The train left around midday and continued on until night. It wasn’t late per se—predicted time was eleven, but they actually got there closer to ten—but he knew he’d be the last one awake when morning came around.
Matteo got ready pretty much as soon as he woke up because he knew it was later than usual. He kept his stuff in the room—partly because there was no point in bringing it down if it would have to go back when he headed out, and partly because Sólstaðuric inns didn’t mind as long as you were still paying—then headed down to the main area of the building.
To no surprise, Tara and Hannah were already down there. Tara noticed him first, setting down her pencil and looking up; Hannah waved him over when she saw, speaking up when he got close.
“I thought about waking you up, but your sister said to let you be.”
“I probably wouldn’t have responded,” Matteo admitted. He took the empty seat between the two. “It’s pretty much impossible for me to get less than eight or nine hours of sleep.”
“Omyn?” Hannah guessed.
“Mhm. Got it from my father and maternal grandmother. I don’t have any ‘wake up trigger’ like Rene does, either.”
“You should probably call that a good thing,” Hannah said. “Ren always had stuff to do in the mornings, so she braced herself for the wake up call.”
Matteo murmured some agreement and a brief silence followed. This time, Tara broke it, glancing at Matteo.
“Hannah and I already ate,” she said. “They serve breakfast here, so once you get something we can leave.”
Matteo nodded, turning around to try to find where he would order it. Once he saw a little sign, he fully shifted so he could stand up before looking back at Tara.
“First—do you have any ideas on what we need here?”
Tara sighed, returning her attention back to the drawing. This one looked like a first island village in Dakari; maybe her way of trying to piece together what her—Chizuru’s—home would have looked like. She was supposed to be able to recreate the new island in its image, after all.
“The same thing for the memorial applies here,” she said after half a minute. “We just need to look around.”
Hannah caught on to Matteo’s question before he even turned around to ask her.
“There’s a lot of rumors and stories about Byen Roken,” she said. “It helps that this place has been home to both of the first island’s royalty at different points. You’d be better off asking some locals.”
“I’ll get something to eat, then we can do that,” Matteo decided. “Worst case”—or ‘believed worst case,’ as the situation called for—“we have to spend a little longer here.”
Hopefully Itzun wouldn’t find this so great of ‘entertainment’ that he kept silent until the last minute.
——
Hannah had been to Byen Roken once before as part of a job. She noticed it then and she saw it now—the place was huge and probably the most diverse city in the entire country. There were tourists, immigrants, even descendants of the first island occupation force. Granted, the place had a history to match—from the short-lived Princess Kuro once married to a Chief Roken to the royalty of Gin no Ōkoku coming here for refuge. It was one of the first places most people thought of when they wanted to tell any kind of grand story.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The sheer difference between how Matteo and Tara treated strangers fascinated her. Matteo had no qualms about just walking up and asking his questions—Hannah knew that from before. Tara, on the other hand, stuck near whichever one of the other two wasn’t currently talking with someone; she jumped at any unexpected crunch of snow, sometimes glancing around as if she was a deer surrounded by hunting rifles.
They walked around for as long as they were able to; a little flurry shifting into large snowflakes encouraged them inside one of the buildings. Hannah picked out a nice, people-free corner for Tara’s piece of mind while more people filtered in behind them and the place—a restaurant that probably only saw customers when they couldn’t stay outside—filled with chatter.
Matteo glanced at Tara after a few minutes.
“Are you doing all right?” he asked nicely.
The girl in question just frowned, gently lowering herself onto the floor and bringing her legs up to her chest; her sketchbook fit in her lap. Hannah couldn’t tell if it was her odd way of warming up, or if she wanted to take up as little space as possible.
Matteo sighed and turned towards the other people. “Right. We can head out again once the snow lets up.”
Tara let out a quiet murmur that Hannah didn’t think was actually words. That seemed typical for her, though; she was getting better talking to Hannah, but if there were too many people it must overwhelm her. This must be pretty close to torture for the girl.
Of course, Matteo didn’t look a lot better; although comfortable around the people—he actually looked like he preferred the chatter—he seemed a little antsy. He gave Hannah a curious look after a few minutes.
“Is there a library here?” he asked. “Might be a little more efficient if I can browse through records of legends and such.”
“Not that I know of,” Hannah replied, shaking her head. “I can look around for you if it’ll help you calm down.”
Apparently he didn’t realize he looked odd, changing his position a little and trying to get his shoulders to relax. It didn’t work.
“I can go,” Matteo said. “For one, I’m obviously a tourist—for another, you could probably pass as a blood relative of Tara’s. It’ll help me feel a little more productive.”
Hannah just shrugged and gestured towards the crowd; she wouldn’t try to convince him against it. If he took anything from Rene, he wouldn’t listen.
He cast her something like a thankful smile and went off immediately. Hannah kept an eye on him—just to make sure he didn’t talk to the wrong person, although he seemed good at distinguishing ‘actually bad,’ ‘looks bad but isn’t,’ ‘looks good but isn’t,’ and ‘completely harmless.’ Tara, whenever Hannah glanced down to check on her, kept scribbling away at a drawing to stay occupied.
Matteo walked to a few different tables, alternating between groups that were less likely to realize he just asked someone else the same question. He usually got answers pretty quickly, so he moved on; his fifth or sixth attempt led to a longer conversation with an older couple. They were surprisingly friendly and—judging from his expression—actually said something he found interesting.
Once that conversation ended, Matteo walked back over with a lot more enthusiasm than he left with. Tara perked up at his return, and Hannah gave him a curious look.
“Heard something you’re glad about?” she guessed.
Matteo nodded, specifically looking at Tara when he answered.
“There aren’t any libraries,” he announced, his expression shifting to an almost guilty smile, “But there is a museum of sorts for the Final War. Most stuff was donated by the eastern kingdom’s royal family, but there’s a few things that were anonymously donated around the same time that memorial showed up.”
Tara let out a little noise that was a mix of surprise and trying to hide a small yawn; Matteo’s smile just grew, dropping the guiltiness entirely.
“We’ll go there once the snow stops,” he decided. “It’ll be as good of a place to look as any, at least.”
His sister murmured some agreement, and Hannah didn’t have anything to comment. Satisfied for now, Matteo sat down next to Tara and watched the snow fall outside.