"Tusk, can I sit here?" Hilda asked slowly, referring to the empty spot next to the young father.
"This is unusual," Tusk remarked. "Why aren't you with your friends?"
"You have a problem with it?" Hilda replied, raising her tone. "It's getting hot and the other shadow spot is currently occupied by Ange and DRAGON Princess."
The young man let out a little laugh. "Just kidding. Actually, I also have something to talk to you about."
"It's better to be interesting," Hilda warned him jokingly as she took the spot and sat on the sand.
"Well, it's kind of an old thing," Tusk shrugged. "I didn't get to say it during the wedding, but thank you. If it weren't for you, I would've remained there in the locker room that time instead of doing otherwise."
Hilda said nothing for some seconds, she just shifted her eyes around the beach. But then, the former captain of the First Troop let out a rather awkward laugh and put a hand to cover her face.
"Oh my God, just that?" she said while laughing. "You know, if you want to thank me, you should thank me more."
Tusk turned his head at the redhead, raising one eyebrow.
"Not to brag,"—Hilda shrugged—"but it's sort of thanks to me that you two met. No, not just sort of, it was really because of me." Hilda let her body fall on the sand, putting her hands behind her head. "The incident thing with Villkiss? I was the cause."
"Eh?" was all Tusk could say.
But for Hilda, it meant that the young man was willing to listen. "When Ange first came to Arzenal, she was… unimaginably beyond control. Having lived 16 years believing herself to be a Mana, she still had that annoying attitude—you know, the one that classified us as 'things'—toward us when we first met. Long story short, my first impression of her weren't that good. She refused to communicate with any of us. But there were two newbies that, well, tried to approach her—Miranda and Coco—and things didn't end well for them."
"How so?"
"It was during their first fight," Hilda smiled bitterly at the memory. "Ange attempted to go back to Misurugi Empire riding the Para-mail and as a result of her attempt, those two, including our then-captain, Zola was killed. She was like… a total villain for us. You could say, we sort of bullied her, but none of our—or to be exact, Chris and Rosalie's—petty tricks worked. So I thought of a plan.
"I got into the maintenance deck when it was already empty and… well, did something with the machine," Hilda said with a sigh. "You know the rest."
"Ange did mention something like that back then," Tusk murmured, more to himself. "But I didn't know the exact person who did it. So it was you?"
Hilda shrugged and smiled. "Not really something I can be proud of, but yeah."
"Oh! That time when Jill asked me to bring her back, during the Festa, I could somewhat recall that you were with her too?" Tusk asked the redhead.
Hilda blinked. "Oh, that time? Yeah. More things for you to thank me for?" she replied, jokingly. "If it weren't for my genius strategy, we wouldn't have made it. No, seriously. Don't laugh at me!"
"Okay, sorry," Tusk said with a chuckle. Then he seemed to have remembered something else. "Ah, also that time during the fight with Embryo. You were the one who convinced me to try using the Villkiss, right?"
"It was a tough gambling, but even now I still think that if it were me, I wouldn't make it," the redhead replied. "It was like I was digging my own grave," Hilda said with a smile, getting up to her feet. "But well, she's happy with you now and that's what matters. I guess I should thank you too."
The young man followed. "Either way, I'm glad that things ended up well between us."
Hilda gave him a quick look. "Whatever you say," she replied before running back to the beach. Tusk saw that the redhead was running to a DRAGON girl he had seen with her often lately.
Tusk stayed where he was, his purplish eyes at the beach. He was about to sit on the sand once again when suddenly he noticed that Noah was running to his way. When the boy reached him, he swooped him off the sand and carried him in his arms.
"Daddy, Daddy!" the boy yelled excitedly.
"Hm?"
"I want to ride the Villkiss!" he said with a pleading smile.
Tusk flashed his son a smile. The usual. From time to time, he and Ange would take their children to ride the Villkiss and fly with them for a short amount of time. Of course not with the little Yuuki, yet, but for the others, Noah especially, it had become some sort of a hobby and they would ask for it before their parents even offered them to, just like now.
"Let's go ask Mommy, then," Tusk replied, immediately taking the short walk to where Ange was, still carrying Noah, and then told his wife about what their son wanted.
"Ride the Villkiss?" was Ange's first reply. The First Princess of the Misurugi Empire then exchanged looks with Salamandinay who was still next to her, looked at the sleeping little boy in her arms, and then to Tusk.
"I'll go, no worries," Tusk assured her after understanding what she meant.
Ange gave it a quick thought, then she removed one of the rings on her fingers, the one that she got from her mother, and gave it to Tusk. "I'll leave the rest to you, then. Be careful, okay?" She looked at her son. "Noah, be sure to listen and do as Daddy says."
"Yes, Mommy!" Salamandinay jokingly answered back after the two have left, giggling, which resulted Ange to hit her lightly on the arm.
"Noah, remember that you mustn't let go before we're done, okay?" Tusk reminded the boy, yelling over the wind.
"I know!" the boy replied, yelling as well.
They had just taken off the deck and an idea suddenly crossed the young father's mind. He rode the Villkiss on flying mode and flew across the beach, where everyone was. Their altitude wasn't that high, so Tusk could still see the surprised looks of everyone there, suddenly seeing the Villkiss fly above them. No one had the slightest idea of what he was about to do, but suddenly there was a splash of water and it looked like it was raining.
Hearing the boy behind him shrieking with joy and also seeing everyone's smiles just below him in response of the sudden rainfall, Tusk let out a little laugh.
"That went well," he murmured to himself, raising one hand to wave at everyone and also at Ange, who was shaking her head while laughing.
