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"Princess Caris. I\'ve been expecting you to arrive for some time now."

Walking into the Portmaster\'s office, the large bearded man quickly turned to address the princess, wholly ignoring me or Guidance as his eyes bore straight into Shizu\'s head. The office itself was pretty cramped, the man\'s desk occupying almost half of the available space as the man himself occupied around a quarter of it. That of course meant that the five of us were left sharing the remaining twenty-five percent of the room.

It was an uncomfortable squeeze. It also didn\'t help that I was squished in between Guidance\'s admittedly soft body and Maruki\'s cold armor. Quite the contrast, really.

"The Emperor had sent word of your arrival if that\'s what you\'re asking," the man absently continued, taking a huff out of his cigar before he spoke. "The [Rig]\'s ready for voyage. You just have to make sure it\'s gonna run properly before heading out."

I raised an eyebrow at the man\'s words. Did he just imply that our boat\'s broken?

"I see," Shizu hesitantly nodded. "We\'ll make sure to bring it up to top shape before we head off."

"That\'s great, Princess," the Portmaster waved her off. "Here are the keys."

Before Shizu could even react, the large man lackadaisically tossed a small ring of keys at her. The princess fumbled as she caught it mid-air, almost losing it even as it shook in her hands.

"T-Thank you," Shizu shakily smiled, her eyes never leaving the keyring as she stared at it with awe.

"Yeah, go knock yourself out," the Portmaster sighed. "Good luck or whatever-"

"You\'re disrespecting the Princess!"

My ears rang out as Maruki yelled right in the middle of the small office. Seeing as he was standing right next to my ear, it was far from pleasant.

"Ow! Volume, Maruki!" I groaned out, my ears still ringing as I covered my ears.

"Apologies, [Somatic] Moriya! I\'m simply pointing out the error in the Portmaster\'s words!"

I gritted my teeth as my ears rang despite my efforts. Looking towards the other person squeezed in next to me, it gave me a bit of comfort that Guidance also felt like she was being put through the wringer just by listening to this guy talk.

"Shut up there, armor for brains," the Portmaster growled, his own pain obvious through the grimace on his face. "You\'re making every single person in this room deaf."

"I simply cannot allow the disrespect to my Princess to continue, however!" the idiot replied, his constant yelling almost making me want to deck the man just so he\'d shut up. "It is my duty to-"

"Maruki!"

The change in the tone of voice was a welcome relief despite it somehow being just as loud as the tin can standing next to me. Taking a glimpse just in front of the Portmaster\'s desk, Shizu looked tired as her own hands covered her ears.

​ "Stop talking, okay?" she ordered with a strained smile. "It\'s fine. I don\'t mind being talked to like this."

"But Princess-"

"Don\'t," Shizu grimaced, her smile almost transforming into something that I never thought she was even capable of. "I\'m fine, and I don\'t need to be coddled, okay?"

Thankfully, Maruki shut up after that, the armor-wearing idiot finally relaxing as he seemingly sunk into himself. As an added bonus, the change in posture helped in relieving the strain from my own awkward position.

"Well, now that\'s the outta the way, would you all kindly leave my office?"

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"That was... kind of quick," I absently commented as I stretched my body. We were back in the reception area, and Shizu seemed to be unable to take her eyes away from the keyring as she spun it around her finger.

"A bit too quick, if you ask me," Guidance grumbled. "And judging by your lack of surprise, I\'m going to assume that you didn\'t get a quest prompt earlier, didn\'t you?"

What? "No," I voiced out with a bit of confusion in my tone. "Should I?"

"Didn\'t I tell you earlier that you should be getting a quest here to unlock the [Rig] system?" Guidance raised an eyebrow at me. "If it didn\'t, then I can only assume that we\'re not gonna be able to properly fix the damn thing using the proper interface."

My eyes widened. "Wait, you mean to tell me we\'ve soft locked ourselves out of progress?"

"What in the world are you talking about?"

I blinked at the new voice joining the conversation. Craning my neck, I didn\'t notice that Shade had already slid himself into our conversation, his rose still twirling around in his hand as he stared at Guidance like the unapologetic flirt that he was.

"O-Oh! I-It\'s nothing, really," Guidance quickly defended herself, the mad blush forming on her face not doing her any favors as Shade only leaned closer to her. "S-Shade?"

"You\'re a terrible liar, aren\'t you," he coolly pointed out, positioning himself right in front of me as if trying to separate me from the flustered dev. "It\'s obvious that you two are talking about some rather important topics. Care to share with the rest of the group?"

Okay, I\'ve had enough.

"Lay off her, would you?"

Donning my best intimidation face, I forcibly turned Shade around to face me. Almost immediately, his face fell, his expression almost one of disdain as he looked at me like I was nothing of significance.

"And who are you supposed to be?" he scoffed. "Are you Lady Guidance\'s betrothed for you to talk to her like that?"

I almost did a double-take. "What? We\'re just friends. You\'re the one acting like a casanova constantly flirting with two women at once."

To my surprise, the guy actually looked scandalized, "Wha- I would never stoop to something so low as two lead on two beautiful women like Lady Guidance and the Princess!"

"Are you serious!? Then what do you call what you\'re doing right now?" I legitimately asked. "Cause that looks to me that you\'re trying your best to get into their pants."

"Why-"

"We should see the [Rig]!"

Our argument stopped midway as Shizu suddenly declared her intentions. Judging by the radiant smile she was giving us, it was clear that she hadn\'t even caught any of the words Shade and I exchange with one another. Either that, or she was willfully ignoring it. Either way, it had the desired intention of commanding all of us to follow her lead as she walked back out into the pier.

"This isn\'t over," Shade scoffed as he eyed me with suspicion. "Don\'t think I\'m as stupid as Maruki over there. I can tell you\'re hiding something. Even Lady Guidance isn\'t spared, no matter how beautiful she might be."

I blinked at his warning as we walked out of the building. I guess that\'s another thing we had worry about now. Joy.

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