The True Endgame

Thanks to the chest from the dungeon and the chest from the roaming boss, transporting materials to and from The Shoebill is far easier than it was earlier with the logs. There is at least one hundred percent fewer exploding wagons, too.

“Yo, Shogun,” Rao says once they’re all back on The Shoebill. “You up for goin’ for a fly?”

Shogun yips and wags his tail.

“Is that like the flying fox version of asking a dog if they want to go on a walk?” Fenrir asks.

Rock walks up to Fenrir and starts wagging her tail and staring up at him since she heard the word “walk.”

“Basically,” Rao says as he gets onto Shogun’s back. “We’re gonna go fly around and look for where other towns might be.”

“Got it,” Fenrir says. “We didn’t see anything coming up along the coast, so you’ll probably have to look either farther inland if you look south or just go up along the coast some more.”

“Aight. Catch you all later. We’ll come back to where we’re setting up shop,” Rao says before signaling Shogun to take off.

Shogun and Rock nuzzle their heads together for a few seconds before Shogun lifts up into the air with his wings.

Rock whines as soon as she’s deprived of Shogun’s presence.

“It’s alright. I’m still here for you,” Fenrir tells Rock, petting her on the top of her head.

Fortunately for Fenrir’s pride, Rock cheers up, wags her tail, and licks his hand to thank him.

He would have been crushed if he couldn’t cheer her up.

“Hopefully that dumb teacher doesn’t try and pull a catgirl by never comin’ back on,” Tabitha says.

“She’ll be back. Probably,” Serra says.

“What happened to make her leave all of a sudden anyways?”

“Fenny sexually harassed her.”

Tabitha glares up at Fenrir and says, “Oi.”

“I – I swear I didn’t do anything.”

“Unfortunately, he did not do too much,” Nell says. “He only groped her breasts and kissed her.”

“Oi,” Tabitha repeats herself, her glare more intense than before.

“It was their plan!” Fenrir explains. “They blindfolded me and tricked me into thinking I was kissing Nell, and then when the blindfold came loose, it was Aza and they ran away!”

“Ya really think I’m goin’ to buy that you fell for one of that princess’s delusional plans?”

“I – I did!”

“So, you actually trusted that she wanted to blindfold ya just to kiss ya, and that nothin’ else was goin’ to happen?”

“Y-yeah. I swear. That… probably makes me sound really stupid now that I think about it, but I trusted her.”

“And the gropin’ part?”

Fenrir looks away and scratches his cheek. “We-well… I – I figured it’d be okay.”

“Ya know, if I send ya flyin’ right now, there won’t be any fox to go and pick ya up if we keep sailin’ down the river. You’ll be left to run back the rest of the way yourself.”

“Please no.”

Tabitha lets out a loud, exaggerated sigh before shrugging and saying, “Ya better hope ya didn’t traumatize her to never come back on. I’ll be needin’ her magic for my rocket tower.”

“You… you’re really serious about that, aren’t you?”

“Am I ever not serious?”

“Fair enough. Also, you,” Fenrir says, looking at Serra, “don’t go saying I’m sexually harassing people when you’re the one who set me up.”

“Sexual harasser Fenny,” Serra says.

Oleander sniffles and wipes false tears from his eyes. “Where did I go wrong raising you, Fenny?” he asks.

“Shouldn’t you be proud if you raised me to be like this?” Fenrir asks Oleander.

“Hmm. That’s a good point! Yep. I’m proud of you, Fenny, my boy.”

“That’s just weird.”

“You want weird? Then come to daddy,” Oleander says, biting his lower lip and giving Fenrir a lustful gaze.

Fenrir grabs Serra’s shoulders to hide behind her again.

“But I wanna watch this,” Serra says.

“It would be a rather delightful show,” Nell agrees, nodding her head.

“I… I don’t know how to feel about this, but… maybe,” Cassiel says.

“Can you all stop shipping me with Olly? We’re both taken, and I’m taken with all of you,” Fenrir says.

“He’s right! I might like to tease my Fenny, but my Cor is the only one really getting anything from me!” Oleander says, wrapping his arms around Corwin and nuzzling his face against Corwin’s abdomen.

“O-Olly, please, you do not need to grab me so crudely in front of the others,” Corwin says.

Nell and Serra take a peek behind Corwin to see where exactly Oleander is grabbing. Serra nods and gives a thumbs-up to Oleander while Nell blushes and nods her head.

“You know you like it,” Oleander teases.

“That – that may not be incorrect, but still,” Corwin whines as he wiggles around within Oleander’s grasp.

Fenrir helps out Corwin by grabbing both Serra and Nell by the backs of their clothes, pulling them away so that they can no longer watch Oleander’s own sexual harassment of his boyfriend.

“Am I the only one not obsessed with those things on this boat?” Tabitha asks.

“Probably,” Fenrir answers. “This is what happens when you join a crew full of lovers.”

“In my defense, those two boys were the only ones datin’ when I joined.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, it was pretty obvious you, shortie, and blondie all liked each other when I joined, but none of ya were datin’ yet. I had no idea ya planned on addin’ the princess here to your little harem, either. Then there was the cat and Red. Now there’s the teacher. Anybody who joins this crew apparently either falls for ya or is tryin’ to get his own harem.”

“You’re… you’re not wrong.”

“Am I ever?”

“I… can’t think of a single time you’ve ever been wrong.”

Tabitha smiles a smug smile and crosses her arms over her chest. “Course ya can’t.”

“You’ll be wrong eventually. And, when you are wrong, I’m going to make sure to never forget it. I’ll never let you forget it, either,” Fenrir declares, officially challenging the short engineer.

“Have fun bein’ wrong again,” Tabitha says.

“Fen, I don’t think you can win this one,” Cassiel says.

“Nope. Now it’s a challenge. I’m going to make her wrong one way or another,” Fenrir says. “Watch. Tabs, close your eyes.”

Tabitha smiles and closes her eyes.

“Now, without opening your eyes, how many fingers am I holding up?” Fenrir asks.

“None,” Tabitha answers.

“Shit. Okay, how about now?”

“Ten.”

“H-how? Now?”

“Three.”

“I give up. You’re a hacker and I’m reporting you.”

Tabitha opens her eyes and grins.

Fenrir looks at his girlfriends. None of them are around Tabitha, so they couldn’t have been giving her any hints. Though… maybe she can somehow see through her eyelids?

“Let’s try again,” Fenrir says.

“Whatever ya want, dog boy,” Tabitha says and shuts her eyes.

Fenrir moves behind Tabitha, checks her out to make sure she’s not cheating at all, and holds up seven fingers.

“How about now?” he asks.

“Fi—just kidding. Seven,” Tabitha answers.

“Seriously, how are you doing it?”

“Girls have eyes on the backs of their heads.”

“I thought that only applied to moms?”

“I feel like a mom around here when I’m the only one not chasin’ tail. Ya need to learn what’s really worth chasin’. Like coin!”

“But seriously, are you psychic? Do you have some magical abilities you’re not telling us about?”

“Nope.”

“Then how could you tell exactly how many fingers I was holding up every single time?”

“Lucky guessin’, dog boy. I figured ya’d try to trick me with none at first, then ya went from none to all, then I figured ya’d go for an odd number like three or seven so that was fifty-fifty chance, and then I knew ya would try it again but the other number. You’re more predictable than ya might think ya are.”

“Am… am I predictable?” Fenrir asks, sounding deflated as he turns around to look at his girlfriends.

“W-well, you are not unpredictable, my hero,” Nell says.

“Olly?”

“Yeah, you’re kinda predictable when it comes to anything other than griefing,” Oleander says.

Fenrir had no idea that he was so predictable. Doesn’t that make him boring? Is he a boring person?

He’s going to have to try and become more unpredictable, especially for his girlfriends.

“You’re thinking you want to be more unpredictable, aren’t you?” Cassiel asks.

Fenrir goes pale. “I – I really am that predictable, aren’t I?” he asks.

“It’s okay,” Serra says. “It makes it easier to bully you.”

“Though, a bit of unpredictability could be nice, such as if you suddenly go on a feral rampage as we try to sleep!” Nell says.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tabitha says, patting Fenrir on his back. “Ya’ve been predictable this entire time. I doubt they’d still be with ya if that was a problem.”

“She’s right,” Cassiel says. “You don’t need to be unpredictable.”

His girlfriends may be saying that, but it doesn’t mean that Fenrir isn’t going to try his best to become less predictable.

“You’re still thinking you want to try and become less predictable, aren’t you?” Cassiel asks.

Fenrir walks over to The Shoebill’s railing and climbs up onto it.