And so, the two of us made our way back to Aryn and Irwin. The two were probably still at the site of their tent. They did say they wanted to take a short rest after all, when we left.

Uhh… We aren’t going to be a bother, are we?

Well, if they were still resting, we could always just come back later. They were going to stay at least a day or two. Alma surely wanted to catch up with her parents before setting out again, so they wouldn’t be able to leave until then. Not to mention, the couple surely was happy to be able to take a breather as well.

Either way, the quickest way to find out was to see them, so we strode towards their tent.

“Nn… Looks like they aren’t outside, at least.”
“Maybe they’re inside.”

We approached the tent and looked around a little. We couldn’t find the couple, though. In other words…

“Sis, maybe we should come back later if they are inside and resting. They are probably still exhausted.”
“... You’re right.”

The tent was closed and there was no one nearby… so, yeah…

“We should come back later then.”
”Nn, that’d be better.”

Nothing we could change. I really didn’t want to disturb their rest, after all. I completely forgot about it, since Alma was so lively, but these two were normal people. They weren’t used to travelling and I was sure it wore them down.

“Then, what should we do until then? We haven’t been given any work for today, after all.”

Usually, there was something to do. Korwen made sure we had something to do most of the time. But this time, he didn’t. Nor could he, even if he wanted to since he was in town.

“I don’t know… It’s… not a break, is it?”
“Nn, I wouldn’t say so. We should avoid leaving the camp.”

Right then, the tent’s curtain moved to the side.

“Oh, I was right. Darling, it’s the two girls from earlier.”

Aryn smiled at us as she talked to the other person inside the tent.

“Ah, sorry, did we bother you?” I asked in a hurry, worried we were annoying them.
“No, no, it’s all good. We just weren’t sure who was out there. Did you want to talk with us?”
“Well… We wanted to ask something… but we’re not in a hurry so we can come back later.”

Hearing my reply, Aryn chuckled for some reason.

“It’s all good, all good. You’re not bothering us. How about you come inside?”
“Err, are you sure?”
“Well, where else do you want to talk?
“...”

I exchanged a quick glance with Karen.

“Hurry up and come in.”
“... We’re coming.”

With a wry smile, we took her up on her offer and entered the small tent. Though I called it small, it had more than enough space for four people. Even if you had twice as many, you could still sit here without squeezing together.

“Come and have a seat… is what I would like to say, but we have no chairs or anything… Oh, wait a moment!”

Aryn crawled over to her large bag and began searching for something. Judging from the scowl, without much success. She was probably looking for something to sit on. Irwin, who was also in the tent, was sitting on his bag, watching Aryn as she made a mess.

“We can sit on the ground, Miss Aryn. There’s no need to make a mess because of us.”
“Now, we can’t have that! I can’t leave our guests without anything to sit on, who would I be then?”

An admirable determination, but a fruitless one if you couldn’t find anything… In the end, Karen and I simply sat on the ground, hoping it would stop her from pulling out everything from her bag and letting the tent descend into chaos.

“See, we’re fine, Miss Aryn.”
“Ah… I’m truly sorry…”
“It’s okay, we’re used to it.”

Sitting on the ground wasn’t all that rare for us. The camp had its chairs and benches but whenever we were outside, it would be hard not to sit on the ground.

“.... I suppose life outside is a little more difficult, isn’t it?”

Aryn let out a small sigh, as she looked over at us in regret. I really didn’t think it was a big issue but for Aryn it apparently was. Well, she was someone who came from a noble family, so maybe sitting on the ground wasn’t all that acceptable for her.

“Then, excuse me… Err…”

She looked at her bag, and then at the mess surrounding it.

Ah, she ruined her own chair, didn’t she?

Irwin was sitting on his bag, after all… Oh, not anymore. He had come up to Aryn and said something to her. This time, I could barely make out his voice. But… I couldn’t understand the words.

“Are you sure? Well… But shouldn’t we offer it to them then?”

Aryn glanced at us.

“Please, Miss Aryn, we’re fine.”

Irwin gently pushed Aryn over to the bag, cutting off her escape.

“... If you say so. Thank you. And you too, darling.”

Aryn gave him a quick peck on the cheek and sat down on the bag that Irwin had been sitting on just moments prior. As for Irwin… he was blushing. Like, a lot. A few moments later, he sat down next to Aryn, on the ground.

“I’m really sorry I am unable to offer you a chair yet sit on one on my own.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“As Yumi said, we’re used to it, so please don’t worry, Miss Aryn.
“Still… Haa… I am a horrible host…”

Well, this was pretty normal, though. And, if anything, we were part of the hosts, not the other way round. She was the guest, not us.

Irwin pulled on her clothes a little, drawing her attention.

“Mm? What is it, darling?”

Aryn bent down and listened to Irwin.

“Oh, right, I nearly forgot. You two came here because you wanted to ask us something, didn’t you?”
“Nn, we did.”
“If we can answer your questions, we’ll be happy to help!”

That was great… but… How was this going to work out? Irwin spoke so quietly that we couldn’t even hear him properly. And he was the one we needed to talk to…

“Well, to be precise we wanted to ask Mr Irwin a few things.”

At my words, Irwin stiffened up, looking at me with shock in his eyes.

“Oh my? Did he do something? Please tell me, I will educate him properly so he won’t repeat his mistakes.”
“...”

Wow, that escalated quickly. And she said all that with a smile. Why did she even assume he did something wrong?

“No, he didn’t do something bad or anything. Alma told us he came from the Beyond and we wanted to talk about that.”
“Oh, he didn’t do anything?”

Why was she looking so disappointed?!

I had the feeling, I just saw a part of their relationship I was better off not knowing…

“He didn’t. We just wanted to ask a few things.”
“Is that so? Then, please go and ask. Ah, but darling isn’t very talkative and he’s not good at speaking our language, so I hope you don’t mind if I interpret for him?”
“Nn, if anything, that would help a lot.”
“Great. Darling, that’s fine with you as well, right?”

Irwin nodded, confirming our arrangement.

“Darling also approves. Then, please, don’t hesitate to ask us whatever you want to know. Or rather, ask darling.”
“Nn. Then…”

I exchanged another quick glance with Karen, making sure she was ready for this as well. After all, we had no idea what he might tell us. He might know nothing, he might know a lot. But seeing her earnest and serious expression, my worries quickly disappeared. In fact, it was Karen who spoke to ask.

“We’re looking for information on a certain kind of demonkin. They’re often called cursed children but… sometimes they’re also called ‘true demons.’ They’re rare demonkin with sometimes… peculiar abilities, you could say.”

Irwin raised his brows in confusion before saying something. Not that I could understand it.

“‘True demons? I have never heard of that before,’ darling says.”
“You haven’t?”

He shook his head.

“Is that so…”
“‘Could you explain a little more,’ he says. Maybe they are called differently over there?”
“Well… I would love to explain but to be honest… We don’t know a lot either.”

Karen closed her eyes for a few seconds, lost in thought.

“Sis, maybe he would recognise the… err… things that happened. The mana you absorbed,” I whispered, quiet enough that Aryn and Irwin couldn’t quite hear us.
“I could but… Do you think that’s fine?”
“It should be… Probably.”

Considering their history, especially Irwin’s, I doubted that they would discriminate. Aryn wasn’t even a demonkin and it didn’t seem to be a well-known thing among other races. Furthermore, Irwin couldn’t think of anything related either to those… negative connotations.

“You can just keep it vague.”
“I guess… Okay, I’ll ask.”

Karen nodded, facing the two once more. They both simply waited for us to finish our whispers, for which I was thankful.

“Err… Let’s say there’s a demonkin that, when together with another person, unwillingly absorbs their mana. Especially when… err… Well… agitated?”

Karen’s eyes wandered a little, as she tried to find words to explain the situation. She was probably thinking of the things we did and tried to… keep it vague. Seeing her fumbling, Aryn couldn’t help but chuckle and even Irwin was smiling a little. Fortunately for Karen, they didn’t comment on it.

A short moment later, Irwin replied again and Aryn interpreted.

“You mean they absorb mana of another person when agitated or excited, even though they aren’t aware of it?”
“... Yes.”

Irwin narrowed his eyes, looking at Karen for a few seconds before he continued.

“And you call them ‘cursed children’ here?”
“... At least, in Aldreigh they do.”
“Aldreigh… That’s a country, is it not?”
“It’s the neighbouring country. The border is very close to this place. They’re a country founded by demonkin, though many other races live there as well.”

Again, he paused for a few seconds. Occasionally, his mouth opened only to close it again, as if he had changed his mind about what to say. Only after a good minute or so did he speak up again.

“Cursed children… if what you speak of is the same as what I believe it is… Tell me, are they treated with ill will?”
“... Oftentimes, yes.”
“...”

His eyes closed as if he had to process the answer first. He took a deep breath, before opening his eyes and looking straight at Karen.

“In my home country, many demonkin live. Sometimes, among us, peculiar children are born, bearing the mark of dreams. The Children of Dreams, we call them.”
“The Children... of Dreams?”
“Yes.”
“Huh…”

Peculiar demonkin with a… mark of dreams? I never heard of that before but it might be just a different way to call the same thing. After all, he was from a faraway culture.

“I am not sure if they are truly the same. But hearing your story, they are the only ones I can think of.”
“I see… In that case, could you tell us what you know about those Children of Dreams?”

Irwin smiled at Karen’s request.

“With pleasure.”

We didn’t know whether they were the same thing but at the very least we had something. Even if they weren’t the same, we might find a hint, after all.

Though I had to admit, it was a little bothersome how Aryn had to speak for him…

“Now, where do I begin? In our home country, we believe that the Children of Dreams are messengers of our gods. They bring us salvation and peace by taking on our suffering themselves. To put it simpler, they come in our dreams and take away the evil in our hearts.”
“The… evil in our hearts?” I asked.

That’s not quite what I expected to hear. And even if he said it was simpler… I still didn’t quite understand what he meant by that.

“Yes, the evil in our hearts. Or to be more precise, the evil emotions in our hearts.”

Evil emotions? That was even less clear…

“When fear grips your heart, they take your fear and give you courage and bravery. When despair overwhelms you, they take it away and show you hope. When you are overcome with anger, they take it away and calm you.”
“So… they take away emotions?” asked Karen.
“In a way, yes.”

Emotions, huh? That was all nice and well, but I still couldn’t quite see the connection.

“But how do they take away those emotions?”
“That differs by the individual. Some only need to touch you. Some have to drink your blood. Some require an object dear to you. And some need to spend intimate time with you.”
“That’s… quite the variety.”
“Yes. And among those, some also take in the mana of the patient.”
“... Ah.”

There was the connection.

“So… you think that it was… What I told you…that… it was taking the emotions?”
“It did sound to me like that.”

Karen glanced over at me for a short moment. If it was true what he had just told us, it meant that she took some of my emotions? It… didn’t feel like that, though.

“I hope that helped a little. If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask them.”
“... I don’t know. I’ll… need a moment to think about it.”
“That is fine. Young girl, do you have any questions?”
“Nn? Me?”

Questions, huh? Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t have any. Actually, there was a lot I didn’t really understand. But where should I even begin… In the first place, the whole thing sounded awfully abstract…

“Well… are there any… adverse effects on the person they took the emotions from?”
“Why would there be? They only took away the evil.”
“... I see.”

If you asked me, most emotions weren’t inherently evil, though. They could go out of control and negatively influence us, but they were still there for a reason. If you took them away… However, Irwin seemed genuinely stumped by my question.

“Then… if they took away, say, your fear… does that mean the person becomes incapable of feeling fear?”
“Unfortunately, that is not the case. Fleeting emotions like fear return as fast as they can vanish. And given time, most of the evil emotions can return. That is why the Children of Dreams have to work so hard.”
“Nn…”

Well, that was probably a good thing, though. I’d be scared if… Actually, if they took away my fear I probably wouldn’t even feel scared about that anymore, huh? Sheesh, that was a scary thought.

At that moment, Karen spoke up again.

“You mentioned that… the Children of Dreams have different methods. Are there many such methods? And do they have something in common maybe?”
“There are a few I am aware of. There might be many more but… Let me think… I remember the priest telling us that they require something that holds our emotions.”
“Things that hold our emotions…”
“Yes. An object of memories has been long with us. It has witnessed our life and our feelings. Our blood is the essence of our life, holding the most hidden feelings inside it. And mana itself is just our emotions given form.”

Huh?

“Mana is our emotions given form?” I asked.
“Yes, that it is.”

I tilted my head at these words.

“In my home country, we believe that it is the gods that purify the emotions that the Children of Dreams took from us. They purify the evil and return it to the world as pure mana.”
“... Uh-huh.”

Made sense…

“You don’t quite seem to believe me.”
“Err…”

He noticed…

“Do not worry. I am aware that our beliefs are different…. Anyway, do you have more questions? I would be happy to tell you what I can.”
“Well… I think I’m good. Sis, what about you?”
“I… don’t have any other questions either. At least, not about this topic.”

Oh, right, I was so occupied with this Children of Dreams stuff that I nearly forgot we had another thing to ask about.

“You wish to know about something else?”
“Nn. Apart from the demonkin thing… we are also trying to find out about the Cursed.”
“The Cursed? Are they different from those Cursed Children?”
“Nn. In the first place they’re… not humanoid. They’re more like… Well, intelligent, human-looking monsters. They have a mana crystal but are otherwise similar to humanoids.”

With some luck, he might know about them.

“... I deeply apologise, but I never heard of such creatures.”
“I see…”
“If you asked a priest of my home country, they might know more. Unfortunately, I was just a normal worker.”
“No, it’s okay. Thank you for answering our questions.”
“No need to thank me for that. I am always happy if someone asks about my home country.”

Irwin smiled, genuinely pleased. Maybe he couldn’t often talk with people about his home.

“If you are fine with it, I would be happy to tell you more about my home sometime.”
“If we have the time, we’d be glad to listen to it.”

After all, we were talking about the Beyond. A place far away from here. There was no way I wasn’t curious. Heck, I definitely wasn’t the only one either. I could already imagine Korwen wanting to listen to that as well.

“Then, we won’t bother you two any longer.”
“Oh, please, don’t say that. It was a pleasure to have you here,” said Aryn, not interpreting this time.

Irwin was nodding next to her.

“I hope you’ll rest well. If you need anything from the mercenaries, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“If anything comes up, we will. You two as well, I hope you will have a good rest. And tell Aryn that she can take all the time she needs if you see her.”
“... Nn, will do.”

She might need to take a while anyway if Korwen kept getting called away to the town.

Karen and I left the tent with Aryn right behind us. Irwin stayed inside, only nodding at us once as a goodbye.

“I hope next time I’ll be able to offer you at least a chair.”
“Well… I’m looking forward to it then.”
“Hehe. Also… Thank you for coming and talking with Irwin.”
“Nn?”

Why was she thanking us now? We should be the ones saying our thanks.

“Not many care for his home. Especially since his views are a little foreign to the people here. But he’s a very kind man. you can believe me on that.”
“Nn, it’s okay. I was a little surprised but… Well, he comes from far away, after all. And it was interesting.”
“... I’m glad you say that.”

Aryn smiled gently at us. She really was concerned for him, wasn’t she?

“I won’t hold you any longer. Please come by sometime. Irwin will be happy if you do.”
“... Nn, we will. Right, Sis?”
“Yes. Please rest well until then.”
“We will.”

Aryn then turned around and went back to the tent. And now it was only me and Karen again.

“... Shall we walk a little?”
“... Sure.”

Karen held out her hand. I took her hand in mine. It was soft.

We started to walk in a random direction, passing by a few tents and the occasional mercenaries.

“Hey, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“What did you think of it?”
“About that Children of Dreams stuff?”
“Yes.”

Well… That was a… complicated question.

“To be honest? I don’t know. It was all a little… weird.”
“So you thought so, too?”
“Nn.”

I glanced up at Karen, only to see her thoughtful expression.

“Well, at the very least, I honestly don’t know if those Children of Dreams are the same as the Cursed Children. I mean, I know even less about the Cursed Children, I guess? But still… the whole thing about taking away emotions seemed a little too… odd.”

There was magic to influence emotions. My Charm magic was the easiest example. But taking away emotions? That’s different altogether. Though, it might be possible, of course. But even if it was possible…

It’s not something I would want to do. Influencing someone is already quite… hard to deal with.

Not that some people actually minded. Case in point, Korwen even told me to make use of it.

“Did you… ever notice something like that when… it happened?”
“Nn? About the emotions?”

I closed my eyes, trying to remember those times.

“Nn… No, I don’t think so.”
“I see.”

Karen let out a small sigh of relief.

“Then, maybe they’re really different.”
“Nn, maybe.”

In the end, it was hard to verify whether they were different or not. After all, we couldn’t exactly jump over to the Beyond and ask them.

“It’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t hear anything about the Cursed, though.”
“It can’t be helped. They’re probably even rarer.”

Yeah, since they were basically all related to Yumias, their numbers should be quite low. If there even were any others apart from me.

“Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Yumias since we returned.”

Considering her usual behaviour, I would have expected her to show up to our small welcome party. But I hadn’t seen her there so…

“I haven’t seen her either…”
“Nn… Well, she’ll probably show up anyway.”

And most likely with the worst possible timing.

“By the way, Yumi.””
“Nn?”
“There was one thing that I noticed when we talked with Mr Irwin… Do you remember the methods he mentioned?”
“The methods? You mean, err… Touching, an important object, drinking blood or absorbing mana… I think that’s the ones he mentioned?”
“Yes.”

Karen nodded, her eyes narrowing a little.

“What’s with them?”
“When he mentioned the method of drinking blood… Do you remember how we have to wake up Sele?”
“...”

Oh, great… To wake her up… one method was to cut yourself… and the smell of blood would wake her up…

“Don’t tell me she’s really turning out to be a vampire.”
“A vampire? What’s that?”
“Err… Well… They’re people that suck blood from others for food… That’s how you could describe them, I guess? They’re from… my old place, though. So they probably aren’t real beings.”

After all, my old world wasn’t exactly very magical.

“I see… But that does sound similar.”
“Nn… Either way… What should we do about that? Should we tell the captain?
“That might be better…”

We knew too little about the whole affair. And now, even Sele might be involved in this. Well, okay, we already knew about Sele more or less. But… it might turn out that the blood issue wasn’t just a weird quirk of hers. An incredibly weird one.

“Yeah, we should tell the captain… Haa… But is he back already?”
“Good question…”

Well, the quickest way to find out… was to ask that random mercenary walking past us.

“The cap? Yeah, saw him with the old Black Guard captain near his office tent.”
“Over there, huh? Thanks.”
“Sure, no problem.”

And the mercenary left.

“Well, looks like he’s back.”

Alma would be happy to hear that.

“Yes… Should we go to him?”
“Nn. If we tell him now, we won’t forget it later. And it’s not like we got anything else to do.”

Was this what it was like to be on standby? Not that I could be complaining about boredom this time.

Hand-in-hand, Karen and I walked in the direction the mercenary had pointed us to. The office tent he mentioned was a little further on the other side of the camp, so we had to walk a bit. They came into view soon enough, though.

“Nn? Looks like there’s a bit of a commotion.”

I could see Korwen, Greywaard and a few of the Black Guards’ mercenaries standing around a table. Well, except for Greyward, who was sitting down and burying his face in his hands.

“... What the hell happened here?”
“Mmh? Ah, Yumi, Karen.”

Korwen immediately spotted us and beckoned us over.

“Captain… what is going on?”

I glanced at Greyward.

“Well… You know… His past is catching up to him.”
“Huh? His past?”

Why would his past catch up to him now?

“The governor has given me a few letters. And a pair of them came by magic mail.”
“Magic mail?”
“It’s a special type of mailing method that employs a Space magician. It’s horrendously expensive, as you can probably imagine. That’s why it’s usually only used for emergencies.”

Wow, a Space magician. I would have liked to see that.

“And why is Mr Greyward cradling his head?”
“One of the letters was addressed to him. And well… his mistakes finally caught up with him. To be honest, I can’t say I feel bad for him.”
“... Could this be about that letter he sent when we were in Melfin?”
“Correct.”

Right… it took quite some effort to even get him to write that letter… so I could imagine just what kind of reply he got.

“Anyway, just leave him be. He got what he deserved.”
“Err… okay.”

That was quite cold of him but it wasn’t my place to interfere.

“More importantly, I got a letter as well. It seems that things aren’t all that good in Aldreigh right now.”
“Nn, what does that mean?”
“I wish I knew. But it seems the person who sent us the letter doesn’t know the details either. But from what I read, they’re right about being suspicious. We should avoid Aldreigh for now… which is a bit of a problem, though.”

He scratched the back of his head.

“We still have a group in Aldreigh currently and we can’t call them back so quickly. I’ll have to send someone after them, I guess.”

Oh, right. After our trip to Melfin failed to secure supplies, he sent out another group to a different town.

“Well, either way, things are going to be interesting… I already informed the governor, as well. As things stand, our prospective border patrol job might get called off. Haa… The whole thing reeks.”
“Reeks?”
“Yes. The timing is too good.”
“Nn?”

Too good?

”I’m talking about the war.”
Oh… but isn’t that between Bruven and the empire?”
“Yes… and that’s what concerns me… I doubt it is a coincidence but I can’t quite see why the situation in Aldreigh is relevant either. Unless… invading the empire was never their goal.”
… Do you think they are trying to invade Aldreigh?”
“No… I can’t imagine that either…”

Korwen crossed his arms in front of us his chest.

“... I’ll call for a meeting later. We can discuss everything then.”
“Nn… got it.”

Free time was ending…

“For now… what do we do with this wimp?”

He glared at the slumped-over man in front of him.

“Come on, Greyward. Stop being such a wimp.”
“... Shut up, Korwen. You have no idea how it feels.”
“Yeah, I don’t and I don’t want to either. Just own up to it and finally take responsibility.”
“... That’s easy to say.”
“And easy to do. So get your ass up and come. Or do you want your daughter to see you this pathetic?”
“Ugh…”

Greyward winced at Lily’s mention, turning his head around and glaring at Korwen.

“Korwen, you…”

Korwen sighed when he saw Greyward glaring. He moved behind Greyward and held onto the chair. Then, with a single jerk, he pulled the chair away from under Greyward, sending him straight to the ground.

“Stop complaining and get your ass up. And then go see your daughter and tell her the good news. And don’t you dare show your face until you did, you got that! Come on, up with you!”

He grabbed Greyward by the scruff of the neck and pulled him up.

“Don’t show her that grumpy old face. You trying to make the children cry, or what? Hey, Yumi, does that look like a face he can show in public?”
“It doesn’t. I’d cry immediately.”
“Hear that? So go wash your face first. Off with you!”
“Ouch?!”

He pushed Greyward forward, then kicked him in the ass.

”Korwen, you damned...”
“Stop complaining and get a move on. Lily’s waiting.”

Greyward stared at Korwen for a few seconds. After they had their fill of staring at each other, Greyward turned around, his expression a lot more relaxed than before.

“I won’t thank you.”
“Better that way.”

With that short exchange, he trotted off.

“Seriously, such a difficult old man. What is he, a teenage experiencing his first love?”

Despite the harsh words, Korwen smiled as he watched Greyward leave.

Yeah, what difficult old men. Both of you.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Good luck, Mr Greyward.

He was going to need it.

By the way… what good news?

---

Dear Johnson,

Hopefully, this letter finds you in good health.

Have you been well? It has been so long since I last heard from you. Lily still writes to me sometimes, so I know you are alive and well… but it is different to hear it from you directly.

I was very happy when your letter arrived this morning. I couldn’t help but jump in surprise when the Temple told me about it, you know? After all, the last one… When even was the last time you wrote to me?

But I digress. The Temple informed me of the matter you were inquiring about. That’s why I have to tell you this: Keep those children out of Aldreigh. Things have been bad. And I mean it when I say that. The Temple has been losing influence rapidly since the repeal of the exile laws. And now… Something is happening, though I don’t know what. I only know that it’s not good.

You should avoid entering Aldreigh for the time being. Also, don’t use the temple mark. There’s no telling when it might stop working.

That’s all I can tell you right now, I don’t have the time to write more. Things are hectic between getting ready to leave and writing this letter. We can talk more at a later time. Please say hello to Lily from me. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

With love,

ﾛﾛﾛ

P.S.: I’m coming. Clench your buttcheeks.