"You kids..." Olya groaned, "Look, it's true that Lem came to this island to attack me, but he has nothing against the islanders themselves. In truth, he's just an old foe I angered while I was away from the Archipelago."
"Like we'd buy that." Shakram rejected that answer, "He came here to get the girl, he said as much when he brutally slapped all of the island residents around."
"As I said, I angered him and so he came to get revenge." Olya chuckled, "That being the case, it's his fault for misunderstanding the situation. I didn't think he'd be crazy enough to try and kill me after I merely took Nelly into my care for a while."
"That annoying girl wasn't on friendly terms with anyone but Showa, though." Sheila remarked, "You didn't take her into your care, elder, you kidnapped her."
The old man was caught in his web of lies almost instantly. Though he was their enemy, Lem had successfully outed their elder's crimes before he passed. They're warriors, but that doesn't at all mean that they're meatheads—They weren't gonna let Olya's malicious words slide.
"Heeey~, elder?" Shillianna began skipping towards him, "We always knew you were older than the Founder's Tree, but is it really true? Can you seriously not die at all?"
"What does this have anything to do with-?" Olya rolled his Eyes, but dodged her lunge in the nick of time, "Shiet! Crazy ass girl...!"
"No fair, elder~!" She smiled back menacingly, "I could've been using you as a training dummy all this time, and you kept it a secret from us~!"
The sweet yet crazy girl readied her blades and kept attacking him endlessly. It was as if she had just woken up the way she was fighting, too. Definitely feeling zero fatigue from fending off an assassin and running around the island.
"Hrk!" Olya felt her finally stab him with one knife, cutting off a chunk of flesh from his arm with the other.
"Ehe, I always wanted to try you out!" She put the wrinkly skin in her mouth, "Oooh! Like alcohol, it only gets better with age!"
"Nasty..." Sheila scowled as she jumped at the old man from above, "Welp, elder, it was nice knowing ya'. Should've just told us the truth from the start, then we wouldn't be doing this to ya'."
"Sheil-!?" Olya looked up behind him only to get his neck bit clean off, "Khoff!"
Immediately, the life in his Eyes disappeared, yet perplexingly he was still holding on somehow. Any human that took a bite to the neck from Sheila's deathly sharp teeth would have dropped dead instantly, so seeing him still recollect himself and get up good as new proved to them that what Lem had told them was the truth.
"Is it because of the Book?" Schocco assumed, "The reason behind your inability to die."
"Sharp as ever, ya' big oaf." Olya smirked, "Yeah, when I was young, I used the Books powers in the same way that I've taught Nelly to do now."
"And what reason do you have to teach her this?" Shakram added, "Why her, instead of someone from the island that was readily available to you?"
"Cause you're a bunch of illiterate apes." Olya returned a hateful, deadpanned expression, "Neither Book accepts whatever the hell kind of writing style you idiots use. I needed someone who actually wrote from left to right, top to bottom, line by line. Though apart from that, I had a few other reasons as to why I picked her..."
The other reasons of course being that Nelly was Lune's daughter, not to mention a human very close to Meil. She was also in possession of the Book of Misfortune, a very instrumental item to Olyahim's plan to revive his friends. Really, even if he could choose any human in this world to take with him, there just didn't exist a more convenient one for the job.
"Who're you calling an ape!?" Shillianna raised her knives again.
"Hey, stop that! No more!" Olya halted her attack to elaborate, "Hear me out, I had a good reason for all this!"
"That reason being?" Schocco pressed him for the answer.
"To revive your oldest ancestor, Schnell Douglas." Olya exclaimed, "Not to mention our other friend Shaid who's in large part the reason you're all here as well."
"Our ancestor...?" Sheila's Eyes grew intrigued.
"Just 'cause I bought myself immortality with the Books doesn't mean they had the same luck." Olya sighed, "So I did a bit of suspicious plotting behind the scenes to get them back. This is why I took Nelly, why I taught her the ways of the Books, and why you needed to defend me from Lem."
"And did it work?" Shakram asked.
"It did... Partially." The old man continued, "Schnell came back, however I can't seem to find Shaid anywhere. That's why I was out and about in the jungle looking for him when I ran into that bastard Lem. You understand now, right? I had no choice but to call for your aid."
Again, Olyahim resorted to lies in order to get rid of any suspicion from the islanders. Well, there was some truth to this, because he knew the moment all three of them reassembled, they'd run away to the other side of the world with both Books in their possession. This was made impossible when their reunion was interrupted by the Gods, not to mention when Showa took Misfortune with her. Until both of these conditions were met, Olya's dream could never be realized.
"So now you know." Olya smiled, "You did an amazing job with Lem. The situation is mostly under control, since all I need to do now is walk around the island looking for Shaid. Really, the only worry I had was Lem, but now that I know I can walk around safely, you kids can go back to your homes."
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"Right, we're sorry for not trusting you, elder." Shakram was the first to bow his head in shame, "To even take the words of an enemy assassin seriously for a moment was a grave mistake."
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"Yeah, sorry for trying to kill you earlier as well." Shillianna stuck her tongue out playfully, "Our bad."
"N-No, it's alright." Olya chuckled nervously, treading carefully so as not to set her off again.
"But really though, elder, you should've been honest with us from the start." Sheila chewed him off lightly, "If you had just told us about this whole ordeal you were dealing with, then we wouldn't have had any reasons to doubt you."
"..." Schocco merely stood there.
"Schocco, come on!" Shakram called out to him, "Let's go grab a bite to eat at my place. Mama said she'd be making us your favorite, bamboo soup."
"Aww, lucky!" Shillianna stomped her foot on the ground repeatedly, "Can I come too?"
"Sure, just..." He glanced at her awkwardly, "Watch your calorie intake."
"I'm not gonna get fat~!"
"He was talking about your diet, silly." Sheila chuckled.
"Hrmm...! I'll have you know I only eat dead remains!" Shillianna fussed, "Once they die, humans are exactly the same as any dead animal you'd find in the jungle! If anything, I'm being eco-friendly!"
The three of them kept joking about, however one member refused to leave the scene. Schocco still stared the old man down, refusing to leave him alone in spite of Olya's suggestion. For one reason or another, he wanted to keep the investigation going.
"What, wanna help me look for Shai?" Olya chuckled, "No need, bud. Thanks though, but I'll handle this one myself. He can't be far if I properly summoned him in."
"What if he didn't get summoned in at all?" Schocco asked, "Does that mean you'll never see him again?"
"...What? No, of course not!" Olya burst out laughing, "As long as I have the Book, I can always retry!"
"About that, what happened to the Fairy and that other Book you gave her?" He continued.
"Well she couldn't have gone anywhere, now could she?" Olya started getting annoyed by the endless questioning, "She's sitting back talking to Schnell over a cup of tea. She was a bit hesitant to help me revive him, thinking it wouldn't work, but now that it did, those two seem to be getting along swimmingly."
"Schocco, stop pestering the elder." Sheila grabbed him by the arm and tried tugging, though that obviously didn't make him budge, "Let's go, he said we're dismissed."
"Yeah, we did our part, so quit trying to rope us into more work!" Shillianna brandished her knives threateningly as well.
"Schocco? Come on, bud. Let's go." Shakram too wanted to know what made their friend act so weird all of a sudden.
"Elder, I have something I have to confess." Schocco turned back to the old man, "You lied to us about this."
"Lied is a strong word." Olya corrected him, "I merely denied you some key bits of information, but those are just tiny details when you really take a gander at them. I do regret that now, so I hope you don't take it to heart."
"Hm... Yes, I guess I did come off as strong with that accusation." Schocco nodded back, "In that case, I guess the same goes for me."
"For you?"
"If you didn't lie to me earlier, then I didn't lie to you either." Schocco looked far into the distance behind Olya, "I hope you don't take what I'm about to say to heart, but..."
Before he could finish his sentence, though, he was interrupted by a smug young man's voice. The voice was a tad raspy in tenor, but that only made his words echo further. As for what the person said, it was nothing much... but a single Command.
"Lose this battle, no matter what." The brownish scruffly haired teen with sharp Yellow Eyes ordered.
"What-!? You..." Olya immediately understood as soon as he heard the voice, so instead of turning around to face him, he chose to attack the giant first, "Schocco, to think you of all people would betray me!"
"No way, what the hell are you doing here...!?" Shakram stepped back in fear, "We killed you! Schocco splattered your brains all over the floor!"
"He really is a deathbringer..." Sheila's Eyes shrunk back in horror.
"Elder." Schocco stopped Olyahim's attack with ease, "Please don't be mad. I merely withheld information, there was no betrayal on my end."
"Hrngh...! Kid!" Olyahim turned to the presumed dead assassin, "You stand before me alive and well, how!?"
"I gotta thank you." Lem smirked back smugly, "You really opened my Eyes to my own inadequacy, so to speak. Without this whole damned ordeal, I would've remained weak sauce until a stronger foe totally wiped me out!"
"Answer the damned question!" Shillianna couldn't handle it anymore, "How are you alive still!? After Schocco...! Ack, none of this is making any sense! No one can survive such a disgusting death!"
"You're talking to the apex of the human race, so stop mocking me like that." Lem turned to her with a scarily excited grin, "With my newfound powers and a bit of covering from the only smart guy in your little group, it was a cakewalk!"
"So that's why you didn't wanna leave... Schocco, you never planned on letting the elder get his way from the start!" Shakram shouted, "Are you insane, you even tricked us and chose to side with the assassin!"
"Guys." Schocco simply walked over to stand behind Lem, making for a spectacular duo shot, "I wish to be a man that helps people feel okay. I can't do that, not while the elder is roaming around this world."
"You can join the right side, if you want." Lem extended the offer to the others, "I'll warn you though, you're gonna have a hard time killing an unkillable man."
"Which is why we're not stupid to do just that." The three warriors stood in front of Olya to protect him, "We'll kill you and leave your carcass looking worse than before!"
"Suit yourself. Old man!" Lem called out to him, "You better not chicken out and run away again! I'll follow you to the ends of the world until I personally send you packing!"
"Fine by me, I was getting tired of running anyways." Olya cracked his worn bones with an eerie smile, "These old bones just ain't what they used to be!"