“So, where’s the base?” I asked whilst we were being led to outside the border’s office.

“It sure as hell ain’t here, rookie!” Pierre chuckled, “Honestly, who’d put the main army base at the outer perimeter of our territory, anyways? Please don’t ask any stupid and obvious questions, Lune.”

“Yeah, Lune, this much should have been obvious from the get go.” Cecily laughed at my inexperience.

“Whatever, I’ll keep my mouth shut then, Miss Know-it-all!”

“Good, you’re smarter when you don’t talk, did you know that?”

“That is not true!”

Thus, we bickered the whole time while Pierre escorted us to our transport wagon. From where we were situated in the north of Lis, we had to take a ride all the way to the Southeastern peninsula if we were to make it to our main base of operations. That being the case, it seems like Pierre really dislikes couples’ disputes. Maybe it’s because he’s single, but who knows?

“But before we get going, I need to ask you two do to something for me.” He pulled something out of his pockets, “You guys know what this is?”

Actually, I could tell immediately what it was that he was holding in his hands, since it had Sol’s mark on it. Indeed, this is another one of Issei’s inventions I took from his homeworld – the trimmer. It’s a device that basically functions as a mechanized razorblade, and it’s mostly used by men to shave their bears when they’re too lazy to do it the old fashioned way.

That being the case, I’ve since heard that women have gotten the idea to use it in order to shave their legs, which is kind of nice in and of itself. I didn’t understand the appeal of it before, since from what I saw, women never really had long leg hair to begin with. But that all changed when I had asked Marina (out of pure curiosity) if she could shave hers. Now I can’t even seem to look at other women’s legs unless they’re shaved. I’ve gotten spoiled in that regard.

“I’m clean shaven though.” I replied.

“No no,” He clicked his tongue, “Not your face, your scalp.”

What the hell did he just say?! M-My beautiful locks, he wants to… defile them?! I can’t allow that! It took me ages to grow out my hair to the shoulder length level it’s at now, all because I recalled Cecily liked my hair to be longer! Surely, she’ll object to such a preposterous idea as well…!

“Thank God, his hair was getting way too long, so you really came in clutch, serge.” She patted me on the back.

…Eh? B-But Cecily always used to say that she thought my hair was cute though…?

“Dad looks way too much like a giwl!” Nelly commented, “Even mowe so than mom!”

“Nelly, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that…” Cecily gave her a scary glare as she played with her own short hair.

“Sorry, rookie, but it’s our army’s policy to have all of our soldiers’ hair cut to around my length!” Pierre buzzed the trimmers with a scary-looking grin, “Rookie, have a seat right over near that rock, would ya’?”

“Nooooo!!!”

M-My hair… My beautiful, long (and slightly unkempt) hair! My hair’s been on my scalp for so long, it’s practically fused to it! Ow, ow ow! Every trim is causing me actual physical pain! Stop it! Sniff… It’s gone.

“Whoa, to think there was such a handsome young man under all that girly hair of yours!” Pierre complimented my new look, “Seriously, a haircut was way overdue in your case!”

“I think you might’ve overdone it just a tad bit, though.” Cecily tried pulling on the millimeter of hair I still had left, “This is the closest thing to bald without actually being bald.”

“I don’t remember asking for a woman’s opinion, though?” Pierre scoffed, “It’s not bald, it’s a buzz cut! See here, he has half a millimeter on the sides, and a whole millimeter at the top! The mathematical definition of peak male physical appearance!”

Again with the misogyny, Pierre? We really should look into working that out, otherwise you’ll never get a girl at this rate. That being the case, I still don’t understand what he means by peak male appearance, because this is horrendous! Since we were doing this outside, I ran up to a nearby puddle to use as a mirror and…

“Hm, actually, it’s not that bad!” I smiled, “I mean, yeah, it’s a bit too short now, but give it a couple days and I’ll look amazing!”

“Really?” Cecily questioned my surprising optimism.

“Hell no!” I cried out, “It’s horrible! This guy’s a quack barber! And was it always this cold around my head before!?”

***

After we got through this barbarically disgusting and morally questionable haircut, Pierre was feeling pretty down about our more than honest opinions. We tried comforting him as best as we possibly could, all the while making sure we were still being harsh on him for screwing up such a simple task like giving me a haircut.

“Well I’m sorry for not being the best barber in the world!” He lashed out, “It’s not like I’ve had a lot of time to practice with the damned thing, it was only just invented a couple years ago!”

“That’s no excuse!” I shot back, “Every invention I made, I made sure to test it extensively before giving it out to the public!”

“Huh?” Pierre raised his head in suspicion.

“N-Nothing.” I put the matter aside for now, “But that being said, Nelly, what do you think about daddy’s new style? Who knows, maybe you like it?”

“Dad’s haiw is wuined fowevew…” She said while holding onto her mother tightly, hoping it’s all just a bad nightmare.

“F-Forever?! Are my skills really that lacking?!” Pierre once again fell to the floor in shame.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Cecily peeled him off the ground, “But it’s alright, I’m up next, so don’t mess it up.”

At these words, all three of us gave her a question mark. Did Cecily just say she wanted to get her hair trimmed to a buzz cut? Surely, she must be joking… right?

“What are you all looking at me like that?” She asked, “I’m a soldier too, so I need to get my hair trimmed as well as per your policy or whatever, no?”

“R-Right, I did say that.” Pierre kind of danced around the topic, “But the thing is, that policy was put in place because only males would get drafted, y’know? Cutting a girl’s hair like that would be kind of, I dunno… Inappropriate?”

“Right?” I followed suit, “Come on, sergeant, can’t we just let her go as is? I’m pretty sure no one will mind.”

“Who knows?” He shrugged, “Cutting her hair might also help keep all the other male soldiers away from her. If a bunch of men suddenly had to sleep in the same room as a young woman with flowing hair, things might get pretty bad…”

Oh, I never thought of that! Right, we’ve already seen that Cecily’s objectively considered attractive, judging by the whole fiasco over at the Mobius Awards that resulted in me getting hospitalized. Should we really consider it, then?

“…” I sat there pondering before finally coming up with an answer, “Leave her hair as is, sergeant! Worse comes to worst, I’ll just knock out anyone that comes our way!”

“Lune, remember what happened last time?” Cecily warned, “Last time we had Meil bail us out, but this time we’re all alone. What if that thing happens again, then who’s gonna save us?”

“I’ll do it!” I pointed at my chest, “I was just caught a bit off-guard last time, but this time we have Pierre to supervise us! Not to mention, last time we got attacked by a bunch of good-for-nothing teenagers, but this time we’re surrounded by a bunch of disciplined men!”

“…Doesn’t that make it worse, then?”

“Just trust me and don’t go through with it. Nelly already said I look bad like this, so at least let her keep one good-looking parent.”

“I-I nevew said you look bad, dad!” Nelly gave me a hug.

“Naww!” I returned the hug, “But does that mean you wanna see mommy look like daddy then?”

She turned around to look at Cecily’s hair, probably tried her best to imagine what that’d look like, then quickly turned back to me with a serious face.

“Don’t evew let that happen, okay?”

“Gahh!!” Pierre started wailing all over again.

And so, with a fresh new haircut and a couple of lost wills to live, we sat aboard the transport wagon and departed to the main base, situated at Golgotha, the country’s capital. Pierre started up the engine, told us to hold on tight, and steered like no one has ever steered before. Namely, his driving wasn’t even bad, it was just so wild and fast that we really couldn’t get accustomed to it.

Once again being seated in this familiar red interior of the coach, we all sat next to each other without thinking too much about it. I’m not sure if the same applies to Cecily, but I just kind of sat next to her because that’s where I would always sit back when we rode across Great Hiana. It was just force of habit, I guess, but I only noticed how awkward it was after I had gotten myself seated.

Should I switch seats? It’s kind of late now, given I already sat down next to her, but I’d feel bad if she was uncomfortable sitting next to me the whole trip. After all, she’s still pretty mad about the whole thing with Marina. I joke about it at times to lighten the mood, but it’s more than obvious from her facial expressions that she’s still not over it, and I’m not blaming her.

In an ideal world, Cecily would have already forgiven me, and we would already be working on fixing our relationship, but I still remember very vividly the words she told me back in the Palace.

“Just as long as Nelly’s a child, I’ll play the role of a loving wife. When she grows up, I plan on telling her everything.”

These words are etched deeply into my soul. It’s a really nauseating feeling, knowing that my time with my family is limited to just a couple more years. I imagine that the moment she tells Nelly everything will be the moment we make it back safely to Trivis Numerica. After that, I imagine she’ll leave for Great Hiana, and I don’t doubt she’ll take Nelly with her and that’ll be the end of that.

I know it’s gonna be like that. I know, and yet I still can’t accept it. I keep having flashbacks to that dream I had in the infirmary, the one where I saw a decayed Marina beckoning me to join her in the afterlife as children’s hands kept trying to drag me down to the ground beneath me. Dreams have meanings, and I’m all but sure that this one meant that I wasn’t trying enough to become a good father and husband.

These feelings of unease keep prying into the tiniest corners of my brain, filling it with anxiety and doubt. It all started with the ITA separating me from Cecily and Nelly, but then again if I was really committed to them, I would have never even accepted Marina’s advances to begin with. If I could just tell them both that all I really want is for them to be happy, then I would do anything to make that a reality. But reality differs from fiction in the cruelest of ways…

Checking Cecily’s expression once again, it was nervous, a sort of sour face you would only make when being seated next to a person that’s wronged you. Immediately, emotions like Confusion and Internal Dilemma come to mind, which would only make sense. Yeah, I think it’s better if I switch seats, after all…

“I-I’ll move.” I tried sitting up, only to get pulled back down to my seat, “Cecily?”

“…” She finally explained herself through a whisper, “Nelly’s sleeping. If you get up, you’ll wake her from her nap.”

“…” I sat back down quietly, “Come to think of it, when was the last time we all got some proper rest?”

My plan to make some small talk ended abruptly, as I noticed that she too had dozed off, her head slowly falling on my shoulder. This one unconscious act made me tear up, but I tried to hold it in as best as I could. Not for me or anything, rather it was just so Nelly wouldn’t wake up. Yeah, let’s go with that.