“Ahhh… everything hurts…”
“I warned you, Yumi.”
“I know, Sis, I know.”
“Here, something to drink.”
“Thanks.”

Some cold water was just what I needed right now, after all. I had underestimated them. Sure, we had come here to play around but I confess… I didn’t imagine that Fenna and her squad were doing a mock battle… Or, well, more something like Capture the Flag with teams. How mercenary-like. A game that was also functioning as training, huh...

“Yumi, hold still. You got some dirt in your hair.”
“Some? I am fairly sure it’s a lot…”
And you’re not looking a lot better either… Nearly feels nostalgic.

Thinking so, I drank some of the water while Karen was patting on my hair, trying to get the worst of the dirt out of it.

“Ahhh… Lefa tripped.”
“Again?”
“Nn…”

That one had even more of a need for a bath than I did.
And right then, someone was making use of that opportunity and restrained Lefa on the ground.

“Guess we lose again?”
“Nn. Wait, Sis… Why are you here?”
“Fenna caught me.”
“Ahhh…”

Too bad… We hadn’t won even once so far.

“Yumi… Karen…”
“Welcome back, Lefa.”

Heavily breathing, Lefa was slowly tottering towards us. Then, she collapsed onto the bench right next to me.

“I… can’t move… anymore…”
“Nn, you did your best.”

Right at that moment, Fenna was picking up the spear and declaring her victory. For the sixth time. The other team, consisting of Rieke, Sanna and another woman I didn’t know the name of, lay collapsed a few steps away from her.

“And they win again.”
“It was quite one-sided.”
“Nn…”

The difference in experience and stamina really showed. The goal was simply picking up the spear but… you could, of course, hinder the other teams. And as long you didn’t hurt anyone seriously, anything was fine. To boot, if you caught someone and they were unable to escape, they’d get disqualified for that round. Case in point: Us.

“Miss Fenna doesn’t hold back at all.”
“Nn. But it really shows how strong she is.”
“It really does.”

Her position as the squad leader wasn’t just for show. Nobody could hold a candle to Fenna and her two teammates were mostly just for show. Okay, maybe not that bad but Fenna was contributing the most to her team’s victories. And out of eight games they won six.

“Haaa… I’m seriously beat now, though… I can’t do this again…”
“You held up well, Yumi.”
“Nn…”

Karen was hugging me from behind as she said that. Ahh, just for this, it was all worth it. Yeah.

“But I hope you won’t have muscle aches tomorrow.”
“... That’d be bad.”
“It would.”

I’d probably be fine but… Exhausting myself on our rest day was probably not the smartest idea. Especially since we’d move out tomorrow again. But now it was too late anyway. And, even if it had been exhausting… It was actually pretty fun, this. I had my doubts when Fenna told us to join them but running around like this had been pretty great. Even if we lost literally every game.

“Should we go and take a bath, Yumi?”
“Nn… How late is it anyway?”
“I think we should have enough time before dinner.”
“Nn… Then, I guess?”

I really wanted to get all the dirt off me.

“Hey, Lefa. What about you?”
“... Mm?”

Lefa lifted her head and looked at me, the exhaustion clearly visible in her eyes. 

“Want to join us in the bath?”
“Bath…”
“Yes, the bath.”
“Mm…”

Before I got an answer, her eyes closed and her head slumped down again.

“... Lefa?”
“...”
“Hey, Lefa?”
“Mm?”
“... Don’t fall asleep.”
“Mm.”
No, please… You’ll definitely regret falling asleep now if you don’t immediately open your eyes!

Alas, Lefa was already halfway into dreamland. So carefree… She did know that if she was going to fall asleep now, then she’d most likely miss the closing of the gate, right?
Well, her problem. Not mine. Actually, it was likely to turn into my problem, too.. Better wake her up for real.

“Lefa. No sleeping.”
“Mmm…”

No good. She was definitely going to fall asleep at this rate. What would be a good way to wake her up?

“Sis, let’s just bring her along. She’ll wake up in the water.”
“Yumi, that’s pretty cruel, you know?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“... Tickling her?”

That was pretty cruel on its own… Although, it might work too.

“Mmm… Don’t… tickle…”
“... See? She prefers the water.”
“... I don’t think that’s the correct conclusion, Yumi.”

Karen’s lips formed a strained smile as she squatted down and stretched Lefa’s cheeks.

“Wake up. Lefa, wake up.”
“Mm… It hurts…. Stop…”
“Open your eyes and I’ll stop.”
“Mhm…”

With clear reluctance, Lefa finally opened her eyes, staring right at Karen.

“If you sleep here, you’ll miss the gate later. So, up with you.”
“Mm… Do I have… to?”
“Yes.”

Lefa groaned in response. After a few more seconds, she finally forced herself to sit up again.

“Tired…”
“You did run around a lot, after all.”

I was actually impressed she managed to keep up for a whole eight games. With my lack of stamina in mind, I had frequently taken breaks and avoided running for too long. Even so, I was still exhausted. Lefa, on the other hand, had run with all her might. Not conserving her stamina at all. Little wonder that she was even more exhausted than me.

“Want to join us taking a bath?”
“Mm… I guess.”

She stood up and stretched her arms, only to groan in pain. She’d definitely wake up with muscle aches tomorrow…

“It hurts… Haaa… But it was… fun.”
“Nn, it was.”

It was exhausting, but the kind of exhausting that made you realise how much fun it had been. Really, we might have lost every time, but it still was fun.

“I’ll go tell Fenna.”
“Nn.”

Karen walked up to Fenna who was still standing on the small dirt hill. Spear in hand and a smug smile on her face, she was looking down at Rieke and Sanna and laughing.

“I always thought… mercenaries were bloodthirsty…. murderers… I never thought they could have fun like this.”
“Nn, they’re just people as well.”
“... Yes. It was fun.”
“Nn.”

The conversation stopped there and we watched as Karen talked with Fenna and then returned.

“Let’s go.”
“Nn.”
“Yes!”

---

We had a pretty delightful bath with Lefa. Despite her being pretty young and only a bit taller than me, she was clearly… growing quite well. In the chest area. This girl had quite the future ahead of her if she continued to grow like that. Definitely.

Anyway, after we washed up and got rid of all the dirt, we had dinner and then said our goodbye to Lefa. Hopefully, we’d get to see her again. With all the stuff going on, we never knew when we’d have to leave.

“Yumi! Yumi!”
“Yes, Emily, calm down. I’m here.”
“Ehehehe!”

Glomped onto me was our resident little elven girl, Emily. Right behind her were Maya and Sele fidgeting and waiting for their turn. What was I, a hugging pillow? Apparently I was.

“But, but, it’s been a while! Since we all slept together!”
“Nn, that’s true…”

After Karen and I got the workshop wagon, we had been sleeping there. It was a safe haven for our privacy. And a bed was definitely more comfortable than the hard floor.
Alas, these three really wanted to sleep together with all of us again… so there was no choice but to do it.

“Ehehehe!”

Much to Emily’s delight, as one could see. Alas, somehow… our sleeping group had… grown in our absence? Lily and Rina were here as well so that was nothing new. Currently they were talking with each other, letting Emily and the girls have the chance to get spoiled by us. Or rather abusing me as a pillow?

“Uhm… is it alright… for us to be here too?”
“Nn, I think so?”

The two slightly timid girls that had joined were... Elma Karker and her girlfriend Nela, if I remembered correctly. The two girls that were currently under the Dragon Knights’ protection. What were they doing here? I had no idea.

“Yumi! Yumi!”
“Yes, Emily?”
“We made friends! With El and Nel!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes!”

With a big smile, Emily told me of her new friends.

“Emily, calm down.”
“But Maya, we can finally sleep together again! Aren’t you happy?”
“I am.”
“See?”

So much for calming down.
Anyway, we had… quite the crowd this time around. And the two girls, Elma and Nela, were standing to the side, clearly unsure about what to do.

“Nn, your names were Elma and Nela, right? We met before.”
“Yes… When grandma was here with us... You two… were the girls we met then?”
“Nn.”

So they remembered us as well. How nice.
If I recalled correctly, Elma was the small black haired beastkin girl—barely any taller than I was—and the granddaughter of Miss Karker. And Nela was the brown-haired girl, a head taller than Elma.

“Have you been doing well?”
“Yes, thanks to you all.”
“Nn, that’s good to hear.”

“Yumi! Yumi!”
“Nn? What is it, Emily?”
“Ehehehe! You know, Elma and Nela, they’re really amazing! They can do lots of awesome magics!”
“Nn?”

Magic? Ah, right, they were studying at that Academy, so them being magicians wasn’t all that surprising.

“Tha— That’s…It’s… not that great...” stammered Nela in response.
“Huh.... What kind of magic did they show you, Emily?”
“You see, you see! She made lots of pretty lights flow around!”
Pretty lights?

I directed my gaze towards the two girls in question.

“What kind of pretty lights?”
“Er, it’s called Festival Lights… It’s a spell that produces coloured lights that flow around… Ah. Want me to show you?”
“Coloured lights?”

That sounded interesting.

“Nn. I’d love to see it.”
“Then, Nela, let’s do it?”
“Eh? Ah… Are… Are you sure?”
“Yes! Pretty please?”

Elma smiled at Nela. Ah, I knew this kind of smile… It was the type where one couldn’t say no...  Yeah, I knew who was in charge among those two.

“O— Okay…”
“Yay! Then, we’ll show you now, okay?!”
“Nn.”

I was kind of looking forward to what they were going to do now. Emily also turned her head around, watching them all excited already. Same for Sele and Maya.

“Here we go!”

All smiles, Elma held Nela’s hand and then they both started to recite… something? What language was this?
Anyway, after the relatively short… chant? After that the mana moved in response to the invoked spell. Not even a second later, a small light appeared right in front of us. A small blue light. Then another joined, a red one. Then orange, yellow and so on. Slowly, the air filled with dozens over dozens of small lights, all in various colours. The entire tent was illuminated by them in all the colours of the rainbow.

“He-hee, now look at this!”

With a swing of her hand, a smug Elma stirred up the lights, causing them to move rapidly around.

“Nn?”

The light dots started to stick to each other, forming stars, rings and various other things.

“Ohhh!”
“That’s not all yet! How’s this?”

Yet again, she swung her hand through the air. The light patterns broke apart, only to reform. Into people and animals. Moving ones. Honestly, I was astonished. I expected just a little light show but now she had dozens of people and animals walking and moving around. All two-dimensional and made up of light, of course.

“He-hee!”
“This is amazing.”
“Nn.”

I agreed with Karen. This really was quite amazing. Emily and the girls were also watching with wide eyes and big smiles. Sele was trying to poke a man made of light, only for him to break apart and reform into an animal.

“Are you impressed? Are you? Are you?”
“Nn, I am.”
“Hehehe!”

With her hands on her hips and a smug smile, Elma sure seemed satisfied with herself.

“Ah.”

Then, suddenly, the lights broke apart and disappeared one after another.

“Ahh, the spell ended.”

That’s… How unfortunate.

But magic can also do things like this, huh…

Most of the magic I had seen so far was more of practical use. Including my own, of course. But this was simply magic for entertainment.

“Yumi! Yumi! See! It’s really pretty, isn’t it?!”
“Nn. It really was.”

Emily had been right. It was quite amazing.

“Did you learn this at the Academy?” asked Karen.”
“No. Grandma taught me this magic before.”
“Grandma? You mean, Miss Karker did?”
“Yes!”

So Miss Karker was also a magician?

“Grandma is really amazing! She can fill the entire sky with lights and make them dance! It’s really…. Really! Really, really! Amazing!”

Elma threw up her arms into the air, likely to show just how amazing it was.

“The entire sky with lights like this?”
“Not just like this! They look a lot more real! I can only make flat figures but grandma can do all kinds of stuff with them! They can look like real people, even!”
“Ohhh.”

Now, that was something I really wanted to see now.

“I didn’t know Miss Karker was a magician.”
“Nn, neither did I.”

Karen was just as surprised as I was. At least, I wasn’t alone.

“She’s not just any magician! She’s a really, really amazing and powerful magician!”
“Huh…”

An amazing magician, huh… Somehow, I sure could see that… She did seem quite mysterious, after all.

“If she wanted to, I’m sure she could even take over the entire country!”
“I… I see…”
“E, El! You can’t say such things.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it? The stupid magicians at the court don’t hold a candle to her, after all.”
“You can’t call them stupid, they are important people!”
“Boo! I don’t care!”
“El!”

Court? Magicians? She wasn’t talking… about high-ranking government officials and the like… was she? No, considering who she was… she was… talking about them....
In the meantime, Elma was inflating her cheeks like a child while Nela tried to scold her. Emphasis on ‘tried.’

“Those people don’t even care about magic, that’s why they are so bad at it! Nel, you are way more amazing than them!”
“There, there’s no way I could compete against those, El!”
“You can! Have more confidence in yourself!”
“Uhhh… Tha— That’s...”

Now it was Nela who was backing down, unable to argue against her.

“Uhh! No fighting!” shouted Emily.
“Eh? We’re not fighting, though?”
“No fighting!”
“O, Okay?”
“Good!”

Yeah, there was no winning against Emily.
In the meantime, Sele had walked up to Elma and pulled on her shirt.

“Eh? Sele, what is it?”
“...”
“Ehhh…”

Elma made a face as if she had no idea what to do. Yeah, I could relate to that… Sele, however, just continued pulling on her shirt.

“...”
“...”

And now they were staring at each other…

Sele, please, speak up!

Alas, there was no way something that convenient would happen, was there?

“I think she wants to hear more about Grandma Karker…”
“She does!”
“Maya, Emily… It’s good you two are here.”
“Ahaha…”
“Huh?”

Emily tilted her head and Maya just laughed dryly. How the heck had they known what Sele wanted to say? And judging from her nodding, they had been right, too.

“You want to hear more about grandma? He-hee! Then, I’ll tell you all about it! What do you want to hear? About her amazing past? About her magic? Or what else?”
“...”
“...”

That wasn’t going to work. Reminded me how Sele barely said anything to us in the beginning as well. Time to help.

“Sele, want to hear about Miss Karker’s past?”
“...”

She was shaking her head, much to my surprise. I thought for sure…

“Then, her magic?”

A nod. She wanted to hear about her magic, huh… Ah, maybe…

“Because of the lights?”

Another nod. She liked those lights, huh. Understandable. I did, too.

“You want to hear about grandma’s magic? Then, I’ll tell you all about it! You see, grandma can use all kinds of amazing magic but the one she is especially good at are illusions. The lights from before technically belong to that type of magic as well!”
“Those were Illusion Magic?”
“Yes! They were!”
“... Illusion?”
“Nn?”

An unexpected voice came from the side. From Lily.

“Lily?”
“Ah, no, it just sounded interesting. Don’t mind me.”
“Haa…”

If she said so...

“Lily, don’t be such a stranger. If you want to hear how awesome grandma is, you just have to say so!”
“... No, thanks.”
“Ehhh?!”

Completely baffled by her reaction, Elma stared at Lily.

“El.”
“Eh?”
“How about you continue?”
“Ah! You’re right, I was talking about grandma! Where did I stop?”
“You were talking about her Illusion Magic.”

With a gentle smile, Nela brought Elma back to the actual conversation topic.

“Her Illusion Magic! Right, you know, you can do really amazing things with Illusion Magic! You can trick people and show them things that aren’t there. Or you can hide things even!”
“Hide? Like, going invisible?”
“Uhh… It’s not quite the same but similar? Nel, do you remember the difference?”

Elma tilted her head, unable to explain it well.

“Invisibility magic can turn things see-through. But in the case of Illusion magic, the appearance mimics the surroundings.”
“Right, that was it!”

Elma paused suddenly, not continuing. After a short pause, she turned to Nela again.

“Hey, Nel… What’s the point of distinguishing them anyway?”
“El… They have different applications. We learnt that in class. Invisibility Magic can turn a container see-through and reveal what is inside. And Illusion Magic can also disguise things which might be a better choice than going simply invisible.”
“Ohhh!”
“... You learnt that too.”
“I forgot!”

… Was this girl doing okay?

“Haa… Don’t blame me if you fail the exam again.”
“It’ll be fine, I’ll just make up for it in the practicals!”
“... It won’t. And I promised your grandma that I’d help you study for the exams.”
“She won’t mind that much. In the first place, the exams are likely to get cancelled anyway.”
“...”

Elma shrugged with her shoulders.

“Nn, because of so many people taking a leave of absence?”
“Oh, you know about that?”
“Lefa told us just earlier.”
“Eh? Lefa was here? Why did nobody tell me?!”
“You know her?”
“Of course I do! Everyone knows her!”

Everyone did?

“Uhm… Miss Lefa is pretty famous around the Academy…”
“Right? She’s one of the best students if it’s about theoretical stuff yet she can barely use minor spells. Even though the red foxkin are famous for their magic.”

That… I wasn’t quite sure if that was a good kind of fame…

“I never really talked with her much, though… It would’ve been a nice chance.”
“Why was she even here?”

While Elma seemed sad at missing her opportunity, Nela was curious about why she had been here.

“She accompanied the professor that the Captain had called for.”
“Professor? Which one?”
“Professor Marvim.”
“Eh? That monster-obsessed nutcase?” shouted Elma.
“El, that’s rude.”
“It’s true, though.”
“...”

Nela shook her head, seemingly giving up.

“Anyway, it’s too bad we missed her.”
“Right… Next time, then!”
“If we’ll get to meet her, that is…”
“It’ll be fine!”
“Nn, are things that bad at the Academy? It didn’t sound that bad from what Lefa said.”

Students being absent and a few of the professors leaving as well. Well, the professors leaving definitely would be bad but it didn’t sound like it was having a big impact yet.

“It is. Quite a few classes had been cancelled already before we came here. By now, it’s probably even worse.”
“You aren’t going to the Academy currently?”
“No. It’s too dangerous, they said. So we are on leave as well, right now.”
“Huh…”

Too dangerous… Well, they were here for protection, after all.

“And yet, grandma told us to go along and watch them fight monsters… Isn’t that dangerous too?”
“Less dangerous than people attacking us. Although, I do agree…”
“Nn? You two, you wouldn’t happen to come along tomorrow, would you?”
“We will. Your… Captain, was it, I think? He told us to go along and watch them fight monsters.”
“Ahh.”

So they’d accompany us.

“Speaking of which, Emily, Maya, Sele. What are you three going to do tomorrow?”
“We? We’re also going! Finally!”
Finally?
“Uncle told us to join and get some experience.”
“... First… Time…”

First time?

“It’s your first time joining them?”
“Yes! Uncle always told us to stay in the back, even though we kept training. But now he said, if we’re serious about this, we should go along.”
“Serious, huh…”

Well, he wasn’t exactly happy with the three of them trying to become mercenaries. Maybe he was attempting to scare them off as a last measure? Or he actually conceded to their wishes.

He did want them to study and learn something else… And I thought that was just what they were going to do now? Guessed wrong, it seems.

Not that I knew why Korwen was telling them to go along, really.

“Nn, then, How about you two, Rina, Lily?”
“I’ll come along too. My job is still to keep those two safe, after all” answered Lily.
“Nn, I see. And you, Rina?”
“Ahh… I’m coming along too, Lil’ Sis,” she answered, her tone rather dull.
“I see?”

Somehow, she didn’t seem all that energetic today. I was surrounded by girls that had more energy than they could use up, so seeing one of them being all listless was pretty surprising.

“Sis, is something wrong with Rina?” I whispered to Karen, making sure she couldn’t hear us.
“I don’t know.”
“Nn…”

Couldn’t straight-up ask her either now, could I?

“Yumi! Yumi! Everyone is going tomorrow?”
“Nn, seems like it, Emily.”
“Yay! I hope it’ll be a lot of fun!”
“We’re technically there to work, you know?”
“Ehehehe!”

What to do about this bundle of pure energy… Well, it’d be fine.

“Most of the mercenaries are going out tomorrow, so it’s not all that surprising,” commented Lily.
“That so? I thought we shouldn’t do any big movements for a while, though?”
“I think the Captain wants to finish things up as fast as he can now?”
“Nn… That so?”

Did he expect things to go south now? Well, after hearing about the fort’s commander… That rumor, huh…

“Elma, Nela, did you two hear about the rumor that Mr Ruben was detained and found guilty?”
“Uncle Ruben? Eh? He was?!”
“No, Elma, I’m asking if you heard anything about that.”
And she’s calling him uncle?

Probably met him through her family, or something like that.

“Uhh… I didn’t hear anything like that… Also, you can call me El!”
“... Okay, El.”

I was a little taken aback that she suddenly requested me to call her by a nickname, even though we only really talked twice. And once was with Mrs Karker present, where the two had been a lot more reserved than right now.

“You can call me Nel as well, if you want.”
“Nn, okay. El and Nel… El… and Nel… Elnel?”
“... Please don’t combine our names.”
“Eh? That’s cool! Nel, I think it’s cool!”
“...”

I deeply apologised in my mind to Nela but that was really the first thing I thought of… Their nicknames were way too similar, after all. And they combined perfectly, being a single syllable and all that. And Elma… El seemed to like it too.

“Elnel… pfff…”

In the corner, Lily was stifling a laugh, earning her a glare from Nel.

“It’s cute, isn’t it?”
“... Is it?”
“It is.”
“...”

It was arguable whether it was really ‘cute’ or anything… I might have done something bad. What if that name stuck with them from now on?

“Mm… You know, I like it, Nel… It’s like, we’re one and always together...”
“... As long as you are fine with it…”
“Yay!”

That… was actually a pretty cute reason for liking it. Always together, huh.

“Back to your question, Yumi… I hope it’s okay if I call you just Yumi? Or should I add Miss?”
“Nn, of course it is. No need for Miss.”

It’d be really awkward if they started calling me Miss while I called them with nicknames…

“Okay. So, regarding your question… I haven’t heard about Sir Ruben being declared guilty but I did hear about him being detained.”
“Eh, you did, Nel?”
“Yes. I heard the Professors talk about it. But that’s already all.”
“Nn, I see.”

So they didn’t know anything else either. No, considering the Professor Marvim had only heard about it yesterday and these two hadn’t been to the Academy for a few days, it was probably normal.
Right at that moment, I heard someone stifling a yawn right next to me.

“Maya?”
“Ah, I’m sorry! It’s just… I’m a little… tired.”
“... Should we go and sleep?”

Honestly, I was exhausted as well, after all. Playing around with Fenna’s squad and Lefa had done quite a number on me.

“Uhm, I’ve been wondering that for a while but… is… everyone going to sleep here?”
“Yes?”
“... But there’s not enough space, is there?”
“Nn?”

There was more than enough space, though? Sure, the tent wasn’t as big as some others, but it was large enough, in my opinion. More than enough for nine people to sleep, all huddled together… Wait… Ahh, I saw the problem.

“Nn, you’ll see. Sis, let’s get the blanket. Emily, could you let go of me for a moment?”
“Okay!”

Finally free! Not for long, though.
Karen and I fetched the large blanket and spread it out.

“Ehehehe, all together!”

The three little girls dove under the blanket, Rina and Lily promptly joined them.

“Uhm… I’m not quite sure I understand… Eh, El?! Wa— Don’t pull me!”
“It’s everyone together, Nel! Together!”
“... Ehhhh?”

Why was the seemingly sheltered, aristocratic girl more comfortable with sleeping under one blanket with us than her commoner girlfriend? That shocked expression actually hurt my heart a little.
Alas, Nel was forcibly dragged under the blanket by Nel and they laid down right in the middle.

“Then, we’ll be coming in too.”
“Nn.”

And as the last ones, Karen and I got under the blanket too. With nine people, the large blanket barely managed to cover all of us… or not.

“Ah, Sele, what are yo—

Sele crawled under the blanket, disappearing from my sight. A moment later, something was grabbing onto my waist and nuzzling her face against my neck. She was kind of the wrong person to act like a cat… Fairly sure that should be Maya’s job.

“Yumi… Warm...”
“Ah, I want too!”
“Me too.”

Well, I kind of expected this was going to happen… The three little girls all came over to me, hugging me.

“Nel, Nel, let’s do that too!”
“Eh, wa El?!”
“Woah!”

What I didn’t expect was that El joined in hugging me. Was that okay, right in front of your girlfriend? Not that I minded at this point anymore but she did realise that she should mind personal distance a little. Though, like I said, not that I minded.

“Wahh! You’re so soft! How is that possible. Nel, come here! It feels super good to hug her!”
“Eh, but…”
“It’s fine, isn’t it, Yumi?”
“Well… I guess it is. Nn.”

Yes, body pillow Yumi at your service.

“Then, excuse me… Ohh… You’re right. She’s really soft.”

Now I had five people hugging me from every direction.

“Yumi… You’re too popular,” mumbled Karen, her brows furrowed.
“Popular as a pillow?”
“... You’re my pillow.”

But I was still a pillow. Alas, this was… Woah, there!

“Sis, that’s not going to work out.”
“It will!”

No, trying to hug me like this… Ah, it was impossible. As a compromise, she just hugged me together with Emily, squeezing her between us. Much to her delight.

“So warm! Ehehe!”
“Ah, Emily, don’t move. That tickles.”

While I was trying to find a halfway comfortable position, the last two girls kept watching us… and did the inevitable.

“Lily, let’s join them!”
“No, Rina, no matter how you look at it, that’s not possible.”
“It’s fine!”

Pulling Lily along, Rina joined our big sleeping pile. Although, she couldn’t hug me, obviously. I had no idea who she was hugging now. It was impossible for me to move anymore. I wasn’t even laying on the ground anymore but on top of somebody. Not that I minded. I mean, how could I? Surrounded by cute girls as I was. If only I wasn’t used as a pillow.

“So warm...”
“It really is warm, Nel! I think I like this! It kind of makes me feel all… safe?”
“I think I like it, too… But… I can’t move.”
“Neither can I!”

The two new friends had acclimated awfully quickly to this situation… Well, as long as they liked it.

“Then, we should sleep. Good night, everyone.”
“Nn, good night, Sis. Everyone.”

We wished each other a good night and then slowly dozed off into the dreamland, hugging each other as close as we could… It was a night full of warmth.