“They’re watching…”
“Nn… They sure are watching… Well, can’t blame them... Okay, where next?”
“Mm… Over there. Then we covered all the major entrances.”
“Great… Let’s get this over with.”

Covering each of the entrances to the village with tentacles was more exhausting than I had expected. This was probably the first time I had grown this many tentacles at once. The main road into the village was considerably wide so that it could allow carriages, wagons and other vehicles passage. It was in fact wide enough to allow two wagons to pass by each other. That was a lot of space to cover…

Thankfully, not all places are that wide…

Except for the main road, there were of course dozens of other, smaller paths into the village. It was questionable if we could finish this before the sun would rise… Or rather, I might run out of mana crystals first…

“But really… They destroyed the village quite badly.”

Nearly every single house in the village had collapsed, leaving nothing but a large pile of wood and stone rubble.

“Was there a need to destroy so much of the village?”
“I don’t know… Maybe there was a reason for it?”
“Nn… A reason, huh…”

Just what kind of reason could there be to destroy all of the buildings?

“Actually, maybe it’s because of the ogres?”
“The ogres?”

I tilted my head a little, pondering about Karen’s remark.

“The ogres, huh… That might be the case.”
“I don’t think anything else could destroy the buildings that thoroughly… Maybe those magicians could have done it or that large woman but…”
“Nn… That’s true…”

The other worshippers didn’t seem to have the means to even destroy an entire building. In that case, the ogres were the most likely cause. Even if they did have it, that would still beg the question of why they would do all that.

“Haa… I hope nothing else happens…”
“Mr Merim still hasn’t returned, right?”
“Nn… And it’s been quite a while now...”

Even if a problem would occur, Merim was more than capable enough to handle it… Probably. I never actually saw him fight properly yet but I’ve been told he’s pretty strong…

“Yumi, I think around here is fine, isn’t it?”
“Nn… Probably.”

We stopped near the end of the village, at the last main entrance we had to cover up.

“Let’s get to it, shall we?”

Though I said that, the work mostly fell onto me… Karen didn’t really have anything she could help with, outside of removing the occasional piece of rubble that was in the way.

I put down the first mana crystal on the side of the road and transferred the mana from the mana orb into it, growing the tentacles. It didn’t take them long to grow out of the ground, covering our immediate surroundings.

“Hey, Sis.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been wondering but… do we have to clean this up later?”
“...”

I couldn’t exactly leave them out in the open, could I? And I still didn’t have a way of making them hide…

“That might happen…”
“Nn, it might…”

Actually, I didn’t even know if I could remove them… Well, then again, I also left the tentacles back in that cave… Oh, but they were smashed by the large roper so that matter solved itself already.

“Haaa… I am happy when this is over and we get a break…”
“Ahaha… But I think Mr Captain is even more tired than we are.”
“Nn… Probably.”

Korwen had to deal with one thing after another for a few days now already… I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted a break just as much as we did. Maybe even more.

“Nn… And another one…”
“Will you be fine with the mana crystals you have?”
“Nn. Should be good. It’s a good thing I brought extra…”
“I see… If you run out, I brought some with me as well.”
“Wait, you brought some?”

Seriously? And here I was trying to be a little conservative with my use due to the limited amount…

“I did. Didn’t I tell you?”
“... Did you?”

Couldn’t remember that… Maybe she had… Maybe she hadn’t…

“Whatever, I’ll take them. I’d rather not use up all the ones I prepared as grenades for this…”
“Grenades? Ah, you mean those exploding mana crystals?”
“Nn. Those.”

I brought quite a lot of them so it wasn’t exactly that much of an issue, but I’d still have to make new ones later to replace the ones I used.

Note for future me: Bring two bags of mana crystals, one with regular mana crystals and one with the mana grenades.

Turned out that while the mana orb had a tremendous amount of mana, I still needed other mana crystals as a base. Even those tiny mana crystals were good enough as a base so I could just fill a bag with them. Next time I’d know in advance.

“Here you go, Yumi.”
“Nn. Thank you.”

I received the small bag with the mana crystals from Karen. Opening it, I peeked inside. These were more than enough. Great.

“Oh…”
“Sis?”
“Yumi, look. Over there.”
“Nn? Ah.”

Karen pointed towards the village centre. The mercenaries were… removing the unsightly pillar… taking down the corpses of the villagers and laying them down in front of the large building, right in front of where my banner was. Korwen was overseeing them, looking rather solemn.

“May they find salvation in the veil beyond…”
“Nn?”

Surprised by the words, I stared at Karen, who was clutching her hands in front of her chest, eyes closed.

A prayer… is it… How unusual of Sis...

I faced forwards and similarly closed my eyes.

May you all rest in peace.

Neither of us moved for a good minute or two, just silently praying for the deceased, paying our respects.

“... Let’s continue, Yumi.”
“Nn…”

Having finished praying, we both returned to our work.

“...”
“...”

One mana crystal after another, slowly covering the width of the road… One after another… Until we finally reached the end.

“Haa… The last one.”
“Good work, Yumi.”
“Good work to you as well.”
“I barely did anything.”
“You removed that rubble, that is something.”

There was no way I could move that rubble on my own, after all.

“But first, you still need to make some pitfalls…”
“Ahh… Right.”

Nearly forgot about those… Oh well…

“Let’s make two again and then we should report to the captain.”
“Okay.”

The main road was covered but there were still plenty of other entrances into the village. Actually, weren’t my tentacle pitfalls more suited for those entrances than these? Well… Too late now.

“Nn… Here and here, I guess.”
“Looks good to me.”
“Nn. Well then.”

I crouched down and held my hand over the mana crystal. Having done this procedure a few times now, it had become more familiar to me now. As such, it only took a short while before there was a pitfall right in front of my eyes…

“As usual, it’s pretty deep…”
“Nn… Don’t fall inside.”
“I won’t. I could get out on my own anyway.”
“That’s… true, I guess.”

She could still hurt herself with an unlucky fall, so I’d rather not have her fall inside.

“And the next o— Huh?”

Just after I wanted to make my way to the next mana crystal, a mercenary approached us. His eyes were darting around between us and the tentacles behind us. He was the perfect image of nervousness...

“‘Scuse me, girls... Are those… things safe?”
“Uhm, the tentacles? As long as you don’t hurt them?”
“Hmm…”

He eyed the tentacle growth next to me. Behind the man, I could see several other mercenaries watching us curiously.

“So, they’re tentacles? Like, roper tentacles?”
“Nn… They are...”
“... And they won’t attack us?”
“I don’t think so. Probably only if you hurt them.”
“Huh…”

The man crouched down, looking at the tentacles from a little closer.

“Err, is it safe to touch them?”
“... Yes?”
“I see…”

He stretched out his arm, approaching the nearest tentacle to prod it.

“...”
“...”

Nothing happened… He just kept prodding it.

The heck’s up with this situation?

While I was at a loss at what to do, the mercenary suddenly stopped and stood up again, turning around to us.

“Well, uhm… Sorry to have been a bother… I’ll take my leave now...”
“Ah, no problem…”
“...”
“...”

And he left just as quickly as he had come…

“Sis.”
“Yes?”
“What was that?”
“No idea…”

Glad I wasn’t the only one confused…

“A— Anyway… Let’s finish…”

There was no point in wondering what that man had wanted to achieve… Maybe he really just wanted to know if they’re safe… Or something…

“Well then…”

I crouched down at the other mana crystal and created a pitfall at its spot. The tentacles covered the opening and then it wasn’t visible anymore.

“Nn, you know… The tentacles won’t hurt them but they can still fall into the pitfall, can’t they?”
“They can…”
“...”
“...”
“Well, I’m sure the captain warned them… Or will warn them.”

It’d be slightly ironic if the only serious injury was due to friendly fire…

“Yumi, we can tell Mr Captain when we report now.”
“That’d be for the best, huh…”

With that said, the two of us made our way to Korwen. Most mercenaries were busy cleaning up and removing the corpses from the pillar. They had made quite some progress already, having taken down more than half of it in no time. They also collected the strewn out remains and sorted them to their… original owners. If they could recognise them, of course. A few others were scouring the ruins of the houses, digging out a few other… more unfortunate villagers that got buried under their own home.

“Ah, Yumi, Karen. Did you finish already?”

Korwen saw us approaching and called out to us.

“The main road is done, Mr Captain.”
“I see. Any problems?”
“No, nothing. Ah, but it’d be better to warn everyone about the pitfalls, I think...”
“Will do. Good that you remind me.”

He nodded and then faced forward again, watching the mercenaries working.

“Captain, should we do the other paths into the village as well?”
“Mm… No. That would take too much time. By the time you’d be done with that, I’d like to leave already.”
“Nn, okay then.”

Leave, huh…

“Mr Captain, are we going to bury them?”
“No. We’ll leave that to the Lafrians. We’re only going to clean up a little.”
“Is that so…”

Cleaning up a little, huh…

“It’s the least we can do. These people did nothing wrong, they were just the worshippers’ victims. They shouldn’t have to suffer this… indignity.”

The mercenaries laid down another corpse to the others, forming rows over rows… The mercenaries covered them with blankets and the like that they found in the ruins but… It was still unpleasant to look at.

“Let’s get inside. It will take a bit before they’re finished with this.”
“Nn…”

Korwen turned around and entered the building, waiting for us to follow. Once inside, we sat down on the floor. There were no chairs or tables in here. They were probably taken out to make space for all the worshippers.

“Seriously… To think those worshippers would leave behind such a mess… Haa… And we still have no idea what they were trying to accomplish.”
“No clue at all?”
“None, Yumi. None. The only thing we found that’s worth noting were their supplies.”
“Their supplies?”

He nodded in response to my question.

“Enough food supplies to last them for months with a group of this size. But other supplies were also in larger numbers than should be necessary…general goods, clothes and the like.”
“Then, the group actually was larger?”
“There’s little doubt about that.”

So, we had pretty much confirmed… that there were worshippers missing.

“Still no idea what they’re up to, though. Ah, but we figured out the cause of death of the villagers.”
“Their… cause of death?”

Weren’t they killed by the worshippers? With weapons, or the like?

“Mana overload.”
“... Huh?”

Mana overload? Wasn’t that… err… when their body couldn’t handle the mana anymore?

“Most of the dead had no visible wounds. The injuries that were visible were mostly done by the ogres when they got… hungry. And the injuries from that… pillar…. Effigy… or whatever it was supposed to be.”

But what did that mean? Why would they die from mana overload? That made no sense…

“Captain, why would the worshippers go out of their way to kill them like that?”
“... The most plausible answer would normally be as living sacrifices for a ritual. I don’t know how it works so you’ll have to ask Ria about that, but mana overload is the usual cause of death in those cases.”

Korwen furrowed his brows as he explained to us. Something told me, he didn’t really think that was the case, though.

“But if you ask me, this time feels a little different. Ria also said there were no traces of a ritual that was cast… Although, she also told me that the traces could’ve disappeared by now…”

He really didn’t think that was the reason.

“Mr Captain, if there was no ritual, why would they kill them like that then?”
“That’s the big question I wish I could answer. But I feel like it is related to the crystal flowers. They feed on mana, don’t they? Maybe there’s a relation…”

Well, if the crystal flowers needed mana… and if someone died from mana overload, there was probably a whole lot of mana inside them, right? That did make sense…

“But then we’re back at the question of what they intended to do with those crystal flowers…”

And we still had no clue about that, either.

“Mhm… Well, we’ll leave that investigation to Ruben and his men. I’ll make sure he gives me the results, though. They might come in handy.”
“Handy, huh…”
“If we know what they were trying to do, we can have actual countermeasures in case we encounter it again.”
“Ah, that’s true.”

Honestly, I’d prefer not having to encounter this again, though. It was quite hard to stomach… But I might have to…

If only there was someone who could tell us…

Alas, only the worshippers would… know… Wait.

“Captain, did those prisoners say nothing?”
“Those, huh…”
“Nn, those.”

He suddenly wore a complicated expression at my question.

“They haven’t told us anything we can actually use… It’s mostly insults or delusions about how the witch is going to save them.”
“Ahhh…”
“Truthfully, I don’t think they really understand what they were doing anyway. The magicians were leading them and they knew the details of their… activities.”
“Two of which are dead…”
“With the other remaining missing, yes.”

Great…

“And Merim hasn’t returned yet either… I can only hope he found something.”
“Nn… He’s taking quite some time, isn’t he?”
“He is. If there were no problems, he should’ve been back already.”

So, there were problems… Probably.

“For now, we’ll wait until the cleanup is dealt with. If Merim still hasn’t come back by then, we’ll return.”
“We’re going to leave him behind?”
“He can find the way back on his own. He’s not a lost child.”
“Well…”

He wasn’t, yeah…

Good luck, Merim…

He’d survive, I believed in him.
But well, there really wasn’t anything else to do now, was there?

“Nn... Captain.”
“What is it?”
“This all happened in a hurry because Will wanted to clean out the troublesome nobles, right?”
“That’s right. They sent out a part of the army to subjugate that mother roper you girls encountered. While they are away, Ruben and Will plan to clean up inside the city. In fact, they’re probably at it right now.”
“I see…”

We weren’t the only ones busy fighting currently…

“It’s also quite possible that some people are targeting the two girls and are attacking our camp.”
“Eh? Really?”

Wasn’t that bad?!

“Calm down. Why do you think we left so many men back at the camp. And Fenna is there as well. She’s a smart one and knows how to deal with such a situation. And Lily and Greyward are there as well.”
“If that’s the case… Haa…”
“Relieved?”
“Nn…”

He was right… The Black Guards were there, Lily was and Fenna, too. They were all capable in their own right.

“I do wonder how things will turn out. Even if part of the army is away, not everyone follows Ruben’s command. There are bound to be some battles inside the city.”
“... I hope they’ll be fine.”
“It’d take a lot more to take out Ruben. He isn’t called a war hero without a reason.”

But a battle inside the city… That couldn’t be good. There were a lot of civilians there, people that had little to do with all of this.

“Still, we will find out how things played out upon our return.”
“Nn…”

Hopefully, not in the Akkians, the worshippers and those nobles favour…

“Take a bit of a rest for now. We’ll have to move soon enough again.”
“A rest, huh…”

I glanced at the door. Outside, the other mercenaries were, without a doubt, still cleaning up.

“Just try to. Close your eyes, and just try to relax. It’s fine even if you don’t sleep. Knowing when and how to take a rest is something you have to learn anyway.”
“Nn…”

It was a bit hard to relax, though, knowing what was right outside those doors. And that I was still a little… high-strung.

“Well then, I’ll leave you two to yourselves.”
“Nn? You aren’t going to take a break?”
“The men need to see my face. I can’t be away for too long.”
“Is that so…”

He really couldn’t catch a break, huh…

“I’ll have someone call you when something comes up.”
“Nn, thank you.”
“Thank you, Mr Captain.”
“No problem.”

Korwen stood up, waved once at us and left through the door. I could see him take position right next to my banner again, before the door fell shut.

“I don’t think I can really relax in this situation, though.”
“It’s a little hard, isn’t it?”
“Nn.”

Still, he told us to rest up as much as we could…

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Come here.”

Karen moved back until she was leaning against the wall and patted the spot right next to her. However, my eyes were firmly locked onto her thighs instead.

“... I want to sit in your lap.”
“I think that’s not quite possible right now.”
“Ehh…”

It totally was possible. Really. We would just need to get rid of all our armour…

Yeah, no way…

As unfortunate as it was, that really wasn’t going to work out right now… Seriously, when this was over, I’d have to make up for all the missed opportunities to hug and cuddle with Karen.

“And there we go…”

I moved closer to Karen until my shoulder was touching her arm.

“Let’s at least try to rest.”
“Nn.”

I leaned a little towards Karen, resting my head against her shoulder, and closed my eyes. It was unlikely I could sleep, but… a bit of rest probably wasn’t bad.

---

“Nn… Loud…”

The two of us were dozing for quite a while until some noise outside disturbed us. I heard some shouting and before I could understand what was happening, the door of the room was slammed open by an upset Korwen.

“Yumi, Karen. Get out.”
“Eh? Yes?”
“Mm?”

He immediately walked out again, not even bothering to check if we were actually coming.

“Yumi, did something happen?”
“I don’t know… Come, Sis.”
… Okay.”

Korwen seemed to be in quite a hurry. I was a little surprised how quickly my mind woke up… It didn’t take long for both of us to find ourselves outside again. The first thing I noticed was that the pillar was now completely gone and all the dead had been laid down in rows in front of the building, each of them covered in a blanket. The next thing I noticed…

“Merim and the others. They’re back.”

Korwen and some other mercenaries were welcoming Merim and the scouts back. It seems they just returned.

Korwen must’ve immediately told us to come out when they saw them coming back…

Quick as usual…

“... It seems they’re fine.”
“Nn.”

As we approached, we could see that they were a little bit roughed up, but nobody was seriously injured.

“That’s a relief,” I muttered.
“It is.”
“Let’s join them. I wonder why they took so long.”
“...”

The two of us hurried over to Merim and Korwen, just in time to hear Merim begin with his report to Korwen.

“Quick rundown, Merim.”
“We found Yumelia and the other worshippers.”
“Where?”
“In the forest. Near a large cave… surrounded by dozens of corpses. Soldiers.”

A large cave? And the corpses of soldiers?

“What else?”
“Some dead worshippers, several monster corpses—ropers—and…”

Merim stopped, seemingly looking for words.

“And the mother roper.”
“... Dead?”
“Alive. It was following Yumelia.”
“... If you’re making a joke, now is a good time to stop.”
“I wish it was.”

The mother roper… was following Yumelia? What?

“The mother roper spotted us and we had to take a detour. I hope they’re thinking of us as soldiers from the army but…”
“Mhm… I see…”

Korwen nodded, his expression not changing in the slightest.

“Do you know where they were moving towards?”
“... Here.”
“Well, isn’t that great?”

Yumelia was… coming here? With that mother roper in tow?

“I got a lot of questions about all of this but we need to prepare first.”
Prepare?

Did he… No way…

“Mr Captain, you want to... fight that thing?”
“Karen, what was our job?”
“... Getting rid of the worshippers.”
“Right, and Yumelia is one such worshipper.”
“But…”

And that one worshipper had a huge monster as a pet now?

“I am not picking a fight we can’t win, Karen. In fact, I am picking this fight exactly because we can win.”
“But… How?”
“There are quite a few ways as to how. I got a rough idea of the monster’s size from Fenna’s report but… Let’s see, you two have seen it as well, right?”
“Yes.”
“Nn.”

We did… That was exactly why we were so worried.

“Then, can that roper fit on this road?”
“Eh? The road?”
“Yes, the road, Yumi.”
“... No.”

The road was wide but probably not even half as wide as that mother roper. Then again, maybe even less. Back in that cave, we had been unable to see the mother roper in its entirety. It was just that huge,

“Then, that means it will have trouble traversing this terrain.”
“Eh?”

Trouble traversing the terrain?

“It can’t just ignore the houses entirely, can it? It can shove them to the side or attempt to move over them but either way, it will be slowed down, right?”
“I guess so…”
“Mhm, that’s good to know. In that case, we will lure it into the village, preferably to the centre. It’ll be troublesome for it to move away from there.”

Apparently, Korwen had come to a decision and turned around to address his men.

“Get the bodies out of the village and remove every obstacle on the plaza! Taddick, get some men and reinforce the surrounding buildings, just pile up some of the rubble. Make it as hard as possible for the roper to get through there, but leave this road open. And get me someone to check on the other group, they’re running late! Get to it!”

Without delay, the mercenaries around us went on the move, executing Korwen’s orders. Some of them ran to other mercenaries that weren’t here to hear him, to inform them of the orders. Others immediately began to carry the corpses of the villagers away. And so on…

“Karen.”
“Yes?”
“Go and help Taddick. Your strength should help out a lot.”
“Understood, Mr Captain.”

Karen nodded in acknowledgement, then turned to me.

“Good luck, Sis.”
“To you too.”
“Nn.”

And with that, she left. I preferred it if she stayed by my side but… Even I know the time and place. Right now, wasn’t the time to be spoiled. And Karen understood that as well.

“Yumi.”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Those... grenades of yours. How long does it take until they explode?”
“Uhh… I am not sure… A few seconds?”
“A few seconds…”

Korwen’s eyes narrowed as he stared at me.

“Uhm, just for the record, I don’t think I can get close enough to that roper to throw them at it before it attacks me…”
“Nor did I expect you to. I’d be glad if you can throw them far enough that you won’t blow up yourself.”
“... How encouraging.”

He wasn’t wrong, though…

“I got a bit of an idea I want to try out. But first, we need to prepare everything else… You can’t possibly make those pitfalls large enough to trap a roper, can you?”
“... I don’t think so. And definitely not until they’re here.”
“Figured. Someone, get me Ria!”

A nearby mercenary saluted and ran off.

“Merim, how long do you think she’ll need?”
“... An hour, at most. Half, at least. We rushed back without stopping and the cave is quite some ways from here. To add on that, the roper is mowing down every single tree in its way.”
“Now, how convenient. At least we’ll know long before when it returns. Falling trees are pretty hard to miss.”

You’d have to be blind and probably deaf as well to miss them…

“Merim, you and the scouts should take a break. Once you recover a little, prepare for combat.”
“Yes, Captain!”

With a salute, Merim returned to the other scouts to tell them, leaving me and Korwen.

“Captain, what should I do?”
“Mhm…”

Korwen didn’t answer immediately and instead stared at me for a good while.

“How many of those… grenades do you still have?”
“Uhm, still quite a few… But I used up some for the tentacle growth.”
“Can you make more?”
“I can… Sis gave me some normal mana crystals she brought along.”
“Good. Then you know your job.”
“... Okay.”

Just what in the hell did he want me to blow up? The roper? I couldn’t throw them that far, that was impossible…

“Oh, there’s another thing I’d like to know.”
“Nn?”
“Can you fashion a trap with those mana grenades?”
“A trap? No… I need to activate them by hand…”
“Can’t you do that remotely?”
“... No.”

It was possible for me to manipulate mana outside my body but not at a large distance. Or more like, it was only in my immediate vicinity. To activate them over a large distance, there’d need to be a different kind of trigger… A trigger...

“I could try activating them through the tentacle growth… I guess? But I don’t know if that will work.”
“If you don’t know, then forget about it for now. I don’t want to waste valuable ammunition on something like that.”
“Nn...“

Ammunition, huh…

“That’s all I wanted to know. You know your job.”
“Nn. Understood.”

Time to make more mana grenades… I really wanted to know what the hell he wanted to do with them considering I couldn’t throw them far… He wouldn’t make me do some suicide bombing, of that I was sure.

No clue…

Well, whatever, time to get to work...