In the morning, Korwen gathered everyone right after breakfast. That meant Karen, Lily, Merim and me, as well as a few others. The reason for gathering us all was to do the last few checks and show the group about to head out how to handle the tentacle spheres.

“So, uh, we just throw them?”
“Nn. Either throw them or just put them on something. Doesn’t really matter. Then tell them to make a portal and that’s it.”
“... Okay. And… that really works?”
“Want to try it out?”
“Err…”

I presented one of the tentacle spheres to the mercenary only to be met with a frown. Sure, they weren’t visually pleasing but they worked. And that’s the important part. Though, the other mercenaries behind him couldn’t help but tease the guy.

“What, mate? You scared of those?”
“... You wanna have a go then? Doesn’t matter who tries it, aye?”
“But she asked you, not us.”
“... Tsk.”

And, unsurprisingly, they were now trying to shove away the ‘right’ to test them on each other.

“Honestly, I don’t care who of you does it. I mean, you can also not do it but don’t blame me if something doesn’t work then,” I muttered.

I glanced over to Korwen, who was watching them, exasperated.

“You lot, stop being big babies and get going. We don’t have all day for your nonsense.”
“Ugh… Yes, Captain.”
“... Yes Captain.”

The mercenary in front of me finally gathered his courage and took the wriggly sphere from me. He grimaced a little but said nothing else.

“... Miss Yumi, what do I do now?”
“Just put it somewhere and tell it to make a portal.”
“... that’s it?”
“Nn, that’s it.”

As unbelievable as it might sound, there really wasn’t anything else to it. Just say the word and the tentacles would do their work. Kind of.

“Okay, then…”

The mercenary readied the sphere and faced the nearby wagon. He took a deep breath and  swung his arm to throw the sphere.

“Portal!”

The sphere flew out of his hand, landing straight on the wall where it stuck for a few seconds before quivering and seemingly falling apart as it spread out on the wall to form a portal.

“Spirits above, it works!”

The mercenary’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Nn. Seems to work fine.”

“That’s crazy. And this stuff now allows us to talk with the captain?”
“Once it connects to the portal here, yes.”
“Damn.”

It felt pretty good seeing someone so amazed at something you did.

“Yumi, test that the connection works, too.”
“... Nn… will do, Captain.”

Now, that did present me with a problem. Which one was the correct sphere pairing with the one we had right now?

“Is something the matter, Yumi?”
“Err… Well…”

His eyes narrowed when I was unable to give him an immediate reply.

“I’m listening.”
“... I don’t know which one is a pair to that one. I only separated them by bag…”
“...”

Korwen covered his face with his hand and sighed.

“... Well, at least it won’t matter when we set them all up in the fort this time.”
“Nn…”
“Merim.”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Take that bag from Yumi and get to the fort. I’d rather we make sure this works now.”
“Got it.”

I handed the bag with the spheres to Merim. I felt a little bad for forcing him to set up everything right now…

“Will they connect on their own when I set them up?”
“Err… I think so…”

I wasn’t present when Karen had connected them last time, so I had no idea if she had said something to them or so… I turned around to glance at Karen, hoping for confirmation.

“When I used it, I just asked them to connect to Yumi. That was enough.”
“Got it. Anything else I need to know?”
“No, that’s all.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Nn.”

We saw Merim off as he made his way to the portal connecting the camp with the fort.

“Mr Captain, is he going to set them up in the basement of the fort again?”
“Same room as last time.”

The one he used when we were on our way to Melfin, huh?

“Anyway, Merim will take a while to finish that. In the meantime, let’s go over everything else once more. You girls can take a break for now.”
“Nn, okay.”

Krowen gathered the group around himself and asked them about their supplies, their route and all other kinds of things. Basically, a last-minute check to make sure everything was in order. Nothing all too exciting, but still important. As for us, our job was mostly done now anyway. We only had to instruct the mercenaries on how to use the spheres and that’s it.

“I hope things go well for them,” whispered Karen.
“Nn. I’m sure they will.”

There were a lot of unknowns about the whole thing, but they knew what they were doing. Not to mention that they had the portals now as a way of communicating.

“Let’s hope for the best. Not like we can do anything about it.”

As Korwen liked to say: There was no point in getting bothered about something that had nothing to do with you.

Actually, this had to do a lot with us… but the preparations in particular weren’t something we could help with anymore. And well, he usually said that in his capacity as a captain and that it wasn’t our job to deal with something we weren’t being paid for… but the point stood!

Speaking of which, does that still hold now that we have a permanent base? We can’t exactly sit back and watch if something happens to the town, can we?

Korwen probably had thought about that already, though. He was, after all, very particular about sorting out these things. Most of the time.

“Well, I am curious how this will work out, though. I hope the portals are going to work even at a distance.”
“That would make things very convenient.”
“Nn, exactly.”

To be honest, ‘convenient’ was probably underselling it by a lot but, yeah.

I glanced over at the portal that the mercenary had placed on the wagon’s wall earlier. There was no sign of any changes yet. It simply covered part of the wall, waiting to open.

Not that Merim was that fast. Unfortunately.

“Okay, everyone, that’s it. After you check your armour and weapons a last time, that’s it.”
“””Yes, Captain!”””

A roar came from the men surrounding Korwen.

“Seems they’re done.”
“Nn.”

The men dispersed, some checking their equipment, others standing to the side and talking with their comrades. A few others were curious and brave enough to take a look at the tentacle portal.

“And this is really supposed to work?”
“Cap said so, so ya better believe it.”
“You saw the huge one for the fort, didn’t you? Same thing just in small.”
“But doesn’t that need tons of crystals? Tools like this are hella expensive I heard.”
“Dunno. Ask the captain.”
“Nah, I’m fine.”

The men crowding around the tentacles were giving their opinions quite loudly. Though, it seemed more doubtful and curious.

“Spirits, if that shit works, it’s gonna be so good. Never again playing messenger boy!”
“Oh man, seriously? I hated doing that.”
“Everyone hates it. Worst case it rains. Can’t count how often I fell flat on the face ‘cause it was muddy as shit.”
“Could work some on the appearance, though.”
“Ya prefer running?”
“Fuck that, I don’t. Long they don’t grope my ass.”
“Who’d even want to grope that?”

Sorry for the visuals not being all that pleasing… but…

“Is it that bad to relay messages?” I wondered.
“Be glad you never had to do it, Yumi,” answered a voice from behind.
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”

I turned around to face our favourite wolf girl who had answered me.

“Imagine this, Yumi: You’re out on a job and you noticed something important that the others have to know as soon as possible. Problem is, you’re like three days worth of walking away. It also rains like there’s no tomorrow. No waroxen or something else to carry you, apart from your own two legs. I hope you have fun.”
“... I think I’d collapse before I’d leave your sight.”
“What a coincidence, I just thought so, too.”

Well, maybe not quite that fast but I certainly wouldn’t be able to manage that. Even if I could, that was one hell of a distance to run. Basically a marathon through the worst weather.

“Are situations like that common, Lily?” asked Karen.
“Mm… I wouldn’t call them uncommon at least. When it comes to monster hunting, it’s not much of a problem but when you fight people—especially when it comes to war—you need information extremely fast and over long distances. After all, while you fight the enemy, someone else might ambush you from behind.”
“That sounds pretty bad…”
“Yeah.”

So that’s why they were looking forward to it so much. I knew that it was convenient in such situations but… I hadn’t really thought about it that much how they conveyed their messages right now.

“Aren’t there other ways of communicating over long distances? Like, smoke signals?”
“Smoke signals? You’d just be alerting your enemy with those, too.”
“Ah…”
“That’s not to say there aren’t some methods. If the distance is within sight, you can use flags and similar to send a message. Large armies also use some instruments for signals.”
“Instruments?”

Maybe something like a trumpet? I was fairly sure I had heard of that before.

“Yes. A loud instrument can be heard from quite some distance, so they use it for communication. Whether it is a signal to attack or retreat or to announce changes in the formation and the like.”
“I see… That does make sense.”
“I heard, in Bruven they even use them when they march.”
“When they march? Seriously?”

Like, they were marching from one town to another and someone had to play the entire time? That had to be exhausting, walking and playing an instrument.

“Seriously. It’s pretty nice if you ask me. Marching is so boring and having some music definitely makes it easier, I think.”
“I guess so.”

I could hardly imagine how boring that had to be without.

“Why do we not have instruments like that, Lily?”
“Well, Karen… Mostly because…”

Lily turned around, looking at the mercenaries around us.

“You think anyone can play an instrument here?”
“...”
“...”

Somehow… that was sad. Really sad.

“It would be cool, though. Maybe the captain will consider it if we ask nicely?”
“Doubt it. I can’t imagine he hadn’t had the idea before,” I said.
“True that.”

I agreed though. It would be nice.

“It’s not quite that easy, girls.”
“Ah, captain.”
“The captain’s eavesdropping again. Is it so fun listening to young girls talking amongst themselves?”
“Lily, are you trying to ruin my reputation?”
“No. But I couldn’t help but notice you do this pretty often.”
“Ugh…”

Now that she mentioned it… he did butt into our conversations pretty often.

“The captain’s a busybody.”
“Even you, Yumi?!”

It was the truth, though.

“Well, it’s not necessarily a bad thing…”

The way Lily had phrased it sure made it sound bad, though. Sure, he was probably just joining the conversation since he wanted to add something to it, but for someone watching it from the outside, it might look different… Not that it mattered, since it was only mercenaries around us anyway.

“So, captain, what was it you wanted to say?”
“Ugh… What was it again? Great, thanks to you, I forgot.”
“Getting old?”
“I’m not, thank you very much.”

Korwen rubbed his nose as he tried to remember what he wanted to say.

“What were you talking about again anyway…”
“We were talking about instruments in the army, Mr Captain.”
“Ahhh, right. Right, that’s it. I remember. Thank you, Karen.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he began.

“Instruments aren’t such a simple thing that we can just bring here and use them. For one, we need men that are able to play the instruments in question. Then, we need to sort out all possible kinds of signals and following that, train the entire band to recognise them. But unfortunately, that’s not all. We also need people to maintain the instruments, keep spares and all other kinds of small things.”
“So, it’s too much effort?”
“Pretty much. But that’s not all. For monster hunting, signalling by instruments is pretty much pointless. In fact, it hurts us more since monsters also react to the noise. That can lead to them acting unpredictable, which is something we want to avoid.”

That was definitely something to avoid, yeah…

“That leaves combat against people. It could find some use when it comes to fighting bandits, but not much. And in a war scenario, it’s also not viable.”
“Huh? It’s not?”

Wasn’t that where it should be the most useful?

“Think about it, if we fight in a war, what would be our situation?”
“Our situation?”

I tilted my head, a little confused. If we were involved in a war, that meant that we were… fighting people on a large scale. But he definitely wasn’t asking something that obvious.

“... Is it about our clients?”
“Correct, Karen.”
“Huh?”

I turned to Karen, even more confused than before.

“If mercenaries are involved in a war, they were hired by someone, right? Most likely an army. And they probably have their own instruments and signals.”
“Huh… Ah. They clash.”

So that’s what it was. An army had its own set of signals. If the mercenaries and the army both signalled through instruments, they might give conflicting signals and cause a lot of confusion among the soldiers and mercenaries.

“That’s right. That pretty much leaves us with little use for them. That’s not to say they have no use whatsoever, though. It can be used outside of the battlefield as well. To tell time, for example.”
“Nn… That’d be pretty nice.”

The lack of clocks was pretty annoying at first but you got used to it pretty quickly. Once you got used to it, it wasn’t even that bad anymore. Still, when the only way of telling the time was the sun’s position or Karen’s pocket watch—or whatever the name was again—it could be a little inconvenient at times. Just a little.

“It is. That’s why it’s one of the things we’re looking into, in fact, since we’ll be having a base from now on. Depending on how it goes, we might look into training some men so that we can use them for combat communications as well.”
“Oh? Then we can listen to their music as we march!”
“... That’ll depend.”

Oh, he didn’t like the idea?

“Anyway, that’s that. Any questions?”
“Nn, not really.”

Karen also shook her head.

“Mm. Then, let’s get back to the matters at hand. Yumi, I think your portal is reacting.”
“Nn? Is it?”

I turned to look at the portal. Alas, the mercenaries were blocking my sight. I could hear some Ohh's and Ahh’s though. I made my way through the small crowd to look at the portal.

“Nn, it’s connecting.”

The tentacle membrane of the portal was vibrating and scarcely had the words left my mouth, did they pull back, revealing a dark cellar room.

“Oh, finally!” exclaimed Merim, standing on the other side.

He looked a little annoyed for some reason.

“Just my luck that it had to be the very last one.”

Somehow, sorry…

“Merim, you are finally done. That took a while.”
“Captain!”
“Looks like everything is working. Any problems over there?”
“None to speak of, captain. “
“Good. You can return.”
“Will be done.”

Merim saluted before making his way back.

“You see that, men? They’re working. Enough to dispel your doubts?”

Korwen turned to the men, addressing them in a loud voice. The men in question all saluted to him.

“””Yes, sir!”””
“Good. Do the last check of your equipment if you haven’t done so yet and then move out. I’m expecting a report every evening.”
“””Yes, sir!”””
“Yumi, remove the portal on the wagon.”
“Nn, will be done.”

It’d be bad to leave the portal where everyone could see it and removing it was a matter of seconds. After I returned the portal to its sphere form I handed it to a mercenary nearby so they could put it to the others.

In the meantime, the mercenaries around us had dispersed. Most of them had already finished checking their equipment and whatever else, so most of them entered one of the two wagons they were going to travel with. The remaining ones geared the waroxen and then sat down on the driver’s bench.

“Captain, we’re ready to leave!”
“Good. I’m expecting a lot. Safe travels.”
“Yes, sir!”

With the sharp sound of the reins snapping through the air, the wagons set out to their destination. They moved away from the camp and then on the road, slowly making their way away from us.

“... Now, all we can do is wait.”

Korwen sighed.

“Yumi, do you think those portals are going to work?”
“... I’m not sure. We tested what we could but there could always be something that we might have missed. But right now, other than the increase in mana cost, I wouldn’t know what it might be.”
“Until the problem actually happens, huh?”
“Nn.”

It was, in the end, rush job, you could say. It wasn’t something we could extensively test. We did what we could for now. As for whether that was enough… we’d have to wait and see.

“By the way, Yumi, there’s one thing I have been curious about.”
“Yes?”
“Can you enlarge an existing portal?”
“... Enlarge? I’m not sure…”

I never tried that before, after all.

“If you could enlarge these portals we use for communication… We could use them for more than just communication.”
“Oh!”

That’d make even travelling quite simple since we just needed someone to bring the spheres somewhere and set them up in a location big enough..

“Should I try that out?”
“No, not right now.”
“Nn?”

And here I thought he would jump at the chance.

“We got a few other things to sort out first.”
“Haa…”
“And for that, I want you girls around as well.”
“Nn?”

He needed us for something?

“Remember what we talked about yesterday about Sele?”
“... Nn, I do.”

About Sele possibly sucking the other girls’ blood…

“And that’s it. You said you wanted to be there as well, right?.”
“Nn.”

Sele was our friend and if I could help her, even if it was just by being present, then I wanted to do that.

“What’s this about Sele?” asked Lily.
“Ahh, you weren’t there yesterday…”

Korwen then went on to tell Lily a little about what had happened.

“Yumi and Karen heard a few things about the demonkin from Alma’s companions. It’s also related to Sele and her… curious interest in blood. We were planning to talk with her about that.”
“So that’s it. Would it be okay if I come, too?”
“Mmm…”

Korwen glanced over at us, most likely wanting our opinion on that.

“I think that should be okay.”
“Mm, then I don’t mind either.”

Lily already knew about Sele’s curious… habits when it came to waking her up. It might be good to have her around for an opinion as well.

“Nn, are we going to look for her now?”
“Not yet. I’d like to talk with the two who told you about the whole thing first.”

With Aryn and Irwin, huh?

“Should we come along?”
“No, that won’t be necessary. No need to bother them with a large group.”

I was a little worried about him going there alone… After all, Irwin… barely spoke. Aryn was the one interpreting the little he said. On the other hand, maybe it was actually better if it was only Korwen since Irwin was so shy? Hard to say.

“For now, can you go and tell my wife about this?”
“Nn, we can do that.”
“Good. After I talked with them, I’ll bring Sele and the girls over so we can talk.”

I didn’t know what those three were doing right now but it should be easy enough for our captain to find them.

“Then, I’ll see you later.”
“Nn. Good luck.”

We saw off Korwen as he made his way to talk with Aryn and Irwin.

“Should we go as well? Yumi, Lily?”
“Nn.”
“Sure. But where’s Mrs Korwen?”
“Well…”

If they hadn’t changed the daily duty rotation, then… she should probably be cleaning up breakfast or doing laundry?

“Either the dining area or the bath area, I think,” I told them,
“Then, let’s take a look there first.”
“Nn.”

The three of us then returned to the dining area where we had our breakfast just a while earlier. Most of the place had already been cleaned up by the ones in charge, leaving only a few tables that weren’t tidied up yet.

“Oh, it’s miss Yumi and Miss Karen. Are you here to help?”

A woman nearby spotted us, greeting us with a smile.

“Sorry, we’re not. We’re looking for Mrs Korwen.”
“Mrs Korwen, you say? She’s in the back, cleaning the pots.”
“That so? Thank you.”
“You’re welcome! Come by and help us sometime again!”
“Nn, will do.”

When things calmed down, I’d probably help out more again. But right now, I had other things that needed to be done.

We walked past the others that were busy cleaning the last few tables, making our way to the cooking area. Most of it had been put away already, though, so the only indicator that people had cooked here was the fire. And the woman scrubbing a pot.

“Mrs Korwen.”
“Mm? Oh my, if it isn’t Yumi and Karen. Even Lily is here. To what do I owe the honour?”
“The captain sent us. It’s about the matter with Sele. He wants to talk with her… soon.”
“My, is it already time for that?”

Mrs Korwen put her hand on her cheek, looking a little troubled.

“I hoped I could clean this before we had to go.”
“Err… Do you mean the pot? I think we still have time for that…”

It was just one pot… how long could that take?

“I don’t think so. It got burned, you see?”

She held up the pot, showing us the inside. The bottom was basically black. Whatever they had inside this pot, it had made itself eternal inside the pot.

“Yumi, dear, you wouldn’t happen to know some magic that can clean this up in a jiffy, do you?”
“... No, I don’t think so.”

Sorry, but that was… really not a problem I could with.

“I thought so…  Then, no choice but to do it some other time.”

She put the pot to the side, sighing as she looked at it.

“Now then, since it’s about Sele, I assume my husband wants us to talk at our home, right?”
“Err… He actually didn’t specify a place.”

I completely forgot to ask.

“Really, what is he doing? He can be so clumsy sometimes.”
“...”

And that, even though he was one of the most prepared people I knew.

“Let’s head to our home for now. I’ll treat you to a juice while we wait, how about that?”
“Nn, that sounds good.”

The juice they had was delicious.

“Great. Oh, that reminds me, we should call for Alma as well. She loves the girls as if they were her sisters. And she told us she wanted to be there as well.”
“Nn… Do we know where she is?”
“I wonder… She could be anywhere, knowing her.”

Without a doubt…

“Should I look for her?” offered Lily.
“Oh, that would be kind of you.”
“No problem! I’ll go and see if I can find her.”
“Thank you. You’re a dear, Lily.”
“Ugh, you’re welcome!”

Lily, blushing from embarrassment, hurried away to look for Alma.

“My, she hasn’t changed at all in all those years. Still as easily embarrassed.”

Mrs Korwen, in turn, was amused by the sight. She smiled gently as she watched Lily hurry off.

“Now then, let us go and prepare for the others, yes? My, I can’t remember the last time we had so many guests coming. I hope we have enough space.”

Despite the possibly serious topic we were gathering for, Mrs Korwen looked quite ecstatic about the whole thing.

It’s better than being depressed, though.

Yes, being positive was definitely better.

“Yumi, dear, don’t stand there staring holes into the air.”
“Ah, sorry, I’m coming.”

I hurried after Mrs Korwen and Karen. Well, thinking about it, there wasn’t really much of a reason to be depressed. Whatever the result, we’d figure something out for Sele.

For now, let’s make sure she’ll have a nice welcome.