The next day, Casper woke up with his smartphone ringing. He automatically stood up from his bed and went to the bathroom, feeling a bit groggy and staggering, but coming to his senses as fast as possible.
Entering the bathroom, he washed his face with cold water and wet his hair while searching for his toothbrush and toothpaste.
He groped all over the sink, but could not find anything. A bit bothered because of his laziness he looked to the sink, and then realized that, actually, none of those items were there.
"Aah, man, that's true, they might be on my bag. I nearly forgot that just the day before yesterday I arrived from the Yanke Forces.
"It was quite a tough mission, to be honest… I am glad that I will finally finish my game and play ukulele a bit… Hey, but, why did I not confirmed if the freakin' game was saved!? If it's not, I should have started to play since I arrived at least!"
Casper headed to the kitchen. He remembered to have had left his bag there. It would take some time to find the toothbrush, though.
"Maybe I should ignore it and go play the way I am now…? But, man, my breath is horrible, I could kill someone with it… But kill who? Nobody will even step into my apartment, except my friends, and they don't care at all…" After some while trying to think about it, he decided to brush his teeth later. Anyway, he probably would not have the toothpaste, so when he headed to the market to buy some junk food to eat, he would get the paste as well.
"Aaah, true, it has been a while since I just have that crap of food in the Special forces… It was so tasteless… And I needed to keep my diet to be in a good shape, so…"
The alarm ring was still resounding background, and it kind of annoyed him.
Casper generally would let the alarm ringing in the background to make sure he would not fall asleep again, but sometimes he forgot to turn it off.
"Thinking of it, this alarm stopped to ring and started again sometimes, is it bugging or something?" After two or three glasses of water, he went to the sofa and looked at his smartphone.
Nothing was popping up on the screen now, and the ring stopped.
Just as he was going to brush it off and go do his stuff, it started to ring again. He looked cautiously at it.
"Hey? Does my smartphone looked like this, actually?"
The number calling was an unknown one. He answered the call.
"Hello?"
"How dare you just keep me calling to you for such a long time, you insolent? What do you have in your mind?" An angelical voice comes from it, yet a bit annoying as well, because of the tone she used.
"I need to pass through this crap of a routine every day, y'know? That Princess thing, I mean! The least I deserve is to be treated like one!"
"Princess?"
"Yes! And now you can call me Vick, by the way."
"Did I got a girlfriend while I was on the mission…?" Casper's mind was still trying to recover. He had a good time sleeping, but it was not enough to make him remember all the fuss he got himself in.
"After you acting like a brute yesterday I couldn't talk with you properly. We must meet again today. I still need to talk with you about some things."
While his mind was realizing what was happening, Casper let his phone slip his hand and fall on the sofa again.
"Casper? Hey, Casper!? Hey!!"
…
After dress up properly, Casper waited in his apartment for the arrival of the Princess.
His mind was now working at 100%. He not just remembered everything he had to, but also was making his plans and movements for that day.
There were a couple of things he needed to try once. And he needed to keep alert while dealing with Vick since he was a precious information source.
It could seem like he had scared and unnerved her last day, and it was more or less what he wanted to do.
He got the Princess with low guard and could make her mind confused with that mix of feelings. It was a huge psychological disadvantage, that was what made her let slip out some key reactions and quotes that helped Casper a lot.
However, now she would not be with her guard lowered again, and Casper was not sure that his neck would be saved from a painful punishment if he threatened the Princess even more.
It took a while until Vick entered through the door as if that was her own home.
"Good morning, Casper!"
"I thought I should be the one greeting, and kneeling to you as well."
"Don't worry about etiquette when we are alone. Now, willing or not, you are my only escape from this idiotic life of mine." She sat on the sofa without any elegance and stretched her arms.
"I apologize from yesterday. I got carried away because I was stressed. You know, I just arrived here in the middle of a battle and I saw a lot of people dying." What he said was a half-truth. Anyway, he needed to state it if he was intending to be on good terms with her.
"I am talking seriously now: I spared you because I thought that this would be the case, but next time I will make sure to got you tortured." Her tone was as cold as ever now, and her look was enough to make Casper almost gulp.
"W-well, let it aside, what are you intending to converse today?" Casper gave her an awkward smile.
"Follow me, let's stroll through the Castle for a while."
That said, both left the building. Casper wanted her to use the Teleporting pad. He was willing to see it worked again to make sure that his theory was right.
"This floor sure is enormous, huh? There are a lot of things here, but I would like to go to others. What do you think about it?"
"I don't want you to be spotted by other people… I can bring you to another floor, but just in places that are private to the real family. They have fewer people and are safer for you."
After a good stroll in the wooded area of that floor, they headed to the nearest Teleporting pad.
After she adjusted Casper's position and then murmured something casually, the teleportation happened in a few seconds.
"Yeah, as I thought, they say not words, but numbers. Back in that finisher attack from Vick, she asked Canute where the battles were happening and he answered with coordinates. Probably the same goes to these Teleporting pads."
They appeared in a random street.
Vick grabbed Casper's hand and dragged him inside a store hastily.
"That's not a private local, actually, but I come here whenever I have the chance. It's the only place that nobody comes in this part of the floor."
"Really?" Casper looked at the facade of the story, and he saw something like a musical note.
It was easy to guess what it was.
"Wow, a music store! It has been a while since I didn't go to one like this." He was really glad. That was the first good thing that he was familiar with within that world.
He could not wait to see what types of instruments they had there.
Inside the store, was exactly what a music store would look like in his world, in the minimal details.
Even the Princess was a bit surprised to see Casper so excited like that.
"Do you, actually, enjoy it?"
"I do, of course! You don't?"
"No… Our society doesn't value this type of art too much. In the past, it was pretty popular, but now it's more like a museum. The store doesn't even have an owner or someone to take care of."
Casper thought that that was an interesting point, but also a bit disturbing. For a music lover like him, it was difficult to imagine a world where nobody cared about a good song.
"Hmpf, probably your generation lack a good musician like me."
Casper started to walk through the corridors, looking at the different instruments. His eyes shone as long as he spotted one in specific.
"So, there you are, buddy…" He picked it up without hesitation. "Even this crazy situation cannot cut our bounds!" He thought, spirited.
"Did it caught your interest?" The Princess appeared behind him, taking a look at the ukulele he had in his hands.
He nodded to her, starting to strumming the strings. Surprisingly, it was tuned, and very well-tuned.
Casper started to play the first music that appeared in his head.
The store got filled with the song of the melody he was playing. It was a cheerful song, quite agitated, and very good to the ears. Casper was very good at it.
Vick seemed to find it a little strange at first, but she got used little by little and could enjoy it.
The time flew by, and Casper kept playing a lot of different songs while conversing casually with Vick.
They spent most of their time like this, and everything went smoothly. Casper was kind of glad because of that.
His intentions towards the Princess did not change, though.
"Ah! Before I forget, I have that thing to ask you, Casper."
"What's it?"
"We are aware of your huge contributions during the midwest civil rebellion from yesterday. Without you and Sionnach, we wouldn't have the same results. We are very grateful for it and, besides the scientific matter, you also are welcomed by the Jarls, even if temporary, because of your feats yesterday.
"That said, your cooperation with the researching about your origins and what you are exactly, is most needed. But, letting it aside, we have one more request for you."
"What's that?"
"We want you to train to become a Ridire and act in the front line of restraint in this Civil war."
Faced with that sudden proposal, Casper immediately stopped to play the ukulele and looked at Vick.
"We would appreciate your participation. Please, lend us your strength." She offered her hand to him.
"Now… We have a dilemma here…" He thought.