At the station, Wendy sat sulking on a step, looking down at the lobby below.
"Hmph~" The girl felt Landen sit down beside her and turned her face away. "Go on, get lost. Go find Honnier Gallop, or some noblewoman. I'm annoyed right now..."
"Oh? Who got you all riled up?" The man put an arm around the girl's shoulders.
The girl rolled her shoulder, making a token effort to shrug him off. When she failed, she said, "Now you know to come over and sweet-talk me? Why'd you bring that wolf over to stir things up tonight? We might as well let the beasts run the banquets from now on..."
At the station, Wendy was only a girl who had just come of age, while Landen was in his thirties. There was quite an age gap between them. Grinning, Landen stroked Wendy's head and quietly listened to her vent.
The girl went on for quite a while before resting her head against the man's shoulder. Neither of them spoke again. They simply watched the lobby below in silence.
After a long while, Landen said quietly, "What do you think? Should we renovate this place a bit? Add a swimming pool or something, maybe a movie theater. Or how about turning it into a water park? We could even make it a huge glass greenhouse. With cats and dogs and mermaids running around here in the future, it'd give them plenty of space..."
Landen talked for quite a while but got no response from Wendy. When he turned his head, he heard only the girl's steady breathing.
"Never mind. We'll leave it as it is for now."
Behind Landen, Lily and Redbird watched his back and chatted cheerfully. Beside them, Sophia had drunk too much and was already lying in