THOSE FIVE HOURS BETWEEN THE ARRIVAL OF ZERO'S LETTER AND THE ARRIVAL OF WHAT REMAINS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY FLEW BY rather quickly. The ferry arrived on the coast of the Unkempt a little bit before 6:30 AM in the Unkempt’s time zone, its whistle not sounding so that it would not wake the people of the Jardiesh region who lived on that coast. Lanya was still awake, waiting for the boat to arrive at its location, while Musuko had lulled off to sleep at about 11:45 PM, still considering the Unkempt’s time zone being two hours ahead of the time zone of Central Akuni. Zeronius Kantoku II was already waiting at the docks when Orban’s Ferry arrived. He was known in the area to wake up rather early, sometimes as soon as 4:45 AM.

Lanya turned to Musuko as soon as the ferry stopped and tapped on his shoulder a few times. His gentle snoring gradually ceased as Musuko shifted into consciousness.

“It’s a bit brighter than I thought it’d be…” Musuko remarked as he woke up.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Lanya told her brother. “Come on. We’re at our destination.”

“We had a destination?” Musuko grumbled, still half-asleep. “I thought we were just going to ride on a boat for the rest of our lives. You know, as exiles.”

“Exiles usually are sent to a different land, not just carted around at sea.”

A sort of announcing cough emerged from in front of the two as they walked onto the pier, almost like one clearing their throat. The two siblings looked up to see a maila, seeming to be middle-aged, around 470 years old for maila.

“If you two wouldn’t mind, I would like to introduce myself,” Zero II began.

“I’m just as interested to know as you are to tell,” Musuko said in response.

“Very well then,” the maila continued. “My name is Zeronius Kantoku II, but a lot of the people around here call me Zero Sr.”

“Wait, you’re Zero’s dad?” Lanya asked, recognizing the name.

“That would be correct,” the elder Kantoku answered. “I sent him into Crenon a little over 80 years ago to provide Akuni and Aotoshi with the garnium necessary for their survival in the Great Trifecta War.”

“Garnium?” Lanya was somewhat confused, as she had never heard of the term before.

“You don’t know what garnium is?” The maila is similarly confused, but for different reasons. “I would’ve expected the wielder of the Fabled Swords to know about garnium. After all, it is what separates those blades from any other greatsword.”

Zero II gestures toward the two greatswords on Lanya’s back. As Lanya draws one of them out, she examines the blade a bit closer. Taking this information in, she spoke up.

“So, these swords really are magical.”

“More or less,” Zero Sr. answered. “It’s a bit more complex than the fact that garnium has magical properties. Rather, it exists as a conductor for life’s inherent magic. Every living thing has an innate sense of magical power, but very few are able to effectively channel it. Using garnium allows you to better channel this magical energy to create necessary effects.”

“Wait, these swords are made entirely out of a magical metal?” Musuko asked. “Would that mean this bow is also made of garnium?”

“Not quite,” Zero II continued. “While yes, the Nukenai Bow does contain garnium, it is far from pure. The same goes for the Fabled Swords, Brildingjr, and the Kaesu Dagger. The raw magical conductivity of garnium is so intense in its purest form that, should a human come into contact with it, their very molecular structure will be destroyed and they will die almost instantaneously, leaving only a mist of blood in their place.”

After a brief silence, the maila clears his throat once more.

“So!” he interjects. “Shall I show you where you will be staying?”

“Forgive me for saying this,” Musuko responds, “but I don’t know how much I can trust you after you were talking about how a material could literally dematerialize people.”

“While that is true,” Zero replied, “you did ask about it, no?”

Musuko tried to come up with a comeback but eventually found himself at a loss for rebuttals.

“Touche,” he said, unable to think of anything stronger.

“Any further qualms? If not, then follow me and I will bring you into the Banjar region.”

“The Banjar region?” Lanya inquired.

“That’s where I live. Right now, we are on the Jardiesh coast or, as you would call it in Crenon, the West coast. Banjar is the Northwest region.”

“I see.”

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After maybe ten minutes of walking at most, the three arrived in Zero’s home village. The area appeared to be rather modest architecturally, but the livelihood of the village rang true. Children were playing outside of the houses, all of which had torches on the outside. The torches were not placed there on account of not having access to electricity as much as it is solely based on preference. The three continued until reaching a one-story house with shingles on the roof. Zero II opened the door, gesturing to the two siblings to come inside.

“Do forgive me,” he said as they entered. “I don’t have everything accommodated for you quite yet. After all, it was just last evening that I learned of your impending arrival.”

“That’s alright,” Lanya assured him.

The siblings observed the house. Musuko was drawn to how each room was cleaned to the point of being entirely spotless.

“Your house is really clean, Mr. Kantoku,” the younger sibling remarked.

“Thank you,” the maila replied. “I was planning on having some friends of mine come over for our holiday feast.”

“There’s a holiday today?” Lanya asked.

“Certainly!” Zero II answered. “It’s the Feast of the Martyr this evening!”

“The Feast of the Martyr?”

“It’s a Maila tradition held every year on August 11th,” Musuko answered. “It was meant to honor Harduroi Bukiyo, the person who founded the ideals of the Unkempt’s current government during the Rebellion of 994. He was executed in 995 by the Unkempt’s then-authoritarian government for conspiracy to kill the Paulram, but his doctrines remained strong and eventually formed the backbone of the Unkempt’s current political structure as a confederation of loosely connected regions. After the Paulram was deposed, he called the area, quote, ‘an unkempt, ragged mess held loosely together by twine’, end quote. The people decided from that point to call it The Unkempt as a way of owning up to this description and sticking it to the Parlam.”

“You know your history well,” Zero II remarked. “Yes, the Feast of the Martyr is celebrated on the day he was executed, as his birth date was, and still is, a mystery.”

“I see,” Lanya stated. “Do you know where the bedrooms are?”

“Down the hallway, second door on the right,” the maila answered. “The bathroom is just across the hall from that. I’ll have brunch ready in about two hours.”

The last of the Kenshi dynasty went into the guest bedroom and spent the next two hours setting everything up and dividing the room between the two.

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Brunch consisted of a rather standard breakfast, impressively enough. Culinary traditions in the Unkempt had not differed too drastically with traditions in Crenon, as it turned out. The meal consisted of scrambled eggs, toast, sausages, and a glass of milk. Lanya thought the meal was fairly good while Musuko didn’t give much thought to the food and instead wolfed a vast majority of it down with great haste. Either way, the two went back into their room afterward, wishing not to bother their new landlord during his work in exchange for free meals and housing, albeit temporary.

Regardless, people began to arrive at the Kantoku residence around 6:30 PM, starting with a middle-aged maila woman. Her otherwise brunette hair had a few gray streaks in it, worn over her right shoulder in a thick ponytail. There were a few wrinkles on her face, but they were somewhat well hidden by the smile that adorned her face as she entered, having a sense of hospitality mixed with the joy of seeing an old friend that you hadn’t seen in a few years.

The second person to go through the door was a much younger-looking maila woman, just barely above the benchmark of being considered a young adult, perhaps 28 if maila age correlated to human appearance.

Lanya and Musuko walked out into the living room of the house upon hearing the voices of the three maila. The older of the two women took notice of the siblings as they walked through the doorway.

“Who are the humans?” she asked Zero II.

“Ah! I just realized!” he began to answer. “I forgot to introduce you to these fine people. This is Lanya and Musuko Kenshi. Lanya, Musuko, this is Noka Oritsu and Astrid Dumont, a couple of friends of mine and my son’s.”

The younger woman, whose name was Astrid, reached out her hand to greet Lanya. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Lanya shakes her hand. “As to you.”

Musuko did not speak. Instead, the gears in his head turned. He could recognize the older woman’s surname, Oritsu, but he couldn’t tell where he had heard it before. For now, the thought entirely evaded him. In the meantime, Lanya decided to chat a bit more with Astrid.

“So, how do you know Zero?” Lanya asked.

“I know him from his son,” Astrid answered. “It’s a funny story. I wasn’t always a Dumont, you see. I was born in the Banfel region almost 300 years ago to the Althius family. The thing is, I had this birthmark on my wrist.” She then showed Lanya said birthmark, seeming to be a crescent moon with a line running through it.

“What does this birthmark mean?” Lanya continued.

“That’s why I’m no longer an Althius,” the youngest of the maila in the room answered. “My biological parents saw this as a bad omen and left me at an orphanage for sixty years until I was adopted by the Dumonts.

“My new parents were very wealthy, and still are in a way. It was at one of the banquets they hosted when I was 186 that I met Zero. We became close friends almost instantly. Eventually, when I was about 202, we made a promise to one another.”

“A promise?” Lanya inquired.

“Yes. We told ourselves that we would marry each other if we weren’t already married by the time he was 250. Right now, he’s 281. Granted, he’s been in Crenon for a majority of that time, but I’m hoping he’ll come back some time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to learn where he lived on the continent, so I couldn’t send him any mail, and he had most likely forgotten my address. My only way of keeping updated on him for quite some time was through Satsujin.”

Upon hearing Satsujin’s name, Musuko’s personal puzzle had been solved. He remembered where he had heard Noka’s surname before.

“Noka, was it?” Musuko began.

“Yes?” Noka responded.

Musuko paused for a moment. He didn’t know quite how to break the news of her son’s conquest of Akuni and Aotoshi’s thrones. He ended up deciding not to take the risk that he was contemplating, fearing that this would cause a great amount of concern for the woman, as well as potentially ruining the Feast of the Martyr for the five of them.

“Nevermind…” he shyly answered.

The rest of the banquet went without a hitch. The food during the event was really good, with Noka and Astrid providing their own additions to the feast as well. The main course consisted of a form of meat, likely mutton, cooked with an approach that allowed it to have a somewhat bloody exterior while also ensuring that no health issues ensued. The mutton was meant to represent Harduroi during the lead-up to his execution, with the consumption of the meat being implied to invoke the idea of consuming his ideals and applying them to one’s daily life.

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After the feast was over and a few more conversations, Musuko and Lanya returned to their room, while Noka and Astrid returned to their houses. The two siblings lay in their beds, somewhat tired after a long first day in the Unkempt. They reflected on their current situation as exiles from their home nation, but did not seem to worry as much for their safety. Rather, they worried for their people, now under the rule of the Saisei Coalition.