Chapter of Living Dreams: Reality

Karen, Lily and the other girls had left, making their way to the main camp together with an entourage of mercenaries. Merim had made it very clear to them that Elma and Nela needed protection and that they shouldn’t let anyone near them until we returned with the Captain. He even went so far as telling them to have Wenners and Krutz as well as the Black Guards join in protecting them. That was quite a lot of fighting power.

“Still nothing, huh…”

“Nn.”

Merim and I were standing at the edge of the forest, waiting. While I was able to see souls, the forest was way too crowded for me to make out anything worthwhile. Not while we were observing from the side, at least. The only thing I could confirm was, that there were people in the forest.

“Mhm… We’ll have to make a search party, after all.”

“Nn…”

Having reached that decision, Merim turned around to gather the remaining mercenaries. It didn’t take long before I could hear him shouting behind me.

The Captain… is probably going to be fine. Merim said so too. The issue are the other mercenaries. Nn… Nope, can’t find them...

Try as I might, there were just too many souls—people and animals alike—in my line of sight. I had no idea which were mercenaries and which weren’t. Neither could I single out the Captain among all of them. Not that I had even an idea how I’d go about that. While there seemed to be some minor individual differences between souls, they just looked way too similar. You’d need Lily’s memory to distinguish between them.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

I turned to Merim, who had come up to me from behind. Following him were two or three dozen mercenaries. Most of them seemed to be from the group that had returned with us earlier.

“We’ll leave now. You stay by my side and try to look for the other mercenaries.”

“Nn, understood.”

With Merim and me in the centre of the formation, we entered the other part of the forest, where the Captain was. Thankfully, Merim had a rough idea of the areas we had to search. Or rather, where the mercenaries were supposed to do their jobs.

“It’s quiet…”

“You think so?”

Now that he mentioned it… While I certainly could spot the odd animal around us, the forest was surprisingly silent. Outside of the rustling leaves, nothing. No animal cries, no sounds from the birds…

“... You could only make out humanoid people, right?”

“And animals. There are animals around us but…”

“...”

They kept quiet… As if they were scared… Scared of… what?

“Keep your guard up.”

”Nn.”

“Any people you can find? Where are the nearest ones?”

“Uhhh…”

The nearest ones… The nearest ones… Probably… there? Since we entered, it slowly became easier to search but it was still a bit hard since we weren’t that deep into the forest yet… Most of them were far away and just looked like a messy blob of souls.

“Over there… Four people.”

“Four, huh… In a half-circle?”

“Uhh… No. I think they’re… just scattered around?”

“Mm… Let’s take a look.”

With a wave of his hand, Merim redirected our group in the direction I had pointed. Honestly, that they managed to keep something halfway resembling a formation in the middle of the forest with so many people was astonishing.

We walked a few minutes in silence until we arrived at the spot with the… people… I had spotted...

“These are…”

“Dark brown robes… Our attackers, huh…”

We did find four people… Laying on the ground, motionless. The immediate surroundings stained in blood. But, I could still see their souls so...

“They’re dead, vice-captain,” shouted a mercenary who had gone to check on them.

So much to that… Maybe souls didn’t immediately disappear when someone died?

“I see. The wounds?”

“Stabbing and cutting wounds. Definitely weapons, not monsters.”

“Anything else on them?”

“One moment…”

The mercenary started to search the corpse. After Merim did a quick motion with his chin, three others went to the other corpses and searched them as well. And a short while later, they had finished.

“Only weapons, vice-captain.”

They carried the weapons they had found to us. A broken bow, two shortswords, a handax and four daggers.

“They all don’t look special but…”

Merim picked up a shortsword, inspecting the hilt.

“Akkian make… As expected…”

I followed his gaze onto the hilt but… there was nothing of note there. How did he even manage to figure that out?

“Let’s get going. Yumi, where’s the next closest group?”

“Ah. Ehh, in that direction. Four… no, five people, huddled together.”

After a quick look around, I spotted the next group of what seemed to be people.

“That direction… Well then, let’s go.”

Merim ordered everyone to get back into formation, so we could head to the next group.

“Dead, vice-captain.”

“Again… This makes the sixth group already.”

Merim sighed as he looked at the corpses in front of us. All groups we had found so far had been from the assailants. And they all had been dead. Except for two groups, it had always been four people. One group had five and another only three. Merim assumed that someone tried to run in the hope of getting some reinforcements, which caused the slight discrepancy.

“I’m fairly sure this is the work of our men but in that case, why did none of them report back? Mhm…”

It was odd, that was true… We hadn’t found a single mercenary yet, after all.

“Mm…”

“... Merim?”

“Yumi. What do you think of this?”

“Even if you ask me...They probably encountered them and fought them off? I don’t know why they didn’t send someone to report back...”

“You have no idea either, huh… Well, I got a bit of an inkling but… Mm…”

“Nn?”

So, he did have some idea?

“Well, don’t you think it odd that we also didn’t encounter any monsters yet?”

“Monsters? That is…”

We hadn’t but… I also had no idea about the supposed encounter rate for monsters… Though, guessing from those words, it wasn’t odd to encounter some monsters here and there. Maybe those assailants had done something to keep the monsters away?

“Monsters rarely stay away from territories like this without a good reason. One reason would be a monster far more powerful that is occupying the area.”

“...”

“An ogre would be… No… Maybe… Mhm…”

“Merim?”

He started to mumble something as he kept looking down at the ground, clearly deep in thought. It didn’t seem like he was going to snap out of it anytime soon so I decided to take another look at our surroundings. Or rather, the souls in our surroundings.

Another group of four there… and there another… They also—

“Vice-Captain!”

At that moment, one of the mercenaries who was keeping watch called out.

“Vice-Captain! I found something!”

“What is it?”

Merim rushed over to the man. I followed behind him, curious as to what the man had found.

“Take a look at this, Vice-Captain.”

“A slope? That is… No, but…”

Fallen trees, large footprints… Something very large had made its way between the trees, causing a path of destruction that coincidentally passed along this slope.

“... Let’s take a look. You keep watch. Yumi, come.”

“Ah. Nn.”

Merim and I cautiously descended downwards to take a look at this… destruction. Just what in the hell passed by here? Not even the ogre back in Arkesta could have caused this…

“A stone…”

“Nn?”

For some reason or another… Merim had picked up a stone that was on the ground… It certainly looked a little odd, one side smooth and the other rugged, as if it had been broken off.

“But… in the forest?”

“Merim?”

“... Let’s hurry.”

“Huh?”

“Yumi, the largest group of people you can find. Where is it?”

“Eh? Wait a moment.”

I closed my eyes in a hurry and tried to look for as many people as possible… There were quite a few groups still around as, but they were all likely just more dead assailant groups. In the distance, there were more groups but I couldn’t really make out how big they were. They just seemed like a large blob to me. Although, there was one that was… a little larger.

“Uhh… I think… There? But I’m not sure.”

“Not sure, huh. Better than looking around aimlessly.”

Merim stowed the stone away into his bag and then climbed up the slope again.

“We’re going to move a little more quickly now. All of you, double time!”

“””Understood, Vice-Captain!”””

As I tried to follow him—having just slight trouble climbing back up the slope—Merim was already getting the men back in formation. He seemed to be in an odd hurry, all of a sudden.

“Merim, what’s wrong?”

“... We might have a slightly troublesome monster roaming around.”

“Haa…”

As I positioned myself next to him, we began to move towards the large blob I had ponited out earlier.

“Is it that bad of a monster?”

“Quite. At least, it is far too much for the less experienced mercenaries. We could take it on with this group but I’d still rather not. That is, of course, assuming that my hunch is right…”

He glanced at the bag where he had put the stone in.

”... If it really is a troll.”

“... A troll?”

“Yes, a troll. Large, humanoid monsters. Well-known for having a taste for humanoid flesh. Think of them as an ogre just at least three times the height.”

“Three times…”

That… was definitely large.

“If that thing meets those greenhorns, it’ll be a massacre.”

“...”

No wonder he wanted to hurry up.

“... What about the Captain?”

“If the Captain encounters that troll? Well, he won’t die to a troll, at least.”

“...”

A wry smile adorned his face as he talked about the Captain.

“That man survived way worse. Doesn’t mean we should test his luck more than necessary, though.”

“…”

Not sure if I should feel more worried now or not…

“Either way, we should hurry.”

“Nn.

And hurry we did. The closer we came to the large blob of souls, the more clearly I could make it out. And sure enough, around two dozen people were gathering there. Now was the only question whether they were the people we were looking for.

“We’re close…”

“Good. Anything of note?”

“Nn… most of them are in the middle and then there’s some people surrounding them in a large circle.”

It did remind me of how we encountered the other large mercenary group earlier today. Merim nodded in response to my words, then motioned with his arm to keep moving, pointing in the direction of the large group.

“Keep quiet for now. Just in case.”

“Nn.”

As we approached, Merim ordered one of the mercenaries to go ahead and take a look at the people. The man quickly approached the group, peeking through between the trees. After a short while, he came back, nodding. We had found them, it seemed.

“Good. Then, let’s try to find out what is going.”

Merim took point now, leading us towards the group. The trees parted, revealing a large clearing.

“Wh— Who goes there?!”

The sounds of weapons being drawn and armour moving.

“Is that how you greet your vice-captain? That’s not exactly stellar discipline here.”

“... Vi— Vice-captain?! Ah! I’m so… I apologise!!”

The man closest to us, a young man probably barely twenty, quickly tried to put away his weapon and also attempted to salute. And not exactly successfully either…

Merim frowned a little but nothing more.

“Report, what happened here.”

We glanced over to the other mercenaries, who had finally realised that it was their fellow mercenaries who had appeared. They were all young men…. And they sure looked haggard. An expression of relief overcame them as they slowly seemed to process our arrival.

Alas… The captain, Korwen, wasn’t among them.

“Tha— That’s… Uhm… We...”

“Calm down. First things first. You encountered the hooded men?”

“Ye, Yes, sir!”

“You engaged them?”

“Yes, sir! They.. They suddenly attacked… Some of…. Some of us were chased even… And… and…”

The young man glanced behind him, towards the centre of the group. Some men were sitting there, bandages covering their arms, legs and their torsos. Then there were also…

“Three…”

Merim’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the three motionless men laying there…

“Next. How did you gather everyone here?”

“Uhm… The Captain, he… he suddenly appeared with others, telling us to follow him here. He told us not to leave from here under any circumstances.”

“I see… That probably saved your lives.”

“... Huh?”

The man’s eyes went wide at Merim’s comment.

“Did any of you find the monsters you were supposed to deal with for the jobs?”

“The.. monsters? Uhm, no… We were still searching when the Captain came.”

“And the others?”

“I.. don’t know?”

The man turned around to look at the other mercenaries. Said mercenaries exchanged looks and then all of them were  shaking their heads.

“As expected. Okay, next. Where’s the Captain now?”

“He, he went off suddenly. He hasn’t returned since.”

“How long ago was that?”

“A, Around an hour?”

“...”

An entire hour since the last contact with Korwen? That... 

“Yumi.”

“... Eh?”

I was a little surprised as Merim suddenly turned around and called out to me.

“Are there sole people in the forest?”

“Uhm… One moment.”

I closed my eyes and started to look around. I heard some murmurs from in front of me, probably from the young mercenaries. Didn’t have time to bother with them right now, though. Now, to look for a person… A person’s soul was a little larger than most animals but it was still hard to differentiate… Ah.

“Nn. There is one.”

“Far from here?”

“No, not that far.”

“I see.”

Merim fell silent for a moment, once again lost in thought.

“Mh, these guys seem to be fine for now, so our group is going to look for the Captain.”

“Vi— Vice-captain, wha— what should we do?!”

“Stay here for now. Keep to the middle of the clearing and stay away from the edge of the forest for now. Understood?”

“U, Understood!”

The man saluted, this time properly. Seeing that, Merim nodded and turned then to us.

“We’re going to look for the Captain. Don’t forget to keep your guard up. Let’s go!”

“””Ohhhh!”””

With a cheer, we left behind the group. To the next stop: Korwen.

And hopefully, the last stop. We’ve been walking from one stop to the next one now… Not like I could change that much.

But still… I really hope the Captain is alright.

The soul I was seeing wasn’t moving at all… Which did make me feel worried.

Only a little more…

Right behind those trees… I took a deep breath, following Merim…

“...”

“...”

“Huh? Ohh, you sure took your sweet time, didn’t you?”

“... Captain!”

There he was, leaning against a huge… something… His armour bloodied and in his hand a broken handle from a weapon… That… Was he…

“Hey, don’t look at me  like I’m dying here. I’m fine, I’ll have you know. Outside of some minor wounds, that is.”

“...”

“Haaa… Captain, what happened?”

Merim sighed as he stared at Korwen. I only saw it now but there was a cigar in Korwen’s hand, from which he quickly took a drag and puffed the smoke into the air. He even carried them around with him?

“Quite a bit. Was a little stressful recently, so I figured it was time for some stress relief.”

“I am not sure that fighting a troll alone can be considered stress relief anymore.”

“Oh, I had my fun though. Feeling a lot better already.”

He broke out in laughter. He was laughing… With the corpse of a giant monster right behind him… Even laying on the ground like this, it was still easily two or three metre. Just how tall was this thing when standing? And this man had… killed it. On his own.

“Haaa… I feel stupid for worrying.”

“Now, now… I was counting on you coming, you know? Also, how are those greenhorns? Are they still there?”

“They are.”

“That’s good. Now then.”

With those words, Korwen extinguished the cigar on the ground and stood up, stretching his arms and back. Judging from his movements, he really didn’t seem injured all that much. Although, he sure was covered in a lot of blood.

“Ahh, that felt good. Barely even had time for training recently.”

“Haaa… Captain, just out of curiosity, but how did you even manage to kill it? And… are those cloth scraps?”

“Yeah. This guy apparently had his fill on those robed men already.”

“... No wonder we found none killed by monsters.”

“Well, of course not. Anything killed goes straight into its stomach.”

Korwen walked around the large corpse, towards what I assumed was its head. There was a large, bloody wound with something stuck in it…

“Still, we shouldn’t linger for too long. I want to know what is going on and I don’t want to run into another one.”

“... Another? Captain, are you saying...”

“Exactly that. At least two more.”

“...”

Two more… of these monstrosities?

“Are you sure about that, Captain?”

“Unfortunately, I am. Because I saw them. Well, even I’m not stupid enough to fight two or three of these at once, mind you.”

“I’m not so sure…”

Merim shook his head in exasperation.

“Anyway, I’m more interested in how you found me. I expected you to take at least two more hours before you’d arrive. At worst I expected you tomorrow.”

“Yumi led us here.”

“Yumi?”

Korwen raised his eyebrows and stared at me.

“You certainly are versatile, aren’t you?”

“Nn, well…”

“I’ll ask about the details later. Just give me… No, let’s delay that for later after all. While I am curious, we got some more pressing matters.”

He directed his stern gaze towards Merim.

“Merim, did you figure out who those people are?”

“More or less. They’re likely connected to the Allena family. They’re also using weapons from the Akkian Empire.”

“The Akkians, huh. This is getting quite messy now… Well, no matter how many weapons they have, it doesn’t matter if they just hire run-of-the-mill thugs with next to no skills. Even if they got quite a lot of them…”

There… were many of them, that was for sure. Likely in the three-digits if I had to guess. Hiring that many was quite an undertaking. And organising them even more. To boot, they utterly failed.

“What else did you find out so far?”

“Not much. Only that their targets are most likely the two girls from Lady Karker.”

“As expected, those two.”

“We captured one of them but… I am doubtful about how trustworthy that information is.”

“Mh, a captive.”

Korwen stroked his chin, pondering about what Merim had told him.

“Where are they now?”

“We sent them back to the main camp. Together with the injured and an escort.”

“Mhm.”

“Is something wrong?”

“... Maybe. We should hurry.”

“Huh?”

Merim seemed a little confused at Korwen’s sudden need to hurry.

“Captain?”

“I’ll explain on the way.”

Korwen turned to some of the other mercenaries that had accompanied us.

“You six, get back to the greenhorns and ensure they get back safely. Understood?”

“”“Yes, Captain!”””

The men saluted before immediately going back to the other group.

“The rest of you, we’re hurrying back. No breaks.”

“Captain, what is going on?”

“Merim, when is the best time to attack?”

“Huh? When their guard is do—

He stopped.

“You don’t mean…”

“It’s exactly that. The return trip.”

“... I’m a fool.”

The return trip… he said? Wait, he means, Karen and the others… They might get attacked?!

“That’s why you’re just the vice-captain and I’m the captain, you know?”

“...”

“Let’s just hurry back. Before this girl here runs off on her own.”

Well, could he blame me?

“... You’re right.”

Could we just please get back now?! Otherwise, I’d really run off on my own.

“Jeez, one is getting depressed and the other is panicking. You two, even if they are getting attacked, my men aren’t going down that quickly. And Lily is there too, isn’t she? That girl got a surprisingly good instinct in these regards. They’ll be fi—

Suddenly, Korwen broke off and fell silent. Even as panicking as I was, I stopped and stared at his unnatural action. Then, without a further word, he suddenly moved forward, grabbing me by the scruff of my neck.

“Cap— Wha—

“Shhh! Quiet!”

“Mmmhm?!”

With his hand covering my mouth, he dragged me behind a tree. The other mercenaries followed suit, hiding behind the trees for some odd reason.

Silence ensued. Disturbing silence. As if everyone even held their breath. I couldn’t even turn around. In fact, I had some slight trouble breathing, Korwen’s large hand covering my mouth and even my nose. Then…

“WOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!”

A deep groan echoed through the forest, so deep I could feel it tingling deep in my stomach.

“WOOHHH...”

Another one.... Those sounds… they came from right behind us. Then, the sound of something large breaking could be heard. Followed by the sound of a tree falling down…

“WOOoooohhh…”

“WOOOOHHHHHH!”

“WOOHHH.”

Then, it was quiet again… The disturbing silence… I had no idea how long it continued to be like this… seconds? Minutes? Even longer?

“Run! Now!”

Without any warning, Korwen shouted. He didn’t waste a second to grab me at the waist, carrying me under his arm as he sped up. The other mercenaries also started running. Barely a second later an ear deafening sound of splintered wood and a dull impact reached us. My vision filled with the wooden splinters. The tree we had been hiding behind was no more. A large rock had smashed right through it. And behind the cloud of wood splinters…

“Wha… What are those?”

“Trolls.”

Those… those were trolls? Two enormous, grey-skinned creatures stood right beside the corpse of the one Korwen had killed. I couldn’t even see their heads. They were so large, that they were partly hidden in the treetop.

“Shit. Can’t things go our way at least once? Why the heck are trolls in a forest anyway?”

While Korwen cursed, the trolls finally noticed that we had run. They immediately set out to pursue us. Despite their slow movements… they were fast. Their enormous size allowed them to keep up even with their slow steps.

“WOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!”

More trees creaked and fell down as they were pushed away with a single swing of these monsters’ arms.

And… And such a thing was killed by Korwen?

It was utterly beyond me. How could a single person ever hope to fight such a monstrosity?

“Captain!”

“Just run! Hurry!”

One troll suddenly stopped next to a large rock, ducking down. I could finally see its head. Not that I ever wanted to. But what it was doing… was even more astonishing…

“Captain.... Captain, one of them is lifting a rock. A huge rock.”

“Oh fucking hell!”

The troll lifted the rock as if it was a small pebble. A rock the size of one of the band’s wagons. It lifted the rock above its head and…

“It’s, It’s coming!”

“Incoming! To the side!”

The large rock flew through the air, mercilessly crashing through the trees in its way as if they were thin sticks. The only saving grace was that the troll wasn’t that good at aiming, having missed us by a wide margin. And now, it was far behind. Only the other troll was still in pursuit.

“Captain, the one that threw the rock is gone.”

“Gone from sight, maybe. But definitely still chasing us.”

Probably. The troll that was still in my sight groaned again. This… This was just like that time… with the ogre chasing us. Except, these ones were out to eat us for sure. Well, I’d be gone in a single bite.

Sis.... If only…

I was worried about Karen. Unfortunately, the reality in front of my eyes didn’t allow me to do so for long. I wanted to see her… I really did.

“Shit, they aren’t letting us go at all.”

“They’re hungry and they’re mad. Of course they aren’t!”

Thankfully, Korwen and the mercenaries were quick on their feet. And the trolls were slow. For their size. But at this rate… Would they let us off if we left the forest? Or would they continue to chase us?

What do we do? What do we do?

It really was just like back then with the ogre… except, with the ogre we got lucky… No… Rather than lucky… It was lucky, but…

The mana crystals… The mana crystals!

Just before they left, Karen had left me with the mana crystals she carried around for me. Just in case, she said.

“Yumi, stop moving! What are you doing?!”

“Just, just one moment!”

The pouch, I just needed to reach into the pouch. There!

Got them! Now I just need to throw… them? Wait…

I had managed to retrieve the pink orb and a few smaller crystals. Though, thanks to the shaking I had lost a few. I could throw the pink orb but… If my guess was right... It’d kill us as well. In that case…

A mana crystal with little mana won’t be enough. But If I use too much, we’ll get hit too…

The mana orb would probably obliterate all of us and half the forest if I made it explode. Even the relatively weak mana crystal back then was enough to kill an ogre. I only needed a little more firepower than that.

A little more… I don’t really remember how much mana it had, though! Uhh… 

It didn’t have a lot… Well, it’d… it’d be fine?

With some worry, I transferred some of the mana from the mana orb into one of the other crystals.

Okay, that’s enough… No, is it? Uhh… Just… a little more… to be safe… Okay!

If it wasn’t enough, I just had to do it again, after all.

“Captain, the other one caught up again!”

“These damned…”

Ah, the one that had thrown the rock was indeed back to chasing us. It had actually caught up again.

“... Captain. I’m… I’m going to try something! Might be a little loud.”

“Loud? Hell, you can be as loud as you want if it gets those off our backs!”

“Then…”

Here goes nothing. I held the mana crystal up… But how did I do it back then... 

That…

That odd feeling from back then… This kind of… instinct? I just needed to throw it… imagine the mana… to… to rampage? Just… Just like back in the tent… with the puppets…

I see... 

The rampaging mana. That’s what caused it to explode even back then.

I get it. Then… Uhm, what did people say again in these moments? Ah, right.

“Fi, Fire in the hole!”

“What hole?!”

“I don’t know!”

The small crystal threw out of my hand towards the large trolls. It was an awkward throw, but the best I could manage in my position. I quickly lost track of it, seeing as we were running with quite the speed. For a moment, nothing happened, the trolls steadily closing in on us. Then, my vision was dyed pink.

An explosion. Falling trees. The pain filled screams of the trolls.

No, this isn’t an explosion.

This time, I saw it clearly. The plants withered. They fell apart. They… melted. All kinds of things happened to them, before something like a shockwave ripped it all apart. The trolls were right in the middle. The one closest to us…. Its stomach burst open, its skin wrinkled and dried up. Blood streamed out of its orifices. Then, finally, it collapsed. All the while continuing to… rapidly rot away.

I… I don’t think I can eat any meat for a while…

At the very least, I managed to keep the contents of my stomach inside. This… was definitely not a pleasant sight.

“WOOOOOoooooOOOOOooooohhhh!”

The remaining troll came to a stop, trodding over the fallen one. It had been outside of the range, it seemed, and had come out unscathed. Nonetheless, it seemed… oddly concerned with its fallen comrade. It completely gave up pursuing us, only groaning with its deep, deep voice. We continued to hear it’s wail for a pretty long time.

A short while later we exited the forest. Despite having shaken off our pursuers, the trolls, we didn’t stop even once afterwards. We had no idea if the remaining troll wouldn’t resume its pursuit, after all. Alas, once we had lost sight of them, they didn’t return.

“Haa… Finally out…”

“Nn…”

After catching his breath, Korwen let me down.

“Woah!”

The sudden return of the ground was… a little too much for my legs. I instantly fell down to my bottom. There was absolutely no strength left in my legs.

“To think we’d encounter not only one troll but three in a single day… Just our luck again… Haaa…”

Korwen collapsed right next to me. Sweat was running down his face.

“I think I slightly overexerted myself today… Maybe I shouldn’t have fought one of them on my own.”

That did sound slightly tiring, yeah… To think even Korwen would get tired for once…

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“Look, there.”

“Nn?”

My gaze wandered towards the direction where Korwen pointed. Towards the makeshift camp. A group of people was running towards us.

“Yumi!”

“... Sis!”

Right there, Karen, Lily and some other mercenaries came running towards. She was fine. Nothing had happened to her, after all!

I forced myself up on my feet and rushed over to her.

“Sis!”

“Yu— Woah! Yumi?!”

“Sis! You’re fine!”

“Ye, Yes? Wait, that’s what I should be asking! What happened?!”

“Sis…”

“...”

After I quite literally tackled her and hugged her, I really could feel the relief coming over me. And while I really wanted to answer her, I… didn’t have the energy left for it anymore. Maybe picking up on that, she returned the hug.

“Seriously, what were you all doing again?”

“Nn.”

“I was worried when I saw the light coming from the forest.”

“Nn.”

“I’m glad you’re fine.”

“Nn.”

Ahh… I really wanted nothing more than falling asleep in her arms right now.

“Jeez, those two are flirting immediately again and I have to watch it. Is there nobody who wants to help up this old man?”

“Captain, if you’re fine with me! I’m not a cute girl, though!”

“... Beggars can’t be choosers, can they now?

I heard some laughter around us as they started joking. At least they still had enough energy to joke around.

“Anyway, I thought Merim told you guys to return to the main camp? Why are you all here?”

“Captain, after arriving at the main camp and ensuring those girls were safe, we came back. You might need us after all!”

“... You’re idiots, you know? Did nothing happen on the way?”

“Nothing, Captain.”

“Mhm… Guess I was worried for nothing.”

“Worried?”

I could hear Korwen starting to explain his thoughts to the other mercenaries. Karen seemed to listen too. Her embrace slightly strengthened the moment he mentioned to us that we thought they might get attacked.

“Well, if nothing happened, all is well. Anyway, I really need some alcohol and a good break.”

“But Captain, what in the hell happened to you all?”

“To us? Nothing special. We just went troll hunting. Or rather we got troll hunted?”

“... Troll… hunting?”

The man stumbled over the words.

“Captain, please stop joking. There’s no way there are trolls in a forest.”

“Unfortunately, there were.”

“... Seriously?”

“They might have been driven out from their habitat. And I already got a feeling from where…”

Driven out of their habitat?

“But that’s something we can worry about later. First, we got some assassins to deal with. You lot, we’ll take down the camp and return. Today. So get your gears running and move.”

“””Yes, Captain!”””

I could hear the mercenaries around us leaving, running back to the camp.

“Karen, take your little sister there and get some rest.”

“Huh? Are you sure, Mr Captain?”

“She saved our hides there earlier, so yes.”

“She… did?”

“Sure did.”

I… did?

“We’ll talk about that some other time but for now… Let’s return. We had a rather hectic day and I really want some sleep.”

“Ah, understood…”

The footsteps, presumably Korwen’s, passed by us and disappeared towards the camp as well.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“I’m glad you’re back.”

“Nn.”

Ah, this… this was where I belonged to… I had told myself before I definitely wouldn’t leave her side anymore… But this time… this time I really wouldn’t… Nothing had happened, sure, but something might have… The pure thought had scared me a lot more than I expected…

“Nn.”

I squeezed Karen as much as I could, unwillingly to let go. But rather than complaining, she just returned the favor…

Are we dreaming?

Is reality… a dream?

Or is the dream reality?

Are we asleep or awake?

Questions we might never be able to answer.

For who truly knows if they are ever awake or asleep.

Maybe, we’re all sharing just the same single dream. Maybe.

Or maybe we are all just fictional people, created by a single, solitary being’s dream.

But then… whose dream is it?

Who is the lonely child?

Rinne

This chapter ends the current arc, though it might be more suitable to say it was the most fitting spot to end it. But I don't want to say too much. Lots of things are going to happen soon, after all.

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