Chapter 88: of Living Dreams: Elven Troubles

Knock! Knock!

A soft knocking sound could be heard just barely from inside the tentacle.

“Yumi, did you hear that?”

“Nn… Seems someone is knocking…”

How unfortunate.

I wanted to enjoy my time in Karen’s embrace a little longer. Couldn’t they have chosen some other time to disturb us?

“I’ll go and check…”

“Don’t forget to keep the door closed, Yumi.”

“I won’t.”

I didn’t have any exhibitionist fetish, after all.

Slightly miffed about the interruption, I left the tentacle room.

Knock! Knock!

“Miss Yumi? Miss Karen?”

Judging from the voice, it was the guard who kept watch outside.

“Yes? Is something wrong?”

“Ah, Miss Yumi? It’s getting pretty late. If you don’t leave soon, the tamers will likely finish by themselves.”

“Ah. Is it that late already?”

“It is.”

We had completely lost track of time…

I looked up the hatch in the roof and… It was already quite a bit darker outside. It really had gotten late.

“Okay, thank you for letting us know.”

“Always a pleasure to help, Miss Yumi!”

I could vaguely hear the guard moving away from the door again. How lucky that he thought to remind us.

“Sis?”

“Mm… Yumi, who was it?”

“The guard. It’s getting pretty late and we still have other work.”

“Ehh? It’s that late already?”

“Nn, it is.”

The tentacle room was pretty dark so it was hard to notice how much time had passed. We should remember that for the next time. The only indicator of time was the hatch in the main room, as well as the windows here. The time was rather hard to gauge with the latter, probably, but it was still better than nothing. We needed a clock...

“Haa… Guess everything has to come to an end at some point…”

“Don’t worry Sis, we’ll have the entire night for us.”

“... Something to look forward to.”

“Nn.”

Karen joined me in the main room and began collecting her clothes.

“Uhh… Is it just me or is this room even hotter…”

“I wonder…”

The tentacle room had been really warm as well, of course. The drops of sweat were slowly running down Karen’s skin. But this room… It did feel even warmer, somehow.

“We should take a bath later.”

“We can go after dinner.”

“... It’s still some time until then, though.”

“Skipping work to take a bath will really get us into trouble, Sis…”

“I know…”

Reluctantly, the two of us got dressed. Karen also removed the collar from my neck. It felt a little lonely without it, somehow.

But now, since we were dressed again... I wasn’t sweating, so it wasn’t that bad for me.

For Karen, though… Her mood sure plummeted in a flash, scowling at her sticky clothes and sniffing herself.

“... Don’t worry, Karen, you don’t stink.”

Rather, I like the smell of your sweat.

“Mm… It’s still uncomfortable.”

“Ahaha…”

I knew the feeling only too well… And I wasn’t unhappy in the least that I didn’t have to deal with it anymore. Sure, my body was weird as hell, but it did have a few advantages.

Shouldn’t say that to Karen, though, who still had to suffer through it.

“Haa… Let’s go, Yumi.”

“Nn.”

Karen took the lead and we left the wagon, returning to the outside.

“Ahh! Fresh air!”

After taking a deep breath, Karen stretched her arms.

“This is a lot better. It’s nice that we have the wagon for the two of us but it really gets warm inside. And rather stuffy, too.”

“Nn, it does.”

Actually, I was a little surprised how cool the outside air felt. It was in the middle of a summer day, right around afternoon. It should still be pretty warm right now. Yet, it felt comfortable. It really warmed up inside that wagon...

“Haaa… We really should have brought a bucket with water or so. It would’ve been nice to cool down.”

“Nn. Next time, Sis.”

It was too late to regret now anyway.

“Now then, first we had to work with the tamers to feed the waroxen, right?”

“Nn. After that we’ll help Ria and finally I still have cooking duty.”

“Okay. To the tamers first, then. Let’s go.”

“Nn, let’s go.”

We slowly made our way to the pens where the waroxen were. It was a bit of a walk since the pens weren’t in the immediate vicinity of the camp. Instead, they were close to the city gate, right next to the area where the band had taken up camp first.

“There are quite a few other groups there now.”

“You’re right… Are those merchants?”

“Seems like it.”

Camping there instead was a small caravan of maybe half a dozen wagons. A few armed men surrounded the wagons and were accompanying a few other men, dressed in regular clothing for traveling.

“Hey, Sis. Are those all the guards they have?”

“Seems so.”

“But…”

At most maybe a dozen guards stood there. There might be a few more that weren’t around right now, though.

“Something wrong, Yumi?”

“Well… Aren’t that too few guards?”

“You think so? It should be enough for most monster attacks.”

“Huh… What about bandits?”

“Bandits? Mm… I don’t know…”

Karen tilted her head at my question.

“I wonder. Depends how strong the guards are, I think?”

“Nn…”

As we wondered about them, we arrived at the lone tent of the tamers of the Dragon Knights. Others had already started to prepare the feed for the waroxen and a few mercenaries had begun feeding them as well.

“Ohh, the girls have arrived. Then, everyone is accounted for, great.”

“Nn, are we late?”

“Not really. We just started.”

The leader of the tamers greeted us with a smile. A lanky man. And tall. Like all the other men around here, he was tall. Made me wonder if this was a common trait among mercenaries… I knew for sure that shorter men existed as well. I had seen them in the city and back in Arkesta in the slums as well.

“Gloves are over there. Feed is here. You two are responsible for that pen there. Be careful, though. The old sir there can be quite moody. Don’t let him bite you. Your hand won’t survive it.”

“... We’ll be careful.”

There were around two dozen or so waroxen in the pen we were responsible for. Feeding them wasn’t exactly the most accurate term for what we were going to do. We had to fill a trough, check if they had any wounds and a few other things, like cleaning the pen. Tasks that we could do after a little practice but could be surprisingly time consuming for the few tamers. Hence the need of help from the others.

Anything more complicated was of course handled by the tamers themselves.

“Uhm… I’ve been wondering but are female waroxen around as well?”

Karen tilted her head, staring towards the pen.

“Female waroxen? Ah, is this about that milk business?”

“Well…”

“Sorry to tell you but no, we don’t have any female waroxen. We looked into it whether it is worth it to keep some female ones but we decided it is too troublesome.”

“I see… Thank you.”

Karen thanked the tamer and we made our way to the feed for the waroxen.

“Sis, did you want some of that milk?”

“Mm… I mean, if we can get it, it’d be nice after all… But I already expected that answer from him.”

“Nn…”

It was too bad but I wasn’t surprised by it either. The mercenaries were no farmers nor shepherds and they were travelling all the time. They didn’t have the leisure to feed animals that had only limited use.

Karen and I filled some bags with the feed, equipped ourselves with the thick leather gloves—one had to protect the hand from playful waroxen—and made our way to the pen. It didn’t seem that Lily or Rina were assigned to the same pen. On the other hand, some elves were here.

“Yumi,” Karen whispered, leaning over to me.

“Nn? What is it?”

“Look. Over there. It’s Miss Elder.”

“Nn?”

I followed Karen’s gaze to the back of the pen. A familiar elven girl stood there, facing off with one particularly large warox. She was holding something in her hand but from this distance I couldn’t make out what it was. The thick gloves she was wearing were probably partly to blame as well, hiding the small object.

“What is she doing, Sis?”

“I don’t know.”

The Elder took a step forward, very slowly approaching the warox. And even though the warox wasn’t moving at all, it was still watching her every step.

Once the Elder was within an arm’s reach, she slowly circled to the side of the beast, still being watched by it.

She seemed to say something to it but we were still too far away. Nothing seemed to happen for a short moment… Until…

Moooooooo!

The Elder suddenly jumped at the warox, clinging to its side. The beast was clearly disturbed by it, screaming and shaking violently in an attempt to get rid of the attacker.

“Hey, Sis, that doesn’t look good.”

“Let’s go.”

“Eh? Ah. Ehh?”

Before I could process what was going on, Karen was already running towards the Elder and the warox.

Oh for fuck’s sake…

Honestly, approaching a mad animal seemed like the worst kind of idea. Still, I didn’t want to leave Karen alone so I followed quickly.

“Miss Elder!”

“Ohhh?! Ohhh! It’s you two, I see. Wait just a moment. I am slightly occupied with this rascal.”

That doesn’t look like you’re just occupied, though?!

And then, the warox began charging towards the edge of the pen.

“Ohhhhhh! You are a wild one, aren’t you? Now, now. Mh? Ahh!”

The warox suddenly came to a stop. And the Elder didn’t come to a stop, finding herself sailing through the air.

“”Miss Elder!””

Scared of what was happening, I shut my eyes out of reflex. I heard a dull thump, followed by a gasp from Karen. Then silence.

“...”

“Sis?”

I slowly opened my eyes again, looking at Karen. She was staring forward, her mouth agape.

“Ahaha! You’re a hundred years too early to throw me away! You’re just a cheeky rascal of an ox! Grow for a few more centuries and I might break a sweat!”

“... No way.”

There she stood, completely unharmed, looking triumphantly at her opponent.

“Sis, what happened?”

“... I don’t know. She just suddenly moved in the air and landed on her feet…”

“Eh?”

She… moved in the air?

While I was confused, the Elder had apparently enough of mocking the warox—who had by the way already moved away from us—and came over.

“I apologise, you two. That child there is a little bit wild.”

“... I don’t think that’s just a little bit. Are you really fine?”

“What, are you worried about me, Cursed child?”

“Well, if you ask like that, of course I am.”

“Mmm… I am fine, there is no need to worry about me.”

“I see…”

She really seemed unharmed. But… what was she even doing?”

“Miss Elder… Uhm… What did you do to that warox that it got so angry?”

“Mm? Ahh, it is nothing big. That child was injured. The human men were unable to treat it so I volunteered. It is partly our fault it got injured, after all.”

“Nn? Your fault?”

Did she do something to the warox?

“It was injured while they fought with the protector trees of our home, Cursed child. You surely remember.”

“... Ah.”

When we ran from the forest. Those spirit trees…

Then, she felt bad about it and went out of her way to treat it?

That’s a bit unexpected…

Sure, she didn’t seem like she was mean or anything. But I did get the impression that she was very calculative.

“Now then, there’s more work to be done. You shouldn’t idle your hands, you girls.”

The Elder smiled wryly.

“Come, I will help you a little.”

With those words, she took one of the bags Karen was carrying, making her way to the trough.

“Miss Elder, are you fine with this kind of work?”

“Mh? What do you mean?”

The Elder tilted her head at Karen’s question.

“Well, it’s rather dirty work… Especially if you take a wrong step into their droppings …”

“Oh? This is nothing for me. If anything, I quite appreciate this kind of work. Animals and magical beasts are honest creatures. They do not try to deceive me. It is very relaxing, if you ask me.”

She cautiously emptied the bag with the feed into the trough, using her gloved hands to spread it out evenly. Karen and I did the same, one bag at a time.

“... Uhm… Did Mr Captain do something to you?”

“Mh? Why do you… Ahh… No, girl. I apologise, I didn’t mean to be unclear. Your Captain is a cunning man. But I do not think that is a bad thing. He protects what he believes is precious to him. And he does not hesitate to use any means necessary. Wouldn’t you say that is a rather laudable trait, in fact?”

“That’s…”

Karen furrowed her brows at the question.

“Hahaha, do not mind it that much, girl. But to answer your question… Let’s see… It is not a single person by itself. It is everyone.”

“Every… one?”

“Yes. Everyone. The more intelligent the creature, the more cunning it is. The more likely it is to deceive and stab you in the back.”

“...”

The Elder took another of the bags and emptied it out into the trough.

“But animals are upfront. They act on their emotions. They do not consider whether being nice to you can profit them in a few years time. They do not hide behind polite words and empty phrases. That’s what I like about them. If they are angry, happy or sad, you will know immediately.”

A bitter smile appeared on her lips.

“That’s why I am happy to do work like this. It gives me a moment of respite. Before I have to return to my position and my responsibilities.”

We emptied the last bag into the trough.

Now the waroxen had enough to eat again. Not like any of them were particularly interested in the trough right now.

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“Mm. Good, good. Now the only thing left to do is the cleaning.”

“Only the cleaning?”

“Yes. We have done everything else already. Or, mostly me. My children aren’t… getting along all that well with these beasts…”

“Nn?”

I looked around, at the other elves that were in this pen.

They… looked tired. Veritably exhausted, in fact.

“They are not used to this kind of work. It is unfamiliar to them. The forest accommodates us, makes our lives easy. Actual work is foreign to them.”

“... I always thought living in a forest is rather troublesome.”

“Ahahaha! It sure is, Cursed child! For you all, that is. But the elves are fairies, born from the very forest itself. Just a wave with the hand and we have all we need carried to us.”

“... That does sound very convenient.”

I’d just laze around all day if I could so something like that. And the elves just did that, judging from how the Elder spoke.

“With age naturally comes a certain amount of wisdom. We know the subtleties of a convenient life like the tree knows the earth it resides in. Yet, the moment they step outside they become but a little sapling once more. Very few of us have ever known the meaning of work.”

“... But I heard from Mrs Korwen that you all are a great help for her.”

“A great help, you say? That is a nice thing to hear… Maybe, more of my kin are becoming interested in the outer world now.”

The Elder lifted her head towards the sky. Few clouds travelled the sky, covering the sun occasionally.

“Miss Elder… Are you sick of living in the forest?”

“Huh?”

With a dumbstruck face, she stared at me.

“Am I… sick of the forest?”

“... Nn.”

“... Maybe. Maybe I am.”

“...”

She told us about the troubles, about their inexperience and that she wants more of them to venture into the world. I wondered… Didn’t it sound like she didn’t like the forest?

And… sick of dealing with other people… I first thought she meant the other humanoid races but… She means her fellow elves as well, doesn’t she?

“Hehe, to think I still harbour such desires. Life never takes the turn one expects.”

“...”

She shook her head and turned her back to us.

“Let us not keep with the idle talk. There is still work to do.”

“Miss Elder…”

In the end… she didn’t say another word about this.

We finished our work with tamers and made our way to Ria. The Elder had disappeared at some point. Maybe she had finished as well or maybe she just went away… I had no way of knowing. She seemed lost in thought, though.

Not even the Elder is free from her desires nor her responsibilities... 

If I had to hazard a guess… She herself wanted to travel the world. But she couldn’t. She had others to take care of. She couldn’t leave them behind.

It makes me feel a little bad for her…

Losing your home was one thing. Being unable to act on your desires, having no freedom at all, was another.

“Miss Ria? Are you here?”

Karen pushed the curtain of Ria’s tent to the side, peeking inside.

The last stop for today before dinner was here.

“Karen… Yumi… You come… at a good time…”

With her usual sleepy expression, she motioned us both to enter. We were technically supposed to help her out but… Every time she was doing different things. Once she was testing various weird tools, half of which either exploded or did absolutely nothing. The other time she just gave us some books to read and called it an extension of our training. Well, the books were interesting but…

Anyway, today was a little different, though.

“What are those, Miss Ria?”

“This is… some medicine… against stomach ache... And this is… against headaches… This is for… diarrhea… and this… for back pain…”

“So… they’re medicines?

“In a way…”

Wooden bowls with ground herbs, salves and ointments were spread out in front of her.

As one might have figured it out already, Ria was taking care of the injured and the ill usually. And once a week she also offered a check-up in the late afternoon, when most mercenaries had time to come by.

“Ria, are those bandages?”

Next to the bowls with various medicinal stuff was a bunch of bandages. It surprised me to see those, actually.

“Mm… They are…”

“Huh… But can’t you heal wounds?”

There wasn’t really a need for her to use them, was there… Except…

“Or are you conserving your mana?”

“That is… correct...  Even a… little wound… needs a substantial… amount of mana… Any small wounds… are taken… care of by… other means…”

“I see…”

Then, the suspicious bottle next to the bandages… That wasn’t going to be alcohol, right?

“That’s… not for drinking… Yumi…”

“... I don’t think I could stomach whatever it is anyway.”

In other words, it was alcohol… And probably a very strong one, as well.

“It doesn’t… taste good… anyway…”

“... So you tried it.”

But looking at all the stuff she had here…

She really gave the impression of a doctor like this. She knew her way around a lot of things, didn’t she? If only she would speak a little faster.

“Yumi… Are you… interested… in this...”

“Eh? Uhh… A little?”

“I see… But right now… Is work…”

“Nn, I understand.”

There was plenty of time for her to teach me about various stuff. No need to do it now.

Ria returned her attention to her work, grinding herbs and mixing them with various other things.

“Mm… This should be… enough… Yumi… Karen… Help me.. Carry these…”

“Okay. Uhm…”

“There’s… a tray… here…”

“Ah, this?”

Karen retrieved the wooden tray from the corner. Ria lined up the wooden bowls in neat rows. I saw it only now, but there was a small coloured stripe on each bowl. Probably so she knew which one had which contents.

“Okay… Yumi… Carry the… bandages and… the alcohol…”

“Nn, will do.”

Ria herself was carrying a bag with some weird utensils that I didn’t recognise. Equipped with all we needed, we went on our way.

The spot where she was doing the examinations was a small tent close to the tables where we held dinner.

“Mm… This will do…”

Ria started setting up everything she needed inside the tent. Meanwhile, Karen and I brought her other things she still needed, like a bucket of water and such.

“Ria, is this enough?”

“Yes… that’s good…”

We put down the heavy bucket with water.

“Mm… Okay… Then we… finished everything.”

In other words… it was about time to start?

Or, that’s what I thought. Instead, Ria sat down on the chair and gestured to us, telling us to sit down as well.

A little confused, Karen and I both sat down as she wanted us to.

“Yumi…”

“Nn?”

“How much… do you know… about the… disease spirits?”

“Disease spirits?”

Ria nodded.

Disease spirits… Where had I heard that before…

“Ah. That time with the ill people…”

Right after we had left Arkesta there had been a group of demonkin who fled from Aldreigh… And some of them had been ill. At the fort as well… Ria had me help her in treating them and mentioned these disease spirits at some point.

“Uhm… I can’t really say I know anything about them…”

“Mm… I see…”

For all I knew, the way illnesses worked here could be different from my old world. And even if it was the same, it wasn’t like these people had no knowledge at all. It was better leaving such serious problems to the experts, really.

“When a person… gets ill… They might… have contracted… a disease spirit… Most… cannot see them… even with… mana sight…”

“Ahh.”

But it seemed I could…

I vaguely recalled that I had seen some weird mana when I examined the patient’s mana… According to Ria back then, that had been a disease spirit.

“That’s why… If you notice… anything weird.... Tell me… immediately…”

“Nn, got it. I’ll tell you.”

Ria could probably see them as well but two pairs of eyes were less likely to miss something.

“There’s… one more thing…”

“Nn?”

“Do you… remember… how you… strengthened… their bodies… with mana?”

“Ah… Yes, I do. With the Life-attributed mana.”

“Right… I might… ask you to… do that again…”

Again, huh…

It should be fine, though. Back then, I had to do it for a lot of people so I got a little bit of practice. Not like it was particularly hard to do anyway.

“Understood. But, do we have some mana crystals here I can use?”

“I do… have a few…”

Then, that was fine.

“Okay.”

But… She could have just told me when she needed me to do it, right? It felt odd for her to go out of her way to talk about this… That wasn’t what she usually did...

“Yumi… Karen…”

“Nn?”

“... Yes?”

“How are you… holding up… After what… happened…”

“... Ah.”

After what had happened…

The incident with Yumelia…

“I… I don’t quite know… to be honest…”

“You… don’t know?”

“Nn…”

Sure, you could say that I got out of the whole thing without any injuries or lasting trauma or anything… Well, except that I felt a little more uncomfortable now when I was alone… I was glad that Karen stayed by my side at nearly every convenience since then.

“Mm… I see…”

“... Uhm, why are you asking that?”

“... We have… examined… those puppets…”

“Ah.”

The two human-sized puppets. The ones that suddenly grew like a tree due to the Elder’s interference.

“They are… very similar… to what your… dolls are like.”

“... I see.”

“But there are… also differences…”

“Huh?”

Ria grabbed the bag she had brought along and retrieved something from it… A small piece of wood.

“Look… At this…”

She handed it to us. It was a smooth and slightly rounded piece of wood, likely part of the arm or the hands or something?

Yet, something felt… different from the wood that was used in my dolls.

“Miss Ria. Is this wood carved?”

“That’s right…”

“Eh? Carved?”

This? You could carve it this smooth and round?

“The worshippers… are not able… to mold it… like you are… Do you understand… what that means?”

“They aren’t… able to?”

I furrowed my brow, thinking about it for a moment, staring at the wood.

They weren’t able to do it like me… Like me…

“... That woman is different.”

“Correct…”

That woman claimed to be part of my family… Well, rather the witch’s family. But she couldn’t freely mold the wood like I could. It wasn’t even a particularly hard method, considering that even I could do it. But it still required you to be able to use Life-attributed mana. In a free manner.

“That woman… Is probably not… one of the witch’s… one of Yumias’... children… She is only an… imitation…”

“An imitation... “

The muddy pink soul I had seen... Was that… Did that woman force herself… to change?

“It might still… be a trick… to lead us… astray again… But for now…”

“... For now it’s safe to assume she isn’t?”

“Yes…”

That… That was rather good news… wasn’t it?

“Still… She knows… about you… now… You should… still… be careful…”

“Nn. I will.”

And for that… I had to be able to protect myself as well… As for the training, Merim told me that it would take a considerable amount of time before I could defend myself from anyone. Especially considering that I was… far from being the athletic type.

That meant that magic and my… unique constitution were my best shots…

“Speaking of… which… Yumi… Are you… interested… in those puppets?”

“Nn?”

Those puppets… Honestly, I didn’t want to see them… They gave me quite a good scare…

“You might… find something… Something… That makes it… possible… for them to… fight…”

“To… fight?”

To fight…

Right… She used them as bodyguards… Didn’t she?

Then, if I could replicate that…

“Ahhh. Let me see them, Ria. I want to see them.”

“Mm… But first… we still… got work…”

“... Ah.”

Was it just me or did people keep reminding me to work today… Probably just me.

“Okay... Yumi… Karen… Let’s get… to work.”

“Nn, understood.”

“Yes, Miss Ria.”

Rinne

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