“Leia, are you ready?” a child’s bright voice sounded from behind the door.

“Y-yes, one moment, Klee!” Leia scrambled to shove her sandwich into her pink fluffy backpack.

It was her first day out with her new friend so she was both excited and extremely nervous. After all, Klee was her first friend since she arrived in Monstandt about a month ago, so she was determined to leave a good impression.

The excitement in Leia’s eyes dimmed a little as she recalled how her life has changed in the past month, since her older brother was declared as lost in battle in a domain exploration. For the past nine years, her older brother was the one who brought her up, living in a small village at the outskirts of Monstandt. Thank goodness the Knights of Favonius, the organization where her brother worked, took her in after her brother’s disappearance, otherwise she could never survive as a nine-year-old with no particular skills. She sighed and gathered her thoughts – she needed to get used to her new life in Monstandt and the first step was to make new friends, like the little girl waiting outside her house now.

She gave the house one final check – stove is off, no fire left out, lights are off too – before swinging open her front door to see the blonde little girl excitedly hopping about.

“You’re here!” the little girl dressed in red gushed as she ran over to Leia, giving her a big hug.

Leia froze in spot, not used to the over-friendly demeanour of her new friend. Her face flushed red as she timidly gave Klee a small pat on the back in return for the hug.

The ten-year-old didn’t seem to mind and giggled as she pulled on Leia’s arm, “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Leia ran behind the little girl in red, allowing the girl to pull her along.

Soon after, they reached the gate and were stopped by the guards.

“Klee, do you have permission to go out?” one of the guards sighed as he bent over to talk to the little girl in red.

“Yes, of course, Klee does!” Klee waved a piece of parchment around, almost flinging it into the guard’s face.

Leia stood quietly at the side – this was her first time leaving the city since she arrived a month ago, so she wasn’t sure of the procedures. Klee merely told her that they were going out of a picnic, so she packed some food and followed along.

The guard frowned as he grabbed the parchment out of Klee’s hands, “Well, it does say you’re allowed to leave, but only up till the little dandelion patch over there.” The guard pointed in a direction to the west of the gate.

“Yes, yes, Klee knows,” the little girl huffed as she folded her arms at her chest, “Klee is just bringing Leia to see the dandelions and have a picnic there.”

The guard nodded and handed the parchment back to Klee, “Don’t wander off, and be back before it gets dark,” he said.

“I know, I know,” Klee sounded exasperated as she kept the parchment into her brown backpack, “Don’t worry so much, uncle guard.”

Leia smiled to herself as she watched the interaction between the guard and her new friend – the care and concern the guard showed was genuine.

“Little miss,” the guard turned to face Leia, “Come back safely and don’t follow Klee into any mischief.”

Leia blinked, unsure of what the guard was referring too. She still obediently nodded, waving the guard goodbye as Klee grabbed her hand and started pulling her into a run again.

They only ran for a bit past a forest area before reaching a clearing.

“Wow!” Leia’s eyes widened at the sight before her, “Dandelions!”

Klee giggled, “Yes, that’s right, isn’t it pretty!”

Leia nodded, looking mesmerised at the sight of the field of dandelions before her. The dandelions were larger than any ones she had ever seen and they shone in light blue. She had never seen such beautiful dandelions before.

Klee pulled Leia to a patch in the middle of the field and laid out a picnic blanket. Her movements were so sure that it seemed like she had done this many times before.

Leia reached out to the dandelions with her hand. She thought they would easily spread out into the wind when she touched them, but oddly enough, the dandelions merely swayed with her touch.

“They don’t scatter?” Leia turned to ask Klee.

“Yup, you need to use Anemo to make it scatter,” Klee patted the picnic blanket down, “Once it scatters, you can collect the dandelion seeds, but Klee doesn’t have Anemo, so Klee can’t make it scatter.”

“Is…is that so?” Leia was surprised at the new information. She knew about the Gods and Visions, but it was really just a legend to her – only very special people were bestowed with visions and commoners like her would never really have the opportunity to meet someone with a vision. Brother did mention that some of the knights had visions, but it was only a very small, elite portion.

“If you want to see, Klee can make it go boom with boom-boom-bakudan, but there won’t be dandelion seeds left,” Klee offered an alternative to using Anemo vision.

“Um, no, it’s fine,” Leia moved to sit beside Klee. Leia wasn’t sure what boom-boom-bakudan meant, but it didn’t sound like a very safe idea.

“Let’s have some food,” Leia took out the sandwiches she packed.

“Wooow,” Klee’s eyes sparkled as she watched Leia unwrap the sandwiches, “You brought food!”

Leia nodded, a little embarrassed at the attention, “You said we were going to have a picnic, so I made some sandwiches… I’m not sure if they’re good though.”

“Klee thinks it looks good!” Klee reached out to take a sandwich, “I’m digging in!”

Leia smiled, happy that her friend seemed to enjoy her sandwiches.

“Klee only brought some candy,” the ten-year-old shook her backpack, a few pieces of candy falling out onto the picnic mat. “Usually Klee finds some food here, Klee has never thought to bring her own!”

“Oh, is that so?” Leia giggled, munching into a sandwich, “What kind of food do you find here?”

Leia wondered if there were wild fruit that could be eaten around here.

“Fishies, mostly fishies, and sometimes if there’s a boar, Klee gets yummy smoked meat,” Klee chattered excitedly.

“B-boar?” Leia asked, confused.

“Yes, but usually boars are further in the forest, there aren’t boars so near to the city,” Klee nodded, her eyes glittering, thinking about boar meat.

“I…see?” Leia slowly nodded. She wasn’t sure how Klee could obtain boar meat from a live wild boar, but maybe Klee usually comes for picnics with some of the knights?

“Right, right, Leia, tell me about life outside the city! Klee has only ever lived in the city, and Master Jean always stops Klee from leaving, so Klee is really curious!” Klee abruptly changed the topic as her thoughts wandered from place to place.

“Oh,” Leia fidgeted nervously, “I…I don’t think there’s really anything interesting about life outside the city. I used to live with my brother in a small village near Dawn Winery… brother was one of the knights so he would often go on missions to subdue the hilichurls around the village and I would stay at home to take care of the house. I also planted some radishes and carrots, and we would exchange them for items with the other villagers or the people in Dawn Winery…”

“Wow, that sounds very different from living in the city!” Klee said, “Sounds like you could go anywhere you wanted and do anything! Klee is always stopped by Master Jean and brother Albedo, so Klee never gets to do the things she wants to do.”

“Well…” Leia nodded, “Brother never really restricted me in going anywhere, but it was dangerous further out from the village so I never really ventured out unless brother was with me.”

Klee pouted, “It’s the same for Klee too! Master Jean says Klee can only leave the city if brother Albedo was with Klee, but brother is aaaalways busy,” the ten-year-old scrunched up her nose unhappily.

“What do you want to do that you’re not allowed to?” Leia wondered. She was always an obedient child who listened well to the elders in the village, so she was curious about what went on in Klee’s head.

“Well, well, Klee wants to, uh, play with the fishies,” Klee nodded to herself, “And Klee wants to play by the pond in the forest, and find some food with brother Razor too.”

“Fishies!” Leia’s eyes shone at the thought of fish. Her brother used to bring her out to fish whenever he had an off day and they would build a small campfire to cook the fish. Maybe she could go fishing one day with Klee, when they had permission to go a little further.

“Yes, does Leia like fishies?” Klee grinned.

“Yup, I used to catch fishes with my brother,” Leia nodded, “I miss eating the fish brother would make for me…”

“Let’s go, then!” Klee stood up excitedly, “Let’s cook some fishies and then it’s like your brother is here with you, right?”

Leia blinked, looking up at Klee, “B-but we aren’t allowed to go further out…”

“It’s fine!” Klee pulled Leia up, “I’ve been there a thousand times, we just need to be careful so that Master Jean doesn’t find out!”

Leia nodded hesitantly, unsure about the plan but Klee looked mightily confident.

Klee’s eyes shone mischievously the moment Leia agreed, pulling her new friend after her further into the woods.

“Our picnic blanket!” Leia was flustered by the sudden movement.

“It’s fine, let’s go!!” Klee laughed aloud as she sped up.

Dadada~