769
On the coast of the Eastern Continent.
Alger boarded the Future on time and found that the Hermit, Cattleya, was already seated. The Sun, Derrick, followed right behind him, carefully making his way up the Starlight Bridge.
Yet the World, Gehrman, who had proposed this little meeting, was nowhere to be seen, nor was he among the banquet crowd.
"Hello, Ma'am Hermit!" Derrick greeted her as soon as he came aboard, looking a little reserved. Although he had seen her many times at the Tarot Club, he had spent far more time with Mr. Hanged Man than with the serious, somewhat unfamiliar Hermit.
"Hello, Sun."
Cattleya smiled and adjusted her glasses. "Welcome aboard the Future. The same goes for you, Mr. Hanged Man."
Once the greetings were over, the ship's various fixtures and equipment caught Derrick's eye. He looked at the sails, capstan, and gunwales with a gaze that said, "I really want to touch those," and "I really want a closer look."
"Long time no see."
Alger nodded, his eyes searching for other machinery, but finding little. "Has the World not arrived yet?"
"Not yet."
What was this Blessed up to now?
Just as Alger was speculating aimlessly about where the World might have gone, Cattleya spoke:
"Mr. Gehrman hasn't arrived yet. Would you two like to wait together in my captain's cabin, or shall we simply exchange a few words here?"
The banquet had not yet ended, so no crew members were moving about on deck, and few people noticed the three of them meeting there. Alger had intended to exchange a few polite words and finish their conversation on deck, but he was genuinely curious about how many more miraculous technologies like that enormous metal man the Future concealed. As a captain, wanting a better, safer