Forming a party

With Charlie defeated, or more accurately, humiliated, he decided to honour our deal and hear out what we had to say after a brief rest period. Luna had to rest for a while too, since she was drained of all her strength by me.

We told Charlie that in one week, if we didn't reach the moon in time, humanity would lose magic because the emperor of the moon didn't believe we were worthy creatures of it.

"What?!" He nearly jumped out of his chair. "You must be joking."

"I wish, but no," I assured him. "That magic I used was because of my connection to Luna, who happens to be the emperor's daughter."

Maybe admitting that to him wasn't the best move for my ego, but I had to show him I was willing to be open and honest. Otherwise, how could he trust me?

"Hmm…" he put a hand over his mouth. "You do realize, you just admitted to cheating in our duel, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But you see why I had to get your attention?"

"I'm not happy how you did it, but now I have no choice but to help you. Even if I didn't want to, I can't imagine what a world without magic would be like."

Maybe he wasn't as stupid as I thought. But you don't get to be one of the top students for taking wrong turns. He had some smarts in that egotistical head of his.

Charlie turned to Zumi, "There's no way you haven't confirmed this is all true. You're the smartest mage at this college. Well, smartest of your grade…"

"Let's face it…" I started, "she's smarter than all of us combined."

Zumi showed him a few books and the Fairylands map. He skimmed it all over while she explained her findings.

"So, these portals are supposed to be in the Fairylands?" He had a grieved look on his face. "That place hasn't been fully explored yet. And the monsters there are supposed to be high levels. Who knows what kind of mayhem goes on there?"

"We don't have much choice. If we're wrong, we won't have much time to correct ourselves." Zumi collected back her research, all but the map.

Luna also supported the possibility that the Fairylands would be a good spot to check.

"Magic from the moon flows into your world through the rings, so the port between the rings and your world will likely be very strange."

There were a few places in the world where magic was strong enough to send distortions into reality. This was the closest one to us. If what Luna said held water, then these magic ports would all connect us to the moon.

As for the monsters, me being powered up to level 99 by Luna would probably be enough to take care of that. Supported by Zumi and Charlie, I wasn't too worried about our party.

Speaking of which, I sent everyone here a party invitation through my info screen. The four of us were officially a group.

"If there are truly distortions there, you couldn't have picked a more perfect person to make you a portal." Charlie started to gloat. "My Egresser magic is top class, so please feel free to praise me for it."

No chance anyone would be praising this guy. We were all too educated to fall to such barbaric practices.

I'm just glad he's cooperative. That made this a whole lot easier.

***

Everyone was resting for the night. Tomorrow we'd be journeying to the Fairylands, so we needed to be well rested.

The moon was still full. I had to give myself an eyeful to destress.

Maybe looking at the moon wasn’t the best way to let out tension, considering that’s where we had to go to save the world, but something about its glow just made things a little easier to accept.

I caught Luna out on the balcony. She was staring up at it as well. Noticing me, she smiled.

"Lovely to meet you at this hour," she said.

"I'm glad you're feeling better. We need to watch out how much magic I leech off of you."

She waved her hand, as if to say it wasn't any trouble.

"Parish such words as “leeching.” Use as much of my power as you need. I trust your judgment."

That faith she put in me was a lot of responsibility, but it was also encouraging.

Luna went back to looking at the moon.

"This is the first time I'm getting to really see my world from so far away. It looks so small."

A full moon isn't exactly what I would call "small," but I think I understand what she was getting at.

"My whole childhood was spent there. And so many other lives have lived out there as well. Isn't it humbling to think about?"

"Yeah." I stepped up next to her. "It really is something special."

"I can't wait to take you there." She clung to the sleeve of my arm. "Oh! When we are married, we'll get to drink the ceremonial honey milk! I’ve always wanted to try it."

"Honey milk?"

She nodded.

Drinking honey on the moon…oh, I get it. Honeymoon.

Were we really getting married? I almost couldn't believe it.

"Luna, do you really want to marry me?"

She nodded. "We must get married."

"'We must' doesn't mean 'I want to.'" I clarified.

"Hmm?" Her head cocked to the side. "I don't understand."

"What do you want to do?" I asked more specifically.

"I want to save your world." She nodded, smiling. "And when we do, we'll happily live the rest of our lives together."

Why did I get the feeling this was a big fairytale for her? She was basically arranging her own marriage.

I wanted to talk more with her, but she let out a deep yawn and stretched her arm up. Clearly she would be too tired to discuss this at the moment. I put the idea on the backburner, and went to bed.