"Keep these two Books with you for now." Olya told me.
"Eh? You're just gonna entrust both of them to me? Just like that?" I furrowed my Eyebrows, "Isn't that kind of dangerous on your end? Didn't you say they're important to you?"
"They are, but I don't mind lending them to you for now. You're gonna be using them soon enough anyways." He pointed to my ankle, "Besides, not like you can leave without your foot getting sliced clean off."
"Pheh, you think just cause I'm a girl that I'm scared of getting hurt!" I puffed my chest out proudly, "But you're in for a nasty surprise, cause when Lem wakes up, we'll sail right off this damned place, with or without our feet!"
"That's pretty hardcore. Well, regardless of whether or not you'll live up to those expectations, it does bring up an important question."
"That being?"
"If you left and they got cut off, would that mean you two got cold feet?" He started wheezing from his own joke.
Damn this old man! And here I thought he was being serious with that ugly mug of his, when in actuality he was just telling a crappy joke! Man, screw this.
"I'm gonna call it a night." I got up, "Come on, you too."
"Ah, helping me up when I have such weak knees?" The bastard smiled, "Such a well-mannered young lady."
"Zip it." I yanked him up, "You know full-well why I'm doing this. I can't just leave Lem alone in the room with you. Who knows what you'd get up to..."
"Sorry to say, but he's out of my strike zone, both in age and gender." Olya revealed.
"That's not what I...! Grrah!" I gave up, pulling him out of the room before closing the door shut, "Now come on, go find a family member to take you home. I'm going to my room."
Just like that, he shrugged and went in the opposite direction. He's oddly obedient, or well, something like amicable would be a better word for it. Not only did he not kill us, but he also gave us pretty incredible living conditions on this island. He claims we're in Schnell's Archipelago, but since that cluster of islands is well, a cluster of islands, it doesn't really help me much. I see some other islands in the distance, but whether it's easy for us to sail away or not remains a mystery.
"Good evening!" A tanned muscular young man waved from across the field once he saw me.
"Urgh, don't meet his gaze, don't meet his gaze..." I started walking at a faster pace, "Dammit, what kind of manners are those? Calling out to a young girl in the middle of the night..."
The people here truly are strange. I've been around the world and yet no other people have been such an enigmatic presence to me before. They all have a slight tan to them, lesser than Meil's, but more than mine. Their hair is always some mix of either White or Brown, regardless of gender or age, and they all have this scary smile to them. It's the kind of hollow smile you'd give to a guest who really shouldn't have come by when they did. I get they probably felt it was bothersome to receive Lem and me as guests, but trust me—I didn't want this either.
"Keys, keys..." I rummaged through my pockets before hastily unlocking the door, "Phew! Thankfully that guy didn't follow me."
They're not the type to attack me after hours, I definitely think they're a peaceful bunch. Since I imagine they operate on an island-to-island based community system, and this island seems pretty small in comparison to the ones I see over the ocean, I can assume it's like a smaller friendly town in a way. If anyone tried to do something that's against the law (if they even have any laws in place), then I assume they'll immediately get found out and shamed, if not tried or even beaten up for their crimes. That being the case, just cause I think that doesn't mean I should let my guard down. At the end of the day, it's never safe to be walking around alone at night, but I have no other choice this time.
"Is it wrong that I'm getting used to this place?" I looked around at the giant cottage the old man gave me when I first got here, "Worst part is, if I wasn't being held hostage here, I'd definitely live here of my own volition. But I would never tell him that."
Obviously, the place is more meant for two people, and it's this spacious precisely because Olya expects Lem to wake up eventually and join me. Though I think he failed to realize our relationship... No, just cause we tried doing "that" that one time and dated for a week or two doesn't mean Lem would lose his reason in a dangerous situation such as this. Yeah, see? The old man knew what he was doing, he got us bunk beds.
"Then again, Lem's probably not gonna be able to climb up to the second bunk..." I stared at the bottom bunk, "And I thrash around in bed a lot, so I already reserved the bottom bunk..."
"Take the bottom bunk." A small devil Nelly showed up on my shoulder, "He's a guy. Guys love the top bunk, so he'll probably grit his teeth just to get a taste of it!"
"Wow, selfish much?" Angel Nelly poofed into existence on my other shoulder, "Don't listen to her, girl! Before anything, he's injured! What if he falls and breaks his neck while he's climbing up or down it?"
Just imagining it, all three of us shivered from the possibility. What a scary thought, I really should try getting used to sleeping on the top bunk from now on.
"Well now, you could always share the bottom bunk." Devil Nelly figured.
"...Eh!?" Angel and I yelped, "Where'd that come from!?"
"You said it yourself, didn't you?" She shrugged innocently enough, "He should sleep on the bottom bunk, but you wanna sleep there too. We all know he's not gonna say no anyways, so where's the harm in sharing?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"There's harm! Definitely a super harmful idea!" Angel blurted out, "A guy and a girl in the height of their adolescence sharing a bed together in a foreign island away from their parents—It's like you WANT it to happen."
With a smug smirk, Devil Nelly, who was representing my suppressed thoughts, had proudly showcased that we as a person do kinda sorta still feel that curiosity brewing in us ever since that night. Still, those are just my intrusive thoughts, and it'd obviously ruin everything if I acted on them. That night though, since he's still sleeping in the hospital, I thought I should use the opportunity to sleep in the bottom bunk while I still had the chance.
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In the morning, the first to greet me is actually the old geezer. He politely knocks on the door, asks me how I slept, and brings me a hearty plate of food for breakfast. This has become quite the habit ever since I got here, and whilst before I used to not trust him enough to actually eat it, these days I just nod and thank him for the hospitality. Doesn't mean he's earned my trust, mind you. Just that I'd rather eat potentially poisoned food than starve to death.
"Y'know, you eat like Schnell." He pointed out as he sat quietly on the sofa.
"Mnf? Gulp... What?" I stopped mid bite.
"You both have that funny habit—You eat all the tasteless greens first before you can really chow down on the juicy flavorful stuff." He chuckled warmly, "Yes, I remember still."
"Are you talking about that Schnell? The Schnell of legend?"
"Ah, finally grown a proper tongue to talk to me with." He smirked.
"No, I'm just fascinated by the subject." I grumped, "Dad told me all sorts of stories about Schnell M. Douglas, so I just wondered if you actually met the guy. If he's even real to begin with..."
"He's real, alright." Olya replied, "T'was a good 850 years ago, roughly. I was young back then, and very, very round."
"Big boned?" I tilted my head.
"No, fat as shiet." He corrected me, "I'm gonna call it what it was, cause I really did refuse to go on a diet with all my might. Either way, it was back then when I met those two—Schnell and Shaid."
Just like that, the long and arduous story began, and sadly I couldn't skip it no matter how hard I tried. I just asked a simple question to try and make small talk, but he wouldn't stop incessantly yapping about those two friends of his until he told me everything there was for me to know. They fought a Bjorn, worked closely with the Raamans and helped them survive and thrive, explored an ancient Lair in Sibirus and made it their own... Really, all rudimentary stuff about Schnell you'd find in every edition of his Handy Handbook.
"That's when it happened." His face grew grim, "The Sun God ruined everything."
"Eh? The Sun God?" I jolted.
So that means Meil met this man in that dungeon over 800 years ago... No wait, Meil doesn't remember ever being the Sun God, so it's not right to say "he" met Olya. Still, what could he have done to get described as ruining everything?
"The Gods are quite a proud bunch, you know?" He continued, "They say they're the ones who built up this land, this very fabric of space and time, yet the moment their creations try and mimic them, they squash them like ants. The Sun God did that to us..."
"What happened?" I asked, "He attacked you?"
"Cheh, attacked!?" He wheezed, "It could never be considered as such. When you go to remove a hornets' nest, did you attack them? No, you just went about your daily tasks, and that's exactly how he viewed our situation as."
He went into brutal detail about what had happened that day in Sibirus. He killed their doctor, the women they had summoned for pleasure, passed by all their traps with ease, and when all was said and done... Brutally murdered Shaid and Schnell, sending one to Heaven and the other to Hell respectively.
"So Heaven and Hell do exist?" I asked.
"No, only Heaven. Hell got destroyed when Schnell got trapped inside." Olya held back tears of anger, "As if to mock me, to tell me "Even if I kill you now, you'll never see him again!", that damned Sun God perfectly calculated the worst punishment for all of us."
"...So how'd you survive?"
"With this." He gently patted the Book of Fortune I previously put on the table, "I wrote my own immortality into the code, denying him the pleasure to be freed of me. I'm the hornet that stung its God."
In the end, he said all he wants to do with me and dad is to revive his friends. He doesn't want to kill anyone, only to bring two of his closest friends back. It seems like a noble cause, but I just can't imagine it to be that simple.
"Wow, look at the time." He propped himself up with the help of his cane before leaving the house, "We've chatted up a storm, and morning's already passed! I have a ton of stuff to help the locals with, so I'll be getting out of your hair."
"Yeah, you do that." I escorted him to the front door, "Hey, what's wrong? Why'd you stop?"
"Nelly..." He slumped forward before asking with an insecure tone, "Is it wrong to try and revive your best friends from the dead?"
"...Don't ask me, I'm just a dumb teenager." I frowned.
"Cheh, guess you're right." He finally left, "Guess you're right..."
What the hell was that? Is an old man like him really doubting himself? And what would happen if I said it is or isn't? Geez, either Lem needs to wake the hell up, or these guys need to find me quick, cause I'm losing it here!