-THREE YEARS EARLIER-

Awakening in the middle of nowhere, in an unfamiliar shore with barely anything in our inventory, Marina and I were quick to act, not sparing a single moment on dawdling. We’ve learned from the treacherous excursion in Sibirus that each breath could be our last, and if we don’t utilize the items we have at our disposal properly, we might never come back home to our loved ones.

“Lune, you awake?”

“Ugh, barely. What’s the situation?”

Marina and I are the sole survivors of our party. While you might think that this bit of information is dissuading us from continuing, it’s actually quite the opposite. I was actually really bummed about the entire thing myself, especially after I learned that we still have a long way to go before we can go home, but Marina’s here with me, and she’s doing a pretty good job at motivating me to go on.

“We’ve been searching around for any semblance of a civilization for about an hour now, and we still came out empty handed.”

“Hee~! Looks like we have ourselves a private beach, doesn’t it? Wanna go for a swim?”

Marina’s suggestion was enticing to say the least, but I really wasn’t having it. This is a serious situation, I doubt we’re on a deserted island or something, but the fact is that we can’t find anyone near us. This means we might not be able to find food any time soon, and swimming around would certainly tire us out.

“No thanks, I’ve had enough of water for a while.”

“Hmm, how boring. Hey hey, let’s just walk around the shoreline then!”

“And what would that accomplish?”

“Well, it’s certainly better than staying here doing nothing. Who knows what we might find.”

“Trouble’s the only thing that comes to mind. Listen, let’s just use the B-”

The Book, I wanted to say, before recalling how I gave Marina the Book of Fortunes (and she obviously isn’t carrying it anywhere on her person). I suddenly started to panic while interrogating her.

“M-Marina! Where’s the Book?!”

“Oh, right. We had that. Who knows, probably at the bottom of the ocean by now.”

Oh, ah crap. This is bad! We now don’t have any way to gauge how safe an option is! It also means our entire journey to Sibirus was for nothing, since we don’t have anything to show for… it…

Hold on, do we even need to report to the ITA? I mean, if we did that, then they’d just task us with finding another rare artifact and send us out to do their dirty work all over again, no? If we just laid low for a bit, they might think we died with the rest of the party and we won’t ever have to worry about them again!

“Marina! You’re a genius!”

“Heh!” She smugly stuck out her chest, “What gave it away?”

“Ah, well, you didn’t do anything actually. It’s kind of like… your presence and lack of responsibility gave me a killer idea.”

Her smug aura vanished from her face for a second or so, but she immediately regained her previous composure and stuck out her chest again.

“I’ll take it!”

“Ya’ goof.” I laughed, “Oh wait, I think I see someone! Oi!”

Finally another person! They should be able to tell us where we are! Their clothes certainly look exotic, just how far away are we from Entropa?

“Pozdrav, šta vam treba?”

“Uhh…”

What? What the heck is he saying? We were left dumbfounded upon realizing that this person was speaking a different language than ours, and since I’ve never been outside of Entropa up to now, I actually don’t know which of the five languages this is!

“Don’t worry, Lune!” Marina reassured me, “I’ve got this.”

What’s this? Does Marina understand what this guy’s saying? How convenient!

“WE, FOREIGN!” She started shouting, “NO, UNDERSTAND! SPEAK ENTROPIC!”

The guy just looked at her with a confused face while I facepalmed and gestured a ‘Sorry about her behavior’ to the kind man. Even still, this endeavor of hers wasn’t completely useless, as the kind man understood that we’re from Entropa.

“A-Aha, Entropa, jelde?” He chuckled before attempting to tell us our current location, “Hmm, uf… You uhh… in Cardina.”

Cardina huh? Well, that’s still kind of vague. Don’t get me wrong, it’s helpful, and I’m certainly glad it’s not somewhere like Sulfury, but Cardina’s a pretty big place all in all. It’s not the same thing if we washed up in the Northern part and the Southern part. Honestly, it’s really unlikely, but I’m kind of praying that we landed in Meridia or somewhere like that. We’d be back home in a flash-!

“Boreal, to be uhh… precise.”

“Ah. W-Well, t-thank you, sir.”

Crap. That’s literally the opposite of what I hoped for. We’re nowhere near Meridia, and I’ll be damned if I go through The Kingdom of Carmen to make it home. I’d much rather just go by boat, less annoying pricks that way. Even still, we thanked the kind man and headed out to a nearby town he directed us to.

“So, what’s our plan of action now, Ms. Optimist?”

“When in doubt, Mr. Optimist, consult the Book!”

Mr. Optimist? H-Hold on, I said that as a joke, but sharing the same last name is kind of… I mean, I’m an (unofficially) married man, y’know? Actually wait, consult the Book?

“But didn’t you say that the Book is probably at the bottom of the ocean by now?”

“Humu, how naïve! Throwing away the Book completely would be foolish!” She said as she pulled out a small scrap of paper from her bosom, “Fanfare! I took a small piece out just so we wouldn’t be completely lost!”

W-Wuh?! Y-You… are you actually smart?! Where’d this come from? A-Also, you could’ve kept it somewhere else other than t-there… Actually no, never mind.

“Okay then, let’s see what it says!”

The piece of paper was still unscrambling the message. Looks like our earlier hypothesis of ‘the farther it is from Shaid’s Temple, the longer it’ll take for it to predict the future’ is true, after all. If you’re fast at reading, you could actually make out a sentence, although it probably wouldn’t do you much, since it’s not the future we’re asking for.

“Don’t… bury…. me?” I read the mysterious scrambled text out loud, “That’s kinda dark, isn’t it? Wonder what it’s referencing?”

“Who knows? Maybe the scrap of paper is telling us directly not to leave it behind.”

Certainly a plausible answer, but I doubt it. Let’s just leave it somewhere safe and wait for it to unscramble before making any moves… Wai- Don’t put it back in between your tits!

“Honestly!” I sighed, “You really are defenseless. What’ll you do if some guy has bad intentions towards you?”

“I’ll just have you shoo them away, of course.”

“I’m not gonna be with you for the rest of your life, y’know?”

“I wonder about that…”

This girl’s nothing but trouble… Not only to herself, but to me as well! Calm down, Lune, what would Cecily think if she saw you acting like this!

“… Let’s just book an inn.”

“And with what funds, pray tell, will we accomplish such a feat?”

Heh, you’re an adventurer and you don’t even know this one simple trick? Obviously, with the spare change I kept tucked in my boots for this very situation!

***

“Okay! If I recall correctly, Cardinians don’t use coins as their currency, so we’ll have to exchange the money first! After that, we’ll just go to an inn and wait for further instructions from the scrap of paper. Sound good?”

“Mhm!” Marina nodded, “But isn’t it kind of a mouthful to just keep calling this amazing tool of ours ‘a scrap of paper’?”

I see no reason as to why we should be naming inanimate objects, but then again I don’t really care either way. In any case, she seems real eager to give it a name, so I’ll amuse her idea for now.

“And what would you like to name it, then?”

“Hmm, it’s a tool we’ll both be using… So how about just calling it MariLune?”

Ehh, a mix of our names? I don’t really like it. I mean, the name is nice and all, but I mean… isn’t that a bit too uhh, intimate? How about just calling it something more objective, like base the name off of it’s appearance. Something like Scrappy or Pape?

“…You don’t like it?”

“W-Well it’s just, kinda weird isn’t it? I mean, calling it that is kind of…”

“Kind of?”

“Ngahh!!” I finally caved, “Okay, you win! Call it whatever you want, but it’s still just a scrap of paper in my eyes!”

She chuckled mischievously at my embarrassed remark, proving she knew full well what she was doing. This teasing seductress, has she no shame?

“Alright! Another victory for me and MariLune! Okay, MariLune, where to now? Oh right, you’re still scrambling away in here, tucked right between my breasts.”

Ugh, I can already tell this is going to lead to tons of misunderstandings… Why the heck is she even keeping MariLu-err, that scrap of paper between those mounds on her chest? I mean, I guess it’s to keep it warm? No wait, stop thinking about her tits!

“Hm?” Marina caught me glaring at her chest, “What’s wrong? Wanna feel ‘em up that badly?”

“N-No! Stupid! I don’t see you like that at all! P-Plus I already have someone in my life!”

“Oh? Is that the case? If I recall correctly, you described her to be as flat as a cutting board, so I’m sure you wouldn’t get the same experience as if you touched mine, y’know?”

D-Damn my loud mouth, giving away unnecessary information about Cecily (Also, I never called her as flat as a cutting board!)… Wait, what am I even thinking about at this time! Oh look, there’s the exchange office! Come on, hop to it!

After having finally found an inn just before sundown, we sadly couldn’t afford any leisurewear, so we just had to bear with sleeping in these same raggedy clothes. Well, at least we weren’t cold. The inn had firewood and tons of blankets, making it nearly the same temperature as in Great Hiana, even though we’re apparently in Boreal.

“Hey hey, Lune, you still awake?”

“Yeah, I can’t really sleep, despite being dead tired.”

“Me too. Heh, looks like our journey will be continuing a bit more, are you glad?”

I’d much rather be at home right now, hugging Cecily and Nelly all the same… But well, I guess traveling a bit more could be fun. I at least have Marina to keep me company, but then again she’ll only be slowing me down, she’s quite the airhead after all, I can’t really leave her on her own. Wait, what am I saying?

“Yeah, I’m glad.”

“Teehee~!” She giggled, “Actually, the reason I called out to you is because of this.”

“What is it?”

Turning around to see what she was talking about, I expected many things, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the sight of Marina lifting up her shirt all the way up over her head, revealing the two aforementioned great mounds I spoke of earlier.

“WH-HEY! What do you think you’re doing!? Pull your shirt down!!”

“Heh, I noticed you were staring at them. I told you I’d let you feel them up, didn’t I? I’m a woman of my word, so don’t worry!”

“And didn’t I tell you that I’m an (unofficially) married man!? Geez, stop fooling around! Someone might take you up on that offer if you keep doing that!”

“Come on, now! I wouldn’t show this to just about anyone!” She kept her shirt raised despite my protests, “You’re a real man, and you can’t even muster up the courage to accept a female’s humble request?”

“Of course I won’t! What kind of animal do you take me for?!”

“Hmm…!” She groaned for a moment before holding her ground, “I’m not lowering my shirt until you feel them up~!”

“Why are you so adamant about this!? I’m not gonna do it, goddammit! Just go to sleep!”

Instead of listening to me at all, it looks like she was actually gonna follow through with her statement. God, you’re gonna catch a cold, you idiot! Your teasing’s really stepping over some boundaries, y’know?! Ugh, if it’ll get you to cover up, then…

“Mnn…”

“Hey! I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart! No moaning!” I fondled her breasts while keeping my eyes fixated on her face, “Promise you’ll go back to sleep after this!”

“Wow, you’re really not in the mood for fooling around after all this? I’m impressed.”

“S-Shut up, I’m barely keeping it together here.”

“Ehh…” She finally realized I wasn’t the cheating type, “You’re no fun. You gonna let go now?”

“…” I couldn’t help it, “Just a bit more…”