Chapter of Bottled Love: Rain, Storm and Reunions

“Yumi! Karen! Look! Look how big it is!”

“Super big!”

“Nn, it really is big.”

Emily and Maya looked at the giant roper’s corpse, awe in their eyes.

“And you really fought it, Yumi? Big Sis Karen?”

“Nn… We kind of did?”

“… Well, kind of…”

We mostly just stood at the side and that was it. It was hard to say we ‘fought’ it like the other mercenaries did.

“That’s awesome!”

“Yumi is strong!”

“... Strong.”

The girls including Sele now looked at me with awe in their eyes.

“No, I didn’t really—”

“Maya, didn’t someone say it was as strong as a dragon?”

“Uncle Molrov said that.”

They weren’t listening… And who was Molrov?

“Then, Yumi and Big Sis Karen are as strong as a dragon slayer?”

“Dragon slayers!”

“Girls, we didn’t really do anything…”

“”So strong!””

They weren’t listening!

“Sis, help me…”

“Even if you say that… Maya, Emily, Sele, the strong ones are Mr Captain and Miss Ria and all the others… Ria is the one who finished it off. We were… Right, we were cheering them on.”

“”Cheering?””

“...”

The three girls tilted their heads, completely in sync.

“Yes. You know how, when someone cheers for you, you want to do your best?”

“We do!”

“That’s what we did.”

“”Ohhhh!””

And once more, they looked at us with awe...

“So, they did their best because you cheered for them?”

“That’s amazing! Amazing!”

“Well… I’d be happy if that was the case.”

Karen smiled wryly at the three, who were making a bit of a ruckus and shouting ‘Amazing!’ full of excitement. Well, mostly Maya and Emily.

“Yumi! Big Sis Karen! Was it strong? As strong as a dragon? Tell us, tell us!”

“Tell us!”

“...”

Well now… Maybe they were a little too excited. But maybe it couldn’t be helped.

“Calm down, you girls. We’ll tell you, okay? But how about we sit down first?” suggested Karen.

“Ahh, then!”

Emily ran off to the side and stopped near the roper. She climbed on top of the carriage where the roper was still lying on. She shoved some of the limp tentacles away, freeing enough space for all of us.

“Here! Here!”

“Well…”

Before we could say anything, Maya and Sele had run over to Emily and joined her. Honestly, I had some… reluctance, sitting right there and using the roper corpse as a rest spot…

“Those girls… What should we do, Yumi?”

“I don’t think there’s much we can do except humouring them…”

“...”

Karen’s face told me that she also was a little reluctant to sit there in the shadow of that humongous corpse. Still, those three girls were still waiting for us, oblivious to our inner turmoil.

“Maybe it’ll work if I pretend it’s a big Yumi…”

“I don’t think I can grow that big.”

“Maybe that’s something you should try out?”

“... Let’s go to them.”

I’d rather not be forced to grow so many tentacles that I’d look like this tentacle mountain. Even slumped down, they had to chain together several carriages and it was still spilling over the edges at some points… I honestly thought it was a miracle that they had even managed to transport it like that but I digress.

Let’s forget about that for now. For now, I should think about what to tell these girls…

Still pondering, Karen and I joined the three girls on the free spot and began to tell a small tale.

“Now then, listen well…”

By the time we had finished, the sun was already nearly out of sight. The three girls had been listening rather obediently, only interrupting once in a while to pose a question. It was pretty adorable whenever they voiced their excitement, so we might have embellished the story just a tiny little bit. Of course, we also didn’t tell them about some of the gorier parts, like what happened to the dead villagers.

“Mmmgh…”

“Emily?”

“Mm…”

“Don’t fall asleep on me now.”

“Mmhh…”

Now that we had finished, the three girls quickly went into their bedtime mode, looking all sleepy. They had finally spent all their energy. It was quite amazing how they went from superpowered energy bundle to utterly drained in just a few minutes.

“Nngh… Huu…”

“Come on, it’s only a little more, Emily.”

Tottering, Emily forced her eyes to open a little more. I had to hold her hand or she’d probably walk to who-knows-where. Seeing that, Sele, immediately seized my other free hand, so now I was escorting these two back.

“Look, we’re here, Emily.”

“Mmm…”

Karen, who had taken the lead, held open the tent entrance, allowing Emily to teeter inside. Barely a few seconds later, she was lying on the floor, hugging the blanket, dead asleep.

“She really exhausted herself… Maya, Sele, are you two still okay?”

“Mmm… I’m awake…”

“...”

Maya, who had held Karen’s hand on the way back, was sleepily rubbing her eyes. Her ears twitched with every rub. Sele was the only one still going strong, which she showed us by nodding to Karen’s question.

“Well… Not for long, from how it looks. Come, get inside.”

“Mmm…”

Maya went inside, and lied down next to Emily. Then, she tried to free the blanket from Emily’s grasp—without success—before giving up and just hugging Emily instead.

“... Sele, are there any other blankets.”

“...”

A nod.

“There are?”

“...”

Another nod. Followed by Sele pointing to the corner of the tent.

“Oh, there really are some.”

Karen picked up two blankets, one to cover Emily and Maya and one for us. The blankets were pretty large so there shouldn’t be any fighting for the blanket at night… Hopefully.

“Sele, you should lie down as well… Yumi and I will join you in a bit as well.”

“...”

She didn’t nod, instead just staring at us. Honestly, I was just as confused since I expected us to lie down as well and create yet another pile of sleeping girls using me as a body pillow. Maybe she wanted to talk with me about something first?

“Sele?”

“... Not… sleepy?”

“Us?”

“...”

She nodded.

“Well, we woke up pretty late, so I don’t think we can sleep yet…”

Ahh, so that’s what Karen had intended to do. It was true that I wasn’t sleepy at all yet and it’d likely take some time before I could fall asleep…

“We’ll be just outside, okay?”

“... I’ll join.”

“Huh?”

“Outside.”

“Well…”

Apparently, Sele wanted to join us…

“Nn… But are you not sleepy?”

“...”

She shook her head.

“Well… But if you are feeling sleepy, you have to sleep, okay?”

“...”

A nod. Well, if she was fine with that.

“Then, let’s leave these two sleeping.”

Making sure not to make too much noise, we left the tent.

“Well then… Is there anywhere we can sit down…”

“There’s a bench there.”

“Ohh.”

Someone had generously placed a bench and a table nearby. Well, they were placed all over the camp, so it wasn’t a big surprise. The three of us sat down on the bench, with Sele in the middle. The horizon was coloured in a deep red and the shape of the sun was already disappearing behind the roofs.

“Sis, are those clouds?”

“Mh? Oh, you’re right. It might rain tonight.”

“Hmm… Rain...”

Rain, huh… It had been mostly sunny since I had come here. This would be the first time I’d see any rain.

“Sis.”

“Mh?”

“Weird question: Does it rain often in summer?”

“Well, let me think for a moment… In Arkesta it was nearly always sunny for most of the Summer…  We rarely had rain. But when autumn came it would rain a lot. Many in the slums would fall ill and die...”

“I see…”

That really made me wonder how they even survived winter, when Autumn was already that hard on them.

“... South.”

“Nn?”

Sele spoke up, taking me by surprise.

“Autumn… Rains a lot…”

“Huh… Then, how about Lafria?”

“Less rain… More sun… Hard winter…”

“I see. You know a lot, don’t you?”

“...”

I had just asked out of curiosity but she really answered me. She even smiled at my praise, looking a little smug.

“I wonder if it’ll snow when winter comes.”

“Yumi… You want it to snow?”

“Well, it’s pretty and you can play around with it.”

“... Are you really sure you aren’t a child? Usually, snow isn’t all that welcome. It’s cold and people get ill.”

Right, that could happen… That would happen even back in my world when someone forgot to dress properly for the cold. Although, a simple cold wasn’t as likely to kill someone.

“Rude, I’m a proper adult, right, Sele?”

“...”

She cocked her head to the side, staring at me.

“Doesn’t look like she agrees with you.”

“... Sele! You traitor! I believed in you!” I exclaimed in an exaggerating, theatrical voice.

“... Hehe.”

Sele giggled, so quietly that I barely missed it.

“Well, putting aside your maturity for a moment…”

That’s not something you should just put aside.

“... I guess I won’t have to worry about the snow as much anymore now.”

“Nn? Why?”

“Because I have a warm bed and warm clothes now. Both weren’t something I could easily come by in the slums.”

Karen had a strained smile on her lips, maybe remembering that time.

“But now, where else could I have such a luxurious bed with all these cute girls around me?”

“Well, it certainly is going to be warm.”

“Right!”

“Woah?!”

Karen pulled Sele and me into her arms, placing Sele on her lap in the process.

“Waaahh…”

“Sis…”

“Mh? Something the matter.”

“... No, nothing.”

Well, Sele seemed to be really happy, sitting on Karen's lap. So unfair, that was my spot…

Only for today, Sele. Only for today!

Seriously…

Autumn, winter, spring and the next summer, huh… I’m looking forward to them.

It didn’t take all that long for Sele to feel sleepy in the end. Once we brought her to bed, we decided to just call it a night and sleep as well. With Sele still clinging to Karen, that was pretty much our only choice anyway. For once, it wasn’t me who was the body pillow! Not for long, of course.

The next morning, we woke up to heavy rain coming down from the sky. Thick droplets splashing the ground and turning the earth into mud. The first rain since I came to this world. And it was quite some heavy rain. Mercenaries ran to and fro, covering their heads with pieces of cloth or whatever else they could find to protect themselves from the rain.

Breakfast was, for once, distributed to the tents, so that people didn’t have to grab it by themselves. After we finished, we split up with the three girls, who didn’t want to go out. Or rather, Maya and Sele didn’t want to. Emily was wet down to her underwear within seconds… And now sitting wrapped up in a towel in the tent.

“It’s really coming down…”

“Nn… Fenna, is it always this bad?”

I turned to the woman standing next to us.

“In Lafria? No, usually not. Down in the empire it gets often like this in autumn but I don’t think we often had days like this while we were in Lafria.”

“I see.”

“It might get stormy so don’t leave if you have to.”

“Nn. Got it.”

Karen and I moved away from the tent entrance and sat down. We were in the reception tent, together with Fenna. Miss Karker was coming to pick up El and Nel so we were waiting here for them. Korwen and Merim were picking her up at the city gate right now.

“Are the tents and all that going to be fine if it gets stormy, though?”

“Probably not. But we moved most stuff already back to the wagons.”

“Already?”

“We did that yesterday, you know?”

Ah, they probably noticed the clouds yesterday already?

“Did you already know it might turn into a storm just from the clouds?”

“Well, I didn’t, if that’s what you want to know. But there are some men that come from Lafria and they said that so many rain clouds in the middle of summer might mean that a summer storm is coming. And so we already moved most valuable things away, just in case.”

“Huh… Turns out they were right.”

“Indeed.”

The wind was pulling in the curtains of the tent, flapping it open and letting the cold wind flood inside.

“Uhh… Yumi, we need more clothes. To pile on.”

“Ahaha… We do.”

It probably wasn’t the time to say that the cold didn’t bother me as much. Just like with the heat, it seemed that I was rather resistant to the temperature changes. It was weird, though. I knew it was cold, but it was just… unpleasant at most. Uncomfortable. But not really freezing, per se. It was hard to describe.

“We should talk with Wanda about that later.”

“Right.”

Once more, the wind blew through the camp, dragging on the tents and making the mercenaries outside panic. Really panic.

“It’s a little ironic.”

“What is?”

“When they fought against the roper, they were so calm… But now they are all panicking because of the storm…”

Trained men capable of fighting off humongous monsters. Yet, here they were, desperately trying to keep the camp in one piece as the storm ravaged whatever it could reach out to.

“Monsters are things you can fight. Weather is not,” commented Fenna.

“Is that how it is?”

“It is.”

“Nn…”

Well, it really was hard to do anything about it…

“I wonder if Ria could do something about this.”

“You mean with magic?”

“Nn.”

“I’m not sure on the details but she said that messing with the weather tends to have very unpredictable results. And that she’s more likely to make it worse than better.”

“How unfortunate.”

But wasn’t that also implying she could mess with the weather if she wanted? The more I heard, the more impressed I was at Ria. At least, it didn’t seem like this kind skill she showed was a common thing, seeing how everyone treated her with respect and trusted her.

“All we can do is sit it out. Not really anything else we can do.”

“Nn…”

Right at that moment, a light flashed through the curtain at the entrance.

“Was that…”

We waited several seconds until a loud thundering noise bore down on our ears.

“It’s really a storm.”

“It is. And summer storms are the worst…”

“Will Miss Karker even come in this weather?”

“Who knows… If she doesn’t show up, she’ll probably send someone to inform us.”

Fenna just shrugged her shoulders at my question. I really couldn’t imagine anyone being willing to go outside in this weather…

“Hey, Fenna.”

“Yes?”

“You said Lily and the girls wanted to take a bath?”

“That’s right.”

“... In this weather?”

“In this weather.”

They had to be crazy… The baths were also inside a tent…

“They’re probably just wiping down in a wagon… I hope. But they were kind of locked up so they… Well… Didn’t have much chance to clean up.”

“My sincerest condolences. And you didn’t give them something to wipe down with?”

“We did but you can’t really do much against the smell after a while.”

“Really, my condolences.”

They had suffered… And when they finally got released…

“I hope they’re fine…”

“They won’t get blown away so easily. Doesn’t yet look like the storm picked up that much… As long as the tent doesn’t collapse, that is.”

“You’re not exactly helping with my worries, Fenna.”

“Ahaha! For real, though. Lily knows what she’s doing, so they’ll be fine. I’m more worried about Emily and the girls.”

Emily and them, huh…

“They said they’d stay in the tent but…”

“The captain sent someone to bring them to the wagons before you two came.”

“Oh, I see.”

As thoughtful as ever he was.

“Woah, another one.”

Karen’s eyes went wide as another flash illuminated the sky.

“Twenty-one… Twenty-two… Twenty-three… Twenty-four… Twenty-five… Twenty-six… Twe—”

And a loud thundering noise before I could count to Twenty-seven.

“Around two kilometres away, huh...”

“‘Kilometre?’ What’s that?” asked Fenna.

“A unit of distance from where I am from. It’s, uhh… quite a bit away.”

“... And why did you count numbers?”

Fenna, as well as Karen, both stared at me, incredulous about what I did.

“Eh, well… sound travels at a certain speed, you see. So if you know how long it took for the sound to arrive, you can guess how far away it is. And sound travels really fast.”

“Ohhh, I didn’t know… You learn something new every day with you.”

“Ahaha…”

Honestly, I hadn’t even put much thought into it when I started counting. It was something we had done back home whenever there was a storm. Good ti… mes?

“Huh?”

We… did that, back then, didn’t we? But… ‘we,’ huh…

I remember that we did count the numbers when we were small… But… not much else…

Who I counted numbers with… their faces and names were still… black…

“Yumi, something wrong?”

“... No, just… Nothing.”

I smiled in an attempt to reassure Karen, who was now looking at me with worry. Thankfully, Fenna decided to butt in before she could continue.

“So, this ‘kilometre’ thing… How far is it?”

“Mh? Well…”

How did one measure that distance without any tools? No clue.

“The closest I can think of… If you walk at a normal pace, you walk around five kilometre in an… in half an hour.”

Nearly forget the length of their ‘hour’ was twice what I was used to… Probably. Also not something I could measure but it probably wasn’t something I had to anyway.

“Mhm… I see… At a normal walking pace… That’s pretty far... I guess. A little hard to imagine.”

“Nn. Sorry, I couldn’t think of anything better.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Just then, another flash came. This time, I counted the numbers in my head and sure enough…

“It’s getting closer, slowly.”

”Mh, I see. That’s a good way of figuring out whether it comes closer or moves away.”

“Nn? Well, yes.”

That wasn’t something I had thought of, to be honest… But she was right.

“I’ll remember that. Thank you, Yumi.”

“You’re welcome.”

The wind only got stronger and the tent slightly tilted to the side.

“We… are safe here, right?”

“Don’t worry. This tent is very robust. The wagons flipping over is more likely.”

“... That’s not something I’d like to hear either… Does that happen?”

“Once in a while… We usually turn the wagons so they don’t bear the brunt of the wind but when the wind suddenly turns, there’s not much you can do about that… That’s why we move anything loose into wagons where nobody takes shelter in.”

They thought that through already, huh… Or maybe it was just experience teaching them.

“Mh?”

At that moment, Karen and Fenna both turned to the entrance of the tent. A second later, the curtain flapped open and several silhouettes ran inside.

“We’re safe! Ahhh, screw this weather! Ah, Yumi! Karen! Long time no see!”

“Lily!”

In ran Lily and Rina, closely followed by Elma and Nela, all four of them drenched to the toes.

“Ahh, it’s been so long. Let me hug you!”

“I don’t mi— Wait, stop! You’re completely drenched, Lily!”

“Karen!”

“Woah! Sto— COLD!”

And the first thing she did was dragging Karen into her arms and sharing all the rainwater with her…

“Ahh, now I’m wet, too! Lily!”

“It’s really Karen’s angry face! We’re finally out of that thing.”

Pleased with herself, Lily nodded several times, completely ignoring Karen.

“Lily, Rina. It’s good to see you are fine.”

“Yumi! I heard about it, you went with the mercenaries, didn’t you? And I saw that roper.”

“Ahh, we did.”

“I see, I see. You did your best, too, didn’t you?”

“Well… Nn…”

Lily was smiling broadly, patting my head.

“It’s really great to see you two again. Seriously.”

“Ahh… Was it hard?”

“You won’t believe it… You completely loose your sense of time after a while… I mean, we played just about any game we could with four people in such a small space but it was seriously boring. And my nose was killing me after a while.”

“I heard about that… My condolences… Did you take a bath or…”

“Wiped down as good as we could. Not like it made much difference in this rain.”

She scowled as she threw a glance to the entrance.

“You girls, I got some towels here.”

“Oh, Fenna. Thank you.”

Fenna handed a towel to each of the four girls plus Karen, so they could wipe themselves dry. Rina was apparently talking with Karen and El and Nel had sat down. They looked really exhausted.

“It was especially hard on them,” said Lily, looking towards the couple.

“I can only imagine. And Rina?”

“I was more worried about her saying that ‘she was used to it,’ you know?”

“...”

That was indeed worrying.

“I just wish it wasn’t raining right when we leave… This is already a storm isn’t it?”

“Nn, seems like it.”

“What timing… I was looking forward to lazing around outside…”

“That’s not going to happen now.”

Lily sighed as she finished drying her hair and then reached down with her towel to dry her tail.

“Stupid weather…”

Once she finished drying her tail as best she could, she sat down on a chair and leaned back. Then she looked at me, scrutinising me from top to bottom.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“I heard from Fenna.”

“Heard about that?”

“... The War Maiden thing.”

Lily grinned as she looked at me.

“Never did I think that you would end up my boss. Life sure is strange, isn’t it?”

“Ugh…”

“Hahaha!”

So she had heard already…

“But a squad with you and Karen, huh… I’m looking forward to it.”

“Are you?”

“Sure am.”

She was.

“The Elder is also with us, by the way.”

“Oh? I heard she joined us for good, so that was true?”

“Nn.”

“I see. So it’s the four of us. But the Elder. Not something I would have expected, considering our first meeting.”

“True…”

We were fighting each other, after all… And they did sic those spirit trees on us.

“The four of us… Mhm, a squad full of cute girls. Hehehe, if only Rina would join us, it’d be perfect.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“I know… She’s still thinking about what to do herself. But she did say she didn’t want to join the fighting team.”

Well, that was probably the most sensible choice for her.

“Well, but on the other hand, she’ll wait for you to come back, Lily.”

“Wait for me… Wait for me… I think I like that.”

This one was pretty simple and straightforward, too.

”Mhm, that sounds good! Hehehe, now I’m looking forward to it even more.”

“Lily…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

If it made her happy, that was good enough.

“Ah, but… Our squad will mostly protect you, won’t it?”

“Mh? That’s probably going to be the case.”

“Mmm… Well, can’t have everything, I guess.”

She shrugged her shoulders. I got a good idea of what she wanted to say… She just wanted to fight...

“Ah, but if you get more famous, then strong people will aim for you. Patience, then.”

“I’d rather they not aim at me, you know?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll protect you!”

So much to that.

Ahh, I really missed this. Talking with you and seeing Karen and the others.”

“... We missed you too, Lily.”

“That so? That makes me happy.”

Lily swayed left and right on her chair, grinning happily at my words.

“It’s good to have you back.”

“Hehe.”

When she was so unabashedly happy, it made her seem quite a bit younger than she really was.

“And I’m glad I’m back, too. Ahh, finally the confinement is over. Hey, do you know when they’re coming? Or, if they come?”

I sat down on a chair next to Lily as she posed her question.

“No. The captain and Merim wanted to fetch her at the gate but…”

The storm was growing stronger and the tent kept tilting to the side every few seconds. By now, it was also really noisy outside.

“Fenna, don’t we have blankets here?”

“Sorry, we don’t.”

“Too bad. It’s getting a little breezy.”

“‘A little,’ you say…”

Fenna sighed as she was rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm up.

“It’s the middle of summer and here we are, feeling cold.”

“That’s just the wind and rain making you feel cold. It’s still warm.”

“That’s not making it better.”

It was probably even worse for Lily and the girls who were still damp from the rain… 

“Yumi, want to sit on my lap? I need someone warm.”

“Ask Rina.”

“She won’t let me.”

“Too bad.”

Lily’s shoulders slumped down in disappointment. I didn’t really have much reluctance towards sitting in Karen’s lap, but apparently, Rina wasn’t so keen on it. Too bad for Lily.

“Mh?”

“Lily?”

“I hear someone coming.”

“Nn?”

Everyone perked up at Lily’s words and turned their attention to the entrance. Several seconds later, the curtain opened, and two familiar men entered. Merim entered first, followed by Korwen behind him, who stopped in the entrance and held it open.

“There we are, Lady Karker.”

“Thank you, Mr Korwen. You are quite the gentleman, just like your father, aren’t you?”

A familiar-looking, older beastkin woman entered, followed by a younger woman, who was holding something resembling a primitive umbrella.

“Oh my, so many young girls here. Mr Korwen, you are a sinful man.”

“Please don’t joke around.”

With a gentle smile, she turned to two girls in particular.

“Elma. Nela. I’ve come to pick you up.”

“Grandma!”

“Lady Kar—”

“Mh?”

"Gra— Grandmother.”

“Good.”

Elma immediately ran up to Miss Karker and hugged her, while Nela stood a little behind her, before being pulled by Miss Karker and hugged as well.

“No need to be shy. Really, I’m glad the two of you are safe. Truly, I am.”

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw this. It was just so heartwarming.

I guess this is also the kind of conclusion for a job, isn’t it?

The mercenaries didn’t only fight and kill, they could also protect others. And this happy, warm scene might not have happened if they didn’t protect the girls.

Just for this, I’m glad I joined the mercenaries.

That’s how I truly felt.

Rinne

For once, an early chapter and an author note at the top because of a rather important topic. And a personal one.

As many of you may or may not know, Germany currently has to fight with floods and damages caused by them. In fact, this involves the very region where I live. Thankfully, I and everyone in my family are safe and we didn't suffer (m)any damages. The street I live in was closed down for a day or two but that was basically the extent of it for me. However, many didn't have that luck. Even now at the time of writing, there are still dams in danger of breaking due to the damages caused by the rain.

That's why I would ask all of you, if you have some money to spare, to donate a little and help the victims of the flood.

You can do so here at Germany's relief coalition Aktion Deutschland Hilft (and for the lazy, the donation page). Just select the "Germany Flood" project for the donation. Even if it is only a small amount, every little bit can make a difference and help the victims.

Of course, Germany is not the only place where this flood caused such devastation. As far as I know, Belgium and the Netherlands suffered similarly. If anyone knows where to donate for them, please let me know so I can add them here. (It might take a little before I can add them here since I'm not home right now, so preferably post them in the comments so that others can take a look there if I haven't added anything here yet.)

I'm sure you can easily look up the damage the flood caused here on the internet, so I will spare you any detailed accounts. But just as a personal note, seeing the river you grew up at grow to several times its regular size, flooding the nearby fields and carrying so much debris and other things along with it, was a very surreal experience.

Thank you for your time.

P.S.: That this chapter is also about rain and would go public under such circumstances is something I could never have imagined two months ago...