-Break-
Φ While knitting her scarf, Dush starts to hum an annoying rhythm, so I say, “COULD YOU SHUT UP, YOUR DESTROYING MY TRATION.”
Letting out a little shriek Dush says, “I am sorry, it happens naturally when I work.”
“Well quiet down because I o focus.”
After a moment of silence, Dush says, “Did you know that-.”
“I thought I asked you to shut up!”
“You looked on edge so I thought a ory will help calm you rex, think of it of me rewarding you for your work.”
“My issue is that I should be rexing and having fun, but due to a certain man’s words I am here doing a bunch of work in the middle of the night while looking after two rowdy kids he left me, what the hell have I bee a siher?”
“But Anto and Mime have fallen asleep, look at their adorable faces.”
“No, they haven’t, they both bcked out due to a sugar crash, you see sugar leaking from their mouths.”
“Should we che them?”
“Not my children not my problems.”
“ELLIOT!”
Popping through the hole in the floor he grabs Anto and Mime, theakes them out of the room. “Eh, I hope they both are ok.”
“Well, that is Orb's problem, since he has egged on this whole situation. So, if you still want to reward someone hand it over to him.”
“I pn to give Orb some kind of reward, but still I feel like you deserve one as well, not many people could stay and knit a scarf for a stranger all day,”
Letting out a sigh I say, “Ok then, talk away.”
Dush says, “Did you know I was actually a peasant.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t hard to figure out.”
“How!”
“Noble dies don’t tend to be able to wrestle growo the ground.”
“I ’t believe my cattle rustling skills exposed me, how embarrassing.”
“Well rich people like to find strahings to keep as trophies and I guess you were such a trophy.”
Dush hearing my words stops knitting. Oh, shit that robably a rude thing to say, but it just slipped out due to my annoyed mi.
“To be ho I thought the same for a long time, that I was just some fancy toy that Krik had gotten for himself. That Krik was just colleg some rare objed sh it with love.
But without a doubt his wuided me to bey favourite version of myself, the best Dush Zalik there ever has been. I do believe from the bottom of my heart that he did love me.”
“Sorry about that!”
“No, I like to talk about these things I don’t get to usually, and regardless of all that I am proud of myself, I think I have bee a Dush Zalik that should elicit the love I was given by Krik from everybody.”
Looking up at the sky with a mencholy look Dush says, “Though I guess it is too te for such things. I have shunned many people for all these years and burnt many bridges out of jealousy. The people of the Skydust stantly tried to reach out to me, and so did my son, but I was too stupid to realize any of that and now it is too te to show them the best Dush Zalik.
For years I was trapped in a cage due to my own inadequacies, and now that I finally want to leave this cage ah everyone I ’t because I wasted too much time. I will never get to show those people the best Dush Zalik, and worse than that I will never get to see them either.”
“Whoa, you have a son he sounds hot, I would like to sleep with him.”
“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY LITTLE BOY YOU BITCH!!!” Dush says trying to jump me.
“I was kidding, I didn’t like the mood you were in, and besides men with mommy issues are either angels or devils, not worth the risk, and since he is your son I am guessing he has major mommy issues.”
“That joke wasn’t funny,” Dush says as she goes back to knitting.
“You said no one will get to know the best Dush Zalik but I think I know her pretty well now, so if you’re ok with me how would you like me to be your very first friend.”
Turning to me she eagerly approaches my body almost as if she is about to climb on top of me, and says, “Are you serious, like real female friends, like the ohat have sleepovers and go shopping with each other.”
Pushing her away I say, “Yes but now I am rethinking that.”
Instantly she poses herself bato her seating position and says, “You sure you want to be friends with an old woman like me, my body is not young anymore there are certain things I ’t do.”
“Why the hell are you phrasing it like that, are y to fuck me?”
“NO, I AM BEING SERIOUS HERE!”
“Well, my serious response is that I would love to get to know Dush Zalik some more, so from this moment on we are friends.”
A sudden smile lights up on her face, but it quickly vanishes as she bees bashful and says, “My friend, would I be able to ask you for your full name.”
“Oui, old dy, you aren’t some 15-year-old pure maiden, stop ag like that.”
“But how am I supposed to act you’re my first friend!”
“Normal, aal, because of the way you're behaving I wouldn’t be surprised if a paedophile got attracted by the innoce your emanating.”
“JUST ANSWER MY QUESTION!”
“Ok, ok, my name is Atanta Supernova, the one and only.”
“That is a niame, I call you Lanta.”
“Knock yourself out.”
With a cute little grumble, I hear her say, “What about my niame?”
“What was that speak up.”
“Nothing.”
Ping her cheeks I say, “I didn’t sign up to be your wife I asked to be your friend, speak up!!”
Grabbing her cheeks, she starts to blush, then she says, “Our first fight as friends. Due to this moal event, I will tell you, I would like a niame as well.”
“Your name is too short to give you a good one.”
Depressed she says, “I see.”
Does it really mean that much to her, ok I guess I have to make one, “What about Us, because it represents you and I. No, I take that ba sed thought that is really stupid-.”
Hearing a loud of nowhere, I turn to my side and she Dush g, “Us, what a fine niame I hought I would have ohank you so much, Lanta.”
“It seems I have a rather crazy friend from now on, great.”
“Since we're friends now you talk and ask me about anything.”
“I see, then I guess could you tell me how you go this material here, I have never felt anything like it.”
“Oh well, I got that from the Rinast Union.”
“That must’ve been expensive.”
“You have no idea, especially since I couldn’t use any of the family money.”
“Wait why?”
“I made a promise to only use money I would get from fair wages to make this scarf, so I have found myself in need of money more than ond have gotten stranded every now and then.”
“That sounds really fun, tell me about it.”
“Well, where do I begin Lanta.”
-Break-
Φ Walking into the man’s shop with Suzuka and Cyrus behind me I say in a polite voice, “Are you finished?”
“I finished up just a few minutes ago, do you want to take a look at it.”
“Absolutely!”
As the man walks to the backside of his shop, I see Suzuka beside me start to fidget. Grabbing her by the waist I start to tickle her and say, “What’s with all the fidgeting.”
Laughing Suzuka says, “Stop Orb!”
“When you cough up the secrets.”
“I SAID STOP,” she says swipiails back at me. Dodging away I see she has a red face filled with anger.
As she approaches me with hostile iions, I hid behind Cyrus saying, “Oh no, I am about to get broken in two.”
“ I am going to tickle you to death.”
As she tries to catch I move around using Cyrus as a wedge between us so she 't grab me. “What I did wasn’t that bad, so why don’t you just stop this and answer my question.”
“When I get my revenge. Cyrus grab him!”
“Yes madam!” Cyrus says as he grabs me.
“When did you start taking orders from Suzuka?”
“We had lots of time to bond while you were out doing whatever you wanted. Now it’s time for revenge.”
Taking off my shoes Suzuka starts to relentlessly tickle my feet over and ain, “PLEASE STOP I AM GOING TO DIE!!!”
After a little while of tig Suzuka eventually lets me go and says, “That felt good.”
Laying on the floor a shell of my former self, I say, “Please answer my question.”
Fidgeting even more Suzuka says, “Well it is just that I am nervous about my present, I don’t get many, so I didn’t know how to feel.”
Getting up I give her a hug from behind and say, “Stop being a baby.” Then I supplex her into the ground.
Holding her head on the floor, Suzuka gives me a death stare and says, “Yht arm is all yoing to have left.”
“Friends give each ifts, so don’t be a baby about this from now on this is your new normal, so get used to it, and remember my birthday is in Capri don’t fet.”
With a kind smile, Suzuka says, “Thank you Orb.”
Walking bato the room, the man says, “Here you go!”
The mawo ons oable. First is a bow like I asked for, and the sed one is Suzuka’s on; it is like a gau with three pieces sharp pieces of finger armour.
“I heard the little girl was a martial artist, so I believe this is the best way for her to wield a on. Sorry, I was only able to make it for one hand sihe bow took up most of the metal you guys had, but I guara is the best work I have ever made.”
Putting it on her hand, Suzuka says with aatic smile, “Thank you so much, mister!! But what is really special about this stuff?”
“You see, spirit energy doesn’t flow through all materials equally. It ducts through anic things very well like the human body and wood, but when it es to inanic things like metal it doesn’t duct well. So, you see when it es to ons there is a trade-off, but this does with spirit metal. Spirit metal ducts spirit energy better than most anic materials and is harder than most metals, and due to all this you do crazy things like weave arrows of spirit energy using it.”
“So, this stuff is amazing.”
“Exactly, you should be taking god that you get to wield such a thing.”
Looking at her on with a demonic smile, I hear her say, “I wonder how much more fun fighting will be!”
Pretending I didn’t see her, I say, “Well, I will take this ohen.” When I try to pick up the bow, I ’t even budge it.
“Young man if you want to move that you o use spirit energy.”
Snickers at me Suzuka says, “Orb ’t use that.”
“It isn’t o ugh at other people. Cyrus, could you help me with this?”
“YES!”
With great vigour, Cyrus picks up the bow and mumbles, “I’m helping.”
Looking at the bow I see it has a strange symbol(Ω) on it, so I ask, “What is this?”
“That symbol was etched into both of the robots. I tried to remove it but it wouldn’t e off even after I melted the metal down.”
“I guess we ’t do anything about it then.” Bowing to the man I say, “That will be all from us, thank you for your hard work.”
“No thank you, I hought I would get the ce to thinker with spirit metal, so the fact I got to do this in such dire times is a god-sent.”
With a smile, I ask, “May I have your name?”
“Chiron Gazer.”
“Then from this moment on this bow will carry the name Chiron.”
With a smile, the man says, “What a great name!”
Walking out of the store we all say oodbyes, and when we leave, we are met by Avram, “Orb it looks like they are doh the ship.”
“The’s go check it out.”
-Break-
Standing in front of the workers of the ship, one of them walks up to us and says, “We’re done, all the renovations are plete.”
I am uo respond due to being pletely and utterly dumbstruck. What the hell am I looking at, this isn’t a renovation but a plete upgrade. The ship is way bigger and looks a lot more refined.
Jeter walking up to them says, “You were only supposed to make a few minor renovations!”
“Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves, boss, this might be the st thing we ever work on and it is a Basileia artefact, we couldn’t just let this ce go.”
“You ’t alter things you don’t own, look at the faces of Avram and the others.”
Staring at Avram and everyone else I see their faces aren’t the happiest, in fact, I would say they even look mad.
Through the heads of the five people beside Orb, ohought ran throughout their minds; I WAO DO THIS. It wasn’t anger but jealousy over losing their opportunity to upgrade one of Basileia's artefacts.
Seeing their faces, the craftsmen from Skydust walk up to them and say, “Where sorry, we got carried away!”
Letting out a fiendish snicker Avram says, “Don’t be, you guys said this was your best work so all I have to do is upgrade the ship even further, you got that you scrubs.”
“Challenge accepted, but the moment you do we will outdo you.”
Walking past all of them I move over to Cyrus and say, “Has work here been good?”
“Y-Y-Y-Y-YES!”
I thought his stutter had vanished but now it is back again.
Walking up behind me, one of the craftsmen says, “Cyrus here has been really helpful to us.”
“If it wasn’t for his strength this would have taken us a month a least.”
“But in barely a week we are dohank you, Cyrus.”
“It is no pr-r-r-r-roblem.”
Letting out a sigh one of them says, “If this is our st memory of Skydust I think it is a rather good one.”
“It ’t get aer than aplishing a dream.”
“God gave us a lot of fortune.”
Walking up to them Jeter says, “Gevurah should be ing to che our progress tomorrow, so if there is anything else you want to do you guys should get it done as quickly as possible.”
“To be ho my king, I don’t really know what else we could do.”
“Well, it would be fun if we could have a party with everyone, but I guess people are dealing with their children so that is impossible.”
Seeing them all ugh an idea hits me. Creating a pilr of iderh me as a ptform, I shout, “LISTEN UP EVERYONE!”
When they all turn and face me, I say, “I have a rather exg idea, but I need all your help for it.”
-Break-
Φ “We’re tired let us rest.”
“I don’t want to work anymore.”
“Put the work in you brats, if we don’t get some help, we will never finish this scarf.”
“Hey Lanta, why don’t we give those two a break.”
“No way in hell Us, those kids have spent the st few days sleeping aing dy, we hem to work immediately.”
“But our hands are tired!”
“I just want to sleep!”
“No time for that, get the peddle on the medal, we o make sure Dush finishes her scarf.”
Stopping her knitting Dush says, “I think we should stop.”
“What are you talking about, where over halfway there.”
“Tomorrow Jeter will be rejeg Gevurah, and war will break out soon after. I think you three should spend these st days enjoying all that Skydust has to offer, not with a 70-year-old dy.”
“But what about your dream of uniting and reag people through this scarf.”
“It was a fu futile, at the end of the day my own choices have to lead me to this position sardless of whether I aplish it or not should be no one’s decision but mihough it would have been o see Tusk one more time.”
Suddenly a rge noise approaches our position, then past the gate Orb walks in. Running up to him I tackle him down and say, “So you finally feel like showing your face around here,” While putting him in a submission hold.
“I was helping out around Skydust.”
“We are your first itment, help us first! Don’t just fet about us!!”
“I haven’t, that’s why I am here. EVERYONE E IN!”
Through the gate, a crowd of people walk in.
“Orb, who are all these people?”
“Well since everyone on Skydust has fiheir preparations, I thought having a nice social event in the giant Kritz pound would be fun. They have all e to work on that scarf.”
Walking up to Orb Dush says, “But why would they e here?”
“Simple, no one could resist the invitation to be at the elusive Dush Kritz’s pound. You happen to be very popur, so when people heard about the scarf you were knitting they decided to spend the st day helping.”
As tears start to form in Dush’s eyes, I say, “It seems people have always wao talk to the pretty bird in her cage.”
Letting go of Orb, I scream, “ELLIOT!”
“Yes, Lanta!”
“We have tanize everyone a some food and refreshments, if we're going to have a we have to do it right.”
Blowing a whistle in his pocket, all of the staff ihe mansion run out. “Everyone if you care for our dy, this is the time to show it, DO YOU HEAR ME!!!”
“YES SIR!!!”
With a smile, I hold Dush and say, “Now let’s go show everyone my best friend, shouldn’t we Us.”
“Yes, we will Lanta.”
