While Cassiel thought that Azalabulia would have been embarrassed to have discovered that she was being watched by them in secret, Azalabulia has been smug and happy about it if anything. After all, it means that everybody got to watch her act cool and awesome and beat Fenrir in a duel!

Now, the group is heading back to The Shoebill together.

“Seriously… are boobs all you care about?” Cassiel asks Fenrir, bumping into his side as they walk.

Fenrir lightly bumps back against her and says, “Of course not. They’re not even in my top list.”

“Sweaters,” Serra says.

“Exactly. Sweaters are more important,” Fenrir says, nodding his head.

“And fluff, yes?” Nell asks.

“Yup. Fluff is also more important,” he says, nodding his head some more. “But there’s something more important than both sweaters andfluff.”

“And what would that be?” Cassiel asks, ready to sigh at whatever his response may be.

“You.”

For once, Serra and Nell are actually impressed by his attempt at being smooth and give him a thumbs-up and clap respectively. Meanwhile, Cassiel blushes and looks away to hide her smile. “Th-that was… unexpected. I thought you’d say something weird.”

Fenrir might be proud of himself as well for that one, but there’s somebody being left out now that the conversation has shifted away from how awesome Azalabulia was during her duel with him.

“So, our new girlfriend lives in Alaska,” he says.

“Cold,” Serra says and grabs her arms to imitate shivering. “I like warm weather.”

“There is nothing wrong with cold weather! I would be more concerned about the bears than anything. I have heard stories about how Alaska is full of bears and that one must never leave home without a firearm!” Nell says, causing Azalabulia to almost laugh.

“That might complicate things a bit,” Cassiel says.

“There – there aren’t actually that many bears,” Azalabulia says.

“I don’t mean the bears. I mean how far away you are.”

“A-ah…”

“That is most alright!” Nell says. “Flying to and from shall not be a concern.”

“Being rich and having that much disposable money must be really nice,” Fenrir says.

“It’s not like the same isn’t applied to you anymore,” Cassiel says.

“Fair enough. But yeah, it does kind of complicate things.”

“S-sorry,” Azalabulia says.

“Don’t be. It’s nothing for you to apologize for. I mean, if you’re going to try and apologize for it, then we should be apologizing for living somewhere else.”

“We’ll move up there,” Serra says. “I’ll wear five layers of sweaters all year.”

“As much as I want to see that, don’t forget we just bought a house,” Fenrir says, flicking Serra on the side of her head which causes her to pout.

“We’ll sell it,” she says as she rubs where she was flicked.

“We can’t just buy a house and then sell it a week later.”

“Why not?” Nell asks.

“Yeah, why not?” Serra asks.

“Yeah, Fen, why not?” Cassiel asks, bumping against Fenrir’s side again.

Fenrir flicks each one of them in the order of who asked.

“It’s – it’s not like I’m attached to where I live,” Azalabulia says. “I would miss my students, but they leave me at the end of each year, so… once this school year is over, I – I could always maybe move.”

“No family or friends up there?” Fenrir asks.

Azalabulia shakes her head.

“So, did you move there on your own then?”

She nods her head and says, “A couple of years ago.”

“Why? I hear of people moving from Alaska, but never to it.”

“I… I – I was told that, because they have more men than women, it’d be easier to… findahusbandandhavekids,” Azalabulia explains in a quick, hushed voice while looking away.

“So,” Cassiel says, “you moved to a state, Alaska, because you thought it’d be easier to get a husband?”

Azalabulia doesn’t say anything, but she does nod her head.

“Honestly, I’m kind of impressed it didn’t work,” Fenrir says.

“Yeah,” Cassiel says, “I mean…”

And then a shallow-but-realistic fear pops into both Fenrir’s and Cassiel’s minds.

If Azalabulia was single despite how desperate she was, then does that mean there is something wrong with her? Is she actually some sort of filthy person? No, she couldn’t have gotten a job as a teacher – a job around kids, if she looks filthy and doesn’t take care of herself. In that case, is she beyond physically unattractive? With how healthy food is now due to government regulations and technology, it’s difficult to be unattractive unless literally zero effort is put into one’s appearance or if they are just extremely unlucky in regards to genetics.

“What do you look like?” Serra asks out of the blue, putting forward the question that everybody else has on their minds.

“Umm,” Azalabulia mumbles, “I – I… don’t look that different from how I do now. I made my hair a little longer and my legs shorter, but that’s it.”

“So you’re even taller?” Fenrir asks. As much as he enjoys the idea of somebody who looks like Azalabulia being taller than him in real life, he also feels emasculated for it. She’s already taller than he is in real life, and now it turns out that she’s even taller than she is now?

“Yeah…”

“Hot,” Serra says.

“Azala,” Nell says, “I apologize if this question comes off as rude, but I am most curious! Is there a reason why you believe that you are – why you were single for so long?”

Azalabulia slumps over and sighs. “I… don’t really want to talk about it. Sorry…”

“That’s fine,” Fenrir says, grabbing Azalabulia’s hand to pull her close. “You don’t have to let us know if you’re uncomfortable sharing that.”

“Fenrir is right! I apologize for asking that,” Nell says.

Serra positions herself next to Azalabulia’s free side and holds onto her other hand.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cassiel says.

“Actually,” Azalabulia says, squeezing both Fenrir’s and Serra’s hands slightly tighter now, “I – I think I want to… kind of, explain it.”

“If you want to, you’re welcome to, but don’t force yourself to if you don’t want to,” Fenrir says.

The others agree with him, but Azalabulia goes on even so. “I guess… getting dates was never a problem. I always got asked and went on a bunch, but never got invited on second dates even if I asked and tried to set them up.”

“Sounds like you’ve only ever dated crazy people. Who wouldn’t want to go on a second date with you?” Fenrir asks.

“Hah… a lot of people. They always thought I was the crazy one. Then, when I tried my best to not act crazy or like myself, they said I was boring and had no personality. It didn’t really matter what I tried. If I was myself, they – they told me I was crazy and too hyper. If I wasn’t myself, they said I was boring. This is why I like working with kids! I can be as ‘crazy’ as I want and they all smile and laugh and have fun. Adults are so… boring.”

“That explains why you like to roleplay so much here. It’s not surprising if you’ve been suppressing yourself in real life,” Fenrir says.

“I – I guess so. It helps me relax and let loose.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about any of that when you’re with us. We want you to be yourself twenty-four-seven. No matter how hyper you might be, or no matter how many worlds you want to take over with your dark and awesome powers, just be yourself. Got it?” Fenrir asks.

Azalabulia smiles and nods her head. “G-got it. Thanks.”

“Thank you for sharing that with us, Azala!” Nell says. “What Fenrir says is true. You truly have no need to worry about such things when with us. After all, I am permitted to harass them with my bizarre fantasies all day! Serra fully releases the spirit of the perverted old man when with us, too! Let us not forget that Fenrir makes no attempt at hiding his love for sweaters and fluff around us, either.”

“You’re making it sound like I’m the only normal one here who doesn’t act different around other people,” Cassiel says.

“None of us suddenly thrust our hard spears into people from behind, especially not into people we don’t even know,” Fenrir says.

“Are you ever going to let me forget that, and are you never going to stop making it sound so perverted?”

“Nope and nope.”