Chapter of Living Dreams: Before the Job

The next morning came, together with the usual wake-up routine when everyone slept together. While I wasn't being hugged from all dimensions anymore, my body was twisted in every possible inhumane manner in exchange, causing a slight disturbance… Much to our surprise, Elma woke up first, witnessing a little girl with her arms and legs and even her spine bent into impossible directions. Said girl being me. Took a lot of convincing until she believed I was fine. Although, it did raise some questions that we couldn’t explain to them…

Except for that little disturbance, the morning was relatively peaceful as we begun the last preparations to set out for the day.

“Hey, girlie, ya seen the Cap?”

“Nn? He just went to check up on the other groups. You just missed him.”

“Seriously? And we just noticed that we’re missing materials for the traps…”

“The materials for the traps are all transported together until the edge of the forest.”

“Oh, so that’s what it was?”

“Nn.”

As one might have guessed, I was back to my secretary job. Korwen had pushed a list of assignments onto me and with the help of Taddick, the burly mercenary who was also teaching me combat theory in the mornings, we were trying to get these people moving.

“Nn…”

“Something wrong, girl?”

“No, Mr Taddick… Just astonished how smooth it is. I thought this would be more of a mess.”

Honestly, when I heard that we’d prepare only now, I had half a mind to just walk away, fearing the worst. There were over a dozen jobs on the list in my hands. You’d think that would require a lot of preparation... But instead, everything went so quickly....

“Ha, can’t have ya underestimate us, girl. These men have been doing this their whole long damn life, they know what to do even if ya don’t tell them.”

“Nn.”

“Be glad ya aren’t with the young’uns. Those are probably in a real mess right about now.”

“Nn…”

I sure was glad. But I did feel a little useless, seeing how they all knew what to do. Then again, even if there were problems, for most serious ones I’d have to ask Taddick anyway.

“‘Scuse me, girly! Could ya come over and take a look at this?”

“Nn?”

“Someone’s calling for you, go.”

“Ah, yes.”

Returning back to reality, I ran over to the mercenaries who had called for me. They were surrounding a large cart that we’d use to transport equipment and material. It could be pulled by a single waroxen and was pretty convenient for short day trips. And they could be taken apart and stored in the large wagons. They were still bulky so there were only a few of them around.

“Yo, girly. Take a look here, at the cart.”

“Nn? Is something wrong with it?”

“The wheel is a little loose, though it seems to fit just right on it. Checked it twice over. Axle might be damaged. I think it should be fine for today but it definitely needs some repairs.”

He rattled the wheel, showing me that it was indeed a little loose.

“I see… I’ll write it up. Although, wouldn’t it be better to move the stuff to another cart then?”

“That’s troublesome though! It’ll be fine! It’s just for today, girly. Can’t bother the others to lend us a new one, either.”

“Ehh...”

That sounded really irresponsible… What if it broke down in the middle of it? I had no idea how damaged it really was but I couldn’t help but worry.

He said it’d be fine for today, though, so I guess… No… If the cart breaks down after all, we’ll have to carry all of it on our backs. No way I’m going to do that. That’s tiring. Let’s not do that. Even if there were only a few of them around, we should still have a spare or two. I saw them in the supply wagon for sure.

Disregarding that I’d frankly collapse under the weight anyway, if I had to carry that equipment. I’d die.

“Nn, if the cart breaks down we’ll all have to carry it all the way to the forest and then back. I’d rather not do that. Just putting everything onto a different cart now won’t take that long. And I saw a spare in the supply wagon.”

“Ehh… Guess ya got a point there. Okay, ya heard the girl, men! Let’s get this over with!”

The mercenary turned around and got his friends moving, immediately starting to unpack the cart and bringing over a new one. Seeing that they were back to work, I returned to Taddick, who had been watching with a smile on his face.

“Good job. Little surprised you didn’t budge there.”

“Nn?”

“Thought ya’d be the type to give in there, ya know?”

“Ahh… Well…”

I was nearly inclined to just say nothing so he wasn’t exactly wrong.

“I just figured it’d be a huge bother if the cart would break down. And I don’t think I could carry that stuff all the way to the forest…”

“Well, if ya hadn’t said anything, it would’ve likely ended that way, yeah.”

Good thing I said something. Saved my life there.

“Yumi! Yumi!”

“Nn? Ah! Emily, don’t run!.”

“We brought the stuff! The big stuff!”

Carrying a bag over her shoulder, Emily came dashing right in my direction… She… She wasn’t going to jump at me now, right? Oh please, Emily do— Ah. She stopped.

“Yumi, Yumi! Look!”

“Nn, I can see it.”

“Did we do good?”

“Nn, you did well.”

I pat her head, still thanking her in my mind that she didn’t jump in my arms for once.

“Emily, I told you not to run!”

“Big Sis Karen, Yumi said we did well!”

“Haa…”

Right behind Emily, Karen and the others appeared, all of them carrying some bags.

“Yumi, we brought all the nets we found in the supplies.”

“Nn, that’s good. I think we’re done now. Mr Taddick?”

“We’re done, alright. Just gotta wait for those guys to finish moving the equipment from that cart to a new one.”

“Ah, right.”

We had to wait for that too. From the looks of it, they were already nearly done. Wasn’t that way too fast?!

“Well then,let’s do a last check up, girl. By the time we’re done they should be finished with packing there. Let’s just go down the list.”

“Nn, let’s do that.”

I held up the list to take a good look at it. Next to the jobs, we had listed all the equipment we needed. Or the necessary personnel. Well, Taddick listed them and I had written them up. He was the one who knew what we needed.

“All you guys, line up right here now. ‘Cept the guys packing that cart there. And pronto! Come on, your parents been snails, or what?!”

As he Taddick shouted, the men all scrambled together, lining up in their respective groups in front of us. Before I noticed, Karne, Emily and the girls had moved away from us as well, lining up at the end.

“Now, Yumi, gimme a rundown on the list. Top to bottom, ya know how. And loud enough that they can hear ya.”

“Nn, okay… Then, let’s see…”

Best we’d go per job, right? Then, the first one was...

“For the Fire Boars we have… three six-man squads with a box of elemental water stones. Bags, saws and disassembling knives for each of them, as well as buckets. Also a coil of rope.”

I took a short look around the line until I saw the group that just checked if they had everything, then they turned to me and Taddick.

“All accounted for, ma’am!”

Wow, they called me ma’am.

I felt a little moved by that.

Still, to think they need all that stuff...

It was quite interesting to hear what they needed. The elemental stones were for dousing the fire the boars cloaked themself in. The disassembling knives and bags were easy to guess: They were for taking apart the boars and carrying them back. The saws however? To saw off the tusks and spikes. It was hard to notice due to the flames but the boar was covered in spikes. They were actually what was emitting the flames, it seemed. Not that I ever saw one before, mind you.

Anyway, it was hard to work with the boar if the spikes weren’t removed. They also tended to cause injuries as well during the disassembly. The rope was to suspend the boar for draining its blood and the buckets to catch the blood.

All that was rather irregular equipment that they definitely needed. The actual hunting was left up to them. Of the six men in each group, five were carrying metal spears and the last one was carrying either a bow or a crossbow. Taddick told me that due to the thick hide as well as the flames, regular arrows or bolts weren’t enough to hurt it. So they needed special metal arrows and bolts but only a few mercenaries were adept enough with these weapons to use those. Plus, they were expensive.

“Mm, good. Next one, girl.”

“Ah, yes… Uhm… The next is for the Armoured Lizards. An eight-man squad, bags and nets.”

Once again, I took a look around to find the group in question. They also did a quick check before turning to me.

“All’s all right, miss!”

This time it’s ‘miss’, huh….

This group sounded comparatively lightly equipped to the groups responsible for the boars but… They carried heavier weapons. True to their name, those lizards were incredibly resilient. So resilient, in fact, that they had to bring them back to the camp to take them apart.

“Next.”

“Ehh… Next are the Giant Dragonflies—

And just like that, we kept continuing our last check-up. There were a total of nineteen jobs on this list. Of those, there were ten requests for simple monster extermination. These groups didn’t need any special equipment, technically, but some of those monsters were still worth a little. In the end, this turned into a huge hunting party. Only four requests were for the collection of herbs or plants and the like. Of course, our group was responsible for those collection requests… Not because they were easy and safe. They were far from it, otherwise the Academy would just do it themselves or hire local civilians. It was just… that we had the resident high elf in our group…

I can only hope this will work out fine...

“Yumi! Yumi! Look, it’s the forest! The forest!”

“Yes, Emily, I can see it. Now, sit down or you’ll fall out.”

“But the forest!”

“Sit. Down.”

I grabbed Emily by the shoulders and forced her to take a seat again. These carts were far from a comfortable ride and if Emily leaned out, she was bound to fall down and hurt herself.

“We’ll be there soon enough Emily, It’s only a little longer, okay?”

“But, Yumi!”

“No buts.”

The little bundle of energy finally sat down, albeit still glancing towards the forest in question. I’d bet that if I wasn’t careful, she’d just stand up again immediately.

“Yumi, is everything okay up there?”

“Nn? Ah, yes. Everything’s fine, Sis.”

“Then that’s okay.“

For now, at least.

I looked down from the cart at Karen and the others. It was only the three girls and me who were riding the cart. And no, it wasn’t because I was tired or anything. I was simply taking care of these three. Which was probably more exhausting than just walking alongside the cart…

“Haa… Maya, how is Sele?”

“She’s… not okay…”

“Great...”

Sitting opposite of me were Maya and Sele, with Sele laying down on Maya’s lap. The idiot girl had tried to read a book and then got motion sick. Can’t say I was surprised at that in the least. The wagons were quite comfortable rides but with all the shaking and bumping around in these carts, there was no way you could read something.

“It’s only a little more, Sele. We’re soon there.”

“Uhh…”

Sele groaned in response. At least, she was still alive. And she hadn’t emptied her stomach yet, either. Hopefully, that wouldn’t change.

With Sele feeling sick and Emily unable to sit still, it had been a rather turbulent ride.

“Oh well…”

I threw a glance forwards, towards the forest. This was, obviously, a different forest from the one we had travelled through on our way to Larfas. The one that had been home to the elves was to the south. And this one was to the west. I first thought that it might be connected to the Wooden Sea but… I was told that it would take weeks until one would reach the Wooden Sea from the capital. Nothing you could reach in a day trip. This was just a local forest.

“Why is it always forests anyway…”

“Did you say something, Yumi?” asked Karen, having overheard me.

“Nn? Ah, just thinking to myself… We’ve been to a few forests already but not really anything else…”

“Is that not because there’s only forests around here?”

“Nn…”

Only forests, huh… Honestly, I would have liked a little bit of variation. Like… Hills and plains, maybe a lake… Not the roper lake, of course. Or a rocky area.

There were many kinds of landscapes. Yet, it was all forests here… There were a few hills around the capital but not exactly many.

“Yumi, Yumi, do you not like the forest?”

“Nn, no that’s not it, Emily. But you see, I would like to see something different in a while.”

“So you don’t like it”

“No, like I said, I do like them… Ehh… See, if you ate the same food all day, you’d get tired of it, right? It’s similar.”

“Huh? But I can eat meat all day!”

Okay then, little carnivore… I had no idea how to explain it in that case.

“Anyway, people get tired if it’s always the same. I was just wondering if there are some other places around.”

“The cave,” mentioned Karen.

“Except that one.”

Admittedly, it wasn’t a forest. But it had been inside a forest.

“I see… So, Yumi, you want to see different places?”

“Nn? I guess you could say it like that?”

“...”

The heck was going with Emily now? She was staring at me… and her face was slowly turning sad with her ears drooping down.

“Then… If you want to see different places… will you… leave us?”

“Eh? What? Uh? No... No, no, how the heck did you even come to that conclusion? Of course, I’ll stay with you all.”

“... Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Really really?”

“Yes, really really. I won’t leave.”

“...Ehehe.”

Ahh, she was smiling again, a shy and small smile. Yeah, that suited her a lot better.

“Yumi… Stop flirting and get ready. We’ve arrived?”

“Eh, Sis? I’m not flirting though?”

“Yumi is flirting with me?”

“No, Emily, I’m not.”

“... Not?”

And her ears were drooping again...

“Wait, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay? Of course I am.”

“Ehehehe! Yumi is flirting with me!”

Do you even know what that means? And for the love of everything that is holy, please don’t run around saying that.

On the other hand… Karen was staring at me, judging me.

“Yumi…”

Sis, don’t look at me like that, you clearly saw I had no choice there!

What did I do to deserve this?

“Kids, stop fooling around. We’re here for work, not to play. Unless ya don’t need dinner today, that is.”

“””We’re sorry.”””

And now the driver of the cart was scolding us… This hadn’t even been my fault, right? Why did he scold me too?

Haa… Whatever… We had arrived at the edge of the forest, so the cart came to a halt. I jumped down so I could take a good look around. Emily was right behind me as well.

“It’s pretty vast… I know I helped with the preparations and all but how are they even supposed to find some of those monsters?”

Even if the monsters had their own territories, it wasn’t like you were guaranteed to find what you were looking for. Actually, you might run into the monsters that others were looking for. What did you do then?

“Simple, girl. Even solitary monsters got their own nests and plenty smaller ones live in groups. Especially those close to animals. Well, takes some experience to find them, but it’s not that hard,” explained the mercenary who had driven the cart.

“Huh… And do we know where those nests are?”

“Most of them, yeah. The monsters we just have to get rid of, we just gonna sweep through the forest and clear it out, killing all the ones we find. Not like anyone really cares ‘bout the number, long it turns lower. Only the guys hunting for materials really gotta worry about finding their quarry.”

“I see…”

So that was why the squads for exterminating monsters had roughly the same equipment.

“Most squads are also gonna bring back their kills here anyway. Even if it didn’t go as planned, just gotta hope someone else ran into them and brought it back. Happens only once a moon, though.”

“That they don’t find their target or that someone else finds it?”

“Both, of course! Wahahahaha!”

Was this really okay? Sounded like a recipe for disaster…

“Now then, gotta go. Ya kids better get moving too if ya don’t wanna skip on dinner.”

“Nn. And thanks.”

“Ya welcome.”

The mercenary left, leaving us only with a quick wave of his hand.

Now then…

I turned around to Karen and the others. They had already started to unpack the things we needed from the cart. Lily and Rina were helping her while Elma and Nela were helping Sele get down from the cart. Her face was even paler than usual.

“Sele, you okay?” I asked.

“...”

She shook her hand. Very slowly, probably to not make herself feel even worse.

“Then, you should sit down and rest for a moment.”

“I’ll watch over her.”

“Nn, thank you, Maya.”

At least one of them could be counted upon.

“Me too!”

“Emily, we still need your help.”

“My help?”

“Nn.”

She was technically the most important person in our group. None of us had a clue about herbs, flowers and so on. And while Emily didn’t exactly know their name or anything, she did know the plants we were looking for.

“Uhhh…”

Emily started to look back and forth between Sele and me, clearly unsure what to do.

Thankfully, a saviour came right at that moment.

“You girls, are you all ready?”

“Merim? You’re already done there?”

“Those old men barely need my help. They know what to do even without me telling them.”

He looked around our group, until his gaze rested on Sele.

“Motion sickness? Or something else?”

“Nn, motion sickness.”

“Well… Should hopefully subside in a little.”

“Nn.”

She already looked a little better than during the ride, at least.

“Now then, Emily, you know which plants we’re looking for already?”

“Ah, yes! I do! Yumi told me all about them!”

“That’s good. We’re counting on you.”

“Leave it to me!”

After nodding with a smile on his lips, Merim then turned to Karen, Lily and Rina, who just finished getting down the equipment we needed.

“You girls got everything?”

“Mr Vice-Captain. I think we have everything. Shears with long and short handles, bags for everyone, a saw and a shield.”

“Good. That should be all. Then, all of you, line up.”

Following his words, the nine of us lined up. Well, Sele was still leaning onto Maya, but she was trying her best despite her condition.

“Jeez, what kind of group am I babysitting here. The men to women ratio is all wrong.”

“Aren’t you happy to lead around a group of beautiful girls?”

“Lily, first, I am a married man and second, you’re all too young. Grow a few more years first. Then we can talk.”

He sighed once before moving on.

“Let’s get to the point. Our group is going to look for four plants. First are the Slime Flowers. They are large, blue flowers, about half as tall as a grown man. If you get too close to them, they attack you with a spray of acid, so be careful.”

Been wondering about that before already, when I checked the list the first time but… Why weren’t they called Acid Flowers? They had absolutely nothing to do with slimes.

“The acid isn’t going to kill you but it hurts a ton. Every time we have several people suffering injuries from them. And I can tell you from experience, that’s nothing you want to go through. Also, if it gets into your eyes, you’ll be blind until Ria can treat you. I repeat, be careful.”

So he was one of those casualties…

And acid in the eyes… Yeah… More surprised that Ria could actually treat that.

“The next one is a flower called the Purple Queen. True to its name, it has a purple flower. The flower itself isn’t dangerous, but sometimes monsters are attracted to it.”

At least the flower itself wasn’t trying to kill us.

“The third one is the fruit from a tree called the Elven Trap. The tree is carnivorous. Get too close and it tries to eat you. Be careful.”

Oh great, so this one was trying to kill us too? That I didn’t know. Though I half suspected it with that name.

“The last one is a plant called Silver Moon’s Grace. It’s a magical herb and rather hard to find during the day. Except for it being elusive, there’s not much to say about it, though.”

“Nn? During the day?”

That was a slightly odd way of phrasing it.

“Yes, the day. The blossoms of the Silver Moon’s Grace only open up during the night and only when the moon shines on them. They’re easy to find then but you also don’t want to be in the forest at those times.”

“Ahh…”

A flower that only blossomed at night, huh. Sounded nice.

“With that said, thanks to Emily here we should be able to find them even during the day. Emily, can you do it?”

“... I don’t know?”

“... I thought Yumi told you all about them? Shouldn’t that be enough?”

“She did! But I don’t know about this forest. I’ll have to ask them first if they can help.”

“... Please do.”

Merim rubbed the bridge of his nose while sighing.

“Be that as it may, do you have any other questions?”

“Uhm… Mr… Merim?”

“Yes? You… Your name was…”

“It’s Nela.”

“Ah, right, Nela. Is something the matter?”

“Mrs Karker told us to come along and help but.... Is this safe?”

Nela glanced along our line, specifically towards Emily, Maya and Sele. Was she worried about those three? Or was she worried that this group wasn’t able to protect themselves?

“No job is perfectly safe in our line of work. With that said, it’s a lot safer than directly fighting with monsters. I know that you two are just guests helping out, but for those girls, a job like this also doubles as their training. That’s why I am the only one coming along.”

Huh… So that was the reason he was our sole supervisor.

“I see…”

“It’ll be fine, Nel. It’s just some flowers and plants.”

“But El… He said some were dangerous…”

“They’re still just flowers.”

“Mm… If you say so.”

Apparently, that argument somehow managed to convince Nela. But it was only Nela who got convinced by this. Unsurprisingly, Merim started to grin, hearing that short discussion. This… I had a bad feeling about this.

“Any other questions?”

“I do, Mr Vice-Captain.”

“Karen, what is it?”

“For… what do we need the shield?”

Hearing that question, Merim’S grin only grew wider.

“I told you about the Slime Flower and the Elven Trap, right? You need that shield if you want to get close to them.”

“But will this shield even survive the acid?”

“No worries about that, there. That shield is durable enough.”

“Haa…”

Karen furrowed her brows but didn’t say anything else.

“‘Kay then, anything else?”

Silence… Nobody said anything.

“Great. Then let’s get a move on. Lily, Karen, Yumi, Rina, you four carry the equipment. Lily takes the shield. Emily, we’re counting on you. When we enter the forest, you’ll have to tell us where to go.”

“Okay, Uncle Merim!”

Emily replied, full of energy as usual.

“Yumi, Karen, here you go.”

“Thanks, Lily.”

“Nn, thanks.”

Lily handed us bags and shears. The equipment we needed. Then, she leaned a little forward.

“You two, be careful. Merim is planning something.”

“... You think so too?”

“Yes. He is probably not telling us something. I don’t think it’s going to be really dangerous, but be careful.”

“Nn… We’ll take care.”

“Good then!”

Lily grinned at my response, then turned around and went back to Rina, handing her the equipment as well. Those two were spending a lot of time together recently… I felt a little lonely, to be honest.

“Yumi, something wrong?”

“Nn? No, it’s nothing. Just glad to see Lily and Rina getting along.”

“Ahh… They get along a little too well… I barely talked with Rina since we came back… Or Lily, for that matter... Haaa...”

Karen watched Lily and Rina with a wry smile on her lips.

“Feeling lonely?”

“A little, yes.”

“Nn, well… Nothing we can do about, though.”

“True… I don’t really want to get between them either.”

Karen scratched the back of her head and then turned to me.

“Come, let’s get ready.”

“Nn.”

The two of us did a last check-up, making sure that everything was in order.

Right when we finished, Merim was clapping his hands to get our attention.

“Okay, you girls. Let’s get going! Don’t forget to be careful and make sure not to get separated. If you see a monster or something else that is dangerous, tell me immediately! You got that!”

“””Yes!”””

“Good! Then, let’s do this!”