It's been a good week since the wedding, and things seemed to have finally started calming down. My relationship with Cecily and Cene has never been better, especially after we took over Aru's role as his tutors. He seems to be doing pretty well with his spelling and writing, but falls short when it comes to math. Granted, both Cecily and I were far more inclined to read than to calculate even in our youth, so I have nothing to be surprised about, but then again he IS still just a child. We should be sending him to BasicEd in a couple of years, but it's not uncommon to see more experienced kids there that were homeschooled a bit by their parents as some sort of headstart into their learning careers. Hopefully he'll meet some friends there, because from how I remember Nelly's kindergarten days, she wasn't all that popular.

That being said, Cene's gonna be super lonely when the gang leaves with Aru, so right now Cecily and I are in the process of thinking up a proper substitution for her.

"Maybe tell Nelly to come over and visit?" I suggested, "Sure it'll take a while, but if we're extra clear in this letter, there's no way she'll misunderstand."

"As I said before, she and Meil are probably drowning in schoolwork." Cecily shook her head, "Actually, I think he'll be alright with us."

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head.

"Well, he's got you and me, of course. But there's also Ed and Anna, and if he ever wants to hear some interesting stories from Sigmund and Camilla, we can just drop him off for the afternoon."

"Are you just looking for a break from having to take care of him at this point?" I sighed, "But no, he'll get bored of us adults in a day. I know I did, but I had Ed to explore Whitehood with. It's the one and only issue with this house's location - We've got no neighborhood kids for him to play with."

"Hm..." She then recalled, "Oh, then why not Allen?"

"Allen?"

The Gryses' kid? If I recall correctly, he's a tad younger than Nelly. He should be turning 10 soon, which makes him 4 years younger than her and 6 years older than Cene. I'd think he'd probably get super bored of having to look after such a young tyke all day, and if worse comes to worst, he might bully or even hurt Cene. I trust in Adam's and Elaine's strict parenting method, so I doubt he'd do anything too drastic, but you never know with royalty these days.

"But hmm..." I thought out loud, "Who knows, maybe having Cene learn to interact with royalty from a young age could be good for him. He's a naturally curious kid, so maybe it'd work out?"

"I'm just spitballing here." Cecily admitted with a shrug, "No need to take it too seriously. Besides, we still haven't even asked if Allen's up for it. Sigh, in truth, I just don't want him to end up like Nelly when it comes to making friends..."

"He won't." I reassured her, "But I do fear the possibility of him mirroring his father's actions and running away from home. Don't get me wrong, that's one way of meeting new and interesting people, but someone a bit more dangerous might come to snatch him just as easily."

"Banish the thought." Cecily shivered, "You're right, though. People get their craziest ideas when they're bored, so the best we can do to deter him from any rash actions is to keep him occupied."

And so, with a firm handshake to seal the deal that naturally segued into a light peck on the lips, we agreed to help Cene make a friend or two, starting with Allen Grys. Looking around the house for him, we had found him cooped up in the corner of his room, reading what appears to be a children's picture book. Quite befitting of his age, indeed.

"Hey, son." I casually approached him, "I got a question for you."

"A~nd thuh w-wabbit... wan a-way. Okay, done!" Cene happily plopped the book to his side before smiling over at us innocently, "What is it, papa?"

"Let's go visit Adam and Elaine, shall we?" Cecily suggested, "You can bring your book there if you want."

"Oh, okay!" He nodded before pushing himself up, grabbing the picture book before running past us, "I'm gonna put my shoes on!"

"He's quite eager." I raised my Eyebrows lightly.

"It makes sense." Cecily giggled, "He's getting pretty good at reading and writing, so no doubt he wants to show off as much as possible."

Going downstairs, we saw Cene jumping up and down with his boots on in front of the door, eagerly waiting for us to come down as well.

"Come on, come on!" He jumped for joy, "Ah, did you call Awoo?"

"Oh, s-she won't be coming with us today." I chuckled nervously, "She's busy preparing for her trip, you see."

That was a lie, of course. She needs barely any preparation, if any at all, so most of her remaining days here are being spent wisely lounging around or talking with Issei, Othelia and Eleanor about the trip. I'm not sure if she's doing this on purpose, but she seems to have toned down her time spent with Cene. Maybe she's just being considerate towards Cecily and me and letting us shine as his role models a bit, or perhaps she's just trying to ease Cene into a life without her, who knows. But one thing's for certain - She definitely isn't avoiding him because she's just grown tired of having to take care of him or any other selfish reason. Aru always honestly enjoyed taking care of Cene, in spite of all the annoying questions he would pester her with, not to mention all the times he got a bit too touchy with her for no reason other than childish and naive curiosity. She truly is a saint, forgiving him for all that and still agreeing to babysit him, and it seems despite the fact she said the Grimhearts are the Gods' enemies, she doesn't really share the same opinion on it. Maybe she's just talking about Selzion and possibly Auros? Eh, don't care. We said we won't dig too deeply into it, and so I'll leave it at that.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

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"Knock knock." We knocked on their door.

"Who art thou?" Adam replied without opening the door.

"Okay screw you." I stopped the joke prematurely, "Look, open the door we have a request."

"I never took you to be someone to get annoyed when your joke gets ruined." He chuckled as the doors opened, "What's up?"

"Is Allen here?" Cecily asked, "You see, we'd really like to get Cene some friends, so we figured, if he doesn't mind..."

"Oh, what a pleasant surprise this is!" He clapped and clapped, "Oh, but he's not here right now."

"Ah, then sorry for bothering you." I went to turn back, "If you could ask him when he comes back if he's willing to hang out with our son a bit, we'd be..."

"No, Lune, you don't understand." He chuckled, "He's not in the house right now because he's out playing with his friends."

"Oh!" Both Cecily and I smiled, "Then, where are they right now?"

"Follow me." He put on his sandals as he closed the door behind him.

With us three adults now happily walking Cene to the playground not too far away from the Grys Estate, we were met with quite a wondrous and wholesome sight of a bunch of kids of all ages playing around in the huge sand-sprinkled field. When he said Allen was with his friends, I got kind of worried that they would all be around his age, leaving Cene to be the youngest of the group, and thus an easy target for picking on. But no, there were kids ranging from what looked to be 6 years old all the way to 13, and I'm pretty sure I see some older teens reminiscing about this place in the corner. Well, either they're reminiscing or smoking dope, but as long as they're keeping their distance from the kiddos, I'm alright with them hanging around as well. The more the merrier.

"Son!" Adam called out to his son, "C'mere for a sec."

"Okay, father." Allen looked like he immediately got the gist of what was going on just from one glance at us, "Be right back guys."

"Okay." His friends gave him the thumbs up, "Don't take too long, we need to continue the game."

As Allen was jogging over to us, I felt Cene tug on my pants anxiously. Yeah, maybe we surprised him a bit too much with all this at once. This is his first time seeing so many unfamiliar faces all at once, so I'm sure he's quite shy right now. Holding onto his little picture book with his other hand, he whispered to us in an insecure tone.

"W-Who are these guys?" He hid behind me.

"They're your new friends." I patted him on the head to calm him down, "Make sure to be nice to them, and I'm sure you guys'll have a ton of fun together. Don't worry though, Allen here's gonna introduce you to everyone properly."

"Yes, father?" Allen finally made it to us, "Oh, hello to you three as well."

"Heya." I smiled as I gently pushed Cene in front of me, "Sorry to put this on you, but would you mind letting our Cene in on some of your games?"

"Ugh..." He groaned before immediately correcting himself, "I-I mean, s-sure thing! We'd be delighted to have him!"

"You don't gotta hide it, we know full well that we're annoying you." Cecily sighed, "But you don't need to play with him specifically. All we ask is for you to see to it that he properly meshes well with some of those kids his age. Pretty please?"

"Ugh, only because you asked, auntie Cecily..." He looked away, a tad smitten, "Then, come on, little dude. I wanna get back to playing with my friends as soon as possible, so let's go find you some bros of your own."

"M-Mommy, papa...?!" Cene reached his hand out towards us as Allen here seemingly whisked him away, "D-Don't leave me!"

"Haha, hey now, drama queen." I waved back at him happily, "Your mom and I are gonna be just over there where those benches are. We're not going anywhere."

"Have fun, Cene." Cecily too decided it'd be best to send him off with a smile, "Make lots of friends for me, okay?"

"Uuuu..." Cene couldn't help but hold back tears as Allen inconsiderately dragged him over to his new companions.

"I swear, those kids are a horrible influence on him." Adam remarked on his son's ungentlemanly behavior thus far, "He's fine when he's at home, but what kind of vocabulary is he displaying to the other kids while me and his mother aren't present? How shameful..."

"Adam." I looked him in the Eyes.

"Yes, Lune?" He smiled back.

"If I'm gonna be honest, your son's way better when he's like this." I revealed, "In fact, if a kid came up to me talking all snobby like he does usually, I'd be his biggest, most baddest bully."

"Oh, Lune..." He brushed me off, "You and your jests!"

"Dude, I'm not playing." I checked with Cecily, who agreed wholeheartedly with my sentiment mind you, "I'd genuinely beat the crap out of Allen if we were the same age and he talked to me all prim and proper. A kid should talk freely when around friends, it's how he learns social cues, like what's okay to say in front of others and what's not."

"That's preposterous." Adam was completely baffled by this, "A young prince should act like it. Imagine a king that talked as freely as a commoner child."

"Yeah, but a king leads a bunch of commoners, right?" I reasoned, "Issei told me that some leaders of his world intentionally drop the formalities to better connect with their people. It's also important for a king to not be too out of touch with reality."

"Yep, yep!" Cecily nodded fervently, "All very valid points, mister Grimheart! Allen should be free to talk however he wants, otherwise he might grow up to not talk at all!"

"Ugh, having you two tag team me isn't fair..." Adam sighed as he begrudgingly let the matter go, "Well, if you two say so, then I'll permit it for now."

"Great, as for Cene..." I glanced over at the kids playing only to stand up in surprise, "W-What the hell!?"