Chapter of Spirit Verse: The Children’s Smile

After our meeting with Korwen, we returned to our wagon. It hadn’t been that long since we were last here but considering how much had happened in the past hours, it really felt like an eternity. I wasn’t sure if the discovery of that Spirit’s corpse or the news about the war were more shocking, though. Both of them were just… too much.

Still, life wasn’t waiting for me to sort out my feelings about either of those… or, well, actually it might. I was on break. That said, I would rather spend that break doing something I liked. Going through my usual routine of jumping on the bed and watching Karen’s exasperated face, for example.

“Yumi, you’ll turn into a lazy bum if you keep doing that.”

“How rude, I won’t.”

“... You sure?”

Yes. More or less.

“You never change, do you?”

“Ahahaha…”

While I was rolling on the bed, Karen sat down and watched me with a smile. Somehow, the sight felt weirdly familiar to me.

It really makes her look like an older sister watching her sibling, doesn’t it?

Right, it was moments like these that made me feel like she was my older sister, despite me being the older one.

“Yumi? Is there something on my face?”

“... No, nothing.”

“Lost in thought again?”

“... Nn.”

I was surprised for a moment that she guessed correctly. If it was this easy for her to guess I was probably doing this way too often…

“So, what were you thinking about this time?”

“Well… I just thought that you really seem like an older sister right now.”

“I do?”

“Nn.”

Karen looked all over herself, then at me, tilting her head in confusion. I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was a cute sight.

“Hey, Sis, want to lie down with me?”

“... If I do, I fear I won’t get up again.”

“Ehhh…”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a wrong assumption. I knew myself well enough that I could already see myself clinging to Karen and keeping her in bed for as long as I could.

Wait… Maybe I actually am a lazy bum, after all?!

But I was doing my job properly at work. I was only trying to make the most of my break. I wasn’t lazy…

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

While I was still wondering whether I was lazy or not, Karen had left the chair and was now lying down next to me.

“I thought you didn’t want to?”

“I never said I didn’t want to.”

“I see.”

Karen wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly to her chest.

“Hey, Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“Do you think… everything will go as Mr Captain plans to? With the war… and everything.”

“Well…”

That was… a good question. War was something neither of us had ever experienced. It was something we could barely even imagine. And while we weren’t directly fighting in it, it was going to affect our lives for sure.

“I don’t know if it will. But the captain knows what he is doing. Even if it won’t work in the way he wants it to, I’m sure he can handle it.”

He hadn’t let us down even once.

“I mean, he actually subdued the mother roper without a single casualty.”

“But a monster is different from a war.”

“Nn. It is. But the captain knows that, too. I’m sure it’s fine to trust him on that.”

He wouldn’t be captain of a band this large if he was incompetent. And he hadn’t given us any reason to think so anyway.

“It’ll be fine, Sis.”

“Mmm… You think so?”

Karen buried her face in my hair. Being so close to each other, I could hear her heartbeat, slightly faster than usual.

“Nn, I do. It’s not only the captain, but everyone else is here, too. And we both know how amazing they all are.”

“... I guess you’re right.”

Karen let out a small chuckle as I reminded her. After all, neither of us could blow things up like Ria could, or fight trolls like Korwen. 

“Mmm… Sorry about that, Yumi. I must seem like I’m overthinking things.”

“Nn, it’s fine, I don’t mind.”

Being anxious was normal. I was, too. But I also knew how strong everyone was. Things had t go really bad first before anything would pose a serious challenge to them.

“We still have a lot of time until then. And things might change until then anyway. Maybe the whole job gets blown off first.”

“I doubt that’ll happen.”

“Nn, who knows? I mean, look at what happened between Lafria and the empire. They’re technically at war, too.”

“... You’re right.”

The empire counted on that bridge to invade the Lafrians. With the bridge gone, things had come to a stalemate.

“Now that I think about it. They had been at war before as well, right? So, why did they even build a bridge there in the first place?”

“... I wonder.”

It wasn’t like I had never wondered about that before but I still hadn’t gotten an answer to that. We could ask Korwen but…he was probably busy, right now. What not, with all the things that had come up today. I didn’t envy him.

I bet I’m going to get roped into helping him soon enough, though. I still am his makeshift secretary…

It was only a matter of time until he called for me…

Either way, I was on break now. No secretary work for me right now! More importantly, I was being hugged by Karen, I had to enjoy it while I could.

“Woah?! Yumi?”

“Nn, this is great.”

“Seriously… You never change, do you?”

Even when I shifted my position so I could fully enjoy Karen’s soft chest, Karen was simply chuckling, letting me do what I wanted.

“Nn, this is the best. I love this.”

Being able to rub my cheeks against this soft haven as much as I wanted to. How wonderful.

“Really…”

I could feel Karen’s hand stroking my head. It was comforting. Relaxing.

“Nn…”

“Don’t fall asleep on me now.”

“I won’t.”

I couldn’t exactly enjoy it while I was sleeping, after all. It’d be such a waste. Though, I was sure I’d have a very pleasant sleep if I did fall asleep.

“So warm.”

“You’re warm, too.”

“Nn…”

I glanced at Karen’s face and found her staring at me with a smile. I couldn’t help but smile as well, seeing her like that.

“Had enough already?”

“I’ll never have enough, Sis.”

“I thought so.”

Not like it was hard to guess.

“My spoiled little Yumi.”

“Nn.”

Karen kept stroking my head while I nuzzled against her chest, both of us indulging in this simple happiness.

If only this could last forever.

But it wouldn’t. And because it wouldn’t. I had to make the most out of this moment.

“Mm…”

While I was enjoying the situation, I heard some noises coming from Karen. Curious about what she was doing, I looked up at her again.

“Sis? What are you doing?”

“Mm? Oh, well…”

In her hand was a strand of my hair. Apparently, she had been looking at it? Actually, looking closer, she also held a strand of her own hair, as if she was comparing the two. Just what was she doing?

“Mmm…”

Somehow, it didn’t seem like she wanted to say it, though… Her face was making a rather conflicted expression.

“Sis?”

“Well… I mean, take a look.”

“Nn?”

I had to shift a little out of Karen’s embrace—as unfortunate as it was—to take a proper look first. Between her fingers was her pink strand of hair and one of mine.

“Err… So, what am I looking at?”

“... Take a closer look.”

No, really, I had no idea what she wanted me to see. Was Karen… worried about split ends? No, that didn’t seem like likely. Her hair seemed fine to me. Then again, I wasn’t an expert on hair health…

“Sorry, Sis, I have no idea.”

“... Wait, maybe this will make it easier.”

“Nn?”

Karen grabbed another strand of her hair, the silver part, and pulled it to the other two strands.

“Do you see it now?”

“Nn… Maybe…”

Curious, I touched the two strands of Karen’s hair. The pink one and the silver one. Both felt a little different.

“... Did the texture change, too?”

“I think so. But it’s still different from your hair… It’s weird.”

“Nn, I can see that.”

So, it wasn’t only the colour that changed, huh…

“Yumi, do you think I’ll be able to control my hair as well?”

“... Why do you sound so excited about that?”

“I mean, I always thought it was convenient how you could do that. And your hair rarely ever tangles up itself, too.”

“Ahh…”

Yeah, hair care was pretty simple for me, considering the extreme length.

“I think that’d be nice. Maybe I could change its length, too, then.”

“Nn... “

Karen with different hair, huh… Karen with short hair. That sounded quite good. And Karen with really long hair? Also good. This was hard.

“Nn, but I think your current hair length suits you fine.”

“You think so?”

“Nn.”

“Mm…”

I looked at the two strands in my hand. They definitely felt quite different. But… there was something else. It was dirty.

“Sis.”

“Yes?”

“... Let’s go and take a bath. We’re dirty.”

I hadn’t really thought about it much but we had been underground for most of the day. We were both in need of a bath…

Though I don’t mind this slightly sweaty smell that’s coming from Karen. Rather, I quite like it.

But that was something I probably shouldn’t say out loud right now.

“Now that you say it… You’re right.”

“Nn. They have probably set up the bathing tent somewhere, right?”

“I think so.”

We’d be stuck here for a good while, unable to use the fort properly. There was no way they hadn’t set it up already.

“Well, I guess taking a bath doesn’t sound too bad either.”

“Nn.”

While being in bed with Karen was great, taking a bath together was quite nice, too.

“Ah, but do we have enough time until dinner?”

“I think so…”

We were going to eat dinner here, right? No, Korwen had said we shouldn’t mind it anymore, so we could eat dinner here.

“I probably should help out with dinner sometime again.”

We were busy recently so I didn’t help out that much with our regular chores. Speaking of regular chores…

“Maybe I should check on the dolls and the tentacles?”

“Ahhh… That’d be a good idea, I think.”

“Nn.”

The dolls were after all… quite vocal about it, if you could say that, whenever I forgot about them. The tentacles not so much but I’d rather not have again a withered tentacle in front of me. Not a pretty sight.

We stood up from the bed and I entered the tentacle room of our wagon. As expected it was… pink. As always.

“Nn, looks like they’re in good health.”

Squatting down, I examined a few of them, especially those where the mana crystals had been embedded, but they all seemed fine. However, they did use up a little bit of mana.

“Sis, can you give a few mana crystals.”

“Sure.”

A few moments later, Karen handed me a few of my mana orbs. Right, we converted most of them, didn’t we? Not like it mattered, really. I picked one of the mana orbs and threw it at the tentacles. They instantly snatched it out of the air and began absorbing its mana.

“Nn, should be good enough.”

“... It’s like you’re feeding them.”

“It basically is.”

Well, they should have enough… food, for now.

“Next, the dolls… I wonder where they are.”

“You could call for them but… They were helping Lily earlier…”

“Ahh…”

If I just called them, they’d leave their work, huh… Certainly, that’d be bad.

“I’ll call them later then. Should we go and look for a bath now?”

“Sure.”

Great. With that decided, we left our wagon and began our search for the bathing tent. Or rather, we asked the first person we came across and asked them.

“Bathing tent? Uhh… I think they set that up over there in the back?”

“Over there? Got it, thanks.”

“Sure thing.”

We gave our thanks to the mercenary and then walked in the direction he had told us. Not long after, we found the large tent that was always used for bathing.

“There it is. Now, let’s hope we actually can go in.”

“Nn…”

There was always the possibility the tents were set up but not actually functional yet, after all.

We peeked inside a tent and, sure enough, everything was there. We even heard a few voices from the inside, so it was definitely usable.

“Huh? Those clothes…”

“Sis?”

“Well, take a look.”

“Nn.”

I looked around and found the clothes on the floor almost immediately. It seemed that the previous visitors had left them here on the ground. I wondered for a second just who would be so messy to throw their clothes on the ground like that but… I knew these clothes. Thus, I knew their owner.

“... Seriously? Haaa…”

With a wry smile and a sigh, I picked up the clothes. We couldn’t just leave them here.

“Coming in.”

Clothes in hand, we walked through the curtain into the bathing area, immediately spotting the owner of the clothes and the few other visitors, who turned around to us when they heard us coming.

“Mm? Oh! Yumi! Yumi!”

Immediately followed by one of them jumping up and waving over to us with both arms. At least, she wasn’t dashing over.

But really, at least cover yourself, Emily!

It wasn’t very… lady-like behaviour. Like, at all. Well, she was still a child so it wasn’t actually a problem. Yet.

“Yumi, did you come to take a bath, too?”

“Nn, we did.”

“Yay!”

The three bath visitors, Emily, Maya and Sele, were all visibly happy about us joining them.

“Are you three the only ones there.”

“Nuh-uh. Lily and Yumias are here, too?”

“Ehhh?”

Yumias was here? But where were they…

Oh, there the two are…

It only took a quick glance around to find them in the back. Lily sat on a small chair with Yumias kneeling behind her, washing Lily’s hair.

Wow, that’s probably the first time I see her doing anything mother-like…

Well, she was far more a mother to Lily than to me, so it was probably to be expected. Sure, she called herself my mother but that’s also all she did.

“Ahh, right… Sele.”

“...”

“Please don’t throw your clothes on the ground, okay?”

“...”

And… she looked away. Really, though, that wasn’t good. And from Sele of all people, too. I thought it would be Emily at most who did something like that. But when I looked behind me at the baskets, Emily’s clothes were neatly folded. Maya’s were just thrown into the basket but at least they were there.

Either way, I put Sele’s clothes that I picked up into one of the baskets and then started undressing, too. After all, I didn’t come here to chat but to bathe. Karen had already taken the opportunity and gotten ready.

“Nn, this is a great sight.”

Her naked body was beautiful. Adorable. The best. And the way she turned away from me with an embarrassed look was even better.

“Yumi… Stop staring and get out of those clothes. Or I’ll make you.”

“Yes, yes.”

Speaking of which, the first time we bathed, Karen had forcibly undressed me, hadn’t she? Well, I was in a rather… difficult position, back then. Nowadays, it didn’t even bother me that much anymore. Another thing that really showed how used I had gotten to things, huh?

“And there. Let’s get in, Sis.”

“Ahh.”

We walked to the bath and slowly entered, joining the three girls.

“Ahh… A bath is great.”

When I submerged my body into the warm water I could feel it warming up, too. Next to me, Karen sank into the water as well.

“The bath turned pink!”

“It did!”

“...”

“Nn?”

I turned around to find the three girls staring at me. Or rather, at the water around me.

“Ohh… You mean my hair?”

My hair was floating and spreading out on the water. Since there was a lot of it… Well, the area around me turned pink.

”Nn… Maybe I should bundle it?”

It might be better to do that next time.

Well, for now, though, I’ll enjoy the bath.

We were lucky these girls were already here. While bathing alone with Karen would be nice, it would have also meant we’d have to warm up the water and everything on our own.

“Nn? Hey, Maya, is it only you three and Lily and Yumias who came here? Did you prepare the bath, too?”

“Mrs Korwen did.”

“Ahhh… I see.”

I would have been a little worried if they left these three to do it on their own. They were actually quite responsible, but I still couldn’t help but worry.

“Did Mrs Korwen leave already?” asked Karen.

“She did. She was called by someone.”

“Huh…”

Probably because of the news about the war.

“We’ve been good girls so she said we could stay on our own!” added Emily.

“Good girls, huh? Were you really?”

“We were!”

“Really?”

“Really really!”

“Nn, that’s good then.”

I patted Emily on her head, receiving a beaming smile from her in return. I couldn't hold back a smile either, seeing her so happy.

“So, what have you good girls been up to today?”

“We helped Mrs Korwen!”

“We helped with sorting the things they’d bring to the fort.”

“Oh?”

So they helped with that, huh?

“And everything went well?”

“It did!”

Maya puffed out her chest with a smug smile.

“And, and, Yumi!”

“Nn?”

Emily spoke up again, excited as usual.

“We saw a lot of weird stuff!”

“Oh? What kind?”

“There was this weird wooden thing, you see. Two planks and if you put them together, they had three holes in it.”

“Uh-huh?”

Two planks and three holes? What the heck? Something they needed for some sort of construction?

“Mrs Korwen said that it was something to punish bad children with.”

“Punish… Oh. Ohhh…”

It was a pillory. A goddamn pillory. Really? Why the heck did they have a pillory of all things?

“Yumi, do you know how it works?”

“Err… I wonder?”

“So you don’t?”

“Nn…”

Emily seemed disappointed but I could feel the stares Sele and Maya were boring into me. They definitely picked up on it that I was lying there…

“Oh, and then! Then we saw—”Hya?!”— Huh?”

Right as Emily wanted to continue about their discoveries, a shriek echoed through the tent, coming from the other side of the bath. Everyone’s eyes turned around to the mother-daughter pair there.

“Hold still, Lily. I can’t wash it like that.”

“It’s cold!”

“Of course it is.”

Yumias, with a rare focused expression instead of her usual creepy smile, was still trying to wash Lily’s hair. A ball of water floated next to her. Her hand was combing through Lily’s hair and she was occasionally inspecting.

“Lily dear, I told you to take care of your hair, didn’t I? Look how damaged it is!”

“But it’s a pain… And can’t you fix it with magic?”

“Whether you can or cannot is beside the point. Take care of yourself properly.”

“Yes, mama…”

Well now, this was quite a rare view. Not to mention seeing Yumias act like a proper mother would, but also Lily being so meek.

“And you’re such a pretty girl. Don’t you want to look the best you can for your girlfriend?”

“Ugh! Tha— That’s!”

“Yes?”

“Uhh…”

Lily cowered in the face of her mother’s nagging.

“Lily, I’ll have to cut some of it.”

“Ehh?”

“I wouldn’t have to if you cared for it properly. And it’s no good to always fix it with magic. Got that?”

“Yes…”

“Good.”

It was quite an endearing sight to watch. Next to me, Karen was grinning as well.

“Maya, have they been like this the entire time?”

“They have! And Yumias washed our hair earlier, too!”

“Oh?”

“She’s really good at it!”

Was she now?

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you girls as well!”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

We turned back to Lily and Yumias, only to see both of them looking over at us. Yumias with a smile and Lily with a shocked expression.

“Yumi?! Karen?! Since when?!”

“... A while ago.”

I gave Lily a thumbs up, thanking her for the precious sight. It only served her embarrassment to get worse, though.

“Now, hold still Lily, or we’ll never finish.”

“Wagh?!”

Yumias yanked Lily’s head back into position so she could wash her hair. She did it so forcefully that it looked like it’d hurt quite a bit…

Either way, it seemed like it’d take a while until Yumias would finish washing Lily’s hair. She was really thorough with it.

If only she could always act like this, she’d be far more approachable.

Then again, maybe she didn’t want to be approachable? Not that I could even remotely guess what was going on in her mind.

But she said she’d wash our hair too, didn’t she?

Somehow, I felt a little anxious about that… But she was still busy there so I could worry about that later. For now, I just wanted to enjoy a nice long soak with Karen.

“Nn…”

“Yumi?”

I scooted closer to Karen and leaned against her. We weren’t alone so I kept it at this level, as unfortunate as it was.

“Ah, they’re flirting!”

“They are.”

“...”

Yes, we were.

“Mrs Korwen said we shouldn’t interrupt when this happens.”

“She did!”

“...”

Good job, Mrs Korwen.

While I thanked Mrs Korwen in my mind, the three girls had decided to play around in the water some more, without bothering. Or well, what they thought wasn’t bothering us, at least. They started splashing water at each other and with the bath being limited in size… Not that I minded getting wet. I was already wet anyway.

“They’re so energetic.”

“Nn. they are.”

I wished they’d always stay like this. Though I knew it was wishful thinking. Even they would one day grow up into proper women, wouldn’t they?

Somehow, I feel a little anxious about that… Emily has no sense of personal space nor shame and Sele… can be surprisingly lazy at times.

The only one of the three that rarely caused issues was Maya. But well, they’d probably grow out of these things one day. The thought made me a little sad, actually.

“Yumi? Something wrong?”

“Nn… I just thought about how those three will one day grow up, too.”

“Ahh… That is… the case, isn’t it?”

“Nn. Though, I guess that’s a long time until that’ll happen, huh…”

Maybe it was a little presumptuous of me to think of these things in the first place. After all, I hadn’t even been that long with the mercenaries, realistically speaking. Still, Emily, Maya and Sele had grown on me.

“Take this, Emily!”

“Wah!”

“...”

The three of them laughed innocently as they splashed each other with water.

“I’ll be the winner and hug Yumi and Karen!”

“No, it’ll be me!”

“...”

… What?

“Sis, the heck are they doing?”

“Err… They decided that the winner can hug us, it seems…”

You look away for one moment…

“Isn’t it fine?”

“... Well, I guess it is.”

If they wanted to hug us, we’d hug them as much as they wanted.

“And how will they decide the winner?”

“... I don’t know.”

Okay… They were just splashing water at each other, though?

“...”

Just then Sele splashed a lot of water straight into Emily's face, catching her by surprise. When Emily recovered, Sele was greeting her with a thumbs up.

“Uhhh… I can’t believe I lost…”

At some point, Maya had also been defeated, which left Sele as the winner… Or something like that? That's how I understood it? I got no idea what happened there. What I did know was Sele rushing over to us, an incredibly expectant look in her eyes.

I exchanged a glance with Karen, as well as a wry smile.

“Sure. Come her, Sele.”

We made a little space between us for Sele to fit in. With a happy gasp, she immediately sat down between us and grasped our arms.

“... Hehe.”

She had a big smile on her face and was kicking her legs up and down, clearly happy about the outcome.

“Waah! No fair!”

“Uhh…”

Emily and Maya, in contrast, were quite devastated. After exchanging another glance with Karen, we called them over.

“Emily, Maya, come here.”

We both raised our free arms respectively, inviting them in.

“Yay!”

“Ahh.”

Which they immediately accepted. Emily rushed over to me and Maya over to Karen, both latching onto our arms.

“Ehehe! Yumi!”

“Nn.”

“...”

The two girls were both grinning happily.

Not quite how I expected our bath to go… But, well, if they’re smiling, that’s fine, isn’t it?