It's the same route every day. Going out of the house, walking toward the military base, then circling around the town. Except this time, Raven didn't do it for work, but for a date. It's been a long time since he went on a date, he got a bit nervous.

"Wait, I want to try that!" Aisha pointed at a gelato shop. A lot of colorful and delicious-looking ice creams were placed inside the freezer. There weren't any people eating gelato in the morning. In fact, they were the only ones being there.

They bought one gelato with 2 flavored ice creams; strawberry cheesecake and kiwi. Aisha sat near the window while Raven sat next to her, looking at all the people passing by. "Eat it with me. I still want to try other snacks and drinks I saw yesterday," Aisha smiled and offered her gelato. The flavor of sweet and sour were mixed, making her feel refreshed.

"You don't like shopping?" Raven asked in curiosity. He was prepared to waste his savings for this date.

"Like, shopping for clothes? Not really. Maybe some books," Aisha answered with a forced smile. The memory of her going to bookstores with Chung flashed in her mind. Especially the latest one when the timeline got altered for a day. Chung didn't even remember their time together.

Raven noticed a glimpse of sadness in Aisha's face before she smiled brightly again. He remembered both Aisha and Chung could simply read books together as their best time in their life. If possible, he just had to create a new memory of books with her. "Then we can go to bookstores. It's on my usual route."

"Do you even read books?" Aisha asked as she narrowed her eyes. Not everyone would love to read books, but she won't force it. "I can give you recommendations! How's that sound?"

Raven nodded his head. "Something on Chung's bookshelf upstairs, I assume?"

"I like how everyone just forgot I have my books there too. It's not just Chung's books. Maybe the weird books were mine all along?" Aisha giggled as she ate the gelato for more. "But don't worry, I'll give you the short one!"

"I don't see you read books that often. When do you usually read?" Raven asked in curiosity. After Aisha and Chung broke up, he barely saw her read a book. Was that even a hobby at this point?

Aisha laughed nervously and looked away from him. "That's a good question, but I won't tell you!"

"Why–"

Aisha took a spoon of her gelato. "Say aaah!" She smiled, trying to change the topic right away. There would be a moment where she was completely alone and spent maybe quite a few minutes.

Restroom.

But for the sake of her image being a cute magician girl, we will not talk about this ever again.

What's the story of Lithia Beryl, a woman that was wandering around in Henir realm and came back to Elrios to visit Noah, who was friends with an angel that was lost in complete darkness and came back alive?

She was brought to the cafe while Add was being accused of cheating on Rose by Elsword. Add ignored him, taking a different seat for both Lithia and him. As a waiter still on duty, Ain gave them the menu, but he stayed there, since he knew what was going on.

"A friend of mine will hear this conversation by accident. Is that fine with you?" Add asked Lithia for consent. Ain didn't remember the exact 'friend' that could eavesdrop on almost everything.

"Fine by me. Now tell us while I look at this," Lithia said as she browsed the menu. There was a lot of food and drinks she didn't recognize.

"Ainchase Ishmael, you are my agent. You have the duty to protect the El that is tampered by evil. Now go, serve for me."

As an angel that was borned for a certain task, he blindly followed the command. He had no knowledge of anything aside from language to communicate and a functional body to move. He neither had emotions nor logic to think of anything. All he knew was he had to protect the El–the huge crystal resonating its power throughout the entire Elrios.

He met people with hoodies, like they were a cult. As a newborn angel with no mind, he had no knowledge of the word 'cult'. They approached him and persuaded him with Henir power. Ishmael told him to deny them, so he did.

After a long time of living around the El, the cult found him again. He had no knowledge of battle, but he was blessed with creation magic. According to his creator, creation magic was a weapon to purify evil. Too bad, his empty brain trusted the cult that pretended to be his ally. He entered the Henir realm willingly.

At first, all he saw was blue cubes in a world that looked like a blue sky with cyan stars. He reached out to Ishmael, but he couldn't hear Her anymore. He looked around, trying to at least find the cult members, but he was completely alone. He kept walking to nowhere, eventually reaching a dark portal made by cyan gems.

It definitely didn't look like a good thing, so he walked away. He shouldn't do anything if Ishmael didn't command him to.

But something like a cyan arm grabbed his right arm from the back. Before he could turn around, more of the cyan arms appeared to grab his entire body, dragging him into the portal he just left behind.

Ain waited for something to happen–or at least to end–but there was nothing. He was floating, the arms weren't around him anymore. He tried to see himself, but everything was pitch black. There was only complete emptiness; nothing to see, nothing to hear, and nothing to smell.

He called out to Ishmael once more, but he didn't get any reply. He finally formed his very first thought, after being so long with nothingness.

"Where am I?"

It was a simple question with no answer. What was he supposed to do? When the sun set, everything went dark. If he's in complete darkness, then he had to make a sun–or at least–a source of light.

He summoned his pendulum, feeling the object in his hand. He transformed himself into his spiritualism form, hoping for anything to see, but there was still nothing. Ishmael said creation magic can be anything, so why couldn't he make light?

So far, he could only create swords with it. He tried slashing the air, but nothing happened. Was creation magic merely a weapon?

Or maybe he was the one being tainted at the moment?

Creation magic could purify evil. He created another sword and stabbed himself.

"Ah, I sense you, Ainchase."

Ain opened his eyes. He was in a familiar forest, except the El wasn't like he used to remember. It was broken, with a part of it being gone. How long did he disappear? He looked at his own chest, but there was no trace of him being stabbed.

"Did you not hear my command, Ainchase? I told you to not interact with Henir."

Ain finally able to look at himself in the reflection on the El; his left eye turned blue, like the color he saw in Henir realm. There were weird symbols across his left face.

"You are still my agent. If you have no recollection of anything, you will always follow my commands."

"What do you mean?" Ain asked.

"After I asked that question, I can't remember anything anymore," Ain ended his story. He eventually smiled, as if he actually remembered something. "I do remember my most meaningful time with Ara."

"So you're saying She took away your ability to memorize?" Lithia asked in curiosity. "That way, She can tell you to do the weirdest thing ever and you wouldn't ask about it."

"Hm? Who are we talking about?" Ain asked. He noticed there were new customers, so he excused himself to serve them for a bit.

"Did that help you?" Add asked as he faced Lithia, who seemed to be left with more questions.

But she smiled, feeling satisfied with the story she just heard. "Purifying yourself to escape complete darkness? That's magnificent, I will note that down."

Ring!

"Welcome back, master!" Ara smiled at her guest and approached him. "Are you here for Nisha and Elsword, Noah?"

"No, I–" Noah saw Add and Lithia in the corner of his eye. He approached them, sitting next to Add. "Ara, may I order everything again?"

"Of course! Please wait," Ara nodded her head and left.

"Can you tell me something about Titania? Please?" Noah begged Lithia as he offered his bag of chips.

Lithia sighed heavily and looked at Noah. "What does Titania look like? I'll tell you what I know."

"She's a dark purple haired woman with red eyes. Last time I met her, she transformed into a red and white flower. I… I'm not sure if she still looks the same after that," Noah said, trying to visualize Titania with gestures.

Lithia thought about it for a while and narrowed it down to one person. "Are you, by chance, Noah Ebalon? She kept shouting about how she would kill you for failing her plan to poison the whole village before she was consumed by Henir and lost her sanity."

Noah looked at Lithia with teary eyes, making her feel like she just said something wrong, but it was the opposite. "She's dead…? I thought I could save her, but maybe this is better."

Chung came to them with their orders. "Please enjoy!" He smiled, looking at Lithia for a while.

"Spill it. What do you want?" Lithia asked, since she disliked being stared at for no reason.

"Joy Felix?" Chung asked, looking at Lithia with sparkly eyes.

Lithia blinked her eyes several times, feeling shocked upon hearing the familiar name. She sighed heavily, staring at Add while gathering her thoughts. "Is this the friend?"

Add nodded his head as confirmation. Lithia looked at her fan, who seemed to be excited and nervous at the same time. "Poisoning the whole village caught your attention, huh? Then there's no use hiding it. Keep it for yourself. Don't tell anyone. Promise me that, if you're really my fan," Lithia said as she narrowed her eyes at Chung.

Chung smiled wider as he materialized his gun and took out his marker. "Will you sign my gun?"

"Huh?" Lithia was dumbfounded with the question. She grabbed the gun and the marker, signing it with her pen name 'Joy Felix' for the first time.

"Thank you so much. I promise," Chung grinned as he went back to work.

"Thank you, Lithia. Eat with me, don't be shy!" Noah smiled before he grabbed the utensils.

But Lithia could clearly see what was wrong with Noah's food portion. "I'll… grab a bit, but that's it. Not everything," she said as she narrowed her eyes at Add and Noah. "You two are included. Don't tell anyone."

"I hear nothing," Add said as he got up. He had nothing to do there anymore, so might as well go home.

"Whoaa!"

An elf appeared out of nowhere, caught by Ain before she hit Ara. "T-Thank you! Sorry, I got a little curious," Rena forced herself to laugh while Ain helped her stand up. She walked toward Elsword and Nisha, who seemed to be enjoying their drinks. She noticed Noah was with someone she didn't recognize. "Who's that?"

"I don't know. We met her in Henir realm yesterday," Nisha shrugged. She could always ask Noah later.

"Anyway, I'm not leaving Eve after today," Elsword pouted as he ate his croissant.

Nisha raised her one eyebrow and smiled. "It will get us all somewhere. Trust me. I'll leave Laby with someone else and you leave Eve for a while. How's that sound?"

"She's mine," Elsword said with a creepy look. What was Eve even doing at the moment? He couldn't stop thinking about her.

"I love Laby, but she wants to be someone else too. You need to change your mindset," Nisha replied while her mirror was floating around.

Cinema would be one of the most common places for a date. It may sound boring, but Aisha and Raven enjoyed the movie. "It's… The ending is so good, sob…" Aisha was still crying from watching the movie, wiping her tears with her handkerchief.

"You think so? I think all romance stories always have a good ending," Raven said, not feeling much from what he just watched. Romance stories were always about 2 people liking each other, getting into a conflict, then ending up together. There was nothing to expect, so there was nothing to feel.

"Then why did you choose that?" Aisha asked with a confused look. She merely agreed with Raven's decision.

"Hm… Maybe I watched too many romance movies…?" Raven muttered a question to himself. He liked the romance genre. He admitted it got boring when everything was repetitive, but he wasn't interested in anything else.

Aisha just giggled, letting it slide for this time. This was probably a side he never showed anyone before. Who would have thought a swordsman veteran loved romance? She grabbed Raven's Nasod hand, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Let's go! There's still places we have to visit."

"Welcome back," Eve greeted her friends, who just came home from the cafe. Judging by how Noah was still eating his snacks, the food from the cafe was always not enough. When will he be full anyway?

"Chung! This book is so good!" Rose waved The House in Mirage book. It was quite thick, but she couldn't stop reading and managed to finish it by the night.

Chung's eyes widened as he approached Rose on the sofa. "I like the second door."

"I… I like them all! They're good in their own ways," Rose said, patting the seat next to her. In no time, they were discussing the book like no one else was in the room.

"That's unusual. Since when does Rose read?" Ara asked in curiosity. She never saw what Rose did with Add in the lab, but she was sure it wasn't reading.

"This afternoon. We were checking the bookshelf out of curiosity," Eve explained. After their talk about Joy Felix, Rose had confirmed that the content of the book was different from what Bluhen read.

Nisha hit Elsword with her elbow. "See? Not being your partner can give friendship progression. Stop attaching yourself to Eve."

Elsword hugged Eve close and glared at Nisha. "No! You have Laby around you too!"

"Mhm, I have Laby," Nisha smiled as she hugged her mirror and walked away. "Anyway, I bothered you enough. I'm satisfied."

"What?! Was that on Chung's behalf?!" Elsword yelled, but Nisha wouldn't reply to him anymore.

Rena was startled with Elsword's words, especially when they were trying to not question Chung and Nisha for the time being. She learned to think quickly based on her experience in another timeline for a few weeks. "It's fun to tease you, to be honest. This is general," she said to Elsword with a smile, only to receive a pout from him.

Where was the best place to end a date? A hotel would be nice, but it was not yet time for Aisha and Raven. Aisha enjoyed her night time gelato very much, though.

There was a question lingering in her mind since yesterday: What's gotten into Raven all of a sudden? Everyone knew he wasn't interested in romance anymore after losing his fiancee, nor did he show any romantic attention to the girls.

Did something happen when they were sent to other timelines?

According to Lord Azoth, Raven remained here, so maybe someone talked it out with him.

A week ago, when the timelines were still mixed up, people from other timelines noticed something was really wrong with the gang, aside from the house that they never cleaned.

Raven did what he always did; wake up early, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, and sleep. This seemed normal for the gang, but not the outsiders.

As a temporary 'leader', Adrestia found the need to at least talk with everyone that seemed troubled. The first person she discussed this with was Prophetess, since she had stayed in the timeline for quite a while.

Then she talked to Celestia because he seemed more cooperative than Doom Bringer. She heard Prophetess' story, but Celestia should have the other side of the story, since he slept on the second floor.

"You live in that detective agency timeline, correct?" Adrestia asked for confirmation. "We're gonna live here for a while, so might as well get to know everyone. Is there anything odd up there?"

"Eeeh… Everyone is odd in their own way. What do you want to know?" Noah asked with a confused look. Bluhen's permanent overjoyed behavior scared him sometimes.

"Well, um… like, is Elsword always overly attached to Eve? Chung and Ciel live in a chaotic timeline, so how are they in here?" Adrestia asked for more information.

Celestia gave her his thoughts, leaving out the part where they played around with Ouija board like it was a casual board game. "Raven has taken a liking at someone, that's for sure. He's good at hiding it, though," Celestia said, surprising Adrestia. Noticing her change of reaction, Celestia narrowed his eyes with a smile. "Oh, is that what you'd like to hear? The person must be sent to another timeline, because it can't be Eve."

"R-Really? Why is he hiding it anyway?" Adrestia muttered to herself. She didn't care who the crush was, but it would be nice if he expressed himself.

Celestia could guess who the crush was, based on his experience working as a waiter at the cafe when everyone shrunk into tiny humans. Raven seemed a bit happier back then, but now all he did was work and came home to rest for tomorrow's work. "That, I don't know. Maybe they weren't interested in him at all, or a lot of the boys have a crush on them, or they're taken, or they simply reminded him of Seris. Besides, the concept of dating here sounds like a game. I'm sure he wanted to be taken seriously."

"Then I need to talk to him. Thanks, Noah," Adrestia smiled, waiting for Raven to come back from work.

As soon as he came back, Adrestia called him to the backyard for a quick talk. "I'm gonna be straightforward. You guys should express yourself more!" Adrestia said with a smile, hoping for Raven to smile back.

But he got confused instead. "I think I'm expressing myself well enough. What do you mean by 'you guys'?"

Adrestia didn't want to mention how she got her information, so she altered her words. "You're just going to work and coming home to sleep for the last 5 days. Do you not have a hobby?"

"Hobby…? Sleep is my hobby," Raven replied. 'Sleep' hobby was another way of saying he didn't have a hobby, but it would be too sad to say that.

"Then how about doing something you want for once?" Adrestia suggested, hoping that Raven would change his mind. "I understand being in a big group like this can be difficult. Raven–I mean–Rage Hearts used to suppress his emotions to maintain a dependable image for the gang. But we have all been living together for years already. Don't be shy, express yourself like how we're just a big family, hanging out with cousins!"

"So you're assuming I'm suppressing my emotions?" Raven asked with a skeptical look. Where did Adrestia get her ideas?

"Yes, I like that!" Adrestia smiled at Raven's change of expression instead, "Not just you, but everyone in your gang. I just can't believe all of you managed to neglect the duty to clean the house. Like, there's clearly something going wrong, you know? I don't think Elsword and Eve care when they're busy in their own world. I believe you still care when you go to work every day to get money."

Raven thought about what she just said. It was true that something was going on, but he didn't care much as long as he got his friends.

"It's just advice, though, but I would like you to be more expressive," Adrestia said before she looked away and muttered to herself. "I need Elsword and Eve to hangout with others more often, but how do I tell my 'little brother' here? Hm…"

Raven took it a bit wrong; Aisha was into him for, probably, a meme. Seeing how she fell in love with Chung from a meme actually gave him a bit of hope that maybe she would actually like him. Therefore, he should take the opportunity to be closer to her.

They finally reached home late, almost midnight. Realizing they were still holding hands, they let it go in embarrassment. Even so, they still walked upstairs together to get the short romance novel Aisha was talking about.

"This one! Tell me what you think about it," Aisha said as she handed the novel to Raven.

"Alright. I'll tell you when I finish it," Raven smiled as he went to his room. "Good night."

Aisha noticed 2 other books were missing from the shelf. Chung wouldn't read 2 books at a time, so who read the other one?

She went back downstairs and finally noticed the two people in the sofa all along; Chung and Rose. Chung already fell asleep, resting his head on Rose's shoulder while Rose read a book next to him. "You read books now?" Aisha asked in curiosity.

"I guess? Only this Joy Felix author, though," Rose said as she looked at the clock. "Huh?! No wonder it's gotten so quiet…"

"Chung really likes that author. I don't like their books that much," Aisha said. Was the book actually interesting to read? She tried reading one and she didn't really enjoy it.

"It's intense!" Rose got up as she put the bookmark on the page and closed the book. She walked into her bedroom to get her blanket. "Good night!" she smiled at Aisha as she turned off the light, walking toward Chung and covered themselves together in the blanket.

"Won't Add be jealous?" Aisha asked–because she felt a bit jealous.

"He won't. Do you not believe in friendship between man and woman?" Rose asked back.

Aisha walked to the girls' bedroom, joining the usual gossip night with everyone while she thought about it. Was it really okay for Rose to be so close to another guy? Then again, if something actually happened, it's not her business.