"Still... who actually is the father of this little one."

Bale whispered this after making sure Tie was nodding off.

After all the long conversations, the girl was now fast asleep, her head resting on Basto’s thigh.

"I am curious too. What exactly is this... Korea?"

Raul and Enzo, who had already roughly understood Tie’s situation, were thinking the same thing.

Basto sighed.

"For now I assume it is a small principality or a tribal state that we simply do not know about."

Tie said Korea was a country.

But no one present had ever heard of such a country.

"Actually... the bag the squad leader carries."

After Enzo’s words, everyone’s gaze turned toward Tie’s pink bag.

"It seemed strange to me from the first time I saw it. In the Empire... no, on the entire continent, I have never seen bags of that shape."

"Not just the bag. You should have seen the clothes the little one was wearing at the beginning."

Bale nodded toward the huge bundle in the luggage compartment.

"Dig around in there and you will probably find it. It looked like a dress nobles wear... but not quite. In any case, the clothing was strange."

Raul nodded.

For a while the carriage fell silent.

"...Will we be able to find him."

Basto murmured this while looking at the sleeping Tie with a heavy gaze.

"She wants to see her father so much... what if we cannot find him."

"To be honest, I am a little worried about the part where he lost his memory."

Bale spoke seriously.

"Someone erased the memories of the little one from her father’s head. If they meet and he does not recognize her..."

The image of Tie being wounded by that moment immediately came to mind.

After a short silence, Bale added,

"Well. Even if he lost his memory about the little one, we can simply make him remember."

"How?"

"Hit him hard on the head and he will remember. She is his daughter. If he still does not remember after that, that is already irresponsible. But there is something else we need to find."

Bale quickly looked around.

"The bastards who erased the little one from her father’s head. We need to find them."

Most likely they were the ones who threw Tie into the Briowood Forest.

"For now..."

"Yes. The Luminel family is suspicious."

Raul and Enzo swallowed.

They had once served in the capital division of the Holy Knight Order and had seen the knights of the Luminel family from afar.

Valentis Luminel was a monster.

At his age, to stand out in every battle like that was not easy at all.

And his four sons?

The whereabouts of the youngest were somewhat unclear, but the eldest Edmund Luminel, the second Leonardo Luminel, and the third Alexander Luminel were outstanding warriors.

Any Holy Knight would inevitably look at them with respect.

"Could it really be them who erased the memory of the squad leader’s father?"

Enzo still looked as if he could not believe it.

Bale snorted.

"That still needs to be checked. But a few days ago the little one said something. In her homeland there is a saying. Something about... a thousand days or a thousand roads. Anyway, you can know the depth of water, but not the heart of a person."

Everyone’s eyes widened.

Enzo murmured,

"It seems there is deep wisdom in that phrase."

"Yes. It probably means that even the depth of water can be predicted, but the human heart cannot."

"Right. It seems Tie knows quite a lot of proverbs and sayings."

The three of them stared at Tie with eyes full of affection.

Time passed as they traveled.

"Nordix, old man. Wait a moment."

Basto, after laying Tie down on the seat, leaned his head out the window.

Nordix, who had been guiding the horses by the stars, stopped the carriage.

"There should be a lake to the right. It seems we should stop for a short while."

Basto shook an empty flask, and Nordix nodded.

When the carriage door opened, Raul, who had been sitting the whole time, carefully stood up and followed Basto.

Basto looked at him.

"I can go fetch water quickly by myself."

"No, it is not that..."

Raul coughed quietly.

He glanced at Bale and awkwardly said,

"I... have needed to relieve myself for some time..."

"Ah."

Basto nodded in understanding.

Then Enzo also stood up.

"Me too..."

At that moment Bale, who had been sitting across from Tie, stood up.

"Then I will go too."

She stretched and threw on her outer clothing.

Raul’s eyes widened.

"Where are you going?"

Bale looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"Where else. I need to relieve myself too." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"What?!"

Raul’s face instantly turned red.

"Mercenaries... relieve themselves together regardless of gender?"

In the Holy Knight Order almost everyone had been male, so he had never seen something like that.

Moreover, mercenary squads usually numbered no more than fifty people, so their discipline was clearly less strict than that of the Holy Knights.

But still...

"Ra, would it not be a little uncomfortable... doing it together?"

"Why should it be uncomfortable? Everyone needs to empty their bladder."

"E, empty their bladder..."

"Stop talking and get out already. It is cramped here."

Bale pushed Raul, who had gotten stuck at the exit.

Raul stumbled, stepped outside, and still with a red face looked at Bale.

Bale narrowed her eyes.

"What is it? Are you shy? Is it uncomfortable for you to live around other people?"

"N, no!"

Raul was a model soldier, perfectly adapted to life in a group.

He had simply never had to relieve himself together with a woman before.

"Well... at least in the forest, where we can hide behind something..."

"Why hide? Sooner or later we will see everything about each other anyway."

"W, w, w, what?!"

Bale smirked and nodded toward Basto.

"Basto and I have already seen everything about each other. In our work we often have to jump into some stagnant water and wash there. You cannot expect hot water like in the big Weybril mansion."

"You... you bathed together?!"

"So what? What else should we do? I wash first, then you wash, and we wait for each other?"

Raul felt dizzy.

Even if mercenaries constantly moved around and lived in camps...

How could a man and a woman relieve themselves together and bathe together?

It was one thing for him.

But Bale was a woman.

Did such a life really not bother her at all?

The bewildered Raul finally forced himself to come to his senses.

He almost slapped his own cheek to steady his breathing.

"I am sorry. I behaved like a green recruit."

He should not judge.

Who was he to talk about the lives of mercenaries.

No matter what, he was now a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) member of Agavert, and Bale was his senior comrade and almost a mentor.

Even if their genders were different, Raul had much to learn from Bale’s swordsmanship.

"Well, because of you we lost them."

Bale muttered indifferently and quickened her pace.

She was already walking after Enzo and Basto, who had gone far ahead.

Raul hurried after her.

After some time they stopped in thick grass between the trees.

"B, B, Bale?"

In the next moment Raul stepped back in alarm.

Without the slightest hesitation Bale placed her hand on the belt of her trousers.

"B, Bale! Wait!"

Raul hurriedly tried to turn away, but suddenly froze.

He stood there as if turned into stone.

Then Bale’s irritated voice sounded.

"Ah... what are you doing? You served in the Order, did you not. Do you not know bathroom rules? Did you stare at your commander like that too?"

But Raul’s mouth, hanging open in shock, would not close.

He remained standing motionless.

Until Bale, muttering "what a lunatic...", went back toward the carriage.