After Hilda and I got scolded by the princess and Julia, we had to sit separately… of course… I was sitting beside Isak. 

He…

He had fallen asleep… like, whatever… he always falls asleep during trips…. I glanced at Hilda, who was squished between Princess Luna and Julia. They seemed to get along well as Julia was leaning on Hilda’s shoulder. 

The two of them were sleeping rather peacefully despite their small quarrel a little earlier…  and Princess Luna was elegantly reading a rather thick book—our eyes met for a moment before she got up. Suddenly I found myself beside Hilda…. 

Huh…? Did she just teleport me? 

I was in utter disbelief… I thought that Mister Hilos was the only one capable of such magic…. 

This Princess really is something special…. 

Then… I felt a thud on my shoulder. Isak was leaning onto me as he too had been teleported…. 

Princess Luna gently smiled, saying, “I apologise that I split you up earlier. But… it was to appease the other guests. You were making quite the scene after all.” 

Feeling ashamed, I lowered my head and apologised once again, “Yeah… sorry about that….” 

“Well… if you’ve reflected, then do keep that in mind from now on.” 

“...Yes, Princess Luna….” 

She smiled and said, “Good. Well then… tell Al in the other cart that I’ll head out for a bit.” 

…heading out? Where? 

Like… we’re in the middle of a train ride… I think we’re currently on floor 2? Isn’t it like… 20 more minutes until we arrive at floor 10? 

Floor 10 is also called District 10. Well… fitting, really. It’s an academic floor with academies. They range from combat to research, and… we’ll be staying there for a while…. 

After we have a celebration at the beach, we’ll have a small-size practice expedition with one of the combat academies. 

So… what business does she have on floor 2? 

But before I could ask, she’d disappeared. 

‘...wow… an ability like that sure is convenient….’ I quietly uttered to myself. 

….I don’t really like to be repositioned like that… it’s just confusing, but… if this was in combat. I’d feel helpless. 

…wait a minute…. 

If she can just teleport like that, why isn’t she telling Brother Al? Y’know… that she had something to do? 

I don’t get these people sometimes…. 

And while I was in deep throughs, Isak woke up, letting out a ‘yawn’. He looked around, confused. He turned to me, asking, “Didin’t we sit over there?” 

“We did. Well, don’t think too much,” I responded. 

He suspiciously looked at me, saying, “Hmm~ well, I guess I won’t then.” 

“...Right,” I mumbled. 

“Hm? What’s up? what are you mumbling about?” Isak curiously asked.

I let out a small sigh, but. Whatever… “...Can you keep an eye on Julia and Hilda? They’re quietly sleeping. I trust that you won’t ogle them, okay?” 

Isak shrugged, “Meh, I won’t. But… what are you going to do?” He inquired. 

“I have something to talk about with Brother Al,” I briefly replied. 

Isak's mouth curved upwards, and a smirk appeared on his face. “...Hmm~. And you want me to stay behind to watch over your girls~.” 

“Sh-shut up!” I retorted, “It’s not like that!”

But this made him grin from ear to ear instead, “Look at you, blushing and all!” 

However… right after saying that, he seemed so empty inside and looked kind of depressed. 

…I know that Isak is a cheerful guy. But… he seem really down recently. And I think this otherworld thing has been getting to him. 

I honestly can’t blame him, but… what are we going to do? Cry about it? Feel more miserable? 

Yeah… right, not a chance. 

I think that Isak thinks along these lines as well, but sometimes… he… I… we both contemplate whether to do. We all do. But… damn, does it make me sad seeing him like that. 

Well… he just woke up. So… he probably had a bad dream…. 

“Anyways… I can see if you do anything funny.” I smugly reminded him, trying to get rid of this awkward mood. 

Isak was surprised for a moment but clicked his tongue, “Tch… that’s cheating! What a cheat ability!” 

“Njyihihi~ praise me more~!” 

“....screw you!” 

Crossing my arms and huffing, I blatantly stared at him, “Hmpf! You are the one to talk to! Let me win for once! Like… if you talk about being op, then you’ve knocked me out cold several times!”  

Isak shrugged, saying, “This is this, that is that, ya know?”  

I let out a sigh, “Haa… well, I’ll be back soon!” I said, waving off with a smile. 

“Sure,” Isak replied as he began to lean back on his seat, staring out the window. 

— :::: — 

As I was searching for Brother Al and asking the others. I came to find out that he was in the cart where they have a cafeteria—of course, he’d be there….

But as the doors slid open to the cart ahead, I saw girls hitting on someone. He seemed trou—wait… that’s Brother Al!?

Well… it’s understandable… but like… he has a fiance, you know?  

Then… our eyes met. 

…crap, I got a bad feeling about this! 

“Aska, what took you so long?” He asked as he walked toward me, ignoring the girls who were hitting on him. 

….at this point… I'm used to being a scapegoat…. ‘sob’, T-T…. 

But this also resulted in me being stared down by those scary-looking ladies…. 

Well, I decided to play along and ignored the painful stares. So… I latched onto his arm, saying, “Sorry, sorry! I’ll make it up to you~!”

Though, what I really meant to say was, ‘Dude!? If you ignore them like that, of course, they’ll try harder!’ 

He apologetically averted his eyes. And uttered, “I did say I have a fiance….”

So he did tell them! What the hell! That’s actually scary! 

…wait a minute….