"So what did you mean by 'fail and face erasure'? Were you gonna delete me from your phone or something?"

A weak chuckle from the other end floated into the teen's ear.

"No….I just… it's from a videogame. Fran…Mammon…we…well, you already know."

Fran sighed and slumped in his seat on the garden bench.

"Sorry. For not telling you."

"Don't apologize. I wouldn't have wanted to hear it from you anyway."

"Still…I'm sorry that this happened to you."

"Stop apologizing. How's Italy?"

Fran raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of conversation, shaking his head he took a deep breath.

"So far, Papa Alden bought me a suit, Dino took me out to dinner, and I baked a pie with Mama Luche. It's great…"

"When were you planning on telling me you were leaving?"

Fran frowned this time. With the sudden request from Alden for him to go to Italy, he hadn't had much time to think about anything.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

Fran could almost see the blonde rolling his eyes.

"Who wouldn't notice you were gone? Seriously, you're like a constant presence at the tracks. We were all bound to notice you were gone at some point."

"I wish you were here."

A pause.

"What?"

"I...I don't know."

Another.

"I wish I was there too."

Fran bit his lip to stop the small quirk of his lips.

"I gotta go, Alden's calling me."

"Alright, keep in touch, brat."

"You got it, douche."

Fran hung up first before sliding off the bench and jogging to where Alden was waving him over.

"I'm taking you somewhere," Alden said as he began to walk towards his car, a sign that Fran should follow.

"Okay…where?" Fran asked, getting into the car and properly putting his seatbelt on.

Alden simply smiled at him before starting the car.

"You'll see when we get there."

~0~0~0~0~

Fran gulped.

Insane. That was the only word he could use to describe the scene he was currently looking at.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Alden asked, a small smile on his face as he looked at Fran.

"It's huge…I've never seen anything like this before," Fran murmured, his eyes still fixed on the sight in front of him.

"It's the largest track on Earth," Alden said proudly. "It was built before your father and I were even born. No one really knows who had it built though."

"Largest…on Earth…" Fran couldn't believe what he was hearing. His thoughts were jumbled with different feelings and it was making him a bit dizzy. "I think I need to sit down."

Alden chuckled and led Fran to the seating area where Fran plopped down heavily onto one of the many seats.

"Every two years, a huge race is held here," Alden began. "Racers from all over the world send in their application videos just to be able to race on these tracks right here. When it comes to groups, a representative is chosen to apply. Only twenty racers are ever chosen though out of millions, Fran."

Fran could feel his eyes going wide. Only twenty? Out of the millions of applicants, only twenty were chosen?

"Those twenty are split into to four six racer groups. Groups A, B, C, and D. The racers race within their groups first to see who will represent the group and then, there's a race between the four groups to chose the two finalist, finally, those two race and the one who crosses the line after ten laps is the winner," Alden explained, his eyes on Fran to watch his reactions.

The teen leaned back in his seat and slumped down.

"Insane."