"Geez! Are you listening to me brother?", asked Kallen in utter exasperation.
Sitting in a slovenly form beside her, "I'm hungry...", Ashen drawled. Completely ignoring the fuming Kallen while staring upwards.
Seated opposite of Kallen, "Master Ashen, Master Kallen is speaking to you.", Bartholo cautioned the slovenly Ashen who obviously did not listen nor cared.
"Mr. Ashen, here, a ration bar.", Rosseweisse who is now awake for some reason and was seated at seat left of Ashen, handed the hungry young man some food but was ignored.
"If the kid doesn't want it, meself shall take it girlie.", Jack who was sitting opposite of Rosseweisse, noticed her and gratefully took the opportunity to grab the offered food and ate it.
Such was the scene painted by the unlikely group as they all sat inside an airship.
Quite the strange scene considering that not even an hour ago, these people were in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by enemies and the circumstances that lead to such a scene could be summarized like this;
Ashen managed to cause yet another massacre in the highway more than half-an-hour ago, allowing Kallen and the rest of the group to catch-up but then Kallen started berating Ashen for his recklessness of which he immediately ignored much to Kallen's chagrin. Bartholo who saw that danger has yet to pass, decided to contact their comrades who were ordered to secure the highway exit to Galandre and told them that they were on their way but then their comrades responded by saying that they sent an airship to pick them up. Rosseweisse then miraculously woke up from her unconsciousness much to the relief of Kallen, Bartholo, and Jack and to the annoyance of Ashen who later warned Rosseweisse not to go around using her Privilege.
Rosseweisse however, stubbornly tried to do the opposite, leading to another case of Ashen stopping her with another hit to the head which unexpectedly only made her crumple down on her knees crying while Ashen's head gets hit by another magical rock which he expected.
After succeeding in stopping Rosseweisse's overzealousness, the airship arrives and they board it. Rather, everyone other than Rosseweisse boarded which led to Ashen having to grab her by the collar and drag her on board.
But then the enemies that had been following them managed to catch up and soon, another onslaught of bullets came raining down on them forcing Ashen to throw Rosseweisse into the airship to confront the enemies unencumbered.
Kallen who did not want to have her brother go off again in a suicidal attack, got off the airship and accompanied Ashen after strictly ordering Bartholo to remain and secure Rosseweisse and Jack in the airship.
Around 10 minutes later, Ashen and Kallen managed to eliminate the enemy with Ashen killing everyone-even the ones who surrendered much to the understanding horror of Kallen.
In an attempt to escape her before she could put on the handcuffs(which she removed when they found themselves trapped in the highway earlier) again, Ashen tried to run away with all his might while Kallen was distracted by the number of severed corpses but then a rogue tree root magically appeared and tripped Ashen causing him to fall face first on the ground and fall unconscious.
From there, it can be surmised that he got himself handcuffed again and was dragged inside the airship without resistance.
Now back to the present...
Ashen continued to stare up into the ceiling of the airship. Completely ignoring Kallen's berating.
Truthfully, he wanted to retort. But since he sustained quite the number of severe injuries coupled with the dissipation of his adrenaline rush, he just didn't have the energy to argue with Kallen nor to entertain Rosseweisse who is persistently offering him a ration bar.
'Urgh...what am I even doing? This is so not my style.'
He makes a regretful sigh. The events these past few days sure have become crazy enough that he is at a total loss on what he should be doing. Lamenting the fact that not did he get himself unnecessarily involved with his most hated kind of human because he was forced by Mother Nature to do so, he also seems to have forgotten the very reason why he was headed for Lothargien in the first place.
'It sure is not something related to Fate or anything. Not a big fan of such a concept in the first place. But I'm pretty sure I had something veeeery important thing to do back there...wonder what that was?'
He tried recalling but cannot seem to do so. The only thought popping out being;
'Screw these wounds, screw Mother Nature, screw humanity...'
-his thoughts about the world in general which was the only thing he found to be in normal state in him.
The chains of his handcuff jingled and reminded him that he was also a captive(of sorts...) at the moment. Thus he remembered that right now was a time for respite for him and that it will only be very short assuming that the airship is headed where he thinks they are headed.
"Oi brat.", he cuts-off Kallen mid-rant, "How many hours till England?"
Kallen was a little surprised by his sudden question but then immediately clears her throat with a cough before answering, "If we keep up this speed, I estimate that we would reach England in 5 hours."
Quite a length of time considering their vehicle. But if that is true, Ashen is grateful. Since 5 hours is more than enough time for him.
"Why do you ask? Just so you know, you're cuffed to me. Within this airship, even if you choose to jump-off through the bay doors, I can just activate the supermagnets in my sabatons to affix myself on the floor.", Kallen warned him.
"Hah? What the hell are you talking about? Like hell I'm going to jump-off without a parachute. Do I look like a suicidal psychopath to you?"
When Ashen said that, he saw Kallen make a face that clearly said; 'Really? You want me to answer that?'. Thus he decided not to further comment
"In any case, it's not like I can just rip my arm free from these cuffs and my body is severely injured. I don't plan on dying yet so I'm just going to sit here."
He made a grunt as he leaned on his seat.
"You're unusually well-behaved brother...it's creepy."
"Shut-up."
'I'm a well-behaved person compared to this nitwit.', he made a mental comment as he closed his eyes. From this point on, he could tell how things are going to progress during the flight and frankly he does not want to get involved further and so he did the most sensible thing he could ever do;
"Hey, since we're here and all and you're being well-behaved for once, let's talk about our plans for when we get to England. First we-wait. Brother? Hey, brother?! Did you just fall asleep on me?! Hey! Wake up!"
And it was to sleep it all off while being rocked side-to-side by his ever annoying sister-in-law.
*****
"Geez! Falling asleep before we could make our plans. He just doesn't have any sense of camaraderie!", Kallen's exasperated voice echoed in the cargo hold of the airship. The source of her exasperation being as expected, her brother-in-law who now sat still on his seat completely asleep. His broad shoulder heaving up and down as he breathed peacefully.
"Tired as expected.", Jack suddenly chimed in, "Boy really did not catch a break since the day before. Meself pities him for his abysmal bad luck.", he made a wry smile as he took a bite from a ration bar he has in his hand.
"I think we should lay him down in the meantime. Before we discuss things amongst ourselves. We can just inform Mr. Ashen when he wakes up.", Rosseweisse then offers a suggestion from Ashen's other side.
"Good idea girlie! Let's do that.", Jack agreed with a beaming smile.
"But where do we lay down Master Ashen? There are only the seats here in the ship.", Bartholo commented from beside Jack, "We can't exactly move around the ship while its flying at this speed."
Kallen agreed with Bartholo. The turbulence made the entire airship shake and groan and even with her sabaton's supermagnet function, she would have a hard time moving around. Although she also agrees with what Rosseweisse suggested. Kallen cannot very well ignore that her brother-in-law is currently severely injured after fighting off numerous assailants and him just sleeping in a sitting posture will not help him recover properly.
It was a problem that Kallen for the first time was having trouble thinking up a solution for. But then-
"Then I will only have to do this."
-Rosseweisse gave a simple solution.
"Eh?! Saintess?!"
"Milady!"
"Hoho~! What a lucky man you are, boy!"
The other three gave surprised reactions because Rosseweisse did something completely unexpected from a Saint;
She gave Ashen a lap pillow.
'The...the legendary lap pillow!'
Kallen's shock was so great because she knew just how much men dream of getting one. She was told by her mother that all mean desire to be given a lap pillow by a loving and beautiful woman and is one of the Top 10 Most Coveted Dreams of Men as per her mother's words.
Kallen understands the significance of such an act since her own mother frequently gave her and her sister lap pillows when they were younger and she understands just how relaxing a lap pillow is and so she was kind of envious of her brother.
'Kuh! If only I was not a member of the Guard!'
Kallen lamented in silence. Though she knew a lap pillow isn't all that special in reality, for a Saint, it is an act that somehow evokes the sense that she is favoring someone, which is something she is not allowed to do. Even more so for members of her Guard.
A Saint is not allowed to favor anyone.
That was one of the things the Guards are taught. That is why she tried to( though she failed) stop Rosseweisse from healing the man in the highway.
But what about her brother-in-law? How come Rossseweisse managed to nonchalantly give him a lap pillow?
Is it because he is a faithless man or was it due to her sense of gratitude? It's probably neither of the two and is probably more about him being ordered around by the World based on his stories.
This was obviously a show of favor by the Saint, but for some reason, divine punishment has yet to befall them and Kallen would not dare to think what would happen should it come. Heaven is not exactly the forgiving sort for rule-breakers.
'Tsk! Even so! For someone who hit the Saint and berated her with vulgar words, he gets too much of a reward!'
Even so, her envy cannot be easily erased even as the airship continued to fly through the scarlet sky as the sun sets in the distance.
The countdown to yet another trouble slowly ticking away.