raine pouted, noticing his reaction. “Was I supposed to refute you?”
“No, no, not at all…” Nikolay waved away the other’s gaze. “I’m just surprised that you accepted so quickly.”
“I’m not THAT much of a stick in the mud. Only when you go off and do something stupid.”
“I’ve never done anything stupid,” Nikolay huffed.
“Sure, sure. Let’s pretend like you’ve never tried to do anything that endangered yourself.”
They continued bickering all the way down the street, barely stopping to look at the stores on either side.
When they’d first met, Nikolay would’ve been too pissed off to even entertain their conversation past the first few lines. Now, it was strange to realise that he found a piece of familiarity in their petty exchanges. The actual words didn’t matter as much as the fact that they were talking to each other.
The more he thought about their interactions, the more he was aware of how far they’d come. It felt surreal to think that they’d actually hated each other when they were last in Marque.
Suddenly, Raine stopped in his tracks. “Hey.”
Thinking that he was speaking to him, Nikolay turned around with a questioning expression.
He then quickly realised that it was not the case. Raine had an iron grip on a passerby’s wrist, who was trying to pry their arm away. Clutched guiltily in their trapped hand was Raine’s wallet.
“You could’ve at least tried a little harder to be discreet,” Raine said to them.
Nikolay gave him a raised eyebrow. Perhaps encouraging theft wasn’t the best way to go about things.
This elicited a sigh from Raine. “Okay, okay, how about not stealing from tourists at all? The point being, it’s not nice to take advantage of people.”
Despite his lecture, the thief continued to struggle against his tight grasp. They thrashed in vain, trying to pull themselves away.
Raine frowned and ruffled his hair in frustration. “Ah, I really don’t want to be the bad guy here. Can you promise me that you won’t run away if I let go?”
They paused in their escape attempt, realising the futility of their actions. Eventually, they nodded hesitantly.
Slowly, Raine released his grip, as if it were a delicate silk flower between his fingers.
To Nikolay’s surprise, they kept to their word, although they looked like they were ready to bolt at any second.
“Great. Now, I know that you wouldn’t steal for no reason, so I would feel bad letting you go with nothing to show for your effort,” Raine said, taking back his wallet and opening it up.
Just as Nikolay was about to protest that they themselves were also running low on funds, what happened next was different to what he’d expected.
“I need money to survive too, so unfortunately I can’t give away my entire wallet. That being said, I can still share a little with you. That way, both of us walk away satisfied, yeah? Much better than if only one of us walked away with my wallet and all the cash inside.”
Raine pulled out a portion of his cash and placed it firmly in the stranger’s hands. They clutched it tightly, bringing the money to their chest.
He waited for them to run away with their newfound cash, but strangely, they stood staring at each other for a decently long time.
“Hm? Are you waiting for something else?” Raine asked. “Don’t worry, I won’t ask anything from you in return. I’m not a fan of kicking people when they’re down.”
It seemed like he guessed correctly, because the person stepped backwards and pocketed the money. In a flash, they disappeared down one of the many dark alleyways nearby.
Once they were long gone, only then did the two begin walking again.
“Seriously, I still look like a tourist?” Raine said disappointedly, shaking his head. “And here I thought I’d changed since I was last here.”
Nikolay reassured him, “I believe it’s your complete lack of magic, as opposed to your demeanour.”
“Argh, to get almost robbed today of all days… Looks like luck isn’t on my side.”
Of course, Nikolay knew that he was referring to today being his birthday. As he was about to comment on it, he realised that it might spoil the surprise that Irideis had worked so hard to plan out. That, and also it would be a little awkward to only wish him a happy birthday now, despite the fact that they’d been walking together since this morning.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Logically, the next best option would be to play dumb.
“Why today?” Nikolay asked innocently. “Is today a special day?”
To his surprise, Raine didn’t immediately tell him that it was his birthday.
“Oh, not really. I guess every day is a special day, given that we’re lucky to be alive right now,” Raine offhandedly said.
It was strange that Raine was being so vague.
Was he trying to avoid making Nikolay feel bad for ‘forgetting’ his birthday? To tell the truth, he had no idea when Raine’s birthday was, until Irideis mentioned it. This entire time, Nikolay had been trusting their word, in hopes that they would want to avoid the embarrassment of getting the date wrong, too.
To try and figure out the cause behind Raine’s behaviour, Nikolay pressed the issue further. It seemed like Raine was sure that only he knew it was his birthday today, so there technically shouldn’t be any risks.
“Is there really nothing else?” Nikolay asked, adding more emphasis.
“No, seriously. I don’t think today is a day worth celebrating over any other day. Because I’m able to spend time with you, every day is a celebration for me.”
Oh. Nikolay’s heart began hurting.
He instinctively put a hand to his chest, clutching at the fabric of his shirt.
Raine rushed to his side, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Are you okay? There should be a doctor back where we came from. I remember passing it earlier.”
Nikolay waved away the other’s concern.
“I’m fine,” he said lightly. “You know, I thought I was supposed to be the overbearing one.”
His attempt at a joke fell flat — not unexpected, given his naturally dead tone of voice. Instead of laughing, Raine pursed his lips into a tight line.
“When I saw that projection of you dying in the Temple of Light, it made me understand your behaviour. I can’t explain it in words, but I don’t think I need to. You know just as well as I do, don’t you?”
This wasn’t how Nikolay wanted them to spend Raine’s birthday. They should be laughing and enjoying themselves, not talking about each other dying. A 24th birthday should celebrate the future ahead, not the traumatic past.
“Is it okay if we don’t talk about this for today?”
Raine let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, we can.”
—
After their mood returned in time, the rest of their day went relatively smoothly. Nikolay was glad for Raine’s willingness to accompany him, making his job much easier. They continued to walk around the markets, occasionally stopping to buy any produce that caught their eye.
After a few hours, they’d bought enough to fill two large bags. Nikolay was sure that Irideis had more than enough time to finish their set up, and they’d also finished walking through all the stalls.
“Should we head back?” he suggested to Raine.
The other nodded. “I was about to say the same thing. We should put this stuff in the fridge soon, anyway.”
Since Irideis had cleverly chosen a market close to their house, it didn’t take long for them to return. It wasn’t long before they found themselves standing before the front door.
Nikolay shifted the bags to one arm, then handed the keys to Raine.
“Here, I’ll hold the bags. You open the door.”
“Uh, sure,” Raine said slowly, taking the keys.
As soon as he pushed the door open, confetti blasted in his face. Raine stumbled backwards, still in shock. He swiped the confetti from his face and looked up at the perpetrator.
Irideis stood in front of him, a party popper in their hands. “Happy birthday, Raine.”
Nikolay stepped back into the blast radius now that it was safe, then put a hand on Raine’s shoulder.
“Happy birthday. I’m sorry for deceiving you this morning.”
For a long, long moment, Raine stayed completely silent. He stood unmoving, betraying nothing of his reaction. Nikolay began wondering whether their plan was too much — after all, Raine had said it himself that his birthday wasn’t worth celebrating.
At last, a smile broke out, dispelling any growing doubts that Nikolay had.
Raine chuckled. “Are you sure you didn’t just want an excuse to throw something in my face?”
Everybody visibly relaxed at his statement. Irideis simply stepped aside and bowed mockingly, extending a hand into their house.
“Come in. I prepared much more than just blasting some confetti in your face.”
The three of them filed into the main room, anticipation buzzing in the air. Even Nikolay didn’t know how Irideis planned to decorate the house, and it was difficult to guess when it came to someone as unpredictable as the mysterious guide.
Thankfully, the decorations were actually quite normal. Across the roof, Irideis had strung a colourful banner with ‘Happy 24th Birthday, Raine!’. Various balloons littered the entire room — a few had escaped their ties, and floated up to the high ceiling.
Raine turned around slowly, admiring the myriad of colourful decorations in awe.
“This is incredible, Irideis. No wonder why you needed so much time to set it up.” He paused. “Actually, how did you know it was my birthday today?”
The white-haired fox merely shrugged vaguely. “I heard from a little birdie. December 19th, they said. So I listened.”
Ignoring the death stares from Raine and Nikolay, Irideis merely continued musing to themselves.
“Huh… I just noticed that you’re a Sagittarius. That makes sense.”
“Determining things based on birth date isn’t something I’d expect you to do,” Nikolay dryly commented. “I thought you would be more practical than that.”
“Well? What about you, Nikolay? I’m afraid I couldn’t find your birth date from several hundred years ago. I might be good at getting information, but it’s no use when nobody alive knows your birthday.”
“Back then, we used a different calendar. Even I would have no clue when it’d be.”
Raine chimed in. “Then, we can use the day Kolya reincarnated in this vessel: November 14th.”
Both Irideis and Nikolay looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“What? I was bored on that boat, okay?” Raine protested defensively.
Although Irideis would’ve likely wanted to tease him further, they clapped their hands together resolutely.
“Let’s move onto the gifts, shall we? Nikolay, you go first.”
The dark-haired man recoiled in shock. “Huh? Weren’t you the one who announced to show gifts?”
“Well, I don’t want to go first.”
The simple statement didn’t leave much up for debate.
Without any embellishment or extravagant flourishing, Nikolay pulled out his present: a plain, dark brown wooden box. He lifted the top lid, revealing the true gift inside.
Raine peered over expectantly, only to be met with a single pen.
While it looked beautiful, with golden patterns of constellations etched upon the barrel, it was rather lacklustre for the buildup.
“You draw, right?” Nikolay asked.
Raine scrutinised the gift. “A pen?”
Nikolay deftly flicked the fountain pen in his hand. “It’s elegant. It’s functional. What’s not to like about it?”
“That present is so… you,” Raine groaned as he snatched the pen from Nikolay.
“Were you expecting a declaration of love written in skywriting?” Nikolay scoffed. “I’ll know next time to do something impractically grandiose.”
Irideis laughed. “I’d pay to see that happen.”
Raine tucked the pen in his pocket and grinned. “Declarations of love aside, I’m glad that you two went through the effort to celebrate my birthday.”
Next, it was Irideis’ turn to show their gift. They pulled out a rolled parchment from their bag and Raine immediately noticed how nice the paper was.
As they unrolled the mysterious paper out on the table, it slowly revealed a beautifully detailed drawing of Kosira’s map.
A million precise lines of ink, painstakingly etched by hand, formed an artist’s depiction of the landmarks in Kosira. From the ports of Marque, to the towers of Veritas — from the heights of the Eldes Range, to the depths of Lake Litchmere, the varied landscapes popped out in a stylistic replication.
Throughout the entire map, a bold line stood out from the rest of the drawings. Instead of the black ink used for the locations, this line was drawn in a deep red.
Irideis winked. “Does the line look familiar?”
They were right — it was familiar. After all, they’d walked this line with their own feet.
Weaving in and out of the mountains in the north, snaking down to Veritas, then making its way to Aurelinne Village, and finally looping back around to Marque. It was like the Ouroboros: ending where it began, and beginning where it ended.
“Wow… This is incredible,” Raine mumbled, his eyes tracing along the winding path.
“All thanks to Nikolay’s help, of course.”
“I hardly needed to change anything,” Nikolay interjected. “Irideis practically had every part of the line correct.”
Actually, it was a bit scary that Irideis knew every step of their journey, but anyway…
Raine flipped the map over to the back in curiosity. It was a pleasant surprise when there was something written on the plain side, in Irideis’ elegant cursive.
“Take each step towards your goal, no matter how far it seems. Because one day, when you turn around… a path will be lit by the radiance of a million dreams.”