“Welcome to Havana, enjoy your stay!” The guard greeted us as we entered through the front gates of the quik.

This is it! We’re finally in Havana, the main quik of Abyssus Solis! It’s so much bigger than Oden. In fact, I can’t even find the words to properly describe their sheer difference in size. Well, if I really had to describe it, I’d say that if Oden was an oasis, then Havana would be an entire river! The people here are also dressed a lot more formally than those idiots back in Oden. Namely, everyone has long since thrown away those annoying traditional garbs in favor of more modern fits. Whilst I was busy gawking at the sheer amazingness of the place, Lune wasn’t singing the same tune as I was.

“This is it?” He asked as if expecting more, “Y’know, back when you were telling me about the place, you really hyped it up to be this ginormous place made of solid gold, but really it’s just a bigger version of Oden.”

“You take that back! This place is incredible, it can’t compare to Oden in the slightest! Oden is a pigsty, full of people that are just imitating livestock! Havana on the other hand? Havana is what I’d imagine Heaven looks like! Just look at all the people happily strolling around in their fancy modern clothes!”

“I dunno,” Lune looked a bit disappointed, “I kind of liked those garments of yours. They protected me from the Sun’s rays whilst still providing adequate ventilation. I think I’ll stick to them for the duration of this trip.”

Really now? You prefer those drab veils instead of your usual Entropic clothes? Well, for someone who’s experiencing Abyssus Solis for the first time, I can sort of understand why it is that he’s so adamant about not changing out of these desert robes. But come on, he’s acting like these sights of Havana are something he’s seen countless times before.

“These sights of Havana are something I’ve seen countless times before, after all.” He said exactly what I was thinking, “It’s like… I dunno how to describe it, like a desert version of Springwood?”

“Springwood?”

“Yeah. In fact, it’s like a desert version of every town in Entropa. Still not nearly as advanced as Cardina’s towns. Maybe it can compare to Little Egg, but that’s still kind of a stretch.”

“You’re telling me the world is like this in general?!” I turned to him in surprise, “That’s impossible! I know you’ve been around the world quite a bit, but there’s no need to lie about your adventures to someone less experienced in traveling!”

“You didn’t know?” He chuckled, “And here I thought you got the general gist of how the world works through my stories! Yeah, Abyssus Solis really isn’t even an ant in comparison to the rest of the world, which is an elephant in this analogy. Really, if you want me to, I can take you with me one day to explore the world a bit.”

“…I don’t think I can take any more of your stories than I already have. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to decline.”

At this, Lune started laughing yet again as we joked while walking through the quik. Our destination here is the Mobius Awards Palace, found at the very top of the quik. It’s this amazingly tall structure, reminiscent of a pyramid shape with the top golden and the rest covered in white. The truly titanic structure overlooks the entire quik, which makes for an incredible view. Makes me wonder how it’d look like if we scaled it…

“Hey Meil,” Lune stopped me while I was entranced by the Palace, “Could we take a bit of a detour to go sightseeing before making it to the awards?”

“Where’s this coming from? Come on, I don’t wanna be late. We need to be serious if we wanna reach the top!”

“Ah, pretty please? Contestants aren’t allowed to leave the Palace for the duration of the Awards, so this is the last time we’ll see Havana in at least a couple of weeks! I need to go buy something as well, so it works out.”

“Is it really that important?”

“Yessir.” He glanced back with an almost incredible passion in his eyes, “It’s such a serious thing that I don’t even think you’d be able to understand it, even when I showed it to you.”

His way of speaking made him sound cool, but that’s really all it did. Knowing Lune, he just wants to go sightseeing and made up that excuse just so I’d agree to his whims. Then again, he’s a mysterious guy, I can’t ever seem to get what goes on in his brain. Most of the time he’s this whacky goofy good for nothing idiot, but then there are also times where he starts acting extremely serious for a very sound reason. I can see why people come to like him now. It’s like that psychological trick wherein people are interested in mystery, so if you hide certain aspects of yourself, you’ll instantly become more popular.

“Sigh, okay then…” I finally gave in as I figured we still have some time before the Awards began.

“Woohoo!”

Just like that, we had started our little tour of Havana. Walking around and enjoying the fresh experience wasn’t all that bad, either. Actually, I quite enjoyed the change of scenery, so I guess Lune was right this time. So this is what he experiences every time he visits a new place in his journeys? I might actually take him up on his previous offer about traveling with him, now that I think about it.

First thing we made sure to do was to visit the statue of the Great Hero Olyahim. No idea who that guy is, but apparently it’s a really famous tourist spot which he heard of in that Schnell’s Handbook of his. Lune was really giddy the entire time, like a little child. He would run up to the statue, put his hand on the marble and with a serious expression he would say “Thank you for helping Schnell on his journey back in Volume 13.”

“Is that Schnell guy really that amazing?” I asked out of curiosity.

“GASP!” Lune shuddered at my question, “How DARE you!? He’s amazing alright, more amazing than anyone else in the world! Goddammit, how come so few people I meet know of him?! He’s basically a God! That’s it, add a book shop to the list of places we need to visit before going to the Awards!”

And so, I had yet again regretted me and my curious mouth. Even still, the next thing on the list was actually the thing Lune was talking about from the start – the gift shop. Why such a random sounding place, you may ask? Well, the correct answer is “Beats me.”

“Hmm, which badge do you think represents Havana better?” He asked as he compared two magnetic badges with a tourist spot of Havana sculpted on them, “This one looks cooler, but this other one fits better with the one I bought for Oden.”

“Why do you even care? Just pick whatever and let’s get going.”

“I do care! This isn’t for me, it’s for Ed, he likes collecting magnetic badges from every place he visits, so I want to surprise him when I come back home!”

That’s… actually kind of thoughtful. Good job being a nice friend, but does this Ed character actually collect these little things? I can’t see the point of having them around, since at some point he’d run out of magnetic surfaces to stick them on. Well, Lune’s quite whacky, so maybe all his acquaintances are too. Maybe this Ed guy has a whole wall of these things back in Secundis.

“Then I think the first one is better.”

“But it won’t fit with Oden’s!”

“Does it matter? Oden and Havana are so different that it wouldn’t even make sense if the magnets matched.”

“Hmm, fair point.” Lune said as he put the other one back on the shelf, “Sorry for bothering you about this. It’s just that I wanna gift Ed something to hopefully butter him up a bit.”

“Are you two not on good terms?”

“Well…” He winced, “The last time we saw each other some… unfavorable things happened, and we kind of fell apart. We send each other letters kind of often now, but I can still tell that he’s writing as if he’s walking on eggshells around me. I don’t want things to stay like this forever, so I’m planning on just forgiving him for his little mishap with these magnets as soon as I get back.”

“His little mishap?” I asked, “So that means he was the one that screwed up? That’s odd, I was certain you had messed things up. Y’know, as usual?”

“Hey, is that really how you see me?”

“Most certainly.”

“Grr…!”

Just like that, Lune spitefully put back the magnet I had recommended and instead took the other one. Can you get any pettier than that?

Walking around the quik a bit more, we made sure to visit the local museum, as per my wishes, just in case there was something that mentioned the mysterious Sun God the Raamans worshipped. Sadly though, all we could find is some weirdly shaped rocks.

“Sigh, outta luck I guess.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for one day. But until then, let’s go find you a couple volumes of Schnell’s Handbook!”

“Ugh… But I won’t even have time to read them during the Awards! Can’t it wait?”

“Of course not! Hey, if you’re ever too tired to read it yourself, just call your friendly neighborhood Lune here and I’ll come read it to you before you go to bed. How about that?”

“I’d rather die!” I shot back, embarrassed after he said something so shameless out in public.

After that, we had made our way to the library to pick the books up, but we were quite surprised to see that the entrance was quite crowded, so while I was trying to make my way into the library, I had lost track of Lune.

Actually, he was right in front of me this entire time, so I know we didn’t get separated on accident. He purposefully turned around and ran back the way he came, chasing after someone. I’m not worried about him though, I’ve known him long enough to not get surprised by his antics. He’s like a cat in that regard, he’ll come back once he gets tired or hungry.

***

“I-It’s…!” Lune did a double take as he saw a red haired maiden walk past him as he and Meil tried entering the library, “Cecily!”

Immediately upon noticing a person who bore a striking resemblance to his beloved, Lune had made a hasty decision in ditching his friend to pursue her. Running through the large crowd in front of him to get to her was no easy task, and he was almost trampled to death a few times just because the crowd was so dense. Running through the quik, he was just barely out of reach of her as she ran from one alleyway to the next. He was within earshot of her, but he couldn’t yell out, for he was still in a public area.

This feeling of powerlessness infuriated him to no end, but he didn’t have time for self-pity. Lune did tell Ed to call Cecily over to Abyssus Solis, but because of Nelly he had all but assumed she wouldn’t actually follow through with it. But if she really did, he thought, if she did, that’d be so kind of her!

Thus, he refused to give up chasing her to the ends of the quik. Shoving pedestrians to the side, knocking each and every stall in his path, climbing all sorts of buildings to reach her, he had recalled just how nimble she actually was. That’s an ARA General for you!

“Ha!” He laughed at the shadow of the person standing right around the corner, “Got you now! That there alleyway’s actually a dead end, so no use in running anymore! Heh, you really did give me some good exercise, Cecil-!”

However, when he turned the corner, there was no such person in sight. But then, who was Lune following all this time? Could it have all been his imagination? While he was standing there, befuddled, the local authorities had finally caught up to him.

“There he is! That’s the suspect who’s been causing a ruckus around the quik!”

“Ha-ha, I can explain?” Lune raised his hands so as to show no signs of retaliation.

He was soon taken into custody at the local police department, which he found pretty hilarious. Meil, on the other hand, had to use all of his willpower to not cuss him out once he found out.