Even though the trip was only a couple of days shorter than the time we spent in the vilge, it felt like it was much faster than it really was. Surprisingly, that was true even with the fact that I spent ten days straight without sleeping…

  Needless to say, nothing went wrong on the way there, and we arrived at Pristel on the evening of the tenth day.

  “Everything's so pretty here! I don't think I've ever seen trees so big before… Mom! Ina! I wanna move here!” Shimo excimed.

  The three Kistune girls - who hadn't been here before - were all looking out the window, completely unable to hide their fascination.

  “I agree that it's beautiful, but it'll lose the effect if you live here, Shimo,” Freiya quickly shot down her daughter's suggestion with the practiced skill that only comes from years dealing with this sort of behavior as a mother. “You could always come with me when I'm at the festival each summer~”

  “Hm~ Tempting, but I'd rather come here on my own with Ina. Isn't that right?” she said, suddenly pinching Ina’s cheeks.

  “Please don't do that,” the girl being in question said, removing Shimo's hands from her face. “We can make pns for something like that another time.”

  “Yes, please talk about that another time,” Setsuna chimed in, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Anyway, the view really is amazing here. I've never seen water so clear and reflective before.”

  Setsuna pointed out the ke at the edge of the vilge, the very same one I met Tahli seemingly forever ago.

  “Yup! We actually call that the Mirror Lake because of how clearly it reflects everything,” Luci, being from the family that practically owns this pce, obviously took pride in it, and wanted to add her own information to the pile being shared. “Now that I think about it, I don't think you ever told me how you named yourself, did you?” she turned towards me with a sly grin. “You didn't happen to just get your name from the ke, right?”

  “Um… I'd honestly rather I did just do that…” I looked away while scratching my cheek, suddenly embarrassed about how it happened.

  “Oh? Now you just have to me!”

  “Well… It was actually your sister that named me…”

  “Lia? How'd she come up with it?”

  “You remember what I was wearing… right? Well, I told her I didn't have a name, so she decided that because I was wearing the same “clothes” as her, I was the mirror of her or something, so she decided on Mira.”

  “Cute~” for some reason, she started patting my head.

  “Luci?!”

  “Now you know how I feel…” Ina grumbled from the other side, which prompted Shimo to start doing the same thing to her.

  “I'm sorry, Mira, it's just that sometimes I forget you're only a couple months old,” Luci chuckled. “You weren't even two days yet back then were you? I guess it wouldn't be any different than Lia naming her newborn child at that point. Hm… but if she was the mom, that make me the aunt, and I'd be dating my niece that's not even three months old yet…”

  “My body might not be that old yet but I lived for seventeen years before I met Setsuna! Not to mention the year after that! I've gotta be 18 at this point!”

  “I think you would be,” Setsuna added. “Your birthday was sometime right before we met, and you died before you could turn eighteen, but you'd definitely be eighteen by now.”

  “See? I'm not a newborn!”

  “Ehehe, I'm just kidding around, Mira. I'm still older though~”

  At some point during our banter, we had stopped moving, as I had just noticed that we started up again. When I looked out the window, I noticed we were finally inside the vilge.

  We made our way down the street, which was even more crowded than the Twin-sun Festival, until we arrived at the base of the biggest tree in the center where Luci's familiy lived.

  “Well, here we are. I'll show you all in once you're ready,” she said as the two of us stepped off, not having much luggage to carry. “So, Mira. Are.you excited?”

  “What for?”

  “Everything. You haven't met Vic yet, or his fiance. Though I haven't met her either yet, I'm sure she's nice if Vic wants to marry her. There's also… us. I left it out of the letter I sent to let them know we'd be coming, but they still don't know we started dating. We'll need to tell them, and then I'm sure they'll make a huge announcement about it and-”

  “We're ready now, Luci,” Ina said as she stepped out of the carriage. Surprisingly enough she wasn't carrying anything.

  The surprise faded when Shimo stepped out next, and she was carrying all the luggage for herself and the other two girls with seemingly no problem.

  Freiya came off next with Adrian, who had gone on to help as we got off.

  “Let's get going-” an unfamiliar voice cut me off.

  “Luci!”

  The voice, a man's, was vaguely simir to Luci's fathers. As I turned towards it, I realized why that was the case.

  “Vic!” Luci had practically jumped into his arms already, namely, the arms of her brother.

  “It's good to see you, Luci. Mother and Father just finished receiving the rest of Mary's family. Come inside, I'll introduce you to her, as long as you don't try to take her from me,” Luci's brother, Vic, gently chuckled as Luci shook her head, pulling out of the hug. When they separated, he seemed to notice me.

  “Well now, I guess that won't be a problem after all. Would the Lady be so kind as to introduce herself?” He made his way over to me, stopping at a decent distance and bowing before pcing a hand on his chest. “As you know, I am Vicadra Igni Regali-Pristel, heir to Pristel, and the one whose wedding you have surely come here to attend.”

  “I'm Mira, fourth tier mage and the other member of your sister's party. It's nice to meet you,” I said as respectfully as I could, mimicking his bow for extra effect.

  “Likewise. If I may, I noticed you didn't specify what magic you use, and I'm a little curious as to why that is. Aside from my family's Forest magic, I happen to be a fourth tier Fire mage as well, so I tend to take interest in those at my level.”

  That's something else I hadn't mentioned. In our time in the Kitsune vilge, as well as the trip here, I had managed to achieve mastery over all kinds of magic to the fourth tier, aside from Light, of course.

  “All of them. I tend to simply introduce myself as a mage on its own since it's easier, but I have all magic to the fourth tier aside from Light, which is at the fifth.”

  “All of them?” his eyes widened momentarily. “I'm sorry, I had already heard from Luci that her partner was really talented, but to hear it for myself is completely different. Speaking of Luci, how has she been treating you? As her brother, I know her type well, so I hope she hasn't tried anything too extr-”

  “You can drop it now, Vic. Mother and Father are waiting for us, right? Let's get going then.”

  “...Very well. They're in the throne room. Follow me, everyone!”

  With that, we were headed to talk to Luci's parents, who are supposed to greet Setsuna first, but after that… I'm a little scared to think of how they'll react.

  Alpy376