They arrived at the city center as Yu's efforts to name Neko after himself were rebuffed. When they arrived at the city center, they were greeted by the royal palace.
The top of the palace, surrounded by white walls, was blue. The tops of the towers were also painted blue, and this blue color came from the blue of the Rolderhelm flag.
The historical palaces Yu knew were dark, damp and uncomfortable places to live in, but from the outside, the palace in front of him looked like coming from fairy tale.
"When you have a lot of money, you can build places like this." Yu took a good look at the royal palace, imagining he was living in it.
"Compared to the palaces of Aram and Elhaven, Rolderhelm's looks like a slum." Lucie approached Yu.
"When you have a long life, you have time to see the world."
Yu looked at Lucie with a sigh. Lucie's eyes lit up with joy when she saw Yu looking at her and she smiled.
As Lucia's sister, Lucie had to be over a hundred years old. One hundred was an age Yu could only dream of reaching, and even if he did, he would not have the strength to do anything.
"Contrary to the stories in all those fantasy novels, the union of a human and an elf is unhealthy. I, whose life expectancy is seventy years, cannot be with an elf who will live for hundreds of years. Anyway, when I become an old man and ugly, her love will fade; and if it doesn't fade, the elf will have to face the death of his beloved. The gods of this world did not create elves and men to be lovers."
"What's with the sad expression?" Lucia took Yu's arm and dragged him and Neko, who was holding on to him, towards the carnival grounds. "You're in a place where you should be happy."
Colorful lanterns illuminated the paths where the colorful tents were located, and the entertainers invited everyone who passed by to their tents.
Vendors trying to sell souvenirs at stands and on drapes spread on the ground, in some places taking up the entire road. The magicians, who were by far better than Yu, were shooting fireworks out of their hats.
"I can't even go near them." His little tricks with playing cards would not have attracted the attention of these magicians.
But in music he thought he could shine among his potential competitors. All the songs he listened to were in the same style, and all were far from modern. He could become famous and rich by plagiarizing songs from the twentieth and twenty-first century.
While Lucia was looking at the merchandise in a booth, Yu was watching his surroundings. When he saw people walking alone in the carnival grounds, he couldn't suppress the urge to pity them.
"At least I'm not alone anymore."
When he was in his own world and people gathered around him, he preferred to be alone, he confronted all the negative thoughts that harmed him and lost.
But one thing he soon learned here was that when someone was with him, he did not fall prey to negative thoughts. When he was alone, he would scream out his self-hatred, but when he was with someone else, he became the Yu Valarfin he had idealized in his head.
He was not the real person he was, but he wanted people to see him not as he really was, but as he idealized himself, and this created two different Yu Valarfin.
Even though he knew he would blame himself for this when he lay his head on his pillow at night and was alone with his thoughts, he was still glad that he was not the only one. Neko had realized this.
"What's in this tent?" Lucie grabbed Yu by the arm and pulled him into a tent. When Neko let Yu go, Yu grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her after him.
"For all my opinions about her, it feels good to get attention."
In the center of the tent they entered, a woman dressed entirely in blue danced in the air, holding on with one hand to a long stick she had stuck into the ground. She twirled, somersaulted and formed crystal flowers in her hands, which she threw at the audience. The crystals scattered in the air without falling to the ground, creating a magical ambiance.
"There must be a rope or something," Neko grumbled.
"There's always a trick in these shows, you should enjoy the show instead of looking for the trick."
Having been involved in magic himself for some time, he knew how frustrating it could be for the audience to try to figure out the trick.
"Not only that, now they'll charge us for coming here, for fuck's sake. I hope Lucie will pay, her sister has so much property."
It was not as he had hoped, Lucie took Yu's arm and waited while the tent owner collected the money from the audience into a hat. When the hat stopped in front of Yu, he had to put his hand in his pocket.
"If we say one gold is two hundred dollars, if we say fifty silver is one gold, one silver is four dollars. Now let's not look like a miser to the woman... Damn my head that came in here..." At first, he put down the copper he had picked up, handed over a silver coin and decided not to enter the tents again.
"Stingy bastard." Neko also noticed that Yu gave the money reluctantly.
"How much more do you want me to give? Besides, I have a child to take care of."
"I wonder who was looking at who? If it wasn't for me, you would have died in the middle of the street because of the Blessings."
"Don't say such things everywhere, idiot." He was offended by the mention of the word Blessings. He put his hand to Neko's ear to punish her with a slight tug. "Or..."
Instead of pulling Neko's ear, he put his hand on her head and decided to be a good parent instead of punishing her.
"I thought of it," Neko said as she pushed Yu's hand away.
"What did you think?" Lucia said in a friendly voice.
Lucia's conversation with Neko made Yu uneasy. What would Yu do if Lucia tried to steal Neko, a sword fairy? He didn't want to lose her, even though they hadn't gotten to know each other well enough yet. Not because he needed healing magic, but because he was afraid of being alone.
"Let's be adventurers."
Yu rejected Neko immediately.
"We can't, it's too dangerous."
"I can decide too. You say you need money, but you don't seem to have any, you haven't even looked at our real business. We'll be adventurers and earn money, then revenge-"
"Neko, we can't talk about these things everywhere." He didn't let Neko get into the revenge thing. He never thought they were going to take revenge anyway. He thought their only goal was to turn back time.
Neko realized that she shouldn't talk about revenge in front of Lucia and Lucie, but she still stood her ground. "Unlike you, I am strong enough to fight and do difficult tasks, stupid human."
"But what if you fail and one or two of us die? Who will save her then?"
Without Neko, Yu would have collapsed in the middle of the street, both from his own illness and the Blessings he received.
Neko, although strong, was still a child and did not yet have the wisdom, experience and maturity to achieve what she wanted to achieve. Even though he was in a different world, people were still people, and they could deceive Neko for their own benefit.
Neither could be separated from the other, otherwise both would meet a bad end.
"What kind of a joke is it that the world can make two strangers suddenly need each other?"
"Coward." Neko clenched her fist, she couldn't take the rejection either.
Yu didn't answer her, but Lucia entered the argument that was about to end.
"Adventuring is a dangerous business, even for strong men. I don't know what you want to do, but I am sure Mr. Valarfin is trying to do what is best for you. Try to give him a little more time, if things don't go well you can be an adventurer, there are easy missions."
"We'll do that," Yu said. He thought he was going to drop the subject for good, but Lucia had given Neko the chance to reopen the subject of adventuring in the future.
They had only gone a few steps after the adventurous discussion had ended when Lucie grabbed her sister's shoulder and pointed to someone running ahead.
"Sister, isn't that he?" She tried and failed to remember the name of the man running towards them.
Before Lucie could remember his name, he came up to them and spoke without pausing for breath.
"The adventurers started a fight."