We were late for the ropeway thing, but thankfully we had enough time left in the afternoon to use these paddleboats. Decorated to look like swans, they basically use the strength in your legs to quite literally 'push' the boat forward. It's sorta like oaring, except with your feet, which is a lot easier on the body. Issei and I were the ones paddling, whilst Ouroboras sat back and enjoyed the ride. A bit backwards, seeing as I was the newbie here, but I guess he didn't feel like working out.

"And just like that, we're already at the center of this massive lake." He nodded.

"Wipe that smug look off your face, you didn't do shit." Issei clicked his tongue, "Lune's dying over here."

"Mn? I'm fine, don't worry."

"See? Look how much he's panting." He patted me on the back, "You should feel ashamed, Ouri."

"Judging by your ragged breaths, is it not safe to assume you are projecting your weary state onto Lune Grimheart?"

"See? Looks like you CAN read the room, after all." Issei stood up, "So do me a solid and swap places."

"No, a God does not work for mortals."

"Dude, quit being an ass!" Issei whined, "At least for the trip back, come on!"

"I refuse."

"Ouroboras, please do what he says." I facepalmed, "He looks about ready to knock us all over and into the water if he doesn't get his way."

"I'll do it!" Issei threatened.

With a long and peeved sigh, Ouroboras obliged and ultimately got up from his leisure seat. Swapping places, he angrily kicked the pedals a bit before continuing to paddle away on his own.

"Hey, we're resting now, oi!" I tried steering us in the right direction, "Du-! O-Ouroboras, if you're the only one paddling then we'll only be going in circles, y'know!?"

"Yes. That was my intention from the start." He paddled and paddled away without breaking a sweat, "Rest, Lune Grimheart. I will do my best to give you a pleasurable 360 degree viewing experience while you do."

"And me too, right?" Issei pointed to himself with a cheeky grin.

"...Hey look, the Sun." Ouroboras pointed to the horizon, prompting Issei to follow his finger's direction without thinking.

"Ack! You moved the Sun on purpose for that!"

"That would doom us all if I did. You simply fell for an old trick I like doing on naughty mortals."

Laughing and guffawing at their slapstick comedy, I reclined in my seat to look up into the pink evening sky turning into a lovely dark Blue. At first it was clear, with not a single star in sight, but it almost felt like a trick when I slowly started to notice them pop into view one after another the more I focused on them. One of my favorite past times as a child, that being stargazing, and yet, when was the last time I fully immersed myself in it?

"I'm glad that the stars exist in this world too." I uttered offhandedly.

"Where's this coming from?" Issei looked up, though with a more so puzzled expression than anything, "Stars are stars, I would've made a bigger deal about them when I came to the Vast World if we didn't have them here."

"Never mind me, I guess. I'm just musing to myself." I lightly chuckled, "But yeah, I can't explain it. Whenever I see the starry sky above me, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, it just sort of... gives me this warm feeling inside. Like, come rain or shine, whenever I see those same stars up above my head, it's like this entire world is covered by a large dotted blanket, enshrouding us all in its surplus of warmth."

"Ah, he must be reaching delirious levels of fatigue." Ouroboras dubiously deducted, "Just look at this pitiful mortal's mad mutters. How unenviable..."

"Cheh, you guys don't know how to enjoy the actually good things in life." I ignored them to bask in the moment instead, "The stars here are different from the ones back home, but I'm sure the same rules apply to them. Back when I was a kid, there was always a patch of stars in the sky that looked like an L. It sounds pretentious, but I always felt that was some sort of prophesized sign made for me."

"Wow, self-centered much?"

"I will have to agree with Issei Kaido, that is a rather improbable situation."

"I remember Ed and I always used to look for the other half. The G, in this case, or even an E for him, but it never aligned. Hell, it never moved one bit, as did none of the other stars. That L always looked over me while I was trying to escape from Whitehood, it blessed my budding relationship with Cecily when we first met, warned me of continuing down the path I took as the Famed Inventor, and the harm that'd befall Marina. Following its direction when I got lost in the desert, it successfully took me to Oden, where I met Meil. Even while I was on the verge of death in Carmen, it stared down at me from the Heavens above. Suffice it to say, it never moved a centimeter, no matter how many years had passed."

"Yeah." They both nodded, "That's... how stars work."

"Eh?"

"The celestial bodies are no more than the afterimages of once burning balls of flame." Ouroboras ruined the magic for me without a second thought, "They do not move from their spot in the sky because they are so far away. The L you described is nothing more than a scientific phenomenon known as a constellation, in other words - The alignment of stars."

"......."

"...."

"......Fuck this. Let's go find a place to sleep through the night."

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Goddd I wanna dieeeee...! What the hell kind of bullcrap was I spouting last night!? Stars in the sky?! You shouldn't mention that emotional stuff in front of other guys, come on, you're smarter than this Lune! Ugh, recalling the events from then, they just kept secretly snickering at me as we awkwardly paddled back to shore. After that we walked on over to the nearby ryokan to take a dip in the onsen, eat dinner and go to sleep. They kept pestering me about playing a few rounds of cards with them, but I just hid in my futon and tried my best to forget this entire day even happened... And I still remember every excruciatingly embarrassing detail VIVIDLY.

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"Morning sunshine." Issei yawned as he held back another snicker, "Or should I say starshine?"

"I'm going back to sleep..." I buried my face under my pillow.

"Do not be ashamed, Lune Grimheart." Ouroboras was the one to surprisingly try and cheer me up, "It is perfectly normal for you to think that way. That is how you were made, after all."

"Huh? Really?"

"Well yes, we Gods have specifically programmed you humans to experience the fabled 'mid-life crisis' as you age and mature. You might be a bit too young for that though, but I believe it only serves the purpose of showing how much of a prodigy you are in that regard."

As he was busy explaining why I was a mistake, Issei couldn't even bother to hold back his laughter anymore as he let it all echo in the room we were in. No regard for the neighbors that may be sleeping at these hours, or even for his good friend who was just about on the verge of tears. Dammit, why'd I think talking about my hobbies to anyone other than Cecily or Ed would be a good idea? Countless times before I've been proven wrong in that very assumption, and yet I still choose to hurt myself like this. Sigh, I miss those two... If it was them I was telling all that stuff last night too, then they'd surely understand and keep the conversation thriving for at least a few hours! Ugh, crap...

"Ahh, but seriously, we should get going soon if we wanna go up the ropeway." Issei lightly kicked me after getting up, "Come on, quit moping."

"...I'm not going." I stayed firmly under the blankets, "You two go without me."

"Haah? Come on, you're not seriously mad at us for a bit of friendly dissing?"

"Issei, we booked this room for the entire day." I glared back at him, "Leave me alone. Please."

"Issei Kaido." Ouroboras tapped him on the shoulder, "He made his choice. Come on, we should not be late a second time."

"But-!"

"Just go." He warned, "Or I will shave your balls clean with a thousand miniature Suns."

"Ack, don't gotta tell me twice!" He ran off, "We'll come back in a couple hours, Lune, so you better feel better by then!"

And just like that, they left. I'm finally all alone, for the first time since coming to this world in fact. I'm glad at least Ouroboras had some sense in him. Or who knows, he's pragmatic to a fault, so maybe he literally just didn't wanna be late to the ropeway again. Dammit, I'm with those two, so why do I still feel like I'm all alone in this world? I thought they'd understand me, I thought...!

"Shit..." I kicked the blanket away, "I'm an idiot."

Putting my trust in them, when they don't give a damn at all. I must be the most naive prick in the world, seriously! Issei... looking back, that useless pervert has been causing me nothing but harm ever since we first met. In a way, you could say he's the reason Cecily and I had such a rough patch back when he planted the idea of me going out with Marina. Wait no, that'd mean I regret accepting Marina's feelings, which I don't. But, there's no doubt that it hurt Cecily... I miss them, both of them. They mean so much to me, and yet here I am abandoning them yet again. Sigh...

"Crap, how the hell did I go from stars to wives all of a sudden?" I self-depracatingly laughed at myself in the mirror, "I haven't felt like this since I was a drunkard... Hm?"

Just under the mirror, in the table's glass drawer under it stood proudly a bottle of sake. That's a surprise, does this ryokan offer it in our rooms directly? Do they charge extra if it gets drunk? I wonder...

"No!" I stopped myself, "The hell are you doing, idiot!? You promised Marina on your wedding day never to touch a single drop again!"

But... She's dead.

"Which would only make you breaking the promise worse! Come on, what're you even interested in with this? You know how bad the effects of alcohol can get, and you certainly aren't thinking of breaking the abstinence streak because you're curious about the taste!"

It's... kinda poetic. To drink after feeling like this again. Sure, it's not the taste I'm after, nor is it the effects. I just... wanna drink. I know it won't make me feel better, and it's certainly not healthy, but I wanna do it. Am I crazy for being like this? Nah, countless people think the same, hence why there's so many drunkards out in the world. Except...

"Am I one of them?" I thought to myself, "God, the hell's wrong with me. Getting drunk for no reason? What'd that solve? Nah, I've held out this long, I can hold out some more."

Closing the drawer before going back to bed, I had slept through the morning and a fair bit into noon, where I had dreamt nothing. Usually, I would consider that to be a pretty bad nap, but in this case, I think it very much helped to clear my head. I was woken up by these two coming back with satisfied expressions on their faces, and yet I felt no animosity towards them.

"You guys looked like you had fun." I rubbed my Eyes, only for Issei to toss something small on my lap, "Eh? What's this?"

"Open it up." He said with a sigh, "And... Sorry, for kinda making fun of you. It's not much, but I hope it'll make you realize we weren't being serious."

"What? You guys didn't have to do that!" I couldn't look them in the Eyes out of shame, "Dammit, sorry for making you worry."

"Just open it." Ouroboras ordered.

"Geez, okay... Huh?" I took the small item out of the paper packaging, "A... necklace?"

"A constellation necklace!" Issei smiled, "While walking to the ropeway, we came across a gift shop selling them, so we found that L one you like."

"Is it correct?" Ouroboras raised an Eyebrow.

"It's... identical." I couldn't believe my Eyes, "But how? This world doesn't have this constellation in the sky."

"I wonder about that..." Issei turned away.

"You guys... Thanks." I put it around my neck before pointing out, "Hey, there's some sake in the drawer if you want."

"Where!?" Issei immediately fwipped back.

Maybe... Maybe I'm not alone, after all.