It was such a relief that it worked out. If things had gone awry I wouldn’t know what to do. It didn’t matter much if others could use the spheres if they weren’t working. So, now that the portal in our wagon connected to the one Karen took along was working fine, it resolved the biggest obstacle with these spheres. Everything else was comparatively minor if you asked me. Okay, sure, if only people close to me could make use of the spheres, that was also a problem, but at least it would work in some capacity.

Seriously, it was great seeing things work out without any mishaps. If only things were always this quick and simple, life would be so much better.

Really… I’m glad.

I exhaled, calming down. All my nervousness flew away in an instant. The minimum requirements had been met… probably. We still had to sort out the other things on our list, though. It wasn’t really the time to relax yet. I could relax once we were finished. And Karen had promised me a reward, so I should stay motivated until the end. The better the final outcome, the more satisfying my reward. I was looking forward to it.

It’s going to be a great night for sure.

But before we got to that… The other things had to be dealt with. Yes, the other things… the other things…

“... By the way, Sis…”
“Yes?”

I looked into Karen’s eyes, unable to hold back the question burning my mind.

”I’m just going to take a guess but did you really… like, actually, make the portal in Lily’s wagon?”
“Yes, I did. Why?”
“...”

My eyes wandered over the pair of sisters, both confused by my question. Then my eyes wandered to the actual owner of the wagon, her distress a wonderful contrast.

“You know… I’m amazed you thought of doing that after you were the one to say that some people can’t deal with the tentacle.”

I wouldn’t have the guts to do that, after that declaration. Seriously, I wasn’t sure if I should be amazed or stupefied. At the very least, I wished she would share some of that bravery with me. I desperately needed that.

Like, we both knew very well that Lily wasn’t very fond of the tentacles.

“Yumi, just so you know, I asked her before I did that.”
“Really? You agreed to that?”

I turned to Lily. Despite the clear dislike she showed, she nodded.

“I did.”
“... I’m a little surprised.”

It wasn’t like she suddenly came over her dislike so…

“Mind me asking why?”
“Well… It helps you, right?”
“... Nn, I guess.”
“Then, that’s all the reason I need. It’s not like this… thing stays forever, right?”
“Lily…”

Seriously, she was such a… such a…

“Lily… You’re too much of a good girl. Come here, I’ll pat you.”
“Don’t!”

Damn, the portal was too small and I couldn’t reach out to Lily…

“Ngh… I’ll have to give them to you later then. Don’t worry, I’ll pat you a whole lot!”
“Stop! Don’t!
“Lil’ Sis! I’ll do it instead!”
“Nn. Rina, pat her a whole lot!”
“Don’t you dare! Rina!”
“Lily! Brace yourself, here I come!”

Well then, Lily was going to get her pats now. Everything was good again. Ah, I couldn’t see them anymore. Well, they were probably somewhere in the wagon still since I could hear them.

“Yumi…”
“Nn? Something wrong, Sis?”
“No… Anyway, Yumi. There’s something weird about the tentacles.”
“Huh?”
“What is… weird about them…?”

Ria, who had silently watched over our exchange, joined the conversation when we got back to the portal.

“Well, tentacles on the edges seem to dry up.”
“They dry up?”
“Yes.”
“...”

That’s odd. From the sound of it, they were about to run out of mana but… they should have enough mana to last for quite a while. This was way too early.

“That’s weird… Maybe I should come over and take a look?”

I glanced over to Ria, waiting for her to say something.

“Mmm… That might… be a good… idea… Ah… look.”
“Nn?”

When I returned my attention to the portal, I could see the tentacles slowly covering the opening again.

“Ah, Yu—”

And that’s where Karen cut off. The portal closed.

“... That was fast.”
“Mmm…”
“Ria, should we go over there?”
“Yes. But… I’ll wait… here… if that… is acceptable…”
“Sure.”

Why shouldn’t it? Oh, wait… she was technically alone in Karen and my home. Not that we had anything to hide or so, so I didn’t really mind it.

“I’ll go and take a look then.”

I left Ria in the tentacle room and went outside. Before long, it had gotten pretty dark already.

Did we take that long? Nn... but when we asked that mercenary earlier to help us it was still bright outside…

Maybe the sun had been about to go down at the time already and I just hadn’t noticed… not that it mattered. Right now, I should go to Lily’s wagon.

If I recall correctly, it should be about here.

Fortunately for me, it didn’t take all that long for me to find the wagon. And just outside the wagon, I found Karen, Rina and Lily. To be precise, I was watching Rina running after Lily, with Karen trying to tell them something. An effort made in vain. In that short moment, it took me to come here, just what the hell had happened?

“Sis.”
“Huh? Ah, Yumi! You came!”
“Nn. It cut off suddenly so I’m here to take a look… And what’s going on with those two?”
“It’s still the same as be— Ah.”
“Nn? Oh.”

Rina tripped and fell, falling face first. Lily immediately rushed over to her to check if she’s all right.

“Rina?! Is everything okay.”
“Mgh… That hurt…”

With lily’s help, Rina sat up and shook her head. Thankfully, it seemed like she only got dirty and didn’t have any visible wounds. An unlucky fall could have hurt quite a lot, so that was good.

“Rina, are you hurt?” asked Karen.
“Hmm… My arms hurt a little but I don’t think it’s anything bad.”
“Let me take a look.”
“Sure.”

Karen squatted down next to Rina and checked her arms for wounds.

“Ah, ouch! Ouchouchouch! Don’t touch that!”
“You scraped them, Rina.”
“Ugh…”

Not as unhurt as it looked like… It could be worse but scrapes hurt like hell.

“Maybe we should let Ria have a look.”
“Ehh? Big Sis, it’s just a scrape. As long as I don’t touch it, it’s not that bad.”

Yet. It wasn’t bad yet. I was fairly sure she’d sing a different tune a little later. Scrapes on the arms were especially annoying.

“If you don’t want to let Ria take a look, then we should at the least clean the scrapes and put a bandage over them.”
“Isn’t that even worse?!”
“Then just let Ria deal with it. It won’t hurt anymore after that, so wouldn’t that be better?.”
“... I guess it would.”

Between letting Ria heal it and dealing with it the conventional way… I’d choose Ria any day over that as well.

“Mmmgh… I still think you’re overreacting to this…”
“Listen up, Rina. Scrapes can get infected if you don’t take care of them properly. And you’re still not in perfect shape so you have to be especially careful, you got that?”
“... Yes.”

In the face of Karen’s intense glare, Rina could only meekly nod.

“Yumi, Lily, I’ll take Rina to Ria, okay?”
“Nn. I’ll come along.”
“Me too.”
“No, Yumi, you still have things to do, don’t you?”
“Well…”

Yeah, I did. She was right. I was a little worried about Rina but, logically speaking, I should leave it to Karen and focus on my work. Emotionally speaking, that was easier said than done, though.

“Haaa… I’ll stay with Yumi then. Karen, take care of Rina.”
“Of course, I will. Now then, Rina, let’s go.”
”Huh?! Big Sis, what ar— Ah!”

Oh, she was carrying Rina away. That looked nice.

“So, Yumi, you need to look at that… thing of yours, right?”
“Nn, I do.”
“Haaa… Come in then.”

With Lily’s permission, I entered her wagon. It hadn’t changed much since the last time, still full of weapons and equipment. The only noticeable change was the grey dried-up stuff on the wall.

“Wow, it sure looks bad…”
“It looks worse than before…”

Well, it definitely had no mana left. That was a little surprising, to be honest. I was so sure I had given it enough… Either way, for now, I should replenish the mana.

“Woah, that’s gross!”
“Lily, there’s no need to say that out loud.”

I wholeheartedly agreed that it looked gross, seeing the dried-up greyish tentacles regaining their vigour and their pink colour. But for the sake of my mental health, I’d prefer if she didn’t have to say it out loud.

“Anyway, looks like they’re back up again.Oh, wow.”

The portal opened on its own again. That was also quite a surprise to me. I expected that I would have to reconnect them.

“Oh… There you… are…”

Ria peered through the newly reopened portal.

“Nn, looks like it really ran out of mana.”
“Mmm… You gave it… a mana crystal… did you not…?”
“Nn, I’m fairly sure I did… So, I don’t know why it ran out of mana this quickly.”

The other portal was made in the exact same way yet it didn’t run out of mana. It was strange.

“Oh, right, Ria. Sis and Rina should come to you in a moment. Rina hurt herself a little and Sis wants you to take a look.”
“Is that so… I’ll take… a look…”
“Nn, thanks.”

That’s great. Ria would know what to do.

“So, about the portal…”
“Mmm… Right… I’m not… sure either… It might be… because it… was not… you who… made it…”
“Would something like that actually matter?”
“Mmm… It can… sometimes… happen…”

Really? That’s pretty weird…

“And what do we do about it?”
“Mmm… Nothing much… we can do… As long as… it isn’t… dependent on… distance… it shouldn’t be… a large issue… but…”
“Nn, it could very well be. Though, I recall Yumias saying that distance doesn’t matter all that much when it comes to these portals.”
“Maybe not… for the portals… but it might… matter for… the tentacles…”
“Ahhh…”

That was possible… Still, I couldn’t understand why they suddenly used up more mana… We only tested out if Karen could use them and that they could connect on their own…

“Nn… Wait… Ria, maybe it’s because they had to connect on their own?”
“Ahhh… That sounds… plausible…”

Usually, I was the on facilitated this part of the process. This time, however, the tentacles did it themselves. Maybe this caused an additional drain on the mana.

At that moment, I could hear a door opening. Of course, on the other side of the portal.

“Ria, are you here?”
“Mmm… I am…”

A few moments later, Karen came through the door into the tentacle room, still carrying Rina.

“Woah, Big sis! It’s full of wriggly things!”
“Yes, it is.”

Oh, Rina hadn’t seen this room before? I thought she had… Then, Lily hadn’t seen it either? Speaking of which, she was oddly qui— Ah, she had moved to the back of the wagon. Yeah, she wasn’t happy about the tentacles in her room.

“Ria, she got hurt outside. Could you take a look at her?”
“Mm… Yumi already… told me… I will… Show me… where…”

Karen put down Rina and pushed her gently towards Ria.

“It’s right here, Miss Ria.”

Rina lifted up her arms and showed off her scrapes.

“Mmm…”
“...”
“...”

We watched as Ria took a look at the wounds. After a while, Ria began to furrow her brows.

“You just… got these…?”
“... Yes. I tripped.”
“Odd… They’re already… healing…”
“Huh?”

A stupefied sound came from Karen. Rina, on the other hand, only smiled wryly, as if she had expected that answer.

“You’re not… surprised… Is this… normal…?”
“Uhhh… Well…”
“... Rina?”
“Big sis, no need to glare at me!”
“I want an explanation.”

So did I. Her wounds were already healing? That shouldn’t be happening, should it? I mean, it was convenient, as I could confirm myself… Wait…

“Well… Err… Since we got rescued… I noticed that small cuts and the like heal really quickly.”
“Mmm… I don’t remember… that you… mentioned this… when we had… your checkup…”
“That’s… I didn’t really think much of it… until a while ago…”
“That so… We’ll need to… take a closer… look at this… but for now… I guess… it’s just… convenient…”
“Ah, that it is! Even if I cut myself, it heals before an hour passes! It’s great!”

Shouldn’t she try not to get cut in the first place?

“Be carefulö… about that… We don’t know… what is… the reason yet… If you… get careless… you might… hurt yourself… so badly… that it… can’t keep up…”
“Ugh… I’ll be careful…”
“Mm… That’s good.”

Ria nodded, satisfied with the girl’s reply.

“Anyway… There’s not much… for me… to do… but… you should… clean the… scrapes… just in case… Even if… it heals fast… if dirt… or stones… get into… the wound… it can get… very dangerous…”
“Huh? Is that so?”
“Yes… In the… worst case… you could… lose your… arms…”
“Eh?!”

Rina stiffened up in surprise.

“Do be… careful…”
“I will! Big Sis!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll come with you.”

Well, someone was motivated now. Rina and Karen promptly left the wagon, most likely to look for clean water.

“Ria, you shouldn’t scare her too much.”
“Lily… I didn’t… tell a lie… If I didn’t… she’d just… stop being… careful…”
“I guess that’s true…”

Lily frowned, unhappy with the way Ria did things.

“Nn… I do agree though that she should be careful. I mean, losing your arms would be… seriously bad.”

Like… the ‘I didn’t even want to imagine that’ kind of bad. With my current body, it wouldn’t surprise me if I could just regenerate lost body parts. But I absolutely didn’t want to try that out. Absolutely not.

“It’s very unlikely for that to happen, Yumi. I mean, even if it gets infected, you can still treat it before it comes to that. It’s way cheaper, too.”
“Nn, I guess… But, err, why cheaper?”

What did cost have to do with that? She wasn’t seriously going to say that taking care of a disabled person was an issue of money now, was she?

“Mm? Because the treatment for a lost arm is incredibly expensive, of course.”
“... Treatment? For a lost arm?”
“Yes?”
“...”

Wait a damn second… Treatment?

“Lily, please explain what you mean with treatment.”
“Err… I think Ria is better for that.”
“Then, Ria, please.”
“Mmm… Regrowing… parts of… the body… is something… only very… few healers… can do… and it is… a very… exhausting… magic… That’s why… they usually… demand an… appropriate sum…”
“...”

The healers here could actually regrow a lost arm?! What the hell?!

Now that I think about it… There was that one mercenary who was injured pretty badly during the incident with the Worshippers…  But they still managed to fix him up just right…

If they could bring someone back from the brink of death, then regrowing a lost arm was probably very well within their capabilities. That didn’t make it any less amazing.

“Yumi, did you really not know?”
“Nn, I didn’t.”
“That’s a bit surprising…”

Yeah, it was. For you and me both.

“Is there even anything that healing magic can’t fix?”
“Mm… Plenty… disease… is always… a difficult thing… Then… certain magic… can prevent… healing magic… from functioning…”
“Such magic exists?”

Now, that was pretty scary.

“Cursed wounds, huh? I only heard about it but I’ve never seen such a wound before. Do those even really exist?” said Lily.
“Neither… did I… but… a colleague… of mine… did… back when… I was… still… in the… Academy…”
“A colleague, huh?”
“Mm… He was… very depressed… about being… unable to… help them… And… healing magic… was his… specialty…”

That sounded like something to be careful of… If they prevented healing magic, would they also stop me from regenerating? Yeah, absolutely not something I’d like to find out.

“Still, it’s a really rare thing. Even if you encountered it, if you got so heavily wounded you needed treatment, then it’s already amazing you survived in the first place, usually.”
“Mmm… True… that might be… a reason… it’s so… rarely seen…”

Because the people died before they could get to a healer… I didn’t even want to imagine that.

Right then, I could again hear the door opening on the other side.

“We’re back.”

Karen entered, with Rina following right behind her.

“Look, all cleaned up.”

Rina held up her arms as if to show off that everything was clean now.

“Good… remember… to always… take proper care… when handling… your wounds…”
“I will.”
“That’s good.”

Well, at least we wouldn’t have to worry about Rina being careless anymore… hopefully.

“Yumi, how did things go on your end?”
“Nn? Ah, well…”

We got so distracted with Rina’s matter and the thing about regenerating lost body parts that we kind of forget to do something about this… or so I thought.

“Mm… It looks like… Yumi’s new… portals… need a… lot of… mana… for the… set up… We don’t know… if it also… consumes more… during operation… yet…”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes… but there is… a way to… find out… quickly…”

Wait, we had such a way?

“Karen… Do you… still have… the spheres… Yumi gave you…?”
“Err… Oh, right, you mean this one, right?”

Ah, the sphere connected to the other portal.

“Yes… That one…”
“Should I use it?”
“No… Let Yumi… do it…”
“Me?”

But… Oh, wait… if the same thing happened with the sphere when I used it, then we were at the very least sure that it wasn’t because of my lack of presence.

“Nn, got it. Sis, could you give it to me?”
“Here you go, Yumi.”

I received the wriggly sphere from Karen through the portal.

“Let’s see…”

I hadn’t really set a password or anything for them…  but since it was me, I’d also like to avoid any instructions that were too precise…

“Well, whatever… It’ll work out.”

I took a few steps back and then pulled my arm back. With my meagre strength, I threw the sphere at the wall.

“Do the thing.”

The least precise way of telling them to make the portal I could think of on the spot. And… they actually grew the tentacles.

“I’m surprised it actually works…”

First, tentacles spread on the spot around where the sphere had hit the wall. Then, the sphere itself seemed to melt and spread out on the wall. After some time, it had turned into the familiar smooth surface surrounded by tentacles.

Now we only need to wait for it to connect… Oh, something’s happening!

The smooth surface wobbled a little before it pulled away and revealed the place on the other side.

“Holy crap, he wasn’t lying! Something really happened!”

An unfamiliar man stood there, staring at the portal completely wide-eyed.

“Err, Miss Yumi? I’m honoured to be of help!”
“Ah… Nn, thank you.”

He saluted me after he managed to calm himself. I was still a little taken aback whenever I saw these huge men saluting me…

“It looks like it works… That’s good news.”

That solved another issue on the list.  With that, the most problematic things were taken care of. Korwen would be happy to hear that, surely.

“Miss Yumi?”
“Nn?”
“Is there anything you need my assistance with?”
“Uhhh… Well, can you tell me if the tentacles on your side look any different?”
“They still look the same, Miss Yumi, ma’am!”

That’s great. On the other hand, the ones on this side were already starting to show wear. Or to be more accurate, their mana was already greatly diminished.

“Guess there’s no doubt it now.”

Making them do the connection on their own consumed a large amount of mana. I didn’t know why that was the case, since I never felt like it needed much mana when I did it.

“Okay, could you tell me where you are? I’ll collect the tentacles later.”
“Understood! We’re…”

e went on to tell me where they currently were. Which was surprisingly a bit of a walk from Lily’s wagon.

“Nn, got it. I’ll come and get it later. It looks like this is the limit for now as well.”

The tentacles were just about dried up by now. Barely moments later, the portal closed.

“Mmm… Looks like… it went… as expected…”
“Nn…”

The increased mana cost was a bit of a problem but there wasn’t much we could do about that…

“Okay, we solved the issue about the connection and others can apparently make use of the spheres as well. That’s the two most pressing issues dealt with.”
“Mmm… I agree…”
“So… What now? It seems like it’s getting late and we hadn’t had dinner yet.”

In fact, we might’ve missed dinner, which was a bit of a shame. We couldn’t avoid it this time, though. Korwen did say this was important. If anything, we probably finished faster than expected.

“Ohhh… is it… that late… already…?”
“It’s dark outside, so I’d say yes, it is.”
“Mmm… Then… we should… finish up… here… The rest… we can… do another… time… it’s not… urgent…”
“Nn… That’s fine with me but even the issue you listed?”

She did say that it’d be more convenient if we found a way to hide their mana signature. Then they’d be able to bring them into town. Like this, it was a little less convenient since they had to use them outside. Unless they found a way to smuggle them in, that is. Something that was pretty unlikely to be possible, from what I heard.

“Yes… It’s an… inconvenience… at most… For now… we should… report to… the captain… and see… what he… has to… say about… all of this…”
“Nn, I guess.”

He’d be the one to judge how much of an inconvenience it was going to be anyway.

“Then, I guess we’ll report to the captain and then get dinner. That about right?”
“Mmm…”

Ria nodded in confirmation.

“Okay then… Ah, but I’ll have to remove the other portal first.”

 I didn’t want the other mercenary to stare at it nonstop. Somehow, I had a feeling he’d do just that.

“Let’s do this. Sis, I’ll come over in a bit.”
“Okay, we’ll wait here. Then we can go together.”
“Nn, sure. See you in a bit.”

With that, I closed the portal.

“Lily, what about you?”
“I guess I’ll tag along. But first… Yumi, could you do me a favour and, err, get ri— I mean, remove these?”
“... Sure.”

Getting ‘rid’ of them was easy enough. Really, she did well, holding back so long despite hating them.

“Hey, Lily, there are monsters with tentacles as well, aren’t there? Are you bad with those, too?”

As I removed the portals, that question suddenly popped into my mind so I asked Lily about it.

“They’re exactly the problem.”
“... Oh.”

Good to know.

“It’s not so bad if I can cut them up but it still gives me shivers.”
“Well… Sorry, I guess.”
“Don’t be. I know you… didn’t choose this stuff. I just… need some getting used to it.”
“... Thanks, Lily.”

Maybe, one day, she was actually going to be fine with them. That’d be nice. I didn’t need her to be super comfortable with them like Karen and Rina were. Those two were a little odd even in my eyes, after all. But still, it was… pretty nice to know she was trying to get better with them.

“What are you suddenly grinning for?”
“Nn? I’m just happy.”
“... I see.”

Lily, having guessed why I was so happy, averted her gaze from me while her face turned red.

“Come on, let’s go, you still have things to do, don’t you?”
“Nn.”

We did. But that didn’t change I was happy about it.

Thank you, Lily. And I’m cheering for you. Really, thank you.