High above New Eridu, the Timefield family's private airship glided along its scheduled route at an unhurried pace.
Inside the cabin, Old Master Timefield had seated himself up in the forward compartment with his butler Arnold, claiming he wanted to give the young people some space.
Geno's private opinion on that: Sir, you really could've just sat with the rest of us.
And so, harboring exactly that sentiment, Geno sat by the window — staring at Alice across from him, who was likewise gazing out at nothing in particular — and felt his thoughts tangle themselves into a steel wool scrubber.
Why a steel wool scrubber specifically? Because he could already picture, in vivid detail, exactly how pathetic he was going to look the moment he had to face Twiggy.
His mind drifted back to what Alice and Lucia had done just before they boarded the airship. Even now, the memory surfaced instinctively — the feeling still fresh.
But every time that thought started to take shape, Twiggy's face would materialize in his mind and refuse to leave.
She was giving him that look — the one reserved for oversized non-combustible trash — military saber in hand, expression completely blank, methodically reducing him to mincemeat.
Every single time that image came to him, Geno's face went pale with sheer existential dread.
Like right now. The image surfaced again, and Geno stared down at the forest of skyscrapers below — New Eridu in all its gleaming glory — and felt exactly like a man who had already given up on life.
Alice, sitting across from him, wasn't faring much better.
Her face was perfectly blank — but her inner world wasn't so much calm as it was a ship that had been hit by such a catastrophic storm that the whole vessel had capsized and sunk, and was now simply lying on the seafloor in total system shutdown.
Not a single coherent thought was being processed anywhere in her brain.
What on earth did I just DO?!
Alice finally came back online — and the moment she registered Geno sitting right across from her, something inside her chest went absolutely berserk. Not a little deer. More like a Lamborghini. Slamming through the walls of her two-bedroom apartment and reducing the whole thing to rubble.
But on the surface, she had to keep up that composed, unruffled front.
Because if anything else happened right now, she genuinely didn't know what she might do.
No matter how well she held the mask in place, though — the emotion monitor clipped to her belt was telling a completely different story.
"Alice, are you…"
"I, I-I-I — wh-what's wrong with me?"
Geno's sudden address startled her. Alice's ears twitched in a frantic flutter as she stammered out her reply.
"Nothing's swollen anywhere, don't worry. I just wanted to ask — is your belt… broken?"
He pointed at her waist. Alice immediately looked down.
The emotion display on her belt was cycling through expressions at a frenzied pace.
Happy. Panicked. Happy again. Panicked again.
And then — it stopped pretending entirely and just threw out one enormous, unmistakable heart.
Alice slapped the belt off in a panic, face burning red, and immediately launched into a desperate explanation.
"No, that — wait, just listen, it's — that — um…"
She couldn't do it. She physically could not form words. Every time she looked at Geno's face right now, speech just ceased to function.
Alice felt, in this moment, like the most useless little rabbit in existence — only capable of digging holes to hide in and covering her own face. Completely hopeless.
But then Geno reached out and took her hand — looking at her with genuine concern.
"Calm down, Alice. Deep breath. Follow me — breathe in~ breathe out~ breathe in~ breathe out~"
"In~ out~ in~ out~"
She'd still been flustered when he first took her hand. But listening to his voice — that steady, unhurried voice that somehow made everything feel safe —
Alice found herself following along without even deciding to. Breath in, breath out, slow and rhythmic. Her heartbeat gradually settled. The white-knuckle tension loosened its grip on her, bit by bit.
"There we go. Feeling better?"
Seeing Alice return to something resembling calm, Geno released her hand. It felt like the right thing to do — he couldn't just keep holding onto a girl's hand indefinitely.
The warmth disappeared from Alice's hand. She noticed its absence immediately, and something in her expression flickered — just a brief shadow of loss.
She caught herself and smoothed it away before Geno could see.
"I… yes. Much better. And — I'm sorry."
Alice dropped her gaze and offered Geno a formal, deliberate apology.
"My behavior earlier was somewhat… impulsive. I may have caused you some discomfort, and I'm sorry for that."
She bit down gently on her lower lip. The anxiety was surging up from somewhere deep again — she could hear it in her own voice, a faint tremor threading through the words.
But even so — she gathered herself. Took a breath. And tried again to say what she actually meant.
"Geno… I —"
Ding~Ding~Ding~Ding~
"Dear passengers, we are now arriving at New Eridu Station. Please collect your belongings and disembark from the rear exit…"
The airship's automated announcement cut in right on cue, swallowing Alice's words whole.
It hit like gravel pouring into a spring — every last drop of her courage silted over and buried.
Geno was already on his feet at the sound of the announcement, moving toward the exit.
"Come on, Alice. Time to get off."
"Oh… right."
She took the hand he extended, and stepped carefully down the airship's boarding stairs.
The moment the soles of his feet touched the ground, Geno felt it for real — he was back.
Strange, really. Weifeidi wasn't that far from New Eridu at all. But there was something about that particular air — city air, slightly dry, carrying the specific density of a metropolis — that settled something in him.
Almost enough to make him forget everything that had happened…
Almost. If not for a certain someone.
"Well, well — look who's back. If it isn't our very own charming man of the hour, Mr. Geno."
That signature bubblegum-pink hair. Twin tails tied with that particular symmetry that only someone with Alice-level aesthetic standards could've produced. And behind it all, that turbulent, irrepressible energy and the grin of a merchant born to fleece you.
It was Nicole Demara — head of the Cunning Hares.
"Nicole? You're here to pick me up?"
"That's right. Twiggy said she was tied up with something and couldn't get away, so she sent me and Billy."
"Yo~ Geno! Long time no see!"
Billy stepped up with a grin, same old energy, and gave Geno an enthusiastic greeting.
"Right then — you two go on ahead with your friends. I still have some matters to attend to."
Old Master Timefield, seeing that a welcoming party had arrived, saw no reason to linger. He waved Geno and Alice off to go with Nicole, and that was that.
As for himself, he had Arnold bring the car around and departed in an entirely different direction.
"Grandfather… what is he planning to do?"
"Not sure. But it won't be anything small."
Geno had a feeling — whatever Old Master Timefield was setting in motion, it was the kind of thing that would shake all of New Eridu.
"Speaking of which, Geno — aren't you going to introduce us to this lovely young lady?"
Nicole cast a sly, amused look in his direction and gestured toward Alice.
Alice, upon hearing this, seemed to snap to attention like a signal had fired. She turned to face Nicole squarely.
Then she gathered the hem of her skirt in both hands and dipped into a perfect curtsy.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Alice Timefield — Geno's fiancée."
____
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