"What is she talking about?" The uneasy crowd asked each other.

"I knew she was crazy, but shouting like that all of a sudden is a bit..."

"What even is ice cream?"

Dammit, they're really angry with me now! I gotta make things right as soon as possible. Olya, help me out... Oi, stop whistling naively, you damned old fart! Gah, guess he wants me to fix this situation by myself, huh?

"T-The protagonist's wish came true precisely a second after she had said it, as a table suddenly appeared in front of her carrying the aforementioned ice cream." I wrote into the Book of Fortune, "There, that ought to do it!"

And just like that, voila! The ice cream had arrived! Everyone was actually too busy worrying about my sanity that it actually took them a while before they could even notice it, but when the nice smell of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry finally reached their nostrils, all heads turned.

"So you opted to fall back on Fortune, huh?" Olya looked displeased by me not using Misfortune like he had told me to.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I held my arms akimbo as everyone made a line to grab their share of the ice cream, "Besides, you said it yourself, didn't you—I need to be able to use this Book on a dime. I can't do that with the Brown Notebook, but with Fortune by my side, it's easy-peasy."

"Uh-huh, I see." He yoinked the Purple Book from me before I could even register it.

"Wah! When did-!? How are you...!?"

"You think just cause I'm old, I'm also slow and weak?" He chuckled, spinning the Book by its center of mass like one would a ball, "When your friend wakes up, be sure to ask him and he'll tell you it's not true."

"...Olya." I frowned.

"Eheh, what? Too soon?" He pocketed it sheepishly, "Okay, sorry for the lame joke. But still, you're banned from using Fortune until you understand how to use Misfortune. I realize now it was a mistake handing both to you and not expecting you to take the easy way out."

"But didn't you say...!?"

"Ignore what I told you in the past." He tapped on the Brown Notebook in my hands, "Look towards the future."

"Urgh, fine..."

"Great, good girl." He patted me on the head, "Ahem, now, we better grab a bit of the ice cream before it all goes away. Looks like these guys aren't even gonna be satisfied with seconds at this rate."

"Eh? This delicacy is that ice cream she mentioned just now?" One local from the group raised his Eyebrows in astonishment, "Did you hear that, everyone!? She just made it appear out of thin air!"

"This lazy brat did!?" Everyone was left in shock, "Finally, she did something useful!"

Hey, that's rude. But I'll accept the praises that may arise from this though. Glad to see I'm finally being treated with some respect around here, even though it IS thanks to Olya.

"A fairy has descended upon us!" Some ladies from the crowd shouted all of a sudden.

"Eh, fairy?" I tilted my head.

"We see now why you sought her out, leader!" They all praised the geezer instead for some reason, "She's that, a fairy from the old folktales! She hands out food to kind and virtuous people!"

"Uhh, yeah, pretty much." He chuckled, "But remember, even though I brought her here doesn't mean you'll be getting free food forever. If you're bad, she won't make you any."

"What is this lore I've been given all of a sudden?" I muttered.

"Deal with it. Better to be known as a food giving fairy than a lazy bum." He whispered back, "Besides, these guys have no God to worship. They're atheists who don't even know the term 'deity'. Without a moral compass, my only bet in making them somewhat morally sound is to give them the ol' reward system treatment."

"That being?"

"Do good, get food; do bad, stay sad." He guffawed, "Now come on, time to celebrate this party you threw."

With loud cheers roaring across the island's main meeting area, an impromptu party was thrown in my honor. Asking me many questions with good intentions behind them, it seems these locals simply wanted to get on this fairy's good side. But thanks to that, at least, I get to enjoy the benefits of clearing my name from the accusations. Heh, finally they get it!

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***

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"And that's what happened." I finished regaling Lem with the story, "...Y'know, I brought some ice cream over just in case you decided to wake up, but it's kinda melted by now."

Sigh, as expected, he still hasn't woken up, and the Book still doesn't make any mentions of him doing so anytime soon. Lem's been in a coma for weeks now. The doctors are taking care of him well, even with the somewhat alternative treatments they've been giving him, but just seeing my best friend in such a hopeless state makes me want to cry.

"Please, wake up soon..." I gently held his hand.

The bedsheets were cold, mirroring the air in the room. I was surprised how he could even survive in such conditions, but then I felt his hand. His warm, tender hand that somehow managed to tell me everything I imagine he'd want me to know. He'll make it, I'm certain. But until then, I just need to be patient and do all I can on my end.

"I think I told you this before, but we have a shared residence in this place. It's kinda like back at my parents' house, except it's just the two of us. I'm pretty excited to show you the place, cause they really gave us a top notch space to work with! We can screw around with making food in the kitchen like we used to, play hide and seek until our legs give in, we can play board games..."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Naming off all the fun activities I had planned out during my time spent waiting for him to join me, I expected to feel a bit better about the situation, but instead it only made me feel more isolated. My throat closed up as I kept desperately squeezing his hand more and more, but it was useless. He wasn't gonna wake up soon, the Book foretold that much even yesterday.

"Meil and dad still haven't come for us." I thought to change the subject to more current affairs, "Even though they said they'd be the ones to protect us from anything and everything, when something actually did end up happening, they were completely unprepared. Heh, how lame, am I right?"

Lame, no, that's not the word. It certainly is lame that that's how things played out, but pinning the blame on them just doesn't feel right. Though I still don't know where Meil was, dad and the others were an entire ocean away, so they obviously couldn't have done anything. Likewise, Lem probably felt betrayed by Lee when he called out to him to no avail back then. Geez, if only Lee knew his son's current pitiful state...

"Now that I think about it, we haven't gone to school in a while now. We probably missed out on a ton of material." I chuckled, "Yeah, our parents are gonna be pissed if we flunk. Then again, I'm sure they have more pressing matters to worry about, like making sure we get out of here alive."

I keep looking at it from our perspective, but now that I think about it, I never once looked at this situation from their perspective. All the adults must be panicking like crazy if they already found out about us getting nabbed by now. Especially mom, I'm sure she must be worried sick. Sigh, if only I could tell her I'm okay...

"Hey, what if I used the Book of Fortune for tha-!" I then recalled, "Aww, I forgot that bastard took it away..."

"......."

"What's that, Lem? I should try using the Book of Misfortune in that case?" I pretended like I heard him speak to me, "Good idea, I guess it'll also get me one step closer to getting Fortune back as well! Two birds, one stone!"

And so, I had reserved myself to write all sorts of prompts into the Purple Book for the rest of the evening, hoping that even one of them lands and gets my message across. "In three seconds, the protagonist's mother will get a telepathic message from her telling her she's fine", "In a minute, a mysterious letter will arrive in the Grimheart household telling them Nelly's fine", etc... Before I even realized it, I had already used up an entire page just for that.

"Damn, I don't feel like cracking open the next page." I exhaled, plopping the Book down on the bedside table, "I still wrote all that, and I didn't even see you twitch once. Geez, for a coma patient, you really do have a calm sleeping face."

For a moment, a split second, the thought crossed my mind. "Give him a peck on the lips", it said. "It'll definitely shock him back awake", it said. But I know better, that's sexual harassment taken to the extreme. Obviously, it's just an intrusive thought which I paid no mind to, but it's odd how strongly the voice in my head felt about it. This must be the work of Devil Nelly, certainly.

"It's getting late, I should go home now." I sat next to him still, "Aw geez, I didn't mean to call this damned island vacation house home, but you get what I mean! That old man, Olya, he really did make a good one though..."

Without thinking about what I was saying too much at this point, I actually let myself relax and speak some nonsense for a change. Why I did this, who knows? Maybe it was to cure the monotony of always being on edge, or just because I wanted to believe a bit, but I actually started praising the old man. The more I talked, the more a warm smile began to form on my face, and I just couldn't seem to get it off.

"Olya, though he did this to you, I don't think he's bad." I said to Lem, "In fact, he might actually be a good guy-"

The smile immediately dropped straight down into one witnessing pure horror. The moment I had suggested we trust Olya, Lem had reacted. His hand, which was calmly rested next to his body, had tightly grabbed ahold of my wrist and refused to let go. I initially jolted from the surprise, but soon found myself trying to violently shake him awake. This was it, I thought, maybe he was gonna wake up at any minute!

"...Nope, false alarm." I sighed, freeing my hand from his grasp one finger at a time, "Dammit, you got my hopes up, dude. But why react to Olya? Don't you believe me? Then again, he IS the guy that got you into this whole mess to begin with, but he apologized multiple times, y'know?"

There's no way these two incidents are connected, though. Logically speaking, he probably just finally thought to twitch as like a reaction or something. But what if they are connected? I should... I should probably still keep a close Eye on what the old man asks of me to do from now on.

"I guess I'll be heading to the house for the night." I hastily stood up, tripping myself up a bit as I did, "I-I'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye."

Yet another day passed just like that, and I just keep getting more questions than answers. Dammit, I really don't know anything about Olya, after all...