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Anlesa had discussed frequently about recent events. Everything had been so chaotic within the last few weeks.

These back-to-back incidents had been putting a strain on their body. Individually, the consequences could be handled and there would be barely any recovery time as for most of them there shouldn’t have been much to recover from, but that’s not how these events played out.

Debating if there was anything they could’ve done to prevent these events was hard, as it felt as if a bomb had gone off whose whole purpose was to disrupt the current flow of their recovery and life.

There was the attack on Arisea Station, which could be split into three parts.

Cobalt’s kidnapping and their murder on Morrison; the mutated monsters attacking the city and their attack on Joseph; Levi’s final assault on the town.

Looking back on this, they knew there wasn’t anything they could’ve done to stop the attack.

It had been in the books for ages, and it simply was time it happened.

The only thing they did was go after Morrison initially, which, while it had its consequences, objectively led to a good outcome as they were at least able to prepare for the attack and help their friends.

Then there were the next few events.

The children got kidnapped and they went on a near sleepless chase after them; afterwards they broke into the church to rescue them, kill the people who kidnapped them, and escape; finally they had travelled into the demon’s territory where everyone was keen on fighting them, and before that had to deal with that merchant and his annoying abilities.

The second half of the chaos had a lot more that could be blamed on them.

The fact that the children were even kidnapped in the first place was because their conversation was spied on.

Yes, they were injured, but all three of them believed that was not a good excuse.

That carelessness immediately had consequences as the children decided to spy on the church, which led them to be immediately kidnapped.

Was it remotely possible that the children could be kidnapped without them hearing the conversation? Yes, but Anlesa had already decided who was to blame.

And everything after that wasn’t better.

Out of the three targets, they had only killed two of them, and the children still suffered more than they had to.

The merchant saw ‘Syrus’ again, which was an unfortunate happening, but they still blamed themselves for choosing to go that direction.

They took an opportunity for personal gain instead of focusing all their efforts on the children, and now they were debating whether to do that again.

Luna had already felt guilty in the first place as the training impacted her the most, so she felt responsible for the delays, issues, and other consequences of bringing Flick along with them.

But they weren’t all strictly stuck with negative feelings for all their actions. Syrus believed their request of Flick to be their teacher was the correct choice and that it was an opportunity they couldn’t miss, and the cost of acquiring wasn't anything to worry about.

Luna Space’s teleport had been an emergency button only, but one that had the chance to cripply them in the process by the massive mana sink it was, so a method to make sure it was either no longer a mana and could be used repeatedly in combat, or an actual safe emergency button was all upside for her.

The situation ended up being, Luna believed a lot of the blame for how many scenarios ended was because of her, or them as a whole. Syrus stood on the other side of the fence, saying that they just had to roll with the punches and take advantage of whatever came their way.

Then there was Eva, who was in the middle of this current debate.

She wasn’t always the in-between when it came to the group's opinion. There had been many times she was in conflict with Luna and Syrus, and some with other combinations of agreements. Though she saw ahead of time that she would end up as the decider for any decision made for this current trip. Syrus and Luna’s feelings on the matter weren’t hidden, and so Eva simply sat back watching until she was asked.

Eva, as usual, didn’t want to upset either side, but she had long been a part of these types of conversations where one side had to close and compromises couldn’t always be made.

Looking back on it made her laugh a little bit, in her past life as Lilly, as big decisions or talks were left to other people.

She did have to talk to people and make deals, and she was decent at making them, but that was more because if she failed, she might not have enough money to put food on the table.

But when she was out of that hunger-filled desperation, she reminisced about being a coward in any meaningful conversation.

She was still scared nowadays, but maybe because the talks were with her sisters or because she had gained at least a bit of an actual backbone because of them, she could stand her ground.

With this argument, she also held an open mind about the opportunities presented for them, but also felt the guilt for bringing the children into danger, and partly blamed themselves for the children getting themselves into trouble and hurt.

[This feels weird…] (Luna)

[You will get used to it. It's kind of like wearing just a bit of extra skin.] (Syrus)

[‘A bit of extra skin,’ you say, everything about that statement is wrong.] (Luna)

[Hey, we are still wearing normal clothes on top. It is just now that our vitals are extra protected.] (Syrus)

A few days had passed, and the children had been comfortable staying in the Demon’s home.

Velelenra kept her promise to protect and keep an eye on the children while they were here, and Flick was happy to stay around for a few more days to search the place clean of anything.

Apparently even finding and trading some of the loot the demons had taken from prior attacks from the church in the past.

Anlesa would’ve liked to see what she got her hands on, but she was secretive and kept declaring that it was hers.

[Still okay with the decision?] (Luna)

[Where is that, ‘always being fully onboard’.] (Syrus)

[There is that, and then there is being minutes away from jumping into a brawl.] (Luna)

Eva made the choice of taking the chance of trying to utilise the crystal to heal themselves.

During these past few days, they had tried to sneak near the crystal during off-time and warm-up sessions, but nothing worked.

Velelenra told them they had to be serious if they wanted the crystal to have any real effect.

The reason for this choice was simple: like many other choices she had made in the past, she was scared.

Worried that next time, they wouldn’t be able to protect their family.

Their body had been repeatedly worn down by constant fights and strenuous tasks, and resting and recovering were still the solution.

It had been nearly half a year since the first bit of ‘rest and recovery’ had started.

The body was still dealing with forms of mana strain and physical fatigue.

By Syrus’s estimates, they were still only slightly over eighty percent recovered, and while she told them that physically they wouldn’t get much stronger, the other aspects of recovery, stamina, mana usage, Blood and Morph attribute use, and durability, were begging for that last twenty percent to be patched up.

So Eva made the call, that this was maybe the only opportunity to get healed, and she made sure they took it.

The kids were understanding as she decided to be honest with them.

She told them, like what Syrus suggested, they by staying for a few days, the kids' wounds and injuries would heal.

That split the kids, but Eva also told them about the arena brawl and the healing from that.

She nearly chuckled when the kids asked her if she wanted them to fight in that.

No, I need to enter for my own injuries.

She was honest and told the kids she was badly injured, and that this might be the best chance to get patched up outside of many more months of waiting.

The kids were shocked, but chose to believe her and agreed to stay a few days for the fighting to take place.

In the meantime, Syrus promised to continue with the kids' training while they waited.

[Yes, Luna, I am confident with my decision.] (Eva)

She could feel the irony of combating injuries caused by their transformation from repeated stress and combat, with more fighting, but the world had ways to make life weird like that.

[If that is the case, I have nothing else to say.] (Luna)

[I think you should say, ‘okay then, let’s win this!’] (Syrus)

[Hehe… I like the confidence…] Eva chuckled.

[LET'S WIN THIS! See, I can say it too.] (Luna)

Laughter erupted internally as near the entrance to the crater in a small rocky room, they waited for mayhem to erupt.