With the officer blowing on his whistle to signify the end of breakfast, we were all lined up single file and led outside the facility. It was actually quite nice seeing everyone standing in line peacefully. It reminded me of ants, somehow…

I tried telling this to Cecily, but the officer immediately heard me and started shouting something at me in Aurolian. Thank goodness I didn’t understand a word he was saying, because I’m pretty sure I’d cry if I did. Cecily found it amusing how I was completely unfazed by the officer’s shouts, and the other soldiers were actually quite impressed by my iron will. If only they knew I wasn’t actually as tough as nails, and was just unfazed because I didn’t speak their language.

“Wie ist ihr name!?” The officer shouted.

“…”

“Sprechen! Wie ist ihr name!?”

I stood there awkwardly, not really registering his words at all. That is, until I noticed Nelly tugging on my trousers. Leaning down a bit to hear her whisper, she began ezplaining with certainty.

“He’s asking what youw name is.”

“And how do you know that?” I questioned the source of her knowledge.

“I was listening to the othew soldiews talking.”

This girl really is getting quite scary with that knowledge of hers. I wonder, does she really wanna attend University with Meil that badly? At this point I’m afraid she might know more than me in just a couple more years-no, months! Actually, was I ever this smart at her age? Damn, I’m so dumb, I can’t even remember what I was doing at age 5. Probably eating sand or something like that…

“E-Eh, hehe…” I turned to the officer and spoke nervously, “Lune Grimheart, sir!”

“Ah, der Spion!” He began laughing, prompting the others to laugh as well.

With everyone staring at me and laughing, I felt extremely weak. I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying, so I glanced over at Pierre and hoped to Prylos he’d come in clutch.

“Yo, Pierre! You wanna come out here?”

“Haha, alright everyone, settle down!” Pierre stood beside me, “Wagner, hör auf, ihn zu schikanieren.”

“Ach komm schon, Pierre!” The officer patted him on the back, “Es ist nur ein witz!”

Again, no clue what they’re even saying, but Nelly’s giggling to herself so it’s probably nothing bad. That being said I should probably ask her to teach me some Aurolian. I know it sounds strange, learning a foreign language from your five year old daughter, but I’m not someone that’s so full of pride that I won’t seize the opportunity to learn by any means possible. If anything, I should consider it a gift to have someone in my family that’s so good with languages.

Leaving the premises, we were finally allowed to talk freely again. Chatters immediately erupted, all mentioning one of the very rare Aurolian words I’m familiar with, “Mädchen”. Obviously, everyone was talking about Nelly saving my ass because of her surprising knowledge of the language. That being the case, looks like I wasn’t the only one left in the dark about our daughters hidden talent, because as soon as we were allowed to talk again…

“Nel, what the heck was that?” Cecily lifted her up to talk to her eye-to-eye, “You learned Aurolian from listening to the others? In a single day?!”

“Well, only bits of it…” Nelly said, bashfully scratching her cheek, “But was I helpful?”

“Of course you were!” Cecily gave Nelly a big hug, ”You know, at this rate you might actually grow up to be older than us!”

That’s not how it works, I wanted to point out, but I soon realized just what exactly Cecily was talking about. She wasn’t talking about age, she was talking about knowledge. It’s true, she might actually become more mature than both of her parents soon enough if she keeps on seeking out knowledge like she is now, but what does that mean for us? Will we be left in the dust? It’s a sad thought, seeing your baby bird leave its nest, but I never expected such a thing to happen so soon, I thought it’d wait a bit longer. Ten years at least!

I wonder, just when exactly will her motivation for novelty run out? And when it does eventually run out, what Iro will she convert to? Logically speaking, she’s probably gonna be a Blue Iro, since she really seems interested in learning about how all sorts of things work. Or who knows? She might get too ahead of herself because of how earlier she’s learned all of those things before her peers did. If that’s the case, then I can already see her Iro growing Gray.

But wait, Gray? I’ve had a Gray Iro before, that’s called “Going Solipsistic”! I don’t want her to do that! Having a Nelly that only ever cares for her own well-being because the other people in her mind don’t matter, those aren’t the proper values a kid should take up! I need to stop her from realizing that future with all my might! I know, I’ll praise her for being smart, but I’ll also make a point that anyone can do that if given the right circumstances.

“Hehe, I helped dad!” Nelly giggled happily.

“Well, it’s nothing special…” I gritted my teeth and looked away as I spoke. Gah, of course it’s special! She’s a goddamned prodigy! I really wanna praise her, but I don’t want her to grow up a spoiled brat!

“Lune!” Cecily reprimanded me, “Be grateful for your daughter’s knowledge! Just what the hell do you mean, nothing special?!”

Looking over at the now sulking Nelly, I once again bit my lips and muttered, “It’s as I said. I do think it’s worthy of praise that she’s decided to learn all this on her own, but any child could do the same if they were thrown in Sulfury.”

“Dad?” Nelly looked up at me with a frown. Kill me now! I don’t deserve to be called a father after this! Why can’t I just spoil her?!

“A-Ahem! Think of it this way – I escaped to Great Hiana, and I became a General there, just like you, Cecily. Neither of us originally hail from Great Hiana, yet we still thrived because there was nothing else we could do. It’s the same here, toss a kid in whatever situation, and they’ll adapt. That being said, Nelly, keep up the good wor-!”

“Grr! Shut up, dad! I hate you!” Nelly hit me with a one two verbal combo, “Mom, dad is a meanie! You’we bettew!”

Crying in place, my vision blurred and I was left to rely on my ears alone. I could hear all sorts of whispers, but most of them had a mocking tone to them. That being said, I finally wiped the tears off of my eyes and looked over at Cecily, who was giving me a smug grin. Damn you, woman…!

***

“Alright!” Pierre shouted in Entropic so we wouldn’t feel left out, “Everyone ready? On your marks, get set…!”

With a loud bang, he fired off a round out of his AFP, the recoil surprising him and making him hit himself in the face, and we all began running. Well, to say that we were running would be an understatement. Our plan required me and Cecily to run ahead of everyone else so we could have enough time to run under the bridge, secure Nelly and run into the bushes without being spotted.

But things weren’t going according to the plan at all! Everyone else already had a ton of experience in running, so what we considered to be our fastest was in fact nothing out of the ordinary for them! This little escape plan of ours had somehow devolved into a chaotic race!

“Ugh, they’re not letting up!” Cecily looked back for a split second without stopping at all, “I thought I was pretty fast, but these guys are on a whole different level!”

“I know right?” I gasped for air, “Even if Meil was here, even he wouldn’t be able to widen the distance between us and the others!”

“So then, what do we do?”

Thinking about it for a while, I failed to notice the pebble that was standing in my way. I tripped and fell face first onto the gravel terrain, which hurt like a bitch, but I soon recovered after casting Heal on myself. Cecily was at first worried about me, thinking we don’t have time to fool around, but I made sure to stop her, letting the others pass us.

“What are you doing?! They’re getting away!” She forced me to stand up.

“Remember what our goal is, Cecily.” I chuckled, “Our goal isn’t to be first, it’s to not be with anyone else by the time we get to the bridge.”

Figuring out what I meant, she too began to chuckle like a mastermind. In truth, we really didn’t have to hurry at all. We were too nearsighted in that regard, focusing on one thing at a time instead of looking at the big picture. This meant two things for us, and both were equally good – number one, we got to save our stamina for the actual escape and two, we now knew that there wasn’t anything to worry about. Our plan is all but completed now.

“Alright then,” Cecily made some small talk while we took a leisurely stroll through the race course, “You wanna tell me why you’re such an ass?”

“Where’d this come from?”

“I’m talking about Nelly.” She sighed, “I’ve known you for a long time now, there’s no way you’re actually not at all amazed at what that girl’s capable of.”

Ah, it’s about that. Well, if you wanna talk about Nelly, then I don’t mind explaining myself in full at all!

“Yeah, of course I’m amazed, astonished even!” I began explaining, “But I don’t wanna praise her if it means she’ll grow up too spoiled. There’s also the issue of her growing complacent with the knowledge she’s already amassed, and she might grow up to be a good-for-nothing lousy person. I don’t want that for our daughter, so I acted like the bad guy and belittled her. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to her!” Cecily shot back, “If it’s just that, then I can at least understand where you’re coming from. It’s true, she might get a bit smug due to her knowledge, but isn’t that good? Sometimes a person needs to be confident in themselves, otherwise they might not be able to act when the time calls for it. That’s the beauty of children, they’re like putty. You can mold them into whatever you desire, but that doesn’t mean you can just do as you please with them.”

“Exactly! That’s why I’m-!” I tried to interject, only to get interrupted once again.

“No, Lune. You’re not in the right here for doing that. Nelly deserves praise because she needs someone who believes in her strengths. If all you do is tell her she’s not good enough, then she’ll only grow to hate you. She’ll still continue to learn just as she would anyways, the only difference is that she would do so out of spite against you instead of for your praise.”

That’s not…! Or wait, is it? But that makes no sense! No, Cecily’s right. I mean, just looking at me, am I not the same? When I told my parents I wanted to travel the world, they only told me to get real. Certainly, they said that because they didn’t want me to leave, and now look at me. Despite their best efforts, I still left home, and the only difference between them accepting my wishes and denying them is that I now hate my parents and don’t appreciate them. It doesn’t matter what you tell your kids, they’ll do what they’ve set their heart and mind to no matter what, the only difference is will you make it easier for them or not.

“…I’ll apologize to her as soon as possible.” I meekly replied.

“Good.” Cecily said with a satisfied smile, “I don’t want my family to fight.”

“Family?” I pointed to myself, as if it’s a difficult thing to believe, “You still consider me family after all the things I’ve done to you?”

“Sigh, we’ve been over this thousands of times now.” She rolled her eyes, “Imagine, for example, Aaron started catching feelings for you.”

What’s with this weird analogy?!

“And of course,” She continued, “You’ll turn him down. Things will stay the same between you two, but in the back of your mind you’ll never be able to see him the same way again, right?”

“I-I guess?”

“Right, now tell me – would you still see him as an older brother figure?”

Hmm, I guess I would. I mean, that’s what he’s always been to me. Someone reliable, someone I look up to the most. I get that he’s got his own set of preferences, and I think that’s totally cool in my book, but to have him show interest in me in that specific way? No, thank you. That being the case, he’s still the same Aaron as he always was before, no? Why should I change how I view him then-?

Ah, it finally clicked, Now I get it. Wow, Cecily’s really good at telling me just how wrong I was about all sorts of things. Really, I don’t think I ever would’ve gotten it if it wasn’t for her, but despite me wronging Cecily, she’ll always consider me as family. Not because she forgives me, but because she just simply can’t ever see me as anything but family! That’s why I need to make sure to reciprocate the feelings as much as possible!

“Hey Cecily?” I continued walking as I said.

“Yes, Lune?”

“Thanks for telling me all this. I really needed someone to talk to, I guess I just didn’t realize it myself.”

“Anytime, partner.” She gave me a warm smile, “Oh look, we’re nearing the bridge.”

“Yeah, and there’s Nelly, dangling from the window!”

OH SHI-!!!