Vol.5 Ch.96 - I'm worried

It’s been a while since then. I’m not really in the loop about Adam’s life,since it’s really none of my business, but from what Marina told me, thatguy’s really started getting his act together. He grew out his beard, startedworking out or something, always looks to be the one to help out around thecastle, and of course, never forgets to voice his opinion on something. I guessyou could say I’m kind of proud of him for getting this far, but really it’s stillkinda hard to believe that that pipsqueak managed all this.But who cares about him? Issei and I have been doing pretty good ever sincethat heist. He’d give me ideas for an invention, then I’d create and sell it.Add to that Marina’s monthly salary from working with the Gryses, and in notime our savings started to become pretty commendable! Even with thismuch, I’m sure we could probably make it to at least Trivis Numerica, butI’m holding off on going home for now.I’ve got a pretty good thing going on here, after all. An amazing business, abusiness partner who’s basically my golden goose, and the love of my life(kind of). Yeah, I should probably think about going back home soon,Cecily’s probably worried sick, and I haven’t seen Nelly in a while. Eh, I’msure they’ll be fine.In any case, Nelly should be turning two years old soon, no? God, I wonderhow she looks like now. Well, probably pretty much the same, I doubt a babycan change that much judging off of appearance. I mean, we already knew herhair was a vibrant orange, so except for it being a bit longer, I hardly doubtanything else worthy of mention could happen in that timeframe.Today is actually quite the special day, as Issei said he’s got something tosurprise me with! Whoopee! I can already tell from his voice that it’s gottabe something incredible. Did he find some new material? Or vendor? Oh, thesuspense is killing me! I even had to call out today’s date with Marina, so hebetter not be joshing me!And did I forget to mention? Ever since Marina and I started dating, it wasgetting noticeably more and more cramped in our house. Well, that’s mostlybecause we really couldn’t be doing any ‘stress relief’ with Issei around.Even still, he said he was feeling like a third wheel, so he decided to rent outa separate apartment in a nearby inn. It’s nothing too far, I could literally seehis place from my window, making us neighbors in that regard, but it’s still anice gesture from him, what with giving Marina and I some privacy.Oh right, and Marina… She’s been a lot naggier recently. Alwayscomplaining about how I stay up late into the night, or how I don’t eat mymeals properly. Ugh, she doesn’t realize what I’m trying to do here! I’mworking, working on our retirement funds! I’m gonna make as many amazingtools as I can, and I need to put in as much effort as humanly possible to makethat happen!Well, let’s just forget about her for now. I’m sure she’s probably just sayingthat out of love for me, so I can’t be too mad at her. Issei called me over togo get a drink with him, and that’s precisely what I’m gonna do!***Entering the bar, barely anyone batted an eyelid at me. Back when I firstentered this place, a lot of people thought I was too young to be in such aplace, but they all soon got used to me lounging around here with Issei, so Iguess it makes sense. I really haven’t made any connections to the peoplehere, mostly because I can barely utter basic phrases in Cardinic. It’s a reallytough language, I’ll tell you what!“Yo, Issei!”“Oh, Sol, you finally made it!”Since we’re out in public, Issei has to make sure to call me Sol. That was theagreement we made all those months ago, back when we first met. If you’rewondering, he calls Marina Mariabelle when others are around as well, butsuch instances are rare. Both of us have been avoiding the Grys territory eversince that heist, so really our daily commute is basically just going from ourhome to the bar, and then back home again.“So,” I sat down and gestured to the bartender to hand me a drink, “What’dyou call me over for?”“Isn’t it obvious?”Was is supposed to be? I’m not following here.“Wait,” Issei said with a chuckle, “You seriously don’t know? Heh, lookslike all those all-nighters really did fry your brain. You should really listen toMariabelle’s advice more.”“Issei, come on now, stop scaring me. What’s the big deal here?”Issei came up close to my ear, just so no one could hear him utter my realname, “Happy birthday, Lune.”Eh? Is it already that time of the year? Wait, when did he find out about mybirthday? Marina must’ve told him… Oh, these guys! I couldn’t ask for betterpeople in my life! But wait, how old does that make me? Seventeen?Eighteen? Oh, I genuinely can’t remember! Maybe what Marina said aboutmy lifestyle has some merit to it after all…“I-… I don’t know what to say! Thank you!”“Whoa, hold on, I haven’t even given you a gift yet!”“A gift? What for?”At this innocent question of mine, Issei’s brows furrowed, “What do youmean ‘What for’? It’s your birthday, so it’s only natural that you’d receivesome presents!”“Is this another one of your Otherworldly Traditions or something?”While Issei was trying desperately to explain to me the importance ofcelebrating brithdays with gifts, I genuinely couldn’t understand thesignificance of it. I mean, you survived another year, isn’t that enough? Nowyou’re gonna ask your friends and family to give you presents on top of that?How greedy can the people of his world be, I wonder…“Well, whatever.” I sighed as I gracefully accepted his present, “So what isthis, anyways?”“Humu, you’ll see…!”Opening the nicely decorated box, what I saw inside simply couldn’t beconveyed with words. This was… The Book of Fortune?!“W-Where’d you get this?! And how!?” I yelled out, confusing him.“E-Eh? Why are you so surprised about this? You haven’t even checked thecontents of the book yet!”“Issei, do you know what this is?!”“A-A personally compiled recipe book of all the invention ideas I know?”…What?“Wait, really?” I quickly flipped through the pages, and lo and behold,“Wow, it really is just a recipe book for a ton of inventions. But then whydoes it look exactly like the Book of Fortune?”“The Book of what now?” Issei tilted his head, “Once I told Marina about mypresent to you, she made of point of me decorating it to look like this. Shesaid you’d like it, but I guess she was just playing a prank on the both of us.”That damned girl…! She nearly gave me a heart attack! Well, in any case I’mreally happy that Issei gifted me this. Now I don’t have to nag him aboutevery little detail about future inventions! Heh, looking at the book, it reallyis meticulously made! There are even some (really well made) illustrationsof how the finished product is supposed to look and act. Granted, there are anumber of grammatical mistakes, but then again he is foreign.“But why provide me with such a gift?” I asked.“Well, the thing is…” Issei braced himself before speaking, “I think I mightbe going home soon!”…Eh?“W-Wait? Home? You don’t mean…?”“Yeah, when I say home, I mean back to my world. I’m not sure if the detailsline up, but back before I met you, I found some old guy who told me if I visitall Six of The World Wonders, I’ll be transported back home.”…Are you kidding me? An old man? Dude, there’s desperate and then there’syou.“W-Well, no offense Issei, but are you really going to take the advice of somerandom old man?”“You don’t get it, Lune.” He uttered, “It’s the only chance I got for now. Thatbeing said, our time together has been really fun, and I’ll treasure it until theday I die.”Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on, are you seriously going to leave right now!? SStop joking around, dumbass! What am I gonna do without you around? Whatabout our business!“That’s also the reason I gave you that book.” Issei pointed, “It’s got enoughinventions to help you amass a sizeable fortune. More than enough for you togo home, I’d say. Please be sure to use it to your heart’s content.”“Hold on a minute! Are you really going to throw yourself into some perilousjourney just because of the words of some random old man!?”“Well, thing is, those words aren’t completely random. Back before I metyou, I signed up to work for the ITA. I did some commissions for some quickbucks, and used said money to pay someone to scope out if the Cognispherereally exists. I haven’t heard anything back from them, which is why I haven’tyet left this place, but recently I’ve been asking around and I was offered achance to personally visit the Tower of Currents. It’s a chance I simplycannot miss.”What the hell…! This guy’s gone bonkers! Traveling the world? What makeshim think that’s possible!? I need to convince him not to go, no matter what!***Walking back home from the bar, the air between Issei and I has grown stiff.I’m still sort of hoping that he’s joking. Maybe if we go back home, Marinawill be waiting for us just to scream ‘Gotcha!’ like she usually does.But no, he seems like he’s really happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen him.Guess he really wanted to go back home all this time. Ugh, everything’sfalling apart suddenly, why did it have to be my birthday today? It’s like acurse, whenever something worthy of note happens, it always falls on mybirthday! First it was me leaving Whitehood, then this! Ugh…!“S-So, Lune,” Issei tried to break the tension, “Got any questions for mebefore I leave?”“Hell yeah!” I shot back, “I still don’t know anything about you! About yourhome country, about your language!”At this, Issei gave me a nostalgic smile, “Heh, you’re interested in Japan,huh? Well, can’t say I’m surprised, it’s quite the beautiful land, at least in myopinion.”“Is it prettier than here?”“Oh, a billion times, yes! In terms of size, I’d say Japan is sort of like thatArchipelago at the bottom left of the map.”“Schnell’s Archipelago?”“Yeah. It’s an island based country, and it consists of multiple islands. It’s sovibrant and colorful, not at all like Cardina is.”At these words, I felt a small tinge of melancholy about not being able to seeit for myself. That being said, Cardina does have a very moody ‘blue’ feel toit. Maybe if vibrancy is what he wants, he’d have better luck in Entropa?Well, if what this supposed mysterious old man said about him going backhome is true, then he’s sure to visit it eventually.You see, there are indeed 6 World Wonders in the world. Going in noparticular order, these are:The Cognisphere in SibirusThe Tower of Currents in MeridiaThe Library of a Thousand Passages in SimpletonThe Tria Prisma in Abyssus SolisAuros’ Throne in Sulfury andMount Ivrys in PolarisThese places all share a common trait, the fact that their inception isenigmatic and mysterious in nature. It is said that all of these World Wonderswere created by the Gods when they were still creating the world, and wereleft as a sort of archaic memory of a time long passed. But this is exactly whyone would never think to venture to all these places in a single lifetime.You’d be risking too much for too little!“Issei, don’t go. The chances of you surviving the trek are null.”“Wow, that’s kind of a harsh evaluation, isn’t it?”“I’m not joking here. You will die if you go. You’re not strong enough totravel on your own. Instead, please wait a bit longer for me to go back homeand settle everything I have left to settle there. After that, we’ll go together.”Issei was getting a bit antsy now. He has no right to get angry, seeing as I’monly offering my help here, yet he’s starting to develop an ill-advisedattitude. The nerve of this guy…!“That’ll take to long and you know it!” Issei shot back, “I get that you helpedme against those guards back then, but I’ll be fine on my own-!”Suddenly, Issei’s mouth shut up completely. He knew the situation he was in,and immediately understood my intentions as I flicked a half-chargedFireball right next to his head, barely missing his ear.“…You are not going anywhere.”“What the fuck, Lune!? You trying to threaten me now?! Have you finallyfucking lost it or something?!”“I’m perfectly sane, you fucking reprobate! It’s everyone else who’s crazy!And when everyone is crazy apart from me, then it just looks like I’m thecrazy one!”He had no words to refute my logic, so he instead chose to act like he caredabout my wellbeing, “You’ve changed, Lune. I’m worried about you,Marina’s worried about you!”“Shut the fuck up!” I finally let out a loud shout, “This Fireball was awarning, but next time it’ll be the real deal. Just try to run away,asshole…”Out of fear, worry, or perhaps even a sense of self-preservation, Isseichooses not to talk back and instead quietly walk in silence until we get backto our respective inns. Without so much as a word spoken between us, Isseicalmly opens the door to his room, but before he could close it, with a tingeof anger he murmurs, “You mentioned wanting to learn more about my homecountry. When we meet again, I’ll teach you some Japanese…”