The following day, Aion found himself still in this cold world. With no other choice, he moved along, accepting that this dream would last a while longer. Descending the steps to the lower floor, he found that Luna was already here, sitting at the dining table. In the kitchen—which was a few meters away from the dining table—a girl with long black hair was cooking something. Aion couldn't identify the dish by smell, which he found to be pretty pathetic.
"Good morning!" Luna greeted him with a beaming smile as she gestured for him to sit down.
"Morning," Aion said with a yawn. "What are you doing here?"
"Is it so wrong to eat with a friend?"
"Uh…" Aion let out a noise of hesitation as he thought about it, unsure of what to say.
"See? So it's perfectly normal!"
"Okay then…" Aion said.
He didn't have the energy to argue with her. Perhaps it was because he had done far more than usual yesterday; he was feeling the effects now.
"So, how was your room?" Luna asked.
"Fine, I guess. I don't really have anything to complain about."
"That's good, that's good indeed~"
Aion looked over at Luna as she hummed happily. Soon, the girl from the kitchen walked over to the table with two dishes in hand and placed them gently on the wooden table.
"What would you like to drink, sir?" The girl asked.
Aion turned toward her and scrunched his eyebrows. Her face was identical to Aria's. In fact, everything about them was identical except for the hair. This girl's hair seemed longer than Aria's and her bangs covered most of her eyes, making them barely visible. From a distance, Aion imagined, her eyes were probably impossible to see.
Actually, there was one other difference; it just wasn't a physical difference. The girl's face looked down, missing the cheerfulness of Aria, which created a melancholic vibe that flowed from her.
"Is something the matter?" The girl asked, her expression unchanging.
"No, I just thought you bore a striking resemblance to Aria," Aion answered honestly.
"Ah…" The girl let out a small noise of surprise while remaining with her unchanged expression. "Aria… She's my, uh, older sister…"
The girl's eyes averted as she spoke, speaking with far less eloquence than before.
"She's not just your older sister, she's your twin. Shouldn't you say that?" Luna asked as she was already halfway done with her meal.
"Yes…but she's more like an older sister…"
Aion looked at the scene with a tiny bit of interest before asking, "So, what's your name?"
"Ah…" The girl looked even more downcast. "I apologize for my rudeness sir…I'm Aira Liana, maid of the Magnatium Household, and I have been assigned with your care during your stay."
Aion smiled and said, "No need to apologize. It's a pleasure to meet you Aira, you can drop the formalities and call me Aion. I look forward to your support."
Luna started choking.
"Ah…" Aira turned and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water for Luna.
Luna seized the glass quickly and began drinking swiftly.
With a few more coughs, Luna said, "I'm sorry about that. It just went down the wrong pipe."
Aion's eyes flickered with some interest at the fact that they had that saying in this place.
"There's no need to apologize, Luna. It's my fault for not getting you your drink first."
Luna frowned and took another drink of water.
"To answer your question from earlier, I would like a glass of water," Aion said as he turned his attention to the dish before him.
A couple of pancakes with some sausage links were in front of him.
"So, what do you want to do after this?" Luna asked.
"Hm?" Aion looked up as he was chewing.
Aira placed the glass of water next to Aion's plate and backed off silently to watch.
"What's with the surprised reaction?"
Swallowing, Aion said, "I didn't think we were going to be doing anything. Plus, it's not like I know what's done for fun in this town."
Luna looked a tad bit disappointed at his remark before saying, "Well, I guess we could always play cards."
"Cards?"
"Hm? Something weird about that?"
"I didn't think cards would be in a place like this."
"What kind of impression do you have of this place?"
"...No comment…"
Luna looked flabbergasted before continuing, "We can have Aira join us as well as a few others!"
Aira looked surprised. Even though Aion hadn't known her for long, seeing a look of surprise on her face seemed surprising.
"You…want me to join…?" Aira asked slowly.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
"But Luna—"
"Don't go making excuses! You're joining us and that's final!"
Aira simply nodded in response. It seemed like she was forced into it rather than willingly accepting though.
"Aren't you forcing her into it?" Aion said before taking a drink of water.
"I am?" Luna asked wholeheartedly.
"Yes."
"..."
"You literally said 'you're joining us and that's final!'" Aion said, mimicking Luna's voice poorly.
"That wasn't exactly what I meant…I was just trying to prevent her from creating an excuse to put herself down…"
"It's okay," Aira began speaking. "Sir, you need not worry about me."
"I thought I told you to call me Aion…"
"I wouldn't dare to do so, sir."
"You call Luna by her name."
"Luna and I…have a special relationship…"
"Is that so?" Aion asked vaguely before turning to gauge Luna's reaction.
To his surprise, Luna didn't look thrilled at all. In fact, she looked rather serious about the whole thing.
"I doubt there's any convincing Aira," Luna said passively.
"What do you mean?"
"The amount of people she calls by name is few as far as I'm aware. So I doubt someone she just met could change her mind on that."
"A few, huh?" Aion mused.
Luna was the obvious first since he'd witnessed it firsthand. Venturing into the next possibility, the most likely was Aria. And then after that was unknown. Aion shook the train of thought off. There wasn't much point in thinking about something as trivial as who Aira addresses by name.
"It is merely the courtesy I must perform as a representative of the Magnatium Household."
Aria calls people by their first name rather easily… Aion thought.
Of course, Aria could simply be a slacker. Since this dream reflected a novel from his past, it wouldn't be an insane leap to say that the characters all had their own archetypes. And in Aria's case, she was likely the sociable but inferior maid while her twin was the unsociable and superior maid. What need did that perform for the narrative of the novel? Aion couldn't say. Perhaps one of them could be murdered in a fit of envy toward the other? It was a rather classic tale.
His one qualm with such a thing was rather simple: the plot would be predictable. For something hailed so greatly as a return to form, he doubted the crime had such a simple solution for its motive. Of course, if the actual complexity of the case was extraordinarily high, then the motive may not have been as essential. In the end, he wasn't really sure. There was no way of knowing until the event took place—only then could he understand the brilliance of Crystal Machinations.
"—Aion!" Luna's voice cut through his thoughts.
"Huh?" Aion, having been caught in the middle of thinking, let out a surprised noise.
"I've been trying to talk with you for a bit now, and you've just been off in your head thinking about who knows what."
"Oh, sorry about that."
"Anyway, as I was saying, we should get going and find Samuel, Esme, and Alphonse."
The three names sent flashes of vague memories through Aion's mind; culminating in the sense of discomfort at the idea of meeting more characters. It truly felt like every moment he spent in this dream it only reflected Crystal Machinations more and more.
"Something the matter?" Luna asked, concerned.
"No, I was just hit with another wave of déjà vu," Aion replied.
"Hm~" Luna made a noise as she turned her attention toward Aira and said, "Could you invite Aria?"
Aira stared silently for a second or two before saying, "I will try my best."
Then, without further delay, she walked toward the door and exited.
"Well, we should get going too," Luna said as she rose from her seat.
Aion obliged and rose from his seat as well, picking up the dishes and placing them in the sink. Luna, who had snuck up on Aion, placed her dishes in the sink and turned on the water.
"What happened to going?"
"You reminded me of the dishes, so I thought we could do them as repayment for Aira."
Aion found a towel to dry the dishes with, and the two began to quickly go through them; a silence had befallen them. However, Aion didn't find this silence to be bad. It reminded him of the silent spouts that he would have with his family.
"Um…" Luna broke the silence nervously before asking, "You mentioned this thing about higher education and it being learning, what exactly were you learning?"
"...I was specifically learning—" Aion was going to answer but he found he was drawing a blank.
What had he been majoring in again? Inside his head, only a blank white void existed as he tried to extract the information.
"Um…it appears I can't remember the main thing I was studying…" Aion admitted with a look of embarrassment.
"That's…bad…" Luna said slowly.
"It appears my difficulty remembering things extends much deeper than I thought it would…"
"Well, what can you remember about college?"
Aion's mouth fell open a tiny bit before he shut it tightly.
"It wasn't really all that worth mentioning," Aion answered curtly.
"Oh? I see…" Luna said. "Well, you just have me interested in the outside world, so I…"
Luna trailed off as her hands froze under the running water.
"I guess it doesn't matter too much, your memories are a mess right now so we shouldn't push it," Luna gave a smile toward Aion's direction.
"Probably for the best," Aion agreed readily.
Casting a momentary glance at Aion, Luna then resumed her washing. With only the sound of water and the occasional clinking of dishes, the two finished in silence.
* * *
Exiting the building, Aion felt the cold air hit him immediately. Even with the thick winter clothing he was wearing—a winter coat lined with what he presumed to be some sort of fur, gloves that were a few centimeters thick, a plain black scarf wrapped thoroughly around his neck, a warm wool hat, some thick pants, and some winter boots—he still found himself cold.
Luna looked to be wearing the same outfit as yesterday for outdoors.
"Hm? Something the matter?" Luna asked.
"Nothing," Aion said.
It wasn't all that strange. Aside from his pants, everything else, like his gloves, coat, boots, and hat, was all reused by him constantly. Perhaps because it was some remote village he had assumed things would be different, or merely the fact that it was a fictional world unbound by the laws of the real world. Of course, there are plenty of works he's read or watched where the characters always wear the same outfits, and they especially never change their hairstyles.
Shaking off the trivial thought, he began to walk with Luna, taking in the surroundings more closely than yesterday. He was calmer at this point. The internal panic that he had tried suppressing had pretty much died out at this point. And now, he was freely able to take in everything around him.
The road he was on had been shoveled quite well, making the pathing visible. Strangely enough, this path hadn't been shoveled when he showed up yesterday. Presumably the town doesn't use this area and hadn't kept up with the upkeep beyond building maintenance.
Soon enough, they found themselves at the town square. People were busily prepping for the festival, making Aion and Luna stand out in contrast to those around them. Luna quickly scanned the surroundings and spotted two familiar faces.
"Luna, thanks for inviting me, I really appreciate it," Aria had walked up quickly with a beaming smile.
Seeing them side by side, Aion was struck with how similar they looked. Aria and Aira were the same height, had the same hair color, eye color, facial structure, and so on. However, they were still quite easy to tell apart. While Aria had been smiling brilliantly, Aira was still downcast, failing to even make eye contact. Another notable difference was their clothing. Aria wore much more fashionable clothing (according to Aion), while Aira wore more plain clothing.
"It's no problem, really!" Luna replied with a smile.
"But um…I, or we, can't join unfortunately. We've been tasked with setting up the Magnatium Manor, which was issued by Alphonse."
Luna looked a bit disappointed, but she nodded in understanding and said, "I understand."
"We should be free the day before the festival, along with Alphonse and Samuel."
"Samuel's busy too?"
"Yeah, he's been leading the primary festival preparations as the representative of our generation."
Luna looked surprised. Which was weird. One would think that Luna being friends with Samuel would mean she'd be aware of something as important as that. But no, she wasn't aware.
"Good for him!" Luna said cheerfully.
"Thanks for being so understanding. We should get going now! Also, Aion," Aria turned toward Aion. "Aira will be back at your residence later this evening."
Aion nodded, refusing to speak.
And then, the two headed off toward the northern part of Magna, where the Magnatium Manor was.
Luna stared at their figures walking away in silence.
"So what now?" Aion asked.
Luna took a second before saying, "Well, I just remembered I got to go do something, so bye!"
Luna then rushed off with that arbitrary lie. Most likely she had fled because she was disappointed from the resulting failure of hers. Now, Aion was left alone as a result in a place that he had zero interest in. Sighing, Aion decided that he may as well explore Magna since he had nothing better to do with his time. Now he wished he brought one of the novels from the shed.
* * *
The town was certainly unique. The shape, he had initially presumed, was a circle to the south of the mountain range up north. On the southern side of the town, it had been curving much like a circle. That was until the northern part was suddenly stilted by a horizontal barrier that was shaped into these strange wave-like lines that didn't seem to have any repetition with its waves. Furthermore, eventually that horizontal area jutted northward toward the noble part of Magna. Only a few manors were up in that section, with the largest and most prominent being the Magnatium Manor. And then, once more, it sharply turns.
An easier way to visualize this would be to imagine a semi-circle on the southern portion of Magna, and then on the diameter imagine a sporadic wave-like structure until a bit outside of the center. There, a portion of land juts out that has the same wave-like structure on its left and right, but at the top it has the same circular shape. This wave-like structure at the diameter existed on both the east and west side of the town.
The point is, Aion found it odd considering two facts: one, no mention of this from the bit of Crystal Machinations he'd read, and two, why was one half of the town circular—along with a small portion at the top—and the rest just unused land? In fact, Magna went as far as blocking it off with fencing despite the southern region having no fencing.
Another noteworthy thing was the buildings in the northern half of Magna were much newer than the buildings in the rest of town. If he had to guess, Aion would say that Magna's infrastructure was 70s and 80s, while the manors up north were 2000s and 2010s. Perhaps because they were noble, that would explain it. However, ignoring that, another issue arose: how was the infrastructure much like the infrastructure of the outside world? Perhaps Alexander and his previous position holders decided to do that, but still, training, knowledge, and skill are needed to actually build them.
Of course, there was an easy explanation: Aion was in a dream, a dream based on a random novel. Thus, the author could've been lazy or his consciousness was simply filling in the gaps.
So ultimately, this was a waste of time. Aion knew that. He always knew that.
Soon, he found himself just standing near the place he had spent the night, thinking of what he could possibly have to do now. It was troubling. This week was certainly going to test his patience.