Vol.4 Ch.83 - We Made Some Happy Memories

“Knock knock!”“Who’s there?”“Ayy, see how Cecily knows the proper way to answer a knock knock joke?”“…Aren’t you gonna say the joke, Ed?”“Oh nah, I completely forgot what the joke was to begin with, I just likesaying ‘Knock knock’ before I enter rooms.”Anna stifled her laughter at my remark, since we noticed that Nelly wassleeping. Cecily chuckled while rocking the young girl’s crib. Nelly was nowapproaching three years of age, which is just plain incredible to think about.To think this little girl uttered her first full sentence almost a whole year ago!But well, she’s still a bit scared of sleeping alone, so she still sleeps withCecily in her room.“What’s going on, guys? Need anything?” Cecily asked.“Yeah, we have some exciting news!”“From your tone and the fact that you ran straight to me, I can only guess thatit’s one thing and one thing only.”“Yep, you see-”“Anna’s pregnant, right? Congrats, champ.”Eh?“W-What? N-No, you’re wrong-”“Well, I’m sure Nelly will be delighted to have a cute little friend around herage to play with. If you ever need some pointers, do come to me if you everget stuck.”“C-Cecily.” Anna tried to get a word in.“Oh don’t worry, I know that pregnancy is a delicate time in a woman’s life(not that I’d know firsthand). But still, parenthood is a wonderful thing! Ed,you remember how much fun Lune and I had when we were first tasked withtaking care of Nelly back in Great Hiana, right? Those days are stillsomething I cherish deeply, but it’s a shame Lune hasn’t seen his daughtergrow up this much already…”God, it’s getting tougher to correct her with every sentence she says. If I don’tstop her now, I’m afraid we’ll miss our chance to tell her about Grim at alltoday.“Cecily.” Anna once again spoke up.“Anna, turn that frown upside down! I understand you’re going through aphase where your hormones are all out of whack, but please keep in mindthat you’re now taking care of two people-”“Cecily!”Heh, Anna finally blew a fuse. I really shouldn’t be laughing though, since itwoke Nelly up, but seeing Cecily’s ‘Deer in the headlights’ look as sherealized she rambled on about something completely unrelated (and untrue)to us for 5 minutes straight is just that magnificent.“Okay, no more teasing, what’s the actual reason you came to me?”“THANK YOU!” I said as I ushered her to the hallway, “We need to talk toyou. It’s about Grim.”At this, any traces of a chipper Cecily completely left her body, and sheimmediately switched to a nostalgic, serious gaze. It really reminded me ofher days as the competent General who lead ARA to the top.“…Let’s have a seat down in the living room. This probably isn’t somethingto talk about in the hallway.”“…Yeah.”As such, we sat down near the fireplace, Anna made us some tea, and afterthat joined us as well. Since it was around midday right now, Aaron andArthur (now almost fully cured) are busy reopening the restaurant after awhile of it being closed. The grand reopening of the Springwood branch ofArthur’s was an amazing day. It seems like the restaurant was quite popularto tourists and townsfolk alike, since we’re still getting packed days multipletimes a week.“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Cecily said with a hesitant tone.“W-What?! Why would that be ‘exciting news’?!”“Just… Just give it to me straight, Ed. No need to beat around the bush. Hedied months ago, didn’t he? That’s what you wanted to say, judging by thefact you came to me first about this.”“N-No, it’s nothing dark like that, geez!” Anna said, “We still don’t know ifhe’s de-err, alive or not. For all we know, he could come bursting into theroom at this very moment!”After Anna’s highly optimistic remark, we all expectantly turned our gazes aswe stared into the front door. Sadly though, a novel-like dramatic entrancelike that isn’t something that happens in real life, so we simply sighed andcontinued our conversation.“Err, that was just a figure of speech.”“Hmm.”Looks like Anna’s bad at explaining the situation. Well, that’s why I’m here!Her reliable boyfriend knows just what to say in this situation. I’ll calmlyexplain what happens with facts and logic!“We learned some new info on Grim, namely that he was beaten and capturedby bandits before he even made it to Sibirus!”At these words of mine, Cecily burst out crying. Welp, looks like I’m lousy atexplaining as well…“E-Ed! Uh, Cecily, please ignore him. What he was trying to say is that wemet one of the bandits, and he helped Lune escape safely, so we know for afact that he made it to Sibirus. This means that we could possibly track himdown if we just follow the same route he took. After all, there’s only onedock in Sibirus on the Southeastern side of the continent, meaning he couldn’thave gotten far from there.”“Sob, hick… S-So that’s your plan? It’s been two years since he left forSibirus, who knows where he could’ve gotten himself to in that timeframe!Come on, guys, I know you’re trying your hardest to cheer me up, but this isabsurd!”Something about her saying that our efforts to bring Grim back to us wasabsurd really got to me. He’s your unofficial husband, yes, but he was mybest friend for way longer! Even still, shouldn’t you be happy to hear that wehave any sort of lead on him? I’m willing to go through hell and high-waterfor him, but you want to just idly sit around and wait for him to come back onhis own!?“Shut up!” I snapped at her, “If you’re just gonna sit around here and bitchabout missing him without putting any effort into his search, then be myguest!”“Ed!”“Stay out of it, Anna, I know I’m right! From what we’ve heard, Grim’ssuffered a lot while we were all having fun here in Trivis Numerica! He waskidnapped by bandits, then still somehow made it to Sibirus, where heprobably had to endure even more shit from the harsh dungeon he was toexplore!”“Ed…”“In the end, just when they thought they finally made it out safe and sound,ready to come back home, their ship explodes, sending them all flying!Probability wise, he’s probably dead!”“Ed, you’re taking it too far! Cecily shouldn’t be hearing this!”“I don’t care!” I finally yelled out with all my might, “Because Grim isn’tsomeone bound by odds! He’s alive and I’m sure of it, because he livedthrough countless impossible odds hundreds of times before! That’s why weneed to find him, wherever he is!”After I finished my speech, I finally regained my composure, only to see justhow scared Anna and Cecily were. Damn, I really went off on them, and forwhat? Man, I feel like a complete asshole, screaming at girls when I myselfwas supposed to be the one to calmly explain the situation.“…Sorry.”“…No, you’re right.” Cecily wiped off her tears, “As his (unofficial) wife, Ireally should be overjoyed to hear these news. You’ve been doing your bestto find your best friend all this time, and yet here I am doing nothing butplaying house with Nelly.”“I-I didn’t mean it like that! Sigh, listen, Grim has met tons of people, andI’m sure he only made more friends while off on this expedition. That’s whyI’m sure that there’s gotta be someone who’s at least seen him somewherearound the world. I don’t intend to blindly go after him like it’s some cat andmouse chase, but I’d at least like to tell you everything I know about him asof now.”“Thanks… I’ll go calm Nelly down now, your shouting really scared her.”“Heh, my bad.”After that, Cecily made her way back upstairs to a wailing Nelly. Mamaa~Mamaa~ Why is Uncle yelling? She cried out. I felt immense regret uponhearing that, but it seems Cecily had already forgiven me for that abhorrentdisplay.“Don’t worry about it, Nel. Your Uncle’s just really passionate about yourdaddy.”“Who’s daddy?”It was extremely quiet, but even from the living room all the way to her room,I could hear Cecily faintly sobbing. Damn, I’m a real asshole. When I findGrim, I’ll have him punch me in the face as a way to repent for this.***It’s been about a week since then. Cecily calmed down a bit as well, and isnow mostly back to her old, teasing self. That being said, I did notice that shefrequents teasing me way more than the others, but in all honesty, I’d say Iprobably deserve it.“Uncle Eddie~, Auntie Anna~ Let’s play again today!” Nelly waddled herway to us.“Careful, Nel, Uncle Eddie might still be in a foul mood.”“Ugh, give it a break already, will ya? Look, I’m sorry for yelling at you theother day, so please don’t scare Nelly out of talking to me.”Looks like my punishment for the other day is no playing with Nelly for awhile. As an Uncle, this is completely devastating to me! Anna’s fine though.“Weee~!”“Wooo, Nelly, look at you go!”“Yaaay! Auntie Anna, I wanna go higher!”“Sure thing!”Ugh, that should’ve been me lifting Nelly into the air…! Damn me and mystupid emotions getting to me, I act impulsively ONCE and look where it getsme!“Hey Ed,” Aaron popped his head through the window, “I heard you’resuddenly free from babysitting duties. Since you have all this free time, mindhelping me out with carrying these boxes?”“Do I have to?”“Hey, you’re the one who made two girls cry at the same time, not to mentionyou scared Nelly too. If you’re a man, then own up to your own mistake.”Grr, he got me there… Oh alright, I’ll help him!After that, I stepped out of the house and into the yard. Aaron pointed to thepile of heavy looking boxes, then with his tongue sticking out, he pointed towhere we’ll be lugging them.“Isn’t that three blocks away?!”“Yep, but look at it this way. It gives us plenty of time to chat.”I don’t think I’ll be able to talk and carry all this at the same time, though! Butnever mind that, what does he even want to talk to me about?“Hey, Ed.” Aaron said, “Do you ever miss the guys over at ARA?”“Is that what you wanted to talk to me about? Well, it’s not like I don’t, but Ihave to find Grim first before I can really go visit anyone else.”“Right, right…” Aaron answered back with a distant expression.“You wanna pay ‘em a visit?” I said in the Hianic dialect for nostalgia’ssake.“E-Eh?! N-Nah, I-I still ‘ave ta’ help yous find Lune!”Looks like he really appreciated me talking in Hianic, since he quicklyfollowed suit. Ah, so that’s how it is. He’s homesick, isn’t he? Then whatkind of a General would I be if I didn’t let the Vice General come check backon his gang members?“Yer’ free ta’ go whereva’ y’want, soulja. Checkin’ on those slackas’ isdefinitely worthwhile!”He suddenly plopped down the heavy luggage to give me a hug. I mean, he’sa dear friend, but something about Aaron giving me a hug felt a bit too…sensual. It’s kind of making me uncomfortable, especially after he came outof the closet that one time…“Right, now that that’s settled…” He picked up the box again, “I-I waswondering w-what Maxwell has been up to recently…”“Max? Eh, I’m sure he’s doing fine. He’s got Jorgen to pick up any slack forhim, so I’m sure the gangs still in good health. That being said, I know he’skind of childish, but why specifically worry about him of all people?”“…” Aaron hid his face behind the box in his hand, “N-No reason.”The gears in my head were turning. They turned and turned, until finallysomething clicked.“Dude!”“Nnaaaahhh!! Sorry!”So my hunch was right, I mean, Aaron does have a thing for guys…“What’s there to be sorry for? I think you should just go for it.”“Y-You think? Ah, no, he’d probably be weirded out if I said anything, butoh…”“What’s the matter? You’re a man, right? Just be brave, worst case scenario,you can just play it off as a joke or prank, right?”“R-Right, but…”“But…?”Aaron couldn’t bring himself to say this with his normal tenacity, so heinstead just whispered, “I… I don’t want him to think I’m not serious…”Gahh!! To think a big bro character like Aaron could be such a pure maiden!Ugh, that almost made my own heart skip a beat! Not good, I already haveAnna…! Just kidding, but seriously, he’s worrying too much about this.“Alright then, how about this? I’ll tell him you have feelings for him in yourstead if you don’t tell him yourself!”“Nooo!! Anything but that!”Then problem solved, right?“Just go to Great Hiana and tell him while you’re there. There’s nothing toworry about, you’re a great guy, and you two are already amazing friends tobegin with, so I’m sure he’ll understand your feelings are genuine.”“…Fine.”Whoa, look at me, playing the role of a Cupid…!“When were you planning to depart?”“T-This week.”Holy crap, someone’s lovestruck…“Oho! Well then, good luck, soulja!”After we finished our conversation and safely brought the boxes to thedestination, it then suddenly dawned on me that without Aaron around, all ofhis workload would be sent my way. He completely swindled me! Thatdamned Aaron, get back here!!