"And what exactly is this place?" I ask with a glance at the pink and red decorations spread throughout the port city. We had been sailing for Five days now, a relative crawl compared to what we could do with good winds. It was nice to be on solid ground but I was concerned by the topic of decorations.

"It's the city of love, and I think we might be super lucky with our timing!" Aqua rushes over to a nearby merchant selling a pear shaped fruit. "Is the festival already begun?" She asks him with begging eyes.

"Nope starts tonight. You are in luck, going to try your luck on the draw?"

"No need!" She says happily pointing towards me.

"Ah, I see well then you best enjoy the festivities to their fullest."

"We definitely will. Thanks, gramps!" She tosses a small coin and grabs a handful of fruits before rushing back to us. "Eat, eat." She says handing each of us a pear.

The girls each take the small fruit and bite into it eagerly. I'm not sure whats happening exactly but they look like they enjoyed it so might as well.

"Ouch! Why does only mine have a pit?" I ask holding the small stone in my hand.

""OOOOH!"" A large group of people all shout at my words.

I then notice even Rou and the crew are looking at me in wonder. Have I done something again?

"Please come this way quickly." A priest-looking man says popping from the crowd and grabbing my arm forcefully.

Why? Why can't I just have a normal day?

~ ~

"This is him, priestess."

Oh, it's the priestess arc?

"Nice to meet you, I am sorry you were forcefully dragged here. You seem confused so I presume you don't know much about this city."

"That's correct my crew insisted we come," I say, pointing towards the girls a few paces behind me.

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, this is a city loved by love. It's a city blessed by the power of the Spirit of Lovers."

Another spirit. I see.

"And the appearance of a seed in the heart fruit is a sign of something incredible. You are indeed blessed by fortune. You must surely be thrilled. To be loved by the Spirit of Lovers is rare."

Wasn't the appearance of the seed just random chance? I don't know how much control a spirit has of the situation.

"Captain isn't rare. He is unique. Captain is loved by the Spirit of the Ocean as well."

"He is also a receiver of our blessing of the world tree."

"Oh! You are popular." The priestess says with surprise and a soft laugh. "I hope I am not imposing but I would request your presence tonight at the festivals opening ceremony. To have someone loved by the Lover Spirit there will make the event incredibly lovely!"

"You sure love 'love' it seems."

"Love is naturally the most important thing on the planet. Without the blessing the Lover Goddess, there would be no people."

"I still trust the ocean spirit more than any other but this lover spirit doesn't sound half bad, perhaps a prayer would help…" Aqua says pondering the priestess' words.

"So will you be participating in the draw Cole?" The priestess asks with a coy smile.

"No, he will not be!" Rou answers before I have a chance to ask what they are talking about.

"Ah, what a shame I was hoping fate would bring out ends together."

"Priestess I know you jest but you cannot participate in the drawing. You know your duties require a certain something from you."

"Yes, yes… Uwhhh to not be a priestess for a night." She says looking at me with a mischievous look.

The crew tightly grip onto my arms and pull me a few steps backward. Had they found an enemy they couldn't handle?

~ ~

"Ok, can someone begin explaining. Let's start with the draw? What is it exactly?"

The girls look around between each other trying to decide who will crack first.

"Also if someone could get me a list of all the spirits that would be handy. I want to know what I will be blessed by before hand."

At this, the girls laugh a bit and finally Aqua reluctantly begins telling me about the festival in this city.

It was as I guessed, a festival of love. The 'draw' was a sort of match making game. Thousands of strings lay in a large goblet. Everyone grips an end and pulls. Often the string will pull easily but occasionally two people hold either end. It's said that if the couple lays together that night they will be together forever.

We walked around the city a bit. I dropped into the adventurer guild but it was similar to Marrow's nothing of real interest on the board. A small Dead request pile but not nearly as many ocean based requests.

Mirna seems interested in a food stand so we line up and receive some heart shaped rolls. With a bite, a deep red jelly can be seen inside. It's some type of fruit. It reminds me of watermelon mixed with strawberry. Everyone seems to enjoy the snack so we continue to walk around.

We stop by a few clothing stores as well as a florist. I buy each girl a flower to match. For Aqua a lily, Rou a Daisy, El a hibiscus, Alice a rose, and lastly for Mirna a large sunflower. Each sat in the girl's hair comfortably other than Mirna's but she happily holds it spinning in place with glee.

"So when is this opening ceremony, I would feel bad being late."

"It should start at sunset in the main square," Aqua says fiddling with the lily in her hair.

"Well, then I guess let's get a move on."

"Yeah, hate to make that priestess wait," Rou grumbles under her breath.

~ ~

Honestly, the festival was a great time. My role was small. A red string was pulled from the draw goblet and the priestess tied it around my neck. After that she had me sprinkle water into the goblet and with that, the festival began. A line quickly formed around the 'draw'. Since I was told I wasn't participating I stepped back and returned to where the girls were waiting for me.

I noticed a few men asked them to join them in line but they politely refused.

We walked around taking in the atmosphere of the place. It was filled with energy. I could almost sense the lovey-dovey feelings being emitted by the crowd.

We found a shop selling dinner and everyone readily agreed. Even Mirna seemed to want a day off from cooking. The meal was a fish pasta. I hadn't seen pasta in Marrow so I guess this is a specialty. The girls were thrilled by the meal and finished it quickly.

~ ~

"So then who will you give it to? Have you decided yet?" Aqua asks as we walk towards the docked Excalibur. They had all been silent for awhile so the sudden question startled me.

"Give? What, to whom?"

"Your seed. The seed of love."

"What… Oh, the pit. right, yeah that, of course, it could be nothing but that… But whats this about giving it to someone? What's that about?"

"The blessing of lovers is something meant for two. The one who takes and the one that gives. It's still incomplete."

"So I have to give someone this seed in order to receive the blessing fully?" I ask confirming that I'm not confused by her poor word choice.

"""""Yes.""""" All five girls say simultaneously while staring at the stone on my palm.

Hmm, this seems like trouble. I need to think about this carefully. One wrong move and I worry my crew may fall apart. I suppose this is something I need to address after all. I can't just set it on the back burner assuming it's harmless.

"I will need time to think about it. How about we head to the galley and I will make some cookies while I ponder it."

"Yay! Captain's are the best cookies!"

~ ~

"So I did indeed decide," I say from between the group after we settle in for bed.

Everyone collectively gulps but then Rou speaks up. I honestly hadn't figured she would, normally she is shy regarding subjects like this.

"Captain, you should know that we won't hold hard feelings against the person who receives it. On the contrary, we will be happy for them. And it also won't change our feelings in the slightest, so please feel at ease about the situation. I hope we didn't add needless worry by bringing you here…"

"I'm sorry captain. I thought it would just be nice to see the city. I didn't know it would get so crazy. It's my fault."

"Hey hang on Rou, Aqua. It's fine. Honestly, I had a great time. And this thing gives me a good excuse to get things into the open." I say holding the stone over my head so each can see the rough heart shaped seed. "I have only known you all for a the past month or so. But in that time we've grew close. And now I can't imagine being without you. Any of you. That's why I can't give this to any of you. I will instead give it to the Excalibur."

"What?" Alice asks shocked by my statement. Though it seems Rou and Aqua had already easily accepted my decision.

"It's not for reason of depriving any of you of it. It's for the purpose of growing as many of these as I can until I have five. For now, I will grow it on the ship. As it grows I will eventually have to get a house and tend to it. I hope you will follow me until I can properly gift each of you with this seed."

"I will help water it!" Rou inserts, quickly adopting the idea.

"We should get some soil from shore before we leave tomorrow. and a nice pot too!" Aqua adds gripping Rou's hand.

"Elves are extremely adept at growing plants. It will be fruiting within the year."

"Well, that's a little quick, let's let it grow naturally for now until we have somewhere to plant it."

They readily accept the idea and chat about cultivation for the rest of the night. I notice when I eventually shut my eyes it feels tighter than usual in the large bed. I didn't have even an inch of room to wiggle. It felt warm so I fall asleep quickly.

~ ~

"Ahhhh, we never have time to just rest in bed. This is the best!"

"I never wanna get up."

"Do we have to? Mirna says, sleep all day. Good plan."

"We can't Mirna we have to get the supplies for our tree of love!"

"El, don't call it that. It sounds weird."

"That's what they are called Rou quit being so bashful."

"Uwww…"

"Well since it seems like everyone is up, pancakes?"

""Nooooo, stay. It's cold out there."" A few voices beg but the majorities stomach's growl so that outweighs the complaints.

I prepare batter while Mirna runs around collecting various things. I wasn't sure what she was planning but I left her to it. I spoon the batter out and begin flipping. After some time a large stack has assembled and I carry it off to the table. Everyone takes a couple and prepare them in their own fashion. Rou leaves them dry while Aqua slathers them in gallons of syrup. I tend to lean towards Aqua's side.

"It's done. Everyone, here." Mirna places a small mug in the center of the table once we finish cleaning up.

"Whats this Mirna?" El asks looking at the cup.

"Ah, they fell hold on." Mirna nimbly pulls the ends of strings and lines them up around the rim of the cup. I had seen this yesterday. So she was making her own 'draw' goblet. Can this girl get any cuter?

"Everyone grab. Let's do it! But Mirna will be victorious!"

She grabs a string and points me towards another. I understand her intention but I pause long enough for El to not notice and grab the one I was indicated. Sorry Mirna I tried. She frowns a bit but once we all have a string she loudly shouts "Pull!"

We each pull and the strings rise from the bottom of the cup. Mirna and El's loop onto mine somehow also catching another couple strings.

In the end, I pull a string leading to five others.

I should have figured it would end up like this one way or another.

Everyone laughs at the result and Mirna stands proudly as if it was her intention all along.

Once everything calms down I, after being sure no one is watching, lightly give a thumbs up to the sky.

He must be enjoying those novels. I have to properly thank him when we meet again.

I didn't notice but in that time the girls were carefully unraveling the knotted string and arguing about it endlessly.

~ ~

"El didn't you say your birthday was this month?"

"Mm. It was the day of the festival."

"Oh! Why didn't you tell us? Here we can celebrate a few days late. We will have a deckside birthday party for you."

"It's ok. Elves don't celebrate birthdays until one hundred. I understand humans think of it as more significant but for an elf, a year is a short time. Although…"

"Although?"

"Nothing."

"That reminds me actually when we first met you never really explained why you were out there. From how I understand it the Elven forest is on the other side of the continent?"

"That's correct it is very far away. As for why…"

"You don't have to say if you don't want. I wouldn't dream of forcing anything upon a princess."

"I was hoping you had forgotten that. Humans memories are more powerful than I anticipated. Well if it's you I don't mind telling my secret."

"Secret?"

"I was to be married on my fifteenth birthday."

"Married?!"

"Oh, jealous? Don't worry I had no feelings for the man. He was a friend of my father's, someone he was indebted to. I was to be his fifth wife. So I had no choice but to escape!"

"Escape?!"

"Yes! I concocted a plan. The man's first wife was fond of a necklace. So my father intended to have a pearl necklace made. I begged my father to let me go assist in the retrieval, fawning my desire to satisfy the wife of this man. He believed me or possibly understood my intentions. Either way, I departed on the ship and we began to search for the Pearl tongue lizard."

"And you ended up all the way over here?"

"I was very persistent with the crew, and I'm a princess they had no choice but to follow my orders. And in doing so they all…"

Her voice broke during the last words and she buried her face in my chest softly. She wasn't the type to show sadness so it somewhat shocked me but I gently pat her back and make reassuring sounds.