"It'll be all right! The mercenaries will protect us!"
Hera kissed her sister's forehead, calming Yalani's trembling body.
"I'll go take a look!"
Lafinia had already dismounted from the carriage and swapped into a knight's armor and iron gauntlets. Her warhorse let out a neigh and charged toward the front of the column.
The dust kicked up by the hooves pelted the dwarf Bam, who couldn't dodge in time, coating his face and filling his beard with grit. The ridiculous spectacle drew a quiet snicker from the girl on the carriage, which Hera promptly silenced with a stern glare.
"This little wench, really... ptoo, ptoo..." The old dwarf spat out sand from his mouth, his hand already reaching for his gun holster.
The firearm had been polished under his mincing care until most of the rust was gone, giving it a faint semblance of a proper gun — though Leilin still held to his earlier opinion that in close combat it probably wasn't even as useful as a hammer.
As for whether this dwarf, barely fifth-rank, would have the nerve to fight a high-rank Knight to the death, Leilin had his doubts.
For some dwarves, getting their beard dirty was an unforgivable insult, but old Bam had clearly been assimilated by humans to a great degree, becoming cunning and slippery in his old age — or rather, spending so much time around humans had taught him the bad habits of cowardice and fear of death. Not that he would have seen it that way.
Leilin saw none of the stubbornness and bullheadedness characteristic of dwarves in old Bam. By the time Lafinia came racing back like the wind, the old dwarf had already trotted up to take her warhorse's reins and collected another silver geler as a tip from her hand.
It had to be said, old Bam genuinely had a knack for tending horses. In just a few short days he had transformed Lafinia's malnourished mount into a spirited animal. The young noblewoman was already toying with the idea of hiring him as her stable master, and old Bam appeared quite willing.
"What's the situation up ahead?"
Leilin didn't much care about the old dwarf's career prospects and immediately asked about the situation ahead.
"Ogre tracks have been found. According to the scout and a couple of the thieves, the trail is very fresh — probably no more than half an hour old. From here on we need to be ready for an encounter at any moment..."
Lafinia's report sent the entire mercenary band tense. The halfling thief and the human archer tightened their grips on their weapons, and even old Bam edged closer to Lafinia's side — among the visible members of the group, this young woman with her high-rank Knight status was by far the most formidable. Even if danger struck, her mobility gave her a strong chance of escape.
"L-Lafinia, you'll protect me, right?" The old dwarf looked at her with eager hope.
"Aren't you a mercenary?" The young woman was always scornful of such spineless behavior.
"Oh, heavens... for Nick's sake, you can't treat your stable master like this! Poor old Bam will be torn to shreds by ogres, and then who's going to take care of your Nick?"
Tears were practically streaming from Bam's eyes as he nearly clung to Lafinia's long legs.
Incidentally, Nick was the name of Lafinia's warhorse — apparently old Bam had named him.
"Fine! Fine! As a Knight, protecting the weak is also a virtue!"
Lafinia wore the expression of someone who had been thoroughly worn down.
"Oh! I praise you! Great Knight..." Bam's mouth immediately launched into a torrent of flattery.
"However, from now on your wages as stable master are cut in half!" Lafinia had picked up quite a few tricks since setting out and was actually capable of bargaining now.
"Absolutely not! At most, a ten percent cut!"
"Forty percent! You think stable masters are hard to find? My family has a dozen of them!"
"Thirty percent! No less! Otherwise old Bam won't even be able to afford watered-down rum!"
"Deal!!!" The young Knight ultimately yielded, still a touch too green to hold out against his pity tactics — Leilin, watching from the side, was secretly amused.
"Ogre! It's an ogre!!!"
At that moment, a piercing scream rang out from the front.
"Arms up!" "Stay alert!"
Leilin drew his refined steel longsword in an instant, eyes warily fixed on the commotion ahead.
Alongside the clamor of voices came strange roars and the clash of blades.
"Ogres really have appeared!" The halfling in the group immediately drew his dagger and ducked into a dark corner beside the carriage, while the human archer scrambled to the carriage rooftop, searching for a good position as the massive wooden bow on his back swung into his hands in a flash.
"Ogres, is it? I've been waiting for you!" Lafinia's excitement surged. She pulled the reins and wheeled her horse around.