Year 284 of the Imperial Calendar
Crimson Star’s Day, Manaweek, First Month of Summer
Border of Lafria, North of Rahlban

It has been around four weeks now since the incident in Krohmea. Life has slowly returned to normalcy, now that we didn’t need to worry about possible orcish pursuers anymore. And this normalcy now included two young girls as well.

“Come on, Lily. Call me ‘Mama.’ Pretty please?”
“Mmm…”
“You’ll make me really happy if you do. We’ll be the greatest family, together with your papa!”
“...”

Scenes where the Priest Maiden both— plays with them, have become pretty commonplace among our band.

“... Mama?”
“Ahh! Yes, Lily! I’m your mama!”

To my surprise, it worked wonders for morale. Everyone enjoyed watching the Priest Maiden and the children fool around. Sometimes, they would play pranks on unsuspecting victims. Usually me.

“Ehehe, you’re the most adorable in the world, Lily!”
“Mmm! I can’t breathe!”
“Ah, sorry!”

All of the pranks were practically harmless but they could be quite annoying.

“Sorry, Lily, I didn’t want to suffocate you. Will you forgive me?”
“Mm! I will.”
“You’re not only the most adorable girl but also the kindest!”

Quite… annoying…

“You two, I am trying to write the logbook here. Go and bother someone else.”
“Ah, he got angry.”
“Angry!”
“What should we do? Lily, do you think he’ll forgive us if we apologise?”
“Mmm… Sorry?”
“You heard her, we’re sorry!”

They had to be doing this on purpose… They had to…

“Rather than that boring logbook, you should play with us. Right, Lily?”
“Mm! Play with us, Papa!”
“... Haaa.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, helpless in front of these two. Over the past two weeks, Lily had completely taken to calling me ‘Papa’ all the time. The scary thing about it was, that it didn’t even bother me anymore. Quite the opposite even. It made me a little happy.

That’s why I tried to stop the Priest Maiden…

We were getting far too attached to the girl. I could already imagine all the trouble we’d have when we dropped her off at the orphanage.

“Captain?”

The curtain of the tent was pulled aside and Griess appeared behind it, interrupting the Priest Maiden and Lily in their attempt to hinder my work.

“What’s the matter, Griess?”
“Rolan and his squad returned from Rahlban.”
“Already? I’ll be there in a moment.”
“Understood, Captain.”

I closed the logbook and stood up. The Priest Maiden and Lily both scowled towards the curtain where Griess had been just a few moments prior.

“You heard him, work is calling.”
“How unfortunate. See that, Lily? Only bad fathers put their work above their family.”
“Mm… Bad papa!”
“You two…”

They really were out to give me a headache. Even if the Priest Maiden was mostly joking, it was hard to say whether a little girl like Lily could understand that. I worried about her future.

“Don’t cause any mischief while I’m gone, you hear that?”
“Yes, yes. Come, Lily, let’s see if we can find something to play with.”
“Mm!”

With a wry smile, I watched the two move to the back of the tent to look for things to play around with. The Priest Maiden had made several wooden toys over the past weeks for the girls and Lily had taken a real shine to them. Even I had to say that her handiwork was impressive.

“Right, before I go, Priest Maiden. Where’s the other one?”
“Yumias? She was taking a nap outside.”
“A nap? Well, I guess it’s warm enough for that.”

Having gotten my answer, I left the two and exited the tent.

“... It’s going to be a hot summer again.”

Summer had just begun and it was already considerably warm. Most of our black equipment would heat up in the summer heat, making prolonged use unbearable. At times like these, I truly regretted taking over our old colours.

“Captain.”
“Rolan. You’ve returned early.”

I quickly switched gears and returned to my serious mode when our familiar scout called out to me.

“Yes. We were quite fortunate and didn’t have to wait for long.”
“Hm, then, what’s their answer?”
“Unfortunately… it’s negative on both fronts.”

I closed my eyes, letting his report sink in.

“Did they give any reasons?”
“For our supply issue, they mentioned how the fort’s supplies and soldiers were moved to the front. There are barely enough military supplies available for the local guards. They don’t have anything to spare.”
“I see…”

Food supplies were not an issue, as we could either hunt ourselves or stock up in Rahlban or any other town. However, military supplies, especially weapons, armour, crossbow bolts and even simple rope were slowly becoming a problem. Our smith could handle maintenance and repairs but new weapons took time and a single smith was wholly overwhelmed by the needs of our band. That’s why we usually bought these supplies in major towns with military presence. Like Rahlban used to be, before the war…

“As for the incident in Krohmea, they said that while an orc horde of those proportions is worrisome, they are ultimately Krohmea’s problem. As such, they will not interfere in that matter unless the horde is directly threatening Lafria. However, the lord did acquiesce to the request of reporting it to the crown.”
“Something, at least.”

I didn’t expect much on this front so it was encouraging to hear it would be relayed at the very least.

“I apologise for being unable to bring better news, Captain.”
“Don’t be. You did well. I doubt anyone could have brought a different result.”

Both were matters that weren’t really under the control of the lord. If he had a choice, we probably would like things to be different as well.

“Go take a rest.“
“Yes, Captain, sir!”

Rolan and his squad saluted and left.

Now then… What do we do?

Without military supplies, taking any job requiring combat was too dangerous. We could do some engineering and hard labour jobs if need be, though the men wouldn’t like that. Or we could hurry to the next military town and buy supplies there.

The other suitable towns are all along the Wooden Sea in the west…

Going there would substantially delay us. We weren’t working on a tight schedule, like the Lomerian Dragon Knights were, but if we took a delay that long, we might not make it to Aldreigh for winter.

Also, if we delay our journey even longer… those two girls…

The troubles of a captain were neverending.

“Sighing again?”

A voice called out to me from behind. When I turned around to look who it was, I found the Priest Maiden standing there, holding two mugs.

“Want a drink?”
“... Thanks.”

I took the mug she offered me, taking a sip. It was just water but it was refreshing nonetheless.

“Where’s Lily?”
“Over there, playing. Griess is watching over her.”
“Oh? That’s unexpected.”
“You think so? I think that it was very much to be expected.”

The Priest Maiden chuckled, seeing me confused. Griess was a reliable man, my second hand who had accompanied me since our time with the knights. I thought I knew him pretty well so the Priest Maiden’s statement baffled me a little.

“He simply wants a family. Like so many of you do. Something he has lost and can’t get back,” she said.
“... He told you about his past?”
“He did. He was pretty drunk, though. I don’t know if he remembers.”
“Is that so.”

I sipped again on the water, watching Griess and Lily from the distance. There was a rare smile on Griess’ face. The Priest Maiden seemed to be right, after all.

“Family, huh… That’s not possible for us.”
“...”

The Priest Maiden didn’t answer, only looking at me with a sombre, almost sad expression. It hurt seeing her like that, so I looked away, pretending to watch over the camp.

“We will be moving out the day after tomorrow. We’ll have to decide whether we go west towards the towns at the Wooden Sea or east to the capital but there’s no point in lingering here for much longer.”
“...”

Again, no answer.

“... Thanks for the water. I’ll go back to work.”

Unable to stand it, I turned around attempting to return to my tent.

“... Captain.”

Before I could even take three steps, the Priest Maiden called out to me again.

“Don’t you think it has been long enough? The war is over. The knights are no more.”
“...”
“You don’t have to follow in his footsteps anymore.”

I stopped in my tracks, letting her words sink in.

“Two hundred… We were two hundred, Priest Maiden.”
“...”
“Now, how many are left? Tell me.”
“... Seventy.”
“And half of them have never seen the Castle of the North.”

The Grand Castle of the North, the Northerlands’ proudest and mightiest fortress. A gigantic fort, capable of housing thousands of soldiers and able to fight off even the most dreadful monster hordes. Impregnable, it was called. A testament to a people’s ingenuity.

And ultimately laid to waste by the empire.

“The knights are dying, Priest Maiden, yes. But we are not dead yet. As long as we fly this banner, the Black Guards of the Northerlands will live on. We have lost almost everything. But we have yet to lose our pride as knights.”

It was all we had left. Our country was gone, our liege dead. And the people? They didn’t care who their master was as long as they had food on the table.

“Stubborn as always.”
“That’s how men are, Priest Maiden.”
“I think that’s just you.”

I heard her sigh behind me.

“At least, promise me one thing.”
“... What?”
“Don’t allow your pride to make your life miserable.”
“... I’ll try.”

Right at that moment, I saw a small shadow rushing towards us, followed by Griess.

“Papa! Mama!”

The little thing latched onto me. As if she had sensed the tension and came to dispel it.

“Oh my, Lily, is something the matter,” asked the Priest Maiden, no trace left of her agitation.
“Mm! Look!”

Lily let go of me and held up something. A small wooden… something.

“Oh? Did you make this yourself!”
“Mhm! Mister helped me!”
“Is that so? It looks great!”
“Mm! Mister, she said it looks great!”
“Ahaha, good for you, Lily!”

Griess joined in, laughing together with the two.

“Mister, teach me more!”
“Ohh, leave it to me! I’ll teach you how to make even better ones!”
“Yay!”

And just as quickly as the two had come, they ran off again.

“... Just what was up with that?”
“Hehe, isn’t it precious? She simply wanted to show us what she made. Isn’t a sign that we’ve become important to her?”
“...”
“Don’t think you can simply drop her off at an orphanage anymore. She’ll cry her eyes out.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, realising the truth in her statement. This had become a problem far beyond what I could handle anymore.

“Isn’t it fine to just let her stay with us?”
“... You know it isn’t so easy.”
“It could be, though.”

The Priest Maiden stood next to me, peering at my face while smiling.

“I’m sure you’d be a wonderful father to her. And nothing stops a knight from having family, does it?”
“That’s… It doesn’t…”
“See? Then shouldn’t it be fine?”
“You really are…”

I shook my head in exasperation. After seeing me unable to respond, the Priest Maiden let out a chuckle.

“Ehehe, I guess I’ll let you off the hook for today, Captain.”
“... So you’ll keep going tomorrow?”
“Until you give.”

That wasn’t going to happen, though. At least, I hoped so.

“... I’ll return to work now.”

Work would keep my mind occupied.

“Wait, Captain.”
“... Is something else the matter?”
“... A little.”

I turned around, only to find her looking at me with a very serious expression. This wasn’t about fooling around anymore.

“There’s something I have to show you.”
“... I understand.”

I followed the Priest Maiden. To my surprise, she just led me to my tent again. I wondered for a moment if she was just messing with me again but I knew her better than that. She knew how to separate private and business matters.

“This here.”
“Mh? What’s this?”

She handed me a small piece of… cloth? There seemed to be something written on it… A name.

“... Where did you find this?”
“On Lily’s old clothes.”
“Those… rags?”

The clothes we had found Lily in had been severely damaged. It was easy to notice that they were of good quality once upon a time but the days in the forest had reduced them to tattered rags.

“It was hidden behind a fold so I didn’t see it at first either. But when I checked earlier when I wanted to see if we could reuse any of the cloth, I noticed it.”
“... You found something troublesome.”
“... What will you do?”
“What can I do?”

The name on this small piece of cloth was a troublesome one. A very troublesome one.

“... You know this might spell the end of your little delusion, don’t you? You could have pretended not to see it.”
“... I know. But even so, I still want the best for the girl. If she still has a family out there…
“Haaa… You’re too kind.”

I put my hand on the Priest Maiden’s head and ruffled her hair. She seemed surprised at first but after a few moments, she smiled awkwardly at me.

“I’m not a child, Captain.”
“Might as well be.”
“I’m older than you.”
“Then act like it.”

Really… What should we do about this…

“Do you want to pretend I never saw this?”
“... I can’t do that.”
“I see. In that case, there’s no other choice but to go to the capital. You know that, right?”
“I do.”

I sighed for the umpteenth time today.

“Then we will do that. Our plan was to go to the capital either way. I guess, the only difference is whether we drop her off at her family or at the orphanage.”

What a bother…

“You didn’t happen to find anything in Yumias clothes?”
“No. I checked them as well afterwards but there was nothing notable on them.”
“I see.”

I closed my eyes considering what to do.

“... For now, speak to no one about this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. We don’t know her situation, after all. Why would her family send her all the way out to Krohmea anyway? If it seems they were up to no good, then we’ll just bail with the girl. There’s no need to tell her more than necessary. It would only worry her.”
“Captain… Thank you.”
“I’m not doing that for you. I just wish the best for the girl as well.”

And if it turned out that leaving her with others wasn’t the best anymore…

Haa… just what did I get myself into?

Trouble really loved to seek me out. I could already imagine Korwen laughing at me when he’d hear about this.

“You should rest for now, Priest Maiden. We still have a long way before us.”
“... I will. What will you do?”
“I still have work to do.”
And there’s something I should have done long ago already…

I made sure that the Priest Maiden took a breather before heading out again. Lily and Griess were still busy playing around, carving wooden figures with a small knife. A few others had joined them, giving Lily pointers on how to carve and all that. The person I was looking for wasn’t among them, however.

“Let’s see… Maybe here?”

I walked around our camp for a little while, trying to locate my quarry. Turned out to be surprisingly troublesome. No matter where I looked, that person was nowhere to be seen. I was already looking a little away from the camp now, where normally nobody would bother coming.

“Not here either, huh?”
“Were you looking for me?”

A high-pitched voice, as clear as a bell. I turned around to find the person I had been looking for.

“Yumias. You were here the entire time?”
“Oh, no, I just came here. I saw you looking around frantically, so I figured you were looking for someone. Maybe me. Was I right?”

She tilted her head, asking innocently. Over the past few weeks, I still had no idea what this girl was thinking. She was odd at the best of times, uncanny at the worst. The Priest Maiden wouldn’t say it but I knew she was avoiding the girl when she could.

“You are right. I was looking for you.”
“Oh, really? Do you need something from me?”

I took a deep breath, facing the presumed child in front of me.

“This.”
“Mm? Oh my.”

I held up the small piece of cloth I had gotten from the Priest Maiden just earlier.

“I need the truth. What happened out there? And who are you?”
“The truth you say? I already told you who I am, though?”
“Stop the nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense. I haven’t lied to you about me and my name.”

I could feel my body tense up. I was unsure if it was out of anger or something else.

“So you really claim to be the Cursed Witch, after all?”
“I claim nothing. That title is something you all have given me.”
“What nonsense. The witch is just a fairy tale.”

A good night story to tell children. Nothing more, nothing less. Nobody would truly believe in it anymore once when they became adults.

“My, did someone ever tell you that you’re quite unreasonable? Here you ask for the truth, I tell you the truth, yet you claim I lie. You hurt me.”
“Maybe if the truth was a little more believable.”
“Fairy tales can be surprisingly close to the truth.”

Even if it was, it was hard to believe that she the supposed witch. One who could fight the Great Spirits on equal grounds. If it wasn’t for the uncanny feeling she gave me sometimes, I would have long laughed off her claim as delusional. And I still doubted it nonetheless.

“Hmm… Well, it doesn’t matter to me whether you believe me or not. I can’t tell you anything else though. I am Yumias la Freyr. That has been my name for a long time already.”
“Hmpf. No matter. Then, tell me what happened to you and Lily.”

This was what I was really here for, after all. They had appeared in the middle of a vast forest in Krohmea. An area where orcs roamed about in masses. Yet, they had only suffered a few scratches and tattered clothes. Lily didn’t seem to remember anything from before their… life in the wild. That also left her.

“Hm, you need to be a little more specific.”
“... That forest, why were you there all alone.”

I could feel my brows twitch as I was holding back my emotions. I was already agitated enough, I really didn’t need her messing with me. Though, the girl herself seemed to find amusement in it.

“The forest. I assume you mean before we met?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm…”

Yumias’ smile deepened as she watched me. I couldn’t fathom what was going on in her mind right now. Was she considering what to tell me? Or was she was thinking this was funny?

“Well, I will do you a favour and tell you. Since you have already found out about little Lily’s identity anyway. Hehe.”
“...”
“My, no need to glare. I wonder, why does everyone always get so mad when they talk with me? It happens all the time.”

Why? Because speaking with her felt like you were made fun of, looked down upon and nothing more than a spectacle. Her never-ending mocking smile, her body language, the way she spoke, all of it. That seemed to me to be the reason people got angry. There was no trace of an innocent little girl in her right now. She wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore.

Moreover, she didn’t seem to be aware herself just how arrogant it was. Or maybe she was and she was doing it on purpose.

“Well, where do I begin? Yes, I guess I should talk about why little Lily was out there. My, it’s a sad story. She was travelling with her parents, her real ones. Out there, to get away from the turmoil among the aristocracy. Yet, how unfortunate they had to be as the orcish horde finds their caravan. I am assured you do not need me to spell out what they did.”
“...”

I didn’t. There was only one fate for those caught by the orcs. A horrific death. Either they were tortured for amusement or eaten alive. Sometimes both at the same time.

“Miraculously, I managed to escape with little Lily into the forest. But the shock left the poor girl in a rather… sad state.”
“She was traumatised and lost her memories.”

In a way, that may have been fortunate for the girl. Not having to remember such a gruelling scene.

“After that, I taught her how to survive in the forest. Until we met you.”
“... I see.”

No wonder she had been so wary of us at first. She lost everything and was only doing what little she could to survive.

Just like us…

I shook my head. That wasn’t something I should even think about. She was a child. It was different.

“There is one thing I do not understand.”
“Oh my? Pray tell.”
“You say you taught her how to survive in the forest. But the orcs had to be everywhere. How did you escape their notice?”

Orcs were brutal and not the smartest but they were exceptional hunters and soldiers. There was no way a pair of weak girls could escape their notice. Especially not for such a long time that it would reduce their clothes to rags.

“Oh my, that’s easy. They can’t report that they found something if their mouth cannot speak, can they?”
“... Are you claiming that you killed every scout that found you?”
“Maybe?”

Even more ridiculous claims. Even a seasoned, well-trained hunter would find that beyond difficult. Yet, it was a fact that they survived for so long.

In an attempt to get more information, I glared at the girl in front of me but she didn’t even so much as flinch. Quickly realising there was no point in trying to intimidate her, I stopped.

“Okay, then tell me one last thing.”
“Yes?”
“... What are you planning to do?”

It was clear to me by now that she was older than her appearance suggested. In that case, there was no reason to treat her the same as Lily, who was still very much a child.

“My, can I not stay with my little Lily? I already planned to raise her as a mother.”
“... A mother?”

I scowled at the unexpected words.

“Yes, I will be a very wonderful mother to her.”
“... I see.”

So, she was trying to do the same thing the Priest Maiden was? But… the Priest Maiden did it for Lily’s sake. She didn’t deny that she had her own reasons as well, but she also didn’t hide this small cloth with her real name on it.

However, this girl was…

“Do you doubt me?”
“I admit I cannot imagine that.”
“Hehehe, I like men who are honest.”
“Not happy about that.”
“My, because you already have your little priestess?”

I froze when she mentioned the Priest Maiden and immediately hated myself for giving such an obvious reaction.

“Hehehe, so obvious. So easy.”
“Tsk. Just do what you want.”

I had gotten the information I wanted. Admittedly, I hoped for a little more, but the most crucial parts were now known to me. Things finally made more sense. The orcs, the girl… There was no proof, of course, but it was easy to imagine. When aristocracy was involved, things always got ugly. Even that pig of a noble that gave us that job might have been involved.

Either way, my business with her was finished, so I turned around to leave.

“Sheesh, already going? What a sultry father you are. As the mother, it makes me a little disappointed.”
“I’m not a father. Nor are you her mother. The Priest Maiden is better at that anyway.”

For the first time, I saw her smile vanish.  Or… did I? When I blinked, it was already there again. Did I just imagine it?

“Is that so?”
“...”
“I will keep that in mind.”

Saying so, the pink-haired girl disappeared from my sight.