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⸢ The AquaMaris.
Quaint little store located just a few streets ahead of you from there.
A Festival should be taking place in the early evenings so you may use that as a cover to slip into a certain dimly lit alleyway with a small weird signpost attached on both sides of its walls…
’Sig & Run Storefront’ if I rember correctly.
Walk exactly fifteen steps through the alleyway, turn right, swipe your hands left and right across the wall directly facing you and then, place three knocks on it.
Once that’s done, walk through the wall and you’ll see the store.
An old lady should be waiting in the store once you’re in…
Request for a map to find the Celestial Orbs and once you’ve received it, you may go back to enjoying your school trip for the day.
Do ensure to get the orbs as soon as you possibly can.
You’ll be needing it much more sooner than you think… ⸥
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Looking at the new string of words now appearing on the pages of their books, Aiden and Flynn heaved a sigh of relief.
At first, the only words that had appeared on the pages when they were on the airship were;
⸢ You’ll need to retrieve the Celestial Orbs as soon as you get to Aquilith Haven… ⸥
But now, a much more precise instruction as to how they were going to get it was given, causing both brothers to have a genuine feeling of relief to cascade over them.
Currently in Flynn’s room after they had both checked in, they were conversing over how they were even supposed to find said orb and once again, the notebook started to flip and fill up by itself, putting their worries to rest in an instant.
"We can definitely work with this" Aiden comnted with a small nod as he read through the instructions once again.
"Yeah. Still find it quite crazy how he literally knows everything though" Flynn remarked, flipping his own book close and placing it back into his spatial bracelet.
"Almost feels like he’s placed a tracker on us with this… Wait?! Isn’t that what this book actually is when I really think about it!" Flynn had a sudden wave of realization hit him.
But before Aiden could respond to his brother’s very reasonable remark, they both heard a knock on the door.
"Coming!" Flynn swiftly responded while moving over to the door and opening it.
"Hey guys. We’re all ready to hit the festival. You coming with us or do you plan on resting?" Ivar asked the youths casually the mont the doors were opened.
***
"Damn! That nano-band is so cool Ivar!" Bryan said to the orange-haired youth with a look of genuine amazent in his eyes.
"Thanks man. I do wish the others I created weren’t still in a bit of an experintal state though…" Ivar replied while placing a few of his fingers on his chin, a thoughtful expression gracing his features.
"Really. It would’ve been nice if we had one too" Adrian muttered aloud with a small nod.
"So Ivar, don’t you sll a massive business opportunity here!" the crown prince swiftly added while hooking his arms around the youth’s neck, his eyes twinkling.
"Do you not ever just want to enjoy things as they are?!" Beatrice suddenly jabbed at her brother with a questioning expression, her hands on her hips.
"What do you an ’not enjoy’ things as they are?!" Adrian retorted with a squint that was solely aid at his younger sister.
"If life gives you opportunities, you overuse them! Don’t you see the massive potential his creation will have on the world?!" the red-haired youth added passionately.
"Yeah… he’s an absolute carbon copy of our dad" the crown princess gave up with a sigh of resignation while Maya who was beside her just giggled in response.
"Isn’t that a good thing? He’d make for a fine king then right?" Alia who was on her other side casually replied, one of her eyebrows questioningly arched up.
"Thank you! At least soo-"
"As much as I’d love to listen to your passionate declaration and conversations, can you all walk faster?" Lucas bluntly pitched without a single hint of delicacy in his tone, interjecting Adrian’s declaration.
"Always a mood sourer aren’t you?" Bryan and Adrian synchronously countered with a scoff towards the blondie who couldn’t even care less about their mocking words.
Watching the youths ahead of them conversing and squabbling with each other as they slowly made their way towards the streets a few ters ahead of them where a lively festival was currently ongoing, Aiden and Flynn, along with Caroline and Ivelia, all had amused smiles on their faces.
Checking in at the AquaMaris had taken far more ti than they had all anticipated and by the ti they were done, the luminescent moon had already chased the sun away to take its rightful place in the evening sky.
Deciding the beach was a no-no for the day, a few of the receptionists who had overheard their conversations about what they could spend their ti doing before their ten O’clock curfew ca, kindly inford the cadets about a fun festival that would be taking place from the early evening into the night just a few streets ahead away from the luxurious resort.
Thanking them for the info, most of the second-year cadets flocked the evening’s inviting streets which was slowly getting crowded with people dressed up in different costus and masks, small empty baskets in most of their hands.
’So similar to the period of Halloween in our previous world…’ Flynn thought to himself as they finally reached the heart of the lively festivities.
From the chattering of the kaleidoscope of costud crowds, to the multiple street perforrs that composed of acrobats, fire-dancers and stilt-walkers, all of it ca together to give an unparalleled feeling of liveliness and festive vibrancy.
Multiple food stalls also lined up the sides of the street, aromatic scents of exotic foods, snacks and drinks wafting over from them.
’Wait, candy apples are a thing in this world too?!’ Aiden thought to himself as Caroline dragged him over to a nearby stall selling the delicacy, her eyes drawn to the big red candy.
Following in tow along with the couple were Beatrice, Maya, Ivelia and Flynn, the rest of the ladies also quite curious about the eye-catching candy.
The rest of the youths however, soon found themselves at different parts of the festival, each and every one of them interested in the multitude of gas and events the festival had to offer.
Similarly, in line with this, Aiden and Flynn soon found themselves separated from their friends and partners about a few minutes later… or to be more exact, they purposefully and sneakily did so, intent on doing as Xavier’s notes had instructed.
Finding the weird signpost was actually a bit of a hurdle than they had expected though, most especially due to the fact that;
One, the multitude of costus in the festival was way more distracting than it should’ve been to them and two, there were quite a lot of alleyways so it took a bit of ti to find the exact one as described.
Eventually spotting the weird signpost, the youths proceeded to make the oddly desolate alleyway despite the ongoing festivities by taking exactly fifteen steps as the note had instructed.
Ensuring that they followed every other instruction to the letter, they soon found themselves stepping through the wall which now seed more like a watery mirage after they had done as the notebook said.
"Well, that was interesting" Aiden comnted as they made their way into the quaint old store before them that was dimly illuminated by softly-glowing white lights, nothing else except it in the vicinity with the exception of a few overgrown weeds sticking out of the cobblestoned pavents.
"Feels like the first ti we found Novier’s store, but with a different kind of feel…" Flynn remarked as he opened the rickety old door and stepped into it along with Aiden who replied to his words.
"Now that you ntion it, it does feel like that…"
Contrasting to the dimly-lit outside, the inside of the store was brightly-lit instead, giving a warm and inviting feel to it.
The scent of old, well-kept books, dried inks, yellowed parchnts, along with the woody undertones of the antique shelves they were perfectly arranged on, mingled together in such a harmonious manner to give a nice and calming bookstore scent.
Walking around the small corner of the store, both brothers soon spotted a very old-woman with her reading glasses on who was casually flipping through the pages of the book she seed so engrossed in, she didn’t even realize they had entered.
Or at least that was what it seed like, because, the mont the youths took one more step forward, she gently spoke up, her calm voice which exuded tiless wisdom gently carrying over to their ears.
"A most certainly curious scenario has co to play. To what exactly do I owe this visit in ages hmm?" she casually asked both brothers, her eyes never leaving her book.
"Pretty lovely bookstore you’ve got here ma’am" Aiden casually responded with a complint instead without answering her questions.
"Lovely? Well I guess you could say that child" she replied in similar fashion, her keen dark irises still glued to her book.
"Well, we don’t want to intrude on your peace and quiet for too long so we’ll just do as we were told" Flynn started speaking while moving closer to the old woman.
Hearing his words, the aged woman finally shifted her gaze over to Flynn and Aiden, her eyes looking over the top of her glasses with a curious expression.
Flipping the book she was reading close, both brothers watched as it slowly levitated through the air and slotted itself into what seed to be its original space on the bookshelves.
"You two… you feel quite familiar…" the old lady muttered, her many wrinkles scrunching up, as if trying to rember a long forgotten mory.
’Well at this point, nothing really fazes us anymore so maybe we do? I don’t really care if I’m being honest. Let’s just grab the map of the celestial orbs and lea-’ Flynn inwardly comnted but as if reading his mind, she instantly interjected.
"How do you know about the orb?" the old lady asked, her voice a few degrees colder.
But upon hearing Aiden’s next few words, her eyes widened in shock instead.
"Xavier Chrono asked us to retrieve it"
"Unbelievable…" she muttered to herself.
"Okay, the fact that she can read my mind is a bit freaky" Flynn glanced over to his brother with a small frown but the old lady still kept muttering to herself, both youths unable to hear her words.
"That damn old bastard. He actually wants to bestow it this ti…"
Watching the woman who kept muttering to herself with their heads slightly tilted in confusion for a few more minutes, both brothers watched as she let out a sigh of resignation.
In the next minute following that, the woman’s entire appearance transford into soone years younger than she previously looked.
Her coiffed grey hair which was tied in a bun, slowly let down to form a long lustrous, raven black and her dark irises transford into a silver one, along with a few rune marks that replaced so of her now disappearing wrinkles.
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