Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Three days had passed and Raven had finally decided to approach the people of Aranuvia–the only ones left without any knowledge of what had happened to their king. Standing before the idolized angel at a fork in the path leading to the farms, he curiously glanced her up and down. Reminded of his time in the dream and meeting her, he was greatly curious about her purpose on the island, however, with things moving so quickly, it was finally time for him to teleport and join Regalia, Linkle, and the injured fox girl on the ship.

Closing his eyes, he gripped the necklace and let it work its magic, and as he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing on a ship just a few miles away from land that was visible in front of him.

"You're here? I've been waiting for you," Regalia whispered, leaning onto the ship's railings with her eyes set on the island. "Thought it'd be best to go in a group of four, three's a crowd but a four's a company, isn't that right?"

"It's the opposite," Linkle hurled at the wolf girl from the other side of Raven's body.

Leaning against the ship's edge, the trio all had their eyes set on the island–even Raven was staring at it. They had little clue about what to expect, but thankfully, a stumbling fox-girl and her dragon were going to be their guide throughout the confusion.

Stumbling her way closer, Choux–still recovering from the surgery on her legs, leaned against the edge as well. Following the gaze of everyone else, she took a deep breath, turned to her dragon companion walking up beside her, and finally heaved a sigh with a smile riding on her lips.

"We're gonna get him back, Daema. We're getting my brother back," reaching out to his soft scale snout, Choux gently brushed the dragon's face. Leaning into her touch, Daema, who was still recovering from his injuries like his master, purred like a kitten and nuzzled up to his master's neck.

"About that," turning around and leaning backwards on the railing, Linkle glanced sideways at Raven. "Elana's people have been transported to Lantherem, right? Has she kept her part of the deal with that wish of hers?"

Thinking deeply for a moment, Raven held his gaze to the island before finally looking at the witch. Even so, holding his tongue for a while longer, he contemplated whether the discussion was really necessary at the moment. However, as Linkle showed no signs of letting the matter go with her stern gaze, Raven decided to speak after all.

"We're gonna try with those necklaces first and if they don't work then we'll see if she can bring the boy back," already knowing her intentions, Raven kept things vague for the others. "The necklaces are many, but the wish is just one–kind of a simple math as to what we should try first."

Staring right back at the mage, Linkle was visibly upset. She didn't wanna use the crystal on the boy, especially since his sister had tried to wipe her from existence with the now-ruined rifle. However, hesitant to voice dissent, she shook her head and turned it back to the front. The quarrel wasn't worth the effort since Raven had already made up his mind.

"Now how did you guys get the ship working again?" Shifting the topic, Raven looked to his other side at Regalia, but before she could answer, the sound of a door being creaked open behind him, made him turn back.

Walking out of the captain's cabin was the sweat-ridden frame of the blacksmith–Reina. Wiping her head with her shirt, she returned a sideways glance at Raven. Her belly exposed as well as the underside of her defined breasts, she wiped her face quickly before letting down her shirt.

"Look who decided to show up? Mister I don't need you right now so sit back…" Still enraged with how she'd been dumped the last time, she rolled her eyes and kept walking towards the front of the ship. Trying to get some air to dry off the sweat, she kept moving her limbs, neck and head so that the strong ocean winds could calm her quickly. "Still gonna send me and that foxy back as soon as you're done using us?"

"Foxy?" Although her words were sharp and cut him deep with misconstrued intentions, Raven was more curious about the word instead of trying to defend himself. Thus, turning towards the cabin where he tried to look into the cramped space which was used as a makeshift kitchen. "Moxy? Is she here too?"

Right as he noticed the fox-girl working with a knife on something, Linkle decided to fill Raven in on much-needed context for the situation.

"I brought them back, Maria too–she's in the basement resting since she stayed up all night to keep watch," as Raven looked at her, the upset witch quickly turned her head away from him. "We didn't have enough people to work this thing, of course, I would bring them back and they agreed so don't look at me like that!"

Looking right through the greedy witch's intentions, Raven squinted his eyes as he continued to stare at her.

"And she says I'm using them," knowing full well that Linkle was aware of the dangers that might come crashing on them on this journey and yet bringing along Moxy and Reina, Raven wanted to pin her to the wall and give her an earful. "If anything happens to them it's on your ass, you greedy lizard."

"Speaking of lizards," having dried up completely, Reina chimed into the conversation again. Looking around at the many faces that had suddenly turned to her, her brows squinted in confusion before she decided to just go along with her question. "Have any of you seen Sally? I haven't seen her in a while…"

"What do you mean you hav–" Responding to her owner's voice while riding Linkle's back, Sally the salamander choked the witch out of her words. Frozen in fear from the strange sensation on her spine, Linkle turned her head like a crank toy and the moment her eyes landed on the salamander she jumped in shock and cried. "WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK?!" Enjoy more content from empire

Hopping around the deck with her legs spread wide and her hands continuously trying to shake Sally off of her spine, the witch danced about in fear while the others openly laughed or masked their sadistic joys. In a sense, she'd paid for dragging Reina and Moxy into the mix by turning into the ship's only source of entertainment, even if it only lasted a while.

That lighthearted moment was the last that the party shared on the ship before finally arriving at the island whose council wasn't going to be too pleased by them killing their king. However, even to that, Raven had already planned an answer–one that would quite literally blow their minds off, if they proved too much trouble that is.