Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka?

Volume 3 ss

Spending A Sleepless Night with You ~alone in the dark~

“It’s very scary, so be careful,” they had been warned over and over. “And no matter what you do, don’t ever watch it at night!”

“The more they tell us not to watch it, the more enticing it seems,” Panival mused.

“Let’s watch it then!” Collon piped up. “If we all watch together, we won’t feel scared!”

“Um, I can’t handle scary stuff…” Lakish mumbled.

“We’ll just have to find out how scary it is with our own eyes!” Tiat proclaimed confidently.

The four of them were about to watch a late-night horror movie with mediocre acting and a cheaply-made backdrop on a recording crystal.

“…That aside, why did you come to my room in the middle of the night?” the Second Technical Officer Willem Kumesh asked sleepily. “Didn’t you say you weren’t scared? Hurry up, go brush your teeth and sleep already.”

“I-I-It’s just a coincidence!” Tiat stammered, waving her arms around. “I just thought that maybe you were feeling lonely at night or something, so I was worried about you!”

The walls of the fairy warehouse weren’t very soundproof. If someone were to raise their voice in the middle of the night, it was likely for someone else to storm out of their room and complain about the noise.

“Fine, thanks to you I’m no longer lonely. Go back to your room already.”

“D-don’t wanna. I keep seeing faces on the ceiling of my room.”

“…Jeez. If you’re that scared, why don’t you just go sleep with the little ones? If you feel uneasy being alone, they probably won’t mind you joining them anyway.”

“Well, about that… since I already said that I wasn’t scared, it’s kind of hard to…”

“Why don’t you go to Kutori then? She definitely wouldn’t chase you away just like that.”

“I don’t want my senior to feel disappointed in me…”

“Come on, she won’t do that.”

“Even so, I still don’t wanna be embarrassed in front of her…”

It’s fine if it’s me then? Willem thought.

They both stayed silent for a few seconds. “…Good grief, all of you,” Willem gave up. “Fine. I’ll just sleep on the chair, so you can sleep on the bed then.”

“Really? Thank you!” Tiat flew back into Willem’s room. Looking through the doorway, she saw someone already on the bed, and shouted without thinking, “What’s going on?!”

“Ah!” Lakish jumped in surprise.

Collon shot up, looking around. “What’s happening? Are there enemies?”

“…You all are so noisy.” Panival grumbled, going back to sleep.

“W-w-why is everyone here!?”

“For the same reason as you, of course.” Willem said. “Although everyone had a different excuse, the four of you basically asked to sleep over here without telling the others .”

“T-t-t-that…”

“None of us heard a thing about it?”

Willem nodded. “Of course not. None of you said a word. Oh, and by the way, the bed can’t fit all of you.” He shook his head. “There’s only one bed in this room anyway, so it can’t be helped.”

“That’s not the problem here!” Tiat raised her voice again.

“BE QUIET!” a new shout cut through their exchange. Kutori towered by the door, a disdainful scowl on her face.

In the end, the lecture lasted till morning. After that, the issues which the four of them had with sleeping at night rather conveniently vanished.

A Question with Four Answers  ~ultimate decision~

It was a hot summer afternoon.

“Imagine you are on an airship when it crashes onto an uninhabited island. Only two people survive: you, and the person who’s most important to you. In a month, another airship will pass by close to the island, but you will have no means of communication with the outside world till then.”

Sitting on the other end of their table, Aisea Myse Valgalis suddenly asked this bizarre question. “However, there’s one problem. No matter what you do, you only have enough food for one person. In that situation, what would you do?”

“What’s that?” Kutori Nota Seniolis shot back, twirling her spaghetti with a fork. “Some sort of psychological test?”

“Oh, it just popped up in a book I read yesterday. It’s something about testing an individual’s thought process. Even if you don’t answer anything, it’s not like I’ll read too deeply into it anyway.”

“Well, I don’t really mind – but isn’t it weird? I know you said ‘individual’, but I think us fairies would all give the same answer.”

“Really? Whaddya mean by that?”

“We’d give all the food to the other person and leave the island ourselves. If it’s someone precious to us, of course we’d want that person to survive. We wouldn’t be sacrificing ourselves for nothing because we can fly, so we’d probably bump into another airship before getting completely exhausted.”

“Hmm… how should I put this? It’s rather like you to give such an answer, Kutori.”

“Hey! What’s with that smug look? Would your answer be different?”

“I guess so. A month’s worth of food for one person would allow two people to survive for half a month. That’s why for me, I’d use that half a month to search for ways to escape or communicate with the outside world. For example, I could explore the island, determine my coordinates from the positions of the stars, and extract some usable items from the wreckage of the airship. There’s a lotta stuff that you can do, you know.”

“W-wait a minute! Is that kind of answer even allowed?”

“I mean, this is a question to test people’s thought processes, so of course it’s allowed. If such options weren’t open to us, it’d probably be impossible. How about you, Ren?”

The girl sitting next to Kutori, Nephren Ruq Insania, paused from tearing up a piece of bread and raised her head when she heard her name called.

Aiseia explained the scenario again. “What would you do if you were in that situation, Ren?”

Kutori followed her gaze, turning to observe Nephren. How will she reply?

“Hmm,” Nephren thought for a moment. “I would sleep,” she replied calmly. “If help’s going to come anyway, then I’ll wait. If there’s not enough food, I’ll at least try to not be hungry. Being alone might get lonely halfway through, but if there are two people, then it’ll probably be okay. Perfect.” She ended with a satisfied hmph.

Kutori and Aiseia faced each other again.

“…That was a completely different answer from yours.”

“W-Well, yours was different too, right? My answer’s more conventional compared to the both of you.”

“Aren’t you rather wicked? If I asked you again, would you reply that you wouldn’t do anything then?” Aiseia smiled mischievously. “Why don’t we ask the next person who enters the dining hall to see if their answer is the same as yours, Kutori?”

“We’ll see.” Kutori raised her head regally.

Just then, a woman appeared in the doorway.

“Aah!” The two girls both cried out, realizing that they had both been defeated.

“Eh? What’s going on?” Seeing their faces, the female troll, Naigrat, stepped back in confusion.

“Well, it’s a question of how meaty this precious person is, isn’t it?” Naigrat had replied with a radiant smile, spreading her arms out. “Wouldn’t it be nice to be one with the person you love? We would be happily united, and the food issue would also be solved. It’s even less of a problem if there’s more meat to be had, after all.”

However they thought about it or tried to solve the question, they had all found a kind of answer.

The two girls returned to their table and resumed eating their lunch. “How fortunate it is to have our lunch normally like this,” Aiseia said, stuffing her mouth with vegetables.

“There’s no chance of us getting stranded on an uninhabited island anyway,” Kutori mumbled softly, twirling her spaghetti with a fork.

Meanwhile, Nephren had finished eating. “Thanks for the meal,” she said to the empty plate, clasping her hands together.

It was a hot summer afternoon. Time passed peacefully for the inhabitants of the fairy warehouse, for now.