“What the hell is this?” I looked on at the bright red painted Arthur’s standing in place of the prison.

“Ah, you like what we did with the place?” Anna chuckled as if unsure how we’d react to it, “We got pretty bored of just living here for no reason for a while, when some guy suddenly popped up on our shore, looking for directions. I made some food for him, one thing lead to another, and we decided to make a huge Arthur’s hub of sorts here on the island.”

“An Arthur’s all the way out in an island in the middle of the sea?” Cecily tilted her head, “Well how many people come by?”

Choosing to open the door and just show us instead of telling us verbally, we were absolutely astounded to see just how packed the entire place was. The room we were in was where the main dining hall of the prison would be had it not been shut down eons ago, and even then it seems they’ve redone the entire place from scratch, adding another floor to it that sort of followed the shape of the walls of the room and was equally as packed, with the space in the middle being reserved for the giant and robust chandelier lighting. It honestly resembled a ball room mixed with a classic style inn. Really set the vibes of a unique family restaurant chain.

“This must’ve been Carl’s doing…” I offhandedly muttered, only for the person in question to show up through the crowd, “Oh, speak of the devil!”

“Anna, where were you gone for so long!?” He shook her up without even noticing Cecily and me standing beside her, “We need your help, it’s rush hour and all the staff is packed with work on all fronts!”

“Hehe, calm down Carly! I was just taking Nelly out for a stroll!” She patted him on the shoulder, “Alright, sorry guys, I’ll help these bros out, so you’ll have to wait before we can talk more. Until then, Carl will take you to the backroom where Gramps and Harper are.”

“Hm?” Carl’s puzzled face soon contorted into one of pleasant surprise as he turned to see who Anna was talking to, “Eddie!? You’re alive! Thank God, man, do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused Anna-!”

“H-Hey now, no need to talk about that embarrassing period of my life…” Anna shut him up before running off into the crowd, “Just take them to the back, and don’t you dare tell Ed about that!”

That? I wonder what she’s talking about… Well, obviously it has something to do with my sudden disappearance with the Princess overnight. Hey now wait a second, Vivia… Was the reason she snuck onto the ship and tricked me into taking her to the base also part of her plan to eventually backstab Grim? Fuck, what the hell is going on? Was I the reason Grim died after all? No, I can’t be the one at fault, it’s her that shot him! That damned cunning wench, just how far back do her plans go?

“Hrmm…” I thought about it some more before Carl interrupted my train of thought.

“Alright, before I make things too heavy too early, let’s just go meet up with the others first.” He pointed to the door in the corner of the room behind him, “I can already surmise what the deal is with Lune not being here with you two, so I won’t say anything out loud for Nelly’s sake.”

“Eh? How did you…?” Cecily furrowed her brows before petting Nelly a bit, “Sigh, you’re right though. And Nelly, she knows already since we met up with Anna and her near the dock just now, so there’s no need to hide things.”

Grunting a bit as if shocked that he got it right, Carl sort of hid his face as he turned to lead us away from the crowd. Without saying much, the melancholy in how he conducted himself was still so loud that it reopened the gash that formed in me. The gash of losing Grim. Carl wasn’t all that well-acquainted with Grim ever since we left Station Arfa all those years ago, and even though Grim and Cecily told us they stopped by the island on their way here, that’s still too short of a time period to get all that reacquainted. Still, I didn’t even have to see Carl crying to feel this same gash that had formed in me begin forming in him as well. What a great guy…

“Hm? Carl, you need a break or something?” The Old Man’s voice could be heard as Carl opened the door, “Ah.”

“Heya, Gramps.” Cecily and I waved at him, “Long time no see.”

“Cecily, dear!” He went to hug her, “That boy, could it be..?”

“Yep, everyone! Meet Cene Grimheart!” She proudly displayed him to the room, “Nelly, from now on, you’re gonna be a big sister, so make sure to teach your brother all sorts of things!”

“Okay!” She carefully took Cene from her mother’s embrace, hugging him in a similar fashion in a heartwarming display, “Little Bro, huh? That means I’m one step closer to being a big girl, right mom?”

Sniffling from the one-two combo of seeing both of her children getting along well with one another for the very first time, Cecily could barely find the words to express the joy in her heart. Even still, what kind of a mother wouldn’t answer to her daughter’s innocent question?

“Without a doubt, Nel.” She ducked down to hug the both of them.

“Now then.” Arthur looked over to me, “Where’s the father?”

“A-Ah, he’s…” I panicked at the realization that I’ll have to break the news for the nth time now, only for a mature female voice to ring out from her seat in the back.

“Old Man, have you really so little tact?” She viciously dug into Arthur’s question, “You finally reunited with your grandson-in-law, and all you can think about is the poor guy’s best friend? Isn’t there something more important you should say to our Ed here?”

“Ack, shut it Doctor!” He shouted back, “Seeing Ed is one thing, but…!”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Old Man!” Miss Harper loudly interrupted his tirade, making the entire room go dead silent, “I believe you have something to say to Ed?”

Glancing back at me, Arthur groaned before finally giving me a strong hug, “Welcome back. And… Sorry for making you feel like you had to go back to the battlefield. I really fucked that up, okay?”

“No swearing around kids!” Harper shouted once more, “You forcefully separated the kid from his fiancée because of your stupid dreams of an adventurous son-in-law! Now, do you finally understand what I meant all this time when I said leading an adventurous life won’t get you far?!”

“Eh? Oh come on, Doctor! What are you talking about?” He chuckled before turning back to see mine and Cecily’s faces suddenly go silent, “Guys, what’s going on?”

Seems like Miss Harper also figured it out from context clues. Arthur though, he wasn’t as bright in that regard. I guess in his mind, a youthful kid like Grim seemed invincible, immortal, even unmatched at times, but reality was not so optimistic… Sigh, after seeing Carl piece things together on his own, I had kind of hoped these two would have noticed it as well, but I guess I’ll have to go through the whole spiel of Grim’s untimely demise yet again…

***

“A-Ah…” The tears started to pour out of his Eyes, “Aaah, aaaargh! Nooo, it can’t beee!”

“It’s like I said, Lune is…” Cecily tried continuing her sentence, only for the poor Old Man to grab me by the collar in some form of seeking out answers.

“You! Why didn’t you save him!?” He tried lifting me up, but my stature didn’t allow for it, “Ah, you’ve grown strong since the last time I’ve seen you… So why?! Why isn’t Lune here with you?!”

“Old Man…”

“I know! I know what really happened over there!” He suddenly started spouting nonsense, “You must’ve killed him! I knew it! You murderer-!”

Slapping him square across the face was none other than Cecily herself, surprisingly enough. With her face bright red from rage, her Eyes flickering with a kindle inside them, she shouted back at him, making even Nelly scared for her life as she desperately hugged her little brother that was playing with a stuffed teddybear Nelly had with her.

“How dare you, asshole?!” She shouted at him, “Even suggesting that Ed was the one that did this to Lune…! You’re sick in the head, you fucking bastard!”

“Cecily, how could you…?” He rubbed the bright red leaf-like handprint she had left on his cheek as he muttered, “You would never strike me like this before…”

“Oh I’ll strike you again alright! As many times as I need to, for that matter!” She hissed as I went to distance her from him, “Let me go, Ed! That bastard insulted your friendship with Lune! You don’t need a disgusting pig like that in your family!”

“EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!” Anna suddenly slammed open the door behind us, “Your goddamned bickering is scaring the customers away!”

“Anna, oh, it’s terrible!” Arthur hurried up to her, “Cecily has gone berserk, and Lune is…!”

“I know, Lune’s dead!” She shouted back at him with tears starting to well up in her Eyes again, “And frankly I don’t see what that’s got to do with you!”

“Eh?” He tilted his head, “ Of course it does, Annie! Lune is…!”

“Lune is mine and Ed’s friend! And the fact of the matter is that there was an equal chance that Ed would have been the one to have died instead of him, and you would have been the sole reason for it!”

Confused, he furrowed his brows at his dear granddaughter. The gears in his head were turning, but I’m afraid that Arthur genuinely couldn’t understand where she was going with this. In his mind, he couldn’t find a single fault in his logic.

“Annie, are you perhaps mad?” He innocently inquired.

“Hell yes I am!” She cried out, “Ed showed up here to bury his best friend, and you didn’t once send him your condolences! You didn’t once tell him how glad you were that he at least made it out alive! And you didn’t once truthfully apologize for sending him out into a fucking war!”

Tired from her tirade, Anna finally realized how scary she sounded in front of all of us, especially the kids, so she quickly put her frown upside down as she went to apologize to them. “Sorry kiddos!” She patted both of them on the head, “Your auntie just wants to get it through your Great Grandpa’s thick skull that he isn’t being all too civil.”

“A-Ah, no problem auntie Anna.” Nelly gulped with her Eyes wide open from fear.

After this whole debacle, Cecily and I calmly finished explaining to everyone how Grim had died. Of course, it was quite difficult for everyone to hear that Vivia was the one to deal the finishing blow, especially after how much she had proven herself trustworthy, but they were at least glad we had a proper plan to end their reign of terror on Entropa once and for all.

“The Gryses, eh?” Arthur reclined in his seat, “Honestly, they deserve all the worst, that damned Royal Family! I say go ahead, Ed! Call as many people as you can and make sure they don’t live for long!”

“That’s the plan, but there was one other thing we wanted to do before we continued our journey to meet up with the Gryses.” I explained, “Is the Willow Tree still where we left it?”

Immediately realizing what I was insinuating, everyone in the room looked at each other before silently nodding in affirmation. They quickly closed down the shop before we had locked the doors and went around the back and to the Willow Tree. It took some time to prepare and bring Grim’s casket all the way from the ship, but Carl helped me, so it was alright in the end.

“There we go.” I heaved a heavy sigh as we finally put him next to Marina’s resting place, “Miss Harper, we made sure to embalm him just like you taught me back when we brought him to the base, but just for safe measure, could you check if I did it right?”

“Sure.” She opened the casket to reveal a body completely covered in embalming bandages, “So that’s him, huh? Not a bad job, given your inexperience. It’ll do, don’t worry.”

“Ed, what’s this?” Cecily approached the casket with a sort of disappointed look, “Why is he covered in bandages? I wanted to see him one last time before we buried him.”

“Ah, his last wish was to be laid to rest aboveground in a stone casket, just like Marina over here.” I pointed to the casket next to hers, “See, he even made a stone casket for himself in advance. This is where he wanted to be, but if we just leave him as is aboveground, bacteria will eat up his body and it’ll rot quickly. Doing things like this preserves his body longer.”

“Is that so?” She seemed puzzled, but still thankful, “Thanks then. For being his friend, for being the main reason he stayed in Great Hiana and befriended Carter and me, and for this as well. Ed, you’ve done a lot for him.”

Hearing her say this so clearly in front of everyone, I got all sad again. Dammit, is it really happening so soon? I thought that Grim’s funeral would’ve been ages from now, like all the way to when we would be grandpas ourselves! Damn, why so soon? Couldn’t it have waited for at least a couple more years? Shit, now I’m crying again. Heh, I’ll dry up soon. I thought this would be way grander…

“A moment of silence for the fallen.” Miss Harper announced to everyone in a respectful tone, “May these two rest in peace, for they are now officially reunited among the heavens.”

“Aye.” I nodded my head as I closed the casket to seal it once and for all, “Thank you for everything, Grim. I’ll reunite with you later. Not soon, mind you, as I still have a ton of things left undone, so you might have to wait a bit more before we can talk again. Just one last thing, though - say hi to Carter for me.”