A calm and serene scene is splayed out in front of me as I gently open my eyes to once again greet the day. With nothing more but the happy-go-lucky song of the birds echoing throughout the room, I gently tilt my head to the left to take a gander at Marina’s adorable sleeping expression. The sunlight is somehow managing to hit her face at the perfect angle where it accentuates her cuteness without ever disturbing her sleep by going into her eyes. Honestly, I wish this moment would last forever.

That being said, duty calls, and I’ve got work to do! The only reason we can be like this is because both of us are working our butts off to support each other. Well, there’s that, and also the fact that the hangover from last night’s drinking is really spoiling the mood for me. I have no doubt she’s comfortable though, so I’ll try to surprise her with a hearty breakfast and have her sleep a little while longer.

Slowly and carefully prying my hand from under her head, I hoped I wouldn’t be the one to wake her up. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time at ARA, it’s that you should NEVER wake someone up from their nap, especially if their face is showing such a pleased expression. That being said, when I tried to gently remove my arm from under her head, she actually latched onto it and desperately gestured for me to lay back down beside her in her sleep. If you’re ever wondering what the difference between a child and an adult is, it’s that an adult has the self-control and responsibility of resisting said urge, and instead running to the kitchen to make your loved one some grub.

Okay, now that that’s done, all that’s left is to make us something to eat! Let’s see, what would be a good choice today… Well, there’s a lot of options. After all, I may be a hopeless Purple Iro, but I’m still an amazing chef! Actually, recently Marina’s been buzzing around the kitchen with me every morning, asking me about all sorts of stuff like how to cook this or that. I don’t know whether she’s going out of her way to suddenly want to learn because of her job as a maid or because we recently became a couple, but I’m definitely not complaining! The best way to a person’s heart is through their stomach, so it’s always good to know how to cook at least a few dishes of varying ingredients. Wait, do the maid’s at the Grys Castle even cook the food there? Or do they have designated chefs that do that?

Eh, never mind. Actually, I remember a moment when Marina came back all nervous one day. Needless to say, I was getting quite anxious about what might’ve transpired at the castle, what with Adam being Adam and all that. What I didn’t expect though, was that the guy actually grew a pair and confessed his feelings to her! And right under the Royal Family’s Oldest Living Tree, no less! That’s way more emotional than my poor excuse of a half-drunk confession. In any case, the air between Marina and I grew thin when she told me that, but the very moment she told me Of course, I declined him and told him I have you, it felt like I just scaled Mount Ivrys and met all 4 Gods that reside there!

Heh, every time that memory pops up, I get a huge shit-eating grin on my face. I can’t help it, I know it’s not nice to think this way about someone who’s supposed to be my friend, but Adam’s kind of fun to bully. Wait, that sounds wrong. I guess what I’m trying to say is I like the feeling of taking Marina right from under his nose. H-Hold on, that’s even worse, hmm… How do I put this…

“Judging by that familiar face of yours, I’d say you’re just happy to not have me taken by another man.” A sneaky whisper directly into my ear made me jump in surprise.

“W-Whoa! Marina, what did I tell you about doing that?!”

“Sorry~! I couldn’t resist! You were just standing there making that face of yours and I just thought it’d be way too good of an opportunity to pass up!”

“Not that! Sharp objects are laid out all across the kitchen table, y’know!? What if I accidentally cut myself-”

“Ah.” We both took a look at my bleeding pointer finger.

Well, it’s not like I didn’t deserve that. I mean, I was thinking some pretty horrible things regarding Adam’s unrequited love, so I think a slight cut on the finger is the least payback I could’ve gotten. That being said, I wasn’t one to panic about a slight injury, as I’ve endured worse, but Marina really took it to heart.

“I’m so sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorryyyy!!!!” She hastily yet skillfully applied a gauzed bandage to the slit in my finger after washing the blood off with warm water. “I’m so stupid! Geez, why did I go ahead and do that!”

“Hey, hey, calm down now, I’m fine! There’s no need to worry, so just let me finish making breakfast.”

“Oh no you don’t, Mister!” She grabbed me by the shoulders and tossed me to the chair, “As punishment for myself, I will atone by being the one to make breakfast! It’s the least I can do!”

Oh Prylos... This is the worst possible outcome…! As I said previously, Marina is getting a bit better at cooking, but ‘a bit better’ than ‘terrible’ is still ‘pretty bad’! This is also the reason why I’m mostly the one doing the cooking around the house. It’s simple, quick, and most of all, safe for consumption! I still remember back in the lodging in Sibirus, when she almost accidentally poured sugar instead of salt to the food!

While cooking though, she suddenly started to giggle a bit, “This kind of reminds me of our time back in Sibirus, but funnily enough all the rolls are reversed.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, back then I woke up early to try and cook food for you. I cut myself a ton trying to open up the sausages, and back then you scared the living daylights out of me when you abruptly woke up without me noticing.” She added, “Sound familiar?”

Wow, now that you mention it, that’s exactly how it all went down! Talk about a crazy coincidence!

“That being said, enjoy!” She said as she plopped the plate of perfectly seasoned and nicely cooked sausages on the table in front of me.

“Wow, these look really good! But why sausages of all things?”

She was apprehensive about admitting the true reason behind her choice, but ultimately she decided not to hold back and just said, “I-It’s the first dish you made for me. Don’t you remember?”

O-Of…

“Of course I remember! I love you so much!” I jumped from my seat and, with tears of absolute joy showing in my eyes, gave her a big hug.

She was quite a bit more emotional than usual, but I just thought it was because of the mood or something, so I didn’t really point too much attention to it. That being said, the next words she said almost made me die of sugar sickness!

“Thank goodness…!” She sobbed, “I’m so glad I paid attention to how you made them back then…!”

After such an emotional scene, one could probably assume what the next logical course of action was, but you’d be wrong if you thought of anything lewd. We simply sat back down and happily ate our meals in peace. Like I said, if there’s any way to shut a person up, be it male or female, it would be by handing them a plate of food.

***

Fast forward to noon. Marina’s already at the Grys Castle, and I just remembered about the present that Issei gave me and decided I should at least check a few blueprints for the courtesy. Actually, now that I think about it, I really messed up, didn’t I? Back when we first met, he told me his one and only goal is to go back home, so I was really happy to hear that he possibly found a lead towards that. But I was really shocked when he suddenly announced it. He surprised me with a gift for my seventeenth birthday (I checked with Marina and apparently I am in fact seventeen), after that he just hit me with the reveal that he’s leaving.

It was too much, and I couldn’t take it. Keep this between the two of us, but no matter how sturdy I am physically, I’m really fragile emotionally. I know it sounds like I’m making up excuses, but I really have been doing nothing but acting up and ruining friendships because of needless internal worries. Thankfully it seems like Issei wasn’t that angry with me, so he might forgive me if I go pay him a visit and apologize with a full-body prostration. Well, then again that just goes to show just how much of an asshole he sees me as if he was already prepared for me to lash out at him…

I can't just come to his house empty handed though and expect him to forgive me, so I'll be making use of the birthday present he got me to hopefully show him how much I care about him.

“Alright then!” I flipped open a random page of the Book of Blueprints (aptly named due to its visual similarities to the Book of Fortune), “Let’s make ourselves a… tatami… mat?”

Hold on, floor tiles already exist in this world. I mean, sure they’re a luxury, but that’s only because such comfy material is really hard to mass produce. But wait, let’s not doubt Issei just yet. Looking at the notes more closely, it seems like this specific flooring differs from the usual marble ones I’m used to. This one uses things like rice straws and wood instead, and there’s a separate page that explains in depth how to properly and tightly layer them. Well, guess there’s really nothing else to it but to do it!

Starting off, I guess I should first read about the basic structure of this ‘tatami’. “The basic structure of tatami is simple, comprising doko (base), omote (cover), and heri (border).”

Ooh, new words to learn! I guess this is that Japanese I’ve heard so much about. Nice to meet you, new language! Hope we get along well! Oh, wait, didn’t I used to keep a handy little notebook where I wrote down all the new words I learned from Cardinic somewhere? I wonder where it is… No wait, mustn’t get distracted!

“Okay, so basically it says here a single mat is made by compressing and weaving rice straws into a checkerboard pattern. After that it says here that you wrap it with the cover, and then surround the entire thing with some wood. Sounds simple enough!”

Needless to say, it was not simple enough. First of all, Issei never mentioned just how fragile a single thread of rice straw could get! These things crumple up and bend and break at the drop of a hat, and I’m slowly but steadily running out of supplies! If I don’t make it soon, I’ll have to go to the city to buy more! Usually this wouldn’t be an issue, but right now Anna and Ed are in town, and I promised Marina to be patient and not let them see me!

That being the case, I made sure to be extra careful with the weaving process he drew out for me, making sure to carefully follow his illustrations. I think I mentioned this before, but that guy really draws well, the design looks like it’ll pop out of the book at any moment, not to mention the cute little doodles he drew of me, him and Marina on some of the free spaces of the pages. Heh, that guy, he’s still referring to her as ‘Maid-san’ after all this time, even in these drawings…

After once again being reminded of how cruel I was acting towards him, I decided to stow away my feelings for now and focus on the task at hand. The best way to apologize to Issei is by making one of his ideas from the Book of Blueprints. After that I’ll go and visit his house with the finished product and we’ll mend the wounded friendship between us by going over the faults of my handiwork (and trust me, there’ll be a ton of mistakes by the time I’m done with it…)

“There we go! Step one of three, complete!” I said as I finally weaved the final thread in it’s place.

Now onto step two – the omote. This shouldn’t be all that difficult, cause from what I’ve gathered here, it’s just basically a sheet used to wrap the whole thing so it doesn’t fall apart. There’ll be a lot of force applied to it, what with everyone standing on it for most of the day, so you really wouldn’t want signs of wear to start showing on it for as long as possible. This is made from either cotton or hemp, depending upon what I have more of apparently. I guess I’ll use cotton then.

“Wait, don’t tell me… Even more weaving!?”

Ah shit, here we go again… Thread and weave, thread and weave, that’s all I’ve been doing this whole time! Come on, it’s already been a couple of hours! Wait, it's already the afternoon?! I was supposed to go visit Issei before the Sun went down, but from the current state of things, I might just have to settle for midnight!

“Hahh, haa…” I heaved heavy breaths, “Finally, no more weaving!”

Victoriously, I held up the two thirds finished piece. It was actually pretty sturdy even now, without the heri. Then again, I did compress it with a vice that was originally meant to be used on metal. I guess it’s in large part thanks to my tools that this turned out better than I expected. Well, I have a feeling leaving it unfinished like this would probably cause issues later, so I’ll just quickly make the wooden frames and stick it on, just in case.

And thus…

“Behold, Issei!” I slammed open the doors to his room, “For I have created the tatami mat!”

Weird, I though, no candles are lit. He’s just as much of a night owl as I am, so I doubt he’d go to sleep this early, it’s barely sundown. Looking around the room, it’s quite tidy too, left exactly as if no one was there previously. The only thing that stood out was an envelope on the living room table that read:

“Yo, Lune. If you’re reading this, I already left on my journey. Heh, I’m probably all the way in Mandora by now. I left immediately after we parted ways that night, the night of your birthday. I really don’t like the idea of being scared of you, but you gotta realize just how terrified you made me when you tossed that warning shot. I saw my life flash before my eyes, man! Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is ‘I am not mad at you, but I really wish for you to NOT try to follow after me’.

-Ya Boy”

…Crap. I scared away my dear friend. God, all because of some stupid emotions! Ugh, I’m such a fool! Fuck, Issei…

“I…” I replied to the piece of paper as if he was there in its stead, “I’m not gonna follow you. Safe travels, friend. May you come back to your home soon. I'm sorry, and good luck.”