Getting out of the elevator, Charlotte looked at the clerk, Criss, and asked for directions.

“Hello, do you know where can I buy food?” she said with a reserved voice.

“Oh, hey there, little boy. Food, you say, hmm, there’s a convenience store at the end of the street, just go all right and you’ll find it.”

“Thanks.” Bowing a little, she said with a smile.

She went out and started to walk, going past two streets, she saw the store, it was in the middle of the third one. She bought some vegetables, meat, condiments, pasta and rice. She bought enough to last at least a week, three fully packed bags of food. Nothing noteworthy happened, no policemen coming for her, no burglars or thugs causing any problem, no old woman telling her she had a weird destiny. She had been looking out for any problem when alone since that time in Villeshervil, so she was glad everything was still ok.

Getting back to the building, the moment she got past the front door she realized she hadn’t brought the keys of the apartment.

“Huh, sir, do you have spare keys to his house?” She asked in a timid voice, trying to keep her image.

“A spare key? No, we don’t have spare keys of the apartments in here, it’s so they can be assured and have no problem while living here, sorry.”

“Ah, no problem.” She said with regret, thinking about how grumpy Gut would get if she woke him up again.

“You bought a lot of things, uh?” Cris said as he noticed the big bags she was carrying.

“Yeah, well, he didn’t have anything in there.” She answered, looking at the bags.

“He always orders his food. Did he tell you to buy something?”

“No, I just insisted on it. I’m not used to have the food delivered.”

“Oho, so you’re a responsible kid. Teach that guy to cook his own food. Heh, it’ll be a good experience for him.”

“Has he been living here for long?” She asked curiously, feeling the need to know more about her bodyguard.

“You don’t know? How did you even end up with someone like him?”

“Oh, that… Ehm, my, parents died and I was left with no relatives, yeah, I know him because of my, grandfather but, uhm, I don’t know.” She said while stammering and shaking her head, trying to remember this.

Gut had told they were going to use this story as her new persona’s, Shuck Stellar, backstory. She tried to build on what she heard them talking before, but wasn’t sure if her acting skills were enough to convince the man before her. She could only hope that Gut had made a good job to make her look more convincing.

“I see, I’m sorry to hear that… Hey, you can come and talk with me whenever you’re bored, there’s nothing much to do as I only sit here and keep the unwanted away.” He said while showing her the desk, it was a boring job but was more than she ever had.

“Maybe if I’m bored, thanks.” She smiled at his offer. “Bye then.”

“Have a good night.”

It was already close to seven in the afternoon and the sun had decided to rest for the night. The festivities had died out almost completely, as there couldn’t be heard anything around, even if the big event of the coming together of the moons had not happened yet.

“It’s so quiet in here, should be a good place to live.” Charlotte said with some regret in her voice.

She had to go to Paversia and forget this place, this country, even if it wasn’t forever. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to see her friends ever again. Arriving at the 17th floor, she looked around.

“W-what was his house again?”

After looking at the front doors of every apartment, she gave up. She didn’t remember how his looked like. She decided to have a sure fire solution, so she took the elevator again and asked Cris. He answered while laughing at her mistake, saying things like typical of a child and how immature and cute she was.

Charlotte couldn’t help but feel ashamed and aggravated!

I’m no kid! I’m an adult! Even older than you! I think… She thought when she was once again in the elevator.

Finally finding his door, she stood in front of it and rang the bell button at the side. She waited for a while to the door to be opened. After waiting for some minutes and having sounded the bell on more than ten occasions, the door was finally opened. She saw Gut had a sleepy expression and a somber look, he looked very tired, of what, she didn’t know.

“Took you long enough!”

She said while picking up the bags from the floor, she got tired of carrying them after the first minute of waiting him to answer the door.

“You can continue resting, though, I’m gonna prepare something to eat.”

She went past him without allowing an answer to her previous remark, she couldn’t be bothered by him.

“I already called some place to deliver the food, it will be here shortly. You don’t need to make anything tonight.”

“What…?”

She turned to look back at him, she couldn’t believe it! She had said she was going to buy food!

“You never said anything about not calling for food. You can save it for tomorrow.”

“… I’ll get you back for this.” She gritted her teeth in anger, not looking at him anymore.

Turning around, she went to the kitchen to put everything in its place. Just as she completed the placement of the food, the bell rang.

The food he bought was a fully roasted chicken, with rice and vegetables. It was enough for a family of four and came with the drinks.

She ate it while grumbling all the time and then went directly to her room, without giving any thanks.

Gut couldn’t help but shake his head, it was not his fault. He had called for the food before even going to his room, before she decided to go and buy the ingredients. He tried to tell her but she didn’t listen, she was too feisty and didn’t stay put.

Once in her room, she went to put her things in the wardrobe, she didn’t want to have all her things scattered around. During the trip, she had bought a total of 4 shirts, 2 t-shirts, the yukata dress, 3 camisoles used to sleep, 5 pants and 2 shorts. About shoes, she only had two pairs and her sandals. Everything else were things she had brought from her last apartment, the dress Dordives had gifted her, some other clothes and the cash that was slowly but definitely diminishing.

“My laptop was lost in the fire…”

She didn’t think of packing it. There was a fire and she had to get out of there as soon as possible. There was no time to think about things like that. She only did what she was instructed while in school: when there is a fire, get some clothes to keep yourself warm, bring the absolutely necessary and leave everything else behind. The absolute necessary for her were the cash and White Prism!

Getting everything on the closet, she took a change of clothes and went to the bath. She hadn’t seen it. She had gone to the kitchen only to find that desolate mirage.

The bath was a big one with a bathtub, a shower and a place to change. The toilet was in another room.

She took off her garments and washed herself clean, then she enjoyed the tub. She had started it before anything else. Once ready, she looked at herself in the mirror of the changing room. Apart from her burn scorches, her skin was a healthy white and she could see she had gained some muscle in the past few days.

I’ve been constantly moving these days…

Was all she could think about it. Turning around, she looked at her back, at the scorch she had. She saw it was almost the same, though there had been some change. Her skin was becoming redder around it and it was starting to bother her, wanting to scratch that thing away.

is it because I’ve not taken care of it enough?

After thinking about it, she decided to not mind it, it would heal with time now. She would be more careful. After that, she dried herself and put on panties, shorts and her tank top. Out of the bathroom, she went to the master’s bedroom, she wanted Gut to see that burn.

“Hey, you up?” She said, towel in head and dirty clothes on hand.

…

After waiting for a while without an answer, she gave up. She remembered the look on his face, he looked tired.

Maybe he also had some disguise to not show his tiredness? she reasoned at last, walking to her room.

Picking up White Prism that she hadn’t taken to the bath, she entered the Crystal’s Space.

She asked Prism if she knew what those brown spots were, the answer was kind of yes and no. After some time of trying to understand what Prism meant, she got to know that they were the same black spots of her vision but now on her body.

I already figured that out…

Feeling dejected at the lack of new information, she continued teaching Prism about things. Waiting for her to create things in this colorless space and to communicate in a better way.

After blinking seven times, a full week had gone past. It was now the night of the 18th of April. The festivities were carried out in such a reserved manner that the city looked dead.

They were sitting in the living room, trying to decide what to do.

“So the only way out is still that…” Charlotte asked with worry in her face.

“Indeed.” Meanwhile, Gut had a voice of uncertainty,

He had worked all week searching for a way to smuggle Charlotte out of the country. It was getting harder and harder to go out of the country. After the U.S.A.’s declaration, everyone who wished to get out of this supposedly soon to get in a nightmare country had to go through an exhaustive examination. If it was only one sporadic check, it would have been fine, but when it was done to everyone parting, the procedure was getting too long, too rough on those doing the deed they were making more and more mistakes.

Some flights were delayed by hours, even by days. Some of the extremes cases included cancelation of it altogether. By boat wasn’t any better, stricter in a way and laxer in another. But two were canceled when there was discovered illegal stuff being exported. Drugs, immigrants and prohibited things in the country of destination. By train was a little better, but she needed to go to another continent, a continent that wasn’t connected by railways.

*Sigh…

The two of them sighed at the same time.

“I’m sorry… Because I didn’t know what to do, I suggested going slowly.”

Had they not taken their sweet time arriving here, they should have been by now on Paversia.

“Do not worry about it. I did not think much about it at that time, which meant I was wrong in my assumptions…”

She couldn’t say anything, she knew that what he said was somehow right. She had told him that everything was in his hands regarding the routes and timelines. Had she suggested something that was too dangerous or not doable, he would have said no instantaneously. After all, nothing dangerous had happened. The most serious thing was the thugs trying to kidnap her and it was her own fault.

“I should be the one apologizing, you would be the one in the most danger on this trip.” He said with a worried expression.

“… Yeah, I guess there’s no other option than using the confusion and the mess created by the protesters to get out of here.” She finished his idea.

“Yes, and you know they are searching for you like you are the cure to cancer.” He tried to fun the night and she smiled bitterly, choosing to remain a mute.

He had found a way. However, it was a dangerous and easy to be noticed if something went awry, the government was the least of their problems if their companions found out who she was. If they could go unnoticed, though, they would be in Igny by Sunday.

“If only they were not checking the DNA of those going out…” Charlotte said as she let the weight of her body fall on the couch.

“Let us get ready, then.” Gut stood up after deciding on things.

“Yeah yeah.”

Charlotte and Gut were attending a reunion of those who wanted to leave Gercia. They were the most dangerous lot and were the main instigators of this protest. For them to not get caught after everything was over, they needed to get out of the country.

She went to her room. She was currently wearing high shorts and a loose shirt without anything underneath while barefoot, they were her most comfortable clothes to be in. After changed to her boyish outfit, she went outside and waited for Gut to be ready.

He came out of his room wearing his trademark black suit and sunglasses. Before, he had on himself a big shirt and loose pants, an easy to move in outfit if he was to stay in the house. He then took out his disguising utensils and started doing her makeup.

On this week, Charlotte had made some development regarding White Prism and the External Projection. The first thing they worked on was to change the shape of the External Projection to an assigned one as fast as possible, achieving a blinking fast speed. It had a constant volume so it was easy to understand for Charlotte the limits of it. It could be extended up to 16 meters long and still have around half a meter width so she was able to see how things were around. It could be controlled in any direction. However, that used too much energy so it was risky for Charlotte to use constantly, as she would start feeling tired in a short amount of time.

Another thing she was finally able to do was to make the disguise Gut did on her face as a named script. It could only be done if she used exactly the same products he used. It was pretty problematic, though. It used too much time, taking longer than he did. It also exhausted her a lot. Why that happened, she could only guess: it may be because a lot of different particles had to be moved, or maybe differentiating everything apart was what took most of the energy.

Another thing of importance was that her burns were visibly healing. They took too long to even start showing signs of it. She guessed it had something to do with the brown spots. They were still visible in the External Projection, though she was biting on them, she had to worry more about the black ones. They were clearer now, though, going as far as being cream colored while maintaining the same size.

Once done with her makeup, Gut returned to his room and left all his tools there. When he came back, his face was somehow different. He put on a disguise for himself? Was the first thing she thought before noticing he was carrying a case with him. It was squared and was smaller than a her previous laptop. He handed it to Charlotte and said:

“I hope nothing goes wrong, but if it does, I want you to be prepared.”

She tilted her head and opened it, she couldn’t believe what was in there.

“…! T-this, I-I don’t know how to use it, I’ve never used one before.”

“And that is the reason why this is a last resort. A gun is not something that anyone can have.”

“… It’s illegal, right?”

“Charlotte, you are illegal in the world.” He said as serious as he could. “That is why you need a personal protection.”

She didn’t know how to answer that. She was a wanted criminal, someone the world was looking for to punish. She didn’t have an option, she had to live like this from now on. In the run and protecting herself. She couldn’t leave her protection to the police or some other person. She had to take care of herself.

“… What if I shot you with it?”

“Then I must have made a wrong reading of your character. And for that I deserve to be shot.”

“My character? What did you read about me?”

Changing from a complicated subject was one of her fortes, she didn’t want to think about weird things and be depressed about it. Gut, however, ignored her question.

“Keep the gun to yourself. We are leaving now.”

Giving him a mental finger, she looked again at the case. It was silver and didn’t have any ornaments around it, on the inside the gun was secured by a black foam which surrounded it. Along with the gun was its cartridge, she couldn’t tell how many bullets it could hold as she never had curiosity about firearms. Besides it were seven bullets.

She extended her hand to get the gun while trembling slightly. Once it was in her hand, she realized it was the first time she was holding a gun. Even if she had fired that gun to the thugs, it was only while being in the projected space. On there she couldn’t feel anything. She only felt resistance when she moved things and how hard it was.

“I’m a full-fledged criminal now, am I not?” She finally said after a short while of looking at the gun in her hand.