The bright, orange hair fox-girl approached with a nervous expression, stopping just before she would run into me. She stood there for a second, looking like she had something to say, but she wasn't actually talking, so I took the initiative.

“Setsuna? What's the matter?”

“It's- um. There's something I need to talk to you about.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“...”

From my brief experiences with her, she was usually much more… forward with what she did and said, but now she's more like a bashful middle-school girl with all of the hesitation in her speech. She kept opening her mouth, but no more words were coming out, and she would also glance over at Luci for a few seconds between these occurrences. Realizing this was going nowhere, I had to interrupt whatever this was she was doing.

“So, do you want to meet my teammates or something?”

“...Yes.”

So it really was that simple? Strange… I took a step back, letting my teammates step forward to introduce themselves individually.

“I'm Lucindell Aerostil Regali-Pristella, first princess of the Pristella Kingdom. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

“Rickard Lighthand. Don't worry, I'm not any special like her.”

“I'm Setsuna R- Just Setsuna, no surname. I'm the chief of.the United Kitsune Tribes and the head of the foxkin territory.”

No surname? If I remember correctly, I believe Kino once said they consider themselves sisters-in-law, even to the point that Setsuna took the family name of Ryuto… I decided it probably couldn't hurt to bring that up, since I'm a little curious why she would stop that. 

“Why do you say you don't have a surname? I thought-”

“Beastfolk aren't like other groups of people. We're neither like humans and elves who pass down family names, nor like the dwarves who gain theirs from their achievements. The only way one of us would have one is if we marry into a family and choose to take their name.”

“I see, but-”

She interrupted me again, but this time with a glare, clearly not wanting to continue the topic.

“I have no surname. That's all there is to it.”

“Alright, then. Was there anything else you wanted?”

“Yes, um…” She went straight back to being the nervous wreck she was when she first approached. I'm guessing she probably didn't come for introductions at all. She glanced at my teammates before looking back at me. “I want to talk to you about something… preferably alone…”

I looked to Luci to see what she thought, and she shrugged in an ‘I'm fine with it’ sort of manner.

“We'll meet up later, ‘kay?”

“Sounds good.”

The two of them shortly left the square, splitting up and heading in different directions. Different directions… When Luci said we'll meet later, did she maybe mean ‘we’ as in the two of us, and not the whole party? That would mean she just asked me on a date, wouldn't it? I could very well be wrong, but I guess that's something to look forward to.

I redirected my attention back to Setsuna, who was visibly anxious about whatever she wanted to talk about.

“So, uh, it's about what I said to you earlier, while we were still coming back…”

“Ah, that. What about it?”

What was it that she said again? Something along the lines of having to earn any relationship I wanted with her? 

“Well, um. I realize that probably came off as rude and obnoxious to you, so… Sorry. If it was hurtful or anything, I mean. You could probably tell, but I wasn't in a very good mental state at the time. Really, I didn't even know what I was saying then, so I hope you can find it in you to forgive me…”

What is she going on about… 

“I didn't think it was hurtful or anything at all. In fact, you're the one who just said you weren't thinking clearly, so it wasn't even intentional. I'm not going to forgive anything because there's nothing to be forgiven. Besides, I do somewhat agree with what you said, so there's no harm done either way.”

“Y- you agree with it? Well, I don't. Anyway, the other thing. It kinda ties into that too. Basically, I was… doubtful, earlier, that you were really Ren. Now though, if it somehow wasn't earlier, it's plainly clear that you are.”

She paused, and I nodded for her to continue.

“So. You know how we were before, or- nevermind. You don't, but you could probably infer so I'm not going to spell it out too much. Before, we made plans to go to the twin-sun festival in Pristella once we returned. The way things were looking, I bet you would've proposed to me there, and we'd have gotten married.”

She took a moment and looked to the sky to reminisce.

“That's the issue, though. You… died. And that never happened.”

She paused again, likely having a hard time finding the right words.

“Here. I'll get to the point. As it is right now, my only love is for the ‘Ren’ part of you, not the ‘Mira’. I- I at least want to try, though. Maybe, given a little time, that'll change and things will be just like they used to. Especially if you can get your memories back. What do you say? Do you want to give it- give us another chance?”

She's… confessing. Er, not really, she said she didn't really have feelings for the current me, but she's asking me basically the same thing Luci asked me before, only a short five minutes after I finally gave said elf my answer. An answer I now feel bad about. Though I don't regret it, nor will I change it, it's probably going to really hurt her to hear it. It wouldn't usually be such a big deal if I really did just meet her for the first time, but to be rejected by someone you were probably going to marry? That's gotta hurt. A lot.

“I- I'm really sorry, but I already have somebody. All this is really complicated, almost too much for me. If I could remember our past, things might be different, but I can't. I'll, uh… I'll keep you in mind, but I really do love Luci, so it probably wouldn't work out. I'm sorry.”

As expected, she didn't take the rejection too well. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, lowering her head to face the ground. After a moment, she loosened her hands and quietly spoke, doing so without meeting my eyes.

“I see. You can talk to somebody else about staying in the village. We have nothing more to talk about. Goodbye.”

Without letting me have another word, she marched off to the house on the side of the square where I met Kino just the day before. She disappeared through the door, leaving a small, faint trail of tears behind her. I really hope I didn't hurt her too much, but it all had to be said.

“Oof. You really did a number on her. What did you even say to get her like that?”

I heard footsteps behind me, accompanied by a startling voice.

“Oh! Miss Freiya. You surprised me. And, I'd prefer to keep the contents of our conversation private, thank you.”

“Very well. I can see it must not have been very fun for you either. On another note, I'd like to extend an invitation for you to stay here in the village for a while, if Setsuna hasn't already.”

“She did tell me to talk to someone about that, so I take it you can help me with that?”

“Mhm. Come with me.” 

In a few short minutes, she led me to a decently sized building just down the street from the central plaza. 

“Right. Here we are, the Rising Gear of Revenge. This place is our village's finest - and only - inn. Since we rarely ever receive visitors in our humble town, this place mostly serves as a tavern, and is quite popular amongst the younger guardsmen. It only has two rooms though, and both are taken by your teammates. You'll have to share with one of them.”

It's already obvious who I'll room with, and without any other distractions as we entered the simple establishment, I was clearly going to ask about the strange name.

“So, what's the name about anyway?”

“I've never really known myself, actually. The owner tried explaining it to me, but all I really got was that it had something to do with a guy named… Gideo Kojimo? I think? Anyway, let's head to the rooms.” 

There wasn't even a second floor, the two rooms were simply in a small corridor in the back. 

“So, like I said, two options. Room ‘Arms Strong’, where Sir Rickard is staying, and room ‘Jet Stream’, with young Dell. Which will it be?”

“I'll stay with Luci, obviously.”

“Then I'll be seeing myself out. Take care.”

“You too.”

I waved goodbye to Freiya as she left, then I turned and knocked on the door to Luci's room. Only a few seconds later, the door opened, and I was greeted by my cheerful elf friend. Or, maybe girlfriend would be more appropriate now? Either way, she wasted no time ushering me through the door.

“I thought that might've been you talking out here. You came back pretty quickly- I thought that'd take longer.”

She closed the door behind me as I made my way over to the bed to sit down.

“What did she end up saying? If you're willing to share.”

She sat down next to me and I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her close and enjoying her warmth.

“Well, it's a little awkward. Basically, when I told you that I wanted to be with you, I had only really done so then because Setsuna pretty much said that any relationship we had in the past doesn't really matter anymore. Well, when she came and talked to me just now, she said that she didn't really mean it, and she wasn't even conscious of what she said at the time. She… Well, she told me she wanted another chance- to try building a relationship with me again.”

Luci didn't seem very surprised, almost like she had already considered the possibility. Regardless, she didn't look too happy about it.

“What did you tell her then?”

“I told her I already had you. Besides, she said she didn't have any feelings for the current me, and I'm not interested in her either, so the only sensible thing to do was say no. Though, while I believed her when she said she didn't love me, there were clearly still feelings for Ren, and I ended up making her cry…”

I did still feel really bad about that, and the only thing that could fix that would probably be to confront the woman in question again, but Luci tried to cheer me up anyway with a few soft pats on the back.

“It might seem selfish of me to say this, but that was probably for the best. Any relationship where the love is only one-sided will only end with both parties suffering. Even worse if neither have real feelings. I doubt anything between you two would have worked out in the long run.”

“Right. Sounds like you're experienced. Speaking of which… I am your first girlfriend, right? I feel like we should get that out of the way now.”

“Oh, yeah. I've never been with anybody before, I've just read a lot of romance novels growing up. My family could afford them after all… I'd ask you the same thing, by the way, but you know just as much as I do, so it'd be pretty worthless. Anyway, what do you want to do now?”

She leaned in closer, resting her head on my shoulder and slowing her eyes with a content smile.

“Personally, I kind of just want to stay like this for a bit longer. If you're fine with it, we could also find a place to eat after we're done.”

“Heh, does it look like I'm not fine with this? You of all people should know how long I've been waiting for you to hold me like this.”

Not another word was spoken from that point on. We wouldn't know until we were done, but we would sit there in silence, holding each other for nearly two hours.