Taboo Journal Novel Chapter of Magic Growth: Family Night

"Here, take this."

"Ah, thank you."

"Nn, you're welco."

The soldier took the mug with water and drank a hearty amount.

After our little performance, if one wanted to call it that, I joined the three girls in doing so miscellaneous tasks. Those tasks were mostly just bringing the soldiers so water or bandages, so it wasn't particularly hard. And they still thanked us every ti with a smile.

"Yumi, Yumi!"

"Nn?"

I turned to the side to see Emily happily skipping and grinning at . She was like this since earlier, every ti I was close she'd dash to my side with the brightest smile possible.

"Yumi, won't your hair get dirty? It's dragging on the ground."

"Nn... Well, it probably will."

"But that's no good!"

"Even if you tell , what am I supposed to do?"

"Mm..."

Emily cocked her head to the side. If she could actually think of a solution, I might be more than happy to hear it.

"Carry it?"

"..."

Right, I could have expected this one.

"I can't really carry it all day long, right?"

"Oh... Mm..."

She didn't seem to have any other ideas.

"Mm... Why do you keep your hair that long, Yumi? Are you hiding sothing?"

"Hiding?"

"Hiding! Like, a tail?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Oh..."

For so reason, my answer disappointed her. I wasn't sure what she expected but I sincerely doubted my hair could hide a tail anyway.

Emily's eyes wandered towards my behind.

"Are you sure you don't hide a tail?"

"... Nn. Fairly sure."

"Okay..."

I didn't know why, but she apparently really hoped that I had a tail. There were many weird things about , but I couldn't provide her with this.

"Why do you want

to have a tail?"

"Why? Because it looks cute and it's fluffy! Fluffy!"

It was important, so she said it twice. Well, I did agree that it was cute, though. And fluffy.

"Emily, Yumi, what are you doing?"

"... Slacking..."

Maya and Sele joined and we were imdiately accused of slacking.

"We're not slacking!"

No, actually we are slacking...

"Then, what are you doing?"

"We, we, um..."

She was desperately trying to think of an excuse. Her tense thinking expression was scary, though. A cute kid shouldn't make such a face.

That's why I poked her forehead.

"Emily, you shouldn't make such a face. It ruins your cuteness."

Surprised, she looked up at , her expression relaxing.

"Nn, that's better! And we weren't slacking, you just tried to help , right?"

"Oh... Oh! You're right! That's not slacking!"

I smiled wryly and turned to Maya and Sele, only to be greeted by Maya's intense stare. Did I do sothing wrong? Or did she still count that as slacking?

"Unfair..." she murmured. But what was unfair?

"Yumi... What about ? Am I cute?"

"Eh? Ahh... Nn. You're also really cute! And Sele too, of course."

"Ehehe."

Maya smiled at , a wide, bright smile. She had been jealous that I called Emily cute, from the looks of it, but now she was happy and smiling. Next to her, Sele was also slightly smiling.

"Yumi, Yumi!"

"Nn?"

"You're also, like, really really cute!"

"Eh? Thanks?"

I was a bit overwheld by the sudden statent from Emily. Being called cute... Didn't feel bad. It made

a bit happy.

After another ten minutes or so, during which we totally didn't slack off collectively, Sele pulled on my arm and pointed sowhere. I wasn't quite sure what was in that direction, even after looking there.

"Yumi, Yumi, aren't those the two girls you were with?"

"Huh?"

Emily was pointing in the sa direction as Sele was. She must have had incredible eyesight since I couldn't quite make them out among all the other people I could see. It took a minute or so until I finally found them.

"Nn, you're right."

Karen also spotted us and waved her hand.

"Yumi! We are done back there, how is it here?"

"Nn, good work. I guess everything is fine here, too?"

Karen gave

a smile.

"That is good to hear. So, those three are your new friends?"

Karen looked past , at the three girls behind . Sele walked forward and latched onto Karen's arm.

"You were Sele, right?"

"..."

She nodded. Maya and Emily approached her now as well, maybe because Sele was already friendly with her.

"You two are..."

"Emily! I'm Emily!"

"Maya."

"Emily and Maya, is it? Nice to et you. I'm Yumi's big sister, Karen."

"Hey, hey, and what about ?"

Lily pointed at herself.

"How about you just introduce yourself then?"

"Are you sure, Karen? Okay! Behold! For I am—"That's Lily."—the beloved, wait, Yumi?! You can't just barge into my introduction?!"

"Introduce yourself like a proper person then."

"But I was going to!"

No, you definitely weren't. You were going to say sothing ridiculous again, for sure.

"Ahaha, she seems funny!"

Emily laughed at Lily's little cody skit. Even Lily didn't complain after the sincere laughter.

"At any rate, I'm Lily! Nice to et you!"

"... Ah!"

"Maya? What's up!"

"She's the weird-slling person!"

"What the heck?! I'm not slling weird, am I?"

At the surprising ntion, she started sniffing herself in a panic.

"Hey, Karen! I'm not slling, am I?"

"Even if you ask ..."

"Yumi!"

"Go take a bath? It's probably just sweat, isn't it!"

"But I've been trying to make sure I don't sll of sweat of all things!"

"Then I don't know..."

I turned towards Maya, who was frozen in front of the scene her bombshell caused.

"Maya... In what way does she sll weird?"

"Eh. Um, the sll she gives, it's not fitting?"

"Not fitting?"

"Yes, people sll differently. And her sll doesn't fit!"

I had honestly no idea what she ant by that. Of course, every person had a slightly different sll, animals with good noses were able to distinguish between them. And yet, for one, she was telling

her nose was good enough to notice different slls, and then she said, it doesn't fit. I was at a loss.

"Yumi, Yumi! Maya says, her sll and her looks don't match!"

"Her looks?"

"Her looks!"

I turned towards Lily again. Emily's explanation shed so light on it, but I was still at a loss. There was only one thing I could think of...

"Lily... are you male?"

A mont of silence. Then, Lily beca red, like a tomato.

"I'm a splendid woman! I don't have a dick nor do I want one!" she shouted at .

"... You shouldn't say such crude words, as a girl."

Karen was slightly taken aback at her choice of words. For a girl that basically grew up in the slums, she still valued proper language, much to my surprise.

"What do you want

to say then? Penis? Male genitalia? Cock? All the sa and I don't want any of them!"

"Lily, calm down..."

"You're the one at fault, Yumi!"

Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. There was no use in blaming

now, right? Right.

"Yumi, is she a pervert? She's a pervert isn't she?"

"She is, Emily. Make sure you keep so distance."

"Waaah, how scary!"

Oh, Lily crumbled to the floor. What did she expect if she started shouting those words in front of them?

While she was sitting on the floor, Sele let go of Karen and walked towards her.

"... Miss Pervert?"

"I'm... I'm not... a pervert..."

"Not... Miss Pervert?"

"No... I'm not!"

Sele stretched her hand and patted Lily on the head.

"Good... Girl...?"

Lily froze for a mont and then looked up at her.

"... Are you an angel?"

"... Mm? I'm not...?"

"No, you are! You have to be!"

Lily basically jumped at Sele and hugged her, from her position on the ground, and began burying her head in her chest.

"Such a good girl, can I take you with ?"

"... No... you can't."

"Ehh... But I want to!"

"... No... selfish..."

"Uhh..."

In the anti, we all looked upon those two, unsure how to react.

"Yumi, that person is weird..."

"It's okay, Maya... I hope."

"Yumi, you shouldn't bully Lily too much, she helped us out a lot, okay?"

"Nn, I'm sorry."

"You should tell her that, not ."

"..."

Well, I might have actually felt a bit bad but by the ti I saw her happily hugging Sele, all the guilt already disappeared. I might have done sothing bad...

It took so ti to detach Lily from Sele but by the end of it, she was already up, full of energy. Karen still urged

to apologise, so I did. So, why was it now

who was caught in her arms? And nobody was helping .

"Lily, could you please let

go, now?"

"No way, not until I'm satisfied!"

"... And that is when?"

"Never!"

"..."

The only good part was, that nobody asked

to help now. Emily, Maya and Sele returned to taking care of the soldiers and Karen went off to find rim or Korwen, so I was alone with Lily now.

"Listen, I said I'm sorry, okay..."

"Doesn't matter! They think I'm so pervert now!"

"But you are..."

"I'm not!"

She got awfully defensive on being called a pervert. While I was unsure what to do about her, I couldn't suppress a yawn. Not because I was annoyed or bored but because I was actually tired.

"Are you sleepy?"

"How couldn't I? Rather, how can you all be so energetic?"

Thinking about it, it was in the middle of the night. How could those three girls have so much energy?

"You'll get used to it."

"Used to it... huh..."

"Yes! Used!"

"That reminds . Maya and the others earlier said they heard one of you talking with Korwen that we'll stay with them?"

"Mh? Ah, yes. That was ."

"... Without asking us?"

"I did talk with Karen. And if Karen says she stays, then surely you would stay too, right? But she still wanted to talk with you about it."

"Well, you're not wrong... It still annoys

a bit."

"It's better than you two not coming to a conclusion any ti soon."

She paused for a mont, fiddling with my hair.

"You see, we agreed to stay with them already, so Korwen now already considers us part of his rcenaries. He's a sly bastard, but he won't abandon his people or sacrifice them. As long as he can avoid it, he will protect everyone with all he can."

"That sounds a bit like a contradiction. They are rcenaries, isn't danger normal for them?"

"Yes, it is. They make a living with their sword. But that's what it is, a living. If they die, the money doesn't matter anymore, right?"

"Well..."

"That's why they will do everything they can to survive. Dying is not part of their job."

I lifted my eyes towards the starry sky. A sight you could rarely see in my old world, due to the ever-present light of civilisation.

"But, are you fine with that, Lily?"

"Huh? ?"

"Weren't you with the other group, before? The Black Guards?"

"Ah... You see, before I left, the old man... I an, the captain... He told

to see the world with my own eyes. That I should make a living apart from them. Even if it ans standing on the other side of the field."

"Is that so...?"

"It is, isn't it... I think he wants the current generation of the Black Guards to be the last one. I have no place with those old geezers. I do hope they will live a long life, though. Well, they won't die so easily."

I looked behind

and saw Lily with closed eyes, leaning backwards.

"Anyway! I made my decision as well. I'll stay with both of you."

"That sounds more like you stay with the rcenaries only because of us."

"Well, that's how it is?"

"Eh?"

"Sothing the matter?"

"... No."

That was an entirely unexpected confession. But I just couldn't say anything to her now, with her refreshing smile.

"If it's like that... Well, guess we'll stay then. Those three will be happy."

"Don't pretend you're not happy about it. You're quite fond of them, aren't you?"

"Well, maybe I am."

"Hehe, such an old woman being friends with three cute little girls. How dubious!"

"... I'm not old."

"Right, you're a cute little girl yourself. I wonder if you will stay so cute and little."

"I wouldn't know..."

I didn't mind staying like this, it was inconvenient sotis, but I felt comfortable with it. While we talked, Karen appeared in our field of vision, together with rim, who was now wearing brand-new, shining equipnt. It sohow looked like he was a brand new soldier, not like the vice-captain.

"I'm back! Did you behave, Yumi?"

"I did, Sis."

"She did, and now she's mine! I won't let her go anymore!"

"I doubt she will let you do that though."

"You three, how can you be so rry right now? You really never fail to amaze ."

"It's better than getting stressed out over it. And so far I can only see that everything is under control."

Lily answered rim in a rather direct manner.

"Even if it is under control... Ah, whatever. You're not wrong, aren't you."

He scratched the back of his head, giving up.

"Haa, there's not much to do anymore anyway. I just got word that they are basically done, so let's go to them and help clean up. Also, the captain told

he wanted Yumi to co.

"? Why?"

"I don't know. We'll find out there. So co, before the sun rises and none of us even get a wink of sleep anymore."

Lily let

go and I jumped off her lap. The warmth on my back that had beco sohow comfortable was gone, making

feel a bit disappointed. Without us noticing, this girl intruded on Karen and

and found her own place rather quickly, didn't she? I smiled wryly at the thought.

We followed rim to the place where most of the fighting occurred. It wasn't particularly far, of course, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to carry the injured soldiers there.

The number of ogre corpses increased until we could see veritably dozens of them. It was beyond

how they could deal with so many. The disgusting sll was also beyond . I felt like vomiting at any mont. Karen and Lily were also grimacing, clearly trying to hold back.

"Ah, there's the captain.."

rim pointed at the tall man, once again, busy ordering the soldiers.

"Captain! I brought them here!"

"rim? Ah, good work. Take over for a mont, would you."

Korwen promptly brought us to the side, leaving rim alone.

"Finally, away from that cursed sll."

"If you leave rim like that every ti, he'll abandon you at so point."

"Nah, he won't. Don't worry about that, Yumi. In any case, it's good you're here. I want you to look at sothing."

"Look at sothing? At what?"

"At this."

Korwen took the bag he was carrying on his waist and opened it, fishing around for a small, blood-stained stone.

"It's the mana crystal of those ogres. I'm not a magician, and Ria is busy tending to the wounded, so the closest one with an idea is probably you."

"What about the other two magicians? What were their nas again?"

"Wenners and Krutz. They aren't here right now. I'll bring it to them later as well, but I want to know as quickly as possible what we're dealing with."

"Even if you say that... I probably can't really tell you anything, either."

"That's fine too. Just give

an impression."

"Nn... I'll try."

He handed

the mana crystal. It was still bloody and it didn't feel or slled particularly good, but I should ignore it. Or at least, I had to try my best to do so.

"It feels... weird, doesn't it? Like, the mana isn't free?"

"Free?"

"Nn."

I tried absorbing so of the mana, but I failed, much to my surprise. I could gather it and draw it out, but I couldn't absorb it. At least, not by drawing the mana in.

"Can't absorb it, either."

"That's weird..." comnted Lily.

Korwen stroked his chin in wonder.

"Yumi, there's one thing I want to know. You girls were attacked by one of these ogres as well, right?"

"Nn. Lily killed it."

"Did it show any weird behaviour towards you?"

Weird behaviour? I didn't quite know what he wanted

to tell him.

"There was one thing. The ogre seed awfully fixated on Yumi. When I attacked, it just brushed

to the side and ignored ."

"As expected... I think those ogres wanted for so reason to get to Yumi. The reason we could hold them off this easily was that they ca at us in small numbers and they all seed to try getting past us into the camp. If this were a serious battle, we wouldn't have gotten by without any losses against those numbers. To be honest, the pure amount of war potential these things possess is slightly scary."

"To , but why?"

"Hell if I knew. If you got no idea then I sure as hell don't have one either. At any rate, it's good we got rid of these. There might be a few left, so we'll have to stay up for so more."

"May you rest in peace."

"Don't make fun of , you'll sit here too."

"I refuse."

"Guess you don't need to sleep in a tent with a warm blanket tomorrow."

"... I'll think about it."

Korwen laughed at my response.

"I guess from that reaction, you three talked about it once more?"

He glanced at Lily and Karen. Karen didn't know about my conversation with Lily earlier, so she was slightly surprised, her eyes wide. I turned towards her.

"If you're here, Sis, then there's nothing else to discuss, is there?"

"... Yumi."

She looked at .

"You make it sound like I'm forcing you to."

And complained. The dream of a sweet atmosphere was destroyed within seconds. Farewell, my dreams.

"But, I see... Thank you, Yumi," she whispered and pulled

into her arms.

"Thank you."

"Nn..."

There wasn't anything else to say.

"You two, you're great at ignoring your surroundings, okay? We got that already, so please return to reality!"

"Lily, shut up."

"I won't! You're making

jealous! Excluding

like that again!"

"Then just co over."

""Eh?""

Seeing Lily dumbfounded was a fresh and pleasant sight. Karen was just as dumbstruck, but she soon started giggling to herself.

"Yumi is right, if you don't want to be excluded, then you shouldn't just stand on the side, right?"

"..."

Lily's eyes were starting to beco wet. She looked like she might start crying at any mont. Slowly she walked to us, and Karen pulled her into her arms as well. Now, tears were really running down her face.

"You're quite a handful, aren't you older than , Lily? You should pull yourself together!"

"Nn, where's our pervert Lily who is always joking around?"

With a gentle smile, Karen hugged both of us tightly. We didn't say anything, just listening to the quiet sobbing sounds.

She surely was lonely, wasn't she... She left the ones dear to her behind. Now, all alone, she was expected to survive. She acts mature and jokes a lot, but she's just a young girl herself, right... I wonder, did Wanda expect this to happen?

It took so ti until Lily cald down. Now, she was simply pretending as if nothing happened, but it was clear that she was a lot more cheerful than before. Maybe a bit too cheerful, considering the hour.

"Hey, Yumi! Yumi, if Karen is your big sister, and I'm Karen's big sister, then it should be fine if you call

Sis Lily or Big Sis Lily, right?!"

"I refuse. You're Lily. The end."

"No way! Co on, please, Yumi! Just once."

"No."

From the side, we could hear Korwen laughing heartily.

"You three are amazing, really."

"I don't think we're that amazing..."

"Yumi... Oh well, I think you are. You remind

of the three brats, your little friends."

"In what way?"

I didn't really expect those three to be ntioned now.

"You're of different races, heck, one of you is not even from a humanoid race, and yet you co together and treat each other like family. It's not sothing you see often, you can be sure of that."

"But why is it familiar to those three?"

"I'm sure you noticed yourself already, that they aren't like the other kids their age, right?"

I nodded. None of the other kids was out here, helping the soldiers. I hadn't seen those three with any other children their age even once so far. And it wasn't like there weren't any. I spotted a few when we ca here the first ti. Yet, they were mostly around the other rcenaries.

"And those three, they aren't humans either. Maya's parents were with us, but they died early in a war. We picked up Emily in a forest on a job. She actually has so talent as a magician and she gave us quite so trouble at the ti. Sele was... mistreated by her clan and her parents. I don't know to which extent, but it never got to physical abuse, to my knowledge. We took her along, in fact, her parents were celebrating that we offered to take her with us."

"That is..."

I was at a loss for words. Karen and Lily looked down. I didn't know Lily's past, but I knew it probably wasn't great either. And Karen told

about her how she and Miria were exiled.

"Honestly, stories like this aren't rare. Picking up orphans and abandoned children happens occasionally in our line of work. Most bands can't afford to feed extra mouths, but we got the leeway, so we often take them along and drop them off at an orphanage later. Sotis, though, they stay with us, like those three. Of course, we can't feed them for free, so they have to work. And we are rcenaries, after all."

"You an..."

I rembered sothing. When I was practising shooting the crossbow, Maya helped

and showed

how to do it. She was really good as if she was trained in it.

"That's how it is. I'm still glad they do act like kids their age. So kids we picked up in the past were overly serious, nearly overzealous. It hurts to look at them. But those three haven't given up, probably because they are together. Though, they do tend to be extre sotis..."

He scratched the back of his head. Sohow, the motion reminded

of rim.

"Maya gets extrely jealous really quickly. So be careful. She took a liking to you, after all. I think she wanted you to beco the fourth mber of her little family. And if she doesn't get it her way, her thods can beco really extre. Just, make sure she doesn't burn down the camp, okay?"

"She wouldn't really do that, would she..."

"She nearly did once."

"..."

How the heck did he expect

to prevent that?

"Anyway, the three's past isn't the real problem. The only one who took anything from it was Sele, but she recovered a lot. The problem is rather the present."

"Why the present?"

"We're a band with quite a few different races, but nearly all of us here are still human. Now, you have three non-human brats with no parents. No matter how much they work, there will always be so discontent. Though, it is less with the soldiers than with the non-combatants. People are prone to prejudices, and even I can't do much against it. Most of them are families to my n. So, they are mostly around us instead. And, I can't say we're always the best company for three little girls, right? I know I can't expect them to experience a more peaceful life, but it would do them well to at least look a bit more to the outside."

He took sothing out of his bag. It looked like a stick made of plants. Was this... a cigar? He took out a small fire stone and lit it up. It really was a cigar. His gaze turned towards the soldiers still outside, staying on the watch or cleaning up the corpses, while he smoked his cigar.

"Really, the three are still on the lucky side of life. Many children end up in the slums or die on the street. Others die of hunger or malnutrition. Countries like this one are the worst, in fact. The nobles, the church and the imperial family, live their life to the fullest, while the majority of the citizens suffer. The city is still better than the slums, but not by a lot. Even there, they starve. Honestly, I'm glad we got a reason to get out of here. Thank you for that."

I didn't quite know what I should answer, but maybe he didn't even want an answer. It seed more like, he just wanted to vent.

He puffed out so smoke. It slowly disappeared into the night.

"After this, the plan is to go to the Kingdom of Lafria. Lafria isn't on the best terms with this country, but it's a lot better as a country. They'll also be happy to hear any information we can offer them about the situation here. We'll be staying there for quite a while. It's a beastkin country, but they are open about other races, unlike here."

"Beastkin?"

That wasn't a term I was familiar with. Well, I heard about it from fiction before, sure, but not here.

"You don't know about them? Well, that's a surprise. I thought for sure..."

"Nn, what are they?"

"Well, they are for the most part just like humans, except they have a tail and instead of our ears they have beast-like ones. There are many differences among the various tribes, so it's not easy to pinpoint common points. So of them have a strong sense of sll, others have incredible eyesight. There are various differences, too many to count them. Most tribes are rather amicable, though."

It did sound a lot like the ones I heard about in fiction, but they also seed a bit different.

"In this country, beastkin are mostly persecuted and discriminated against. In fact, most non-humans are. Many here have to hide their outward traits, or they would get into trouble. Officially, as they are part of our rcenary band, they shouldn't get into problems, but as a matter of fact, they do. Frequently, even inside our own camp."

"... That sounds... troubleso. Why were you even here in the first place, then?"

I didn't want to complain, it was good for us, that they were here, but I still wondered.

"For what else other than for jobs? The Akkian Empire is a surprisingly good employer. And you can't always choose who you work with. Even if you hate their guts, as long as they pay well, you would still do it, right?"

He took another drag from his cigar and puffed the smoke into the night.

"But yeah, good riddance, if you ask . Though, I should probably say that once we're gone from here. It'll be a bit of a problem if we can't journey through here anymore, but thankfully, we can reach every neighbouring country through other routes. As long as the borders don't change, that is."

He paused for a mont. I looked over to Karen and Lily, who were both listening quietly as well.

"Well, you shouldn't listen to an old man's grumbling all the ti, right? The important point is, we'll be gone from here soon. Best case we can get this done by tomorrow, in the worst case I still want to get out of here by tomorrow. I'm sure you'll like the Lafria Kingdom, in more ways than one."

He gave another hearty laugh, followed by taking a drag from his cigar.

"Oh? There co the three brats again."

I followed his gaze and saw Emily, Maya and Sele sluggishly making their way towards us. Maybe the lack of sleep finally got to them, as they looked like they might fall asleep any second.

"Yumi."

"Nn?"

Korwen called out to .

"Don't take pity on them, just because I told you their past. They don't need that, they don't really feel unfortunate in that regard anyway. They don't know anything else, after all. Just be a good friend to them, that's what they need."

"Korwen, you really care about them."

"Of course I do!"

I smiled at the instantaneous response.

"Yumi... Yumi... Here you are."

Emily, devoid of any energy, stumbled towards .

"Nn, are you okay? Emily? Emi— Wah!"

She fell straight towards . If I hadn't caught her, she would most likely have injured herself.

"Emily, be careful. Emily?"

"Mmmm... You're warm..."

"Hey! Emily? I'm not a blanket!"

Unfortunately, she didn't hear

anymore, as she promptly departed to cloud seven the mont she repurposed

and my hair into a blanket.

"Let

join."

Maya basically fell down onto

as well and wrapped herself in between

and Emily, clearly wanting to enjoy the living blanket as well.

Since I knew how it would turn out, I just made so space for Sele to lie down as well, which she promptly did.

Karen giggled at the sight and stood up, bringing an actual blanket to us.

"Don't let them catch a cold, Yumi."

"I won't."

I took the blanket and draped it over us. Now, the heat couldn't escape and it beca a lot warr.

"You should sleep a bit too, Yumi. If sothing happens, we'll wake you up."

"But..."

"Just sleep."

"Nn. Good Night, Sis."

"Good Night."