Once we had eaten our dinner, Karen and I went over to Korwen and Ria in order to discuss with them what we should do about the questionable liquids I had created.

“Okay, let me sum this up: You squeezed out some weird liquid, are pretty much clueless about what it might do and now want Ria to figure out what it is?”
“Uh, well, pretty much, yes?”

Korwen was staring at the waterskins and the mug we had shown him, keeping a certain distance from it.

“Actually, we’re pretty sure one of them is an aphrodisiac…”
“An aphrodisiac… Honestly, I am not sure what I should even say anymore. Probably ‘I’m not even surprised.’ or something like that.”

While Korwen was keeping a safe distance, Ria had come closer, looking at the liquid in the mug and… sniffing it. Was that safe?

“Ria, any idea what to do about this mess?”
“Mm… We would… need some…. test subjects… These are… magical… in nature… It might… not even… work on… animals… or monsters… Or it… could have… different effects...”
“In other words, we would still need people to test this out?”
“That is… correct…”

Err, but who would willingly try to drink a suspicious substance like this?

“It’s too bad we already left Lafria… Otherwise, we could have requested Will for some ‘volunteers.’”
“Mr Captain, who would volunteer for this?”
“Oh, plenty of people, in fact. They just need a little persuasion from the guards and they’d surely choose to drink some suspicious substance over the gallows.”
“... That’s not what ‘volunteering’ means, Captain.”

That was just plain threatening them into doing it. Not like I was going to feel sorry for criminals. For them, it most likely was the better choice anyway.

“I wonder… Did Auria have a prison? Hey, Merim! Come here!”

Korwen turned around, calling for his second-in-command. And said person immediately rushed over.

“Yes, Captain? You called?”
“Do you remember if the town of Auria had a prison?”
“I… don’t think so. At least, nothing beyond some rudimentary cells.”
“Figured it’d be like that. In that case, what to do… Maybe paying some people to try it would work.”

Paying people, huh… In my old world, there were people testing medicines for cash rewards, so maybe this was similar? It was just that there were some risks attached to it… Or more like, we had just no idea what would happen at all. In the worst case, they might die.

“Yumi.”
“... Nn? Yes?”
“You can make more of this stuff, right?”
“Err, yes. I can even have the tentacles make it.”
“Oh, that’s convenient. Then… Merim, get three men, find two or three monsters in the vicinity and capture them.”
“Ehhh? Do I—”
“Yes, you have to. Now stop complaining and move your lazy ass.”
“Yes, yes…”

With a sigh, Merim went away. He called out to the closest three mercenaries and roped them into this unfortunate assignment. I could hear their complaints but there wasn’t anything I could do either...

“We’ll first try it out on some monsters and see what it’ll do. Unless Ria wants to do something else?”
“Mm… No… If she… can make… more… then it’s… a good idea…”
“Great. That settles it.”

Maybe he should have ought to ask her before he sent Merim away? Even if she said it was fine.

“But to think you could even produce stuff like this… Mh, how much could you produce of these liquids?”
“How much? How much… I don’t know? It felt like I used up a little mana but it wasn’t really much. And when the tentacles filled the mug, I was honestly too surprised to check.”

At that moment, I had completely different thoughts going through my head. Checking how much mana they were using wasn’t even remotely as important as making sure they didn’t accidentally flood the wagon.

“So it uses mana?”
“I believe so.”
“Mh… We’ll have to ascertain what their effects are first. But this might be an unexpected windfall.”
“Nn? Why?”

I had a feeling where this was going… A very bad feeling.

“Aphrodisiacs are pricey. If we sell it, we could make a pretty buck on the side. And if the other ones have useful effects as well, there are bound to be a few people wanting them.”

Yeah, I knew it! I knew it! I knew this was how it was going to end! Hurray, Yumi! You’ve taken one more step towards being a material farm! Aren’t you proud of yourself?!

“Haaa...  But first, we have to know what they even do, Captain.”
“Of course, of course. That’s why we’re going to capture some monsters, aren’t we? And once we arrive in Auria, we’re going to look for some test subjects. Ah, maybe it’d be better if we did it in another town? Mm…”

Korwen fell into deep thought, his eyes closed and his arms crossed.

“There’s a town we’ll pass by in a few days so we’ll look there. Mh, good.”

Seemed like he had come to a decision. But in a few days, huh...

That might be inconvenient… Assuming he permits the other request we had…

Well, we’d likely discuss that now… And just as expected, he brought it up.

“Now then, with this topic out of the way, there was something else you wanted to discuss with us, is that right?”
“Nn…”

I explained to Korwen and Ria what I had been thinking of, causing both of them to stare at me in surprise.

“You want to absorb mana until you end up in that eggshell again?”
“Nn, pretty much… Actually, I don’t know if that would happen again…”
“As far as I understood it, you barely know anything about that at all, right?”
“Yes…”
“And yet you still want to risk that?”

Ahh, of course, he wasn’t going to like it. I better shouldn’t tell him that my main motivation was because I was bored to death… Err, scratch that. Of course, I was purely motivated by intellectual curiosity, nothing else. Yes, for sure. Boredom and all that had nothing to do with it.

“But, it will surely happen sooner or later anyway. I can’t stop myself from absorbing mana, after all.”

I didn’t even know if I really wanted to stop absorbing it since it was likely mana that was sustaining me.

“That’s true, I guess… Ria, what do you think?”
“Mm… It is… a hard… question… To be honest… I don’t know…”
“You don’t know either, huh?”
“It might be… a good idea… it might be… a bad idea… We simply… won’t know… until then… Or… if we could… ask her…”

Korwen grimaced at Ria’s alternative suggestion.

“Her. You mean that witch, don’t you? I’m sure she would know but would she even be willing to tell us?”
“Probably… not…”
“Thought as much… After all, where would the fun for her be? Seriously, this is quite a troublesome thing you brought up… Even if I knew you would bring it up sooner or later.”
“You… knew?”

I cocked my head, a little surprised.

“Of course. Even I can add one and one together, you know? Your situation won’t change itself and I expected you to bring it up at some point. Although I have to admit, I expected it at the earliest when we would arrive at the fort.”

Add one and one together… It was pretty obvious, after all, wasn’t it? Yeah…

“Then again, I guess it is also a good sign you are willing to confront these things now.”
“Nn? Wha—”

For some reason, Korwen’s large hand pressed down on my head and ruffled my hair.

“You have my permission, as long as you are absolutely sure about this. And preferably, don’t change too much. It would be troublesome if I had to adjust my plants again because someone decided looking human was too boring, okay?”
“I’ll do my best.”

I wanted to keep looking like this too, after all. I’d probably be quite heartbroken if not. After all, I had gotten quite used to this appearance of mine. It was cute.

“Yumi…”
“Nn? Ria, is something wrong?”
“Would it be… all right… if I were… to study… what happens… to you?”
“Err… You mean, while we’re…”
“Yes…”
“That’s… all right, I guess?”

Not like I was going to notice it anyway. And honestly, Ria might have a solid chance at understanding what was really happening to me.

“Mm… I won’t… disappoint…”
“Okay? Good luck, I guess.”

She might need it. Good luck.

“Did you have any plans on when you are going to do it?”
“Nn… Honestly… the sooner the better? Sis?”
“We could do it before going to sleep?”
“That’s fine by me.”
“Me as well.”
“Then before sleep it is.”

Now that we had decided on a time… I honestly felt a little more nervous, all of a sudden. After all, things might end up like last time… They also might not. We had no way to know for sure. But something was bound to happen.

“You talk as if you were just going to sleep afterwards.”
“Well, we kind of are?”
“...”

Just not the normal kind of sleep, probably?

“Seriously, you two? Haa… Either way, we’ll stay on standby in case something goes wrong. Maybe it’d be better if you have Ria along as well.”
“Eh? That’s…”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, uhm…”

I couldn’t really go and tell him that we were going to… have some nightly fun first… Before doing the mana absorbing stuff… Ahh, but I could completely understand that Ria should stay with us. It would be better, wouldn’t it? Would we need to delay our fun then? But…

“Captain… I think… They should… be fine… on their… own… If something… goes wrong… I can… still go...”
“Are you sure about that, Ria?”
“They have… to learn… to do… things by… themselves… don’t they?”
“That’s not wrong, but… Well, if you believe they’re fine on their own.”
“Mm… Then… I will… study these… in the… meantime…”

Ria took the mug, peering into the liquid. If I didn’t know better, I would have bet that she was doing to down the whole stuff any second now, that’s how intently she was staring. Obviously, she didn’t do that, but…

“... Don’t make it explode, Ria.”
“I won’t…”
“... You say that every single time, you know?”

Korwen shook his head before returning his attention to us.

“I assume you won’t immediately head off now, will you?”
“Nn? Well, it’s still… early.”
“Then, I would appreciate it if you could wait until Merim comes back with some monsters and we can do at least some tests. You probably would want to see it as well, right?”
“I do.”

I’d prefer seeing whatever havoc this stuff was going to cause with my own two eyes.

“Good. Was that all you wanted to discuss or is there anything else?”
“I don’t think so.”

We were only going to ask about the liquids and request permission for our experiment. Wait, there was something else.

“Nn, actually, there’s something. It’s more of a report though? We did some other experimenting earlier and… We found out that I can strengthen myself with mana.”
“Oh? Elaborate.”

Once more, I explained to him about our earlier findings. I also told him about the things Elina had told me and how I had even gotten the idea to try this out.

“Strengthening yourself with mana. That’s quite interesting… It would be quite something if you could maintain it, though.”
“Not as long as my mana crystal absorbs everything…”
“Is that why you thought of feeding it?”
“Well, more or less.”

If we fed it enough mana, it might stop devouring mana like a starved dog its food.

”I see. If it stopped absorbing your mana, you could use mana to make yourself stronger. I am impressed, Yumi. You might actually have found the way to make yourself as strong as an ordinary person!”
“Captain…”

There was no need to drive in the point of how weak I was, was there? That really wasn’t necessary! I already knew that myself.

“But that does make me wonder… Yumi, Merim has been training you girls for a while now. Did you ever notice any changes?”
“Changes?”
“Like being able to run longer before getting out of breath and things like that.”
“Not… really?”

Honestly, I had my doubts that anything had changed since Merim had begun training us. Then again, I had the feeling Rina was getting a little better each time while I was left behind… That was just my imagination, right? Right?

“Mh… I see. Well, do your best.”
“... I’ll try to.”

I wasn’t going to give up just yet… Not like I had much choice in the matter anyway. Then again…

“Captain, why is Merim not training us while we’re on the trip? I saw others running and training yesterday under his instruction…”
“That’s exactly the reason. He’s busy with the others. And I’d rather not have you girls train with those youngsters.”
“... It can’t be that bad, can it?”
“It can, trust me. We used to train everyone together. There’s a good reason we don’t anymore.”

In other words, some stuff actually happened in the past…

“Anyway, for now, just be glad you won’t be getting any training. Taddick is in a similar situation as you probably noticed.”
“Oh, he is?”
“Yes. Not like it’s going well, though, but that’s a different issue.”

Was that fine? Wasn’t Taddick teaching them about combat theory and group battles and all those things? Wasn’t that important?

“Point is, until we arrive at the fort, you’ll be free of training. Mm, in that sense, it’s probably a good thing you brought that stuff up. If you do it on the trip, you’ll miss out less on the training.”
“I have this sudden epiphany that it might be better to delay our experiment until we are at the fort.”
“Oh, really? Well, since you are missing out on training then, I’ll tell Merim to ramp it up to, let’s see, five times each day. For each day you are missing out. Ahh, but maybe we could even do a few additional days. Yeah, two days for each day missing.”
“I’m sorry, we’ll do it now.”
“Good decision.”

He really would do that. He definitely would do that. And I didn’t want to die this early. There was no choice if I wanted to live… Ahh, so cruel…

---

We continued to talk with Korwen and Ria for a good while, until Merim finally returned, bearing news of his endeavour.

“Captain! We have returned.”
“Merim, you sure took your sweet time. Did you capture some monsters?”
“We did, but…”
“But?”
“We found a goblin nest nearby. It’s not particularly large so I was thinking of taking our recruits and getting rid of it.”

A goblin nest? The same kind of goblins that monster-obsessed professor kept?

“A goblin nest? Well now, we can’t have that. You have my permission. Get some men and clean it up. And take Fenna and her squad with you.”
“Fenna? I don’t mind but why?”
“It might be good for the recruits to see them in action. Hopefully, it can prevent future trouble.”
“Ohh, I see. Will do.”

Merim saluted and left immediately to collect the recruits. Several seconds later we could hear the loud complaints from the young men, who very obviously had little to no motivation to deal with goblins this late in the day. 

“Now then, it would have been nice if he told me what monsters they caught… Guess they’re going to be goblins. Goblins of all things… Yumi, I hope that stuff of yours works quickly.”
“Uhm… I don’t know? Why? Are goblins a problem?”
“Little bastards have a knack for escaping and causing trouble, despite being dumber than a brick. And you don’t want the kind of trouble goblins bring. Anyway, let’s go take a look, shall we?”

With Korwen in the lead, we went over in the direction Merim had come from, bringing the mugs and the waterskins along. A minute or two later, we saw him giving orders to the young men and Fenna’s squad in preparation for their raid. Nearby, three mercenaries were watching over several small creatures.

“As I thought, goblins.”

Tied up in rope were five small, green-skinned humanoid creatures. They kept screaming in a high-pitched voice, struggling to break free from their restraints. Green skin, wrinkly and distorted, thin limbs where you could clearly see the bones, foul yellow teeth and large eyes, frantically observing the surroundings. Honestly, I didn’t want to look at these things. Their appearance was several times worse than the ones the professor kept. And not only their appearance…

“It stinks.”
“That’s goblins for you. There’s little else that stinks as much as goblins do.”

Even Korwen was holding his nose, unable to stand the smell.

“Seriously, couldn’t they have brought something else? Anything would have been fine that’s not goblins. Hell, I would even take an orc, or an ogre or spirits forbid a troll.”
“Captain, sir, a troll would be impossible.”

The nearby mercenary responded with a wry smile, without taking away his eyes from the struggling goblins.

“Ehh, let’s get this over with. Yumi, give me that mug.”
“Sure. Here you go.”

I handed Korwen one of the mugs with the suspicious liquid. He took a step forward, then stopped. His eyes went to the mug, then to the goblin, and back to the mug. After several seconds of repeating this, he turned around, facing Ria.

“Ria, can we just pour that stuff on them? Or do they need to drink it or something?”
“I don’t… know?”
“Yumi?”
“I have no idea either. But, err, it comes from a needle that seems to be for injecting…”
“... Well, you god enough of that stuff.”

Korwen took another step forward and then promptly dumped the mug’s contents onto the closest goblin in the middle. After swinging the mug a few times to get the residue out, he promptly stepped back, as if to escape.

“Spirits above, the smell! Don’t these things know the meaning of a bath?”
“I fear they don’t, Mr Captain.”

Yeah, they definitely didn’t. Anyway, what was happening? The screeching had immediately become louder as the goblins grew weirdly excited. The goblin who got the liquid dunked on it was vigorously licking up the liquid from the ground. The other goblins were similarly trying to get to the liquid.

“What the… is that stuff some kind of monster bait, Yumi?”
“I don’t know?”

Seeing the goblins go crazy over it was… unsettling. It reminded me of how the goblins had gone crazy back at the Academy.

“Ah. Maybe that’s it.”
“What?”
“Maybe they think it is food? The monsters the professor in the Academy kept were going really crazy over the monster meat that he was feeding them with.”

Actually, the goblins had at first ignored the meat and had tried to hump the person behind it… Thankfully, the barrier had kept them away but still… These goblins were probably more occupied with getting out of the ropes, though. Until Korwen had dumped that stuff on one.

“Mh, so you’re saying they see it as food because of the mana?”
“Yes.”
“I see. In that case, it’s probably just a side effect, huh? Mh? What are they doing now?”

The goblin that was dunked in the stuff was still licking the ground like crazy. But the other four had given up and were now trying to reach the fluid on the other goblin’s body. One goblin had somehow managed to twist itself so much that it was actually reaching there. The foul mouth with the yellow teeth opened wide and…

“Gyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“What in the?!”
“Eh?”
“... Huh?”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. My eyes went wide as I was staring at the scene in front of me, unable to process what had just happened. The goblin licking the ground was screaming with n unbelievable energy. Screaming in pain, as the other goblin had ripped out a piece of flesh from its side.

“Ca— Captain? What is…”
“...”

The other goblins had managed to reach the middle one as well, opening their mouths wide with glee in their eyes. Their victim screamed in pain, thrashing around with all it had.

“They… They’re eating… each other…”

The goblins kept biting, chomping, ripping out their kindred’s flesh and devouring it. Once my mind had finally processed the sight in front of me.

“Ugh…”

I turned around, escaping from the scene, unable to bear the sight. My knees went weak and I fell to the ground. The goblin’s screams behind me continued. They went on and on. Until… Until they finally fell silent. Only the sound of something munching remained.

“Get them apart! Hurry!” shouted Korwen.
“Ye— Yes, sir!”

The goblins made a ruckus and screamed at the mercenaries. I couldn’t see what was happening nor did I want to.

“You little… Keep quiet!”
“Keep still you little bastard!”

The mercenaries cursed at the goblins for a good while.

“Get them somewhere else! Or better yet, get rid of them! Go!”
“Yes, sir!”

The screams of the goblins became quieter, farther away until they stopped, never to return.

“This was… Not good,” muttered Korwen.

Steps came from behind me, closing in. Then, something warm wrapped around me, embracing me. And a familiar voice whispered into my ear.

“Yumi.”
“... Sis.”

She didn’t say anything else, only called my name as she gently embraced me from behind. We stayed like this, silently trying to deal with what had just happened. At some point, Korwen came up to us, sitting down on the ground next to me. From the corner of my eye, I could spy his face, uncharacteristically pale.

“Sorry, you had to see that. I… I didn’t expect that.”

His voice was quiet. He took a deep breath, then leaned forward, holding his forehead with his hand as if he had a headache.

We simply sat there for several minutes, accompanied only by the mercenaries around us that had gotten active after a while. At some point, Korwen stood up again, patting his legs to get rid of the dirt.

“This is going to give me nightmares… Karen, you two should go and call it a day. Forget about your plans for later and all that, you can do that tomorrow or whenever. Take a rest. You’ll need it”
“... Understood, Mr Captain.”

With that, Korwen left again. Behind us, he gave orders to the other mercenaries to ‘clean up.’

“Yumi, shall we go?”
“... Nn.”

Karen and I stood up. Or rather, tried to. My legs still felt wobbly and I quickly lost balance, holding onto Karen to prevent myself from falling face down.

“... Here we go.”
“Ah.”

The next moment, my legs had left the ground. Karen had lifted me, carrying me in her arms.

“Let’s go.”
“... Nn.”

I held onto Karen, burying my face in her bosom. I just wanted to forget that scene. I wanted to forget all about it.

“We’re here.”

I could hear the wooden door of the wagon open and close behind us. After a few more steps, Karen let me down on the bed.

“Let’s… sleep, okay?”
“Nn.”

With a wry smile on her lips, she patted me, ruffling my hair. Her expression was stiff and she was just as pale as Korwen had been.

“Sis.”

I grabbed onto her clothes, then hugged her waist, gently stroking her back. Her body stiffened up for a second.

“It’s all… fine… Sis…”
“Yumi…”

Karen returned the hug, squeezing me.

“Yes, it’s all fine. It’s all fine now. Let’s… Let’s just forget what happened.”
“Nn. We saw nothing. Nothing at all.”

We laid down on the bed, still hugging each other. We quickly undressed, seeking each other's warmth and security in a desperate attempt to drown out everything that happened moments prior. We were just… tired. Too tired.

It took a long time until both of us fell asleep. Fortunately, neither of us had any nightmares.