It was almost noon. The sun was smiling from above and its rays looked like they were dancing through the leaves.

The forest was hiding a small dock by the river, made for the steam peddler to pick up some passengers on its way to the south.

As the boys didn't take the luggage in the end, they were left with some extra spare change after paying only for the most basic tickets.

This meant they would not get a room and were supposed to hang around the deck, but it didn't matter much, as it was a beautiful day and not such a long ride anyway.

Besides, not like Label would be sitting in a room quietly.

Shortly after, the vessel arrived and the boys were taking in all of its glory. A riverboat, quite large for its type, it featured three decks; the lowest for the engine room and the boat crew, the middle for the second class and luggage, and finally the up-most luxury deck for the wealthy. 

“All aboard!” the passengers were let on after a small inspection of luggage and tickets, thus the boys went up to their second class deck.

“Whoa!” Label was mesmerized by the huge paddles rotating, while Anciel was checking out an old map he acquired in the village.

“The 'steam peddler' is, as her name suggests, a boat powered by an engine invented in the far Vapeur Republic to the southeast, as seen on your map here.”

A man appeared behind them, pointing at the boy’s map.

“The engine itself was discovered by none other than the famous Nixx Smythe, my grandfather (I'm proud to say), back in 4940. Exactly fifty years ago, so to speak.”

“Ehh... What are you talking about?” Label was confused.

 “Excuse me but, who are you?” Anciel didn't react well to strangers.

“Oh, my sincerest apologies, my name is Noix,” said the tall man with a light blue straight spiky slick back hair, probably about ten years older than the boys, as he bowed a bit.

He was clad in a long blue strangely decorated coat and wore black fingerless gloves as well as shades with dark blue glass, behind which were two yellow eyes.

All very unusual, but that was not the end of it. On his upper arm strapped a device that piqued Anciel's interest.

“Oh, this? It's a 'clock'. It doesn't surprise me you haven't heard of it. It is my own creation, one of many I intend to sprout into existence.”

“Pfft...ahahahaha!” Label couldn't contain himself, “You talk so funny.”

The man's brows came together as he scowled; “How rude...”. He fixed his collar.

“Excuse my friend, he spent his whole life in a village. My name is Anciel,” he put out his hand and the man accepted. “Could you tell me more about that 'clock'?”

“Oh yes, a fine accessory indeed. It shows time, to put it bluntly, but the mechanism behind it is extraordinaire,” Noix continued about his invention, happy to have found someone with interest;

“It is in fact in its early stages and far yet from mass production, but I thought first of showing it to various people to observe how they react and conclude if it's worth the effort.

Au contraire, it works fine for me, alas I cannot agree to meet someone with precision if that someone is lacking in the time department.”

“I see,” the boy admitted still somewhat not sure how it all works and why.

“Oh alright, I will do my best to try and simplify. See these? I call them 'clock hands'. They point in the direction of numbers, telling us the exact time of the day,” the man pointed at the device and then the sun.

“Nice... but, why is it on your upper arm? Doesn't that make it hard to look at?” Label put hands on his nape, slightly interested now.

“Why? Why? Why?... An abundance of questions, yet a scarcity of answers. And where would you suggest I put it? Around my neck? Under my sleeves? Inside my pockets?” he gestured, “The idea is to approach people to ask them what the time is.

It will not only enable people to agree on meeting when and where more easily, but will open new opportunities to socialize as well,” Noix finished explaining, dramatically spreading his arms.

“So what's the time?” Anciel inquired.

“How could I know? Only you can read it from your side! Ah, you know what? Forget it..” he got upset because he wasn't understood. “I should have known better than to ask some random villagers,” he fixed his glasses and walked away still talking to himself.

“Well, I guess there's a lot of weird people out there,” Label concluded.

“Yeah, don't worry about it too much.”

The boys enjoyed the ride, watching all kinds of different flora passing by as the boat floated slowly downstream.

“How about we show each other the rest of the tricks we can do?” the blue-eyed boy was impatient to show off.

“No. We'll do that when we are alone, also don't talk about it too loud when in public,” the dark-haired boy was cautious.

They checked their belongings; there was a survival knife, two bottles of fresh water, and around two hundred silver coins along with some gold ones.

“Wow! Where did we get these from? Didn't Inala give us about seventy?” Label's eyes were big.

“I got us the rest way back. As compensation for the fishing equipment,” Anciel wasn't too proud anymore but still kept them around.

“Nice. We should definitely buy a new one when we get to Wassrrr.... Washure.. Wezzzzz—”

“Wasserstadt.”

“Yeah. There,” Label accepted quickly.

“Hahahahha,” the green-eyed boy was holding his belly.