On another day, while we were eating breakfast as we usually did, I had suddenly gotten an interesting idea. It was something I thought of in a dream I had a couple months back, but I could never find the right moment, not to mention there was all that tension between me and Cecily, so I couldn’t even suggest it. Things are different now though – The relationship between Cecily and I has gotten a lot better, and I feel it’s been enough time that we can do it.

“Hey guys,” I sheepishly suggested, “Would it be alright with you two if we take a little trip?”

“Yeah, sure.” Cecily agreed, happily munching on a piece of bread, “Oh hey, toast me that piece of bread, would ya'?”

"Hm? O-Oh, sure." I obliged, casting Spark on the piece of bread next to me before handing it over, "I guess Iros have their uses apart from combat, huh?"

"You can literally summon whatever you want in the palm of your hand, how did you not think of using Iro Abilities for practical reasons sooner?"

"Not everything." I corrected her, "I need to know the materials used for making them, as well as the process. That's why I can't summon any money, for example."

"Huh." She shrugged, "Well, in any case, I'm down to go on a little trip. Ever since settling down here, we've only really been going to the Grys Estate, but nowhere else. It'd serve as a nice change of pace, so where would you like to go?"

“That’s the thing..." I shriveled back into my seat as I mustered up the strength to say another word, “I wanna go to Lichtenstelle for a bit.”

While Nelly was left confused at the seemingly random destination on the map, Cecily knew all too well what was to be the reason behind our visit. Indeed, that’s the place where Marina’s final resting place is.

“Ah, but you guys don’t have to accompany me if you don’t want to.” I rolled back, “Actually, if you’re against it, Cily, I don’t have to go at all!”

“Why wouldn’t we go?” She sipped her tea calmly, “I’m not that horrible of a person to deny you that much. Plus, isn’t Lichtenstelle the Grimhearts’ Estate ever since you bought it? I wanna see what’s on it, so I don’t mind going there myself.”

“Yeah dad!” Nelly spoke while chewing her food, “I miss going somewhere, it’s gotten too boring just staying in this one place for so long!”

Has it now? Well, I suppose it has been a couple of months since we got ourselves situated here. Actually, we’re nearing another year since settling down in this place. That makes two, right? Geez, it’s as if Nelly’s seventh birthday was just yesterday, but now we’re actually not even half a year away from her eighth! She’s starting to get to that curious age in life where she wants to explore a lot of new things.

By the way, I believe it was a month after her most recent birthday that she had finally converted to a Blue Iro. That was a tremendous day, but it’s not like we weren’t expecting it. Kids would experience their first conversion at around that age, and they usually wouldn’t convert any more than that. If you’re wondering why my case is different, that’s because I’m quite the anomaly, but that’s beside the point.

“Thank you guys so much!” I smiled, “Alright then, we’ll start packing right after breakfast!”

“That fast?!” Cecily jolted.

And so, we had gotten everything set up, but right as we had opened the front door, a surprise came our way. It’s kind of our fault that we hadn’t already expected this, but today is a Saturday, meaning that around this time, Cecily and Elaine would go for their regular walks around town together. Elaine was now standing at the door looking pretty peeved after Cecily supposedly stood her up.

“And where do you think you’re going?” She pouted.

“A-ha!” Cecily scrambled to find the right words, “Elaine, I completely forgot about today’s outing because of the surprise plans!”

“Surprise plans?” Elaine twitched, “You’re not thinking of leaving this place are you? Should I get my husband to come down here?”

Yikes! She’s scary when she’s mad! So she really was still suspicious of us, despite us living here for over a year already! Uhh, what to do, how to get out of this situation with our heads still firmly planted on our shoulders…?!

“Great timing!” Cecily smiled, “Why don’t you guys join us on our little vacation? It’ll be like a joint family outing!”

“Hm?” Elaine seemed confused, “Family… outing?”

“Yeah, we’re going over to Lichtenstelle for a few days, wanna come with?”

“I suppose that’d be a nice change of pace…” Elaine blushed to herself.

This girl’s a real hassle. She’s difficult to get along with one moment, but then she goes ahead and does this the very next! How does Adam deal with her every day? Oh right, he spends all his free time lifting weights and admiring his body…

“I should probably talk to my husband about it first though…” She retreated with a bit of an embarrassed tone, “Apologies for jumping to conclusions.”

“Don’t worry about it!” Cecily gave her a hug, “Seriously, if you and Adam were talking about going off somewhere without letting us know, I’d be really sad too!”

“Cecily!”

“Elaine!”

Yeesh, what’s with this air? There’s being best friends, and then there’s these two, am I right? Look, even Nelly’s kind of off-put by them!

“Alright you two,” I separated them away from each other, “Let’s just go get Adam so that we can finally start the vacation!”

***

After that, it didn’t take a lot of convincing for Adam to agree with us, so after a couple minutes of packing, we had driven to the dock where we then transferred to a ship that was to take us to the island. It was quite tedious to even get here though, as it took us until Monday to even make it to the ship, and another day after that until we had made it to Lichtenstelle.

“Here we are!” I jumped out of the boat, “Phew! It took so long, but we’ve finally made it!”

“Ugh, I forgot how bad Nel was with boat rides…” Cecily slowly made her way down with bags under her eyes and a nauseous Nelly in her arms, "I haven't gotten even a wink of sleep."

“Moooom…” Nelly cried out, “Are we really there? No more boat rides?”

“Nelly, you do realize we’ll only be staying here for a day or two before returning back home, right?” I chuckled.

“What?!” She fell to the ground, “You’re a demon, dad! Making a girl like me go through this much trouble, only a demon would torture someone like this! A demon, I tell you!”

“Now, now, Little Nelly.” Adam teased, “A girl your age mustn’t be too whiny. Just look at how calm and composed my dear Allen is!”

“Uncle Adam, I think Allen’s just dead after such a shaky boat ride…” She shot back a nasty glare.

“De-?!”

“Nelly!” I yelled at her, “That’s not a nice thing to say, no matter what state you’re in! Now, apologize to Adam this instant!”

“Ack!” She slowly approached the worried parent, “Sorry…”

“It’s quite alright. But please, don’t scare me like that anymore. It’s difficult as it is to be worrying about him so much, but I guess I shouldn’t have said what I said either.”

“Come on already!” Cecily piped up, “Stop fighting, we’ve got an island to explore!”

“Ah, before that, there’s one thing I have to do first, if that’s alright.” I uttered.

The others, apart from Adam, immediately realized what’s up, and agreed to not only let me go visit Marina’s burial spot, but also accompany me there and help me clean it.

Elaine was good friends with Marina, seeing as she was one of the most dutiful maids in the Estate, always keeping the place nice and cheery. She’s also kind of the reason why she and her husband are together in a way, so it’s obvious why she’s accompanying me. But when it comes to Cecily, I have no idea why she would go through the trouble, not to mention bring Nelly along with her. She must hate Marina with a burning passion, but she still chose to be there with me as I come visit her grave. I hope she doesn’t do something bad like spit on it or something like that… Oh, and Adam’s probably just being polite as always, since we still haven’t told him that Marina was Mariabelle, and I was Sol.

“This is the place.” I sighed, showing them Marina’s stone casket.

“Why is it above ground?” Cecily asked.

“Ever since we escaped from Sibirus, Marina’s always had a bit of trouble with enclosed spaces.” I explained, “It was her dying wish to not be buried.”

“Oh…”

“Mom, who’s in here?” Nelly then looked up at her mother.

“Ah, erm…” Cecily glanced at me.

Looks like the cat’s out of the bag. Really, we can’t keep hiding it from Nelly anymore, she’s old enough to know the truth. I just hope, even if there’s a one in a million chance, that she won’t come to hate me over this…

“This is where papa’s wife is buried.” I explained, “Have you been practicing your reading? Can you read her name engraved on the tablet here?”

“Ma… Marina… Grimheart.”

The other’s winced at the name. Turning over to me, Adam let out a somewhat disappointed sigh.

“So you went with that name. Geez, egotistical as always, huh? Couldn’t even bury her with her real family name.”

“…You should know by now that we were lawfully wedded, Adam. Grimheart is her real family name now.”

Staring me down for a bit, I could feel the pressure oozing out of his looming glare. Really, what’s got him so pissed off? Is he seriously gonna have a fight with a widower in front of his wife’s grave?

“Y’know, I got a letter from the Famed Inventor around the date that’s marked on this gravestone…” He spoke in a bone chilling manner.

“Wait… Did you…?”

“Don’t take me for a fool, Lune.” He continued, “Do you really think some black hair dye and a thick Hianic accent was enough to fool the King of Cardina? I mean, come on, the letter said that Mariabelle was buried here, after all.”

“Tch.” I clicked my tongue, “So, you figured me out?”

“But of course, Sol.”

This asshole…! Just how long ago did he find out? Speaking of which, the black hair dye and Hianic would suggest that he knew that I was Sol from the very beginning, but that can’t be true. He must be lying just to fuck with me right now, to get under my skin. But I won’t get scared that easily!

“So, what are you gonna do to us now?” I smiled, “I’d rather we don’t make ourselves the enemy of yet another governmental monolith, especially one as grand as yours.”

“Dad…?” Nelly grabbed onto the hem of my shirt, “What’s going on?”

“…” Adam glanced down at her before diffusing, “Sigh, I guess you must’ve had your reasons as well, Grimheart.”

“What’s this? You’re forgiving me so quickly-?”

“Don’t you dare say another word.”

“…”

“Mariabelle was… Sol was supposed to be my best man!” He broke down, “And y’know what he said to me on his wedding day?! He told me he’ll protect Mariabelle, he’ll protect Marina! And look what happened!”

“I…”

“Just shut up.” He composed himself, “Shut up and don’t make the same mistake twice. Most people would agree that a person meets the love of their life only once, but you somehow lucked out with a second chance. I’ll repeat it again to emphasize - Lune Grimheart, don’t fuck this up.”

“…Alright.” I looked down in shame before once again starting over, “Now give me the cleaning supplies, this place is way too overgrown…”

I see, I was provoking Adam. This entire time, from the moment he set his sights on Marina, I was provoking him. First by stealing his first love, leaking his unsent love letter, and then this. Really, I’m a bad friend, but I’m once again saved by the good nature of someone like him, who is willing to overlook this much. How does he do it?

After asking myself that, I glanced over at Elaine, who was holding a sleeping baby Allen in her hands. I see now, the reason he’s forgiving me. The only reason he can stand to see me as a friend is because he has people who are supporting him apart from Marina. The same happened to me, as I was able to pick myself up, despite losing both her and our child that day. It’s the prospect of one day being able to be reunited with Nelly and Cecily that kept me afloat.

“And for that…” I uttered as I cleaned the engraving on Marina’s tombstone, “I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Rest well, for I will never forget you, darling.”