"Thank you, have a nice day."

I gave the cashier a small nod of thanks as I walked away from the booth. Although I had never been much of a flower kind of guy, it was appropriate for the situation. It took me a while to decide, but the white and yellow ones caught my eyes in the end and I asked the lady to put together an assorted bouquet for me to take away.

"—Ah!" a meek voice called out to me.

"Hey, fancy seeing you again," I grinned. As soon as I stepped away with my bouquet, I was met with the same young lady that I had helped just a little while earlier.

"Ah… Um…" Much like the last time, she struggled for words, but it was endearing to watch in it's own way.

"Thanks again for before." It took a minute, but she finally managed to tell me.

"It's fine, it's fine. I already told you right? Two grown ass men ganging up on a girl half their size. Really, they had no shame, so you don't have to worry about it." I casually waved aside her concerns. "Really, you don't. It wasn't much."

"Then what about your car, mister? You left it back there. Is it okay?"

"Car? Oh, you mean that? That was just a taxi, you know. It probably just went to pick up its next rider right away. Still charged me for the full ride though, those stingy bastards."

As soon as she heard this, her eyes shone and she dove feverishly into her purse. She then pulled out her phone and hurriedly tapped through a few screens to open an Argentum crypto payment app. "Let me reimburse you!" she shouted as she practically thrusted her phone towards me— with a surprising amount of gusto on her part too.

"Whoa. Calm down a little there," I said as I politely pushed her phone back. "You're putting me into a difficult position here."

"No good?" She looked quite dejected— like she was about to cry in fact. In an instant, my mind changed. I suppose if I knew it was going to turn out like this, I should have just accepted her reimbursement. That seemed like the easy way to go about it.

"Hm, well, let's see. What's your name, miss? My name is Edmond. What about you?"

"Canaria!"

"Canaria? It's a great name. Nice to meet you," I laughed.

"Ah!" Canaria yelped.

"Oh, I did it again huh. I guess you just have a really pattable head, Canaria. I'll have to watch myself from now on."

"Uhm…"

"Yes?"

"Mister Edmond, are you going to the memorial right now?"

"I am. How'd you know?"

Canaria pointed towards the flowers in my hand.

"Well, I suppose that'd do it."

"Uhm," she gave me a glance, "Mister Edmond, can I come with you?"

Perhaps it was the way she asked, but it felt like she was my daughter asking me to be her chaperone on a school field trip. It was not a matter that I felt the need to keep particularly private, so with amusement in my voice, I accepted her request.

"Sure, I don't see why not."

She even took a few hasty steps just to catch up with me and to stay side by side while we walked.

…

[ARCANIAN MEMORIAL]

[TO HONOR ALL THOSE WHO SACRIFICED

THEIR FUTURES FOR THE SAKE OF OURS]

The Arcanian Memorial site— in terms of grandeur, it was a small and reclusive place. Some would even say that it was a cozy place to rest, with the daylight lazily seeping through a blanket of leafy canopy. I believed that it was as it should be. They had fought hard enough– long enough. They deserved their rest.

There was just a single monument here to signify the importance of the location. It was a circular pedestal with a bronze sculpture on top depicting an injured Canis male protecting a mother and her child as they hid behind his battered and broken shield.

"This looks so sad…" Like a different person, Canaria placed her hand on the stone pedestal. The sculpture itself was a little too high for her to reach.

"Sad?" I asked her. If she had said anything else, I might have been inclined to agree without thinking, but for her to say that it looked sad? I wanted to know what made her think that. I carefully inspected the sculpture, looked at the expression of the mother, the child, and the Canis shieldbearer, but none brought the word "sad" to my mind.

"Just how long must he have been fighting?" she asked aloud, but I did not speak an answer as it did not feel like it was a question directed to me. "The bandages on his arms are all frayed and torn up. His armor is full of dents and scratches. He has a scabbard but no sword in sight. But despite all of this he still continues to hold his shield up high. What could have driven him to such lengths? It's just… just… agh, sorry, I'm such a crybaby. It's just so sad to think about."

Sniffling, she pulled out a packet of tissues from her purse and clumsily wiped away her tears.

"No, take all the time you need." I shook my head and comforted her. "In fact, it moves me to know that there's somebody like you out there in the world. I was beginning to lose hope."

"What do you mean, Mister Edmond?"

"I've… well, how to put this? I'm not very good at fighting, see. I'm not the strongest and I'm afraid of getting hurt, but I've had many friends who were different from me. They were the strongest alright, stronger than anybody else I know. It didn't matter what they were faced against, but if it meant that their action could mean the difference between saving a life or letting a person die, then they would always choose to dive headfirst into danger every single time. But oftentimes history isn't kind to these people and they become forgotten even by the people they save, which is why I'm glad that there's someone still like you out there, who can grieve for them."

"Mhm." She wiped the last of her tears away and then ran her fingers across the bronze plaque of the pedestal. "'To honor all those who sacrificed their futures for the sake of ours.' It's because of all of you that I'm able to be here today. Thank you… from the bottom of my heart, truly."

…

A moment of silence had passed before Canaria moved from her spot in front of the monument.

"I'm sorry Mister Edmond, I must be distracting you from your business."

"You're doing just fine, Canaria," I reassured her.

"Will you be placing those flowers down?" She asked me. "I don't see any other flowers here though."

"Yes, but not here. You'll see. Come over here."

She looked at me strangely, but followed me without a question.

"Is there something behind here?"

"Yeah, there is. I'll show you."

It took just a moment, but on the backside of the stone pedestal was another bronze plaque. That was where I carefully laid down my flowers.

"This plaque is…?" Canaria's expression became curious, "'In recognition and thanks to the contributions made by Verretheia, Draconian of Arca Archa, 1 AR.' Mister Edmond, were you friends with this Verretheia person?"

I could not help but smile when I heard her innocent question.

"Yes, we were very good friends indeed. My best friend, you could even say."

"What happened to them?"

"I made a big mistake in the past and because of that mistake, I can no longer talk with her again."

"Is that why you're bringing flowers now?"

"Yeah, you hit the nail right on its head."

"Uhm, if you don't mind telling me, what kind of person was she?"

"What kind of person was Verretheia?" I repeated back. That was a truly hard question for me to answer. A person as great as her, how could I even begin to describe? "She's, I suppose you could say, everything that I'm not. She's strong, proud, kind, childish at times, always serious when it mattered, and had the charisma to lead many others. I was truly blessed with a miracle to be given the chance to spend my time together with her and I don't think I will ever be able to forget it."

"Was she Mister Edmond's wife?"

"She was, mhm," I confirmed her suspicions and after looking at the face she was making, I thought of something. "If you'd like, do you want to see some pictures of her?"

"Can I?"

"Yeah. Here, let me show you." I fished out my phone and looked through my photo storage. Conveniently, I had all the good ones sorted into a folder so I opened it and handed it over for her to look through herself.

"Wow, she's stunning…" Canaria proclaimed breathlessly as she held the phone with both hands. "Ah! Mister Edmond, was this person you when you were younger?"

"Yes, that was me. My hair was pretty unkempt back then and I was more fit as well. I've gained a few kilos since then, unfortunately."

"It's okay, you still look very fit!"

"Haha, you don't have to try to cheer me up like that."

"But it's true!" Canaria insisted. "You ran so quickly before, I could barely keep up with you!"

"Well damn, it's hard to tell you no when you put it like that."

Canaria continued to look through the photos at her own pace. She took at least half a minute with each one and sometimes up to a couple. I could only guess at what was going on through her mind when all she was showing was an open face of amazement.

"Mister Edmond, who is this person? He reminds me of a Kaplan or a Fenris, but I think he's a human." She was looking at a group photo with me, Verretheia, and one other who was a really well built man with the look of a ferocious beast.

"What? Oh, that guy is Oryza. He and I used to work together a lot back in the day. Despite his rough looks, he's actually quite a nice guy. Though, just be careful if he reaches out to you for a handshake. He doesn't hold back."

"Were you two friends, Mister Edmond?" Canaria looked at me with that innocent curiosity again. Even though I was simply answering her questions, I could tell she was getting genuine joy out of it, and that joy spread to me as well in the form of satisfaction.

"I'd say we were pretty close, yeah. But I haven't seen him in person ever since I quit that line of work."

"I see… so these are the kinds of friends that Mister Edmond has…"

"Hey, come on, don't put it in such a way that makes it look like it's a bad thing!" I quickly retorted, and when my faux glare met with her stare, the two of us broke out into a light chuckle.

…

"Thank you for letting me come with you today." Canaria bowed. "Even though we were visiting a memorial, I still had a lot of fun. Thank you, Mister Edmond."

"I had a lot of fun as well," I returned her thanks with a light bow of my head. "I think Verretheia would have liked it a lot more this way anyways. It's a shame that you aren't able to meet her in person. I think the two of you would have gotten along very well."

"Uhm…" she trailed off slightly, with a look of nervousness. It was just like before, when I had helped her out, she looked like there was something she wanted to ask, but she just could not bring herself to say it.

"Yes?" I urged her along.

"Well…"

"Can we… uhm… I hope we'll meet again someday, Mister Edmond!" she exclaimed stiffly with her palms squeezed tightly into a fist.

So that was it, I thought to myself. "Let's meet again."

"One day!" Canaria reaffirmed loudly.

After she exclaimed her wish, there was an awkward silence left between the two of us.

…

—In the end I finally cracked and I could no longer hide the smirk that had forced itself onto my face. I took out my phone and asked her, "Would you like to exchange our contact information?"

"Yes, please! I would love to do that!"

…

…