Karen and I returned after talking with Korwen for a while.  He told us some more about what happened during the trip, or rather, what didn’t happen. Except for one or two incidents, nothing noteworthy had happened and they had been just gazing at the scenery. In other words, they had been pretty bored. The difference compared to Karen and me was simply, that they were used to travelling and didn’t really mind it as much as we did.

Nonetheless, some others weren’t as used to travelling either. Namely, the elves. Oh, and Rina, but apparently she had used the time to appeal to Lily with all her being. Seeing how it had been Korwen who told us about it, she probably wasn’t exactly reserved with it.

Just what the heck were you doing, Rina?

I was torn between wanting to ask Korwen or just pretending that I heard nothing.

Either way, we had a nice time talking with our captain. Unfortunately, it was already night and even Korwen was in need of sleep now and then. He bid us a good night and left. Having lost our conversation partner, there wasn’t really anything left for us to do either. We asked Wendl to open up our wagon and we returned for the night. Same as the other mercenaries that were in resting mode. Except for the guards and some few guys drinking the night away, most were asleep.

“But I don’t feel like sleeping either…”
“We did just wake up, after all.”
“Nn…”
“And even if we did want to… Yumi, can you sleep on that?”
“...”

Honestly? Probably, yes. I had become so desensitised to tentacles, that I probably could sleep on that fleshy mess that covered our bed. That didn’t mean I really wanted to, however.

“Should we clean up?”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
“Nn… Then, Sis. How do we clean this up?”
“... I thought you had an idea?”
“I don’t.”

At least, nothing concrete.

“I could try removing the mana but they’ll probably just dry up then… I guess we could remove them like that.”
“Mm.”

Karen stared at our bed, or what once had been our bed. Remains of the egg were covering it and surrounding these remains were fleshy tentacles. Our room had become dyed in pink during our sleep. Considering how it was supposed to be only in our little side room, this wasn’t a very welcome development.

“I don’t really have any other ideas, so let’s go with that.”
“Okay.”

Having come to the decision, I immediately set off to drain the mana of the tentacles on our bed. They withered, they shrunk and seconds later they had, well, died off.

This is a little sad to watch…

They had grown so much and here I was, ruining all their work… But it couldn’t be helped… It was our bed.

“Yumi!”
“Nn?”
“Woah?!”

Karen called out to me, bringing my thoughts back to reality. Just in time for me to witness the tentacles I had just drained returning to life.

“... Well, that sure worked out well.”
“Yumi…”

To be honest, I couldn’t deny that I felt a little relieved. But this was a problem. Was I going to feel bad about the tentacles whenever they’d get hurt?

Actually, what part of the tentacles would even be the… heart? Core? Or whatever that makes them them?

Food for thought. If I had to say, the tentacles in our side room seemed to act like they were one being. So, rather than killing them, it was probably just us cutting off a part of them? Maybe, like I was cutting my hair?

Yeah, let’s go with that. It’s just a haircut.

Problem solved.

“Well, what to do about this...“

If I couldn’t readily drain them… Unless they moved away out of their own accord…

“... Actually, maybe they would?”
“Yumi?”
“Sis, you think they might free up the room if we ask them to?”
“... They might.”

And if they didn’t… Well, our nights would become a lot more tentacle-y. Not necessarily in a good meaning either.

“Nn. Then…”

I turned to the tentacles covering the bed.

“Please free up the bed.”
“...”

The tentacles froze, stopping their wriggling and squirming.

“So, uh, is something supposed to happen now?” I asked.

We watched the tentacles for a while. Just before were thinking of trying again, they began to move. The tentacles on the bed stretched towards the sides of the beds, literally pulling themselves across the surface. They actually… moved away. At a snail’s pace, sure, but they moved.

“It works, Sis. Our bed is saved.”
“... Seems so. I didn’t expect that.”

Neither did I. Neither did I.

“But that’s great, Yumi. Now you only need to free up the entire room!”
“... Ah.”

Oh great, this was definitely going to take a while…

---

“It’s over.”

After what felt like an eternity, we finally managed to move all the tentacles out of our bedroom into the side room. It took a really long time. Not only did it take the tentacles forever to even move in the first place, but they also moved so slow a snail was without a doubt faster. I had been curious why that was but it seemed they were actually trying to, well, move by growing.

In the same way that the tentacles sprouted on the ground, they used their mana to grow in a certain direction, then release the part that was on the other end. It was a very surreal sight once I figured out how it worked. On the other hand, I was worried they would be running out of mana. They never did, though. They didn’t actually grow larger either so maybe they just reabsorbed the part that they released from the ground? I had no idea.

“I’m tired.”

Lying on the bed, I spread my arms and relaxed. We also had to clean up the remains of the eggs—which was a lot easier since it didn’t seem to have any kind of will and was just some dead shell—but once we had finished so, our bedroom had returned to its usual state.

“Good job, Yumi.”
“Nn.”

Karen sat down next to me on the bed and gently stroked my cheek.

“That took an awful lot of time…” I muttered.
“It’s still dark outside, though.”
“I see.”

I had somehow hoped it’d be morning now but… Well, we basically woke up right around the time everyone went to bed and, as everyone knew, people were sleeping for quite a long while… It was probably naive of me to hope for it to be morning already.

“I don’t feel like sleeping yet, though… Hey, Sis, what should we do?”
“Mm…”

I rolled to my side and hugged Karen’s waist. Her tail slapped against me as if to chide me for my behaviour.

“Stop that Yumi.”
“No. I won’t.”
“Gee... “
“Hey, Sis.”
“Mh?”

Her tail was still slapping me at regular intervals. It used to be so unresponsive but recently, it really had become lively. But that wasn’t important now.

“Look, your tail.”
“My tail? What about it?”
“The tip.”
“Huh?”

Her tail stopped moving, before reaching around her waist so that she could take a look.

“...”

She silently stared at it. Moments later, she poked her tail tip.

“It has become pink…”
“Nn.”

The formerly silver-coloured tip was now pink. The same slightly metallic pink that her hair was currently sporting.

“Hey, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Are my eyes still the same?”
“Nn, they are.”
“I see.”

Her eyes hadn’t changed. But judging from her question, she was already expecting that it wouldn’t stay that way…

“I wonder if they’ll change as well.”
“...”

If she kept this up… Probably.

“Sis, are you really fine with this?”
“Yumi, are you still worried?”
“I don’t think I couldn’t be worried.”
“... If I wasn’t fine with it, I would have put a stop to it immediately.”
“...”

Her hand landed on my head, stroking me.

“Well, it’s not like I’m not sad at all. This silver colour has been with me for my whole life. And it’s also an important colour I share with Rina. But, your pink is just as important to me, Yumi.”
“I didn’t just mean the colour…”
“Ehehe, I know. But Yumi, this was my choice. I thought about it quite a lot, you know? But in the end, I decided by myself that I want this.”
“...”

I peeked up at her face. She was smiling brightly.

“Really, I’m no match for you, Sis.”
“Well, that’s what makes me the older sister, right?”
“Ha, I guess that’s true.”

Really, it was just like back then, I could never match… Mh? Wait?

“... Yumi? Is something wrong?”
“... Well, I just felt like I experienced something similar before. With the older sister part…”
“What, Yumi? Are you hiding other older sisters from me?”
“I don’t think that’s something I can hide, can I?”

Karen giggled at my response. Well, she knew about my situation and she sounded more like she was joking, just now.

“I’ll have to do my best so you forget about any other older sisters apart from me.”
“That actually sounds a little scary.”
“I have to do my best to protect my little sister from all the bad things in the world.”
“You make it sound like they’re bad.”
“Of course they are, Yumi! I won’t allow anyone else to call you their little sister.”

Good thing I didn’t intend to gain any more older sisters.

“Ah, but what about Rina?”
“What about her?”
“Well, she calls me ‘Lil’ Sis,’ right?”
“...”

Karen froze. Wait, wasn’t this bad? I wasn’t going to start some unexpected bloodbath among those sisters, was I?

“... Well, I can forgive it if it’s Rina.”

Praise be, we narrowly avoided a fight between them.

“But I might get jealous of her. Will you comfort me if I do?”
“Of course I will.”
“Then it’s fine.”

Karen giggled again.

“Rina already has Lily anyway.”
“That’s true.”

Those two had always been together since then. Honestly, I still wondered a little what had happened between them while we weren’t looking.

“Sis, do you know how Rina managed to win Lily over?”
“... I don’t know.”
“So you don’t either.”
“Well, knowing her, I guess she just kept at it until Lily gave in? She has always been like that if she wanted something.”
“... I’m kind of curious now.”
“Me too.”

Maybe they would tell us if we asked?

“But, I think we should leave them to themselves.”
“Oh?”

My eyes widened in surprise at Karen’s statement.

“Rina didn’t have the chance to experience a normal happy life until now. I’m a little sad she doesn’t pay me as much attention but I’m also really happy that despite everything, she found someone she can love without restraint. That’s why I want to watch over her and wish her the best.”
“That so.”
“And, well, I guess the same goes for me? That’s why I’ll love you without restraint, Yumi.”

With those words, Karen let herself fall onto the bed and hugged me.

“That’s why... I just want you to accept my love and not worry about trivial things.”
“Trivial, huh.”

The way she just dismissed something that life-changing as trivial…

“Sis, your love is quite heavy.”
“I hope you’re ready to carry it. I won’t allow you to get buried.”
“I’ll do my best...”

I closed my eyes and let myself sink into Karen’s embrace. I could feel her stroking the back of my head as if soothing me.

Karen smells nice. Maybe it’s good I’m not sleepy so I can enjoy this.

We embraced each other for a while, not doing anything except enjoying each other’s company.  After some time, Karen spoke up again, her voice tinged with a little worry.

“Yumi, is my love really that heavy?”
“Well… Just a little? I think? Not that I mind.”
“I see.”

Opening my eyes, I looked up at Karen, seeing her frowning a little.

“You know, it makes me happy, Sis. Really, incredibly happy.”

That was, without a doubt, the truth. I was happy.

“That’s why... Don’t stop.”
“Yumi…”

Her frown transformed into a little smile as if her worries had turned into smoke and disappeared.

“Got it. But, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“You have to properly tell me if I go too far.”
“... Nn.”
“Otherwise, I’ll really put a collar on you and keep you at my side forever.”
“I wouldn’t mind that.”

Hearing my response, Karen giggled again.

“But I’ll tell you if there’s something. So, if there’s anything you want to say, don’t hold back either.”
“Understood.”

I closed my eyes again and snuggled against Karen, burying my face in her chest.

“Lewd Yumi. Hehe.”
“Nn. I am.”

There was no point in denying something that was true. Karen’s breasts were simply the best.

“Just what am I to do with you?”

Despite her words, she made no attempts at stopping me either, just gently patting my head.

Yes, this is definitely the best.

No matter how often I did this, it would always be my favourite pastime.

“You know, Yumi, we probably should be doing some work right now and not laze around.”
“Work? But we just woke up…”

I wasn’t really in a mood to work now. In the first place, what did she… Ahh, well, probably about me…

“Nn, I really don’t feel like it, though…”
“Ahaha… Maybe we should have delayed cleaning up.”
“I think I’d be even less motivated, then.”

Always having to think about how I’d also have to clean up afterwards would surely put a dent in my motivation.

“Nn, let me recharge for some time…”
“But only for a little longer.”
“Okay.”

---

In the end, we stayed on the bed for way too long. Unsurprisingly, really. And just for the record, I wasn’t the only one who was reluctant. As a compromise, we decided to have a lot of fun time tomorrow. After all, we might see the fort tomorrow and have a new place to sleep at. Wishful thinking probably, seeing how there were so many problems that were likely to crop up but well… Hope dies last and all that.

But I was straying from the actual topic. Right now, Karen sat on the bed and looked at me standing in the middle of the room, ready to experiment.

“Well, what should we start with?”
“Good question… Does anything feel different?”
“No. Not in the least.”
“Mm…”

Karen tilted her head, thinking for a little.

“I guess I should just start off with transforming?”
“I don’t have any other ideas for now either.”
“Then…”

I stripped off the clothes I was wearing, handing them over to Karen. Then, I sat on the ground and closed my eyes. First, my arms turned into tentacle appendages, then my legs followed turn. So far, nothing was different from usual. I concentrated on my lower body, feeling it change and connecting itself to the ground. After that, I reformed my arms, the pink ones. At this point, I opened my eyes to look at myself.

“So far, the same as before…”

Tentacles surrounded me, following my will. My pink arms stood out a little among the tentacles, contrasting the rest of my body.

“Flower Yumi returned.”
“Sis, I don’t think flowers are supposed to look like this.”

The only similarity was that we were both stuck in the ground.

“Anything changed?”
“Still not… I think… Well, that might be just my imagination or something else, but it did feel a little smoother than usual.”

Not that I had transformed up to this state that often. I might be just getting used to it.

“Weird… Can you change anything else?”
“Anything else, huh… I can try.”

Closing my eyes once more, I concentrated on my various body parts in an attempt to further the transformation. But nothing changed. There wasn’t really any feeling that something could change, either.

“Nothing?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I answered.

After opening my eyes, I once more looked down on myself. It was, honestly, a weird state to be in… Most of the tentacles were weak, just like I usually was. Except for some tentacles at my base and my new arms. They were for some reason weirdly strong...

“Ah.”
“Yumi?”
“I want to try something. Or, look into something. Although, I don’t think it has much to do with what changed but… Anyway, give me a moment!”
“Okay?”

Karen looked really confused but I couldn’t bother right now to explain it to her. That was how excited I was right now.

Elina taught me about monster materials. And the High Priest taught me how to check my own mana. Maybe, maybe I can figure this out.

I ignored for a moment that I hadn’t been really successful with looking at my own mana’s state and all that but that wasn’t too important. Because there was something else I wanted to look at. Yes, the mana that was inside my arms right now. I concentrated on them and...

“...”
“Yumi?”
“Sis. I think I realised something.”
“Yes?”
“My arms… The mana isn’t being absorbed.
“... Huh?”

Taking a look at my tentacles, the same was true for them. The mana inside them was locked inside and not absorbed. The weaker tentacles only had little mana but even for them, the mana was undisturbed.

“That’s… surprising.”
“Nn.”
“To think the answer was that close.”
“Nn…”

Well, admittedly, even if we knew about this, it was hard to utilise. But… Maybe Ria could help figure out what the difference was between my normal body and this.

“It’s really surprising…”

But at the very least, it confirmed one thing: If I could make the mana stop from being absorbed, I wouldn’t be so pathetically weak anymore. Body-wise.

“Sis, is it for me to return for now?”
“Yes. If you can’t transform further, then there’s little to do…”

As unfortunate as it was, there really wasn’t. I returned my lower body to normal and the tentacles disappeared. However, I kept my arms as they were. This was something I had managed before already as well but since I had to fully transform to reach this state, it turned out to be rather bothersome. Too bothersome to be useful.

“Nn… Just like this, they don’t feel any different, though. I know they’re stronger like this but… Having to fully transform is a pain.”
“You can’t do it without?”
“Well, last I tried I couldn’t.”
“Maybe you can now?”
“Nn… Well, I can try.”

I sat on the ground and returned my arms to normal. But not before trying to remember the feeling of the mana staying inside them. I also observed the moment they returned to normal. It was… interesting.

The mana… is dispersing. Ah, now it’s being absorbed.

It was… odd. I had trouble describing what I had seen. As if a card house had been hit by a vacuum and then sucked up? Right, it had been like a structure…

“Hey, Sis. You were practising magic, right?”
“Eh? Well, I was practising mana control. I can’t really do anything yet.”
“Mmm…”

This was just my theory but… what if the mana formed a structure that simply couldn’t be absorbed? Spells and the like hadn’t been absorbed either. For example, when the High Priest had done the check-up.

Then, if that kind of mana structure would be a spell…

If I could figure out that part, I might be able to finally be of use. At the very least, I’d be able to lift the banner on my own.

Now I’m getting excited. If I can do it without fully transforming, too, then…

But first, I’d have to figure that part out. Which… proved to be more than a little hard. At the very least, no matter how hard I tried, the only thing my arm was doing was cramping up. Considering my bodily constitution, that was actually a little impressive.

“Yeah, doesn’t work…”
“Maybe if you transform them to tentacles first?”
“Nn, let me try.”

The result? A four-times cramp. How in the hell could tentacles even cramp up?

“Nothing?”
“Nothing. Doesn’t work at all.”
“I see…”

A little disappointed, I returned my arm to normal. I could only hope that Ria had some ideas.

“A little disappointing. Well, at the very least, I guess I can say nothing’s wrong with me.”
“Unless it’s something we don’t know about.”
“That… could be. But, honestly, I don’t think so.”

It would be a little counter-productive if absorbing mana harmed me when I was pretty much living on it.

“I guess, if Ria can’t find out, then maybe I’ll figure it out with enough time. For now, I think… The bigger worry is you, Sis.”
“Me?”

Her hair turned a weirdly dark shade of pink. Same for her tail. Wendl had no idea what was going on either. Outwardly, she seemed totally fine. Heck, she even regained her appetite. But, her change had been way more pronounced than mine. If anything changed in my case at all.

“Maybe Sis absorbed all the changes and the mana herself, that’s why nothing happened to me.”
“That…”

She probably wanted to say that wasn’t true but then stopped herself. She couldn’t deny the possibility.

“That might be true…”
“It might be.”

Karen looked a little remorseful as she said that. She looked at me. Then, for some reason, she grinned a little before closing her eyes and wiping the grin off her face. She spread her arms, her expression fell and she spoke to me in a sad voice.

“Yumi, I’m sorry, I took away your chance at redeeming yourself.”
“No, no need to apolo— Wait, why do I need to redeem myself?!”
“Ahhh, Yumi, will stay forever weak now!”
“Hey! That’s. That’s not true. It can’t be, right?!”
“I will take responsibility and take care of you forever.”
“... That’s not so bad. I’m okay with that.”

Actually, wasn’t that a pretty good outcome? Karen was just messing with me but that was honestly okay with me.

“That’s not how you were supposed to react, Yumi. Do you want to be a freeloader?”
“Well, no, but… It is a pretty tempting offer.”
“I worry about you, Yumi. What if you really turn into a freeloading bum?”
“Have some faith in me. I won’t.”
“...”
“Sis?!”

Silence fell upon us. Karen’s shoulders were shaking until she finally couldn’t hold it in and broke out in laughter. I could only smile wryly. It was hard to be mad about something like this. After she laughed for a while, she calmed down and apologised to me.

“Sorry, Yumi, I couldn’t help myself.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just a lazy bum who is freeloading off her girlfriend, after all.”
“You aren’t. And even if you were, I don’t think I’d mind. Probably.”

Once more, she giggled before bringing me into her arms.

“I’ll take your word for it, Sis.”
“Sure.”
“... I’m not lazy, am I?”
“A little.”
“...”

A little, huh… Well, I probably couldn’t deny that.

“I’ll try not to be that lazy.”
“I’d worry if you suddenly became all hardworking.”
“It’s human nature to find the easy way out.”
“That’s… Is that so?”
“... Nn.”

Pretty sure it was.

“Is that so… Hmm…”
“Sis? Wah?!”

Still hugging me, Karen let herself fall onto the bed. I yelped in surprise.

“Hmmm… Then, I guess it’s just humanoid nature if we say we’re done for now?”
“Nn? Well… I guess you could say that?”
“I see.”

Truth be told, there really wasn’t that much we could do… Okay, actually, I could still think of some things. The tentacle growth had been a little weird and out of control, for example. We had stuffed all of it into the side room now but it, well… I even had some suspicions that, maybe, the changes hadn’t been with me but instead with the tentacle growth. Not like there were many other candidates.

Well, we’ll find out tomorrow, I guess.

For now, the night was going to come to a close. There were many things to do tomorrow.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Want to sleep?”
“Nn.”

This time, I felt like I could fall asleep. It likely wouldn’t be much more than a nap, but it’d be a pleasant map in Karen’s arms.

“Let’s sleep.”
“Nn. Good night.”
“Good night.”