Chapter 94: of Living Dreams: Travelling to the cave

Travelling all the way to the cave would take us several hours. I had already prepared myself—mentally, at least—for a horrifying trip in full gear through a forest, hills or other types of rough terrain. Alas… Here we were, following an actual road. A paved road, I might add.

“Uhh... My feet hurt…”

“Are you okay, Yumi?” asked Karen.

“Nn… More or less.”

Nonetheless, walking around with the armour dress was quite tiring… Really tiring.

Thankfully, after around two hours—or one hour in this world—of walking in the sun, we stopped to take a break, giving me the chance to rest a little.

“Mm… Want me to carry you?”

“No, it’s not that bad yet, Sis… I think.”

“... Don’t hold back.”

“Nn, I won’t. But for now, I’m still fine.”

Sure, my feet hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable at all. And taking a rest now would surely help as well. It wasn’t going to kill me. Yet.

“Still, I didn’t expect we’d be following a road. A paved road, even.”

“Fenna told me that we’re going to follow the road for most of the day.”

“Huh.”

If that was the case, I might actually manage up until we arrived on my own.

“Hey, Yumi, Karen. If you don’t get your share we’ll eat it all up.”

“Ah, we’re coming! Yumi, let’s go.”

“Nn.”

I put the shoes back on and stood up. It hurt… It was only a little, but it still hurt…

“Are you sure you’re okay, Yumi?”

“Nn…”

It was only a few metres over to Fenna and the others. That definitely wouldn’t be an issue, now, right?

Anyway, Karen and I joined the others in their small circle.

“Here you go. Your share of bread.”

“Thank you, Fenna.”

“Thank you.”

Bread. And only bread. That was going to be our lunch today, it seemed.

“Doing fine so far, Yumi? Holding up?”

“Nn… It’s tiring. But I’m still fine. Thanks to the road.”

“That’s good to hear. Don’t forget to inform us if it’s too much, though.”

“I will.”

Fenna was worried about that as well, huh.

“Is it still far, Miss Fenna?”

“Far… I think we got around a third of the way already behind us.”

“That much already?”

“We made some good progress. But the hard part comes when we leave the road.”

In other words, we were going into rough terrain…

“Because the cave is in the middle of a small forest and we’ll have to search for it first.”

“...”

Wait, we had to search for it, too? That was the first I heard of this!

“You don’t know where the cave is exactly?”

“I’ve never been there myself, after all. I know where we have to leave the road but that’s all. I don’t think the forest is particularly large but you never know for sure.”

“... What if we can’t find it?”

“Then we’ll have to ask someone from the nearby village to guide us.”

“Oh, there’s a village?”

That was convenient, then.

“There is, but I’d like to avoid going there.”

“Nn? Why?”

“Mercenaries are far from welcome.”

“... Oh.”

Not welcome…

Was it because they were dangerous?

“Especially women mercenaries. The large cities and towns aren’t a problem but villages are rarely welcoming of us.”

“But why?”

“Why, huh… Unless we’re there for work, we’re not exactly of any use to the village, are we? Worst case we’d even threaten them and take their supplies. That’s what they think. As a matter of fact, some mercenary bands do exactly that.”

“That’s… Are they bandits, or what?”

After all, wasn’t that basically stealing?

“For many villagers, mercenaries are just glorified bandits, so it’s not too far off.”

“I see… But why are women mercenaries especially a problem?”

“Mhm… That’s a bit more complicated…”

Fenna leaned back, nibbling on her bread and staring at me.

“Yumi, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where do you come from?”

“... Eh?”

The heck was with that sudden question?

“You didn’t grow up in the slums of Arkesta, did you?”

“... No. But… Uhm…”

I couldn’t exactly tell her that I came from another world, now, could I?

“... Well, if you don’t want to say, that’s fine. Forget that I asked.”

“No, I’m sorry…”

“Don’t apologise on me now. Ahhh, anyway! I guess you grew up at a place that was rather… let’s say, free?”

“Free?”

I guess you could say that it was rather free? Probably.

“Like, you are not expected to follow your father’s every word even down to who you marry.”

“Ahh… Usually not, no…”

Most likely, at least. The fragmented memories did hint that my parents, or at least my father had been… strict, to say it positively. But it was probably not the kind that Fenna was talking about here. Society at large was… a little more forgiving.

“I thought so. You grew up in a good place, then.”

With a wry smile, Fenna looked up towards the sky.

“Did you… experience that?”

“Me? No, no, I didn’t. I grew up with the mercenaries after all.”

“Ahh… I see…”

Right, quite a lot of them grew up with the mercenaries didn’t they… Right…

Please give me back that momentary sympathy I felt there.

Either way, there probably were places where things were like that…

“But many expect things like that from us. Especially those villagers who never stepped outside their little area, their little kingdom, so to speak. They tend to be quite stubborn and look down on us.”

I nibbled at my piece of bread while listening to her.

“Thankfully, they also don’t want trouble, so it usually stays with being unfriendly towards us. Occasionally, they refuse to help, though…”

Fenna let out a small sigh, scratching the back of her head. Then, she suddenly straightened her back, eating the remainder of her bread.

“Whatever, don’t want to spoil the mood with such a dreary topic now. The day is still long. Let’s just hope we can find it ourselves and that’s it. Rather than that… Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“The Captain told me that you were going to try out some magic.”

“... Nn.”

The tentacle pitfall, to be exact. Not sure whether it really counted as magic but… Well, it was close enough, probably. Technically it was magic?

“So, what kind of magic is it?”

“That’s… I guess some kind of… trap?”

“A trap?”

“Nn…”

While I’d love to explain exactly what it was… How the heck did you explain to someone that you were going to summon a tentacle pitfall? You didn’t, that was how. Okay, maybe you did when it was urgent but… It wasn’t. She’d have to see. Please, I didn’t want to explain it.

“A trap, huh. Guess I’ll see it then.”

“... Nn.”

Thankfully, it seemed that she noticed my unwillingness to explain.

“Are you going to need help with that magic?”

“Nn…”

Help… Probably not. I had to figure out how to make the tentacles grow but for the stuff after that, I only needed the pink mana crystal.

“No, I don’t think I’ll need help.”

“I see.”

Huh? Was it just me or did she seem a little disappointed? Did she actually want to help me?

“As long as you don’t blow anything up, that’s fine.”

“... I’ll try not to.”

“It’ll be a huge bother if it caves in.”

“...”

It probably wouldn’t cave in even if I did make it explode. Probably. The only time I made something explode was that puppet and… Wait, the mana egg exploded too… Either way, neither of the two seemed strong enough to cause a cave-in. Although… This mana egg… or orb… had probably enough mana to actually do that… And more.

Yeah, better be careful.

At that moment, a woman from Fenna’s squad walked over to us.

“Fenna, we should probably set out soon or we’ll arrive when it’s dark,” she said.

“Ohh, did we take that long? Better get moving then. Karen, Yumi, finish up so we can get a move on.”

“Nn.”

“Okay.”

Karen and I quickly ate up and then continued our little trip.

---

We continued following the road for a pretty good while. The sun was now at its highest point and making our lives quite a bit harder. It had been hot the past days at noon but today it was especially bad. Well, for the other. It was hot and not exactly pleasant but despite the black armour, I didn’t mind it all that much. Even now I still wasn’t sweating.

“Ugh… Why did it have to get so hot today…” groaned Fenna.

She and her squad weren’t doing all that well with the heat. They had removed every piece of armour, stuffing them into their bags in the hopes of making it a little more bearable. Yet, it was still quite an ordeal for them.

The situation sure has changed, huh…

They had all been worried about me and offered to help if I couldn’t keep up with the trip… But looking at it now, I was the one who had it still good. The heat bothered me little and the only problems were my hurting feet. And even with those, it hurt, but it didn’t get much worse than that. At all. Which was a little weird but certainly welcome.

“Sis, are you doing fine?”

“Me? I’m still fine… Although, I really want to take a bath later…”

“That… probably won’t be possible.”

“Figured…”

Karen had removed the random assortment of armour as well and stuffed them into her bag, leaving her in simple pants and a shirt. And an oversized bag hoisted over her shoulder.

“I’m a little jealous, Yumi. Even dressed like that you still don’t sweat…”

“Nn… But I do wonder… If I don’t sweat, aren’t I just going to heat up more and more?”

The heat wouldn’t just disappear, would it? The body was sweating so it could cool down. But mine wasn’t. So…

“Yumi, you are quite hot already.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. You are.”

“Wait. Sis. Is that why you suddenly keep your distance?”

“...”

No way.

To think… To think the heat would result in this.... The worst. The absolute. Worst.

“Now, now, you’ll surely cool down later. Hopefully.”

“... I sure hope so.”

“If you heat up even more, maybe we can cook on top of you.”

I’m not a portable stove!

This was bad… Seriously… But unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do right now. We had to arrive before it got dark to set up camp. And another break could delay us too much.

“Haa… How long until we arrive anyway?”

“Miss Fenna mentioned earlier that we are already halfway there.”

“Halfway, huh…”

So still around… two or three hours.

“That reminds me, we haven’t met many others on this road, have we?”

“Now that you say it...“

This was a paved road, so usually, you’d think that it was well-used, right? Despite that, we only met two or three other groups on the way here. It was far from lively.

“There’s been that one peddler with his cart and… an older couple and that group of men, right?”

“Nn. Don’t remember anyone else either.”

The peddler came from the capital and passed by us. The older couple came from the other direction. They didn’t have much luggage so they were probably from nearby. Same for the group of men.

“Nn, speaking of the peddler, why didn’t we use the wagon? Why are we even travelling on foot?”

“That’s… a good question.”

It was a little late to ask that but… It did bother me a little.

Time to ask Fenna.

“Why we’re not travelling with a wagon?”

“Nn.”

“Because it might become troublesome. Or so the Captain said.”

“Troublesome?”

“Yes. You know how some people in the capital are refusing to let us in and making trouble for us, right?”

“Nn.”

Which was a huge bother...

“Well, if we travel with a wagon it might anger them. Thinking we got something planned, or so. That’s why the Captain told us to go on foot, just in case.”

“Ohhh…”

That made sense. It was annoying, but it did make sense…

“Wish we could’ve gone by wagon as well. Especially with this damn heat.”

“Ahhh…”

“Screw those idiots, seriously. We didn’t even do anything wrong and because of them, we have to deal with this damnable heat. Tsk.”

Fenna’s expressions showed her annoyance quite well.

“At least we’re not that far away anymore.”

“Huh? We are?”

“Yeah. Do you see the windmill over there?”

“Nn?”

I followed Fenna’s gaze into the distance. Sure enough, there was something that looked like a windmill there. It was still really far away, though...

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“I can see it.”

“Good. Right behind the windmill start the fields.”

“The fields?”

“Yeah. Farming fields. Wheat, vegetables, all that stuff.”

“Ohh…”

Now that she said it, we hadn’t come by any fields so far.

“The fields belong to the village that’s the nearest to the cave. Right before the village, we’ll have to cross the fields and then we’re already in the forest.”

“I see… I thought it would still take an hour or so until we’d arrive.”

“Ahh… It’s still going to take some time, you know? Getting through the forest is a lot slower than on a paved road.”

“... Great.”

Fenna showed me a wry smile at my comment.

“That’s how it is. But we’re actually doing well in regards to the time so I think we can take a break before we trek through the forest.”

“Nn, that’s good to hear.“

The others were surely going to welcome it as well. The forest was likely a little cooler and also offered some shade. There was very little in the ways of shade around the open road here.

We continued walking along the road until the fields came into view. Large earthen patches with tall plants. The plants were all sporting blue blossoms, indicating they were the same plant.

“Fenna, what are they growing here?”

“That? Blue flowers... should be Earth Cucus. It’s grown a lot around here.”

“Ahh…”

Earth Cucus, was it… That was this odd vegetable that tasted a little like a potato, right? They even looked like a potato once cooked. Only raw were they long and red. And it was a staple food. Pretty much every dinner contained it.

“Are they only growing Earth Cucus here?”

“I wonder... They should also grow wheat on some other fields I think.”

Well, we had been eating bread as well, so there had to be some wheat. Or something similar, at least.

“Mh, seems these fields all grow Earth Cucus. Ah, there are some people.”

I followed Fenna’s gaze to one field. A small group of men and women was walking around the field, checking the flowers of the plants.

“What are they doing?”

“Ehhh… Probably checking if they grow properly? Or for a disease or something? I’m not a farmer.”

“Ah.”

Right, of course, she didn’t know… Too bad.

Oh, they spotted our group as well. They didn’t seem particularly interested, though, and immediately returned to their work.

“The Captain would know more about this.”

“Huh? He does?”

“Yes. He knows a lot about many different jobs and their work. Apparently, because he doesn’t want to be deceived because of a lack of knowledge.”

“Ohh…”

“Though, if you ask me, he was simply curious. At least I have never seen a case where a farmer was trying to deceive him.”

I couldn’t quite imagine a farmer trying to deceive the captain of a large mercenary band either. You’d need a lot of guts for that.

“Maybe I’ll try asking him some time.”

There probably weren’t many among the mercenaries that knew anything about farming.

“If you’re curious, you definitely should.”

“Nn, will do.”

We continued our banter while we walked towards our destination.

---

“Is that it?”

“Nn, I wonder? It sure looks like a cave...”

The remaining part of our trip was pretty uneventful. Okay, technically, the whole trip was rather uneventful.

We reached the forest a short while later, took another break and ate a little bit before we made our way through the undergrowth. We found a small clearing where we decided to set up camp. And how luck would have it, the cave we were looking for wasn’t all that far away.

“There aren’t any monsters here, though.”

The cave was inhabited by Swamp Ropers so I expected to see some monsters close by. Alas, there was nothing. I couldn’t see far into the cave either, though.

“Swamp Ropers usually live in swamps as their name implies. They don’t usually leave the area around their home unless there’s prey to hunt,” explained Fenna.

“Nn… So, they’re probably inside near the lake?”

“Most likely.”

Fenna left the undergrowth in which we were hiding and approached the cave entrance. She scrutinised the surroundings for a while and then motioned us with her arm to come.

“Are you sure it’s safe, Fenna?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Swamp Ropers aren’t exactly known for their combat prowess.”

“If you say so…”

“Rather, try looking there, at the ground.”

“Nn?”

Fenna pointed at a small patch of earth near the entrance. There were… weird markings, long and irregular, on the ground. As if someone had dragged a thick rope back and forth along the ground.

“What’s that?”

“Tracks from ropers.”

“Huh?”

Tracks from ropers?

Those were? Oh, maybe from the tentacles?

“So this is definitely the right cave.”

“I see…”

Well, good thing we found it quickly.

“Now is the question of how deep this cave goes… I’d like to take a look but let’s first return to the others. No need to hurry and it’s getting late anyway.”

“Nn, okay.”

“Okay.”

Following that decision, the three of us returned to the camp to the other women of Fenna’s squad. They had already set up some simple tents. Since there were around two dozen of us—Karen and me included—we’d have to share the tents with the others.

Nothing we could do about… No private time today.

Oh, they already started making dinner, too.

Although it was just a small campfire and… some small animal being roasted over it. Did they catch that while we were away? They even gutted it already.

Well, anyway, it seemed dinner was secured and the camp was set up already.

“Fenna, what are we going to do now?”

“Mh? Not much, really. It’s too late to investigate the cave now. We’ll have to keep watch over the night but outside of that… Nothing.”

“I see… Then, would it be alright to ask about those ropers?”

“You want to know about them?”

“Nn.”

I had learned about them from the books that Wendl had but… They were partly vague, had no illustrations or barely any information at all. It was more often just a summary of them, a description of their physical appearance and so on. Only little was written about their behaviour.

“Well, let’s see… Where to start… Do you want to hear about ropers in general or about these Swamp Ropers?”

“Nn, the Swamp Ropers.”

They were the most relevant, right now.

“Then, do you know why they’re called Swamp Ropers?”

“Cause they live in a swamp.”

It literally was in their name…

“There’s no Swamp here, though.”

“... The exception that proves the rule?”

“That’s not how it works.”

Fenna grinned at my response.

“Well, they do live mostly in swamps, that’s actually correct. I also heard stories that they can even create a swamp themselves, though.”

“They… make the swamp?”

“Maybe. If that’s true, it might very well be the reason they are here.”

“Huh…”

So, if nobody dealt with them they’d turn this area into a swamp?

“Whether it’s true, I don’t know, though. But you do meet them practically only in swamps. Which is why it’s rather weird they are here.”

“Nn.”

“Because Swamp Ropers hunt by ambushing their prey, pulling them into the swamp and drowning it. This place isn’t all that suitable for that lifestyle.”

“True…”

They could pull them into the lake but… For one, there probably weren’t all that many living beings near the lake. Fish, maybe. And then, if the lake water was clear enough, it’d be quite hard to pull off an ambush.

“Prey that is suitable for mating, though, is kept alive. Ropers usually have something similar to a nest where they bring back the victim and then violate them. That’s true even for solitary ropers.”

“...”

Violating them… That sure didn’t sound nice. At all.

“... Do you think there are some like that here too?”

“Definitely. The question is whether there are humanoids among them.”

“Nn? They also do this to animals?”

“Animals, monsters, magic beasts, humanoids. Everything is fair game to them.”

Everything… They didn’t really distinguish between other races and just unilaterally attacked and violated them all.

“Animals are by far the most frequent victim of ropers. But it’s unfortunately not rare for them to catch a humanoid so… If this nest is indeed as large as we fear… Better prepare yourself to see something unpleasant.”

“Nn… Understood.”

I had to prepare myself for that… Still, I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.

“Outside of that, I don’t think there’s much to tell you about them. They’re physically not that strong but the tentacles are a huge bother. Once you’re caught, you probably won’t escape without help. Keep that in mind.”

“Nn, will do.”

Although, I had to admit I was a little curious how they were restraining their prey… I might be able to learn from that. But I sincerely doubted anyone was willing to play the guinea pig for me.

“The biggest problem will be if there is a nest mother, though.”

“Nn, what exactly is a nest mother?”

“Mh, it’d be better to ask that Miss Ria. I can only tell you little about them myself. Even for me, it’d be the first time seeing a roper nest mother.”

“Is that so.”

How unfortunate.

“Well, I can tell you what I do know, though. They’re something like the leader of the monster group. A group with a nest mother is rather organised and might do things the monsters would never do by themselves. For insect monsters, the nest mother makes them build a large hive. Large enough that they can all live inside. Solitary monsters care only about themselves firstmost.”

“Nn… How large of a hive would that be?”

“For insect monsters? I only saw it once and it was around the size of a small fort.”

“Wha—

A small fort? That was a little too large, wasn’t it?!

“Such a large hive is usually dealt with by large mercenary groups or even the country’s army. That’s why we’re doing reconnaissance. If the entire cave has been turned into a nest, it could become pretty troublesome.”

“I see…”

True… Two dozen mercenaries didn’t have a chance against a fort filled with monsters. No matter how strong you were, they’d just overwhelm you with pure numbers.

“Nn, but… If it is a nest, what will the Captain do? If I recall correctly, the job was only to bring back the corpses of some ropers, right?”

“That’s right. It likely won’t fall to us to deal with the problem. Unless, of course, they give us the job to do it. But considering the situation, I kind of doubt that will happen.”

“Nn.”

“But just having information can work as leverage. It might also improve our position. The Captain doesn’t want to destroy the relationship we have with the country, after all.”

Well, his own father was living here, right? It would be bad if he couldn’t even visit him anymore. At least, I wouldn’t like that.

“Nn… But, wouldn’t it be pretty dangerous for us to camp this close to the cave, then? If it really is such a large nest.”

“Of course it’s dangerous. That’s the nature of our job!”

Fenna broke out in laughter, seemingly thinking my comment was amusing. It took a moment for her to calm down.

“Seriously speaking, though. Yes, it’s dangerous. That’s why we’ll have a night watch. But looking at it optimistically, it’s unlikely to turn dangerous.”

“Why?”

“I said it earlier, didn’t I? These ropers hunt by ambushing its prey. They won’t dare a frontal attack. Even with a nest mother, I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

“Oh, I see. That makes sense.”

So, the night watch was mostly insurance for the one-in-a-million exception?

“Miss Fenna.”

“Yes, Miss Karen?”

“What about other monsters in this forest, though?”

“Mm, to my knowledge, there aren’t many dangerous monsters here. The worst that could appear here is an ogre.”

An ogre… In my opinion, that thing was already plenty dangerous by itself. But… These people fought ogres before already. And I knew they were strong. Even against those weird, armed ogres back in Arkesta, they didn’t suffer a single casualty.

“I see…”

“Don’t worry. If this was really dangerous, I would’ve been against you two coming along anyway.”

Now, that was a little… blunt. Even if she was right with it.

“But since it’s a relatively easy mission it’s good to earn some experience for you two.”

“... I see. Thank you for that.”

“No need to thank me. I’m always glad to help out a little. I know how hard it is in the beginning.”

Fenna ruffled Karen’s hair with a grin.

“Fenna, was it hard for you in the beginning too?”

“Of course it was. I don’t want to remember how often I collapsed during training back then. Or how often I tried to run away. And when I started joining the actual work, it was even worse for a good while.”

So, even Fenna went through such times, huh.

“That’s why… To be honest, I’m a little worried.”

“Worried?”

“Yes. Those three girls, Emily, Maya and Sele. They worry me. They are extremely serious. They don’t complain at all, they train diligently. They’re completely different from most of us who skipped training at every perceivable chance.”

Ahh… True, the three were training quite diligently. When Rina and I were training with Merim, I spotted them occasionally, training as well. Merim told us they were doing simple weapon training for a while already. In other words, they already had all the stamina and strength needed to focus on this. For their age, of course.

“That’s why I’m glad you girls came along. They look a lot better since then.”

“Do they?”

“Yes. By far. You probably don’t know since you never saw them before this but… They could be quite aggressive. Especially Maya. It got to the point where Merim was actually refusing to deal with her. Probably got a trauma being bitten.”

“... She bit Merim?”

The heck did he do that she would bite him?

“She sure did. And you know, most beastkin got quite the set of teeth. That’s really nothing you want to get bitten by.”

I didn’t want to get bitten in general by anyone. But yeah… That sure wasn’t a good experience for him.

“Miss Fenna, but why did she bite him?”

“Who knows? I never heard the details but according to the Captain, he reaped what he sowed.”

Then he definitely did something wrong, huh… Made me all the more curious now, though. Maybe Maya would tell me if I asked her?

“But now, they softened up a little. And even Merim talks with Maya again. I still worry a little that they overdo it, though. So, do me a favour and look out for them, okay?”

“Nn, will do.”

I liked those three as well, after all. I’d look out for them either way.

“... That relieves me a little. Take good care of them.”

“Nn.”

Having gotten my confirmation, Fenna smiled and then turned around, facing the camp again.

“Well, with that out of the way, let’s get dinner going and then rest. We got a lot of work tomorrow.”

“Nn.”

“Okay.”

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