A couple of days have passed since the day me, little Finn, and the others went over to help Shawn tear down the Shawn's place old structures.

From that day forward, Shawn’s house tearing went pretty smoothly. In less than two days, there was nothing left of the old houses.

On the third day, we even proceeded to tear down the two walls separating the two properties. By then, we could’ve finally gotten to the true housebuilding part of the work, but then, due to a certain unfortunate event, the construction work had to be put on halt.

The thing was that the material that was requested by Shawn from the old man for the construction had more lateness than expected. So until that material is delivered to the propriety, all the construction activities are to remain on standby like it is now.

I was now inside the inn, sitting at a table on my own. The boys weren’t there.

Though the trio were clearly not used or built for this line of work, they were present to help during all those previous days, but the moment they heard that the construction would get a pause, they announced that they would be out for a while. Since then, it’s been a couple of days since they were last sighed around. Shawn, on the other hand, was around. I think he was there this morning, but right now he must be out since I don’t see him around.

Right now the inn was pretty deserted. There was only me, a couple of girls serving the inn, sitting at nearby seats discussing while waiting for a customer to come in, and at the counter were Nia, Madam, and Zaraha, whose mood had greatly improved the moment it was revealed to her what Shawn was up to.

It was impressive to witness how different she was now. She was more radiant than I'd ever seen her before.

To be honest, at first, I was really wondering how someone like her could’ve ended up with someone like Shawn, who, well, is certainly not someone anyone caring for one’s mental state would want to be around, but lately I think I kind of understand, not only how Zaraha but the trio and Elliel as well come to appreciate if not tolerate.

Glancing toward the counter, I saw Madam, Zaraha, and Nia immediately looking away the moment they noticed me looking their way. I do not know what their discussion was all about, but I have the feeling that it had something to do with me.

Still starring at them, I saw Nia throw a sneaky glance here, only to immediately look away once again.

This wouldn’t be the first time lately.

I don’t know what exactly is happening, but I’ve received that kind of reactions pretty frequently as of late.

I think it started the day after I started helping Shawn with his house. I have the impression that she is actively avoiding me. She, lately, sleep in her own room.

The thing is that with how much I was busy with Shawn’s house, I didn’t notice little signal until the construction work was put on hold, well maybe I did, but didn't mind it much. But now that I was left with a lot of free time around her, I finally realize it clearly.

I didn’t know what caused this. Was it something I had done? I wasn’t even sure myself. I just know that it started like that, out of the blue, after that day-no night. Yes, that’s it, that "night".

That night... Well-I do not have many memories left of what happened the moment I started, under the boys' influence and mostly my own volition, to jug out that bottle of alcohol I was offered, but I know that it was after that night, on the next morning that I started getting this kind of reaction from her.

While still thinking about it, I saw Finn descending from the second floor and joining them at the counter, where he was thoroughly inspected by Madam. In the same way, I remember Maa did me while being worried that my "mysterious" sickness would return. And just like I did back then, the little Finn reassured that he was fine.

After a while, Finn approached me.

"Hi, An."

"Hi, Finn. Feeling better?"

"Yes, I feel better now." he smiled, puffing his chest. The truth The reason behind Madam's inspection of him was that two days prior, little Finn was stuck in bed for two days because of a fever.

"Big brother Shawn is?" he asked, looking around.

"I don’t know... but I think he might be at the construction work or somewhere else. Who knows?"

"I see," he said, no even making an effort to hide his disappointment.

"Did you need something from him?"

"No... "I just thought he wasn’t out yet." he said, glancing at the counter, then at the entrance door.

Oh, so that’s what it was.

Reaching for my pocket, I felt the clinking noise of purse full of coins. Lifting it up to show it to him, I asked, "Hey Finn, do you want to go out somewhere?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I’m bored myself, so why not? "

Nodding, he immediately went back to his mother. I followed him and asked her to take Finn out.

"Madam, I would like to go out with Finn for a little while. Can we?"

I was bored without anyone else around, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to vent out my boredom.

Though hesitent at first, Madam, upon looking at our pleading eyes, she accepted nonetheless.

The moment she did Finn stormed upstair to change himself, it was then that I voiced out to Madam a second request,

"There is something else, Madam, can I borrow you Rena too?"

Both a Madam and Nia exchanged eyes for a moment, "Of course." "Madam said with a smile.

Having received Madam's approval with a nod of the head, I finally asked Nia if she would like to go with us too.

Though she was a little bit surprised by my request, having already received Madam's approval, she agreed to come over.

***

A little while after that, Nia, Finn, and I left the inn for, well, wherever we headed to. Suggesting Finn to take us wherever he wanted to go, we followed him to a part of the district I had never been to.

At first, I was wondering where exactly Finn was taking us to, since to be honest, I was expecting to take them somewhere where I could buy them something. Instead, we were taken to a place that, despite having some stalls here and there, was far from being what someone would describe a merkantile quartier, instead it looked more like a old residential quartier. But soon, as we walked through the paved streets and tight alleys of that quartier, I got my answer.

"So this where he wanted to go to."

Somewhere in the inner district, circled by In the middle of the tightly-packed houses was a large rectangular plot of land, which from the little shrapnels and scrambles left of it, seemed to have once been surrounded by what appeared to be a wall.

In total constrast with the old structures surrounding this place, the plot was covered with rampant and invading grass, and in the middle of that unexpected place, a good dozen children were playing cheerfully with a ball. They were barefooted running here and there, apparently with the goal of keeping that thing in midair for the longest time possible using only their legs and their heads.

Finn, glancing at us, inquired, even though it was wordlessly to join them, and in the same fashion, I allowed him to.

Most of the time, starting from the moment I arrived at the inn, I never once saw Finn with other kids his age, to the point that my mind registered him as someone as friendless as I once was, but seeing him join the other children and being warmly welcomed by them, I realised that he wasn’t.

"So he had a friend, huh." I heard Nia murmuring.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking the same thing. " Pointing at a nearby spot for a seat, I added, "Maybe because of our respective history."

Having nothing else to say, she nodded wordlessly as we took our seats.

As we were looking at the children playing, I saw two children who were looking at the ball coming down from the sky, bumping into one another. Not that I was particularly amused by their suffering, but I couldn’t deny that the moment I saw it happen, I wasn’t able to hold in that chuckle I felt surging.

"You look... more cheerful lately?" Nia commented, not so much out of the blue.

"You think?"

"Yes, not only me, but Madam and Zaraha think that too."

"I guess it’s true then. To be honest, I admit that I've lately noticed that I’m feeling better now. Maybe I’m just getting used to what I’m around, to the mood I’m around, but I think I’m feeling better off than I was a few days ago." I confessed.

"That’s—" She hadn’t even started her sentence when we both noticed the ball flying toward us. I wanted to stand to receive it, but Nia did it before I could. It was as if she was waiting for that to happen.

She kicked the ball back to the kids and returned with a big proud smile after the children cheerfully thanked from the distance.

She sat there, having clearly forgotten what she was about to say the moment the ball flew our way.

"Say, Nia."

"Yes?"

"Was it just me or are you avoiding me lately?" I said bluntly, looking straight at her.

"... No." Taken aback by my question, she tried to turn away but realized that it was not a good move, so she stared back, but I could clearly distinguish her gaze running away from me.

I knew there were gentler ways to ask that, but the silence that was taking place and the resulting prompted me to venture that question.

"Really? Or did I do something weird somehow? "

"Yes, really. And no, you didn’t do... anything? "

At that point, it was plain obvious that she was lying, but I didn’t want to insist any further on that part, so instead, I asked, "Then why are you not sleeping--" It was midway through my sentence that I realized how embarrassing what I was about to ask was to utter out loud.

Glancing at Nia, she had an expression that was saying that she understood clearly what I was about to ask, making the thing even more awkward than it already was.

After a short while of awkward silence, she muttered, "The girls,..."

I didn’t hear the rest yet, but I knew that these girls were definitely not referring to either Madam or Zaraha,

"-they said it was innapropriate for a girl to sleep on a boy to whom she was neither married nor fiance’d to."

"So that’s why." I sighed out.

A glance at her face revealed a puzzled expression.

"No, it's just that I was expecting something completely different," I explained, and then asked, "So they told you that, directly? Just like that, out of nowhere? "

She nodded, but she nonethelessly precised, "It’s not like that... We were just discussing when Tania asked about-" It was only then that she realized that she had ratted out the name of the one who said that.

Despite the strange direction that one discussion of theirs took, I was pleased that she was close enough to them for them to comment on it. Madam and Zaraha were great company, but I wanted her to make friends with other people than these two alone. The inn waitress was a good start, but I was afraid that her lack of a clear background would get in the way. It seems I was wrong.

"Did you tell Madam that?"

Her answer was an immediate negative head shake.

I could easily guess why she didn't.

"So what do you think about it? Do you think it’s innapropriate? "

She went silent for a moment before confessing, "I don’t know, it felt weird mostly because they said it was weird. I even came across as avoiding when pretending it was... In truth, I really don’t know. "

"Well, in the end, I think that’s what it is. It’s all up to you now. "

The children's ball flew into the air before landing toward us. We both stood up to send the ball toward them.

"This is a little bit late but I, now, finalky realize that we made this return to the Human Continent, all of this, too much about me, when it was equally about you than it was about me." Instead of sending the ball straight to children, kept it with me and said to Nia, while reaching for her hand,

"Welcome to the Human Continent, Nia welcome to human, now people will judge every single one of your action, but that pretty much all, still it’s pretty much up to you to see for yourself if you’re doing wrong or not, weird or not" before pulling her toward the children and asking, "hey guys, would you mind if me and my friend join in?"

***

A few hours later,

"Was it really you two's first time playing at it?" Finn asked us a few minutes after we parted ways with the other children.

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. It was our first time kicking a ball today, right Rena. "

"Yes, I never did that before, and it was fun."

Still doubting, "I’ve never seen someone that good with the ball like you two. That was impressive, even for grown ups like you two. "

Somewhere, my heart screeched at the sound of being called a grown up, but it was true nonetheless.

"Can you two not tell Mom where we’ve been to?" Finn, out of the blue, requested.

"Huh? Why? "

Slightly hesitant, he nonetheless explained, "She... That place belongs to someone who doesn’t live in the city. Mom doesn’t like it when we play there, but it’s the only place we won’t be scolded for playing ball at.

So that’s what it was.

"Well, I guess we can do that, right Nia?"

She nodded, but having witnessed her accidentally ratting out someone earlier and knowing how she is not so good when it comes to lying, it didn’t come across to me as particularly reassuring.

As we were roaming our way back across the district, we ended up somehow at a marketplace. There, I could finally put the little money I had on me to good use.

As we wandered, buying things here and there, at the corner of the plaza we were in, at a shop selling what seemed to be a tapistry stall, we caught sight of two familiar silhouettes, and so did they.

Waving at us, we approached them.

"Hello, you three. I really didn’t expect to see you three here.

"Hello Shawn, Hello Grandpa Gervais." Finn greeted them, and so we followed, "Good morning, you two." "

It was Shawn and the old shopkeeper named Gervais.

"What were you three doing here? And you Finn, weren’t you supposed to be sick? " Shawn asked.

"I’m fine now and An proposed taking us out, Rena and I."

"Oh, he did, huh?" He said, looking at me with a smug look.

"What?"

"Hum, nothing, nothing." He seemed to be about to remain silent but then as if an idea had suddenly blossomed in his head. He asked, "By the way, were you three doing anything in particular, besides wandering around?"

Feeling that he was about to come up with something out of nowhere again, I asked, "That depends, why are you asking?"

"Don’t take it like this, Pal. I was just asking. You know, curiosity, " he said, flailing his arm around innocently.

I knew very well that it definitely wasn’t that, but since we had nothing in particular to do, I still said,

"Nothing. We were just wandering around."

"Oh, what a coincidence."

"Go ahead with it already."

With a laugh he started, "The thing is that this old man and I were on our way to purchase tapestries for both houses; for the old man's shop and for the Auberge, but since we don’t have a cart with us right now, it would require several returns to be able to deliver all of these entirely. We were sort of, you know, short of hand and since you three don’t-"

"We get it already, so you want us to help you deliver the tapestry you want to buy to the auberge."

"Yes, but actually no."

"What?"

"I want you two to help me, but not to deliver those to the auberge. That’s my job. You two along with the old man will deliver those to his shop."

It didn’t take me long to understand why we were the ones. He chose to send us to the shop. If we were to head back to the Auberge with the stuff he was supposed to carry himself, he would certainly be scolded to death by Madam.

"And you know, I’m sure my beloved Zaraha must miss me dearly already; she’s pregnant you know, so I think it's best if I’m at her side as soon as possible. You know it can happen anytime, the baby and all-"

"Fine," I sighed, "let’s just get this done already."

"As expected of An, I knew I could count on you." He rejoiced.

He and the old man returned to the owner of the shop to bargain about the price, which, apparently, the three of them had already settled upon beforehand.

A few moments later, on our way to the old man's shop, while I was expecting Shawn to send Finn with us, he took Finn with him, leaving only Nia and I to accompany the old man to his shop along with their purchase.

The market we were in was a couple of kilometers away from where his shop was. It took us less than half an hour to reach it.

Upon entering the room, he said, "You two can put it in the corner. I will take care of the rest on my own later on. "

The old man went first to deposit his stack, then I did, and then, once it was Nia’s turn, I noticed that her attention was completely taken by something on the nearby table.

Though I had never seen one before moving to the Edouard Castle, I knew what it was.

It was a typewriter.

"It is still waiting for you to be purchased, young lady. The price even remains the same as back then, but it might raise with the time." said the old man, reassured whilst urging her to buy, like a proper merchant would.

Nia was snapped back to reality by the old man's words.

She went to deposit her share in the corner.

Still thinking about the old man's earlier words, I realised that she had once been here in this shop and apparently wanted to purchase this thing from the old man.

"Not yet, Mister. I don’t have the money yet." She said, "But it's for soon, maybe next time," she added, gently caressing the said typewriter.

At the mention of "money," I realized when exactly was that "back then" was referring to Though I finally knew why she hadn’t purchased that thing yet, I still asked, "Mister, how much is it?"

I didn’t even put forward my intent to purchase when she realized what I was up to and said, "Wait-I wanted to buy it myself." She immediately protested.

The old man immediately said, "If you purchase it right now, I can give you two a very nice price for it."

"But-"

"Come on, at least allow me to buy it for you." I insisted.

"That-"

"Come one on, young lady, why not accept?" He went through some thought for a moment, then added, "I heard from Shawn that you were helping at Philberta Inn. Though I didn’t believe it at first, I am now more than twice presented with evidences. So... Young Lady why not let this gentleman buy it for you? Then with the money you will get that you should have paid to me, you will pay to him instead. " The old man proposed, throwing me a glance that was urging me to hammer the final nail.

"I agree with Mister. Why not do that? We can’t have him keep something that he should sell just because we want to. "

Bombarbed with both of our arguments, she still held some reluctance, but in the end, she did accept.

"Fine, but I’ll pay it back as soon as I get the money," she announced, almost threatningly.

The old man, upon hearing the words he wanted to hear, announced, "Can you two wait a little bit, I have something you might like." He went to the back of his shop to retrieve something, then came back with something he put on the table next to the typewriter.

The thing in question was a briefcase, which he gently opened. Upon opening the thing, the interior was revealed to be very different from what I expected the interior to be.

The inside was customised to, well, fit the typerwriter and and other accessories such as two pairs of bottles of ink, several sets of feathered pens, and several pensil. There was even a place to hold a good hundred stacks of white paper.

The old man gently put the typewriter inside the briefcase.

"I have prepared this for you, young lady. Since I was expecting your return to be earlier than it turned out to be, I was afraid that I wouldn’t make it in time. Butit seems I did get plenty of time to have this be ready. " With these words, he handed the briefcase to Nia.

"Is it really okay for me to have this on top of the typewriter?" Nia asked.

"As long as you pay for what it’s worth." Maybe sensing that his joke was taken too seriously, he immediately rectified, "No, it’s fine, you can have it for free for just the typewriter price."

"Is it really okay?" I too asked, this time.

"Yes, after all, it’s not everyday that I have people of your kind wanting to purchase something from my humble shop."

None of us commented on what he said, but simply thanked him.

To which he simply said, before nonchalently adding, "It would be a large Rivo for your purchase."

***

A while after, Nia and I were back at the inn. We came back to the inn with the newly purchased typewriter. It was still in the afternoon, yet the moment we set foot in, we didn’t remain for long in the restaurant part of the inn. We, after announcing our arrival to Madam, Shawn, and Zaraha, made our way back to our respective rooms, or at least that’s what it should’ve been.

The moment I opened the door to my room, Nia, who was supposed to get in hers to try the newly-purchassed typewriter since it was clear from the moment we brought it that she was excited to try it herself, sneaked in.

"So it is not innapropriate anymore now." I asked teasingly.

"You paid for this, so this is still yours. You paid with your own money, so this should belong in your room. I’m just using it where it should be."

"Well, I suppose you’re right." I said before closing the door behind me.

With a childish expression on her face, she went to the table in the middle of the room, retrieved the typewriter from the briefcase, and I just went to the seat across from the said table.

It took her some time to get everything ready. Soon the clapping sound of the typewriter reverberated, followed by another, then another, again and again. It was only after a while that it stopped.

She looked at me for a short while, then her eyes went back to the keys, only to, after a few minutes of silence, go back to me. Looking at me again, asking, "What do I write?"

I almost fell from my seat upon hearing those words, "Wait, really?"

She just starred blankly at me.

"Weren’t you the one who wanted to write your own story like your father did?" I asked.

"Yes, but I have nothing in mind right now."

"Hum, is that so?" I mumbled teasingly.

Pouting, she said, "You, tell one. I will write for you."

"Eh?"

"Quick, I’m listening."

"I really don’t know what to say. What about you tell just one of those stories you used to narrate to me?"

"No. Those are my father’s. I want to write something that has never been written before. And I want to hear something from you. Besides--"staring straight at me," she said, "Do you really plan to stare at me like, doing nothing?"

"Sigh,... Okay, okay, I give up. Just give me a minute. Does any kind of story do fine? "

"Yes, as long as I have never heard before."

I remember back then, in the Iharana great forest, to pass time, we often did something like that, to exchange each other's stories. In the span of two days together, eventually came the time when we ran out of stories to narrate to one another.

Right now, I clearly remember that while we were no longer in the Iharana Great Forest, the mood was the same. Yes, that’s it. Not much has changed, yet only one story came to mind that I never narrated to her.

"I see, I guess I know one that might interest you."

"Is it someone’s story?"

"Yes, but not in the sense you mean. It is someone’s story, but it was never written by anyone before."

It does not have an end, but would you like to be the first one to write it nonetheless? "

She nodded, so I started narrating that story while Nia was typing it.

"Somewhere in a place known to no humans, a place where lived the gods, or at least two of them, lived a young Demi-God named An... "