3

Nobushiro and Nobuyuki Jie

Oh, Sayu didn't have to tell him how smart the Kou prince was. Shiro knew all this on his own judgment; but he knew his sister worried, and so when she (half-jokingly, he also knew) suggested he go challenge Koumei to a duel—he'd had nothing better to do, so he went and did so.

He'd gone to Sayu's rooms shortly after sundown yesterday; she'd been at her desk again, reading some scrolls.

"Have you canceled your meeting with the Minister of Trade tomorrow morning?"

She looked up. "Shiro," She blinked, waving for him to sit beside her.

He shook his head. "Not staying long—depending on your answer, I may have to visit Yuki right after this."

"Hmm," His sister straightened, tossing back her hair. She regarded him curiously, "does this have anything to do with our conversation this afternoon? I'd already sent word to the minister a few hours earlier."

Shiro nodded. "I'll send a page to wherever he's staying, then. Yuki and I will give the Kou prince your deepest regrets tomorrow—I do hope you're still prepared for that trade meeting."

"My prince," Sayu simpered, "you hurt me with your words. I still have the minister's written briefs, so I'll do just fine of course."

Her pale green eyes narrowed at him. "It's Prince Koumei I worry about."

He grinned and shrugged loftily. "Well, there's nothing you can do about it now, Sayu. Ta-ta, I'm off to see Yuki."

As she went off to retrieve the mentioned scrolls from her cabinets, she'd called, "Don't be too much of an asshole. We are trying to forge an alliance with these people."

And Yuki had had a rather…similar reaction.

"We're doing what?"

"Yuki, listen to me, this will present us with the perfect opportunity to—"

"I'm the one you're asking to fight Prince Koumei, you ass."

Ah, Nobuyuki, his sibling. The most ill-tempered one of all the Jie children, no matter how much Yuki tried to hide it. Shiro had soothed, "But his metal vessel's more of a defensive type, correct? And wouldn't it be a wonderful way to test your magical skills, especially since you haven't been getting much practice with the arrival of the prince?"

Yuki's brow twitched. He folded his arms, and frowned deeply at his older brother, "It would be. I just have the tendency to think that anything coming from your mouth is deeply suspicious. Sayu should be here listening to this drivel."

Shiro sputtered, completely at a loss for words at this utter betrayal from his own beloved brother. "S-Suspicious?"

Yuki nodded solemnly. "Suspicious."

…

The older prince had just huffed, deeming this betrayal below him. "Then if you'll join me tomorrow morning, we can see how far you've come with your magic."

So here they were, at a garden right by the main keep. It had been a short, tense walk from Koumei's rooms in the palace, but Shiro didn't feel at all worried about what was to transpire. The grove was less a garden but more a private enclave, and the grounds had been leveled and fenced, with the grass carefully tended. There were still some decorative elements to the garden, such as a tiny pond filled with carp on one of the corners, and a pavilion by another corner.

This had always been his and Yuki's favorite training ground; no doubt the Kou prince had spied them sparring here from some balcony on the keep one time or another. When they'd been children, this had also been their favorite playing ground along with their other siblings, and he could still remember the times they'd all played hide and seek until sunset.

Then Shiro had grown older and devoted more and more of his time accompanying his father in meetings; then Yuki had found out he was a magician, and his younger brother was packed away and sent to join the Magisterium; then Sayu had gotten engaged and she was packed off and sent far away too, married to some Caeran prince who'd managed to get himself killed anyway.

They were adults now, and had a great number of things to think about.

Plenty of things to think about, Shiro thought. Like the man about to marry my precious baby sister.

Shiro clapped his hands and grinned with all his teeth at the Kou prince.

"Prince Koumei!" He exclaimed, placing a hand on the guy's shoulder. Just a few steps behind the foreign prince, Yuki facepalmed, mouthing stop grinning so much you're going to scare him.

Well, that was the exact same effect he'd been going for anyway.

Shiro continued grinning at Koumei, remarking, "I'm sure you've heard, but my brother's a rather gifted magician."

There was a sudden tangible silence as the foreign prince seemed to pause and process this information.

The two brothers looked at each other as this happened, with Shiro silently exchanging a look of did he really not know and Yuki's reply of well obviously he didn't and Shiro's baffled reply of just how good is their intelligence really if they didn't know even that!?

"Is he?"

Shiro's gaze snapped to Koumei as he'd said the words. The Crown Prince stepped back, nodding once at the now keenly interested look in the usually dreary eyes of Ren Koumei.

"As a matter of fact, he wants to challenge you in a magical duel. You use your metal vessel, he uses his magic. And if you would have me, we could have a second round using swords only."

Yuki rolled his eyes but said nothing. He joined Shiro by his side, drawing a simple, jade wand with an ivory handle from inside his robes. He smiled tentatively at their mutual guest, "What do you say, Prince Koumei?"

Silence, again.

Koumei raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, ruffling the already disheveled hair there. "Forgive me, but my metal vessel…isn't really meant for duels. Or most things to do with offense, honestly."

Shiro raised his brows, genuinely curious. "Is that so?"

The foreign prince gave a flustered laugh. "I'm afraid so."

Yuki's forehead wrinkled. "Would you begrudge us a demonstration of your metal vessel's other—"

His voice was muffled by Shiro's hand clamping itself over his mouth. Somehow, asking Koumei for a demonstration of his metal vessel's other capabilities was a route Shiro knew they shouldn't take.

Or at least not yet, anyway; the real arbiter about the matter of information on Kou's metal vessel users would be Ren Kouen, who had yet to arrive. Koumei's embarrassed excuse (which Shiro honestly believed anyway) would have to do for now, and the Crown Prince didn't want to put him in a spot by insisting.

Koumei watched this interaction with faint interest, but Shiro sighed as Yuki quieted and lifted his hand off his mouth with a sour expression.

"If you'll have me, then," He said, gesturing to the straight sword he kept sheathed at his side. "for a duel. Yuki here is a capable spellsword," Shiro winked playfully at his brother, "but naturally I'm the best at swordsmanship in the family."

And so they dueled; it was made apparent to Shiro from the very beginning that he was the superior swordsman, but Koumei was not without his merits—he found him to be surprisingly quick on his feet when he needed to be, and he compensated for his lack of skill in cleverness and instincts.

Their bout didn't last more than five minutes, and when Koumei showed signs of fatigue, Yuki stepped in by throwing up rudimentary borgs to separate the both of them. Shiro watched in fascination as he was lifted up a few feet in the air by a golden dome of magic, before being gently placed by his feet on the ground again.

Koumei was fanning himself with his metal vessel, and the Crown Prince only felt a light pang of regret at not being able to see a magical duel between his brother and the power of a djinn. Shiro offered the foreign prince a hand, helping him up from where he'd tiredly collapsed on the ground.

"Your form could use a little work," He teased, "but I can tell you're well-trained and practice occasionally. You make good use of the head on your shoulders and your instincts." Nobushiro grinned at the sweaty prince full-heartedly, "Well done, Prince Koumei."

Beside Koumei, Yuki gave a small flick of his wrist, and a fantastic wind breezed through their grove.

Often, Shiro forgot Ren Koumei was nearly five years younger than him. And now to see him so undone by a mere five minute spar—it was a far cry from the serious and unyielding diplomat he'd seen during the meetings he went to with his father and the ministers.

This was the man who was going to be marrying his sister, and a man he had no true intention of alienating, when it honestly came down to it. The alliance would soon fade from immateriality and come to bind them all, and now was the time to start building bridges that would help Jishou in the long run.

Besides. Shiro had always liked the smart ones; after all, his own family was positively filled with the astute.

On their way up from the field and into the keep for lunch, Koumei curiously asked from beside him, "How were you trained, Prince Nobuyuki? There are so few magicians in Kou that all the training is done privately."

Few magicians, Shiro thought, like their oracle.

They were now at the crux of the matter.

A glance at Yuki proved he was thinking along similar lines; his younger brother soon replied nonchalantly, "I was trained in the Magisterium in Ariavat. Perhaps you've heard of it?"

"I confess my knowledge to be deficient when it comes to the other countries in the Triangle, unfortunately." There was a sheepish note to that statement, which Shiro had learned to pick up on. So the older prince turned his head to smile at the redhead walking in between them, saying, "Are most people in Kou non-magicians, Prince Koumei?"

Koumei drew his brows. "Yes, that is the case. There are so little of them that we can't fill an entire company of purely magicians only. But our ambassador tells me that there is quite the population of magicians in this region of the world."

"I don't know the exact numbers, but we do seem to make a stout minority in the entire Triangle, for some reason," Yuki replied, "perhaps Sayu could tell you more about it. The rest of the world doesn't have such a concentrated amount of magicians, we're told."

The Kou prince's eyes widened at his younger brother's declaration. "Princess Sayuri? Is she a magician too?"

Shiro shook his head, chuckling. "No, she's just well-informed. One of her closest friends is a rather high-ranking magister, if I'm not mistaken…?"

Yuki scoffed. "Oh yes. They've promoted that fop. Again."

"Nevertheless," The Crown Prince shrugged. "I'm sure you'll be meeting him soon. Until then, you can ask Sayu and my brother. Perhaps even me, though I can only answer the more basic questions." He glanced at Koumei again out of the corner of his eye, a smirk curving his lips, "That is what you wanted to gain by agreeing to my duel, yes?"

The younger man laughed a little, covering his face with his fan again and scratching the back of his head. Shiro ploughed on, "Our countries are soon to be allies, and perhaps it would benefit its relationship if even just its royal families would speak to each other a little more openly."

His words seemed to leave an impression on Koumei, who nodded silently.

Shiro exchanged a smile with Yuki, and they continued their trek with a peaceful silence.

Koumei had been about to write his brother a missive again, before he realized—for the nth time those days—that Kouen had already started the journey to Tohouku a week ago.

So instead he dwelled on the events of the last few days: he'd found himself…spending more time with Jishou's two princes; when he wasn't working or meeting with some important person or another, the two princes would come for him and they'd sit and have tea, have another bout of sparring (much to Koumei's dismay), or talk about several matters. When that happened, he usually left his work to the advisors he'd brought, and he fretted marginally less about them since Kouen was thankfully due soon.

Unsurprisingly, he found Nobushiro to be an intelligent prince, in his own way; although seemingly frivolous and nonchalant most of the time, Koumei knew he had a buried intellect that he only ever used during serious conversation involving matters of state. Nobuyuki was the less gleeful of the two, the more pensive one; he was more reserved, but spoke readily when prompted.

Today he'd gone to see their sister, Princess Sayuri; he hadn't seen her in yet another long while, and Nobushiro's words about the Magisterium—until then, you can ask Sayu—had rung in his mind with a peculiar kind of urgency.

But when he asked for an audience, her retainers had apologetically refused.

"She's out for the day, but we will send word of your request when she returns, Prince Koumei."

And that was how Nobushiro and Mameha had found him, on his way back from the First Princess' rooms. Mameha smiled, obviously delighted at his appearance, but it didn't come close to rivaling the size of Nobushiro's toothy grin.

By then, Koumei already knew to take that as a sign of the Crown Prince plotting something. Hopefully, he wasn't going to ask for another round of sword fighting. The Kou prince didn't feel particularly in the mood that day.

"Prince Koumei, what a lovely surprise," Nobushiro remarked, "were you on your way to Sayu's rooms? They're the other way around."

"Good afternoon, Prince Nobushiro," He nodded respectfully at Mameha, "Princess Mameha. I was seeking for an audience with Princess Sayuri, but it seems she's out."

"Oh, we were just on our way there!" Mameha said, "We've come to pick up a few things of my sister's, actually. She went to an all day meeting at one of the minister's homes."

The girl excused herself, heading for the aforementioned rooms. Nobushiro snapped his fingers at that exact same instant, as if a brilliant idea had just occurred to him, "Why don't you come with us, Prince Koumei? Minister Feng owns a splendid beachside manse—they're holding a banquet in the evening, I'm sure you'll find it wonderful."

Koumei soon found himself stuffed into a carriage, pushed up against the carriage wall while the two princes of Jie wrestled for space beside him.

"Shiro your elbow is digging into my side—"

"—I don't give a damn about my elbow move your stupid knees out of the way!"

Across him, Princess Mameha giggled into her sleeve. She'd earlier offered him a seat beside her, but the death stares Nobushiro and Nobuyuki had leveled at him—plus the propriety of how a situation would look—was more than enough for him to respectfully decline.

Five minutes later, they managed to reach a marginally more comfortable position. Nobushiro turned to him, "Sorry, Prince Koumei, but I insisted we use this carriage so we could get down to the beach faster."

"Ah, no, it's perfectly alright, Prince Nobushiro."

"This is your first time going down to the beach, am I right?" Mameha asked with a smile.

Koumei nodded a little. "I haven't really had the time…"

Nobushiro wagged his finger. "It's good that I caught you out in that hallway! We would've left you at the palace otherwise, and you'd never see the white sand beaches of Tohouku."

"We should've left Prince Koumei alone, Shiro, I'm sure he has work to do." Nobuyuki called from behind his older brother. He glared at the Crown Prince for a moment before turning to look concernedly at him, "I hope my brother hasn't caused you too much trouble bringing you here."

"What—? Hey! He came with us out of his own volition!"

"He was just being polite, you idiot."

When their argument devolved into bickering, Koumei turned to Mameha. She just shrugged, laughing.

They arrived at the banquet with much pomp and pageantry; as expected, a flock of noblemen and merchants eagerly greeted the arrival of the royal family…plus the Kou prince.

To his shock, the Jie siblings stuck to him as they navigated the crowd; he'd been fully expecting them to abandon him and do whatever it was they'd wanted to do in the banquet. They kept a conversation afloat, too; the minister had come to greet them, and when he had bid the silver-haired siblings to have a wonderful time, Koumei was surprised when the minister treated him with equal kindness and respect—the official pointed the way to a table unexpectedly far out in the back, saying that was where Sayu had retired to after the meeting.

They found her sitting alone at a low table already set with pillows, fresh food, and drink, and Nobushiro went forward to snatch the cup she'd been about to tip back into her mouth and sniffed it.

"And just what exactly are you doing with a cup full of araq this early in the evening?"

Sayuri looked up at her brother with an expression so cold it could freeze water, "A small celebration. That araq you're holding is part of the latest shipment from Ariavat. And I've already had a cup, thank you."

"You may have been married already, sister, but you're too young and too brilliant to fall into the trap of alcoholism," Nobushiro winked and downed the cup himself. "I would also rethink appearing drunk in front of the Second Imperial Prince of Kou."

The older princess then blinked, gazing to where he stood beside Mameha and Nobuyuki. She rose, and she looked pleasantly surprised to see him there. "Prince Koumei! Welcome."

Koumei just returned her smile, although he was beginning to feel a little tired. "I sought an audience with you earlier, but your attendants said you were out. Hence…this."

Nobuyuki waved for Koumei to sit between him and Sayuri, saying, "I genuinely hope you aren't uncomfortable spending the night like this, Prince Koumei." He turned to Sayuri, "Shiro found the prince outside your rooms and invited him."

Again, despite the tiredness crawling up to him, he respectfully waved off Nobuyuki's concern. "Really, this is no problem, Prince Nobuyuki."

Both he and Sayuri sat down, and across the table Mameha settled beside her eldest brother. Nobushiro pushed a few dishes his way with a grin.

While the brothers and even Mameha—whose noblewomen friends had come to the banquet—wandered off into the night eventually, Sayuri stayed with him. At first he'd felt guilty, wondering if his fatigue was that apparent and caused her to stay behind to look after him. But she'd merely laughed off his concerns, saying, I've come from a six hour meeting. I'm just as tired as you are, Prince Koumei.

When he'd accidentally dozed off, she'd said nothing until he spoke about it.

"Did I—did I fall asleep?—Forgive me, Princess Sayuri—"

She looked up from the scroll she'd been reading for the past hour. Surprisingly, she just shrugged. "I don't mind, Prince Koumei." She unfurled the scroll even further to read a passage, "Shiro did you a disservice by bringing you here when you need the rest."

Koumei had been speechless for a few moments. He recovered with, "If I may ask, Princess—if you were tired, why didn't you return to the palace?"

She looked up from her reading. Then she laughed sheepishly—"I wanted to stay for the food. Minister Feng's cook is Caeran, and they did receive a shipment from Ariavat, so I figured they'd have food from there too. I'd already sent a missive for my siblings to come down the mountain and join me by the time I realized I was bone tired."

She pushed toward him a cup of tea and a plate of desserts. Sayuri winked at him, pointing at the desserts. "It has strawberries in them."

Koumei flushed. "…Thank you, Princess."

Now that they were alone—and with the volume of a typical Jishouan celebration playing at full blast in the background—he found his eyes straying to her, the only truly familiar thing within the vicinity. He observed her reading her scroll: perhaps he'd never really noticed before, but Sayuri's silver hair reached well past her shoulders and shared Mameha's bright shade; Nobushiro and Nobuyuki's hair was steely in color, but the princesses' hair had a whiter, more delicate shade to it.

Her eyes were paler too; lovely and attentive, and like something approaching jade, compared to Mameha's dark forest green eyes.

She looked up from her reading, and Koumei shoved a strawberry treat in his mouth. Abashed, he looked away as he swallowed and said, "What is it you're reading?"

"It's a—a...trade report."

She'd been reading the same scroll the entire night.

"It must be a lengthy report…"

Koumei turned to face her again. Unexpectedly, her face was suddenly pink.

"Princess, your face is—"

At that moment, Nobushiro passed by their table to have a sip at Sayuri's tea. As he stood behind her and crouched to drink from her cup, he barked a laugh. "Oh, Sayuri, you still can't be reading that."

Realizing her brother had read her scroll, she hastily tried to roll it up. "W-What? Reading what?"

Just like earlier however, he easily snatched the article out of her hands and teasingly held it out of her reach. "You do know that in all the books—half is an outright pack of lies, and the other half is embellishments?"

Koumei looked at the First Princess. She had her arms crossed, and her face was as red as a tomato. Chin up in the air, she turned her cheek at her brother. She said, rather petulantly, "I do know, thank you. But I haven't been out of the Triangle for months, Nobushiro, and a girl needs to keep up with the world somehow."

"Reading The Adventures of Sinbad will only misguide you about world events. If you really wanted to leave, I could've wheedled father into sending you on a diplomatic mission to Reim, for god's sake."

When Nobushiro left with a snicker, Koumei had no idea what to say. Her cheeks were still red, but she seemed ready to speak to him, at least.

Sinbad. That was a name he'd never expected to be mentioned in Jishou—let alone in relation to the First Princess, who seemed the sensible type to not buy into the idealistic musings and legend of a man like Sinbad.

Perhaps there was one easy explanation for this: "Have you met King Sinbad before, Princess?"

She shook her head vigorously, laughing. "Ah, no. I just genuinely read his stories because they span tales from the entire globe."

Koumei drank his tea. "You seem greatly interested in the rest of the world."

She bit her lip. "I am—very much, really. I accompany the Minister of Trade to renegotiate treaties sometimes, and I've been to some places in the last few years. I love to travel." Here she rolled up her scroll, tucking it in the folds of her ornate robe. He watched her pat her chest, where she'd put the scroll close to her heart.

The idea…was obviously very close to her.

"Though aside from travel within the Triangle, I usually don't wander too far."

She took a bite out of something flaky with nuts, and he could hear the soft crunch as she offered him a new piece of the same pastry. The First Princess then said: "But what about you, Prince Koumei? As a prince of an empire, I expect you've been to a lot of places."

His stories came out reluctantly at first, because he was unused to storytelling, being more of a listener himself—but he nonetheless told her: she listened like a rapt audience, not once interrupting him, only asking him questions when she knew he was finished.

Then Nobushiro had come back and slapped the both of them on their backs, speaking rapidly about a merchant he wanted both of them to meet—

—then an uncharacteristically drunken Nobuyuki had pulled them out of their seats, half-stumbling and half-dragging them to where Nobushiro wanted them to go.

Mameha had come somewhere along the way, fretting about her drunken older brother.

And Sayuri had started laughing about what was happening. Then all the siblings had been laughing.

Somehow at the end of it Koumei had found himself laughing with them.

If he'd ever been in his right mind at all that day, he would've politely refused the First Prince's invitation the moment he'd suspected what was going to happen. The hangover was enough for him to rethink last night's events.

The summer sun was too bright. Perhaps one of Jishou's master builders could build some shutters over his window.

Or he could use Dantalion to transport the entire palace to rest beneath a large tree. That would work just as fine—he'd just have to use a very large tree.

His thoughts were running away from him, but soon he sighed as he stared up at the ceiling.

The Kou prince reflected: when his father the emperor had given him this duty on the eve of his twenty-first birthday, Koumei had fully expected it to be like any other duty he already fulfilled. He expected that when the time came to personally visit Jishou and argue for Kou's side in the alliance, he would go and accomplish everything that was expected of him and be done with it.

But things were not so cut and dry when he actually arrived.

First, he'd greatly underestimated the amount of work to be done.

Second, when he stepped foot for that first time in Tohouku, he'd found that everything he actually knew about Jishou and the Triangle was either lacking or completely false—and so he'd had to lean on the manyresources the Jishouan government had graciously given him.

An image of the silver-haired princes of Jishou flashed before his eyes—until then, you can ask Sayu and my brother. Perhaps even me, though I can only answer the more basic questions…

…Next he saw an image of Princess Sayuri that night, laughing and looking flustered about how fond she was of The Adventures of Sinbad.

He groaned. Of course, lastly, he'd never expected to be so charmed by the country itself. The places, the culture…the people.

Not for the first time, he questioned what it was the emperor truly wanted by allying themselves with this island nation. It was not simply neutralizing a future threat to Kou; if they were, Kou wouldn't go to these lengths—to suggest a marriage alliance, even—and they certainly wouldn't send both Kouen and Koumei when their time would be better spent making war preparations.

He wondered, not for the first time either, if Nobushiro, Nobuyuki, and Sayuri knew what it was the emperor truly wanted, because Koumei could only guess at it.

He sighed as he sat up from bed, fanning himself with Dantalion. Nobushiro had been handing him cup after cup of "araq" last night, after he'd been forced (out of politeness!) to participate in the First Prince's boisterous challenge of, as he had put it, I bet I can drink all you suckers under the table—except you of course, Mameha. You go watch for when Yuki falls over.

Being already drunk, Nobuyuki had been the first to bow out of the competition. Rather pitifully, Nobushiro—why on earth did Koumei for a second believe in his confidence—had been the second to go.

And being a "hardened" military man who'd spent years around boozing soldiers, Koumei had a rather high tolerance for alcohol himself. So when it was down to him and Sayuri, he'd thought the contest would end soon, and he would return to his rooms and wake up the next morning with less of a hangover than he had now.

But she surprised him even on that front. In fact—he never would've guessed her to have such a legendary tolerance, not when she was a slender princess who was smaller than him. And yet she came out on top anyway, if only by a sliver of a win.

The Kou prince reached for the bucket of water he knew was by his bed, ladling himself some of the drink.

But his peace didn't last.

It never does, these days.

His doors slid open, and there were the Jie siblings from last night again, bringing him trays full of food and fresh pots of tea. Apology after apology came about what had transpired last night, but again they started laughing when they recalled Nobuyuki being the first to pass out.

"You drank way too much, brother mine," Nobushiro teased. That morning he looked physically untouched by the side-effects of their late night drinking contest, which was more than Koumei could attest to.

Nobuyuki snapped, "They gave me two cups of a clear drink at that party! How was I supposed to know it wasn't water but araq!?"

"Didn't it taste different the second time you drank a cup?" Mameha said with a giggle.

Beside Koumei, Sayuri sighed, exasperated. But having many siblings himself, the redhead could tell it was more of an affectionately exasperated sigh. She poured them both cups of tea, and he graciously thanked her when she handed him his.

"Are we disturbing your morning?"

Koumei shrugged. "Not at all."

This time, he wasn't saying it out of politeness.

Notes:

Quick update (again) but this'll be the last in a while. I swear, all reviews will be responded to when I post the next chapter—but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading and tearing up over them (thank you guys so much for taking the time to write me nice things.) Thank you all very much, also, to the people who have followed and favorite-d this story!

(1) Between you and me, Koumei is just lonely lol. He's used to having his siblings around, but now he's alone in a foreign country, out on a diplomatic mission and waiting for his brother to arrive. (Then come the Jie siblings.)

(2) Araq (since it keeps getting mentioned) does look like water, because it's a clear alcoholic drink made from anise. You're supposed to drink it with some portion of water mixed in, which makes the drink turn a milky white. (Obviously, Nobuyuki didn't know what he was doing.) It's also a very old drink, pretty strong (but I love drinking it) and the traditional alcoholic beverage in modern territories of the fertile crescent.

(3) Sayu doesn't actually know it was Sinbad she met in the prologue, yup. Conversely, Sinbad doesn't know it was Sayu he met in the prologue (he was semi-drunk/drunk, remember?) I'LL EXPLAIN THIS LATER I SWEAR.

(4) Kouen (finally) in the next chapter.

Anyway, please write me some reviews if you've anything to say, it would be helpful (and actually super fun) to know what you all think. Thanks for reading this far!