Hold on! D-Did Lune just say this woman is Cecily?! But wait, from his stories, isn’t Cecily the girl he cheated on while he was away in Cardina? Talk about awkward! Not to mention their daughter is here as well, which I can only imagine is weighing down on Lune even more. I do consider what Lune did to be unforgivable, but he’s still my tutor, so I’ll try and somehow support him.

“H-Hey, honey!” He placed his daughter safely off of his lap and took her hand as he approached his very peeved lover. I wonder how he’s gonna try and weasel his way out this time...

“Nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?” He said nonchalantly.

“…What?” Cecily gave him a genuinely confused expression.

“Ah, that’s not what I wanted to say!” He quickly noticed he said the wrong thing and corrected himself, “I wanted to ask what you’re doing here! Oh, but wait, I called you here, so I guess that answers that, ha-ha…”

Oh God, this atmosphere is physically killing me. He had all this time to come up with some reasonable excuse, and in the end the first thing he tells her is how nice the weather is? I can’t with this guy…! I wanted to try and support him, but after this little display of his I’m pretty sure he’s a lost cause. On the other hand, his daughter is enjoying the moment completely, so maybe that’s what he was aiming for this entire time?

“Humu…!” Nelly giggled to herself, “Now we’we a compwete family again! Hooway fow daddy!”

“Right you are, kiddo! Daddy’s little girl!” Lune lifted her up again and put her on his shoulders, “Now we’re a real family once again. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“Yeah, you’re not getting out of this scot-free.” Cecily quickly shut down his proposal, “I think you lost the privileges to call me pet names like ‘dear’ and ‘honey’, at least for the time being.”

“What?! Aw come on, can’t we talk about this?”

“By all means, go ahead and try to justify you cheating on me with another girl.”

At this, the entire crowd of people that had gathered around us had fallen silent (apart from one guy who had reflexively yelled “Oh snap!” without thinking). Lune’s wife really wasn’t holding back! Is this really his first love? To chase a girl who doesn’t mind publicly shaming him, is he a masochist?!

“Ha-ha… Hon-err, Cecily, does Nelly perhaps know what had transpired these past few years? Should you really be talking about it this openly?”

“She’s too young to understand, so I think I can get away with publicly shaming you a bit, at least for now. When she grows a bit older though, I’m sure that she too will be devastated to hear the truth about her dear old pop-pop.”

“Oh…” He looked down in shame as his daughter continued innocently nibbling on his hair.

“Daddy, why do you have longew haiw than mommy?”

“If I didn’t grow out my hair, then you wouldn’t have anything to play with right now, would you?” He joked as if he did nothing wrong.

“That being said, Lune.” Cecily gave him a choice, “You’re free to do whatever you want. If you don’t care about us to the point where you’d start a new family, then by all means, we’ll get out of your hair. But by the way I see it, you seem to be enjoying being a father quite a lot. Just like back in Great Hiana…”

He listened to her words intently, all the while tears started to form around his eyes the moment she mentioned ‘getting out of his hair’. It was obvious to anyone in the room that he had deeply regretted hurting his lover and child. After shortly reminiscing about their past though, she snapped out of the trance and continued talking.

“A-Ahem! As I was saying.” She feigned a cough whilst donning a light blush, “If you’re willing to prove yourself and try to fill Nelly’s childhood with enough good memories to overwrite the bad ones, I’m willing to overlook this one transgression.”

An incredibly kind gest was showcased in the venue right now. Accepting the apology of someone like Lune, a man who had done the unthinkable and cheated on his wife with another woman, took not only guts, but an incredible amount of tolerance and mental fortitude. Lune wasn’t lying when he said Cecily was strong, it’s just for whatever reason I assumed he was talking about physical strength instead of mental strength. Needless to say, she had earned the applause the audience (including me) had given her.

“Right!” A strong voice echoed throughout the halls as the whole scene started to wrap up, “Now that we’re done with… whatever this was, may I begin the opening ceremony?”

Indeed, the person speaking right now is one of the officials for the Mobius Awards. He introduced himself as Shawn Quartz in his opening speech, and after that had explained the rules of the whole competition.

“You are all gathered here today because you are the world’s finest.” He started, “But as you know, ‘finest’ is a superlative form, meaning there can only be one. That being the case, my great-grandfather had used his wealth to create and host the Mobius Awards decennially. He hosted three Awards in his life before passing the baton to my grandfather, who only hosted two before passing the baton further to my dad, who was the proud host for a total of six Awards!”

At this weird flex of his family tree, the entire crowd erupted in cheers and applause. It appears these guys are somehow world renowned themselves, but turning around to my companions, it seems neither Lune nor Cecily knew of The Quartzes. Well, it’s certainly an incredible feat for someone to do, and a kind one at that. He’s basically saying that their family had paid for countless people’s tuitions and even sponsored their scholarships out of the goodness of their hearts, and the fact that they somehow managed to turn it into a fun little competition only accentuated their efforts.

“Now, I’m still a newbie when compared to the titans within my family.” Shawn spoke, “This is actually my first Awards that I’ll be hosting, so if I make some mistakes, I ask that you be patient with me. That being said, I have my colleagues here with me to guide me through every step of the way, all so we can ensure you folks have the time of your life here!”

“This guy kind of reminds me of Adam.” Cecily said offhandedly.

“Adam?” Lune turned to her, “Oh right, you haven’t seen him in a while. Adam really grew a pair since the Neo Urbana Dispute. He’s got a full beard now, lifts, and really fixed up his image.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah, you probably know already that he became the King of Cardina a year or so ago, so I guess that really set him on the right track.”

While Shawn was busy explaining the rules, these two were catching up as if nothing ever happened to begin with. There’s being tolerant, and then there’s Cecily! You can’t be this chill with your lover after he did something so horrible! I swear, are all Entropeans this crazy?

“Now, the Awards are comprised of four events!” Shawn spoke, “Namely, the Preliminary match serves as a way to comb through those of you who are, for lack of a better term, unworthy.”

Figures. They’d be wasting their time if they allowed this many people to participate. The venue is filled to the brim, so I imagine that even taking half of the people out of the competition with the Preliminary match wouldn’t be nearly enough.

“After that comes the Practical match, where you will all work together to find a way to escape a series of rooms we’ve set up.”

Wait, like a dungeon? That sounds kind of dangerous, will it really be okay? Eh, not like I care.

“Then the next stage will be the Artistic match. Think of this as a breather round, meant as a way to de-stress after the arduous journey to here. Everyone knows how to draw, so this really isn’t something that should be a problem for anyone.”

Huh?! Drawing!? Since when was this a Mobius Event?! Dammit, everyone knows how to draw my ass! I can’t draw to save my life! I can only remember the template dad taught me back when we were drawing with Lune a couple weeks ago!

“In the end, there’s the final round, which is… a secret! Consider that to be further incentive for you to give it your all and take home the prize!”

“I heard the the Final event is different every time.” Lune whispered to Cecily.

“Whaaat?” She replied, “That’s stupid. Why would they go through so much trouble?”

“Well, wouldn’t the winners tell the next attendees what it is otherwise? It would completely ruin the mystery aspect of it.”

“Hm…” She noted, “You’re not wrong on that front, but I still think Shawn’s just making things up as he goes.”

At this, the two lovebirds started chuckling and stifling in their laughter together. Yeah, no matter how you look at it, these two were meant to be together.

“That’s all for now, so please follow me to so that I may show you to your dorms!” Shawn tripped on the stairs as he made his way down the stage.

What a funny guy, I thought. Shawn seems like the type of guy you’d root for despite his clumsiness, but the fact that he’s literally warning us about his newbie nature is frightening. What if his dumbass miscounts the scores and I lose out on my scholarship because of him?! Guess I’ll just have to keep track of it on my own, just in case.

“Cecily?” Lune sheepishly asked, “I didn’t quite get to ask, but what are you doing here in the Awards?”

“Didn’t you just say you called me here yourself?”

Since Nelly was no longer straddled on his shoulders, and instead was holding onto her mother’s hand, Lune felt he was given some time to talk to his wife more seriously.

“Gah, not that! I did call you to Havana, but only specially invited attendees are allowed to participate in the Awards.”

Whoa, now that you mention it, you’re right! How did she qualify for an attendee spot while I didn’t?!

“Right, and don’t you need an assistant to participate as well?” I butted into their conversation.

“…Who’s this guy?” She gave me a glare.

“Ah, I’m such a dummy! I forgot to introduce you all!” He said as he made us shake hands, “Cecily, this is my friend and assistant, Meil Deram. Meil, this is my unofficial wife and the mother of my daughter, Cecily.”

“Nice to meet you.” I decided to speak for myself, “Lune’s told me so much about you, but now that I think about it, he’s never once mentioned your last name. Why is that?”

“…I don’t know my last name.” She groaned, “My brother and I are from the streets originally, so…”

“Ah, where are my manners? My condolences for the passing of your brother Carter, I wish I could’ve met him while he was still with us. From the stories I’ve heard, he seemed like a great man.”

Cecily’s eyes were now wide open at my honest words. Looks like she didn’t expect me to know about her dead brother, so I certainly earned some points in her eyes for that bit of trivia. It appears Lune’s countless annoying stories had some merit to them after all…

“That’s…!” She glanced at Lune for a split second before turning back to me, “Thank you very much. I’m sure he would’ve liked to meet you as well.”

“See?” Lune chuckled, “I knew you guys would get along swell!”

Noticing that something was tugging at my pants, I looked down and saw Nelly giving me a wide eyed grin. Looks like she wanted to do her introduction as well, so I guess I’ll amuse her for a bit.

“Nice to meet youh!” She spoke in a baby-ish voice, “I’m Nelly Gwimheawt!”

“Naww, nice to meet you Nelly, I’m-”

“Uncle Meil!” She proudly shouted.

N-No, I’m neither Lune’s nor Cecily’s brother, so you’re mistaken in that statement! Suggesting something like that would lead to further complications, and, and…!

“Heh, I like that!” Lune chuckled, “Looks like you’re part of the family now, Meil!”

At this, I recalled his words earlier while we were still in Oden. Joseph isn’t even the same race as you, but he was more of a father than my parents ever where! Looks like the meaning of family is quite loose with the Grimhearts…

“Alright then, you can call me Uncle Meil.” I finally caved, much to their delight, “B-But I’m still calling you Nelly!”

“Alwight!” She squeaked in joy.

God damn, she’s adorable! Makes me feel bad when I realize what’s waiting for her once she matures… Looking at you, Lune!