"Geez, you really did it this time, mister!" Beth complained as she raced across the country, "Thanks to your little family talk that you just HAD to leave for the very end, we now might not even make it to the dock in time."

"Oh, you're just over exaggerating." I brushed her off, "It's still not even 9 in the morning yet. We've got until tomorrow at 8 until the boat leaves. Plenty of time in my books."

"Yeah, maybe if I was a machine that never required rest." She glared back, "But I'm human too, y'know. Besides, even you guys as passengers need some regularly scheduled breaks to take in some fresh air."

Oh right, accounting all the breaks we'll have to inevitably take, be they potty breaks, food and drink breaks, or even just getting out to stretch our limbs a bit like she said just now, it'll add up to a couple hours lost just staying in place, surely. Still, that's 23 hours until the deadline. You can't honestly tell me our little 15 minute talk jeopardized the journey to such a degree.

"There's something you're not letting on." I suspected, "No matter how I slice it, we'll have plenty of time if we just go straight to the dock, no matter how many breaks we take in between."

"Hrm..."

"But what would happen if say, the driver wanted to take a little detour to visit a certain friend on top of that, then?" I smirked, "I got you figured out, Beth! There was that D guy you promised to visit soon, wasn't there?"

"Tch, I never expected you to be the detective type, mister." She chuckled dejectedly, "But sigh, I guess you got me. I'll leave visiting D and the fam for a later date. You guys shouldn't miss your ride because of my selfish wants."

That's more like it. Seriously, where did she even get the idea that we'd stop by to wait for her while she visits her family? What makes her think were that close? I gotta get back to my home, dammit, Ed's shagging the entire place up in my absence and I don't like it! Ah, but... I guess she did wait for us in Whitehood even though she didn't have to. Granted she wanted to just be there out of her own volition as well, but I can understanding feeling a bit more inclined to stick around the people that so generously paid you for your services. Damn, what the hell am I doing?

"Hey now, I never said you should skip that event." I reassured her, "Love is an important emotion, especially at your age, y'know. I just can't feel right knowing I was directly responsible for you not being with that D guy."

"Once again, I think you're jumping to some wild conclusions in terms of our relationship, but whatever - As long as I get to visit my hometown, I'm happy."

"Beth and D~! Sitting in a tree~"

"Are you like, expecting a reaction out of me over that or something?" She winced, "Dude, I'm not that young to have that rustle my feathers..."

"Ah, sorry..." I quieted back down, "Ah."

"What's up?"

"Oh nothing, I just realized how different the future generations really are from our own."

"Really? My mom and dad weren't ever as lovey-dovey, childish and whimsical as you guys." Beth figured, "I think it's not a generational thing. I think you and your wife are just the odd ones out."

Huh, y'know that may actually be the case. For all intents and purposes, neither me nor Cecily have ever lived what one would consider a "normal" life, even now when we supposedly left everything behind us. She and Carter were orphaned from a young age and left to fight for themselves in the streets, and Ed and I willingly left our homes in search of adventure. After we met, things only got more crazy from then on. We fought in gang disputes, there was that debacle with Marina and Issei, we technically won the Mobius Awards and met multiple Gods, one of whom we developed a rather close bond while she lived under our roof. Yeah, the list goes on, basically. I guess it's an interesting life indeed, which makes me glad I made the choices I did back then, but a part of me still feels I'm missing that "normality" in life. Who knows, maybe this IS said normality - For us, at least.

"I think were the normal specimens in our generation." I reclined in my seat with a smug grin on my face, "The rest of those bozos are just way too boring in comparison!"

"Hm, whatever you say, mister." She shrugged, "Now go to sleep, please. I'll wake you guys up when we reach our first short break in a couple hours, so let me focus on my driving."

"Oh right, how've you been since the accident?" I recalled, "Y'know, ever since you ruthlessly ran over that one lam-?"

"Shut up and go to sleep!"

"Got it, sorry..."

But damn, now that we're really booking it through the bumpy road, I can't really get into a proper sleeping position no matter how hard I try. If I put my head up against the window, I end up repeatedly bumping into it. If I turn the other way, I'll end up sleeping on Cecily, which is just something I wouldn't wanna make her have to go through. Eh, I'll try and tilt my head back and...

"Hrm... Snort, ack!?" I woke myself up from just one singular instance of a snore, "Tch, guess that won't work..."

In the end, I went through countless sleeping positions before I found one that sort of felt comfortable. With each subsequent position being weirded and more deformed than the last, I ended up in a position in which I crossed my legs over the knees to make space for Cecily and Cene, had her rest on my shoulder and tucked my head in between my shoulder and the window. It sounded perfect back then, but I couldn't really say the same after I woke up a few hours with a sore neck.

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"Owowow..." I got out of the wagon with both my hands firmly massaging my nape, "You should've woken me up sooner. Dammit, Beth, where even are we?"

"I need to grab some gas real quick. You guys can take the time to drink some coffee, refill on snacks or go to the bathroom if you need to." She replied.

"Daddy, bathwoom..." Cene rubbed his Eyes as he tugged on my sleeve.

"Alright kiddo, let's go then." I smiled back, "Cecily, could you save us a seat at a free table somewhere while I take Cene to the bathroom?"

"Sure, yaaaawn~" Her yawning interrupted her, "You gonna drink anything?"

"Just some tea, please. Any kind will do, but I plan on going back to sleep once we get back in the wagon, so coffee won't do me any good."

"Alright then, you guys go on ahead." She nodded before giggling to herself, "Looks like our son's not gonna be able to hold it in for much longer, so you better hurry it up, daddy."

"Oh crap, come on Cene!" I took his hand before rushing him behind the store, "To the bathroom!"

Making it just in time before he pissed his pass, Cene and I finally returned back to Cecily's side, now both feeling refreshed and happy again. It's around noon right now, so we should be somewhere near the border between Primis and Secundis right about now. Wow, wait - We still haven't even reached the first sub border yet? Damn, maybe we really won't make it in time after all... N-No! Come on, Lune! Trust in Beth, she knows what she's doing!

"Oh good, you're back." Cecily beckoned us to sit down around the table with her as she happily sipped her coffee, "I got you some chamomile tea since I heard it promotes better sleep."

"Thanks." I sat down, "Aw, it's kinda..."

"Cold?" She put her chin on her hand, "Yeah, looks like they don't really take too much time to heat up the drinks here. I found it weird too, but what can you do."

"What can I do, you say? Oh I'll tell you what!" I lifted my cup of coffee up before Sparking a tiny flame underneath it, "We've got Iro Abilities for that, you know?"

"Dear, I don't think they'll necessarily appreciate a flame in the same shop where they sell gas." Cecily warned.

"Don't care." I willingly feigned ignorance as I acted none the wiser, "If they really didn't want anyone to start a little fire near this place, then they would've made warmer drinks."

"There's a reason for that, dipass." Beth inserted herself into the conversation just like that, "You're not here to take your time, but rather to go in, drink your stuff and leave. You're in a convenience store primarily, not a café."

"Oh, fair point." I flickered my hand off in the fear that she might have found out about my Iro Ability, "Anyways, you all done on your end already?"

"Yeah, just came here to tell you I'll be waiting in the wagon." She turned to leave immediately, "You guys should hurry it up as well. Don't go making me wait again."

"You sure you don't want anything to drink?" I asked, "I'll pay, so take whatever you want, okay? I want our designated driver to be in tip top shape!"

"Mister, my butt's already sore from driving all the time." She rubbed it as if to show how painfully it hurt her, "I'd rather die than have to sit down any more than I already need to. That being said, I did buy myself some energy drinks to keep me invigorated, so no worries on that front."

"Ah, I forgot about those things." I smiled nostalgically as I recalled, "Hey, did you know I invented the recipe for energy drinks back when I was just a tad older than you?"

"Yeah, and I was a Goddess in a previous life." She grumbled, "Seriously mister, what's the point of sizing yourself up to a random girl like me?"

"I'm telling the truth!" I whined, "Cecily, you tell her!"

"Was that before or after you cheated on me with Marina?" Cecily shot back with a rather cutthroat rhetoric.

"Oof, don't wanna know." Beth immediately sensed danger and fled the scene, "Just hurry it up, yo. Unless of course you WANT to be late for your ship, in which case I implore you not to blame me when that inevitably does happen."

"It won't." I winked over at her, "I once swam all the way from Lichtenstelle to Meridia, y'know, so this much is probably fine too."

"Mister..." She heaved a long and disappointed sigh, "Now you're just teasing me at this point. What the hell kind of a story is that?"

The girl doesn't believe a single story I told her, even though they're all true! Like come on, I didn't say anything too outlandish, did I? I DID mass produce the energy drink formula to the bigger soda companies in the world after I replicated it from Issei's birthday book of recipes, and I DID swim all the way from Lichtenstelle by myself once I revived. Tch, looking back I should have just mentioned Aru while we're at it. Sigh, I guess it's just something normies will never understand.

"Lune." Cecily interrupted my train of thought to give me a heads up, "Your coffee's burning."

"Ah!" I extinguished Spark as soon as I heard that before eagerly blowing on the cup to cool it back down to a drinkable temperature, "Dammit, Beth had me monologuing...! Ah, screw it, I don't even feel like rushing anymore."

"Really?" Cecily tilted her head, "Won't Beth get mad again?"

"To hell with her." I pouted, "If she's not gonna believe in a word I say, then it's really her fault for expecting me to uphold my end of the bargain. She can wait however long she needs to as punishment. Yeah, respect your elders, missy!"