Upon arriving at the island, the first people to greet us at the dock were once again Anna and Nelly, only this time with Nelly carrying the tiny baby Cene in her arms. Witnessing the pleasant sight of Anna getting along so well with the kids sort of gave me a sneak peek into our future as well. A daughter and a son, I'd like that. However, well, I really don't mind either one. The only thing I'd like to make a point of is to set the cap at 2. Any more and I don't think we'll be able to handle it, after all.

"That was quick." Anna commented, "How'd it go? He didn't chase you out, did he?"

Referring to the King whose anniversary we had happened to barge into that day, she was worried he might not have agreed to our demands. Obviously, though he was a bit ticked off after we interrupted his and the Queen's playtime, there really weren't any issues to be worried about.

"No no, everything went swimmingly." Cecily explained, "Actually, he gave us more than we could ever ask for. It was kind of shocking in it's own way."

"Can you believe it? The dude just nonchalantly gave us 50k troops!" I excitedly told her.

"That's fifty thousand men that will have to be separated from their families..." Anna put the number into perspective, "How sad..."

"Whoa now, don't put it like that. Because if you do, then we'll end up the bad guys!" I explained, "Look, would you rather Cecily and I returned to Entropa empty handed? To fight alone and lower our chances of survival?"

She didn't at all like how selfish I was being to the "poor Cardina soldiers" as she put it, but there was never really any other way. They're already enlisted, so is it not their job and mission to one day be sent out to war? Unlike our soldiers, who all hail from peaceful parts of the country and basically had to learn from scratch how to hold a gun instead of a hoe, these guys had years of training under their belt prior to getting drafted by the King!

"Mom, I made sure to take really good care of Cene!" Nelly suddenly piped up, "He's been super well-behaved too! He doesn't at all cry when I hold him or play with him."

"Sigh, that may be..." Anna donned a bit of a dejected expression, "But the moment these two are separated, he starts wailing uncontrollably. It's actually kind of impressive."

"Really?" I asked, obviously not believing her claims.

To my query, she replied by taking Cene from Nelly's embrace. Just like she said, the baby started crying uncontrollably upon being separated from his dear sister. Cute, but I can imagine how bothersome this might have gotten for Anna and the others. Even still, Cecily thought of something.

"Maybe Nelly reminds him of me?" She thought aloud as she slowly took Cene from Anna.

"Bwah! Wahh!" He continued crying even louder this time.

"Huh? What? Come on, it's me, mommy! Everything's fine now, see?" She tried desperately to cradle him in her arms, "Oh, come on! Is this what they call your rebellious phase?!"

"I'm pretty sure that's only for teenagers..." I replied, softly petting the crying Cene on the forehead, "Oh look, he's calming down."

Slowly but surely, he got tired from all the aggressive crying he was doing, so he finally decided to conk out on his mother's bosom. It was kind of cute, but to think that he'd get so rowdy in just the little time he was separated from Cecily. Well, whilst it's nothing but expected, I still feel like this might be problematic later down the line.

"This is basically how our days have gone by." A more mature voice snuck up behind us, "Hey guys, welcome back."

"Miss Harper!" I smiled, "Have the kids been causing you any trouble?"

"It's nothing when compared to what you two are going through." She noted mine and Cecily's predicament, "So from what I've heard, you two have gotten quite the lucky break when it comes to the King's negotiations. Y'know, the door's still open if you wanna stay here."

Huh? Stay here? As in, she's suggesting we don't return to the war and instead just lay low until Meil and the others finish this? Not a chance in hell we'll do that! Cecily too, I wanted her to stay back for the longest time now, but she's convinced me time and time again that she'll stop at nothing to kill that pesky King and Vivia...!

"Yeah, that might actually be a good idea." Cecily sighed resignedly.

"Eh?" I turned to her in a hurry, "Am I hearing things right? Didn't you say...?"

"Ed, I think Harper's right." She turned to me, "We've practically all but guaranteed our side's victory with this deal, and I'm sure with the plan you came up with regarding Sulfury's troops, those chances will only get more safe."

"Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now?" I chuckled in disbelief, "Cecily, those pricks killed Grim! What the hell happened to that side of you that was so adamant about putting Vivia's head on a stick!?"

"Ed please." She looked at me with honest Eyes, "I have two young kids to take care of, and I don't intend on making orphans out of them. You too, Anna's safe here, but as a widow myself, I can tell you that revenge isn't worth it if it means leaving her all alone."

Looking over to Anna, her expression was all weird. Confused, hopeful, excited even. She was glad that Cecily was finally advocating the safer way out, and not only that, but she was also the one convincing me to do so as well. Phah, can you believe it? Her! Convincing me! What the fuck kind of twist is that!?

"Tch." I turned around to reboard the ship, "If you're too scared to do the right thing, then do as you please. Me? I'm not giving up so easily. I'll avenge Grim with my own two hands and come back here just to prove you wrong!"

"Edward!" Anna suddenly shouted, "Wait up, don't go!"

Looking down at them from the ship's railings as I hoised the bridge up with countless ropes, I had only then realized how small and feeble they looked from up here. They reminded me of ants, not a shred of pride in them. Cecily too, she was being unreasonable. First she didn't want to listen to me when I told her to stay back, then she suddenly switches teams on me all of a sudden?! Stupid contrarian woman, how the hell did Grim put up with her bullshit even!?

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"Uncle!" Nelly ran up to just under the ship.

"You ain't convincing me, kiddo!" I mocked from up top, "Just stay back with your mother as she slowly realizes the huge mistake she just made!"

"Screw you!" She yelled as loudly as her tiny vocal cords allowed her to.

"Huh?"

"Screw you, and good luck, uncle!" She smiled widely from ear to war, "Get the bad guys that got dad for me, and promise me you'll make it back!"

Ah, I see now. So that's what she wanted to say, huh? What odd parting words between a niece and an uncle. Well, who am I to disappoint a young girl? Especially one whose life was directly affected by this stupid war. Grim, her father, he died to the betrayal of the Princess Vivia, so I'm sure she too wants to give that damned songstress a piece of her mind. Cecily, in a way, it's good that she stayed back, but no matter what, I don't intend on sitting back this time!

"You got it, kiddo!" I waved at them as the ship slowly left the dock, "Take care!"

***

"And that's why Cecily isn't here with me." I finished regaling the other Generals with our tale of the journey to Cardina.

"You fucking idiot." Jorgen immediately shot me a look of disappointment, "Cecily's one of our strongest weapons and you just let her leave like that? Dumbass, how do you plan on us infiltrating the castle without her top-tier assassin skills?"

"H-Hey now, brother, it was her decision to..." Pierre tried giving his two bronze coins on the topic, only for Jorgen to just talk over him.

"This is a war, dammit! In a war, you leave all that you hold dear at home, got that!?" He yelled, "That daughter and son of hers, who cares if she gets separated from them for a time!? She has Ed's girl to take care of them, not to mention Harper as well!"

"You've met Harper before?" I suddenly furrowed my brows.

"Unimportant!" He slapped me off my seat, "Listen here, dimwit. Cecily is an important piece of the puzzle. She is worth hundreds, if not thousands of men! So what if you came back, do you honestly think that makes up for it? You're nothing compared to her in terms of value!"

"Ptu!" I spit as I slowly got up from the floor, "You say a soldier needs to leave all they hold dear at home, but you didn't even realize that that's exactly what I did!"

"Haah?" He raised his chin up above me.

"Grim's dead, and now Cecily is the only family Nelly and Cene know of! I couldn't protect Grim, so how would I even begin to cope if I let Cecily die as well?!"

"Listen here, pipsqueak...!" Jorgen once again tried approaching me, only for Meil to hold out his hand and stop him.

"Let him speak." He said.

"You say I'm weak, that I'm worth nothing!" I cracked an annoying smile at Jorgen, "But you don't even realize that I'm the guy who potentially just saved your "strongest soldier"!"

Cracking up at my remark, the other Generals began cheering me on for finally standing up for myself against Jorgen, and even managing to get the better of him for once. Aaron and Max were the next two to speak up.

"Jorgen, he's right. They've given us more than we could ever ask for." Max chuckled, "Be happy Ed even showed up at all, otherwise we wouldn't even know they got us reinforcements too."

"Wait, too?" I tilted my head at them.

"Yep, thanks to Aaron here stumbling across Karson on our way to Great Hiana, we managed to get promoted to Presidents of the country!" Max praised his friend, "Lucky doesn't even begin to describe our situation. After that, we successfully managed to get a ton of our gang members from ARA to join the cause. But that's nothing compared to what Meil thought of."

"Meil?" I turned to him with a hopeful smile.

"Oh, you're overpraising me, Maxwell." He said as he tossed me a mysterious looking pendant, "I just happened to recall Cecily talking about how they met and befriended the God of Fighting, so I thought sending him a letter asking for help wouldn't hurt is all."

"A-Auros is coming too!?" I fell from my seat in sheer astonishment, "And what about Issei and Lee?"

"Huh? How do you know about the two of them?" He seemed surprised, "Ah, you must've read my mind back when I had suggested it in the meeting. Well sadly, they won't be able to make it, I'm afraid."

When we pressed him for the reason regarding why they won't be able to help, he seemed adamant about not answering. Opting to read his mind, I saw the words "Issei is too scared" and "Lee wants to spend the summer break with his son in Simpleton". Damn, so much for all the praise he was singing about those two supposed super troopers.

"But at least now we have all the fronts cleared." Aaron celebrated, "Before, it was a measly little army of villagers against a Kingdom, but now it's Carmen against the world! Heh, I'd like to see their faces when the Golden God personally marches up to the battlefield!"

And so, with a couple of wine corks flying about the room and a ton more toasts, we had spent the entire night in the General's Quarters partying and celebrating. Tomorrow morning though, everyone but Jorgen was practically dying from the morning hangover.

"On your feet." He raised me from my sofa in a rather unapologetic way, "Come on. A General's job is to attend every single day to look over his soldiers' training."

"How the, ugh..." I gagged, "How the hell are you the only one feeling fine?"

"Hmph." He turned away all proudly, "Unlike you, I'm responsible. Tea is the only beverage I drank last night."

"Pussy." I said as I braced myself for a strong punch to the gut that will inevitably send me flying to the wall behind me.