Vol.5 Ch.98 - This… has turned into a difficult situation

A calm and serene scene is splayed out in front of me as I gently open myeyes to once again greet the day. With nothing more but the happy-go-luckysong of the birds echoing throughout the room, I gently tilt my head to the leftto take a gander at Marina’s adorable sleeping expression. The sunlight issomehow managing to hit her face at the perfect angle where it accentuatesher cuteness without ever disturbing her sleep by going into her eyes.Honestly, I wish this moment would last forever.That being said, duty calls, and I’ve got work to do! The only reason we canbe like this is because both of us are working our butts off to support eachother. Well, there’s that, and also the fact that the hangover from last night’sdrinking is really spoiling the mood for me. I have no doubt she’scomfortable though, so I’ll try to surprise her with a hearty breakfast andhave her sleep a little while longer.Slowly and carefully prying my hand from under her head, I hoped I wouldn’tbe the one to wake her up. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time atARA, it’s that you should NEVER wake someone up from their nap,especially if their face is showing such a pleased expression. That beingsaid, when I tried to gently remove my arm from under her head, she actuallylatched onto it and desperately gestured for me to lay back down beside herin her sleep. If you’re ever wondering what the difference between a childand an adult is, it’s that an adult has the self-control and responsibility ofresisting said urge, and instead running to the kitchen to make your loved onesome grub.Okay, now that that’s done, all that’s left is to make us something to eat! Let’ssee, what would be a good choice today… Well, there’s a lot of options.After all, I may be a hopeless Purple Iro, but I’m still an amazing chef!Actually, recently Marina’s been buzzing around the kitchen with me everymorning, asking me about all sorts of stuff like how to cook this or that. Idon’t know whether she’s going out of her way to suddenly want to learnbecause of her job as a maid or because we recently became a couple, butI’m definitely not complaining! The best way to a person’s heart is throughtheir stomach, so it’s always good to know how to cook at least a few dishesof varying ingredients. Wait, do the maid’s at the Grys Castle even cook thefood there? Or do they have designated chefs that do that?Eh, never mind. Actually, I remember a moment when Marina came back allnervous one day. Needless to say, I was getting quite anxious about whatmight’ve transpired at the castle, what with Adam being Adam and all that.What I didn’t expect though, was that the guy actually grew a pair andconfessed his feelings to her! And right under the Royal Family’s OldestLiving Tree, no less! That’s way more emotional than my poor excuse of ahalf-drunk confession. In any case, the air between Marina and I grew thinwhen she told me that, but the very moment she told me Of course, I declinedhim and told him I have you, it felt like I just scaled Mount Ivrys and met all4 Gods that reside there!Heh, every time that memory pops up, I get a huge shit-eating grin on my face.I can’t help it, I know it’s not nice to think this way about someone who’ssupposed to be my friend, but Adam’s kind of fun to bully. Wait, that soundswrong. I guess what I’m trying to say is I like the feeling of taking Marinaright from under his nose. H-Hold on, that’s even worse, hmm… How do Iput this…“Judging by that familiar face of yours, I’d say you’re just happy to not haveme taken by another man.” A sneaky whisper directly into my ear made mejump in surprise.“W-Whoa! Marina, what did I tell you about doing that?!”“Sorry~! I couldn’t resist! You were just standing there making that face ofyours and I just thought it’d be way too good of an opportunity to pass up!”“Not that! Sharp objects are laid out all across the kitchen table, y’know!?What if I accidentally cut myself-”“Ah.” We both took a look at my bleeding pointer finger.Well, it’s not like I didn’t deserve that. I mean, I was thinking some prettyhorrible things regarding Adam’s unrequited love, so I think a slight cut onthe finger is the least payback I could’ve gotten. That being said, I wasn’t oneto panic about a slight injury, as I’ve endured worse, but Marina really tookit to heart.“I’m so sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorryyyy!!!!” She hastily yet skillfully applied agauzed bandage to the slit in my finger after washing the blood off with warmwater. “I’m so stupid! Geez, why did I go ahead and do that!”“Hey, hey, calm down now, I’m fine! There’s no need to worry, so just let mefinish making breakfast.”“Oh no you don’t, Mister!” She grabbed me by the shoulders and tossed meto the chair, “As punishment for myself, I will atone by being the one to makebreakfast! It’s the least I can do!”Oh Prylos... This is the worst possible outcome…! As I said previously,Marina is getting a bit better at cooking, but ‘a bit better’ than ‘terrible’ isstill ‘pretty bad’! This is also the reason why I’m mostly the one doing thecooking around the house. It’s simple, quick, and most of all, safe forconsumption! I still remember back in the lodging in Sibirus, when shealmost accidentally poured sugar instead of salt to the food!While cooking though, she suddenly started to giggle a bit, “This kind ofreminds me of our time back in Sibirus, but funnily enough all the rolls arereversed.”“What do you mean by that?”“Well, back then I woke up early to try and cook food for you. I cut myself aton trying to open up the sausages, and back then you scared the livingdaylights out of me when you abruptly woke up without me noticing.” Sheadded, “Sound familiar?”Wow, now that you mention it, that’s exactly how it all went down! Talkabout a crazy coincidence!“That being said, enjoy!” She said as she plopped the plate of perfectlyseasoned and nicely cooked sausages on the table in front of me.“Wow, these look really good! But why sausages of all things?”She was apprehensive about admitting the true reason behind her choice, butultimately she decided not to hold back and just said, “I-It’s the first dish youmade for me. Don’t you remember?”O-Of…“Of course I remember! I love you so much!” I jumped from my seat and,with tears of absolute joy showing in my eyes, gave her a big hug.She was quite a bit more emotional than usual, but I just thought it wasbecause of the mood or something, so I didn’t really point too much attentionto it. That being said, the next words she said almost made me die of sugarsickness!“Thank goodness…!” She sobbed, “I’m so glad I paid attention to how youmade them back then…!”After such an emotional scene, one could probably assume what the nextlogical course of action was, but you’d be wrong if you thought of anythinglewd. We simply sat back down and happily ate our meals in peace. Like Isaid, if there’s any way to shut a person up, be it male or female, it would beby handing them a plate of food.***Fast forward to noon. Marina’s already at the Grys Castle, and I justremembered about the present that Issei gave me and decided I should atleast check a few blueprints for the courtesy. Actually, now that I think aboutit, I really messed up, didn’t I? Back when we first met, he told me his oneand only goal is to go back home, so I was really happy to hear that hepossibly found a lead towards that. But I was really shocked when hesuddenly announced it. He surprised me with a gift for my seventeenthbirthday (I checked with Marina and apparently I am in fact seventeen), afterthat he just hit me with the reveal that he’s leaving.It was too much, and I couldn’t take it. Keep this between the two of us, butno matter how sturdy I am physically, I’m really fragile emotionally. I knowit sounds like I’m making up excuses, but I really have been doing nothing butacting up and ruining friendships because of needless internal worries.Thankfully it seems like Issei wasn’t that angry with me, so he might forgiveme if I go pay him a visit and apologize with a full-body prostration. Well,then again that just goes to show just how much of an asshole he sees me as ifhe was already prepared for me to lash out at him…I can't just come to his house empty handed though and expect him to forgiveme, so I'll be making use of the birthday present he got me to hopefully showhim how much I care about him.“Alright then!” I flipped open a random page of the Book of Blueprints (aptlynamed due to its visual similarities to the Book of Fortune), “Let’s makeourselves a… tatami… mat?”Hold on, floor tiles already exist in this world. I mean, sure they’re a luxury,but that’s only because such comfy material is really hard to mass produce.But wait, let’s not doubt Issei just yet. Looking at the notes more closely, itseems like this specific flooring differs from the usual marble ones I’m usedto. This one uses things like rice straws and wood instead, and there’s aseparate page that explains in depth how to properly and tightly layer them.Well, guess there’s really nothing else to it but to do it!Starting off, I guess I should first read about the basic structure of this‘tatami’. “The basic structure of tatami is simple, comprising doko (base),omote (cover), and heri (border).”Ooh, new words to learn! I guess this is that Japanese I’ve heard so muchabout. Nice to meet you, new language! Hope we get along well! Oh, wait,didn’t I used to keep a handy little notebook where I wrote down all the newwords I learned from Cardinic somewhere? I wonder where it is… No wait,mustn’t get distracted!“Okay, so basically it says here a single mat is made by compressing andweaving rice straws into a checkerboard pattern. After that it says here thatyou wrap it with the cover, and then surround the entire thing with somewood. Sounds simple enough!”Needless to say, it was not simple enough. First of all, Issei nevermentioned just how fragile a single thread of rice straw could get! Thesethings crumple up and bend and break at the drop of a hat, and I’m slowly butsteadily running out of supplies! If I don’t make it soon, I’ll have to go to thecity to buy more! Usually this wouldn’t be an issue, but right now Anna andEd are in town, and I promised Marina to be patient and not let them see me!That being the case, I made sure to be extra careful with the weaving processhe drew out for me, making sure to carefully follow his illustrations. I think Imentioned this before, but that guy really draws well, the design looks likeit’ll pop out of the book at any moment, not to mention the cute little doodleshe drew of me, him and Marina on some of the free spaces of the pages. Heh,that guy, he’s still referring to her as ‘Maid-san’ after all this time, even inthese drawings…After once again being reminded of how cruel I was acting towards him, Idecided to stow away my feelings for now and focus on the task at hand. Thebest way to apologize to Issei is by making one of his ideas from the Book ofBlueprints. After that I’ll go and visit his house with the finished product andwe’ll mend the wounded friendship between us by going over the faults ofmy handiwork (and trust me, there’ll be a ton of mistakes by the time I’mdone with it…)“There we go! Step one of three, complete!” I said as I finally weaved thefinal thread in it’s place.Now onto step two – the omote. This shouldn’t be all that difficult, causefrom what I’ve gathered here, it’s just basically a sheet used to wrap thewhole thing so it doesn’t fall apart. There’ll be a lot of force applied to it,what with everyone standing on it for most of the day, so you really wouldn’twant signs of wear to start showing on it for as long as possible. This ismade from either cotton or hemp, depending upon what I have more ofapparently. I guess I’ll use cotton then.“Wait, don’t tell me… Even more weaving!?”Ah shit, here we go again… Thread and weave, thread and weave, that’s allI’ve been doing this whole time! Come on, it’s already been a couple ofhours! Wait, it's already the afternoon?! I was supposed to go visit Isseibefore the Sun went down, but from the current state of things, I might justhave to settle for midnight!“Hahh, haa…” I heaved heavy breaths, “Finally, no more weaving!”Victoriously, I held up the two thirds finished piece. It was actually prettysturdy even now, without the heri. Then again, I did compress it with a vicethat was originally meant to be used on metal. I guess it’s in large part thanksto my tools that this turned out better than I expected. Well, I have a feelingleaving it unfinished like this would probably cause issues later, so I’ll justquickly make the wooden frames and stick it on, just in case.And thus…“Behold, Issei!” I slammed open the doors to his room, “For I have createdthe tatami mat!”Weird, I though, no candles are lit. He’s just as much of a night owl as I am,so I doubt he’d go to sleep this early, it’s barely sundown. Looking aroundthe room, it’s quite tidy too, left exactly as if no one was there previously.The only thing that stood out was an envelope on the living room table thatread:“Yo, Lune. If you’re reading this, I already left on my journey. Heh, I’mprobably all the way in Mandora by now. I left immediately after we partedways that night, the night of your birthday. I really don’t like the idea ofbeing scared of you, but you gotta realize just how terrified you made mewhen you tossed that warning shot. I saw my life flash before my eyes,man! Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is ‘I am not mad at you, but Ireally wish for you to NOT try to follow after me’.        -Ya Boy”…Crap. I scared away my dear friend. God, all because of some stupidemotions! Ugh, I’m such a fool! Fuck, Issei…“I…” I replied to the piece of paper as if he was there in its stead, “I’m notgonna follow you. Safe travels, friend. May you come back to your homesoon. I'm sorry, and good luck.”