"Come on, guys!" Othelia rushed us to follow after her, "Holy crap, they're all safe! Thank Selzion, they're safe and sound, and we get to see them again!"

"Whoa there, Selzion didn't do shit." Aru corrected her.

"Don't just suddenly start swearing in front of Cene!" I plugged his ears as soon as she said the word.

"Uncle, awe we gonna see mommy again?" He let out an adorably innocent squeak.

"Yeah!" I smiled at him without noticing his ears were still plugged, "Oh, crap. Sorry about that."

"What?" He shouted back.

"I said sorry!" I still kept his ears plugged.

"Whaaaat?"

"Just hurry it up, okay?!" Othelia interrupted our little gag, "I think I see something like a fork just up ahead, so-"

"Boo!" Issei jumped out from behind a rock, spooking her as she fell on her butt, "Bahahah! Man, I got you good! Oh lord... Hm?"

After wiping the single proud tear he shed from laughing so hard, he finally thought to look down at the victim of his prank looking up at him with a bewildered look as tears began to form in her shining Blue Eyes. Afraid he might've taken it too far, he rushed to kneel down and make sure she was alright. What a surprise, this guy knows when to get serious?

"O-Oi, you good?" He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her, "Here, sorry about that, I just wanted to... Ugh, crap..."

"Y-You're okay, right?" She asked, still unsure if what she was seeing wasn't an illusion, "You're really safe, right?"

"Y-Yeah." He looked up as if to hide the joy in his face before jokingly replying, "Gahh! I made you cry, dammit! I need some form of punishment, this has to be a crime! Ed, quick, hit me!"

"I'm not gonna hit you, you'll die." I shook my head with a smirk.

"Ooh, ooh! I'll do it!" Aru raised her hand just like a student who knows the answer to a question would, "Grit yer' teeth!"

Without even giving him time to prepare, Aru used her powers to wet her hands before handing him a strong backhand slap. The sound of the shocking impact reverberated throughout the entire mountain, surely, and it actually made his lower lip bleed. With a few more spins after taking the deadly slap head on, he finally fell to the floor, seemingly unconscious.

"Did he get knocked out again?" Cecily sighed, "Seriously, what is it with him and getting slapped? He has quite the affinity for it."

Hearing this, Eleanor kind of looked away with a guilty expression. I don't exactly know what happened on their side of the trip, but I'm honestly kind of scared he tried to pull some funny business on my sister while I wasn't around. Sadly, I can't just outright ask that though, since it'd be way too awkward. So for now, I'm just gonna have to trust Issei on this one. He's got Othelia, what more can he ask for?

"Mm." Issei mumbled something as he raised a thumbs up, his face still buried in the snow, "Puah! No, I'm good."

"See?" Aru smiled, "Now come on, we're just over a day away before reaching the top! We managed to somehow reconvene after all this trouble, so let's not waste a single moment twiddling our thumbs!"

"Aye!" Issei nonchalantly took Othelia's tear-infused handkerchief and applied it to his lip, "Mm, salty."

This guy's a lost cause. Everyone's looking at him completely irked, with only the girl he took the handkerchief from looking astonished. I've genuinely never seen a girl look more bewildered, and I've seen Anna make all kinds of faces. Like she's genuinely at a loss for words, probably too confused to even show her disgust.

"What?" Issei looked at us with an innocently raised eyebrow, "My lip's bleeding."

"Then apply pressure with your other lip, dumbass." Cecily facepalmed, "Don't go reusing handkerchiefs without washing them first."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just go all the way down the world's tallest mountain to wash it off at the nearest sink, an entire ocean away." He sarcastically replied, all the while rolling his Eyes, "Nice one, genius. I can see you've put all your upgrades on ATK and completely ignored INT."

"I don't know what that means, but I can tell you're making fun of me!" She got super angry.

"Not again!" Eleanor whined, "Just shut up, both of you! I can't take another argument between you guys!"

"Poor girl." Aru whispered over to me, "She probably had to step in between them numerous times to get like this."

"Auntie's mad..." Cene's voice got shaky.

"I'm not-! Ugh, I'm not mad, baby!" She exchanged her grimace into a hearty smile as she ran to lift him up, "Don't worry about it, Cene! Everything's fine now, see?"

"Sis?" I looked on as she tossed him up a few times to cheer him up, "Did you get enough sleep lately?"

"Between charting the course to Polaris, hiking up Mount Ivrys for two days straight and having to constantly babysit these two ever since we got separated..." She turned to all of us with a frightening smile, "What do you think?"

Gulping, the two party members in question felt remorseful once they saw just how much trouble they were causing Eleanor. They awkwardly stood there as we all singled them out, with Issei being the first one to apologize with a cough.

"A-Ahem, I suppose we did kind of take it too far at times..." He bashfully admitted, "Sorry for calling you deadweight."

"You what?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he did that, but in hindsight, that's nothing compared to what I did..." Cecily too scratched her cheek as she rocked on her toes, "Sorry for using you as bait for that snair we fought..."

"YOU WHAT!?" I let out a loud shout, "Sis, punching them right now would be an issue, but as your older brother, I just can't let this slide!"

"Eh? No, it's fine, really-" She shook her head back and forth.

"Sis, just let me flick them on the head." I seriously suggested.

"Wait, that's it?" Issei severely underestimated my flicking power, "Yeah, sure. If it'll make things even, I don't mind a bit!"

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"..." They walked on ahead in silence with their heads letting off steam from my flick, their shoulders slumped forward as if they were missing the strength to pull themselves up, "A-At least we're even..."

"Right, so best think twice before messing with my little sister!" I proudly brought her close to me, only to get elbowed in the stomach, "Oof!"

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"Sheesh, you just had to embarrass me, didn't you?" Eleanor rolled her Eyes, "Stupid brother..."

"I... protected... you..." I said as I tried desperately to bring the air back into my lungs, "Never mind... that, haah. In any case, I've got something to discuss with Issei, so we'll walk ahead."

"Hm? What's wrong?" He turned back with a confused face.

"It's that. The thing." I mimed cat ears above my head, "I think I made some progress recently, but I'm gonna need your expert opinion on it."

"Oh?" He immediately understood before increasing his walking speed to set some distance between us and the rest of the group, "Go on..."

"What's your opinion on bea-" I went to ask, but immediately stopped once I felt a warm breeze hit my face, "W-What the hell is...? Gasp, no way!"

"You felt that too just now, didn't you!?" Issei's voice mirrored my excitement, "This air... The type of air you only come across when you're near a warm body of water, not to mention all the steam around us."

"It can only mean one thing, right!?" I raced him to the place in question before shouting, "An outdoor hot spring!"

As I looked on at the numerous water basins littered around the place, I couldn't help but pinch myself in my excitement just to make sure this wasn't a dream. After realizing I was fully awake, I still remained skeptical, so I turned to Issei just in case he didn't see what I saw. Who knows, maybe it's a mirage or an illusion or something.

"Yep, it's there, don't worry." He smiled as he put his backpack down, "Oh my God, we're finally here...! After years of waiting - The onsen scene!"

"What's got you guys so-" The other soon caught up to us before rejoicing as well, "Is that a hot spring!? We can finally replenish our water-!"

"Cannon ball!" Issei was suddenly seen buck naked as he splashed inside, "Woo! The water's great, guys! Hop on in!"

"What the hell are you doing, idiot!?" The girls unanimously turned on him, "Now we can't drink the water!"

"Oh come on, I'm not poisonous." He squirted some water from his hands before beckoning them over to him, "Now quit complaining and enjoy the checkpoint we were so gracefully offered!"

"Issei's right." I reasoned, "If it's water we need, I'm sure we can make do with Aru's. On the other hand, we should use this time to heat ourselves up and rest our weary bodies before continuing up the mountain."

"I'm convinced." Aru began taking her top off, much to everyone's disagreement.

"W-Whoa, whoa!" I stopped her.

"What? Wasn't this your goal from the beginning?" She grinned cheekily, "To get a free pass to oogle the girls' bodies without any repercussions?"

"What the-? Hell no! Obviously we'll put up a barrier between the men and women for decency!" I sighed, "Seriously, the last naked girl's body I'd wanna see is my own sister's."

"Huh? But I could've sworn that's what your mind said..." Aru thought for a bit before turning her attention to the naively whispering Issei, "Ah, I guess it was the foreigner's mind I was reading. Sorry about that, Edward Saint."

"...Issei...!" I raised my voice in a threatening tone, "You wanted to put up a wall of sorts for decency's sake... right?"

"Y-Yep! Of course, man, what kind of perv do you take me for?" He chuckled nervously, "Man, is it me or is it getting kinda cold at this spot? I think I'll swim over there for now, ha-ha..."

"That guy is seriously reaching new levels of scummy..." Cecily scoffed.

"Even though he has Othelia fawning over him, he still chooses to look at other women with his lecherous gaze..." Eleanor felt bad for Othelia.

"W-What?!" Othelia jolted, "I-I'm not fawning over anybody! He's a total pervert and a complete jerk to boot!"

"Yeah, but he's YOUR total pervert and complete jerk." Aru nudged her, only making her face more flushed.

"Guys...!" She stomped on the ground, "Quit it with the teasing!"

"Mn." Cene tugged on her leggings, "Awe you and Issei mawwied?"

"Gah! Not you too!" She ran to find something to make the walls out of, "Dammit, let's just get in the onsen and get the hell out of here...!"

"W-Whoa!" Issei suddenly yelled.

"What's wrong?" We ran over to him, but saw nothing out of the usual, "Why'd you yell?"

"Sorry, false alarm." He chuckled, "I could've sworn I saw another person through the steam just now, but I must've imagined it."

Another person? No, he has to be joshing us. There's no one else who would climb this high up, and even if there was, I doubt they'd neglect to show themselves to us. Then again if I was a lone hiker sitting buck naked in a hot spring, I'd probably hide from a bunch of randos as well... No, there's no one here, and that's that! Let's just get the damned wall built already!

"Oh, no need to expend any additional energy on the wall." Aru snapped her fingers as a large wall of solid ice sprung forth, separating the hot springs in two, "There. Thanks to the steam, the ice should be too foggy for anyone to see through the other side, and my magic allows the ice to not melt, even when placed smack dab in the middle of a hot spring. Pretty convenient, no?"

"Water is awesome..." I commented, gawking at the sheer capabilities of hydromancy with my mouth wide open.

"Of course it is, it's the fundamental element, after all!" She proudly puffed out her chest, "Water has no shape on its own, so it can be whatever you want it to be, granted you have the abilities of a Goddess like me."

"Tch! Stupid ice wall..." Issei crossed his arms on my side of the wall, "Alright Ed, get the kid and hop in already. Let's just get this over with..."

"You don't seem too enthralled now that you don't get to oogle the girls, do you?" Cecily smiled, "By the way, Cene will be with us."

"Huh?!" Issei started banging on the wall desperately, "That's unfair, he's a guy as well, so what's the deal?!"

"The water's deep, and knowing you two idiots, I'm afraid he'll drown if I'm not nearby." She explained, "Come on, Cene, follow me."

Normally, I'd take offense to this level of blatant distrust, but judging by my performance on this trip up until now, I can't help but agree...

"Damn, this sucks..." Issei lied face down, floating on the water as if dead, "It should've been me, not him...!"

These are his thoughts, by the way. Pretty sure he'd lose any shred of respect the girls have for him if he was vocal about the matter, but that doesn't stop me from using Analyze to read his mind. I swear, a man can't be this depraved. Just marry Othelia and you can do whatever you want, it's literally that simple. Eh, what do I care? Cannonball!