This story is part of the Wanderer series.
“Alisan! Karin!”
The cheer drew the northern princess’ attention. Her flanking delegates also glanced over, as well as, once again, some of the guards from the desert kingdom, flinching from the sudden scream behind them. Alisan winced a bit from second-hand embarrassment, expelling a slight chuckle, but quickly regained her composed air. Karin mildly grinned, maintaining a cool look of confidence. Nozomi’s behavior was all too familiar to them.
Leaning forward, Nozomi started dashing up the steps with a big grin, scaling it with ease now. Seeing the tension had passed, Rin and Chiara uttered quiet exclamations of excitement as they too ran upwards, closely behind Nozomi.
Reaching the top, Nozomi first lunged towards Alisan. The green-haired girl gasped in shock as Nozomi got up into her face, grabbing her free hand with both of her own hands, raising them up to neck-level. Nozomi giggled avidly as she glanced at Alisan’s head, then down at her robes. Rin and Chiara joined her side, huddling just as close.
“Look how fluffy and poofy you are!” Nozomi exclaimed, eyes shining brilliantly.
Chiara heartily nodded. “Definitely very, very poofy!”
Alisan chuckled uncomfortably, overwhelmed by their suffocating enthusiasm. Rin simply laughed along, for words were not her forte.
Further down the junction, Tatiana, who had stopped again, was watching the interaction with an amusing-looking frown that made her look like a child. She was very clearly eying Chiara, who was absorbed in the group’s reunification and not likely to follow anytime soon. Before long, Tatiana exhaled a loud groan of impatience, swinging her face away from her sister.
As she turned around, Arianna spoke up beside her. “Let her go, Sis. We will never make it beyond the docks at this pace.”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. On with it,” she muttered, hastily waving at their designated peacekeeper to move forth.
The two guards flanking her looked uncertain, with one quickly speaking up. “But, Your Highness… Your sister, the holy princess, is surrounded by—”
“Chiara can fend for herself. I made sure of it,” she hastily dismissed. Then, pitching up irritably, she added, “If she can’t, she is not worthy of her title!” Tatiana marched on, leaving the two guards glancing at each other with bewildered eyes.
From the other side, members of the northern delegation, Karin’s former retainers, monitored the golden congregation from the corner of their eyes while their princess attended her friends. At the front of the unit, Ki and Suzuka kept an acutely careful watch, their expressions thoroughly masked even though their faces were not.
Breaking away and taking a step back, Nozomi stared at Alisan, hands drawn in and clutching her stave. “Alisan looks like a powerful mage!” she said with another giggle, continuing her enthused rapport.
Alisan chuckled. “Th-thank you…”
Rin took a closer look at her outfit. “Yeah, you look like an elder mage in those.”
Uttering a closed-mouth gasp, Alisan became sheepish again. “A-ah… The robes are usually… preserved for high elders.”
Karin straightened, keenly training her gaze on the green-haired girl’s demeanor. “Even if you do not feel worthy, hold your head up high. Only then will the other delegates treat you seriously.”
Alisan looked at Karin, a bit surprised. Then, smiling, she nodded.
Karin turned her gaze to Rin, smiling. “You two look good as well.”
“Hardly at all,” Rin groaned, her expression snapping to annoyance as she aimlessly turned her head away. “These uniforms are too big for us.”
The group chuckled. Hearing Karin finally speak up, Nozomi shifted her beaming stare. “Karin looks no different!”
Rin glanced over. Chiara leaned to the side to poke her head out from behind the two as everyone turned their focus to the northern princess.
“Yeah. Reminds me of the early days when we clashed in the royal palace,” Rin commented.
Blinking, Karin looked a little taken aback. “Those were not the best of my days,” she admitted.
Nozomi twisted back to the others, her face full of concentrated determination. “But Karin is different now, right?!”
Rin subtly flinched back as Nozomi yelled that straight in her face.
Without waiting for a reply, she spun back to Karin. “We’re all different! We’re all grown up now!”
“Yes!” Chiara joined in. “I’ve been working hard! I can dance now!”
Nozomi whipped her head around, eyes widening. “You can?!”
“Yes!”
“Show me!”
“I’ll show you later!”
Nozomi looked disappointed. “Huuuh?! Why not now?!”
As they chirped, Karin glanced up, seeing the delegation of the United Republic walk by behind the group. Unlike the Kingdom of Light, the delegates seemed relaxed, a few members talking quietly amongst themselves. A few threw a glance or two towards their direction, of course, but no more than that. Nozomi’s energy did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary for them.
From the edge of her view, Karin noticed Rin glimpse at her. Before Karin could meet her gaze, Rin glanced where she was staring, seeing the Consul meet up with the elder peacekeepers. Karin smirked a little.
“She has not changed at all, I see.”
Rin closed her eyes, sighing with a smile. “She’s still a bumbling idiot…” Then, opening her eyes and meeting Karin’s directly, she grinned. “But she’s grown up a lot.”
Karin blinked, lightening her face.
“She’s more aware of what’s around her now.”
Wandering her eyes over, she stared at Nozomi long and hard, musing as Nozomi boasted to Alisan and Chiara about not being as reliant on gripping her hands to resonate. Eventually, Karin returned her smile.
“If only she were still not as noisy.”
Rin chuckled, gazing over her shoulder. “She’s just excited.”