"What should we do with this girl?"

A complicated expression floated on the faces of the five men.

This was because, they had found a young girl. Inside one of the most dangerous forests in the continent.

"...Was she abandoned?" One of them pondered.

"...It's possible. Some regions find white hair or red hair to be a bringer of misfortune after all," the leader replied, his hand supporting his chin. They were deciding what to do with the little girl.

"Whatever you guys want to do, can't you decide faster?! I'm dying here," the heavily injured adventurer said, grunting as he held his now-bandaged arm. Although they had performed emergency treatment, the wound still needed to be looked at by a healer.

"...That's going to be expensive," the one with the least injuries muttered and sighed. To find a healer to completely heal their wounds with magic was already too expensive, but they earned their keep with their bodies, and they needed to go back to the field once they turn in the materials that they had gathered. They won't earn money just by sitting on their asses, after all.

The injured fellow grimaced, "...Well, these things happen. At least I survived." He shot a furtive glance at the dead body of his comrade, barely in one piece after those beasts had mauled him down with their sharp nails and strong jaws.

Silence.

"For now, let's just go back. We should take her along," the leader finally said. With a determined gaze, he nodded at his still-living-but-injured comrades. "But first, let's take care of Jamie's corpse. Let him rest." In pieces, he almost said.

They diligently digged a hole for their deceased comrade, making sure to salvage whatever that had a price from the dead man to aid in paying for their treatment fees and a few trinkets and accesories he had carried as mementos for his family.

It was not that they were particularly insensitive, but in their line of work, danger lurked at every corner. They had gone through it so many times, that they were simply numb from it. Although it was sad that they had lost a good comrade, such was the nature of their job. One must understand that there was a high possibility of dying, and they should be prepared.

Once they had buried their comrade, they turned to look at the young girl. She was still sleeping so soundly.

"Let's wake her up." The leader crouched to Fairy's side, nudging her a little roughly, "Hey, girl, wake up!"

"Au?!" Fairy jolted awake. She blinked her eyes multiple times and looked around, seeming lost and confused.

"Uuu..." Her eyebrows creased, her eyes turning watery. Moments later, she started to cry loudly.

"Uwaaa--!"

Surprised, the men took a step back.

"Hey! Why did you wake her up so roughly for?! Now she's crying!"

"Shut up!"

"Hey, kid, stop crying!"

"Shit!"

The men panicked. They were rough men, molded by sweat and blood. Even if they had families, they were away for most of the time. How could they know how to deal with a crying little girl?

"Uwaaa--!"

"SHUT UP!" The leader roared.

Blinking her eyes, Fairy stopped her wailing. The fresh tears fell off from the bottom of her eyes in big blobs.

"Uuu..." Sniff, sniff.

"..."

"Hey, leader, should you really tell such an innocent, young girl to shut up like that?" One of them said, gazing reproachingly at his leader. Looking at that tearful, innocent face, he felt himself soften. He could not help but feel as if he should treat her gently. She seemed to be too fragile as she looked up at them with her teary face.

"...Sorry," the leader grunted, looking away.

"Well, we should give her something to wear first, at least." Another man said awkwardly. From the beginning, he had noticed her nakedness. If they do not give her something to wear soon, he might really do something unspeakeable, he thought. The man tried to convince himself that it was because of the lack of women in their field of work that he had felt the urge to do 'something' to the girl. After all, it was already rare enough for him to see a woman while he was working, much less sleep with one.

"..."

Of course, it was not that they were unwilling to give her their scarce supply of clothing, but rather, they were wondering if their clothes were clean enough for the girl to wear. They had been in the forest for more than a week or two, and had only a spare change of clothes each. The spares and the clothes they were wearing were all dirty; unwashed and stained with blood. Not to mention that they did not know how to mend clothes and were quite poor, so their clothes were ridden with holes and roughly sewn patches.

Finally, they had decided on their 'cleanest' shirt, which was originally a light brown colour, but somehow darkened due to the many unidentified stains...

The result.

The shirt was simply too big for Fairy. The shirt went past her knees, and the sleeves were too long. The neckline kept slipping off her shoulders, revealing a bit of her skin and her collarbones. The stark contrast between her pristine, white skin against the dirty brown shirt was too startling, that the men had averted their gazes, feeling slightly embarrassed...

Let's rewind the time.

Fairy, still sleeping.

She was unaware of the situation as she was setting up the language setting. It is a slow process.

Suddenly.

Nudge, nudge.

"@#$%^&^&#!"

Pa!

"Au?!" Kyaaah! Huh?!

Syncing disrupted. 21% completed. Syncing cancelled. Reloading data. Due to disruption, data has been corrupted. Resetting. Entering Power Saving Mode. Syncing speed has been slowed down.

...

Re-syncing: Language settings. 1% completed. 114 hours remaing until completion.

...

"...Uuu..."

Fairy... feels defeated... Why...

Suddenly, because she was forcefully awakened, the syncing process had to start over from 1%. Not only that... it has also slowed down...

Somehow, Fairy... feels so tired... ah...

Uuu... Uuu...

"Uwaaa--!"

No way, all the progress was resetted~?!

Eeeeh?! Noooo~

"Uwaaa--!"

"[email protected]#$%&!!"

?! Why did that guy suddenly yell? Waaah! Fairy was surprised!

Uuu... hiccup.

Fairy has stopped crying, but...

Just thinking about the resetted progress, makes her want to cry again.

"[email protected]#$%$^*^%$#"

"$^&%[email protected]#"

"@#%&%%@!$%^&"

?

Somehow, they placed a stinky clothing on Fairy~? It's big~ It's stinky, but it's big~

Fairy prefers big clothes. It was also Airi the Goddess' preference. Large clothings are not restrictive.

Hm, let's first put Fairy's arms into the sleeves. Un! It's bi~g.

Oh well, Fairy will forgive them, just this once. Un!