Loter was lying supine when Hiroku peeked into his open door. His arms were placed in a straight line, and his legs fully extended outward. Hiroku could tell Loter was not sleeping from the open eyes.

"Loter, what are you doing?" Hiroku stood outside the door.

"I just," Loter answered dully and slowly, "met a girl."

"Tori?"

"What?" Loter turned his head to look at Hiroku. The melancholy on his visage was lessened by curiosity.

Hiroku palmed his own face. He murmured to himself, "I should've seen that coming." He raised his voice back to normal again and said, "Nothing, we are about to have lunch. You need to come and join us. I'll teach you the courtesy on the fly."

"Okay, sure. I'm pretty hungry." Loter rubbed his belly and crawled up, not as deft or energetic as casual. "But what's that Toli you just mentioned?"

"It's Tori."

"Tori?" Loter went to put on his shoes, and Hiroku began walking away.

"She's a girl with orange eyes."

"Oh, I think she's the one I met." Loter caught up with Hiroku and inhaled a hearable amount of air.

Then his footsteps stopped, so Hiroku turned around. "What is it?"

Loter stood still with his chest puffed from the air. He exhaled and said, "I have to ask you a question."

"Later," Hiroku replied immediately and turned back to keep walking. He knew Loter had something stupid to say, like, "We need to take Tori to MU!" or something similar. Hiroku just did not want to have this conservation.

"Okay, how about another question?"

"Um-hum."

"How did Ramiron's treatment go?"

"It's going well. The treatment person said Ramiron would regain her full power in six days."

"That's great. The harms will be repaired."

"Yes."

Hiroku and Loter arrived at the long pavilion before the gate. Inside the thin walls, there was a long and narrow table in the center of the room. The three kids sat before it with Ramiron in the center. Across the room, Yotan had his own table that was much smaller. Initially, all four of them sat with their shins on the pillow and hips on their calves. Loter was visibly uncomfortable with the position and kept fidgeting. Therefore, he changed his posture back to usual.

Around the room, female servants in nyanza kimonos stood with their heads tilted down and hands before their lower abdomen. Their eyes were shut like locked doors.

Hiroku, going against his promise, did not teach Loter any courtesy at all. He was stuck in the translator role since Ramiron and Yotan could not stop talking. As a result, Loter just happily ate whatever he wanted from the table. The other two were too busy talking and translating, anyway.

Due to the nature of Habanese food being small in size, Loter only left around three out of twenty dishes when everything was served. Meanwhile, Ramiron and Yotan finished their conversation about Kayama's history. Ramiron chuckled while Hiroku looked away in an expected despair. Fortunately, Yotan laughed it off and told the servants to prepare more.

After the lunch ended, Ramiron stayed for the treatment in the afternoon, and the other two left the pavilion. On their way, Loter asked Hiroku again if he wanted to hear about his question.

Hiroku sighed and said, "Let me guess. 'We need to save Tori and bring her to HueCam Academy.'"

"No."

"Hm?" Surprised, Hiroku glanced back at Loter as he began correcting him.

"I was going to ask if we should convince other Kayamas on the island to teach women magic."

This is worse than my guess.

"No, we shouldn't."

"Why? You know Tori, right? Do you know she can," Loter quickly scanned the surroundings and whispered behind Hiroku's ear, "do magic?"

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"I know. It's just impossible." Hiroku dodged forward. His impatience triggered a spark of anger in his voice. Just the mentioning of those things worsened his mood.

"We haven't tried… We haven't tried it yet. May, maybe they are… more open than we think they are, Hiro," Loter said with stutters and pauses throughout the sentence as if he knew the infeasibility of his plan already.

To Hiroku's own surprise, he could tell that Loter just needed someone to reject his proposal for him. Hiroku actually felt a faint pity for Loter, so he tried to console him, "Loter, systemic problems can not be solved by personal effort. Only collective effort can fix Tribe Kayama."

"What are you suggesting us to do?"

"Nothing. I'm saying nothing we do will have an impact if people here refuse to stand up for themselves."

"But we are heroes. We shouldn't just stand and watch," Loter said hurriedly. Hiroku could recognize the mood behind the sentence. It was an eagerness for justice that was thrown to the wall but refused to break.

Hiroku opened his mouth and hesitated. He felt the cruelness in what he was about to say. He asked, "Have you taken the Hero Ethics class?"

"Yeah," Loter answered with his voice lowered.

"You must remember the content in class two."

"Yeah, I do."

"Heroes are not meant to solve social or political issues. We—"

"Should always stay neutral. I know." Loter raised his voice and quickly proposed another plan. "What if we just take Tori away with us?"

"Trust me, you aren't going to succeed, and you would doom her life if you exposed her secret in your attempt."

"..."

The rest of the walk was silent and speechless. Just from the pattern of Loter's footsteps, Hiroku could tell he had infected Loter with his gloom. A part of him felt sorry for teaching Loter the truth. The other part knew Loter had to learn how the world works one day, earlier or later.

Going up the stoop, they parted. Loter slid his door open and stood there for a moment. Then, he said, "I think I can empathize with what you said in the car now."

"Hm?" Hiroku halted before his room. He faced up and saw Loter staring at him in solemn.

"I think I understand you now. I know this feeling, Hiro. The guilt you feel when you are supposed to help but you just can't." Loter dashed to Hiroku and firmly embraced him in his arms. "When you were saying it in the car, I couldn't understand it. Now, I can. I've felt the same way before when I saw my father dead. I just felt numb and sad. I only escaped this feeling by being with you, and Key, and Ramiron, and Glacia."

"Loter, I—"

"You might not know it, but you helped me through my hard time, and I wish I could do the same for you."

"It's mainly Key. He's the one helping. I was just watching from aside all this time," Hiroku said in a mumbling voice. His eyes were watery already.

"No, you are a part of it. Just like you said, 'collective effort.' You're my friend, don't deny it."

Abruptly, Hiroku burst out a titter. "Don't you use my words against me." He continued to chuckle as tears glided down his face. There was no stopping for the curl on his mouth. He just went along and laughed. "Alright, it's enough, Loter. I need some personal space now. I'll see you at dinner."

Loter loosened his hug, and Hiroku broke free. Their eyes met in the air. A big smile popped up on Loter's serious face as he saw Hiroku's visible delight.

"I think it's the first time I see you laugh."

"I don't laugh on command. It just doesn't happen that often."

"Then you must be feeling happy right now."

"Perhaps."

"Aw, come on."

"Fine, I guess I am happy."

Right after Hiroku entered his room and shut the door, he let himself fall to the floor, lying on the tatami. He thought about his family as the smile faded. Then, he grinned again, recalling the conversation with Loter.

It felt good not to be a burden. Sure, he could not redeem his tribe, but at least he helped Loter. Hiroku sat up from the ground. He took in several deep breaths and calmed his mind.

The rest of the afternoon passed without any inconvenience. Hiroku slowly read those books in his cottage and listened to Loter's gaming sound. The books were classics back from feudal times, and Habanese was not his native language, so Hiroku struggled a bit while reading. Although the patriarchal values embedded in these books were the opposite of his beliefs, Hiroku found the ancient dictions and grammar intriguing enough for him to proceed with the books.

At around six p.m., Ramiron came back from the treatment. She informed the two that the dinner would be sent to their rooms. Despite Hiroku not smiling in the slightest, Ramiron noticed his change of mood. Then, Loter made a huge deal about him and Hiroku laughing and snuggling.

Many guys would find hugging their friends an embarrassing act. However, Hiroku was much more open about this kind of physical contact. Thus, he only corrected Loter by pointing out the unidirectionality of the snuggling part.

Before Hiroku could finish his sentence, Ramiron also gave him a thorough hug.

When the food arrived, Loter convinced Ramiron to eat together in his room. To no one's surprise, Hiroku was eventually persuaded into joining the activity by Loter's clinginess.

Ramiron's dinner was a huge box of rice with two pieces of eel meat above it. Right beside, several boxes of various side dishes were in small amounts. Together, these smaller boxes and the big box for rice formed a rectangle in the center of her tray.

Meanwhile, Hiroku's dinner was just a simple bowl of ramen. Loter, in contrast, had a tray with both Ramiron's and Hiroku's dinner on it.

During dinner, Ramiron, as the only person who actually did something, carried the conversation. She shared her experience with the treatment. It was basically meditating with weird stones and seeing weirder visions. Loter was visibly invested in the story, while Hiroku did not mind hearing background noises.

After her, Hiroku was forced to share the content of the books he read. He did. When he asked Ramiron how she knew he was reading, she said she had a glimpse of some spread books when Hiroku opened his door. She proceeded to talk about how the treatment made her eyes feel sharper.

When they finished, the trays, bowls, and boxes were left before the stoop. Loter found it not polite enough to fit in the rest of the mannerisms of the tribe. Hiroku explained that the servants were the ones taking care of the leftovers, and Tribe Kayama obviously never developed any courtesy toward the servants.