Thankfully, the rest of the banquet went off without a hitch.

I was worried about who I was supposed to talk to but… It seems that most people found themselves over to us anyway.

Makes sense, I was gone for 5 years after all.

Now comes the part I've been worried about all night. The "Family Meeting".

It is probably going to be worse than that, but it makes me feel better thinking about it that way.

Everyone was already changed and sitting in Neptune's room.

Lan and I were sitting on one of the sofas, while everyone else had pulled up seats facing us.

All the CPU's, Uni, and Histoire were present. Blanc sent the twins home with the Lowee Oracle. So I guess I can't meet them yet.

…

This feels more like an "Intervention" than a "Family Meeting".

…

Everyone is so quiet…This has to be about more than just my outburst. That's the feeling I get anyway.

I sneak a peek over at Lan, annnnnd it seems like he is completely zoned out.

…

Well this isn't going to go anywhere at this rate, so I guess I'll rip off the band-aid.

"Soooo…" I start, which gets some attention finally. "What's the plan?"

"The 'plan' is to teach you more about your duties as a CPU, and what it means to lead a nation." Histoire said it calmly, but I could feel she was not very happy.

Neptune chimed in next. "Come on guys! Lighten up a little! All this tension is even starting to get to me."

"It should. This whole thing is super serious after all." Noire said without moving her gaze from Lan.

I just noticed, but everyone seems pretty focused on Lan right now. What happened?

"Hey Lan," Lan snapped back to reality and looked right at Blanc as she was speaking.

"Mind telling us why we found out that you used to live on a compound owned by ASIC?" Oops.

"Well, because you investigated my past I assume." That isn't what she meant Lan…

"You little shi-" Noire cuts Blanc off before she can hurt our ears.

"Lan, we want to know why you lived there."

At this he goes 'Ohhh' and chuckles a bit. Does he have nerves of steel? Or does he not understand the situation? It could be either.

"Simply because I was born there. I left around a decade or so ago and never looked back."

Everyone looked shocked, but they soon regained their composure.

"Why didn't you share this information with us when we asked about your past?" It was Vert's turn to grill him now.

"I mean, even I know that ASIC isn't very…popular. They tried to destroy the world, multiple times. It isn't something I go telling everyone. Plus, after coming here, I realized that the 'enemy' I was raised to hate was you guys so…" He kind of makes an awkward face as he trails off.

"Wait, so, you hate us Lanny!?" Neptune practically jumped out of her chair.

"No, no, no, no. Back then, I cared about literally nothing. So all their teachings kind of just went in one ear and out the other. I honestly barely remember anything about the place."

He's told me everything he remembers about his hometown. It really isn't much. Mostly just stuff about his mom.

"Ohhh, that's a relief, I was worried for a second there." She sighs as she slumps back down.

He stifles a small laugh as he covers his mouth with his hand. Hmm. Cute.

"At the most I barely dislike you guys. Save for Neptunyan." Ahahaha…I thought we discussed saying stuff like that in private.

He lightly gasped as he realized what he said. "Oops, It's rude to say that to the people involved." He turned to me. "Sorry, Lily." He made an apologetic face, but…

"No, I mean, say sorry to them?" We still have a long way to go…

"Oh, right. Sorry I don't really like you guys." Ahhhh, this is going to kill me slowly.

Seemingly a little baffled, they try to brush it off.

"N-no, it isn't like I cared what you thought of me or anything!" Wow! Real-life tsundere! Neptune was right!

She clearly very much cared! I'm so sorry Noire!

Blanc cleared her throat and continued. "Right, so 'barely dislike' isn't grounds to try and destroy the world or anything right?"

He ponders for a second. "That…sounds like a lot of work for no real value. A waste of time. I could never understand what they saw in that Deity thing."

"What about your parents? Did they feel the same way?" Getting to the heart of the matter huh, Vert?

"No…Mother died trying to resurrect that Deity. That's about when I left."

Vert nodded with an 'I see'.

He shrugged. "I don't remember much else about the experiment or whatever it was."

"I suppose that is something else we'll have to look into. Any remnants of ASIC are too dangerous to leave alone." Histoire sighed as she rubbed her forehead.

"For now, we'll leave the matter to the side. We have a much more pressing matter at hand." She points to me. "You, young lady."

Me? What did I do-...Oh yeah, almost single handedly destroyed the nation. Maybe.

"We need to have a long talk about what it means to be a CPU and the duties it bestows."

Awww, that sounds awful.

…And awful it was.

Histoire spent about 90 minutes explaining my various duties.

Quests, paperwork, and public relations.

Quests and paperwork aren't too much of a problem. But public relations sounds…not too pleasant.

Everyone else was playing video games on the other side of the room. It's not fair!

"Are you listening, Nepgear? I am about to talk about the most important resource for a CPU." Ugh, there's still more?

"Shares represent the faith and influence of a CPU. These shares directly affect their power as well." …How long is she going to wear that hat and those glasses by the way?

Lan, who has been listening in rather intently the whole time, raises his hand.

"Yes, Lan?"

"So, the lower the shares the weaker the CPU? Can this affect their physical and mental health as well?"

She thinks a second before answering. "If the shares are low enough, I believe so."

"So, what are Planeptune's shares at right now?"

Histoire adjusted her glasses. "Last I checked, around 20%." Not too great.

"They are the lowest in Gamindustri right now." Ugh, that's not good to hear.

"...Most likely even lower after today." Oh boy, she's starting to brood again.

"Then," Lan quickly interrupts her before she goes on another tangent. "That means that Lily can get even stronger than now if we raise our shares?" !

"...Well, yes. You could increase your strength based on your shares."

"I can get even stronger than I am now!?" I can't help but be excited.

Ever since I recovered, I've been training with Lan. At first, it was just to help my body recover faster. But after fighting Lan and various monsters, I've found myself training solely to see how far I can go.

Maybe it's to prevent myself from getting hurt like I was before, but I genuinely enjoy seeking strength.

Histoire seemed a little surprised. "Th-that's correct. You will need to perform your CPU duties daily as well as fulfill requests of the citizens. But, you will grow stronger."

"Well, well, it seems to me it's just another form of training then." Does this mean…

"I'll have to come up with a regiment for you." Yes! Lan is going to manage my training again!

I've pretty much aced everything he threw at me, so he ran out of ideas and we've just been trying to keep our current level up.

"Histoire, when we come back from our trip back home, you and I will come up with the most efficient method for Lily to increase shares." He's already planning it!

"Finally! Something I can look forward to!" I grab Lan's hands and we start jumping up and down.

"W-well, I've never seen anyone have such enthusiasm for their duties. I suppose it's better than complete apathy." She sighed as she looked over to Neptune.

"Lan! Does this mean we can do quests together!?" I stop our jumping as I realize this.

We both look to Histoire with sparkles in our eyes.

"I suppose so…" She shrinks back from our enthusiasm.

I can't help but smile when I think about all the time we'll get to have together.

I was worried that we would be too busy with all this CPU stuff to hang out.

"Hehe, it sounds like we'll get lots of time together Lan." Him and Histoire both look intently at me.

"W-what?" Lan takes a deep breath and puts a hand on my cheek.

"You're too pure for this world." The longer his gaze is directed at me the more red I can feel myself become.

A tiny clap sound snaps us both out of it as we turn our attention to the tiny floating fairy.

"Um, sorry Histoire." I need to be more aware.

She sighs and waves us off. "It's alright, I am starting to get used to it." Is that a good thing?

"For now, we will table this discussion and continue when you two return. It is too much for one day." Thank goodness!

"Now we can go get ice cream!" Lan pumped his fist in the air.

"Isn't it a little late for ice cream?" It's almost midnight.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Oh?

"My dear, Lily. Convenience store ice cream is always available for those who seek it." My husband is a genius.

"You're so incredibly right, Lan!" I match his enthusiasm with my answer.

We try to say goodbye to the girls, but they're all screaming at each other playing some racing game.

"Neptune! That's like the third star you've gotten in this race!" Noire bumped into Neptune as she yelled.

"Says the lady who keeps hitting me with shells!" Blanc slammed into Noire, as she too screamed.

"My, all of you sure have quite the attitude for being in last place." Vert…

"SHUT IT!" Right, I think we'll just go. We'll all meet up at the airport tomorrow anyway.

We say goodbye to Histoire and head down the elevator and go outside.

"Ughhhhh…" I let out a groan as I feel the exhaustion hit me.

Lan wraps his arm around me. "We are in it pretty deep now, huh?" That's an understatement.

On one hand, I am excited for the new adventure. On the other hand, it isn't what I signed up for at all.

"This was supposed to be a vacation. Now it's turning into a job…" I can't help but sigh thinking about all the trouble this is going to be.

"True, but at least we can explore an entire new continent and gain even more experiences!" That is true…

"True, but this is gonna change our life plan dramatically." I want to start a family. It's been my dream since we got married.

"Hmm, I don't think we have to let it." Huh? Really?

He notices the interest on my face and continues. "It sounds like a lot. But, I'm sure that once we get used to it we won't have any problems."

I close my eyes and think back. Hmm, he might have a point. We've been thrown into so many situations in the short time we've been together and we always adapt.

Yeah…I feel like we can do this!

"Alright! Once we get back into a groove we can start planning again!" I pump my fist in the air and Lan cheers.

As we get closer to the hotel I start to notice that there are a lot of people watching us…

"Hey…Lan?" I squeeze his arm as I start to get creeped out.

"Yeah, there are a lot of people out even though it's so late." Seems he picked up on it as well.

*ka-chak*

Was that a shutter sound? Is someone taking pictures of us!? Why would they…Oh yeah, right.

"I, uh, kind of forgot that I'm a celebrity now…ahaha" I nervously chuckle as I push up more against Lan.

"Mhm, this is going to be uncomfortable." We start to walk a little faster as we arrive at the front entrance of the hotel.

"Excuse me!" Right before we step inside, a young man stops us.

"Yes?" Lan steps slightly in front of me as he answers the man.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to make you guys nervous! I just wanted to welcome our Lady Purple Sister back." He smiles.

"I, for one, am just glad to have you back. It was a little shocking to hear you got married but…It is what it is!" Phew, he seems like a nice guy.

"Thanks. I plan on doing my best once again for Planeptune!" I try to give him a confident answer.

He chuckles. "Hahaha, I'm looking forward to it! Well then," He turns to leave but stops in his tracks and turns back around.

"Oh! I figure I should warn you just in case." Lan and I tilt our heads wondering what kind of warning.

"I am in the minority. Meaning, there are a lot of people out there who want to bury your husband alive. So…uh, be careful." And with that he actually left.

…Hmm. Definitely not what I wanted to hear.

Lan nudges me, and I notice some people are starting to whisper and gather.

Seriously, why are there so many people out tonight!?

We hurry back up to our room, trying to escape the gazes.

"Haauughhhhhh" I let out a long sigh as I face plant onto the bed.

Lan pulls out his phone and starts searching something up.

I can hear him tapping away. So, without getting up I give him a muffled "What are you doing?"

He laughs. "Hahahaaha, they reaaalllyyy hate me online." Seems he was looking at forums and stuff about us.

I finally sit up and scooch over to read over his shoulder. "Wha!?" They are saying some pretty nasty things here!

"Seems there are a few 'factions' regarding our relationship." Lan explained.

"The people who support our relationship, which is the smallest might I add." Awww man, I had a feeling.

"Those who couldn't care less, and then there's the haters. As you can see, they take up a majority here."

Uh, yeah, no kidding. Like 85% of the comments on this thread are threats and hate.

"We kind of figured this would happen though, based on Histoire's reaction." Lan nodded.

He pinched my cheeks. "I'm sure as we show them how amazing we are together, people will calm down."

I doubt it, but…It really is the only thing we can do.

Lan suddenly gasps and jumps up.

"What happened, Lan!?"

He turned to me slowly with a ghostly look on his face…

"We forgot to get the ice cream!"

…

We both hugged and cried ourselves to sleep that night.

Wowzers! Happy Mew Yerr every wan. Thank you for waiting patiently for some more delicious content. Now we're finally getting somewhere! Lily and Lan get to work with the CPU's! How exciting for them! Or not, I mean, it sounds like a lot of work. Glad they can frame it to be a new challenge, because I couldn't lmao. Also, I feel like Lan is going to get stabbed or something. Meh, I'm sure he'll be fine! Tis' merely a flesh wound! Anyway, hope you guuys enjoy this chapter! I look forward to reading what you guys have to say. Peace out dawgz.