Their first destination, the kingdom where Ars usually got his donuts. While she was in Ars' arms Risa started to wake up, so Ars moved her to his back carefully.
At first she was a bit lost… She knew her father had woken her up, but was still half asleep and until now she didn't remember that today, she was going to spend the whole day with her dad. But now flying through the skies, feeling the wind and the clouds in her face, she started to giggle and hugged Ars back happily, remembering his previous promise.
While they were flying Risa started to look around, looking at the small islands in the middle of the sea, at the birds flying not too far away, she happily started moving around on Ars' back. Because of this he had to slow down, to make sure she didn't fall. But he didn't mind, he liked that she was having fun.
Shortly after they arrived at the kingdom where they were going to eat breakfast, she looked at Ars and asked full of curiosity.
"What are we gonna do here?"
Ars smiled at her sweetly and picked her back up into his arms, before replying calmly.
"Breakfast!"
Her eyes widened, she had been so excited about flying for the first time, that she forgot she hadn't eaten breakfast. She looked around and asked.
"Where is breakfast?"
Ars pointed at the donut store. And Risa's eyes shone, before confirming it.
"We are having donuts for breakfast?"
Ars nodded.
Risa raised her arms in the air like she won the biggest victory of her life and was looking like she was almost drooling. Normally breakfast was a large meal with only some fruits as dessert, it was her first time having any type of sweets for breakfast.
Ars smiled and added.
"And milk to help it go down…"
She raised her head to look at Ars eyes. She smiled like a new door opened in heaven just for her.
Back home there was milk but it was something that they didn't drink often, mainly because it took a while to arrive. Even with proper care, sometimes the milk got spoiled, and while there were some sweets, they were also fairly uncommon.
So having both, together was a complete novelty for her.
She started pulling his shirt and pointing towards the store. She was constantly looking between Ars and the store, like the store was going to run, and kept repeating herself.
"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Faster!"
Ars could only smile and carry her towards the store.
When they entered, the clerk instantly recognized Ars, while he wasn't an everyday customer, considering he helped save the kingdom and came here to get donuts from time to time, she had an easy time remembering him, she quickly attended them.
"It's a pleasure to have you back, what are your orders today?"
Ars smiled at her and ordered.
"I would like 6 donuts and 2 cups of milk."
She nodded and left to prepare them
She quickly came back and put it in front of me and was surprised when she saw me take 2 donuts, a cup of milk and put them in front of Risa.
She didn't even realize I wasn't alone until now, she quickly bowed and apologized blushing.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you had company!"
She looked at Risa and asked her cautiously.
"Can you forgive me sweetheart?"
Risa nodded, at this moment she didn't care about anything but the food. Ars laughed and the clerk looked at Ars and inquired about the little girl.
"Your little sister?"
Ars shook his head, he knew where the question was coming from, he was 18 and the girl was 5 so normally, it would be unlikely that they were father and daughter. He smiled mischievously and replied.
"She is my oldest daughter."
The clerk's eyes went wide and started changing looks between Ars and Risa, then she started to point at them and tried to say something concrete but failed. Murmuring just a few words
"Dau… Dis Ld…"
Then she took a deep breath and inquired.
"Are you older than you look? Or maybe she is younger than she looks?"
Ars smiled and replied calmly.
"I'm 18 and she is 5!"
Ars kept eating while the clerk was trying to solve an impossible problem in her mind. He was amused by her reaction so he kept observing the clerk while they ate.
Risa looked at the clerk, who clearly looked a bit shocked and then at Ars.
"What is wrong with the nice donut lady?"
Ars raised both arms, in a way that screamed who knows, but replied.
"She must be thinking of glazed holes!"
Ars paid the blushing clerk, and he started taking Risa to their next destination, in this case, west blue, where he would confirm Capone Bege location before peacefully going to collect his sample.
They took longer than expected to arrive on west blue, because they stopped to check a few islands on the way there. There were a few different cultures they found because of Risa's curiosity towards all islands, every time they got too close to one she asked to stop to explore for a little while.
When they finally arrived on west blue, Ars sought an information broker, and confirmed Capone Bege location, once done they went to lunch.
They tried a local speciality, a rare type of crab that lived around here, it was pretty tasty, and Ars even wanted to buy a few crabs, but they were too uncommon according to the server who explained it to him.
"No one except the kingdom responsible for the island can sell those to people from outside, the only exception is selling them as food. Simply put, the kingdom wants a monopoly over the crabs and won't risk losing it by selling live specimens."
Ars sighed he understood the logic behind the decision, then he paid for the food and left to find his prey. He found the man in a restaurant drinking red wine and eating lobster.
Ars looked at him and approached, but before he got too close he got stopped by some of Capone's men.
"Keep your distance!"
Ars sighed and looked at Capone Bege. Then he declared.
"I came here to get a blood sample from Capone Bege! You can give it to me willingly and peacefully, or unwilling and peacefully!"
The men were confused, how could unwillingly, be peaceful, one of them decided to ask.
"I can't imagine how it can be peaceful if they are unwilling… So how would you do that!?"
Ars looked confused, but then it clicked and he clarified.
"Well if he is unwilling, I will beat the crap out of him and then peacefully take my sample!"
Capone Bege laughed and then ordered his men.
"Kill this idiot!"
Ars sighed, and said relaxedly.
"Ok, the unwilling route we go!"
Ars used soru and instantly got in their faces, then he proceeded to demonstrate what he meant, in actions.
In less than 20 seconds everyone was either unconscious or on the floor in a lot of pain.
He got to Capone Bege and the man even in pain tried to attack, Ars dodged then took a butter knife, and used it to make a cut on Capone Bege arm.
He got his sample and prepared to leave. Risa had always been in his arms from the moment he entered to the moment he exited, so when he was done she asked.
"Are we done for today? I haven't trained yet!"
Ars was surprised, he thought with all the fun and new places, she would forget to train for today, but she remembered.
Ars thought about it and decided to make a new training just for today. So he said calmly.
"Today we will train something different! In a fight you need one thing especially! Do you know what it is?"
She thought about it and replied confidently.
"Strength!"
He smiled and patted her head but shook his head, before replying.
"Wrong, it's courage! Without it you won't be able to keep fighting if the enemy is strong enough, because you will close your eyes or be constantly on the defensive… You can't keep fighting properly when things look grim. If you don't have the courage, you will mostly lose, of course it's possible to win a fight with strength alone, but against someone with technique or strength on your level, you will most likely lose if you don't have the courage. Always remember this, in a fight, the moment you close your eyes because of fear, it's the moment that you lost the fight."
She thought about it and kinda understood…. That you couldn't close your eyes during a fight… Ars on the other hand was thinking.
'I will be glad if she even understands one thing…'
Ars looked at the sky and quickly said.
"It's time to go!"
He quickly moved with Risa to a deserted area, transformed and took flight.
He wanted to get a Blueno sample too… But if he went to get it, by the time they arrived home, it would be way past Risa's bed time. Because priorities.
He already knew there were gonna be a few islands where they would stop to explore for a little while.
Everything went well until they found a lost baby whale. The moment they did, Risa instantly decided to keep it because how adorable it looked, she looked at Ars and very excitedly asked.
"Can we keep it? Please, I will take care of it! Pretty, pretty please!"
Ars was shocked… He realized something… There was definitely something wrong with his view of the world… Some people had puppies… Some had kittens… Some small goldfishes or birds… But he never thought about getting one whale as a pet, he looked at it and instantly nodded… If his view of the world was strange then screw it. He would do what he pleased anyway.
Risa was also playing dirty, and making puppy eyes.
Ars thought about it, deeply… Or not and had decided that it was fine. It was just a whale, he was now more curious about what happened to this little whale mother. He showed a bit of a conflicted expression but finally said.
"We should be able to keep it, if we can't find its mother. But you need to play with it, and keep it active, so it doesn't feel lonely!"
She nodded excitedly. Ars was thinking that while taking care of the whale Risa would definitely develop stamina, just by being happy, a win-win situation.
Now the hard part was gonna be explaining this to the queens… Maybe with some luck, they would also like the whale as a cute pet and wouldn't be angry with him… Too angry… The perfect scenario was that, not only did they like the whale a lot, they would forget the fact that he had taken Risa without warning them.
Ars put the whale on his back by Risa's side, and took flight once more, this time without more stops, it didn't take long to arrive home.
Waiting for him was Bell-mere, with a very serious expression. The moment he approached her with a baby whale and a very happy and excited Risa, she sighed and pointed at the whale, before asking.
"Why in any shape or form did you decide to bring back a baby whale!?"
Ars smiled and declared confidently, trying to hide his nervousness.
"It was her! I mean, because it's cute and Risa wanted it as a pet!"
She sighed and was going to complain, but Risa came to the rescue.
"We can't keep it? But it is lonely, tiny and so cute!"
Risa used the puppipe eyes and Bell-mere instantly gave in, it was done, no use complaining now…
Ars thought about that description and couldn't help but think a bit shocked.
'Tinny!?'
Compared to adult ones, yeah it was tinny… But it probably was already in the 100 Kilos… And it was also bigger than Risa. So Risa calling it tiny felt weird.
Risa showed a radiant smile, and Bell-mere looked at Ars who commented.
"Those puppy eyes… Cause instant defeat, no way to fight back… Besides after thinking for a while, having a sea creature as a pet kinda makes sense in a world covered in mostly water."
She nodded and asked him.
"You too!?"
Ars nodded, and Bell-mere added.
"At some point we're gonna have to learn to say no to those eyes… And when your pet can grow to that size I'm not sure if it's a pet or something else… Maybe a friend…"
Ars nodded and added.
"In my case, not just from the children… But I wonder if it's natural or if she saw it somewhere. And a friend is also good."
Bell-mere blushed and realized he was talking about them, the queens who from time to time would use that exact same expression to get what they wanted.
Then Bell-Mere looked at Risa and said.
"Let's get your new friend to the sea near the ships, and you can go there everyday to play with it in the future."
Risa nodded, and they quickly moved towards the docks where the little whale started happily swimming around.
Tom looked at me like Ars was going insane. Then he just decided to ignore it.
Now it was time to go home for dinner… And probably get scolded too…
They entered, but unlike what he expected, they didn't start scolding him instantly, instead they all surrounded Risa to ask her what happened today on their trip.