"You...!" Shillianna was still very eager to attack, "How can you even say such a deplorable thing!? Showa, you bitch, had you people never attacked the island, Sheila would've still been alive!"
"...Wrong." Showa replied, "That old bastard was willing to blow the entire Archipelago up if it meant getting his stupid wish granted."
"Shillia, don't blame the people that helped us see the truth about the elder..." Schocco timidly tried to explain, but quickly got cut off.
"See the truth!? I don't give a shit about the truth!" She went off, "I don't care about anyone here but Sheila! Bring her back, and I'll listen!"
That's... not possible. The Books are gone. Frankly, it didn't even cross my mind until it was too late. This was my mistake, but I selfishly thought only about how to settle the issue with Olya before reviving any deceased islanders. This was, and I say this with a hundred percent certainty... my fault.
"I get you're a girl, but fuckin' hell, man up." Ed raised his tone.
"Ed!" Anna went to shut him up, but he kept going.
"Nah, I'm tired of this shit! You did this, you did that... No one did anything, goddammit!" He shouted at the sobbing girl, "Does there have to be a person at fault in such a situation!? Will blaming them bring your friend back!?"
What a horrible thing to say. Ed, you yourself went after the royal family for killing me. I mean, he says they just wanted to end the war and bring back the taken territories, but I know my best friend. It doesn't take a Brown Iro to read his mind—He did it out of revenge. And now that very same man is lecturing this grieving girl to just accept a loved one's death like it's nothing?
"In other words..." Nelly translated his cumbersome words with a better explanation, "Sheila died to protect you, didn't she? Yeah, you said she pushed you away from the boulder before it hit you. Are you undermining her efforts?"
"What? N-No, I...!" Shillianna whimpered.
"You are alive because of her. She died so you could live." Nelly continued ruthlessly.
"...Shillianna." Shakram spoke up carefully, "Sheila was a dear friend to all of us, and this may sound horrible of me to say but... I'm glad you're alive, at least."
"How the fuck..." She wept, "How the fuck could you say that, Shak? Does she mean nothing to you?"
"...She's our best friend." Schocco worded it beautifully, "Hell, if she wasn't, then we'd be missing two quarters of our friend group."
Looking up at him dumbfounded, Shillianna had paused her sobbing for a brief moment before seemingly accepting her friend's death. She accepted it, realizing it wasn't in vain, but someone's death is not something so easily recovered from. They will forever feel the gaping hole in their hearts that she previously occupied. Just like... Like Carter.
"Please go to the village with them." Showa decidedly turned to us, "We'll give these three time to mourn while the other island residents and I clean up the leftover rubble."
"We can help-!" Issei rushed to speak.
"No, this is our island." She shook her head, "And you are our guests. A guest must always listen to the host's commands, right?"
"Showa...!" Nelly smiled, "Okay, we understand."
Oddly enough, Nelly seemed at peace with this way of doing things. Apparently this was some sort of tradition from the Archipelago. In any case, the situation seems to have been settled somehow, thankfully. It doesn't relieve me of any guilt I feel for not reviving her the moment I found out she was dead, but... I've lost countless people in my lifetime, and I didn't have such a Book for any of them. You can't live a life without anyone you love dying. It's tragic, but ironically, that's life.
"Phew, glad that's done!" Lem immediately called dibs on the first bed he found at the guest house we were given."
"Hey, that's my bed! I'm on top bunk!" Nelly vehemently denied his choice.
"Whoa, so this is where you stayed at this whole time?" Issei checked the place out in full again, "Maybe the old man wasn't so bad after all, damn!"
"Regardless, I'm tired, so I'm gonna go to sleep now." Lem turned his back to us, "You guys figure the rest out yourself. G'night!"
"Don't you g'night me, jackass! Get off my bed!" Nelly shouted, dragging him out of the covers he hid under, "And here I was being kind, making sure to give up the bottom bunk because you were injured!"
"Bah! Damn, the hell's your problem!?" He bickered back, "Okay, stop pulling! Geez, I'll go bottom bunk..."
With a smug and satisfied grin on her little face, Nelly happily had him get down before eagerly jumping on the top bunk to go to sleep. The house was spacious, mind you. Ours was bigger when it came to overall size, but this one won out by having more square meters. It's just that, a kind of short but extremely wide villa. What I'm getting at is that, even with such a large group as ours, including even the unconscious Generals and Meil, we had enough room to fit everyone... To an extent.
The lights were turned off, and everyone laid down on their bed. Using up all the main and guest beds, the sofas, and even putting Meil on the kitchen island, we exhausted all of our options but were still left with two people extra. Cecily and I had to get a bit creative with the bed plan.
"Hrmm... Mama?" Nelly's voice softly asked.
"Sorry, not enough space for everyone to get their own bed. Mind sharing a bed with your mom again?" Cecily replied in a kind tone.
"Of course not, good night, mama."
How sweet. Hearing my lovely wife and daughter get along so well. I'm truly a blessed man. Gah, I can't wait to tell Nelly all about how she'll be getting another little sibling soon! Ah, but before that, I should probably go to sleep as well.
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"Mnn... The fuck?" He whispered, both Eyes still firmly shut, "Nel, not funny, your parents will..."
"Wrongo." I plainly whispered back, caressing his shoulder just to fuck with him, "Daddy's here."
"Augh!?" Lem jolted the moment he figured it out, "Lu-, what th-!?"
"Alright, alright. Settle down. Not enough room for everyone, so scoot over a bit."
"Tch, then what the hell is this setup, dumbass?" He complained.
"I don't like it either, but I also wouldn't like the alternatives." I turned my back to him, "Bear with it. Don't worry, I won't bite~"
"Okay, I'm sleeping on the floo-!"
"Wait." I had him shut up for a moment, "Sniff sniff."
"Wasn't me." He replied.
"No, not that." I whispered back, "The pillowcase has Nelly's scent."
"...Heheheheh, score."
I shouldn't have said anything. This kid's smug aura is mocking me. How come when Nelly actually starts liking him I can't accept it all of a sudden? Dammit, don't fall asleep so soundly, you brat!
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"Good morrow, ladies and gents!" Lem practically danced the moment he got out of bed, "Did you sleep well? 'Cause I've never dreamt better!"
"What's up with him?" Ed asked.
"Oh, youth." Cecily giggled as Nelly embarrassedly hit her shoulder repeatedly.
Guess they overheard our convo from last night. Right, no doy, they were on the top bunk. Cecily's probably enjoying teasing her daughter over it too, and though I'm loving the reaction, it still doesn't sit right with me.
"Lune, be honest, you touched my kid, didn't you?" Lee asked suddenly.
"Hell no!" Both Lem and I shot back all panicked.
"I know that face. That's the face of pure bliss." He pointed at his kid.
"Right, those two did share a bed last night..." Issei joined in.
"I'll Command your dicks to stop working permanently if you don't cut that off right now!" Lem threatened.
For once, I'm on his side. Yeesh, that is a scary power though. I imagine Ed would commit the very next day if that happened to him. Dunno Anna's views on it, though. Ah, but Issei zipped his mouth quickly. Lee on the other hand...
"I ain't afraid of you. Not like I have anyone that needs it." He smugly replied, "Now be honest and tell your old man what happened to make the grumpy kid I know so darned happy?"
"Don't you freaking dare!" Nelly blushed.
"Hey, you were the one who did it!" Lem counter-accused her in self-defense, "In fact, y'know what? I'll say it just to spite you!"
"No!" She ran to shut his mouth up.
As the two kept squabbling, it was made painfully clear that the house's walls weren't all that soundproof. Seems everyone heard about our dear Nelly sleeping in Lem's "reserved" bed, 'cause they were stifling their laughter like never before. But never mind the youngins, the Generals and Meil woke up finally!
"Where am I...?" Pierre was the first to take a gander at everyone, "Oh cool, I died and went to Heaven."
"Wrong, dumbass. We just won." Aaron smacked him on the back of the head.
"Aww, you mean we gotta go back to leading ARA again?" Maxwell sighed.
"Men." Jorgen looked at everyone before respectfully nodding, "Congratulations."
"Woooo~!"
Loud cheers, whistles and claps roared from the entire house. We probably caused quite the commotion for the other residents given the thinness of these walls, but there was no way we wouldn't be celebrating after this victory. As the noise died down a bit, we all turned to look at the man lying down on the kitchen island peacefully with his Eyes open. He kept staring at the ceiling before suddenly getting up to inform us.
"The ceiling has 11,648 bumps." He stated.
"Oh piss off, you made that up!" Ed guffawed.
"I do not make statistics up." He smiled, "That being the case, that was also coincidentally the amount of ways this mission could have gone, and we hit the only one where everything went right."
Baffled, we couldn't even bring ourselves to cheer at these news. Right, it's Meil we're talking about, so he might actually not be hyperbolizing it one bit. If that's the case, then we really should feel grateful for getting out of this without any major injuries or even deaths.
"We really did it..." Lem couldn't keep himself from grinning.
"Took a damned long time, but yeah." Lee agreed, "We did."
"No casualties. No injuries." Issei raised his fist triumphantly, "Let's go!"
"Urrrahhh!" The rest of us followed suit.
"Soo~, what now?" Anna felt her stomach rumble, "Should we go ask the villagers if they have any breakfast plans?"
"We're not guests, dear." Ed replied, "It's kind enough as it is of them to give us this place for free, but the moment the Gods revive, we go back home with them."
"Gods..." Meil stared off into a distant spot in space before softly chuckling, "Really, it was about time they made themselves useful."
Meil making an actually funny joke? Okay, now I've seen everything. Roll credits, story's done.
"Rejoice!" The distant shouting of two mighty and powerful Gods soon reached our house.
"Wait, calm down~!" Showa's poor voice begged them to slow their roll.
"Raahhhh! Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!" Their voices only got more excited as the footsteps grew closer.
"Guess you won't have to wait too long for that meal after all." Issei gave a friendly retort to Anna's previous comment.
"Finally, we're gonna have so much remedial work to do when we get back to Simpleton..." Lem slouched.
"Oh, and then there's all the exams we missed." Nelly shivered, prompting Lem to do the same.
Is university really that scary? What the hell, they were so stoic this entire time during the actual mission, but they're whimpering like kittens over a bunch of written questions. In that case, good luck I guess.