The next day, Estelle and Joshua were lounging on the second floor of the Guild building. They just finished a rather short request about something in the city. It turned out the SSS were already on it, and the two worked together to solve them. That brown-haired guy, Lloyd Bannings. His sharp mind was admirable. It kind of reminded him about Juna. But they didn't look alike, so he crossed out the possibility of them being siblings.

Faintly, Joshua heard footsteps coming toward the second floor. Since they were rather new to Crossbell, they weren't footsteps he was familiar with. But from the fast rhythm, it did not sound like the senior Bracers. Unless they lied in their introduction and were actually quite the spirited individual.

He was right. Slowly, a mop of pink hair emerged from below, and he heard the owner of said hair shout. "Afternoon, Estelle, Joshua!"

"Good Afternoon, Juna. Are you up for training? Everyone is doing request, I believe."

Estelle nodded at Joshua's greeting. "Including Arios. Is he really teaching you?"

"Don't be too hard on him," Juna gave them a smile. "I heard from Michel that he hasn't been back since yesterday. Whatever request he's on is probably taking longer than he thought. Anyway, I can probably forego training today because I wanna hear your take on the story, Estelle!"

Estelle and Joshua looked at each other. The brown-haired girl was silently asking if it was okay to proceed with what they discussed last night. Joshua answered with a nod.

"Okay, Juna. Estelle will explain it in her words, and I believe you'd easily poke holes in her explanation if she did the same thing as me yesterday, so today, Estelle will tell you the complete version. Though, some parts are classified, and I will intervene if necessary," Joshua laid out their intention. There were some secrets in their journey that weren't theirs to tell, like Hamel (the name, at least) and many more.

"Right! So let's start!"

As time went on, Juna wasn't the only one listening, as Aeolia, Lynn, and Scott finished their request and listened to Estelle and Joshua's story as they rested. The sky was already orange when Estelle finished regaling Juna and the others with their tales.

"I see..." Juna said contemplatively. "There's so much I need to process," she sighed.

"Oh, it's as impressive as it's reported," Lynn grinned. "One of these days, we should spar! I'm curious about your skills."

"If you need healing after that, my Arts are ready," Aeolia offered with a smile.

"Thank you. We'll take your offer soon," Joshua replied before turning to the only non-Bracer in the room. "Juna. We're telling you this because we're taking a gamble. The reason we came to Crossbell is because we're looking for Renne, who has been missing since we last saw her. Your impressive showing last night convinced us that there might be a chance that you can help."

"..." Juna didn't reply for a while.

"We're kind of hoping that if we find her, we can formally adopt her as part of our family," Estelle revealed with a sheepish laugh. "Whew, when I think about it again, it sounds unbelievable, isn't it?"

"Don't dismiss your good intention," Scott reassured the two young Bracers. "It is proof that you two are amazing."

"Ehehe..."

"Do you have some descriptions of Renne? I can't promise I'll find her, but I'm somewhat familiar with the people in the city, and maybe I've seen her or know someone who has seen her," Juna finally offered. Though, Joshua noticed that the smile she had on her lips was kind of a little forced. He couldn't help but frown before shaking his head and answering Juna's question. He was not responsible for Juna's thoughts if she had a bad impression of Renne.

"She's a purple-haired girl, around twelve to thirteen years old. The last time we saw her, she wore a white dress with lots of frills and a red bowtie. Though, I presume she stops wearing that to blend in if she's really here."

Juna raised her eyebrow at Joshua's description.

"Oh, she also wore a black bow on her head. I don't know if she stopped wearing it or not after our last meeting," Estelle continued providing Juna with Renne's description.

The pink-haired girl nodded. "Thank you for the description. I assume you don't want me to ask around freely for fear of her noticing my attempt and running away again?" Joshua and Estelle looked at each other again before nodding. "Don't worry, I can do stealth."

Now everyone looked at the youngest girl in the room with an incredulous look. "What?"

"Nothing," Aeolia smiled. "We'll help you too, Joshua, Estelle. We'll keep our eyes on when we do requests."

"Yeah. I'll keep an eye on a purple-haired girl," Scott agreed with the white-haired Bracer.

"Everyone... thank you!" A few tears were falling from Estelle's eyes. Joshua grasped her shoulder and dragged her into an embrace.

"Everyone, It's already late. I think I'll go home," Juna stood up and said. "Estelle, Joshua. Thank you for telling me about your circumstances and trusting me to help you. As I said before, I can't promise I'll find her, but I'll do my best to be stealthy enough to find more information about her!"

Juna gave a thumbs-up before running down the stairs. "See you later!"

Once she was out of range, Scott chucked. "And she's confused why we looked at her when she said she could do stealth."

"Come on, Scott. Juna is just excitable. Not that it's a bad thing. She'd make a reliable Bracer one day," Lynn defended the pink-haired girl.

"Oh, definitely. All she needs is a better skill at using weapons, and she'd make a reliable Junior Bracer," Scott replied, agreeing with Lynn.

"Speaking of Juna, I haven't got the chance to ask her, but how did she get Arios' attention, anyway?" Joshua asked the older Bracers, wanting to satiate his curiosity.

"Juna interned at the St. Ursula Hospital around a year or two ago, and she took care of Shizuku, Arios' daughter, there," Aeolia explained. "You should meet Shizuku! She's really cute!"

"A-Ahaha..." Estelle let out an awkward laugh before turning to Joshua, who smiled. Why did that remind them of another lover of cute things in Liberl?

"Anyway, long story short, the internship ended up being a short one because of something. Still, she was very helpful to Shizuku, and so Arios wanted to thank her. Unexpectedly, Juna said she wanted to join the Bracer Guild, but she didn't know how to defend herself, so she asked Arios to teach her swordsmanship," Aeolia continued. "It took her several months of begging until Arios decided to take her under his wing."

"I see..." Joshua responded. "Thank you for the explanation, Aeolia."

"You're welcome! You should see Juna back then. She was still... what? Thirteen? She barged into this building three times a week to drag Arios off to his daughter. It was amusing to see," Aeolia expanded.

"I think Michel let her do it because he knew that Arios needed the break. This branch has always been understaffed, and Arios took lots of jobs as a result," Lynn continued the explanation.

One thing stuck to Joshua, though. "Wait. She interned at the Hospital at thirteen years old?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, Juna was touted as a genius back when she was around nine or ten years old, from what I heard from my girlfriend."

"Whoa! Amazing!" Estelle gushed.

Joshua looked at Estelle before he realized something. Juna's mannerisms shared a lot in common with Estelle. And yet, Juna somehow was a lot more intelligent than Estelle?

"What?" Estelle demanded after sensing the stare from him.

"I'm just wondering how same yet different you are with Juna," Joshua shook his head with a smile.

"Hmm?" Lynn blinked. "Now that I think about it again, Joshua is correct. Both of you are like two peas in a pod."

"Except Juna is apparently a genius."

"Hey!"

That got everyone to laugh.

"It's okay, Estelle. You don't need to be like anyone else. You are you, and your Estelle-ness is the reason why I am here right now instead of somewhere else," Joshua assured his girlfriend with a pat on the head. It successfully pacified her and made her blush.

"Mmhhh, you're totally unfair..." Estelle pouted.

That was right. Juna might be smarter than Estelle, but he didn't care about that. To him, Estelle was still Estelle, and that was the best thing about her.

A/N: So here it is, part of the background story on how she got Arios to train her.