There, Aru thought, that's sure to get him asking questions! Someone with her childish appearance had just revealed she had a husband, so he must be thinking about all sorts of things. Is she actually a child? Is she lying? Why would she lie? Does he really resemble her spouse? All of these are reasonable questions that can all become interesting topics of conversation by themselves.

"I see. Is your husband with you right now?" He didn't bat an Eyelid.

"Ehhh~, don't care at all about the little girl that just told you she's married?" She chuckled.

"Well, in spite of your presumed age, you claimed before that you own a house, not to mention that you are running away from home." He continued, "You must be the victim of an arranged marriage against your wishes. It all makes sense now."

This guy must be stupid, Aru thought. For an adult like him to be this aloof and clueless, he must have quite a lot of trouble grasping social cues on the daily. In any case, he really does dislike the idea of talking to her no matter what. She was nearing the end of her meal anyways, so she thought to just end the conversation and leave anyways.

"Welp, thanks for the food and company." She went to get up, "I guess this runaway princess will have to leave you be."

"Mhm, it was nice talking to you." He nodded.

"...You're just gonna let me leave?" She stopped to glance back at him over her shoulder, "Didn't you say you were worried about me when you dragged me in here to eat?"

"Yes, and you ate." He waved, "Bye bye."

"Sigh..." She sat back down at their table, "Look, for future reference, you're supposed to hold a conversation for a longer time than this. I mean, come on! I was trying so hard to get a good convo going, but you're being so mean!"

"You were?"

This man, it seemed, was truly serious. He genuinely didn't find her topics anything out of the ordinary, and whatever outlandish thing she would say, accuse him of, or talk about, he would only ever brush it off with that annoying aloof nod. Aru is a Goddess that's lived far longer than there are numbers in the dictionary. She has met countless humans, and her experiences would often lead to them asking many questions. She would most enjoy getting people flustered or surprised, so to help with this, she would often adopt progressively more outlandish forms that juxtaposed her Godly nature. In one Universe Cycle, she would be a little girl, in the next a hot babe, and in the next she wouldn't even be a she. To Gods, it didn't matter, it was all just good fun. But this guy wasn't fun at all, he wasn't asking any questions. He was as plain as a bagel.

"Is there a single interesting bone in your body?" She groaned.

"There are quite a lot of them." He answered with a matter of fact tone, "A great example is my spine, which in spite of my best efforts and age, still makes me rather short in comparison to my friends."

"Ah, so you've a height complex?" She chuckled, "I didn't mean that question literally, but I finally got something out of you, so let's go with that. You're 169cm, aren't you? That's pretty tall."

"And a-"

"And a half." She smirked, "My Eyes are never wrong, don't worry."

"You have quite the good grasp on measuring." He looked suspiciously at her, "Are you perhaps a dwarf? Fairy tales tell of their keen Eyes."

"I'm a little girl." She replied, "And dwarves aren't yet implemented."

"Yes, I understand you are indeed little, but are you older than you appear?" He asked, "I have a gir-...someone in my life who is quite smart for her age, but she fails at some basic stuff."

"You're quite alike in that regard."

"Thank you." He smiled.

Though it wasn't a compliment, he still earnestly accepted it. This made Aru chuckle to herself a bit.

"How long have you been on the road for?" She thought to point out, "Maybe the reason you're so against talking is because of those bags under your Eyes."

"You noticed those too..." He felt even more uncertain, "Sigh, indeed, my friend and I have been journeying for two days nonstop. Sleep will come later, once we finish what we started."

"Is it that important?" She asked, "Are you gonna be able to make it all sleep-deprived?"

"We must." He said with a gleam of resolve in his Eye.

"Oh, a man on a mission, I see!" She replied jovially, "Guess neither of us are just prancing around the drylands of Simpleton for no reason."

"There is not a single thing I do without reason." He explained, "Every option is carefully weighed to make the best decision possible."

"As it should be." She nodded, "Then, I better get going myself."

"Running away from your husband?" He inquired.

"You decided that backstory on your own." She sighed, "I'm not running away from my husband, I'm looking for him. He's gone missing a few years back."

"My apologies. I hope you find him."

"Not even gonna...? Sigh, why do I even bother." She rolled her Eyes and left.

This strange man wasn't even worth looking into with her Omniscience. It made her shudder to even imagine what kind of a life he's led, for him to accept all sorts of weird things, yet have such a boring personality, he must either have a bunch of interesting friends or is just one of the many crazies in the world. Either way, she had her own mission to fulfill, so she let him be.

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"Oi, I'm back." The man's friend zipped his fly back up as he left the bathroom, "Man, that was a flood."

"Please do not forget to wash your hands after going to the restroom." The man replied with a scared expression.

"Nah, come on, man! I wash my hands, I just prefer to zip up after doing that, not before!"

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The two men were, as was previously mentioned, close friends and travel companions. It seems they had been on a journey for quite some time these past few days, as can be seen from their worn faces and unshaved stubbly beards. To put it another way, they looked more homeless than Aru, a girl who hadn't slept in a bed for the past few months.

"Shall we get going?" The man asked.

"Hold it!" His friend stopped him with a serious expression, "The fuck is that plate doing there?"

It was the plate Aru had just finished eating from. It had crumbs of bread and all the lettuce taken out of the sandwich and placed aside. Angrily, the man's friend scolded him.

"You hog!" He shouted, "You ate again while I was in the bathroom? Come on, man, we're not made of money!"

"I understand, but it was a necessary expense."

"...Sigh, guess I can't blame you for getting hungry."

Realizing that whatever this anger was was most probably just his own tiredness showing, the man's friend had decided to let go of his rage in favor of pressing on with their journey. They both left the restaurant in the middle of nowhere and began walking east.

"How long until we reach the next town?" His friend asked.

"Another 10 kilometers. Should not be far."

"Shouldn't be far-!? That's a ton, you idiot!" His friend bickered, "Gah, I miss the transport wagon~!"

"It cannot be helped, they do not go over unpaved terrain, so we have to make the trek ourselves."

"And you walked here before by yourself?"

"I think so."

"...How far away's the dock?"

"190 kilometers."

"And when are we gonna get to ride transport wagons again?"

"From the next town after this one and onward, we'll be able to call a wagon."

"And that's how far?"

"10 kilometers to this town, plus 23 to the next is 33 kilometers." He explained, "And 314 meters."

"Of straight walking in this heat?"

"Yes."

In truth, the path these two men were taking was completely impractical, and borderline suicidal, but they had no other choice. Their destination was Cardina, and since they were in Simpleton, their fastest option was to go east. The easier path would've been to go west, since they could've just traveled by wagon to the western dock, but that's add a ton of travel time while they're going around the entire continent on the ship. It's an ordeal caused by the lack of care from the Simpleton officials to set up a proper road leading to all the docks, but there's nothing to be done from these men to help fix it.

"I met a little girl while you were in the restroom." The guy began speaking, "She was really weird. Purple hair, ragged clothes, and yet her way of speaking and smart demeanor made her look older than she really was."

"Of course you'd find her." The other man joked, "See, how come I never find little girls to talk to? It's not a thing that happens just on its own, y'know. At times I wonder if you're actively searching for them, dude."

"I merely fed a homeless person."

"Then say that first, dumbass! I got scared for a second there!"

"She said she was looking for her husband."

"Ah, so it's one of those arranged marriages." The man's friend pitied the poor girl, "Seriously, some nobles really are scum of the world. You see it all the time, but I gotta wonder why the rich nobles always have to marry little girls? How are they not tried for it?"

"Cause it is in their tradition." The first guy replied, "And they are rich."

"You were quite well-off yourself, and yet you never..." He thought about it for a second, "Never mind."

"This girl, she reminded me of someone..."

"Go on, then."

"I do not understand it myself, but meeting her felt... nostalgic." The first guy spoke, "Maybe we met before in the past."

"Then she would have known you." His friend chuckled, "Then again, it's not every day that you meet someone with Purple hair."

"Indeed, that may be the case, but..." He groaned, "I'm more so talking about her incessant yapping."

Hearing this, his friend burst into laughter.

"So, she was annoying? What ever happened to being kind to the homeless?"

"Regardless of your wealth or financial position, you should know how to show a basic level of tact in any given situation." The first guy sighed, "She spoke while she ate, insisted on trying to get me to talk to her, and when that failed, she just started talking about her husband."

"I think you're the rude one for not at least humoring her." The second guy chuckled, "Kids don't like being ignored when they have something to tell you. I'm surprised you didn't get that part of parenting down yet."

"I'm nobody's parent. You are, but I'm not."

Looking one another in the Eyes, they both couldn't help but feel regret wash over them as they recalled why they were going on this trip to begin with. The White Eyed man, tanned in complexion and bearing a strikingly White hue of hair that meshed rather nicely with his incoming White stubble, looked on at his friend, a rugged one Eyed middle aged man with an Eye patch and a gritty smile.

"In terms of parenting, Meil, you and I both have kids to take care of." Lee patted him on the back, "You've got Nelly, and I've got Lem."

"I am Nelly's caretaker." Meil shook his head.

"And? Lem isn't related to me either, yet he still calls me dad."

"But we lost them purely because of our incompetence."

"And we'll get them back all the same." He smirked, "Hell, that's the bare minimum a parent has to do for his kid."

With this, the two friends pressed on through the Simpleton drylands, determined to go to Schnell's Archipelago and rescue Lem and Nelly from the mysterious attacker. Just a few minutes prior, in a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere, the Sun God and Water Goddess had finally met for the first time in ages, and yet, they were none the wiser. It might have been fate, but it was most probably merely a coincidence.