“Thank you for coming. We hope to see you again.”

“Thank you Lucifer.”

“Thank you. The food was wonderful.”

We left Ducklings.

[“If you can, answer the calls for help. But if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t, don’t force yourself.”]

[“Got it. Thank you.”]

I drew a 7 and pulled up the contact list. Lucifer Saunders’ name was added.

{Contacts: Cain Ghron, Pu’er Greenwood, Pu’er Julis, Lucifer Saunder}

{Contact nearby 7SEAS members}

The second option, to contact 7SEAS members, everyone from this fleet will be notified at once if I chose this option.

Here’s my hypothesis based on what I’ve observed.

In the astral space, time in the mortal realm slows. To a point where it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it had stopped entirely.

So if you accept the call, you’ll be sent into the astral realm.

Of course, one may wonder if it was too late by then because one second in the mortal realm is equivalent to centuries or more in the astral realm.

So here’s the filler.

The astral plane is like a bubble in the interdimensional space. Think of it as the creation of a separate subspace unbound by the laws of time.

A person may enter this space 20 minutes later than the original incident. When the threat is settled and both of them escape, they return to the real world from the time when they first entered.

You could even call this time travel.

I may meet a demon who had just completed a battle, just to realize later that I was helping his past self out in the astral space.

I’m not sure if my explanation makes sense. I also don’t know if that’s how it actually works.

In any case, there’s still a lot about this angel-demon war that remains a mystery to me.

===

“Yay!”

Lia flopped down on hirs fresh new mattress. Xe rolled around the bedsheets like a dog.

“We won’t need to share a bed anymore.”

“We still share a room.”

“Better than nothing.”

“It seems you’re very excited to live away from us huh?”

“Um..”

Lia didn’t know how to reply to mom.

“It’s alright. I understand that feeling, everyone feels like that too. Wanting to be independent and free. See how you feel in the future when your child tells you the same thing,” she sighed.

My mom left. Lia was staring down at the bed.

“I didn’t mean that..”

I stroked hirs back.

People can interpret things anyway they want, it’s not up to you to decide.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Oh, what happened?” grandma, who noticed, came into the room.

“Some family conflict.”

“Are you okay? Don’t cry, don’t cry. There’s nothing to cry about.”

“What happened?”

And so the issue grew larger. It didn’t blow up, fortunately.

“Today onwards you’ll be staying here, right?” Aether asked.

“Yes.”

Lia nodded warily.

“They’re good children, it’ll be alright.”

“You three have to take care of yourself too.”

“Thank you mother-in-law, we will.”

“When will we be leaving, dear?”

“Anytime. We could leave now if you want.”

“Is there anything else missing?”

“Allowance, remember to check. We’ll put some money inside.”

“Alright.”

Our allowance will be about 400 dollars each month. An increase of 200 from the usual.

“Remember to study hard alright?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, before you leave, do you want some barley?”

“Barley?”

“We cooked barley earlier.”

“I’ll go get it.”

Grandoa went to the kitchen, aether followed.

“Anything else you want to share with us before we leave, Avner, Lia?”

“Nothing much. I suppose just thank you and take care.”

“Same. Thank you, and take care. Hope grandma recovers.”

“I’ll pass on the message to her.”

After taking the barley in a container that had similar features to plastic but isn’t plastic, we hugged them goodbye.

Lia and I saw them off.

“Big bro.”

“Yes?”

“Are you happy?”

“About?”

“Now that they’re gone.”

“Somewhat happy I guess.”

“I don’t know how I should feel about it. I feel like I shouldn’t be happy.”

“I’ve felt that way before. It’s normal.”

“I want to try the barley.”

“I’ll help get it for you.”

Lia and I were going to begin our new life in our grandparent’s home.

Following the original script of , there were already many distortions happening.

I don’t know what kind of future is in store for us.