Chapter 18: Friendships?
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Social relationships are always very ambiguous and fragile, but aren't they one of the most appealing things in life?
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Milo hesitated a few seconds, before reiterating his question.
"What exactly is the... Form you were talking about earlier?" he asked in a hesitant voice.
Liu straightened up, thinking about her answer.
'... what do I tell him?...'
Milo bent down to pick up the ball on the floor a little further away.
"I don't really know what it is,... it appeared in front of me during the last Obscurity, and now it follows me everywhere..."
'... too lazy to explain everything...'
He straightened up and looked Liu in the eyes.
"... it's one of the reasons why I'm here."
'... and besides, he doesn't need to know everything, it's none of his business...'
He gave a slightly hesitant nod, probably because he found the answer suspicious.
"... shall I serve again?"
Liu nodded, and Milo served.
Tap. Tap. Tap...
'... I forgot what I wanted to ask him...'
This time the rally lasted a little longer.
Milo was visibly a bit uncomfortable about Liu's reaction to his question. He was now playing more gently.
'... is he kidding me?... it's my turn!'
The ball came quickly to Liu's side.
"Ha!"
Paa!
She hit the ball with a topspin upward as hard as possible, executing a smash that caught Milo completely off guard, he missed the ball entirely.
"Haha!"
'... too good!'
Liu was without a doubt a sore loser, she displayed a proud expression on her face, waiting for Milo's reaction.
"Uh... aren't you going to ask a question?"
Her competitive spirit had made her forget her question during the rally.
"Oh right, that's true... where exactly are we going? What is that zone, I can't remember anymore?"
'... citizen?...'
Milo spoke while picking up the ball.
"Hhaa, that's two questions, but it's fine."
He looked Liu in the eyes once more before answering, then looked away.
"We're going to Lubren, it's the capital of the outer ring of the kingdom of Lumiscen, or you can say: the capital of the outer forest of Lumeno. But the old man already said that."
He leaned against the table to get more comfortable.
"Mm, how to explain... I've never explained this to someone from the citizen zone so it might not be clear. But like in the kingdom of Lumiscen and the others, there are three zones... uh, how to say..."
Liu also leaned against the table, listening attentively.
'... come on! Explain...'
"... you could say that here, we're at the center of the kingdom of Lumiscen, the citizen zone... we're going to the outer part of the kingdom of Lumiscen, the capital of the outer ring... and I come from the inner part, the capital of the inner ring."
Liu straightened up.
'... that's clear, but...'
She reiterated her question.
"Why.. what is the citizen zone? Why is it called that?"
Milo wasn't really annoyed that she was asking more questions, his answer hadn't been very clear or complete.
"Mm... the citizen zone, it's a protected zone, where people are not nobles... where people don't control energy. And uh... why is it called that?... no idea, I've never thought about it..."
'... where people don't control energy?...'
Liu was about to ask another question, but Milo continued.
"... maybe it's because the people here are called citizens,... or maybe because the zone is also called: citizenship... apparently it's an old word that Lumeno himself created."
She didn't pay too much attention to this answer, and moved straight on to another one.
"I didn't understand, what do you mean by: people don't control energy and aren't nobles?... like outside of the... citizenship... everyone controls energy??"
Milo made a discreet grimace as he answered.
"Hey, we said one question per rally! That's already four or five..."
Liu had been too absorbed by her curiosity and had completely forgotten about ping-pong.
'...oh...'
"Uh..."
But Milo answered her anyway, even though his tone was a bit disrespectful.
"... but yes everyone controls energy, it's normal outside the citizen zone. And also only history teachers call the citizen zone, citizenship... so talk normally."
Although rather satisfied with the answer, Liu did not accept the way he spoke to her.
"Alright, but talk to me better or I'll make you eat the racket... and fine, I'll only ask one question from now on."
She spoke with arrogance and a touch of disdain in her voice.
'Why do boys always talk like that? That's why you have to hit them...'
When she was younger, she had often resolved her problems with boys through violence. She had done it so often, that the boys of the village didn't really come near her anymore.
"And why.."
'He dares!'
Milo tried to retort, but Liu cut him off.
"Play!"
She spoke in a loud, authoritative voice as was her habit, all supported by a hostile and insistent stare.
"....."
Tap...
Milo stayed silent and complied. He was starting to genuinely fear Liu.
Having already experienced a few of Liu's violent actions, he didn't even dare play aggressively anymore, out of fear of the consequences.
'Is he serious?...'
Paa!
"Play normally for the next rallies."
Liu spoke once again in an authoritative voice, winning this rally with another smash.
'... what do I ask? Do I even have any other questions?...'
Milo nodded timidly, picked up the ball, and waited for the question.
"Mmh... oh right! Why did we turn back? We were heading toward the merchant village, and now we're going in the opposite direction..."
She had been able to check the direction by looking through the door leading to the outer bench of the carriage earlier.
"So, uh... I'm not sure though..."
He hesitated, afraid of Liu's reaction, he wanted to give a complete answer.
"... but I think that before we left for Lubren, he had told me that we needed to be at least two... I don't know why, but now that you're here, I imagine we have nothing left to do in this part of the citizen zone... and I don't really know why we were heading toward the merchant village either..."
Milo's voice was a little shaky toward the end, he had realized he didn't know much.
'Basically he doesn't know anything...'
"Tch, is it even useful for me to ask you other questions?"
Liu complained, even though she didn't really have any more questions to ask.
Milo did his best not to take offense, but...
"Are you even useful for anything?"
... Liu added another layer.
"Hhaa, you know if it's just so you can insult me, there's no point in me answering your questions. Besides, I'm probably too useless to manage to answer them anyway."
Even though Liu's reactions scared him, he wasn't the type to let himself be insulted.
'I...'
He picked up the other balls from the floor and headed toward the shelf where the rackets were.
"Tch, and I thought we could get along."
'... did I go too far?...'
Clack.
He left the room through a small door behind Liu, without even looking at her.
"Shoot..."
'... I didn't mean to...'
She stood in front of the table, her head turned toward the door behind her.
'... do I need to apologize?'
Not really knowing how to resolve this situation, she went to put away her racket.
'... why did this even happen...'
She felt a little bad, it was the first time she was disappointed by a boy's reaction to her words.
'I need to apologize.'
It was the first time she wanted to get along with a boy her age. She didn't really know why, maybe because their situation was similar.
'Mmm... I shouldn't have told him he was useless...'
She positioned herself in front of the door Milo had taken.
'... is it the lounge?'
Determined to apologize, she opened the door...
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[Pasha's Pov]
Yumi, Pasha, Mayu and Yaro had arrived at Luschen, the merchant village.
"What do we need to buy?" asked Pasha.
While Yumi and Yaro waited at the carriage, Mayu and Pasha had gone to do some shopping.
"Mm, we need to get back to Lumout as fast as possible, so we'll get some food for the road, and also a few cushions for the carriage..."
They headed toward an Intermarché.
"Should we split up? It'll be faster..." suggested Pasha.
After the explanations Mayu had given her earlier in the day, they had continued talking.
"... ok mh, do you know where the cushions are? Are there even any here?..." asked Mayu.
They were now getting along much better, after getting to know each other more.
"Yes, there are cushions, I mean there's everything in Intermarché stores... you can start with the food while I go find the cushions and I'll join you after."
Mayu nodded, and they entered the store.
"Uh... where's the food?"
'Right, she's never done grocery shopping... that's what it means to be rich?'
Pasha grabbed a cart in the store's entrance hall and handed it to Mayu.
"The food is in the basement so it keeps better, you can go down there with the cart. I'll join you as soon as I have the cushions."
After passing through the entrance hall, Pasha showed Mayu a ramp leading to the basement to go to the floor where the food was.
"See you in a bit."
They separated, while Mayu went down the ramp with a hesitant stride, Pasha went straight to find some cushions.
'How many do I need to take?...'
She was used to this store, having done her shopping there every five weeks, she knew it by heart.
'... still, I'd like to have delivery every two weeks myself too...'
She walked a few more seconds, passing quite a few aisles before reaching the section where the cushions were.
'... I wonder where Liu is right now?... what could she possibly be doing?...'
There weren't many people in the store, lunchtime wasn't too far away.
'... we didn't talk more about what we were going to do after, I need to ask her for more details...'
She picked up five cushions in her arms, and headed straight toward the ramp next to the entrance to join Mayu.
'... five should be enough, one each and two for Yumi...'
After a few seconds of walking, she went down the ramp like Mayu.
'... I hope Liu is doing well... it must be hard with one less arm... hhaa...'
Upon arriving at the basement, the place was naturally darker than the floor above, which was full of windows.
'... why did she run away?...'
The basement was filled with wood lamps, giving it a frightening orange-red glow despite the white walls.
'... and where did Papi Mo and Mamie Mi go?... what are we going to do if they're really dead?...'
She passed quite a few aisles, looking for Mayu.
"Ah... I'm here!"
And was surprised when Mayu's voice came from behind her.
'I missed her?'
She turned around to see Mayu approaching with a cart already quite full.
"Sorry I was lost in my thoughts, I didn't see you."
The amount of food in the cart surprised Pasha.
'That much?... for four days?...'
"It's fine, but... don't you think this place is too scary? The contrast of the white with the wood lamps makes the place... mh... creepy."
Mayu had visibly never been inside an Intermarché in the citizen zone.
"All Intermarché stores are like that, and besides, on Obscurity days the floors above are the same."
'... I've never done grocery shopping for more people than myself... that must be why.'
And Mayu clearly hadn't finished, she turned into an aisle full of bottles of all kinds.
"We need to get water..."
Pasha followed her in silence.
"... should we get some alcohol too?"
Mayu suggested an option that hadn't crossed Pasha's mind.
"Uh..."
'... it won't hurt...'
"... just one bottle."
Upon hearing Pasha's answer, Mayu let out a discreet sigh of relief and picked up a bottle of peschon along the way.
'... it's so much faster when you do grocery shopping without paying attention to the price...'
"Why peschon?"
Pasha asked as Mayu stacked a good number of bottles in the cart.
"It's my favorite fruit, I love how it's all soft and there were a lot of them where I grew up, so I got into the habit of drinking it since I was thirteen."
'Thirteen!?... whoa...'
After finishing getting drinks, they returned to one of the main aisles.
"Where do we pay?"
Mayu asked, stopping to look at Pasha.
"We need to go back up, there are checkouts on both sides... follow me."
Mayu nodded and followed her, they continued talking calmly until they reached the nearest checkout, next to the entrance hall.
"Do you think it'll be enough?"
Mayu asked as she handed the cart to a cashier to have it tallied up.
'Is she seriously asking?...'
Mayu's attitude was rather amusing in Pasha's eyes.
"Of course it'll be enough... actually, you've never done grocery shopping, have you?"
Mayu turned around, stepped back a little while leaning forward and squinted at Pasha.
"You're making fun of me, aren't you?!"
She accused her while pointing her finger at her, a discreet smile on her lips.
'Haha... I think I know where Yumi gets her cute attitude from...'
Pasha smiled broadly as she answered.
"Exactly!"
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Social relationships are always very ambiguous and fragile, but aren't they one of the most appealing things in life?
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