After Karen had caught her breath, I spoiled her with plenty of head pats. Her expression melted as she leaned against me, giggling happily.

“Hehehe, just for this, it was worth all the effort.”
“Then I guess I have to pat you even more.”
“Please do!”

I kept patting her, ruffling her hair until it was all messy.

“Good girl, good girl. Sis is a good girl.”
“Hehehe.”

Needless to say that flirting around only drew all the surrounding gazes toward us. Karen hadn’t noticed them yet, though, so I decided not to say anything. Even though it was a little embarrassing, Karen’s happiness took priority right now. Her smile was well worth the price of a little bit of shame.

“Seriously, what a spoiled sister I have.”

I couldn’t help but giggle as well while I watched her bright smile. Alas, it was probably better to stop here.

“Okay, that’s enough for now.”
“Ohhh…”
“I’ll give you more later, okay?”

When there were fewer prying eyes around us. Honestly, if I kept going I might explode later from the embarrassment. The lukewarm gazes were too much.

“Okay… Promise me.”
“Nn, promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“Sure.”

If she wanted more patting, then more patting she’d get.

“So… Sis, is there any other work left for you?”
“Mr Captain said we could take a break for a little while but I think after that there’s more for us to do.”
“I see… Guess there’s a lot of stuff he wants to move.”
“It’s a lot, yes…”

There were probably mountains of food supplies alone. Adding to that all the other stuff and… It was a lot. It wasn’t like we’d move everything here immediately, though. Not like this hall could probably hold all of that.

“I wonder where he intends to store all of that stuff. I mean, the food has to go above ground, no?”
“That…”

The moment I said that… Karen’s expression fell, likely because she was imagining what that implied.

“We’ll have to carry all of that up?”
“... Nn, I think so.”
“Please no…”

The only way up was with the rope… I couldn’t even imagine how we’d get things up… Maybe by using the rope like an elevator?

“Wouldn’t it be rather easy to tie some stuff to a rope and pull them up? That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“I guess? But all the other stuff is…”

Yeah, no way he was going to get that crystal above ground through that narrow hole. Or any of the bigger crates. But knowing Korwen, he probably had a plan for that already.

“... Hey, Sis… He’s not going to make me use the portal again just to get that stuff up, is he?”
“He might…”

Yeah, I could definitely picture him doing that. Since he decided that it was inevitable that the portals would become known by others, he wasn’t hesitating to make use of it. Which was clear just by looking at the mercenaries carrying in the supplies.

“Nn… But if he had planned to do that, he could have asked me to simply make a door in one of the buildings above…”
“Well… Maybe he forgot?”
“I don’t know but I can’t imagine him forgetting something.”
“True.”

There was no way he’d forget something that obvious… right?

“Jokes aside, he probably has some other plan. I mean, he wanted to use this area in general, right? That one hole to get down here is not going to cut it.”
“You think he might remodel the place?”
“Nn. He did say he wanted to hire Earth magicians to fix anything broken, so he might ask them to make a new entrance leading down here.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”

In the end, the tentacle door was tremendously useful but the upkeep costs were also rather high. Using it for such a short distance would be a waste. Although, maybe it could be something that couldn’t be moved that short distance otherwise? In that case, it might be different.

“Well, anyway, how are you feeling, Sis? Better?”
“Mm… Better. A lot.”
“That’s good.”
“It is… But it also means the break is going to end, isn’t it?”
“Well…”

Unfortunately, yes. We were still in the middle of work. Not like I had anything to do… I probably shouldn’t say that, though. Looking around, the other mercenaries around us were still taking their break as well so it probably was still fine to take our time. 

“Nn? Where’s the captain?”
“Over there.”
“Oh, there.”

Korwen had already moved away from everyone else and was talking with someone, his expression unexpectedly serious. The type of expression he only made when something troublesome had happened. Which almost certainly meant that something troublesome had indeed happened.

“I wonder what’s going on…”
“Nn, me too. But I guess that means we can still take it slow… or not.”

Just as I said that, the man Korwen was talking with saluted and left, prompting Korwen to return.

“Fenna!” he shouted through.
“Not here!” replied someone.
“Ahh, damn, I forgot she’s in the fort… Haa… With Merim… Tsk.”

Korwen clicked his tongue, loud enough that we could hear it over here.

“Who else…”

He scanned the surroundings until his gaze stopped… on us. With a grin, he approached… Yeah, I didn’t have a good feeling about this. In a hurry, both Karen and I stood up, facing him.

“Yumi.”
“Y— Yes?”
“Get up to the fort and call Fenna and Merim down for me. Collect the reports and see to it that the others keep working for now.”
“Nn, understood.”

That wasn’t so bad, after all.

“Also, tell Merim to move his arse quickly since we got some trouble.”
“Trouble, huh…”

Called it. There’s trouble.

“Some visitors. Nothing too bad. But we can talk about that later, now get a move on. I need Merim as quick as possible.”
“Nn, will go. But it’s going to take me a while to get up that rope on my own.”
“... Just why are you so high maintenance? Karen, go help her. After that, come back down with Fenna and Merim.”
“Understood, Mr Captain.”

Sorry that I was high maintenance. It wasn’t that it was impossible for me to get up—probably not impossible, that is—it’d just take a lot of time. And a few bumps on my head, most likely.

“Get going.”
”Yes, yes.”

So impatient. Well, I had no idea what the problem was so it might rather be time-sensitive. In that case, we should get a move on.

“Sis, let’s go.”
“Yes.”

We made our way through the hall into the corridor and then to the hole with the rope.

“I’ll go up first then.”
“Nn, I’ll wait.”

With that short exchange, Karen grabbed the rope and climbed up. With her strength, it wasn’t a problem for her at all to pull her own body weight up the rope. Just watching it made me feel a little jealous. Once we had settled in, I seriously should look for some more effective means of strengthening my arms.

Well, I could fully transform and then transform back while maintaining that change on my arms… That way I should be able to climb up quite decently, I think?

Thinking about it, that certainly would have been a valid option, seeing how there was nobody around to watch me. But, in the off chance someone did, it would only spell trouble. So, getting Karen’s help was very much welcome.

“Yumi! I’m up!”
“Nn, got it.”

Since Karen had finished her climb, it was now my turn. Which only meant that I would grab hold of the rope, tie it around my waist and let myself get pulled up.

“Okay… Sis, you can pull me up!”
“Got it!”

Moments later, I was slowly pulled upwards. It wasn’t terribly fast nor very comfortable but at least I only had to make sure not to hit my head.

It’s a little scary, though… Disappearing into that black hole while the ground is moving further and further away…

Thankfully, I wasn’t afraid of heights. At least not much more than the average person.

“Ohh, I can see, Sis.”

As I was slowly pulled up, the little bit of light grew bigger and Karen’s silhouette became clearer. Soon enough, I was just about to reach the end.

“Okay, come here, Yumi.”
“Nn, thank you, Sis.”

Finally, I was standing on my own two feet again.

“Nn, let’s hurry and find Fenna and Merim.”
“Okay.”

We left the tower with the entrance and returned to the yard of the fort. And lucky as we were, we spotted Fenna and Merim right there, discussing something with their search groups.

“Fenna, Merim.”
“Huh? Yumi? Karen? What are you two doing here?”
“The captain needs both of you. He said specially that Merim should hurry because there’s trouble.”
“Ugh, great. Did he say what kind of trouble?”
“No. Only that it wasn’t too serious. He still wanted you to hurry up, though.”

Merim sighed, clearly not very happy about this outcome.

“But we can’t just leave here… Mm? Yumi, are you going back down as well?”
“No, he said I should stay here and collect the reports… Oh, and make sure that everyone else keeps working.”
“Ohh, I see. I see. That’s why he didn’t just send a messenger.”
“Nn?”

Speaking of which, a messenger would have been easier, no?

“Well then, Yumi…”
“... Yes?”

Why did this bad feeling from earlier return now?

“I’ll leave it to you.”
“Leave what?”
“Good luck. I know you can do it.”
“Don’t ignore me.”

What was he leaving to me? This was worrying me a lot now!

“The highest-ranked ones are in charge!”
“... What?”
“Oh, and do something about them.”

He pointed towards the gate. A whole crowd of petite girls and women stood there.

What the heck are the elves doing here?!

They hadn’t come through the door so… they actually trekked through the forest? Sure, they were elves but it was still surprising.

“No, more importantly, Merim? What did you… He’s gone?!”

In the distance, Merim could be seen entering the tower, leaving me behind.

“Are you kidding me…”
“Sorry about him… We were just discussing what to do with the elves. I think he’s just glad he doesn’t have to deal with it now.”
“Is that so… So, Fenna… What am I supposed to do here?”

I was internally very grateful that Fenna hadn’t left with the same gusto as Merim had. Korwen had explicitly told Merim to hurry up, so it was probably fine if Fenna took a little time.

“Simply put, you’re in charge for now. Meaning, you give the orders.”
“... What?”

I was… in charge? Wait, did that mean that I’d be the one giving orders?!

“Usually, we’d have you accompany someone and watch their work before doing this, but well… I guess you spent a lot of time watching the captain at his work. Just copy what he is doing and you’ll most likely be fine.”
“…”

That was easier said than done, though… Couldn’t they have warned me about this?

“Well, I guess it’s useless to say not to worry but… I know you’ll be fine.”

Fine, huh…

“Hehe.”
“... Is something funny?”

Fenna wasn’t the type to laugh at someone so…

“Sorry, I just thought it was amusing. Most men would jump at the chance and here you are fretting and worrying about it.”
“Of course, I am worried… What if something goes wrong or something unexpected happens?”
“Mm… Well… This is just my opinion but… Just do what you think is necessary to get everyone back home. And then do that. Fretting about whether it was correct or not is something you don’t have the time for. The captain or the vice-captain might think differently, of course, I don’t know.”
“I see… Huh?”

Suddenly, something was pressing down on my hand.

“You’ll do fine. Just think of it as gaining experience. There’s not much that can go wrong here, after all.”
“Is that so…”
“Yes. So, just do what you think is best. If you are unsure about what to do…”
“Nn…”

I glanced at Fenna, waiting for her to continue. Instead, I found her looking toward the mercenaries waiting for us to finish.

“Just ask them. They’re the ones doing the work and they know the best what do.”
“Ahh…”
“Well, I’ll leave now before the captain complains later to me. Good luck. Oh, and just complain to the captain later for springing this on you. Usually, we’d have someone accompany you for this, after all.”
“Nn, thank you. Will do.”

I definitely would. This was too sudden, after all. But I was grateful to Fenna for staying to explain some things to me. I’d be completely lost without her.

“Yumi, I’ll go, too. I know you can do it!”
“Nn, thanks, Sis… I’ll do my best… I guess.”

Karen quickly followed after Fenna and soon enough, both of them were out of sight, leaving me behind with the mercenaries.

“Well then…”

I stared at the group of mercenaries in front of me. They stood all in an orderly row, staring at me. We stared at each other.

“...”
“””...”””

We stared at each other…

Okay, what do I do now?!

Only now did it really hit home… that I was the one they were waiting for. They were waiting for me to give their orders.

Okay, Yumi, calm down, calm down! It’s going to be fine. First… What do I do first?! Actually, what were they even doing here?!

I had no idea… But then it dawned on me. I had someone I could ask. Fenna had literally told me moments prior. The mercenaries themselves.

Right, I only have to ask them. I need to know what they were doing.

Once more, I thanked Fenna, this time in my mind only, though. After that, I took a deep breath, calming myself and getting ready.

“Err, okay… Let’s see… What were you doing just now with Fenna and the vice-captain?”
“We were waiting for orders on how to proceed with the search, ma’am!”

I immediately got an answer from one of the mercenaries, the left-most one from my point of view. Maybe he was the highest-ranked one in that group? He seemed quite comfortable with replying, while everyone else kept quiet. But the answer was a little troubling.

“Err, right… Oh, right. What areas have you searched so far?”

Korwen had asked me to collect their reports, too. And if I knew what area they searched, I might have an idea of how to proceed.

“We have searched the ground floors of the main building, the residential building and the barracks, as well as the first and second floors of the main building. The workshops have been partially destroyed and are completely inaccessible, ma’am.”
“I see.”

That was something already. Well, what next… What would Korwen do now?

“... Ah! Was there anything noteworthy during your search?”
“We have found several destroyed sections in the barracks and some areas that are inaccessible. Inside the main building, we found the bandits’ supplies and belongings”
“Their supplies? What kind of?”
“Weapons, armour, clothing and food as well as miscellaneous goods that are likely their loot.”
“Huh…”

That sounded pretty much like bandits, all right. The other stuff apart from loot was, well… Kind of expected.

“... Did you take a closer look at what kind of things there were among their loot?”
“No, ma’am.”
“I see.”

What to do… The loot was… Well, it probably belonged to someone, no? I’d rather not touch that for now. As for the other stuff… I didn’t know anything about weapons and armour so that was also probably better left to Korwen. However, the food was different.

“What about the food? Is it rotten or something?”
“... Not that we know of but we didn’t check specifically.”

Maybe there was something nice among that food? Probably… not. Either way, if the food wasn’t spoiled, we could still use it. Maybe I should have them bring it down?

“Nn, if I recall correctly, there was one group under Merim and one under Fenna, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”

Right, maybe I should have one of them bring down the food, maybe the other stuff as well.

No, like Fenna told me, let’s first think about what Korwen would do. There are priorities to follow, so what was the priority here? Exploring the fort, checking for damage and finding any inconsistencies with the blueprints and seeing whether there’s anything interesting here. Probably in that order of priority, no?

In that case, the loot from the bandits would be rather low in priority. It’s something we can deal with later. However, the food might spoil if we ignored it. Or rather, it was important to check whether it was still edible in the first place. Depending on how much food there was, it might be a quick affair to get it down. On the other hand, even if they did, we didn’t have any place to store it…

I guess confirming whether the food is edible…

Actually, they saw the food, right?

“What kind of food was it that the bandits had?”
“We only saw bread and jerky, ma’am.”

Were they sure someone didn’t just relocate our rations… No, seriously, that’s the exact same stuff we ate yesterday and this morning.

Anyway, that means that it was most likely non-perishables, more or less…

Still, I can’t decide whether it’s better to just bring it down or ignore it…

This wasn’t easy…

“Ma’am?”
“Nn?”
“What should we do now?”
“... Ah.”

Right, the longer I thought about it, the more time we’d waste…

“Err, let’s see… The group that was exploring the higher floors in the main building should continue there and search the remaining floors.”
“”“Yes, ma’am!”””
“... Incidentally, was it the vice-captain or Fenna who was in charge of your group?”
“The vice-captain, ma’am.”
“I see.”

Well, that was one group taken care of. That left the other one. With Merim’s group exploring the main building, where should they go? They had begun searching the barracks and the residential building, huh… The residential building… Was that the one where we’d live later? That sounded interesting. The barracks were damaged anyway and probably not decently accessible. However, the barracks would house the majority of the mercenaries, no? In that case, it was quite important, too.

“Nn… Well, standing around doesn’t help either… Okay, what did your group search last?”
“... The residential building, ma’am.”

The residential building huh… Also, was it just me or did this group feel less organised than the other one? It took a moment for someone to reply and then it seemed that multiple people wanted to reply.

“... Is something the matter?” I asked, deciding it’d be better to just straight-up ask.
“... Miss Fenna was in charge of our squad.”
“Nn? Oh…”

But Fenna wasn’t around so they didn’t have a squad leader. The other group didn’t seem to have that issue, though?

“I see… But… I don’t think I can replace her… Also…”

There was still another problem I had to deal with right behind me.

What did you do in cases like this… The next highest-ranked one? Probably.

“Who is the next highest in rank in your group?”
“That’d be me, ma’am.”
“Then, you’ll be in charge now instead.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
“Then, if there are no problems, continue with the residential building.”
“””Yes, ma’am!”””

They all saluted and then left.

“I think that should be fine… right?”

Maybe it would have been better for me to accompany a group? But I couldn’t keep them here while I dealt with that other group… with the elves.

Actually, maybe the other group didn’t have an issue with the squad leader because Merim stayed behind, too?

That’d make sense, kind of. Either way, I had done what I thought to be somewhere correct… Whether it was would be something Korwen would tell me later. Seriously, to throw someone straight into this without a prior explanation… or preparation. I’d follow Fenna’s advice and complain later to him. He could have at least left Karen with me…

But… Once I actually thought about it, it’s not like there was a lot that could become a problem, huh… But being the one to give orders… is an odd feeling.

It wasn’t something I could get used to so quickly. Being called “ma’am” was already a little uncomfortable, after all.

But, I guess it was inevitable at some point… to learn about this.

I could vaguely recall how Korwen had told me once that it was unlikely we’d have much authority. In other words, it was unlikely I’d actually give out orders. But that didn’t mean it was impossible… Plus, I technically did have my own little squad, though it was only Karen. And Lily?

“Did Lily count?”

I asked myself but I couldn’t quite recall it. We only talked about that once and it had already been a while. I might have to confirm it again with Korwen…

But before I get to that, I’ll have to weather this first. And that means…

Dealing with that group of elves over there. I couldn’t ignore them anymore, could I?

“Well, here goes nothing…”

After taking another deep breath, I approached the elves. They immediately spotted me coming to them, so one of them—a petite elf, a little smaller than me even, with messy brown hair reaching past her shoulders—separated from the crowd and approached me as well. I remembered her face. She was the one who had been decided as their new elder.

“Greetings, Madam Esteemed Ancestor’s Friend.”
“... Hello.”

It took me a moment to return the greeting. On one hand, her tone was a little stiff. It didn’t seem that she was used to speaking the language here. On the other one… that was quite the long nickname.

“I’m Yumi. No need for that, err, long name.”
“... Madam Yumi?”
“... ‘Miss’ is enough. No ‘madam.’”
“Miss Yumi.”
“Nn.”

That was another address I sure wasn’t used to. Being called “madam” somehow didn’t sit right with me… Even less than “ma’am” did.

“You are… the Elder, right? After the… old Elder retired.”
“It is so. The Old Elder left me with her task.”
“Right…”

We still didn’t know what the elder’s name was… She was in desperate need of one because if this girl was now also the elder, it was bound to cause some confusion… Actually, wait…

“Should I call you the elder? Or…”
“Ah… If it would not trouble you, please call me Meela. The Old Elder is still the elder for us. I pray it would not trouble you to call me by name.”
“Nn, Meela it is. No problem.”

Did the elves have that problem, too? They probably did. If they called her the elder as well, then switching the address wasn’t much easier for them. Seeing how the Elder had been in charge for such a long time, it was probably even worse for them.

“So, why are Meela and the elves here? Since you were waiting, I guess you wanted something?”
“Yes, that is so. This forest. We were… How do you say it in your language… proof… No…”

Meela tilted her head, searching for her words. It was cute how she frowned as she searched for her words, trying out a few ones in hope of getting it right.

“Mm... Checking… Was it that one? To check the forest… if it fits as our home. Is that logical?”
“It makes sense, yes.”
“Ah, ‘sense’ it was.”

She nodded to herself, repeating the word several times, probably so she wouldn’t forget it.

“So, you checked if the forest could be your new home? And?”
“Mm. It can be our new home. This forest.”
“That’s… good news?”
“It is. Great news!”

Well, that at least would answer whether the elves could live in this forest. Korwen would be happy to hear that… probably.

“That is why. We elves will live in this forest.”
“Nn.”
“That is why we would like to ask. If allowed, can we live… with everyone?”
“... Huh? You mean, in the fort?”
“Is that what this structure is called?”
“Well, it is… but that aside, you want to live here with us?”
“Very much so.”

Well now, that’s not quite what I expected here. They wanted to live here…

“If that is not allowed, then we will build our own home. But… would you allow us?”
“Err, that’s not something I can decide. That’s something the captain has to decide. I can relay it to him… or you can ask him yourself.”

Either way, that was far outside of my current responsibilities.

“I understand. We will do so.”
“Nn, that’s good. But, if you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to live with us?”

Honestly, the image I had of the elves was that they liked to live in the forest. And definitely not in a fort.

“That is…”

Meela averted her gaze as her cheeks slightly reddened. Behind her, I could observe a similar reaction from the other elves.

“... Ah, I see.”

I had heard that the elves got along quite well with some of the mercenaries… Maybe they got along a little too well.

“Well… Good luck.”
“Thank you, Miss Yumi.”