A dark, damp corridor greeted us upon descending down. It was wide enough for three grown men to walk next to each other with space to spare. Recesses with small curtains covering them could be seen in the stone walls.

"What is this place... Are these catacombs?"
"I don't know, I never even knew a place like this existed here."

Wanda walked towards one recess and peeked behind the curtain.

"Mhh... There's only cobwebs and dirt."
"As long as there are no skeletons..."
I wonder if undead monsters exist. I hope not.

Wanda inspected a few more, but they were all empty.

"Maybe this place was planned to be used as catacombs. Or as a vault or warehouse. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to have much use anymore."
"Nn..."

Suddenly, the sounds of shouting could be heard. We couldn't see far into the corridor, as it was too dark, but the sound was more than enough of an indicator that they were likely fighting.

"Mhh... Too bad we don't have time, I'd really like to take a look around here."

With a reluctant expression, Wanda turned away from the recesses towards me.

"Kid, light your lantern."
"..."

The time had come. The unavoidable time.

"Wanda, can you light it for me?"
"... Kid, can't you do it yourself...?"
"I'm not good with these stones. I'd probably just blind us if I tried."
"... Do it yourself next time, okay?"

I nodded and presented Wanda with my lantern. She put her hand on it and after a few seconds it lit up. The stone was giving off a warm light, just strong enough to see a few meters ahead in the dark. Wanda did the same to her own lantern and we proceeded through the corridor.

"Be careful where you step."
"Nn."

After that short exchange, we stayed silent. Wanda was likely just as tense as I was. The sounds coming from the front have stopped. The smell of earth was slowly mixing with the smell of blood. I tried distracting myself, thinking about what Karen and Lily might be doing right now. Regardless, my thoughts always returned to the previous incident. And the stronger the smell of blood became, the less I could distract myself.

"Kid, are you okay?"
"Nn... Not really, but I'm trying."

I could see from the corner of my eyes how Wanda furrowed her brows.

"Do you want to return?"
"... No... I can still go on."
"... Don't overdo it, you hear me? It's not helping anyone if you collapse now."
"..."

Collapsing once was more than enough already. I didn't want to repeat, definitely. That's why I had to pull myself together. Even if it might be hard.

"I'm fine. Really."
"You don't look fine at all."
"Wanda, thank you, for worrying about me, but I want to continue."
"... Don't come to me and complain, you hear me? You can go to the mud girl and the walking disaster for that."
"I will keep that in mind."

I could only respond with a strained smile. The smell of blood became ever stronger until we finally arrived at the end of the corridor. In front of us was a broken-down door.

Wanda approached the door and entered the room without hesitation. Bracing myself, I followed.

"Well, someone sure failed at cleaning up here..."
"..."
"Kid, try to keep it in, okay?"
"I'll... try..."

We stepped into a large hall. The ceiling wasn't particularly high, but the room was wide enough that dozens of people could stay here. Tables with food and drinks, in the corner multiple barrels and crates, in the other blankets and makeshift sleeping places. And in the midst of that, even more corpses. There were broken doll parts around a few of them.

"They must have been fending off the dolls before they got overrun by our side. The wounds on most of them are from weapons and not the dolls."
"..."

I averted my eyes. The stench was overpowering. Then, with a sudden impact...

"Hya?!"
"Kid!"

Something jumped into my arms. It was a doll.

"You again..."

The doll with the mana crystal had returned, saluting to me in my arms.

"Don't surprise me like that, kid. Still, is that doll the only one left of them?"
"I don't know, are there any other dolls left?"

The doll shook its head. Apparently not.

"I see, thank you."

They did all I could ask them for. My role and theirs were now over.

"Kid, what do you want to do? Return?"
"No... I will come with you."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Wanda, you said we should accept Korwen's proposal, didn't you? And you also said I might have to stand on the battlefield once that time comes... That's why, I can't run away from this, right?"
"... I did say that, but I still worry whether it is too much. You are just a child, you have no need to rush it now."
"I want to protect Sis, I want to be of help to her..."

I took a deep breath and turned towards the corpses. There were dozens, many with slashing wounds, a few with their limbs bent in impossible directions. Only two or three fell victim to the dolls I sent.

"This... This is reality, isn't it?"
"It is."
"I see."

I took another deep breath—ignoring the overwhelming stench of blood and guts as best as I could—and faced Wanda.

"Let's continue."
"I understand, let's go."

I had made my resolve. This was now my reality as well. Even if it was hard to accept it, I couldn't run away. For Karen's sake, I couldn't.
We walked towards the door opposite the one we came in through. This one was also broken down, so there wasn't really any doubt that they went this way.

Passing through, we entered another corridor. This corridor was considerably better maintained. The paving wasn't as covered in earth, dust and cobwebs and there were lanterns hanging on the walls at regular intervals. One could see multiple doors leading into different rooms or corridors here and there, most of them broken down and the rooms behind looted. Occasionally we encountered more corpses, obvious victims from the mercenaries that had gone ahead.

From ahead we could once again hear the sounds of a battle, accompanied once again by the smell of blood. After a few more minutes, we reached another wide room, closer to a hall. But this time, there were some people present.

"Oh, we found our girls. Did everything go we—"

As we entered the room and Wanda spotted the few women clad in armour and weapons she wanted to call out to them but stopped midway. Because she saw why they stayed behind. The women were circling around three bodies, covered with a blanket. They all had their eyes closed and kept silent as if they were praying.

We continued watching them until the women opened their eyes again and one of them approached us, while the others started to carry the bodies away.

"Ms Wanda."
"Good work. Were those... comrades? Or..."
"Victims. We found them already like this."
"I see."

Wanda turned to the ones carrying the bodies away and watched them until they disappeared.

"What's the current situation?"
"Mr Merim's group followed the helpers. There have been no problems so far with them, they are looting the place but that is all."
"That was about to be expected, what else?"
"There have been no signs of the Black Guards, so far. We let a few thugs escape so they could warn their bosses. It has been a while, so their response should happen soon. We also confirmed that the maps were accurate and a number of entrances lead to this place. There have been some men trying to pass through here attempting to deliver word about the riots at the other entrances."

Riots? There were riots? Was this the support from the slum residents?

"That's good. If they split their forces that would be optimal for us. The Black Guards aren't the enemy, we want to avoid fighting them as much as possible. Well then, once you are done there, let us proceed and catch up with Merim."
"Understood!"

The woman saluted and helped her comrades.

"Wanda, you aren't even a mercenary, right? How come so many listen to you?"
"Mm? Ah, I just have some slight history with the Dragon Knights. Worked with them in the past a few times."
"Is that so?"
"It is."
"..."
"..."

The conversation died. Maybe I shouldn't have asked her about it. I waited for another response since I was curious, but Wanda kept quiet, indicating that she had no intention of talking about this any further. In the meantime, the women's squad had finished up.

"We're ready, Ms Wanda!"
"Good, then let us go."

Wanda turned on her heels and proceeded onward. I followed her closely while the women's squad surrounded us. I noticed some of them glancing towards me on occasion.

"Is something the matter?"

I turned around to ask them.

"Ah, no! Um..."

They were flustered when I called out to them. Did they think I wouldn't notice? They all averted their gazes and I could hear Wanda chuckling. Maybe she knew what was going on? As I wondered about that, some continued stealing glances and some were fidgeting. Then, finally, one of them approached.

"Err, do you... want this?"

She held out something small and brown to me. It was candy, the kind that Wanda had given me before. I accepted it without thinking much about it.

"Thank you."

I thanked her but in response, she just quickly averted her eyes and returned to her original spot. What the heck was going on here? I popped the candy into my mouth. A sweet taste spread through my mouth. A welcome distraction from all the blood and gore.

Tastes like happiness. Sweet things are great.
"Ohhh..."
"Nn?"

Instead of just stealing glances they were now openly staring. Unfortunately for them, their amusement, or whatever they were doing, had to end here. Yet another large hall was in front of us. Multiple people were gathered here.

"Merim!"
"Mm? Wanda, huh? Good, you're here, we got a slight problem."

In front of the Dragon Knights were the slaughtered corpses of the mercenaries that weren't part of the Dragon Knights. Not all of them were dead, but a rather significant number were. The few survivors were heavily injured. Only the Dragon Knights were mostly uninjured. And then, on the other side of the room, were men in heavy, black armour, each of them carrying either a large halberd or a crossbow. One at the side had a black flag attached to the halberd.
They were completely out of place with their heavy get-up in this underground place, but that didn't change the fact that they were truly intimidating.

"The Black Guards, huh? And so many of them. Didn't they just like send all their men here?"
"Most likely, yes. Ten halberds, fifteen crossbows, that's more than half their men."
"That's great news for Karen and them but quite bad news for us, you know."
"I do..."

They were having a rather laid-back discussion despite being confronted with such an enemy.

"Wanda... What do we do now?"
"What we do... for now, preferably nothing. We can't really do anything against them, but they most likely won't attack us unless we press the attack first. That is... until their patience runs out. But since we only need to buy time, we can draw out the battle for as long as possible. If they attack, we retreat as far as possible, and if they give up the chase, we return as well. That would be the best course of action in my opinion, what do you think, Merim?"
"Mm, I agree. Especially after I saw what happened to those idiots rushing at them. There's no chance we'd survive a direct confrontation."

Were they that strong? The mercenaries had them outnumbered two to one and yet they were overwhelmingly beaten and killed.

"But, why won't they attack us?"
"The Black Guards, despite their current assignment, are still a rather honourable band. They were originally a band of knights that lost their home country, though that was decades ago, they still uphold their rigorous code of honour. And one of them is not attacking an enemy that holds no hostility."
"Then, why are they even here..."
"I don't know the details, they were somehow forced into this assignment. Maybe we will find out once this is all over. If our attack is successful, they might lose their current job. That would be the best for everyone. Lily might know about the circumstances. Korwen might as well."
"The captain hasn't told me anything in regards to that. He only mentioned it was an unfortunate incident."

An unfortunate incident? Were they maybe blackmailed?

"In any case, we can do nothing but wait."

Shrugging her shoulders as if it was an inevitable situation, Wanda leant on the wall and started digging through a small pouch that was hanging on her waist.

"Kid, here."

She threw something towards me. A piece of dry jerky.

"I hope you won't throw up anymore, so it's a good time to eat something now, isn't it?"
"..."

Did she really expect me to eat something when there was a row of armoured men glaring at us and a pile of corpses in the middle of the room? I didn't immediately throw up, she was right on that, but that didn't change the fact that it made me incredibly uncomfortable. Nonetheless, Wanda didn't care about that and started nibbling on her own piece of jerky.

"Wanda, it's even hard for us to eat something right now, you know. The people are tense."

Thankfully, even Merim was rather disturbed at her my-pace style.

"Isn't that exactly why, then? If you are tense now, you just get tired needlessly. Wouldn't that be fatal later on?"
"... That's easier said than done, Wanda. Also, it's not a good idea to eat right before a battle."

Shaking his head in exasperation Merim turned around and returned to the other Dragon Knight mercenaries.

"It's not good to eat before battle?"

I looked at Wanda questioningly.

"Yes, it upsets your stomach and that can be fatal in combat, so you generally avoid eating anything the few hours prior to combat. Well, for mages it's not as bad and we're only here as support and observers now, so that doesn't particularly matter to us, right?"

I didn't know that was the case. But Wanda already completely excluded us as any form of a combat force, didn't she? It was slightly bothering me but I couldn't really argue against it either. It was true after all.

Wanda and I sat down at a wall and watched the mercenaries glaring at each other. The women's squad in the meantime gathered at the side and discussed something fervently. They were occasionally glancing towards us or Merim's group.

"Is it fine to just... sit here?"

I was still rather doubtful that we could just wait, but the Black Guards made no attempts at moving. If I didn't know better I would've said those were statues.

"Well, you can see that, right? And since it's our job to keep them away, that's basically perfect for us."
"But won't they figure out that we are just stalling if we act like this?"
"I'm sure they already figured it out anyway. And if they are here regardless, that means their employer might have forced them. Or, they know and are doing this on purpose. Whatever the case, it is pretty good for us."
"Nn..."

Was this really something going to end like this?

This is kind of, I don't know, anticlimactic.  But they all seem considerably fine with this...

Merim and his group had started to drag away the injured and yet alive mercenaries to treat them. They started groaning and crying, which wasn't pleasant to listen to.

But for now, all we could do was wait.

---

Around an hour later, nothing much had changed. Actually, the Black Guards became fidgety as well, but it seemed more to stem from the issue of having to stand still for the entire time while wearing that heavy armour, rather than them being impatient. Merim managed to treat most of the injured and had them carried away, yet none of the Black Guards made an attempt at moving. They only watched.
The women's squad tried to pamper me at one point but they got scolded by Merim and now they stood guard with the others, their expressions full of regret. At least I now understood why they kept behaving so weirdly all the time.

"Wanda, how long will we be waiting here?"

I suppressed a yawn and turned towards Wanda, who was similarly bored and had started to work with a needle and a piece of cloth. I asked what she was making, but she just smiled meaningfully and kept quiet.

"Until something happens."
"And that is when?"
"I don't know, but intuition tells me, it won't be that long anymore."
"I sure hope so."

I looked over to the other side of the room.

"I'm impressed they can stand still like that all time."
"They are trained to do so. The Black Guards are known for their quality. Instead of a large group like the Dragon Knights, they only consist of a small number of elite members. They used to be a much larger mercenary band, much larger than the Dragon Knights, but they downsized a lot after a few incidents in the past decades."
"Haa... How big are the Dragon Knights anyway?"
"Hmmm... around eight hundred?"
"..."

What.

"Well, that, of course, includes the non-combatants, so it's actually closer to 600, I think."
"How the heck does a force of 600 men have only three magicians?"
"You should ask that Korwen, I'm not really privy to their internal affairs nor am I a magician. I'm just a humble seamstress."

I didn't know Wanda could make actual jokes and not just mess with people. Duly noted.
But still, eight hundred was a huge number.

"Let me just tell you in advance, but there are significantly larger mercenary bands. When the Black Guards were originally formed, they were around 4,000 men strong, even if they only have around 60 nowadays."
"That's quite a change."
"Yes, many things happened over time and they gradually shrunk to such a size. But really, for Black Guard matters it is probably better to ask Lily."
"Does she even remember those things..."
"She actually does, you know. She behaves like an idiot, but anything she once heard or saw will stay in her memory. It's apparently a result of her ma— Ah."
"Wanda?"
"No, I probably shouldn't talk about this. It's something she doesn't want others to know about, after all. Just forget I mentioned it."

That was easier said than done. Now I was really curious, but Wanda would probably stay tight-lipped about it. I had to ask Lily herself. The number of things to ask Lily had increased by quite a bit.

"Anyway, I am sure Lily will tell you herself if you ask. She took quite a liking to you two."
"I wish she would hold back sometimes."
"There's no way that walking disaster will hold back ever."
"How unfortunate."
"Indeed."

Wanda chuckled but was abruptly interrupted by sounds coming from the Black Guards' side. There was the sound of an explosion coming from behind them. The Black Guards were startled, but then yet another explosion was heard and a powerful shockwave swept through the room, throwing everyone standing to the ground.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!"

Someone shouted from the direction of the explosion sounds. I knew that voice.

"Lily! Sis!"
"Ohhhh! You guys are really here! The gamble paid off, great. So great! Really!"

What appeared from the corridor were a dozen silhouettes. I could see Lily and Karen, both carrying someone followed by some of the Dragon Knight mercenaries, each of them carrying even more people.

"Men! Get ready to defend them!"

Merim shouted, springing up and drawing his weapon. The Black Guards had trouble standing up due to their heavy armour, which allowed Karen and the others to run past them.

"Yumi!"
"Sis!"

I ran towards Karen. I would have loved to jump into her arms, but as she was carrying someone, that wasn't possible.

"Yumi, I'm really sorry, but we need your help!"
"Eh?"
"Karen, we don't have time, we need to get out of here first!"

Lily shouted.

"... I understand."

Karen clenched her teeth. She was sweating, but not only because of being exhausted. The girl on her back, looked a bit older than me, with dull silver-greyish hair. She had a mana crystal embedded in her chest, and exactly that crystal was going completely out of control, absorbing mana hazardously without any sign of stopping. The resulting heat singed the girl's chest and Karen's back and I could even feel the heat on the skin of my face.

"Retreat!"

Merim shouted.

"Karen, Yumi! Come!"

Lily urged us to move.

"Sis, let's go first."
"Yes..."

I took Karen's hand since she seemed unwilling. She probably wanted to treat the girl right away, but we couldn't get our priorities wrong. If we stopped here we would be forced into a defensive battle. Even I knew that would end in a catastrophe.

We ran back the way we came. Wanda stayed behind with Merim as a rearguard. I was rather sure she had no weapon, but nobody seemed to reject her, they even seemed glad she stayed behind. The only ones running back now were the infiltration group with Karen and Lily as well as me and for some reason the women's squad.

We ran back past the room, where we found the three victim girls. But before we reached the next room, we heard heavy, dull steps behind us. I peeked back, only to see three heavily armoured men in black running towards us. And they were running with a speed that totally belied the heavy armour they wore.

"We have pursuers."
"Well, great."
"And they are catching up."
"Well, shit."

Lily didn't even have the energy to reply in her usual ridiculous but energetic manner. We entered the first room I saw with Wanda earlier. The earthy smell mixed with the iron smell of blood assaulted me. Just after we entered the room the pursuers were already entering as well. They were, despite their armour, faster than us.

"Lily, what do we do now?"

We had stopped running, as it was obvious they would catch us anyway. Now, we were facing these three men.

"Yumi, you can't miraculously fight one of them, can you?"
"Don't demand the impossible."
"I figured."

Two halberds and a crossbow.

"Let's stop over there at the end of the corridor. Yumi, treat the girls. As long as it is only three of them, we can deal with them, but escaping like this would be too dangerous. Use that time for them."
"Are you sure, Lily?"
"Yes."

The other mercenaries put down the girls they were carrying and drew their weapons. They formed a wall right in front of us, protecting Karen, the girls and me.

"Yumi..."

Karen and I sat down next to her sister. Lily said I was their only hope, but even I had no idea what I should even do. Karen looked at me anxiously. She was clearly worried. I hadn't seen her show an expression this clear ever before. She liked to put up a front but it had broken down completely now.

"I will do something, Sis, don't worry."

I pulled Karen towards me and embraced her, hugging her head to my chest.

"I will do all I can, okay?"
"... I understand. I believe in you, please save Miria."
"Nn!"

I let her go and faced the girl in front of me. As she was lying down, I could see her features a lot more clearly. The resemblance with Karen was obvious, a cute girl with fine features. She seemed somewhere right between me and Karen in age, which surprised me since I was sure she was just one year younger than her.

I extended my hand to the mana crystal that was visible even from the outside on her chest. The closer I got the hotter it became. Just a few centimetres before touching it, it was already becoming so hot that I could barely bear it. The mana around the girl was in turmoil.

"Karen, what did they do?"
"I don't know, when we opened the cells and released them, some kind of alarm went off. There was some fat man shouting at us and screaming that he wouldn't let his... experimental subjects go. Then they all started to heat up when we tried to run."

That man must have done something, but I didn't know what.

What to do, what to do. How can I calm this thing? I could try absorbing the mana, but what would happen to the girl? I was told that removing the mana crystal might kill her. But what other options do I even have? Or should I feed it mana and turn it into a pink mana crystal?

I took the hand of the girl. It was cold. This wasn't the hand of a living, healthy person. It felt like her body was already dead. But she was still breathing and her face showed an expression of pain. She was surely still alive.

Why can't the stupid instinct tell me what to do right now? It would be so much easier!

Unfortunately, it stayed silent. I had to experiment, but how? The doll in my arms suddenly struggled and freed itself. I didn't know what it wanted to do but it started dancing and taking strange poses in front of me.

"... I don't know what you are trying to tell me, sorry."

The doll let its head hang. It was depressed. Nothing I could do about and I was slightly busy anyway. I had no time for it.

Then I noticed what it had motioned at.

"Do you maybe mean your mana crystal?"

The doll suddenly perked up and bobbed its head up and down.

"Are you saying, I should do that?"

It bobbed its head up and down again.

"... Well, I guess it is worth a try."
"Yumi?"
"I have an idea, but I cannot promise anything. I'm sorry."
"I believe in you."

Karen smiled and pat my head.

"Thank you, Sis."
"You're welcome. You should maybe think about what to do when you suddenly have two older sisters taking care of you."
"So it's already established I will stay as the youngest. Great."

With a slightly wry smile, I took a deep breath. Then I took the really large mana crystal Lily had given me. I didn't know how much mana I needed, I couldn't be stingy now. I could apologise to Lily later on.

Bracing myself I pressed my left hand on the burning mana crystal. A hissing sound could be heard when the crystal burnt my hand. It hurt really bad for a moment, then was replaced with a coldness I didn't expect. Whatever, I had to endure for now.

Taking the large mana crystal with my right hand I started to extract the mana within, circulating it for a moment in my own body and mixing it with some of my mana before inserting it into the crystal in my left. I could feel how the mana crystal voraciously absorbed the mana and in tandem, the turmoil in the surrounding mana weakened. The heat searing my hand was fading a little, but the moment I lowered the mana input, it became worse again.

Karen looked at me worryingly. In the background, the sounds of battle were slowly ceasing. After what felt like a few minutes, different sounds replaced them. I didn't know what was going on, but I couldn't let go of the girl's mana crystal right now. If I did, it would be just wasted time.

After most likely around ten minutes, though they felt like half a lifetime, the mana crystal in my left stopped absorbing mana. I slowly removed my hand. There was no mana crystal to see anymore in the girl's chest. And she was still breathing, the colour in her face had returned too and the pain-filled expression was gone.

The mana in the surroundings had calmed down. The crystal wasn't gone, but it felt a lot calmer and more comfortable.

"Is... is she safe?"
"Nn. I think so."

Karen looked at me and, slowly, ever so slowly, large teardrops formed in her eyes. I smiled at her. I already felt relieved but she must have been feeling way, way more relieved than me.

But, like ever so often, we weren't in a location that allowed us the time.

"Karen, Yumi. We need to get out of here, quickly."

Lily reminded us. Karen, realising she was crying, quickly wiped her face and nodded. It was a bit unfortunate since it was cute, but I could understand the problem.

"You girls, are you ready?"

Merim stood next to us. He looked tired and was bleeding in several spots. I looked past him, expecting to see them fighting at the corridor, but there was nobody there. I wondered what had happened to the Black Guards. Did he somehow lose them?

I nodded and stood up. Karen was holding her sister, who was now sleeping peacefully, in her arms. Everyone else had apparently already left.

"Time to get out."

Merim motioned us to get a move on. We left the room and walked at a reasonable pace to the ladder.

"Then let us get—"

A rumbling sound. The ground was shaking. My entire vision was moving left and right and I fell down to the ground, unable to keep my balance.

"W-what i-i-s h-happening?"
"Grab something, don't let go!"

Karen hugged her sister close to her body, Lily was trying to keep herself steady by grabbing a recess on the wall while Merim tried to grab the ladder.

After a minute the rumbling stopped.

"What... was that?"
"I don't know, but we should get out of here really fast."

Merim looked cautiously around, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Except for a small cracking sound, that slowly became stronger.

I have a bad feeling. Please don't give me some stereotypical situation like this. I just want to go home.

Alas, my pleas went unheard.

"Quickly, the ladder!"

Merim jumped up the ladder and Lily followed. I stood up quickly and ran towards Karen, who had trouble getting up.

"Hurry!"

And then...

The ground broke away with a loud rumbling sound.

---

"That was... way too close..."

It hurt. Like, it really hurt. Tears were gathering in my eyes.
Somehow, Lily had managed to catch me. Karen had grabbed onto the ladder while holding onto Lily, and Lily caught me, or rather my hair.

"It... hurts..."
"Lily! Get her up, quickly, you're hurting Yumi!"
"If it hurts she's still alive!"

Nonetheless, Lily pulled me up. By my hair. The rocking sensation only intensified the pain.

"Uhhh..."

"Heave-ho!"

With a jerk, she pulled me up and held me in her arm. The pain slowly ebbed away.

"Did you have to... catch me... by my hair?"

I asked her, interrupted by my own sobs. If I was an actual child I might have started bawling now.

"I'm sorry, but it's better than you falling down there. But let's get up first, or the ladder might break as well."

With those words she started climbing, still carrying me in her arm. How she actually managed that was a mystery to me. Once we were out of the hole, she let me down on the ground while Merim helped Karen get out.

"But, what the heck was that?"
"Definitely nothing good. We should return quickly, I have a really bad feeling about this."

Karen and I nodded to Lily's words. Merim turned toward us, with a really serious expression.

"The real troublesome part comes now."
"Troublesome part?"
"Yeah. Do you think, they will just let us go now?"

A wry smile adorned his face.