The cuddling attacks persisted for a while. Lily had no intention of letting us go, just like the previous few times, so we just tried to bear with it. At least it had a good side. As she was hugging both of us, that meant I was indirectly hugging Karen.

Somehow it ended with me hugging Karen and Lily hugging both of us, so Karen got angry and hit our heads.

Why me as well? Wasn't it always fine for me to hug Sis so far?

"Lily, could you now explain why you brought us here? We were chased by a huge monster and you just watched, what would you have done if Yumi got hurt?!"

"I already said it before, it's for training! If it had gotten dangerous I might have interfered, but, yeah, you see, both of you, your awareness of danger is pretty low, isn't it? And you obviously had no idea what you were getting yourselves into, so I decided to have you train a bit! Aren't I dedicated to my work? I'll make sure you succeed without dying! Probably!"

"Where was this training?!"

"Huh? But Yumi learnt how to use some magic, didn't she? So it was a complete success! Next, we should work on you! Don't worry, you'll be learning it all in a jiffy!"

"Do you intend to do this again?! I refuse!"

"Ehh? But Karen, don't you want to save your sister? In this state, there's no way that'll happen."

"Ugh."

Lily used a rather unfair argument, but it's not like she was wrong about that. Karen understood very well that our chance for success would inevitably rise if we had some measure of training, no matter how little it was. It was just that this kind of training was quite questionable, so I preferred a less violent method as well.

"Lily, can you at least tell us in advance this time what you want to do? If you surprise us again like this, Sis' heart will be unable to bear it."

"Eh?! That would be a problem! Hmm, okay, I'll tell you. It's simple, really! Having Yumi learn to use magic went quite well, so she has to practice it for now, before she forgets it again. More combat won't help right now. And for Karen... I guess we should work on your ability to sense mana?"

"But isn't that a closely guarded secret?"

Karen seems to be rather confused about her proposal. She did tell me that the magicians were rather tight-lipped about their craft. In any case, this seemed to be a considerably more sensible solution than being chased by monsters.

"Well, it's not really closely guarded. That's just what the mages want you to believe. It's in fact not even that hard to learn, you can easily learn it within the day with my method!"

"Your... method?"

"Well, the regular method is some stupid meditation stuff, I don't even know how you are supposed to do it that way. It also takes really long, like, months long. The method I used to learn it is a little uncomfortable but it's quick!"

"I am not sure whether our views on 'uncomfortable' are even remotely similar, so hearing you say that worries me quite a bit."

"It's not that bad, don't worry! You'll feel really bad during it and for a while afterwards, but it's totally safe! Probably!"

"Why did you add the 'probably'?!"

I figured I should leave them to their own devices for a bit. Lily said I should practice the magic I used. It was something I just did on the spur of the moment, so it was true that I should practice before I forgot the feeling again. Otherwise, I might come into a situation where my instincts won't help me when I needed them.

But there was a small problem. I used the mana egg for that magic. So this particular magic required an item, in the worst case I might need one every time I use this magic.

"Lily, Lily."

I called for the resident disaster, who was still bickering with Karen. Apparently, Karen was rather scared of the method Lily explained to her. This made me a bit curious, but I'd ask later.

"Yes, Yumi? How may this valiant and beautiful mercenary, Lily, be at your service?"

"Do we need the mana crystal of the ogre?"

"No, not really? We can sell it for some money, but I have no need for it."

"Then, I'll take it. I may need it. Also, are we going to stay at this place or should we return to the fireplace?"

"Oh right, we should return. Or rather, where are we right now?"

Oh, for the love of... Please don't tell me we're lost.

----------------------------------------

Thankfully, we weren't lost for long. Lily managed to get her bearings surprisingly fast and we returned to the fire. As expected of a mercenary. Said fire was already extinguished, though. It was better than it causing a wildfire, but it was still a bit annoying since we lit it for nought

As punishment for all the trouble, Lily had to light it by herself again and she was also responsible for our food. We also told Lily that I was fine with monster meat. Apparently, despite being a magician she was no good at drawing out the mana from the monster meat either, so I was still the only one who could eat it. We still had some fish from this morning left over, but it wasn't enough for Karen and Lily.

Karen was worried that monsters might appear while Lily was gone, but apparently, only a few monsters were actually dangerous in this forest, and they were highly territorial. The ogre that we killed was one of those, so it would take time before another similarly dangerous monster would come to claim this area.

Despite calling them highly aggressive and dangerous, these ogres and similar monsters in this forest were quite low in the hierarchy. I was shocked when I heard that from Lily.

Just what kind of abominations are so strong that this ogre is considered small fry? How is this world even fine with those kinds of beings running rampant?

Then again, any mage possessed the ability to just make mincemeat out of them, and even some of the more skilled fighters could easily win head-on, from what Lily told me.

Monsters were scary, but people were also scary.

While I was busy contemplating these things, Karen came over to me.

"Yumi."

"Nn? What's up, Sis?"

"I need your help."

"My help?"

"Yes... Lily told me what to do to learn how to sense mana quickly... Apparently, I need to circulate natural mana through my body so I can learn how to feel it quickly. I need someone to help me with that, though."

"You want me to do that?"

"Yes... Can you?"

I tilted my head, surprised by the unexpected request. Natural mana... I should be able to do it since I managed to manipulate the mana from the mana crystals. However...

"Can't Lily do it?"

"She can, but I rather trust you with that than her."

"That makes me happy, but I honestly don't know how to do that. And even if I can, I don't know if it would be safe for you."

If it was just circulating it through my own body, it probably wouldn't be a big problem. I was a monster, after all. But I had no idea how much a normal person's body could take. Natural mana was akin to poison for them, after all.

"To be honest, I think you should let Lily help you."

"So it was no good after all..."

Karen was quite reluctant to let Lily help her. That wasn't too surprising considering all the things Lily did over the day.

"Sis, good luck."

"Thank you, Yumi. I'll need it."

I felt sorry for Karen, but this wasn't something I should butt in. Even if it wasn't pleasant, Lily probably knew what she was doing. At the very least, she should have a better grasp of what Karen could bear. Feeling visibly down, Karen sat down at the fire. There was nothing to do for her until Lily came back. I sat down next to her and leaned on her shoulder.

"Yumi? Weren't you busy with that mana crystal?"

"I can still lean on your shoulder while I do that. Or is it no good?"

"Ah, no. It is fine."

There was a warm fire and a warm Karen. No way I wouldn't want to indulge in this warmth.

But, in any case, I should follow what Lily said. I can't let them spoil me forever.

I took the mana crystal from the ogre and inspected it a bit. It was significantly bigger than the ones from the monster fish, big enough that I couldn't completely hide it in my hands. The crystal was also coloured a dark blue, as opposed to the brownish hue I saw on the other crystals. When I inserted mana into it, nothing happened. Maybe it needed more mana since it was a higher-quality crystal? If that was the case, I couldn't quite make use of it for now, as unfortunate as it was. Then again, if the small already had such a dramatic effect on the tree, just what kind of destruction would this crystal wreck?

"Yumi?"

"Nn? What is it, Sis?"

"You were frowning, so I figured something happened."

"Nn. Well, I can't make use of this crystal yet, it seems. I tried changing it like the ones we had before, but nothing happened. I think it needs a lot more mana because of its higher quality."

"Huh, maybe we should look for some smaller monster animals then. Actually, Lily is probably going to bring back a few."

"Nn, I could use those."

Somehow, I held doubt whether Lily would bring back just a few 'small animals.' I wouldn't be surprised if she came back with something huge, instead. She had a way of betraying your expectations. Despite our short acquaintance, that much was already quite clear about her.

"I could try out some other magic but... I don't even know where to start."

"What do you know so far? With a starting point, it should be easier, right?"

"I can make others horny."

"Except that."

I was kind of interested in what would happen if Karen got horny. Maybe I should try it out later. I definitely wouldn't try it on Lily though. Who knows what would happen if we let that disaster loose...

"Other than making you horny, I can change my appearance a bit and I did something to a tree with the mana crystal."

"We can't try out the tree and I don't want you to make me... aroused right now... This is hard."

So it was fine if I made her horny later? That was good news. I should prepare for that.

"Lust, Soul, Life. I wonder what I can do with Life magic."

"Maybe you can make things grow? Or maybe heal wounds?"

"Making things grow... healing wounds..."

I took a nearby branch and tried making it grow with some mana.

"Yumi... What did you do..."

"I'm trying to make it grow."

"Then why is it twitching and squirming."

"Maybe it grew?"

"..."

Stomp!

"Ah."

Karen crashed the branch with her foot. It stopped twitching and squirming.

"Why did you kill it?"

"So it wasn't just growing after all!"

I actually didn't know whether it only grew a little or whether it became some weird lifeform. At the very least, it started moving in a way that a dead piece of wood should never do. Though, a living piece of wood shouldn't move in that way either.

"Sis."

"Yes? Did you figure something out?"

"Maybe. I thought this before but, if life magic can create a living body, and soul magic can create a kind of soul, wouldn't I be able to make a living being?"

"A living being? It is not unheard of, but would it be really that easy?"

"It's not that easy, mind you, you two. At least not for a person! But, that conjecture is quite correct. You are certainly able to create a living being with those types of magic. Incidentally, that type of magic is outlawed in this country. Officially, at least."

With perfect timing like usual, Lily returned, carrying multiple small animals, bound with a rope, over the shoulder.

"That type of magic is outlawed?" I asked with surprise.

"Yes, because they go against their religion, where their god is the only one allowed to create life. It's actually pretty common knowledge, the church always preaches about their dark and evil magicians and magic that can create a living creature is considered especially evil."

"That sounds scary."

"I think it's less scary than an intelligent monster. The church would go completely nuts if they knew about you."

"One more reason not to get involved with religion."

"Yeah, don't. At least, not in this country. But in any case, if you can make a living body and a mock soul, you can, in fact, really create a living creature. They'll be closer to a monster and without a core, they will fall apart once they run out of mana, so the actual usability is low. "

"You know quite a bit about that, don't you."

"The magician in our group used to dabble a bit in it out of curiosity, wondering whether it could be used for combat. Artificial soldiers are quite tempting, you see. At least for all those who want a safer job. But they'd also increase our fighting potential as a whole. He just never got it to work properly. I wonder if he's still tinkering with that kind of magic."

"So, it's not really good, is it..."

That was quite a bummer. Even if I couldn't fight myself, it might have been possible that I could make some I made creature fight for me instead.

"It's not really that it is no good. You see, there is a difference between you and him, after all. And you did somehow manage to animate a tree, killing the ogre. So, with some practice, you can make something out of it, for sure. It's at least better than not doing anything, right?"

Better than not doing anything, was it? That was quite true. After all, even a tiny drop could make a difference under the right circumstances. But it just meant that it could, not that it was in any way likely to make one. However, for Karen's and her little sister's sake, I had to persevere.

"Well then, before we continue, we should start with our dinner. I caught quite a few things, you see. A few demon rabbits and some other critters."

"I actually kind of expected you to drag along some big animal like a bear."

"And who would eat all of that? It would be rotting by the time we're halfway through and attract scavengers and other animals. Probably even monsters."

She had a point. That could become troublesome.

Lily put down her spoils and began to gut them. Karen, who had nothing to do, joined her and I took care of the fire, making sure it was big enough. Gutting those animals was too bloody for my stomach. I knew that even the meat I ate before in the modern world belonged to a poor animal that got its guts removed and taken apart, but that didn't mean I enjoyed watching it. My respects to all those who could deal with this, especially those who did it for a living.

"What should we do with these intestines, Lily?"

"A few of those are edible, we should eat them first. Intestines spoil fast, you know. The ones that are not edible, we should get rid of them. I'll sort them out."

"Okay, I'll start with grilling some of these already. What about the rabbits?"

"I'll prepare one of them for now, we can do the others later while we wait."

Karen moved to the fire and pierced the former critter on a branch. It looked a bit like a big squirrel. There were also some that looked like birds, but none of them really resembled an animal that I was familiar with. At most, they were close in appearance but they were still distinctively different, either in their colour, their fur or lack thereof, or even by having horns, fangs or claws. A squirrel with claws and fangs or a bird with horns.

Evolution within the presence of mana must have made quite an impact on animals and plants overall.

After I observed the various curious animals for quite some time, Karen finished up with the freshly prepared rabbit and came over to me.

"Something the matter, Yumi?"

"Nn? Not really, just, the animals are quite curious."

"Are they?"

"Nn, they are quite different from my former world. They all look vaguely similar to different kinds of animals I know, but nothing more. It's interesting to compare them."

"Huh, is that so? You should tell me sometime about those."

Karen smiled at me and pat my head.

"But we can talk about that some other time, okay? For now, we should focus on other things."

"Nn, I'm sorry."

"No need to apologise."

With those words, Karen went back to help out Lily again. There wasn't much left to do outside of turning our dinner once in a while.

Lily confirmed that I can make a living creature with a living body and a mock soul. She called it a mock soul, so it's probably not an actual living being like us, but just an imitation of it. And without a core, it would just die once the mana ran out. But that means, with a core, it wouldn't die. With a core... a mana crystal?

"Hey, Lily."

"Yes? What's up, my cute little sister number one?"

"I'm not your sister. And why number one?"

"Karen is number two! I also want cute little sisters!"

"I refuse. But more importantly, Lily, how do monsters reproduce?"

"Monsters? There are basically two ways. Either by spontaneous concentrations of mana forming a crystal, followed by a monster body or reproduction through sexual intercourse. The resulting offspring of the latter usually has no mana crystal and is called a magic beast instead of a monster, though. Ah, but there are higher monsters being able to create their own subordinate monsters, too. That's a pretty rare case, though."

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"Is it possible to create a being with life and soul magic and then use a mana crystal as a core? Like a monster."

"In theory, sure. But nobody managed to restart a crystal once it shut down. At most work, they as mana storage extending the life of the creature."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Quite. Imagine if it was possible after all. Whichever country had that technology, wouldn't they mass-produce monsters for their war effort? But why do you ask?"

"Well, because I probably can make a working mana crystal."

"Eh? Are you serious?"

"Nn."

Lily was so surprised she stopped gutting the rabbit and diverted all her attention to me. Lily was staring at me intensely, while Karen started panicking.

"Yumi! I told you not to tell that to others, didn't I?!"

"Oh."

That was right. She did tell me that.

"Sorry. I forgot."

Nothing could be done about that now. In any case, Lily wouldn't probably go around telling others about it. She was still staring and not reacting in any way. Did we actually break her now? She was usually so quick to revive.

"Yumi. Absolutely keep that a secret."

"I will try my best."

Seemed that Lily shared the opinion that I shouldn't go around telling others about it.

"It would be worth testing how much you can do with it. If you can make monsters, even weak ones, that would be an immense help. But if the knowledge spreads, you would be captured and used to produce a literal army, you know?"

"That sounds scary."

"It is scary. After all, that's exactly what those scumbags you want to fight are looking for."

"Is it? I thought they wanted to turn a person into a monster?"

"Exactly. But that includes a working mana crystal, otherwise, they just have an inferior version of a monster that requires frequent mana injections or new mana crystals to survive. As far as I know, that's also the only obstacle they have left until they succeed. And if they should succeed, I promise, it won't be pretty. But we can talk about those things later, for now, we should see what you can do and how much. Did you try to make the mana crystal from the ogre work again?"

"Nn. I tried, but it is probably too strong for me at the moment. That's why I wanted to use the crystals of the rabbits you brought."

"Then let's try it right away! I'll fetch them, one moment!"

"Stop right there you two!"

Karen appeared right next to us, who were busy making plans. Her menacing look spelt danger.

"I am happy that you two are thinking so much about all of this, but we have dinner ready here. It was quite exhausting today and it is slowly getting late, so let us eat first. If we still have time, you can try your experiments as much as you want. Understood?"

""Yes, ma'am.""

There was not even a shred of objection left in us.

----------------------------------------

Once we finished our dinner, it was already turning dark. We couldn't see the sunset due to the trees, but the red sky was still easily discernable between the treetops. It wouldn't take long until the light was gone for the day.

The rabbits were quite great and Lily and Karen were both quite satisfied with it as well. Both of them were currently busy with practice.

The training to sense mana. By circulating natural mana from a mana crystal in the trainee's body, they could grasp what mana actually was, allowing them to sense it. But natural mana was poisonous in larger quantities. Karen was groaning from the pain and it was everything but a pretty sight. Alas, it was a necessary evil.

I intended to do various things while those two were busy, but my worries for Karen were too distracting. I couldn't do anything but watch helplessly, while Lily circulated the mana through Karen's body.

After a gruelling amount of time, Karen collapsed, breathing heavily.

"Sis? Are you okay?"

"Ah, Yumi, let her rest, she's fine. She didn't quite grasp it yet, but more would be dangerous. For now, her body has to expel the overflowing natural mana, which may take some time."

Lily interjected and caught me before I could run over to Karen.

"She'll be fine, right?"

"She'll be fine, don't worry. Let her rest, okay? It's probably hard to imagine, but while having excess mana coursing through your body is an extremely unpleasant experience, it is also a valuable one. And it shouldn't take her much to learn to sense mana after this. She should have a pretty good feel already, so it'll take only some practice. Don't you worry! Rather, you should now focus on your practice, right?"

"But Sis is..."

"Fine. She's fine."

Lily picked me up and carried me away.

Ah. I'm being kidnapped.

"Miss Lily? Where are you taking me?"

"Hm? Isn't that obvious? To this place!"

"Huh?"

My mind couldn't quite catch up.

Let's reorganize this. I was taken by Lily, who took me away from Sis. I am currently. In a particularly. Dangerous. Situation. I request help!

"What? Do you dislike sitting in my lap that much? That makes me quite sad. I even put all the crystals close and the fire is warm, right? There shouldn't be anything to complain about. You can practice just fine in my lap!"

"The only lap I want to sit in is Sis' lap."

"Ehh... But Karen is currently resting, so you can't sit in her lap. Therefore you have to sit in mine!"

I wasn't even left with an option. My will was completely ignored!

"Do I have no say in this?"

"No."

"But..."

"No."

"But Sis'..."

"No."

"..."

She took the mana crystals and put them into my hand. Then she put her arms around me and hugged me. I couldn't escape anymore.

I guess I have no choice but to get this over with and return to Sis' side.

I sighed in resignation and began making the crystals in my hands into a single larger crystal. Afterwards, I put in my own mana and it changed into a pinkish mana egg in no time. While I was observing the process, I noticed something important.

"Lily, even if I have the crystal now, I can't make a living body from nothing, right? So I need..."

"Don't worry, I'm prepared!"

Lily took something from behind her and presented it to me. It was a bag with branches, nuts and other things.

When did you even prepare this? Weren't you here at the fire the entire time since then?

I grabbed the bag and picked out a few twigs and nuts. Since I didn't have a lot of mana, I shouldn't use anything too big for the experiments.

I used life magic on the twigs and nuts and they started twitching and rolling around.

"This looks quite creepy, can't you make them stop?"

"Nn, I don't think so? Maybe they'll stop with a mock soul?"

But how did the mock soul even work? I still remembered the feeling of how to do it, but it didn't really explain to me what it was.

I guess it isn't important for now. As long as it works, it doesn't matter. I can still research this later. A nut that rolls by itself makes no sense either anyway.

Deciding on this, I continued gathering some mana and made a soul for one of the nuts. At least I thought it was a mock soul.

The nut in question stopped rolling around and lay motionless in my hand.

"Nut. Move."

It didn't move.

"Maybe you have to be more, I don't know, more... intense?"

"I order you, nut! Roll around."

It still didn't move.

"Does a nut even have the capability of understanding speech?"

"Ah..."

Right. Of course, it didn't.

"But then, how do I make it move?"

"Maybe with mana."

Lily pointed with her finger towards the nut. All of a sudden the nut jumped away in the opposite direction. Straight into the fire. After a few seconds, a popping sound could be heard.

"Oops. We will never forget your sacrifice, Major General Nuts!"

"Who is Major General Nuts...?"

"The nut."

"When did you name it? And how did you make it move anyway?"

"I named it just now and it's a secret. In any case, I'd say it was a success? Though our casualty count went up by one."

Even if it was, technically, close to a living being, I couldn't quite sympathise with a nut dying. Even though I made it myself.

"Does the nut even count as a casualty?"

"Of course it does! Even if it was just for a short time, it was properly alive!"

"And you killed it."

"Sacrifices had to be made!"

"..."

Why am I even arguing with this girl?

I shook my head, trying to get rid of my irritation.

I continued trying to animate a few twigs and nuts, but none of them were particularly useful in any way. Most of them were poked by Lily, upon which they all jumped straight to their doom. She totally enjoyed this, didn't she?

"Why did you even prepare that weird mana crystal? You're doing nothing but animating twigs and nuts. You can't really use it for that, right?"

"Nn? It doesn't hurt to have it ready when I need it again, right? It saved my life today, after all. And maybe I can find some unexpected use all of a sudden?"

"Hm... If you could at least make something other than twitching twigs and rolling nuts... Can't you, like, form them into something? Something, something... something like a doll? Or a puppet!"

"And how am I supposed to do that? I barely have enough mana to animate them, how do I even change their appearance then?"

"Lack of mana, huh..."

Lily seemed to be lost in thought. I could probably change their appearance or mould them into a doll or so if I had the mana. I could feel every time when I animated a nut or twig, something akin to mud or clay made it up. When I first noticed it, I tried to change its form, but the mana I used was too weak and it wouldn't budge much.

"If it's just mana, can't you absorb some from the mana crystals? "

"We don't really have a lot of them, so I don't want to waste any."

"Huh? Why didn't you say that before? There's no need to worry about that."

Lily smiled at me and rummaged inside her bag. After some seconds she took out a darkish, round and smooth gem and gave it to me.

"Huh, wait, Lily... is this... a mana crystal?"

The gem contained a huge amount of mana, whoever was the previous owner of this, must have been quite dreadful.

"Yeah, it's the mana crystal of a Black Wyrm. They aren't common around these parts, but they got good mana crystals despite being on the weaker side."

It was probably still a dangerous monster, even if Lily said otherwise. At least stronger than anything I had encountered so far.

"In any case, that crystal should contain sufficient mana for most things, right?"

"Nn. But are you sure? This seems valuable."

"It's not really something cheap, you are right about that... Mhmm... I know, once we're done with all of this, I want enough of your hair to make a lot of equipment for me! Then we can call it even, okay?"

"Are you sure with just that?"

"You say just that, but if we manage to make equipment out of it, it would be incredibly expensive, you know? A lot more than this measly stone."

"That much...?"

"Yeah! I'm not a magic craftsman, but even I can see that it is good material. It is incredibly durable and it seems to be rather resistant to heat and magic as well. Who wouldn't want equipment made from a material like that? It still won't save you from being trampled by a dragon, but it will make hunting and work considerably safer."

"If you are fine with that... Then I won't hold back. Thank you."

"No problem! I just secured my future equipment, so take as many as you want!"

No, just one was enough. After all, I could already do a lot more with this than with the small ones I had. Feeling slightly excited, I took all the remaining twigs and nuts that Lily had prepared beforehand.

Let's do this!

I began animating them with the mana of the Wyrm crystal until I could feel the wood and nuts turn into a clay-like substance. It was soft to the touch and felt a little odd but... I could change its shape!

What would be good? A simple puppet? Or a doll with joints? I probably can't make anything sophisticated on the fly, but a simple doll should work, right? I don't want a crude puppet. If I'm doing this, then I'm doing it right!

"Oh! It's moving! It looks like it's melting!"

The mass of twigs and nuts all melted together into a brownish substance. Now, I had to form it into something doll-like. A doll with simple joints and a slender body.

"Oh! It's changing form! Huh? Did it increase in mass? Or not? Oh! It is changing shape again! Now it looks a bit like a person. A small person!"

Lily, do me a favour and shut up! I'm concentrating!

After quite some time and with lively commentary, I managed to make... something.

"Well, Yumi, you know..."

"Don't say anything..."

"I don't think I can. After all, your artistic talent... it's quite bad."

"But, it has moving joints. It's a proper doll."

"How did you even manage to make those work..."

"Magic."

"..."

The result was not... all that bad. It looked clumsy, though. Like a kindergartner's clay doll, just slightly more complex. And just made out of wood.

Once I finished making the doll and cut off the mana, the brownish mass became simple wood again. I put quite some effort into the ball joints, but it wouldn't take a lot of effort to pluck them off again. Magic was all that held them together.

Also... the doll itself was twitching quite a bit. If I had someone's hair and a nail, maybe I could try cursing them?

"Yumi."

"Nn?"

"If it's in that brownish mass-like state, can you form it with only mana or with your hands as well?"

"I don't know?"

"Let's... just redo this, and let's try if I can make it instead."

"But, it's my first doll."

"I do not think you can bring this along anywhere, Yumi."

"But..."

"Let's just redo this before Karen sees it. I get the feeling she might lose it if she sees this. It's honestly really creepy."

And so, my first doll had to be recycled.

----------------------------------------

With some effort, we managed to make a rather smooth and neat doll by the time it became dark. It looked a lot better than I initially expected. And bigger, if it were to stand, it might even reach my knees. That was quite a big doll.

Surprisingly, Lily could, in fact, form the clay as long as I maintained the mana, which proved to be a surprising blessing.

"Lily."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Why are you so good at this? I thought you are a battle junkie?"

"How rude, I love battles, but I am still a girl you know! Even I liked to play with dolls when I was small. But they often broke so I had to learn myself how to fix them."

"Were you so rough with them that they broke or what?"

I looked behind me to see Lily's face. A slightly lonely smile adorned it.

"No, it was... other kids... Err, that is..."

"Nn?"

"Ahhh! Let's not delve into past matters! Okay? The doll looks pretty good now! Let's see if it can move."

Maybe I shouldn't ask about her past... It doesn't seem to be a good topic for her. I wonder what happened, though... Other kids, huh...

Returning attention to the doll, I stared at it for a while. It still had patterns unique to wooden materials, despite being moulded through a rather questionable method. It was also really smooth and well-formed. The joints were better now as well since Lily shared with me some knowledge. Even its hands were made possible with Lily's surprising dedication. It proved to be a rather interesting and fun experiment, and the result was nothing short of astonishing.

So far, everything I animated just started twitching uncontrollably, but the doll was lying quietly in front of us. Only when Lily poked it with mana did it move its arms and legs for a moment.

"I wonder what is so different from the previous times..."

"Maybe 'cause you actually made something proper human-like? Or rather, something that actually resembles a living creature?"

"Nn... Maybe."

"Whatever the case, don't you want to try out using soul magic on it? Maybe even use that weird mana crystal?"

I wondered whether I should really use the crystal already, but I could always tell Lily to go catch some rabbits for a few mana crystals. I took the mana egg and tried to imitate what I did the last time, holding the egg close to the doll. After a few moments, it stirred and sunk quite literally into the doll.

I hope you will become a good kid.

And then, it moved... First the right arm, then the left, followed by both legs, it clumsily stood up.

"It... worked?"

"It did I think?"

The doll was moving its arms up and down and clumsily walked forward. I was surprised it could hold its balance with that body.

After walking a few times in a small circle, it turned towards us and bowed.

"It seems quite polite," commented Lily.

"Nn."

I didn't expect a bow either.

"Hey, doll, can you dance for us?"

The doll tilted its neck. Could it even understand what Lily was saying?

But surprisingly, it began moving in a strange manner.

"Is it... trying to dance? I did ask for a dance but this looks quite creepy, like some ritualistic barbarian dance."

"I agree... But it can understand us, how interesting."

Just how could it do that already? It moved, it listened and it danced. Things I didn't expect it to be able to do immediately. It was... curious.

"Isn't that good? If it can understand you, then it can also follow orders, right?"

"Probably, but... Lily, what would I even do with an army of dolls?"

"Induce traumas by having your enemy experience a nightmarish doll party?"

"That's scary but would that be even effective?"

"Actually, fear and superstitions are a really great weakness that you can take advantage of. It can often turn around entire battles if wielded correctly."

"We aren't on the battlefield though?"

"That may actually be the reason this could be even more useful. You could scare the guards by having a swarm of dolls attack them in the middle of the night. Or you could even make an entire base panic by swarming them with dolls. An unknown enemy is the most fearsome enemy."

"Your ideas are, indeed, quite scary."

The doll was still dancing merrily in the light from the fire, so I ordered it to stop. Someone might really believe I wanted to curse someone.

"Well, that decides what we're going to do with you now, though. Making monsters is going to allow us to do quite a few more things. Especially a small army of dolls would make for an effective distraction, right?"

"Making so many dolls would take quite some time, though."

"Well, Karen can help us out tomorrow, and with some practice, it should go faster after a while. We also could test how much we can simplify it while it still stays usable. There's a lot of things to do and not even remotely enough time."

"What do you mean, not enough time?"

An unexpected voice interrupted. Karen apparently woke up and overheard our discussion.

"Oh, you are awake? That is good. How do you feel?"

"Like someone who got slugged in the guts repeatedly and then tumbled down a hill."

"Oh, what an apt description. But you should rest some more in that case."

"Sis."

I struggled free from Lily's grasp and ran over to Karen, hugging her. I was glad she was fine. She slept quite deeply, so I wasn't worried about her immediate well-being after a while, but it was still worrying not knowing when she would wake up. Lily seemed to have expected her to wake up around this time though.

Karen hugged me back and pat my head. After all, this was the best place to be at.

"How unfair, I finally got Yumi for myself and now she immediately runs to you."

"Never mind that, what did you mean with not enough time?"

"Ah, right. I should probably talk about that right, about everything. But first, let's clean up, okay? It won't be a particularly long talk since it is late, but I'll sum up the important parts, okay?"

"... Okay."

Karen already understood that Lily was doing everything at her own pace and that it was futile to attempt to change that. So, we went and cleaned up. I ordered the doll to keep still and we made space to sleep. Lily still insisted on all of us sleeping together, while Karen was too tired to argue and I had stopped caring already as long as I was with Karen. And so we were now all cuddled up in front of the fire.

At some point Lily had used some kind of tool that warded off weaker monsters, so we wouldn't even need a night watch. There were still a few reasons for a night watch but we conveniently ignored them after Lily claimed she would wake up if anything dangerous was to approach.

"Ehehe, I got two cute girls in my arms. This is bliss!"

"Instead of that, didn't you want to tell us now? Actually, why are we already lying down?"

"Don't mind the small details, Karen. You'll grow old faster if you worry too much!"

"Unfortunately, I cannot help but worry with you around!"

"How rude!"

"Sis, Lily... Calm down."

"Ah, I got scolded. How sad."

I wasn't really scolding Lily, but I should just stop minding the details with her.

"Okay, I'll keep it short for now, I can tell you the full story tomorrow, okay? Well, where to begin? Basically, our objective is to save Karen's real sister, right? But in the current situation, that might not be possible anymore in a few days' time. Preferably, I'd like to finish everything either tomorrow or the day after. I know it sounds unreasonable, but you should think of that as the time limit."

"What do you mean, not possible?"

"At the current pace, your sister will die within a few days. That's why they are so recklessly looking for a substitute."

"Wait, why would that happen?!"

"Calm down, Karen! She's still alive. But those idiots went overboard with their experiments. It's basically what I told Yumi earlier. They implanted a mana crystal into her, turning her into something between a monster and a person. But the crystal is not working properly, so at this rate, it will run out of mana. That in itself is not actually the problem, they did that multiple times already. When the mana crystal ran out they apparently could just replace it with a new one, so they would continue their experiments as if nothing happened. But this time they got impatient and decided to overload the crystal in the hopes it would attune itself to the girl's mana attributes and start up like a normal mana crystal. They did in fact manage to make the crystal attune itself, but it never started acting like a live mana crystal. In addition, the crystal is now closer to an actual part of her body, so once it runs out of mana, the chance of her dying is high. And a mana injection only works with unattuned natural mana. "

"No way... But then, what are we supposed to even do?! What... Just what..."

"Calm down, I said. I already know of a way to solve that problem. I can't guarantee it will work and I only stumbled on it by accident, but it is your best bet. So cheer up!"

I doubted one could cheer up that easily. I could feel how Karen tensed up next to me. I was being hugged by Karen while Lily was embracing us both. Lily probably decided to lie down already to keep Karen calm. Nothing worked better than a warm hug to calm someone.

"Will... Will she really be saved?"

"Of course! But we can't dillydally, okay? Best case we can prepare everything by tomorrow evening. Worst case the day after, although that may cut it short. Luckily, I have a plan already, so trust in me!"

"Sis, everything will be fine. I'm sure of it."

"Thank you, Yumi. Lily, I hope my trust is not misplaced with you..."

"Yes, just leave it to me! Just like earlier when I busted Yumi's nuts, I will bust theirs as well and save your little sister's! I mean, sister!"

"..."

"..."

Lily, was this really necessary?