The squadron flies to a clearing in a forest southwest of Mount Ixora. There is a town located there called the town of Fort Terra that is the destination of Callie’s squadron as well as where Ria will part from the party. Mount Ixora is northwest of the city of Marigold. The town of Fort Terra is southwest of Mount Ixora.
The town of Fort Terra is small compared to the city of Marigold but exists in a similar state of decay. The town of Fort Terra is surrounded by neglected walls that have seen plenty of battles, and the entrance gates no longer have any metal bars left to close off the city.
There are two decorative stone sculptures of four-legged monsters with tusks at the entrance gate. A flowing stream runs through the town of Fort Terra that provides easy access to water.
There are only a few maintained buildings in town. There is an apothecary shop, a bathhouse, a brewery, a library, and few homes. The rest of the buildings are left unattended.
Roman finds that the door of one of the abandoned buildings is locked. Roman smashes the doorknob with her warhammer.
- She enters the building with little difficulty and looks around.
A portrait on the wall covered in layers of murky dust greets her. The portrait depicts a couple holding a newborn baby, and an older child is wearing a dress on the side of the mother.
"Pardon my intrusion. A few of my friends stay here from time to time and curiosity got the best of me. I decided to look around."
Roman changes the tone of her voice to pretend as though the people depicted in the portrait were talking back at her. "Oh, so you are a friend of miss... please come in! Make yourself at home."
- "Mighty kind of you."
Roman puts her warhammer down on the floor and walks through a furnished living room with a portrait depicting two maidens, who are likely the grown versions of the children from the last picture.
Roman enters the first room that she sees. There are two beds inside and two portraits each depicting a young girl on the wall.
Roman opens a closet door to find dusty clothing and some toys inside. Roman grabs as many wooden blocks and sculptures of animals as she can in between her arms. She dumps the toys on top of a drawer. Roman stacks the blocks and toys on top of one another into a tall and precariously stacked tower.
She wonders, "When was the last time anybody played with you? When was the last time I played with toys?"
Roman opens a jewelry box sitting on top of the same drawer. She finds cheap semi-precious necklaces and rings inside. She lifts the jewelry out of the box and cleans them with her sleeve. She wears them and takes a look at herself in a mirror.
- She can see the reflection of the portraits in the mirror.
- She states, "You two queens can pull off the look better than I can."
- Roman adorns the wooden sculptures with the jewelry.
- Elsewhere, Gira and Reed stay behind to feed the wyverns.
- Callie and Ria visit a library.
The library has a few elves, demons, and a dragonoid sitting around while they read. A few of them are extra snug laying on mattresses complete with pillows and blankets on the ground. Seems as though they cannot be bothered to clean up the place.
There is a bulky demon with a red exoskeleton, several horns, and a monstrous body type. She is tall and looks as though she could easily break Callie in half if she wanted to.
- The demon gets out of her seat and beckons for Callie.
- "Come, come. I have been waiting weeks for you. I have a present for you, Callie."
- Callie gasps feeling guilty.
- "I didn't get you anything, Canya."
- "I don't want anything. I know that you girls will appreciate my present more than anyone else."
- Canya walks along a bookshelf. She grabs a book with a purple hardcover and Hyacinth flowers on the cover.
- Callie’s heart sinks.
- "Who’s grimoire is that? We travel in groups. Why is there only one?"
- Canya taps her fingers across the cover of the book to call attention to the design.
"No, no. It's not a grimoire. Look closely, there are no segments for mana cores. This is a book that a friend of mine wrote before the end of times."
- "I say friend, but he was more of an acquaintance of mine."
- Canya hands the book to Callie.
- Callie turns the pages peeking at the content.
- "Why does this book look like a grimoire?"
- Callie sees drawings and descriptions of flowers that she has never heard of before.
- "These flowers are pretty, but they look kind of wonky. Are they real flowers?"
Canya explains, "The creator of the grimoires must have wanted to replicate the aesthetic of this book. This is a book that dates back two hundred and fifty years ago. Some of the flowers the book depicts do not grow in this region, and some flowers that grow here might have changed."
- "Can you tell me about the author?"
Canya presents a frightening but innocuous smile. They can imagine the author that wrote the book standing beside Callie.
"The author was a human. They wrote details about the flowers they encountered and asked traveling adventurers if they would spare a moment to describe flowers from far away regions. I am sure that they would be grateful that you have taken an interest in the book."
- Canya can vividly imagine the author bowing. She can vividly imagine the author’s voice.
- Thank you very much for supporting my work.
- Canya closes her eyes to refresh her mind. She represses her memories and then opens her eyes again.
"I did not know the author very well. My biggest regret is that I wish I had spent more time with species with shorter lifespans. I missed out on countless cultures that I will never get to experience. The books left behind and the memories of the long-living species serve as the only proof that short-lived species ever existed to begin with. I realize now that sometimes meaningless chance encounters are the most memorable. That is all I have to say on the matter."
- Callie’s body and mind freeze with her mouth wide open.
- The book has more of a history than Callie was expecting.
- Canya’s story has Callie in a daze where her mind tries to sympathize by causing unnecessary sorrow.
- Canya grabs a hold of Callie’s shoulder and shakes her arm to kick start Callie’s brain.
- Callie shuts the book closed.
"I can respect your reluctance on the subject of the author. Thank you for this present. I will treasure the treasure."
- Callie reaches for her lips realizing that she isn't thinking about what she is about to say.
She notes, "That sounds weird to say aloud, sorry. I am sure that the girls at the academy will enjoy reading this too."
Callie does not have much that she can offer in return. Callie anxiously feels as though she needs to offer something in return—anything no matter how trivial.
Her best offer is: "If you ever want to visit the academy we would be happy to host you. The academy has a library with a large collection of rare books. You can borrow some when you run out of reading materials."
- Canya lifts her arm from Callie’s shoulder.
- "I will visit with my partners sometime in the future. I think that we would all have a fun time together."
- One of the eavesdropping elves in the room laughs at them.
- She asks, "Why are you two so awkward? Why don't you have fun and party right now? You cowards!"
- Elsewhere, Roman enters an apothecary shop holding Quill’s letter.
The apothecary has shelves stocked with a few potions, ingredients, numerous stacked empty crates, and herbs in glass jars. There is a painting of a crew standing at a bay with a ship in the background. The party is made up of a demon, a dragonoid, two elves, and four humans. Though it doesn’t matter much, all the people in the picture—besides the humans—are familiar faces from the town of Fort Terra. Two of the humans depicted in the painting are the parents from the painting Roman saw at the abandoned house earlier, and two of the humans are people that Roman has never seen before.
Roman opens Quill’s letter to take a look at the herbs she wants. Roman identifies a few and gives up halfway.
- She sits down and falls asleep for what feels like an hour until the ring of a bell wakes her up.
- The same dragonoid depicted in the picture enters the shop.
The dragonoid has a humanoid appearance. She has overlapping green scales that partially cover her body, a tail, wings, unkempt black hair, and undefiable yellow eyes.
- The dragonoid explains, "Your friends told me you might have come here. They are busy drinking."
- Roman hands over Quill’s letter and some mana cores.
- The dragonoid dumps the mana cores into a drawer packed to the brim with them.
- The dragonoid reads the letter and doesn't bother searching through the jars.
- "The desired quantity is going to pose a bit of a problem. Cattleya and I can probably prepare the herbs by the time that the caravan arrives for trade."
- The dragonoid returns some of the jars that Roman moved around to their original spot.
Roman silently waits for the dragonoid to leave the shop and follows the dragonoid to the scene of an outdoor party.
There are three wooden barrels with taps on each stacked in a tower. They lay on their round sides in a wooden frame designed to hold them. Mugs are littered about a wooden table. There are bowls of various assorted beans, bread, fruits, oats, seeds, and nuts.
- Some demons are sitting at the table conversing.
Roman joins them and pours herself some fruit wine. The wine is a turquoise color and feels dry to drink. The flavor has a sweet and strong taste of exotic fruits that cannot grow in the climate of Marigold. Roman puts the drink down. The drink is too sweet for her taste.
Callie, Reed, Gira, Ria, Canya, and two elves are standing in a line side by side. They all face the same direction. Their arms are holding one another’s shoulders for balance. They dance out of sync kicking at nothing. They freely sing their own songs as they please.
"Oh, we’d be alright if the wind was in our sails, and we’ll all hang on behind, and we’ll roll the chariot along. We’ll roll the chariot along, and we’ll all hang on behind."
"Weigh, heigh, and up she rises early in the morning. What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning? Put him in the longboat till he's sober."
"There once was a ship that was put to sea, the name of the ship was the Billy of Tea. The winds blew her up, her bow dipped down. Oh, blow, my bully boys, blow”.
“Soon may the Wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum. One day when the tonguing is done, we'll take our leave and go."
- Reed passes out and collapses.
Reed’s fall causes a chain reaction where all the drunkards fall. The more intoxicated drunkards take longer than others to stumble back up on their feet.
- Callie and Gira carry Reed to the table near Roman.
- Callie sits beside Roman and squints at her. Callie rubs her eyes and squints harder.
- Roman pokes Callie’s cheek.
- "Hey there, Callie. How are you feeling?"
- Callie lifts her finger in a wobbling motion raising her finger near Roman’s cheek.
- Callie abruptly pokes Roman’s eye.
- Roman flinches and covers her eye.
- Roman’s lips curl downwards, and her nostril flares outwards.
- Callie winks.
- Callie stretches her arms across the table and rests her head on them before passing out.
Callie wakes up in a bedroom with a mild headache. She feels dizzy and can barely remember the events of yesterday. Her throat is dry and her body feels dehydrated.
- She pours herself a glass of water from a barrel but feels no relief from drinking the water.
- She returns to the bed; unfortunately, she cannot sleep anymore.
Callie quietly leaves the building while others sleep. She visits the library where the rest of the drunkards are feeling miserable from the effects of intoxication.
There is a woodland elf with dark auburn hair and carefree green eyes. She wears an elegant short green gown decorated with a few semi-precious gemstones—not mana cores.
- She is eating some fruits. She is not reading anything.
Callie whispers to her, "Hey, Cattleya. I have a letter with the supplies that Marigold Academy wants to trade for."
Callie hands Cattleya a letter sealed with a plant-based wax seal. Cattleya places the letter on the table without bothering to read it.
- She explains, "I will read it later. I can't focus on anything other than my skull-splitting hangover."
- Callie cringes and holds her head. The sound of Cattleya’s normal tone makes Callie’s headache throb.
- Callie sits at the opposite end of the table to face Cattleya.
She whispers, "Do you have any spare clothing that you would consider selling to me? I think your outfit looks pretty."
Cattleya chokes on her food. She feels as though a small piece of fruit fell down the wrong tube. She is almost certain that a relatively harmless piece of food fell into her lungs. Cattleya coughs uncontrollably.
- Callie rises out of her seat.
- Cattleya gestures for Callie to stop.
- Cattleya regains control of herself and lowers her tone.
"Thank you. It has pockets. This is a traditional Velutina Elf gown that dates back to nearly a thousand years ago."
"I learned from a history book that elves living in Allium used to wear this outfit to a grand celebration called the Festival of Gaia’s Grace."
"The Festival of Gaia’s Grace is a celebration held every year to celebrate bountiful harvests. We used to celebrate the festival on terrible years too in order to lift our spirits and hope that the following year will yield more crops."
"With the occurrence of the tragedy, every year presents a bountiful harvest yielding more crops than anybody can use. We decided to rename the festival as the Festival of Elven Grace when the elven community lost our faith. We still dress up for fun, but we no longer chant prayers."
- Cattleya gets out of her seat and twirls so that Callie can get a better view of the outfit.
- She stops mid-twirl and sits down slowly while holding her head.
- "Ow, ow, ooooh! That was a mistake. I should not have done that."
Cattleya closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths to mitigate her headache. She opens her eyes and lets her hands fall free. She feels only the slightest, negligible amount better.
She boasts, "I made this outfit myself. Added the pockets too. I own a book detailing the trends of elven fashion across the centuries, and it describes how the outfits were made. This is one of a festive set that I have been working on. I can make you one if you want, but I want one of your outfits in return."
- Callie gleams with delight.
"I will bring an outfit when we escort the academy’s caravan. They plan to travel here four weeks after I return to the academy. More details are written in the letter."
Cattleya grabs one of her fruits, and somehow the fruit becomes involved in all of her gestures. Cattleya claps the fruit in delight.
- "I can have your outfit ready by then."
Cattleya offers, "You should visit the city of Allium during the Festival of Elven Grace. The next festival is in eight months. If you want, we can travel together."
"I would like to, but I don't know. My squadron always has endless work to do for Marigold Academy. I feel like I will helplessly fall behind if I do."
- Cattleya dismissively waves her fruit.
"You deliver letters, Callie. Call me crazy but somehow I think that someone can fill in for your job for a little bit. Forget about the academy for a while and take a vacation. They can figure out their own damn problems."
- Cattleya can see that Callie is still wishy-washy about attending the festival.
- "Come with me to my room. You can choose which style of outfit you like the most."
- Cattleya leads to a room at the end of the library and opens the door.
There is a bed inside of the room and two bookshelves full of miscellaneous items including human-sized clothing, chalk, ink, paper, gems, jewelry, knick-knacks, plant-based fabric, gray leather, brass pins, a piece of marked wood, and books.
- Cattleya uses her fruit to point.
"Everything on the left bookshelf belongs to me. Don't touch anything on the right bookshelf. That side belongs to Canya and Chrysan."
- Cattleya devours what remains of her fruit.
She lifts and unfolds a sleeveless green shirt with a few brass pins piercing the garb. She holds the shirt over her body to give Callie an idea of what it looks like.
- "I haven't finished this one yet, but I think this one would complement your figure."
- Cattleya grabs a frilly green blouse.
"This one is a bit of a darker green color, but this dress accentuates hair color and any necklace you can pair with it."
- "I like the one you are wearing more."
- Cattleya runs through a few more articles of clothing that Callie doesn't like.
- Cattleya grabs a book.
- "Ta-da! More options."
- Callie bursts out into laughter.
- "I can see that you like lewd fairies."
- Cattleya blushes.
- She throws the book against the wall in a split-second decision based on panic. She nervously rubs the back of her neck.
- "That's my personal bedtime story of sorts that you weren’t supposed to see."
- Cattleya pretends to laugh along with Callie and scratches the back of her ear.
- She picks up her lewd book, places it back, and grabs a second book with a hardbound of the same color.
- She explains, "This is the book I was trying to show you."
- Callie teases, "Sure, sure. Definitely not the other one."
- Cattleya sits on her bed and motions for Callie to join her.
- Callie and Cattleya each hold one end of the book. Cattleya turns the pages.
- Callie chooses out a breathable outfit with an off-shoulder shirt.
"Do you think that you can make this a little more like the outfit that I am wearing? I like frilly skirts and midriff shirts."
-"Yeah, I can handle that."
Cattleya grabs a bendable measuring stick, and a few moments later writes down Callie’s measurements. She writes her own without needing to measure and hands the paper to Callie.
- Callie asks, "Can you make something for my squadmates?"
"You are asking for too much. I don't want to make so many at once and burn out my passion. I will trade two outfits for two. One for me and one for Chrysan. Your squadron is going to visit again in a few months anyway. By then, I will have two more outfits ready to go."
- Callie finds the plan to be flawless.
- "You should make one for Gira this time around. She loves the color green."
- Elsewhere, Reed wakes up with an urge to vomit that drags her to the bathroom.
Reed takes out a jar of herbal paste, a jar of mint leaves, and a toothbrush. Reed brushes her teeth and tongue, washes her toothbrush, and chews on mint leaves.
- Reed returns to the bedroom where she notices that Callie is gone and the others are asleep.
- Reed silently sits in bed hoping that someone will wake up sometime soon, but they do not.
- Reed’s headache prevents her from falling asleep again and refuses to go away.
- Reed cannot wait around for her partners to wake up forever.
- She gets out of bed and leaves the room.
- Reed leaves the building and enters a library.
- She is happy to find Callie so quickly.
- Reed sits next to her and gives Callie a small kiss on her cheek.
- She asks, "Did you deliver the academy’s letter?"
- Callie kisses Reed’s lips in return.
- Reed's breath has a pleasant smell of fresh mint. The scent makes Callie feel feel self-conscious about her breath.
- Callie answers, "Yeah, I did. We can rest here for a few days before we return to the academy."
- Reed asks, "What are you reading?"
- Callie places the book on the table in between the two of them.
- "A book about flowers gifted to me. Do you want to read with me?"
- Reed grabs one end of the book.
"Yeah, this one is called an Erigeron daisy, more often referred to as a seaside daisy. It grows on beaches, coastal bluffs, and dunes. They are resistant to drought and prefer mild weather."
- Callie reads the next flower once Reed’s turn ends.
"This one is called a Bellis perennis, more often referred to as an everlasting daisy. Unlike the Erigeron daisy, it grows in places with dry soil. It is resistant to drought but prefers mild and sunny weather."
- Another morning comes after a day of recovering from hangovers.
- The party and town residents eat breakfast at the same outdoor table where they drink.
- The dragonoid asks, "Does anyone want to wander with me in the forest? I feel like going for a walk."
- Ria offers, "I’m in the mood for a walk. Gira, do you want to come with me?"
- Gira accepts.
- Reed complains, "If only you were that eager to fight monsters with me."
- Gira pokes Reed’s side by her stomach.
- Gira remarks, "You are not the one moving away from the academy."
- "Make sure to take them somewhere far away, Chrysan. So that we can take a break from them."
- Gira pokes Reed’s side again.
- Reed strikes back,
- "Just kidding, just kidding!"
Reed chooses to stay behind. She doesn't wish to intrude on the little time that the two have left together. Reed knows that Ria and Gira are close friends. Reed is not Ria’s friend. Reed knows that they only share Gira as a mutual friend and respects that boundary.
There are trees several times larger than Chrysan in the forest. The trees grow abundant amounts of nuts and fruit—more than the villagers could ever hope to consume. Mushrooms grow on decaying trees. The ground is a vibrant green color coming from a layer of moss that pops into puffy shrubs and ferns. Red and white Trillium flowers add vibrant colors to the landscape. The sun shines through the foliage nurturing the ecosystem. A stream freely flows splashing and burbling. The stream provides the only audible sound in the tranquil forest. The air carries the harmonious scent of the trees, earth, flowers, and the stream of water into a breath of fresh air.
Chrysan warns, "If you are unfamiliar with the forest, do not eat random berries or fruits: some can be poisonous. Even mushrooms can be harmful. Ask me beforehand."
- Ria asks, "Do you know where any otherworldly gracanwat fruit grows? There weren't any in our breakfast spread."
"They grow in a tree with magenta color leaves deeper in the forest. We are all too lazy to collect them. We just eat fruit that we can find closer to town unless there is a special event such as yesterday’s drinking party."
Sometime later, the trio encounters a monster. The same kind of monster sculpted by the entrance to the city. The eyes of the monster are visible through a thick animal skull-shaped formation with a profound snout and tusks. The monster has a rugged gray exoskeleton with a faint green tone that covers the entirety of the monster's body. The misshapen exoskeleton even bleeds into the monster's joints. The monster is forced to walk on four limbs with stiff and restrained movements.
- The monster watches the trio at a distance from a thicket.
A second and a third identical monster appear. Then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, and an eighth appear. Most of the monsters have exoskeletons with chunks broken off and scars on their exposed flesh. The monsters with scars remain at a distance. Two of the smaller monsters without any scars trod towards the trio of girls.
Gira calls out, "Do you see the armor-type monsters I am looking at? There are more than we should try to fight at once."
- Chrysan stands idly.
"We do not need to fight them all. We call those monsters Prideful Hogs. They know better than to try to fight us. Only the runts try to harass us. They will run away if you break off their armor and wound them. I will deal with one of them. I hope that I can count on the two of you to deal with the other. Or at least stay back."
- Chrysan flies a few inches off the ground and lures one of the hogs to follow her.
- The hog charges directly at her trying to impale Chrysan with its tusks.
- Chrysan simply flies higher than the hog can reach.
- Light green mana starts to form into the shape of an oversized flower bud above the hog.
- Chrysan chants, "Themum!"
The flower bud falls on the hog, and the hog collapses under the weight of the construct. The hog thrashes in an effort to escape from underneath the scatter of petals.
- Chrysan descends from above the hog.
- A red haze forms around her body that condenses into a red sphere in her hand.
- "Oriental Poppy!"
Chrysan gently presses the sphere down against the back of the creature against its exoskeleton. The flesh beneath the exoskeleton forcibly bubbles, mutates, and expands with an alarmingly violent enough force to rupture through the exoskeleton. The mutation does not stop there. The flesh mutates as wildly as the black plague.
Chrysan lops off the mutating flesh with her falchion sword. She carves out the mutating flesh caused by her own spell. She leaves the flesh on the floor to spasm.
- Chrysan stabs the hog.
- "When will you learn? Stop trying this shit!"
- Chrysan stabs the hog again.
"Stop trying to claim territory, show off, or whatever the hell you are trying to accomplish. None of you are any more special than the last!"
- The hog squeals and thrashes against the mana petals until it can free itself.
- Before the hog can escape, Chrysan kicks the exoskeleton in a final act of frustration that deals no damage.
- The defeated hog trots off limping in the direction where the rest of the hogs are waiting.
- Chrysan starts panting and descends back to the floor.
Ria creates a golden color mana ring from which white tentacles sprout around leaving the center of the ring empty.
- "Sea Anemone!"
Green tentacles grab a hold and completely restrain the second rampaging hog. Ria creates a second ring in front of the hog’s face. More tentacles appear to harass the Prideful Hog.
- Gira awkwardly jogs to the hog. She feels drastically outclassed.
- She mutters under her breath, "Oriental Poppy."
- Gira practices the discipline of moderation by only stabbing the Prideful Hog once.
- The second defeated hog returns to its pack.
- The uninjured Prideful Hogs resume grazing on fallen fruits.
- "They don't"—Chrysan pants—"even eat meat."
- Chrysan pants.
- "I've seen them ignore the other monsters they kill."
- Chrysan pants.
- "They eat rotting fruits until they are drunk."
- Gira asks, "Do you need to take a break? I don’t think they are going to attack anymore."
- "Not around these vermin!"
- Chrysan powers through her fatigue until the Prideful Hogs are out of sight.
- The party stops by the forest stream only momentarily for Chrysan and Gira to wash off their weapons.
A little further ahead the trio comes to a complete stop at a tree with magenta color leaves and purple raisin color bark. The tree appears twenty or more feet tall.
- Chrysan flies above to pick gracanwat fruits for Gira and Ria.
The gracanwat fruit is in an otherworldly fruit that is a lilac purple color. A kind of fruit that cannot grow in Marigold’s colder climate. The fruit has a bumpy texture. The fruit has a peel and texture similar to an apple. The peel tastes like a blend of apples and cherries.
The bumps of the fruit have a strong sour lemon taste and the flesh of the fruit has a mellow fig taste that compliments the sourness.
Ria finds that the unusual combination of flavors makes her want to eat more and more fruits. Her mouth waters. The sourness stings her tastebuds with a strong flavor. Her stomach hurts from overeating thanks to her previous meal, yet she cannot help herself from eating more. She eats a second fruit and grabs a third one to eat later.
- Chrysan rests against the gracanwat tree.
- Gira suggests, "We should head back. You seem pretty tired."
Chrysan refuses, "I got ahead of myself when dealing with the boar. I will catch my breath in a moment. There is somewhere I want to visit before we return."
- Ria points in a random direction.
- "I'm going to look around. I will be right back."
- Ria and Gira walk out of earshot.
"It's the final stretch of our journey. Are you sure that you don't want to come with me? You could leave your squadron right now. We can leave for the city of Allium together and live merrily."
- Gira refuses, "I can’t, Ria. Just give me some time to figure some problems out."
Ria asks, "Are you sure that they will be bothered by this? You might be making a bigger issue out of leaving than you think. The closest of friends and even the closest of lovers drift apart. Nothing can prevent that."
Gira explains, "It is not an issue about preventing my squadron from drifting apart. I need to convince them to rewrite their grimoire once"
Ria reasons, "They would find a fourth member if you left. They are accustomed to traveling with four members. There is no need for them to rewrite their grimoire to that extent. An edit as drastic as that is awful to experience."
- Gira shakes her head with the slightest of movement.
"No. They would not. Callie adamantly refuses to include anybody else. I think that the world has a better chance of disappearing than the odds of Callie changing her mind."
"It's not as though I am going to do something so underhanded as rewriting their grimoires behind their backs. I can't escape this dreadful feeling of guilt gnawing at the back of my mind after all we have done behind their backs."
- Ria’s tone of voice switches into something dull and monotone.
"I am tired, Gira. I am tired of waiting. I want to leave this part of my life behind and move on already. I have waited for so long. Whenever I think that I am about to approach some light at the end of the tunnel, I realize that the light is nothing more than some cheap gem shining at the entrance of a dungeon. A dungeon with more tunnels for me to crawl through. Have I not waited long enough? How can you consider their happiness so much and neglect mine? You do not even like them anymore."
- Gira reaches for Ria’s cheek to grasp her undivided attention.
"One year, one final wait, and everything will be over. One year, not a single day more, and I will leave regardless of what my squadron does. I promise that I will work everything out."
- Ria’s heart flutters like a butterfly’s wings while flying through a monsoon.
- Gira locks eyes with Ria. Gira can see the doubt in her eyes.
- Gira releases her hold on Ria’s cheeks. She moves one of her hands to Ria’s chin.
"The wait will end before you know it. In the long run, the wait isn’t going to be memorable. The time that we are going to spend together is going to be memorable."
- Gira’s lips meet Ria’s in an intimate kiss.
- Ria wraps her arms around Gira’s shoulders in a desperate embrace.
- The kiss lasts longer than Gira expects.
- Gira opens her eyes and backs away.
- Ria’s hand moves to the back of Gira’s head to pull her back for more.
- Ria is starving for any form of affection.
- Gira is willing to provide what she is longing for.
- Ria is wonderfully forceful, demanding that Gira’s tongue stays captive to her movement.
- Gira carefully bites Ria’s lips to return the enthusiasm. Gira can feel that the bite came as a welcome surprise.
- Ria and Gira return to Chrysan a moment later.
- Chrysan is no longer desperately panting for air.
- "We still have a ways to go."
The trio follows a forest stream for a while. The trio comes across a well-traveled path that branches off in two directions. Chrysan leads in the direction pointing away from the stream. The sound of rushing water deafens the further they travel. The well-worn path comes to an end at an overgrown graveyard.
The more recent headstones are cluttered with several names etched into every small amount of space available. Chrysan seems to focus on headstones belonging to an older era with single names etched into them. She picks a few flowers growing nearby that she lays on one of them with the name J. M. Stone.
- Ria reads the headstones. She notices that one had lived an incredibly short lifespan.
- Ria feels some sorrow relating their death to the passing of the early generations of Grimoire Girls.
- She asks, "What happened? This one dates before the calamity occurred."
- Chrysan laments, "Their life was cut short by a tragic transportation accident."
"A few months after we first met in high school, he told me that he didn't consider me a friend. He told me that I was an acquaintance because friends were somebody that you have known for years”.
“Who the hell says that directly to the face of another person? That hurt. I was the type of person that wanted to be friends with everyone."
"He already had a best friend. I felt jealous of that at first. As I started hanging out with him, it stopped bothering me."
"During the next few years, we spent time with the same group of friends learning trades, living, eating food, enjoying the same genres of books, and sometimes traveling to nearby places—we did not have the luxury to be able to travel too often at the time."
"One time we were playing a game about a team of six battle monsters set on an island and we were talking about how funny it was that the carnivores could be fed magical beans. I joked that we were severely shortening their lifespan."
"One time he visited his family in foreign lands and brought me a gigantic pack of foreign lollipops as a gift. One time I forced him to lend me money over something trivial without realizing what an asshole I was by forcing that on him. One time I found a bunch of money that somebody lost in the dungeon, and we split the money because he was with me at the time that I found it."
"We didn't even think about trying to find the owner until it was too late. We laughed about how the group of people that entered before us must have dropped it, but we didn't think about that possibility until it was too late. I bought extravagant clothing with my share of the money. I consider the outfit that I bought my lucky outfit."
"One time we were lucky enough to travel to Allium for a festival. Our party stopped at an unfamiliar dungeon along the way. I got unreasonably frightened by the monsters. Without thinking, I pinched the back of his shirt. He turned to look at me, and I thought that he was going to make fun of me. I thought that he was going to tell the group that we were a part of. He didn't. He let me hold onto him, and he didn't tell anyone."
"We bonded over the years and became friends. I even have paintings remaining of this man and everything."
"As life would have it, we started to drift apart because of our branching life paths. I ran into him one day much later in life, and for that day our bond resumed as if nothing happened. We were adults by that point. We understood that's what life entails, and that we were powerless to do anything about that."
"We stopped talking after that encounter again. I was trapped in my own prison of sorts and fighting to escape. I was bitterly biding my time every day and gritting my teeth in the hopes of one day escaping, but the cruel people living in the world were conspiring against me and kept dragging me down."
"I figured that my friend would understand if we stopped talking again and reconnected years or even decades later when I figured out how to escape from my personal version of hell. I figured that because we were young we would have all the time in the world to reconnect."
"We could have redone the trips that I enjoyed so much. We could have talked about our hobbies once more."
"They will never know that I was planning to become a part of their life again. I just needed a little more time and we would have been close friends again."
- Chrysan’s skin flares with bright green mana.
Her hair rises into the air as far as her hair length allows. Her sleeves float in place anchored down by the weight of her limbs.Pebbles, leaves, dirt, Ria, and Gira all experience the same telekinesis effect.
- "Your squadron reminds me of him."
- Chrysan’s telekinesis effect stops.
- The lifted objects fall down.
- Some light sobbing is audible.
- Chrysan wipes her eyes.
Gira already feels exhausted from comforting Ria earlier. Gira is unsure if she should even try with an acquaintance. She saves her breath for someone she cares about.
- Ria is similarly silent. Her vision blurs.
- The trio heads back the way they came in a painfully long and silent trek.
Along the way, they run into the residents of the town of Fort Terra and Gira’s squadron picking fruits. Some carry baskets, some carry fabric, and the rest of them climb the trees.
- Cattleya picks an apple and drops it down from the tree.
- Callie and Reed are waiting below to catch the fruit on a clean white sheet.
- Cattleya waves to them from the top of a tree.
- "Hey, ya!"
- Canya makes her way over to the trio.
- Chrysan leaves without uttering a word.
- Canya wonders, "What’s up with her today?"
Canya informs, "The wyverns laid fresh eggs! We get to make custard tarts today with actual eggs! I ate a whole egg raw this morning with the shell and all."
- Cattleya climbs down from the top of the tree and lands near Canya.
She dramatically exclaims, "Canya, you selfish glutton! If you are going to steal eggs, you better steal some for the rest of us!"
- Cattleya drop-kicks nothing other than the air several feet away from Canya.
- Cattleya drops to the floor and there is a moment where nothing happens.
- Canya independently decides to lean back and lets herself fall backward. Canya jumps back at the last possible second off of her heel.
- Callie laughs.
- Canya gets off the floor.
Cattleya urges, "We better hurry. With the size of our oven, it is going to take at least two hours to bake enough pies for everyone."
Reed chimes in, "We get to eat regional fruit pies! I am going to make a gracanwat fruit pie and top it off with apple slices."
Cattleya states, "If you girls plan to make custard tarts, remember that our pie recipes account for chicken-sized eggs instead of wyvern-sized eggs."
- Reed asks, "What is a chicken and how big are their eggs?"
- Cattleya tilts her neck out of confusion, "Huh?"
- Reed seems equally confused.
- Cattleya makes an ‘ok’ sign with her thumb and index finger.
- "I guess you wouldn't know about them. We need about this much egg yolk."
"Chickens used to be a staple livestock animal. Every single town used to farm them so long as the chickens were able to survive the climate. They lay tiny eggs unlike the behemoth of an egg that a wyvern can lay. Chicken eggs were the standard size for baking desserts for the rest of the world."
"Appearance-wise, imagine a flesh-type animal covered in white feathers similar to Guiding Angel feathers. They have an adult size the same size as a wyvern egg. Chickens have wings like wyverns do. They walk on two thin legs that end in claws. Instead of teeth, they have beaks that they use to peck at the grass, seeds, and people that bother them."
- "Chicken is a name synonymous with cowardness, but do not let that fool you."
"I am a victim of their vicious nature. When I was young, a chicken attacked my cousins and me. We helplessly ran away in fear. The chicken pursued us to the ends of the garden.”
“My cousins mounted a slide on a swing set to escape. They extended their hands to try to save me, but alas there was not enough room for me. My fate was sealed. I gracefully fell to my doom. My tears and agony could not satisfy the chicken’s murderous intent. The chicken pecked at me."
- Reed imagines some sort of an abysmal gremlin.
- Another morning comes.
- Ria and Gira dance for a moment before they depart.
- Ria leads with the Waltz box step.
The Waltz box step is well known for following the pattern of a few simple movements that are repeated to dance around an imaginary square. The dance is a safe bet for a person that doesn't know any other dance. The dance is fancy enough for formal settings and is impressive enough to catch the attention of people who can’t dance in casual settings. A person can teach their dance partner as they go along.
Hand placement: Ria uses her left arm to hold hands with Gira. Ria’s right hand wraps around her partner’s side and holds her partner’s upper back.
Footwork: In the first step, Ria moves her left foot forward. Her body slumps down a bit to make the movement possible—the slump is something that will naturally happen. The position of her left foot can be imaged as the top left corner of the imaginary box that she is dancing around.
- In the second step, Ria moves her right foot forward to match the position of her left leg.
In the third step, Ria then moves her right foot away from her left foot. The position of her right foot can be imagined as the top right corner of the box. Her body rises in this step out of the slump—this will naturally happen.
- On the third step, Ria moves her left leg to the right leg, which closes the distance between her legs.
On the fourth step, Ria takes a step backwards with her right leg. The position of her right foot can be imagined as the bottom right corner of the box. Her body naturally slumps.
- In the fifth step, Ria moves her left leg backwards to match the position of their right leg.
In the sixth step, Ria moves her left leg away from her right leg. Her right leg foot can be imagined as the bottom left corner of the box.
- This final step resets her position to standing straight up. This final step completes the imaginary box.
- With these steps, one loop of the dance is complete.
- The residents of the town of Fort Terra see off Callie’s squadron as they leave.
- Cattleya hands Callie a letter.
- "Here is the list of items we want to trade for."
Cattleya reminds Callie, "Do not forget to clear your schedule for the Festival of Elven Grace. I will be upset if all my effort making clothing goes to waste."
