The elf girl let out a long, dramatic groan, her head thrown back so that everyone within earshot could hear: "Ahhh...! Finally...! Back in town...ugh."

Goblin Slayer may have had four cold steel bars blocking his vision, but that didn't mean he couldn't note the bags under his comrades' eyes. Nor the bruised, tattered clothes they had on.

Once the gates to Frontier Town passed overhead, High Elf Archer complained some more. "...I need a bed…I can't walk…."

"Yes, yes, elf…We see that! You don't need to start yappin' it right next to us!" Dwarf Shaman rubbed his ears.

High Elf blew air out between her teeth. "There's a short joke in there…but I'll leave it for now…"

"Hmmm. Let me think—at least I'm rooted in reality, unlike some folks around here!"

Goblin Slayer shifted his attention away—he never kept track of how many times they fought.

Instead, he noticed his aid, the boy, sweating profusely despite the hour. One foot dragged after the other as he made his way forward. "You okay?" Goblin Slayer asked him.

Stosstruppler glanced back at him, his face belonging to a younger adolescent, unnerved. His gray eyes were bloodshot, a uniform that clung around his lean frame torn in some places, skin less pasty than Goblin Slayer's covered in dirt…

But, all the trooper could manage to say was a strained, "Fine...Goblin Slayer. Just... fine…"

"You want me to carry her?" Goblin Slayer asked, gesturing towards the team's pious healer, Priestess, draped across the teenager's back. When he reached out for her, Goblin Slayer was surprised when Stosstruppler pulled away.

"No offense," he said, "but I promised to get her near the Guild's doors at least. And I aim to do so." With a grunt of determination, the boy took another step forward, looking to be hating it. Since the morning's first quest, Stosstruppler had kept his distance. A subtle, yet consistent pattern.

For what? Goblin Slayer didn't know, yet. And from how sore his body was…he told the boy for now, "Don't strain yourself."

When they finally got to their destination, the streets were dead silent; the food market, which held no vendors at this time, would be where the group would split off for tomorrow. Stosstruppler was ready to collapse when Lizard Priest held out his massive hand. "I believe Miss Priestess is done for the day. Would you like me to carry her, Sir Stosstruppler?"

"J—Yes…! Please." He buckled under one leg. "I'm going to drop her."

The lizardman caught Priestess before the trooper pulled a back muscle. Lizard Priest returned a hearty laugh. "You sure showed your determination today, young man. Fine work." He placed Priestess on his back. She clenched him, albeit roused.

"Thanks…" Stosstruppler wiped his cheeks with his gray scarf. The healer's white rag underneath.

"I'm going to go straight to the Guild to make my report." Goblin Slayer began walking in its direction, down the opposite street.

"Might we allow you to handle ours as well, Sir Goblin Slayer?" the tall cleric asked. High Elf and Shaman were already walking to their rooms.

"Sure. I'll leave the girl to you." With a nod, the team said their good nights.

Priestess, who Goblin Slayer was sure was dead asleep, lifted her head to mutter, "Go…od..night…" while waving at the duel party's second-in-charge, going on their way down the path.

Golin Slayer watched their figures turn dimmer and dimmer until a shop masked their path completely. Exactly ten seconds later, Stosstruppler's grunts punctuated their entire journey, each step seeming like a struggle. Despite his efforts to mask his discomfort, Goblin Slayer couldn't help but notice the strain etched on every line of his face.

At one point, the silver man contemplated lifting Stosstruppler over his shoulder and carrying him back to the Guild, then to the Farm, if it meant quieting him. But, when the determined steel saw a certain mage in a large black hat and cloak, where both were blowing behind her against the wind, underneath the swaying sign of the Adventurers' Guild, Stosstruppler jolted to life. "Wizard!" he shouted in a low whisper. "Is that you?"

Raising her hat with her middle and index fingers—-her eyes matching her clothing. Short red hair underneath—Wizard turned around. Her serious expression lowered the second she spotted them approach her. "You didn't die this time?" She smiled. "So you guys made it in one piece. Good. How was it?"

After giving the evocation spellcaster the rundown of events, from the Tunnel flooding to the last one being a rescue mission that involved the entire goblin nest being set ablaze, Goblin Slayer reported that "It was a pretty normal day."

Stosstruppler's face twisted. "Uh, Goblin Slayer? I don't think it really was."

"It wasn't?" Goblin Slayer was sure it was.

Wizard covered her mouth, laughing a little. "Heh! Looks like you two had quite the day. I bet it was…fun." Her eyes glowered.

Stosstruppler put a hand on her arm. "Wiz, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Hm? Oh...No, nothing," she said, her hat casting a shadow over her face. "It's nothing." Wizard rubbed at her eyes.

The boy glowered, too. His face twisted again, but in concern more than anything Goblin Slayer retold. "What's wrong, Wizard? Did your brother…?" he stopped when Wizard pulled him in. Whispering something in his ear, Goblin Slayer couldn't hear. Not that he was leaning forward, hoping to intrude on whatever was happening. But the way his aid's eyes bulged during it gave Goblin Slayer a few guesses as to what she was telling him.

It must be about her younger brother he shot in the dark. He had heard how much the glasses girl mentioned her sibling's arrival days after the coming of the new year. Everyone within the party was excited, despite it being two months before his supposed time to "check her," he thought the healer had said once. The last two weeks leading up to today changed that, it seemed. She started to hesitate whenever the topic of him came up.

When the healer or fighting girl or one of the members from the Female Party asked about him, the wizard would always say, "He should be coming," and nothing more.

And when Stosstruppler tried to say, "…I think he'll be here this time, tomorrow," Goblin Slayer was sure he was correct.

"Yup..." the redheaded girl nodded. "I know."

"If you like," Stosstruppler went on, "I can take tomorrow off and wait with you by the training grounds opening up. The main road leads there. You'll catch him if we're early."

"...Wow! Tell me something I don't know. Why don't you?" the scholar hissed.

The boy withdrew his hand. His arms raised like a shield like she was about to strike him. Looking down at her ruby-tipped staff, hands clenched around it, it wouldn't have been a first. Or so Goblin Slayer thought his aid had told him once.

The glasses girl realized what she was doing and her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry...I didn't get an ounce of sleep last night..."

"R-Really? I didn't notice." Stosstruppler lowered his arms.

"...sorry..." the wizard repeated.

The two teens looked uncertain. Their eyes refused to meet, but the girl's nervous body language said more. Hm. Goblin Slayer took one step forward. That got the duo's attention right away. He asked the book girl, "You'll wait for your brother tomorrow, too, right?"

Wizard nodded. "I planned on doing that regardless of if he—" she paused, sharing a look with Stosstruppler. From the way he motioned, I think he knows, she finished: "if he didn't show up today. Why?"

Rather than answer her question, he asked another one. "Did you attend the promotion examination today? He and the girl were talking about it a few days ago." Wizard nodded. The sapphire tag dangling off her neck, hidden away in her slightly exposed cleavage area, showed it. "Good," he went on.

"It is." Stoss looked ready to congratulate her. "But why is that good, sir—" his aid glared at himself "—Goblin Slayer?" Wizard appeared eager to know, too.

"Because I didn't think today was going to be so serious. For everyone," Goblin Slayer told them. He told Wizard, "From how much the boy was pushing himself today, the girl, too, I think resting tomorrow could help since they both have their promotions in the morning. So we'll wait for them, then wait for your brother."

"A-All day?" Stosstruppler and Wizard exclaimed.

"All day. I could use it, too, if I'm feeling up to it."

They blinked, rubbing their eyes and ears together as if that wasn't real. It was odd that he sounded so casual about it. But the two teens' state of affairs might have given Goblin Slayer the idea to take it easier.

Why is that? He actually had to ponder why that flowed out of his mind in the first place.

"Wow. He's serious, Stoss." Wizard couldn't believe it. "In that case, I won't complain for the company, then. Thanks a ton." She pulled her cloak closer to her slim body from the winds. "I'll head to bed now. You have a big day tomorrow, Steelcap. Priestess, too. Good night."

Wizard patted the uniform teen on the shoulder. Then, after thanking Goblin Slayer again, she left for the night. Her cloak blew behind her.

Stosstruppler rubbed his shoulder. "You, too, Fräulein."

Goblin Slayer shifted his weight, looking at his aid.

"A-hem." The teen straightened himself out one more time, appearing as if he didn't see Goblin Slayer watching him. "...It's getting late."

"I see." Goblin Slayer's chainmail rattled as he looked up at the stars while walking to the double wooden doors of the Guild. The sight of the dual moons in his peripheral vision oddly relieved him. "It's a nice night, though," he remarked. It almost makes me forget seeing the grounds this morning… he thought, but he didn't share them with Stosstruppler. Inside the Adventurers' Guild, the front doors closing startled those still awake. Two heads popped out, both belonging to ladies in administrative uniforms, with two candles by the reception desk flickering empty.

"...G-Goblin Slayer…!" Guild Girl panicked. "...S-S-Stosstruppler…?" her coworker, Inspector, exclaimed.

"...w-w-we weren't sleeping! Just resting our eyes…!"

After leaving their reports to the now-awake receptionists and splitting the rewards six ways evenly, the duo headed out back into the night and back for home. Boots clanking on dirt, then rougher patches out back to the farmland of Goblin Slayer's friend's uncle's estate.

He was unsure if Cow Girl or her uncle were awake at this hour, but they could be.

At their approach, passed a tree, one that blew sharply from the breeze heading eastward to the north, exactly ten yards behind it, a branch snapped off.

Stosstruppler stopped. Goblin Slayer didn't. "Keep walking," he instructed. "Let it get closer."

"Yes, sir." The boy did. Given the order, Goblin Slayer didn't mind him calling him "sir" for this.

They took a few steps forward. Another snap, this one rustling the bushes on the same side right of him. From how it scurried, it was taller than a normal-size goblin.

Goblin Slayer glanced at his aid subtly. His aid's hand rested on that extended blade he carried, leather fingers drumming on the handle.

Goblin Slayer gripped one of his throwing knives hoisted around his chest.

Snap! Seven yards. Past another tree. Same side.

"Now?" Stosstruppler whispered.

Goblin Slayer licked his dry lips. "Now." He whirled around, unsheathed his knife, took aim, and—changed trajectory to miss.

The knife impaled the spot where this cloaked kid was heading after he tumbled out onto the main road. He was lucky. His skinny frame and build saved him. Hobs and juvenile lords were bigger.

"What the hell is that all about?! You scared the hell outta me!" the kid (maybe around the boy's age?) hooted, shaking his fist at them. Red spiky hair in a mess, masking some of the forest green blazing in his eyes behind his tiny lenses.

Goblin Slayer felt his mail rattle again.

…red hair…green eyes…

Where had he heard that from?

Stosstruppler sheathed his bayonet. "Wait a minute. Kommandant! Uh, I mean. Ah, hell! You know what I mean! Is that…him?"

"It is." Goblin Slayer chuckled. "Funny, he does look like her, doesn't he?"

Author's Note:

"Well, well, well. Look who the cat dragged in?" I hear you say? (Probably not. Haha)

Back again, just as promised. If you've been sticking around since 2019, big thanks. Time flies, huh? Never imagined being a writer, or a fanfic writer, when I had graduated high school and entered college, but here we are.

I'll try to keep these notes shorter from now on, but bear with me for now.

I had aimed to publish Stahlhelm II earlier…but things happened in life and affected development. So I couldn't do it right away. I sure hope it was worth the wait, and thanks for sticking around.

Special shoutout to my beta readers Spartan719, Captain Health, and luki.2001 (my bad if your name got cut off again) for refining chapters 1–3! Couldn't have done it without you!

Have a nice one. Hope to see you soon

JR31VICTOR

Also, for those still reading Stahlhelm and thinking English isn't my first language—it is. I just sucked hard at writing, especially back then…In fact, it would be probably best not to read that fic in the first place. :p