Olya's friend Shaid has successfully been revived without issue. The two of them seemed happily reunited as they walked to Olya's house to play a couple of card games. But in an almost scary contrast to Shaid's overjoyous emotions he's displayed ever since he saw Olya, the old man just had a sort of content look on his face the entire time. I don't understand, I accomplished the goal he took a thousand years to do, or at least half of it. So why doesn't he look all that excited? Is it because he's too old to properly have it show on his face? No, he's immortal, so that doesn't make sense...
"Nelly." Olya made sure to call out to me right as they left Lem and me in the hospital room, "Be sure to go home before it gets too dark."
"Yeah, I'll do just that." I nodded sheepishly.
He's looking out for me. Then again, I did complain earlier when the locals were mad at me and tried to attack me, but that probably won't be an issue from now on, because they think I'm some sort of fairy that'll give them blessings so long as they treat me nicely. Either way, the old man knows I'll be heading to the house soon as I always do, so why explicitly mention it this time? I... I don't think I should trust him and do that. It's my disobedience that revived his friend in the first place, so let's see what else I can accomplish like this.
Just as the two friends walked out of the hospita, I made sure to carefully observe them from the window upstairs. Nothing seemed off, but this feeling I'm getting... It's the same anxiety I felt when he insisted on having Showa alone stay back with him for her punishment. Something about leaving someone alone with this guy seems really dangerous.
"Don't..." I heard a familiar voice from behind me mutter something.
"Lem?" I turned around to check on him, "Lem, can you hear me?"
"Mn...." He muttered some more nonsense before stopping.
Damn, guess I was just hearing things. Or was I? The Book, I can check if that was just my mind playing tricks on me or if it was truly Lem warning me about following these two... Huh!? The Book of Misfortune, it's gone!
"Dammit, sorry Lem!" I quickly ran out of the room to go after them, "But I can't just ignore this!"
That old bastard, I knew he was hiding something! What's he planning to use Misfortune for now? Gah, nothing's coming to mind, since he said it's impossible for Schnell to get revived without dad's help! Maybe he wants to show it off to Shaid? No, that'd be too stupid of a reason to just take it from me while I wasn't looking. Damn, what's going to happen now?!
Alas, my worries became all to real as soon as I ran into the grassy path that led to Olya's abode. The two men were standing in front of me, confronted by someone I didn't want to get involved in this no matter what.
"Old man, who is this?" She stood in a wide stance with both hands crossed firmly.
"Showa..." Olya glared back at her for just a moment, "We have a new visitor, and we have Nelly to thank for that. This is my old friend, Shaid. Shaid, this is Showa."
"She reminds me of Diamond." He chuckled.
"Olya!" I shouted from behind.
"Ack, shiet! Don't sneak up on me like that!" He jolted, "What's up?"
"Don't give me that casual bullcrap attitude!" I shouted, "Give me the Book of Misfortune!"
Expecting a lot of different scenarios, like him running away or choosing to attack me, I was instead met with possibly an even worse one, one that I just couldn't have predicted no matter what. Olya's face looked petrified. He didn't take the Book, in other words...
"Shaid..." Olya craned his head over to his friend slowly, "That Book, did you perhaps...?"
"Mn? Nah, amigo, I'm no thief." He shrugged, "Girlie, maybe you misplaced it up there?"
"Nelly, you lost Misfortune?" Olya weakly asked, "Please tell me you're joking!"
"Huh? No, I definitely left it at the bedside table, right next to Lem's head." I explained, "There's no way I would have missed it, so quit lying!"
"Shiet!" He shouted, "Damned girl, I gave you ONE THING to take care of, and you lose it!?"
"If you're so sure you didn't take it, then you won't mind emptying your pockets out in front of everyone, right?" Showa stepped closer to him, "Old man, I'm siding with Nelly on this one. First you bring this man from who knows where, and then the matter with her Book. Simpy put, you're suspicious."
"It's my Book to begin with!" Olya stomped furiously on the ground, "Shut the fuck up, both of you, and go find it right now, shiet!"
Maybe I really did misplace it? Geez, we just all sort of started accusing him for no reason. What if he really didn't take it and it really is my fault it got lost. Now I'm scared, I really have gone too far to back out now though.
"Amigo, can you stay here while we go back to look for it?" Shaid offered, "It couldn't have grown legs and run off now, and that hospital we were in seemed pretty empty."
"No, they can go find it themselves!" Olya shot back, "She was the one who lost it! And then they had the gall to accuse me of stealing it, what the shiet!"
"Y-Yeah, he's right." I sheepishly raised a finger, "I'll go look for it as punishment alone. Please don't bother yourself with this, Shaid."
"...I never saw you opening your pockets, old man." Showa kept blocking their path, "Besides, if that Book is so important for you, then why shouldn't everyone pitch in to find it? Unless of course, you already know where you're keeping it?"
"Showa..." He glared back at her, "Cheh, alright. I'm feeling Lucky!"
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With dangerously White glowing Eyes, Olya leaped towards her, leaving both Shaid and me in the dust. The entire attack happened in less than a fraction of a second, so I couldn't even yell at Showa to run away. As the dust cleared though, thankfully she seemed to have dodged it in time, as she was completely unscathed from it.
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"Kheh, not gonna make this easy for me." He smiled at her, flashing Misfortune under his robe as he did, "You're way too OP, Showa! Your detective skills almost rival your physical agility!"
"Amigo, what's going on!?" Shaid tried running to them, "Why do you have-!?"
"Stand back, bud. This might get dangerous." Olya put his hand up to stop him from coming any closer, "I'm just teaching this girl a lesson regarding her snooping around."
"The snooping was justified." Showa yelled, "Since I knew you were lying. Now all you need to do is tell us why you did that."
"Why, you ask?" Olya chuckled, "Don't you know? The dealer always keeps one card hidden until the very end of the game!"
Another flurry of attacks ensued, though Olya's stiff body looked like it hardly moved while lunging at her. No punches or kicks, but his speed was tremendous. Somehow, everyone knew that if Showa even so much as got grazed by him in any which way, it'd be the end for her.
"Showa, look out!" I warned, "You're running out of free space to maneuver in!"
"You won't be able to dodge forever!" Olya ramped up the speed, only for him to overshoot when she ducked and ran towards me.
"We need to run." She picked me up, "We can't stay here anymore."
"Huh?!" I yelped, "He's not attacking me though, so don't slow yourself down with-!"
"Nelly, he's not your friend." She spelled it out for me, "Olya finally showed his true colors. This is the man that dragged you out of your home and left your friend in such a sorry state in the hospital. He'll stop at nothing to kill me, and when he does, you're most certainly next."
No, but he can't! He needs me to help him bring Schnell back! Ah, don't tell me... No, now that he has Shaid, does he perhaps not need to keep me alive anymore? Was he planning to replace me? That would explain him taking the Book and not notifying me of doing so, but then that only makes my placement on this island worse...!
"Where is he now?" Showa kept running forward, relying on my Eyes to hand out info, "Is he close?"
"No!" I cracked a relieved smile, "He's nowhere near us, you're outrunning him!"
I said that, and in the next moment we were both lying on the ground in front of us. She tripped during her sprint, significantly slowing us down as we tried and failed to recover on time. Could she have hit a rock? A tree branch? No, that would have been far better than what we saw just now. For standing in front of us was the same well-built man with slicked back hair and a goatee who we assumed wasn't involved in this fight.
"Shaid!" I screamed, "What the hell!? Why did you do that!"
"I got 'em, amigo!" He hollered for Olya to come here, "Heh, sorry girlies, but as the saying goes—Bros before hoes! I'm sure you're lovely, but enemies of Olya are enemies of me as well."
"Damn you!" Showa cussed him off.
"Shaid, nicely done." Olya walked behind him before a fist suddenly popped through his friend's stomach, "And to think I doubted my Luck. See how it all turns out well in the end?"
Shaid...? Hey, what the hell is happening...? Olya just punched a hole through his friend! What the fuck! Oh my Gods, no!
"As I thought, you're just an insane maniac." Showa however immediately sprung to her feet to pick me up again, "Killing your friend, did you perhaps forget which side you're on?"
"I'm on my side, Showa. No one else's." He explained calmly, "You're free to join mine, but I will remain here, for your information. Of course, you can choose not to aid me in my endeavors, but then you'll surely end up like my prematurely reborn friend here."
"Prematurely?" I quivered.
"Your heart was in the right place, Nelly, but you're too steadfast." Olya explained, "There's a time and place for reviving Shaid, and though it pained me to have to do this to him, he would have eventually caused me some issues in the near future had I left him alive. The Book of Misfortune said so."
Taking the Book out of his pockets before tossing it to me without a care in the world, he adjusted his clothes before turning back around to go home, this time all alone. I see, so my intuition was right after all—Had Showa and I not pursued them and they had gone back to Olya's house together, Shaid would've just been killed anyways. We failed to protect him...
"Or not." I immediately began writing down for Shaid to revive the moment Olya left, "You want us to be on your side, old man? Cheh, don't make me laugh!"
With the prompt successfully written in, the gaping hole in the carcass next to us had begun to close up in a manner I could best describe as a mix of grotesque and magnificent. A short pause after that, Shaid had opened his Eyes for the second time today.
"Ghahhh! Hahhh, oh my God!" He gasped for air, "What happened?! Amigos, where's-!?"
"Shhh!" I pointed to the ground for Showa to take over.
"Leave the island. Now." She signed for him like she did for me, "Find allies, help us."
"...Dammit, you fatass." Shaid nodded as he got up, "What the hell, amigo? Is this how you greet your old friend? With a fist through the stomach?"
He was quick on the uptake. Nothing seemed too confusing about why we weren't talking using our mouths or even writing it down for him. Shaid seemed to be a very clever person indeed, as to be expected of a most experienced adventurer. He saw firsthand what the Books' true powers could do, so he must have already surmised we were trying to hide his escape away from Olya and with a quick "Thank you" for reviving him, he carefully and quietly entered the shrubbery of the jungle island to find an escape route. With this, Olya might in fact have to deal with that issue he mentioned, after all!