Chien's request was justified. I laid on the bed and pulled him close that we could spoon. When I did not say or do anything else for a minute, the former Protector turned his head to me. "Are you doing something!? I don't feel anything." he said. "Just cuddling. This positions is called spooning. The one on the outside is the "Big Spoon" and the one on the inside is the "Small Spoon". Do you feel safe in my arms, or comforted? Even a little bit?" I had to explain. He hummed for a moment and frowned at me. "Our master said that getting attached to each other like this was wrong. We had to protect everyone on the island from Devils and their minions. Any one of us could and should die in order to defeat them. The comfort men especially had no right to have affection shown to us as we failed. I... think that... that was right. I don't think I want you going out of you way to do things like this... yet." he said. I let him go and sighed. "I don't care what anyone says. I think you four deserve to be as happy as anyone. You can still protect and help people while being help and protected by others." I added.
As there was nothing more to say, I got up. He called out to me when I got to the door. "Keep getting stronger for me, and maybe I'll start feeling safer in those thin arms of yours." he said to lighten the mood. I smiled brightly at him and left the room. When I was in the hall, I decided to check in on Chat to make sure that he was okay. I opened the door to see Leon and Abel were spitroasting him. The three of them looked pleased. Since they were handling it, I left them to it. I went back to the main hall and saw some of the recruits milling about. Characters spawned into existence depending on the decisions you made in the game. The NPCs had flimsy backstories, but they filled out the roles they were spawned for. These were crusading paladins. If I asked to learn more bout them, it would probably be vague ideas of brave young men wanting to fight in the name of the Church. Going any deeper than the surface could risk red pilling them and that would not be something worth doing to my allies. Even so, it was pretty nice to see what they had to say when he was in downtime.
When Abel came in and looked at the others before looking at me. He was obviously finished with Chat. I went up to him and he seemed nervous. He took me to his room and I asked what was wrong. "I don't know what to do with this. Master was the one who made all the decisions on deployments and Robin was the manager of all of us. I thank you for the confidence in me, but I am not the appropriate person for the job." I shook my head. "You can do this. It is a small post anyway. The higher up members will come here or send mail if you are needed for something. Otherwise, you can just focus on keeping the recruits in line and defending the fort from bandits or all other forces." That seemed to get him to be a bit more encouraged. I took his hands in mine and said "I don't care what anyone says. I think you four deserve to be as happy as anyone. You can still protect and help people while being help and protected by others." He looked confused and then laughed. "Thank you, but... you are not the type of person... I'd pick to tell that to someone like me." he said as he regained composure.
