Chapter 103: of Living Dreams: Flower Hunting

“Mm… That way! I think!”

“That way?”

“Yes!”

“Okay then. That way we go.”

With Emily deciding our direction, we slowly made our way into the forest. There wasn’t a lot of undergrowth so advancing was pretty fast. Faster than in the forest around that roper cave.

Nonetheless, visibility was still quite limited.

“Merim, are you sure it’s fine to just… leisurely stroll around? Shouldn’t we be careful of monsters?”

“It’s fine for now. The edge of the forest isn’t particularly dangerous. And if we already start keeping up our guard from this point on, we’ll just get tired quickly and start jumping at shadows. That’d be even more dangerous.”

“Haa…”

Well, you couldn’t be on guard all the time, but this was still a forest with monsters, right?

“Yumi, he’s right.”

“Nn? You think so too, Lily?”

“Yes. Even if we were to encounter anything here, there shouldn’t be any strong monsters. Those are deeper into the forest. Also, the Vice-Captain probably knows what type of monsters are in this area.”

“Mm, I do indeed know.”

“So there are monsters here, after all…”

Well, but if he deemed it to be fine even with the three little ones…

“I’m not saying they aren’t dangerous but they are something all of you can handle with ease. We actually passed some of them already.”

“... Excuse me?”

We passed them already?

Frantically, I watched my surroundings but… there was nothing in sight…

“A little lower.”

“Nn?”

“Your sight. Watch the ground.”

The ground?

On the ground wasn’t anything of note, though… While there was little undergrowth, it was still filled with small bushes, leaves, even mushrooms and other things. Small animals as well… A brown rabbit, it seemed. It was watching us, not shy at all. I always thought rabbits were easily scared away.

Other than that, there was nothing here.

“... You aren’t going to tell me it’s that rabbit, is it?”

“I am going to tell you that it is, indeed, the rabbit.”

“...”

“By the way, that’s the fourth rabbit we passed. The other three are following behind us.”

Great… Monster rabbits.

“They aren’t strong but they can still take a decent bite out of your arm, so don’t let them take the jump at you. They hunt in packs though and prepare ambushes. They won’t attack yet.”

“That’s not exactly relieving me, you know?”

I returned my gaze to Emily, Maya and Sele. Together with Nela and Elma, they were making their way through the forest, laughing all the while. They treated it as if it was a field trip…

“Shouldn’t we get rid of them?”

“We will, but not now. Or rather, you girls will. On one side, I want to see what you and Karen are capable of in an actual combat situation. On the other, it’s good training. Everyone has to start small and Demon Rabbits are a good start.”

“I see.”

A good start, huh…

Well, if he phrased it like that. My life in the future was sure going to be dangerous, so getting used to things like this… was probably a necessity.

“We’re also going to see if we can find other monsters around to practice on, don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry, but I fear that I’ll worry anyways.”

“Figured you would.”

Merim gave me a strained smile, then pat my head.

“Being overly careful is at least a better starting point than being foolish and reckless.”

“Nn…”

“Anyways, Demon Rabbits aren’t all that dangerous. Don’t let them bite you and you are good. Understood?”

“Nn, understood.”

“Good.”

Merim nodded, satisfied.

“Ah, Emily, Maya, don’t stray too far away!”

“Nn?”

What the heck were those girls doing…

Ah, they were running back, carrying something.

“Uncle Merim, Uncle Merim! Look! We caught one!”

“...”

In Emily’s arms… was a rabbit… Yeah, the exact kind we were just talking about.

“You girls… Don’t just approach them, they’re still dangerous.”

“But look! They’re so fluffy and cute!”

Emily and Maya started patting and fluffing it.

“Kshaaaa!”

“Wah! It got angry!”

Holy shit, those teeth!

Rabbits should be vegetarians and not possess a set of fangs! Scary!

And yet, she was still holding the rabbit, even as it tried to struggle from her grasp and bite them… A clearly futile attempt…

“Merim, I feel stupid for worrying.”

“Hey, I’d prefer it if you still worried a little. Emily, give me that rabbit, we can’t have it hurt you girls.”

“Ehh, but Uncle Merim… Ah, don’t!”

Without mercy, Merim grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck and pulled it out of Emily’s arms.

“Uhhh! Uncle Merim, you meanie!”

“It’s a monster, not a pet… Woah!”

The rabbit was now reaching out for Merim and trying to bite him. All the while it was flailing with his legs. Quite the… lively rabbit. It would’ve been cute if it wasn’t baring those fangs at us that looked utterly out of place for a rabbit.

“Jeez, what do I do with this one now… Can’t have you get in our way yet, so off you… GO!”

Today I learnt: Rabbits could fly. Of course, only with sufficient arm strength. And Merim had more than enough of that. I didn’t even see it landing… Actually, that it didn’t just hit a tree was even more surprising.

“Ahhh! It’s gone!”

“Uncle Merim…”

“Maya, don’t look at me like that. I’m responsible for you girls and if that thing takes a bite out of you, that’s not funny. For neither of us.”

“... Meanie.”

“Haa… so unreasonable.”

He sighed, shrugging with his shoulders.

“You can complain all you want later. But we’re working now… Emily, are we still walking in the right direction?”

“...”

“Emily?”

“Hmpf! We are!”

Emily turned away from Merim, took Maya’s hand and walked off, leading the way together with the other girls.

Was she… sulking?

“Haaa… why are children always like this?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have flung that rabbit away?”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“... Explain it to them and then let it go elsewhere?”

“It would’ve just attacked us immediately if I didn’t throw it.”

“Tough luck.”

Life was unreasonable. And children even more so.

“Karen, could you go and watch those girls for me? Wait, where is she?”

“Sis, ran after them already.”

She, Rina and Lily had watched the short exchange as well. And right after Emily stormed off, she ran after her. Most likely to calm her down.

“So reliable.”

“Nn.”

“Haaa… Hey, Lily. Did anything change with the rabbits following us? I lost track of them.”

“They’re still following us. A total of seven now. The one you threw ran away, by the way.”

“Good. Worst case, it would’ve scared the other rabbits away as well. Seems we got lucky.”

“... Was that really lucky?”

“Don’t.”

Merim sighed once more. And probably not the last time today either…

“Uncle Merim! Uncle Merim! We found it!”

“Already? That was quick.”

Only a short while later, the three girls all came running towards us again, reporting their new find with big smiles. As if the previous incident had never happened.

“The Slime Flowers, huh. And you didn’t approach it either. Good girls.”

“Hehehe! The trees said not to touch it because it doesn’t like to listen. So we stayed away!”

“... That so?”

Merim raised an eyebrow for a moment, then dismissed the whole thing and turned to Karen.

“Lily, take point, shield up. Yumi, stand behind Lily and the shield. You just need to knock the flower over with your hair, no need to do anything complicated. Everyone else, step back a little.”

“Okay, Vice-Captain.”

“Nn, understood.”

Lily heaved up the rather large shield, holding up in front of her. It wasn’t covering her whole body but still quite a bit. Then, she faced the single flower that was standing lonely between the trees. I heard it was tall but it was… really tall. About as tall as I was. The blue blossom was accordingly as large as a person’s head. It didn’t look particularly noteworthy otherwise.

“Yumi, get behind me.”

“Nn.”

I did as she told me and stood behind her. Together, we slowly approached the flower. It didn’t react until we were maybe two or three steps away from it. A small rustle could be heard from behind the shield.

“It noticed us, huh. Yumi, get ready.”

“Nn…”

Feeling a little nervous, I wondered how close we’d approach. Until…

Bong!

“Nn?”

“I think it spit some acid at the shield. Yumi, if you could.”

“Nn…”

Acid, huh…

I stood as close to the shield as I could. I only had to knock it over. That wouldn’t require a lot of strength, probably. Plus, I could feel the flower’s position thanks to the mana it contained, even through the shield. 

“Then, here I go.”

Taking a deep breath, I moved my hair, around the shield towards the flower. The easiest thing to do was obviously just trying to sweep around the general area.  Hopefully, that’d knock it down.

I swung my hair at the flower and… beautifully failed.

“A little more strength is required, Yumi…”

“... I noticed.”

Guess, this flower wasn’t that easy to knock down…

“Ehhh… What to do...”

“How about just pulling on it?”

“Nn, I’ll try.”

Bong!

Oh, it hit the shield again.

“Preferably before the shield gets too damaged.”

“Nn....”

Pulling it, huh…

I moved my hair towards the flower. Not being able to see it directly was actually a bit of a challenge… Sure, I could see the mana, but it was different from actually seeing it. Still, I somehow managed to wrap my hair around it. Now, hopefully my hair had enough strength to pull it down.

“... Nn.”

Come on, you’re just a flower. An acid-spitting flower, sure, but just a flower! Fall down!

Alas, unable to receive my complaints, the flower kept standing… My hair wasn’t even enough to pull a flower… Really?

“Yumi?”

“... Nn?”

“The heck are you doing?”

“Trying to knock over the flower?”

“... You do know that you’re making this more complicated than necessary, right?”

“Huh?”

More complicated than necessary?

While I wondered what the heck she was talking about, Lily was just smirking at my confusion. Until she finally revealed it.

“You do know you could just pull with your hands, right?”

“...”

“...”

“... Ah.”

Ah.

Ah.

“You never saw that.”

“Sure, sure. I think everyone watched you, though.”

“...”

Of course, something like this had to happen, didn’t it?

I took hold of my hair that was wrapping around the flower on the other side and promptly pulled it. There was a surprising amount of resistance. Still, a few seconds later, I could feel the resistance ebbing away and the flower falling over on the other side.

“Great. Let’s get the flower and move on.”

“Nn.”

Lily peeked behind the shield, making sure that the flower wasn’t going to harm us anymore.

“Looks good.”

She put the shield away, revealing the scenery behind it. The flower that had been standing there just a little prior was now on the ground, the blossom facing down into the ground. The fact that it was twitching gave me the creeps, honestly. Flowers weren’t supposed to move like that.

“Mm, that went quite well for the first one, didn’t it?”

“Merim.”

The others had come over as soon as they saw that the flower wasn’t a danger anymore. Merim took the small saw and went over to the flower, cutting it off at the root. With a last few twitches, the flower finally stopped moving.

“That’s the first Slime Flower done.”

“... The first?”

“We need a few of them.”

So I had to do this a few more times?

“Will the shield hold up that long?”

“It will, no worries. You were rather fast so it’s no— Woah!”

Merim, who was in the middle of picking up the flower, suddenly jumped backwards. Something fell down from the blossom in the flower… The corpse of a small critter.

“Ugh, that’s quite… disgusting…”

“Nn…”

The corpse was half digested already, so it wasn’t a pleasant sight. The halfway molten bones and organs… Uhhh… It made me feel a little sick…

“That’s what I hate about these jobs. Haa...  Let’s move on quickly.“

Merim stowed the flower into a bag and beckoned us away from the scene. Our two guest companions, Elma and Nela, had both already turned away, looking a little sick.

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“Emily, there should be other flowers close-by. Do you know where?”

“Mm… I think over there is one!”

“Great.”

We went into the direction Emily had pointed at and sure enough, a few minutes of walking we found yet another Slime Flower.

“Good, good. Hopefully there are enough of these in the area. Now then… Karen, you go this time.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Huh, so it wasn’t me doing it this time?

“Take the shield and get the flower.”

“Uhm… Should I knock the flower just over with the shield?”

“How you do it is up to you.”

“Okay…”

Karen received the shield from Lily. I only saw it now, but there was a darkened spot right in the middle of it. That must have been where the acid had hit it earlier.

“Then, I’ll go.”

“Nn, good luck, Sis.”

“Thank you, Yumi.”

With a smile, Karen held up the shield and slowly approached towards the flower. At a steady pace.

Bong!

“Oh?”

She tumbled a little backwards.

Much to my surprise. It hadn’t seemed like Lily had any problems with it. She didn’t budge. Yet, Karen, who was physically quite strong, was forced back.

“Mm… As expected,” murmured Merim.”

“Nn? Merim?”

“Karen has a lot of strength but her own weight is that of a normal girl. You don’t need a lot of strength to force her back. And no matter how strong she is, she’ll just get forced back by anyone—or anything—heavier than her.”

“Oh…”

Her own weight, huh. But how did Lily manage then?

In the meantime, Karen had approached even closer to the flower, standing right before it now. With a Bonk she knocked it over. A little anticlimactic, to be honest…

“Let’s get that flower.”

Merim walked up to the flower and retrieved it promptly. This time, no critter corpse fell out, thankfully.

Once finished, he turned to Karen.

“Good job.”

“Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything about what he told me just now. Well, he’d probably talk with her about it?

“Now then, off to the next. Emily, lead the way.”

“Yes, Uncle Merim!”

We proceeded from one flower to the next, always someone else having to take care of it. Merim decided whether they should do it alone or with someone else. The ones who could carry the shield on their own—namely Karen, Lily and Rina—just walked up to the flowers and knocked them down. Although, Rina actually lost her footing and on her back. The shield covered her so she didn’t get injured by the flower but still.

Everyone else had to get… a little more creative.

“Good, that’s enough of these.”

“Nn…”

I peeked into the bag where Merim had just stuffed in the final Slime Flower. A good dozen of them were stuffed inside, stem and flower all. He wasn’t exactly gentle with them either… Was this fine?

“Now then, that’s the first of four done. It’s the most troublesome too.”

Merim was holding the shield, looking at the front of it. The repeated hits of acid had done quite a bit of damage after all. He poked the darkened spot and… stabbed through the shield.

“Guess this one’s a goner, huh. At least it didn’t break earlier.”

“Mr Vice-Captain, was it really okay to use the shield for this?”

“Mh? Yes, it’s fine, don’t worry about it, Karen. We’ll just hand this over to the blacksmiths and they’ll recycle it somehow. I think.”

“... Is that really okay?”

Karen furrowed her brows at his nonchalant reply.

“Rather than that, Karen, what did you think after using this shield?”

“My thoughts?”

“Yes.”

“Uhm… It’s hard to see the surroundings and what is directly in front of you if you hold it up. Also, I was a bit surprised at how strong the impact was.”

Karen had taken the shield two more times after this, and each time, she was tumbling a little when the flower shot the acid at the shield.

“Projectiles have a lot of strength behind them. An arrow would be even worse, not to mention a crossbow bolt. It’s easy to mistake the danger they pose. Don’t forget that feeling.”

“Yes, Mr Vice-Captain!”

“Mm. We’ll talk a little more about this when we are back at the camp again. Next…”

After talking to Karen, he turned towards me.

“Yumi, do you like rabbits?”

“Eh? Uhm… they are cute, so I guess I do?”

Assuming there were normal rabbits around.

“Mm. I wonder if you still like them later.”

“Nn?”

“You got a bit of a problem with your attention span… or maybe your awareness of your surroundings. You completely forgot that the Demon Rabbits were still following us, didn’t you?”

“... Ah.”

He was right. They… did slip from my mind.

“Lily, how many are following us?”

“They increased to fourteen a while ago, then two left. Just now, one of them came back so it’s thirteen. They’re still keeping their distance and watching.”

“That’s right, good job.”

Merim nodded, satisfied with her answer.

“Having a lack of awareness of your surroundings can be fatal in combat. The Captain mentioned that you also keep forgetting other things, like with reports.”

“Uhh… I’m sorry.”

“I’m not looking for apologies, Yumi. It’s not really anything you have to apologise for. It would be better, of course, if you could fix that.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Korwen did scold me before for forgetting stuff, didn’t he… And that wasn’t the only time...

“Oddly enough, the Captain said that you do secretarial work just fine. I wonder why that is… It might have to do with how you approach this work so I’m fairly sure we can do something there.”

“Nn? How I approach it?”

“Yes. Of course, this is just my guess, judging from my experience training other recruits before. Some of them were quite sloppy early on but improved a lot later on. You might just have to get used to things and it might get better on its own.”

“Huh…”

Getting used to this, huh… Well, I certainly couldn’t claim that I was used to everything yet.

“Other than that, there’s not much to say for me. Just, don’t forget the simple solutions, yes?”

“... Nn.”

I’d try not to forget that I could just pull with my hands the next time, yes.

“Good. Well, let’s see… Lily… Not much to say to you.”

“Ehh? Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Merim sighed and turned around, before Lily could continue to annoy him.

“Haa… Let’s continue this talk later. Emily, we’ll go look for the Elven Trap. Lead the way.”

“...”

“Emily?”

“Uncle Merim, what is the Elven trap?”

“... Your memory needs to get fixed too.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then explained to her once more what we were looking for.

“A fruit? From a tree that eats?”

“Well… Yes…”

“Leave it to me, Uncle Merim!”

“We’re counting on you.”

Now, with the Emily Radar once again working, we went our way, deeper into the forest.

A short while later… we had a little bit of an encounter.

“Vice-Captain, there are some people over there.”

“People? Oh, you’re right.”

A little further, a group of five men was making your way in our direction. They were all armed and raising their hands in a greeting.

“Vice-Captain, Sir!”

“You all… the group hunting for the Armoured Lizards? Weren’t there more of you?”

The squad was supposed to be eight men. And I was fairly certain they had been eight before.

“Yes, in regards to that… We had some injuries.”

“Injuries? Against Armoured Lizards?”

“No, we actually haven’t found any of those yet. No, we were attacked by people.”

Merim’s expression hardened the moment the man said that.

“Explain.”

“A group of four hooded men ambushed us, shooting arrows in our direction. We suffered a few injuries before we could take cover. After that, the men simply vanished.”

“They randomly attacked you and then vanished?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The man reporting this seemed to be just as confused as Merim.

“They hadn’t said anything, they only shot arrows at us and then disappeared. We could make out it was four men before we took cover but that is all.”

“... Harassment, maybe? No, then they would have continued for longer... Mm… How bad are the injuries?”

“Minor cuts, for the most part. We have one arrow wound from the initial surprise, but nothing more. Just… it seems the arrows were laced with a paralysing poison.”

“Paralysing? I see. Okay, you and your squad, return to the makeshift camp before the forest. Send a messenger to the Captain informing him. Go.”

“Understood, Vice-Captain.”

The man saluted before leaving with his comrades. Even after they had left our sight, Merim was still staring into the air, seemingly lost in thought.

“Merim?”

“... One moment, I am thinking.”

“Nn…”

We kept quiet after that, until he finally opened his mouth again.

“Things might get serious soon.”

“Nn?”

“Change of plans. We’re going to meet up with the other squads in the forest.”

“Huh?”

I kind of expected him to say that we’d return as well. But meeting up with the others?

“I think I have an idea what is happening. They might actually look for our group.”

“Our group? But why?”

“Did you forget?”

“Nn?”

Merim looked over his shoulder, towards the two girls in the back.

“Remember what the Dragon Knights job was with those two?”

“... Protecting.”

“Correct.”

The two girls, having realised what Merim was talking about, gasped.

“Yo, You mean… They’re looking for El and me?!”

“Most likely.”

“Then, shouldn’t we return immediately?”

“No, that is the most dangerous option.”

“Eh?”

The most dangerous option.

“They’d wait for us at the edge of the forest?”

“Correct, Yumi. Getting back to the camp would indeed be the safest, but our way back is predictable. They’d just have to intercept us on our way back and attack. On the other hand, the forest is a natural maze. It’s hard finding us here. But…”

Merim broke out into a grin.

“Emily, can you lead us to the other squads?”

“The others? I think I can do that.”

“Great.”

Ah. Emily could easily find and navigate her way through the forest. Being the elf she was, the forest accommodated her.

“And Emily.”

“Yes?”

“... I might have to ask you to use magic.”

“... Eh? I can use magic?!”

“I might ask you to. Don’t do anything until I give you permission, understood?”

“Yes! I won’t!”

“Just make sure to be ready for it, okay?”

“Yes!”

Emily was grinning, a big smile on her face. She was really happy to be told that she could use magic. Maya and Sele though… They turned pale.

No, what the heck? Is Emily’s magic that scary?

They stopped her from using it before as well…

“For now, lead the way. Lily, you guard Emily. Karen and Yumi, you take the rear. Everyone else stays close to me. Maya, Sele, I know you have your crossbows with you, so get those ready.”

“Ah… Yes, Uncle Merim.”

“...”

Everyone quickly took their positions.

“Stay aware of your surroundings. This isn’t training anymore. If you notice anything, immediately inform me. No matter how small or irrelevant it seems.”

“””Yes!”””

With the exception of Elma and Nela, everyone responded to Merim. He nodded, then directed his gaze to me.

“Yumi. Should it come to it, use your magic without restraint.”

“... Nn.”

In other words, it was better having the secret revealed over… dying, for example. But, whether I could actually… No, I had to, if it came to it. I told myself to get a grip.

Of course, preferably, we wouldn’t encounter anyone.

“Good. Let’s move out. Emily, you give the directions.”

“Okay!”

“Also, avoid any people that don’t belong to the mercenaries. Taking a long detour is fine.”

“Okay, Uncle Merim!”

“Good. Let’s go.”

And so, with Emily in the lead, instead of hunting for flowers, we were searching for the other mercenaries.

Still, I hoped, we wouldn’t have to encounter those hooded men.

Rinne

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