"Mn..." Issei moaned in his unconscious state, "Melons... Heheh... Boobies..."
"Just what the hell is he dreaming about, I wonder?" Cecily scoffed.
"Dunno, let's find out." Eleanor shrugged with a wry smirk before closing in on his ear and whispering, "S-Stop it~, that tickles!"
"Ehe~!" Issei's started grinning from ear to ear from the audibly sensual whispers, "Othelia... Don't run, ehe..."
"Wake the hell up!" Cecily shouted, interrupting his pleasant dream.
"Ack! F-Fuck!" Issei jumped up into a standing position, frantically glancing around to see what was happening, "W-Where am I? Othelia, where are you!?"
"Sounds like you were having quite the dream there, Issei." Eleanor grinned all smug, "All that heavy panting and grinning, just what were you and the fair Othelia doing in that perverse head of yours?"
"Sex." Issei stated outright, still a bit groggy, "At least that's what was supposed to happen before we got rudely interrupted, CECILY."
"Don't make it sound like I'm in the wrong here!" Cecily shot back, "We almost died because of that fall, and even when facing death, sex is the only thing going through your mind!?"
"I can't help it, I'm a man through and through!" He gave a weak argument, "Shit, everything's slowly coming back to me now. We failed to jump the gap and fell down, though I don't know how we're still alive if that's the case."
"Maybe it was Aru's favor?" Eleanor figured, "Though, it's not like it did us any good, given we've gone off the path and don't know where we are."
It was just as Eleanor had surmised - They were indeed saved by Aru's powers from falling to their deaths. They were still somewhere on the mountain, and they haven't fallen too far down, but where exactly on this ginormous mountain they were was unknown to them. This is when Issei got an idea.
"Well if that's the case, then we have nothing to worry about!" He pointed to his back, "I got my trusty compass to help guide us back on the right track! Just gotta... Eh? W-Where's my backpack!?"
"The straps must've broke off while we were falling." Cecily shrugged, "Unlucky, but chances are it's not too far away from where we landed."
Of course, this was not the case at all, but there's no way they would know that. Since they were dragged to another part of the mountain thanks to Aru's water/ice platform, Issei's backpack was actually a ways away from them. Specifically, it had fallen directly on Edward's face.
"Then, should we go looking for it?" Eleanor asked, "Or do we try our luck without it so as to save time and potentially resources too?"
"I say we look for my backpack." Issei immediately replied, "It's literally got all of our hiking and battle tools in it, we can't do anything without it!"
"No, we should just continue going up the mountain." Cecily disagreed decidedly, "I still have my knives, which is more than enough to fend off any more enemies we might encounter on the mountain, and Eleanor and I still have our backpacks, so we can share our rations and clothes with you. Besides, that backpack could've fallen all the way down the mountain for all we know, so best not pointlessly waste energy."
"It's not pointless! It's got my entire life packed inside!" He refuted, "Losing it is literally like losing a part of me forever! Do you really want that on your conscience!?"
"Would that part of you happen to be the perverted part?" She sighed, "Because if so, I'd only be more inclined to leave it behind."
"Hey now, calm down, everyone." Eleanor tried to get between those two, but to no avail.
"Quit joking, woman!" Issei got aggravated, "This is serious, we can't possibly expect to make it without my gadgets! Just think back on all the times it's saved our butts!"
"We could've survived even without it." Cecily didn't budge on her decision, "Honestly, you just made things more convoluted than they needed to be."
"Why you...!" Issei started getting in her face, his face Red with rage and veins popping out.
"Stop it!" Eleanor slapped him back to his senses, "A-Ah, sorry about that! But you really needed that slap, y'hear?"
"The hell was that for?" He now redirected his rage to the poor frightened girl, "Now that I think about it, what the hell did you even come here for? You've done nothing for us this entire trip apart from help steer us in the right direction during the ship ride to Polaris! You should've just stayed back at the ship, that way we at least wouldn't have this deadweight following us around..."
"Hey! Eleanor is NOT deadweight!" Cecily stood up for her, "Apologize before I beat the crap out of you and make you apologize!"
"Cecily, there's no need for that..." Eleanor tried to stop her.
"No! He keeps thinking he can boss us around while shouting at us without repercussions, well I'm sick of it!" Cecily stomped on the ground, "Fine then, you wanna look for that damned backpack of yours!? Be my guest! Eleanor and I'll just continue on without you!"
"What!?" Eleanor jolted, "W-We can't do that!"
"Fine!" Issei agreed, surprisingly enough, "If you can't appreciate what I've been doing for you, then let's see how far you can make it without me!"
"Fine!" Cecily grabbed Eleanor by the wrist and dragged her off.
"Fine!" Issei shouted before going his own way, "Just don't go crying to me once you run into trouble!"
"G-Guys...!" Eleanor cried out.
"I'd rather die than do that!" Cecily yelled.
And with that, the group had been divided once more. It is often said that groups tend to crack under pressure caused by a prolonged stay inside a dangerous environment, and this is a prime example of that. On such a perilous journey, people's minds often stray from the logical path, causing a rift to form between party members. This is also, coincidentally enough, where dangers preys on them the most...
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"Cecily..." Eleanor called out to her as they ventured further up the mountain.
"..."
"Cecily, slow down." She raised her concerns.
"Quiet." Cecily treated her like she would Cene or Nelly.
"No! Let me go!" Eleanor finally snapped, slapping Cecily's grip away as she reprimanded her, "What the hell is wrong with you two!? We have to go back for him, he'll die without any equipment out there!"
"Serves him right." Cecily clicked her tongue, "Putting his damned backpack above his very life, it'd only be fair for him to die trying to find it."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Gasp, how can you even say such a horrible thing!?" Eleanor raised her voice, "Just what the hell would Nelly and Cene say if they heard you right now?"
"Does it matter? I'm sure they'd rather you and I at least make it back than for all three of us to die for a stupid cause."
"Is that really how you see it?" Eleanor sighed, "Because I've known you for a while now, and I know just how much you care about the things inside your own backpack."
"Huh? Are you calling me a hypocrite?" Cecily became livid, "Then please go on, tell me exactly what you mean by that! I'm nothing like that materialistic prick who can't live without his stupid thingamajigs!"
"Nelly's and Cene's registry sketches." Eleanor immediately began listing off all the things she saw Cecily put in her backpack before they departed.
"Huh?" Cecily suddenly lost all her vigor.
"Your family picture with Lune and Nelly too, among countless other documents and mementos that have no practical place on this journey. If it was your backpack that got lost instead of his, could you honestly say it'd be fine to go on without it?"
"That's... But those are one of a kind..." Cecily sheepishly replied, "It's not the same. He can always buy or make more of his gadgets, but those pictures, they're irreplaceable, hence why I always carry them around with me."
Even as she was saying all this, Cecily was already well aware of just how weak that argument really was. She had immediately understood what Eleanor was trying to make her see, and it made her extremely regretful of her previous outburst. Still, there just doesn't exist a proper way to smoothly transition from being livid to admitting you're wrong, no matter what kind of person you are, so she felt she had no other choice but to continue being hardheaded. Eleanor, however, wasn't going to let her hide behind those false emotions for even a second more.
"Cecily, you're smart enough to admit when you're wrong." Eleanor calmly explained, "If Issei was so adamant about looking for his backpack, then surely he must've had some irreplaceable things inside it as well."
"Y..." She bit her tongue, "Y-Yeah..."
"And you coldly refused to help him get it back." Eleanor continued to dig into her friend.
"Y-Yeah..." Cecily finally calmed down as she sheepishly replied with the same answer again and again.
"So, we gonna go back and apologize?" Eleanor smiled, "Maybe help him find it if we're lucky, or hell, just talk him out of it calmly even?"
"Yeah."
Thus, the girls ran back through the snowy terrain, following the footsteps in the snow they had just recently made during their trek over to here. It didn't take long for them to find Issei, ominously standing at the very edge of one of the mountain's cliffs. They rushed towards him, fearing the worst, and yelled out with all their might before it was too late.
"Don't jump!" They shouted in unison.
"Ack!" He jolted a bit, almost slipping off from the shock, "Jump? What the hell are you talking about! Geez, you almost killed me there..."
"Wait, you weren't thinking off offing yourself because you realized you'll probably never find your backpack?" Cecily inquired with a puzzled look on her face.
"What? No, you idiot! I'm not that emo." He chuckled before pointing down with a wry smile, "I was just greeting our friends below. Oh, and that last bit about never finding my backpack, well, see for yourself."
With both of the girls now thoroughly confused, they carefully made their way to where Issei was standing before anxiously peeking over the edge. To their surprise and astonishment, they saw a couple of small peeps waving up at them. Recognizing them immediately as the other group, they couldn't contain their excitement as they called out for them.
"Yoohoo!" Edward raised Issei's backpack high above his head, "Look what the stork brought in!"
"You guys!" Cecily was so happy she began to cry, "You're safe!"
"Safer than you, I suppose." Aru sarcastically joked, "Seriously, you would've been long gone had I not saved you from that fall just now!"
"Thank you, Aru!" Eleanor smiled and waved, "Hey, is there a way for us to reconvene, by any chance?"
As their entire group turned their gazes over to Aru, she thought about it for a minute or two before smiling and giving the thumbs up, though it was quite difficult to see from the other group's distance. She pointed to her right as she shouted for them to follow along.
"There should be a fork in the road just up ahead if you go back the way you came." She said, "Rest there and wait for us. We should be able to circle around and over to you soon enough!"
And with a bit more celebrating later, their group hastily continued on their path towards said fork in the road. This was it, after all this time, they can finally reconvene. Of course, this would probably void the bet Cecily and Edward made back when they first got separated, but neither one of them cared about that at this point. They were just happy to see each other's faces after all this time.
"H-Hey..." Cecily took a long breath before addressing Issei, "Sorry about... freaking out back there. Eleanor made me realize just how stupid I was being, so... yeah."
"..." Issei silently nodded, "Inside that bag are the clothes that I came to this world in, as well as my smartphone."
"..." They both remained silent as they heard him out completely.
"The clothes aren't anything valuable, just some cotton, silk and fabric." He explained with a warm and nostalgic smile, "And the smartphone's battery ran out decades ago, not that it'd have any uses, given there's neither any signal nor wifi in this world."
"But they surely mean a lot to you, don't they?" Eleanor replied with a smile.
"Yeah." He turned to them, "If I fail in getting back home, I'd at least like to have something to remind me of it."
"Don't say that!" Cecily rushed to reassure him, "It'll work, it has to! A-And when it does, you'll be able to use your wifis and signals whenever you want!"
"Heh, you don't use wifi and signal." He chuckled, "Never mind, I'm sure once technology advances just a bit more in this world as well, you'll understand what I mean all too perfectly."
"Mhm!" Eleanor giggled, "I'm sure that no matter what world we're in, there's just no limits to all the incredible things the people who live in it can make."
"Such profound poetry..." Issei smirked at her, "Makes sense, coming from a girl that whispers sensual stuff in guys' ears."
"H-Hey! T-That wasn't...!" She immediately got Red in the face when she realized she got found out, "I don't do that usually!"
"Ah, so I was your first?" He continued egging her on.
"Shut up!"