Waking up the next morning wasn't really as pleasant as you'd expect. Whilst yeah, we were indoors, the room was still pretty cold due to the fireplace not being in use for a long time. Actually, since Cecily woke up before me to cook breakfast, my first instinct upon waking up was to run up to the stove to heat up.

"Brrr! This blanket didn't do shit." I muttered, "Oh, making soup are we?"

"It's to heat us up." She replied, "I've found the best way to heat up is through the stomach. Be it a hot drink or just some hot food, anything will do better than trying to cover yourself up in blankets."

Glancing at the little blankie I held up close to my body, she giggled to herself at my expense. Obviously, a tall strong soldier like me huddling up to a stovetop with a children's blankie, eagerly waiting for the soup to get made really clashed with the whole tough guy shtick I had going on. Well, she obviously knew me from way before, so it's not like she got disillusioned, but I still felt a bit sad about getting made fun of, so I tossed the blanket back on the sofa and grit my teeth through the chilliness.

"You sure that's the right move?" She asked, "I didn't mean anything bad by what I said, you're free to heat up however you want. Look, even I have my cloak on despite being inside."

"Yeah, but your cloaks look way cooler than my blanket." I tossed back, "Come to think of it, cloaks are practically your staple, so no wonder it feels so natural on you."

"Humu, I'll be sure to get you one for your birthday then." She chuckled as she poured me a cup of warm chicken soup, "Drink up."

Drinking soup from a coffee cup instead of eating it on a plate seemed pretty odd to me, so I asked her for a spoon at least. Apparently, some people like drinking it as if it was some sort of concoction without any utensils at all, but that always sort of grossed me out.

"Why not a plate?" I asked.

"Hm?" She slurped up her cup of soup with glee before smacking her lips and explaining, "It feels nice to hold something warm with your hands as you drink, so I like it better this way."

Yuck, she actually drinks it like this... Well, Edward Saint may be a bit of a picky eater, but I'll be damned if she makes fun of me for a second time this morning! Staring down the cup as if it was the barrel of a gun, I closed my Eyes, put the cup to my lips and chugged. Huh, actually, it's not so bad...

"Ack! Gasp, hyuh! " I choked on the piece of carrot that hid within it, "Fuck, water!"

Panicking upon seeing me make a mess of the kitchen, she quickly took the cup of soup I had placed down on the counter and offered it to me.

"Here! Drink this!" She put it back up to my lips again.

"The fuck are you, gasp, doing!?" I tossed it away, "I'm choking BECAUSE of that, dammit!"

After a few more seconds of choking, she finally realized things were getting a tad dangerous, so she did the only thing that seemed to have made any sense to her. Winding up for a powerful gut punch, she had successfully dislodged the tiny piece of carrot from my throat, albeit at the expense of my stomach. Falling to the ground, I felt like a boxer who just got knocked the fuck out, but just like the wounded boxer, I could see Grim and Carter helping me up before the countdown finished. Cecily is... really fucking strong.

Well, I kind of lost my appetite after that debacle, so I chose to take over soup-cooking duty so that Cecily can happily continue enjoying the rest of her cup on the table whilst I heated myself up next to the stove. Win-win, I guess, although my stomach begs to differ. Really, that punch can kill...

***

After finishing up our meal and getting dressed again, we finally headed to the dock to make our way back to Lichtenstelle. Though, not before Cecily made sure to lock the door. Safety first, no burglaries to be had here!

"You sure you don't want to stop by somewhere to eat?" She inquired with a worried tone, "You barely ate your breakfast at all."

"Come on, Cecily! What are you, my mom?" I rolled my Eyes, "I had a theory about this before, but I guess it really is true that a woman will completely turn into a nagging machine the moment she gives birth."

"Say what?" She smiled with an eery tone to her, "Would you mind repeating that?"

"I'd rather I live to make it to the dock, thank you." I quickly noticed this wasn't the hill to die on, "We still have to report back to Meil and the others, much less complete the plan once all is said and done."

"Meil huh..." Cecily recalled something, "Oh, come to think of it, I never did tell you the whole story between Nelly and him."

"Oh right, there was that whole subplot going on. Mind explaining that? Surely he isn't the type to go for the little ones."

"Oh no, not at all. Banish the thought!" She shook her head as if to defend Meil's reputation, "It seems to be a little childhood crush from Nelly's side. Meil was just kind of nice to her back when they first met in Abyssus Solis, and she apparently took a liking to him. Promised him she'll follow him to Simpleton so they can go to the same university together. Isn't that sweet?"

"Sweet? I mean, yeah, it's a cute thought for a girl of the same age as her crush to have, but don't tell me you're actually condoning her going through with it?" I furrowed my brows, "A tuition in Simpleton costs a small fortune, so maybe you should nip that ideal of hers in the bud before it gets too out of hand."

"Oh, we know it's costly." Cecily replied without skipping a beat, "Grim and I are paying for both of their tuitions. Still, neither one of us took it seriously, it was mostly an inside joke between him and I that Nelly's interest in Meil will one day bear fruit."

"Eh?" I jolted from the surprising revelation.

"What? Obviously, we're not gonna allow for such a romance to blossom."

"No, not that! The other thing!" I raised my brows, "You two are paying for BOTH of their tuitions!? Just where did you get the money to accomplish all that!?"

"The royalties both of us get for our respective fields are enormous, mind you. For me it's ARA and for him it's from his prior job of inventing."

Hold on, there were royalties to being the General of ARA? Then where's my share, dammit! Ugh, that would have made a lot of my problems go away so much quicker! I would have had the money to buy a proposal ring for Anna way sooner, and I could have set up such a grand scene for it too! Dammit, why is it that I get left out of all this? Why am I not in the loop?!

"Sigh, I should ask Jorgen about this later..." I dropped the topic in favor of returning to the previous one, "So does that mean you'll humor Nelly's grand plans?"

"Well, obviously every parent's dream is to have their child enroll in one of Simpleton's Universities, so having Meil accompany her would definitely give us some much needed peace of mind. Of course, now that Lune's out of the picture, she might change her mind or something, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"I see. But what if..." I dared to ask, "What if she actually succeeds and makes him fall for her?"

"Isn't Meil your friend?" She groaned, "Don't go slandering his name and reputation, I highly doubt he's like that."

"Maybe, but if there's one thing I know, it's that he's a massive stickler for the rules." I dug deeper to find out what her thoughts on this are, "The relationship would be completely and morally legal once she turns 17, and that's not all too far from when she'll enroll as a thirteen-year-old."

"Ed, drop it." She pulled me down by my tie, "I'm not in the mood for hypotheticals, especially ones that involve my family and friend. I know you often say things without thinking them through, so I'm being kind here and giving you a warning for now."

Gulping with absolute terror in my Eyes, I shriveled down to the size of an ant, "G-Got it..."

Guess we know where she stands in all this. My curiosity had been fulfilled, but it was way too close for comfort. Maybe I should stick to playing it safe around Cecily from now on, since I did just witness how strong her lethal punches can get. Not to mention, she probably didn't even use 1% of her power, since she had done so to dislodge the foreign object from my throat. Meil, for the love of Prylos and all that is holy, don't you dare lay a finger on Nelly. Otherwise, Cecily will hang me on a cross for jinxing this very outcome!

"And Max and Aaron?" I chose to remain on the same topic, just with a character swap, "You think they'll ever be a thing?"

"You see it too?!" She suddenly got all giddy, "Oh, I knew it! They're sooo gonna end up together! Their dynamic is just so cute, the way they're both kind of conscious around each other!"

"Eh?" I nervously backed away a bit, "N-No, they're not like that, at least for now..."

"Oh, obviously, because the situation forbids it and all." She chalked up the reason behind their current status being complicated was because of the war, "But definitely, once all this is over, I'd really like it if they found happiness together. I really don't mind it when two boys or two girls are a couple."

"That's... progressive." I still felt kind of weirded out by her sheer enthusiasm and enthrallment for this topic, "Say, now that I think about it, you really did love reading those books with gay couples in them, didn't you? Grim told me a long time ago that he peeked into one of them and saw some pretty spicy illustrations of two muscular men."

"T-That has nothing to do with it!" She blushed after being found out, "I just... I just want to see those two being happy is all! Yep, no personal interest in their relationship at all!"

"Uh-huh. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't think it'll happen." I shook my head, "I kind of made things awkward between them by tricking Aaron into confessing his love to Max without either party knowing."

"You what!?" She preemptively raised her fists at me, but calmed down after I hastily explained.

"I-It was just a prank! I meant nothing bad by it!" I weakly raised my arms in a feeble attempt to block the oncoming attack, "Listen, I just wanted to nudge them in the right direction! I approve of the relationship as well!"

"Nudge...? You call that a nudge!?" She raised her voice once again, "You idiot! Love takes time to blossom! It's not something that happens overnight!"

"Well, it kind of did for me and Anna..." My cheeks reddened upon remembering that time we got drunk and ended up sleeping together.

In the end, our love talk ended up being far less lovely than what was originally advertised, with me being left all awkward, and Cecily fuming from having me consecutively piss her off. Boarding the ship with our luggage, we paid the captain for the rental and began sailing to the island. Quietly, mind you, as the ever so loud silence between us made it pretty difficult to converse about anything else.