Forgiven

"Whew!"

With the sounds of hammers crashing and the sawing of thick, strong wood ringing through the darkening, chilled sky, our MC sat against the wall of a random house, admiring the work that had been done so far while eating some bread.

'Man, for just one day they really did a lot huh?'

Watching as light drapes of animal leather were being hung over the currently unfinished construction projects, Camellia couldn't help but think to herself in admiration of this little town she once feared. Where nice gentle giants would hand her food and drinks while she worked, where older folks would nag at her to wear a hat so she wouldn't get burnt, and where those walking by her would wave with a warming smile.

'Maybe these guys aren't so bad after all hm?'

'Mm, that woulda been nice for sure... Zeph is still a perv tho, I don't trust him.'

[Sigh]

{Sigh}

***It's times like these where I hate myself, truly.

"Whelp, back to it I guess!"

Patting off her butt and stomach of crumbs and dirt, she stood and stretched while wandering off towards an open counter like ramen shop... Not that it sold ramen of course, as it was actually an animal skinning and leather tanning store.

'Alright, now that I have a good idea of how fast these slaves-'

<*AHEM*>

*sigh*

'Now that I know how fast these bright individuals can work. I have a better rough estimate of what we should and shouldn't be able to finish on time.'

Realistically, this village seems to specialize in certain things. Now that's completely normal right?

Sure! But these guys don't just 'specialize' its more like they ONLY do those things. For example;

They're amazing at hunting! The true prime kings of this forest! They can't farm to save their lives.

They're strong and great at making weapons! Their architecture is decent, but it looks like they have no clue how to do repairs, so there are a lot of run down, abandoned houses scattered about.

With that being said, I didn't take that into account when I planning of how to split the work load.

'A big miss step.'

Though I can trust Zeph with making and preparing the weapons, as well as the blueprints to the new weapons. This village is terrible at sharing and handing out things like weapons, which they're used to hoarding them for generations to come as they're decently expensive.

Not only will I have to hand them out myself because of this, taking up a lot of time, but there are also more than a few jobs I had to leave to myself as no one else can physically match my thread weaving.

'Then there's that Venom woman I have to watch over too... Not to mention the scout coming in a few days.'

"Hm... Impossible."

"What would be impossible Camellia?"

Continuing with her eyes closed, she answers the bright sounding, light hearted voice without question.

"Ah, just the work load is all, I should probably do more than I am right now."

"Hmm... I think you might actually be doing too much tho Cami. Ah, do you mind if I steal Zeph's nickname?"

The amicable figure, short and cute in nature, climbs onto one of the stools beside Camellia, as another patched up hat bounces around, before little hands start climbing a seat as well.

"hm? ah no I don't really mind- eh?"

Finally opening her eyes and looking to her side, she sees a kid struggle to sit down as blue hair dangles about.

"You don't mind if Junjun calls you that too do you? *giggle*"

Now fixing her eyes on the calming green haired girl that sat elegantly between the two, shock flushed Camellia's senses, as dread and embarrassment flooded her face.

"Sorry, on second thought I don't think you should call me that. Sorry."

Lowering her head, she slowly got up and started to walk away. Sulking as she picked up the last of her things and turning away from the counter, before being grabbed at the wrist.

"Cami, we forgive you. We all have."

'Why? I stole their only source of income, the last memento from Zeph's late wife, and abandoned them all after graciously being accepting into their family. It makes no sense to forgive a dead beat like me.'

"She is telling you the truth, we have all forgiven you."

Lifting the hanging cloth that acted as a door over his head, Zeph appeared in front of Camellia, looking down at her with a warm, yet judging gaze.

"Though it was hard for us to forgive you this time, it is nearly impossible for me to forgive someone for a second time."

Walking past her towards the seat, he reaches out his hand to the still sulking girl, and pats her on the head while finishing his thought.

"Try not to waste your second chance. Walking out on a misunderstanding is a stupid way to lose your family or friends. I would know."

'Walking away from a misunderstanding huh...'

Like how I left Kiyo. Alone in the rain, just cause I thought she didn't know how I felt.

As the man finally took a seat, he pulled out a few papers from inside his leather, work jacket, looking clothing. Sprawling them out on the table, and organizing them as the small pink girl sat back down beside him. Though her head was still hung low and hidden by her hair, all could see her tear filled smile as if nothing obstructed their view.

"We're glad to have you back as our big-sis, Cami."

"MM! MM!"

With cheering from the right, Lily hugged her pink haired sister with a few tears of her own, followed by the little Junjun... who hugged Lily. ***Its like a cute conga-line of hugs! She means good!

"Now that everything is sorted out, I would like to refine our plans for the upcoming Coupe"

Shocking her awake, Camellia lifted her head, wiped the few tears from her face and with an inspired look, she started to inspect the papers put in front of her.

**

YO! Been a while eh~?

JAXX TIME BABYYY!!!

*Ahem*, now onto the notes! I hope you've all studied and have been paying attention to your classes! (despite there being no classes or homework... hmmm) As for the plan!!

First thing's first; the names and places.

The mission has been dubbed "The coupe" as in Coupe-d'état! (which is actually french for the situation's strike! [This is a rough translation from your local bilingual])

The Coupe will be taking place starting at the only entrance of the round, wall encase village! and has many many layers to it in which I cannot fully disclose yet due to plot!

What I can let you in on however, is the plan for-**

"For the Scout..."

Pinching her cute chin, she furrowed her brows in curiosity while talking aloud.

"As for the scout, we were not aware of his appearance until just recently."

Pushing a list full of symbols and squiggly lines in front of her, he continues.

"This is a list of all of this villages sales, basically the village's value, from last year. The numbers are not exactly high, but cannot be called low by any person with a brain."

"R- right..."

'I can't read but I'll take his word for it.'

"This one, is from the past few months."

Passing yet another full list to the girl, she looked at the paper with a blank expression before peaking at Zeph from the sides of her eyes.

"R- riiight. I see, of course."

Twitching his eye, he put the two lists side by side and looked at her with a sneering gaze.

"Whether you can read or not, these two lists are for the sales of one year, compared to a list of a few months. Can you see the cause for concern here?"

"Ah-! They're both...."

"Both lists are full."

Reaching for yet another paper, he puts it on top of the two lists from before while adding;

"Not to mention that more than half of those sales are from the time period you have been here for. Exactly 4 months."

"4- 4 months... huh?"

'Did I miss count or something? was I really hiding for that long??'

'H- honestly not at all, it's been too long...'

'Ah... ok that makes me feel a lot better...'

"So how much has been made last year?"

"Roughly 30 000 units."

'Units...'

"Right... and in the past few months?"

"Specifically since you have been here, roughly 28 000 units."

"eh-"

AM I A GOOD LUCK CHARM TO EVERYONE BUT ME OR SOMETHING?? It's not like I made them anything!! Not to mention they basically had a search party for me, wouldn't that lead them to making less monee-

....

"I 'Harvested' those two animals..."

"You said that out loud Cami..."

"Mhm."

"I would advise you to not use the word harvest for something like that."

OH DONT YOU BUT IN NOW STUPID DEMONESS GODDESS BANCHEE!!!!