Chapter 128: of Bottled Love: Returning Home

We stepped out of the wagon, into the fresh and clean air.

“We’ve returned, huh…”

“That we have.”

Despite Korwen’s warning, nothing much happened. We leisurely got into the mercenary camp and were greeted by the other mercenaries.

“Korwen. You’re back early.”

“Greyward.”

A familiar man in black armour walked up to us. Lily’s foster father, Greyward.

“Thought you’d need a lot more time over there.”

“We managed to settle everything over the night. We also got our hands on some nice bounty. But first things first, how did things go over here?”

“We don’t have the full picture yet but if you are fine with that.”

Greyward turned his eyes towards the city and the smoke columns rising up from it.

“According to the report I got, the king has sent his forces into the town the previous night, apprehending several aristocrats and merchants suspected of treason. Some of them resisted and it turned into a skirmish inside the city. I don’t know the extent of the damage but at the very least, several mansions were burnt down in the process.”

“That’s where the smoke comes from, huh.”

“Likely.”

Korwen narrowed his eyes as he watched the smoke.

“Did they at least finish the job?”

“According to the report, yes. The gates are closed so we can’t send someone to investigate. The only information we have came from the gate’s guards. And I have my doubts about its reliability.”

“Better than not knowing anything.”

“True that.”

After a short silence, Korwen removed his attention from the smoke and instead turned towards the camp.

“Any problems here?”

“Nothing at all. It was so quiet I regret not coming along you guys.”

“We needed someone to take command here so I wouldn’t have let you go anyway.”

“As expected…”

With an unsatisfied expression, Greyward turned to look at us.

“How was it over there? Dealt with everything?”

“With most of it. Yumelia slipped through our fingers, though.”

“Ahh… That’s unfortunate.”

“At the very least, there were no casualties but we have some injured. We need a dedicated healer.”

“That… might be hard.”

We turned to look at Greyward in surprise. If we didn’t get a dedicated healer then… The outlook of at least one of them was bleak.

“As I said, the gate’s are closed and they don’t let anyone in nor out.”

“… Then I will make them get someone out. If one of my men dies because of this…”

Korwen didn’t finish his threat but his expression made it clear that it wouldn’t be pleasant.

“Best you can do is making a ruckus at the gate then.”

“Oh, I will make a ruckus if they don’t get us a healer.”

I had my doubts that it would stay at ‘making a ruckus’ when one of his mercenaries was at risk.

“But first we need to get the injured to a safe place. Ria, can you help Wenners with the injured?”

“... Yes… Captain…”

“Then go and do so.”

Leaving a sluggish salute, Ria made her way to the wagon that had been in front of us. I could see a few mercenaries carrying a stretcher.

“Miss Elder. You wouldn’t happen to know any healing magic, do you?”

“I do not. However, I know a little about herbal medicine. It might not be much but…”

“Herbal medicine, huh… I don’t know if it helps but go and support Ria.”

“Understood, Mr Korwen.”

The Elder saluted to him—a more elegant one than Ria’s—and then made her way over to the injured. Finally, Korwen turned to us.

“Yumi, Karen.”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Mr Captain?”

“... You can go ahead and take a break for now.”

“Huh? Is that fine?”

Didn’t he need our help?

“There’s nothing for you to do right now, so yes. I will call for you later. Until then you are free to do what you want.”

“Got it, Captain. Then we’ll take a break.”

I wouldn’t say no to a break. Although, we had basically just woken up earlier.

“Good. Greyward, let’s go.”

“Sure. Yumi, Karen. Until then.”

The two men then went on their way and disappeared somewhere between the tents.

“So, Yumi… What should we do?”

“... Good question. How about we return to our wagon?”

“Good idea.”

With that decided, we went our way as well. Past the dozens of tents and the odd wagon here and there, until we found the wagon that belonged to us.

“We’re back.”

“Nn.”

“Ah, Yumi, that’s bad manners.”

“Don’t care.”

The moment I stepped inside, I threw off the breastplate and let myself fall onto the bed.

“... I feel like I could fall asleep again.”

“Don’t. You won’t be able to sleep at night.”

“... Would that be a problem?”

I glanced at Karen, standing behind me and looking down at me.

“Yes, it would.”

“We might not be able to sleep either way, though?”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t we?”

“...”

Karen raised her eyebrows, not quite catching my drift. It took her several seconds before she finally let out a small gasp and her face turned red.

“Pervert.”

“With pleasure.”

“Haa… You’re impossible sometimes.”

“So you don’t want to?”

“... I do.”

Well, with that the problem was solved, wasn’t it?

“Ah, but didn’t Mr Captain invite you to the after-job party?”

“... Oh, right. He did.”

He had said something about that… I forgot about that. Wait…

“Sis, why do you know about that?”

“Because you mentioned it.”

“... I did?”

“You did.”

Damn, I couldn’t remember that… But since she knew about that, I probably had said it in passing or so and then didn’t give it any further thought. Oh well…

“Nn… Sis, want to come along then?”

“... He didn’t invite me, though?”

“Then we can just ask him. I’m sure he’ll mention it later.”

Otherwise, I wouldn’t even know the when and where, after all. When he did, I could just ask him.

“Mm… I guess I can come along. I won’t drink any alcohol, though.”

“That’s okay.”

Nobody would force her to drink it. At least, I would hope so.

“Nn… The bed is nice…”

I rolled on my back and stretched my arms and legs. A bed was still vastly different compared to the hard floor of the wagon. Even though the wagons didn’t shake and rock to the point that you couldn’t sleep, it still was rather uncomfortable.

“Yumi, at least get out of your armour.”

“Sis, undress me.”

“You can do it, Yumi.”

“Nn…”

Well, that didn’t work out now, did it? Oh, Karen was undressing.

“Yumi, you’re staring.”

“I am.”

And it was quite enjoyable. This wasn’t a scene anyone could see. Karen and me all alone, changing clothes and lazing around on the bed after we returned from work… It was a cosy, homely feel. I wondered if this was how married couples felt. Casual and warm.

Married, huh... 

The words from Korwen were still echoing inside my head. What even was marriage? Judging from his words, there wasn’t any grand ceremony or anything. Then, was it just partners deciding to stay with each other? If that was the case…

Maybe that idea isn’t that bad…

When I woke up in this world, having a lover and a partner for life wasn’t something I was worried about. But now, here I was…

“Yumi?”

“Nn?”

“Something wrong? You seemed lost in thought…”

“Ahh… No, I was just thinking about the captain’s words…”

“Mr Captain’s words… Uhm, you mean… What he said about marriage?”

“Nn, that…”

Karen made a complicated expression when I confirmed her question.

“Marriage… I can’t really imagine it…”

“You can’t?”

That surprised me a little.

“Well, it’s not like I am against it, you know? Just… I always lived worrying about the next day’s meal… So, suddenly talking about marriage feels unreal to me… Sorry.”

“No need to apologise for that, Sis.”

So that’s how it was.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“How were marriages in your world?”

“Well, that’s a little hard to say…”

I forced myself to sit upright so that I could properly talk with Karen.

“You see, just like how it is here, depending on where you lived, the customs for it were different. Most of the time it included a large celebration, though.”

“I see… A large celebration…”

“Nn.”

A lavish ceremony to celebrate a very special day.

“Hey, Sis… Are they not celebrating here?”

“I’m not quite sure… I think in Aldreigh they celebrate with their family and close friends? I think I was at one such ceremony when I was still small. As for the empire, I never had the time to think about it so I don’t know.”

“I see…”

At least in Aldreigh, they did celebrate to some degree then.

“Maybe we should ask someone who knows about this?” I asked.

“But who?”

“... Lily?”

“...”

She was the most likely among the people close to us to know anything about this topic.

“We could also ask the captain or Merim but…” I muttered.

Korwen would likely tease us and Merim… maybe as well. It’d be embarrassing to ask them, too. I’d rather ask Lily.

“Nn. Let’s ask Lily.”

“Okay. But… what about her job guarding Elma and Nela?”

“Ah, right… They didn’t let anyone go to them.”

I was already thinking of looking for Lily once we took a short break here but that was likely not happening…

“We’ll have to wait until things calm down, I guess.”

“I hope they will.”

“Nn, I do too.”

Considering we hadn’t seen or heard of any fighting still going on, things likely had finished inside the city now. Once they cleaned up and dealt with everything, the guarding probably shouldn’t be necessary anymore. Probably. And once that was done with, we could ask Lily how people commonly celebrated marriages.

“Hey, Yumi…”

“Nn?”

“Can I lie down next to you?”

“Of course you can.”

With a smile, Karen laid down next to me, using my outstretched arm a pillow.

“I think I’d be fine with it, you know?”

“Nn?”

“Marriage.”

“... I see.”

I averted my face, hoping she wouldn’t see it burn up. Talking about blunt.

“But what would makes it different compared to now?”

“... Good question.”

“Mm…”

We were already close lovers and we had promised to stay with each other. Of course, the future was unknown but I, at least, intended to stay by her side. In that regard, marriage was maybe just an extension of such a promise?

“Ah, we’d share a surname.”

“We don’t even have one right now…”

“Technically, I do, Yumi.”

“... Ah.”

Speaking of which, she did have a surname, right? The one Rina introduced herself with. I heard it was actually a pretty well-known one too.

“But do you want to keep that one?”

“No, not really.”

“Then, it’s as good as not having one.”

It wasn’t like surnames were all that important for most people. I had no idea what Fenna’s. Same for Wanda. And Lily didn’t introduce herself with her foster father’s surname so I didn’t know if she actually carried it. As for Ria, I only heard it in passing once from someone else.

“Yumi, do you remember your old surname?”

“I don’t even remember my original name so of course I don’t remember my surname either…”

“I see…”

My old surname, huh… Yeah, no dice. Couldn’t remember it.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“You won’t leave me, right?”

“Of course I won’t.”

“Even if you were to remember everything?”

I smiled wryly and rolled onto my side, facing her.

“Even then, I won’t leave you. I promise you.”

“Yumi…”

Karen rolled onto her side as well to face me, our faces so close that our noses were nearly touching.

“Thank you, Yumi.”

“Don’t. I’ll stay by your side whether you want it or not.”

“... How reassuring.”

She giggled in response to my proclamation. Even though I was serious…

“... Yumi. Please, stay by my side.”

“Nn, I will.”

Karen hugged me, pulling me closer. She looked me straight into the eyes, her lips approaching.

“Yumi.”

“Sis.”

I returned the hug, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing her. Her eyes widened at my bold action but soon enough she returned the kiss.

Several seconds later, we parted again.

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“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“I’m really happy, right now.”

“So am I. I’m incredibly happy.”

“Ehehe, but you know, I’m sure I’m happier.”

“No, no. I’m way happier.”

“Lies, I’m the happiest person in the world.”

“Then I’m the happiest person ever.”

We looked at each other, completely serious.

“Pfff… Ahahaha!”

“Hehehe!”

And finally, we broke out in laughter at our stupid, childish argument.

“We’re both the happiest ever.”

“Nn, we are.”

If only times like this could go on forever.

---

“Miss Yumi! Miss Karen!”

“Yes?”

“The captain is calling for you!”

“Okay. We’ll come soon.”

Karen closed the small window and turned to me.

“You heard him, Yumi.”

“Ehh, do we have to?”

“I don’t want to either, Yumi, but we have to.”

“Haaa…”

Even though we finally had time for ourselves again. The last few days were so hectic, after all.

“Don’t wanna… Sis, let’s ditch him.”

“You know we can’t.”

“Mmm…”

I hugged Karen’s waist and buried my face in her belly.

“Smells nice.”

“Seriously, Yumi… You’re like a child.”

“If that’s what it needs for me to indulge in this happiness, then I’ll happily be a child. Should I call you ‘mama’ or ‘mom’ from now on?”

“Don’t. Seriously, don’t.”

“Too bad.”

It could have worked. The thought of her as my mother was… quite nice, actually. Seeing her in an apron. Scolding me when I was bad. Praising me when I was good. Breastfeeding me.

Okay, the last one is probably not quite right… Although, I would be interested in it.

But she’d need to make milk for that first…

“Yumi? Why are you staring at my breasts?”

“Just wondering if milk will come out if I suck on them.”

“I’ll throw you out.”

That probably meant it wouldn’t come out. Maybe in the future, when she… Well…

But that’ll be far in the future… Even farther than marriage would be…

Maybe one day in the far future... Well, I also had to account for the possibility that it wasn’t Karen but me who would… That… That thought would need some time to get used to… Yeah… I didn’t really consider that… Or maybe I shoved it away… But that could happen now, huh, now that I was a girl.

“Yumi, get up.”

“Kiss me.”

“Will you get up if I do?”

“Nn.”

With a sigh, Karen leaned over me and kissed me on the lips. Warm happiness spread through my body.

“Ehehe.”

“Happy?”

“Nn!”

It was wonderful.

“Now, get up. Mr Captain will get angry.”

“Nn… I’m coming.”

I forced myself to get up from the bed. It had been so nice until now.

“Yumi, should we put on the armour?”

“I don’t think we have to… Actually, I’m not sure either.”

“Well, the captain isn’t usually walking around fully armoured either, so it should be fine?”

“He does wear some armour, though.”

It wasn’t particularly much but enough to make him out as a man of the sword… or axe, in his case.

“I’m sure, he would’ve told us to put on the armour if it was needed.”

“Mm…”

“At least, he did when he called for me.

Thinking about it, Karen hadn’t worn her new armour all that much yet. In that regard, I had a bit more experience.

“Then, let’s go like this?”

“Should be fine.”

Both of us were linen pants and a linen shirt. It wasn’t anything fancy at all, rather it was extremely simple. But they were quite comfortable and robust.

“Ah, Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“We didn’t check on them.”

“Who? Oh, them…”

Karen pointed at the door next to the exit. The door that led to the tentacle growth that we were caring for inside the wagon.

“We should probably do so when we get back.”

“Right. But first, let’s find Mr Korwen.”

“Okay.”

We opened the door and returned to the warm outside world. Holding each other’s hand, we then made our way to Korwen’s tent. Of course, we asked a nearby mercenary if he was there first. Would be annoying if he wasn’t.

“Captain, we’ve come.”

Entering the tent, I saw Korwen sitting at his usual desk, working his documents away.

“Ah, Yumi, Karen. Good timing. I was just thinking about sending someone to call you again.”

“Ahaha… Sorry.”

A roundabout way of saying we were late…

“Doesn’t matter. Did you have a good rest?”

“We did.”

“Until it was interrupted.”

“Yumi…”

With an exasperated look, Karen stared at me, judging me.  But, hey… I was a little annoyed that we got interrupted. I had to vent once in a while too.

“Well, sorry about that. You’ll have enough time to rest later on. For now, sit down.”

Enough time, huh…

“Let me first bring you up to date. We managed to get a dedicated healer here to treat the injuries of our wounded. They’re all safe now.”

“Oh, that’s great news.”

“It is. With that, I can finally say that it was a job well done. We finished our job, took down the mother roper and all of that without casualties. I’m quite satisfied with this result.”

It was a good result, that much was definitely the truth.

“We also got some experience with the new ropes now which is valuable as well.”

“Ahh…”

“You mean the ropes made from Yumi’s hair?”

“Yes, those. They don’t burn well but except for that, they perform incredibly well.”

Well, usually you wouldn’t consider burning a rope anyway… Okay, they did burn them for the trees. But ropes, huh… So many ropes… It’s always about ropes.

“I am always surprised at how much you all like ropes…” I commented.

“Ropes are great, after all. They have their uses in combat, for traps and for field construction. I can promise you that you will see them a lot more often.”

“Even for construction?”

“Sure. It depends on what it is, though. But as long as you have ropes, you can even build a bridge.”

A bridge? That was… Yeah, that could be useful.

“The only downside is the difficulty in procuring a magic craftsman. I had thought of recruiting Elina but she already declined.”

“She declined? Or rather, you were trying to recruit her?”

“Of course I was. But alas, it didn’t work out. She did seem to have a hard time resisting when I flaunted my muscles but it didn’t work out nonetheless.”

“...”

He flaunted his muscles? Sure, Elina loved muscles but… Would this be considered seduction? I wasn’t quite sure…

“But as long as we don’t have a magic craftsman it’ll be hard for us. Right now, we can skirt the costs thanks to it being a new, unknown material for them but once the interest is gone, we’d have to pay.”

“Would it cost that much?” Karen asked.

“Mm… No, if anything, it should be affordable. But if I have the choice between paying and not paying, I’ll obviously take the latter.”

Okay, so would I…

“However, if we settle down at a base, not having a magic craftsman could become an issue. Depending on where it would be, the next town with one could be several days away.”

“That… sounds bad.”

“It does. And so, Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“How far did you get with those tentacles? Whether you can connect two spaces or not.”

“Ahh…”

That, huh…

“Not really anywhere yet? We didn’t exactly have time to look into it since then.”

“I see… No, sorry, I should have known that…”

Korwen sighed as he put down the document he had just signed. Then, he stood up from the desk and came over to us, sitting down on the couch with us. The other couch was still free so I was a little confused why he sat there…

“Many things would be possible if we could instantly travel large distances. It’s not like it wouldn’t work if we can’t but… Frankly put, a base in Lafria is not the most appealing under normal circumstances for mercenaries.”

“Why?”

The kingdom seemed quite amicable and nice overall…

“Simply put, there’s too little conflict.”

“...”

“Hey, you two, don’t look at me like that. We are mercenaries. We make money from conflict.”

It still sounded quite bad, the way he phrased it. Kinda sounded like he wanted people to bash in their heads.

“Lafria is surrounded to the most part by free countries: The Kingdom of Aldreigh, to the east, the Krohmean Alliance to the north, and the Akkian Empire to the south. To the west, they border the Wooden Sea. Aldreigh and Krohmea are both more or less friendly towards Lafria. There won’t be a war between them anytime soon.”

“Then, the only one left is the Akkian Empire.”

“Correct. And they have to cross the Hollow first. It depends on how they will react to the newest developments but I believe they will pull back with war.”

So, Lafria was currently at peace and there were no fights between people.

“The only source of income here would be weeding out dissidents and similar, like the worshippers, or monster subjugations. Sure, they bring money but considering our expenses they won’t make us rich. We won’t go bankrupt from it either, though.”

Well, it was reassuring to hear we wouldn’t go bankrupt from it.

“However, if we can travel large distances, then we could set up one end at our base and travel freely without having to restrict our area of operations, you see.”

“Ahh…”

In other words, no matter how far away we were, we could still return at the drop of a hat. That would make things convenient, yes.

“See, that’s why I would have liked to know if it is possible in advance.”

“Nn? In advance?”

“Yes.”

Korwen leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.

“Together with the healer came a message that Will and Ruben will be coming by to discuss the results.”

“Ohhh…”

“They’ll come here?”

Karen seemed a little surprised at this.

“Uhm, should we be here then?” she asked.

“I’d rather have you here. You’ve already met him after all. Merim isn’t here right now and Greyward doesn’t want to meet Will for some reason. Ria is busy with the injured and Fenna is still guarding those two girls. In other words, everyone else is busy.”

“... Greyward didn’t sound busy.”

“Don’t ask me. He was quite against it, you know? Seems something happened between them, some personal stuff apparently.”

“I see.”

And so, here we were.

“Also, I already told you we needed you to show your face so I would have called for you either way. You’ll have to accompany me for this a lot more often in the future.”

“Ah.”

Speaking of which, yeah, that was right. Oh well, if that was the case…

“Can’t be helped then.”

“Don’t make it sound like I am forcing you. You agreed to it.”

“... I did.”

Maybe I was still a little annoyed that we got interrupted… Haaa…

“Well, to change the topic a little. I had Ria take a look at that crystal we pilfered from the roper.”

“Ohh? If I recall correctly, she said it might be some, err, magical fortress crystal or so?”

“You recall it correctly, yes. The Garm Empire’s infamous magical fortresses. They were marvels of their time and one reason the Garm Empire spanned the continent and beyond. However, they were all destroyed when the empire collapsed.”

“Except for this one?”

“No, this one too.”

Huh? This one was destroyed as well? But it was right here, though?

“Well, it’s more like, they were made unusable. According to Ria, the control mechanism has been destroyed thoroughly. Too thoroughly for it to be a result of decay or accidental destruction.”

“Ahh… And without the control mechanism, it is useless.”

“Correct.”

That was quite unfortunate. If they were used for fortresses, it could have been possible to make use of it in the base Korwen planned to get.

“There is no hope of recovering the control mechanism of the crystal. However, it still stores a vast amount of mana. We’ll need to find ways to extract it and…”

Korwen looked at me, a grin on his lips.

“I’d like you to try if you can make use of the mana.”

“Me?”

“Who else? You’re our best bet. Especially considering that the roper did use the mana in that crystal.”

“I see…”

If we could harness that mana, it would be quite convenient, yes. It had absorbed and stored mana since the fall of this empire, so it should be a tremendous amount.

“The only problem to all of this will be Will… He’s likely going to object against us keeping that crystal.”

“He will?”

“Yes, Karen. The suspected amount of mana inside it is simply too high. We did agree that we can keep the spoils but he will, without a doubt, try to prevent that. He is a sovereign, in the end. And his priority is his own nation first and foremost. That’s why neither of you two should mention that Yumi might be able to absorb the mana.”

“Won’t he suspect if we will keep the crystal without having a way to make use of it, though?”

Karen tilted her head as she asked Korwen.

“He will, without a doubt. He’s annoyingly sharp at times like these so it won’t slip past him. It’s still better than him knowing about it, though. And he owes us. Quite a lot, in fact.”

Not quite convinced, Karen hummed a ‘Hmm’ and glanced at the tent’s entrance.

“Something the matter?”

“I think someone’s there.”

“Oh? Did he finally come? Sure took his time. Well then...”

Korwen leaned down, low enough to look under the table. We watched him with curious eyes as he pulled a small box from beneath the table.

“Some snacks go a long way in discussions,” he said and put the box on the table.

“Ohh?”

Those were… dried fruits. Some of which I hadn’t seen before.

“Feel free to take one while we talk. Just keep your manners and don’t be greedy, are we clear on that?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Yes.”

“Good girls.”

With a satisfied chuckle, he put the lid of the box under the table and straightened up, getting ready to welcome the guest. Seeing this, Karen and I both straightened up as well, making Korwen chuckle again. Before he could say anything though, the curtain opened and two familiar men entered.

Rinne

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