"You mean, they might chase us?"
"Not 'might,' they definitely will. They don't want anyone to know about their little project here. Not to mention, they practically lost all their research subjects now. They'll want at least get revenge for that."

So, we were not safe yet.

And as if on cue, the ground was shaking again.

"Again?!"

Everyone held onto something close-by until the shaking stopped.

"Why the heck is the earth shaking?"

But before anyone could answer that question, the ground rumbled again, not due to the earth shaking again, but because the ground started sinking.

"Get out! Out of the house!"

Merim shouted and we all hurried through the door. I could hear something crashing behind me. We ran outside, and after confirming we were all present, we cautiously watched the building in the moonlight.

With very slow movements, it started tilting backwards. Then, after another minute, something crashed and we could see the backside of the house disappearing into the ground, closely followed by the front a few seconds later.
A large dust cloud whirled up.

"Good thing we weren't in there..."

I had to agree with Karen on that one. That wouldn't have ended well if we were still inside.

A few moments later, just when our initial shock subsided, the ground rumbled again. This time, however, from further away. In the distance, multiple dust clouds could be seen.

"It seems that more buildings have collapsed."

Scary. But why were they all so calm? I would have expected them to be panicking. I tugged at Karen's sleeves.

"Sis, why are they all so calm?"
"Mh? Oh, right. You don't know since the last time has been quite some time ago, but it happens once in a while, maybe once or twice a year. Usually not to the point that buildings collapse, though."

Oh, so this was a region with frequent earthquakes? So they were all simply used to it.

"Still, the timing for this... it can't be a coincidence, can it?"

Lily murmured the exact thing everyone had already thought about most likely. Merim nodded in response.

"I doubt so. But I don't really know many things that could cause such a tremor. At least, not in this region."
"Large-scale magic or a monster, I guess?"
"Probably. Or we ground really just collapsed and what we're feeling are just the aftershocks."

A monster that was powerful enough to cause such a tremor would be quite dangerous. And definitely not something I'd want to face. Ever.
But the large-scale magic sounded quite worrisome as well. Just what kind of magic could be that powerful? I really hoped that these were only aftershocks and not something else...

"In any case, for now, we need to get out of here. It is probably just a matter of time until either the lord's guards or the church's knights appear here. And we definitely don't want to be caught by them."
"I agree. Yumi, Karen, let's go!"
"Nn."
"Okay."

Lily and Merim led us away from the collapsed building. The slums were dark and except for the lanterns, there was only the moon's light illuminating the streets. That didn't mean there were no people around, though. In the distance, we could hear people shouting. Maybe they were those involved in this.

"Merim, where did the others go?"

I had been wondering about this since we left the underground. The other mercenaries and the girls weren't here anymore, same for the women's squad.

"They went ahead. Since you were taking your sweet time I decided to get them to a safe place first. That you were starting to treat the girls right there was pretty ridiculous, anyway. What were you guys thinking?"

Merim, visibly ticked off,  started reprimanding us.

"If we hadn't been able to hold them off or if Lily and the others hadn't been able to protect you, you would've been captured and then everything would've been for nought! You should have gone straight to safety!"
"Well, Merim! It was me who told her to do it. I thought she could start taking a look and make use of the time, so don't be mad at her."
"I'm mad at all of you, you included, Lily."
"But everything went well, didn't it?"
"It did, and we can be goddamn glad it did. So, don't do anything like that again, are we clear? Your own safety is important!"
"But—"
"No buts!"

Merim looked over to us as well, apparently expecting our answer.

"Nn... I understand, I'm sorry."
"... I'm sorry."
"..."

Karen and I apologised, but Lily obviously didn't want to give in.

"Lily, I'm waiting."
"..."

She turned away, trying to ignore it. The only thing Merim could do was sigh in exasperation.

"Lily, it's nice you're confident in your skills, but you should still consider the worst-case scenario. If there's an option that allows for more safety, you should choose that, if you are worried about their lives, that is."
"Ugh... Putting it like that is unfair."
"Life is unfair, you should know that already."
"... I'm sorry."

Lily looked rather dejected after Merim pointed out her mistake.

"As long as you understand, it's fine."

He nodded satisfied.

We walked on in silence for a few minutes after that exchange. We met a few people here and there, but they almost immediately ran away when they saw the armed Merim and Lily.

"Nn?"
"Yumi? What's up?"

I stopped walking and looked back. Something irked me. Like something was tugging at the corner of my mind.

"I don't know. Something feels weird."
"Weird?"
"Nn."

The others followed the place where I looked, but nothing happened nor did anything appear.

"Everything seems fine, let's walk on. If anything changes, do tell us, Yumi."
"Nn. Understood."

We continued, but the weird feeling stayed the entire time. It was really uncomfortable. I glanced back again for a moment, but nothing had changed. There was nothing there, but something was drawing me to it. Worried, I grabbed hold of Karen's sleeve.

"Yumi?"
"Something is there... It's weird as if something tells me to go there..."
"Tells you to go there?"
"Nn..."

Karen followed my line of sight but, of course, she couldn't see anything out of place either. Then, with a rumble, the earth shook once again.

"Again?! This can't be normal!"

We all quickly grabbed hold of whatever was nearby. In the distance, we could hear some buildings collapsing. The rumbling sounds drowned out everything else. After a few moments that felt eternally long, the rumbling slowly stopped and the earth stood still once more.
But before we could breathe a sigh of relief, the thunderous sounds of something crashing down could be heard.

"What the heck just happened?!"
"If only I knew, Lily... If only I knew..."
"Yumi, are you okay?"
"Nn..."

We all stood back up and surveyed the surroundings. Luckily, none of the surrounding buildings crashed down on us, but even in the darkness of the night, we could spot a few buildings in the distance that collapsed onto the street.

"Karen, Yumi, do feel that too?"

Lily directed our attention to something in the far distance from the direction we had come from.

"The mana is... in turmoil? What is that, Lily?"
"Large-scale magic if I had to guess."
"Nn... Isn't that bad?"
"I don't know, it depends on the kind of magic involved. Mh? Something is coming..."

Lily drew her Zweihänder and Merim also readied his sword. They both moved in front of Karen and me to protect us. A huge shadow appeared in the darkness. We could hear something being dragged over the ground and the stench of blood returned.

"A monster...? Here?"

I didn't know who murmured that, but I didn't have the leisure to bother about it, either. In front of us, an ogre appeared, similar to the one we had seen before. Except, this one had dark blue skin and was clothed in ragged equipment. He was also carrying a broken pillar like a club in one hand.

"Merim, I have never seen an ogre with dark skin that is carrying equipment or a weapon. What is that?"
"I wish I knew because neither did I."
"Well, great."

The ogre, previously just walking towards us leisurely, suddenly took a deep breath and roared.

"Karen, Yumi, get away from here!"

The ogre started dashing in our direction. Lily jumped forward and slashed towards the ogre. Alas, the ogre just caught the sword with its empty hand and threw Lily to the side.

"Lily!"
"I'm fine!"

With astonishing agility, Lily turned around midair and landed on her feet. But the ogre didn't even show any interest in her and continued charging at us. Or rather, towards Karen and me. Frozen stiff, I could only watch the ogre advancing on us. Merim tried to get in between but he was promptly thrown to the side as well.

And so, barely a moment later, the ogre stood right in front of us. It was breathing heavily, steam coming out from its mouth with every breath.

"Yumi, run! It's after you!"

I could hear Lily scream. After me? But why would it be after me? I couldn't process anything at all. Because, this thing, was just that scary. The one in the forest couldn't even compare to this monster. Even if it tried to hide, the density of the mana surrounding it was just too different.

The ogre stretched its arm out towards me. But then, it screamed.

"Get away from her!"

Lily had stabbed the ogre from the back. It screamed and thrashed around in pain.

"Eh?"

Its leg, as thick as a log, swung towards me. The world tumbled around me.

---

"Yumi!"

I could hear someone shouting my name. Everything was dark around me and my side hurt quite a lot.

"Yumi!"

Again, someone called for me. But it was still dark, I felt slightly disoriented, but then a small ray of light appeared in my vision.

"Sis...?"
"Yumi!"

I could feel her lifting my body and hugging me.

"Don't scare me so much!"

Karen was veritably sobbing while hugging me. I tried recalling what had happened but my memory was really fuzzy and I couldn't remember it. I remembered seeing the leg coming in my direction and that I tried to shield myself reflexively. But that was all I could remember.

"Yumi, you... don't worry us so much!"

Behind Karen, I could see Lily appearing. There was quite a lot of blood on her, but her expression was calm, so it was likely not her own blood.

"Lily... what happened?"
"You got hit by the thrashing ogre and he kicked you away. If you hadn't protected yourself who knows how that would have ended? Didn't know you could do that, though."
"Do what?"
"You don't remember?"

Lily lifted her eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, why don't you look down on yourself and take a guess?"

Couldn't she just tell me what happened? Slightly disgruntled I looked down. But I couldn't see anything out of order. My hair had gotten all over the place.

Nn? My... hair?
"Sis... Let me go for a moment..."
"But..."
"Please..."
"... Okay..."

Not quite willing, she let me go and I stood up.

"... This is going to be a huge pain, isn't it..."
"Well, it did save you, though."
"How the heck did it save me?"
"How should I know? It was just suddenly in front of you and took the impact?"

My hair had moved in front of me? But how did it...

Oh! I completely forgot about that.
"Yumi? What are you thinking about?"
"... Wondering when I left the human route. I wish I had a safe point right now."
"Safe point? Human route?"
"Nothing..."

Apparently, I had, in reflex, moved my hair in front to cushion the impact. Obviously, with the force of that ogre, the impact still launched me through the air. After all, I was just a dainty little girl that was barely weighing anything. But now, I remembered that I had experimented with Karen on whether I could move my hair. At the time, I couldn't really do much since we were bathing and the wet hair was quite heavy, but now it was a different matter.

I tried remembering the feeling I had back then, and the feeling I had just earlier, and sure enough, it moved. Quite well, in fact.

"That looks pretty creepy, please stop," implored Lily.
"I'm sorry. But still, what do I do about this."
"I don't know, maybe you can make it into some knot or so? Not quite sure about hairstyles."
"My head feels heavy."
"Not much I can do about either, sorry."
"What happened to the ogre?"
"Got rid of it while you were out cold."
"How long was I..."
"Not long, only a minute or two."

I looked around and found the ogre's corpse some ways away. It was lying face down, so I couldn't make out how it died, but there was quite the pool beneath it. Merim was next to it, probably inspecting it. Maybe he hoped to find a clue as to what kind of monster that was.

"You look pretty energetic, but does anything still hurt?"
"My sides hurt quite a bit when I woke up, but that's gone now too."
"Seriously? I would have expected more than a few broken bones, you got quite the devil's luck, huh..."

If I had the devil's luck I probably wouldn't get hit by a monster that wasn't even aiming at me. In any case, I wasn't seriously hurt, so that might have been a good thing.

"Lily, Karen. Oh, Yumi is awake already, that's good.

At that moment Merim returned and called out to us.

"Did you find anything?"
"Yes, you could say that. The equipment is clearly made for that monster, but it's also rather cheap stuff. Also, we clearly weren't the first people it encountered. There were other traces of battle on it."
"Made for the monster? Do you mean someone raised the monster in this place?"
"Not only that, it's likely there are even more of these around. I fear those idiots set them free in the slums to either cover their tracks or to have them hunt us down. But these things are clearly not exactly intelligent, even though they really have a lot of strength."
"That thing was obviously stronger than a regular ogre."
"They might have strengthened it in some way other than the equipment."

Lily and Merim disappeared into their own little world discussing things I honestly had no clue about. Karen had walked next to me in between and smiled wryly. She was still carrying her little sister on her back. That girl made no effort to actually wake up. The serene expression on her was quite calming.

I poked the girl's cheek a bit.

"Yumi..."
"Nn?"
"Don't play with sleeping people's cheeks."
"Says the one who squished my feet while I was sleeping."
"..."
"..."

We glared at each other until we couldn't help but burst out laughing. I was glad everything was fine.

"You girls... You're really carefree, aren't you?"
"Well, isn't it good like that? They had barely time to relax."
"We're still not safe, Lily."
"We're close to the camp, aren't we? A few more minutes and we'll be there."
"That's true, but..."
"You worrywart. We should just get a move on. You two, as well."
"Nn, I understand."
"Okay."

We calmed ourselves in response. It wasn't much longer until we were in a safe place.

"Ah, Yumi, you should walk in the back though, unless you want someone to step on it."
"..."

Right, I already tried to forget this. I looked behind me, at my hair. It was already super long to the point that it touched the ground, but when I protected myself earlier, it must have grown even longer. It was clearly dragging behind now. I probably had to be around Korwen's size or even taller to prevent it from dragging now.

"I have to find a way to stop it from growing back when we cut it."
"You definitely should. Unless you want to become some kind of hairball monster."
"Please spare me."

I had no intention of becoming a hairy ball jumping around. 

---

A few minutes later we could see the camp's lights in the distance between the buildings. We decided to leave the ogre corpse for now and ask Korwen to retrieve it later. The place was rather deserted since it was close to the mercenary camps, so there wasn't much danger of others scavenging it first. Not like a single person could even carry it anywhere.

"Nearly safe! Mh? They seem rather... lively there."

Just as Lily said, we could see a lot of lights in the camp and quite a lot of people running around. When the guard at the gate spotted us he slightly panicked and ran inside the camp.

"What the heck was that?"
"Don't know, oh, there's Korwen. How fast."

Barely a moment later Korwen hurried towards us.

"Girls, quickly, you have to hide!"
"Huh, what's going on?"
"The church is here."
"Eh?"

The church? Already?

"I don't know why or how, but they are making a ruckus. I don't think they know the details, but they want us to scour the slums and get rid of every 'unholy' element."
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"
"I wish I knew, but we might have set off something quite troublesome."

Korwen ushered us into the camp and led us away between the tents, avoiding the main path leading to the centre tent. He also sent Merim off to some other place, asking him to do something.

"You are the last ones, I think. At least Wanda said you girls were the only ones missing for now."
"Wanda is here already? That's good news."
"Yeah, but you girls should hide here. Especially your little missy Yumi."
"Nn? Why me?"
"Because you suck really bad at hiding."
"..."

Well, he wasn't wrong now, wasn't he? If I was good at it, he wouldn't point it out now. Karen looked surprised while Lily showed an expression that pretty much said 'as expected.'

Saying nothing else, he led us into a pretty big tent at the other end of the camp.

"Stay here until we call you out again, okay?"

And he left promptly again. I surveyed the inside of the camp and I could see a few familiar faces inside. The women's squad and the girls that we had rescued were inside. The latter ones were still sleeping, albeit a lot more peaceful than before. There was also one woman I kind of recognized but wasn't sure from where. She was apparently treating those girls.

"That is... One of their magicians, Ria."

The woman, Ria, lifted her head upon Lily's murmur. She nodded and gestured to us, telling us to come closer. We walked towards her, then she pointed towards an empty bed while looking at Karen.

"Eh?"
"I think she wants you to put Miria down there?"
"Ah! That was it."

The woman nodded again, confirming my guess. Karen carefully laid down her sister. A small smile surfaced on her face. I sat down next to Karen and we watched how Ria checked if everything was okay with Miria. She nodded towards us again at some point and then moved away, back to the other girls. Apparently, everything was okay. I wished she would say something, though.

"Still, what should we do now?"

Lily sat down next to us.

"Ah, we forgot to tell Korwen about the monster!"

And she jumped back up again.

"I tell someone to relay that to him."

She dashed away. Didn't Korwen just tell us to hide here?

"Well, nothing we can do about. She will be fine, surely."
"That's just inviting it to go wrong, Sis."
"Is that so?"
"Nn. If you think everything is fine and voice it out, it will surely go wrong."
"Isn't that just your imagination?"

It might have been my imagination, but still. I didn't want Lily to make a ruckus now. I was honestly just tired. We all were, most likely. Maybe because I finally considered myself in a safe place, but now, that the tension slowly left me, I could feel how tired I actually was.
Suddenly, I could feel someone pulling me to the side, causing me to fall down. but instead of the hard ground, I hit something rather soft.

Looking up I could see Karen smiling down at me.

"Thank you, Yumi. Without you, I surely wouldn't be here, together with Miria again. And most likely, I would have never been able to see her again. So really, thank you so much."

Tears were gathering in her eyes, but she was still smiling.

"Sis, if you hadn't picked me up, who knows what would have happened to me so it's me who has to thank you."
"... Seems we both got lucky, right?"
"Nn!"

---

I didn't know when, but at some point, I dozed off. I noticed because some people started shouting, waking me up. When I opened my eyes I could only see something silverish. Karen had dozed off as well and we were both lying down next to Miria. She had used me as her body pillow again. I lifted my head to look past Karen. Outside the tent, I could hear people shouting, but they were too far to make out.

"Yumi? You awake?"

I turned around and was greeted by Lily, who was sitting together with the women's squad.

"Nn. What's going on?"
"The church people are still making a ruckus. They are now trying to inspect the entire camp. In the middle of the night. The nerve of these dumbasses..."
"Eh? Isn't that bad?"
"Not really, they aren't allowed in here. This is the women's quarters and the stupid official isn't allowed in here. Even though Korwen already agreed to help them out, they are still making a fuss."
"He agreed?"
"Yes, they decided on a price and Korwen send some men to investigate what is happening in the slums. He also retrieved that ogre corpse in secret and is having it investigated. The size of this incident is completely blowing out of proportion. And Korwen is rubbing his hands at it."
"... Why is he rubbing his hands?"
"He thinks he can make a profit with some luck. Not sure what he is thinking of, and I sure as hell don't want to know, either."

I tried sitting up, but the sleeping Karen didn't let me go of me. She was muttering something in her sleep. Alas, I couldn't quite make it out. Carefully moving her arms away I tried again, only to notice I was still pulled down, for some reason, from my other side though. Miria had grabbed my clothes as well in her sleep.

We haven't even spoken one word to each other and you are already attached to me? How precious.

Unfortunately, I was sure that she most likely just grabbed onto me because I was close and not because of any ulterior motives. Not like a sleeping person could even have those.

I gently removed her grip and stood up. Then I slowly pushed Karen towards Miria, carefully avoiding waking her up. It didn't take long for Miria to grab Karen's sleeves and for Karen to hug Miria. My heart ached a bit at how easily I was replaced.

"You done?"
"Nn..."
"Why do you look so down now...?"
"No particular reason."

I walked over to Lily, nodding to the other women as a greeting. They smiled and made space for me to sit down. I should ask for their names sometime.

"How long did I sleep?"
"Not long, maybe around an hour? You can sleep some more if you want."
"I doubt I can sleep with the hysterical screaming as background music."
"You should learn it then, you can't choose when to rest, sometimes."
"Like now?"
"Like now."

Without prior notice, the shouting suddenly stopped. I was glad it did because it was really unpleasant. I wondered whether all the people from the church were like this. They probably woke up quite a few people with their incessant screeching.

"Finally he stopped. That was horrible."
"Nn."

I stretched my arms and yawned.

"You sure you don't want to go back to sleep?"
"Nn... I'll leave Sis for a bit with her sister, she needs it."
"How thoughtful of you."
"Aren't I a good little sister?"
"Yes, yes, you are. You did well."

Lily patted my head with praise. Being praised definitely felt good.

"Ms Yumi?"
"Nn?"

I turned to the woman sitting next to me. She looked a bit fidgety. It reminded me of earlier when they tried to pamper me.

"May I, um, hold you?"
"Eh?"

That wasn't quite the question I expected. Not in the least.

"Err, go ahead?"
"Thank you!"

The woman smiled and then hugged me.

"Ahh, so cute"
"Unfair I want to. as well!"
"Let me hold her too!"

And then they all gathered around, trying to hug me, pat me and whatever else they could do.

I shouldn't have said yes!

Yet, I was sure I'd feel bad if I told them to stop now. And honestly, it didn't feel that bad. I would prefer it if Karen hugged me, though. I wasn't budging on that.

They all played with me and hugged me for a while until Lily forcefully made them stop. I would have expected her to join in, but instead, she looked quite grumpy.

"Are you little kids... Don't bother her that much."
""""We're sorry.""""

Lily shook her head. Then, at that moment, a bell sounded through the camp. A really loud bell.

"The alarm?! Why is the alarm being sounded?"
"The alarm?"

Before someone could answer, a person stormed into the tent.

"Wanda?!"
"Girls, get ready."
"What is happening?"
"We're being attacked. Monsters are trying to storm the camp."
"Eh?"