Chapter 163 – Second Person

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and light. Perhaps it was because I was able to somewhat ‘resolve’ one chain from my past. I never expected that I could do it this way. I finally gained closure. I hope Nicole felt the same way, too.

As I stretched my body in good mood, Fenrir’s voice suddenly resounded in my mind.

I instantly froze, my arms still stretched high up in the air.

“Eeeeh, don’t crush my spirit like that, Fenrir…”

“Hwaaa, what should I do? What should I give Nicole? How should I do it?”

“They’re mostly outdated and hard to find… Besides, me ordering them means that there will be a risk my identity as Lyra will be compromised!!”

“But what can remind her of me…”

While I was thinking and having a mental discussion with Fenrir, a maid arrived to inform me and the others that it was time to get ready. We were going to take a tour around the city the whole day, right after we finished eating breakfast.

I remember having eaten out in Ferne city when I was Reinst, together with Nicole. At that time, she told me about this city’s ‘legendary restaurant’ and a ‘must-eat’ dishes. I wonder if we were going to eat at the same restaurant and the same dishes, or would time change everything?

It didn’t take me long to get ready. I went on to check my younger siblings, Freyr and Freyja to see how they were doing with their preparations.

When we were all ready, we went to the dining room. The Loera family were already sitting on the same chairs and the sizzling hot food was already served on the table.

Being the host sure was rough, they had to be ready before the guests arrived.

“Big Sis Lyra, over here!” Ein said as he waved at me, readying the seat next to him again.

Will I have to sit next to him all the time while we’re here?

When I was contemplating about it, Freyja suddenly stomped her feet and occupied the seat next to Ein. Her cheeks were puffed, she was sulking.

“Hey!” Ein objected.

“You can’t take Lyra-nee away! She’s my big sister!!” Freyja said.

The two of them looked like they were going to fight, so I quickly came up with an idea. I swiftly walked to Nikki—Nicole’s mom—‘s side and she quickly understood what I was trying to do and nodded. I took a seat next to her, just the opposite of Ein.

“There, this should be okay too, right?” I asked.

Ein turned around to see me sitting right in front of him, and with that, the war was avoided.

Freyja was still a bit sulky, but Freyr quickly took a seat next to her and distracted her.

Everyone else didn’t seem to mind the seating arrangements too much and just took a seat quickly.

While we were eating the breakfast, I glanced from time to time at Nicole. She was—how do I describe it?—she seemed serene, I guess. There was a hint of melancholy, but it was apparent that she was happy.

I wanted to ask her about it, but this wasn’t the right place to do that. Heck, wouldn’t it be suspicious if I were to ask her?

Thus, breakfast ended just like that. The food served was superb as expected of the Loera family.

After breakfast, they took us to ride a high-speed carriage that looked small from the outside, but since it was equipped with a dimensional magic, it was as if we entered another carriage when we entered its doors. The ‘room’ inside the carriage was spacious, all of us could fit just fine. It was like a regular living room, to be honest. There were several ‘windows’ here and there, where we could see the scenery outside the carriage.

The price of such carriage was really expensive, and not many families owned them. Operating the carriage also cost a lot, so even though a family might own them, they might only use the carriage seldomly.

It was the perfect carriage for this kind of situation, though. There were many of us and we didn’t want to suddenly teleport to a place. We wanted to take a look around, too.

When it was just me and Nicole, we kinda walked around here and there after arriving at one spot.

We went to the most famous recreation center of the North Riviera: [The Grande Rekreatia]. It’s a very huge recreation center, containing a lot of different entertainment for us. From toys museum to amusement park, to games arcade. Basically, there were things that could entertain you, no matter if you were a child, a teenager, an adult, or an elderly person, you’d be able to have fun at the Grande Rekreatia. That was the biggest attraction of this place.

Since our interests were different, we separated into smaller groups and had fun here and there. The Loera family had their maids and butlers accompanying us too, so there was no need to be afraid of getting lost, of getting in a trouble that required the adults, and so on.

Our so-called groups weren’t permanent, too. We’d sometimes switch members when our next destination didn’t match up with the others. I personally went to the magic attraction show, swordplay show, games arcade, and technology section. I forgot where I took my detour or short visits to. There were teleportation services at every road, so I wasn’t tired from moving from here to there.

Time flew by so fast here. The sun was setting by the time we gathered again.

“Alright, shall we go to take a look around the city before eating outside?” Nicole said.

“I wanna eat the ice cream…,” Leticia said as she looked at the ice cream stall nearby.

“Hmm, you want ice cream?” Nicole bent down and patted Leti’s head.

Leti nodded.

“Leti, you can’t…,” Luca was about to tell Leticia that it wasn’t nice to demand something from your generous host, but Nicole gestured at him to not say anything else.

“I have a favorite ice cream, but it’s not in this place. Why don’t we go there?” Nicole said.

“I can have an ice cream? Yay!” Leti raised both of her hands in happiness.

Thus, all of us returned to Loera family’s luxurious carriage and looked around the town from inside it until the carriage finally stopped.

We stopped at a line of stores, with an ice cream stall opening in front of one of the stores.

This place…

I remember now. Nicole used to brag about her favorite ice cream being the most delicious ice cream in the whole Riviera, and she had taken me there as Reinst.

Since the now Nicole still invited us to try the ice cream here, I guess their taste was still as great as before?

It was way too long ago that I had already forgotten its taste.

“What flavor do you want to get?” Nicole asked.

“I want a strawberry one! With cone, too!” Leti enthusiastically answered.

“…Vanilla stick,” Freyr nodded.

“Chocolate! I’d like a cone, too!” Freyja added.

“I want…”

All of us said the flavor we wanted. If it was a normal person, they’d have trouble remembering all of this, but Nicole just nodded and smiled as if she was remembering that one plus one was two.

Nicole went to order the ice cream, followed by the small children.

Meanwhile, Briar, Valerie, and Dmitria were attracted by an accessory shop close to it. Iris, Harvey, and Carbuncle went to an alchemy store as per Iris’ interest. Clavis, Alt-nii, Luca, and Kiri went to a weapon shop across the store.

As for me… Honestly, I thought they would all wait near the ice cream stall together with Nicole, Freyr, Freyja, Leticia, and Ein, so I kinda followed them. When I turned around to look for the others, they were already walking their separate ways.

I was wondering where I should go to, when a store attracted me. It was right next to the ice cream stall, so I went there and looked at its display.

It was a flower shop. The flowers looked so pretty, so I was attracted to them. When I took a look at them, Domi’s fiancée, Adel’s face, floated in my mind. The scene that I witnessed right before my eyes at Domi’s birthday also replayed.

I wonder how they are doing…?

Though Reinst passed away when Domi was very young and we didn’t have any kind of relationship, he was still my fully related younger brother, and… Mother’s treasure. Of course I would be curious about him, and how he thought of me—of Reinst.

“That is dark red carnation flowers,” Clyde’s voice suddenly resounded from behind me, interrupting my thoughts and causing me to turn around in reflex. I looked up at him in silence, so he continued.

“It symbolizes love,” Clyde continued.

…Thanks, but that wasn’t what I wanted to hear…

“You know about flowers and the flower language, Clyde-san?”

Clyde shook his head, “Just a few. Carnation happens to be one of them. Different color symbolizes different things.”

“I see… Flower language is difficult. Why do you remember carnation, out of all flowers? Roses, jasmines, sunflowers, and others are more popular than them,” I asked.

“…That’s because I used to refer my half-sister as ‘Carnatia’ a lot. At first, it’s to avoid her mother overhearing me talking about her. Then the flower ‘carnation’ grew on me just like that,” Clyde’s eyes looked into the distance in nostalgia. A hint of sadness was visible in that pair of amber eyes that was once the same color of my eyes too.

“…” It was apparent that he hadn’t had his closure… Did Nicole talk with him about what she experienced in the dream world, or…?

Fenrir’s voice interrupted my thoughts again.

Gosh, it’s hard to be immersed in your own thoughts without any disturbance these days!

I obeyed Fenrir’s command as this was indeed the perfect chance to do so. When we were together with the others, I didn’t have the chance to do it.

I lightly pulled on his shirt as I silently planted Fenrir’s mark on him.

Task done successfully! I’m going to talk with you tonight… Clyde.

Clyde noticed me pulling on his shirt, so the light on his eyes returned as he bent down to pat my head.

“You noticed? Sorry, I didn’t mean to impose my burden on you,” Clyde gently smiled.

As considerate as usual, I see.

“Anyway, I only know a little about flowers and their language. My half younger brother knows more about them,” Clyde said.

“Eh, Domi…-san?!” I was so surprised I turned to look at Clyde with my wide eyes.

“Haha, he’s not like the type of someone who’d be concerned with flowers and their language, right? It surprised me when he first got interested in them, too,” Clyde lightly chuckled.

“Why did he…?” I tilted my head.

“Well, he never tells me, but I can guess… maybe. His attraction to flowers and their language started when he was younger, actually. Maybe… around the time he got to see his fiancée more often?” Clyde put his right hand below his chin and said.

Eh… Is it because of Adel’s influence…? Is Domi the kind of someone who’d go that far…?

Judging by his appearance and his almost expressionless face, that was totally… out of character.

I wonder what kind of past he lived after I was gone from the family…?

Suddenly, Nicole clapped her hands and called out, “Children, come back here! Your ice creams are done! Me and the little ones can only hold on to some!”

Clyde and I turned to look at her at the same time.

“Well then, shall we return?” Clyde smiled at me.

I nodded as I followed Clyde back to where Nicole and the others were.

Each of us got our own ice cream, including Clyde and Nicole… the maids and the butlers, too! I guess Nicole really, really loved this ice cream shop the most, huh?

After that, we walked around the town until it was time for dinner. As I expected, Nicole invited us to ‘De Delish Dining’, the ‘legendary restaurant’ of this city. The place was located in the same location, but I could tell that the building had undergone some renovations and it was bigger and more modern than what I remembered it was.

As for the food’s taste… Again, I couldn’t remember how it was before, but I think the food here was delicious! It was worthy of its name as the ‘legendary restaurant’ that Nicole was so proud of. Also, I bet the Loera family was a regular, as the waiters and waitresses in this restaurant immediately recognized her and quickly assigned us to the ‘usual room’, or so they said to Nicole.

We didn’t return after dinner. We went to see the nightlife in the city. By ‘nightlife’, I didn’t mean something fishy… It was just attractions that we could only see during the night.

So, we returned when it was quite late at night, and more importantly, all of us were really tired that the young ones fell asleep during our way back.

The fatigue was getting to me, too…

The maids and the butlers assigned to us still looked fit as they helped us tidying ourselves to prepare for sleep.

I really admired them! They should also be tired from going out with us all the time today, yet they still did their jobs splendidly.

Thus, it didn’t take long for me to drift to the dreamland once I touched the fluffy and comfortable bed…