Vol.4 Ch.74 - We're off

“Okay! It’s finally time to prepare for our trip to Umoris!”I didn’t want to rush things just yet. I felt we had time to properly plan andprepare for this, but seeing as Aaron and Cecily arrived a bit earlier thanexpected, it looks like I’ve got no more excuses.We decided to split our workload in half. Anna was gonna get all of our stuffready while I went out and bought food and other helpful tools. If you look atit like that, it kind of makes it feel like were eagerly preparing for a fieldtrip… No! This is serious, Arthur’s in trouble and we’re going here strictlyto help him!“Hmm, but that begs the question. What do we even need?”I mean, food obviously. But what do I get after that? Since I still have a largesum of money on me from my time in ARA, I could certainly afford whateverwe needed, but even Anna sent me off with a Just buy what you think wasgonna make our trip easier, but what the hell does that mean?This was my first time going on a bona fide adventure, I didn’t really knowof any tools. I faintly recall Grim telling me about Instarope and Antichasefrom his copy of Schnell’s Handbook, but we weren’t going dungeoncrawling. It’s not like we’d be climbing nor descending anywhere, so I fail tosee the significance of buying those.In any case, asking a professional seemed like a good idea, so I headed to thenewly founded School to visit a seasoned veteran and hopefully get somepointers.“Hey, Mr. Thurs. I need some advice on what to buy for a trip with Anna.”He quickly jumped from his seat and got fired up. I guess the adventurer inhim still got excited upon seeing new recruits.“Sure! First and foremost, you need to make sure your lady’s satisfied. Besure to take her to tons of fancy restaurants, and ALWAYS pay the bill.”“Pay the bil- What? Uh, well, I mean… obviously we’ll be eating regularly.But wouldn’t home cooking work?”“Well, in certain scenarios, yes. But I think you should probably stick torestaurants while you guys are still starting out.”“I… see? In any case, got anything else?”“Take her to loads of tourist attractions. Girls love that sort of thing.”“Wait, why are you focusing on Anna so much?”“Are you serious? She’s the main part of this whole operation, keeping her inhigh spirits is the most important thing!”“Well, that sort of makes sense… Then I guess an inn isn’t an option? Iremember she used to always whine about the rooms being too cheap andshoddy.”“Nah, an inn will work. It’s got the vibe for it, y’know?”“Wait, really?”“Hell, if you’re determined enough, even outside would work! Haha!”“Heheh… but okay. Next up, I was thinking of something to protect us, gotanything for that?”“Oh, I see you did your research, that’s good, that’s good. Yes, protection isthe most important part of the equation. Bring lots of it, it’s absolutely theworst feeling when you run out midway.”“Yeah, but what kind of protection specifically?”“Any kind, kid. You’re gonna be riding all night, I presume. You’re bothyoung so you’ve got the stamina for it. Just make sure you’ve got the rightsize.”“Hold on. Are we talking about the same thing here?”“? We’re talking about your guys’ date, no?”“…”“……”After having explained to Graal (thoroughly) what our objective is, he got thegist of it and immediately apologized for jumping to conclusions. I still fail tosee why he though we were going on a date, and even more so don’tunderstand what he was talking about, but if anything he made up for it bytelling me what to buy.And so, that brings us to the weapons shop downtown. Honestly, it lookedreally cool and ominous from the outside, but the inside had a really nice,snug and warm feel to it. It had tons of swords and shields propped up fordisplay, each made with the finest and hardest of materials you could find. Ieven saw some wooden ones meant for kids, which made me nostalgic. Fondmemories of Grim and I pretend fighting in the hideout with the woodenswords his dad made for us.Among the lineup, though, was something that stood out from the rest. It wasa weapon I’ve never seen before in my entire life, not in Trivis Numerica norGreat Hiana. It looked a bit like a cannon, but… Portable? The lower partwas obviously a handle, but the top part had a mysterious barrel, presumablyfor shooting cannonballs out of. But cannonballs can’t fit in there, so maybecannonpellets I guess?“Sir, what’s this thing here?”“Oh, that’d be our newest product that just arrived from all the way inCentralis. It’s called an Augmented Firestarter Pistol, or AFP for short.”Centralis, as you may or may not know, is sort of the main country ofCardina. It’s divided into two sub-countries, Southern and Northern, and it’salso where the Gryses are situated in. If this is the case, could I assumethey’re the ones behind this article?“The manufacturer is a rookie inventor named Sol, and he’s endorsed by TheRoyal Family.”Bingo. Looks like the Gryses really are responsible for this. After giving mea bit of a lecture on how this thing came to be, he then started explaining howit works.“So you put these little things called ‘bullets’ in the barrel, pull back thehammer to cock it, then with just one simple pull of the trigger…!”BANG! The firestarter burst into flames as the seller violently recoiled backfrom the counterforces. I immediately jumped to his aid, thinking the weaponwas defective and injured him, but he started laughing and explainedeverything was fine.“More importantly, look at the target.” He said.I did as he told me to, and saw a completely destroyed target with a perfectlyshaped circle in the middle of it. Simply incredible, I thought, This would beincredible to use in self-defense! It’s perfect for both offense and defense!It’s just like how Graal said, keeping Anna safe with this would be a cinch!“I’ll take it!”And so, I got myself a firestarter pistol. To commemorate his first pistolbeing sold, the kind seller threw in a holster for it, free of charge. I thankedhim and promptly left the store a satisfied customer.I don’t plan on showing off with it, so I’ll probably keep it tucked awayninety nine percent of the time. I think firing this thing off is a bit toodangerous, so I’ll only use it as a last resort, though.***Back at home, Anna had all but finished packing for their trip, when theyoung girl’s preparations were interrupted by a knock on the door.“Come in!” She yelled out as the door opened, “Ah, Cecily, do you needanything?”“Yeah, Ms. Harper and I wanted to have a chat. I prepared some tea, sowould you mind accompanying us?”“Sure thing.”And just like that, the three girls sat down as Cecily poured everyone the teaher and Aaron personally delivered from Great Hiana. The tea was unusualfor Anna and Harper, as it was a completely different color than what theywere used to.“Uhh, I don’t mean any offense when I say this, but…” Harper said, “Isn’t teasupposed to be green? Why is this one red?”“Because it’s not made from your leaves.” Cecily joined them in sitting downat the table after glancing at Nelly’s cradle for a bit, “Come on, I know I’m ina gang and all, but I’m not gonna poison you guys!”“We don’t think you’d do that either, sorry!”“Besides,” Cecily shrugged, “If I was gonna poison you, I’d have done so atlast night’s dinner. Food’s way easier to poison, y’know?”“…”Cecily’s joke(?) fell flat as both girls were quite unnerved at the prospect.Even still, she decided to change topics to hopefully revive the conversation,if even for a bit.“Uh, right! What I called you out here for is for one simple reason!”“And what would that be?” Anna asked.“I wanted to hear some authentic love drama for a change!”The two girls simply looked on whilst making a difficult face, unable tocomprehend this lovestruck General’s confusing words. Cecily noticed thisand further elaborated on what she had meant with this.“You’re both aiming for Ed, right? How’s it like to compete for a guy? I’msure there’s all sorts of stories you can share with me!”“?!?” They were both taken aback, “Where’d you get that from?!”“It’s way too obvious.” Cecily explained, all the while adorning a look as ifshe had it all figured out, “The cool and capable older lady with a youthfulexpression has been the main point of attention and admiration for theprotagonist while he was away, and the tsundere childhood friend whosuddenly won’t leave his side and gets jealous at every step of the way whileshe tries desperately to convey her feelings towards him. That’s like two outof the five clichés!”At this point, all the shock value from Cecily’s previous statement wasthrown out the window, as they’ve quickly figured out just what type of girlshe was.“…You read way too many Rom Coms.”“Hna!?” Cecily jumped back in surprise, “But isn’t that how it usually goes?”“Well, first of all.” Harper stated, “I consider Ed to be a very dearunderclassman, sure, but there have never been any romantic feelings mixedin there. He’s just a bright kid with a good head on his shoulders.”“Sure, you say that now, but I’ll still check back in a couple of chapters tosee if anything’s changed. You still didn’t have any character developmentyet.”“Ugh, stop spouting nonsense. This isn’t a romance novel!” Anna reasoned.“Makes me wonder how you and Lune managed to get together at all if he hadto deal with a girl like you.” Harper added a rather harsh comment.Just then, Cecily’s emotions came to a complete halt as she silently sippedher tea with a melancholic aura surrounding her. Anna reprimanded Harperfor going overboard, and Harper made sure to quickly apologize for gettingtoo riled up.“No need to worry, guys, I ain’t mad. But certainly, I have no idea how sucha dumb guy managed to fall for me. Ed told me this after the fact, butapparently it was my brother, Carter, who set us up. I’m sure things would’vegone differently if he wasn’t there.”“Cecily…”“I’m worried about him, y’know? He’s all the way in Sibirus doing Godknows what, and we all know just how reckless he can be.”“You can certainly say that again.” Harper remarked as she sipped her tea.“To tell you guys the truth, I actually called you guys here to talk to someoneabout him. The previous conversation was just something to break the ice.Thing is, he was supposed to arrive a long time ago according to what theITA told me, but right now there hasn’t even been a word from any of theadventurers in his party.”“Oh dear…” Anna gasped, “You don’t think something bad happened, doyou?”“Well, in any case, you don’t know.” Harper answered Anna’s question,“And you have no way of knowing. But one thing’s for certain, Lune’s aresilient guy, if there’s even a 1% chance for him to make it out of there, he’llseize it.”“Heh, that’s my boyfriend for ya’. I think so too, but I still can’t help butworry.”“Well, it’s a girl’s job to worry about her dumbass of a man, isn’t it? Whatyou’re feeling is completely normal, so just make sure to greet him with openarms when he comes back.”“…Of course, and… thank you.”“No worries, kiddo. I’m the ‘cool and capable older lady with a youthfulexpression’, so you can always count on me when you need advice.”“Heh, don’t get too big of a head from just one compliment. Save the sweettalk for when Ed gets back.”“Would you stop talking about him already?” Anna interjected.At her words, Harper suddenly recalled what archetype Cecily described heras and saw the similarities, which lead her to letting out a small chuckle.Cecily too saw the opportunity to tease Anna a bit, so she joined in on thelaughter. The room was livelier than ever, and it seems the girls got a bitcloser than they were before.But just as this room was getting louder and louder from the girls enjoyingtheir time, the two guys awkwardly sitting in the room next to it equally satthere in silence.Indeed, these two were father and son, none other than Arthur and Aaronrespectively. They could heard the girls laughing and enjoying themselves inthe other room, which made them both very happy, but the weird thing waswhat they were doing. It’s been almost a week or two since these guys havereunited, but they’re still very much reserved.The turmoil between these two is simply that great. Making up and seeingeach other as family once again wasn’t going to be that simple. But they wereboth doing their best, even without saying or doing anything. Simply sitting inthe same room with each other and acknowledging their presence was morethan enough for now. This is how they’d spend their days here inSpringwood, sitting down without barely saying a word to each other, hopingthat one day they’d be able to close this barrier between them.“Y’know…” Aaron spoke first, “Anna’s grown up quite nicely. I’m glad youtook care of her in Al’s place.”“…She sure has. I still remember the day she was born. It was verysurprising, and no one actually expected Linda to give birth for another weekor so.”“Heh, her and Al were freaking out so much, I still remember that tired lookon his face after it was confirmed both Anna and Linda made it safely.”“Well, it’s been about… 11 years since they died, right? I’m sure Annabarely even remembers them, so you should probably fill her in on some ofAl’s aspects that I looked over. You’re his brother, after all, so you shouldknow a bit more about him than me.”“That’s why I’m here, after all.” Aaron paused for a second beforecontinuing, “That… and taking care of you until Ed and Anna return fromtheir trip.”“…Right.”After this, the conversation stopped, and the two men stopped talking for theday. One would consider this a failure in making up due to the abrupt stop tothe conversation, but this was, in reality, amazing progress. Remember, babysteps.***Meanwhile, in a dimly lit room somewhere in Centralis, a young man couldbe seen tinkering away at his desk. The room was, simply put, a mess. Toolsand materials were thrown about all over the place, and any and all shelvespresent in the room were filled to the brim with inventions. The windowblinds were closed completely, denying any light from passing through to theroom. It was dead quiet, safe from the young man’s heavy panting.“Haah, hahh…” He drooled, “Just a bit more and…”It was done. His newest invention had finally, after extensive research,experimentation and testing, been completed. This particular piece tookabout a week to produce, despite its size. This was the longest he had spentin creating something, so he was really praying for it to work and not blowup in his face.“Please work… Prylos, Allucius, Selzion, Auros, anyone, I don’t care!Whichever God it is, just give me a break and let this work! Please…!”Bzzt! The item in his hand made a worrying sound, before suddenly shining adirectional light to the wall in front of him. He had invented the first everflashlight in this world.“Fuck yeahh!!!” He jumped for joy, all the while sensually rubbing thegadget, “It works! This’ll SO sell well! I’ll definitely make enough for a fewmonths of rent, at least! Oh my precious gadget, I love you! Will you marryme? You’ll help me create all kinds of special gadgets together, and we’llhave a big happy family together!”Just then, the doors to the room opened, and a young, beautiful pink hairedgirl wearing a maid outfit entered through it. She adorned a face thatsuggested she was discontent about his behavior, and immediately jumped toberating him.“Master Sol! You have an important meeting scheduled for tomorrow with awealthy merchant who could possibly be our next client, you shan’t be awakeat this hour!!”Now that the room was finally lit up from the hallway’s light, the tinkerer’sface could finally be seen. With that skinny face and pale skin, he truly didremind you of nothing but death itself. His hair black as coal, his pupils huedan amethyst tint, but his expression as euphoric as a man in heat.“M-Mariabelle! I-I was just about to call it a night! But more importantly,check this out!”After making up a weak excuse, he went to shine the light from his newlycreated gadget, when…“…”“…H-Hold on a second, it still has a few kinks I need to work on, then it’llbe my beautiful spouse, hehe…”“I think you’re the one who has a few too many kinks you need to work onl.Please go to sleep.”“Can’t, gotta finish this first.”“Master, if you don’t go to sleep, I’ll personally have to put you to sleep.”“And just how are you planning to do that, Mariabelle?” He asked, "And stopcalling me Master, it's weird!"“Like this!”Just then, the maid lunged at the young man with a deadly force. His mind hadalready calculated how he’d evade the attack, but his body was too tired toact it out. As such, both he and the maid had fallen on the bed.“Gahh, get off me!”“Never~! Not until you fall asleep, y’hear!”“…Ugh, you’re still like that even after all this time. And here I thought you’dmellow out after all this time.”“Just zip it and go to sleep like a good boy.”“…Fine.”The tinkerer had fully intended on waiting for the girl that nuzzled up close tohim to fall asleep before slipping away and continuing his work, but sheknew him too well to fall for it. This was because she purposefullypositioned herself to be on top of him in such a way that disabled him fromgetting out of the bed. After a while of trying his hardest to stay awake, Solhad finally given in to this maid’s actions and soundly went to sleep. The lastthing he saw was the girl he had fallen for sleeping in his arms, and hisflashlight finally working as it shone brightly onto a framed picture of ayoung girl.