Now officially separated from Meil, our party is left with only three remaining members – Nelly, Cecily and me. Our long term goal is to go back home, but that’s easier said than done. The officials of the Mobius Awards (that turned out to be a façade for something way more sinister) have it in for us for finding out their secret, so we can’t just waltz back on into Trivis Numerica or Great Hiana.

Truth is, even if we did that, I have no doubt that Cecily and I’d be able to fend them off without many issues, but since Nelly’s with us as well, we can’t just put her in harm’s way. This is all if we don’t even take into account all of our friends and family who are waiting for us back home. If we went to visit them, I’m sure they’d become targets as well. Thus, our goal right now is to try and find a place to hide and wait until the dust settles before finally being able to go back home.

Something about this is familiar… Oh right, this has literally been my entire life for the past three years. And to think, just when I finally tied up all the loose ends for that and was getting ready to go back home, BAM – Another hiding period! Ugh, if these two weren’t with me, I’d be so mad right now, but I gotta look at the bright side. At least they’re both safe and sound, not to mention we’re all finally reunited once again. I don’t wanna be separated from them until the day that I die, so I’ll try and keep an extra close eye on them.

“Okay,” I broke the silence, “Meil might’ve gone his own way, but it’s not like we won’t ever see him again.”

“Right, for now all we can do is wish him luck in his studies.” Cecily replied, “But that begs the question – What are we to do now?”

Certainly, we had no other way to go but South. Sadly, South isn’t the best of options, as that’s all the continent of Sulfury after we pass the mountain range. It’s a pretty dangerous place to be found in, an eternal warzone. Thing is, back when the leaders of the world were discussing where they’ll be settling their disputes from now on, Sulfury got the short end of the stick, and from then on each and every war that was to be waged would be held within the boundaries of the continent. It only has two pseudo-countries, Maior and Lis. Neither one is a real country, but rather more of a ‘Team Blue’ and ‘Team Green’ type of thing. The capitals, Yasna and Golgotha respectively, serve as each team’s base of operations.

“I don’t think it’s a safe place to go with, especially with Nelly here.” Cecily objected, “Can’t we just go with Meil to Simpleton? I heard that place is definitely safer than Sulfury.”

“No can do, I’m afraid.” I waved my hands, “Realistically speaking, you know just as much as I do that the chances of Silvia and their gang catching up to either one of us is 50/50. Either they’re gonna go after Meil or they’re going after us, so if we split up, at least one side is gonna get away safely.”

“That’s…” Cecily sounded saddened at my prognosis, “A rather dark prediction. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, and that we all return safely to our homes.”

“Will Uncle Meil be alwight?” Nelly raised her own worries, “He will, wight?”

“Oh, you!” Cecily scruffed up her hair, “You really like Meil, don’t you?”

“Mhm!” Nelly nodded, “When I grow up, I’m gonna mawwy him!”

That’s… not something you do with your uncle. Much less with someone of such a higher age than you. Nelly kind of confused some terms here, but loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean you need to marry them. If that was the case, I’d have a lot more wives, not to mention husbands in my life. Weird, why’s Ed the first to pop up in my mind?

“Sweetie, you can’t marry Meil.” I tried to explain all this to her.

“Not even when I gwow up?” She protested.

“Never! Find someone more suitable to fawn over, that guy’s off limits!”

“Pfft!” Cecily cracked a smile, “Come on, Lune. You’re not really taking her seriously, right? That’s just something kids like to say about people they like, y’know?”

“I know, dammit! But isn’t that something she’s supposed to say about me? Isn’t that how the phrase goes, ‘I wanna marry daddy?’ or something like that?”

“Daddy, that’s weiwd…” Nelly stared at me with a grossed out expression.

Damn this kid! Now she made me out to be the weirdo here! You little brat, you’re the one who wants to marry a guy 15 years your elder! Just what the hell is your thought process about this?!

“Whatever…” I pouted, “It’s not like I’m jealous of my daughter liking another guy more than me. Yeah, I’m completely fine.”

“Less whining, more walking!” Cecily demanded, “We’re still a couple hours away from the border, so don’t get complacent!”

“Since when have you gotten so commanding all of a sudden?” I jeered.

“Yeah, mom, my feet awe stawting to huwt!”

After having been called ‘mom’ instead of ‘mommy’ for the first time in her life, Cecily immediately dropped her tough gal act and ran over to her daughter’s side to see what’s up. Heh, serves you right for trying to act all cool!

“N-Nelly!? What did you just call me?!” She said with an almost teary face, “Why did you suddenly stop calling me mommy?!”

“Because I wanna become a big giwl, just like Meil told me to! I wanna become big and mawwy him when I gwow up and go to school!”

“That damned…! Curse you, Meil!!!” Cecily whined with all her might, “You somehow managed to take away my precious daughter without even being present, god dammit! Damn you! Damn you and your stupid conniving head on those weak shoulders of yours!”

Well, looks like she doesn’t approve of these two getting hitched either. What ever happened to not taking Nelly seriously on this? With how much Cecily’s punching holes in the sand, I just can’t take her advice seriously one bit. Sucks to suck, Missy! Looks like this is a win for daddy-!

“Dad, look! Mountains!” Nelly pointed to the border between Abyssus Solis and Sulfury.

“Dammit, Meil!”

***

After realizing just how quickly our little girl is growing up, we both agreed to just accept the fact, but neither one of us could hold back, so we insisted on showering her with as much love and affection as we could muster. That being the case, we finally left the desert, meaning we were just a mountain range away from making it to our first destination – the shithole country that is Lis.

“Pause!” The border officer said in Aurolian.

“Entropic?” I asked if he spoke the language.

With a confused look, he sighed and said, “Etwas. What do you need?”

“Etwa…? Eh, whatever. We want to pass the border.”

“Warum?” He said with a questioning tone.

“?” We couldn’t pass the language barrier at all.

“Ugh, why?!” The officer steadily became more and more annoyed.

“Ah, that’s what that means!” I smiled, “Because we wanna leave Abyssus Solis, why else?”

With a sigh, Cecily stepped into our little chat, “Lune, please stop annoying him. Listen here, guy, the reason why isn’t important. Here, these are our documents, so there should be no issues.”

Whoa, she’s gotten pretty good at dealing with legal documentation. So much so that I didn’t even notice when she took my passport from my pockets. Wait, that’s bad, isn’t it? Should I check to see if she stole anything else, just in case?

“Gut, go on.” The officer took one look at the passports before gesturing for us to pass.

Man, what’s this guy’s problem? Does he not know who we are just from seeing our faces, much less passports? I’m the Famed Inventor Sol for Prylos’ sake! And this cutie right next to me is Cecily, General of the ARA Gang! Seriously, I get these guys are surrounded by shrapnel all day long, but surely none of that shrapnel entered their heads and is making them this out of touch with reality, no?

“Hey, don’t say anything stupid, okay Lune?” Cecily warned me, “You tend to get overexcited after finally getting through to someone.”

“You know me so well, darling~!” I decided to tease her a bit, “By the Gods, we haven’t seen each other in so long, but you still remember all of these minute details about me! Ah, I’m blushing~!”

“S-Stop it! Don’t embarrass us any further, you dolt!” She blushed (yippee!), “In any case, didn’t I tell you not to call me pet names anymore? I’m still mad at you for what you did!”

“Oh, but you can’t help but enjoy it.” I whispered in her ear, “Dar-ling~!”

“Nggg!!” She launched a flurry of attacks my way, to which I dodged each and every one, “Dammit! How are you so good at avoiding my every attack?!”

“Humu, just as you know everything about me, I too know everything about you, dearie! Now come here!” I saw an opening and pinned her to the wall, “Sure you don’t want at least a little peck on the lips?”

“N-No…” She struggled weakly, “You can’t!”

“Why not?” I closed the distance between us.

“Because Nelly’s watching!” Cecily let out a small yelp right as I was about to seal the deal.

In that very moment, I turned to my side, where I saw Nelly staring with her eyes wide open. Now I know I’m a lousy, good for nothing, daughter-abandoning father, but I never thought I could so easily forget that she was here with us. I’m not used to seeing her not getting carried by either Nelly or Meil.

“Mom and dad are flirting.” She said with a curious tone.

“Wrong!” We both tried to play it off as playful sparring, “Y-You’re just imagining things!”

Since all of this was happening right outside the officer’s booth, he actually had to go outside and check up on us for making such a ruckus. Heh, my bad guy, I was just, how you say, flirten!

“What’s going on?” He made sure to point to the baton on his hip, “Causing trouble, are we?”

“No, sir!” I yelled out, the happiness practically bursting out from me, “We were just celebrating our entry into Lis!”

“Ah, ist das so?” He replied, “Lis is dangerous for little girl, please consider going elsewhere.”

“No worries,” I offhandedly mentioned, “Lis is just a pitstop for us. Our goal here is Maior.”

“Maior!?” The officer shouted before cuffing all of us, “Maiorische spione! Alarmstufe Rot!”

“Couldn’t have held it in for a bit longer, dummy?” Cecily tried facepalming before remembering that her hands were cuffed behind her back.

“Wah, mommy, daddy?! N-No wait, mom, dad, what’s going on!?” Nelly glanced at us all teary eyed.

Ah, I figured something important out, So she still calls us mommy and daddy when put under stressful situations… I should make a mental note of that!