After a couple more minutes of silence, the energetic doctor with the scarily sharp looking eyes had suddenly slapped herself a couple of times as if to psyche herself up. It was a jolting action, one that was certainly expected of a person as fiery as her, but one couldn’t help but feel a bit bad after witnessing it. She had just heard that her beloved sister had died in a faraway land, and her body couldn’t even be buried properly (although, it is under a pile of rocks…), yet she still prioritized the present and future in order to help Nelly, her patient.

“Alright!” She smiled a toothy grin, “There’s just one thing I don’t understand – why in the world do you guys think this girlie here needs glasses?”

Furrowing our brows in absolute confusion, we had asked her to elaborate, “Because she said so herself?”

“Really now?” The shark-toothed doctor turned to Nelly, “Because from the inspection I did on this girlie a couple minutes ago, I noticed that her eyesight is just fine. Actually, she’s got pretty keen eyes, even compared to the national average.”

Eh? But didn’t Nelly say she needed glasses? I didn’t mishear that, did it? No, she definitely... But then… Huh??

“Hold on, so that thing you did before where you got real close to her and stared a hole through her head?” I froze up, “That was actually you inspecting her? Is such an inspection even professional, or heck, possible?!”

“Well, for a normal doctor, I’d agree that they’d probably be called a quack.” She chuckled before pointing to her eye, “But you and I both know that I’m not a normal doctor, right?”

Scanning her eyes one more time, I had noticed a slight change in her Irises’ hue. In the time we were talking, she had just as quickly switched between Red and Brown, then back to Red again, all without breaking a sweat or stopping the flow of the conversation.

“A Brown Iro Ability?” I thought of Ed, “Analyze?”

“Whoa, you’re naming your abilities? And to think, here I was just calling them by their colors!” She slapped her knee, “I rather like that name, hope you don’t mind me borrowing it. But yeah, I can read others thoughts if I take just one good look at them.”

Incredible! To think there were so many people out in the world that possess Iro Abilities! I mean, I knew from Genevra that her sister Beheld a Red Iro, but for her to be able to utilize multiple Iro Abilities as well? And a Brown Iro, on top of that – the Iro that even I couldn’t get a grasp on.

“Even still, that doesn’t alight with Nelly’s words at all…” Cecily looked down at her daughter, “Nelly, why did you say you wanted glasses if your eyesight’s fine?”

“No!” Nelly piped up, “I didn’t mean eye fixing glasses! I meant those cute glasses!”

“Cute glasses?” Cecily recalled, “Don’t tell me – Were you talking about those non-prescriptive type glasses we saw at the gift shop the other day?”

“But why would you want those?” I asked, facepalming and sighing at mine and Cecily’s blunder for jumping to conclusions.

“Mn…” She looked away before hesitantly speaking up, ”Uncle Meil once told me he likes giwls with glasses…”

Giving her a bewildered blank stare as the lively doctor wheezed and wheezed, we once again excused ourselves for wasting her time before turning around and heading for the door. That being said, she did make sure to stop us before we hit the road.

“Wait, before you go!” She called us back into her office, “You were in the same party as her, but I’m certain it couldn’t have just been the two of you.”

“Aye, there were others as well.”

“I-If you don’t mind,” She bit her tongue, “Could you give me their names? You mentioned before that you’re pretty busy with your family right now, but I imagine a ton of your party members’ families are also anxiously awaiting them to come back.”

Ah, was that what she was alluding to? Well, certainly, Sully must have someone who cares about him, not sure about Linus though. He seemed pretty lonely in comparison, but I guess I should at least look into his past a bit to see if he does in fact have someone like that. Then of course, there’s…

“Marina…” I muttered, “A-Ah! Of course, I’ll look into their pasts as soon as I get the time…!”

“Oh no, you misunderstood.” She gestured for me to slow down, “As I was saying – you’re busy with your family, right? And I imagine that you’ve gone through quite a lot yourself, so I wouldn’t dare place that burden on you.”

“So what are you proposing?” Cecily interjected.

“Well, that’s where I come in!” She pointed to herself with a confident smile, “What do you say? Give me the names of all of your party members, and I’ll track down as many of their family members as I can!”

“I couldn’t possibly ask that much of you!” I immediately rejected the idea, “Besides, I’m the one who was in the dungeon with her.”

With a sizzle, the air around the doctor switched gears from that of confidence to a looming terror. “And I’m her sister.”

“A-Ah, right…”

“In any case,” She added, “I’m gonna be visiting them no matter what. It’s my duty, as a family member, to do so. So having you do the same thing as me will only hurt those poor family members twice.”

Right, she’s completely right. I guess I got a bit too conceited with my promises. Actually, I don’t think I could even pull off such a lifelong side quest, given how many quests I’m on currently, so I’m definitely in the wrong if I don’t let her do this for me.

“Thank you very much.” I bowed deeply, confusing Nelly and Cecily, “A-Ah! That was just…!”

“Pfft!” The doctor chuckled, “You a friend of that wide-eyed kid or something?”

“You’ve met Issei!?” I marveled at how small the world actually is.

“Looks like the more time we spend talking to each other, the more similarities pop up between us, eh?” She explained, “Yeah, that kid and his party member were here a couple of years ago. The poor girl, having to deal with a guy like that all the time…”

“Issei’s with a girl?” I furrowed my brows, “Actually wait, did he tell you where they went next?”

“Well, they only stayed for a while after hiding from the Selzion church. That being said, they appeared to be going from Meridia to the east. I remembered the kid vividly mostly because of his goal to visit every World Wonder, so I imagine given his direction that he’s probably somewhere in Simpleton by now.”

Ah, looks like the church is a pain in everyone’s ass.

***

Walking around town after waving the doctor goodbye, I couldn’t help but notice that my eyes were getting drawn in to all sorts of food stands. I knew that the last few days were quite eventful, but for me to get so hungry that I’d start imagining an Arthur’s over there is quite something.

“Ah, they built an Arthur’s here as well?” Cecily nonchalantly pointed to the bright red building I was looking at, “Why don’t we go check it out?”

“Eh?! Wait, it’s really there!” I couldn’t believe my eyes, “But wait, why are you being so calm about this?!”

“Hm?” She tilted her head, “I mean, Anna did tell me that they had plans to extend the brand worldwide. Heck, I even helped her pick out the staff for each of the potential places.”

Since when were Cecily and Anna such good friends?! Actually, that makes sense, now that I think about it, since she did spend quite a lot of time under their care. After so much time spent constantly tending to Nelly’s needs, I could certainly see her getting bored and just nonchalantly helping the struggling Anna without even breaking a sweat. Yeah, that’s definitely how it went, I’m sure of it.

“So who’s in this one?” I asked, expecting to hear a familiar name.

“No one of interest.” She shook her head, “If I recall, the manager of this place is some guy named Larry. He was apparently a newbie in Melgam, but he quickly rose up the ranks, so he was promoted to manager in just a couple of months.”

Larry, eh? Then let’s check him out, see how he’s been performing. I mean, he’s the manager of my friends’ family restaurant chain, so I wouldn’t want him to be some slacker, y’know?

“Good day, customers!” A scrawny guy around the same age as me greeted us near the entrance, “Oh, and who is this fair princess that has blessed us with her presence?”

Looking at Nelly as he praised her overwhelming cuteness, she was a bit shy about the sudden attention, so she hid behind her mom’s leg. Ironic, given that that action only made her more cute.

“Go on, introduce yourself.” Cecily gave her a gentle nudge and a reaffirming tone, “It’s alright.”

“U-Um…” Nelly couldn’t look the kind manager in the face, “I-I’m Nelly Gwimheawt. Nice to m-meet you!”

“How nice!” He clapped his hands, “Alright then, Gwimheawts, please take your seat over there so that the waiter may take your order!”

He was obviously taking a jab at Nelly’s speech impediment, but he did it in a jokey, non-serious way, so we obviously found no offense in him purposefully getting our family name wrong. That being said, we seated ourselves as a slightly nervous girl took our order.

“G-Good day, dear customers!” She bit he tongue, “M-My name is Jackie, may I take you order?”

“I’ll have a…” I looked at the menu and saw something I recognized, “I’ll have the Choco-Banana Cake!”

“Really, skipping to dessert already?” Cecily chuckled.

“I can’t help it! It’s my mom’s recipe, I just gotta see if they preserved the right taste!”

Anxiously chuckling after realizing how much pressure she’s under, Jackie decided to write down three big exclamation marks right next to my order before taking Nelly’s and Cecily’s. Looks like that’s her way of signifying high importance.

“So Lune,” Cecily reclined in her seat after the waitress made her way to the kitchen, “You never did talk about your parents before, and I’m kind of curious about it myself.”

“What awe Gwandma and gwandpa like?” Nelly also asked.

Argh, how cute! But yeah, now that I think about it, those two are technically grandparents now that Nelly’s in the picture. That being said, Cecily’s right, I haven’t really talked all that much about them at all.

“They’re…” I tried to think of a proper phrase for it, “Products of their time.”

“Products of… what?”

“Ah, I mean – I’ve told you before, but my old man’s a butcher, and my mom’s a stay-at-home housewife.” I explained, “They’re very traditional, they don’t like change.”

“Butchew?” Nelly questioned, “What does that mean?”

“It means he cuts up dead animals for a living.”

“Uwah!” She whimpered, “Scawy…!”

“Lune, don’t go badmouthing your father. If he ever meets his granddaughter, he probably wouldn’t want for Nelly to be afraid of him.” Cecily reprimanded me before turning to Nelly, “Listen, Nel. Your dad’s just blowing things out of proportion like always. A butcher doesn’t do that without reason. Actually, it’s precisely because of people like your grandfather that you can eat that hamburger you just ordered!”

Coming out of the kitchen with our order was a young boyish character with an equally young face. With a peppy and cheery expression to him, he elegantly yet just as quickly put the trays on our table before expectantly waiting for me to take a bite out of my cake.

“Where’s that other waiter?” I tossed him a confused gaze, “Jackie, was it?”

“Ah, she’s on her break now. I’m Bennett, the guy that’s filling in for her. That being said, don’t mind me and dig in! I wanna know your opinions on our food!”

Slowly and carefully taking a bite out of my fork with the utmost care, I had savored the taste, carefully examined it. And the end result?

“Magnificent!” I had stars in my eyes, “It’s just like my mother used to make it!”

“Thank you sir!” Bennett smiled a wholesome grin, “My previous manager made sure to drill the correct recipe for this specific dessert into us no matter what. He said something about it being his benefactor’s family recipe or something like that.”

After saying that, he gave me a wry smile and a little wink. Looks like this guy’s keener than he looks. Heh, Carl taught him well…

That being said, we all turned to Nelly, who hadn’t even taken a bite out of her burger this entire time and asked what was up. Looking a bit uneasy, she looked up at us and apologized, “I’m sowwy. I don’t think I can eat this aftew thinking about the cow that it came fwom…”

Dammit, now look what I did…