"Ah... It's back to normal..."

Accompanied by a sad voice, this was the first thing I heard when I returned to Karen.

"But pink is still the best. Mm."
"... Oh, my hair?"

At some point, my hair had returned to its normal pink colour. Didn't even notice when that had happened...
That aside, Karen had been waiting patiently for me to come back with Elina and was a little surprised to hear we'd have to delay it after all.

"Sleeping, huh... Did she really work the entire night through?"
"Nn, apparently so."

There wasn't much we could do about Elina sleeping, so we went on our way to get some breakfast. Hopefully, the commotion with that woman from the families had calmed down by now.

"Then we should let her rest. The shell isn't going to run away either way."
"Nn. I'd be worried if it would run away."
"... Maybe we should have tied it up."
"..."

Karen, that sounded as if that might actually happen. Saying such things was only going to bring bad luck. I'd rather not have it actually running away.

"Should we go back?"
"... No, it won't run away. It won't."
Please stop making me anxious now.

It was just a shell, it couldn't move on its own. It was more likely someone else would take it or move it away, in which case no amount of tying it up would help. Probably, that was. Kind of depended who it was.

"By the way, Sis. Where did Maya and the others go off to?"
"Those three? I vaguely recall them saying they were supposed to help with breakfast... I think? I wasn't quite awake yet when they left..."
"Ahh, maybe we'll see them then."

Speaking of breakfast, I had the vague feeling that I had forgotten something... What was it again?

Mhm... I'll probably remember it if it was important.

And if not, maybe I'd remember it when we actually got there.
Little did I expect that I'd be reminded barely a few minutes later what it was... Right after we arrived in front of a row of small tables with a board right next to them...

"'Take care of it yourself.' Yumi, what is this?"
"... Self-service breakfast?"

A hand grabbing bread was drawn on the board and below it the words that we should make breakfast ourselves... On the tables were several baskets with bread and a little further baskets with meat and some other stuff... This wasn't a hotel breakfast, right?

"Yumi! Yumi!"
"Nn?"

As we stood in front of the board, someone shouted out to us. The urge to immediately sidestep hit me but knowing better, I just decided to turn around and catch the little tornado storming into my arms.

"Yumi! Good Morning!"
"Nn, good morning, Emily."
"Good Morning."
"Ah! Good Morning, Big Sis Karen!"

Emily gave us a big smile. A huge big smile...
I couldn't get mad at her like this... I couldn't...

"Emily. It's great that you're so energetic but jumping at Yumi is dangerous. If she hadn't caught you, one of you would have gotten injured for sure."
"Ah."

Instead of me, it was Karen who sternly reprimanded Emily.

"Uhhh... I'm sorry..."
"Don't do it again, understood?"
"Yes..."

Her smile was gone... Ahh...

"As long as you understand it's fine."
"... Big Sis Karen... Are you angry?"
"A little. Because I'm worried about you. I don't want you to injure yourself."
"... Ah."

Emily blushed in response, quickly burying her face into my shoulder and hiding it.

Sis, seducing children is a big no-no.

Although, this was still better than her looking sad about being scolded. I didn't want to see a sad Emily this early into the day.

"Ehehe... I got scolded..."

A nearly inaudible laugh escaped Emily.

"Emily... Did you listen to what I said?"
"Ehehe, I did. I did, Big Sis Karen."

Emily peeked at Karen, again laughing a little. It couldn't be... Did Karen just seduce her for real?

Even if it's you, Emily, Sis is mine. I'm not sharing her with you!

Well, speaking seriously, that probably wasn't the case. At least, I hoped it wasn't.
Karen seemed a little confused at Emily's reaction as well.

"Nn, Emily, where are Sele and Maya?"
"Mh? Eh? Ahh, Sele walked off with a book. Don't know where Maya is."

That was just a roundabout way of saying you didn't know where either of the two were...
Having maybe finally enough of hugging me, Emily let go of me. Her face was still a bit red. She smiled, different from her usual big smile. A small, slightly shy smile.

"Yumi? Why are you patting me?"
"Ah. Reflex, sorry."

It looked cute so I couldn't help myself...

"Reflex? What do you mean?"
"Ehhh..."

Dear Emily, in situations like this you should pretend like it was nothing. Making me explain wasn't exactly something I could bear with right now.

"Yumi thought you were cute so she just did it."
"..."
"Is that so, Yumi?"
"Nn."

I could only nod in defeat.
At least, it made Emily even happier.

"Ehehehe! Yumi!"
"Ah!"

And back into my arms she dived. Oh well...
I could indulge her a little, right?

---

"So, Emily, what actually happened to breakfast?"

A short while later we had grabbed some food and moved to the side. There were no tables or anything to sit down, so we just had to eat while standing.

"Ah! Uhm, you see! Aunt Marga was shouting so everyone had to go and calm her down! Then, Uncle told us to put the baskets on the tables because it would be bad if nobody had breakfast!"
"... Marga?"

The name rang a bell but... I was sure I heard it not too long ago.

"Aunt Marga! She's the scary aunt who always shouts at Maya, Sele and me! And her son Ludo always says means things to us!"
"Oh! Her!"

The woman that got kicked out just earlier. I had already forgotten her name. Although, I probably had no need to remember it anymore now anyway, considering she'd be gone soon.

"In other words, she caused a ruckus and everybody had to deal with it so they couldn't spare time to prepare breakfast?"
"Yes! Yes! Like that!"

That woman really couldn't stop causing problems even on her last day, huh.
How annoying.

"Haa... At least it's only for today. Good riddance."
"Riddance?"

Emily tilted her head at my words.

"Nn? Ah, you don't know yet? Ehh... That woman and her son are going to leave."

I was a little reluctant to say that they were rather thrown out but... Alas, it seemed that worry was necessary...

"Eh? Yumi, Yumi, did they finally get angry with her? Did Uncle get angry?"
"... Well, in a way, yes."
"Will she be scolded for being mean to everyone?"
"... I guess so?"
"Ah! They'll leave?! Really? Really really?! I have to tell Maya and Sele!"

Leaving those words behind, she turned around and stormed away into the distance. Ever the hyperactive little tornado.

"... I feel a little conflicted seeing her so happy about this."
"Yumi, they had a hard time because of them, right? I think it's fine for them to be happy."
"Nn... Is that so?

Korwen was clearly also looking forward to the nuisances being gone... Seeing as how this woman even went out of her way to sabotage breakfast, surely quite a few were glad to see her gone.

"Well, I guess I won't miss them either."

I couldn't deny that it was good riddance, seeing how that brat and his underlings had bullied Emily, Maya and Sele. And I only really had seen a single instance of that happening, there was no telling how often that had occurred already...
Children also didn't always tell these things to others.

Maybe, simply that we have seen it happening means it wasn't exactly rare, huh...

I probably should feel happy for them that they could continue their life without these bullies from now on.

"Oh, Yumi, the Captain's over there."
"Nn?"

Karen pointed in the direction in which Emily had run off to. A small group of mercenaries with Korwen at the centre were walking in our direction. Merim was with him as well.

Speaking of which, I haven't seen Merim at that meeting...

He was the person with the second-highest authority, so you'd think he'd be present for such a meeting...
With that said, the group with Korwen and Merim was unexpectedly cheerful. A little curious, Karen and I watched as they got their breakfast.

"Guess they resolved the matter?"
"Nn, seems so..."

Otherwise, they surely wouldn't be this cheerful, right? Couldn't deny that I was curious as to what had happened there. As I thought that, Merim split from the group and walked up to us.

"Yumi, Karen, good morning."
"Good morning, Merim."
"Good morning."
"Are you two free after breakfast?"
"Nn? Hitting on us already?"

That was fast. And so early in the morning, too. Merim, the sun was barely up, was this really okay?

"Spare me the jokes, Yumi. It's not funny if Helma hears that."
"She'll surely understand her husband's need for some company."
"... Yumi, I just remembered, but we still need to get you trained. I guess we'll start with a few extra laps today."
"I humbly beg for forgiveness."

Why did he have to remember that now? He was right, that was actually a thing, and I had forgotten about it, too... But please, no extra laps. I was going to die for sure.

"Haaa... In all seriousness, the training is, of course, important, so I won't let you skip out on that."
"... Too bad."
"But that's not what I was going to say. There are a few things we need to discuss."
"Nn? Discuss?"
"So far, the two of you did whatever work there currently was, right? But neither the Captain nor I will always have the time to give you work and we can't have you always running around looking for us either, right? Ria was supposed to take care of you two but you see how well that works..."

Ah. That kind of made sense...
Ria was technically our direct superior. But she never really gave us something to do, so it had been Korwen and Merim who did.

"So, we decided to include you two as well as Lily into the regular duty plans instead."
"Duty plan?"

Not something I expected to hear right now.

"You mean a plan like, who is going to make breakfast and so?" Karen asked.
"Exactly. Although it includes a few other things. We usually aren't on cooking duty but rather on guard duty and the like."
"..."

Guard duty? Great, that sounded like it'd be the epitome of boredom...

"You said Lily as well, but what about Rina?"
"That girl is going to be included in the duty plan for the families for now."
"Oh, so she's going to be on cooking duty?"
"That's right, that will likely happen."

Rina's cooking, huh...
Wait... Did that girl ever cook in her life? Ehh... Well, there are others around, so they'll surely teach her. Yeah.

"I didn't know there was a duty plan..."
"Nn... I've seen it mentioned when I helped the Captain before..."

Since I had also helped with some complaints, I knew about it as it had been the topic occasionally. When I asked him about it, he gave me a quick explanation about it and said I shouldn't have to worry about that for now.

"So, are you free?"
"Ah, yes. We are, right, Yumi?"
"Nn."
"Good. Then, we'll come by to your wagon later. If you see Lily, tell her as well."
"Nn, understood."

And like that, Merim returned back to Korwen and the others.

"Duty plan... I wonder what we'll have to do," Karen mumbled quietly.
"Good question. I don't think I could keep my focus on something like guard duty..."
"... I can't imagine them putting you on guard duty."
"Nn?"

I tilted my head, confused about why Karen said that.

"You don't exactly look like a guard, Yumi."
"... Ah. True... Well, but we won't know for sure, right?"
"We don't."

With that said, I wasn't going to complain if they weren't intending to put me on guard duty. Sure as hell wasn't.

"But I do wonder what kind of duties we're talking about... Other than guard duty."

What were the mercenaries usually doing?
... Running around without any clear aim, bringing supplies from A to B, what else? Standing guard.

Yeah, no, that surely isn't all, right? It can't be.

There'd be no point to a duty plan if this was all they were doing.

"... Well, guess we'll find out soon."
"I guess so... Yumi, should we head back?"
"Nn, that's fine by me."

We had finished breakfast anyway by now, so we could just go and wait at the wagon. Though it seemed that Merim would take some time until he'd come by. Whatever, not like we were in a hurry anyway.

"Then, let's go."

Karen took my hand and we made our way to the wagon. In the end, we hadn't seen the troublemaker making a ruckus. They probably dealt with her already but I couldn't deny being curious.

Not like it really matters anymore now. As long as they are gone, that's fine.

---

A few minutes later, we arrived at the wagon without anything notable happening. We hadn't seen Lily either, though. As it would likely still take time until Merim would come by, we decided to wait inside the wagon for now.

"Sis, did they increase again?"
"Seems like it. Look, they're at the wall there as well now."
"..."

What awaited us were dozens of tentacles. The entire ground on the right side was covered by now and it started to spread up the walls there as well. When the tentacles lay flat on the ground, they looked more like a grotesque mass of flesh... This was more the home of a nightmarish monster.

"Is it just me or is the mana denser inside here?"
"Nn?"

Now that Karen said it... The mana felt a little weird, didn't it?

"Let me take a look outside."

I walked to one of the small wooden windows and opened it, peeking outside for comparison.

"Nn... It does look like it is a little denser here..."
"So it really is denser? "
"Nn. Surprised you noticed, Sis."

The difference was so small that I definitely wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't said anything.

"Well, when we entered, something felt weird... Like it was a little warmer inside here..."
"Huh..."

Warmer? Was mana warm? Maybe? It wasn't for me, though.

"But why is there more mana here?"

The tentacles were absorbing mana, so it couldn't be them. But, there was nothing else here, right? So, maybe it was the tentacles fault, after all?

Well, but, there's nothing else except the tentacles here... And yesterday, everything was still normal. Proba—
"Hyah?!"
"Sis?!"

I turned around in a hurry, after hearing Karen scream.

"Ahhh, don't surprise me like that."

A wooden doll was in her arms...

"... Where did that guy come from."
"Ahh... he suddenly jumped through the window."
"... The window?"

The window, which I had opened just a little prior... A dozen or so little wooden heads peaked through the window, observing us.

... Hell, that's creepy!

Good thing they didn't have some glowing eyes or anything, really.
Having been found, the dolls now started to climb inside the wagon, making their way towards Karen and me.

"Nn, that... Is that a bag?"

A few dolls struggled to heave something inside, so I walked over and picked it up for them.

"What's that, Yumi?"
"Nn, give me a moment... Are these... mana crystals?"

Tiny, glistening mana crystals filled the small bag to the brim...
Why did the dolls have a bag full of mana crystals? And where did these come from?

"You all... You didn't pouch them from somewhere, did you?"

The dolls surrounding me started wildly flail with their arms, probably trying to deny it.

"Then, where did you get these from?"

They paused for a moment, then continued flailing around. Yeah, I wasn't going to get an answer like this, was I?

"Yumi, the dolls are similar to monsters, aren't they?"
"Nn, I think so? Probably."

At least they should be kind of similar. Probably? Maybe?
Well, they were probably close to being monsters...

"Then, couldn't it be that they use them to grow stronger or something?"
"Grow stronger?"
"Stronger, or maybe they start splitting."
"Ah, like... that monster..."

That floating ball creature we saw at the Academy. When the oddball of a professor fed it enough mana, it suddenly split into two. They could multiply in numbers or grow stronger and stuff like that if they had a sufficient surplus of mana.

"Wait, but... No way... Seriously?"

I stared at the dolls.
Who once again started flailing around.

"Huh, that's not it?"

Communication was seriously hard here... But it seemed it was a bit different from what we thought.
A few dolls walked right under the bag I was still holding, raising their little arms trying to reach for the bag.

Do they want to show it to me? But... We still don't know where these crystals even came from.

I was a little reluctant to give it to them, we might get in trouble after all...

Trouble, huh...
"Yumi?"

I squatted down and gave the bag to the dolls. They swarmed around it, heaving it up and carrying it away.

"Was that fine, Yumi?"
"Nn. If it isn't I'll go and apologise to the Captain."

He was the one who said it was fine to cause a little bit of trouble, after all.
We watched the dolls carrying the bag... towards the tentacles. Yes, towards the tentacles. And then they stopped in front of the largest one. Coincidentally, the one with the pink mana egg.

"Nn?"

I tilted my head, curious as to what they were doing.
They had put down the bag and opened it, revealing the contents, right in front of the tentacles.

"Ah, the tentacles are moving."
"Nn... They're taking the mana crystals?"

The large tentacle thrust itself right into the bag, absorbing the mana crystals, while the surrounding tentacles shoved the mana crystals towards it.
It didn't take long for all the crystals to disappear.

"Yumi, are the dolls bringing mana crystals to the tentacles?"
"Seems so. That explains why they expanded so much."

Having accomplished their task, the dolls jumped up and down, most likely expressing their joy. In the meantime, the tentacle growth once more expanded, covering a little more of the wall now. It wasn't much, probably because the mana crystals were all tiny little pebbles, but it still grew.

"Ah, Yumi! Look!"
"Nn? Wait, no way."

Right after the tentacle growth finished expanding, it released a small pink cloud. Mana. Lust-attributed mana.

"And that explains why there's more mana here, huh..."

They consumed the mana crystals, grew a little in size and then released the remainder as lust-attributed mana. That seemed to be about it.

At that moment, while I was still lost in thought, someone knocked on the door.

"Yumi, Karen? Are you inside?"
"Nn? Ah, Captain? Yes, we're inside."
"That so? I'm coming in."
"Ah, ri— Eh?"

The door opened before I could say anything else. It was so sudden that I completely failed to react.
And as such, Korwen entered the wagon. Right behind him were Merim and Ria.

"So, this is what Ria was talking about, huh. They really multiplied."
"I can see why she said it was interesting but..."

Korwen stroked his chin, watching the tentacles. On the other hand, Merim made a rather conflicted expression.

"Anyway, let's get in. Ria, close the door."
"Mm..."

The door closed, preventing anyone from getting a peek inside.

"Now then... Yumi, Karen."
"Ah, yes?"
"Yes?"
"... Aren't there any chairs here?"
"... There are."

Only two, but there are. I pulled them from the corner and Korwen as well as Merim quickly sat down, leaving Karen, Ria and me standing.

"Let's see, did Merim tell you what we wanted to talk about?"
"Ah, yes, the duty plan, right?"
"Right, right. There are some other things but let's first get that out of the way."

He produced a two sheets of paper from somewhere and handed them to us.

"... These are?"
"Your schedules for now."
"Haaa..."

Each paper had a schedule, one for Karen and one for me.

"Usually we have a schedule depending on whether you are a recruit, a regular and so on. But since your position is a little unique, Ria made those for you two."
"I see..."
So, instead of actually giving us work herself she made this...

My schedule was divided into three major parts. The first part was training. That was about to be expected. Although, it didn't seem to only include physical training but also some other stuff.
The second part was 'Workshop'. Nothing else was written about it, so I had no idea what it actually meant.
The final part was 'Weekly Duties'. There was a list of things depending on which day it was. Interestingly, it included cooking duty on pretty much every day. I thought that was the families' job?

"Mr Captain, what is this 'Workshop' part?" Karen asked.

She had a rather similar schedule, though there was less training and a bit more on weekly duties for her.

"It's this," he said, pointing with his finger to the ground.
"... This?"
"This. This wagon."
"Eh?"

This... wagon?

"I'll go over it later since I wanted to talk about it as well, but it basically means that you do work here."
"I see..."
"Are there any other questions?"
"Nn. Captain, Merim said cooking duty was for the families? It's on every day here, for me."
"Ah, that..."

Korwen smiled wryly at my question.

"It was a request from my wife, Helma and some others."
"Huh?"
"Yumi, you can see mana, so they want you to help out. It'd be a great help for them if they can work with fish and similar. Also..."

He paused for a moment, before continuing.

"I recall that you said that you could eat monster meat, right?"
"Nn, I can."

It didn't pose an issue for me, in fact, it was delicious.

"Then, the meat we would usually throw away can instead go to you. And if you are on cooking duty, you can set aside what you want to eat for yourself."
"Eh? Is that fine?"
"We'd just throw it away anyway or give it to the tamers. But rather than throwing it away, we can save on your food expenses. A single person's food expenses aren't much, but it's better than nothing."
"Is... is that so... Then, I'll gladly do that."

After all, who was going to turn down the offer to have free delicious food, right?

"Then, any other questions?"
"Yes. Mr Captain, these duties include stuff like maintenance but... We've never done these things."
"As have many others before you. You won't be alone on duty, so have the others teach you. Things like weapon maintenance are important, so it's good for you to learn it anyway."
"Ah, understood. Also, uhm... Mr Merim mentioned guard duty but..."

Now that she said it, there wasn't a single instance of guard duty on my schedule either.

"Are you saying you want to be on guard duty, Karen?"
"Ah, no, that's not it... I mean, ehhh..."

Korwen smiled, before letting out a small chuckle.

"I know, I know, guard duty is boring. There's no need to feel flustered."
"Uhh... Sorry..."
"It's fine."

Karen looked at the ground, embarrassed that he noticed she didn't want to do it.

"It's still important, though, so we can't skip on that. But for simple guard duty, you two aren't suitable. People will look down on you and subsequently also look down on us as a mercenary group. On the other hand, you do not yet have the skills for guarding the more important things. That might change in the future, though, so don't be too relieved. Hahaha!"

So, we might actually end up with guard duty if we got stronger? That... Well... On one hand, it'd mean we'd be recognised for our skills then but... On the other hand, it's guard duty... Not sure what to feel about that. Although, that might still be far off for now anyway.

"We're putting Lily on guard duty, though. While you two were out for days, we decided to check on her capabilities a little."
"Oh?"

They had been testing Lily? And we missed that? Ahhh, too bad.

"You girls have quite the capable protector, you know? She's surprisingly strong for her age. There's still much she has to learn, but it makes sense that she managed for a while without the Black Guards. She definitely belongs to the more skilled mercenaries."
"So, she's strong?"
"Mm... I guess you could say that she's 'pretty strong', yes. She's not on the level of a monster like my old man or our Dragon Knights, but she can certainly hold her ground. With some polishing, I'd even consider letting her go through the Dragon Knight training."

So, she was really that skilled? I knew she was strong but to see even Korwen acknowledge it. I bet she was happy when she heard such an evaluation.

"For now, she'll be mostly training under Ria though. Her magic is..."

Korwen scratched the back of his head. Speaking of Lily's magic, we never had seen it yet, right? Actually, Lily was a manakin as well, right?

"Is something the issue with it, Mr Captain?"
"Well, it's certainly combat magic. The annoying type, too. But she can't use it regularly, so that's an issue."
"Haa..."

She had told us she could only use magic while she was fighting... Now I was even more curious about it. Actually, I was a little tempted to ask Korwen about it but... I felt like I should ask Lily herself, rather than Korwen. She had never told us so far, though we also never asked.

"Right, Lily has no workshop duty, nor does Rina. So, it's only you two."
"Ah, okay."

Lily didn't exactly like these tentacles so... Yeah, not surprised there.

"Good, good, then, any other questions?"
"Nn, Captain, the training part here... There's... a lot of stuff."
"Ahhh, right, right. Merim and Ria are mostly going to be responsible for those, although you two will also learn about basic combat behaviour from Taddick. Yumi, you met him earlier."
"Nn, I remember him."

At the meeting, he asked a few questions regarding rations and supplies like that. He was also responsible for some of the jobs from the Academy, so I tried to remember his face.

"Merim is going to train your body, Ria is responsible for your magic training and Taddick will teach you the basics of combat and group combat. He'll also teach you more about your job carrying a banner. As for Karen, you'll also learn how to wield various weapons from him. And Yumi..."

He stopped, staring at me for a moment.

"You need to get your body in shape first before we can even think about that."
"... Understood."
"There aren't many occasions where you will need to wield a weapon, so it's not as much of a priority for you anyway. For now, it's already good if you can carry the banner on your own and use magic to protect yourself."
"... I'll do my best."

Sorry, I knew I wasn't strong nor that I had any stamina. Yeah...

"Was that all for your questions?"
"Nn... I don't think I have any others..."

The schedule also mentioned where we'd have to go and with whom we'd have to speak for everything. Ria seemed lazy as heck but this schedule was really well-done.

"Good, good. Then, we can go to our next topic."

Korwen leaned back and threw a glance behind him.

"Time to figure out what we are going to do with this wagon and those tentacles."