Artry

"So Luther told you to come make out with me huh," I say smugly.

"No you idiot, that's not what he said. He explicitly said to make up, not makeout!" Quincy quickly retorts.

"Huh, I could have sworn I heard makeout. Oh well, I would have been okay with it if that's what you meant," I say a bit too loudly.

"No, Will. I am not homosexual."

"Yes, I forgot you were Luthersexual."

"No! Not that either."

I doubt that.

'I doubt that as well.'

"Book sexual then?"

"Fine, let's just go with that."

"Perfect. To make up, I demand that you pose fabulously with me!" I order as I do that pose where I put my hand over my face.

I upgrade my pose and do the sparkling thing that Luther taught me.

"Whoa! Will you're sparkling! Who taught you how to do that?" Quincy asks.

"Luther of course! You should ask him how to do it later. Now, pose like your life depended on it," I tell him.

"Alright then, how's this!" Quincy says as he does the Caesar pose from Part 2.

"Perfect!"

"So umm… sorry about the whole calling you a murderer thing,"

"Yeah I'm sorry about some of what I said. You're still a sarcastic asshole sometimes though."

"That hasn't changed and never will."

Suddenly Ryder walks into the common area and sees both me and Quincy posing.

"Oh sweet you guys are doing that posing thing, let me join," Ryder exclaims as he jumps in front of us and starts flexing.

Man if only Quincy and I were as buff as Ryder this would have looked spectacular. I love how enthusiastic he is whenever he does anything.

"Umm, are you guys okay?" Elisa wonders as she awkwardly stares at us posing.

"Nonsense my dear, posing is a rite of passage for men like us," Luther says as he appears right next to her and begins to pose as well.

Warren walks into the room, sees us all posing and exits. Elisa proceeds to follow Warren's example, walking out of the common room as well.

About a day and a half passed until we managed to reach the center of the western front in Ayana. We did have a few complications on the way there, since we got attacked by a few rogue rebel groups, but luckily team explosions and fire had us covered. So basically we all had dinner while watching Nerva and Ryder shoot off explosives at the rebels until they all ran away. Did I mention our ship now has weapons?

Well, Ryder spent a good part of the day installing a large cannon on the airship, so now we can fire off explosives from the control center of the ship. Azura really hated it though because everytime Ryder fired it off at some random mountain, the recoil from the cannon caused the ship to shake violently and sometimes someone would fall over.

For example, Lilith had baked a pie and served everyone a piece, but then Ryder incidentally fired the cannon at the same time, so a small slice of pie slipped out of her hand and got sent flying into Adam's face. Lilith apologized, but Nerva came over and patted her on the back saying he deserved it. I think the best thing that happened is that I stole a few beds from the headquarters in the eastern front so now the airship has plenty of beds. So now I have my own room and I'm not forced to share a bed with anyone. Yay!

I also filled up every room properly so now I could house a full working crew if I wanted to, which I probably should considering that the airship has quite a few broken windows, doors… and walls mostly due to Luther.

Quincy has no door so he forced Adam to attempt to fix it. I say attempt because using healing magic on a door apparently does not work. I should hire that working crew to let Azura get some sleep once in a while and to fix up the airship. I bet I could get some of my men back in Yrden to come help out since I am the mafia boss there.

As the clouds part we descend through the air to see a run down city that looks way worse than the eastern front did.

"Whoa, this place looks horrible," I gasp.

"Of course it is. Artry is the city where the peasant rebellion had first started. The Man of Stone apparently moved their headquarters when it became evident that the south would have the most resentment against the government. We actually flew over it on the way here, but we couldn't see it from the sky. Since the eastern front was by the coast we are actually going inland in the opposite direction. I read about this place in a history book prior to the rebellion and it used to be the city responsible for 60% of the state's agricultural industry. Apparently there was a big fire that had destroyed a good part of the city's infrastructure and it became a lot more difficult to manage. It could be said that the massive fire in the fields and city was one of the causes of the rebellion. Oh and also..." Quincy says as he goes on and on, so we just tune out.

"Is this what happens when you read books? Is he always like this?" Ryder asks.

"I guess so and yeah he is. I usually tune him out after the 5th sentence when he starts rambling. I guess the good thing about this city is that it doesn't have the resources to spare to shoot at us," I state.

"This sucks, I wanted to fire off the ship's main cannon," Ryder laments.

"Main cannon? We have more?!" Azura responds.

"Oh yeah! I installed 3 more this morning. Two on the sides and one rear cannon," Ryder answers.

"Can confirm, he forced me to help install the parts. It was physically exhausting and not worth it," I mention.

"Hey, thanks to me we have more ways to defend ourselves in midair. And thanks to your portals we managed to install them in midair while flying," Ryder argues.

"That sounds incredibly dangerous," Azura remarks.

"Oh it was. I fell off the ship mid flight, but I used the force of my cannon to propel me back to the ship," Ryder tells her.

Nerva overhears the conversation and barges into the control room.

"Sup, bitches. I heard we talking about bombing Artry," she says while eating a piece of pie that Lilith made yesterday.

"No one is bombing anything! Especially now that we have more cannons. I fear the ship will collapse if they all get fired at once," Azura tells her.

"We have more cannons! Can I fire them?" she pleads.

"No!" both Azura and I say.

"Ah that sucks, bitches just gotta fire a cannon sometimes, you know," she says as she munches on her pie.

"I know right!" Ryder says in full agreement.

"Stop it you two! We can't afford to bomb Fartree, or our reputation will get even worse," I tell them.

"Will I think you meant, Artriii," Azura says, attempting to correct me.

"Nah it was Lartfree," Ryder jumps in.

"Guys, it's Artry. Here I'll show you in my history book," Quincy says as he pulls out a book from somewhere.

"I still don't know how to say it," Nerva says as she looks at the history book.

I'm getting the impression Nerva doesn't know how to read.

"Screw this book!" Nerva says as she sets the book on fire.

"No my book!" Quincy yells as he takes the book and runs out of the control room.

About half an hour later we disembark the ship. Luther informs us that he knows the person in charge here and leads us in the direction of another command tower.

"Wait a minute? Aren't you in charge of the Eastern front? Who's currently in charge over there?" Lilith asks.

"Ah my fair maiden, I have put someone else in charge there since I was assigned to take command only temporarily. The man is the right hand man of General Zachary, and he seems like a trustworthy man. As for his credentials, he certainly knows how to survive getting thrown out a window. I trained him in that personally," Luther tells us.

I hope Luther did not throw that man out a window as a part of his training.

"Before we enter I must tell you that the one in charge here is Colonel Bianca. As she is a woman of a high military rank we must respect her even more so."

We walk into the command tower and march up the stairs to where the commanding officer's floor should be. Elisa knocks on the door and we wait up to a full minute but no one responds.

"Huh, that's strange, usually the Colonel should be here at this time. I guess I could try picking the lock," she says as she pulls out her lock pick.

"There's no need for that," says a voice I recognize.

We turned around to find Scylla and Anastasia standing behind us. It's these two again. Both creep me out in different ways. One gives off this mysterious predator vibe, and the other one refuses to blink.

"Oh hello, my fair maidens. Then where would the Colonel be at this hour? We must get up to speed with the situation," Luther says.

"She's currently in the infirmary tending to Manchester. He has been attacked on his way to the south and floated to Artry unconscious on a raft fully constructed of pants. We still don't know when he will wake up," Scylla answers.

Whoa! Someone beat Manchester? Considering the last time I saw him fight he seemed pretty powerful. I wonder what kind of person would be necessary to take him down.

"My friend has been attacked! Hmm, he must have been met with a serious foe for he is not one to lose such a battle so easily. Heroes! Change of plans I believe we must wait until Manchester regains consciousness so he can inform us of such a threat. We need not disturb Colonel Bianca if she is currently healing him. I suggest we all get some rest for now," he advises.

As we walk towards the soldiers barracks below, Luther pulls me aside to have a private chat.

"First hero, while hearing the news that my friend has been attacked is disquieting, there is always an upside to every situation. I believe now presents the perfect opportunity to go on that date you promised your girlfriend. I happen to know a famous restaurant in this city that happens to have quite the reputation for having young couples get together," he tells me.

"Umm, I don't think I really need this. I'm good. You don't need to go out of your way to help me. I'll figure it out on my own," I say, trying to make him forget the date.

"Nonsense my friend. There is no shame to be had in accepting romantic assistance from others."

"Really you don't have to."

"Here take these tickets. Look for a building that has a giant harp near it and a swan lake as well. They shall accommodate you and your date quite nicely."

Dangit he's not listening.

"This reminds me I must find your friend and find him a date as well. It is about time he gets his first girlfriend," Luther says as he hands me a pair of tickets and sets off to find Quincy.

Great, this is just great. Now I guess I do need to go on that date.

I thought that somehow I could get Remi to forget about it considering how busy we are with this rebellion thing. Actually it feels kind of embarrassing to just go up to Remi and ask her to go out on a date with me, but I fear the repercussions of what'll happen if I don't do this. Maybe I'll just write a note and put it in a place where she'll be most likely to see it. If she doesn't find it then I can just tell Luther that Remi ditched me for tonight. I think the girl's bathroom would be a great place to put it.

I sneak into the girl's bathroom and place a note on the mirror.

'Hey umm, it's Will. I couldn't bring myself to say this to you directly and I'm hoping you don't find this note. But just in case you do just know that we are going on a date tonight at a restaurant identified by a giant harp and a small swan lake. I'll meet you there. Apparently it's this famous restaurant or something. Luther gave me tickets and told me to bring the person I find the most feelings for. Feel free to be late or like not show up at all. Whatever happens make sure Nazuko doesn't know about it.'

Alright, the very ambiguous note is done. I think it was negative enough that she'll get that I'm being forced into this. I really hope no one finds this and I have a nice peaceful dinner on my own. On second thought maybe having a nice dinner with Remi wouldn't be so bad. She's nice and not overtly perverted like Nazuko. It could go really well.

Little did I know that it wouldn't go as smoothly as I anticipated.