“Mm… That way! I think!”
“That way?”
“Yes!”
“Okay then. That way we go.”
With Emily deciding our direction, we slowly made our way into the forest. There wasn’t a lot of undergrowth so advancing was pretty fast. Faster than in the forest around that roper cave.
Nonetheless, visibility was still quite limited.
“rim, are you sure it’s fine to just… leisurely stroll around? Shouldn’t we be careful of monsters?”
“It’s fine for now. The edge of the forest isn’t particularly dangerous. And if we already start keeping up our guard from this point on, we’ll just get tired quickly and start jumping at shadows. That’d be even more dangerous.”
“Haa…”
Well, you couldn’t be on guard all the ti, but this was still a forest with monsters, right?
“Yumi, he’s right.”
“Nn? You think so too, Lily?”
“Yes. Even if we were to encounter anything here, there shouldn’t be any strong monsters. Those are deeper into the forest. Also, the Vice-Captain probably knows what type of monsters are in this area.”
“Mm, I do indeed know.”
“So there are monsters here, after all…”
Well, but if he deed it to be fine even with the three little ones…
“I’m not saying they aren’t dangerous but they are sothing all of you can handle with ease. We actually passed so of them already.”
“... Excuse ?”
We passed them already?
Frantically, I watched my surroundings but… there was nothing in sight…
“A little lower.”
“Nn?”
“Your sight. Watch the ground.”
The ground?
On the ground wasn’t anything of note, though… While there was little undergrowth, it was still filled with small bushes, leaves, even mushrooms and other things. Small animals as well… A brown rabbit, it seed. It was watching us, not shy at all. I always thought rabbits were easily scared away.
Other than that, there was nothing here.
“... You aren’t going to tell
it’s that rabbit, is it?”
“I am going to tell you that it is, indeed, the rabbit.”
“...”
“By the way, that’s the fourth rabbit we passed. The other three are following behind us.”
Great… Monster rabbits.
“They aren’t strong but they can still take a decent bite out of your arm, so don’t let them take the jump at you. They hunt in packs though and prepare ambushes. They won’t attack yet.”
“That’s not exactly relieving , you know?”
I returned my gaze to Emily, Maya and Sele. Together with Nela and Elma, they were making their way through the forest, laughing all the while. They treated it as if it was a field trip…
“Shouldn’t we get rid of them?”
“We will, but not now. Or rather, you girls will. On one side, I want to see what you and Karen are capable of in an actual combat situation. On the other, it’s good training. Everyone has to start small and Demon Rabbits are a good start.”
“I see.”
A good start, huh…
Well, if he phrased it like that. My life in the future was sure going to be dangerous, so getting used to things like this… was probably a necessity.
“We’re also going to see if we can find other monsters around to practice on, don’t worry.”
“I’m sorry, but I fear that I’ll worry anyways.”
“Figured you would.”
rim gave
a strained smile, then pat my head.
“Being overly careful is at least a better starting point than being foolish and reckless.”
“Nn…”
“Anyways, Demon Rabbits aren’t all that dangerous. Don’t let them bite you and you are good. Understood?”
“Nn, understood.”
“Good.”
rim nodded, satisfied.
“Ah, Emily, Maya, don’t stray too far away!”
“Nn?”
What the heck were those girls doing…
Ah, they were running back, carrying sothing.
“Uncle rim, Uncle rim! Look! We caught one!”
“...”
In Emily’s arms… was a rabbit… Yeah, the exact kind we were just talking about.
“You girls… Don’t just approach them, they’re still dangerous.”
“But look! They’re so fluffy and cute!”
Emily and Maya started patting and fluffing it.
“Kshaaaa!”
“Wah! It got angry!”
Holy shit, those teeth!
Rabbits should be vegetarians and not possess a set of fangs! Scary!
And yet, she was still holding the rabbit, even as it tried to struggle from her grasp and bite them… A clearly futile attempt…
“rim, I feel stupid for worrying.”
“Hey, I’d prefer it if you still worried a little. Emily, give
that rabbit, we can’t have it hurt you girls.”
“Ehh, but Uncle rim… Ah, don’t!”
Without rcy, rim grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck and pulled it out of Emily’s arms.
“Uhhh! Uncle rim, you anie!”
“It’s a monster, not a pet… Woah!”
The rabbit was now reaching out for rim and trying to bite him. All the while it was flailing with his legs. Quite the… lively rabbit. It would’ve been cute if it wasn’t baring those fangs at us that looked utterly out of place for a rabbit.
“Jeez, what do I do with this one now… Can’t have you get in our way yet, so off you… GO!”
Today I learnt: Rabbits could fly. Of course, only with sufficient arm strength. And rim had more than enough of that. I didn’t even see it landing… Actually, that it didn’t just hit a tree was even more surprising.
“Ahhh! It’s gone!”
“Uncle rim…”
“Maya, don’t look at
like that. I’m responsible for you girls and if that thing takes a bite out of you, that’s not funny. For neither of us.”
“... anie.”
“Haa… so unreasonable.”
He sighed, shrugging with his shoulders.
“You can complain all you want later. But we’re working now… Emily, are we still walking in the right direction?”
“...”
“Emily?”
“Hmpf! We are!”
Emily turned away from rim, took Maya’s hand and walked off, leading the way together with the other girls.
Was she… sulking?
“Haaa… why are children always like this?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have flung that rabbit away?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
“... Explain it to them and then let it go elsewhere?”
“It would’ve just attacked us imdiately if I didn’t throw it.”
“Tough luck.”
Life was unreasonable. And children even more so.
“Karen, could you go and watch those girls for ? Wait, where is she?”
“Sis, ran after them already.”
She, Rina and Lily had watched the short exchange as well. And right after Emily stord off, she ran after her. Most likely to calm her down.
“So reliable.”
“Nn.”
“Haaa… Hey, Lily. Did anything change with the rabbits following us? I lost track of them.”
“They’re still following us. A total of seven now. The one you threw ran away, by the way.”
“Good. Worst case, it would’ve scared the other rabbits away as well. Seems we got lucky.”
“... Was that really lucky?”
“Don’t.”
rim sighed once more. And probably not the last ti today either…
“Uncle rim! Uncle rim! We found it!”
“Already? That was quick.”
Only a short while later, the three girls all ca running towards us again, reporting their new find with big smiles. As if the previous incident had never happened.
“The Sli Flowers, huh. And you didn’t approach it either. Good girls.”
“Hehehe! The trees said not to touch it because it doesn’t like to listen. So we stayed away!”
“... That so?”
rim raised an eyebrow for a mont, then dismissed the whole thing and turned to Karen.
“Lily, take point, shield up. Yumi, stand behind Lily and the shield. You just need to knock the flower over with your hair, no need to do anything complicated. Everyone else, step back a little.”
“Okay, Vice-Captain.”
“Nn, understood.”
Lily heaved up the rather large shield, holding up in front of her. It wasn’t covering her whole body but still quite a bit. Then, she faced the single flower that was standing lonely between the trees. I heard it was tall but it was… really tall. About as tall as I was. The blue blossom was accordingly as large as a person’s head. It didn’t look particularly noteworthy otherwise.
“Yumi, get behind .”
“Nn.”
I did as she told
and stood behind her. Together, we slowly approached the flower. It didn’t react until we were maybe two or three steps away from it. A small rustle could be heard from behind the shield.
“It noticed us, huh. Yumi, get ready.”
“Nn…”
Feeling a little nervous, I wondered how close we’d approach. Until…
Bong!
“Nn?”
“I think it spit so acid at the shield. Yumi, if you could.”
“Nn…”
Acid, huh…
I stood as close to the shield as I could. I only had to knock it over. That wouldn’t require a lot of strength, probably. Plus, I could feel the flower’s position thanks to the mana it contained, even through the shield.
“Then, here I go.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved my hair, around the shield towards the flower. The easiest thing to do was obviously just trying to sweep around the general area.
Hopefully, that’d knock it down.
I swung my hair at the flower and… beautifully failed.
“A little more strength is required, Yumi…”
“... I noticed.”
Guess, this flower wasn’t that easy to knock down…
“Ehhh… What to do...”
“How about just pulling on it?”
“Nn, I’ll try.”
Bong!
Oh, it hit the shield again.
“Preferably before the shield gets too damaged.”
“Nn....”
Pulling it, huh…
I moved my hair towards the flower. Not being able to see it directly was actually a bit of a challenge… Sure, I could see the mana, but it was different from actually seeing it. Still, I sohow managed to wrap my hair around it. Now, hopefully my hair had enough strength to pull it down.
“... Nn.”
Co on, you’re just a flower. An acid-spitting flower, sure, but just a flower! Fall down!
Alas, unable to receive my complaints, the flower kept standing… My hair wasn’t even enough to pull a flower… Really?
“Yumi?”
“... Nn?”
“The heck are you doing?”
“Trying to knock over the flower?”
“... You do know that you’re making this more complicated than necessary, right?”
“Huh?”
More complicated than necessary?
While I wondered what the heck she was talking about, Lily was just smirking at my confusion. Until she finally revealed it.
“You do know you could just pull with your hands, right?”
“...”
“...”
“... Ah.”
Ah.
Ah.
“You never saw that.”
“Sure, sure. I think everyone watched you, though.”
“...”
Of course, sothing like this had to happen, didn’t it?
I took hold of my hair that was wrapping around the flower on the other side and promptly pulled it. There was a surprising amount of resistance. Still, a few seconds later, I could feel the resistance ebbing away and the flower falling over on the other side.
“Great. Let’s get the flower and move on.”
“Nn.”
Lily peeked behind the shield, making sure that the flower wasn’t going to harm us anymore.
“Looks good.”
She put the shield away, revealing the scenery behind it. The flower that had been standing there just a little prior was now on the ground, the blossom facing down into the ground. The fact that it was twitching gave
the creeps, honestly. Flowers weren’t supposed to move like that.
“Mm, that went quite well for the first one, didn’t it?”
“rim.”
The others had co over as soon as they saw that the flower wasn’t a danger anymore. rim took the small saw and went over to the flower, cutting it off at the root. With a last few twitches, the flower finally stopped moving.
“That’s the first Sli Flower done.”
“... The first?”
“We need a few of them.”
So I had to do this a few more tis?
“Will the shield hold up that long?”
“It will, no worries. You were rather fast so it’s no— Woah!”
rim, who was in the middle of picking up the flower, suddenly jumped backwards. Sothing fell down from the blossom in the flower… The corpse of a small critter.
“Ugh, that’s quite… disgusting…”
“Nn…”
The corpse was half digested already, so it wasn’t a pleasant sight. The halfway molten bones and organs… Uhhh… It made
feel a little sick…
“That’s what I hate about these jobs. Haa...
Let’s move on quickly.“
rim stowed the flower into a bag and beckoned us away from the scene. Our two guest companions, Elma and Nela, had both already turned away, looking a little sick.
“Emily, there should be other flowers close-by. Do you know where?”
“Mm… I think over there is one!”
“Great.”
We went into the direction Emily had pointed at and sure enough, a few minutes of walking we found yet another Sli Flower.
“Good, good. Hopefully there are enough of these in the area. Now then… Karen, you go this ti.”
“?”
“Yes.”
Huh, so it wasn’t
doing it this ti?
“Take the shield and get the flower.”
“Uhm… Should I knock the flower just over with the shield?”
“How you do it is up to you.”
“Okay…”
Karen received the shield from Lily. I only saw it now, but there was a darkened spot right in the middle of it. That must have been where the acid had hit it earlier.
“Then, I’ll go.”
“Nn, good luck, Sis.”
“Thank you, Yumi.”
With a smile, Karen held up the shield and slowly approached towards the flower. At a steady pace.
Bong!
“Oh?”
She tumbled a little backwards.
Much to my surprise. It hadn’t seed like Lily had any problems with it. She didn’t budge. Yet, Karen, who was physically quite strong, was forced back.
“Mm… As expected,” murmured rim.”
“Nn? rim?”
“Karen has a lot of strength but her own weight is that of a normal girl. You don’t need a lot of strength to force her back. And no matter how strong she is, she’ll just get forced back by anyone—or anything—heavier than her.”
“Oh…”
Her own weight, huh. But how did Lily manage then?
In the anti, Karen had approached even closer to the flower, standing right before it now. With a Bonk she knocked it over. A little anticlimactic, to be honest…
“Let’s get that flower.”
rim walked up to the flower and retrieved it promptly. This ti, no critter corpse fell out, thankfully.
Once finished, he turned to Karen.
“Good job.”
“Thank you.”
He didn’t say anything about what he told
just now. Well, he’d probably talk with her about it?
“Now then, off to the next. Emily, lead the way.”
“Yes, Uncle rim!”
We proceeded from one flower to the next, always soone else having to take care of it. rim decided whether they should do it alone or with soone else. The ones who could carry the shield on their own—naly Karen, Lily and Rina—just walked up to the flowers and knocked them down. Although, Rina actually lost her footing and on her back. The shield covered her so she didn’t get injured by the flower but still.
Everyone else had to get… a little more creative.
“Good, that’s enough of these.”
“Nn…”
I peeked into the bag where rim had just stuffed in the final Sli Flower. A good dozen of them were stuffed inside, stem and flower all. He wasn’t exactly gentle with them either… Was this fine?
“Now then, that’s the first of four done. It’s the most troubleso too.”
rim was holding the shield, looking at the front of it. The repeated hits of acid had done quite a bit of damage after all. He poked the darkened spot and… stabbed through the shield.
“Guess this one’s a goner, huh. At least it didn’t break earlier.”
“Mr Vice-Captain, was it really okay to use the shield for this?”
“Mh? Yes, it’s fine, don’t worry about it, Karen. We’ll just hand this over to the blacksmiths and they’ll recycle it sohow. I think.”
“... Is that really okay?”
Karen furrowed her brows at his nonchalant reply.
“Rather than that, Karen, what did you think after using this shield?”
“My thoughts?”
“Yes.”
“Uhm… It’s hard to see the surroundings and what is directly in front of you if you hold it up. Also, I was a bit surprised at how strong the impact was.”
Karen had taken the shield two more tis after this, and each ti, she was tumbling a little when the flower shot the acid at the shield.
“Projectiles have a lot of strength behind them. An arrow would be even worse, not to ntion a crossbow bolt. It’s easy to mistake the danger they pose. Don’t forget that feeling.”
“Yes, Mr Vice-Captain!”
“Mm. We’ll talk a little more about this when we are back at the camp again. Next…”
After talking to Karen, he turned towards .
“Yumi, do you like rabbits?”
“Eh? Uhm… they are cute, so I guess I do?”
Assuming there were normal rabbits around.
“Mm. I wonder if you still like them later.”
“Nn?”
“You got a bit of a problem with your attention span… or maybe your awareness of your surroundings. You completely forgot that the Demon Rabbits were still following us, didn’t you?”
“... Ah.”
He was right. They… did slip from my mind.
“Lily, how many are following us?”
“They increased to fourteen a while ago, then two left. Just now, one of them ca back so it’s thirteen. They’re still keeping their distance and watching.”
“That’s right, good job.”
rim nodded, satisfied with her answer.
“Having a lack of awareness of your surroundings can be fatal in combat. The Captain ntioned that you also keep forgetting other things, like with reports.”
“Uhh… I’m sorry.”
“I’m not looking for apologies, Yumi. It’s not really anything you have to apologise for. It would be better, of course, if you could fix that.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Korwen did scold
before for forgetting stuff, didn’t he… And that wasn’t the only ti...
“Oddly enough, the Captain said that you do secretarial work just fine. I wonder why that is… It might have to do with how you approach this work so I’m fairly sure we can do sothing there.”
“Nn? How I approach it?”
“Yes. Of course, this is just my guess, judging from my experience training other recruits before. So of them were quite sloppy early on but improved a lot later on. You might just have to get used to things and it might get better on its own.”
“Huh…”
Getting used to this, huh… Well, I certainly couldn’t claim that I was used to everything yet.
“Other than that, there’s not much to say for . Just, don’t forget the simple solutions, yes?”
“... Nn.”
I’d try not to forget that I could just pull with my hands the next ti, yes.
“Good. Well, let’s see… Lily… Not much to say to you.”
“Ehh? Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“Not even a little bit.”
rim sighed and turned around, before Lily could continue to annoy him.
“Haa… Let’s continue this talk later. Emily, we’ll go look for the Elven Trap. Lead the way.”
“...”
“Emily?”
“Uncle rim, what is the Elven trap?”
“... Your mory needs to get fixed too.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then explained to her once more what we were looking for.
“A fruit? From a tree that eats?”
“Well… Yes…”
“Leave it to , Uncle rim!”
“We’re counting on you.”
Now, with the Emily Radar once again working, we went our way, deeper into the forest.
A short while later… we had a little bit of an encounter.
“Vice-Captain, there are so people over there.”
“People? Oh, you’re right.”
A little further, a group of five n was making your way in our direction. They were all ard and raising their hands in a greeting.
“Vice-Captain, Sir!”
“You all… the group hunting for the Armoured Lizards? Weren’t there more of you?”
The squad was supposed to be eight n. And I was fairly certain they had been eight before.
“Yes, in regards to that… We had so injuries.”
“Injuries? Against Armoured Lizards?”
“No, we actually haven’t found any of those yet. No, we were attacked by people.”
rim’s expression hardened the mont the man said that.
“Explain.”
“A group of four hooded n ambushed us, shooting arrows in our direction. We suffered a few injuries before we could take cover. After that, the n simply vanished.”
“They randomly attacked you and then vanished?”
“Yes, Sir.”
The man reporting this seed to be just as confused as rim.
“They hadn’t said anything, they only shot arrows at us and then disappeared. We could make out it was four n before we took cover but that is all.”
“... Harassnt, maybe? No, then they would have continued for longer... Mm… How bad are the injuries?”
“Minor cuts, for the most part. We have one arrow wound from the initial surprise, but nothing more. Just… it seems the arrows were laced with a paralysing poison.”
“Paralysing? I see. Okay, you and your squad, return to the makeshift camp before the forest. Send a ssenger to the Captain informing him. Go.”
“Understood, Vice-Captain.”
The man saluted before leaving with his comrades. Even after they had left our sight, rim was still staring into the air, seemingly lost in thought.
“rim?”
“... One mont, I am thinking.”
“Nn…”
We kept quiet after that, until he finally opened his mouth again.
“Things might get serious soon.”
“Nn?”
“Change of plans. We’re going to et up with the other squads in the forest.”
“Huh?”
I kind of expected him to say that we’d return as well. But eting up with the others?
“I think I have an idea what is happening. They might actually look for our group.”
“Our group? But why?”
“Did you forget?”
“Nn?”
rim looked over his shoulder, towards the two girls in the back.
“Rember what the Dragon Knights job was with those two?”
“... Protecting.”
“Correct.”
The two girls, having realised what rim was talking about, gasped.
“Yo, You an… They’re looking for El and ?!”
“Most likely.”
“Then, shouldn’t we return imdiately?”
“No, that is the most dangerous option.”
“Eh?”
The most dangerous option.
“They’d wait for us at the edge of the forest?”
“Correct, Yumi. Getting back to the camp would indeed be the safest, but our way back is predictable. They’d just have to intercept us on our way back and attack. On the other hand, the forest is a natural maze. It’s hard finding us here. But…”
rim broke out into a grin.
“Emily, can you lead us to the other squads?”
“The others? I think I can do that.”
“Great.”
Ah. Emily could easily find and navigate her way through the forest. Being the elf she was, the forest accommodated her.
“And Emily.”
“Yes?”
“... I might have to ask you to use magic.”
“... Eh? I can use magic?!”
“I might ask you to. Don’t do anything until I give you permission, understood?”
“Yes! I won’t!”
“Just make sure to be ready for it, okay?”
“Yes!”
Emily was grinning, a big smile on her face. She was really happy to be told that she could use magic. Maya and Sele though… They turned pale.
No, what the heck? Is Emily’s magic that scary?
They stopped her from using it before as well…
“For now, lead the way. Lily, you guard Emily. Karen and Yumi, you take the rear. Everyone else stays close to . Maya, Sele, I know you have your crossbows with you, so get those ready.”
“Ah… Yes, Uncle rim.”
“...”
Everyone quickly took their positions.
“Stay aware of your surroundings. This isn’t training anymore. If you notice anything, imdiately inform . No matter how small or irrelevant it seems.”
“””Yes!”””
With the exception of Elma and Nela, everyone responded to rim. He nodded, then directed his gaze to .
“Yumi. Should it co to it, use your magic without restraint.”
“... Nn.”
In other words, it was better having the secret revealed over… dying, for example. But, whether I could actually… No, I had to, if it ca to it. I told myself to get a grip.
Of course, preferably, we wouldn’t encounter anyone.
“Good. Let’s move out. Emily, you give the directions.”
“Okay!”
“Also, avoid any people that don’t belong to the rcenaries. Taking a long detour is fine.”
“Okay, Uncle rim!”
“Good. Let’s go.”
And so, with Emily in the lead, instead of hunting for flowers, we were searching for the other rcenaries.
Still, I hoped, we wouldn’t have to encounter those hooded n.
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