When Kim rejoined them, with Heather's dagger next to her sword, Eliin didn't say anything. She wanted to try and comfort Kim, but she wasn't sure how. Kim didn't seem troubled by it, but Elin could tell somehow. She wasn't sure how, just that Kim wasn't alright with what Elin knew that she'd done. That while she appeared to be like she always had been, she was troubled, if nothing else.
It pained Elin to see her like that, but she also could tell that there wasn't anything she could do or say. Especially since she wasn't able to think of anything that could be said or done. All she could do was hope that she'd either be able to come up with something on that matter or that something would be made apparent to her that would somehow help. Or maybe Kim would open up to her and talk to her about that, giving her a way she could be there for Kim other than being able to say or do the right thing to help, even though she strongly doubted that would happen. Not with how Kim typically had been.
"So, that's out of the way now?" Elwin asked, surprising Elin with how callous he was about the situation.
She wasn't worried about how Kim would react, but rather about how little he regarded the life of another person. Even if that person was out to kill the rest of them, they still deserved as much respect as any life does. Especially when it ends because of some choice they made that didn't benefit them as much as they had thought it would.
Her father had had to deal with some situations like that while she was still growing up, but she'd at least had time to think, and sometimes discuss the matter with her tutors, about the implications of the action her father had taken. It wasn't quite the same as this situation, but she considered the principal of the matter to be the same.
Although, she was still a little confused why Kim wanted to do that without everyone around her. In regards to Owen, she understood why, but otherwise she felt like it was a bit of a mystery on why everyone else had to leave. Except Sonya, but Elin figured it was because they hadn't quite tied Heather to her back and Sonya didn't seem the kind to just 'come back' for Heather if she could help it.
"You're done with your execution, right?" Owen demanded before Kim had a chance to respond in any way. "I can't believe you did that. He was a living person!"
"Who would have killed us if he had a chance to recover," Elmo retorted, looking like he was surprised to have spoken himself. As it is, he even continued despite that surprised. "Every person has a right to kill if it's to protect their own life or the lives of others, if they have reason to believe that killing would remove the danger they were in."
Owen looked at Elmo, as if he disgusted him, which Elin supposed was an understandable reaction considering Owen's stance on the matter and Elmo's vocal support of it. Elin was just glad that she herself hadn't shared her thoughts on the matter. She certainly wasn't sure how she'd react to Owen's reaction if it was directed towards her. Or Kim's reaction of that, for that matter.
"Enough of this," Kim ordered, her tone cutting off whatever Owen might have said in response to Elmo's statement, assuming he would continue arguing the point. "Harold's dead and there's nothing that any of us can do about that now. Whether you agree with us that killing him was necessary for our survival or not is irrelevant at this time. What matters is what we're going to do now. If you want to leave our group, that's your choice. We're likely to encounter Stanley and his group, possibly sooner now, but if you don't want to fight him, then your best choice is to leave here and head away from the dungeon. If you're still with us, then we'll need to agree to disagree on the matter and move on from it, okay?"
Kim took a deep breath as she finished, as if she'd used up all the oxygen in her body for that statement, but Elin's focus was more on Owen. Everyone else's gazes were focused on him, each clearly wondering what he was going to decide to do. What he was going to choose of the choices placed before him.
Owen merely looked conflicted. Like he didn't know himself how he should react. To Elin, it sort of felt funny watching him go through various expressions as he tried sorting out what had been said and his feelings on the matter. Not that she planned on ever telling him what her thoughts were at the moment. She had a feeling that it'd likely only create more problems than the ones they already had to deal with presently.
Maybe when they were able to return to their own worlds, but even then she suspected there'd be more issues occupying their attention at that time.
"Well, whatever you think of it, what's done is done," Elwin said, putting a hand on Owen's shoulder. "You can dislike what she did, but I agree with her that it was necessary. Harold was the one who hadn't given us an option."
"We could have still reasoned with him," Owen protested softly. So softly, in fact, that Elin almost didn't hear him speak. "There wasn't a reason to do that."
"You heard what he said," Patricia offered. "Not just about his 'plot armor' or whatever the hell he meant with that, but if we wanted to go back to the town, he'd still kill us then. If we let him recover, I'm sure he'd come after us like one of my ex's did. Though, in his case, what stopped him was when he got stupid and tried swinging at a cop."
Elin wasn't sure what that meant, but she wasn't going to argue. Not with how Owen seemed to know. As well as the fact that Owen's unstable facial expressions seemed to settle down a little from that single statement.
"I understand that," Owen said, sounding a little deflated. "It's just that he couldn't even defend himself if he wanted to."
"Yeah, I'm sure he'd want to," Patricia replied with a smirk. "It's just that I'm pretty sure none of us would have been able to do anything to him if he wasn't like that. He'd have been able to kill us all as if we were the ones laying prone on the ground. Regardless of anything, it wasn't going to be a fair fight for one side."
Owen sighed. "I understand that, it's just the fact that he couldn't move is what troubles me," he replied, making Elin wonder if maybe he might be able to accept the event if it was explained in the right way to him.
Although, she hadn't a clue as to what that 'right way' could be.
"Just think of it this way," Kim offered, sounding like she'd rather just as soon be done with the matter as continue on discussing it and Owen's issue with it. "While he couldn't move, he was still a threat to us and we couldn't be sure that leaving him like that wouldn't come back to bite us in the ass. While I got the feeling that Stanley didn't care so much for Howard, we can't be sure that they wouldn't periodically check on him. Not if they had him stand guard over us or something."
Owen shook his head, looking to Elin like he was having trouble reconciling his issue of what happened with Kim's statement.
Kim however, merely turned and walked over to where Heather was draped across Sonya's back and started tying her to Sonya. She didn't say anything, but Kim did notice that Heather's dagger was replaced in its sheath on Heather's waist when Kim was done securing her to Sonya.
"Maybe I'll just have to accept that it happened and I had done what I could to prevent you from doing that," Owen sighed, sounding to Elin like he had decided to not push the matter and also to not leave their group.
"A lot of things happen that you're probably not going to like when you run into people who give you unreasonable demands," Elwin commented, sounding like he was trying, in his own way, to comfort Owen with his decision. "Especially if you know that they're not really bad people themselves. It only makes doing what needs to be done that much harder."
Owen nodded as he shrugged, looking like he might prefer to be left alone. Elin wasn't sure if that's what he really wanted, but that's at least what it looked like to her.
Although, at the same time, she couldn't help shake the feeling that this was merely a prelude to what was to come. That what was yet to occur wasn't going to be as simple or easy to deal with. Though, whether it would be the same kind of difficulty or just more challenges with weird aspects, Elin wasn't sure. Just that this wasn't going to be as simple as walking into the dungeon and completing the challenge as she had originally hoped it'd be.