Despite just how obvious it was what Vala was going to do, Valkyria seemed to have no idea and kept on trying to ask the rest of us about her plans. But we figured that if not telling her would result in her getting a nice surprise visit, then why answer her?

Plus it was fun to tease her about how we knew something that she didn’t.

But that aside, there was something else that I really didn’t expect to happen as a result of the day’s events, and that was… the bond that seemed to instantly form between Lake and Valkyria. Well, at the very least, it was a bond formed on Lake’s end directed at Valkyria. I wasn’t sure just how mutual it was, but Lake couldn’t stop talking about how they were going to have to go fishing and drinking together.

Not many things were strange to me anymore, but it did feel a bit strange seeing a sword, who was at least a thousand years old, act all clingy and like a needy best friend to a tank.

I think she just wanted somebody who she could relate to. She finally found somebody who went through things similar to her, so she got hyped up over it.

Once Lake finally broke away from Valkyria’s side to go feed her pet wolf and cat, Valkyria came up to me and sighed. “Lake is… quite the woman.”

“I would almost think she’s got a crush on you,” I said, “if I wasn’t concerned that she might only have that sort of interest in… well, anyways, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, why do you ask?”

“Well, you did show us your memories, and you watched them. I saw that you were pretty… tense a few times during it.”

“Ah. I must admit, it was not as easy to watch as I thought it would be. But… knowing that the future I fought for was the right one helps me manage. To be left in such a field of destruction, only for nature to return and children to play among it—I am confident in why I fought. I did what needed to be done—we all did. If we did not step up to defend the world against tyranny, then who would?”

My mind immediately went to Vala as an answer. Given just how powerful she was and what she was capable of, wouldn’t she have been able to prevent that war if she wanted to? There were a whole lot of things she could have done for a huge variety of issues. But, it wasn’t right of me to think that she owed anybody anything. Just because she had those capabilities did not mean she was complacent for not using them.

Of course, that logic could be applied to a lot more than just an all-powerful dragon.

But I wasn’t interested in getting too political, so I stopped that line of thought before I got too into it.

“I can tell what you’re thinking,” Valkyria said.

“Window reads my mind enough. Are you going to start, too?” I asked.

She smiled and shook her head. “It is nothing as invasive as mind reading. It is simply… a feeling I get from you, and I only recognize it because I have thought about it myself.”

“You have?”

With a nod, Valkyria looked around at the lake, the mountains and forest in the distance, the flowers, and then up at the sky. “I was suddenly brought to this world without warning. From the moment of my arrival, I have witnessed countless things that do not make sense, and all of it is because of a single girl. Vala. She has the power to create an entire world like this and to make even the impossible possible. I must admit, during those first nights while I was alone with my thoughts, I often wondered where she was when so many of my companions were murdered. Why did so many people have to suffer? Why was such a cruel war ever allowed to happen when she could have simply ended it at any moment and forced everybody to get along? With her powers, I do not doubt for a moment that she could make the world an infinitely better place in nearly an instant. But… just because she has great power does not mean she has an equally great responsibility. Some may view her as selfish for her inaction, but would we not be just as selfish for wanting to use her for our own gain? Furthermore, she is a dragon, not a human—not a creation of humans, either. Our problems are our own, not hers. It is only right that we fix the problems we create for ourselves. To desire another to take responsibility for our own flaws is far more selfish than somebody wishing to stay uninvolved. If she was the one responsible for our issues, then that would be different, but she is not.”

“Yeah, that’s more or less what I believe, too.”

“Not to mention that even if she did, all she would be doing is slapping a bandage over a wound rather than addressing the root cause. She could prevent the bandage from ever being taken off by taking control—serving as humanity’s benevolent dictator. I genuinely believe the world would thrive if she ever does that, but again, it is not something we should ever expect of her. And even if she does that, it takes away our agency to choose a future for ourselves. Whether humanity leads itself down a path of cruelty or righteousness, it is a path nobody but itself has chosen for it. Vala’s intervention would be that of a god’s, and humanity, after everything it has been through, deserves to walk a path of freedom, even if great suffering accompanies every step of the path. As nice as it may be to sometimes imagine Vala taking control of the world, ending world hunger, making sure that no child ever has to starve again, preventing any future wars from breaking out—I can think of nothing more insulting to humanity’s potential and desire for free will. I am sure many would rather have such a dictator who treats us like infants in need of a guiding hand, but for her to step in after everything we sacrificed would feel like spitting on the graves of those we have lost.”

“I get what you’re saying, and I don’t disagree, but… couldn’t somebody argue that that’s going into sunk cost territory? Or it’s like how some people believe that because others already had to fight and fix their own issues that it shouldn’t be made easier for the future generations because it’s not fair to those who had to do it on their own before them. It’s like that one train thing. Usually, it goes, ‘with a runaway train heading toward five people on the tracks, should you let it run them over or pull the lever so it only kills one person instead?’ But instead of that, we’re talking about a train on a track with a line of corpses behind it and a bunch of people still alive ahead of it. You can pull the lever to stop the train whenever you want, but some might believe that it would be unfair to the people who already got run over by it.”

“When you reduce it to such a simple issue, then I would agree that it is best to pull the lever and stop it from running anybody else over. But if all of life’s issues were so simple with such clear conditions, then we would not be having this discussion in the first place. Ultimately, I believe that the fate of humans should be left to humans. Whatever happens to them should be on behalf of nobody but themselves.”

“What if they all got together and overwhelmingly voted for Vala, or anybody else for that matter, to become their new dictator?”

“The rule of the majority is not always right. But, at the very least, voting on it would be better than it being forced upon them!”

“Fair enough.”

While I might have ended up getting dragged into thinking about that topic anyways, I remembered why Valkyria stood out to me from the beginning aside from her being—well, a tank. It was because of that aura of maturity and intelligence I could feel from her that I felt comfortable talking about more serious and thought-provoking topics with her.

Not to insult anybody else, but… none of the others would be good partners for something like that, mainly because I was sure none of them had any interest in those sorts of things. Their interests and what they liked discussing were far more innocent and simpler, not that there was anything wrong with that.

Even while me and Valkyria talked, it was like everybody else around purposely avoided coming anywhere near us since they didn’t want to get sucked into the conversation, too. Delphi, at one point, actually walked toward us, heard what Valkyria was saying while she was in the middle of talking, and looked dizzy and walked away.

Even Window, who loved to always pop up and interrupt me, didn’t bother.

“Playing devil’s advocate aside,” I said, “I agree. Maybe it makes me a selfish asshole, but I would rather have free will than have my life controlled by somebody else, even if they have my best intentions in mind.”

Valkyria nodded. “I as well. Even if means more suffering in the future, I believe humanity deserves to forge its own path rather than have any higher power lay it out for them.”

“Of course, now we’re saying that while we’re in a pretty privileged position where we never have to worry about anything ever again while everybody else still does.”

“When you put it that way… it does make the two of us look rather selfish. Extremely so.”

“But we both agree that Vala is no way responsible for everything humanity suffers through, and that nobody should fault her for not fixing everything with a snap of her fingers, right?”

“Correct!”

“And that humans should fix their own shit instead of depend on anybody else to do it.”

“Right! Well, human-created machines such as myself also count.”

“Alright. So, humans and living tanks should fix their issues on their own.”

“Better!”

“So, while we shouldn’t expect Vala to do anything, we can still expect ourselves to do something. We also just so happen to have a potentially perverted mailbox who can send anything to anybody all over the world.”

“I… think I may like where you are going with this?”

“What I’m thinking is this. Because Luca is half human, and she has all the powers of her mother, and her mother has basically been given all the powers of Vala, that means I can ask Luca to spawn me a USB drive featuring every single government secret there is. It can also feature information on all sorts of shady deals, corrupt politicians and CEOs, and so on. Basically, a USB that features all the secrets and corruption the world has to offer, then then I’ll have Postia mail it to every human in existence. Then we can go back to enjoying our peaceful lives here while not feeling burdened by having power and doing nothing with it. Whatever people do with all that information after it’s revealed—well, that’s up to them and their choice to make.”

“But… aren’t you worried that would be far too much information dumped on them all at once?”

I shrugged. “That’s for them to deal with.”

“And… should we really involve Luca?”

“She’s half-human and it would be as simple as snapping her fingers, so it’s alright. Oh, and I should have Postia include a drawing of a penis with every drive.”

“Why… why a penis?”

“Because it’s funny.”

Just because I enjoyed serious conversation topics that extended beyond games and food didn’t mean that I didn’t still find enjoyment in drawings of penises. I was every bit as immature as the others, I just also had an interest in mature topics every now and then, too.

“This is why I love you,” a voice aside from Valkyria’s said.

It was Vala’s voice.

With a snap of her fingers, Vala appeared out of thin air next to me and Valkyria.

“How—how long have you been there for?” I asked.

“The whole time,” Vala answered. “But I didn’t want to interrupt, so I hid myself. Anyways… I have some things I could say about everything you talked about, but that’s boring compared to what I could do instead.”

Valkyria then spoke up to say, “I—I apologize for talking about you without even realizing you were there. I feel so rude now…”

“Pffftttt, no biggie. Like I said, I hid myself on purpose! If anything, I’m the rude one for listening in, but I couldn’t resist since you were talking about me and being all philosophical and stuff. Anyways! I’m not the only one who was listening in.”

Me and Valkyria both tilted our heads as Vala snapped her fingers once again, revealing three women, all old and covered in wrinkles, standing behind her.

They were immediately recognizable as the women who were shown at the end of the documentary earlier—the real, living women who participated in the war… and served as Valkyria’s crew.

Valkyria gasped and held her hands over her mouth at the sight of them, and it didn’t take long for her eyes to well up with tears as she struggled to even say anything.

And of the woman, it was the one I recognized as Eliza, Valkyria’s former commander, who looked at me with a cocky smile and asked, “Penises, huh? Corruption leaks and penises to every mailbox in the world. Sounds like a good time to me, kid. You’ll let this old lady in on that, won’t you?”

I already liked her. “I’ll draw the dick, you draw the pubes?”

“Hah! I like this boy.”

I wasn’t the only one getting attention, of course. One of the other women, the driver who was named Martha in the documentary but referred to as Marmar in Valkyria’s memories, waddled up to Valkyria with a cane to support her steps as she wore a wide grin on her wrinkled face. “You look as—”

Her dentures popped out.

Marmar looked at her false set of teeth on the ground, up at Valkyria, and then burst out laughing which caused the whole crew, Valkyria included, to laugh.

“You—you all became so beautiful,” Valkyria said, wiping away some of her tears whenever she wasn’t laughing. “It delights me to no end that you’re still alive. But…” There were only three women. Her crew had four in both the documentary and her memories. “What about Linda?”

Eliza stepped forward to answer her. “Passed away just last month. Cancer took her. But rest assured, she had the biggest, most loving family you could ever imagine. She passed with a smile surrounded by dozens of grandchildren.”

“That… that is good to hear, at least. I wish I could have seen her sooner, but—”

While Valkyria and the others talked, I noticed that there was somebody who wasn’t enjoying the reunion as much as I thought she would, and that was Vala.

Vala almost looked like she wanted to jump in with another “I can make it happen” type of moment when Valkyria said that she wished she could have seen the fourth crewmember again, but she bit her lip and remained silent instead.

I couldn’t help but to think that our discussion about Vala and her powers might have affected her. I had no doubt that Vala could probably pull out some necromantic powers to bring the final crewmember back to life, but a line to the use of her powers had to be drawn somewhere.

Even though Vala sounded happy about me and Valkyria’s beliefs about her, I could tell that she wasn’t sold on her responsibilities or rightful lack thereof herself.

That was why I spoke up and said, “It’s been decades since you four got to see each other, so we’re going to give you some privacy and let you talk among yourselves.”

Valkyria finally stopped crying and nodded to me before looking at the others and saying, “Let’s go inside. I’ll brew some coffee for us! And… I’ll rinse off those dentures, too.”

Marmar looked up at Valkyria with an empty-mouthed smile and slowly followed her to the house alongside Eliza and the third woman.

As for Vala, she looked up at me and asked, “Do—do we really have to talk about this? This is supposed to be a cutesy slice-of-life that doesn’t take itself seriously and never deals with serious topics, you know… it might kill the vibe for some people if we have a serious talk about these things. This chapter is already probably going to make people complain about how we should just stick to the simple stuff instead of dealing with any serious issues…”

“Am I supposed to care about what anybody other than us thinks?” I asked. “You’re my girlfriend. No matter what expectations anybody else might have, I’m going to talk to you about what’s on your mind so that you can feel better. So, let’s go on a walk in the forest like the old days. You can even sit on my shoulders so I can feel your thighs around my head again. It’s been too long.”

“But… just the other night—”

“I mean in an innocent way.”

“O-oh. But… is it really innocent if you enjoy it as much as you do?”

“No, but it’s more innocent.” I crouched down with my back to her and patted my shoulders. “Alright. On you go.”

“It’s… kind of embarrassing when you say it like that.”

“Vala, I order you to sit on my shoulders and squeeze my head between your thighs.”

Vala, with just a hint of red coloring her cheeks, smiled and giggled. “Have I mentioned how you’re the best boyfriend ever? You’re too good at cheering me up. It should be illegal.”

“Make it illegal and that’ll just make me a repeat offender.”

“You’re so cheesy… I love you.”

“I love you, too. Now, thighs. Let me feel them around my head.”

Vala giggled some more before following my order and sitting down behind my head, letting her legs rest on my shoulders with her thighs pressing against the sides of my head. “Is this good enough?”

“I could stay like this for the rest of my life.”

With that, I stood up, my dragon girlfriend riding my shoulders, and turned toward the forest.