Chapter Fifty-Seven: An Unexpected Triple Date
Hey there, readers, before you get to reading the chapter, I wanted to quickly address the elephant in the room, that being Glynda, as stated in my last chapter in case anyone missed it, Glynda was given to me by Warmachine375, it was later brought to my attention that she is from RWBY, the same name, look, and weapon. I personally don't watch RWBY, I only know a few names from conversations I hear from people around me (Salem, Cinder, and Emerald to name a few), but regardless, I'm here to inform you that Glynda will NOT be removed from this story, so to the Guest who asked me to do so, your request has been kindly revoked, so please don't ask again, Glynda is one of my favorite suggested OCs so far and she's important for the next arc, so she must stay. Besides, look on the bright side, according to what War told me about Glynda from RWBY, she's a flat character, so imagine this version as a chance to see an arguably better Glynda Goodwitch.
So, now that we got that cleared up, enjoy the chapter. Cya.
Four days passed since the telekinesis mage was enlisted into the Green Praying Mantises as their vice-captain and knocked some sense into her man child of a captain, but now, the focus returns to the Black Bulls. The day is within its early afternoon stages as Kenos, Asta, and Finral enter the base.
"Hey there, everyone," Kenos greeted upon seeing the rest of the squad sitting in the main area, each doing their own thing. "We're back, the mission was successful,"
"Nice work, you three, I know it was an especially tough one," Yami spoke up.
"Tell me about it, every mission I've heard of regarding Magic Beasts usually just have us do away with them, but the Wizard King just had to assign us to lead them towards a nearby strong magic region," Finral groaned as he sat down on a nearby chair. "I swear, I'm close to dying on four separate occasions,"
"True, but Julius said they wandered out of the region, so it only made sense that we were to lead them back," Kenos said to him as he and Asta sat down too. "Although, you do have a bit of a point, guiding them rather than subduing them bars us from using our maximum offensive potential. But you were awesome out there, clearly the MVP of that mission, right Asta?"
The solar mage turned his head towards the swordsman as he asked his question, but Asta was looking down at his grimoire, not responding.
"Asta?"
"Huh?" he jolted up a bit before looking at his squadmate. "What did you say? Sorry, I wasn't listening,"
"I was talking about how Finral did during the mission," he told them.
Asta quickly grinned. "Oh yeah, you did great, Finral, I don't think we could've done it without you,"
"Thanks, Asta, Kenos," the spatial mage said before slumping into his chair in exhaustion.
Asta went back to looking at his grimoire, even though his trip to the Witches' Forest was 8 days ago, the thought of his conversation with Roth and the half-demon transformation has always been at the back of his mind. Ever since then, he's not tried to find out how to transform again or even talk to the devil that was within his grimoire.
Kenos watched as his short squadmate looked at his rugged tome, he recognized the look on Asta's face as it was the face he himself made whenever he looked at his own grimoire, he wondered what could be going on in the magicless mage's mind. But the thought made the solar mage take out his own grimoire and look at it as he remembered a recent memory.
"That voice that spoke to me when I was battling Anna? Where did it come from? And whatever it was, it was linked to me getting my wyvern spell, but how?" Kenos thought to himself intently.
"You know, we've been doing pretty good so far, you've all gotten a lot done this past week," the dark mage said as he blew smoke from his cigarette.
"Thanks, captain, so what's the next mission for us today?" Vanessa asked as she looked over at the man that wasn't too far from her.
Yami looked back at her and raised a brow. "What are you talking about, you don't have any more missions to do today,"
"Huh?" his entire squad said in unison.
"Rookies aside, did the rest of you forget what's happening today?" Yami asked as he looked away from his squad again and down at the newspaper that was in his hand. "Tonight's the Star Festival,"
"What, already?! Oh yeah!" a majority of the squad had exclaimed, excluding Grey, Gordon, and the three rookies.
A look of realization came to Noelle's face. "Oh yeah, I remember the Star Festival, what about you, Kenos?"
"Of course, I would go there with my family every year, I love going to the Star Festival," he responded.
Everyone showed different levels of excitement, but when it came to Asta, the only present look on his face was confusion. "Um, guys…what exactly is the Star Festival?"
Everyone stopped as they slowly looked at Asta with strange looks, but the looks faded as the realization dawned on them that due to Asta being from the Forsaken Realm, he had never heard of the event, let alone get to go to it. As usual, Kenos spoke up in order to inform his squadmate.
"The Star Festival is an annual event that happens in the capital to celebrate the work of the work and achievements of the Magic Knights as stars are how their deeds are kept track of, hence the event being called the Star Festival," the solar mage began explaining. "But the way they celebrate it is incredible, there are stands selling food, a multitude of games, and at the end, there's an event comparing the achievements of the nine squads and rating them,"
"Unfortunately, when it comes to that, two things have been evident recently," Noelle spoke up, causing the other two to look at her. "The Golden Dawn has always been first, and the Black Bulls have always ranked last,"
"Oh yeah, it's practically a tradition at this point," Kenos said with a slump.
"Hey, you never know, it might change for us this year, we might rank 8th or something, that's better than we've ever done," Yami said. "But regardless, make sure to get ready, it begins tonight, so get ready, especially you three," he pointed at the three who had just recently returned from their mission.
Kenos smiled, this would be his first Star Festival as a Magic Knight which only excited him more as he was now one of those that the event was made to thank, and he knew the same would be true for Dante and Oxanna. But then, another thought came to his mind as he looked at his satchel, but more specifically, what was inside them, he then looked up.
"Hey, is it possible for us to…invite some people to come too?" the solar mage asked.
"Um, of course you can invite people," Finral replied with a nod. "Who did you exactly have in mind to invite, anybody that we know?"
"As a matter of fact, we do know them, they're some old friends of ours…but I'm going to need your help for something first," the solar mage replied with a smirk.
"Wow, this is the Star Festival? It's…incredible,"
Those were Asta's words as he looked forward, the sun had set hours ago, letting the beauty of the night show itself, in front of the swordsman was a large crowd of people, all walking in different directions, looks of happiness and excitement present on their faces. He then saw the stands of food and games Kenos spoke of and how the lights attached to them made them look so much prettier than they did during the day.
"Incredible, aye? I remember something similar being my first words when I came to my very first Star Festival," a voice said, Asta snapped out of his awe-filled look to see himself standing in between Kenos and Noelle, with the former being the one to make the previous statement. "It really is incredible though,"
"Yeah, it is," he said back before he clenched his fists in excitement. "I wonder what I'm going to do, I wanna try so many foods, play so many games, and maybe we'll run into some familiar faces too,"
"You're free to do all of that," Yami said from behind. The swordsman looked behind him, seeing the whole squad standing together, but looking in different directions. "But of course, there's something to handle first," he continued as he quickly moved and removed the robes from the rookies' bodies without breaking a sweat.
"Hey, what was that for?!" the three exclaimed with comedic anger, not pleased by their captain's action.
"Squad robes aren't required at Star Festivals, they're merely optional, in this squad, our rookies go robeless for their first festival," the dark mage explained.
"Is that so? Well, as long as there's an explanation," Noelle said.
"Fewer questions are good for me, I just wish Finral knew that during his first festival," Yami commented.
"Hey, don't blame me!" the spatial mage comically exclaimed before his expression softened. "It's just that the robe means a lot to me, you gave it to me and accepted me into this squad when I had nowhere else to go, so I didn't like having it off, that's all,"
The three rookies looked at Finral with looks of empathy, even the others, who weren't looking at him, heard what he said and agreed, knowing the same was true for all of them. Yami eyed him intently before resting his hand on the man's head and giving him a small smile. "I guess you're right, my bad, but look on the bright side, at least you won't have to worry about having it off now,"
Finral smiled too. "Yeah, you're right,"
"Good," Yami said before addressing his whole squad. "Now that we got all of this out of the way, time to do what we came here for: to have a good ass time,"
"Right, well, before I partake in the festivities, I'm doing my annual launch of fireworks!" Magna exclaimed as he took out a large magic item, he then turned to the transformation mage. "Grey, I trust you got my back like you do every year?"
"Y-Yes, I'm w-with y-you, it's the b-best place f-for me to g-go, a place with h-hardly anyone a-around," she replied with a stutter before the two quickly ran away in one direction.
The others scattered too, with Yami and the trio of rookies being the only ones left, the captain looked at his youngest members. "So, where are you all heading off to?"
"Asta's still new to this, so the three of us will stay together," the solar mage replied.
"He's right, Dorksta will probably get himself lost without us around," Noelle added.
"Hey, that's not-, okay maybe it's a little true, but still," the swordsman said back.
"Alright then, go enjoy yourselves, don't do anything dumb, I'm off," Yami said before he waved and left the three to their own devices.
The three in question wasted no time moving forward to see the sights.
"You know, it kind of feels weird being in public without my robe, I've been wearing it for so long, I feel a bit less protected for some reason," Kenos spoke up.
"I know what you mean, but we'll get used to it," Noelle told him before bringing something else up. "So Kenos, when do you think those friends of ours will be getting here?" she then asked with a small smirk.
"Oh yeah, I want to know too?" Asta added with a grin.
"They should be here soon, I wonder if we should've waited where we were for them, this is technically their Star Festival," the solar mage replied before mentioning as he held his chin.
"Hey, there they are!" a familiar voice exclaimed.
The exclamation made Kenos chuckle. "Okay, forget what I said, it seems they found us anyway," he said before the three turned around to see the people in question, who were none other than the two Underwater siblings, Kahono and Kiato, with the former having bandages around her neck, and the latter walking with the help of a singular crutch.
"Guys, you made it!" Asta called as they arrived at where the group was.
"Kahono, it's so good to see you," the water mage greeted as they happily shared a hug.
"Kenos, you're looking good, how've you been?" the dance mage greeted as well as he and the solar mage bumped arms.
"I've been great," he replied.
"Hey there, Asta," Kiato then greeted the swordsman as his sister merely waved at him. "How have you been? It seems your arms have gotten better?"
"Yeah, I'm all back to normal!" the magicless mage exclaimed in response as he grinned and flexed one of his arms.
"How have been things going at the temple?" Noelle asked.
"It's been going great actually, the parts that Vetto destroyed and rebuilt, and the temple mages that were injured have been nursed back to health," Kiato replied.
"But right now, the two of us are just happy to see you three again," Kahono weakly croaked before coughing.
"Wow sis, don't strain yourself, I thought we agreed I'd speak for you," Kiato said, coming to his sister's side as quickly as he could.
The expressions of the three Black Bulls became sad ones before Kenos spoke up. "How has it been…you know…since it happened?"
"…It's been hard, even after all this time, it's hard to accept the reality of it. Most nights…I see Kahono crying to herself in her room, I try to comfort her, but then…I end up breaking down too," the dance mage exclaimed as he could feel tears ready to come out, he stopped talking for a few seconds.
He did his best to force the tears back before he continued speaking. "We don't want to believe that our dream will end, even after what you two told us, but…sometimes it's hard for us to live like that, even simple things became hard to do, not to mention we haven't been able to use our magic with the damage we've taken,"
The three clenched their fists, with the dance mage's revelation of their emotional state, they remembered how useless they were to stop Vetto from doing such a thing, with Kenos' being the tightest, but he remembered Yami's words, what happened was a thing of the past, as for the problem of the present, he had a solution to that.
"I'm sorry," Kenos said as he looked up to face them, regret was easy to see on his face. "We let you live like that for over a week, I can't imagine what you had to go through, I promise I'll never be weak enough to let that happen to you again. But right now, there is something I can do, Kiato, did you bring what I asked?"
"Um, yeah," the dance mage replied before taking something out, revealing it to be his dismembered foot, kept in a jar with a sustaining fluid to keep it from decomposing. "You told me to bring it with me when you invited us earlier, but why exactly?"
"You're about to see right now," Kenos replied as he reached into his satchel and pulled out two small vials, each with a small red fluid inside, covered with two corks, he removed said corks and pointed the vials at the siblings as red strands came out and moved towards them.
The strands soon became three red translucent orbs, one around Kahono's neck, and one around both Kiato's foot and where the foot used to be on his leg, the orbs looking exactly like the Witch Queen's blood cocoon recovery spell. Soon, the foot disappeared from the jar and reattached itself to the dance mage's leg.
"My foot," Kiato muttered, in total shock over what just happened as he dropped the jar and crutch.
"Wow, it's better," Kahono said, but she quickly brought her hands to her mouth, the words she said were perfectly audible, she soon opened it. "My voice,"
The two siblings then began crying, tears uncontrollably fell down their faces, multiple instances occurred when they tried to speak, believing they were done crying, but were proven wrong more than once as tears fell down again, the three rookies watched them, warm smiles on their faces.
The two siblings finally found their voices, with Kiato speaking up first. "How were you able to do this?"
"Courtesy of the Queen of the Witches' Forest, it was her magic that healed you, I requested for some after we had a little encounter with her," Kenos replied.
"Wow…thank you so much, Kenos, you don't know how much this means to us," Kahono said this time. "You saved our dreams,"
Noelle's facial expression fell a bit. "I'm sorry, I said I'd be the one to save your dream, and I had the same opportunity Kenos had, but I didn't take it,"
Her sad expression quickly changed to minor shock as Kenos slung his arm around his royal squadmate. "Don't worry Noelle, with what happened that day, none of us that were there are blaming you, besides, we both had to same desire to help them, so I don't mind sharing my success with you, the credit could go to us both,"
She sighed. "I suppose that could work, thanks," her eyes then zoomed in on the arm he had around her person. "But I suggest you keep your arm off me, I'm royalty if you forgot," she said before turning her head away in embarrassment.
The solar mage smirked. "Is that your way of saying thanks? You know I can't take you seriously when you have that look on your face,"
Noelle pulled her wand out and pointed it at him. "Want me to blast you?" she said in the most threatening voice she could, which wasn't very good.
"Okay okay, I give," the solar mage said as he put his hands up in surrender, but the smirk was still present. "You say that like you've ever successfully gotten me,"
"Why you little-," Noelle was saying, but was interrupted as Kahono and Kiato ran up to hug both the royal and noble.
"We'll consider Kenos' words and thank you both!" they exclaimed.
"You're welcome," Noelle said, putting aside her bickering with the solar mage.
They quickly broke the hug as Kahono smiled. "I'm so happy, I haven't gotten to sing in over a week, it feels so hard to contain myself now," she said before she turned her head up into the air and sang at her highest volume.
The entrancing melody caught the attention of every person near her, Kiato took this chance to begin dancing, he couldn't contain himself much either and needed to move his feet in the way he's been barred from doing for over a week, while they were both doing so, the same thought came to their head as they looked at their respective friend. "Kenos, Noelle, thank you so much, I cried nearly every night thinking I'd never be able to do this again, but I'm doing it right now, when we make it big and become famous, you'll be the guests of honor at our first show, that's a promise, and just like the two of you, we'll never forget it,"
The two then ended their brief performance that was meant to let out the frustration that was built up, but they weren't expecting the rounds of applause to come from the people around them, entranced by their wondrous combination of voice and movement.
"Incredible singing!"
"What talented dancing!"
The siblings were initially surprised, but they quickly recovered and responded to the praise they were receiving. "Thank you so much!"
"It's good to see them back to normal too," Asta said, the other two nodding as the siblings joined them again.
"So, now that we have taken care of this problem, it's time to enjoy this festival. From what you told us about this place, it sounds like this could be a lot of fun," Kiato said.
"He's right, time for food, games, and possibly more familiar faces!" Asta exclaimed as he pumped his fist into the air.
"More familiar faces? It's likely, but I wonder who we'll run into?" Kenos wondered aloud.
"I don't believe it! Kenos!"
"Well, that was fast, and I recognize that voice," the solar mage turned around to see none other than Zuka running towards him, he saw that she too wasn't wearing her robe, revealing the full look of her beige shirt, he admitted that she looked nicer with her shirt showing, he also noticed the necklace around her neck and smiled.
It didn't take long for the sparkle mage to arrive where the others were. "Kenos, it's so good to see you, it's been a few weeks since we've last seen each other," she said, and she was right, the last time the two friends saw each other face to face was when he gave her the necklace…and she realized her feelings for him.
"You're right, it has been some time, oh, let me introduce you," Kenos said, turning to the siblings. "Zuka, this is Kiato and his sister, Kahono, Kiato and Kahono, this is my friend, Zuka Glitenia,"
"Hello, it's nice to meet friends of Kenos," Zuka greeted with a short bow before turning to more familiar faces. "Hey, Asta, Noelle, I haven't seen you two in some time either,"
"Same, it's great to see you Zuka, where are Shauna and Oliver?" Asta said before asking.
"Oh, they're somewhere else enjoying the festival, I thought I'd look around to see if I could find Kenos and some other familiar faces, and lo and behold, here you all are," Zuka replied.
"Great, it's always good to have another friend, so let's get moving," Kiato said as they all did just that.
As they were walking, Kenos turned to Zuka. "Hey, I still see you have that necklace I got you?"
The sparkle mage looked down and smiled before holding onto it. "Of course, I would never lose it, it's your first gift to me, I'll always cherish it. Besides, I bet this cost you quite a lot?"
Kenos laughed. "You're right, but I didn't mind, I practically agreed to get it in a second, I knew I had to get you something,"
Zuka's cheeks turned a light shade of red. "Wow, I didn't know it was such an easy decision, it makes me feel kind of guilty I didn't get you anything,"
"Don't worry, I don't need anything, you were the one who helped me, you deserve it," he said back. "Besides, I already have my pendant anyways, we're sort of matching,"
She internally sighed. "There you go showing one of the reasons I fell for you: your modesty, you did just as much for me as I did for you, but you didn't think your action was as important as mine, well I'll prove to you that it was, by getting you something important too,"
Meanwhile, Kahono was thinking to herself about something, and just like Zuka, it was along the lines of romance. "Noelle, since you helped me today, I'm going to help you, the part of me that wasn't getting depressed has been planning for this for some time, and this festival is a perfect place to enact it, but first, I need some allies," she thought as she extended her arms, stopping Kiato, Kenos, and Zuka from advancing forward, leaving Asta and Noelle as the only ones to do so.
"Hey, Kiato and I need to talk to Kenos and Zuka about something, we'll catch up with you," the song mage said.
"Okay, we won't be too far away," Asta said back as he and Noelle kept walking and were soon out of earshot.
"Um, what's going on?" Zuka asked.
"I'm going to need your help to enact my operation," Kahono replied, to which Kiato's face quickly became one of realization.
"Oh, we're doing it now?" he asked, to which his sister nodded.
"What exactly is this operation that we're doing?" Kenos asked, still confused.
"I'm glad you asked, this is my master plan, also known as Operation Slashing Waters," she replied triumphantly.
"Slashing…Waters?" Kenos and Zuka asked in unison.
"Yeah, I already let Kiato in on it a few days ago, but I'll need your help," Kahono said. "This may be new to Zuka, but the rest of us are already aware of Noelle's HUGE crush on Asta,"
As she said, this was news to Zuka, but it was even bigger news to Kenos, he wasted no time speaking up. "Wait, Noelle…likes Asta?"
"Wait…you didn't know?" Kahono asked, surprise evident in her voice.
It was at that moment the solar mage pieced it all together, the odd insult at the dungeon, her strange reason for coming to the mixer, why she came to Nean, the compliment she was looking for during their time at the beach, and the reason she had chased him when he fed the swordsman meat while he couldn't use his arms at the time, it all just clicked.
"O-Of course I knew, I was just joking, you would have to be a complete utter idiot to not know, good thing that isn't me, hahahahaha," he nervously replied before chuckling just as nervously if not more, all while shifting his eyes to the siblings and then Zuka.
Kahono had a deadpan expression on her face, showing that she wasn't buying any of the noble's words, both Zuka and Kiato had a brow raised and were looking at him strangely.
"Hahaha…haha…ha…yeah, I didn't know," the solar mage finally admitted upon putting his head down in defeat.
"Really? You're in their squad, I swear, boys really are dense," Kahono scoffed.
"Hey, it's not my fault, most of the time, she insults him, and on rare occasions, she physically assaults him, you expect me to believe that's how a girl would healthily show her feelings?" Kenos challenged.
The song mage sighed. "Never mind, you have a point, her denial is doing just as much damage as his dense attitude. But that's where Operation Slashing Waters comes in, the point is to make Noelle so jealous that she'll have to admit her feelings so that she prevents Asta from being taken by another girl,"
"Okay, but who is this other girl?" Kenos asked.
"You'll see, just follow my lead," she replied as the four picked up their pace and caught up with their two companions.
"I take it you're done with your talk?" Noelle asked.
Kahono nodded. "Yup, and I just got a great idea about something we could do: I propose we have a triple date!"
"A triple date?" everyone but the siblings said aloud.
"Yeah, it's something done between six people, we go in three groups of two and have a group date, and luckily for us, there are three boys and three girls, so it's perfect," the song mage explained. "And I already have the groups planned out: Kenos and Zuka will pair up, Kiato and Noelle will be the second group," she then walked over and locked arms with Asta. "And finally, you're with me, handsome,"
"AHHHHHHH!" Noelle screamed in her mind upon seeing her friend's action, a look of comedic jealousy on her face.
Zuka's mind wasn't in a much better state either. "Wait, a date? I didn't think that'd be part of the plan, and it's with Kenos too? Does this count as our first date? I was expecting something a little more romantic. Oh no, I haven't seen him in so long, I'm NOT ready for this, okay, calm down, don't do anything stupid to make him think you're weird, and keep all of those weird fantasies you had about him in your head,"
"Oh, thanks for the compliment, let's make sure to have lots of fun!" Asta exclaimed as the two continued walking.
Kiato looked forward before looking down at Noelle. "Kenos, Zuka, I think you can see what she's talking about now, she'll play the role of the so-called 'other girl', and Noelle is taking the bait. Regardless, I don't want to be the only one without a date paying attention to me," he thought before opening his mouth to speak. "Hey, are you alright, you've been looking at my sister and Asta for a good few seconds, I hope you don't mind having me as your date?"
The jealous look on Noelle's face disappeared as he faced the dance mage. "Oh my bad, I don't mind at all, let's have a good time too,"
"Right," he said before turning around to see how the first group was doing, but he was surprised to see Kenos looking normal while Zuka was looking like a nervous wreck, refusing to make eye contact.
"Is everything alright back there?" Noelle asked.
"There seems to be something wrong with Zuka, I'm going to go check on her quickly," Kiato replied before backing up. "I won't be long,"
"Okay," the water mage said back, and quickly went back to jealously watching the song and magicless mages talk to each other and smile frequently.
Kiato approached the first group. "Hey Kenos, I need to talk to Zuka, do you mind switching with me temporarily, someone needs to keep an eye on Noelle,"
"Oh sure," the solar mage said as he walked away, Kiato quickly turned to Zuka and saw her nervousness go away, confirming his suspicion.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" the sparkle mage asked.
"I saw that you looked quite nervous, and I assume that it was because of Kenos?" he asked.
Zuka looked shocked. "But, how?"
"I'm a dancer, I'm good at reading body language, I hope you don't mind me asking, but…do you like Kenos?" Kiato replied before asking seriously.
Zuka sighed. "…Yeah, I do, I came to terms with my feelings a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't seen Kenos in so long, and now we're being put into a date for the sake of Kahono's plan, I just don't want to screw up and make him think less of me,"
"You think Kenos will think less of you? No way, the two of you are friends, right? So express the personality he became friends with, and by the end of this, if you feel like it's the right time, tell him how you feel, this might all be for Noelle to confess, but it doesn't mean you can't, just remember to be yourself, you fell for who Kenos truly was, so let him fall for the real you too," Kiato replied in length.
"Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it, it seems that while Kahono is helping Asta and Noelle get together, you're helping me and Kenos," Zuka said gratefully. "Can't say I really saw you as the matchmaker type?"
"I'm not as much into the romantic lives of others as my sister, she can literally just see a boy and girl walking together with no knowledge of who they are and assume they're a couple. One time she did that, and she found out that the two people were cousins, let's just say it was an awkward day," Kiato said back.
"I see," Zuka said, holding back the urge to laugh loudly.
"Well, I better be off, I wouldn't want to get in the way of your date," the dance mage said with a wink as he left the blue and magenta-haired girl, he also noticed Kenos walking towards him.
Kenos opened his mouth to speak up once they met. "Yup, she's taken the bait, she spent all her time looking at them, I don't think I've ever seen her so blatantly jealous before," he informed his friend.
"Interesting, well, at least she agreed to pay some attention to me, so I don't have to worry about just watching the entire time, thanks for the switch, seems I owe you twice today," Kiato said as the two shared a high-five.
"Don't worry, you don't owe me anything, you've been through enough, just focus on enjoying yourself," the solar mage said as he started walking towards his date for the night.
Kiato smiled as he returned to his original spot. "Now that I think about it, I can see how she fell for him," he thought to himself.
"Is Zuka doing alright?" Noelle asked.
"Yeah, she'll be just fine," the blue-haired teen replied with a smile.
Kenos returned to his place as well, and was met with a less nervous Zuka, not that he noticed much of a change anyways. "Hey there, what were you and Kiato talking about?"
"Oh, I was just a little nervous about the fact that…this is my very first Star Festival, and he calmed my nerves," she lied, her face turning a little pink upon doing so.
"Oh that's right, you're a commoner and this is your first year as a Magic Knight, please forgive me, this may be part of Operation Slashing Waters, but I'll use this date to show you the best first time I can," Kenos said.
"Please don't apologize, instead, you and me, let's just have a lot of fun together!" Zuka exclaimed for the first time that night.
"Ah, the Star Festival, it's just as lively as I remember,"
In a different part of the capital, Richard and Ellen were walking through, seeing the large crowds of people, the pair of husband and wife were hand in hand while doing so.
"You're right, it's beautiful," Richard commented, agreeing with his wife's previous statement.
"Do you remember our first Star Festival as Magic Knights?" Ellen asked.
"Of course, but it was quite uneventful, nothing out of the ordinary for us, the same happening during the second festival, it was the third festival that was the special one," Richard replied.
"Our first date, not to mention Marcus and Reyna's first date, I remember Reyna barely saying a word during the beginning of it," she recalled. "But then again, that's how she was, even now,"
"And of course my brother was the positive ball of energy not noticing her silence at first, but upon doing so, immediately thought it was his fault," he said as the two shared a quick laugh. "Marcus always was an interesting one, just a few minutes of talking, and he was able to get Reyna out of her usual shell of nonchalance, it was the first time I had seen her laugh and smile so happily, you'd think she was a completely different person,"
"Well, that is one of the reasons she fell for your brother, his attitude could make her bring out the side of her she was always afraid to express," the woman explained. "At least we know where Oxanna gets her quirkiness from,"
"True, I can't wait till Marcus gets back from whatever business thing he's doing now, it'd be nice to have him around again," Richard said.
"Well, enough about us reminiscing, what about the children?" Ellen asked as she grabbed her husband's arm.
"Dante and Oxanna will be okay, this isn't their first Star Festival, not to mention they're Magic Knights, they'll be with their squads, I can just imagine how much fun they're having, well, at least how much fun Oxanna's having, even if Dante is enjoying himself, I don't think he'd ever show it," the man replied in a soft, worry-free tone.
"Okay, but what about…Kenos, he'll most likely be here too?" Ellen then asked with some uncertainty, even since Kenos, Asta, and Zuka came to the estate and heard what Richard had said, the solar mage's name was now no longer uttered between them. Ellen didn't like her youngest son joining the Black Bulls any more than her husband did, but she couldn't deny that what he said to Kenos was completely out of line and would need to be rectified as quickly as possible.
Richard turned his head away, the tone from before being replaced by seriousness. "He'll be just fine, he has a squad to look after him, and besides, he's 16 and this isn't his first Star Festival,"
Worry came to the steel mage's eyes as she looked at her husband. "Richard, don't you think you should apologize for what you said to him? He's our son, you know he is, and you know the rumors going around after my mysterious pregnancy with him. That's a very sensitive topic for him, he was at the center of possibly the biggest scandal regarding our family, but you used it to vent your frustration and it hurt him. I don't like his choice of squad any more than you do, but as his parents, we must know that some boundaries mustn't be crossed,"
The phantom mage only sighed. "Ellen, please, I don't really want to talk about that right now, let's just enjoy the festival for now and not let things of the past ruin our time,"
A sad look came to Ellen's face, but she knew that there was no use trying further. "Okay then,"
"Well, if it isn't the Rossius,"
The two turned to see a familiar person approaching them, it was a man, and it was obvious to see he was a bit on the pudgy side, he wore primarily red, with the red being in the form of a suit and pants, with the suit covering a white dress shirt, his hair was brown and had a semblance to English wigs.
"Ah, if it isn't Arnold Bamilton, of the Bamilton House, didn't think I'd see you around here, how have things been going?" Richard greeted before asking.
"Just fine, great in fact, the family is doing as good as usual, but alas, I'm still left without a partner to enjoy this event with. Sometimes I envy you, Richard, here you are with your lovely wife, enjoying the festival," Arnold replied as he took a sip of the alcoholic drink he had with him.
"I'm flattered, Arnold, and don't worry, you'll find that special someone eventually," Ellen said. "Although, I think you might find some more luck if you do your best to not get drunk,"
Richard laughed. "Ah, Arnold always was a big fan of his many liquors, but she's right, I wouldn't want to get drunk and do something stupid that could possibly tarnish your house's reputation,"
"Reputation you say? That's quite an odd thing to say coming from your family considering what happened. The rumors that have been going around for these past few months have been basically confirmed: one of your children joined those accursed Black Bulls. It was Kenos to do so if I'm not mistaken?"
The happy look on the Rossius' faces shifted to a tense one as Ellen spoke up. "Yes, Kenos was the one,"
"Ah, the happy mistake of your family ended up making a mistake of his own, doesn't he know what kind of people make up that squad?" the Bamilton nobleman scoffed.
"Yes, everyone in the kingdom is aware of their behavior," the steel mage replied.
"Then why would he join them I wonder? Was he trying to be brave? Or is he just weak?" Arnold asked.
"No, he isn't weak, two other squads wanted him, both Nozel and Fuegoleon of the Silver Eagles and the Crimson Lion Kings, the two royal squads of our kingdom," Richard said in defense.
"But regardless, he still joined that group of ruffians and delinquents, maybe he wasn't good enough to keep up with the mages from the royal squads, perhaps he just joined the Black Bulls in order to stand out from their countless weak mages, I guess the Rossius are beginning to lose their touch, what a shame. Well, I'll see you around, perhaps during the squad ratings," he said as he left the two.
Richard watched as he walked away, he clenched his fists tightly as his face became one of complete anger, Ellen quickly came to his side. "Dear, please, ignore what he said, perhaps he was just drunk? He didn't mean it,"
The man's face quickly changed back to normal. "Of course, you're right dear, let's not let it bother us," he told her as the two continued walking around and seeing the sights.
But despite the response he gave to his wife, the words of Arnold continued to circle in Richard's mind.
"Masks! Try on some super cool Star Festivals masks! Right over here!"
Returning to the participants of the triple date, they were walking along the road, having just enjoyed a few rounds of games, when they were drawn in by the exclamation of a man.
"Ooh, masks, that sounds like a lot of fun, want to try one out, Asta?" Kahono asked.
"Of course, I've never worn a mask before, I bet they're cool," the swordsman replied as they walked towards the stand.
"We should all go," Kiato suggested as the others nodded and approached the same stand.
"Two please," the song mage requested as they were each given a random mask, they walked a few feet away as they tried them on, Kahono's was in the likeness of a whale, while Asta's was like a cat. "A cat mask? That's too adorable!"
"And that whale mask suits you perfectly since you're a sea dweller," Asta said back.
Kahono shifted her face to see how Noelle was reacting, and lo and behold, at the corner of the song mage's eye, she could see the royal's jealous face looking at them. "There we go, you better do something, I'm enjoying this moment with him and you're not, I bet that's so infuriating,"
"Damn those two, they're having such a good time," Noelle thought to herself, but she was caught off guard as a dog mask was placed in front of her face, she turned around and saw Kiato wearing a mask that was making a funny face, the jealous look on her face disappeared as she laughed.
"Kiato, that mask looks ridiculous!" she kept laughing.
"Perhaps, but it made you laugh, right?" he asked with a smile.
"I guess so, how does my mask look?" she asked as she put hers on.
"It looks fine, and it suits you perfectly, like a dog, you can be stubborn at times, but you'll always want to protect your loved ones," the dance mage replied.
"Stubborn, I don't know what you're talking about?" she denied with crossed arms, thankfully, her mask was still on to hide her look of embarrassment.
"Hey Kenos, what do you think of my mask?" Zuka asked as she showed it off, it looked like a girl making a pretty face.
"Aw, it looks cute, it suits you perfectly," Kenos replied, making the girl blush a little under her mask. "What about mine?"
The solar mage put his on, and it stunned Zuka for a moment. "Your mask, it's of a person making a kind of face, but I can't put my finger off what type it is, it almost looks like the face of…a saint, or some kind of sacred being,"
"A saint or sacred being? That's an odd way to see it, but okay," Kenos said back as they all took their masks off and returned them before continuing on.
"So, where should we head next?" Asta asked the group.
"Maybe something we can do together," Zuka replied with a suggestion.
Kenos was about to agree before something caught his eye. "Hey, what about that thing over there," he said as he pointed in a direction, they all looked in said direction and saw three men with equipment around them, but they didn't appear to have a stand. "Whatever they're doing looks unique, why don't we check it out?"
"I don't see why not," the sparkle mage agreed as the rest nodded and walked towards the men.
"Hello there," the solar mage greeted the trio of men. "What kind of thing are you doing here?"
"Well hello there, the three of us are artists, we sketch drawings of people, whether it be individuals, families, or even couples," the first man replied before looking at the group. "And speaking of couples, it seems we have three of you, are you all on dates?"
"That's right," Kahono cheerfully replied as she pulled Asta closer to her, earning a soft growl from Noelle.
Zuka on the other hand, merely blushed at the assumption of her and Kenos being a couple, but Asta seemingly had no problems as his facial expression didn't change much.
"That's wonderful, well, would you like us to draw a sketch of you?" the second man asked.
"We would love that, wouldn't we?" Kahono replied with a smile before asking the others.
"O-Of course we would," Noelle replied, her left eye twitching.
"Great, then you can just sit on these stools and leave the rest to us," the third man said as he pointed to some nearby stools they set up, the six teens didn't waste any time grouping the stools and sitting down as the artists did their thing.
Kiato noticed once more that Noelle was looking away from him and at the pair comprising of his sister and friend. "There you go looking at them again, you know, if there's a problem, you can tell me,"
"What, I don't have a problem," the water mage tried denying.
"I wouldn't say that, the way you're looking at them, it seems to me that you'd like to have your sketch taken with Kahono…or Asta?" the dance mage said with a small grin.
The royal began blushing. "N-Now you're just spouting nonsense," she denied once again.
"Alright, whatever you say," Kiato said, his eyes then turned to Zuka and Kenos, the two were smiling as the artist drew them, Zuka noticed the dance mage's gaze and met them briefly with a quick nod, Kiato smiled before looking forward again.
About twenty-five minutes passed before the three men were done. "And there we go, thank you for your patience," the first man said as they showed the three groups their finished results.
"Oh wow, it looks amazing," Kenos commented. "There's so much detail, impressive in just a little under half an hour,"
"You can say that again, they even got the details right on my necklace and your pendant," Zuka added.
"She's right, although when I noticed your pendant, I was quite surprised, it's an honor to do this for a member of the esteemed Rossiu House," the second man said as he was the one to draw them.
"Oh, thank you so much, how much do the drawings cost?" Kenos asked.
The man waved his hand in a denying manner. "Oh no, the three of us are doing this for free, you don't have to pay us,"
"I see," he replied as he took out a bag of money from his satchel and pulled some coins out before placing it in the man's hand. "If you won't accept payment, then consider this a tip, here's 150 yul, you can divide it evenly among you,"
"Oh, thank you, enjoy the festival," the man said as the three groups walked away from him and his two partners.
"That was nice of you," Zuka spoke up.
"She's right," Asta added.
Kenos' face turned a little red with embarrassment. "I just wanted to give them something for their work, that's all," he replied.
Zuka's face turned red too, but for a different reason. "Holy crap, I've seen him get embarrassed before, but for some odd reason, it looks so much more adorable than it did before. I want to see more of that face…wait a minute, what did I say about keeping those weird fantasies in my head," she thought to herself.
"So, where are we off to next?" Kiato spoke up this time.
Zuka pulled herself out of her thoughts before responding. "As I mentioned earlier, we should try something we can do together,"
"Would something like that work? It looks big enough," Noelle responded as she pointed straight ahead, the others looked to see a wide stand that looked like it was hosting a game of some sort.
The sparkle mage grinned. "There we go, that's perfect," she said as they all went there, immediately seeing the man that was running the stand.
"Hello, sir, what kind of game is this?" Zuka asked.
"It's a team game, you split up into three groups of a maximum of two and use these guns to shoot down the targets, the first team to shoot down all of their targets win and get a chance to pick a prize," the man explained.
"That's the perfect kind of thing we were looking for, let's do this everyone, no hard feelings," the sparkle mage said cheerfully as the three groups readied their guns to fire, awaiting the man's call to begin.
"Okay, begin,"
The groups immediately began firing, among the groups of Kenos and Zuka, along with Noelle and Kiato, things were going great, as for the last team, however, the same couldn't be said.
"What the hell is going on, I'm pulling the trigger, but nothing from my gun is coming out!" Asta exclaimed.
"Um sir, you're supposed to shoot with your magic, the trigger absorbs a small amount of mana from your finger and stores it inside the gun before it's transformed into mild bullets," the man explained once more.
"Well, that's going to be a bit of a problem for me, I don't have any mana," the magicless mage said.
"No mana? Can't say I've ever heard of that," the man said, surprise obvious in his voice.
Noelle noticed her squadmate's frustration and was about to do something, but before she could, another girl beat her to the punch.
"Don't worry, I'll help," Kahono said as she touched Asta's gun, a pink glow accompanying her action. "I'll give you some of my mana, the amount I gave you should last you around twenty shots, so make sure to make each one count,"
"That's great, thanks Kahono, you're a lifesaver," Asta said gratefully as he started firing.
Noelle's face had turned red with comedic jealousy as she stood up, her gun still in hand as she began firing randomly into the air.
"Wow, miss, please be careful, those bullets are mild, but they can still hurt people!" the man exclaimed, taken completely off guard by her action, as were all the other people standing close by.
"Noelle, calm down!" Kiato said as he put his gun down and quickly came to her side, holding her and pointing her gun downwards with his free hand.
"Oh, my bad," the water mage apologized, she then looked to her right to see Asta looking at her with some concern, while Kahono was strangely smirking at her, but a familiar voice caught all of their attention.
"There's only six left, let's do this, Zuka," they all looked over to see Kenos and Zuka, even with the commotion, they never stopped to look at the royal and instead continued firing at the targets until all of them were taken out.
"It seems like we have a winner," the man said with a smile.
"Alright, we did it, give me five!" Zuka exclaimed as she and Kenos high-fived.
"Nice work you two, since you won, pick your prizes," the man said as the two teens looked at the plethora of things to choose from.
"Hm, I think that I'll take that stuffed bear," Zuka said as she pointed at an average-sized brown bear.
"And I'll take that glowing bracelet," Kenos said as well, pointing to a small bracelet that glowed four different colors.
"Okay then, coming right up," the man replied as he grabbed the two items they chose and gave them to the two teens.
"Thanks a lot," the two said in unison.
The group then walked away from the stand. "So much for a game forth that we can do together, sorry about how I acted earlier," Noelle spoke up as she apologized again.
"No problem, I'm just glad that something wasn't wrong and that you're okay," Asta said, earning a small blush from the water mage.
"So, why did you get a bracelet?" Zuka asked.
"I don't really know, it just stuck out to me the most, why'd you choose the bear?" Kenos replied before asking a question of his own.
"I just thought it looked cute and would be a nice addition to my room back at my squad base," she replied.
"I see, that's nice," he said. "This has been going great for us, although Noelle still seems to be in denial, regardless, I've had a lot of fun, I don't think anything that could happen right now make this night better,"
"Okay students, make sure to stay close to me, I don't want any of you to get lost," a familiar voice said.
For the second time that night, Kenos had been proven wrong, but this time, he didn't mind as he turned around and saw none other than Sylvester, his cousin had a group of kids around him.
"Ves!" the solar mage called as he ran over to the lunar mage.
"Huh? Oh, Kens, hey," Sylvester greeted with a smile on his face, and soon, the other five walked over to them as well. "Oh, hey Asta, Zuka, um…but, who are you three?"
"Oh yeah, this is Noelle Silva, Kahono, and her older brother, Kiato," Kenos introduced. "And you three, this is my cousin, Sylvester,"
"Hello, it's good to meet some more of Kens' friends," the lunar mage said.
"It's good to meet you too, I haven't actually met any of Kenos' relatives yet, so you're the first," Kiato said.
"And I've heard about you, Sylvester Rossiu, the oldest child of your generation and basically the strongest one too, and the user of a four-leaf clover grimoire, you're quite an impressive mage," Noelle added.
"Oh, thank you, and I've heard many good things about your family too, although the Rossius haven't really interacted with the Silvas as much as the Vermillions, as well as one other family," Sylvester said back.
"So, Ves, I take it you're here to enjoy the festival, is Aunt Reyna here?" Kenos asked.
"I actually don't know, but as the first part of what you said, I am here to enjoy the festival, and I brought my students with me since we finished class today a little late, I talked to their parents first of course," the lunar mage replied. "I guess you can say I'm chaperoning them,"
"Wait, you're a teacher?" Zuka asked.
"That's right, Ves teaches kids how to use their magic to the best of their ability before they even receive a grimoire," the solar mage replied. "He's been doing it for-,"
"Hey, Kenos, Zuka, it's you," a voice interrupted him, he looked down as that was where he heard the sound come from and he saw a boy walk up to him, but he recognized the boy.
"Nathan," Kenos and Zuka said in unison, the former knelt down and patted the boy's head.
"I see you're with Ves, that's good," he said.
"Wait a minute, how's he with Sylvester?" Zuka asked.
"After Levi burned my dad's grave, Kenos told me to go to his estate so we could have someone to support us," the young earth mage replied.
"He's right, you did a good thing, Kens," Sylvester said.
"Thanks, Ves, I was just doing what I could," the black-haired mage responded.
"Hey," Nathan beckoned to someone as a girl came up to him. "This is my sister, Sonia, and Sonia, this is Kenos, it's because of him we are where we are now,"
"I see, thank you so much," Sonia said as she bowed profusely.
"Don't mention it, I'm just glad I got to help," the solar mage said with a smile.
"And I want to thank you too, Zuka, for fighting to defend my dad's grave, I didn't get to thank you personally last time," Nathan said.
"You're welcome," Zuka accepted his thanks, but a thought then came to her mind. "So while I broke down after the fight with Levi, Kenos was able to move in to do what he could about the grave, guide Nathan and his sister to a safe place, and provide comfort to me. What are you trying to do here, Rossiu, make me fall for you all over again?"
"Well, this was a nice encounter, but we have some more places to visit and things to do, see you around Kens, and it was good seeing all of you," Sylvester said as he and the children walked away.
Kenos stood up and looked at Zuka before Asta spoke up. "What was that about burning a grave?"
"Long story," the solar and sparkle mages replied together.
"We should get moving, are there any other places we'd want to check out?" Kenos asked.
Kahono immediately raised her hand. "I know, there's this place we passed by a little while ago, and I wanted to try experiencing it, follow me," she suggested as the other followed her to the entrance of a decent-sized building. "Ah yes, a haunted house,"
"You mean those houses where people dress up to scare other people?" Noelle asked.
"That's the one, I've heard about these, and I've always wanted to go in one," she replied.
"I don't know," Kenos said with some uncertainty.
"Oh c'mon, you're Magic Knights, don't tell me you're scared?"
"It's not that, when you're fighting someone, you have your guard up, but here, they just come out of nowhere when you least expect it, it's really more shock than fear," Zuka explained.
"I see, but regardless, let's go in anyway, a good shock can be nice sometimes," the song mage said as they begrudgingly agreed and walked inside and the area became darker, that fact masking the others from seeing Kahono's huge grin. "It was a lot easier to get them here than I thought, this wasn't in my initial plan, but it could work. Zuka was right about it being more shock than fear here, but the shock is all I need. Once Noelle gets spooked, her instincts will take over and she'll jump right into Asta's arms, she might even blurt out for him to protect her by mistake. This plan is foolproof." she thought as they all walked deeper into the house.
But within another part of the house, Sekke was standing behind a curtain, makeup on his face to make him look menacing. "How did I let the boss lady rope me into doing this? I just came to her office, and for some odd reason, I didn't remember anything, I just said yes, and now here I am. I was totally distracted by those mountains…curse her god-blessed rack!" he thought, but stopped as he heard footsteps.
"So, when exactly is the scary thing supposed to jump out?" an unfamiliar male voice asked.
"That's what I'm talking about, you don't know, they come when you least expect it," an unfamiliar female voice replied.
"Okay, there are people, and they're getting closer, this is my chance, time to scare someone," he whispered before jumping from out of the curtain and into view.
"Fear me!" he exclaimed in his most ominous voice.
"Holy shit!" Noelle exclaimed as the bronze mage appeared in front of them, she quickly took out her wand. "Stay back!" she continued before blasting a torrent of water at him.
"Damn, that scared the shit out of me," Zuka thought, but oddly felt her hands squeezing something, she looked and saw that she was holding onto Kenos' arm. Her face turned red, but the darkened room concealed it. "Oops, sorry about that,"
"No problem, you did say it would come when less expected, so I don't mind your reaction," Kenos said back.
"Crap, that wasn't the reaction I was hoping for," the bronze mage said as he got up, the water washing off his makeup.
"Sekke?" Asta asked.
"Oh, that is him," Kenos added.
Sekke stood up, but his clothes were soaked. "Oh hey, it's you guys, and some friends of yours,"
"What are you doing here?" Noelle asked.
"I got roped into doing this by one of my superiors," he replied. "Which reminds me, I have to do this for a while,"
"I see, so are you the only scarer? And is there an exit?" Kiato asked.
"Yeah, I'm all here by myself, as for the exit, keep going forward, you'll see a path, it'll make a loop and lead you back to the entrance," he explained.
"Thanks, oh, and good luck," Zuka said as they all continued down the path and made the loop, coming out through the entrance and began walking.
"Well, that was an odd experience," Kenos commented.
"Tell me about it," Asta agreed before his stomach started growling. "Damn, I'm starting to get hungry, I wonder which stand should we stop by to get something to eat?"
"Why not stop by over here? You do like our food, after all, Asta,"
The group turned at the sound of a voice calling the swordsman's name, but as they did, only the Black Bulls recognized who it was.
"Eon!" they called before walking over to the stand she was at.
"How's it going you three?" the girl asked, but then she noticed the sparkle, song, and dance mages next to them"...And you three?"
"Oh, Eon, these are our friends, Zuka Glitenia, along with Kiato and his sister, Kahono," the solar mage introduced.
"So, how have you been doing? Thinking about anything lately?" Noelle asked, as for the first time since the triple date started, had her side gaze on someone else, that person being Kenos.
The green-haired girl picked up on the royal's gesture, but decided to ignore it for now. "I've been doing great, and so has Rebecca,"
Noelle's eyes narrowed at the mention of the name. "I see, where is she anyway?"
"Somewhere else around here attracting people to our stand which could then attract them to the restaurant," she replied.
"That's great and all, but you said to stop by here for food, and I'm hungry," Asta slightly whined.
"Okay then, here you are," Eon responded as she turned around and grabbed six pastries, each partially wrapped in a translucent paper-like material. "Some meat pies, and since we're friends, it's on the house, you don't have to worry about compensation of any kind,"
"Thanks," they all said upon grabbing one of the flaky square-shaped pastries and taking a bite in unison.
"Holy crap, this tastes amazing!" the magicless mage exclaimed.
"I know, I've never had something like this before," Kahono added in her own comment.
"She's right, they don't have food like this in the community," Kiato said.
"I've cooked a good amount of dishes, but this is quite good, especially with the flakiness matching with the spice and salt of the meat, and the crunch of the vegetables," Zuka gave her own commentary.
"Oh, you cook too?" Eon asked.
"That's right, back at home, I'm the one who handles meals, my mother couldn't cook to save her life," the sparkle mage replied with a small chuckle.
"I see, if the chance ever came, maybe we could make something together?" the green-haired girl suggested.
"That'd be great," Zuka agreed with a happy nod. "So, how did you and Kenos meet?"
"Oh, we met at a mixer some time ago, he came with Asta and another Black Bull named Finral," Eon replied. "What about you?"
"We met during our first-ever mission, I don't have my robe on right now, but I'm a Magic Knight too, a member of the Aqua Deer," Zuka replied.
"What? Cool, being a Magic Knight must be awesome," the wind mage told her.
"You bet," Zuka replied with a nod. "Say, we're both friends with Kenos, and we have something in common, what do you say we become friends?"
"I'd love that, although we probably might not see each other often," Eon reminded her.
"I guess, but that won't stop us, will it?"
"You better believe it won't," Eon replied with a smile as the two girls high-fived.
"Okay, everyone, let's be off," Kenos said before turning to his friend behind the stand. "Thanks for the food, Eon, it was delicious,"
The girl's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "I'm glad you liked it,"
"Bye Eon, it was really nice meeting you," Zuka said as she started walking away.
"Same here Zuka, if you ever want to get in touch, just come to Nean, that's where I live," Eon said back.
While everyone was walking and finishing what was left of their pastries, they were all thinking about how much they've enjoyed themselves, that is, all except for Kahono. "Damn it, everything I've tried hasn't gotten Noelle to react, I actually think that our time with that Eon girl was the least she looked at me and Asta, why is this so hard?"
She looked ahead to see Asta as he was walking ahead of them, but as the song mage's eyes locked in on him, another thought came into her mind. "Wait, a minute, I've been spending all this time trying to get Noelle to admit her feelings, but I never actually discovered Asta's feelings, hopefully, he isn't as stubborn as her," she then quickened her pace to be where the swordsman was.
"Hey Asta, mind if I ask something?"
"Of course, ask away,"
"I was wondering, what do you think of Noelle, as a person?"
"What do I think about Noelle? Well, if I'm being completely honest, I'd say-," the magicless was beginning to reply, but was interrupted by a sudden loud sound.
The sound of crying.
The six looked ahead to see the crying coming from a little girl with brown hair in braids, her clothes looked good, but we're average, marking her as a commoner, she stood in the middle of the path.
"Oh no, what's wrong?" Kenos wondered aloud, he looked around to see other people looking at the girl, going by their clothes, they were all nobles, but what disturbed the solar mage was that they all had looks of disgust on their faces.
"Uh, why is that commoner crying so loud?" he heard one of them scoff.
"Won't someone tell the peasant to shut up, she's annoying," another said.
Kenos said nothing to those around him before he clenched his fist and began walking to the girl, but he was shocked to see Zuka doing the same at the same time he did. The two looked at each other and shared a nod before continuing.
Asta too wanted to do something to help, and he found the thing to help him as he noticed a big ball near a stand with a woman there, he quickly ran over to it. "Hey there, can I borrow that quick?"
The girl kept crying, her tears forcing her to close her eyes, but then she heard something close to her.
"What's wrong? I don't want you to cry," the girl opened her eyes to see a stuffed bear in front of her. She looked up to see Zuka and Kenos kneeling to her, with the former speaking, trying to project her voice onto the stuffed animal.
"Here, you can have it," Zuka said as the girl wiped her tears and slowly took it.
"It's cute," she said.
"Here, take this too, I bet it suits you better," Kenos added as he put his bracelet on her wrist.
"So many colors," the girl commented again before she heard another voice addressing her.
"Are you okay?" Noelle then asked with a tone of concern.
"No, not really, I-I'm scared," the girl replied.
"Then look at me, I'll make you feel all better!" a voice called, they all turned to see Asta, rolling towards them on a big ball.
The two got up and raised a brow, with Kenos speaking up. "I didn't know you could balance on a ball?"
"Yeah, back in my village, there wasn't much for us to do, so we did what we could to entertain ourselves," he replied as he started rolling around.
"That's impressive, but something tells me this performance could use some assistance," Kahono said as she turned to the girl and gave her a warm smile. "I hope you enjoy the show,"
"Asta the Superman, he can do what no else can, he's had no magic from the start, but regardless, he has a big heart," she began to sing, causing all attention to shift to her.
Kiato looked at his sister, though he said nothing, he merely smiled and jumped into the fray where Asta was and began dancing.
Noelle, Kenos, and Zuka smiled, but the latter then shifted her head towards the royal and noble. "Um, hey, I don't know if this is just something we commoners don't know, but what's a Superman?" she asked in a whisper.
"Beats me," the two whispered.
"Whatever a Superman is, I guess Asta's one, but if you ask me, he's much better, this Superman can't be all that," Kenos said.
"Wow," the little girl said, entranced by the performance going on in front of her.
Asta then took out his swords and began using them in conjunction with his rolling movements.
"I'm impressed, Asta, you're a natural," Kiato said.
"Thanks," Asta said back.
"Hey, this performance could use a finishing touch," Zuka spoke up. "We should use our magic to assist,"
"Why not," Kenos said, agreeing with her suggestion, he then began forming orange balls of magic, Zuka propelled sparkling light into the air, and Noelle shot an arc of water with her wand.
"Ah, some more help, nice," Kahono thought as she kept singing and moved closer to Asta. "A hero to many, he'll always be on your side, arriving in the nick of time, he's Asta…the Superman!" she exclaimed as she, her brother, and Asta struck a pose behind the trio of supporting attributes.
Everyone then began cheering, but none cheered louder than the little girl. "Bravo, that was amazing!"
"It's good to see you feeling better," Noelle said as the other three walked over to them.
"Thanks for the help you guys, I better go return this ball back," Asta said as he zoomed away from them.
Kahono turned to the girl again, happy to see she was smiling as well. "I almost forgot to ask, what's your name? And why were you crying?"
"My name's Emma, and I got separated from my mom," the girl replied.
"Oh, that must be scary, but don't worry, I can help," the song mage said as she pointed her head into the air. "Emma!" she bellowed, using her magic to project the girl's name in hopes that her mother would hear it and find her.
"Thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful I am!"
It only took twenty minutes for Emma's mother to find her, and upon doing so, thanked the group profusely.
"It's no problem ma'am, we're just glad to see you reunited," Kenos said.
Emma's mother looked down at her daughter. "Emma, I told you that I came looking for work, and that you should be on your best behavior,"
"I'm sorry, I've never seen the capital like this before, everything looked so pretty, I couldn't help myself," the girl responded.
"And what are those things you have on you?" the older woman then asked, eyeing the bracelet and the stuffed animal.
"Oh, we gave those to her to keep her calm, she can have them," Zuka replied.
"Thank you again, I hope she wasn't a-," the woman was saying as she looked up again, but then something caught her eye, it was a pin-like object around Noelle's dress, as well the family pendant that Kenos wore. "Those emblems, y-you, you're members of House Silva, and House Rossiu," she then dropped her head. "A thousand pardons, I truly hope my daughter hasn't said anything to offend you,"
"The lady is right, look at the girl's hair, and that boy's pendant, a member of royalty, and one of the highest ranking noblemen," an onlooking noble commented.
"A commoner like her shouldn't even be speaking to someone like them," another said.
Noelle and Kenos heard what the onlookers said about them, and the mother before them, the former spoke up first. "You're right, I'm royalty, those who stand at the top in this kingdom, those with the highest amounts of mana…but what do we choose to do with all that? Those who use their status to look down on others have no soul, royalty should exist to help the weak, not flaunt their assets and belittle them," she said, surprising those who were listening.
Kenos walked over to the woman. "Please, lift your head, don't bow to me like that, you're my elder," he said with a small smile, he then turned to the onlookers, taking his turn to speak. "No one chooses where they're born in life, people shouldn't act like they're better than others, you can become anything in this world and we can live with each other peacefully too, things like status discrimination only hinder that potential,"
Noelle placed her hand on Emma's head. "He's right, these people can be here and enjoy this event just like the rest of us, no matter where you stand in this kingdom, we can come together and have fun!"
The nobles who looked at the two were surprised, but we're oddly pulled in by their words and felt obligated to clap for them.
"Wow, you're amazing," Emma said in total awe.
Noelle and Kenos smiled back at her, from the distance, Asta looked at the water mage, he then remembered Kahono's words.
"I was wondering, what do you think of Noelle, as a person?"
"What do I think of Noelle?" Asta repeated aloud, catching the girl's attention. "If I'm being honest…I think you're really cool, I like you a lot, Noelle,"
Just as he said that, fireworks erupted into the sky.
The royal's face became completely flushed, she didn't know how to respond.
Kahono, on the other hand, was overjoyed. "Oh hell yeah, this was what I was waiting for, fuck the operation, I should've just started with this. Go on Noelle, you know the answer you want to give him!"
"W-W-What are you thinking, I swear, you become more idiotic with each passing day!" Noelle exclaimed as she blasted Asta with a strong burst of water, sending him high into the air.
"What did I do?!" the swordsman exclaimed.
Kahono's joy quickly changed to shock as she dropped to her knees and comically grasped her head with both hands. "WHAT THE FUCK NOELLE?! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS SAY 'I DO TOO', COME ON, THESE TWO ARE IMPOSSIBLE!"
Kenos walked over to Zuka while Kiato walked to his sister. "I guess the operation failed, that's a shame," the solar mage said.
"I know," Zuka then said, but the thought of Noelle's failed confession made her think of her own, her cheeks blooming pink. "Um, Kenos, there's something I have to tell you,"
"Okay, what is it?" he asked.
The sparkle mage gulped. "I…I...I'm glad we could spend this time together,"
"Me too, it's good to know you've been having fun," Kenos said. "I better go check on Noelle, I swear, she'll get Asta killed someday,"
Zuka sighed, she then turned to the siblings and saw Kiato watching her from the corner of his eye, he started walking towards her. "So, how'd it go, did you tell him?"
"..No, I couldn't, I wasn't ready, this is the first thing I've ever struggled to do in some time," she answered.
"So, what are you going to do now?" the dance mage asked.
Zuka looked at him before looking ahead to where Kenos was, her face turned red as she sent her warmest smile in his direction before she opened her mouth to respond to Kiato's question.
"I'll wait until I am ready,"