“Such a flatterer.” Serashina laughed, clasping her hands. “I’m Ken’s mother. But who are you?”

“A friend at the Academy,” Nick smiled. “I brought his homework. Is he home?”

Serashina’s lips tightened and Aurora did her best to keep her expression neutral and friendly. How had he found her address? Ken had always intended to invite Nick or Tommy over someday… maybe he’d have invited Jared sometime too, but he’d never gotten around to inviting them.

Since making friends at school, their friendships mostly stayed on campus. Although she wasn’t sure of it, his friend’s places were probably in opposite directions, given that they always parted their ways at the gates. Oye and Beppu would walk off together, while Nichols joined them long enough to go up a different street alone.

“Then you’d be Oye, then?” Serashina asked.

“You know me?” Nick blinked before smiling. “Kenneth talks about me?”

“Oh yes,” Serashina nodded, leaning against her doorway. “Since his first day at the academy.” She looked at both of the youths on her doorstep and gestured. “Please come inside. I’m putting on some tea.” She turned and after a moment of hesitation, Nick and Aurora eyed each other. One of his eyebrows raised, but he said nothing. He hadn’t missed the strangeness of the fact that she was here. What might that mean?

Aurora privately cursed the cruelty of fate. Why did his friend have to show up now of all times on his doorstep? Nick gestured in a ‘gentlemanly’ way at Aurora. “You first.”

“Nah… Please go ahead,” Aurora said.

They stared at each other for a long moment and Nickfinally entered the house. Aurora heaved a sigh of relief and briefly considered escape, but firmed her resolve and followed him inside, closing the door behind her.

Their house was western-style, more influenced by American architecture, although there were paper lamps, brightly illuminating the white furniture, a white sofa and comfortable matching chair, both placed around a dark wood coffee table. The living room had a cheery fireplace where one might expect to find a television in most living rooms. On the ceiling, fastened to the ceiling over it was a projector screen, rolled up. One that would mechanically retract at the push of a button. There were tall, verdant, well-cared for plants decorating the spaces between and around the furniture and a bookshelf built into the home between graceful, arched windows, loaded up with books covering assorted scientific subjects that Kenneth sometimes read. There were green curtains pulled to either side with lace and frills.

Her feet were itching to head to her bedroom, but she felt like a stranger in her own home.

Serashina led them through an open arch into the kitchen to where they always had breakfast. Her mother was at the stove, looking the same as she did in the Felicitas’ illusion back in their spaceship. She had started up their stove under their water-filled tea kettle. Quick as her mother was, she had their teapot waiting on its matching tray waiting on the countertop to the side.

“Please have a seat, you two.” Serashina smiled over her shoulder. “The tea shouldn’t be too long.” Turning, she moved away from the stove and gestured graciously.

Oye seated himself first, putting his back to the white-speckled wall that the table was set along. On the far side was a door leading to the rear deck set in a glass wall through which you could see their backyard garden. The rear wall was entirely of glass, affording the family an open view of nature. The deck, also in view, out back wrapped around the house, giving the family open-air places to stretch out on warm days and enjoy the breezes. There were a couple of sakura trees planted in the emerald grass and flower-covered bushes.

Nick gazed out the window for a long moment and murmured appreciatively, “Your home is really beautiful. The garden is amazing.”

“Thank you.” Serashina stood near the table. “I use my spare time and do what I can. I sometimes modify it when the mood and time permits.”

“Very admirable, Mrs. Hoshino.” Nick smiled. “I understand that you’re a geologist?”

“Yes.” Serashina nods. “This overgrown island that seemingly appeared out of nowhere back in the seventies intrigues me to no end. My husband and I are both in love with studying its interesting minerals. Some of them are unique. It’s hard to imagine how they could take form in the absence of any recent volcanic activity.” Her mother smiled. “I could go on forever, but I won’t.”

“I don’t mind.” Nick nodded seriously. “While I’m not going to be a scientist like you, I think it's interesting. We all take this continent for granted.”

Serashina nodded in agreement and the two continued talking about subjects that her mother had drilled into Aurora’s head to the point where she could lecture others on the subject if she cared.

Aurora seated herself, feeling awkward. What should she do now? Pretend that she’d never seen the house? She couldn’t do that. Maybe her best bet was to wait for Nick to finish his tea and muffin and then in private confess to her mother that she was actually Kenneth. But then, why wouldn’t she just take the opportunity to tell Nick at the same time?”

Part of the problem that she had was convincing her parents first off and then everyone at school that she was Kenneth, however… she didn’t see the latter of the two happening. Minds grounded in science weren’t likely to accept strange concepts like someone’s gender and appearance seeming spontaneously changing. The Academy’s staff were far less likely to accept the truth. She had concluded that she HAD to try to convince her parents, but the rest was out of the question.

Not only that, confessing would point fingers at her. The Victims would not remain a secret as the war progressed. Any strange events like someone gender-swapping would implicate her and who knew, maybe it would attract some very unwelcome attention.

What about telling Nick, Jared and Tommy? Aurora was on the fence on the subject. Would they be any more likely to believe?

Interrupting Aurora’s thoughts, Serashina looked at her, “Are you another friend of Ken’s?”

Nick looked at Aurora for a moment and then lifted his pack from his side and unzipping it, removed a stack of papers and pushed them to the center of the table.

“I—” Aurora trailed off, not sure of what to say. “Kind of. Would you mind if we talk in private later?”

Serashina looked at Aurora for a long moment and nodded. “That would be fine. But I must say that I’m curious about why you’re here.” She offered a small laugh and turned to Nick, looking at the stacks of papers. “Ken’s homework, I gather?”

Nick nodded, unable to stop peering at Aurora with his thoughtful expression. “Is he…”

Serashina heaved a sigh when the kettle whistled as it started boiling. With a jerk, she turned, rising from her seat and started making their tea. “I…” Serashina said. “I have no idea where he is right now.”

Aurora suppressed an urge to run over to her mother and comfort her. I’m here, mom!

Serashina was visibly troubled as she poured hot water into the teapot, lifted the pot’s delicate lid and once filled, replaced the lid. She then opened and reached into an above cabinet, fetching down a box where she kept semi-freshly baked muffins. Extracting three of them, she placed them on the tray and turned back to them. There was a glint of light that refracted on a tear in the corner of one of her eyes. She walked to the table and set the tray down and then pulled out a chair, seating herself before starting to distribute muffins.

Aurora sat quietly, her chest aching as her muffin was put in front of her. Her stomach growled, but she waited as her mother started pouring tea into the porcelain cups encircling the teapot.

Oye hesitated only a moment, but took a bite of his muffin and smiled. “Delicious.”

Serashina’s sad expression brightened as she placed his cup in front of Oye. “Thank you. I hope you don’t mind Orange Peking. It pairs well with the muffins, I find,” she murmured as she set Aurora’s cup in front of her. Having finished, Serashina clasped her hands in front of her on the tabletop, keeping her elbows off the table. “Please enjoy yourselves.”

Nick’s expression turned introspective as he quietly ate his muffin, not losing a single crumb in the process. Aurora started nibbling at hers and the uncomfortable silence became protracted. Finally Nick broke the silence, “I’ll help find Ken, Mrs. Hoshino. I promise.”

“Thank you, Oye-kun.” Serashina smiled warmly and wiped the tear that Aurora had noticed after unclasping her hands. “You see… we’ve notified the police of Ken’s disappearance and we haven’t heard anything about it yet. Apparently there are alot of similar cases that have been cropping up lately around Stellaris.” 

“Others have been vanishing?” Nick asked with a shocked expression.

“Yes. Sadly that is the case. I’m not certain of the numbers, but distraught families have been reporting their own missing loved ones. The police are doing what they can to investigate.”

“I see… thank you Mrs. Hoshino.” Nick frowned. “I will do everything I can to find Ken.”

“I appreciate the thought.” Serashina said softly. “... Kenneth meant a lot to you?”

Nick hesitated only a moment before responding with a serious expression. “Yes. He’s a precious friend.”

Aurora clasped her hands and looked down at them, remaining silent. It was touching. Oye cared so much about him. What was she going to do about this? Let her friend worry about her and mourn her apparent death? There had to be some kind of a way to handle this situation that wouldn’t leave her friends grieving for her, let alone her parents.

A confession to the both of them right here and now would just complicate things. If only she could convince her parents… or assuming they refused to believe what she had to say, she could think about what to do about her friends.

Rellawing

The mosquitoes continue to assault me most days. I really need to find a solution. Assu's alcohol + syrup plan didn't work for me. The alcohol evaporated in days and the syrup caught nothing.

My camping trip will most likely be early next month. The weather has been warming these last few days, so for now things are looking good. I hope the days remain cool and the nights somewhat warmer.

The predicted power outage never occurred last week. I guess even a huff and puff could wreck up the infrastructure here in America. XD Kinda makes you think of the old tale of the three pigs and wolf, right?

There's little else really to report except that a friend joined Final Fantasy 14 and I've been guiding her.

Finally, something that might interest readers more, I've been using spare time in between to remaster my third novel, No Face, No Life with my current writing abilities. Please let me know below in comments if you're looking forward to seeing it getting released on Scribblehub.  Being in a novel format, that story isn't serialized over a long time like RLA or Euphonia for example, so it'll most likely be 100,000 max words as it currently is... but the original manuscript had 76 or so chapters, which would ensure 76 or so individual releases over a span of time to ensure some traction, growing readership and the accruing of important stats that indicate the success of a given story. Given that my writing has natural middle points, I split these in half in the last release and doubled the number of releases. I may or may not do that this time around. Back then I hardly had a reputation. I wonder if NF, NL would climb higher after remastering.

When it comes to being a writer on a site like Scribblehub, what most matters most to us, the things that validate us as authors are:
1. The views a story receives.
2. The favorites per chapter.
3. Whether a reader feels motivated to comment or not.
4. The ratings the story gets.

I have generated a new cover for NF, NL, shown below:

I assure you that my somewhat slow progress on remastering this book shouldn't impact my production of new chapters for Radiant Lodestar Aurora. <3

Regards,
Rellawing