Chapter 10: Fairy Tale

As they arrived at the park, Ain was pleasantly surprised to see how many people were there.

The place they lived in was pretty large for what it was. He hadn't explored much of the place yet, but he expected it to be a tiny rural town.

Much to his surprise, that didn't seem to be the case. From just the people he saw in the park and the buildings he saw on his way, Ain would say it didn't quite feel like a city yet, but it was close.

'More people could be arriving for the festival as well. I wonder when it's happening.' Ain wondered.

But he could ask that question later. For now, he was more interested in the park itself.

It was a large area split into three separate sectors. A playground with a bunch of equipment for the kids, a forested land with benches scattered around and, a large gazebo in the middle, and a third open grassy area.

He wasn't exactly sure what the grassy area was for, but people were doing various activities with their Kindred. Some were even battling each other, with their partners giving them commands.

'Sport, I guess? I don't think I like the moral implication of this sport, though. The human should at least be in the fray getting hurt as well.'

Meanwhile, Annalise ran toward the playground when she was freed from Core's grasp.

"Stay where I can see you, Annalise!" Core called out.

"Okay!!" She happily shouted.

"Are you not going to play?" Core asked Ain.

In response, Ain shook his head while he moved to a nearby bench.

He looked at the book he had brought as he had no real interest in interacting with children.

He was interested in many things. Children were generally not one of them. Annalise had her quirks, which made her an exception, but that was more of an interest in her physical capabilities rather than her as a person.

"That word… Is probably a name? Semina's something. Voyage, maybe? Adventure?" He tried translating the words.

He could manage it somewhat. This written language used contractions and punctuation in similar ways to English. The contextual images, in this case, the cover, helped him understand what most things meant.

The cover of this book had a young, attractive woman on a boat in attire that appeared to be meant for exploration.

It was comically impractical attire, barely covering a passable amount of skin. If she traversed any harsh environment, Ain worried about what would happen to her body—and belts. She had so many belts, but they weren't being used for anything.

Ain was no stranger to wearing multiple belts. They were pretty versatile if you had lots of small to medium-sized bags or trinkets to bring around, but if this Semina figure had any of those things, they weren't on her person.

As he sighed, Ain opened the book to see the first pages.

They showed an island full of gold and jewels, alongside many who failed to reach the island. When Ain turned the page, he was greeted by the woman on the cover.

At first glance, she seemed very charismatic. She had short, ashen brown hair, bright silver eyes, and a striking straw hat. A rather large cast of faces accompanied her.

A navigator who hoped to get rich, a bounty hunter looking for a particular person, a sharpshooter who wished to impress his crush, and even a perverted chef who wanted to create the ultimate cuisine.

"A land capable of fulfilling all of your dreams and desires… Varkhal's Hollow." Ain chuckled at the familiar setting.

The following pages were full of the group going through trials and tribulations as they braved the world. No pirates or mercenaries could best this rag-tag group.

Ain started to skim the pages. The familiarity he felt from this children's book made him feel a bit awkward, so he wanted to quickly see if he could get any useful information from it.

However, his page flipping was halted as he saw a familiar item.

His eyes widened from what he saw.

They had an old, weathered compass that never pointed north. They needed to find that compass before finding the lost island.

"Polaris…" He mumbled.

That was the name of the artifact that he and Pollux used to find the water planet that Leviathan resided on. 

'Is this a coincidence? Or perhaps this world has ties to the Celestial Clan?'

He lacked the information to make any reasonable assumptions, but that didn't really matter to Ain.

'Pollux…' He hummed inwardly as his eyes narrowed at the drawing of the object.

The artifact was made using the power of the 48th Constellation, Pyxis Nautica. Normally, the Compass is the ability never to get lost. The most recent master of the Pyxis Nautica, Pyxis Alpha, however, was a genius blacksmith and artifact maker.

He managed to change the core property of the Constellation and imbue it into an item which he gave to the twins as a farewell gift.

Initially, it was to be named after the creator, but Pollux insisted that it be named after the Northern Star that guided the lost.

As far as fairy tales go, it wasn't something terribly surprising. Realistically, it probably had nothing to do with the Celestial Clan or Pyxis, but it still brought back the memories of those old times regardless.

'I hope they're doing well. Well, Pollux is most likely on her next adventure already, but that kid Pyxis… He was always a lonely child…'

Before he could ponder this any further, a red ball hit his leg.

Looking up from the book, Ain was unsurprised to see Annalise running toward him.

She also had three other kids in tow. They were older than the Ain and Annalise, with the oldest being maybe three or four years older.

"Ainie! Why are you over here alone? Come join us!"

The other kids behind her seemed a little out of breath.

"Haah. How is she so fast?" The middle child questioned.

"I'm reading," Ain said, trying to turn his attention back to the book.

"Bah! You can read later! Come join us!"

Unfortunately, Annalise was like baby Hercules and dragged Ain away from the book to go play with them.

Once again, Ain sighed.

'Coincidence or not. I'm rather curious about this Varkhal place.'