Eluria had probably asked for that kiss expecting it to happen when they were alone. Alas, Raid was so indifferent about such matters that he’d fulfilled the promise out here in the open, leading to this catastrophic incident.
Alma wore a small smile as her gaze turned to the distance. “Ahh, such hopeless lovebirds, these two... That blasted all my sleepiness away.”
Raid squinted. “This is how you welcome me back? Anyway, forget it,” he grumbled, waving his hand. “We’ve got a lot of guests coming over—and I mean a lot. It’s time for a meeting.”
Alma watched Raid, intrigued by his unusually petulant reaction. Before she could comment on it, however, people began to emerge from the glowing opening behind him. The first was a young girl with a bright smile on her face—Lufus.
“Hi, Eluria! Thanks for calling on me again!”
“Y-Yeah... Thanks for coming, Lufus,” Eluria replied.
“Huh? Why’s your face kinda red?”
“B-Because I just woke up...!”
“Your face turns red when you wake up?” Lufus asked, innocently tilting her head.
Soon, two very familiar figures followed behind Lufus—Alicia and Galleon.
Alicia wore an exhausted expression as she looked to the sky. “I never thought I would have to cross dimensions just to see my daughter...”
“Why the glum look?! Take it as a sign of our daughter’s growth!!!” Galleon bellowed.
“Galleon, could you keep your voice down? I’m feeling nauseous from the teleportation...”
“Oh, Instructor Kanos!” Edward immediately jogged over to Alma. “Please, you gotta take me to your workplace right this instant. I can already imagine the mess it’s in, and it’s filling me with an unspeakable urge to clean...!”
“Whoaaa, would you look at thaaat... Machines here, machines there, machines everywhere!” Carille exclaimed in awe.
One familiar face after the other emerged from the glowing opening—the “guests” that Raid had spoken of. Eventually, Millis also emerged.
“Hey there,” Alma greeted casually. “Looks like you brought along a ton of help, huh? And this isn’t even the end of it, from what I’ve heard. Seems like we can finally get a move on.”
“Yes, we certainly can...” Millis mumbled.
Alma eyed the girl. “You good, Millis? You’re kind of spacing out...”
“N-N-No, I’m not! Absolutely not! I’m the same old cheerful and noisy country girl you all know and love—nothing to worry about here!”
Alma shot her a skeptical look, not believing a single word she said. “What happened on the other side?”
“N-N-Nothing, nothing at all! I just so happened to learn that ‘ater’ means ‘black’ and how to spell Lesi W. Ater’s name backward, but that doesn’t have anything to do with it, okay?!”
“Huh. So this is how you react when you’re flustered,” Alma remarked with a knowing smile. Then, nodding once, she turned her gaze back to the distance and muttered, “Ahh, youth...”
She just couldn’t help but wonder: The world was halfway to ruin and the end was nigh, so why—just why—was there so much sickly sweet love in the air?