We were still far away from home, and we still had errands to run in town, so telling our parents about it was still going to take a while. However, as we were walking down the road to town, I could see the stiff way with which Estelle was walking… She was trying to hide the worries she had about facing mom, but there was no way around it. If she didn’t tell her, then I wouldn’t even need to say a thing ‘cause mom was going to find out anyway—and Estelle knew that.

“Come on,” I said, causing Estelle to nearly trip on her step. “Quit slowing down. I don’t want to get home at night.”

“E-eh! I’m going as fast as I can!” she exclaimed, but her steps were really short.

With narrowed eyes, I turned to look at her. “Sheesh, what happened with that whole being strong thing? There’s no way you’re going to befriend a dragon if you’re going to act this way.”

Realizing that there was some truth in what I was saying, Estelle widened her eyes, pouted, and then nodded. “You’re right.”

It was then that she finally picked up the pace and we approached the gates of the town.

We didn’t live here, since mom liked living away from all the people in town, but that didn’t mean that we didn’t have to come here sometimes. This was a rather large town, with tall stone walls surrounding it, and a river that passed right through it. Sometimes I wondered if this was actually a city, but mom and dad insist that the cities are way bigger than this small thing, so I couldn’t help but try to imagine such a thing…

Would there be taller walls? Would they reach the clouds? What about the houses? Would they also reach the sky?

Well, it didn’t matter. If I wanted to know, I’d have to find out for myself.

As we were approaching the gates of the town, Estelle suddenly smiled brightly. Here was yet another headache that she liked to give me…

A couple of guards wearing light plate armor were standing by the gate. One of them was a tall, handsome man, well built, with short brown hair swept to the side and sharp features; and the other one was a rather chubby man with just as chubby features, short black hair cut really short, and with a height that was about a head shorter than the other guard.

“Hey! Grahm!” shouted Estelle, causing the guards to turn to look this way.

With a joyful jog, she went over to them, and I just walked after her while sighing. The tall, handsome guard smiled at Estelle, while the chubby one blushed slightly and scratched his cheek when she reached them.

“Hello, Estelle. How are you doing?” asked the tall guard.

Estelle turned with a polite smile to him. “Hi, Roy. I’m doing fine.” She then turned a bright smile when she looked at the chubby guard, Grahm. “What about you? Has it been a tiring day?”

“W-well, mostly, yeah,” replied Grahm, his eyes shifting from one side to another, as if avoiding Estelle. “Nothing’s happened today—which is a good thing!” After saying that, he calmed himself slightly, and finally smiled at Estelle. “Though, seeing you here, some of that tiredness feels like it’s going away.”

“Awh, you!” Estelle exclaimed, slapping Grahm on the shoulder and creating a metallic noise on the armor.

I sighed once more as I stopped a short distance next to her. Roy noticed my tired face and chuckled. “What’s wrong, Astor?”

I shook my head. “You know what’s wrong.”

He laughed out loud and turned to gaze at the chattering Estelle and Grahm. “Really. It can’t be that bad. Grahm is a good man, almost the same age as you are too.”

“Yeah, but this is my sister!” I exclaimed, furrowing my eyebrows when Estelle chuckled and stood closer to Grahm with her hands behind her back. “I can’t just accept this!”

Roy laughed once more and shook his head. “Welp, you can always try to do something about it. I heard you’re quite strong yourself—already on the sights of the local Royal Knight Order branch as a possible candidate.”

I puckered my lips and looked away. “Yeah… But still somehow weaker than Estelle…”

“I still can’t believe that,” Roy said with his eyes on Estelle.

As I watched Grahm and Estelle happily chat, Grahm seemed to have remembered something, asked Estelle to excuse himself and quickly jogged over to the guard’s Watch Post near the town’s gate. Estelle looked with curiosity at the man, who seemed to be tossing things inside the small cabin for a moment, before coming back out with a couple of things in his hands.

“Here!” he exclaimed as he jogged over to Estelle. “I got you something.”

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In his hands were a small brown bag and a tiny flower in a just as tiny pot. I couldn’t tell what the bag had, but the flower seemed pretty nice. It had yellow petals with a blue center on them.

“Awhhh!” Estelle exclaimed, taking both things with joy. “You didn’t have to! Thank you!”

“Y-yeah. I saw that flower when I was helping mom at her farm, and it reminded me of you. I thought about plucking it, but I didn’t want to just snap it, so I put it in a pot to give it to you…” Grahm said with strongly blushing cheeks. “I hope it’s not too bothersome.”

“Not at all!” Estelle exclaimed with a bright smile and then lunged over Grahm to give him a hug.

“H-hey!” I shouted, taking a step forward with my hand stretched. “Estelle! You can’t just—”

“This is all lovely!” she interrupted, her voice louder than mine, before she let go of Grahm and looked at the bag. “What about this.”

I furrowed my eyebrows deep and glared at Grahm, who was blissfully ignorant of the annoyance he was causing me. Roy, on the other hand, just laughed out loud as if this was the most amusing thing ever, which caused me to turn my glare at him, but he just ignored it and continued chuckling.

Grahm looked at the bag, his cheeks already sweating from the interaction and answered, “T-t-those are some cookies I got at the bakery close by after saving some money. I hope you’ll like them.”

“Hehe, I’m sure I will,” Estelle said without looking at the bag, her eyes set solely on the eyes of Grahm, who appeared to not know what to do.

Seeing that, I couldn’t hold it anymore and rushed over to them. “Come on already! We still have things to do!”

“Oh! Yeah, right!” Estelle replied, walking by Grahm while smiling at him. “Thank you for the gifts! I’ll see ya later!”

“Come on!” I repeated, in hopes of interrupting this annoying interaction between the two of them.

“See ya later, Astor!” Roy shouted, waving the spear in his hand while laughing.

It was clear that Estelle liked that guy, but as I glanced back at the guy’s appearance, and then at my sister’s gleeful smile, I just felt annoyed. “What is it that you see in that guy? That’s just some gate guard. I’m sure someone with your talents and looks can find someone way better than that.”

It was after saying that that my sister’s smile turned into a frown. “Not everything is about looks and power. There’s more to people than that.”

“Hmph, where did you even learn that?” I asked, as I searched for the places we were supposed to go.

“Mom, of course,” she said with a smile, and I raised one of my eyebrows. “I keep telling you. You should listen to her more.”

* * *

“We’re back!” I shouted when I entered our home.

The sun was already setting, and there was a dim orange light entering the few windows. I looked around, but I didn’t see either mom or dad close by. I wondered for a moment where they could possibly be, until I heard the sound of things being hastily moved around from the second floor, followed by mom popping out of a corner.

“Heeeey,” she said with a suspicious tone. “Did everything go fine? You took a while to come back.”

I remained quiet as I narrowed my eyes and had a better look at her. Mom’s long blonde hair was a bit messy, with a few hairs popping out here and there. The bright golden eyes that I inherited from her had a happy look on them, but it also felt like she was trying to avoid something. Her skin was usually pale and carried an odd glow ever since I have memory, but right now, it looked like it was glinting, and as I focused on her dress… It was… messy. They wouldn’t be doing something else, right?

But nope. My doubts were answered when dad walked out from behind her. If she was glinting, he was soaking. There was sweat all over his face, and I could see that he was trying to recover slightly. Dad’s looks didn’t quite match mom’s, and I would say that she was the kind of woman that attracted every single man’s gaze, which in comparison, dad was—well—plain.

He had dark hair like mine, in a complete mess right now, his blue eyes were avoiding looking at us, and he was trying his best with a shirt to clean the sweat.

“W-what were you doing?” Estelle asked, her face completely blushed and her eyes on the small flower in her hands.

“Us? We were just spending our time together doing—”

“No! Never mind! Gross!” Estelle interrupted mom, and with her eyes set on the little flower, she rushed through the house and up to her room, where the door was slammed.

Mom walked down with a questioning look up at the door. “What was that about? Hmph! You both should be happy that you have parents that still love each other.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, with a sigh as I walked over to the table and placed the few things that we were supposed to get.

However, mom’s gaze remained upstairs, at the place where Estelle’s room was supposed to be. “Did something good happen to her…?”

Mom had been suspicious for a while that Estelle liked someone from the way that she would sometimes dress and take care of herself, but didn’t know exactly. I acted like I didn’t know anything and just focused on arranging the things that we brought. Mom, instead, looked at me for a moment, and I tried my best not to look at her. After a while, I finally gave up and threw a side-glance at her.

Damn it! She figured it out from just that! There was a mischievous smile on her face that she then turned to the upstairs rooms. “Ho ho ho. It seems like something great did indeed happen to her.” She then approached me and looked at me from the side. “When is something great going to happen to you?”

“Something great? Being alive is great,” I replied and continued placing things, while avoiding her annoying look.

“Hm…” Mom continued, and her eyes narrowed. “I feel like there’s something else…”

“Nope. Nothing at all,” I said and once I placed everything in place, I turned to go to my room as well.

“Now, now,” Mom quickly interrupted. “You may want to wait a little before going upstairs. Your room is next to Estelle’s, after all.”

“What the—What in the Goddess’ name are you talking about…” I asked with extreme confusion in my face.

She just chuckled, covered her mouth with one hand and her eyes turned smug. “Mother knows best… Besides… I have other things to ask.”

Oh boy… Well, it seems like I would have to try my best to keep my sister’s plans with that lake dragon a secret, but… as I looked at my mom and then at my dad’s wry smile, it seemed like she was going to find out sooner rather than later…