The tent flap swished aside, and M poked her head in, blinking in the gloom. "Hey, guys? Where is every—"
Her voice died in her throat. The scene before her was one of utter, bewildering chaos.
Alysa and Elizabeth were trussed up in complicated knots, looking bewildered and faintly embarrassed. No one could explain how they'd ended up that way. Gelda hung from the central tent pole like a bizarre piñata, swaying gently upside down. Eldrie was hunched in the far corner, looking pale. Licht was snoring softly on the ground, while Lara's voice was a steady, desperate mantra: "I have to use the washroom. I have to use the washroom."
The air was thick with overlapping shouts and accusations.
"How the hell did we even end up like this?" Liebe's muffled voice came from within his own straitjacket.
"Alysa was the one who restrained me!" Elizabeth accused, wriggling.
"Yeah, and then she restrained herself!" Liebe added.
Alysa, red-faced, mumbled into her shoulder, "What was I supposed to do? I'm an introvert! Based on the situation—and from what I know from the books I've read—I was the only one left, and it was just… too awkward not to!"
From her own confinement, Lilith sighed, her voice carrying a strange mix of resignation and maternal advice. "It's not wrong to read erotic bondage novels, Alysa, but please don't try to apply the theory in real life."
Liebe groaned. "Now what are we going to do?"
M's brain seemed to short-circuit. She slowly backed out of the tent. "Please excuse me."
"M! Get back here and get me out!" Liebe bellowed.
She returned a moment later, wiping her eyes with tissues. "I'm sorry. Please excuse me."
"Come back and GET US OUT!"
A third entrance. More eye-wiping. "Oh god," M whispered, staring. "I'm still seeing the same thing. I must be going insane." Her composure finally shattered. "ISURUGI!"
Her brother's head popped in. "What happened, Sis?"
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Isurugi scanned the room with calm, analytical eyes. "By that, you mean people restrained in straitjackets and on their knees, while one is hanging upside down in a corner?"
From her inverted position, Gelda issued a series of furious, gag-muffled grunts. "Mrgr, mrgr, mrgr, mrgr!"
"I must be losing it," M declared, backing away. "We need to see a psychologist."
"Save us then see a psychologist!" Liebe pleaded.
M, operating on some deep-seated instinct of order, did the only thing that seemed logical. She walked over and untied Lilith.
Lilith stumbled free, rubbing her wrists, her eyes shining with theatrical tears. "Thank you, Mavia! I'm so proud of you for taking my side!" She drew herself up, a queen restored. "Now then, I will be reporting all of you for what you did!"
Gelda: "Mrgr, mrgr, mrgr!"
"What exactly happened?" M asked, utterly lost.
Lilith gestured dramatically. "Well, I was telling Gelda and the others how I saw and talked to Tenebris and Domr in the sacred cave, and they put me in a straitjacket!"
M's brow furrowed. "Umm, Aunt—I mean, Ma'am—who exactly are Domr and Tenebris? By any chance, do you mean Domr Faust, Ma'am?"
Lilith beamed. "That's the one! My father, the previous Captain!"
M's expression flattened. "I understand." In a swift, decisive movement, she wrestled Lilith back into the straitjacket and tightened the straps.
Liebe let out a sigh of relief. "Gelda, I'm sorry for doubting you. After what Mother just said, I must agree with you."
Gelda: "Mrgr, mrgr, mrgr."
"Still don't understand," Liebe muttered.
Alysa piped up, her voice small. "I think she also needs to go to the washroom."
A low, pained groan came from the corner. Eldrie's voice was thick with shame. "Why… I needed to go an hour ago. But 20 minutes ago… I started to do it on the floor."
A horrified silence fell over the tent.
Liebe broke it with a strangled whisper. "Oh god, no. Oh god, no. Thank god you are at a corner."
Lara, who had finally stopped her chanting, sniffed the air. "Is that what the smell is? And why does the floor feel so… moist?"
Eldrie's voice was barely audible. "Unfortunately, it is."
Panic erupted. "Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!" Liebe screamed, thrashing against his bindings.
Gelda's muffled protests reached a fever pitch: "Mrgr, mrgr, mrgr, mrgr, MRGR!"
M covered her nose, gagging. "That's disgusting!"
Liebe roared, "Let me out first, then scream, dumbass!"
M fled the tent, her screams echoing across the campsite.
In the sudden, foul-smelling quiet, Liebe's mind raced. "Alysa. I have a plan."
"What's the plan?"
"We are running out of time. We have no choice. If we want to save our dignity… we have to sacrifice Licht."
Alysa gasped. "But won't he hate us?"
"He'll just have to live with it. But right now, he can't object." Liebe's voice held a grim finality. "We'll use Licht as a sponge. For now, toss him in the corner."
"Okay…" Alysa said, her voice trembling with guilt.
They maneuvered their bound bodies, using feet and shoulders to shove the deeply sleeping Licht across the floor.
Lilith, her dignity momentarily forgotten in the face of biological catastrophe, hissed, "Hurry! Time is running out!"
A heavy, silent agreement passed between them. With a synchronized, apologetic heave, they pushed the sleeping Licht into the corner, using him as a living, breathing dam against the rising tide. It was monstrous. It was necessary.
With M's help—as she was, by then, the only person in the group with any claim to common sense—they all managed to escape their bindings. It took a mere nine hours of struggle, gagging, and complex knot-untying.
Yet, sadly, Lilith, Gelda, and Lara could not save their dignity.
The next morning, when Licht finally woke up outside the now-abandoned and thoroughly aired-out tent, he stretched and yawned.
"Guys," he said cheerfully to the somber group gathered around a campfire, "you won't believe the strangest dream I just had. I dreamt I was drowning in an ocean of pee."
Liebe couldn't meet his eyes. "We really do feel sorry for you."
Licht blinked. "Why?"
"Trust me," Liebe said, his voice thick with unspoken horror. "It's for the best if you don't know."
Everyone looked at Licht with a profound, soul-deep pity. Eldrie, Lilith, Lara, and Gelda stood slightly apart, their faces permanently tinted with a humiliated blush, unable to look anyone in the eye.
As everyone emerged fully, Liebe noticed their skin. "Umm… Gelda? Is everything okay?"
Gelda's eye twitched. She screamed, a raw, ragged sound, "Yeah! Everything is great! It's just great!"
"Good morning," Liebe ventured cautiously. "But… why is your skin all red?"
"BECAUSE!" Gelda roared, advancing on him. "After yesterday, we were so disgusted with our skin after what that goddamn Eldrie did that we scrubbed it until it was goddamn clean! Do you goddamn understand now? Good morning!"
Liebe took a step back. "I'm sorry."
Gelda placed her hands on his shoulders, her grip like iron. Her voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "If anyone else finds out about what happened yesterday… about the… humiliation… I can promise you, we will be facing an understaffed consequence."
Liebe swallowed hard. "Understood, Ma'am."
Suddenly, M charged across the camp, her face a mask of fury, straight for Liebe. "How dare you, Faust! How dare you let my goddess be humiliated like that!"
Liebe sidestepped. "You're the one who freed her and then tied her up again!"
"That was before I knew what Eldrie was doing!"
"Then go kill Eldrie, dumbass!" Liebe shot back, already running. "And if you worship the Captain so much, you should have saved her yourself, dumbass!"
After finally escaping M's wrath, Liebe literally ran into Licht, who was looking thoughtful.
"Good morning," Licht said.
"Good morning."
"I have a question."
"Sure."
Licht scratched his head. "Why is everyone trying to call me 'the one bathed in golden light'?"
Liebe's blood ran cold. "What do you mean by 'trying'?"
"Well," Licht said, confused, "everyone is mispronouncing the word 'light.' They're saying 'liquid.' So they're calling me 'the one bathed in yellow liquid.'"
Liebe's entire body clenched in a heroic effort not to scream, vomit, or laugh hysterically. His face turned purple with the strain. "It's nothing," he managed to squeak. "It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing." He took a shuddering breath. "And umm… I think they say it because your mana is golden-colored, you know?"
Licht nodded slowly. "That makes sense." He frowned. "Why are you laughing?"
Liebe wasn't laughing. He was weeping silent, hysterical tears of pure, unadulterated trauma.