"Rest?"
"Godfather, are you tired?"
Listening to Arceus's mumbling, Yamato looked at Arceus in confusion. It was the first time she had heard such a word from Arceus's mouth; in her understanding, Arceus had never mentioned anything like fatigue.
"No, just heard some strange sounds."
"But no one is talking, did any of you say something?"
Yamato asked the others behind her, but all she got were denials, even the Alcremie in her arms gave a negative response.
"Godfather, you must be experiencing auditory hallucinations. Who would be talking at such a high altitude?"
[Help...]
"No, godfather, I also seem to hear something, is someone calling for help?"
Yamato felt as if she heard a cry for help in the back of her mind, and the voice was strangely familiar.
"You can't hear that voice yet, but you definitely heard the call for help. Look to the lower left."
Yamato looked in the direction pointed out and happened to see two figures falling.
"That's... Ulti and Little Peg?! What are they up to now, not taking me with them."
With the increasing number of children, many things have become strange within the Hundred Beasts Pirates. For example, seeing someone fall from a high altitude no longer seemed frightening, as Page One had already learned how to fly.
The reason he and Ulti were falling was simple: the back of the Thousand-Year Dragon was only so big, and falling during a scuffle was quite normal. However, as she fell, Ulti grabbed Page One's ankle, pulling him down with her.
Mid-air, Page One transformed his form and took off again like a jet.
"Big sis! Can't you sit still for just one moment?"
He highly suspected that Ulti had raised him just to have someone fun to play with, and he had even collected some evidence. Based on what Page One called her, you could determine his mood.
If he called her "sis," it meant he wasn't particularly upset, but when he called her "big sis" or "big sister," it meant he had been significantly affected, especially by betrayal from his sister.
"What's the big deal? After all, you can fly, Little Peg."
"But if you didn't mess around, we wouldn't have fallen at all!"
"It's not my fault at all! It's all because Jack took up too much space. Let's just fly off, so there won't be any perverts threatening you."
"Big sis, could it be that... you pulled me down just to stay away from Big Brother Jack?"
"How could that be? I wouldn't do such a thing!"
Due to the head construction, he couldn't clearly see Ulti's current expression, but Page One felt like he had uncovered the truth.
"Alright, Little Peg, you have to trust your sis. Hurry and catch up with them; they're flying far away."
...
After some minor setbacks, they successfully arrived at Zou and regrouped mid-air with Zeraora and the others. This was because Setsuna held a Life Card belonging to Rei, and under Zeraora's acceleration, they just managed to catch up.
Within the Fluffy Kingdom, everything was ready. Even though they couldn't evoke starlight, the citizens had collectively collected the blooming flowers on Zou's back to decorate the outer walls.
For the sparsely populated Zou, an intra-tribal wedding was always a major event, especially since Setsuna held the special status of duke heir.
Even Hichugiskhan participated. Though he showed signs of aging, overall he was still the same, organizing Zou's open-air event.
Here, Zeraora and Setsuna wore nothing elaborate, just simple floral garlands, in keeping with Zou's tradition.
The children of the Hundred Beasts quickly immersed themselves in the atmosphere of Zou, where the Fur Race has always been very hospitable to recognized friends, especially since most of them were Zoan-type ability users.
In their Human-Beast Form, mammalian ability users like Yamato weren't much different from the Fur Race, and as part of the groom's family, Arceus did not join the celebration but quietly left when everyone else was celebrating.
Following Zou's internal path, Arceus crossed over the Whale Forest and reached a slightly elevated spot. This was outside the Fluffy Kingdom, but underfoot was the head of the Zou Elephant.
During the ceremony, he faintly heard that complaining voice again.
While unable to confirm in the sky, Arceus now completely confirmed the origin of the voice — it came from the Zou Elephant.
"Are you tired?"
"Of course... you can hear me?!"
The old voice carried a trace of surprise; its life was incredibly long, and even thousands of years ago, it had been carrying the Fluffy Kingdom across The Sea, all because of a mistake it made.
Due to that mistake, it was punished to carry the nation across The Sea and was not allowed to stop, except upon the order of another.
This order could be given by anyone, as long as that person could understand its words, and it could understand theirs. Such a person would have the authority to command it.
It did not dare hope for a command that would grant liberation, but at least with an order, it could move. Otherwise, even if attacked, it had no right to retaliate.
Previously, it had met such people, but those individuals could only understand random words and could not communicate with it.
In fact, the elephant was not speaking but emitting sound waves at a specific frequency. These sound waves set the barrier for responders it had been waiting for.
"If you're tired, then rest. The people of Zou are celebrating a wedding, and you've carried the Fluffy Kingdom for so many years; you deserve a chance to rest too."
"Re-really?"
On its forehead, the Zou Elephant's eye sockets glowed. Originally, its sockets were utterly dry, appearing hollow from a distance, but now within its sockets were exquisitely beautiful gem-colored pupils, a rare spectacular sight.
"Of course it's true."
"Are you commanding me to rest? Are you sure this is an order?"
The elephant's tone became excited; to it, the original rules were like a rigid program, so it eagerly hoped the subsequent command would align with the entire program.
"I order you to rest, but since there are people getting married on your back, celebrate for them as well."
"As you command..."
After a thousand years, the elephant's steps halted once more, and its kilometer-long trunk raised high.
"Moo~~!"
The elongated elephant trumpet echoed across the sky, even dispersing nearby clouds. The entire Fluffy Kingdom was enveloped by the Elephant Lord's call.
Anyone could hear the Elephant Lord's joy, and even if they were of a different species, they could feel the emotion emanating from the trumpet sound..