Chapter of Grim Reality: The Man in Hiding

A few hours later after our less-than-friendly meeting with the trolls, the makeshift camp had been completely taken down and everyone had returned to the main camp. In a way, you could say that our jobs had ended in a beautiful failure. Not like anyone really had the leisure to complain about that currently.

“We’re back…”

“We haven’t been away for that long, Yumi.”

“Sure felt like an eternity, though…”

First that cave exploration with the roper, then a forest day trip with trolls. Except for the one day break in between, we had been mostly away the past days. Really exhausting days.

“I want to sleep…”

“So you don’t want dinner?”

“... I’ll manage without sleep. I wonder what dinner will be.”

Korwen had told us to rest for the remainder of the day so there wasn’t any need for me to turn up and help out with dinner. Though, he did ask us to come by later. Probably to ask me about what had happened and what I did to those trolls…

“Dinner will probably still be a while… Want to check up on Elma and Nela first?”

“Nn.”

After all, those two had it pretty bad, too. I was quite worried about them so going there first was fine with me.

Having come to a decision, we asked around a little to figure out where they currently were and made our way there.

“They said over here, right? Probably… that?”

“Nn, I guess so? But… they sure went all out… Oh, I found Fenna.”

A single wagon, rather isolated from all others, was surrounded by dozens of mercenaries. Really, dozens of them. Most of them were also quite heavily armed. Among the guards we also spotted Fenna’s squad.

“Fenna.”

“Mh? Yumi! Karen! You’re back?”

“We are.”

“That’s a relief. I only heard that there were some problems, so I was quite worried.”

A smile crept on Fenna’s lips as she saw us approaching.

“Are Elma and Nela fine?”

“They are. At least outwardly.”

That was good news.

“Then, can we see them?”

“You can’t.”

“... Eh?”

“Listen here. They’re under protection. We can’t let anyone enter without the Captain’s permission. Or the Vice-Captain’s, I guess.”

“I see…”

Nobody, huh.

Okay, she was right with that but…

“It’s not like they’re alone. Lily and Rina are with them.”

“Nn, I see… What about Emily and the girls?”

“Those three went back to help out with work.”

So diligent.

“Either way. Since it is now very clear that someone is out for their lives, we have to do all we can to protect them, right? It’s not exactly fun for any of us but it can’t be helped.”

“Nn. I guess so.”

It really wasn’t fun…

“Still, it is good to know they are fine, right, Yumi? Even if we can’t visit them.”

“Nn. True.”

Fenna was right, their safety had priority. But as long as they were safe, that was fine.

“Well, let’s hope things get resolved quickly.”

“Nn.”

Although, whether it would end quickly was quite… doubtful. But at the very least, it’d be nice if things could get to the point that those two could go outside again.

“We’ll see how fast they get resolved. More importantly, I want to hear what happened. We only got a quick rundown that they were attacked, nothing else.”

“Nn… People were hiding in the forest and attacking the groups. They’ve set up ambush points all over the forest, waiting for us.”

“Waiting? That forest is rather large, they’d need dozens of men to cover the whole thing... Sounds rather ineffective, in my opinion.”

“Nn…”

I totally agreed on that. They didn’t exactly achieve anything with this either, outside of making us wary. And that certainly didn’t seem all that smart.

“I heard we had some casualties, however… Were they that skilled?”

“... Lily trashed a group and was left slightly unsatisfied so no. As for those… The groups that the Captain led encountered trolls.”

“...”

Silence.

Fenna stared at me for a second before lifting her hand and cleaning her ear with her little finger.

“Excuse me. My hearing must be getting bad.”

“They encountered trolls in the forest.”

“... So that wasn’t my hearing.”

She furrowed her brows as she pondered about my words.

“Trolls in the forest… Rock trolls, I guess?”

“Nn? Rock trolls?”

“... Rock trolls.”

“...”

There were… different kinds of trolls?

“... The large, grey monsters that look like oversized ogres. The most common kind of trolls.”

“Nn. They were large and grey. And had the look of oversized ogres.”

“Then those were rock trolls… Haa, don’t you know the different kinds of trolls at all?”

“... Sorry.”

“And here I thought that was still common knowledge.”

Maybe in this world but surely not in mine. That was the first time I even heard that trolls existed here. Not that it surprised me at this point anymore.

“Listen, there are several types of trolls. The most well-known ones are rock trolls. Large, slow and immensely powerful. And not very clever. They usually dwell in mountains, however.”

“In mountains? There wasn’t really a mountain there, though?”

“That’s what is odd. But… There are mountains north of here… Did they get chased out of there? But what could… Oh.”

Her eyes lit up as if she had thought of something.

“The roper. They might have been driven out from the nearby hills in fear of it.”

“The huge roper? They were scared of it, you mean?”

“Monsters are, after all, very territorial. And that mother roper’s territory probably covers quite a lot of ground. It might have extended to their habitat. That still means that there was a rock troll habitat close-by without anyone knowing, though. That could have ended up a lot worse.”

Ahh… There was a village nearby as well… And if the trolls lived close to that village… Didn’t need a genius to figure out that couldn’t end well. With that said, the roper wasn’t likely welcome there either.

“Not sure if I should say that it was lucky or not. They might have appeared rather recently there as well. What happened to them?”

“Nn, one was killed by the Captain.”

“By the Captain? You mean, by him alone?”

“Yes.”

“... Wish I could have seen that. I always knew he was quite something but… taking on a troll on his own…”

Unfortunately, we didn’t see it either. And he was quite exhausted afterwards. Yet, he also seemed to feel refreshed. Stress relief by way of fighting a troll…

“I haven’t seen a troll before but are they that strong?” asked Karen.

“A single troll is… More than humanoids can usually handle on their own. Few can ever hope to compete with one in a fight. With that said, they aren’t so strong that an experienced squad can’t take them on without casualties.”

“Huh…”

He had said that I saved their hides but… They probably would have been fine even if I had done nothing…

“The problem is usually that trolls sometimes live in small communities of up to ten. Such a small community of trolls can be very devastating. We’ve done troll subjugations before and I can tell you from experience… One of them isn’t a problem, but half a dozen? You want a lot of space, many men and be well-prepared. Otherwise it’ll end in a disaster. They cooperate and if you kill one of them, the others only get more ferocious.”

Now, that explained why those two trolls chased us down so persistently… They were mad, huh...

“Well, you’ll certainly see trolls again. Hopefully in a more controlled environment, though.”

“Ahahaha…”

Honestly, I was fine not meeting any in the near future.

“Going back to what I was explaining, though… Rock trolls are the most common type of trolls and usually, when someone mentions trolls, they are the kind they mean. There are, however, some other types of trolls. For example, the human trolls.”

“The… human trolls?”

“Yes. Have you heard of the phrase ‘eaten by the mountain’ before?”

“Nn, no, I haven’t.”

I had a subtle feeling I knew where this was going…

“Human trolls look exactly like most humans do. They even share a similar level of intelligence, at least outwardly. However, they usually live away from humanoid communities, in secluded mountains or forests. They trick travellers or even sneak into villages to kidnap people. When someone disappears inexplicably, some regions say that they were eaten by the mountain. Or, well, eaten by the trolls. They are man-eaters.”

“...”

Okay, I knew this was coming but it… was nonetheless disturbing to hear.

“Uhm, is there nothing they can do about that, Miss Fenna?”

“Well, human trolls have their own distinctive human appearance. It’s not like they are mimicking someone specifically, so one shouldn’t trust a stranger that easily. Human trolls are quite rare, though. They’re also apparently not good at hiding from the eyes of someone with mana sight, or so Ria told me before.”

“Oh, so we could actually notice, huh…”

That sure was a relief to hear.

“Then, the last notable type of trolls are the Elder Trolls. They are… a little special among the troll-kind.”

“Special?”

“Yeah. They are not directly hostile towards anyone. They’re really large trolls. And I mean really large. The size of a castle at the very least.”

“That certainly is large…”

But why were they not directly hostile?

“Elder Trolls are also sometimes called mountain guardians or the like. Or protectors of the forest, since they appear in forests as well, contrary to rock trolls. Really depends where you are. And they’re still dumb as a rock. Also, while they are not directly hostile, they are still man-eaters. They just don’t actively hunt anyone, but if you walk up to them, you’re as good as done for.”

“...”

In the end, they were still dangerous.

“Anyway, those are the major types of trolls. There might be others but I never met those…”

“... You met an Elder Troll before?”

“Yes… A few years ago… I think it was… the outskirts of… Not Aldreigh… Was it Krohmea? Or… Well, either way… Far away from the nearest village. A rebel army had hidden themselves there and established a base, or so we were told. By the time we arrived, half of them had already been eaten and the remainder had no idea where their comrades were.”

“Huh? They had no idea?”

“Yeah. A sleeping Rock Troll or Elder Troll is easily mistaken for a rock or a small cliffside. The Elder Troll woke up in the night and only had to reach out for a small snack. Then it went back to sleep and they were none the wiser.”

“...”

A small snack, she said…

“Our job completed itself so it wasn’t like we really had a problem with it. But seeing an Elder Troll yourself… They’re really massive. And it even had trees growing on it… Anyone would think that was a cliff or a rocky hill. Can’t fault them. But it sure was unlucky for those rebels, since they are rare. Even the old captain never met one before.”

“The old captain? You mean, the Captain’s father?”

“Yeah, him.”

Then, they probably were really rare… Or, maybe they weren’t that rare, just nobody could find them because they looked like giant rocks? Maybe…

“So much to trolls. Hope that helped a little.”

“Nn, I learnt a lot.”

“Glad to be of help. But since we’re finished now… I’m happy you came over and we got a little chat out of it, but I am technically at work, you know. And paying attention to our surroundings and talking is a little hard, even for me.”

“Ah.”

Oops… We were totally obstructing her work, weren’t we?

“Ahhh, we’re sorry, Miss Fenna.”

“Ahahaha, don’t panic, Karen! If it was a big issue, I would’ve told you immediately. But any longer and I might really grow careless. We can talk more after my shift is over, okay?”

“Nn, that’s fine. When will your shift end?”

“Until dinner. We’re going to change shifts with the Dragon Knights for the night.”

“... With the Dragon Knights?”

Weren’t they the elite of our group? Was it fine to… Okay, one of them had escorted me around too, but…

“The night is the most dangerous part. No one better than our best to keep watch. And they got nothing else to do anyway. They’ll grow dull at this rate, or so the Captain would say, I bet.”

“I see.”

That made sense.

“Anyway, let’s continue later, okay?”

“Nn.”

“Then, take a good rest. Until then!”

“Nn, later.”

“Bye, Miss Fenna.”

With that, we left Fenna to her work. Our spontaneous visit had ended in failure but well… At least we heard that they were doing well. And Lily was with them.

“So, to the Captain then, Yumi?”

“Nn, I guess so?”

He had told us to come by so now was as good a time as any.

“Then, let’s go.”

“Nn.”

---

A few minutes later, we arrived at the Captain’s work tent. Two men stood guard in front of it, which was kind of unusual.

“Excuse me, is the Captain in?”

“Do you have any business with him?”

“He told us to come by.”

“He did?”

The guard had a confused look on his face for a moment, then glanced over to the other guard. A short nod from the other guard later, he turned back to us.

“If you could wait a moment.”

And he disappeared into the tent.

“The heck’s that about?”

“Who knows? Maybe Mr Captain is busy with something?”

“Nn…”

Maybe. It was a rather problematic situation so… Yeah, that made sense.

Right when I thought that, the guard returned.

“You can enter. Behave yourselves.”

“Nn? Yes?”

Behaving ourselves? We usually were behaving ourselves so it probably wasn’t a problem…

We entered the tent through the curtain.

“Captain, we’ve come.”

“I can see that. You two got quite the timing, though.”

“Nn?”

The Captain sat not at his usual desk. Instead, he was sitting on a long bench with a low table in front of him. And opposite of him… sat two other, unknown men. A relatively young beastkin man wearing a brown leather coat with so many pockets I had to wonder what he even needed them for, as well as a large boulder of a man, larger than Korwen, probably. He only wore a thin shirt so his muscles were for all to see. He sure could compete with Korwen in the muscle department.

Nn, no… that muscled man, I feel like I have seen him before…

But, where…

Oops, he was glaring at us.

“Take a seat, you two. Standing there won’t do any good.”

“Ah, yes…”

We took a seat on the bench next to Korwen. The boulder-man kept glaring at us, while the other one… He watched us with interest, wearing a smile but… Something made me feel a little uncomfortable around this man. More so than the glares from the other.

“Ruben should already know them but these are Yumi and Karen, who I mentioned earlier.”

Ruben?

“Mh, the two girls you picked up in the Empire, you said? They’re so cute, if I didn’t know you better, I would’ve thought you picked them up for more… unpleasant reasons,” the man in the coat said.

“Stop joking, I already had to deal with my father’s teasing. That’s more than enough.”

“Ahaha, the old man is just lonely. And his granddaughter is who knows where. Nothing worse for an old man if he can’t spoil his grandchildren.”

Huh, this man knew Korwen’s father?

And they mentioned Ruben… Ah! The boulder-man! He was that commander from the fort at the Hollow! But… Wait… Didn’t they say…

“But looking at them… Mhm… They’re curious… Pink girl, your name was Yumi?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

Suddenly, he was addressing me.

“Mm… Something feels weird about you… Pink… Manakin…”

His eyes narrowed and he kept staring at me, murmuring random words for a short while.

“I see… Are you related to the Witch?”

“... In a way.”

“I thought so. But I never thought I’d meet one of her children in the flesh. Should I say it is an honour?”

“Eh? An honour?”

The heck was he going on about now?

“Please don’t startle the girl, Will.”

“Oh? Shouldn’t she be used to this by now? I mean, it’s a descendent of the Witch we are talking about. That’s not something you come by any old day.”

“You might think so, but for most people, the Tales of the Witch are nothing but a fairy tale. Unless you want those worshippers to get even more on our nerves.”

“That would certainly be a bother. Hey, girl…. Yumi. Would you be interested in working for Lafria?”

“... Huh?”

What the heck was going on?!

“Could you stop trying to steal my recruits away? Right in front of my nose?”

“How about it? I’ll pay you at least three times what the old geezer there pays. And it comes with lodging, three meals a day and a large bath.”

“Stop ignoring me!”

“Could the old geezer there shut up a moment. Is this what happens when you turn old, Ruben? It’s just like food that you left alone for a few weeks too many.”

“This fucking brat.”

Woah, that man had quite the tongue…

“I should maybe tell you in advance, Will, but Yumi is twice the age of your son.”

“... Oh? She’s of age already? Mhm, then, maybe I should instea—”Finish that sentence and I’ll slug you one for real.”

Korwen suddenly stood up and stared down at the man called Will, looking not exactly amused.

“Calm down, friend, calm down. It was a joke. Well, half of it, maybe. If she would agree to it, I would’ve followed up on it, of course. But I’d never force anyone, yes? So please stop raising that fist, okay? And Ruben! Aren’t you here to protect me? Could you stop stifling that laugh and help me out?”

“I am terribly sorry, Sir, but… Pfff… I believe you caused that yourself… Pfff… Hahaha…”

With Korwen staring down on him and Ruben having the time of his life right next to him.... Well, I couldn’t say I pitied him. I had an idea of what he wanted to say and yeah… Deserved that one.

It took a little time before they all calmed down, however.

“Jeez, you all… I already got enough troubles on my own…”

“Will, half of them are of your doing. Haaa… Anyway, you should take a look at her arm.”

“Arm? What is the— Ohh?”

My arm? I followed his gaze and… Oh, the bracelet.

“Ohh? Then the girl next to her is… I see… It seems I really do need to apologise. I shouldn’t have made advances on a taken woman.”

He put his right arm in front of his chest and bowed to me. A rather elegant bow.

“N, No, it’s uhm… Fine…”

“Is it? Then I assume you will forgive me?”

“Yes…”

What an odd fellow.

“My, it seems that your beauty even extends to your heart, willing to forgive a rude fellow such as I.”

“...”

Someone, stop this guy, please… That I felt a little happy being called a beauty only made it worse. He was overdoing it quite a bi—

“Yumi is mine. Please stop.”

“Sis?”

My vision had suddenly shifted as Karen had pulled me into her arms, a scowl on her face.

“Hahaha, I am truly sorry. Her reaction seemed amusing. Even if she can keep her expression from faltering, her voice made it easy to notice. I couldn’t help but tease her a little. Please forgive me. And this time, I mean it.”

“... If you don’t do it again.”

“I promise.”

“Then, that’s fine.”

“It is a relief to hear that, my lady.”

Once again, he bowed, but this time towards Karen.

“Guess that matter was cleared up. Well, Yumi, Karen, you can count yourselves lucky. Not many can claim that a country’s sovereign apologised to them.”

“... Excuse me what?”

“...”

A country’s… sovereign? Sovereign… As in… the ruler?

“The King?!”

“Ahahahaha! In the flesh!”

The king, Will, laughed heartily as he watched our reactions. While I had shouted out loud, Karen was so shocked, her mouth was hanging open.

“Let me reintroduce myself: I am Willrich Larfias, the current ruler of the Kingdom of Lafria. My full name is rather long and I don’t expect anyone to remember it on the first meeting, so I’ll spare you the torture. Feel free to call me Will at this private meeting.”

“Haa…”

The King of this country… What in the blazes… and didn’t they say that they couldn’t contact him? No, rather than that, why was there a king here?!

“Oh, but you’re also free to call me Big Brother or something like that! I always wanted cute sisters!”

“No thanks.”

Karen shot him down quite quickly…

“How unfortunate. It seems I’m not well-liked, am I?”

“Will, that’s your own damn fault. I don’t even know where to start.”

“That so? Oh well… I won’t give up so quickly however. A connection to the Witch is too precious to just leave it in your hands.”

“And too dangerous to leave it in yours.”

Korwen shook his head and sighed.

“Let’s get back to the topic, yes?”

“Ah, right. But… You called those two in here, but aren’t they just recruits, with all said and done?”

“They are. But I kept them on a tight leash since they have come here. Right now, they belong to the few I am truly sure are not the culprits. I have watched most of their interactions myself. Also, they are smart and by far not entirely unrelated.”

“I see. If you go that far, then I will not question that. It is true that the more pieces we have in play, the better. But, to think you trust your own mercenaries that little, Korwen.”

“It’s not about trusting them. I am talking realistically.”

Korwen crossed his arms in front of his chest as he stared at the table.

“I cannot oversee hundreds of men. And I know that some have… problematic habits. Women. Alcohol. Gambling. The three great disasters in a man’s life. I trust all my men out on the battlefield. But neither are they politicians nor are they bureaucrats. I cannot expect them to be flawless in these matters too.”

“That truly is a very realistic approach. And these girls are different?”

“I can’t trust them on the battlefield yet but they are clever and Yumi is well-educated. Enough to help with my work. Although, she is sometimes lacking common knowledge. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick explanation, however.”

“Hooo… Now I want her even more.”

“Stop. I caught her first.”

I wasn’t some fish or animal that needed catching, though…

“Anyway, considering that I have overseen a lot of their work and interactions in the past month, I can say with confidence that they aren’t involved in any problematic way. Outside of having become a target of the worshippers.”

“... The worshippers, huh. Well, it’s not unexpected that they would take note of a descendent of the Witch. But I always thought that, despite their admiration for the Witch, they don’t have any actual ties to her. Ahh, they thought to change it with that, didn’t they?”

“Likely.”

“But… Even if they had caught her… There’s no way that that Witch would sit around and let them be.”

Huh, she wasn’t? She didn’t feel like someone that would care that much… Well, maybe she did? She was… hard to read.

“Will, what makes you say that?”

“I only had a few chances to meet with the Witch. Only because she took a liking to my mother in her youth and later towards my own daughter. Nonetheless, during those few interactions I am rather sure that she has some type of agenda behind her actions.”

“An agenda? That’s... interesting.”

“It is, isn’t it? Who do you think are those she interacts the most with?”

“... The few times we had to deal with her it was in regards to Yumi. And for the Black Guards… It was with Lily.”

Lily and me, huh… Lily was her adopted daughter, in a way and I was… Well, what was I, to her? The others kept calling me a descendent or a child of the witch. Would that make her my mother?

Woah, that thought sent a shiver straight down my spine…

Yeah, no way…

“Mhm, and what do they have in common?”

“In common?”

Korwen furrowed his eyebrows and then stared at me.

“It’s not really anything hard. It’s actually very simple: Cute, young girls.”

“... Are you joking?”

“I’m completely serious.”

“...”

Willrich chuckled at Korwen’s reaction, then went on to explain himself.

“She always interacts with young girls below the age of twenty. She herself assumes the form of a young girl. We know she can change her appearance if she so wishes but she never changes from that form outside of messing around once in a while. And even if she does, it’s always still a young girl, just at a different physical age.”

“Hmm… You make her sound like she has… some rather troublesome interests.”

“... I won’t comment on whether she does or does not. Just, that she never harmed any girl to my knowledge. Not in jest and certainly not with firm intent. My male guards however have suffered quite a lot on the rare visits she has conducted.”

Ahhh… She also stole Korwen’s alcohol, didn’t she?

“Oh, but I do know for sure that she has messed with the growth of girls before.”

“... Their growth?”

“Well, you know my mother, don’t you?”

“... I see. And you claim that’s why...”

“Yes. I’m certain that’s why.”

“She had it hard, huh?”

“Sure had.”

Suddenly, the two nodded to themselves, having come to an odd agreement… I never saw his mother, for obvious reasons, but… Judging from the contents of the conversation was she… either really petite or… No, not ‘or’, she most definitely was petite…

“Mh... But why are you so sure about that, Will?”

“Simple. I had the unfortunate luck of having to deal with her far earlier than you had and I’ve seen her interacting with various people on her visits. And for some reasons, just about any girl she took a liking to…”

“... I see. We’ll have to be careful.”

“I don’t think that’s something you can be careful against. I only noticed by chance as well.”

“Mh…”

Yeah, how would you even notice that… Speaking of which, that pretty much confirmed it for me that I wasn’t going to grow in the future…

“People with that much power are quite troublesome, aren’t they?”

“They could change the whole world if they so wished. I think we can be glad that it only amounts to this. Personally, I don’t find much issue with it anyway. My mother still looks like she might be in her early teens. Much better than watching her grow old and wrinkly. Not that she agrees.”

“You know, talking like that… Your father was quite the deviant.”

“Ah, no. He got quite literally devoured by her. He’s not the one wearing the pants.”

“...”

Information I certainly didn’t need to know.

“Sir. Could we get back to business?”

“Ahh… We strayed from the topic, haven’t we? You’re right, Ruben. Well then... Korwen.”

Willrich coughed once before returning to the actual topic. He straightened his back and stared directly into Korwen’s eyes. I could feel myself tense up at the sight.

“I, Willrich of Larfias, formally request the aid of the Lomerian Dragon Knights in the subjugation of rebel forces inside the kingdom. The payment shall be ten thousand gold coins and a single wish, as long as it is in my power to fulfil.”

Rinne

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