This story is part of the Wanderer series.
“Welcome back!”
Noticing the two of them enter the front door, Nozomi stopped her sweeping to loudly greet them, waving around her broom handle. Honoka and Yua briefly stopped their housework as well and echoed a greeting. Karin returned with a muted response.
“Did you fight off any monsters?” Nozomi giggled.
Karin paused, surprised by the childish question and still a little dazed. “… Not exactly…”
“This isn’t child’s play,” Haku griped, flashing an annoyed glance at Nozomi.
“…!” Glancing up again, Yua gave Haku a closer look, her expression growing serious. She placed down the towel and wet plate in her hands and started walking towards the two. “Did something happen?”
Hearing this, Honoka also gave them a second glance, noticing they were ruffled up a bit.
“We found a trap by the eastern forests’ edge,” Haku explained. “North northeast. About three hundred meters from the Trailing Path into town.”
Shock gripped the room. Yua rushed towards Haku, briefly checking up and down his torso before she noticed Karin, who was standing next to him, covertly coaxing the right side of her torso without thinking. Realizing what she was doing, Karin lifted her hand off, but not before Yua switched to her, bringing a hand up to her right side and releasing a teal blue glow.
“No… I’m fine,” Karin insisted, even as she winced.
The healer ignored her assurances and continued to get a sense of her injuries. Haku slipped out of his shoes and walked past the two of them.
“We made it out mostly unscathed, thanks to her.”
“No…” Karin reddened a tiny bit, embarrassed by the credit. “You were the one who spotted the trap…”
Honoka and Nozomi gradually made their way over to them at the front door. “What kind of trap?” Honoka asked.
“A trigger bom…” Karin began, catching herself speaking a language that Honoka might not understand. “An explosive… Explosive seal.”
This startled all three of them.
“A bomb?!” Nozomi exclaimed. “Why would there be a bomb in a forest?!”
“It could be the same rogue that attacked you, looking to terrorize the town,” Haku hypothesized.
Taking in those words, Nozomi’s expression shifted from shock to a complicated mixture of disbelief and anger.
Haku crossed his arms. “You see how serious this work is? This is why I can’t have a goofball on the job.”
Meeting his gaze, Nozomi brings her hands up, gripping the broom handle tightly in front of her, becoming rebellious. “I can be serious when I need to!” she retorted.
“Better start now then,” he jabbed back. “Because there’s danger out there.”
Ignoring her pout, Haku walked forward a few steps, but stopped shortly, tilting his head towards his shoulder, adding one more warning.
“There’s still danger out there.”
With that, he left the four girls and retired deeper into the house, walking past the kitchen and turning up the stairs. Karin and Nozomi glanced at each other, both coming to a conclusion about what he meant.