“Thanks for your help, boys—you too, Nesshin.”

“No problem! Let us know if you need more help later.”

“Certainly. Have a nice day, kids.”

“You too.”

The stall owner passed Taiyo three slips of paper—free passes for games, one for each helper—then disappeared inside her shop to check the merchandise. He turned back to his brother, friend, and cat; except Snowbell found a pile of sakura petals and toyed with them, and Maeko encouraged it by collecting up some petals and tossing them in the kitty’s face and Rei held back laughter.

He smiled and came a bit closer so they noticed him. Rei realized it first, shaking off his grin and standing up—Maeko snatched up Snowbell and did the same. Taiyo handed a game pass to each of them.

“You up for more?” Taiyo asked Rei. After his older brother nodded, he continued, “Okay. Sir Eidayu wanted some help with getting his trinkets ready—beading necklaces and painting figurines.”

Rei gestured towards the road.

“Lead the way.”

Taiyo turned and confidently strode in that direction. Maeko matched some of his enthusiasm, but Rei could only try not to sulk by comparison.

A few of the people they passed recognized them—mostly as ‘the twins and that girl,’ sometimes as ‘Fujita’s boys and Nesshin,’ rarely as princes and Rei’s sweetheart—and he murmured back greetings to anyone who gave him one first. They were a little wary of Maeko, but they didn’t mind the twins as much.

It only took a few minutes down one road, then a turn into another before Taiyo saw Sir Eidayu putting some paint bottles on a table outside his house. Once he heard shuffling, he straightened and glanced over his shoulder.

“There’s the twins!” he said nicely. “And the lass and kitty—can’t forget the ladies. How’s your father been, boys?”

“He’s good,” Taiyo replied. He came up to the table and brushed off a few sakura petals. “Same old, same old, I guess. Uncle Tezo is coming by soon.”

“Oh, really?” The older man sauntered to a chair in the shade and lowered himself into it. “What’s the occasion?”

“They just wanted to see the festival. Aunt Emio and Aunt Jun are bringing their families, too.”

Sir Eidayu chuckled. “Family reunion, is it?”

“That’s what it’s sounding like,” Taiyo admitted.

“Is Suzu coming along?”

“Mhm. Are these paints for us, by the way?”

“Oh! Yes, they are. Could I bother you to run in and grab whatever you want to use them on?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I can,” Maeko offered. She transferred Snowbell to Rei, then breezily entered Sir Eidayu’s home.

The man leaned back and sighed.

“The first family get-together since ol’ Masaru passed away, isn’t it?” he asked, hesitant but curious.

Rei shuffled and came a little closer to the table.

“Father thought it would be better for everyone to come here,” he explained. He sat down after Sir Eidayu gestured to a spare chair. “Everyone’s a little jumpy, I think; even Maeko’s mother doesn’t want to take her west to visit family.”

“I can’t blame them,” Sir Eidayu admitted. He leaned forward to rearrange the paint bottles as Maeko brought out a tray of assorted figurines. “Kuro wants conflict—attacking ships, coming into Gin’s borders and killing innocents—and they don’t care who gets hurt. We’re not suited for it.”

Taiyo bit his lip a little. Sir Eidayu didn’t say it—no one would dare, in front of the twins—but he knew what he meant. Kyoumi wasn’t suited for it, at least not without someone from the Fujita and Hiroki families helping her.

Maeko sat the tray down and, without any prompting, changed the subject.

“Sir Eidayu, you have a lot of komainu figurines.”

He accepted it with a smile, and Taiyo relaxed knowing it would give Rei a distraction. His main goal was just to keep his brother from worrying.

“Komainu were a favorite of Queen Tsujihara Seiko,” he said sagely. “It’s only suitable to show our admiration for her by giving her such a strong beast, yes?”

Maeko took a spot next to Rei and pulled a cat figurine a little closer.

“I feel like we should give her something weaker, shouldn’t we?” she asked. “She protects us, not the other way around.”

“We protect her memory,” Taiyo replied. He finally joined the rest around the table, claiming a komainu figurine for himself. “As much as we can, at least.”

Rei took a paintbrush and a rabbit figurine, letting out a quiet snicker.

“I feel like you’ve protected her memory more than anyone else,” he said teasingly. “You can rattle off the most obscure facts and somehow get it right. How do you even know half of that?”

Taiyo shrugged. “I just read a lot.”

Hopefully Rei wouldn’t catch on to the lie. Half of what Taiyo knew didn’t come from books—the memoir the First Queen’s husband wrote of her barely covered anything about her personal life, just the important moments of history in more detail—but from the First Queen herself, as odd as that sounded.

In the back of his head, her voice sighed. You can’t keep lying.

But he could for now. One thing at a time—the festival came first, which meant painting his komainu statue.

He let Tsujihara Seiko pick out the colors—brown and gold, although he had to mix the former since Maeko needed it to paint her figurine in the image of Snowbell—then led an idle conversation.

Rei held Snowbell with his right hand while he painted with his left, and Maeko constantly glanced over to make sure she perfected the cat’s patchy brown and white fur. Sir Eidayu did his part by participating in the chat, his hand a little too shaky to properly hold a brush or bead necklaces.

Sir Eidayu’s wife came out after a few minutes, reappearing with snacks for Snowbell before bringing out mochi for the teens as payment. Rei had an easier time around the older couple than he did most people—Sir Eidayu fought with Grandfather Masaru in the previous war, so he was something of a Fujita family friend—so Taiyo didn’t feel obligated to monitor the conversation too closely. Maeko and Snowbell being there definitely helped.

They stayed until someone came to get Rei and Taiyo for the dreaded self-defense practice with Sorai. The twins bid farewell to Maeko and the Eidayu couple, thanking the latter for the treats, and Rei passed Snowbell to Maeko despite some resistance from the cat in question.