Chapter 194: of Spirit Verse: Morning of the Trip

The remainder of the evening was rather uneventful. Karen and I returned to our wagon, went to bed and had a bit of a comfortable time before falling asleep.

Or, well, that’s what I had hoped. In reality, we realised that we had a problem:

We would go to an Aldreighan town. And Aldreigh had its own language. It didn’t speak the language common to Lafria and the empire. Karen could speak it, sure. But little old me? Apart from a few set phrases that Karen had taught me, there was nothing I could do. Well, I could desperately flail my arms in an attempt to reach an understanding?

Either way, upon realising this issue, Karen held an impromptu teaching session. Of course, there was no way I could learn the language overnight, so it was really nothing more than a small comfort.

And that was how an already exhausting day ended with me utterly drained. Mentally and physically.

Later, when we actually went to bed, I immediately fell asleep in Karen’s arms. That’s how exhausted I had been.

But I slept really well. Is this what people mean when they say ‘slept like a baby?’

No trace left of the exhaustion I had felt. Sleeping in Karen’s embrace worked wonders. A wonder remedy for all your problems. And exclusively mine. No sharing allowed.

“Hehehe.”

“Enjoying it?”

“Nn.”

A slight tug on my hair, a sign of Karen’s hand brushing through my hair, full of affection and care. I nuzzled against Karen’s chest, my eyes closed. What a blissful way to spend the morning. Just laying in bed and letting the time pass.

And what better than knowing that we can spend most of the morning like this?

There were only a few minor things we had to do before we had to depart with Greyward and the others. That’s why neither of us was making moves to get up either. Instead, we were both lazing around in bed.

“Nn… Sis. More.”

“Yes, yes. Hehe.”

With a giggle, Karen continued stroking me, like a child being comforted.

“Yumi.”

“Nn? What is it?”

I responded, my voice trailing off a little, half dozing off.

“Look here.”

“Nn? Mn?!”

I looked up at Karen, only to find my view blocked and my lips stolen. After a few seconds, our lips parted again and Karen giggled, like a child succeeding at their prank.

“Hehe, got you.”

“Sis… Nn, I guess I’ll have to get back at you then.”

“Mh?”

Before Karen could respond, I returned the favour, taking her lips. The sweet taste, her breath tickling me, the slightly increased strength in Karen’s arms embracing me, it all came together.

“Got you back.”

“Seems you did.”

We both looked into each other’s eyes, before breaking out into laughter and giggles.

“Really, what are we even doing?”

“Nn, I wonder?”

Fooling around, it seemed. Not that it was a big problem, though.

“Haaa…Hey, Yumi.”

“Nn? What is it, Sis?”

“I don’t feel like getting up.”

“How rare, aren’t you the one who usually wants to get up?”

“That’s because we have work to do.”

And today we didn’t, so she had little motivation to get up.

“But it feels just… I don’t know… so indulgent to just sleep in.”

“Ahhh… Nn, I can understand that.”

It was a bit of a luxury, to be able to sleep in. The mercenaries as a whole were rather… How to say it? Lenient? Relaxed?

“Hehe.”

“Nn? Sis?”

Karen suddenly began to giggle, as if she had remembered or thought of something funny.

“Life is so strange.”

“Nn? Is it?”

“Yes. It is.”

“Well, if you say so.”

Then, surely, it had to be.

Right at that moment, someone knocked against our door.

“Oh, is someone there?”

“Nn, looks like it. Haaa… Who disturbs us?”

Really, I was enjoying some alone time with Karen right now.

“I’ll take a look, Sis.”

“Okay.”

Karen let me out of her embrace and I walked to our door, opening it a little, enough for me to peek through.

“—’re still sleeping? Oh, Lily, look!”

“Mm? Ah, Yumi, so you’re awake, after all. Good morning.”

“Nn… Good morning, Lily, Rina.”

Two familiar faces were standing right outside, already full of energy in the early morning.

“Did you need us for something?”

“Sorry, did we wake you? We just wanted to talk about the trip and all that.”

“I see… And no, we were awake already.”

“Oh? Well, then it’s fine… Anyway, can we come in?”

I thought for a few seconds but they already knew about everything in this wagon anyway. There wasn’t really a reason to keep them out—except maybe so that I could stay alone with Karen.

“Sure, come in.”

Opening the door, I stepped back and invited the two inside.

“Then, excuse the intrusi—.”

“Coming in! Ohhh!”

“Nn?”

For some reason, Lily froze when she stepped inside, staring at me. Rina, right behind her, somehow looked quite excited.

“Is something wrong?”

“So adult!”

Adult? What is?

I was more and more confused by Rina’s reaction…

“Err… I guess we were interrupting, after all…Should we come back later?”

Come back later? Interrupting? What does she… Oh… Ohhh…

It took a few seconds for me to realise the word’s meaning. And then, I also understood where the two of them were looking…

“Oh… Well…”

“Mm? Lily? Rina? Is that you? Good morning.”

Before I could even reply to Lily’s words, Karen finally called out to our guests, sitting up in bed and looking at them, suppressing a yawn. The blanket was in her lap, only barely covering her legs.

“Woah.”

Rina let out a sigh of admiration. Not quite sure what was admirable about it, though. It was… pretty sexy, though. I approved.

“Good morning, Karen. Sorry for… interrupting.”

“Mm?”

Yes, that’s right. It had slipped my mind again. Karen and I were sleeping in the nude, our clothes littered the floor. Not exactly the best state of dress to be welcoming guests in.

“We’ll get dressed in a moment. Sorry.”

“I’d appreciate that…”

Well, we had already seen each other naked before… Okay, I was embarrassed but since it was Lily and Rina, it was more embarrassing because it had slipped my mind.

“Mmm… Ohhh…”

While we talked, Karen was slowly realising what was going on, too.

“Well… It could be worse…” she commented.

“That’s not very convincing from the person covering herself up now, Sis.”

I picked up our scattered clothes and threw Karen’s portion over to her before getting dressed.

“Lily. Lily.”

“Mm?”

“I expect a lot!”

“... Please don’t expect that.”

In the meantime, Rina was placing all her expectations on Lily. Her expectant gaze was so radiant that Lily had to awkwardly avert her gaze. It was somehow amusing seeing Lily acting so awkward.

“Good luck, Lily.”

“Yumi, that’s your fault, you know?”

“Nn, I do.”

Welcome to the adult world, Lily.

A minute or two later, we were both once more joining the civilised world and their clothing.

“We’re done.”

“Finally… Well, I guess it was also our bad for coming so early when you are on break. Sorry.”

“Nn, no problem. I don’t mind. So, what did you come here for?”

With our little incident resolved, I sat down next to Karen on the edge of the bed and asked Lily about their purpose in coming here. She had said she wanted to talk about the trip but I didn’t quite know what part of it… The town? The trip to it or the trip back? Or all of it?

“Haa… We wanted to talk about the trip to Melfin. You know, about how we’re going to drive your wagon.”

“Ohhh… About that.”

I slowly recalled what Korwen had told us yesterday. Lily and Rina volunteered to drive our wagon.

“I wanted to teach Karen how to drive the wagon while we’re on our way there.”

“Huh? Me?”

“That’s right. You can’t always have me driving it, can you?”

“Well…”

“Nn…”

That’s… Yeah, it was kind of bad…

“You’re right. Then, I’ll be in your care, Lily. Thank you.”

“Sure. It’s not really hard anyway, don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

Karen nodded, agreeing to the lesson.

“Nn, what about me?”

“Well, I can only really teach one person at a time, you know?”

“Ahhh… Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Right?”

In that case, it was probably better if I asked Karen later to teach me. It probably would be better if we both could do it, just in case. It could come in handy sometime.

“Guess I’ll learn it sometime later, then.”

“That’d be a good idea.”

“Sorry for always making you drive for us.”

“Don’t worry about it. Driving is not so bad if you have someone to talk with.”

Or rather, as long as she had Rina to flirt with, right? Thinking about it, wasn’t that a pretty good time to flirt around? It wasn’t like everyone had their own wagon and driving the wagons was a pretty lonesome activity.

“Nn… Hey, Lily. Where are you two going to sleep during the trip? In one of the communal wagons?”

“No, we’re taking my wagon along as well. Though someone else will drive it on the way to the city.”

“... Oh, you had your own?”

“I do.”

Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely recalled that we had talked about that before… Something about Lily storing her sword collection in there… But Lily had spent quite a few times with us in the communal wagons, didn’t she?

“Yumi, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing.”

“... Why do I feel like that’s a lie?”

It wasn’t. It wasn’t like I was thinking about how that was pretty cute or whether she might get lonely easily.

“Anyway, Rina is staying with you there?”

“I am!”

“Huh…”

Well then. Looks like they got along… more than well enough.

“Her wagon is amazing, Lil’ Sis. She has tons of swords in there. Some of them look really weird!”

“Oh? Are there that many?”

“The whole wall is filled with them. And she has even more stored away in boxes.”

“Rina?!”

“That sounds like a lot…”

Or rather, did she even have space for anything else in there?

“Lily… If you need help with cleaning up, you can call me anytime.”

“No, thanks, Karen! There’s no need to clean up any more than this!”

“So, Rina already cleaned it up?” I asked.

“Ugh…”

Bullseye, huh?

“So, Rina, how bad was it?”

“Mmm… It wasn’t too bad. Her stuff was all over the place but it didn’t take long.”

“Huh…”

How boring. Then again, it was better if that’s all there was or Rina would have to clean up after Lily all the time.

“Uhhh… That’s simply what happens when you’re alone…”

“Well, you’re not alone anymore.”

“...”

Oh, that got her blushing. She was averting her eyes from us.

“Anyway, make sure it won’t get that bad again.”

“It wasn’t that bad… Haa… Anyway! We’re going to grab breakfast now! What will you do.”

Way to change the topic. But that was a good question…

“We’re up now anyway so… Should we get breakfast, too, Sis?”

“I guess we could.”

“Nn. Then, mind if we join you?”

“Of course, we don’t. Right, Rina?”

“Yes!”

And so, with all of us having come to a decision, we went to grab breakfast.

A short while later, we were sitting at a table, having just finished eating. Lily and Rina still had to prepare a few things for the trip so they left shortly after they finished eating, leaving Karen and me behind.

And it was still quite early in the morning, too.

“So, what should we do now, Sis?”

“Mmm… Mr Captain asked you to experiment with the door, didn’t he? How about we do the preparations for that? Other than that, maybe we should check if we need anything else for the trip.”

“Nn… I guess we could do that. But the captain didn’t really say we should bring anything in particular, did he?”

He only said we could bring our wagon and that it would basically remove our need to prepare anything… In that case, everything else was something they had already taken care of? Things like food and so.

“... Wait, we’ll be eating on the road at least once or twice, won’t we? Who is going to cook? Or are we…going to eat rations again?”

“... Let’s ask them.”

Someone wasn’t very eager to eat those rations, huh? Well, neither was I.

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“Nn, let’s look for Greyward or the captain…”

Shouldn’t be too hard. It was still breakfast time so chances were high we’d find one of them around here.

“Nn…”

“... Yumi, over there.”

“Nn? Oh, it’s Mr Greyward.”

He seemed to be talking with a few other mercenaries. It didn’t look like he was still eating, so it probably shouldn’t be too much of a bother if we went to him.

“Let’s go, Sis.”

“Yes.”

We left our seats and approached Greyward. It didn’t take long for him to spot us coming as well.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Yumi and Karen. Are you all ready?”

“Nn, we wanted to ask about something so I guess not yet.”

“Oh? What do you want to know?”

Greyward raised his eyebrows, awaiting our question.

“We wanted to ask what we’ll be doing about food on the trip.”

“Ahh… We planned to have rations for the trip back and forth. In the city, we’ll just look for an eatery.”

“I see…”

“Well, I won’t stop you if you got your own plans for food.”

“...”

Our own plans? That… wasn’t a bad idea. Maybe we could ask Mrs Korwen or someone else about some simple dishes we could take for the trip.

“Got any other questions?”

“Nn…”

“Should we prepare anything else in particular?” asked Karen.

“Well, as long as you got your armour and all that to look the part, there’s not really anything else to prepare for.”

“I see…”

The armour was in our wagon, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

“Then, what about the language? I can speak the language in Aldreigh but Yumi can’t.”

“Ahh… That won’t be an issue. Melfin is close to the border, so there are many people that speak Akkian. Quite a few speak both languages, even. As for our negotiation partners, they should all be fluent in either language anyway.”

Oh? That was quite amazing, being able to speak both languages. In that case, even I should be able to find my way around.

“I do recommend practising the Aldreighan language, though. Further inland, the number of people able to speak Akkian sinks dramatically. Apart from merchants and the like, most won’t understand it.”

“Nn, I’ll do my best…”

Alas, that would take some time…

“Oh, right. Before I forget it. Do you still have those identification plates that Ruben gave you?”

“Nn? I think we do.”

“Those might come in handy so keep them ready. Melfin has a similar barrier to the capital. Or, well, any Aldreighan town or city does. Having something to prove your identity is going to help.”

“I see. We’ll take a look then.”

“Great.”

We did still have them, right? I couldn’t quite remember what happened to them after we had registered back in Larfas, the capital.

“But will they even count in Aldreigh?”

They were Lafrian… documents—if you could call them that—after all. Would those people even know who Ruben was?

“It shouldn’t be a big issue. Sir Ruben is a well-known figure, even in Aldreigh. And if that’s not enough for them, I can always vouch for you as well. Probably going to end up like that anyway.”

“Huh…”

Was Greyward’s influence so big that he could vouch for someone’s identity? That was pretty amazing, to be honest.

“Nn… But what about Rina?”

“I already talked with her just earlier so she knows about this, no worries.”

“Huh…”

Rina was… surprisingly independent. Or maybe it was because of Lily? Either way, she clearly got around without our—or rather Karen’s—help.

“If that’s all, I still have some preparations to make.”

“Nn, I think that’s all.”

“Good. Make sure you’re at your wagon later. Lily knows where to go so it’s enough if you wait there.”

“Okay, got it.”

That was easy enough. Thanks, Lily.

With that out of the way, Greyward left to take care of the remaining work for the trip.

“So, what shall we do about food, Sis? We could ask Mrs Korwen or someone else about food that’d be good for later.”

“Sounds fine to me.”

“Nn, then, let’s go and ask her.”

Fortunately, this was where everyone ate breakfast. Or to put it in simpler terms, Mrs Korwen should be nearby, together with the other women and taking care of breakfast.

It’s been a while since I talked with her…

I was surprisingly busy recently, so I hadn’t helped out with dinner all that often…

“Nn… There they are. Sis, over there.”

“Oh, I can see them.”

We walked over to the group of women, handing out food and drinks to the hungry mercenaries. A few of the women spotted us and greeted us or wished us a good morning as we approached before turning their attention back to the hungry people in front of them. Mrs Korwen was giving them instructions and keeping everything in order. Busy as she was, she didn’t see us approaching her.

“Mrs Korwen.”

“What? Oh, if it isn’t you two. Morning.”

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Mrs Korwen.”

Mrs Korwen turned around, greeting us with a smile. It was a relief to see she wasn’t particularly angry that I hadn’t been around to help. She could be quite scary. And she held everyone’s stomach in her grasp…

“Heard you two were quite busy. Did my dumb husband do something again?”

“No, nothing in particular.”

Why was it her first thought that we came to snitch on Korwen…

“Not? Need something else then? Ah, wait. Hey, you idiots, only one fruit per person. Don’t you dare take more!”

The two mercenaries, probably recruits, seeing how young they were, immediately jerked up when Mrs Korwen called out to them and ran away.

“Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine…”

“So, what were we talking about? Right, you needed something from me?”

“Nn.”

I explained to her about our dilemma regarding the rations and whether she had any idea about some… halfway decent food. By the time we finished, Mrs Korwen’s brows were furrowed.

“Food, you say… Can’t say I very much like those rations either, but they keep well… But I guess the men wouldn’t understand that. Mmm… I know something, but you’d have to make it yourself.”

“Nn, we don’t have a lot to do before we depart, so that’s fine.”

“Great.”

We’d still have to prepare for the experiment with the tentacle door, though… Maybe we should have done that first, just in case.

“There’s something called Cucus bread. Mashed Earth Cucus, mixed with some flour and water. You can put all kinds of things inside and then bake them. Tastes good and keeps for a good while.”

“That does sound good.”

Cucus bread, was it? It definitely sounded better than the rations we usually had. And if it could keep a while there was no reason not to make it. We had the time.

“Want to try it?”

“Nn, I’d like to.”

”Me too.”

“Hehe, then, I’ll prepare the ingredients and teach you. You still have a few things to do, don’t you?”

“Is that okay?”

It was convenient for us but…

“It is, so go and get things done. And how about you call Lily and Rina, too?”’

”Nn, will do.”

Those two surely would prefer something decent over those rations, too.

“Great, I’ll be waiting for you here then.”

“Thank you, Mrs Korwen.”

“Don’t mind it. I’m happy if it helps you.”

She laughed heartily as she ruffled my hair. It was a laugh that strangely reminded me of Korwen. Guess they really were husband and wife. And she seemed quite excited about teaching us, as well.

“Then, I’ll be seeing you later.”

“Nn.”

After I fixed my hair, Mrs Korwen returned to her work, shouting at a few overeager mercenaries and giving instructions to the other women.

“I guess we should do those experiment preparations first.”

“Nn.”

The experiment, huh…

“Should we just use one of those empty rooms in the underground?”

“I think those would work best.”

They would. Not many other places where we could install them anyway. And it was out of the way. Plus, the only people likely to find it there had already seen the other tentacle door in the hall. It should be fine over there.

“Let’s take a look then. That okay with you, Yumi?”

“Nn, sure.”

Not like there was any other option.

“Ah, but we should fetch a few mana orbs first.”

Without them, I wouldn’t be able to even start the preparations.

After a short trip back to our wagon, we made our way to the tentacle door, in the tent a slight distance from the centre of our camp. Even now, a few mercenaries were busy bringing supplies over to the fort. However, compared to yesterday, barely anyone was here.

I guess they already carried most things to the fort.

We entered the tent and passed through the tentacle door, entering the underground hall.

“... That’s a lot of stuff.”

“It is…”

The hall had filled out. By a lot. Crates over crates, stacked on top of each other. Racks with weapons and armour. Large sacks, probably filled with flour, Earth Cucus or other edibles. The whole hall was full of these things, only leaving a path in the middle, leading to the door.

“It’s amazing how much stuff the mercenaries have…”

And this wasn’t even all. It was only all that stuff that the mercenaries didn’t even have an immediate need for.

“Nn. Oh, Merim found.”

“He seems… busy.”

“Nn.”

Several mercenaries were gathered in front of Merim, carrying wooden cages and long sticks. As we got closer, we could hear Merim talking to them.

“Got that? Only use the sticks and don’t do stupid stuff. For the small ones in particular. I really don’t want to call for Ria because one of you idiots got their finger bitten off.”

“””Yes, Sir!”””

“Good. Then, lure them into the cage and close it. Let the cage sit so they don’t start panicking and get used to it. Also, don’t separate them from the others.”

“””Yes, Sir!”””

“After you catch all of them, slowly carry them upstairs. Be careful and gentle. If they start biting through the wood, we’ll have one hell of a problem on our hands. Be careful if you don’t want the captain to give you hell!”

“””Yes, Sir!”””

Cages, lures and bites. Were they out to catch the Rainbow Hoggies? Had to be. There wasn’t anything else down here they could catch.

“If possible, try to lure the children into the same cage as the parents. If that doesn’t work, keep the cages close enough. They can get really wild if you try to separate them from their children.”

“”“Yes, Sir!”””

“Mm. Anything else… I think we got it all. Ria should be done with preparing the first cages, too, so let’s get going. We’re going to start with the hallway first.”

“””Yes, Sir!”””

“Move out!”

The group of mercenaries filed into lines and moved out of the room. Merim was watching them, content with the result. 

“Merim.”

“Mh? Ah, good morning, you two.”

“Nn, Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

Merim greeted us in a surprisingly good mood. Made me wonder if something happened.

“You already prepared for the trip?”

“Mostly. We still have a few things to do.”

“Hmm… Well, I guess there’s still time.”

“Nn.”

It was still just morning. Plenty of time left.

“So, Merim. Did you hear about what the captain wanted us to do there? The experiment and the door…”

“Mm? Ahh, yes. Whether you can make a door between both places, right?”

“Nn.”

Good, he knew about that.

“So, we were thinking of using one of the empty rooms here for the door but…”

“One of the empty rooms… Mmm…”

He thought for a few seconds about it before answering.

“We already planned to use most of them for storage. But we should be able to spare a few.”

“That’s great.”

“Just use one of the rooms in the hallway, second door to the left from here. I’ll make a note that one of them is used.”

“That’s great. Thanks, Merim.”

“Thank you, Mr Merim.”

With that, we had secured a site to start the experiment.

“Sure, no problem. If you need anything else, just give me a holler.”

“Nn, will do. By the way… What were you doing here?”

From the hallway on the other side of the door, we could hear the cheerful mercenaries. While I had a good idea, I still wanted confirmation from Merim.

“Catching the Rainbow Hoggies. Some men bothered Ria to make a cage… and then they wanted to catch them as soon as possible. So, yeah, here we are.”

Merim shrugged his shoulders, a wry smile on his face.

“I just hope there aren’t too many…The captain told us about how you found even more of them further in.”

“Ahh… We did see several there...”

The tunnel that led to the spirit… There had been quite a few holes with the Rainbow Hoggies living there.

“Well, we’ll manage. I just hope none of them is dumb enough to feed the small ones… I know they are cute but…”

“Do they bite?”

“They do. The small hoggies tend to bite everything that seems interesting. Even if it’s not food… And I’m sure you saw how strong their jaws are.”

Yeah, enough to crush a mana crystal to dust…

Another cheer came from the hallway at that moment. Seemed like they were making good progress.

“... It might be better if I make sure they don’t do anything strange. I’ll take my leave, Yumi, Karen. Good luck with your experiment.”

“Nn, thank you.”

“Thank you.”

Merim waved with his hand and disappeared into the hallway. We’d actually have to pass through there as well, so there wasn’t really a point in waving… Well, whatever.

“Sis, should we?”

“Yes.”

Holding Karen’s hand like usual, we made our way to the empty room where we could start our preparations.

Rinne

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