I managed to stop the Nekomata from diving into the water after Merrick and brought her back up on the beach.

Granted, Emilia was screaming expletives all the way but it's a good thing her strength was lower than mine so she couldn't break free from my grasp.

"Ungrateful bastard! Stupid fish! When I get my hands on you, I'll fucking skewer you and grill you nyaa!!!"

The Sirens came towards us, looking quite concerned.

"What happened, Aster? Why are the ships on fire?" Allure asked.

Emilia screamed before I could, "We got betrayed, that's why!! That ungrateful little shit!! This is why I only need money and not all these little pieces of shit, nyaaa!!"

Odeta tilted her head at the Nekomata, "Hmm… Weren't the two times you got betrayed was both due to money?"

"No! It's both due to the people involved being absolute morons!!"

It's not even worth arguing over it, Odeta… Just let her be…

I let the Nekomata stomp angrily at the sand while making 'nyaa, nyaa' noises.

The rest of us were looking at each other, wondering what we should do.

"Well… I guess one good thing is that we don't have anything important stored on the ship," Cherith remarked.

"Aside for food and supplies!" Emilia cried, while wringing her hands in the air. "Are we really going to be stuck here for the rest of our lives?!"

She then paused for a moment before turning to look at us.

Umm… Yeah… Have you forgotten, Emilia? I can fly… And the Sirens have no problems swimming long distances as well… We could very easily head back to Etaripe Cove if we wanted to, even without a ship as long as we get breaks in between…

From the widening of her eyes, I'd say she actually forgot about this point until now…

I cleared my throat, "So… Umm… What should we do now? And… Just in case you need to know… I do have supplies in my Pack of Folding too… I have dried rations in case of emergencies and also for my dungeon diving trips… That's why we're actually fine on food for more than a month or so if need be…"

To be honest, Mother basically made me store that much food in my Pack of Folding in case something happened while I was dungeon diving, enough to actually last half a year if I were to ration my supplies. She's protective of me as usual.

Emilia stomped her foot in the sand again, "Of course we are going after that bastard who dared to try and double cross us! This time, I'll teach him a lesson he'll never forget!! He thinks he can cut me off like this?! Fine!! I'll let him know what happens to people who do that to me!"

"Ok, but how? His place is underwater right?" I pointed out.

"Yes. Maurice knows the way so first I need to go back there and see if he was in on this as well. If he was, then I'll start my revenge on him!"

Unexpectedly, Cherith raised her hand, "I apologise but may I say something?"

All of us turned to look at her and Emilia nodded for her to go ahead.

The Siren took a breath, "I think this is where we should part ways."

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The silence that followed was deafening to me.

"E… Eh?! What? Why?!" Delmare protested, surprisingly being the first to speak out against it.

Cherith frowned at her, "What do you mean why, Del? We are not fighters, nor are we Miss Emilia's crewmates. If anything, we hired her to take us away from that island of ours right? We have no obligation to involve ourselves in this and I will not allow any of my sisters to be put in harm's way. The other times was because we had no choice but this? This is not what we need to do."

Mmm… I can understand her sentiments to be honest…

I mean… Delmare was already close to throwing up when she saw the carnage we wrought. I'm pretty sure the other Sirens would not have handled that as well as she did.

Surprisingly, Emilia did not protest against her decision but merely nodded at her, "Very well. If you feel that this is as far as you would like me to take you, then be my guest. I will have to apologise for not letting you experience the full service of my ship."

Huh… I guess this doesn't count as a 'betrayal' to Emilia because the Sirens were her clients and the agreement between them certainly did not account for something like this.

She really is a businesswoman to the letter I see.

To be honest, the Sirens have indeed put up with quite a bit along the journey with us. We practically made them into pirates and even subjected them to some potential trauma.

"But would you be alright on your own?" I asked.

Cherith nodded, "We will manage. We may not be familiar with the norms of this world but we are not entirely clueless. If fate allows it, we will surely meet again. Let's go, girls."

The other Sirens didn't look too sure of her decision but they did not argue either, opting to follow their elder sister to the shore and wading out into the sea.

Only Delmare seemed to want to protest as she kept looking between her sisters and us, though she eventually went with her sisters instead.

Huh, I'm quite surprised by that. I don't mean to sound arrogant but… I was quite sure that if given the choice, she would have chosen to stay with me instead. Guess I was wrong.

We watched as the five Sirens dove into the water, leaving the three of us on the beach.

I may only have known them for a short while but… This separation still felt a little too surreal to me. I suppose with a World this big, it's normal for people to just come and go from your life.

Odeta immediately came up to hug me, "Don't worry sister Aster! I'm not going anywhere!"

Mnnff… I know you won't Odeta… Ehehe~ This feels nice~

I turned to Emilia, "So what now? Do I fly the two of you back to the port or whatever?"

Emilia tilted her head at me, "Are you able to carry two people at once, Lady Aster?"

"Umm… To be honest, I never tried."

Odeta spoke up at that moment, "Sister Aster. Didn't we see some boats those bad guys were keeping? Sister Aster didn't burn them so maybe we can use those instead?"

I gasped, "That's right! I forgot! Oh… But most of them were damaged though and I believe they were trying to repair them so I'm not sure if it's safe enough to sail on them…"

Emilia nodded at me, "How about bringing me there to take a look at them? Lady Aster could also use this chance to try flying the both of us as well since the island is close by to see if that's a possible alternative."

The three of us decided to settle on that plan so we tried it out.

I would carry Odeta under me and she would in turn carry Emilia under her.

I then tried to fly up into the air with the two of them and I could already feel an increase in difficulty.

The good thing was that it was not impossible as I did manage to lift all of us into the air which I suppose was thanks to my high Strength stat, but I quickly realised that manoeuvring in the air with two people under me was going to be rather difficult.

But as long as I did not need to do any aerial stunts, I should be fine.

The three of us thus flew towards the island and I dropped us at the docks where the smugglers had moored their damaged boats.

Emilia started inspecting each of them with a critical eye while Odeta remained with me, the Amrap seemingly having a lot of fun hugging me from behind.

"You seem to be unusually happy?" I pointed out.

Odeta chuckled, "Wahaha~ It's just the three of us again, sister Aster~ I get you all to myself so of course I would be happy!"

Oh my~ She's so cute~ Now I realise what's going on~

In front of those Sirens, Odeta was too shy to openly express her affection for me like this so she held herself back.

And since she's probably already feeling close enough to Emilia, she's comfortable with showing this side of herself to her, especially when the Nekomata cares more about money than anything else.

I have to say this again, she's really, really cute~

"This one is good, we can use this," Emilia decided.

I turned to look at the boat she was gesturing at and there, tied to the dock with a rope, was a small boat that was just big enough for the three of us.

The Nekomata climbed on board the boat and nodded at us, "A single mast sailing skiff. Would take us a while to get back to the port town but it will suffice."

Well, I guess it's time to head back out to sea again.