“What the hell were we even doing in Sophia of all places?!” A confused Anna shouted out while we were making our way back to Cardina, “I blame the fizzy drinks!”

   “I told you it’s gonna bite us in the ass, but nooo~ you were adamant on getting snacks and drinks.”

   “But Ed, the fizz is the biz! You can’t have a slumber party without it!”

   She justified it with a rhyme! I can’t believe how adorable she can be at times!

   “Whatever, let’s just make sure we don’t ever fall asleep while on a boat, we could’ve capsized or even worse, gotten stranded on some uninhabited island.”

   “That sounds kind of fun, actually.”

   “Don’t just accept such a horrible fate, I’m already not feeling well ever since Nelly said her first words.”

   Upon hearing that, Anna burst out laughing and started teasing me for being afraid of a little rumor. I didn’t really care about it, but I did make a promise to Arthur to take care of Anna while we’re on this trip. Honestly, I don’t like being away from home, and I still haven’t even paid my parents a visit, so I’d really like to get this over with as soon as possible.

   “Oh, we’re here.” I said as we neared the shore of Cardina, “According to the map, and the layout of the shoreline, we should be somewhere near the southern side of Occidence.”

   “Cool, then let’s head to the nearest currency exchange office and we’ll be on our way.”

   “…The what?”

   Anna looked on at me expectantly as I simply looked right back at her in silence. What the hell is a currency exchange office, and why do we need to stop by there before continuing to Umoris?

   “…Ed, you do know that the people of Cardina don’t accept coins, right? That’s strictly an Entropa thing.”

   “Eh? Then what do they use?”

   “Shils. They only accept shils in Cardina. One shil is worth one bronze coin.”

   “Well, if it’s worth the same amount, then what’s the point of using those instead of coins?”

   “God, must be nice to be this politically ignorant. Listen Ed, I don’t want to have to explain to you the entire history and politics of the world, so I’ll just tell you this much: shils only come in bronze coin variants. There is no such thing as a conversion rate from one silver or gold coin to shils. They’ll just hand you 100 or 10000 shils respectively and send you on your merry way. That’s the main difference.”

   “What?! That’s outrageous! And inefficient! I am NOT carrying around God knows how many shils in my pockets!”

   “Well that’s the thing, shils come in paper format. They’re not coins like our currency, so it’s very easy to stack and store them.”

   At first she had my curiosity, but now, she had my attention. I was now fully interested in seeing what these shils looked like, so I just had to accompany her to the exchange office.

   “By the way, Anna, how do you know all this stuff?”

   “Gramps told me about it. He also taught me some basic phrases in Cardinic just in case we had to ask some locals for directions in case we ever got lost.”

   “Oh right, these guys probably don’t speak Entropic, huh?”

   I can already tell this trip isn’t gonna go well…

***

   “Dobar dan! Šta vam treba?” The man working the booth smiled at us.

   “Uhh…”

   What the hell is he saying? Is this what Cardinic sounds like? It sounds really weird, and that’s coming from the guy that talks to animals.

   “D-Dobar dan.” Anna tried her best to say the lines her grandfather had taught her, “Razmjena valuta… molim.”

   The guy manning the stall tilted his head at us and after a while of pure silence he just went Tourists? in his best Entropic, to which we gave him a nod in agreement. He chuckled a bit and told us to give him our coins so he can properly exchange them into shils.

   “Okay, we need this much in shils, please.” Anna handed 50 gold coins to the booth worker.

   “Jebo mater!” The man gasped in shock, “E-Err, we cannot accept this much from you. Sorry.”

   Looks like we scared him out of the deal. If we factor in the fact that 1 gold coin equates to 10000 shils, then he’d have to give us 500000 bills of shils. Either he doesn’t have that much at his disposal, or he just doesn’t want to have to deal with counting that far up. In any case, we were out of luck here.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

   “Eh heh, no worries then, we’ll try elsewhere!” Anna answered back with a nervous smile on her face, “Doviđenja!”

   Well, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that these guys at least seem friendly. Even still, I should’ve studied up a bit more on this language of theirs, we won’t be able to make it to Umoris with just Anna’s simple phrases it seems.

   As such, we decided to take a little detour to the ITA Headquarters and ask them if they can help us. They have Agents from all across the world, so there has to be someone who understands Entropic. Plus, we can also ask them if there’s been any updates on Grim-!

   “I’m sorry, but Lune Grimheart, along with the rest of his party, have all perished in Sibirus.” The ITA Agent told us.

   “What?”

   “It is as I said. We have sent out a rescue party to check in on them after they didn’t arrive in the specified time, but all we could find is a shallow grave with the remains of one of the party members, Linus Tenford, along with the remains of the ship that was supposed to take them home.”

   L-Linus… is dead? What’s going on? Why was he with Grim? At this point Anna was starting to break down, and I was getting pretty nauseous as well.

   “The search party went on for a week straight without finding a single other body safe from him. Our current theory is that Mr. Tenford died of natural causes while the others died in the explosion that blew up their ship. But rest assured, we are looking into the reason for the explosion and will contact you if any new info surfaces.”

   “You… You’re kidding right?” Anna chuckled through her tears, “L-Lune isn’t dead, right? It’s all just a misunderstanding!”

   “I’m sorry, Miss. But if any of them were truly alive, they’d have checked in with the ITA. There is no worries though, as all of Lune Grimhearts belongings left at the lodging will be brought back for his famil-”

   “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT HIS BELONGINGS!” I lashed out at the somewhat ambivalent worker, “I WANT TO HEAR THAT MY FRIEND IS BACK SAFE AND SOUND! HE DIDN’T WANT TO BE ON THIS DAMNED EXCURSION IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

   “…” The ITA Agent simply looked on before breaking the silence, “I cannot disclose any further information.”

   “Fuck you.” I said as I grabbed Anna’s hand and stormed off.

   “Ed! Where are we going?”

   “Isn’t it obvious? We need to exchange our coins into shils…”

***

   “Ed, please explain this properly.”

   “It’s as I said, our current goal isn’t to find Grim, it’s to cure Arthur. To do that, we need to exchange our currency. The ITA didn’t prove  helpful at all, so we need someone with more power to help us.”

   “B-But Lune’s…”

   “Grim’s whereabouts are unknown. He ain’t dying that easily, I can guarantee you that. Besides, even if he did, I’m not gonna let his death affect our current objective. If Grim’s dead, then let’s at least save Arthur.”

   Anna gulped at my somewhat heartless words, before quietly sobbing to herself. I didn’t like the idea of Grim being dead either, but it’s precisely because the ITA said this that I don’t believe it. They’re a shady organization that we’ve gotten ourselves tangled up in, and up until now all of their Agents showed nothing but hostility and unwillingness to aid us in our journey.

   This is just something that Grim told me, so you should take it with a slight grain of salt, but he basically said not to trust the ITA’s words too much. They’re good when they’re good, but they like to jump to conclusions for the sake of saving face. It wouldn’t make sense on their part to spend any more than a week looking for a missing party, so they were basically satisfied with finding Linus’ remains and labeled the entire party deceased. At least that’s my hypothesis, although I could be entirely wrong.

   Just thinking of Grim dying somewhere far from us is making me want to sit down next to Anna and wail the night away with her, but that wouldn’t do anything for Arthur. If we got so bummed over Grim’s death that we neglected to search Umoris and that ultimately lead to Arthur dying, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I’d face Harper and the others. Or just imagine if Grim turned out to be alive this whole time, then we’d feel doubly ashamed, and it might actually lead to Anna blaming Grim for her grandfather’s passing. Geez, this has devolved into something complicated…

   “Anna, I have a friend I know who could help us with our little money problem.”

   “W-Who cares about that!? Did you not hear what that guy said about Lune?!”

   “Anna…”

   Grim was basically a brother to her, so I can only imagine how much these grave news came as a shock to her. Honestly, if it turns out Grim really did die, then I’m gonna feel like the world’s biggest ass. I should probably tell her about my theory soon…

   “Anna,” I propped her up and gave her a hug, “Let’s go to Centralis.”

   “Sniff, Centralis…?”

   Looking at her state again, she seemed a lot more shaken up than before. Her balance was completely out of whack, and her face was as pale as a ghost’s. The youthful, hopeful nature emanating from her had completely dissipated, leaving nothing but a timid and scared girl in its wake.

   I need to get her confidence back, I need to be the pillar of support for her just in the case that that ITA Agent was telling the truth. Anna is strong, yes, but I think that strength of hers can only be fully tapped into when she knows both of us are safe and sound. We three are a set, a dynamic trio. We are no more than wheels to a transport wagon, but without wheels, a transport wagon is no more than a horse without legs.

   “Yep, we’re gonna seek some financial support from the Gryses…!”

   She heard my outrageous suggestion and looked up at me with eyes that suggested both excitement and worry. I can already tell from that alone what she’s thinking.

   “You think they’ll just give us the travel funds without reserve? Ed, now you’re sounding more and more like Lune with those crazy ideas.”

   “That’s what I’m aiming for.”

   Anna was taken aback from my words, but she didn’t appear to dislike the idea. That is, she didn’t really care about it in general.

   “I don’t want you to be Lune, dummy. Just being you is enough. But seriously, the Grys Royal Family is certainly known for being generous and kind to outsiders, but overstepping our boundaries could be dangerous. You of all people should know that.”

   “Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. All I’m asking from you is to trust me and to not fuss over the details as much. We’re gonna get this over with quickly, save Arthur and then we’re gonna go look for Grim. We’re gonna check if he’s alive on our terms, because as far as I’m concerned, nothing is certain until we find his body.”

   She finally realized why I wasn’t as disheartened about hearing of Grim’s untimely demise and returned the embrace I had given her just a moment ago (it felt very nice). After that, we decided to book an inn and head out to Centralis first thing in the morning!

   “3k shils for a two person lodging.”

   Ah right, we should probably go ask that guy at the exchange office if he can at least exchange this much…