Beth looked around the capital city of the Grandis Empire confusedly as Dia rubbed her legs, before making little baby noises.

“Speak properly,” Dia replied, before carrying her up anyway. “What’s wrong? Scared? Don’t be. This is the capital of Grandis, even if it doesn’t look like a city at all.”

She looked at the solid metal cube that blotted out a good portion of the sky. “Yeah. It sure doesn’t look like one, right?”

Beth nodded. “Fast!”

“Oh, yes. We were moving very fast too.” Dia looked at the others, who were arranging their clothes for some reason, and then sat down. For a normal person to just sit down on the ground with a baby in their arms was no mean feat, but Dia wasn’t a normal person at this point of time.

“Buh.”

“You can definitely speak properly, though,” Dia muttered. “Hungry, little one?”

“Hungry!”

Dia turned to the others. “Well, you heard her highness. Better get to work. Stop lazing around here, you guys. I know the cube’s scary, but it’s really not all that scary.”

“W-who’s scared, huh?” Nero fluffed himself up. “I’m just straightening my clothes, that’s all!”

Rolling her eyes, she turned to look at Kemata, who was staring at the cube in a manner reminiscent of Beth studying the many, many artefacts sitting around in Moon Mansion. Nodding in approval, she glanced at the others. Risti seemed bored, an impression that heavily contrasted with Farah’s own excitement.

“What’s up?” Schwarz asked, having caught her glancing around.

“Just checking if you guys are ready to enter this weird city,” Dia replied, running the layout of the three-dimensional city in her mind. Grandia, the legendary capital of the Grandis Empire, was a place that reflected both the selfishness and creativity of Emperor Grandis. Unlike conventional cities, Grandia was divided into twenty-seven segments.

Each segment was a cube in its own right, a grand city that was packed with buildings and everything, and each segment was arranged in such a way that they formed a three-by-three-by-three cube in total.

“It’s really huge, though,” Nero muttered. “Way larger than anything I’ve seen.”

“What does the Nihal capital look like?” Kemata asked.

“Kabir? It’s a very large county city, I suppose.” Nero paused. “The main aspect that seems to be unique is the presence of Spires and their Spire Lords. They’re war machines and supreme defences that the various senators of the Senate reside in.”

“Spires, huh.”

“Tall buildings that seem to touch the sky,” Nero added. “Every Senator has one. The one that the incumbent First Lord or First Lady uses is extra-grand…although it should be vacated right now.”

“Vacated?” Schwarz tilted his head. “Why?”

Beth clapped her hands. “Why?”

Nero walked over to Beth and squatted down in front of her, before rubbing her cheeks. “Well, it’s election season for the senators.”

“Ewection season?”

Dia felt some pride churn in her chest as the little one picked up a set of new words, and then patted her head. “How smart!”

“Yes, yes.” Nero thought for a moment. “Election season is when everyone gets a new leader…never mind. I see you’re already lost. But good question.”

Beth turned back to Dia, her bright eyes asking for pats, and Dia promptly coddled the little baby. At any rate, however, it was clear that the Nihal Senate was probably not really efficient right now, since the governing bodies were undergoing a reshuffle, but what did that have to do with Dia? Their main goal was to enter the legendary capital right now and nothing else.

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“Let’s move on,” Risti suggested. “The long queue at the entrance isn’t going to grow any shorter anyway.”

“True.”

Without any more preamble, Dia followed the others and joined the queue. The people queuing to enter Grandia were quite unique, though; there was a group of quintuples…or extreme fans of the same person, as an illustration. There were other interesting people too, like a group of travelling bards that were strumming their lyres in silence.

“Quite the unique lot, eh?” Schwarz muttered.

“Yeah,” Dia replied. “I wonder if there’s any other normal people here.”

“Right?” Risti surveyed the queue. “Hmm. Last time I entered this place, the queue ahead was full of normal people that looked like they were doing commerce here. But the whole thing right now looks like a performance troupe or something.”

“Maybe there’s some performing arts events going on in the capital right now,” Dia suggested.

“Maybe. It’s close to Full Moon, after all.”

“Maybe some version of the harvest festival?” Farah guessed.

“We’ll find out,” Kemata replied.

Dia took stock of the fact that the Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny had returned to a more natural style of speaking, and then wondered, for the briefest of moments, if she had gotten more comfortable with the Seekers of Life due to a bout of drunken communication. It seemed like that was the case, but if she didn’t see wrongly, Kemata and Nero had been intertwined in a manner that probably wasn’t suitable for Beth’s eyes, so…

She would have to doubt that bit.

Dia, however, couldn’t quite remember what exactly happened last night. She had fallen asleep early, presumably after drinking a bottle of Schwarz’s booze, and that was it.

It was a shame she couldn’t remember anything…

While she pondered on whether she had actually drunk something or not, the others continued to examine the area around the Grandis capital.

“Odd. There’s no farmland or anything,” Farah muttered. “But I can’t spot goods either. For a city of this size, there should be tons of food being carted here every minute, right?”

“But there isn’t?” Risti replied, a grin on her face. “Can you guess why?”

“Can I guess why, you ask…” Farah made a face. “Maybe there’s a gigantic farm inside or something? But that’s somewhat impossible. Plants need sunlight to grow. And as for raising animals in a enclosed space…well, the smell’s definitely the first thing.”

“It’s well-ventilated inside,” Risti replied.

Dia nodded. “No weird smell, as far as I can remember.”

“That’s mostly due to ventilation, though,” Risti replied. “The middle segment of every face is a gigantic ventilator that draws away stale air and gathers fresh air. It’s also where husbandry and sanitation take place.”

“I see.” Schwarz bobbed his head. “It’s like a self-sufficient fortress.”

“Legend has it that this cube can also fly, so it’s more of a mobile fortress,” Risti added. “It’s incredible, no matter how you look at it. According to rumour, Grandia was made with some impossible technology from the Celestia Ruins.”

“Ah, that does explain a lot, then.”

Everyone chattered away as the queue dwindled rapidly — the people handling entry into Grandia were very good at their jobs, clearly — and Dia took the chance to let Beth get cosy with the new members of their team. Nero and Kemata were quite taken by the sheer cuteness of little Beth, and the two of them took turns to feed her with a bunch of desserts that they had on hand.

Why they had desserts at the ready was anyone’s guess, though.

“Don’t overfeed Beth, or she won’t be eating dinner tonight,” Dia cut in, right as Nero pulled out a butterscotch pie.

Beth made googly eyes at Dia.

“Yeah, no.” Dia squished her cheeks. “If you keep eating, your cheeks will become too big! I won’t be able to squish them much, then.”

“Rweally?”

“Really, really.” Dia squashed her face gently, and then said, “And you’ll be too full to eat dinner. Dinner is good, right?”

The little toddler had a conflicted expression on her face, and what was presumably a grand battle in the centre of her mind unfolded. Dia watched on, entertained by the myriad of expressions she displayed, and then nodded as the war died down.

Beth turned away from the little treat with resolution and solemnity.

Reason had won.

“…Well done!” Dia rubbed her cheeks. “As expected of my little kid.”

“Is Dada happy?”

“Dada?” Nero raised an eyebrow. “Uh. You became a man?”

“No. Did not.” Dia paused. “But who the heck cares, as long as I take good care of her?”

“Point.” Nero glanced at Kemata once, and the two of them stowed away the desserts that had been tempting the little toddler. Beth fluffed herself up proudly, and then made another set of googly eyes at Dia.

“Yeah, I get it. Here, here.” Dia smiled. “And whaddya know? It’s time for us to talk to the people at the gates. Upsy-daisy.”

Beth gurgled merrily as the Seekers of Life stood at the booth, where three alert clerks were staring at them. Each of them gave off the presence of a low-ranked folder, and it took everything Dia had to not intimidate them reflexively.

“Purpose?” the clerk in the middle asked.

“I’m Countess Farah,” Farah replied. “Here are the relevant documents.”

The clerk nodded, looked through the bundle of papers carefully, and then nodded. “Alright. Carry on.”

…That was a lot easier than Dia had expected, if she had to be frank.