"Of course! Don't forget who the Leader is!" The Leader lifted his chin proudly and laughed even louder.
"Is that so?" The Commander said calmly. "Since you're the Leader, I'll leave the accounting of supplies to you."
"Cough, cough, cough, cough!!"
The Leader's laughter stopped at once, and he burst into a fit of violent coughing. Then came a string of incoherent excuses, like, "I may be the Leader, but you're the indispensable pillar of the Research Commission," and, "Everyone has things they're good at."
The room erupted in laughter.
"So we're returning to the Old World?" Once everyone had nearly finished laughing, the Sword Master asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, it's time." The Commander nodded. "The New World has brought us enough lumber and food from the Ancient Forest. It's time for the ship to fulfill its true mission."
They would return to the Old World to report everything the Research Commission had discovered so far to the Guild—and, most importantly, to request support.
What the Research Commission lacked most in the New World wasn't supplies. It was people.
"So we're finally heading back?" The Technical Class Captain took a sip of wine. "Sounds good. A lot of the young ones have been looking forward to this day for ages."
"Yeah, a lot of people will probably choose to leave." The Leader nodded. "After all, when we set out, none of us expected a single mission to last this long. Many people weren't prepared for it."
"Like Hank, meow. He'd only just gotten married before we left, right, meow?" Dian Dian said. "If I were him, I'd have wanted to go home long ago, meow."
"Exactly." The Leader smiled. "It's a little unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"When the New World returns, the next