Chapter of Living Dreams: Corpse Investigation

“Ugh… What’s this smell…”

A disgusting smell akin to something rotten assaulted my nose the very moment I entered the tent.

“Mm… You get… used to it…”

“I don’t think I want to get used to this, though.”

Ria and Professor Marvim had finished their break, so we followed them to their tent but…  The heck had they done here?

“It smells like… rotten flesh…” commented Karen.

“Nn…”

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for me to find the culprit of the horrifying smell. It was propped up right in the middle of the room, after all. Lying on a table…

“Is that… the roper?”

“It is…”

“But… That can’t be...”

Right there was the corpse of one of the ropers. The wound the tentacle trap had inflicted on it was still visible… and looking several times as disgusting. Why? Because… the corpse had signs of decay. Rotting. No wonder the smell of hell was coming from it.

“It has barely been a day…”

How could something rot… this fast?

“This… Uh… Urgh...”

“Nn? Lefa? Is everything all right?”

“... The… The stench… I… I’m sorry but… this is…Mgh… Impossible!”

With her face distorted in disgust, she turned on her heel and ran out of the tent…

Her… nose must have been pretty sensitive, being a fox beastkin and so… My condolences… Truly.

“Hm. Odd. She doesn’t usually mind bad stench all that much.”

Professor Marvim raised his eyebrows in surprise at Lefa’s reaction. Speaking of which, wasn’t he a beastkin too?

“You don’t mind the smell?” I asked him.

“Me? No, no, no. I don’t. I am used to stuff like this.”

“Even as a beastkin?”

“Oh, you meant it like that? No, I don’t have that good of a nose. Even if I had, it’s not like having a good nose automatically makes a stench like this worse, you see? Those people are used to having a good sense of smell. They grew up with it after all. So, individual differences. You don’t exactly find this one pleasant either, right? So, there you have it.”

“I… see…”

Individual differences, huh…

“Anyway, a little explanation. I will handle it, I hope you won’t mind. Otherwise we might… need a while…”

“... Nn.”

The professor glanced a few times towards Ria, most likely hinting at her slow way of speaking. Sure, if she were to explain, it’d… take a while. Well, she didn’t seem to mind, not protesting, just nodding.

“Okay, let’s see. Honestly, there’s not much to tell. By the time we received the corpse, it already started rotting, you know?”

“It was already starting to rot?”

“Yes, yes, yes. It wasn’t that bad yet, though. But it got worse. Slowly, but visibly. I must confess, this is the first time in my life I have ever witnessed the decomposition of a body like this. It’s fascinating, seeing how it slowly breaks down.”

“Haaa…”

Not sure if I ever wanted to witness something like that…

“Oh, oh, oh, before I forget. You shouldn’t touch the body. Even without the worry of contamination, it’s quite hot.”

“... Hot?”

“Yes. Hot. Quite hot, in fact.”

Why in the blazes was the corpse hot? Not that I even wanted to touch it in the first place. I really didn’t.

“With that said, there’s no need to touch them anyway with those little helpers. I recall Lady Mortas saying that you made these?”

“Nn?”

Little helpers?

I followed the professor’s gaze down to the ground… where a familiar bunch of dolls was greeting me.

“Ahhh… Yes, I made them.”

“Fascinating. They exhibit all the signs of being monsters yet they listen to your commands. No, not only listen, they clearly understand human speech. Signs of intelligence. I have never seen anything like them.”

“Nn…”

“Ahh, I am swaying away from the topic again. I apologise. I’d love to talk with you in length about them but first things first.”

He walked past the table to the back of the tent. There, he picked up something and brought it over to us.

“If you could take a look at this. What do you see?”

“Nn? Is this… a mana crystal?”

“Yes.”

“Nn… Why is it red?”

“That’s what we want to know.”

“Eh?”

The professor held up the mana crystal into the air, against the light from a lamp. The light shined through it, illuminating his face in red light. Rather than a mana crystal, it was more like… a red gemstone? Or maybe red-coloured glass?

“You know how mana can be attributed to various elements, materials and even concepts, right?”

“Nn. I do.”

“This is mostly something we talk about in relation to free-flowing mana, mana that is in the air, regardless of whether it is inactive or active in a spell. But that’s not the only form it comes in. There have been rare findings of mana crystal exhibiting the same signs as attributed mana.”

The same signs as attributed mana? Was it possible that… the mana crystals I was making would fall under that as well? Although, I wasn’t really using attributed mana to make them…

“Unfortunately, there have been a lot of discussions about their origin but it never went past hypothetical theories. The sheer lack of material to work with showing itself.”

“Haa…”

“But, Lady Mortas had an interesting… analogy to make. Those little helpers of yours, they run on a mana crystal, is that right? A coloured one.”

“That’s…”

I glanced towards Ria, not sure if I should confirm it. She just nodded, telling me to go ahead. Well, it’d be weird for her to stop me after she told him that much already, but still…

“Nn, that’s right. They’re pink-coloured mana crystals.”

“So it’s true! Then, Lady Mortas’ theory might really be correct!”

“What kind of theory?”

“That these mana crystals are created by monsters. And that the monsters carrying them are offshoots of this monster. Or maybe subordinates? Slaves?”

“Subordinates?”

Is that why Ria meant they were similar to my dolls?

“Yes! Subordinates. Subordinate monsters. Basically, like your little helpers who listen to your every command. They fulfill whatever need the mother creature has of them.”

“Huh.”

Subordinate monsters…

But, how did that large roper even make them?

“The issue at hand is just that we have obviously no way to verify this theory. And we can’t exactly drag you to the Academy either, am I wrong?”

“Nn…”

Since that would likely reveal what I am… Better not.

“Another problem is—as you can see and most likely smell—that the corpse is decomposing at an alarming rate. We can’t exactly dissect a half-rotten corpse. This might be a byproduct of it being a subordinate monster.”

Marvim scratched the back of his head with his free hand as he continued staring at the mana crystal in his hand.

“But enough of this for now. Lady Mortas mentioned you were able to manipulate mana to a degree, is that right?”

“Nn.”

“Then, may I bother you to try manipulating the mana in this crystal?”

“In… this red crystal?”

“Yes, yes.”

He handed me the crystal, watching me with a look of excitement on his face. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting… or even asking. Manipulating the mana… Well, I could try drawing it out and the—

“Nn? Huh?”

“Is something wrong?”

“Uhm…”

That… couldn’t be, right? That’d be a first.

“... I can’t.”

“What do you mean? You can’t?”

“Nn. I can’t.”

I couldn’t grasp the mana in this crystal at all. As if it was something slippery, it evaded me, slipped through my control. The mana in our surroundings? All fine, I tried. That wasn’t the problem. I could still manipulate mana. Except for the mana inside this crystal.

“It’s like… it’s slipping through my hands? I can’t take hold of it.”

“Now that’s… a bit surprising.“

Sure was.

“Nn…”

This annoyed me a little. It felt like I could grasp it but then… It just slipped away at the very last moment.

“Mhm… That’s too bad but in a way that’s not too surprising.”

“Nn, sorry I can’t be of help.”

“No, no, no, that was plenty helpful. Plenty, plenty.”

“Haaa… But… Is it just my imagination or is the amount of mana in this crystal pretty… low?”

While it was sure evading me, I could still clearly see the amount of mana in this crystal. And it was… low. No, really. It was low. Not as low as those tiny pebbles of mana crystals that we were using but… it wasn’t exactly much more either.

“Yes, yes. I mean, you can clearly see it, right? The mana crystal’s density is so low that you can look through it. Actually, this is the mana crystal of the second corpse. Because the first one broke. It shatters quickly. A bit too quickly.”

“Huh… Is this also because it’s made by the nest mother?”

“Maybe? It might have used the absolute minimum necessary to create these offshoots.”

“Nn…”

The absolute minimum necessary. Made me wonder, what was the necessary minimum for my dolls? Well, to stay self-sufficient, of course.

“Anyway, with this we pretty much exhausted our options, I believe. Do you agree, Lady Mortas?”

The professor turned to Ria who had watched us in silence, together with Karen.

“Mm… I can’t… think of anything… else either… We should report… to the Captain…”

“... Your Captain, Mr Korwen, right?”

“That’s… right...”

“Then let’s go. I assume, the sooner the better. I have yet to meet with him either so I am looking forward to this.”

A short while later, the five of us—Lefa had been waiting outside for us—had come to the Captain’s tent. Technically, the three of us weren’t needed right now, but Ria wanted to talk with me about something else afterwards. We didn’t have anything better to do either, so we agreed to come along.

“They are like Yumi’s dolls, you say… That could be troublesome.”

Korwen’s eyes narrowed after hearing Ria’s and Professor Marvim’s conclusion.

“An organised group of monsters isn’t something to take lightly. Haaa… That decides it. We’ll report this to the army and let them deal with it.”

“Nn, just like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

“Haa…”

He sure reached the conclusion quickly. Was the prospect of fighting an organised group of monsters that bad? Okay, now that I actually thought of it like that, it might be pretty bad. Especially with the nest mother right behind.

“Let’s say it’s my guts that tell me this is not worth sticking our noses into. If it was a job with according payment I might think about it. But it’s doubtful the army will consider that. Especially in the current situation.”

“I see.”

But, in other words, if the army was going to offer a suitable reward, he might actually fight it?

“Mr Korwen, if I may interrupt.”

“Yes, Professor… Marvim, was it?”

“Yes. I am not too informed about your situation but you are currently experiencing trouble with the officials, is that right?”

“Rather than trouble, they are trying to blame us for the incident at the Hollow Fort.”

“... Then, you are acquainted with Sir Ruben?”

Ruben? That… was the name of the forts commander, if I recalled correctly.

“Yes, I am.”

“... I thought so. This is just hearsay but I heard that just yesterday they found Sir Ruben guilty of collaborating with rebel forces and attempting to start the war with the Empire.”

“... Excuse me, but could you repeat that? I am not sure I heard right.”

“They found Sir Ruben guilty.”

“...”

Wait, wait, wait.

Wasn’t that man someone pretty amazing in the military? 

“This is bad. Commander Ruben would never threaten the peace. I know the man well enough for that. But he is also not naive enough to sit by idly… You wouldn’t happen to know the punishment?”

“No. Like I said, it’s just hearsay. Nothing but rumors that suddenly came up yesterday. I don’t even know if it is the truth, nor did I care at the moment.”

“I see. But rumors don’t appear out of nowhere. There’s bound to be something behind.”

Korwen crossed his arms and leaned back on his chair.

“Thank you for informing me of that, Professor.”

“No, it’s my pleasure. It’d be a problem for the Academy if our valuable work partners would be chased away. There are too few trustworthy mercenaries. At least, that’s what our rector has said.”

“Your rector, huh. He should be careful of his words lest he gets targeted as well.”

“... I was explicitly told by him to deliver those words to you.”

“... I see.”

Korwen’s eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t expect to hear that, did he?

“Furthermore, the military school has a similar opinion.”

“You… Do you know what you are saying?”

“Like I said, I am just delivering the message I was told to deliver.”

“... What is going on? Really?”

“I don’t know. I am repeating myself but I am just delivering a message. The rector threatened me with freezing my funds after all.”

“... Ha!”

Hearing that, Korwen let out a chuckle.

“Well, that’s fine. It is reassuring to hear that nonetheless. Once again, I thank you, Professor Marvim.”

“If you want to show your gratitude, I’d be very happy to hear about the progress of capturing the ogre.”

“You... Are you the fu— Ahem, the man who requested that?”

“Yes, yes. That would be me. A live ogre would be an excellent subject for study, don’t you agree?”

“...”

Woah, Korwen’s expression went from gratitude to full on annoyance in a span of seconds. That’s quite something.

“We’re still thinking of ways to capture one. It might take a while.”

“I see… That’s too unfortunate… Haa…”

The Professor was slumping his shoulders in disappointment, all the while Korwen smiled at him as he told him that it would take more time. A fake smile, mind you. The corners of his lips were twitching. He was holding back, wasn’t he? He really was holding himself back right there.

“Well, I do hope it will succeed. The things we could do with it. It’ll be wonderful. It might benefit you, as well!”

“...”

“I am looking forward to the good news. Now then, I assume there is no further need for my assistance, is there?”

“No. We’re all done here.”

“Good. Then, I’ll bid you a good day.”

With those words and a smile on his lips, the professor turned around and was in the middle of leaving, only to stop right before Lefa.

“Right, Lefa. What do you intend to do?”

“Eh? Me?”

“Yes, yes. I do not mind if you stay here for a while longer to play with your friends.”

“Uhm…”

Her eyes were wandering back and forth between the professor and us.

“I… I’d like to stay a little while longer.”

“Good, good. But don’t stay too long. The gate isn’t open forever. Well then, goodbye!”

With a wave of his hand, he left the tent.

“That man… is quite something…” murmured Korwen.

“Uhm, I am sorry! I really am sorry for his behaviour!”

Lefa bowed down to Korwen.

“Don’t. It’s not the job of the student to bear the consequences of their teacher’s faults. Even if I don’t like the job, we still accepted it since the pay is good. There’s no reason for you to apologise.”

“That’s…”

“End of discussion. You’re our guest. Who would we be if our guest keeps apologising.”

“... Uhm, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Korwen’s lips curled into a smile, this time a genuine one.

“Now then, I still have some work to do. You girls should go and play somewhere. Shoo shoo.”

He gestured with his hand for us to leave. Alas, before we could leave, someone interrupted.

“Captain…”

“Ria? Is something the matter.”

“Mm… If you… don’t mind… There are… a few things… I’d like to… talk about… With Yumi....”

“Nn?”

She had told me there was something she wanted to discuss but…

“... Is it about that?”

“Yes…”

“I see… Karen, take Lefa out for now. We’ll send Yumi your way afterwards.”

“Ah, yes, Mr Captain.”

Following his words, Karen left with Lefa right behind her. It was something he didn’t want to discuss with her present, huh… Then, it could only be about so many things…

“Since we’re already at it I got something to talk about as well. Yumi. I’ll get straight to the point. What in the world did you do with those dolls?”

”Eh? Ahhh…”

The dolls...

“Nn… That’s… a bit of a story?”

I had completely forgotten to tell them about the dolls with all the worry about that tentacle pitfall. Something I had to fix now… And so, I explained to him the… rather suspicious process of the dolls turning into that…

“A suspicious ritual and the wood from the bodyguard puppets, you say?”

“Nn…”

“Ria, do you have any idea?”

“Mm… Improvement… maybe?”

“Improvement?”

Improvement… That’s what I had thought of as well.

“The ritual… is probably… a replacement…”

“Replacement?”

“Mm… The dolls… individually… are not… able to create… more dolls… Instead… they use… a ritual…”

“Huh… A ritual… It sure felt like something scary possessed it, though. And they also did it on the doll that was already alive.”

“It might… be a… spirit…”

“A… spirit?”

A spirit, she said.

That reminds me. Back when we were in Arkesta, that woman from the orphanage had used magic and something… something had appeared there. Appeared...

If I recall it correctly, she had said that anyone could do that kind of magic but…

“Ria, what exactly are spirits?”

“Mm… That’s a tough… question…”

“Is it?”

“Yes… Spirits are… living entities… composed entirely… of mana… They come in… many forms… It is possible… to call them… and use their power… Rather than… magic like we… use it… it is more… like asking… someone else… to cast it.”

“Huh…”

So, rather a proper magician, they were more an… intermediary?

“Nn, when we were in Arkesta, that woman from the orphanage used magic and… I recall something… bird-like coming… composed of mana...”

“Orphanage… you say?”

Ria tilted her head. Instead of her, Korwen spoke up.

“You mean Luneria, the orphanage girl?”

“Nn.”

“Ah… Little Lune… Yes… That girl… isn’t a proper… magician… but… she can… call on some… spirits… for minor… things…”

“Then, that really was a spirit?”

“Most… likely…”

A spirit… That was really a spirit, huh…

“Nn… But I feel like it was… different from that. That one had a proper form but what the dolls did was… an eerie mass of something?”

“Mm… I’ll have… to observe that… myself… first…”

“I see…”

Well, my vague explanation probably wasn’t going to help her much… Seeing it was better in that case.

“Ria, I don’t really care if those are spirits possessing her dolls or not. I only want to know if it could turn into a problem or not.””

“Mm… No… They are… obedient… to Yumi… They shouldn’t… do something… against her will…”

“Then that’s fine. With that out of the way: Yumi.”

“Ye, Yes?”

“... Next time, you won’t forget to report this, will you?”

“... I won’t.”

Scary. He was glaring at me. And it was scary as hell!

“Good. Haa… You really are a high-maintenance kid, aren’t you? Anyway, Ria. You wanted something from her too, didn’t you?”

“Mm… I did… It is… also related… to the dolls… but… in a little… different… way…”

“Different?”

Ignoring Korwen’s remark about me being high-maintenance—I already knew that myself—I turned to Ria.

“While you… were away… I have taken… a look… at your… tentacles… Your dolls… helped me…”

“They… helped you?”

“Yes… In fact… I mostly… observed… their behaviour… It was… interesting…”

“Huh…”

Interesting, she said? To my knowledge, they were mostly helping out around the camp, though?

“I think… they are… trying to build… something…”

“... Build?”

“Yes… You know… how some insects… build hives?”

“Nn.”

Bees came to mind first for that. Though I didn’t know if they existed here, she probably meant something like that.

“I think… they are… like workers...  of a hive… like I… told you… before… They feed… the tentacles… with mana crystals… They clean… They help… everyone… But… I think… they believe… that everyone… is part… of their hive… and that’s… why they help…”

“... Huh?”

The dolls thought that all of this belonged to the ‘hive’?

“They also… listen… to the Captain… and Merim… They follow… the hierarchy… of the mercenaries…”

“Mm, it’s true that they listen to all I say. While the heavy labour is impossible for those dolls, they can do almost all other tasks. In fact, they clean a lot better than all others. Haven’t seen our storage so free of dust in years,” interjected Korwen.

They were pretty small so they could probably clean in the spots that were hard for us to reach… I had already heard how they were helping around but… almost all tasks, he says…

“At this rate, your dolls are going to take over that majority of menial tasks in the camp. Not that you’ll hear me complaining about that.”

“Nn…”

In other words, the tasks nobody else usually wanted to do. Sure, I wouldn’t complain either in that case.

“There is… just one… problem... “

“Nn?”

“The dolls… I get… the feeling… that… they want to… expand… the area… that… the tentacles… cover… Or… they want… something else… But… there seems… to be a reason… behind their… behaviour… and why… they feed… the tentacles...”

“A reason…”

“Yumi… That pitfall.... Is it… the only… thing you… can make?”

“Nn, no… I think so, at least. When I, uhm, made it the first time… It was like something was… telling me to… change it into something… It didn’t specify what so I am certain there are other things it can turn into…”

“Mm…”

Ria rubbed her chin as she stared at me, pondering on my words.

“I think… it is part… of the hive…”

“Part of the hive, you say?”

“Yes… You are… kind of… like a roper… right?”

“... Nn.”

“We talked… about this… before… I think… About how… your dolls… your tentacles… reminded me… of a hive…”

“Nn.”

That had been right before the incident with Yumelia, hadn’t it? Although, we hadn’t exactly talked much about, had we?

“I… have discussed… this with… Marvim… earlier… He told me… that some… types of… ropers… build… elaborate nests… hives… when in… a group...”

“Huh…”

“And… I assume… the things… you are doing… or rather… can do… They are… related… to creating… a hive…”

“Creating… a hive?”

That… didn’t come as a surprise. We had talked about it before so… I couldn’t say I didn’t have an inkling about it.

“The dolls… the workers… they are… propagating… your influence… Strengthening… the hive… And… changing… those tentacles… is probably… related to… building… the actual… hive…”

“I see…”

Building… things for the hive…

“Wait a moment, Ria. You say, she could build a hive?”

“Mm… That’s… what I… said…”

“... Do you know the implications of that?”

Korwen’s expression hardened, staring right at Ria. The person in question just tilted her head, though, unable to understand what Korwen wanted.

“If she can build whatever she wants with those tentacles, she’d be able to build traps or even siege weapons all by herself. At a fixed location she could build a fort with only herself.”

“Ahhh… That… might be… possible… In fact… it could be… even more… The pitfall… uses Space Magic… She could… expand… storage space… It might… even be possible… to connect… multiple… locations…”

“... As if I didn’t have enough headaches already.”

Korwen buried his head in his arms, groaning.

“But… She is… likely… limited… by the… mana… Yumi… you… used most… of the crystals… for the… tentacles… am I… right?”

“Eh? Yes. We needed quite a lot for the pitfall… and for growing the area of the tentacle growth…”

“As I… thought…”

“Nn?”

“The mana… consumption… is large…”

“Well… yes…”

But it was only a one-time investment so… Ah, wait…

“... Things like a siege weapon would need a lot of mana. Assuming I could build it even.”

“Exactly…”

In other words… It was probably not a whole lot better, huh…

“A lot of mana, you say… It would still have plenty of applications… This just adds another reason not to leak your existence to too many people. But, there’s one thing that I am interested in. Ria, you said it might be possible to connect two locations?”

“Yes… Although… Yumi would… need to test… that out… Considering… they already use… Space Magic… for the pitfall…”

“... That. Yumi, do you think that is possible?”

“Eh? I honestly don’t know? It sounds… a little too incredible for me, though…”

That was a little too magical… Even though it was magic.

“It is incredible. Space Magic is a rarity beyond comparison but it is not unheard of. If we could connect two places… Then you could build an entire hive somewhere and connect it to the wagon. It would be possible to use it for storage and other things. It would also be possible to hide things there we don’t want to be seen. Furthermore, it would also be possible to act as a shelter. In fact, there is so much that is possible to do with it.”

“Haaa…”

A hive… connected to the wagon? Honestly, that… was going a little above my head. Korwen seemed to be getting lost in his fantasies of possible applications and the like.

“Captain…”

“Yes, Ria?”

“I… don’t… want to… ruin your… mood… but… That might be… very hard… to accomplish… The pitfall… needed a lot of… mana… And… I can’t even… imagine… how much mana… such an undertaking… would require… We’d need years… maybe decades… to make that… a reality…”

“Decades, huh… Mhm… In the first place, we won’t even know if it is possible for her to do that. I am sorry, I got a little too excited there. But, Yumi, I’d like you to focus on that for a while. Ria might be right that it would take a long time. But, if nobody starts it, that time won’t get any shorter either.”

“Haa…”

He… really wanted to do this?

“Captain, uhm… are you sure… about that?”

“Sure? Well, I can’t say I don’t have doubts but… this is most likely the only way we can make the most out of your abilities.”

“Huh?”

“Things like charming-magic or building traps, they are helpful, yeah. And those dolls are a blessing. But, most of the things you can do aren’t things you can openly use. But if there was a place you could always visit and where there was nobody, you could use all your abilities, all the magic without restraint.”

“Without… restraint…”

That… He was right. That really would be… a convenient situation.

“The most immediate concerns for this are, however, whether you can even do something like connecting two places, as well as a place where you could even build such a hive.”

“Nn…”

It’d have to be somewhere quite isolated… And… honestly, I still couldn’t picture something as ridiculous as connecting two places. That was something for fairy tales and not… Well, okay, considering my situation wasn’t that far off from a fairy tale with all this magic and so.... Maybe? No… But…

“It might… be helpful… to look… at the… Academy’s… library…”

“Nn?”

“They should… have books… about… Space Magic… Also… Marvim… might know… more…”

Books about Space Magic, huh… Well, I was interested, yeah… But seeing how those tentacles could do it by themselves… On the other hand, if they didn’t know… it might be helpful?

But there’s no point speculating until I actually try it out…

First, I had to try whether they could do it or not… No matter how outlandish it seemed to me, it might actually work, after all. Everything else could be discussed afterwards.

“Very well, if Yumi has troubles, we’ll have to investigate there. Is what I would like to say… Unfortunately, we might not get the chance to search the Academy’s library.”

“Not?”

“We still have our current problems to solve, don’t we?”

“Ah, right…”

“And those come first. If all of this works out it might be incredible but it won’t matter if we’re all dead.”

“...”

Dead?

“Uhm… Captain… is the situation that bad?”

“Mh? Ah, no, it was a bit of an exaggeration, sorry. I don’t think there’s much danger to our lives currently. The army will soon have their hands full with the nest mother. Not to mention the preparations for a possible war. Even if they tried to harm us, there’s no way they’d have the manpower to prevent us from escaping.”

“Huh…”

“That’s most likely also why they still aren’t acting. They are probably wary.”

“Nn, isn’t that a good thing?”

“It is. For now. I’d like to get everything here finished before that changes. Which would be mostly in regards to the jobs we got from the Academy.””

So there was no immediate danger but it could turn dangerous if we overstayed our welcome? Something like that.

“Speaking of those, while we don’t have any fixed plans for the ogre yet, we’ll send some men out tomorrow to deal with the others. You and Karen will join them.”

“Eh?”

We had to go out again?

“I planned to send someone to tell you but since you’re here, that makes it easier. Tell Karen as well. You’re going to leave tomorrow after breakfast.”

“Un… Understood… Captain…”

Couldn’t say I was all that enthusiastic to go out again so soon… But, well… If that was his order… He was the one who had the last word…

“Good. Well then, I got some other work to tend to so you should join your sister and that girl. You are still on break. Don’t worry about what we discussed right now, we’ll come back to that another time.”

“Nn, understood. Then, I’ll be on my way.”

I took my leave and left the tent. Ria still had something to discuss with Korwen, so she stayed.

“Ah, there she is. Yumi! Over here.”

“Yumi.”

Barely had I left the tent, Lefa and Karen were waving and calling for me.

Nn, he’s right. Still on break for today so… Let’s try to have some fun.

It might be a good idea to get a little bit distracted and forget about all those many things for a moment anyway.