Haruo had returned to the designated area they had originally departed from. The bustling air of whispers and chatter filled the block with a liveliness that soured the pale boy's mood even more.
Ignoring the noise and the crowd, Haruo scanned the entire area and realized that he was the only one present.
After a few more glances, he sighed to himself before summoning his phone by pressing the mark on his wrist. Coincidentally, at that exact time, a new message with the ID "Unknown" was visible on his home screen.
[Hey Haru, it's me! Never realized you had a phone. If I had, I would've already given you my contact… Not sure if you would've accepted, though.]
The last few words made Haruo instantly realize who the messenger was.
DING!
{You have received a new friend request: Leo Novikov!}
With a slight gesture, Haruo quickly added his request, and the profile picture revealed itself as a cat bathing in sunshine.
[Where are you? Where are the others?]
[Don't worry! EVERYTHING is under control ;)]
Right after Leo's message, a link appeared that connected them to their location. However, upon viewing the address, Haruo's eyelid twitched with disbelief.
***
Haruo quietly pushed the door to enter the room. There, he saw four of the members being questioned individually by a guard holding a notepad.
All four of them looked at Haruo awkwardly—even Isaac couldn't meet his eyes.
'I guess even semi-pures cannot avoid the law here,' Haruo thought. He glanced around the room, and as he expected, one was absent from the group.
"… Where's Ena?"
Of course, the one person he had been most disappointed in was gone. And most likely the one who had started this whole mess.
Leo, meeting Haruo's eyes, bounced to the right, then back to Haruo. Understanding his signal, he turned to look and saw a large see-through window where Ena was arguing with another guard, gesturing for her to calm down.
"I was gone for just 40 minutes. What happened?"
After questioning, the guard hurriedly stepped toward the pale boy—he cleared his throat. "Are you the guardian of these people?"
"No, they're older than me," Haruo spoke without hesitation, which made the guard slightly confused.
"Ah, I see…" the guard quickly wrote on the notepad.
"But I hold some of the responsibility as a member of the division."
"Are you their leader by chance?" he questioned.
"No, that hasn't been—"
Leo quickly pulled him aside, covering his mouth with a piece of bread before answering for him. "Yes! He's our leader!"
The guard coughed slightly before nodding his head and saying, "Okay then… We'll just process some paperwork and finish the interrogation with the miss over there. Please wait until then."
Leo nodded as he watched the guard turn their back on them.
"So… do you want to tell me what happened, or are you just going to keep on causing trouble?"
"Uhm… How do I say this? Practically, during our preparation, Theo ate some unpaid food, thinking we had already paid for it."
"Is that it? Just pay the person what you owe."
"Let me finish! He didn't eat just one; he kept doing it at every stall, thinking we'd pay for it. And one time, he ate a product that we skipped, and the owners we passed through eventually reported us."
The pale boy turned to look at Theodor's face. The moment Theodor met Haruo's lingering glare, he immediately turned away without a trace of guilt present in his expression.
Haruo couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose upon hearing his explanation. "Why'd you all let this happen?"
Leo gave an awkward smile before whispering. "The siblings are the ones paying for everything."
Haruo sighed before turning his head to Ena in the interrogation room. "What about her?"
"Actually, we were all interrogated, but only for a short while. The only reason she's there longer is that she lacks the proper identification. And because she disturbed the peace."
"If that's the case, how did Isaac manage to bypass them? His ID is currently with me."
Hearing his own name being mentioned, he coughed loud enough for Haruo and Leo to hear him from afar. Then, still slightly awkward about the situation, he took each step carefully until he was only a few meters away from them.
"The reason I avoided that was that I had proof of my migration; my ID hadn't been processed yet."
'So Ena was just unlucky then,' Haruo thought.
"Well, I guess, other than this headache, did we buy everything we needed?"
"I, uh, think so," Isaac replied.
SLAAM!!
They instantly averted their gazes to the slammed door. Behind the door was Ena, her eyes flashing a trace of irritation.
***
After everything settled, Haruo made their way through the crowd of onlookers who saw Theodor tied up with a rope while being guided by her sister.
The purpose of this sudden decision was to stop his excessive hunger.
Whenever they either looked away or slightly neglected the semi-pure, they would always find him eating all the rations they had bought without a second thought. And though they would rather not tie him up like a prisoner, it was a necessary action to take to survive the next few weeks.
"Is this really necessary?" Isaac asked, as he avoided the dozens of stares drilling into the division.
"Trust me, it is," replied Tatiana without a moment's thought. "Winter is about to start; the prices of rations are slowly rising. If we let this guy eat what's left, we'll be left broke."
"Aren't you a semi-pure? We're people who have money for toilet paper; how can you be that cheap?" Ena remarked. "Why can't we just fill the airship with food?"
"First, it's not that I don't want to, but food can rot quickly and needs proper maintenance. And multiple airships usually avoid adding cold storage because of either weight or cost."
"Sigh… How long till we make it?" Haruo asked.
Leo shrugged slightly, his face glued to the phone. Because half of the division was relatively new to Marion, they had to mostly follow Leo across the district. But even then, the semi-pure was slightly dazed, as he had never travelled through this district that much.
Despite their desire to use a carriage for transport, the authorities prohibited them from using one while they remained on the market street.
So the entire time, they had to rely on both memory and their feet to get from one destination to another.
Fortunately, luck was on their side. Their desired destination was not far off, and soon Leo would slowly become more familiar with the surroundings, so he wouldn't need to stick to his device any longer.
"I think we're almost there."
After a few more circles around the street, both Leo and the siblings saw a familiar colossal silhouette floating above the sky.
"We're almost there!" Leo exclaimed.
Each passing step made Leo more confident, making travel more efficient as they continued onward. Haruo took in each new street with a diligent mind, memorizing the layout as much as possible, knowing this district was somewhere he'd come by often.
Among the dazzling buildings and structures, one stood out from the rest.
Two blocks from him, a massive building loomed. Marbles of stone defined its features, with many other buildings occupying the lot. And inside the lot, hundreds of kids his age were walking around in uniform.
It was a private institute, a school larger than any other he had seen.
"Interesting sight, isn't it? That's the school I went to, and so did Tatiana and Theodor. Heleran Academy. The best school in all of Marion."
"… I thought you said you weren't familiar with this place? If you went to school here, how come you don't know where we were going?"
"Relax… I don't know everything about this district. Besides, we are currently in an area where carriages are allowed, way past the marketplace." Leo replied.
"He's not wrong. Most of the time we used carriages to travel here, so we never really went that far off campus." Tatiana added.
"Aside from that, are we close now? We've been walking for an hour straight." Ena said groggily.
"Just 20 minutes ahead…"
With one last glance, Haruo continued onward.
Finally, after what felt like an hour of cardio, they had reached their designated destination. In front of them stood a tower-like structure that loomed over the rest of the crowd and the division.
The design leaned more towards modern architecture, while still retaining its medieval structure.
However, that singular tower wasn't the only one there. Across the entire block, there were other buildings that resembled the original, but varied in both shape and size.
And after close inspection, he soon realized all of them shared the same purpose.
That purpose was right above them.
High above the clouds was the colossal silhouette that they all saw from a distance. However, up close, the word colossal seemed rather weak for the floating giant.
It appeared more like an island than it was an airship port. The only difference was that 'island' was directly above them.
"Is that safe?" Isaac asked, his eyes glued to the port.
"No idea, but it doesn't seem dangerous either," Leo replied.
"I call bullshit…" Ena denied his words. "There's no way that isn't dangerous."
Scratching the back of his head, Haruo turned to see all his members only staring at the port above. Without saying a word, he made his way toward the entrance of the tower.
Ena was the first to notice him leaving.
Upon seeing Haruo making his way to the building, she hurried to trail him. Then Leo noticed right after and followed the two.
Soon everyone snapped out of their trance and stepped into the building. Only Theodor was left. However, it wasn't long before the others realized and pulled him by the rope to follow—his eyes never left the island-like port.
"Okay, by this point, we just need to pay for our flight and register our leave. Do you guys have your IDs with you? Otherwise, why did we go all the way here?"
"You're a semi-pure. Use your privileges," Ena said. "We don't even have our IDs yet."
"I can do that, but it's better to use your personal ID to avoid minor setbacks. We can't have everything, you know."
Her rebuttal stopped the moment she felt a slight tug on her shoulder. Immediately, she saw Haruo passing her a rectangular object. "Your ID."
Her eyes widened as she quickly took the ID to confirm its contents. There, a picture of her was attached to the left side of the card, with all her details etched on the other side.
After seeing the faint stamp on the far right, she instantly believed it. It was her real ID.
"You're just giving this now?"
Haruo didn't mind her words and did the same for Isaac. After everything had been set, no one complained, and they prepared for the upcoming procedures.
Ten minutes had passed, and they had all finished their necessities; the only thing left was to climb onto the magic circle to be transported to the surface of the port.
"Right this way, everyone!" A server in formal clothing said.
On the floor was a circle traced an inch into the ground rather than being drawn with something like chalk. The division and many other civilians stepped onto the runic carvings.
A blue glow began to form between the tiny gaps of the circle.
"Thank you for your cooperation! Enjoy your destinations!" The server said with a bow.
In a flash, the scene they were viewing transitioned to a fresh sight.
What met the division was the roaring sound of the wind above mixed with the endless chatter of engines and people. No matter where they set their eyes, it was always crowded with airships and gears.
… After just arriving in the Marion Kingdom, they were now forced to leave.