Vol.2 Ch.41 - Take care

We were nearing The Base over at Bilgam in the crack of dawn. Things werecalm, unusually so. This is around the time when some of the night guardsswitch shifts with the daytime guards, and the logistics group goes to thestore to get the groceries. In a way, it feels like coming back home, but yourfamily consists of about 200 siblings. Entering the gates we expected to begreeted by William, but instead we saw a young recruit who was subbing infor him. We asked him where William was, to which he replied He’s takingcare of that baby. We were then asked how our trip went, so Ed stopped tochat with the recruit whilst we ventured deeper into The Base.It was just when we were about to enter our sleeping quarters when wesuddenly heard loud crying coming from the other side of the door.“Waaaah! Uwaaaah!” The crying went on.“What do you want!? Is it mommy!? Is it daddy!? They’re not here, damn it!”a voice tried it’s best to stop the wailing. “Oh, God, don’t tell me you need achange of diapers? I… I can’t handle that again!” He complained as herushed out the door.“…Looks like Nelly’s been giving you guys a hard time, huh?” I said, tryingto hold back my laughter after seeing the strongest guard we have, William,being brought to his knees from a mere baby (attagirl, Nelly! Daddy’s proud).“Lune! Thank Heavens, that gosh darned baby is a menace! How do you takecare of it every, single, day?!” William asked. “At first we though it simpleenough, but it just wouldn’t stop wailing and wailing! She’d only stop whenwe fed her, but that was a mere temporary remedy to the problem. I don’teven want to think about all the times we had to change her diapers…” Hequietly sobbed.“Don’t worry,” Cecily comforted him as she entered the room, “you did well.Thank you for taking care of Nelly for us.”She then peeked over the cradle with her hands covering her face. “Where’smommy?” She said before swiftly moving her hands away and surprisingNelly. “Here I am! I missed youuu!”Nelly immediately recognized her face and squealed in joy, it was truly asweet sight. I wonder if this is how my dad felt when they had me? I askedmyself, remembering my time in Whitehood with my parents. Certainly, healways smiled when he talked to me… Well, that is until he found out I wasplanning on leaving them… I know I suddenly up and left, but maybe goingback to visit them once or twice wouldn’t be so bad… I could evenintroduce them to Cecily and Nelly! Boy are they gonna be surprised whenthey find out they became grandparents (I bet dad’s gonna be even moresad when he realizes how old he’s gotten, though).As I was doing a heavy mental exercise over scheduling when the visit willtake place, all my thoughts suddenly went out the window when I noticedAaron standing over these two.“What’s the matter, Aaron?” I asked, “You doing alright?”“Oh, of course, it’s just… She reminds me of my niece…” he said, looking atNelly with a vacant expression.“Niece?” We asked him, “You never mentioned you had family.”“Of course I do,” he answered back, “like anyone else, really. Well, myniece’s father – my brother, as well as her mother passed away a coupleyears after having her, so it’s just my old man taking care of her. I guess hesimply didn’t really approve of my… preferences.” He suddenly quieteddown.Cecily and the other Generals were still in the dark about it, but I suddenlyremembered his relationship with the deceased TBL General, Jean. I’m notone to judge a person by something as deep and intricate as their preferences,I usually just judge people based on their actions and their actions alone. I dounderstand where he’s coming from, though, as my parents didn’t approve ofme leaving home at such a young age, either. But looking back, I do missthem.That being said, I told Aaron my honest feelings. “You can still visit them,I’m not sure how your family works, but I’m sure your father misses his sonvery much.”Aaron weakly replied with a defeated tone, “Like hell he does. I stillremember the harsh words he told me as I was sent packing. Staying here isfor the best, after all.”“That’s not true!” Cecily suddenly raised her voice, “I don’t even know myparents, so I’m probably not one to say this, but you should spend as muchtime with your loved ones as you can! Once they’re gone, you’ll only feel theregret of not talking to them more weighing you down, so don’t burden yourfuture self!”What she said had extra credibility behind it, as she did lose a sibling justrecently, and the Generals knew that all too well. Aaron stood by for amoment, honestly thinking it through, before coming to a conclusion.“It won’t be as simple as that, reconnecting with family.” He said, “I’m notas sporadic as you two. But I’ll drop by his place if ever I’m in the area. Weget shipments to Secundis all the time.”We all congratulated him on taking the first step towards fixing hisrelationship with his family. Aaron was a dear friend of ours, and we wantedto make sure he lived a life free of regrets. What would we do if our dearPoet wasn’t satisfied with the way things stood? Wait, don’t poets drawinspiration from not being satisfied with how things stand? In that case,did we just ruin his career? Well, I’m sure he’ll be fine, cause happiness ismore important that a career!The next place we visited was the dining hall, where the rest of the gangawaited our arrival. Some gang members saw us coming, so they went to telleveryone, running around and screaming The General’s are all here! Theywon!We didn’t even tell them that we won, for all they knew we could’ve justbarely escaped death, but I guess just seeing us here alive and well isequivalent to a victory. Truly, we are like a family in that regard…Since we didn’t have any way to announce our victory, the logistics squad incharge of procuring the food didn’t have time to buy any meat. We didn’treally care though, as we had all but gotten used to the bland food we atealmost every day. This mush has a certain factor of homeliness to it as well, Isuppose. Looking around the table ahead of me, I saw everyone talking andchatting about all sorts of things. Cecily was feeding Nelly with a bottle ofmilk as she listened to Jorgen compliment the tea of Bilgam endlessly (I evenheard him go so far as to call it an International Treasure!)Everyone was mostly flocking towards Max, who held his wounded chest outhigh as he refused to change his blood-soaked shirt for today. He referred toit as a “Badge of Honor” as he proudly retold the story of his heroic exploitsover at The Neo Urbana Fight. Looking back, we fought many enemies, andin the end, they have all more or less become our allies. We reformed theentire Great Hiana underworld into a National Agency that helped thecommon folk. And to think, all this was accomplished by 4 teenagers whohad a dream, the dream to never have to see a child be left in the streetsagain…Just as Ed and the recruit arrived at the dining hall after finishing their chat,the gang had finally decided to reveal their surprise to us.“What the hell is this?!?” We jumped upon seeing what they brought in fromthe other room.“What do you think it is?” they answered back, holding in their excitement,“It’s the finest and biggest cake in Bilgam-no, probably the world!”We chose not to ask about how much it cost to procure such a thing, insteadsimply basking in the moment as we partook in eating this behemoth.***With that, another month passed by idly. As I was finishing up the last of mywork in Bilgam, I was visited by Ed in the office.“Whaddya’ need?” I asked, not expecting it to be anything of importance.“I… don’t think I wanna head out into the world.” He muttered, as if unsureof what my reaction will be.“Oh? You don’t wanna leave just yet? Don’t worry, were not in any rush,after all. You can lay back here with the gang for a while before catching upwith m…-”“No,” Ed interrupted me, “I was thinking of heading back to TrivisNumerica.” He said, “I don’t think I’m cut out for adventuring, Grim. We lostso many people, and to be honest I feel like I barely survived past this hurdlealone.”“What?” I uttered, “But Ed, we said we’d travel together, though? Us againstthe world, y’know?” I tried my best to sway his opinion on the matter and gethim to back out of quitting, but it was a fruitless endeavor.“Listen, Lune,” Ed started comforting me, “I’ll just be getting in the way. Butthis way you and Cecily can probably travel faster without the dead-weight.”“BUT YOU’RE NOT DEAD-WEIGHT!” I started sobbing. I guess I didn’treally take this news as easily as he had hoped I would.“…Thanks.” He said, “But think of it this way: I’ll do my best to explore myside of the world while you and Cecily explore your side. We can reconvenehere in Great Hiana whenever we want to exchange our information for thebooks.”He suddenly reminded himself of the book project I was doing, and with a Bythe way... he changed the topic, “How’s the Great Hiana Volume going forthat diary of yours?” he asked, “Remember how you said back in Ren thatyou’ll write a diary for every area you visit?”“...Yeah,” I said, “I just finished it last week. Honestly, you caught me just asI was about to head out to pick up all the copies.”“What timing!” He said, astonished at his luck, “Then let’s head out together,it’ll be a nice way to talk before we say our goodbyes.”As we made our way through Bilgam together for probably the last time in along while, the air felt a bit chilly, but it was peaceful. In short, it felt just asenchanting as it did the first time we walked these very same streets. Talkingabout all sorts of mundane topics has never been more fun, as both of uswanted to make the most of this pseudo-final outing.“So,” he started off with a light jab, “when should I expect the wedding?”“L-Like I would know!” I refuted, “We’re way too young for that still! Whenwe do plan it though, you’ll be the first to hear about it!”“That’s nice. I’m glad about that, seriously.” He said before switching to thenext question, “Where are you planning to go next?”“Probably the Plural Divide. That place has a ton of smaller countries, soit’ll be fun seeing all the differences in cultures, plus the foods probablygonna be delicious!”“I see... Well, were here.” He said as he pointed to our destination, a smallscale copy place where people would write your book out manually to thebest of their abilities so that you don’t have to write the same book multipletimes. The walk here was way shorter than I had expected.“Well, Grim.” Ed stated as he dropped the books off at the post office withme. “I guess this is goodbye for now.”“Wait, you’re leaving already??” I gave a shocked reply.“The transport wagon is arriving in a couple minutes, to tell you the truth it’sgonna be a tight schedule making it in time, but I just couldn’t bring myself toleave without saying goodbye to my best friend.” He said, wearing a youthfulsmile on his face.Tears started trickling down my cheeks as I tried my best to wipe them awaybefore giving him a fist bump to remember.“See ya later, Ed.”“See ya later, Grim.”***Making it to the base, I was greeted by a worried Cecily who gave me aletter addressed to my name. She didn’t really know what it was, refusing toopen someone else’s letter out of politeness, but she knew the contentsspelled trouble, as it came from the ITA. The letter read:“Dear Adventurer Lune Grimheart,It is with great pleasure for us to inform you that you have been assignedto explore the newly found Shaid’s Temple in Sibirus with a predeterminedparty. Denial or failure to comply will lead to a strike, but we believe youto be more than adequate for the commission, as you have checked“always ready for dispatch” on the waiver you signed! The party will beheading out in 3 days after this letter’s arrival, so I hope you don’t have arecord of tardiness. Please visit your nearest ITA Base of Operations forfurther details on the subject matter.-Yours truly, Tom from ITA Support”Cecily was a bit angry with me for being so reckless at the time of filling inthe paperwork, and I was too, to be honest. I wonder if there’s a way for usto abandon this task, seeing as I have Nelly to take care of now. And didn’tLinus say he was going to be doing this? Gahh, we should’ve kept a closereye on him!We immediately went to the ITA Base in hopes of having my agreementchanged, as the task they had given out to me didn’t allow for Cecily norNelly to accompany me to Sibirus (not that I’d take Nelly to such a dangerousplace). Just as we had went to ask the support staff about the matter, I wasimmediately interrupted by the man working the booth.“No can do, bud,” he said, “I understand your frustration, but you have tounderstand that you signed the waiver, and the commission is due in a mere 3days, maybe if we had more time, we could work something out, but now isdefinitely impossible. Simply put, there’s nothing you can do about it, unlessyou want to be referred to as a deserter, that is.”“Come on, Lune,” Cecily stepped in, “what does it matter if you’re adeserter, anyways? These guys just wanna take you away to do all the dirtywork for them!”“Ma’am,” the booth guy addressed her, “please do not butt into thisconversation. You don’t understand the significance of what your sweetheartover here will be doing over in Sibirus. The artifact kept in there is said tobe a one of a kind magic item that allows for long distance teleportation. Itcould be revolutionary for adventurers and common folk alike!” He tried todefend the ITA’s actions.“I don’t care!” Cecily lashed out, “If Lune leaves, then who’s gonna help metake care of Nelly? Who’s gonna help me lead ARA? Who, I ask!? Ed’salready left, and I’ll only have The Generals to help me, that won’t beenough! I need Lune for this!”She was visibly fuming, but the ITA Agent simply fueled the flame by askingmore unrelated questions.“Nelly? Ed? I have no idea what you’re talking about, ma’am. ARA Gang? Isthat the group of uncivilized barbarians I’ve heard so much about from thehigher-ups? Should I get law enforcement for this?”“I’ll enforce your face on the ground, ya’ turd!” She tried jumping in thebooth to kick his teeth in.Before things got too heated, I tried taking her to the side to talk things outwith her peacefully (although I really wanted to join her).“Listen, we obviously have no other choice.” I said, “Seeing as I made adumb mistake that can’t be corrected, I guess I’ll just have to bear theconsequences.”“The deserter plan is still feasible, though?” She turned her head to the sideas she suggested it once more.“You don’t understand,” I explained, “The ITA holds immense world-widepower. If I become a deserter, they will surely hunt me down, as well as youguys, who are closest to me.”“Then we’ll beat them all up when they come for us! Together!” She said,tearing up.“We won’t be as strong as we are forever, and Nelly surely isn’t capable ofdefending herself. I’ll come back as soon as possible, then I’ll try to see if Ican work something out after the fact.”“…Okay, but you better come back! Nelly and I’ll be waiting for you, don’tmiss out on her childhood!” She said as we shared a warm embrace.“Did you two settle everything?” the booth guy said as I approached him.“You made the right call, trust me.”“Shut up,” I shot back, “I just want to get this over with so I can be with mygirlfriend and daughter.”“I see, in any case, I believe some details are in order. Your party will beconsisting of 5 members including you: 2 other guys and 2 girls (to keep thegender ratio balanced). These people are: Sullivan Streiks, Marina Dola,Genevra Lionheart, and Linus Tenford.”That last name struck me as familiar, so I inquired about his appearance.“Could this Linus perhaps be an old man with a white beard? Guffaws alot?”“Yes! Have you two met before? In that case, it’ll only be easier for you!” hereassured me.Just like that, I came back to The Base to pack my things for the trip andnotify the gang. I was met with widespread backlash, with some folks evensuggesting we burn down the ITA building (of course Max was the one tosuggest that one…)The other Generals knew of the dangers of this commission, but they had faithin me making it out safely. Cecily held Nelly in her arms as she kissed megoodbye, I reached out my finger to Nelly, which she grabbed almostimmediately. Her grip was weak, obviously, but it was still the strongest gutpunch I’ve endured in my life. Leaving my family even for a second isdifficult, and there is no time estimate for how long this trip will last, I canonly pray it doesn’t take longer than a month tops. The only thing left nowwas for me to just go. Looks like I’ll have to postpone the trip to the PluralDivide…