“Mhm… I think these are from the others we’re looking for.”
“Are you sure, Merim?”
“Fairly sure, Yumi.. The footprints are deep and the shape looks similar to the greaves we commonly use. Also the footprints are fairly deep. I don’t think our… pursuers would use heavy equipment in a forest.”

I’d like to ask why the heck the other mercenaries are using heavy equipment then but… Well, they were hunting monsters and not other people.

“We should have taken someone along who has hunting and tracking experience… They’d probably know more than me.”
“Nn… We didn’t, though.”
“We didn’t… Seriously, why don’t you or Karen have some experience with that? Didn’t you live on your own?”
“The slums aren’t exactly a forest for hunting.”

And the one time we decided to go there to procure food, we only walked along the edge of the forest. We only entered it with Lily back then.

“Guess nothing I can do about… Anyway. Emily, how is it looking?”
“Mmhhh? Mh… I don’t know…”
“You don’t know, huh…”
“Sorry…”
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have thrown all that responsibility to you.”

Merim pat Emily’s head in an attempt to cheer her up.

“For now, let’s follow these tracks. Just tell us when you notice anything, okay?”
“Mm...”

She nodded a little, barely noticeable.

“Let’s continue. If you see anything, don’t forget to mention it immediately, understood?”
“””Yes!”””

We answered in a chorus. Everyone took it quite seriously.
In a slow but steady pace, our group made its way through the forest. But considering how vast it was… I walked ahead a little, to Merim.

“Merim… Are you sure we can find them in here?”
“... We will. I do have a general idea of where we are, after all.”
“Eh? You do? In this forest?”
“Of course. Who do you think I am? Traversing a forest isn’t a first for me. Also, this forest is known territory for us. We frequently do jobs for the Academy here.”
“I see…”

So he did know where we were. And probably, where the other groups had their areas as well. As expected of our vice-captain. Suddenly, he beckoned me to come closer.

“With that said, it’s nonetheless not easy at all. Don’t let her hear that but I really counted on Emily.”
“Nn... “

I glanced a little behind us, where the others were. We had changed our formation a little after Emily had met some troubles. Since Merim was now leading us, he was walking in the front. Lily was making up the rear and everyone else was kind of huddled up in the middle, with Karen and I making up the flanks. Though I was walking next to him right now, since he called me over.

“”The forest doesn’t know what to look for… Seriously… If you have anything that could help us, now’s a good time to pack it out.”
“Nn…”

Something that might help us…
There was something I could think of but…

“I… could try something but…”
“... But?”
“I’d have to concentrate for it, I guess? I don’t even really know if it would work.”
“Concentrate, you say. Does it take long?”
“If it doesn’t work out, I should notice it quite quickly. I don’t think it will take long.”

I couldn’t see his expression very well from my position, but it seemed like he was thinking. Then, he lifted his hand, telling everyone to stop.

“If it doesn’t take long, I’ll bet on it for now.”
“... Nn, understood.”

The others seemed a little confused why we already stopped again and Karen walked up to us.

“Mr Vice-Captain, is something wrong?”
“Yumi will try something, so we’re making a short stop.”
“... Yumi?”

With an expression of doubt, Karen’s glance wandered to me.
Thank you for the trust, there.

“Sis, could you hold my hand?”
“... Yumi, what are you going to try?”
“I’ll explain later. I just don’t want to walk into something.”

It’d be a little hard to explain this to everyone else here right now.

“Haaa… Okay. Here.”
“Nn.”

I took the hand she offered me, then faced forwards. And closed my eyes.
Everything became dark around me. Except… Not quite.

It’s really easier to see them like this…

When my eyes were open, it was most of the time barely noticeable. And it wasn’t exactly something that could help me most of the time anyway. Actually, it probably could… But with my eyes closed like this…

Those are… animals, I guess? Their souls are pretty small… So they have them too... 

I figured that monsters weren’t directly visible to me, considering that I hadn’t seen anything from Yumelia’s puppets either. Nor from the Demon Rabbits a while earlier. In that case, the small souls that were moving around without any order, in various directions and even up into the sky, probably were all animals. Seeing them like this… The forest was really full of life. It’d be pretty hard to find what I was looking for in this…

Something a little larger, maybe… A little larger… Oh?

It seemed I found something. A small group of souls that wasn’t moving. And in fact, right ahead… of us?

“Uhm… Merim?”
“Did you find something?”
“I… think I did. There’s a group… right in front of us… Still a little away but…”

How should I say that…

“Four people, forming a pretty large half-circle. The open side facing us.”
“...”

He fell silent.
Well, I could understand his feelings. This was beyond my expectations too.

“Anything else?”

Yet, he first asked this.

“Uhm...I think even further away is another group? I am not quite sure but they don’t seem to be moving either. And… It’s a pretty large group. Like, around two dozen of them.”
“... That could be them. Haaaa.”

Merim let out a really, really long sigh.

“Now I’m really glad I bet on this. Why can’t every magician use magic like that?”
“That’s…”

Probably because normal people weren’t supposed to see souls.

“It’s okay, I won’t pry. Not now.”
... So you will later.
“The immediate problems are those four waiting ahead. I thought they weren’t all that skilled, seeing that they showed themselves to the other group.... Wait… Yumi, do you see any other groups like that around?”
“Eh? Uhm…”

I looked to the sides, trying to look through the sea of souls for anything worth noting.

“... There’s another, in that direction. Four people, forming a half-circle. But, facing away from us.”
“Any more?”
“Uh… Ah, there are again four?”
“Another half-circle?”
“Nn. Facing to the right.”
“... I see. That’s their plan.”
“Nn?”
“Yumi, try to find all of them and tell me where they are.”
“Eh? Okay...”

I was a little confused but Merim seemed to have gotten an idea. And so, I told him where they all were. I was fairly sure I got them all after checking each direction twice over. A total of fourteen groups. Fourteen. And there probably were more even further away. But I couldn’t make them out that well so…

“Mr Vice.Captain, what is going on?”
“... It’s simple, really. Human wave tactics. Honestly, it’s a little surprising but it still fits what we expected. They’re setting up ambush points throughout the forest along paths and trails, hoping that one squad gets the right target. They probably have a hunter or a tracker among them to know our likely routes.”

Wait, all these people were the ones we wanted to avoid?

“Yumi, one squad, you said, wasn’t forming a half-circle but instead moving about. Right behind us.”
“Nn.”
“Those were probably the ones that our other squad met earlier.”
“Ohhh…”

They had already ambushed a group so they either had to set up a new ambush or they were taking a break. Maybe they were even packing and going home.

“This is really convenient… Really convenient.”
“Nn?”

A wide grin was adorning his face. And it wasn’t the gentle kind. No, it was the face of someone who had a really, really bad idea. A bad idea for his victims.

“Lily.”
“Yes, Vice-Captain?”
“I have a job for you. One that you will like.”
“Oh?”
“We’re going to advance as planned until we are barely out of sight of our ambushers. Lily, you’re going to take Yumi along and attack them.”
“Eh?”
“Really?!”

Lily was literally beaming at those words. Contrary to me, obviously. Why should she take me along?!

“Yes, really. Let one of them escape and take one captive. Don’t care about the other two.”
“What if the guy refuses to escape?”
“You’ll find a way. You’re a mercenary, you know what to do. Scare him away.”
“Okay!”

Scare them away, he said? That… I had a bad feeling about that.

“Mr Vice-captain, I wi—”You will stay here.”
“...”
“They’ll be fine. But if anyone unexpectedly attacks—or if a monster shows up—I don’t want all our fighting strength there. Speaking of which, Yumi. Can you locate monsters like that too?”
“No, I don’t think so… But I’m not sure. I think I can see other animals but...”

Thinking about it, I could see my own soul… And the little strand connecting it with Karen’s. I had also been able to see the dolls’ tiny souls. But not the ones of those puppets. I’d have to take a closer look at a monster to know that. Shame I hadn’t done that when we were at the roper cave. But I probably would’ve noticed if I could see them...

“Mm. Then I won’t count on it for now and assume you can’t. In that case, we should still stay careful. Emily, rather than looking for people, can you have the forest look if monsters approach us?”
“Uhm… Yes, I can!”
“Good.”

A small, evil-sounding chuckle escaped Merim.

“Let’s do this. Let the ambushers turn ambushed.”

---

A short while later, we had approached the ambusher group as far as we could. Or at least, as far as Merim deemed it safe. Even if they should be among the more experienced, they’d have trouble knowing that we were here at this range. Better safe than sorry.

“We will wait here. In the off-case that things go awry, we’ll take a detour towards the large group Yumi found. Lily, Yumi. Should we get separated for whatever reason, the first potential stop is the large group. Second is the base at the forest and final is the camp. Got that?”
“Nn, understood.”
“All clear, Vice-Captain.”
“Good. Then, may the Blessings of the Lord of War and the Great Spirit of the Dragons be with you. Go and make us proud.”
“Will do.”
“...”

The blessings of the Lord of War and the Great Spirit of the Dragons…

“Nn.”

Lily saluted to Merim and I copied her to the best of my ability. Needless to say, that got me a little laugh from Merim.

“You still got to practice that a little,” he commented.

Anyway, with that done, the two of us made our way towards our ambushers together. For the record, Lily was carrying her large Zweihänder, resting it on her shoulder. I was a little worried about that way of carrying it, but it was safe according to her. The blade wasn’t so sharp that it would cut into her clothing and armour without pushing it. Barely any sword could do that through their own weight alone, apparently.

“Is it really fine to go from the front, though?”
“We want to make an impression on the guy escaping, of course we go from the front.”
“Why do we even need to have one escape?”

That part felt a little odd to me.

“They won’t mess with us if they know we got methods to track them. It’s a show of force, so to say. That’s half the reason you’re here too.”
“I’m here as a show of force?”
“Yes. You’ll be showing me where they hide, right? Obviously, they’ll see that as well. And if we boldly bring you along, they might suspect your ability isn’t unique. They likely know we have multiple magicians.”

So, we were making them believe that we had simple methods of tracking them. In which case, an ambush might definitely not work in their favour.

“Assassins and the like aren’t good at direct combat. Although, these are probably just some thugs with a little bit of experience in hunting or killing.”
“That’s still pretty scary.”
“Don’t worry. I’m scarier.”
“If that was supposed to calm me down. It didn’t.”

Who the heck would say something like that?

“Well then, I think we’re close enough now, aren’t we? They should’ve noticed us by now. But really, I can’t see them at all…”
“Nn… Give me a moment.”

They were indeed close. If I ran, it wouldn’t take more than a few seconds to reach the closest one. They were still hiding, though.

“Blatantly point where the four are.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Nn… Okay then: There, behind that tree. Then, over there, in the tree top. That one is also in the tree top and the last one is behind that tree.”
“Two on the ground, two in the trees. Simple enough. Stay right behind me. Also, watch the trees.”

Watch the trees? What was that supposed to mean? Well, whatever.

“Nn, I wi— Lily?!”

All of a sudden, this girl broke out into a sprint, heading directly for the first guy I pointed at. She grabbed the Zweihänder with both hands and prepared to swing it. A large swing. In the middle of the forest? There were trees all around her?!

“Lily, wait, the trees!”

Since she told me to stay right behind her, I ran after her. Quite a bit slower, thanks to the undergrowth. I wanted to warn her that the trees were in the way but… An ear-deafening sound of crushed wood echoed through the forest as Lily mercilessly cleaved through entire trees. An inhuman show of strength.

Wait, is this what she meant when she said to watch the trees?!

With the crushed trunks, the trees fell down one after another, in every possible direction. Including mine.

“Woah!”
“First one down. You fine there?”
“Ye, Yes…”

I expected a lot but not that I would have to dodge a tree of all things…

“Now then, guess they figured it out. Be careful.”
“Nn.”

She said the first was down… Did she actually… There was blood on her sword… And something was behind the… Yeah. She actually cleaved through the tree the guy hid behind.
I chased away the thought. Having confirmed that one was… dealt with was enough for now. The other three… The other guy on the ground had come out of hiding and was aiming with a bow at us. Or rather, at Lily.
The other two hadn’t moved from the tree tops but they probably were doing something as well.

“Now then, give me at least a bit of a challenge, will you? The first one was a bit… of a letdown.”

With a grin, Lily leisurely walked towards the man with the bow.

“Come, shoot.”
“...”

As if responding to her, he let go of the bowstring, setting the arrow loose. It was fast. Not as fast as a crossbow bolt, but nonetheless fast. And deadly. And yet.

“Eh?”
“...”

The man also made a dumbfounded face, the same as me. Because… She hadn’t even dodged the arrow. The arrow just flew past her, disappearing into the forest behind us.

“Not so good at aiming, are we… This isn’t even a warm-up. Come on.”

The man had missed a target that was leisurely walking towards him and not even attempting to dodge. Yet, he had… missed… But… Huh?
The mana around Lily was… moving a little. It was very subtle but… Did she… use magic? She said her magic was only applicable in combat but… If she had done something, I had no idea what. Was it related to how the guy had missed?

“Oh, another try? Feel free to.”

The man drew his bow again and let another arrow loose. Even I could see that the arrow wasn’t aimed well, missing her by a wide berth. The panic was slowly getting to the guy.

“Well, guess your friend needs to pitch in, doesn’t he?”

Lily was just passing the tree where one of the men had hid himself in. Those words should have warned him probably. Likely too late. With rustling of the leaves, a person in a brown robe jumped down, a shortsword in his hand and aimed downwards. A textbook attempt of dropping down from above and stabbing your victim. Except, he stabbed the ground next to Lily.

“Huh? What?”
“Too bad.”

With those words, Lily swung her large sword in a wide arc once more, bisecting the man as well as the surrounding trees.
I quickly averted my gaze from the man… It wasn’t my first time seeing someone die but… The bisected man’s guts were spilling out, making for a not-so-pretty view. And that was putting it nicely.

“Another down. Come on, this is boring. You’re even worse than I expected. Are you even real assassins?”

The man with the bow took a step back, then turned around and broke into a run.

“Hey, this isn’t good. You can’t just run away. Haaa...”

Lily was shaking her head. She was genuinely disappointed, wasn’t she?

“Guess I’ll just have to… Oh?”

The sound of metal clashing against each other was suddenly entering my ears.

“Three smallfry and one who is a bit more skilled, huh.”

A small dagger was embedded in the ground. I honestly wasn’t sure, but Lily had probably swung her arm to swat it away.

“Come down there or I’ll make you.”

Lily hastened her pace and advanced towards the tree in question. For the third time, she swung her sword, cleaving the surrounding trees, including the one the last man had hid himself in. The trees fell down, though some got stuck in other trees, worsening my sight to what was happening. Still, I could faintly see the man in a brown hood that had jumped out of the tree. He was brandishing a shortsword and taking a stance, facing Lily.

“Good, good. At least one seems to have some guts here.”
“...”

The man kept silent, keeping his distance and watching Lily.

“Guess no guts either? Haaa…”

Sounding disappointed, Lily jumped forward, slashing at the man.

“Gaaahhh!”

I do not know what prompted the man to attempt to block her sword after seeing her cleaving through the trees… Yet he did… and paid with his arm.

“Mh, well, guess you’ll do. Oh?”

The man jumped backwards, then turned around and ran. After a short moment of silence, I walked up to Lily, evading the fallen trees. Despite the relatively short battle, the scene was quite disastrous with the fallen trees and the crushed trunks.

“...”
“...”
“He ran.”
“Nn. He ran.”

I took a look at Lily, who had a really disappointed expression. The sword she was now again resting on her shoulder was covered in blood. Some of her armour got covered with splatters of blood too. What surprised me the most though… Her hair usually had a rainbow-coloured glow. It tended to be quite weak so it was easy to dismiss and forget about it. But right now, it had intensified, and the ends of her hair looked actually rainbow-coloured right now... 

It’s already disappearing again, though…

Speaking of which… Did Lily ever tell us what kind of manakin she was?

“Well, let’s collect the other guy and head back.”
“Nn, oka— Other guy?”
“The guy with the bow.”
“Didn’t he run?”
“He did.”
“...”

Ignoring my apparent confusion, Lily walked right in the direction that man had disappeared into. Walking. And not at a speed that would suggest she was pursuing someo— Ah.

“... Lily. Why is that man laying there?”
“Well, you know… Running into a tree at full speed is not exactly healthy.”
“No. Lily, why did the man run into a tree?”
“Because of magic.”

Lily smiled at me.

“Remember what those two girls showed us yesterday? It’s the same kind of magic.”
“You mean… the Illusion Magic?”
“Exactly. I can make other people see Illusions for a short time. It’s nothing great but it works quite well as you saw.”
“... Wait, that’s why they missed you?”
“Yeah.”

No way... Quite well, she said… But wasn’t that… really dangerous.

“People with good observation ability or mana sight can see through them, though. Like that man from earlier. But everyone else?”

She shrugged her shoulders, then squatted down and grabbed the man’s collar with her free hand.

“Let’s head back.”
“Nn…”

I took a look back… Fallen trees, some of them on the ground, others hanging half-suspended in the air, held up by their neighbouring trees. And two corpses in the middle of it, as well as a cutoff arm. As if a storm had hit this place.

“... I can see why Wanda calls you a walking disaster.”
“Now you’re starting with that, too?!”
“... Maybe I should.”

This was really as if a natural disaster had hit. And seeing how one-sided the battle was.

“But you’re really strong.”
“Hehe, of course I am!”

She puffed out her chest and looked all smug. Then, though, it was replaced by a wry smile.

“But I still have a long way to go. I knew that many of the Black Guards were strong. I can’t hold a candle against Papa or one of the older men. They’re strong and have a lot of experience, even without needing to rely on cheap magic tricks like me. But it’s the same among the Dragon Knights. No, maybe even more so.”
“Nn?”
“You see, while you two were asleep for a few days, I had the chance to practice with some of the Dragon Knights. I got beaten blue and black. Haha…”

Those men were… that strong? That this walking disaster got beaten?

“It’s no wonder they’re such a famous and large mercenary group. With men like that. I’ll have to train a lot more until I get there.”

Now she seemed to be all fired up again.

“Nn, I’ll cheer for you.”
“Hehe, thanks, Yumi. But you know, you’ll have to train a lot as well.”
“Nn…”

Honestly, even imagining reaching something like Lily’s level already seemed utterly impossible to me at first. But… there were many things I still didn’t know about myself. Or about this world and its people.

“You should join me.”
“I think I’ll die so I’ll stay with Merim’s training for now.”
“Too bad… Rina is with you as well there, right?”
“Nn.”
“Mm…”

She seemed to be lost in thought a little.

“I won’t take her away from you.”
“... I wasn’t thinking that.”

Well, not that it’d be possible anyway.

“What, are you lonely without her around during training?”
“... A little.”
“Nn…”

Well, that was… honestly quite relatable.

“Haaa… Well… Are we walking in the right direction, Yumi?”
“Nn? Yes, we are.”

There was a group of eight souls a little in the distance.

“Good. Let’s deliver this guy. Still a little disappointed in these guys…”
“... It was a little one-sided.”
“They’re little more than thugs that were trained a little. I must say, they were surprisingly quiet, though. That honestly bothers me a little…”
“Why?”

Wasn’t it their job to, well, keep quiet?

“They completely kept silent even when I provoked them a little. That attitude was way more professional than their actual skill so it bothers me a bit.”
“That’s quite harsh…”
“But it’s weird, isn’t it?”
“Nn…”

More professional than their actual skill suggested…

“Isn’t that simply because their ambush didn’t work out and they got ambushed instead?”
“... You think so?”
“Nn.”
“Mm…”

Lily lifted the unconscious guy up to take a look at him. He seemed to be a middle-aged beastkin man. About as much as we expected. There wasn’t really anything else noteworthy about him, though.

“Guess I’ll leave that to the others… I don’t know, they just seemed pretty weak to me.”
“Hahaha…”

To be honest, I didn’t know either how skilled they were. I only saw them being overwhelmed by Lily, after all. And judging from Merim’s behaviour, they were… at least not really bad.

“Nn, we’ll see.”
“Guess so.”

She attempted to let down the unconscious man again… Then…

“Eh?”

I felt something hit my shoulder.