After messing around for some time, Karen and I moved back to the shore where we sat down—with me sitting on Karen’s lap—and let the waves tickle our feet. Behind me, Karen was combing my hair with her fingers, trying to get it back in order.

“Seriously, your hair is all dirty…”
“Ahaha…”
“That’s not funny.”

Due to its length, my hair had inevitably slid around the ground and gotten dirty, especially now while we sat here.

“We should clean it before we get back.”
“Nn… But we still have time anyway.”
“I mean, we do. But we shouldn’t wait until the last possible moment. Mr Captain will get angry with us.”

Would he? He would, probably.

“Maybe we should tell him we’ll stay overnight.”
“Won’t we have plenty of chances to come back here again? It’s right next to the fort.”
“But others might think so, too.”
“... Ahh.”

From the corner of my eye, I could spy Karen glancing toward our clothes. It’d be impossible to walk around all naked at this shore once the fort was in order and we all lived there. There was little doubt that the mercenaries would enjoy a dip into the water as well.

“I don’t want everyone looking at you, Sis.”
“Mm… That’d be a little uncomfortable. But it’d be fine if we go a little further down the shore, no? I doubt they’d stray too far from the fort.”
“Well, that’d work, I guess. But we’d have to look for a good spot along the shore first.”

Either way, it was probably better if we simply enjoyed the time we had right now to the fullest.

“Anyway, right now, I just want to enjoy this.”

I leaned back and snuggled up to Karen. While the water on my skin was cold, Karen was comfortably warm. If I had a blanket now, it’d be even better.

“Sis, you aren’t cold?”
“Me? A little.”
“... Don’t catch a cold. I don’t want you getting ill.”
“I won’t get ill that easily.”
“Really?”
“Really.”

Karen giggled a little and gently patted my head.

“Don’t worry. Demonkin rarely get ill. Manakin especially so.”
“Huh? I didn’t know that.”

How nice that had to be.

“I don’t think you’d get ill so easily either.”
“Nn… Probably.”

Considering how far removed my body was from a regular living being, it’d be rather unlikely to be hit by an illness.

“But I don’t think we should challenge that too much.”
“Well, I’m not planning to but…”

Karen paused for a moment. Her arms around me tightened a little and I could feel a weight resting on my head.

“Even if I end up a little ill, I’d rather enjoy this moment right now.”
“... I see.”

I could feel my cheeks warm up a little, happy about those words. Happy that we both felt the same.

“Hey, Sis, want to swim a little more?”
“... In a little while.”
“Not much of a fan of swimming?”
“It’s exhausting.”

I’d think it’d be exhausting too in her case, considering how she sank like a rock. Or more like a block of steel? Maybe it had to do with her being manakin? Or… she was just bad at it. Could be either.

“I’d rather stay like this for a little longer.”
“Nn, that’s fine with me too.”

We didn’t have too many chances to relax like this, after all.

“Ah, there’s another boat.”
“Nn. There is.”
“I wonder if they caught some nice fish.”
“Probably.”

And tomorrow morning, that fish would be sold at that market. Or at least, that’s what I’d expect. I didn’t know anything about the whole fishing business. Could also be possible that they were going to sell it immediately on the market. Or maybe to some company.

“The fish we got from the market was nice,” I muttered as we watched the ship.
“It was delicious.”

And we’d have many more opportunities to eat fish now. Even so, it still felt a little unreal to me. No matter how often I told myself that this was our new home, that these little things were going to become part of our daily life… it still felt so far… removed from it all.

But in a few months, I might have already gotten used to it.

That was, in a way, a little sad, too. But I was sure it’d be a very happy life. Then again, we were mercenaries. Travelling was more or less part of the job description. But since we now knew that those tentacle doors worked, how was Korwen planning on proceeding in the future?

“Nn, Sis?”
“Yes?”
“The captain said he wanted to go to the Beyond, right?”
“He did. Why?”
“Well, I was just wondering about that. Our home base is going to be this fort. And while I can make those doors so that we can come back, we’d still have to travel to the Beyond first, right?”

The Beyond was, as far as I knew, to the north. We’d have to travel to the ocean and then by boat to the other side. That was definitely going to be one long trip already.

“I think so, yes.”
“Nn. That’s going to be quite a trip, huh… We’d have to cross the ocean.”
“... Does that take long?”
“Nn? Well, yes… I think so.”

Without knowing the distance, it wouldn’t be possible to even guess it. But, knowing a little about how vast the oceans of my old world were…

“That could take months…”
“Months?!”
“Could. It might be far shorter.”

Or longer.

“Months… That’s crazy.”
“Nn.”

When you thought about it, it made sense that the Dragon Knights never left the confines of the land between the ocean and the Wooden Sea. There was no way they could casually ship over a few hundred people to the other end of the ocean, nor could they force their way through the dense forests of the Wooden Sea. If I recalled things correctly, the latter even had wild tribes that might attack you if you stumbled into their territory. But what about the ocean then?

“... Sis. Does the ocean have monsters?”
“Huh? It should, yes.”
“...”

Well, the ocean was probably not much better then. Maybe even worse.

“I mean, even some of the fish are considered monsters.”
“Now that you mention it… I forgot since they’re not really…”

They didn’t fit the image of a monster at all. The only potentially dangerous part about them was in case you accidentally ate them… For normal people, at least.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Is the ocean really that big?”

The weight on my head disappeared and when I turned around to check on Karen, I found her peering straight into my eyes.

“Nn. In my world, at least, they were gigantic.”
“Bigger than this lake?”
“Far bigger. Probably dozens of times as big.”
“That’s hard to imagine.”
“Nn.”

I nodded, eliciting a small “Huh.” from Karen.

“So it’s that big. I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
“I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.”

Or more like, if we’d really end up taking the trip on a ship, she’d likely get sick of the ocean soon enough.

“There’s so much to look forward to.”
“Nn. But first, we should probably focus on the fort.”
“Ahh…”

I leaned against Karen again, snuggling into her embrace.

“Nn. And right now, I want to enjoy our time.”
“... You’re right. Sorry, we got a little distracted.”
“It’s fine, isn’t that part of it all?”

Just talking about the future, about things that might or might not happen. Those small things were all enjoyable to me.

“Mm, I guess it is.”
“Right? Hehe.”

I giggled, enjoying the rather meaningless exchange… and soon enough, Karen joined in as well.

“Really… Just what am I to do with you, Yumi?”
“Nn, well, how about hugging me?”
“I already am hugging you.”
“More hugging, please.”
“Just where did I go wrong with you that you ended up so spoiled?”

Despite saying so, she tightened her embrace a little and nuzzled her face against my hair.

“I’m only acting spoiled like this with you, Sis.”
“It’d be bad if you did that with others.”
“I’m not planning to, don’t worry.”

After all, I wanted to be spoiled because it was Karen.

“That’s good.”
“Nn.”

Karen combed through my hair again, getting rid of some dirt that had stuck to it. It was probably a bit of a futile effort, though, since my hair was still wet and it kept picking up more dirt from the ground.

Nonetheless, I simply let Karen do it, watching her as I enjoyed our embrace.

I really don’t feel like going back later… 

After some time, her hand moved over from my hair towards my sides. She was gently caressing me, making me squirm a little under her touch. Her hand moved to my back and she gently traced my back with her fingers, from my shoulders slowly downwards.

It was one of those times you simply didn’t want to end. A simple kind of happiness. Just touching each other in a gentle and affectionate way. Be it how she was combing my hair or how she was caressing my back and sides or…

“Nn? Hyah?! Sis?!”
“Ah. That works?”

A sudden, prickly sensation shot through my spine, catching me completely off-guard.

As Karen had traced my back with her hand, it had gradually gone downwards, towards my bottom. And stopped right above it.

“... Sis, what are you doing?”
“I was wondering if that spot is sensitive even if you don’t have a tail… Sorry.”
“... Yes, it is.”

She was talking about the spot right above my butt, where Karen and the others had their tails. It was a pricky sensation, having that spot touched. Not really uncomfortable by all means but… It made me feel all squirmish.

“Don’t surprise me like that, Sis.”
“Sorry. It was something I just suddenly wondered about.”
“Just warn me next time.”
“I’ll do that.”

Karen giggled again, her hand still tracing circles right above my butt. I couldn’t help but wriggle in her arms from the weird feeling it caused.

“Sis, that didn’t mean you can just keep going.”
“Should I stop?”
“Well…”

Another giggle. It was hard to directly tell her to stop… because it wasn’t like it felt bad. Although, honestly, I was a little undecided whether it felt good either.

“Hey, Yumi.”
“Nn?”

Her fingers stopped tracing circles. Her entire palm now rested on that spot instead, gently rubbing it.

“You can change your limbs into tentacles and grow them… Would it be possible for you to grow a tail, too?”
“A tail?”
“Yes.”

That was… a pretty weird question, to be honest.

“Uhh, I don’t know? I never tried, after all.”
“Hmm…”
“But why do you ask? Do you want me to?”

Did Karen possibly have a tail fetish I didn’t know about?

“Well, I was curious… and I was thinking, if you had a tail like me, then we’d look more like sisters.”

More like sisters… That would be nice.

“Nn, I guess I could try? But…”
“But?”
“Even if it works, wouldn’t it just end up being another tentacle?”

While the thought of looking more like sisters was rather enticing, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to a tentacle tail.

“That… might be the case.”
“Nn, it might.”

For Karen, her tail was seriously adorable if you asked me. Even now it was lying next to her, occasionally perking up, touching me or wrapping around my hand. I wondered whether those actions were on purpose or if she did it unknowingly. In either case, it was adorable. And honestly, I wouldn’t mind if it was a tail like that.

But a tentacle would be a little…

Imagining those same adorable actions by a tentacle… It grossed me out. Sure, we were talking about my tentacles and I’ve gotten used to them by now but there was a limit to everything. And a tentacle tail would clearly exceed this limit.

“Mmm… Yumi, some of your tentacles can change shape, right? Maybe you could make it look like an actual tail?”
“That… might be possible?”

If I could make it look like Karen’s… that’d be nice.

“Nn… I’ll try if I can.”
“Okay.”

We could speculate as much as we wanted to but if I couldn’t even grow a tail in the first place, then it would be kind of pointless. And considering that I never felt like I could, I had my doubts about it…

But maybe… Just maybe… Anyway, I should concentrate.

Transforming my limbs and eyes and all that was, for the most part, relatively simple. Probably because I did it more out of instinct than anything else. However, growing a tail…

Nn… The spot right above the butt…  Where Karen touched me earlier…

Focussing on that spot, I imagined myself growing something from there… A tentacle… or a tail like Karen’s.

“...”
“...”

While Karen was watching me with bated breath, I kept trying to grow something from my behind… Alas…

“... Nothing’s happening.”
“It didn’t work?”
“Nn…”

I confirmed it with a nod. There had been no change when I tried it. Maybe there was a way but, at the very least, it wasn’t the same way I changed my limbs.

“So that’s not possible.”
“Doesn’t look like it. Maybe if I used my magic but… messing around like that sounds a little too scary.”

If I used Life magic, then it probably wasn’t impossible to do things like that. But changing a living creature was vastly different from messing around with some wood. Especially if it was me.

“You shouldn’t. It was only a random thought I had anyway.”
“Nn. But I guess it’s a little unfortunate.”

I glanced towards Karen. The pink strand in her hair had become quite promiscuous by now. It was the only visible connection between us. If I could have grown a tail, though, that would have been another one. It could have been another point of similarity between us.

“Hehe, even without, you’re still my little sister, Yumi.”
“... Nn, I know.”

I closed my eyes and leaned against Karen once more. Her hand caressed and patted my hair in a rhythmic and gentle manner. It felt safe in her arms.

“My little sister and little lover.”
“... That sounds all kinds of wrong.”
“You think so?”
“A little.”

Usually, sisters didn’t end up as lovers. Our situation was quite different from normal, though, so it wasn’t like there was an actual problem.

“But it’s fine like this.”
“That’s good.”
“Nn.”

It would probably raise a few eyebrows whenever people would learn of our relationship. But that wouldn’t make me love Karen any less.

“Nn. I love you, Sis. I really love you.”
“I love you, too.”

A smile crept up my face. A very happy and blissful smile. 

---

A good while later, the sun was already approaching the lake’s surface. In other words, it was high time for us to get back. As reluctant as we both were, we parted our embrace and got dressed. If we wasted more time, we’d never hear the end of it from Korwen. That wasn’t how I wanted to end the day, either.

I did consider it for a short while, though. Seeing the sun hanging over the lake, I figured that the sunset had to be quite a beautiful sight from here. But if we actually did that… Well, I didn’t want someone to search for us only to find us in a naked embrace watching the sunset… I’d die of embarrassment.

“Oh, there they are. Cap! They’re back!”
“Oh, it’s Taddick..”
“Hello, Mr Taddick.”
“Hey, good to see you two are back.”

The very moment we walked through the gate we heard Taddick’s voice calling for Korwen. The latter immediately walked over, shaking his head all the while.

“You two sure took your sweet time, didn’t you?”
“Ahh… Sorry, captain.”
“I was just about wondering whether I should send someone to look for you.”

Yeah, it was a good call to go back…

“Sorry, Mr Captain. We lost track of time.”
“Be a little more careful next time, got that?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Yes, Mr Captain.”
“Good.”

In the end, we still got scolded, albeit only a little.

“Don’t mind the Cap. Dinner’s already served, so if you don’t want to sleep on an empty stomach, you better hurry. Though I’d be happy to take it off your hands if you don’t want it!”
“I’d rather not starve so no.”
“Too bad.”

Taddick laughed heartily before turning around and returning to the other mercenaries, gathered around a table. It seemed they were already in the middle of dinner… or maybe already at the part that came afterwards, judging from the mugs they were holding and the boisterous laughter.

“Don’t worry, your portion’s still there. But you should eat before it gets cold.”
“Nn, we’ll do that.”
“Good.”
“Capt’n! It’s your turn! Or ya givin’ up?!”

Calls for Korwen echoed through the camp, calling him over.

“Someone’s calling for you, captain. Were you playing games?”
“With dice. Seriously… I shouldn’t have joined them.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Korwen returned to the mercenaries calling for him. Moments later, they were all absorbed in their games of dice.

“... Hey, Sis. Somehow, I have the feeling… Even if we had stayed longer, nobody would have come to search for us.”
“... Maybe.”

Well, we rarely saw Korwen taking a break like this, so this was fine.

“We should fetch our dinner, Yumi.”
“Nn.”

Just a small distance away from where the men were playing their games we found the rations. It was only bread, jerky and some dried fruits but considering we were in the middle of an abandoned fort in a forest, this was still quite decent. Well, mostly abandoned.

“This isn’t warm food, though…”

Taddick had said it’d get cold… but this was already cold.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Do you want the jerky?”
“Huh? You don’t want it?”
“...”

Karen nodded as she pushed her piece of jerky towards me.

“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Huh…”

I was a little surprised. The jerky and the fruits were the good parts about the rations, after all. More or less, they still didn’t taste amazing, but they were incomparably better than the food in the slums.

“Nn?”
“Yumi?”

That reminded me, didn’t Karen also push away the jerky back in the slums? That stuff was pretty bad but…

“Sis, just saying this but this jerky is actually rather tasty. It’s not like the stuff from the slums.”
“Ugh…”

Oh, did I hit the nail on the head?

“But… I’m sorry, it reminds me so much of it…”
“I see…”

I could hardly blame her, could I? That jerky from the slums was more akin to a piece of old leather. An old leather shoe. Its taste was also just as bad. Not to mention that even now I still had no idea what kind of meat it had been. And I probably didn’t want to.

“Do you want my fruits then?”
“Eh? You don’t have to…”
“I can’t eat all of that, so take them.”

With a smile, I pushed the fruits towards Karen.

“Yumi… Thanks.”
“Nn, no problem.”

It wasn’t a problem for me. The fruits were delicious but the jerky was quite good as well. And that I couldn’t eat all of this was true as well. The size of the rations was determined according to the average mercenary. And this average mercenary was just a little taller than me and could eat just a little more than me… In other words, I’d have leftovers anyway.

“But… You should probably try to get used to it at some point, Sis. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we’ll have it.”
“Ugh… I don’t want to think about it.”

Unfortunately, we probably had to. Jerky was very long-lasting. So were this bread and these dried fruits.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“If we can just travel back to the fort, would we even have to eat rations then?”
“Well…”

That was… a valid point. But…

“I think that might be the case. But there might be situations where we can’t go back. For example, we just talked about it how we might travel by ship, right? We can’t really travel back to the fort in the middle of it, can we?”
“That’s… You’re right.”

Karen sighed deeply, nibbling on the fruit in her hand. She really didn’t want to touch any kind of jerky, huh?

“Can’t I just eat the fruits and the bread? It’s too much for me anyway.”
“That might be fine for a short while but you’ll get ill if it would be for a longer time, won’t you?”
“Ugh…”
“Speaking of which, how did you deal with that in the slums? Did you never eat any meat?”

I never spent much thought about it but did the same rules apply in this world regarding nutrition? I already knew that the humanoid races were different in some aspects compared to the humans of my world, after all.

“I did… sometimes eat that jerky… Wanda forced me to.”
“Wanda did?”
“Yes. She said I’d get ill so she, err, didn’t let me leave if I didn’t eat some.”

Good job, Wanda.

“She sometimes also gave me fruits or candy afterwards, though.”
“... As a reward?”
“...”

Karen averted her eyes, her cheeks blushing. Someone was embarrassed.

“Guess I should thank Wanda for taking care of you.”
“Ahh… She helped me a lot. I’m really grateful to her.”

That I could imagine.

“By the way, do you know why Wanda even lived in the slums?”
“Mm… She never told me, no… And when I asked before she evaded the question.”
“I see.”

The mercenaries already knew about Wanda even before we came to them. Or more like, it seemed like she was quite famous, or maybe infamous, among them. In addition, Wanda was clearly skilled as a seamstress. I couldn’t imagine that someone who could make such pretty clothes had to live in the slums. But if she evaded the question it wasn’t something she wanted Karen to know.

“Maybe she’ll tell us one day.”
“I’d be happy if she would.”
“Nn.”

For now, it seemed better to me not to pry. If Wanda wanted to talk about it, she would at some point. And if not, well, then she won’t.

Still, I hope she’ll tell us.

We finished our rations to the best of our abilities and cleaned up. By now, it was already slowly becoming night. The sun was probably still up but since we were in the forest and surrounded by the fort’s walls, it had already become quite dark here.

Just as I wondered what we should do, I heard a loud clap from behind us. When I looked behind me, I saw Korwen addressing all of us.

“Listen up, everyone! It’s getting dark so we’ll slowly wrap things up for the day. Tomorrow’s going to be an early day. The night watch’s been decided already. Everyone who doesn’t have a turn can take a good rest. That doesn’t mean you can stay up all night, though. If I catch anyone half-asleep tomorrow morning, I hope you’re ready.”

But what if I was half-asleep even if I slept through?

“That’s all. Dismissed!”

He clapped again, returning to the table where they were playing games. From the corner of my eyes, I could spot a few others retiring to their tents already.

“Yumi, should we go as well?”
“Nn. That’s probably a good idea.”

With that decided, Karen and I returned to our tent, getting ready for the night as well.

“There’s… no bed.”
“Yumi… Of course, there isn’t.”
“Nn…”

But I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. I had gotten used to our bed. Blankets just weren’t the same.

“Haaa… Oh well…”

With a sigh, I undressed and got ready for bed. Next to me, Karen had also taken off her clothes already and was spreading out the blanket.

“Yumi, come here.”
“Nn.”

I dived into Karen’s arms and together, we lay down on the blanket and then covered ourselves with the other one.

“Nn, maybe this isn’t so bad.”
“Yumi…”

After all, I could huddle up to Karen all I wanted. Not like I hadn’t been doing that back in our wagon…

“Ehehe.”

I snuggled up to Karen, hugging her. It was warm between the blankets. Warm and comfortable.

“Really, what am I to do with you?”
“Nn, hugging me?”
“You’re so spoiled.”
“Nn, but only with you.”

After all, the time I spent leisurely with Karen like this was the happiest time for me.