"Nelly, watch your step." Meil warned me, "This area is particularly steep to hike up."
"Let her fall, my Lord~" The voices echoed.
"Don't worry, I had plenty of experience from today's walk with Showa." I giggled, "Hey, you never told me you knew about the Book before."
"Neither did you." He gave me a sidelong glare, "Had I known the Book was in your hands, I would have..."
"What? Taken it?"
"No, I would..."
"Sent it back to the Library?"
"Nelly, stop that."
"See? What was there to do if you knew I had Misfortune?" I asked, "Things would've ended up like this regardless."
"...We could have studied its powers together." He sighed, "If we had known about the true abilities of it, we could have been better prepared for Olyahim's attack."
"Heh, like that'd ever happen." I smirked, "If there does exist a world in which you knew I had the Book with me, then it definitely wouldn't even humor the idea that you'd work with me on it."
"Am I to take this as you not trusting me with protecting you?"
"I'm not talking about protection, I have an issue with me never being an active member in it."
I could see in his Eyes that he was left confused by my retort. Already from the start, I knew he wouldn't get what I was telling him, but I just had to get it off my chest. He's a dense bonehead in the worst of times, and it really shows here—When he can't even understand something so simple.
"How can the protected protect?" Meil asked, "Unless you are referring to the prospect of returning the favor by protecting me back, in which case I assure you that I can take care of myself."
"And I can't?" I pouted.
"Of course not."
This rather annoying sentence was shortly followed by a rage-inducing headpat. His words, riddled with nothing but lies and misinformation, ended up patronizing me into sounding like someone who can't even do something as simple as survive on their own. He doesn't consider me an equal at all, in spite of all the effort I put into being the perfect little girl. Well, that's fine—Perfectly fine. In that case, I guess I'll just stop cooking his breakfast. And maybe I'll flunk the next test just to see his reaction... Or just quit everything and give up while I'm at it. Honestly, he probably won't give a rats ass about it anyways, since to him no matter what I do, I'll always be someone in need of protection...
"Sniffle..."
"Nelly."
"Shut up."
"Nelly, watch your step."
"Be quiet!" I then felt my foot slip on a rock, "Ack!"
"Nelly!"
The hill was steep enough for me to fall pretty hard until I eventually tumbled to the bottom. If I was alone, I would've definitely broken a bone or two on the way down too, but as expected he'll just swoop in to grab my hand and save me like usual. Guess I really can't do anything by myself anyways...
"Hm?" I furrowed my brows, "I caught myself?"
"Phew, thank goodness." Meil heaved a sigh of relief before continuing the climb, "Please be more careful from now on."
"Wait, you didn't leap to grab my hand." I pointed out.
"I apologize. It seems my reaction time has been slowed by 1348 milliseconds, which in turn led to me not acting in time." He shook his head, "If I had jumped to save you back then, I would have most definitely slipped as well, leading to both of us getting gravely injured."
"So you just left me to die while taking care of yourself? Better to have one person live than none, huh?" I pouted again, "Tch. Guardian, my ass!"
"Cease the profanities! ...No, I can understand your emotions of frustration." He resignedly stopped to address the issue properly, "You misunderstood my intentions with me saying this, Nelly. I did not mean I had only intended to save myself, rather I trusted that you were probably capable of catching yourself in time."
"...Probably?"
"Nelly, you have been asking me quite a large amount of questions one would usually deem annoying." He asked, "Perchance, are you currently on your menstrual period?"
How the hell did he draw that conclusion from just from my attitude!? And to ask a girl such a question... I can't believe I'm saying this, but—There's stupidity, and then there's Meil!
"Why would you assume that even?" I hissed, "And no, I'm not!"
"Ah, I see. Apologies for the confusion." He shook his head, "It's just your mother refused to inform me on the proper days in the month where you are experiencing it, so I have to work based on guesses."
"My Lord, even we do not condone this behavior..." The voices spoke reason.
"I merely wish to be informed on the one I care about, is that not what I should do?" Meil turned to them.
"These are topics best left for future historians to ponder." They abruptly switched topics, "Furthermore, what reason would you have to know about the girl's...?"
"Various reasons." He refused to elaborate, "Now, shall we continue?"
"I'm afraid that won't be necessary." An elderly voice beckoned us at the top of the hill, his White Eyes shining brightly under the moonlight, "Thankfully, my Luck just keeps on giving. Looks like you conveniently grouped up how I like ya'."
"Who in the world...?" Meil made sure to step in front of me.
"Olya!" I yelled.
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***
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"Olyahim?" Meil glared.
"The one and only." He tapped his cane on the ground rhythmically, "I'd say nice to meet you, Deram, but this isn't our first time meeting."
Crap, we ran into the wrong person! Or rather, from the way he said it just now, maybe he ran into us first...
"HAVE we met before?" Meil tilted his head, "For I have an exact three dimensional model of every person I have ever met in my life stored in my brain. If I do not recall you, then we have certainly never met."
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"Cheh, whoa! Impressive." He mocked, "For someone to remember in such high levels of detail, they'd certainly have to be a God..."
"Don't you dare..." I silently muttered.
Olya knows Meil is Ouroboras. He read that much in the Book of Fortune, I know he did. But I don't want him to know that, I can't let him expose this to Meil! If he does, then Meil won't ever trust me with anything again!
"I believe young Nelly here already gave you the brief explanation on why I called you here." He continued.
"There can never be enough context." Meil replied.
"Man, that voice! It's still as annoying as always, shiet! You could've changed at least that since the last time I saw you, geez!" Olya's maniacal laugh made me twitch, "Wanna instill fear into me one more time for shits and giggles? That's so like you..."
"What do you want?" Meil pulled out his weapon and aimed it at the old man, "Speak now, or I will be forced to apprehend you by force."
"Fascinating, as to be expected of the likes of you." Olya shrugged, "Welp, guess I ought to listen to you then. Certainly wouldn't wanna feel the pain of getting stung by that. Just from reading Showa's reaction, I started shivering and twitching. Quite an electrifying read, I must say."
He's... not gonna reveal Meil's true identity to him? Or wait, what reason would he have to do that? If for whatever reason, Meil happened to recall his Godhood, then in essence the battle would've already been won for our side. Olya wouldn't stand a chance. Or would he? He IS invincible after all, but it'd certainly put him at a disadvantage... I still would rather that he kept his mouth shut about this.
"In short, I need your help." Olya explained, "It was either you or Lune Grimheart that was required to fulfill my criteria, so if you would be so willing, I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."
"What do you mean?" I cocked my head back, "That's not what you told me-"
"Oh my, Nelly. I don't remember you being so eager to get a certain secret exposed!" Olya promptly shut me up with a masked threat.
Without context, Meil was helpless to try and discern what exactly he was threatening me with, so all he could do is get mad and bravely defend me. Valiant, but if he knew that the secret I wanted to keep under wraps was in regards to him, then he'd certainly never be going this far for me.
"What is your goal?" Meil continued.
"To revive two good old pals of mine. Immortality gets quite boring when you're by your lonesome, don't you agree?" He pointed to his temple and spun his finger clockwise, "Makes you start seeing and hearing stuff that's not really there."
"Yes, I can assume that age and mental withering have a known correlation between them." Meil nodded, "So these two old pals, you wish to revive them through the Books?"
"Whoa, you sure you're not actually Selzion?" Olya dared to ask a dangerous rhetorical, "You're pretty damned wise."
"I will accept the compliment in stride." Meil sighed, "Now please explain why you could not simply wish your friends back here by yourself."
"Nelly, care to do the honors?" Olya smiled at me.
What does he want? I can't understand his intentions through that ugly mug of his. If memory serves, he believes that having me write his friends' revival in one Book and dad in the other would do the trick, but he definitely said that only my dad would work. This is because he's "The only one to win one over the Gods" as he put it. I can only assume he's talking about dad's miraculous revival...
"I trust Olya's word." I simply stated, "With him giving us such a powerful means to work with, he's essentially telling us we have nothing to be afraid of. We help him, he helps us, and everything will be done and over with."
Meil disliked this reply from me very much. His brows furrowed deep between his Eyes, and a nasty grimace was thus born from it. As usual, in moments of stress, he despises inadequate cooperation, but I think this was the smarter play for noe.
"You did not give away any meaningful info regarding the question." Meil stated.
"But she told you the most important message." Olya interjected, "Though my means were quite brash, the ends are without fault in the right place. Then again, I'm not asking for much. Just write down a sentence for me in this Book at the same time as Nelly does in hers, and then you're free to go."
"You won't pursue us anymore?" I asked.
"If it makes you feel any better, I won't ever see you again, unless it's a coincidence, in which case I'll try to stay out of sight." He grinned, "Shiet, seeing your annoying ass daily was already constantly making me pop veins just for these past few weeks, any more than this would already put me at risk of ending my immortality streak just from sheer nuisance alone."
Well, I'm glad I've been described to be capable of singlehandedly making an immortal person question their longevity. I should put that on my resume one day when I'm finished with university. I wonder, how does applying to become an actress even look like?
"Here's your pen and paper." Olya haphazardly tossed Meil the Book of Fortune, "Find the nearest empty page and write exactly what I tell you. This can all end tonight."
"Come on, Meil!" I urged him excitedly, "Let's go, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can continue looking for Lem-!"
"The protagonist's friend, Lemuel, is not anywhere on the island." Meil read aloud from the Book handed to him by the old man, "Hmph. And you expect me to trust this man, Nelly?"
What? Lem's not on the island...? This can't be, if he's not on the island, then where is he!?
"Always such a killjoy..." Olya readied himself for battle, however.
"Hup!"
With that sound coming from Meil, we were suddenly at the foot of the hill. Olya was nowhere to be seen, and it seems we were safe for now. Not only that, but we now had both Books with us. It seems Meil was the right pick for the role of guardian, after all...