“Lune, must I really be here?” Cecily said as she followed me through the capital of Montes, Bordeaux.

“There’s no helping it, sorry for putting you in an uncomfortable position, but please bear with it.” I explained, “This is Marina’s home, so I at least want to meet up with her parents and tell them about her. I know it’s gonna be awkward, but sorry, the opportunity presented itself to us, so we shouldn’t ignore it.”

Indeed, we were now on our way to the Dola clinic, one of the most esteemed of clinics in the world. Marina actually comes from a long line of doctors, if you can recall, and since we never actually divorced, that sort of still makes her parents my in-laws.

Incidentally, a random guy showing up on your doorstep with another girl and a daughter in tow, suddenly spouting bullcrap about how he’s your daughter’s husband doesn’t really sound all that believable, does it? Not to mention, I’m gonna be the bearer of bad news once again, just like I was with Genevra’s sister, which I’m really not looking forward to.

That’s also the reason I’m making Cecily and Nelly come with me. I need some support, both for their sakes and mine. Well, there’s that, and also the fact that I can’t just leave them alone. I promised I’d keep them safe, but I couldn’t do a thing if I was separated from them, so that’s why they’re here.

“Ah, this should be the place!” I once again took a look at the town map we bought at a local gift shop, “Man, it really is huge isn’t it? Now I’m kind of getting intimidated, after all…”

“See? Didn’t I tell you it’s a bad idea?” Cecily turned around, “Come on, Nelly, let’s go-!”

“A gdje to?” A man that suddenly popped up behind her coldly replied with a question of his own, “Izgleda kao da tražite Dola kliniku, pa nema vam vajde što ste uopšte došli ako se sada vratite.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” I chuckled, turning Cecily around and pushing her through the front door, “Thank you, kind and random passerby!”

“…” He muttered as we closed the door, “Anytime.”

We were now in the main lobby of the clinic. This is usually also referred to as the waiting room, since this is where patients sit around and wait for their turn. Although, I must say it’s rather empty for a clinic. I guess that’s good though, it means that the Dolas are doing their job well.

“What did that guy outside say?” Cecily yet again worried, “He looked scary…”

“That’s a rude thing to say about someone you’ve never met before!” I reprimanded her, “He was just a random passerby who happened to overhear your needless worries and wanted to give you some courage. Plus, he’s old as balls. What harm could he have caused us?”

“Hehe, old as balls…” Nelly chuckled without understanding the joke, “It’s funny because balls don’t have an age.”

Not those balls, I wanted to explain, but quickly realized Cecily was giving me a nasty glare, as if to say “You’re on thin fucking ice”, so I decided to leave it at that for now. That being said, where is everyone? I’d at least expect someone to be at the counter over there, but no, the entire clinic is completely empty.

“Alright,” The same old man from before approached us from the back, “What do you need?”

“Wah, it’s old as balls guy!” Nelly shouted, surprising us.

“Nelly! Sorry about that, sir-! Wait, you speak Entropic?” Cecily sighed in relief, “Listen, we need to meet up with a Dola, but there’s no one here.”

“I know, today’s a holiday.” He acted as if he didn’t hear Nelly’s words at all, “I just happened to be here at the right place at the right time, so consider yourselves lucky. Now, who’s the one that needs treatment?”

“…Sir?” I looked around with a nervous smile, “We’re looking for a Dola.”

“You’re looking at one right now.” He pointed to himself with the same tired expression as always, “Pleased to meet you, I’m Richard Dola. Now what do you need? Don’t waste my time if it’s nothing important.”

Ooooh… Crap. Richard, I know that name all too well. That’s Marina’s father’s name, she told me herself. Which means… hold on, I needed more time to prepare my heart! Crap, Nelly also called him old as balls, so how the hell am I gonna transition into the topic I wanted to tell him about?!

“…” He waited for me to reply before sighing and turning back, “If it’s nothing important, then don’t go scaring me for no reason.”

“A-Ah, it’s about Marina!” I shouted, making him stop moving for a moment, “I’m…!”

“I don’t care who you are.” He finally turned around before lighting a cigarette, “Tell me more about my daughter, and make it snappy. I don’t like to waste time.”

***

“So she bit the dust, I presume?” He puffed out smoke.

“How did you…?”

“You’re a random stranger who suddenly showed up to my clinic. It doesn’t take a genius to make an educated guess. Besides, puff, if she was alive, she would’ve come here herself.”

“You don’t seem all too fazed by it, though.” Cecily seemed a bit taken aback, “She’s your daughter, so what’s the deal?”

“The moment she left home is when her mother and I stopped caring for her altogether. If she felt she could handle the world by herself, then she was welcome to try. That being said, look where it got her…”

This train of thought infuriated me to no end. To care so little about your daughter, what kind of demon are you? Still, we were the ones intruding on his property, so I had to grit my teeth through it all. Thus, he continued trashing his deceased daughter as if her fate was well within expectations.

“So, how’d she croak? Was it a monster?” He began a morbid guessing game, “Where? In a dungeon, or outside?”

“Mn…”

“Ah, from your reaction just now, I can sense anger. Why is that? I wanna practice reading emotions a bit better!”

“Hrmm…!”

“Lune, calm down!” Cecily grabbed a hold of my hand, “Take a deep breath and tell him everything. I’m sure he’s just too shocked to react on time or something!”

“Ah, your girl’s right, you know?” He threw away the cigarette before stomping it out, “Taking breaths calms the nerves, but I heard counting to ten also works. Try it out, I wanna examine a person’s facial expressions as he slowly loses the anger within him.”

This guy…! Is he not taking me seriously or something? Does he just simply not believe me, because he’s just making quips while puffing that damned cigar! Sigh, no matter. I’ll do as Cecily says and calm down first. I’ll make him cry when I tell him about Marina!

“Marina died around two years ago.” I said, staring him down directly, “She died while we were on our honeymoon. She was shot by my old friend accidentally. She was pregnant at the time, so I lost a wife and child that day.”

“…Is that so?” He didn’t react at all, “You seem to be taking her loss quite well though, lover boy.”

As he said that, he pointed to Cecily and Nelly. Now I get it, this whole time he was testing me. He’s trying to grind my gears on purpose for whatever stupid reason he may have, so he’s pretending to not care, right? Even still, in his eyes, it’s completely normal to not care about his daughter. In his eyes, she ran away from home, got knocked up by some standoffish idiot, and died thanks to him. Even still, that standoffish idiot apparently turned out to be a womanizer, since he immediately switched to plan B and went and got another girl pregnant. That’s how he sees it.

“But wait, if my girl died two years ago, then your girl would have to be younger.” He approached me sinisterly, glancing at Cecily, “So tell me, lover boy, were you really so faithful that you didn’t have a mistress or two?”

“Grr…!” I finally snapped, “Marina’s the mistress here, jackass! But no matter what, I still love her with all my might! I wanted to respect her death my at least telling her family about it, but you still chose to be a coldhearted bastard!”

“Lune, please calm down!” Cecily held me back.

“Daddy! Count to ten!” Nelly repeated the old bastard’s words, only raising my anger levels.

Finally yanking my arm free from Cecily’s grasp for just a second, I immediately used the tension as a spring to deck him straight in the face, sending him tumbling back a couple of meters. His nose immediately began bleeding, and he didn’t respond for a second, making me scared to death that I may have sent him to check up on his daughter permanently, but it appears that wasn’t the case.

“Geez, Rick, annoyed another patient, have you?” An older woman walked up to him from behind us and wiped the blood off, “How many times have I told you not to provoke an angry lion?”

“Ah, I really don’t understand, dear.” He got up with a bit of her help, “I was just making my usual small talk, but the patient still got angry with me…”

“No duh, idiot.” Cecily said, sounding both apologetic and miffed, “That wasn’t small talk, that was full on verbal harassment. Next time learn to communicate properly, because even I got a bit angry after hearing all that.”

“See now, Rick, I told you to practice talking to the patients to alleviate their stress, but you just went ahead and did the opposite. That’s not the way to do it.”

“Right, I’ll mull it over one more time later.” He replied as if he just failed a test or something, “That being said, I was moreso trying to alleviate my own stress after hearing this kid’s news.”

“Ah! There you go again! Don’t call the lad ‘kid’, he’s a spiffing young man! Boys get offended by that, you know? Really now, you’ve a lot to learn before you can reach my level of psychiatry.”

Why is this conversation so odd? This lady suddenly showed up and just shut him down completely, all the while just helping him get back up on his feet and dusting him off. And on top of that, she’s not angry at me for hitting him. Heck, she’s not even angry at him for provoking me, she’s just genuinely disappointed, as a teacher would be towards their student.

“By the way lady, who’re you?” I got surprised after she suddenly put her hand out, requesting a handshake, “Judging by that short conversation between the two of you just now, is it alright if I assume you’re Marina’s mother?”

“Ah, you know of our Marina?” She flipped to a bubbly personality, “Oh, my apologies. I haven’t heard from her ever since she left home, and Rick here doesn’t like it when I talk about her, so I got a bit excited.”

What’s this, old man? You said both you and her mother were assholes who disowned her when she left home, but it turns out you’re just a tsundere father who tried to act tough this whole time? Oh, I just got some ammunition for my next diss session, so you better look forward to it! Actually, this is bad, because this nice lady didn’t hear the news about her daughter passing. Sigh, okay, here I go…

“Oh my!” She suddenly realized while shaking my hand, “You’re missing a finger! And now that I take a good look at you, you’re quite battered up, both physically and mentally. No, no, no, this won’t do! Please, do come inside, I need to run an emergency check up on you this instant!”

“A-Ah, wait! That’s…!” I tried to stop her, but she was oddly forceful in whisking me away to a separate room where we can have a one-on-one conversation.