"Here, take this."
"Ah, thank you."
"Nn, you're welcome."

The soldier took the mug with water and drank a hearty amount.

After our little performance, if one wanted to call it that, I joined the three girls in doing some miscellaneous tasks. Those tasks were mostly just bringing the soldiers some water or bandages, so it wasn't particularly hard. And they still thanked us every time with a smile.

"Yumi, Yumi!"
"Nn?"

I turned to the side to see Emily happily skipping and grinning at me. She was like this since earlier, every time I was close she'd dash to my side with the brightest smile possible.

"Yumi, won't your hair get dirty? It's dragging on the ground."
"Nn... Well, it probably will."
"But that's no good!"
"Even if you tell me, what am I supposed to do?"
"Mm..."

Emily cocked her head to the side. If she could actually think of a solution, I might be more than happy to hear it.

"Carry it?"
"..."

Right, I could have expected this one.

"I can't really carry it all day long, right?"
"Oh... Mm..."

She didn't seem to have any other ideas.

"Mm... Why do you keep your hair that long, Yumi? Are you hiding something?"
"Hiding?"
"Hiding! Like, a tail?"
"No, not that I know of."
"Oh..."

For some reason, my answer disappointed her. I wasn't sure what she expected but I sincerely doubted my hair could hide a tail anyway.
Emily's eyes wandered towards my behind.

"Are you sure you don't hide a tail?"
"... Nn. Fairly sure."
"Okay..."

I didn't know why, but she apparently really hoped that I had a tail. There were many weird things about me, but I couldn't provide her with this.

"Why do you want me to have a tail?"
"Why? Because it looks cute and it's fluffy! Fluffy!"

It was important, so she said it twice. Well, I did agree that it was cute, though. And fluffy.

"Emily, Yumi, what are you doing?"
"... Slacking..."

Maya and Sele joined and we were immediately accused of slacking.

"We're not slacking!"
No, actually we are slacking...
"Then, what are you doing?"
"We, we, um..."

She was desperately trying to think of an excuse. Her tense thinking expression was scary, though. A cute kid shouldn't make such a face.
That's why I poked her forehead.

"Emily, you shouldn't make such a face. It ruins your cuteness."

Surprised, she looked up at me, her expression relaxing.

"Nn, that's better! And we weren't slacking, you just tried to help me, right?"
"Oh... Oh! You're right! That's not slacking!"

I smiled wryly and turned to Maya and Sele, only to be greeted by Maya's intense stare. Did I do something wrong? Or did she still count that as slacking?

"Unfair..." she murmured. But what was unfair?
"Yumi... What about me? Am I cute?"
"Eh? Ahh... Nn. You're also really cute! And Sele too, of course."
"Ehehe."

Maya smiled at me, a wide, bright smile. She had been jealous that I called Emily cute, from the looks of it, but now she was happy and smiling. Next to her, Sele was also slightly smiling.

"Yumi, Yumi!"
"Nn?"
"You're also, like, really really cute!"
"Eh? Thanks?"

I was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden statement from Emily. Being called cute... Didn't feel bad. It made me a bit happy.

---

After another ten minutes or so, during which we totally didn't slack off collectively, Sele pulled on my arm and pointed somewhere. I wasn't quite sure what was in that direction, even after looking there.

"Yumi, Yumi, aren't those the two girls you were with?"
"Huh?"

Emily was pointing in the same direction as Sele was. She must have had incredible eyesight since I couldn't quite make them out among all the other people I could see. It took a minute or so until I finally found them.

"Nn, you're right."

Karen also spotted us and waved her hand.

"Yumi! We are done back there, how is it here?"
"Nn, good work. I guess everything is fine here, too?"

Karen gave me a smile.

"That is good to hear. So, those three are your new friends?"

Karen looked past me, at the three girls behind me. Sele walked forward and latched onto Karen's arm.

"You were Sele, right?"
"..."

She nodded. Maya and Emily approached her now as well, maybe because Sele was already friendly with her.

"You two are..."
"Emily! I'm Emily!"
"Maya."
"Emily and Maya, is it? Nice to meet you. I'm Yumi's big sister, Karen."
"Hey, hey, and what about me?"

Lily pointed at herself.

"How about you just introduce yourself then?"
"Are you sure, Karen? Okay! Behold! For I am—"That's Lily."—the beloved, wait, Yumi?! You can't just barge into my introduction?!"
"Introduce yourself like a proper person then."
"But I was going to!"
No, you definitely weren't. You were going to say something ridiculous again, for sure.
"Ahaha, she seems funny!"

Emily laughed at Lily's little comedy skit. Even Lily didn't complain after the sincere laughter.

"At any rate, I'm Lily! Nice to meet you!"
"... Ah!"
"Maya? What's up!"
"She's the weird-smelling person!"
"What the heck?! I'm not smelling weird, am I?"

At the surprising mention, she started sniffing herself in a panic.

"Hey, Karen! I'm not smelling, am I?"
"Even if you ask me..."
"Yumi!"
"Go take a bath? It's probably just sweat, isn't it!"
"But I've been trying to make sure I don't smell of sweat of all things!"
"Then I don't know..."

I turned towards Maya, who was frozen in front of the scene her bombshell caused.

"Maya... In what way does she smell weird?"
"Eh. Um, the smell she gives, it's not fitting?"
"Not fitting?"
"Yes, people smell differently. And her smell doesn't fit!"

I had honestly no idea what she meant by that. Of course, every person had a slightly different smell, animals with good noses were able to distinguish between them. And yet, for one, she was telling me her nose was good enough to notice different smells, and then she said, it doesn't fit. I was at a loss.

"Yumi, Yumi! Maya says, her smell and her looks don't match!"
"Her looks?"
"Her looks!"

I turned towards Lily again. Emily's explanation shed some light on it, but I was still at a loss. There was only one thing I could think of...

"Lily... are you male?"

A moment of silence. Then, Lily became red, like a tomato.

"I'm a splendid woman! I don't have a dick nor do I want one!" she shouted at me.
"... You shouldn't say such crude words, as a girl."

Karen was slightly taken aback at her choice of words. For a girl that basically grew up in the slums, she still valued proper language, much to my surprise.

"What do you want me to say then? Penis? Male genitalia? Cock? All the same and I don't want any of them!"
"Lily, calm down..."
"You're the one at fault, Yumi!"

Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. There was no use in blaming me now, right? Right.

"Yumi, is she a pervert? She's a pervert isn't she?"
"She is, Emily. Make sure you keep some distance."
"Waaah, how scary!"

Oh, Lily crumbled to the floor. What did she expect if she started shouting those words in front of them?

While she was sitting on the floor, Sele let go of Karen and walked towards her.

"... Miss Pervert?"
"I'm... I'm not... a pervert..."
"Not... Miss Pervert?"
"No... I'm not!"

Sele stretched her hand and patted Lily on the head.

"Good... Girl...?"

Lily froze for a moment and then looked up at her.

"... Are you an angel?"
"... Mm? I'm not...?"
"No, you are! You have to be!"

Lily basically jumped at Sele and hugged her, from her position on the ground, and began burying her head in her chest.

"Such a good girl, can I take you with me?"
"... No... you can't."
"Ehh... But I want to!"
"... No... selfish..."
"Uhh..."

In the meantime, we all looked upon those two, unsure how to react.

"Yumi, that person is weird..."
"It's okay, Maya... I hope."
"Yumi, you shouldn't bully Lily too much, she helped us out a lot, okay?"
"Nn, I'm sorry."
"You should tell her that, not me."
"..."

Well, I might have actually felt a bit bad but by the time I saw her happily hugging Sele, all the guilt already disappeared. I might have done something bad...

---

It took some time to detach Lily from Sele but by the end of it, she was already up, full of energy. Karen still urged me to apologise, so I did. So, why was it now me who was caught in her arms? And nobody was helping me.

"Lily, could you please let me go, now?"
"No way, not until I'm satisfied!"
"... And that is when?"
"Never!"
"..."

The only good part was, that nobody asked me to help now. Emily, Maya and Sele returned to taking care of the soldiers and Karen went off to find Merim or Korwen, so I was alone with Lily now.

"Listen, I said I'm sorry, okay..."
"Doesn't matter! They think I'm some pervert now!"
"But you are..."
"I'm not!"

She got awfully defensive on being called a pervert. While I was unsure what to do about her, I couldn't suppress a yawn. Not because I was annoyed or bored but because I was actually tired.

"Are you sleepy?"
"How couldn't I? Rather, how can you all be so energetic?"

Thinking about it, it was in the middle of the night. How could those three girls have so much energy?

"You'll get used to it."
"Used to it... huh..."
"Yes! Used!"
"That reminds me. Maya and the others earlier said they heard one of you talking with Korwen that we'll stay with them?"
"Mh? Ah, yes. That was me."
"... Without asking us?"
"I did talk with Karen. And if Karen says she stays, then surely you would stay too, right? But she still wanted to talk with you about it."
"Well, you're not wrong... It still annoys me a bit."
"It's better than you two not coming to a conclusion any time soon."

She paused for a moment, fiddling with my hair.

"You see, we agreed to stay with them already, so Korwen now already considers us part of his mercenaries. He's a sly bastard, but he won't abandon his people or sacrifice them. As long as he can avoid it, he will protect everyone with all he can."
"That sounds a bit like a contradiction. They are mercenaries, isn't danger normal for them?"
"Yes, it is. They make a living with their sword. But that's what it is, a living. If they die, the money doesn't matter anymore, right?"
"Well..."
"That's why they will do everything they can to survive. Dying is not part of their job."

I lifted my eyes towards the starry sky. A sight you could rarely see in my old world, due to the ever-present light of civilisation.

"But, are you fine with that, Lily?"
"Huh? Me?"
"Weren't you with the other group, before? The Black Guards?"
"Ah... You see, before I left, the old man... I mean, the captain... He told me to see the world with my own eyes. That I should make a living apart from them. Even if it means standing on the other side of the field."
"Is that so...?"
"It is, isn't it... I think he wants the current generation of the Black Guards to be the last one. I have no place with those old geezers. I do hope they will live a long life, though. Well, they won't die so easily."

I looked behind me and saw Lily with closed eyes, leaning backwards.

"Anyway! I made my decision as well. I'll stay with both of you."
"That sounds more like you stay with the mercenaries only because of us."
"Well, that's how it is?"
"Eh?"
"Something the matter?"
"... No."

That was an entirely unexpected confession. But I just couldn't say anything to her now, with her refreshing smile.

"If it's like that... Well, guess we'll stay then. Those three will be happy."
"Don't pretend you're not happy about it. You're quite fond of them, aren't you?"
"Well, maybe I am."
"Hehe, such an old woman being friends with three cute little girls. How dubious!"
"... I'm not old."
"Right, you're a cute little girl yourself. I wonder if you will stay so cute and little."
"I wouldn't know..."

I didn't mind staying like this, it was inconvenient sometimes, but I felt comfortable with it. While we talked, Karen appeared in our field of vision, together with Merim, who was now wearing brand-new, shining equipment. It somehow looked like he was a brand new soldier, not like the vice-captain.

"I'm back! Did you behave, Yumi?"
"I did, Sis."
"She did, and now she's mine! I won't let her go anymore!"
"I doubt she will let you do that though."
"You three, how can you be so merry right now? You really never fail to amaze me."
"It's better than getting stressed out over it. And so far I can only see that everything is under control."

Lily answered Merim in a rather direct manner.

"Even if it is under control... Ah, whatever. You're not wrong, aren't you."

He scratched the back of his head, giving up.

"Haa, there's not much to do anymore anyway. I just got word that they are basically done, so let's go to them and help clean up. Also, the captain told me he wanted Yumi to come.

"Me? Why?"
"I don't know. We'll find out there. So come, before the sun rises and none of us even get a wink of sleep anymore."

Lily let me go and I jumped off her lap. The warmth on my back that had become somehow comfortable was gone, making me feel a bit disappointed. Without us noticing, this girl intruded on Karen and me and found her own place rather quickly, didn't she? I smiled wryly at the thought.

---

We followed Merim to the place where most of the fighting occurred. It wasn't particularly far, of course, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to carry the injured soldiers there.

The number of ogre corpses increased until we could see veritably dozens of them. It was beyond me how they could deal with so many. The disgusting smell was also beyond me. I felt like vomiting at any moment. Karen and Lily were also grimacing, clearly trying to hold back.

"Ah, there's the captain.."

Merim pointed at the tall man, once again, busy ordering the soldiers.

"Captain! I brought them here!"
"Merim? Ah, good work. Take over for a moment, would you."

Korwen promptly brought us to the side, leaving Merim alone.

"Finally, away from that cursed smell."
"If you leave Merim like that every time, he'll abandon you at some point."
"Nah, he won't. Don't worry about that, Yumi. In any case, it's good you're here. I want you to look at something."
"Look at something? At what?"
"At this."

Korwen took the bag he was carrying on his waist and opened it, fishing around for a small, blood-stained stone.

"It's the mana crystal of those ogres. I'm not a magician, and Ria is busy tending to the wounded, so the closest one with an idea is probably you."
"What about the other two magicians? What were their names again?"
"Wenners and Krutz. They aren't here right now. I'll bring it to them later as well, but I want to know as quickly as possible what we're dealing with."
"Even if you say that... I probably can't really tell you anything, either."
"That's fine too. Just give me an impression."
"Nn... I'll try."

He handed me the mana crystal. It was still bloody and it didn't feel or smelled particularly good, but I should ignore it. Or at least, I had to try my best to do so.

"It feels... weird, doesn't it? Like, the mana isn't free?"
"Free?"
"Nn."

I tried absorbing some of the mana, but I failed, much to my surprise. I could gather it and draw it out, but I couldn't absorb it. At least, not by drawing the mana in.

"Can't absorb it, either."
"That's weird..." commented Lily.

Korwen stroked his chin in wonder.

"Yumi, there's one thing I want to know. You girls were attacked by one of these ogres as well, right?"
"Nn. Lily killed it."
"Did it show any weird behaviour towards you?"

Weird behaviour? I didn't quite know what he wanted me to tell him.

"There was one thing. The ogre seemed awfully fixated on Yumi. When I attacked, it just brushed me to the side and ignored me."
"As expected... I think those ogres wanted for some reason to get to Yumi. The reason we could hold them off this easily was that they came at us in small numbers and they all seemed to try getting past us into the camp. If this were a serious battle, we wouldn't have gotten by without any losses against those numbers. To be honest, the pure amount of war potential these things possess is slightly scary."
"To me, but why?"
"Hell if I knew. If you got no idea then I sure as hell don't have one either. At any rate, it's good we got rid of these. There might be a few left, so we'll have to stay up for some more."
"May you rest in peace."
"Don't make fun of me, you'll sit here too."
"I refuse."
"Guess you don't need to sleep in a tent with a warm blanket tomorrow."
"... I'll think about it."

Korwen laughed at my response.

"I guess from that reaction, you three talked about it once more?"

He glanced at Lily and Karen. Karen didn't know about my conversation with Lily earlier, so she was slightly surprised, her eyes wide. I turned towards her.

"If you're here, Sis, then there's nothing else to discuss, is there?"
"... Yumi."

She looked at me.

"You make it sound like I'm forcing you to."

And complained. The dream of a sweet atmosphere was destroyed within seconds. Farewell, my dreams.

"But, I see... Thank you, Yumi," she whispered and pulled me into her arms.
"Thank you."
"Nn..."

There wasn't anything else to say.

"You two, you're great at ignoring your surroundings, okay? We got that already, so please return to reality!"
"Lily, shut up."
"I won't! You're making me jealous! Excluding me like that again!"
"Then just come over."
""Eh?""

Seeing Lily dumbfounded was a fresh and pleasant sight. Karen was just as dumbstruck, but she soon started giggling to herself.

"Yumi is right, if you don't want to be excluded, then you shouldn't just stand on the side, right?"
"..."

Lily's eyes were starting to become wet. She looked like she might start crying at any moment. Slowly she walked to us, and Karen pulled her into her arms as well. Now, tears were really running down her face.

"You're quite a handful, aren't you older than me, Lily? You should pull yourself together!"
"Nn, where's our pervert Lily who is always joking around?"

With a gentle smile, Karen hugged both of us tightly. We didn't say anything, just listening to the quiet sobbing sounds.

She surely was lonely, wasn't she... She left the ones dear to her behind. Now, all alone, she was expected to survive. She acts mature and jokes a lot, but she's just a young girl herself, right... I wonder, did Wanda expect this to happen?

---

It took some time until Lily calmed down. Now, she was simply pretending as if nothing happened, but it was clear that she was a lot more cheerful than before. Maybe a bit too cheerful, considering the hour.

"Hey, Yumi! Yumi, if Karen is your big sister, and I'm Karen's big sister, then it should be fine if you call me Sis Lily or Big Sis Lily, right?!"
"I refuse. You're Lily. The end."
"No way! Come on, please, Yumi! Just once."
"No."

From the side, we could hear Korwen laughing heartily.

"You three are amazing, really."
"I don't think we're that amazing..."
"Yumi... Oh well, I think you are. You remind me of the three brats, your little friends."
"In what way?"

I didn't really expect those three to be mentioned now.

"You're of different races, heck, one of you is not even from a humanoid race, and yet you come together and treat each other like family. It's not something you see often, you can be sure of that."
"But why is it familiar to those three?"
"I'm sure you noticed yourself already, that they aren't like the other kids their age, right?"

I nodded. None of the other kids was out here, helping the soldiers. I hadn't seen those three with any other children their age even once so far. And it wasn't like there weren't any. I spotted a few when we came here the first time. Yet, they were mostly around the other mercenaries.

"And those three, they aren't humans either. Maya's parents were with us, but they died early in a war. We picked up Emily in a forest on a job. She actually has some talent as a magician and she gave us quite some trouble at the time. Sele was... mistreated by her clan and her parents. I don't know to which extent, but it never got to physical abuse, to my knowledge. We took her along, in fact, her parents were celebrating that we offered to take her with us."
"That is..."

I was at a loss for words. Karen and Lily looked down. I didn't know Lily's past, but I knew it probably wasn't great either. And Karen told me about her how she and Miria were exiled.

"Honestly, stories like this aren't rare. Picking up orphans and abandoned children happens occasionally in our line of work. Most bands can't afford to feed extra mouths, but we got the leeway, so we often take them along and drop them off at an orphanage later. Sometimes, though, they stay with us, like those three. Of course, we can't feed them for free, so they have to work. And we are mercenaries, after all."
"You mean..."

I remembered something. When I was practising shooting the crossbow, Maya helped me and showed me how to do it. She was really good as if she was trained in it.

"That's how it is. I'm still glad they do act like kids their age. Some kids we picked up in the past were overly serious, nearly overzealous. It hurts to look at them. But those three haven't given up, probably because they are together. Though, they do tend to be extreme sometimes..."

He scratched the back of his head. Somehow, the motion reminded me of Merim.

"Maya gets extremely jealous really quickly. So be careful. She took a liking to you, after all. I think she wanted you to become the fourth member of her little family. And if she doesn't get it her way, her methods can become really extreme. Just, make sure she doesn't burn down the camp, okay?"
"She wouldn't really do that, would she..."
"She nearly did once."
"..."

How the heck did he expect me to prevent that?

"Anyway, the three's past isn't the real problem. The only one who took anything from it was Sele, but she recovered a lot. The problem is rather the present."
"Why the present?"
"We're a band with quite a few different races, but nearly all of us here are still human. Now, you have three non-human brats with no parents. No matter how much they work, there will always be some discontent. Though, it is less with the soldiers than with the non-combatants. People are prone to prejudices, and even I can't do much against it. Most of them are families to my men. So, they are mostly around us instead. And, I can't say we're always the best company for three little girls, right? I know I can't expect them to experience a more peaceful life, but it would do them well to at least look a bit more to the outside."

He took something out of his bag. It looked like a stick made of plants. Was this... a cigar? He took out a small fire stone and lit it up. It really was a cigar. His gaze turned towards the soldiers still outside, staying on the watch or cleaning up the corpses, while he smoked his cigar.

"Really, the three are still on the lucky side of life. Many children end up in the slums or die on the street. Others die of hunger or malnutrition. Countries like this one are the worst, in fact. The nobles, the church and the imperial family, live their life to the fullest, while the majority of the citizens suffer. The city is still better than the slums, but not by a lot. Even there, they starve. Honestly, I'm glad we got a reason to get out of here. Thank you for that."

I didn't quite know what I should answer, but maybe he didn't even want an answer. It seemed more like, he just wanted to vent.
He puffed out some smoke. It slowly disappeared into the night.

"After this, the plan is to go to the Kingdom of Lafria. Lafria isn't on the best terms with this country, but it's a lot better as a country. They'll also be happy to hear any information we can offer them about the situation here. We'll be staying there for quite a while. It's a beastkin country, but they are open about other races, unlike here."
"Beastkin?"

That wasn't a term I was familiar with. Well, I heard about it from fiction before, sure, but not here.

"You don't know about them? Well, that's a surprise. I thought for sure..."
"Nn, what are they?"
"Well, they are for the most part just like humans, except they have a tail and instead of our ears they have beast-like ones. There are many differences among the various tribes, so it's not easy to pinpoint common points. Some of them have a strong sense of smell, others have incredible eyesight. There are various differences, too many to count them. Most tribes are rather amicable, though."

It did sound a lot like the ones I heard about in fiction, but they also seemed a bit different.

"In this country, beastkin are mostly persecuted and discriminated against. In fact, most non-humans are. Many here have to hide their outward traits, or they would get into trouble. Officially, as they are part of our mercenary band, they shouldn't get into problems, but as a matter of fact, they do. Frequently, even inside our own camp."
"... That sounds... troublesome. Why were you even here in the first place, then?"

I didn't want to complain, it was good for us, that they were here, but I still wondered.

"For what else other than for jobs? The Akkian Empire is a surprisingly good employer. And you can't always choose who you work with. Even if you hate their guts, as long as they pay well, you would still do it, right?"

He took another drag from his cigar and puffed the smoke into the night.

"But yeah, good riddance, if you ask me. Though, I should probably say that once we're gone from here. It'll be a bit of a problem if we can't journey through here anymore, but thankfully, we can reach every neighbouring country through other routes. As long as the borders don't change, that is."

He paused for a moment. I looked over to Karen and Lily, who were both listening quietly as well.

"Well, you shouldn't listen to an old man's grumbling all the time, right? The important point is, we'll be gone from here soon. Best case we can get this done by tomorrow, in the worst case I still want to get out of here by tomorrow. I'm sure you'll like the Lafria Kingdom, in more ways than one."

He gave another hearty laugh, followed by taking a drag from his cigar.

"Oh? There come the three brats again."

I followed his gaze and saw Emily, Maya and Sele sluggishly making their way towards us. Maybe the lack of sleep finally got to them, as they looked like they might fall asleep any second.

"Yumi."
"Nn?"

Korwen called out to me.

"Don't take pity on them, just because I told you their past. They don't need that, they don't really feel unfortunate in that regard anyway. They don't know anything else, after all. Just be a good friend to them, that's what they need."
"Korwen, you really care about them."
"Of course I do!"

I smiled at the instantaneous response.

"Yumi... Yumi... Here you are."

Emily, devoid of any energy, stumbled towards me.

"Nn, are you okay? Emily? Emi— Wah!"

She fell straight towards me. If I hadn't caught her, she would most likely have injured herself.

"Emily, be careful. Emily?"
"Mmmm... You're warm..."
"Hey! Emily? I'm not a blanket!"

Unfortunately, she didn't hear me anymore, as she promptly departed to cloud seven the moment she repurposed me and my hair into a blanket.

"Let me join."

Maya basically fell down onto me as well and wrapped herself in between me and Emily, clearly wanting to enjoy the living blanket as well.
Since I knew how it would turn out, I just made some space for Sele to lie down as well, which she promptly did.
Karen giggled at the sight and stood up, bringing an actual blanket to us.

"Don't let them catch a cold, Yumi."
"I won't."

I took the blanket and draped it over us. Now, the heat couldn't escape and it became a lot warmer.

"You should sleep a bit too, Yumi. If something happens, we'll wake you up."
"But..."
"Just sleep."
"Nn. Good Night, Sis."
"Good Night."