While we were successful in defeating the dragon boss, we’d initiated the fight so close to the entrance that it would take us a while to traverse over to the warp crystal at the end of the floor. So, since it was already getting dark, we began making preparations to camp out for the night here on floor 18. Once we’d retrieved all the necessary supplies from our item bags, the conversation returned to the earlier battle.
“I said I’m sorry, okay?!” Erin shouted.
“Are you really?” Roslia asked with a provoking stare. They were in the middle of their usual back-and-forth. “You aggroed the boss out of the blue, and Sofie ended up paying the price for it! If you’re really sorry, then you should do my share of setting up camp.”
“Why does that mean I have to do your share?! That’s the part I have a problem with!”
“See? You’re not sorry at all. Why are you getting so mad?”
“You bet I’m mad! At least tell me to do Sofie’s share!”
Erin had indeed awoken the dragon without a care for the consequences. We’d ended up surrounded, cornered into a giant brawl with every mob on the floor—mid-boss included. The melee had scattered our party, leaving Erin to handle the dragon alone. That much was fine. At least, until it went into rage mode and began shooting wide-area attacks everywhere. Then it became everyone’s fight. Sofie had stepped up to tank and was treated to quite a beating for her trouble.
Thus Erin was currently standing trial. The defendant had pleaded guilty to all charges. She’d even shown remorse for her crimes, yet the prosecutor was trying to take advantage of her guilt and make nonsensical demands of her as punishment. It was hard to tell who was in the wrong here.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Fine,” Roslia conceded. “You can do my share and Sofie’s share.”
“There’s nothing ‘fine’ about that! How does that even make sense?! I’m not complaining about helping out Sofie. I just want to know why I have to help you too.”
“Just think about it. If Sofie hadn’t gotten injured, she’d be doing my share of the work right now. And thanks to you, I can’t ask her to do that for me. So it only stands to reason that you take responsibility.”
“Why are you always making Sofie do things for you anyway?! You should be doing your own share of the work regardless!”
Erin had a point there. With justice on her side, the defendant prevailed in the end. What a turnaround. The prosecutor would have to be tried for her own crimes at a later date.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” the injured party piped up. “I can even handle your share too, Erin.”
“Hey, uh, Sofie—” I started to object. It’d be best if she stayed out of this for fear of complicating matters. Yet before I could say my piece...
“Oh, that’d be great!” exclaimed Roslia.
“You shouldn’t let her get away with that, Sofie! Don’t volunteer to do her work for her! It’s only going to go to her head!” Erin yelled. “You don’t need to do anything else today, so just take it easy and leave it all to me.”
“Now, as for my share...” Roslia cut in.
“There’s no way I’m doing yours!” Erin raged.
Though she’d put Sofie in harm’s way earlier, she had no ill intentions. In fact, based on her exchange with Sofie just now, Erin was actually trying to look out for her. She’d just gotten tunnel vision when it came to the boss fight—typical of her recklessness. She was trying to make up for that after the fact, though it didn’t seem to be working on Sofie.
“My wounds have already healed. I don’t need to take it easy,” she insisted.
“Whether you’ve healed or not, please take a little break,” Erin insisted in turn.
“That’s all right. I’d prefer to do my duty.”
“Why are you so stubborn?”
“I’m just abiding by my principles. Is that so wrong?”
“All right, all right,” I intervened, not wanting things to get any more heated. Erin and Sofie were both sticking to their guns, which led to them butting heads...even though they each wanted to help the other. The whole thing was frustrating to listen to. “Let’s just set up camp for now. We can argue later.”
“Got it,” Erin replied, sighing and slumping her shoulders.
Sofie, meanwhile, simply stood there and watched me silently.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“No problems to report,” she answered succinctly.
“All right. You can help pitch camp, but I’m sticking you on light duty. That cool with you? Leave the heavy lifting to those two,” I said, pointing at Erin and Roslia.
The former nodded in agreement, and the latter went wide-eyed.
“Why me?!”
“As punishment for foisting your chores on Sofie,” I informed her.
“What?! But I didn’t even get away with it!”
“Fine, let me correct myself. As punishment for foisting all your chores on Sofie until now.”
“Guh... I can’t deny that...” Roslia bit down on her lip with a bitter look. “Skipping out on any more work will cost me affection points with you, so I have no choice but to accept this graciously...”
“Saying that out loud doesn’t really help your case.”
After being put in her place, Roslia would probably pull her weight around camp. She wasn’t truly a stinker at heart. At least, I didn’t think so.
“So, does that work for you?” I asked Sofie.
“Well, I suppose...” she conceded, only looking half-convinced.