"Miss Ineffa, are you ready? We're leaving in a few hours."
"I am. But I still need to make some precautions for Aino."
In Nasha Town, Isaac, together with Ineffa, talked while sitting down for a morning tea.
It was a cold morning, yet despite it, Isaac still wore a simple white dress shirt coupled with black trousers, finishing it off with a leather belt and a pair of shoes.
He might have left Fontaine, but that didn't mean he'd leave behind his mannerisms. Moreover, it was part of his brand at this point.
Cradling a cup of tea, he gently gestured at the robot-maid sitting across him with a cordial smile plastered on his face.
"But I already told you, Miss Ineffa, I have the latest Instantaneous-Travel-Machine." He tried to convince her. "You could return to Miss Aino at the end of your shift, anytime."
In response, her robotic tone resounded with clarity in his ears. "What an odd name. Could you not have thought of a simple one like a teleportation device?"
"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" He shook his head with disapproval. "Teleportation device sounds nice, sure, but is it memorable? No, I don't think so."
"I mean, would you remember a jade for a rock? I don't think so. It's the glamour of the name that people are attracted to." He added with utmost certainty.
"There's a flaw in this logic." Ineffa replied before dropping it. "But with how you've talked so far, you would only try to patch it up to suit your needs, so I will no longer bother."
"You make it sound like I'm being manipulative." Isaac feigned a hurt expression. But then a faint smirk tugged at his lips. "I won't deny it though."
Ineffa didn't say anything else and only stood up. They exchanged a few more words before she politely excused herself to prepare for their departure, leaving Isaac alone.
As he sat there, his teacup already emptied, he couldn't help but look out at the horizon.
A few days have already passed since his talk with the Captain, and by his calculation, it had already been approximately three weeks since he left Fontaine.
With no way of contacting his friends and lover of what has been happening so far, a few worried thoughts have crept up his mind these past few days, fearing that his absence might have made a few people upset.
Like his protégé, Freminet, or his lover, Furina. The two of them were the only ones who would frequently check up on him, and thus were the only two whose attention he had to spare the most.
Freminet is fine on his own, but as Isaac had observed in the past, the more he left him without talking to him, the gloomier he gets.
Likewise, Furina enjoyed his attention, and would almost always want to have his eyes only on her. If not, then things get heated really quickly.
So for the past three weeks, he had to admit that he was nervous.
But fortunately, after his talk with the Captain, he had cleared the fog in his mind and could finally return home.
But still, it wasn't as if there weren't any new baggage that was added in his mind from this short vacation.
"The Balladeer... Scaramouche... No, Kunikuzushi doesn't exist?" Isaac muttered to himself, his brows furrowing. "That can't be right..."
"Unless..."
He then set his eyes up to the sky as he tried to reason to himself of the possible explanation.
"...I'm in the timeline where he erased himself from Irminsul?"
That was the first thought that emerged in his mind when the Captain broke this new to him.
'How odd.' He thought. 'On the surface, this doesn't seem like anything too major. Sure, some things changed, but overall, it's still the same.'
'But that also meant that...'
He then sighed, feeling something was about to happen, or at least a system window would soon appear in front of him.
But before it could, Isaac thought of the next sequence of his thought process.
'Somewhere out there, Scaramouche... No, the Wanderer is wandering around as a drifter.'
At the thought of this, Isaac's placid expression suddenly shifted, as a new thought formed and blossomed. One that he was too interested in.
He then stood up, placing down his teacup, and made a few light stretches. A gust of frigid wind blew past his face, and he leisurely inhaled it as a refreshed look appeared on his face.
At the same time, a system prompt indicating a new quest appeared in front of him. Isaac ignored it and instead hummed himself a tune.
"Time to get myself a puppet employee."
And to do that, he first needs to hunt down an erased Harbinger.
---
A few hours later.
In Isaac's café in Fontaine, the previous dark environment suddenly lit up as the door of the café glowed a warm light.
Following that, the figure of Isaac passed through, followed by Ineffa who was holding a couple of items.
"This here is where you'll work." Isaac told her as he switched on the lights. "I'm counting on you, Miss Ineffa."
The lights turned on, revealing his magnificent café that was still as pristine as he left it. Seeing it, Isaac almost felt like tearing up with how long he had been separated from it.
Ineffa looked around the large interior of the room in contrast to the seemingly small exterior outside, before looking back at Isaac.
"So we are in Fontaine?"
"The Nation of Hydro, very much so." Isaac nodded.
"Hmm..." Ineffa's indifferent face hummed for a moment before looking back at Isaac. "May I leave and explore the city for a bit?"
"Sure, why not?" He shrugged. "Just be back before dusk, so that we could prepare for the evening rush of people."
"Oh, and maybe come back earlier, so that I could introduce the rest of the team with you." He continued, his smile getting a bit wider. "My other employees who oh-so-love to work for me, ehe."
"..." Ineffa looked at him silently for a bit before speaking with her usual robotic tone. "...I'll be back."
- Ding~
Ineffa stepped out, seemingly wanting to look for something.
"She seems quite excited." Isaac muttered to himself, seeing how fast the robot bolted out. "Maybe she wants to check the Gardemeks? Hmm..."
"Does she want to look at the Gardemeks to study them or... want to establish kinship?"
Would someone like her even sympathize with the robots of Fontaine? He didn't know.
Standing there, he realized, she was just like him, trying to make history. But who's to say what's right from wrong?
With a light shrug, Isaac quickly disregarded his thoughts and sought to set up the café for business once again.
But before he could do so, he suddenly heard something. Something that rapidly reached his ears.
- Tap, tap...
"?"
The sound had gotten quicker as Isaac began to notice. Indeed, as though it was...
Isaac turned, only to be met with a familiar figure.
"You!"
"Fu—eugh?!"
Isaac recognized that grayish-silver hair anywhere and immediately called out to her, but was stopped midway. It was because that figure jumped to him, throwing him off balance and landing them both on the floor.
Before Isaac could process it all, he suddenly felt a hot breath above his face. He opened his eyes, only to he met with the face of the woman he loved the most, staring at him with... a terrifying gaze.
"Um... Furina? Dear, what's wrong?" Sensing that something was awfully, awfully wrong, Isaac asked in a placating manner. "You look... Erm... Great today. How have you been?"
"Don't." Right after he spoke, Furina's usually benign demeanor was replaced by a furious one. "Don't talk to me... As if you just went for a small break, Isaac. You... Where have you gone?"
'I'm screwed...'
"I, uh... You know..." Isaac struggled to find the correct words to use. "Just... hanging around, you know what I mean? Made some new friends, and uh, dueled with someone? The usual stuff, aha."
"Look, Furina." Intending to deescalate the situation, he immediately added, "I know that you're upset that I've disappeared for a bit longer than anticipated... But what I did was—"
"I don't care about what you did." She cut him off. Then, still pressing down on him as her hair cascaded down around him, she continued. "You look thinner than usual. You look pale. The area under your eyes darkened. But, most of all..."
Her hand then reached for his collar, then, without any warning, tore them apart, which subsequently exposed his chest.
"H, Hey?!"
"This!"
Furina's fingers reached for his neck and touched some scars. They were the scars he obtained from the shackles he wore back in Nod-Krai.
But in her eyes, they were a violation to the person she loved. To the person that belonged to her.
"What... happened to you...?" Her eyes moistened as her hand trembled, caressing the scars. Her voice then began to raise as her emotions boiled. "These new scars... Did you get hurt badly? Were you tortured? By who? I, I'll find them. I'm an Archon, aren't I? I can—"
"Furina, calm down."
But before things could go out of control, Isaac sat up and hugged her. Embracing her trembling figure, he gently whispered to her in a reassuring manner.
"Don't worry. I can tell you the story behind these scars, but... Please, calm down. I'm safe. You don't need to do anything, and it's alright."
Being embraced by him, Furina lingered for a bit before raising her arms and hugging him back.
Then, the first years rolled down her face as she spoke.
"I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... I got emotional, it's just that..." She tried to explain with a brittle voice. "You're too precious to me... I can't stand the thought of losing you like this..."
For her, for someone who had lived too long and had never experienced love so far, the thought of Isaac suddenly vanishing from her life had indeed frightened her.
And the fact that he glossed over that fact made him hate himself right now.
"Don't worry, I'm fine, aren't I? You don't have to worry anymore. I'm here, with you. We're together and that's all that matters right now." He affirmed her once more. He then raised his hand and wiped off her tears."So don't cry, alright? You're more beautiful when you're not crying."
"Come on, let's have a meal and talk. I'll even cook your favorite food now that I'm back. What do you say?"
Isaac attempted to stand up but was immediately stopped when Furina tightened her hold of him. "No!"
"Furina?"
"...let's talk." She said, bringing her face closer to him. "I want to hear about everything you've done."
"...it won't be a pretty story."
"That's fine." She pressed on. "I just want... to be with you again. Listening to your voice."
"Sure, but—"
"On your bed."
"...what?"
Isaac tilted his head a bit, thinking if he heard that correctly. But Furina's next words only confirmed it.
"I want to lay down with you and listen to your voice. I want to fall asleep in your embrace again. And I want to wake up with you beside me."
Then, she brought her lips close to his ears as she added, "Is that too much to ask for?"
"..." Isaac remained speechless for a while, unable to comprehend what was happening. But seeing how eager she was with it, and how he needed to atone for what he did, he could only comply. "...alright."
"Carry me."
"...seriously?"
"You have to, dummy."
"...okay."
Without much of a choice, Isaac locked the door of the café then proceeded to princess-carry her up to his room to fulfill her wish.
Unaware that, while she hugged him, her face hid a devious smirk.