“Did you make sure to bring everything? Food? Water? A napkin?”

   “Cecily, your mom side is showing.”

   It seems as she really did get into the habit of worrying about us a bit too much. Honestly, I don’t mind it one bit. If anything, I’d say it just proves how much she cares for us in her own way, but there’s gotta be some limits to her overbearingness. I mean, both Anna and I are nearing adulthood, so I wouldn’t call it so farfetched to think we’re capable of going on a little trip, no matter the destination.

   “Even still!” Cecily rebutted, “You guys have to understand the gravity of the situation. You’re no longer gonna be in Entropa, it’s an entirely different culture and language out there, and not to mention you can’t rely on your friends to come help you when you’re in a pinch.”

   “So what?” Anna added, “We’ve traveled together before, it’s not like it’s our first time or something to that degree. Honestly, I’m more worried on how you guys are gonna fair with having to juggle Gramps and Nelly at the same time while we’re away.”

   “That’s nothing compared to what you’ll be facing. Remember, don’t make any enemies, and please don’t go causing any trouble. If you two are anything like Lune, then my worries won’t end until I see both of you report back to Springwood safe and sound.”

   “Cecily...” Aaron sighed, “Weren’t you the one that said there’s no point in worrying about something that’s out of control?”

   “But this IS in my control! I can still go with you guys! Remember, I’m a seasoned fighter and gang leader.”

   “So you’re willing to leave Aaron to take care of Arthur and Nelly all by his lonesome? I don’t think that’s what a gang leader would do in this scenario…”

   At this point, she was getting quite antsy with my replies. Normally I’d say she’s overreacting by a lot, but thinking about it rationally, she already has so much on her plate to worry about. First Lune disappeared without a trace somewhere in Sibirus, then there’s Nelly and Arthur who aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, and now us? Yeah, anyone would go mad. If anything, I should actually be praising her for keeping her nerves intact for this long.

   “Haa, he’s right, you know. Cecily, with all due respect, this is something we all need to pitch in for. Keeping everyone at their posts is the single most optimal way to win any gang dispute, and from my experience I can tell you that life is definitely the same as a gang dispute.”

   She gave Aaron a scornful gaze as she finally gave both Anna and I a strong hug, before doing a complete 180 and storming out of the room. We figured she was just having a hard time putting her thoughts into words, so we let her calm down for a minute as we turned to a tired Arthur who was calmly sitting at a nearby table.

   “You gonna be alright while we’re away, Old Man?” I asked with a familiar tone, “Don’t cause too much trouble for Ms. Harper and those two. Be sure to take your medicine regularly.”

   “Ed, your mom side is showing.” Arthur dared to use my own spells against me.

   I realized my mistake and retreated back into myself in shame, while the others present laughed their asses off. Although if you were to ask me if I minded it, I would have to say not at all, since it seems like even Aaron choked on his drink a bit from the witty answer his pops dished out.

   “Looks like your jokes are still landing as gracefully as ever, Mr. Arthur.” A voice could be heard entering through the front door.

   “Ms. Harper, you wanted to see us off that badly?” I asked expectedly.

   “You guys still haven’t left? Geez, you’re slow. You do realize we’re fighting against the clock here, Arthur’s disease is still unknown, and we’re literally placing all of our trust into that seemingly random guess of yours.”

   The last thing I expected from Ms. Harper was a scolding, but if I’m gonna be honest, it kinda felt nice oddly enough. Like, If I had to hear this every single day coming from her, then I’d be the biggest troublemaker in existence, that sorta feel.

   “Right, Andolia Baonei, was it?” Aaron said, “I contacted some guys I know to inform me a bit on it, and apparently it’s gonna be real difficult to acquire. As you know, it is a rare plant that only grows in the country of Umoris, and they take immense pride in that fact.”

   “Pride? Don’t tell me they’re gonna be annoying like those guys in The Kingdom of Carmen! Grim and I were THIS close to getting bounties placed on our heads purely for trying to check in to the ITA…”

   “Well, you’re both right and wrong about that. I’m not saying this from my own experience, but well… you’ll see what I mean when you get there. But right now you should probably hurry on over to the transport wagon, otherwise you’ll miss it!”

   “STOP RIGHT THERE!” Cecily kicked open the door from the other room while holding Nelly up to her modest bosom, “You guys ain’t going nowhere without saying goodbye to my adorable daughter!”

   “Ah, of course, how could we forget the fair princess?” Anna chuckled whilst reaching her hand out for Nelly to latch onto with her tiny fingers, “Bye bye, Nelly, Uncle Ed and Auntie Anna will be back before you learn to walk, y’hear?”

   “Come on now!” I intervened, ”Don’t say such ominous things, we don’t wanna jinx i-”

   “buh bye.” An adorably tiny voice could be heard from within Cecily’s arms.

   The entire room went dead silent, slowly turning our gazes towards the baby who had just uttered her first words in front of us all. We made sure to check Cecily’s expression, but she apparently was the most shocked out of all of us. I gasped in excitement as I turned to Anna, who was making quite the scary face.

   “Is this a bad omen…?”

   “T-There’s no way that’s the case! J-Just because Nelly said bye bye to us doesn’t mean we won’t meet again, right?? That’s just superstition, ha-ha…”

   “R-Right you are, Ed! Let’s just be happy we got to witness Nelly say her first words!”

   Now the entire room was awkwardly chuckling, but the fear of the superstition was still noticeable. Now, this is still only a little folk belief, but it’s said that babies’ first words always hold an important meaning, as children are said to be born pure and unable to lie. This in turn has made some people believe that a baby’s first words can predict the future. Well, if that’s the case, then I’m suddenly not so excited about this trip anymore…

***

   “Alright! We made it to Primis! That means we get to revisit Ren!” I said to my somewhat nervous party member, “Now that I think about it, Anna, you’ve never been to Primis before, have you?”

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   “I did sometimes visit the villages near the border to pick up some medicine for Gramps, but you could hardly call that a proper visit.”

   “Alright then, we’ll be arriving in Ren shortly, and the boat for Umoris is tomorrow, so while we have the time, want me to tour you through it for today?”

   Honestly, there were two pros to this plan of mine. First one was that I got to revisit Ren for a day, which as some of you might know is the place where Grim and I wrote the first volume of our Travel Diary. Thinking back, his body still wasn’t healed completely, so I had to basically transcribe a large part of his words on the actual paper. Does that mean I’m his ghost writer?

   In any case, it holds a special place in my heart, but it’ll have to scoot over for a bit, since the second pro of this plan suggests that Anna and I can go on a date while we’re here! It’s two birds with one stone! Genius!

   “Sure thing.” She said, “Gives me the perfect excuse to go check up on the Arthur’s branch that Gramps set up some time ago.”

   Oh, then does that mean… THREE BIRDS WITH ONE STONE?! MEGA GENIUS!

   “If I recall correctly, Grim said that he actually met Arthur here while he was working on said branch. Shame I wasn’t there with him, though.”

   “Yeah, Gramps told me about it, you really are the worst…”

   “Hey!”

   “Hehe~”

   Well, her teasing seems to be in tip top shape, so it seems Nelly’s jinx didn’t leave too much of an impact on her. Was she just joking even then? Am I the only one worried about it? Damn unnecessary thoughts ruining my perfect date plan…

   “Oh hey, Ed, I see the restaurant from here! Hurry up!”

   “Coming!”

***

   “All aboard the S.S. Express!”

   “Haah, Anna, that’s not what the ship’s called (I should apologize to the captain).”

   “Hehe, I know, I know! I just really wanted to shout that out once! It really rolls off the tongue!”

   “…I guess (cute…)”

   As you can imagine, our date in Ren went swimmingly, and we actually had so much fun that we ended up not getting a wink of sleep last night (hey, nothing lewd!). After finishing up everything we needed to do in town, we decided to just buy some snacks from the market and try and see if we can make it through the entire night without sleeping.

   Staying up all night during a slumber party is an experience that I just cannot explain properly. We ate snacks, played all sorts of games, talked about the most mundane of topics, but even still we didn’t once get bored for the entire duration of the night. Our memories are a bit hazy from around the 6 o’ clock part, since that’s when the sun began to rise and a wave of drowsiness hit us in the face like a ton of bricks. Even still, we persevered until the very end, and finally made our way to the boat without getting a wink of sleep.

   Was it careless? Yeah. Was it fun as hell? Definitely. Will we be doing it again? Fuck no.

   “Fuahhh!” Anna chugged the leftover fizzy soda from last night, “Somehow drinking this in the morning just hits different, y’feel me?”

   “Your stomach’s gonna get revenge for that, y’know? Don’t overdo it, the sea tides are not to be taken lightly.”

   “Oh, boohoo! Look at Mister Party Pooper here, acting all serious when you were stuffing your face full with chips just an hour ago.”

   “Anna that was 5 hours ago.”

   “Really? Man, I’m tired.”

   After that, the captain of the ship kindly let us rent it for ourselves, and with my masterful steering abilities and a sleeping schedule that was just begging to be ruined, we managed to leave the dock with little to no issues. I was a bit hesitant on the idea of not having the captain steer it, but it’s not like the boat is that big or anything, and he said it’s good practice for me, since I’m an adventurer after all.

   It took us not 15 minutes before the loud crashing of waves started to get on our nerves, and only 30 minutes after that…

   “Bleurghh…!”

   “Yeesh, here, if you’re gonna puke, at least puke in this bag.”

   “D-Don’t you, ugh, patronize me, Ed. Who’s idea was it to buy all those fizzy drinks and salty snacks?”

   “It was yours, if I recall correctly. Also here, sniff this.”

   “The hell is that?”

   “It’s some alcohol I got from Great Hiana. It’s really good at curing seasickness. Just take a whiff of a handkerchief infused with this miracle fluid and you’ll feel as bright as the sun!”

   “Fine… Ugh, FUCK!”

   Exactly as expected, Anna got shocked from the pain of snorting an alcohol infused handkerchief and, in her frenzy, threw the bottle of alcohol off the plank. Well, if anything, it woke her right up from her hazy state, and she immediately apologized for acting so rashly towards the bottle.

   “Don’t worry about it, I brought spares just for this occasion.” I said as I showed her the many bottles of miracle alcohol from my pouch.

   She chuckled at the sight of it, and it seemed like she was getting to be her old chipper self once again. That being said, while we did find a remedy for seasickness, sleepiness is completely different issue. As such, she soon fell asleep on the wooden floor of the boat’s deck without so much as a single word. I covered her up with a nearby blanket and went to grab the helm to steer us in the right direction, but since I too spent the entire night awake, I just barely missed it and fell unconscious on the floor as well.

   Since no one was there to steer the boat, we actually drifted all the way to the coast of Sophia and had to take a boat ride back to Cardina the following day. It was a unanimous decision to cut back on the slumber parties until further notice.

***

   As the duo began their journey to find the mysterious plant and cure the aching Arthur, we return to the tinkerer who now sits atop a lonely balcony in Cardina. His thoughts are, surprisingly, no longer scrambled, and he appears to be in quite the peaceful state of mind as he drinks his preferred drink of choice.

   “Mariabelle, is the night sky not the most beautiful view in the whole wide world?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Is there another Mariabelle around here?”

She made a difficult face as she forced out a fake smile, but she still chose to sit down next to her master and enjoy the night sky together. It wasn’t a rare occasion for these two to sit down like this anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes witnessing something greater than you simply soothes the soul, that’s all there was to these peaceful, transient moments.

“Y’know, I always wondered what the stars really mean.” He said with a sentimental gaze, “Like, there’s so many of them, but every night I made sure to observe that particularly shiny one. It always stays in the same place, unreachable, untouchable, unchanging… How long did it stay like that? How did it accomplish such a feat?”

“Master, you sure do have a strong sense of imagination. You seem to be in the bad habit of giving objects human characteristics. Put simply, it’s really unnerving.”

   “Really?”

   “Yeah. There’s all sorts of things we don’t know about the world, like why the day and night is as long as it is, and what these objects far out in the sky are always there, not to mention where they come from, but I guarantee you that they’re not beings, they’re probably huge lumps of rock.”

   “Rock…” He made a scared expression, “I don’t like that idea. Apart from the obvious, it just doesn’t make sense. Rocks can’t float, and they’re heavy as fuck.”

   “Language, master.”

   “Right, they are without a doubt large as fuck.”

   “…”

   She didn’t seem to appreciate his affection towards the inappropriate word. Worst part is he didn’t even notice what he had said, he was that engrossed in the stars. To him, someone who was always interested in how things in the world work, the mere idea of just letting go of something he doesn’t get isn’t even within the list of possible outcomes. It wasn’t a matter of IF he’ll figure it out, but rather WHEN.

   “Master, your idea for the ‘flashlight’ was a great success. The merchant loved it so much that he’s requesting 10,000 gold coins for the patent.”

   “Heh, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s just connecting a few components together is all. I actually got the idea from our streetlights. All I did was make them portable.”

   “Still, no one thought to do so before you did. Just think of the adventurer’s it will benefit in the future-” She stopped midway through her sentence.

   The tinkerer’s eyes were wide open as the words left her mouth. She knew full well that the topic of adventurers isn’t a good one to talk about with him, yet it still slipped out. She apologized profusely, but it was to no avail.

   “Just… Don’t talk about adventurers, please. I have no idea what those guys are gonna do with flashlights, but I’m doing this strictly for quality of life purposes. My inventions are, and will always remain, nothing more than home appliances.”

   “I-I understand, Master.” She tried looking for the right words before ultimately giving up and calling it a night, “…I’m gonna hit the hay. You’re free to join me whenever you want to.”

   “Language, Mariabelle. We’re nobles, not commoners.”

   “Right, I’m gonna hit the fucking hay.”

   The tinkerer burst out laughing at her ironic response, and soon followed her to bed as well. Yet another tiring day of inventing and negotiating had passed for these two, but as long as they have each other, things are sure to work in their favor.