Fantasy Wherever the Wind Takes You

[ShredKnives]

Again, meals were glorious. Laila can't remember the last time she had a freshly selection of noodles to choose from. They were given a classic platter of home-made dipping ramen with bowls of miso soup and another bowl of what was essentially a dense substance of spiced beef broth. Of course, Reeve might not be aware of how exactly it worked, so Laila gave some visual aid by taking her chopsticks, lifting up the noodles from its colorful basket of greens, shashu pork, and bean sprouts, and dipping it into the broth before putting it on a spoon and practically swallowing the whole thing down.

It was good. It's the kind of salty where the tangy texture lingers in the throat and just fires the dopamine over and over again.

Eating.gif.

So following this, Laila still didn't really have much of an idea.

Tomoe yawned as she sipped on a cup of green tea and passed the both of them some sliced watermelons to clear the palette. "So, I would say you should hand it over to Arioon. If we were to have it on our hands, that would be quite nice, and Alina is enthusiastic about studying the weapon further, I'm sure, but...Ahh, it's just such a shame..."

Laila stared at her. "You're just real excited about swords and spears and stuff, aren't you?"

"Being a Flower Maiden really makes you appreciate all the lovely things to pick from! Gosh. So many exotics. But in either case, I'm hoping Arioon will just see it as a burden."

"BURDEN?! Hello? I could eat you alive!!"

"Yes, yes, that's what the young pirates said back in the docks of the Yellow Sea before they were given a healthy dose of reality," Tomoe said with a dreamy inflection. "I'm sure you would prove useful as being one of the proud heirlooms of the Koiyama family!"

"My gods, you're using me as a political asset too."

Laila intervened. "Hey! I like her as a defense asset!"

"Being considered as a military asset is worse. I'm not some secret ballistae you can toss at some dretched goblin."

"Ahhh, kids these days." Tomoe politely sipped her tea.

"I am an ADULT!"

"Sure, sure."

"Grr..."

"When the day's passed, you should go find Arioon! I'm sure she's still in the tavern. Sounds good?"

Laila glanced at Reeve. "If you want, we can sleep on it, maybe find some other routes before we decide. Either way, I am stuffed..."

 

[Gary Sue]

The meal went... as expected. Reeve tried and tried with all his might, but the chopsticks were hard to get used to, so he took about twice or thrice the amount of time it would have otherwise taken him to stuff his gullet with the food before him. Once they were done and sat down with Tomoe though, the conversation went right back to Parilla and Reeve's instincts flared up once again, although... perhaps flare was too intense a word to use. He just didn't like what was going on.

"All this talk about Parilla, and no matter what we say or do, nobody 'wants' her desperately. If Tomoe was out for the ego weapon, then we'd see her be a lot more pushy, and she knows how to persuade someone like Laila, her own daughter. But nobody else has made a move, bar whatever monster that was on the way here..."

Once more, he knew this would be quite the head scratcher. Even though Tomoe encouraged them to visit Arioon afterwards, another move that didn't make sense- he just... sat down and thought about it for a moment.

"... Do you think we might just be paranoid..? What if nobody's really 'trying to get anything out of it' and we had seeds of doubt sown in the back of our minds so that we would act rashly and give Parilla to the wrong person..?", despite Laila's question, he seemed unresponsive as his eyes were fixed to the plate before them.

"If we gave the weapon to the wrong person, then a war could actually break out, since they'd be in possession of a political asset, right? And given its power, it's safe to say that they'd be able to do more than fight back, which would screw over everyone involved in the ordeal, rightful heir and people who wanted the heirloom for themselves after all."

Who was it even that planted these shadows of doubt? They didn't have the time to talk with anyone other than Parilla, and even then it was just her intuition and little actual knowledge at play. So maybe this whole time, he and Laila were really just overthinking things. Well, no- more like Reeve alone was overthinking the matter. As he snapped out of it and realised eyes were on him, he looked between the two and offered a small, sheepish smile, as though he was asking for a repeat as he raised a hand to rub the back of his neck.

"Maybe we should give it to Arioon after all. Our job was just to be messengers and nothing more.", he nodded slightly to himself, having finally made up his mind on it.

 

[ShredKnives]

Laila sighed. Well, at least Reeve finally came to a decision. It surely was an important question to answer; Parilla was something powerful, and while Laila would like to keep hold of it, perhaps Arioon would find some heavy use of it. At the same time, Alina would be sure to raise some questions. It was totally possible that Arioon was just a bin man for her parents to do the dirty work, and Parilla was just one other route to do that with.

"All right...I guess we will head out to see Ariii..." Laila said. She was gonna miss this spear, to be honest. She wasn't particularly good at it, but it was easy to use and it wasn't something she wanted to let go of.

"Mom, do you think a war is really gonna happen?"

"Lilac, to be quite frank, if this wasn't going to happen because of a glaive, it was going to happen because of a knife. These people have probably been threatening each other for quite some time. Anything could happen, so we will just have to wait and see."

"Man. Guess people have a really hard time getting along..."

"Just two ladies and a shrine, and company, won't change the world. But perhaps that means it's high time for you two to explore your options! Can't be holed up in the forest forever."

Laila scratched her head. "Ehhhh...I'll worry about that later...Reeve, it's not too long a trip to the kingdom, how about we just head over there, drop the weapon off to Arioon, and get some sleep?"

 

[Gary Sue]

As much as the both of them were to probably miss Parilla, by the seven their adventures would now be so much more quiet. With a frown at Tomoe's words, Reeve's brows furrowed. "... I can't tell if she's referring to an ego weapon that takes the form of a knife, like Parilla, or if she's talking about someone getting assassinated on either side... and I don't particularly want to know, either. I hope it never comes to that.", he grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

But the note on exploring their options- yessire! It was obvious on Reeve's face, but he definitely wanted to head right back to the place he was exiled from. Whatever it was, something just... made him feel like he had unfinished business. If he lingered around Sesseth any more, perhaps he'd get some of his questions answered and learn more about himself. But the blabbermouth princess 'disrupted' his self discovery, so they'd have to wait until this delivery was finished.

Considering they had already put so much time into pondering the orb on whether or not to give the ego weapon, they might as well get it over and done with. Especially since Laila was so willing. So to postpone the delivery no longer, Reeve took a deep breath and looked at Laila with sheer confidence, nodding with a smile on his face. His words were clear as day, even in complete silence.

"Let's get it over with."