Chiyome and I returned to the hidden village to report to Hanzo and Gowro. We reached an agreement on rebuilding the shrine as payment for my assistance.
Once we finished that, I left Chiyome, and took Ariane and Ponta back to Lalatoya Village.
Glenys sat across from me at her dining room table, taking great interest in what I reported.
“Hmm, I see. So, you found the spring Dillan told you about, and it let you reclaim your physical body, but its effects are limited. I never doubted that you were human, but now that I see your true form, you do appear to be an elf.”
Glenys looked at me with fascination, her angular ears twitching as she examined my own elven ears. Her golden eyes twinkled as a gentle smile graced her face.
“Since you’re an elf, what do you think about taking our village name? Assuming you want to, of course.” Glenys’ head tilted cutely to the side. She looked no older than thirty, and yet was still Ariane’s mother.
I looked back, puzzled, not exactly sure what she was suggesting.
Ariane jumped in. “Are you asking if Arc wants to join our village?!”
Only then did I understand what Glenys meant. At the end of each elf’s name was the village they belonged to. Taking a village’s name meant that you’d been accepted into it.
“Do you have a problem with Arc becoming one of us? I mean, the Dragon Lord himself said that Arc is a Wanderer, just like our founder.”
Ariane seemed lost for words. She turned her gaze back toward me, clearly conflicted. “If he were truly an elf, I’d have no objections. But wouldn’t it be better for this walking war machine to fight as a soldier for Maple than to live as a member of our village?” She spoke as if I wasn’t even there.
Her words stung, but thinking back on the mistakes I’d made across our misadventures, I couldn’t really deny her statement.
I buried my face in Ponta’s belly to make myself feel better, interrupting it mid-yawn as it lazed at the table. It started mewing and rolling around, apparently ticklish.
Now that I thought about it, my physical body resembled an elf, and I was able to see spirits. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with me belonging to an elven village. Honestly, it’d be nice to call someplace home, rather than constantly roaming the world as a skeleton.
“Oh? So, you’d prefer to keep him close to you in Maple, Ariane? And here I thought that your complaint was his species.”
“You’ve got it all wrong!” Ariane shot back. “I’m just saying that we should get the central council’s permission first. Besides, aren’t you serving in father’s place right now? You can’t make Arc a member of Lalatoya on your own, can you?”
“Two beautiful women, fighting over little old me.”
Since we were discussing what village I’d ultimately belong to, I figured I should join the conversation. However, as soon as I opened my mouth, Ariane simply reached out and shoved my head back into Ponta’s belly, putting a quick end to my involvement.
“You’re right,” Glenys said. “But I can welcome Arc as a provisional member of the village. Anyhow, you can’t take him to Maple like this, while he’s neither fully skeleton nor fully elf, can you?”
“Arc Lalatoya, Pending Approval” didn’t sound too bad to me.
Inviting an outsider into Maple, the Great Canada Forest’s capital, was evidently no easy feat. Even if I were invited in, would I want to live so far from the shrine and hot spring? Distance wasn’t really a factor, since I could just use teleportation magic, but I was still hesitant.
It would be kind of like the way some people in Japan chose to live in Kanagawa, Chiba, or Saitama, where it was easy to commute to Tokyo, but suited their lifestyle better than Tokyo proper. For me, it would be more like living in Suita, Moriguchi, or maybe even Sakai, instead of downtown Osaka. Someplace with a more relaxed, hometown atmosphere.
Lalatoya was also closer to human lands.
I had no way of knowing how far away Maple was, but going back to my example, I figured it had to be something like the distance between Osaka and Nose, or maybe Misaki, two towns on the prefecture’s outskirts.
While I considered these things, the conversation drew to a close.
“I’ll talk to your grandfather about bringing this before the central council. But for now, we’ll stick to the idea of Arc joining our village. The final decision should be left up to him, anyway.”
Glenys must have seen my uncertainty. “Well, there’s no need to decide right now. Spend as much time in the village as you like while you make up your mind.”
I told her I would think about it carefully.
Ariane huffed and shifted in her seat.
“Well, that’s that, then!” Glenys said. “It’s getting late, so why don’t we eat dinner? We received a shipment of tomatoes from Landfrea today, so I made that soup you like so much.”
I stood up so fast that I actually knocked my chair over. “Miss Glenys, this ‘tomato’ you speak of…is it by chance a red fruit?”
Glenys stared in stunned silence at my sudden question. She nodded.
“Do you have a tomato here with you?”
At my urging, Glenys made her way into the kitchen, and returned with a pot brimming with red soup. My eyes went wide.
After asking Glenys’s permission, I dipped a spoon into the pot and took a sip. The flavor’s sheer depth convinced me. Although it was slightly acidic, this was definitely the same tomato I was familiar with.
Ariane sighed, exasperated. “You barely remember anything about yourself, but you sure remember a lot about weird stuff like tomatoes.”
I was too absorbed in the possibilities this ingredient opened for me to even hear Ariane’s complaint. Tomatoes were like a jack-of-all-trades of the culinary world. Seaweed and bonito were cornerstones of Japanese cooking; tomatoes served a similar important role in western cooking, adding a deeper, more refined taste. If I got my hands on some tomatoes, they would really keep my menu exciting.
“You mentioned that these tomatoes came from Landfrea. If I went there, could I buy some?”
“They’re grown in Fobnach, on the southern continent, and imported. Some villages to the south also grow their own, but dried tomatoes are far more common.”
Chiyome had mentioned that the mountain people had their own country on the southern continent. I wasn’t quite sure what my Transport Gate ability’s range was, but if I could teleport between the southern continent and the hot spring, I’d be able to buy tomatoes from the source whenever I wanted.
Since the mountain people needed time to finish building their first village near the lake, I’d been told that they couldn’t yet send anyone to start rebuilding the shrine. I might as well use that time to prepare for when I finally had a place to put my feet up.
“I’d like to visit this southern continent. Is it possible to board a ship departing from Landfrea?”
Of life’s three main necessities—clothing, shelter, and food—I’d already secured two: my Belenus Holy Armor was more than sufficient clothing, and the shrine and nearby hot spring would make excellent shelter.
The last necessity was food.
Glenys groaned slightly. “Weeeell, it’s an elven boat, so it might be a bit of a challenge to get you on board if you don’t belong to a village.”
My mind was made up. “I hereby swear my loyalty to you, and beg the honor of calling myself Arc Lalatoya!”
Glenys clapped her hands and smiled. “That’s great! I’m thrilled to have such a strong ally join our village.”
Ariane simply looked annoyed.
For my part, there was absolutely no hesitation.
My beloved tomatoes grew on the southern continent.