I stood atop a colorfully decorated carriage, one of many in the parade arranged to send off The Hero in a festive manner. I found the event bizarre, considering the potential security risk it posed, but I had to imagine that was the point, considering the apparent lack of security.

The carriages proceeded down the main road in a line, one party member too each. The Hero stood alone on her carriage at the front, followed by The Mage and a small group from the mages academy, followed by myself. After that was The Shieldbearer with some guard members, proceeded by The Archer, who stood alone like The Hero and me, and finally, The priestess, along with the largest group from the church.

I'd known about the parade. I had heard about it the day I arrived, but I didn't realize I was expected to participate until yesterday. I didn't truly have much to do. I was told that I wasn't even required to wave, only stand on top of the slow-moving ride and leave the city in the public's eyes. With that information and little excitement to be had, I decided to take the multitude of eyes gathered on my person as an opportunity to sleep.

After taking measures to remain standing through my rest, I showed Scales a message asking him to alert me if anything of note occurred. While I expected that I wouldn't rest long, I hoped that my preparation would go to waste and that I would next wake at the city's edge. With everything in place, I let my consciousness float into the dark embrace of sleep.

Luna wore a plastered smile while looking out over the crowd. She hoped that it wasn't evident from a distance that she wasn't actually happy about the current situation. Or, if someone could tell her smile was forced, that they assumed it was because she was bored.

While it was true that the monotony of this event was draining, the real reason Luna couldn't bring a genuine smile to her face had little to do with boredom.

The original plan for this event had involved those in her party being on the same float together. But at some point, politics had changed that. The academy, the church, and the nobility wanted to be directly involved in the parade rather than only have a representative attend. With their collective influence, the parade was changed to have each party member on a float of their own, along with a small group of those backing them. The nobility was somehow convinced to let the royal family represent them in the parade, not that any of said family had shown up.

>Pointless. >Worthless. >I hate political pandering.

Luna heard the voices clearly this time, each voice sounding just as annoyed with the situation as she was. For a good reason, Only three of the six people in the party were going to leave today, still connected to whoever backed them.

Roxy had already graduated from the academy and was on track to leave the city and the academy before she'd been asked to join the party. Those on the float with her were only trying to use her new position to draw in more prospective students.

Deven wasn't a Knight anymore. He'd lost that title when he agreed to join the party. Granted, those on the float with him were there because of Devens' request. One was his former superior officer, and the rest, his former squadmates. >Guess he was more sentimental than I gave him credit for.

Shu-Na didn't have anyone on his float, which made sense. He literally arrived in the city the day after Luna was summoned. His small group of guards returning east almost as soon as he was safely in the castle. He was nearly as alone in this area as Luna. The only difference being his home was still across the ocean, Luna's across space and time.

>Don't fret. Things will work out.

Luna barely heard the voice and chose not to acknowledge it's attempted reassurance. Not that she was sure it was trying to be reassuring.

Emilia's float had the most people gathered on top of it. So many, in fact, that luna couldn't see the girl amongst the other clergy. This was one of the most annoying things for Luna. While Emilia was still a priestess after today, she wasn't going to be an active church member. But, of course, the church has to make a display of authority.

Mask... Mask was still a mystery to Luna. He stood perfectly still atop the float meant for him and didn't seem to acknowledge the crowd around him. He claimed to be a member of the explorers guild, and Luna believed him, even if he didn't reveal what sub guild he was a part of. But, when asked if he had anyone he wanted to ride with him, he'd only gestured to the small, winged serpent that liked to ride on his shoulder. Unfortunately, Luna forgot to ask for the serpent's name and now regretted it as she watched what it was doing.

The winged creature wasn't actually riding with Mask, instead, it was flying between the floats and amongst the crowd. Something Luna took a small amount of real enjoyment in watching. That enjoyment was unfortunately short-lived, as the serpent flew back to Mask and started coiling around the man's head. Luna looked away when Mask turned towards the scaly creature. Choosing to direct her vision forward for the sake of the parade, rather than back towards her companion.

Luna was almost about to return to the same emotionless movements as before when the crowd's tone changed from amazement and awe to confusion. Before Luna could look around to find out why the crowd's mood had shifted so soundly, she was pulled down off the back of the float rather violently, landing her on her rear with no sight of who had ripped her from her perch.

The shock of landing on her butt and being assaulted in the middle of a public event made Luna slow to react to the perceived attack. And that guaranteed that she was still facing forward when the float she'd been on moments ago exploded in a shower of wooden shrapnel and colorful paper.