The next morning came, as it usually did.

Morning already?

Still in the process of waking up, I looked up at the ceiling and the meagre light shining through the windows.

It’s morning…

It was still early, judging by the lack of sounds coming from the outside. Maybe I would have a little more time to doze off.

Nn… Maybe I should sleep a little more.

I glanced to the side at Karen, to see whether she was still sleeping as well. To my surprise, though, she wasn’t.

“Good morning, Yumi.”
“Nn, morning, Sis.”

Karen greeted me with a smile, to which I responded in kind. Yes, this was a pretty great way to start the morning.

“You’re awake early.”
“Nn, am I? I guess I am.”

I closed my eyes again and snuggled closer to Karen under the blanket.

“So spoiled this early in the day.”
“Hehehe.”
”Yumi.”
“Nn?”

As I was waiting for her to continue, I felt something pressing against my lips.

“Mmn.”
“Nm!”

Her lips pried apart mine and not a moment later her tongue found its way inside.

“Mm.”
“Nmgh!”
“Mmh… Ah.”
“Haa... Sis.”

At least, I was wide awake now.

“Hehe. Thanks for the treat, Yumi.”
“Really… You’re welcome.”

Honestly, that was my line. Thank you for the treat. This was a pretty nice way of waking up. It definitely was.

“Hey, Sis.”
“Mm?”
“How about… one more?”
“Oh?”

Karen grinned at my request, before coming closer again. In anticipation, I closed my eyes. A second later, her lips found their place atop mine once more, prying them apart to make way for her tongue.

More. I want more.

The kiss went on for a while as we greedily sought out each other, until we both ran out of breath and had to part, reluctant as we were. Parting our lips, we looked at each other, smiling.

“Sis, I love you.”
“I love you, too. Hehe.”

Being held in Karen’s arms while in bed, kissing her, cuddling her. What a blissful time this was.

“Hehe.”
“Mh?”

Karen looked at me quizzically as I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Nothing. I’m just happy. We didn’t get many chances recently to… be alone.”
“That’s true.”

We’ve been busy for quite a while. I didn’t hate that. It was nice having something to do. But it was true that… I wanted to have some alone time with Karen.

“Hey, sis.”
“Yes?”
“... It’s still quite early, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“And the others aren’t awake yet.”
“That seems to be the case.”

I reached out with my hand to the window above our bed and closed it. Just in case someone happened to pass by.

“Hey, Sis.”

I put my arms around Karen, hugging her and burying my face between her breasts. A giggle came from above me, followed by hand landing on the top of my head.

“Someone wants to be spoiled, it seems.”
“Nn, I do. Lots.”
“I wonder what I should do.”
“Nn, don’t tease me.”

In protest, I rubbed my cheek against Karen’s collarbone.

“What a cheeky little princess you are.”
“Nn, and what will you do about it, Miss Knight?”
“Let’s see… How about this?”
“Hyah?!”

A finger touched me right above my butt and moved upwards along my back. The sensation made me feel incredibly squirmish and my entire body tensed up.

“It’s a little funny how your body still reacts like normal to things like this.”
“Uhhh… Sis, you meanie.”
“Hehe, sorry.”

Really, all that did was make me feel even more… bothered.

“Let me apologise properly.”

Her lips covered mine once more, pulling me into our third kiss. A very simple but happy kiss.

“Nn, well, I guess I can forgive you this one time.”
“How kind of you, Yumi.”

Following our playful exchange, we couldn’t stop ourselves from giggling.

“Hey, Sis.”
“Yes?”
“One… more?”
“With pleasure.”

Karen slung her arms around my waist, pulling me on top of her. Holding me firmly, she kissed me for the fourth time. Our tongues entwined, our breaths tickling each other, we sought out the other one.

“Nngh… Nm… Sis… Mhmmm…”
“Mmmm… Mgh…”

I put my arms around Karen, pulling myself even closer, pressing my entire body against hers as I desired her lips, as she did mine. My mind filled with the desire to be with Karen, to kiss her, to hug her, to feel her. Kiss followed after kiss, with only brief pauses to catch our breaths, to look at each other before we began anew.

“Yumi!”
“Sis… Sis!”

We kept calling for the other in between each kiss, looking into the other’s eyes before seeking out each other once more.

“Sis!”
“Nmn… Yumi! Mmha!”

Suddenly, my body moved to the side and my view flipped over. Karen had rolled us over, now mounting me while holding my arms down. Her softly glowing eyes bore down on me, her cheeks flushed red as she breathed heavily.

“Yumi, I don’t think I can hold back any longer…”
“... Nn, that’s fine. Come, Sis.”
“Yumi!”

Karen kissed me, her right hand let go of my arm and began touching my body, caressing every inch of me as it slowly crept downwards.

“Yumi!”
“Nn, come, Sis!”

I put my free arm around Karen and held her tight in my embrace.

“Nah?!”

The next moment, her hand reached between my legs, touching me, caressing me.

“Sis! Ngh!”

Before I could cry out again, her lips sealed mine, robbing me of nearly all my freedom, only allowed to squirm under her touch.

“Nn, nmh… Nn!”

Her fingers entered my pussy, teasing my insides. It felt good. So incredibly good. So good that it felt like I was losing control of my body, squirming and tensing up at random in response to her touch. Electricity ran through my spine as if it was trying to fry my brain with pleasure.

“Nmmh, nmhmh! Mh! Nah! Ah! Si— Ngh!”
“Yumi!”
“Nmh!”

Her movements became more vigorous, forcing me to feel good without escape. Until…

“Nn?! Nmmmh!”

My entire body cramped up as a final, incredibly strong jolt of pleasure ran through me… before my body collapsed in a sloppy mess…

“Haa… haaa… Hehe… Yumi… Yumi…”

Karen smiled down at me, breathing heavily. Her eyes that had been glowing softly had intensified. The glow was mesmerising… Like they were pulling me in, taking in my very core and accepting all I was. Until there was no distinction between me and her…

Huh…Are Sis’ pupils… slitted?

Before I could reach an answer to my question… I fainted.

---

The next time I opened my eyes, I was… still in bed. The blanket pulled over me.

“... Nn?”

I tried to orient myself again but sure enough, I was in our room in the wagon. However, Karen wasn’t next to me.

“... Sis?”

Confused, I sat up, only to jolt up in surprise. The bed… was rather wet. Not very comfortable.

Don’t tell me that’s all from me… Uhhh…

I only faintly remembered the moments before I passed out. And even then, those memories were a little blurred. Mostly because all I could remember was how good it felt.

“Nn?”

A noise outside drew my attention. I opened the window that I had closed earlier to listen to it. Someone’s step that was accompanied by a wooden clanking sound. It stopped right in front of our wagon’s door.

“Haaa… I’m back…”
“Welcome back, Sis.”
“Oh? Yumi, you’re awake!”
“Nn.”

In came Karen, carrying a wooden basin and a pair of towels.

“How are you feeling? Are you all right?”
“Nn, I’m feeling fine.”
“Thank the Spirits… I was a little scared when you passed out on me.”
“Sorry…”

Yeah, I could imagine that. I was annoyingly prone to passing out. But, at least this time it wasn’t due to my own dumb mistakes. Unless my lack of stamina constituted as my own mistake… Maybe it did?

“Sis, those are?”
“Ahh… I thought it would be better if we washed up.”
“...”

I looked down at myself, sniffed my arm and then the bed. Yeah, anyone with a halfway sharp nose would immediately know what we were up to.

“But where did you get those?”
“... From Lily.”
“... Oh.”

Karen awkwardly averted her gaze. I could imagine what had happened. Lily… definitely had a sharp nose.

“We— Well… Were Lily and Rina awake already?”
“I think so… But I don’t think they were awake for long. Lily’s had quite the bed hair.”
“Huh.”

Karen put down the basin and picked up the towels. I wanted to ask what we should do about water but I spotted a small blue stone in the basin first.

“Oh, a water stone.”
“Yes. Lily lend us that one.”

That would definitely solve the water issue. It might not be drinkable but it was just fine for washing up.

“You know, a water stone, a basin and a pair of towels… Why don’t we have those?”
“... Because we’ve always gone to take a bath with everyone else. I didn’t really think about it either.”

Right… but it was inconvenient when we wanted to wash up in private.

“I think we definitely should get these things next time.”
“I agree.”

It would also save Karen from having to ask Lily for help. I had to say, I was a little glad I didn’t have to go.

“Sis, you did well.”
“What?”
“Asking Lily.”
“... It’s not like I had much choice. It’d be a problem when the others get up.”

Yeah, without a doubt. That would have been an experience neither of us wanted to go through.

“Speaking of which… What should we do about our bed sheets?”
“...”

I looked down at the wet bed and Karen followed my gaze.

“... We should get a second set of bed sheets, too.”
“Nn. I wholeheartedly agree. However, that doesn’t solve the immediate problem.”

It would certainly dry until the evening but… I would prefer to have fresh and clean bed sheets. And so did Karen, judging from how she was thinking about it as well.

“We could wash it after cleaning up ourselves but drying is going to be a problem.”
“Nn… I don’t know if it’d be enough to hang it up inside.”

Washing by hand was tough work. And without the convenience from my old world called a washing machine or a dryer, it would take forever to clean and dry.

“Maybe we could do is hang it up on the side of the wagon as we move?”
“I… guess that might be possible.”

The only problem was that we would be displaying our laundry for the whole world to see.

“... Let’s ask Lily if she has an idea.”
“I’d like to wash up first, Yumi.”
“Nn, so do I.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, picking up the water stone in the basin.

“Yumi, let me do that.”
“... I’ve gotten better at controlling myself, Sis.”
“I know but…”

I wasn’t going to flood our wagon. At least, I hoped so. Either way, it was less likely to explode into my face like the fire elemental stones.

“Sis, I have to use them at some point anyway. I’ll be careful.”
“... Okay.”

I smiled wryly, seeing how Karen reluctantly agreed. However, I immediately turned my attention to the stone in my hand. I poured a little bit of mana into it, taking care not to pour too much. Like a faucet, I only needed a little.

“Look, it works.”

To my relief, water poured down from the stone, gathering in the basin. I adjusted the mana flow until there was just enough water to fill the basin.

 

“And that’s that.”
“Haaa… I’m glad.”

Karen put a hand on her chest and sighed in relief. Really… A little more faith wouldn’t hurt, would it?

“See, nothing to worry about.”
“I guess so…”

Karen smiled wryly for a few seconds before seemingly remembering that she was still holding the towels.

“Ah, right. Yumi, here.”
“Nn, thanks.”

Well then, it was time to wash up. Karen dunked her towel into the water and wrung it out, before using it to wash up. It was far from a full bath experience but it was the best we could have right now. I followed her example, dunking my towel and wringing it out as best as I could.

“... Sis.”
“Yes, yes, give it to me. Hehehe.”

With a chuckle, Karen took the towel from me and wrung it, water pouring out from it back into the basin.

“There.”
“Thanks.”

After receiving the not-full-of-water towel, I began to wash my body. I wasn’t sweating so that wasn’t really a problem for me but… surprisingly enough, other parts of me still worked at full capacity. Which also meant that I had to wash up properly or I’d smell. No need to tell the whole world of our escapades.

In that sense, Karen had it a little harder. It wasn’t too apparent but I could still smell a lingering scent of sweat. It was a surprisingly sweet scent, in my opinion. I wouldn’t mind it if it stayed. Of course, that wasn’t an option…

“This should be much better already.”
“Nn.”

After we thoroughly made sure to wash every spot, we soaked the towels in water and wrung them out, repeating that a few times. Lily would probably throw them into the laundry proper—the more than capable women of our band would deal with that—but it didn’t hurt to do this much at least.

“We really have to thank Lily,” I commented.
“We do.”

Now that we were reasonably clean again, that only left the problem of our bed. That, however, could wait until we asked for Lily’s help. She had more experience than us in this regard. Probably.

“Caught me a Yumi!”
“Woah? Sis?”

Arms appeared from the side around my waist and pulled me back. My head landed on right on Karen’s very familiar and soft breasts.

“Sis, we just washed up.”
“I know, I won’t do anything. I just wanted to hug you.”
“Well… If it’s just that.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded it even if she wanted to go for another round. We could always wash up again. The only problem would be the time since I didn’t think we’d have enough until the others got up. In fact, I was quite sure I could already hear the first mercenaries outside.

“Hey, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Sis.”
“...Hehehe.”

Karen’s embrace tightened around me. I looked up and found her peering down at me, all smiles.

… Her eyes… look normal… Guess that was just my imagination earlier.

I thought I had seen her pupils become slitted like mine. However, I could only find Karen’s usual pretty eyes.

“I wish we could stay like this.”
“Nn.”

Unfortunately for us, time wasn’t that kind. Mere moments after Karen said that, I could hear a voice booming outside.

“Wake up, you lot! It’s morning! Get up if you don’t want to miss breakfast!”
“...”
“...”

Karen and I glanced at each other and exchanged wry smiles, knowing full well that it was time to get ready.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s get dressed, Yumi.”
“Nn.”

Karen let me out of her embrace and we both picked up our clothes to get dressed. Since it was still morning and we weren’t going to move out immediately, we opted for our normal, simple clothes as opposed to the armour. We could don those later.

After making sure we were dressed and ready—and most importantly not smelling of our earlier activities—we picked up our remaining Cucus bread and left the wagon.

“Fresh air! Woah! Those are some dark clouds…”

The first thing I was greeted with wasn’t the shining bright sun but dark grey clouds hanging over the sky and moving in our direction.

“It’s going to rain, isn’t it?”
“It’d be better if we prepared for that.”
“Ugh…”

There weren’t any umbrellas here nor any waterproof clothes… in other words, we were doomed to get soaked on the coachman’s bench.

“I’m not looking forward to that.”
“Well… Maybe we’re lucky and it won’t start raining.”
“I hope so.”

Seeing those dark clouds, though, I wasn’t going to put my hopes into that.

“Haaa… Let’s get breakfast.”
“Okay.”

Putting the dreary thoughts about the weather behind us, we moved towards the other wagons where the mercenaries already gathered.

“Yumi! Karen! Good Morning!”
“Morning.”
“Good Morning, Mr Greyward.”

To my surprise, Greyward was handing out breakfast to everyone. Not something I expected the former captain to do on his own.

“Are you eating your bread again?”
“Nn, we were planning to.”
“Then you won’t need our rations.”
“We won’t.”

Full glad I was about that. However, these were also the last pieces of bread we had. If we had stayed any longer in Melfin, we wouldn’t have been able to avoid the rations anymore…

Then again, we could have just gone to Melfin for dinner and kept the bread for the way back…

That way, we wouldn’t have had any problems either way. Maybe, that’s they decided how much bread we should make?

“Yumi, Karen, over here!”

While I was wondering about some pretty unimportant matters, a voice called out to us. As one would expect, it was Lily of course.

“Lily, Rina, good morning,” I greeted them.
“Morning, Yumi.”
“Morning, Lil’ Sis, Big Sis!”

The two were already sitting at a small table so we joined them, sitting down opposite them. By the way, Lily was grinning knowingly in our direction but I decided to ignore it. There was no need to give her any ammunition.

For now, let’s enjoy breakfast.

The four of us enjoyed a short but enjoyable breakfast with our self-made bread. I was, once again, incredibly thankful for it. I wouldn’t have survived on those rations alone.

“By the way, Lily?”
“What is it, Karen?”
“Well… We have some laundry to wash but we were wondering what to do about it.”
“Laundry? Why not leave it with the women on laundry duty when we return?”
“... We’d like it if we could get it done today.”

Lily tilted her head, confused for a moment. However, realisation dawned on her a few seconds later.

“Ahhh… Well… The bed?”
“The bed.”
“Thought so… Mmm…”

Lily looked up at the sky, frowning at the dark clouds.

“I think you should give up on that.”
“... As expected.”
“Well, I might have some spare sheets so you can take those.”
“Are you sure?”

That would help us a lot but…

“Sure is. Just remember to get your own later on. You can probably ask Wanda for some.”
“Will do. Thank you, Lily. You’re a lifesaver.”
“You’re exaggerating, Yumi. But you’re welcome.”

No, I wasn’t exaggerating. Thanks to her, we were spared sleeping on dirty bed sheets.

Really, we should have gotten a set of spare sheets way earlier already…

Alas, it had never gotten this bad. At least, not that I noticed. Maybe it was better I didn’t think about it too much…

“Speaking of which, thank you for the towels and the basin and stuff.”
“Sure, sure. Glad to be of help.”

And there she was, grinning again. Great for her that she found this amusing. And fortunately for us, Rina was looking back and forth between us, confused about our exchange. Then again, I had the subtle feeling she wasn’t as innocent as she seemed at times.

“There are surprisingly a lot of small things we didn’t think about getting.”
“Nn…”

Back when we were still in Larfas, the capital, Karen and I had talked about things we might need. However, neither of us had really thought about these.

“I know that too well. Some things only really become obvious when you actually need them. You never think about it first,” commented Lily.
“Nn.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. You’ll slowly get the things you need together.”
“I hope so.”

I would like to avoid asking Lily every single time we’d need something.

“... Lily, are there any other things we need?”
“Mh? Well, let me think about it…”

Lily crossed her arms in front of her chest and pondered about my question.

“Maintenance tools for your armour and weapon.”
“That’s… surprisingly reasonable. But even if we had those, I wouldn’t know how to do that. Sis, do you?”
“No… I don’t know anything about that either.”

In other words, we’d have to learn that first.

“Wormaz is going to happily teach you. He’ll be glad if people know how to take care of their own equipment, after all.”
“Ahhh… I remember that he was upset about that before.”

The sight of him cursing left quite an impression.

“He always gets upset, especially right before a job when half the band comes to him for maintenance.”
“Nn, I can only imagine.”

I could already see all the men suddenly remembering at the last minute that maybe getting some maintenance done would be a good idea.

“Lily, I’ve been wondering about something-”
“What is it, Karen?”
“The Black Guards are now with the Dragon Knights, right? Doesn’t that mean that Mr Wormaz’s work is increasing?”
“Ahhh…”

A wry smile appeared on Lily’s face.

“That’s probably going to happen, yes. Right now, they still operate more like two separate bands, though. It’ll take time but I’m sure that’s going to happen sometime in the future.”
“Hmmm…”

My condolences to future Wormaz…

“Although, that does depend on the blacksmith from the Dragon Knights as well. I don’t know how they handle that… Actually, I haven’t even spoken with their blacksmith yet.”
“I think they have more than one due to the band’s size,” said Karen.
“Oh, that makes sense.”

Yeah, a single blacksmith probably couldn’t handle a few hundred mercenaries worth of repairs.

“Then, I guess it would depend on how many they have and their usual workload. It might even go down for Wormaz…”
“I… kind of doubt that.”

If they had that many blacksmiths, I would remember that. I might not have met them directly but I did handle a few documents related to their work while working as Korwen’s secretary. It didn’t seem to me as if they were more than three or four.

“Yumi, me too.”

Well, either way, it was a change for Wormaz, as it was for pretty much everyone among the Black Guards.

“Everyone, listen up!”
“Nn?”
“Huh?”

While we were having a pleasant chat, a booming voice interrupted us. We all turned around, only to find Greyward addressing the group.

“It’s time to clean up this mess. We got places to be and I’d prefer to be dry at the time. So get your butts moving. Hop hop, on the double.”

Greyward clapped his hands twice, spurring everyone to move. The mercenaries sprung to action, collecting the benches and tables and stowing them away. As for Greyward, he went on a quick trip to the border guards. We were camping right outside their place so it was right beside us. Not even a quick trip, really.

Guess he’s giving his thanks? Speaking of which, they didn’t inspect us upon our return.

Maybe they didn’t really care for people leaving the country? Or was it again because of Greyward’s odd influence? Either way, there was no fuss about an inspection.

Oh, he’s already coming back.

That was a quick chat. Maybe he really just informed them that we’d leave.

“Yumi, don’t stare holes into the air and come and help me.”
“Ah, yes, coming.”

I jogged over to Karen to help her with putting the harnish on the waroxen. Once we made sure everything was strapped on and secure, we sat down on the coachman’s bench.

We were pretty quick so we had to wait for a short while until all the mercenaries got their wagons ready to move out. Once everyone was done, Greyward addressed us again.

“Everyone’s done? Good. Then, let’s get a move on, you lot. Let’s get back home!”
“””Ohhh!”””

Accompanied by cheers, our mercenary caravan moved out once again.

Yes, let’s get back home. To our home.