After we had taken a look at the destroyed development district, our group made its way back to the square where we initially met up with Greyward. The destruction had been astonishing. Yet, despite that level of destruction, nobody had come to actual harm. It beggared belief.

Well, apart from the workers that had lost their potential future jobs now. Now their job was clearing the rubble and they seemed surprisingly content with it.

I wonder how long it’ll take for them to clean that up… and how long until they can now finish those buildings… That must have been a devastating setback, after all.

To be honest, I didn’t really want to know that. Just the thought of it made me squirm. So much work, blown sky-high. Literally. Whoever had planned this project, I didn’t envy him.

Oh well…

I took a deep breath, chasing away the pessimistic thoughts. In the end, it wasn’t my problem. I felt bad for whoever was involved, but that’s it. I should rather focus on our own problems.

Speaking of which, where were we? This place didn’t look familiar… But the others didn’t seem to be bothered as they walked down the street. Maybe I should have actually paid attention to my surroundings.

“Hey, Sis.”
“Yes?”
“Do we know where we are?”
“... I think so.”

Oh? Karen didn’t sound very sure either. So I wasn’t the only one who was lost.

“But Lily said she knows the way.”
“... Oh. I see.”

In that case, we were probably okay. It was Lily, after all.

“Well, worst case we can still ask for directions,” I muttered in a quiet voice.

Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary to do so. Lily led us through the town’s streets without getting lost even once. We were really fortunate to have her with us, weren’t we?

“There we are.”
“Nn, thanks, Lily.”
“Hehehe!”

She puffed out her chest with a smug smile. It was cute.

I couldn’t enjoy the sight for long, though, since the other mercenaries had spotted us first and ran over.

“”“Captain, sir!”””

The three men stopped in front of Greyward and saluted.

“How is it? What did the merchants say?”
“Well…”

The three men scowled before one of them started with his report.

“The Romeli Trader’s Guild does not have any common supplies to spare. They only mentioned that they got magic tools in stock.”
“What kind of tools?”
“Most of them were intended for blacksmithing, construction and large-scale work, sir. They have only a few everyday tools available.”

Greyward crossed his arms in front of him, his eyes narrowing. After a short moment of silence, he addressed the man again.

“Anything else you found out? What about magicians for hire?”
“Nothing, sir. All local magicians have already been hired by the local lord for the development district.”
“Thought so.”

Greyward let out a long sigh. No supplies, and no magicians for hire. It was as bad as it could get.

“Okay, can’t change it. We’ll think of what to do when we’re back at the camp. We’ll return for the day. Good work you three.”
“”“Yes, captain!”””

He acknowledged them with a nod before turning around, looking towards the gate through which we had come.

“Then, let’s get back.”

We made our way back with Greyward in the lead and the three men behind us. At the gate, the guards stared at us for a bit but they let us through without any problem.

That marked the end of our surprisingly short visit to Melfin. At least, for today. Without any supplies to get, there was the question of what to do now. We might return immediately, from the looks of it...

“Mr Greyward, are we going to stay here then?”
“Mh…”
“Nn?”

For some reason, he stared at me, not answering. Did I do something wrong? Err, we hadn’t discussed this yet, right? Or did I miss something when I spaced out earlier? No, but, that was before we heard their report. I paid attention after that. Really. But his staring at me made me a little uncomfortable.

“...”
“Mr… Greyward?”
“Not now.”

Not now? Now I was even more confused.

Before I could get an answer to my confusion, Greyward upped the pace, forcing us to hurry after him. Karen and Rina seemed just as confused as I was. Lily was smiling wryly and the three men had tensed expressions.

“This should be far enough.”
“Nn?”
“First, to answer your question: We’ll return tomorrow in all likelihood.”
“I see.”

It really turned out to be a very short trip…

“Second… Lily, since when?”
“Around the time we returned from the development district.”
“As I thought.”
“Nn?”

Since when… what?

“We were being followed.”
“Eh? Ehhh?”

We were?!

“Don’t look all surprised towards the gate.”
“Ngyah?!”

Greyward roughly hit my head when I reflexively turned to the town gate. It hurt.

“Uhhh…”
“Sorry, but that was necessary. They might still be watching from the town.
“Uhh… I see…”

That, unfortunately, was of little comfort for my head.

“Lily, did you see them? Can you tell us how they look?”
“Sorry, Papa, they were wearing hoods…”
“Figured.”

Greyward sighed again, looking really exhausted for a short moment.

“What about you three? Were you being followed?”
“”No, sir!””

Two of the three men answered immediately. The last one, however, nodded.

“There was a suspicious person following me when I went to check out the local market. It might have been just a pickpocket, though. He followed me for quite a while, however.”
“Mhm… Nothing stolen?”
“No, sir.”
“Mm…”

Hard to say if it really was just a pickpocket then… If he had stolen something it’d be easy but… Not something you could wish for.

“We’ll have to be careful for now. Don’t go anywhere on your own. Even inside the camp, try to stay together with others. If you see someone suspicious, ring the alarm.”
“”””Yes, sir!””””
“”Yes, Mr Greyward!””

The three men and Lily acknowledged the orders and saluted. A little later, Karen and I saluted him as well.

“Good. Then, except for Lily, everyone else is dismissed. “
“Ehh? Why me?”
“Because I need to talk with you. Stop complaining and come.”

And then Lily got dragged off by Greyward…

“I guess we’re free for now.”
“Nn, we are.”
“What should we do, Yumi?”

Good question… I didn’t have anything planned, obviously.

“Don’t know. Mmm… We could do our report. How about that?”
“That’s fine with me.”

It was a bit early but it might be a good idea to report everything to Korwen.

“By the way, Rina, what are you going to do?” Karen asked her little sister.
“I’ll go now and wait for Lily.”
“I see. Then, we’ll see you later, I guess?”
“Sure! Until later, Big Sis, Lil’ Sis!”

Waving her hands, she left to follow after Lily.

“Sometimes I wonder where she gets that energy from…”
“It’s good that she’s energetic.”
“Nn, it is.”

And a big part of that was thanks to Lily.

“Well then, let’s get back and call for the captain. Oh, but…”
“Is something wrong, Yumi?”
“Well, we’ll have to call him right. I planned to let Mr Yuu take care of that but…”

The question was, where is he? Mr Yuu never came when I called for my dolls so I had no idea how to find him even.

“Seems like we found something to do, then.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”

I chuckled. Yeah, it would keep us busy for a little bit.

“Okay, where should we look first? Or should I try calling for him?”
“Calling first wouldn’t hurt.”
“Nn… That’s true, too.”

Well then… Nobody’s around to see us either so…

“Mr Yuu! Come here!”

And we would have to wait. And waiting we did. In vain.

“Not coming…”
“He isn’t.”
“Guess we’ll have to look for him the old-fashioned way.”

The dolls were a mystery but this one, in particular, baffled me even more… It was completely doing its own thing. Seriously, just what were these dolls anyway? Apart from being monsters, effectively.

“Now then. Where should we look, Sis?”
“Mmm… We could ask around if someone saw him.”
“Nn, then let’s find someone.”

Karen and I walked around the camp, approaching the first mercenary who didn’t seem all too busy. Basically, the first one we saw.

“Excuse me.”
“Yes? Oh, Miss Yumi. Can I help you?”

I’ve been wondering, but everyone knew my name, didn’t they? Yet, I only knew a few mercenaries by name… Well, I was conspicuous so it couldn't be helped.

“We are looking for Mr Yuu. Did you see him?”
“Mr Yuu. No, I haven’t. Did you check his home already?”
“His… home?”

I had the feeling I just had heard something very odd.

“Yes. You didn’t know? He has a small box he lives in. It’s in the communal wagon over there.”
“No, I didn’t know…”

So, the doll was already a homeowner. Talk about making it in life.

“We’ll check there then. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Miss Yumi.”

With a new destination in mind, we set out to the communal wagon. Though it was called a communal wagon, it was basically just a sleeping place… Or so I thought.

“What is this mess…”

The moment we entered the wagon, we were greeted with absolute chaos. Blankets were all over the place. Various utensils and bottles were laid on the floor. A few knives were stuck in the wall. Boots and clothes were strewn around. If someone told me a robber had entered here, I would have believed them. Except, there had been no robber. How did I know? Well…

“Oh, it’s Miss Yumi and Miss Karen. Do you need something?”

There were people inside. And they seemed completely at ease in this chaos. Probably because it was their chaos.

“... We’re looking for Mr Yuu. We were told his… home is here,” answered Karen in my stead.
“Mr Yuu’s home? That’s outside. The storage box in the back.”
“The storage box outside. Thank you very much.”
“Sure, you’re welcome.”

And we promptly left the chaos behind us.

“Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“I’m really glad we have our own wagon now.”
“Nn. I absolutely agree.”

How could they live in that chaos? It was beyond me. I could understand some… untidiness. But I’d rather not have dirty shoes on top of the blanket I slept with. This was just amazing… in a bad sense.

“Let’s just take a look at the storage box and forget what we have seen.”
“Yes…”

We moved to the back of the wagon. There was a large storage box attached to each wagon. Or rather, there should be. Yet, the supposed box was missing here. Instead, there was a small but elaborate doll house. It didn’t even resemble the original box anymore. Now, it had a small roof, a door and even windows, all miniature-sized. It was amazing work.

“These people have too much free time.”
“But it looks pretty good.”
“That’s what’s bothering me so much…”

They put far too much effort into this…

“So, what do we do? It… doesn’t look like we can open that, can we? Should we knock?”
“I… guess so?”

At least, I wasn’t the only one bewildered.

I gently knocked against the door with my finger and waited. After several seconds, the door opened and a black figure emerged from within, staring at us. It was a doll, wearing what looked like a miniature armour set made of tiny metal plates. It even carried a small toothpick-sized sword.

“...”
“...”
“...”

What should I do here? Greetings would be first, right?

“Err, hello, Mr Yuu.”

Ah, he raised his arm. He understood me.

“We wanted to ask for your help. Is that okay?”

He raised his arm again. That was… a yes, wasn’t it?

I exchanged a glance with Karen, a little unsure. She nodded, so she probably understood it the same way.

“Okay, err… Do you want to follow us along or… Ah.”

He jumped down and walked past us. A few steps away—from the doll’s perspective a few steps—he turned around and beckoned us to come. I exchanged another glance with Karen, as well as a wry smile.

“Then, let’s get to our wagon.”

We led Mr Yuu back to our little home. He turned out to be quite cooperative. I was honestly a bit worried about that. I mean, he was basically ignoring me all the time, unlike the other dolls. Then again, I hadn’t really bothered either so maybe it was simply my fault.

“And here we are.”

We entered the wagon and led him into the small tentacle room. The moment we opened the door, the small doll jumped back without warning and drew his tiny sword.

“Huh? Eh?”

Before I could register what was happening, he rushed into the room and… attacked the tentacle closest to him. By stabbing it with the sword. The result? The tentacle swatted him away, sending him halfway through the room.

“Woah?! Mr Yuu, are you okay?”

Mr Yuu, using his sword as a crutch, forced himself to stand up as if it was a wounded warrior. Could it be even wounded? It was just wood.

“Ah, Yumi.”

The doll stormed once again towards the tentacle. Said tentacle was already ready to receive him, raised high. It tried to swat away Mr Yuu once more, yet, this time it jumped, evading the tentacle. Then it rushed forwards, stabbing it again.

“... What am I watching here? David versus Goliath?”
“Yumi, who are David and Goliath?”
“Nn? Oh, right… Well, it’s a story from my old world. Simply put, a man named David fights a giant monster. Actually, was it even a monster? Might have been a person… I don’t know. Not like it matters.”
“I think that should matter, Yumi.”

Well, even if she said that now, there was no way for me to find out anymore… Either way, while we were talking, the fight, if you could call it that, was slowly reaching its conclusion. Unsurprisingly, the small Mr Yuu had no chance of winning against this particular goliath tentacle. Not to mention the hundreds of them in the back.

“Ah, he lost his sword.”
“They caught him.”
“Nn… Guess that’s the end. You were a brave doll, Mr Yuu. We will forever remember your sacrifice.”

May he rest in peace.

“... Well, jokes aside, please let him down. And Mr Yuu, please don’t try to fight them.”

That would be a pretty pointless fight if he couldn’t even win against one of the tentacles…

The tentacle let go of Mr Yuu, who immediately retreated back to retrieve his tiny sword. I was worried for a moment that he would charge the tentacle once more but he sheathed the sword—or rather, he did the motions—and turned to me. He probably wanted an explanation.

“Those tentacles belong to me. I don’t want you to fight them. Look, I’ll carry you so I can show you what I want you to do, okay?”

Mr Yuu didn’t move for a good while before he finally nodded and raised his arms. I cautiously picked him up and together with Karen, we entered the pink tentacle room.

“Look, do you see that door? That connects to the place where our captain, Korwen, is. You know him, right? I want you to look for him and bring him to the door. Could you do that?”

He crossed his arms, staring at the door. After I let him have his time to think, he finally nodded for confirmation.

“Thank you.”

That would make things a lot easier for us.

“Well then, I’ll open it now.”

I put my hand on the door and in a familiar motion connected it to the fort. I was slowly growing used to this, seeing how I didn’t need that long to connect them.

“Off you go.”

Mr Yuu jumped through the door, disappearing into the dark.

“Haaa… Glad he accepted it.”
“You could’ve always made a new doll, though.”
“I mean, I could have but… I don’t know, I don’t want to increase their numbers even more.”

They were already increasing without my input anyway.

“Maybe we should also make a small dollhouse in the back and take a few dolls along at all times?”

It’d be convenient, at least… Actually, why did I never think of that before?

“Or we could just store a few doll bodies without mana crystals. That might be convenient.”
“I’ll leave that decision to you, Yumi.”
“Nn…”

Well, I got some time to think about it. But it would certainly help us so I was inclined to do that. I decided to keep that in mind for now.

“Yumi, it’s getting brighter.”
“Well, that was quick.”

The door to the room on the other side opened and a tall muscle-bound man carrying a lamp entered.

“Mr Captain!”
“Captain.”
“Yumi, Karen. Seems like you managed to call me without making a mess this time.”
“Err, sorry about last time.”

That hadn’t been our intention last time.

“Hm. So, do you have something to report? Did you arrive in Melfin?”
“Nn, we did.”

Karen and I told him about everything that had happened since yesterday. Excluding our hangover incident, of course. No need to make things worse for myself. Korwen listened patiently to it all, not interrupting until we finished. Only his expression changed, scowling the more he heard.

“What a pretty mess this is…”
“Nn…”

You could say that again.

“We’ll need to find an alternative then instead of Melfin. I would have preferred going through Melfin as it is the closest town but we will have to try one of the other ones. Though, if the damage is that extensive, Melfin probably bought their supplies already. This is a pain.”

Somehow, I had the feeling Korwen and Greyward were always troubled by various things. That expression of annoyance was so similar between the two of them, it was amazing.

“Tell Greyward to prepare to return as soon as possible. I will send another group to a different town in the meantime. And tell him not to force himself to try and solve everything. That’s not his job anymore. Make absolutely sure to tell him the last part, too.”
“Nn, will do.”

That was easy enough.

“As for the issue of being followed, there’s not really anything you can do about it. Be careful while you’re out there but other than that, just forget about it.”
“Nn, got it.”
“And well… as for Karen’s and Rina’s issue, I guess congratulations are in order.”
“Thank you, Mr Captain.”

Karen smiled a little. Maybe it still hadn’t quite sunk in yet for her.

“How’s the feeling? Knowing you can go back?”
“I… don’t quite know, to be honest. I still feel like someone is going to come up to me and say that this is all a lie.”
“Mhm… Well, I guess that’s not too surprising. But let me reassure you, it certainly is real.”

Korwen smiled, trying to reassure her.

“Captain, did you know about that law already?”
“No, I didn’t. But around seven years ago, the temple ordered the suspension of all punishments by exile and demanded from the rulers that the exile laws and a few others get reworked. This was in the wake of several other reforms to criminal laws.”
“Huh…”

Seven years ago? And Karen and Rina were exiled eight years ago. What unlucky timing…

“The temple’s intent was to ease punishment towards children, arguing that they simply don’t know better and shouldn’t be punished as harshly and instead be taught properly. It’s a nice sentiment but not everyone agreed with it. And the arbitrary halt of all exiles caused more than just a few issues.”
“I can imagine…”

Criminals they wanted to get rid of but didn’t warrant a harsher or softer penalty. And then they simply couldn’t rid of them anymore on the drop of a hat.

“You know a lot about this, Mr Captain.”
“Ahh… Not because I wanted to, mind you.”
“Huh?”

Then, he was involved in this mess somehow?

“Were there other exiles among the mercenary?”
“No, not as far as I know. At least in regards to Aldreigh. But there was someone who was a soon-to-be exile. It’s someone you know well.”
“Nn?”

Someone I know well? And who was from Aldreigh?

“Mr Captain… You don’t mean Sele, do you?”
“I do.”
“Eh?”

It was about Sele?

“You know that we picked her up in Aldreigh, don’t you?”
“Nn… Because of trouble with her family?”
“Exactly. Sele’s situation is honestly not that different. Her parents wanted to get rid of her so they tried to exile her. But then the ban put a stop to that. As for what happened after that… I think you should hear that from Sele, not me. Either way, she ultimately ended up in our care. Seriously, who would throw out such a good girl? Their loss.”

Korwen snorted, deriding those dumb parents. And I was inclined to agree. Sele was a good kid, after all.

“But yes, that’s why I, unfortunately, knew about the whole issue. That they actually passed the law, and even retroactively at that, is news to me, though.”
“I see… But at least, that does give credit to it being genuine.”
“I’m of the same opinion. It’s likely genuine. However, it doesn’t hurt to be careful. I’ll see what I can find out from here about the situation as well. Just in case.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
“You’re very much welcome.”

He laughed heartily. Really, he was too good a person.

“By the way, you didn’t happen to find a spot for one of your doors, did you?”
“I didn’t even have time to look for one.”
“Thought as much. Well, no matter. We can deal with that some other time. Make sure to be careful on the way back.”
“Nn.”
“We’ll be careful, Mr Captain.”

We’d stay in the camp either way until departure.

“Good. If there is anything else, you can call for me.”
“Will do.”
“Mm. Now then. Please take your doll back and tell it not to stab me.”
“... What?”

I tried peering through the door to find Mr Yuu but, I couldn’t quite find him in my limited field of view.

“He’s been stabbing my boots the entire time. Does he have a grudge against me?”
“... I don’t know.”

It wasn’t because he just lost to the tentacle… right?

“Whatever, not like it actually amounts to much.”
“Hahaha…”

Poor Mr Yuu…

“Then, I’ll see you in the ca—Ouch?!—What the hell?! Fuck! You little!”
“Mr Captain?!”
“Captain?!”

Korwen suddenly jumped back, staring at something on the ground. Seconds later, a small figure scrambled through the tentacle door into our room. Mr Yuu stood up, holding his sword up high in triumph.

“That little piece of shit. Stabbed between the clothes. Fuck, that surprised me.”

How to say it… I honestly had no idea how to react to this. First, Korwen gloated about how it wasn’t doing anything, then the next moment he got stabbed for real by Mr Yuu… Karmic justice?

“Mr Captain, I think he doesn’t like being belittled.”

Oh, Mr Yuu was vigorously nodding.

“I wasn’t… Well, I guess I was. No reason to stab me, though. Sheesh, I’ll overlook it this time. Haa… And Greyward would be a pain to deal with if I did anything to it anyway.”

Said Mr Yuu was still wildly swinging his sword up high as if trying to provoke a fight. Not like either of them could see the other, separated by the wall.

“Haa… I’ll go now. Take care of yourselves.”
“Nn, you too, Captain.”
“Sure, I’ll be fine. Until then.”

Korwen left the room. After seeing him off, I closed the tentacle door as well.

“Well, that ends that… Mr Yuu, please don’t bully the captain, yes?”

He was shaking his head. Apparently, Korwen’s tribulations were only just starting.

“Go easy on him…”

And he was shaking his head again… Let’s hope this wouldn’t turn into a pain.

“Whatever… Thank you for your help, Mr Yuu.”

Now, he was saluting. Guess he liked that.

“We’ll look for Mr Greyward now. Do you want to join us or are you going back?”

The doll paused before shaking his head and trodding off. Guess he was leaving.

“There he goes.”
“Nn. But he was quite some help.”
“... I never heard Mr Captain cry out in surprise before.”
“... Let’s pretend we haven’t seen that, Sis.”
“That… might be hard.”

Yes, it certainly would be. After all, there was something hilarious about that muscle-bound giant crying out because a tiny doll stabbed him… Then again, being stabbed by a toothpick would definitely hurt. It was still… a weird contrast to see.

“Let’s go look for Greyward and deliver the message.”

And so, Karen and I left the wagon to look for Greyward.

By the way, Mr Yuu was stuck in front of the door. He couldn’t open it on his own. He was hitting it with his sword. This doll might have some anger issues.