We all stare in silence as the albino plummets into the infinite darkness below. The monsters all scream in panic and try to run away, but they're all so heavily wounded that none of them escape, so the Chimeras easily finish them all off.

I feel the option to summon the albino gradually becoming clear inside my mind. It's certainly my most powerful summon now, but if the Grim Giant used that much of my HP, then I'm certain that summoning the albino would kill me if I tried it with my current amount of MP.

"That was… a rather sad fight," I comment.

"It wanted death," Alissa adds.

"Was the blue Leviathan its mate?" I ask.

Alissa responds with cold detachment, "Probably. It was likely a breeder-type, so it'd be trying to reproduce at every opportunity."

I frown and feel a slight tightening in my heart. The life of a monster is harsh and merciless, I've known that for a while, but I still feel sadness and pity whenever I recognize that this is just the way things are. It's easy for me to sympathize, I just have to think about losing one of the girls and a whole load of horrible feelings washes over me.

Alissa removes her scaled gloves, and her warm, gentle hand cups my cheek.

I turn to face her, and her beautiful orange eyes stare at me lovingly as she whispers, "I'm happy that you still feel pain from our war with the monsters because I don't, not anymore. That heart of yours is why I fell in love with you, so I want you to keep it like this even after wiping out the heretics to protect us, or fighting the Monster King, or whatever else may be your purpose here. It's not just me, but the realm itself that needs people like you leading us."

Bleeding hearts, leading minds.

I smile warmly at her and say, "And you'll be here to heal me when I come back."

She nods empathically. "Always." Her other hand cups my other cheek, then she pulls me closer and kisses my nose.

I look down to the deck and see the girls all looking at me, except for Ciel, who seems concerned about the Chimeras, and Yunia, who's looking around, a little confused, but she seems able to read the mood.

I look towards the horizon and say, "It's easy to forget that these monsters also have feelings, but I feel better now after remembering that. I'll never become a pacifist, but I won't let cruelty take me over, either."

"And that's why the Gods were right in blessing you." She releases my cheeks, and we get back to piloting the ship.

With the monsters gone, Wasps start to land, and the Horns return to the Carrier.

"I'll go over to the Carrier and help the wounded," Ciel announces, then turns to me. Her eyes clearly show her strong determination.

I nod, and she casts [Fly], then takes off.

"Is Wolfy okay?" Yunia asks Lina, sounding slightly anxious.

My little dwarf tells her of my first few days before Alissa, and then the promise she made to me. Yunia remains pensive for a short while, then returns to normal as we start to relax.

Code red changes to yellow, then Ciel comes back.

The fleet returns to the Looping Winds, and we stop once we reach the midpoint between Void's End and the mist.

Now that we're free from the threat of the albino and the low visibility of the mist, we all start to feel much more comfortable.

I grab small-Aoi and wash every single one of her blue scales. Alissa helps me out to make it go faster, and Aoi starts to complain.

"Noo~… Mu~…" She moans lowly and starts to get annoyed. Lifting the scales to wash them is uncomfortable for her, no matter how high our [Washing] is.

"Quiet, you. I - don't wanth no stinky lizard," I say to her, and she stops squirming.

"The effort to remain clean and beautiful is always rewarded," Alissa adds.

Ciel smiles warmly at Aoi and says, "The ability to perfectly balance our orderly and chaotic natures is what differentiates humanoids from monsters. We're able to overcome our nature, but monsters don't."

This gets Aoi thinking, and she stops complaining.

"Don't monsters also have an instinct to clean themselves? Being dirty would only make them weak," I question.

"I clean myself, but not like this," Aoi responds and glances at me as I wax her scales.

"How does 'cleaning' relate to the Gods?" Ciel questions Aoi.

She frowns and thinks for a moment, then answers, "Cleaning is worshiping the God of Change, 'not cleaning' is worshiping the God of Order."

"We control our nature, so we can choose what's best for us, and not just worship the Old Gods blindly."

Lina's Trivia: Old Gods is the colloquial way to call the Ancient Gods, the ones who existed before the Humanoid Gods.

"Fiine, I won't complain," Aoi relents.

"Even when I wax your scales?" I ask her with a smirk, and she nods shyly.

"The more beautiful we are, the harder Wolfy - pounds us," Hana adds.

Aoi taps a claw on her snout in thought, then Alissa - adds, "- That should be enough encouragement for you, right?"

Aoi - nods emphatically.

-

I store the tub and the partition away as the girls dry their hair and remake Yunia's drills, then I give a smile to Oritiki, who was standing guard for us all this time.

She licks her fingers and sighs. "I'm not sure if I like this or not. Your group is too much of a tease for me," she comments with a wry smile.

I scratch my head awkwardly and say, "Since the albino is dead, maybe we don't need such a strict watch anymore."

She shakes her head and grins, then she replies in an overly dramatic tone, "No, no, no, no. I'll gladly make the sacrifice of hearing you all madly - doing it while I - play with myself. Your safety is more important than my - satisfaction."

"Jokes aside, thank you," I say and give her a short bow. "You've cared for us very well and shown yourself to be a good friend to our family. We're all glad to have met you."

The girls join me and give her a bow, too.

"Your kindness will forever stay with us," Alissa adds.

"There are few nobles who receive strangers so warmly like you did. You can consider us allies," Yunia finishes.

Oritiki raises her non-existent eyebrows in surprise, then her face softens with a warm smile. Her voice becomes soft and slightly emotional as she says, "I don't claim to be a great judge of character, but I was never given a reason to doubt yours. I felt that your family was honorable and deserved to be treated well, so I resolved myself to help you all in any way I could."

Except for that spying we did…

I return the smile and nod respectfully.

Hana crosses her arms and comments, "Everyone calls you Honorable One, but you've never asked for us to do the same."

Oritiki seems to be caught off-guard and awkwardly rubs one of her horns. "I prefer it this way. Everyone keeps their distance from me and the other Horns, so I didn't want to do the same to the first people we've met after so long that only the Divines know."

So, all she wanted was a friend?

"Considering how you belong to the Celestial Horns, I didn't expect you to be so unconcerned with formalities," Roxanne adds.

Oritiki chuckles and replies, "Once you live long enough, that sort of thing seems like a waste of time. Even the Divines only cared about formalities when talking to the public."

"It's those who have little power that feel the need to always keep a wall between themselves and the commoners," Ciel says like a sage.

"Those who have real power don't need to show it at every opportunity," Oritiki adds, and they nod towards each other.

"Anyway, I'll land the ship on the Carrier. Hihiriwa has invited us for dinner again," I say and slowly float up towards the bridge.

We enter the Carrier and hear the laughter of the crew echoing through the corridors. It seems that the partying has already started.

We meet Kaatohe on the way. She isn't in a celebratory mood and even seems a little annoyed.

I walk along beside her and ask as I look up and down her naked body, "Did something happen? You don't seem very content."

She crosses her arms, bunching up her adorable breasts, and answers, "I lost my personal Wasp. It'll take me a while to modify the [Fly] gem of the new one to my liking."

"Oh, you do alterations? I didn't know that," Oritiki comments.

She smiles smugly and replies, "It's why I'm the best pilot we have. I know everything about my planes, though I don't do maintenance on them, that's just unnecessary."

"Well, we maintain our own weapons and armor," Oritiki calmly comments.

"That's because you're the only ones who know how," Kaatohe casually responds and flicks her wrist dismissively.

"Yes, but still, we're the ones who know the most about them, so we're the best choice to maintain them."

"Oh? That's interesting. I see that the Celestial Horns have their own way, but I just don't think I have anything to gain by maintaining my own planes."

They're talking casually, but I'm uncertain whether they're bantering or if they really don't like each other.

We enter the dining hall and see Hihiriwa already drinking with his wife, Kaiia, and Mahi.

The gray dragon-headed man opens his arms as he sees us and grins. "Oritiki! Kaatohe! Ryders! What a great battle we had. Your infiltration of the fortress brought us a complete victory today. We wouldn't have been able to demoralize it so thoroughly otherwise!" He exclaims and laughs out loud.

We take our seats and smile back, though mine is a bit forced.

"Yes, we all fought well. It couldn't have gone better," Yunia responds.

"Your Reo has improved," Kaatohe comments, and Yunia smiles subtly.

I put her new points into [Reo Language] after she leveled up.

"We didn't expect things to go so well," Kaiia says.

"I suspected that the albino had a mate, but I didn't think that it'd lose the will to live after its death," Hihiriwa says.

"Nohopu had been hunting Leviathans and the albino itself for a long time. After losing so many partners, even a monster would desire death."

"Old monsters commit suicide all the time," Oritiki comments.

"Let's not dwell on these depressing thoughts; we're here to celebrate our victory," Kaatohe comments, sounding a little more annoyed than before.

"The Celestial Horns and Nohopu performed admirably as expected, but we're also all impressed by your versatility, Ryders. It's a pity that you'll be leaving us," Kaata says with a gentle smile. The gecko-headed woman seems to be warming up to us.

Hihiriwa takes another sip from his drink and says, "We'd love to know more about that teleportation spell. If you ever come back to Whakamutu, we are willing to trade for your knowledge of it."

"We'll definitely come back one day, so we'll take you up on your offer then," I lie with a business smile.

The door opens, and we see Nohopu strutting inside, beaming with pride. Kurii calmly follows in behind him, and a cute human-headed blonde woman comes in after her.

The squirrel-headed man is completely naked, except for all the gold hanging on his body, and - he's showing full mast. Alissa even - senses his manly smell leaking out of him, which disgusts her greatly.

The cute woman behind them keeps her head down, and her shy body language tells me that she's a servant. The transparent lingerie she's wearing suggests what her job here is.

"Hooray! The Divines have blessed us in our hunt!" Nohopu exclaims and grins.

"They observe us with pride! We've asserted Chimeric superiority!" Hihiriwa cheers and laughs.

"WITNESS OUR GLORY!" Kaiia bellows. The naked panda man rises from his seat -.

Mahi sighs, and Oritiki smiles wryly.

Nohopu takes his seat, and the blonde woman kneels, then crawls in front of him under the table - and starts working.

Kaiia sits down, then both he and Kaatohe start -playing with themselves while watching them.

Oh, wow.

Hihiriwa snorts and asks Nohopu, "Couldn't wait for after dinner?"

The squirrel man grins and grunts. "Definitely not. I almost skipped this because I wanted her so badly. I'm just way too excited right now to hold myself back."

"Why didn't you bring your wife?" Kaata asks.

"She doesn't do well cooped up inside the ship all day," Nohopu responds and closes his eyes.

"You should find her a job on your ship."

"The only thing she'd accept is replacing me as the captain." And they chuckle lightly at the joke.

Oritiki gives us an apologetic smile, and we shrug. The atmosphere almost devolves into an - a free-for-all, but physical hunger wins, and we eat normally, or rather, as normally as we can.

The blonde servant finishes off Nohopu, then he gives her a kiss, and she leaves, seemingly very content with herself.

The weirdest part is when Kaiia - finishes into his cup, then mixes it with alcohol and drinks it, but nobody reacts to it except for Lina and Ciel, who raise their eyebrows in surprise.

"It's only you who thinks that drinking your own - juice is 'gay,'" Alissa says through [Bind].

"Straight men drink - women-juice, non-straight men drink male-juice," I firmly reply.

"Hey, it's your choice, but that just means there's more for us, then," Hana adds with a chuckle.

Before they all become too drunk to talk, I wait for a lull in the conversation and ask, "So, what should we expect from the rest of the expedition?"

"There's only Void's End ahead, and after that are the remains of Ozymandias, which is the territory of the Maw," Kaata answers.

"We'll let the Floater and the Horns scout ahead to confirm the Maw's position and choose one of the islands, then we'll start the distraction once they get back," Hihiriwa adds.

"We've never seen a Dark Void before, is there anything we should be particularly wary of?" Lina asks.

"Stay on your ship, and don't try to fly. Your depth perception will be warped due to the lack of reflection from the Voids," Oritiki answers.

"We'll move slowly and use the Trinity Cannons and [Beam]s to gauge distances, but if the Looping Winds has been set correctly, then there'll be no need for that," Kurii adds.

Lina and I share a glance, then I force a smile while she looks down. "Of course we did," I respond wryly.

"You've done well enough already. It's no easy task for an outsider to operate our Looping Winds," Kaata praises us, and Oritiki nods.

A bit comforting, but her words still don't fully counter the anxiety coming from the fact that if we did fuck up setting the anchors, then everyone will know.

The alcohol begins to fill our blood, and the singing starts.

Kaiia, the rather quiet panda man, loudly sings a slurred shanty, his deep voice reverberating through the dining hall. Nohopu, the energetic squirrel man, breaks down and cries on Hihiriwa's shoulder, yelling about how grateful he is for being chosen for this expedition. Hihiriwa becomes passive like a doll, and his long, gray dragon head sways about as Nohopu shakes him about by the shoulder. Mahi, Kaata, Roxanne, and Hana all talk babble gibberish to each other and giggle, and from what I overhear, I'm pretty sure that Mahi is gay for Kaata. Kurii slams her face onto the table and goes to sleep. Kaatohe and Yunia start talking shit about the stupid commoners and reveal the snobbishness they've kept locked inside.

"You don't drink much," Oritiki comments.

"No, I prefer not to," I respond, and smile at the drunk girls. "Someone has to bring them back safely."

She nods gently. "I understand that well."

I turn to her and ask, "You also don't drink?"

She gives me a pained smile. "No, I don't, but for a different reason."

She doesn't tell me why, so I decide not to pry.

Hihiriwa and Kaata start - going hardcore while Mahi - watches them, so we decide that it's time for us to leave. Hana is already more than - excited enough, so it's better to not - tease her any further.

Ciel casts [Purify Body] on the girls and me, then we say our goodbyes and return to our ship.

We lift off and park beside the Carrier, then we retire to our tent and put our black dragon scale armor back on, except for Hana and I.

We don't even care about the Horns standing watch outside, - I just do Hana like there's no tomorrow. She's totally gay for Mahi and gets Gify to replay the memory of her - watching Hihiriwa and Kaata.

-

Ciel [Heal]s my hips, then I sigh and stretch. The girls start to snuff out their lights to go to sleep, so Alissa helps me put on my armor, then we go up to the bridge to begin our watch.

One of the Horns stuffs his - stuff back in his pants, then he lands down on the deck and gives me a knowing nod.

It's both weird and exciting how nonchalant the Chimeras are about doing - things in front of others.

I cuddle with Alissa and sneak a tentacle down her pants. Tonight's background music: her soft moaning.