“Alright, I think it’s about time we find our little forever home.” I entertained the thought, “Although, it’s not really a forever home if it’s only gonna be serving us a couple of years, but a home’s a home.”

“Got any ideas?” Cecily leisurely walked next to me, “You’re the one who lived in this place for three years, so we’re gonna be counting on you to guide us.”

“Got any specific criteria in mind? Like for example, we should probably find a place close to the market, because it’d make it easier to make grocery runs.”

“Well, there’s that, but we should also think about finding a good neighborhood to live in. No one likes noisy neighbors.”

“I want a place with lots of animals near it!” Nelly suddenly popped up, “And no butchers, please!”

Her little wish wasn’t all that plausible though, because all you’ll really find here are some colorful birds and a stray cat or two. I mean, I guess that’s also fine, but it’s not quite what she has in mind when the word ‘animal’ comes up. Actually…

“Right, should we find Nelly a home tutor? She’s at that age where she should probably learn some basics.”

“About that, I was thinking we be the ones to teach her.” Cecily suggested, “I mean, not to toot our own horns or anything, but we’re both pretty knowledgeable about all kinds of basic stuff. It’d save money, not to mention our combined practical experience would probably teach her more than some dork from Simpleton.”

“Simpleton?” Nelly’s eyes gleamed, “Is Uncle Meil coming over?!”

“Wrong again, princess.” I burst her bubble, “Didn’t we tell you that it’s impossible to meet up with him right now? What if we called him over and he got caught on the way here? That’d be the worst case imaginable, right?”

Gulping just from the thought, Nelly suddenly became all meek, “Oh, alright…”

“Then, do you know of any good real estate in the area?” Cecily once again asked.

“Hmm, I’ve never really thought about it before, since we just sort of rented out the first inn that we happened to come across back then.” I replied, “We weren’t really thinking too much about it. I guess you could say we picked whatever and just made it into a proper home.”

“Is that so…” Cecily seemed distant before shaking the doubt out of her head, “Alright then! Let’s just do that, then! A home isn’t about the house, but the family that inhabits it, after all!”

“Right!”

Thus, we went around searching for all kinds of inns, each one seeming more promising than the last. Indeed, it seems like the fact that we’re in the literal border between the two Centralises is actually helping us with our search, as most if not all of the landlords sort of feel pressured to keep their inns really tidy. No wonder too, as the Grys Estate is just a half an hour walk away, when you think about it.

Speaking of, I’ve heard rumors of a long stretch of road being paved cutting straight through the forest dividing this place and the Estate. I wonder, what ever happened to it? It’d certainly have made Marina’s commute easier if it was built just a couple years earlier…

“Lune?” Cecily snapped her fingers in front of my face, “You there? Look, some guy’s calling out to us, we need you to translate. He looks kind of suspicious.”

Immediately turning around to face this mysterious man, I had immediately began laughing aloud as soon as I recognized the lad. I had kind of expected it to be him too, since he’s the only person in the entire city to have a scary face, despite his rather kind nature. I don’t believe I’ve introduced him to the reader by name yet, but this is Gligorije, the bartender at the bar Issei and I used to frequent.

“Alo!” He called out to me, “Sole! Oj, Sole! Uf, pogriješio sam, izvinjavam se.”

“Haha!” I chuckled, “Ma ne, ja sam, ja sam! Malo sam se promijenio, ali još sam dobri stari Sol!”

Whispering in my ear, I could feel Cecily mutter with a pinch of insecurity, “Is… Is he trouble?”

“Ee, Gligo.” I called him by a familiar nickname, “Možeš pričat entropljanski? Hvala, i izvini.”

“Hm?” He seemed a bit confused, but shrugged it off, “Your family don’t understand Cardinic or something? By the way, Mariabelle, you’re looking a bit different yourself. I’m digging the red hair!”

“Yeah, it’s a long story.” I let Cecily hide behind me, “But this isn’t Mariabelle. She’s my wife, Cecily.”

“And I’m Nelly!” The little girl shot up from underneath me.

“Ah, is that so?” He chuckled, “So things didn’t work out between you two? Phaha!”

Hey now, Gligo. You’re on thin ice, y’know that? Nah, I’m just kidding, I know he’s not saying any of this out of any ill will. He’s actually a really kind soul who always used to keep me occupied during the harder times in my life, when I couldn’t confide in neither Issei nor Marina. That being said, if only he knew the real reason I’m not with Marina…

“So, where’ve you been all this time?” He noted, “Wanna grab a drink for old time’s sake?”

“I’ll pass. I don’t drink anymore.”

“Is that so? Well, glad to hear you’ve found your happiness, then. But still, you should stop by, we have non-alcoholic beverages as well, perfect for a lovely little family like yours.”

Turning to Cecily and Nelly, I saw that they too mellowed out around Gligo, probably because they can now understand that he’s a good person despite his rather towering stature. Thus, we took him up on the offer and entered the bar.

“You see, Sol.” He suddenly rummaged through something in the back before handing me an envelope, “I didn’t actually call you here just to drink. Well, there’s that too, but there’s also this.”

“And what is ‘this’, exactly?” I replied, opening the envelope.

“A letter from your old drinking buddy.” He winked, “Sorry, curiosity got the better of me, so I took a peek in because I didn’t expect you’d ever return. Don’t worry though, it’s nothing bad.”

“Wait, this letter is from Issei?!”

Reading the letter out loud, it basically said that he’s doing fine, and that he’s already visited two out of the six World Wonders, and his next destination as of writing the letter is Abyssus Solis.

“So if he’s already visited two World Wonders, that means that he must’ve gone to Melgorra and visited the Tower of Currents, before going even more south to the dock we arrived from, before making it to Simpleton.” I reasoned.

“You deducted that much so quickly?” Cecily questioned, “What makes you so sure he didn’t go another way?”

“There are only three places he could’ve gone to from that dock – Sulfury, Abyssus Solis and Simpleton. Sulfury is too dangerous, and besides, we would’ve seen him if he was really going that way. And the reason he didn’t go to Abyssus Solis is because that’s his next destination, meaning he can’t have gone there after Cardina.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah, it’s simple logic, really.” I sounded smug, “Now gimme some grape juice, Gligo!”

***

After spending some lovely time with Gligo at the bar, I had actually decided to make good use of his knowledge about all the rumors happening in the town and asked what inns are good contenders to settle down in.

“Isn’t your old inn just perfect, though?” He furrowed a brow, “Good location, close to the plaza…”

“Has a lot of animals?” Nelly repeated her previous wish with a question mark.

“…And has tons of animals.” He hid a wholesome smile as he turned around to ‘grab something from the shelf’, “Really though, that’s the perfect place if it’s vacant. It’s worth checking out, at least.”

Aw geez, how come I didn’t think of that before? The most obvious solution seems to always somehow escape me, despite me priding myself on being a rather logical thinker. Heh, looks like I’ve still got a lot to learn…

“Thanks for the help as always, Gligo.”

“Anytime, friend. So, you planning to stay here permanently?” He asked.

“No, just for a couple of years.” I replied, “But if you’re asking if I’ll come over often, be sure that I’ll swing by as much as I can. This place is really nostalgic, I can’t just not visit it, can I?”

“Oof, a couple years?” He blew air out of his mouth, “Isn’t that practically the same thing as staying here permanently? Actually, what the hell happened to you all this time? Everyone kept saying you died on that honeymoon of yours, but I didn’t believe it for a second.”

“Haha, how so?”

“Well, you’re a strong guy, at least physically speaking. You can endure anything without a single complaint, so I could only stand in doubt as I kept hearing everyone tell me that the Famed Inventor died by the hands of anyone but himself.” He praised, “Oh, but that doesn’t mean I think you’re immortal or anything. Honestly, if people told me you offed yourself on that island, then I’d definitely believe it. Sorry to say this, but you kind of gave off that vibe.”

So wait, are you praising me, or criticizing me? Which is it, make up your mind! Eh, I’m just kidding, of course he’d think that, so I don’t feel angry at all at his remarks, since they’re kind of true. Certainly, back when I was still here, I was in that sort of mindset. A rather nasty mindset that manifested itself as a Purple Iro. I barely got myself out of that difficult period in my life, and I hope I never have to come back there until my hair turns gray!

“Dad, what’s mom drinking?” Nelly suddenly turned to me, “She won’t let me have a sip, and she’s acting really weird!”

“Fueh…” Cecily seemed loopy with her bright red face and a mug of beer in her hand, “No Nel… That’s not for yuuu…”

“Eh, you got drunk from just that much?” I seemed confused, “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drink alcohol, but to think you were such a lightweight all this time.”

“Mnn… Shut up, dear…” She muttered, “And stop calling me pet naems…”

“Who’s calling who pet names now?” I stifled my laughter, “You’re rather honest when you’re drunk. It’s pretty cute.”

“Screw yuuu…” She smiled, “You’re the one that’sh cute… Hehe~…!”

“You’ve found yourself quite the wifey, old pal.” Gligo patted me on the back with a hearty laugh, “Just try to keep this one. I’m not that rude to pry into your past, but you really should treasure your loved ones dearly. Don’t mess this up.”

“Yeah.” I lightly blushed, smiling back at her, “I’ll try my best.”

Laughing a bit more at all the things Cecily’s saying that she’ll surely feel embarrassed about later, we continued having fun and talking about all sorts of old but nostalgic stories. Nelly even tried stealing a sip of beer after her mother finally hit the sack from too much alcohol, but Gligo quickly substituted the beer with some apple juice while she looked away. This little prank of ours was a success, as Nelly thought she had just done something forbidden as she continued safely yet energetically sipping her apple juice.

Yeah, this is the kind of fun we got up to when we were living in this place. It’s definitely special to me, maybe even more so than any other ‘home’ I’ve had in my life, and it’s definitely the place I wanna spend the next couple of years with my family.