I wake up once again, on the campsite set up on the hill early on, with the same sight as two days prior. Me laying on a soft mattress with my wound tended and Emily sleeping soundly next to me.

Damn~

This might come out wrong but, she looks quite erotic in that one piece tunic. Moreso since Emily doesn’t wear a bra. I try to stealthily touch her breasts, in order not to wake her up.

Should I touch them? I mean she did offer me the chance…Should I? Shouldn’t I? ARGH so hard to decide…Would it be sexual harassment? Would she kill me for this? I mean my head did touch her butt when we were in that hot spring. Oi why I am overthinking this, this is merely a touch.

Yosh! I’ll touch them.

I then reach my hand over to Emily’s side and enact my scheme.

“Hero-san, are you awake yet? Chow’s ready.” One of the soldiers I saved earlier barges through our tent and yells outloud.

“*yawn* Is…it morning already?” Emily mumbles in her yawn and wakes up.

However, due to somewhat of a bad luck, I’ve now lost my chance. And so I quickly withdraw my hand back to my blanket and pretend to just wake up.

“UWahh*Yawn*…Good morning Emily. Woo, I’m famished let's get some food!”

“Oh Hero-san, are you feeling better?”

Now if you are to mention it, I feel extremely sore on my shoulder, parts of my limbs feel loose and dislocated. Despite all of the wounds have been bandaged up, they still ache like hell.

“Sorry hero-san, we don’t have a proper healer here. That girl helped with making some of the herbs we used for you, but you should really see a witch or shaman when we reach the nearest town.” One of the guards suggests.

I get up, put on my fatigues and harness straps. Then on, I come out and join the group outside. They were pretty thankful towards me for my deeds. I tell them it wasn’t much of the case since anyone would have done what I did.

“No, in fact rarely anyone would stop to help. Privateers would ignore our calls, adventurers would only save us if they think they’ll be rewarded… Anyhow, not only you pay heed to our daughter’s plea, you had also risked your own life to save us, but also you didn’t ask us for any rewards…”

“Let me stop you right there…*slurps some water*…First, look at the guns and ammo I gathered, they’re more dangerous if fell into wrong hands. Second, a matter of the fact that human lives are considered valuable where I’m from, so it was practical for me to run at you. Third If I was too late, and you all have died, I would still have stopped a renegade bunch of killers and rapists.”

“Renegades?...”

“Deviant soldiers, they stray from their duties and use unmoral methods for their own gains.”

“I see…”

“But notherless, it’s importamt that you’re still alive. That means that the little girl still has her parents, and she can still experience a youthful innocent childhood.”

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We talk over the meal. The food is somewhat quite good, one of the guards has happened to be a cook prior to his enlistment. His methods of cooking cabbage and salted pork elevated the flavours quite well. The pork is so soft that you can merely cut through it with a spoon, while the cabbage soaks up the juiciness of the white salty piece of meat, and the sauce, merely a cranberry sauce but the tanginess is no longer there, there is only a sweet, light flavour.

“Umai! This taste quite good.” I compliment the dish.

“Not bad eh? This is one of my most favourite dishes that I still remember from my days as the Oda village cook.” The guard says.

Speaking of which, this man looks quite different than the others around me. Everyone gives out kind of a foreign European look. This man somewhat resembles one of the Korean students I had in my class prior to the preliminary test, complimented with also with charms of a Westerner.

“You’re not from Emestria, aren't you?” I question him.

“Yes, I’m from Emsitria. My mother is from Soujin though, my father, a soldier from Emestria married my mother and brought us here.”

“Ohhh. Then tell me this. What is Soujin like?” I ask him, hoping to gain more answers to this period that I’m in

“Huh? I thought you were from Soujin? You know, with the looks and all that, except for the strange clothing.”

“I’m from a land far away from here, I just arrived in Emestria recently. So the surrounding countries are not really familiar to me. While I’m at it, I would really love to know more about them if I can.”

“I don’t know what has happened during the past five years, but Soujin wasn’t a very peaceful country when I was there. Warlords were fighting a certain evil plaguing our country. It was so critical that soldiers and privateers from foreign countries were also hired to fill up for our armies. As the situation became direr, magic from foreign countries combined with the mystic arts from Soujin was used. Anyhow, as the situation escalated, Emestria forces withdrew, my father brought me and my mother along. I don’t really know much after that.”

I have gained quite a lot of information from my conversations with these people. From that, I can establish that I won’t be visiting Soujin anytime soon. And I’ll be getting a reward from that butler Arthur for saving them, hopefully, money since I don’t have anything on me at the moments except for salted meat rations and some cheap alcohol.

Anyhow, after finishing my meals, I come to check on Emily who has been quite a huge help on my trip.

“Oi Emi!”

“Yes? Mitsuha-san? What do you need?”

“Would you want to practice shooting the guns later on? I found some extra ammo and some new weapons, you can try them out and maybe we can find out about your preference.”