“Do you need more seasoning, mama?” Remmy asked.

I shook my head with a reddened cheek. I just couldn't get used to this sensation of being called ‘mama’ from Remmy. Hearing this, Kara stared at me while keeping a quick glance at Remmy.

“Is it just me or does Lady Remmy and Miss Yuzu become a bit closer…” Kara muttered to particularly no one. She was sitting across from me with the other mouse girls, but I could still hear her clearly.

“No, it’s not just your imagination, Lady Kara.” Grey interjected, as she finished her breakfast.

I pretended to cough loudly with a dramatic gesture while finishing up the fried rice I was having for breakfast. I could see the vegetables on the fried rice dressing was chopped sloppily, but it was delicious nonetheless. Perhaps the fact that it was prepared with cute mouse girls enhanced the flavor.

“U-um, Miss Yuzu. I would like to talk about what to do next,” Kara said with a rather firm conviction than normal. There was still a hint of stuttering in her voice, but it was much better than the first time we met.

I simply replied, “Okay, I’m listening.”

Meanwhile, Remmy and the other mouse girls were taking the dirty plates off the tables. Kara waited for a little bit until there was not a single plate left on the table. After that, she took a deep breath before continuing.

“There is a village near the Literea Kingdom. I would like to visit them and ask for their help to restore our kingdom,” Kara explained.

Having said that, Kara seemed nervous about something. Her eyes kept on shifting as if she was avoiding my glance. I sighed at this awkward atmosphere and summoned a cup of tea infront of her. She hesitantly took the cup and drank it, which helped her relax a little bit, but I could still tell that she was way too tense.

“I understand, but why do you seem hesitant about it?” I asked.

Kara took a moment before responding, “the village… is a human village.”

I blinked at Kara with a hint of confusion at her answer. Just as I was about to ask her to clarify what she meant, everyone around the room gave a rather complicated expression. Even Remmy couldn’t help but let out a displeased look on her face, which she suppressed immediately.

“Humans… that complicates things,” muttered a mouse girl with a greatsword that was too big for her size on her back.

“Why do you say that, Clay?” I asked Clay, the mouse girl that used to be an elf greatsword user. Even after turning to mouse girl, she still carried her greatsword around even though it looked disproportionate to her body size.

“Well, humans are… humans. I can’t ever seem to understand what they think,” answered Clay.

Remmy added, “I agree.”

There was a mix of emotion in Remmy's eyes as she said that. It wasn’t just a simple displeased look, but also sadness on her face. Since she’s the oldest person here, she probably had the most experience of dealing with humans.

“Are you sure about this, Kara?” Remmy asked.

Kara took a deep breath before responding. She took out and inspected her necklace with a closer look, a memento given by her father. Her mouse ears twitched as her hands trembled, until she clenched her fist with confidence.

Remmy looked at Kara’s behavior with a worried look, scared even. Her elf ears were twitching slightly, which could signify nervousness. She seemed reluctant to hear Kara’s answers, even wanting to stop Kara from giving any answer at all, but alas, Remmy could only sigh in helplessness.

“I never met them, but they’re good people… I think, or at least that’s what father told me. At the very least, we were on good terms to even trade goods, and some of the young villagers even moved to our kingdom, but…” Kara tried to continue, but struggled to find the words she was looking for and sighed. She looked at her side and found Gray, nodding in her direction.

Gray added, “now that the Literea Kingdom disappeared, there’s no telling that they would keep the same attitude. Especially when the villagers that moved to the Literea Kingdom suffered casualty.”

I sighed after hearing Gray’s clarification. Looking at both Kara and Gray, it seemed like they’ve already discussed this beforehand. Kara stared at her cup of tea infront of her, she contemplated something before completely drank it fully and looked at Remmy’s direction.

“I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, but even so, I have to try this. Please understand, Lady Remmy,” Kara said with an assertive tone.

Remmy sighed, perhaps already anticipating Kara’s answers beforehand. There was a clear sign of her not wanting Kara to do her plan. Even so, she swallowed her hesitant self and gave Kara a nod, approving her plan. Looking at Remmy’s approval, Kara smiled.

“Do you hate humans, Remmy?” I asked curiously.

Remmy shook her head. “No, I don’t hate them. However, out of all the creatures, they’re definitely my least favorite.”

There was a nod coming from everyone in the room except for Kara. I was getting more and more puzzled about everyone’s reaction towards humankind's reputation. Then, I remembered the troubling encounter Kara and I faced with humans. Drunk and nasty, those people of the group were carrying along without a single care in the world, but I thought of them as the exception.

“What about demons?” I asked Remmy. Based on what I’ve learned so far, there was a great demon war that happened which included a lot of races that went against the demon. Didn’t Remmy also suffer under the great demon war? I thought. At the very least, that’s what I gathered during her conversation between Lily.

Remmy took a deep sigh before answering, “I don’t like them, but at the very least I know how they act. But humans, they’re… unpredictable, to say the least.”

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After answering my question, Remmy looked down with a shameful expression. There’s a hint of redness in her cheek as her long ears twitched uncomfortably. Was she angry? I thought. She tried to flick her ears, perhaps in order to calm them down, but to no avail.

“It was insensitive of me to pry, I’m sorry.” I bowed down in a graceful manner, trying to convey my sincere apology to Remmy. I realized that I should’ve been more tactful about it, seeing everyone’s expression was rather grim. Even if I was clueless about the state of this world, it was still no excuse to be inconsiderate to others.

Remmy immediately held her hands out, while profusely shaking her head around with a blushing and embarrassed look. “No no, you didn’t do anything of the sort, mama!”

A little while later, the awkward and cumbersome situation continued. Kara looked at me and Remmy as she sighed. She gathered some confidence as she nudged her cheek adorably, and loudly clapped her hand to switch the topic.

“U-um, how about we start packing up now?” Kara said with a bit more boldness than usual. Seeing her adorable courage, I patted her subconsciously. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I swore that I could’ve seen a little bit of pout in her cheek the moment I patted her, which quickly turned into her usual smile.

❦ ❦ ❦

“Ugh… I’m still eighteen, why do my knees hurt?” I muttered loudly to complain about the state of my walking condition.

The mouse girls that were following me from behind were whispering something to each other. “Does she mean eighteen centuries?” a mouse girl asked, while the other interjected, “no, she could mean eighteenth millennium.” Overtime, the conversations kept getting louder until I glanced back judgingly. The noise stopped as we walked in silence.

I was gonna scold them and say that speculating about a woman's age is rude, but I realized that it would be hypocritical of me to say that since that was exactly what I did during our first meeting. I thought of the former elves as old creatures, even though they were only in their teens.

It had been a few hours from our last discussion in Remmy’s house, and all we had done was nothing but walk. I sighed and brushed off the contemplation I had of just summoning a car instead of just walking. Remmy was walking beside me while Kara was talking with the other mouse girls.

I staved off my hungry desire as the dazzling sunlight assaulted my field of view. It wasn’t lunchtime yet, but all this walking made me quite peckish.

“Are we there yet?” I asked as I walked with a sluggish appearance.

“It’s only a few hours walk left, mama,” Remmy responded. The blue tiger was following beside her as it gave an adorable roar, while staring at me. He tried to point his back with his head, as if asking me to ride him, which I straightforwardly refused.

We continued to walk as the birds were chirping a blaring noise. The forest breeze didn’t do much in countering the boiling temperature by the sun. A parliament of owls were strolling around as they followed us silently. Some of the mouse girls were examining the owls, presumably making sure that they wouldn’t get lost.

“Agh! Can the sun get any hotter?!” I complained with a yell.

The moment I said that, the entire sky slowly turned into a gray bastion of clouds. Everyone was shaken up at the sudden change of the weather. Remmy, in particular, was alerted and stared around her with a vigilant look. Her long ears were quivering as she tried to calm the group of mouse girls.

Before long, a tiny drop of rain started to fall down, making my usual school uniform start to become wet. There were a couple of mouse girls that carried enormous backpacks for traveling. There was equipment such as cooking utensils and camping gear inside. They started to unpack the backpacks as everyone helped them to prepare for the rain.

However, before any of the items were unpacked, Remmy stopped them. As the mouse girl porters grew confused at the sudden halt of their preparation and arrangements for the rain, a roaring thunder shook the ground with a giant crash. It was followed by something looming over the distance of the dark sky.

“Everyone, Run!” Remmy yelled.

The ambiance was heavy as the rain was pouring down without a care. At Remmy’s signal, we started accelerating like a bat out of hell. The fog from the rain made it burdensome to view where we were going. Even then, we continued running straight.

With a woosh sounds, Kara immediately led the group as she sprinted into the front of us. As the only one that knows where the village was, she took the initiative to guide the path of where we were supposed to be headed.

I was giving the most unsightly face I could ever possibly imagine while I ran as quickly as possible. It was apparent that I couldn’t keep up for very long as I breathed heavily for each step I took. Remmy glanced over at me with a worrisome look as the rain drenched her entire figure.

“Forgive me, mama.” Without a warning, Remmy grabbed my hips and snatched my whole body with ease. I was squealing helplessly while she grabbed me and put me above the blue tiger’s back.

I was screaming on top of my lungs as a reaction to what just happened, but the continuous thunder from the sky drowned my voice. I looked behind me while catching my breath to see the group of mouse girls excluding Kara running. There was a hint of uncertainty and confusion on why they were running, but they still followed Remmy’s warning without complaint.

The sulky sky kept on increasing its mist as it left the forest hazed into a state of disorientation. It was getting harder and harder to see anything in front of us, and I could see that everyone began to subconsciously slow down.

Just then, a gleam of light illuminated us from a distance. As we kept going, the source of the light radiance was slowly growing visible. I could identify a lantern levitating in front of us. As if it has a mind of its own, it bounced up and down, and moved towards us,

“It’s Mr. Lantern!” Kara exclaimed.

Unable to figure out the meaning behind her words, everyone kept on following with a newly lit source that was floating besides Kara as it followed the group. The appearance of the lantern gave us a way to navigate the dimmed forest more easily.

The rumbling thunders didn’t stop at all, as occasional lightning gave its strike to the ground with a deafening sound. Even though everyone kept a strong pace, I could tell that the heavy rain was taking a toll on their body as they kept pushing their limit. The occasional huff and puff from Remmy beside me was proof of that.

There was a heavy roar in the distance from the sky, but the dark, cold, and gloomy sky obstructed our view to see clearly what it was. As we were running, the lantern that was following us kept on moving up and down with alarming gestures. Kara looked at the lantern with a nod.

“Lady Remmy, above!” Kara shouted, just barely enough to be heard from the loud heavy rain.

With a flash, Remmy put her hands out. “Understood!” she yelled as a giant umbrella of light was covering us from above.

A thick abundance of dark clouds was clearly visible following us until a blinding light immediately took hold of the sky as the blaring thunderous sound followed. I looked around to see that everyone was covering their eyes from the flashy glow. The lightning that struck us was blocked by Remmy’s magic as everyone stopped from their tracks. The clouds that followed us dispersed into pieces.

The ominous presence from the sky started to disappear as the heavy rain grew weaker. I could see everyone was gasping for air as they stood. All of the fatigue from running earlier started to take shape as they were slowly controlling their breath.

The mist grew thinner while the gray sky was slowly dissipating into a normal sunny day. The lantern that was guiding us suddenly lost its floating as it fell down. However, before it could touch the ground, Kara immediately grabbed it.

Kara hugged the lantern as it abruptly glowed a warm color. A sense of calm inhibited my mind as my drenched, soaked school uniform was assaulted by a soothing, calm and warm temperature. The wetness of my hair and skin were slowly evaporating alongside my uniform. I looked around to see everyone experiencing the same warmth experience.

After everyone was feeling dry from the rain, the lantern was losing its gentle color until there was no longer any light inside the lantern. Kara looked at the lantern with a nostalgic expression and smile.

“Thank you again, Mr. Lantern,” Kara said, as she hugged the lantern.