"What...what do you mean you don't think she's even here yet?" Moonlight retorted at Sunny's conclusion.
Sunny didn't answer. He knew well how bad it sounded. She had been in this world for five years for her to find him, now he was saying that she had to wait more to find Luna. The Luna that had to be perhaps the only person that would know how to return to their real world.
And how long would that even take? Five more years, maybe ten? Maybe a hundred?
"And you," she paused, stepping closer to him, "what have you been doing the whole month?"
For a moment, Sunny didn't want to answer. Even if he did, just what exactly had he been doing? Most useful thing he had done was have a few training sessions with Orion. Sessions that he ended up opting out.
"Don't tell me you've just been getting comfortable like this is your world!" She grabbed him by the collar.
She was clearly bigger than him and stronger.
"Don't you start this with me!" Sunny pushed her a step back. "What do you want me to have been doing? I don't even know what's going on, I don't even know what's real and what's not."
He paused for a moment, trying to not raise his voice too much to raise the others.
"I asked what I should look out for, nobody told me I'd be getting thrown into other worlds. I asked! I wasn't taken seriously now look!" He raised his hands, signalling to the medieval like world they were in. "Where the fuck am I? What's this– some sort of test? What did you expect me to be doing huh? I'm just about fed up with the nonsense of SAGS. I don't even know what systems are but I've died, gone through a tribulation and thrown into another world and you're blaming me for taking the little calm I get?"
Moonlight didn't speak. Even she was reasonable enough to understand where he was coming from.
" We still need to do something."
" And what's that? Parade around with horses and banners?"
She looked at him, confusion flashing across her face before she spoke. " At least I did something to try finding you two. What have you been doing? Sleeping in a house that's not yours? A whole world that could be a trap? You're mad at me because you weren't told this would happen?" She stepped back, raising her hands in mock surrender, " well what would that help with? I wasn't told either, and even if I was told, what do you think I would do? Refuse?"
She stopped, taking a deep breath before speaking again.
" You're only mad because it's easier than actually doing something. Accepting things as they are is easier than making a change, and you know it. So you're just here yelling at me thinking things will fix themselves because you're upset they happened to you."
" Don't you–" Sunny started but was instantly cut off.
" Well look here little boy," she pointed at herself. " I'm here too! Luna is here too! You're not the first for this to happen to you, not tribulations, not nothing. So stick it up your ass and do something about it."
She had a point. She had a reason to be mad, even Sunny knew it. He had known for quite a while that he should have been doing something of substance. That's why he had started training to know how to fight so he could go into the smoking woods to try to get Luna. But he stopped.
He had been claimed by sloth and comfort.
This was his sin.
" I think she's in the smoking woods," Sunny said after a silence, his voice just barely audible.
" Luna– I think she's in the smoking woods."
She looked at him for a while, as if wondering if he was trying to make an unfunny joke.
" You just said she's not even in this world yet."
He shook his head, raising his finger in refusal.
" I said there's a possibility that she's not here yet, but it was just a thought. If she were here already, I think she's in those woods."
For a moment, she didn't speak. Instead, her brow raised in confusion.
"Just a hunch," Sunny added, answering the question of how he'd come to that conclusion before she could ask.
He couldn't just say he used a spectator room. He remembered well that he was clearly advised against revealing his system type to anyone at all.
So she had to either believe him or think he was crazy.
"I thought that's where she would be too..." She paused for a moment before shrugging. "Call it a hunch too."
Morning came faster than Sunny could think up a reason to tell Orion and Trinity for joining the expedition into the smoking woods. It's a suicide mission– that's what they would see it as. They would obviously be against it and frankly, the woods were forbidden for a reason.
If Luna was in there and wasn't leaving maybe there was something in there powerful enough to hold her in. If so, even Sunny saw it as a suicide mission. Sometimes, however, you have to do illogical things.
High risk high reward, as they say.
He decided not to tell them.
It wasn't a good idea but it would be better if he went to the smoking woods and never returned without their consent. Then they would be mad at him and not themselves. If he told them and they agreed and he ended up failing then they would blame themselves. Even if he did end up finding Luna, he was planning on leaving the world anyways, so regardless the outcome, he wouldn't be returning.
He left them a letter, tucked withing the pages of one of the books on the table by the window.
They rarely open those books, so by the time they opened them they would have already noticed that he was missing in order to start searching for clues in the books.
By then he would already be in the smoking woods, far beyond their reach.
For a moment, Sunny hesitated before putting the letter in the book.
What if they saw it and decided to come after him? It would be a great danger to them if they entered the smoking woods. Maybe it would be a better idea to simply write that he had gone to explore the world instead. Then they wouldn't march into assured death, led by the deceitful insanity of love.
Yes, that would be better.
He crumbled up the first letter, throwing it aside and hurriedly writing the second one that would send them on a wild chase.
He didn't want to stay too long, maybe he would be met by a stroke of unluck and Trinity or Orion would return.
The horse-mounted banner wielders were already at the designated location, already growing impatient.
Concealed under a cloak, Sunny managed to leave, hidden amongst them, heading for the smoking woods.
He had only seen them in the spectator room, and even there they felt ominous. Now he would be meeting them in person. A shiver went down his spine.
He almost had a second thought to return to the comfort of the town.