He ran off. Literally, he was running on foot.
“Dammit, I’m done with this job! As soon as this business is over, I’m handing my notice in!!”
He kept running, out of breath. His destination: the Atika region.
“Shit, you could have at least given me a damn carriage!”
A capable spy, he’d discerned the whereabouts of Miyako and Fuuka immediately after receiving the order from his master Klaus Reinhardt, a capable idiot. When he’d reported that a carriage carrying them had made its way to the Atika region, the home of Miyako Florence’s family, his master gave him the following rather presumptuous order: “Go get her at once! She must be feeling terribly lonely without me!!”
That was an hour ago, in the dead of night.
“Who would actually think he really meant ‘at once’!!!”
Exhausted, the spy had been trying to go home for the first time in three days, when his caring master stopped him.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going? Home? What are you talking about? I told you to go to Atika to get her at once, did I not? Or maybe you’re playing some kind of joke?”
You’re the joke.
He had planned to hail a horse-drawn cab, but it must have been the busy season, as he had no luck. Therefore, he had no choice but to run all the way to Atika, a journey which took even quick carriages almost an entire day.
“Damn it all! What are you playing at, Miyako?!”
His name was Odina. Odina Florence. Yes, he was the older brother of Miyako Florence, the woman who ran away with Fuuka Hamilton the moment she had her engagement canceled by Klaus Reinhardt.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Finished!”
“What is it? A pitfall?”
There was a hole dug in the garden with roundish stones blanketing the inside. It didn’t look like a pitfall. In fact, it was a...
“Guess what, it’s a Handmade Miyako Deluxe Open-Air Bath!”
“It’s a bath? This thing?”
Fuuka cocked her head in puzzlement. Nobody would blame her. It would be a fool’s errand to bring enough hot water here and put it in still warm. Besides, the water would cool right down while being transported.
“Heh heh, I got the idea from the stew you made... Look here!”
Miyako pulled out one of the heated stones.
So this is why you had a fire going in the corner of the garden, thought Fuuka.
“If we lob a few of these hot stones into the water in the hole...”
“Ah! It’ll warm it up?”
“Bingo!”
I see. If we do that, then every time the water begins to cool down we can just put another hot stone in, and the water will keep its warmth. So we won’t need to keep going all the way to the hot spring. The evenings can be quite chilly, so I’d be grateful for that, except...
“There’s just one thing, Miyako.”
“What’s that, Fuuka-chan?”
“How do we get the water in here in the first place?”
“...Ah.”
Whoops, thought Miyako.
They were mainly boiling well water when they needed it for cooking or drinking, but it would be back-breaking to carry this much here.
“Rainwater?”
“And how many days do you expect me to go without a bath?”
The Atika region had a lot of snowfall in the winter, but not nearly as much rainfall in the summer. By the time this hole filled with water, it would likely be home to pondlife. Not an appealing outcome.
“Wh-What do we do?”
“How should I know?”
She’s right, thought Miyako, burying her face in her hands. She’d spent the entire day digging the hole with dreams of a home with a bath, but the end result was just a random hole in the garden. Fuuka-chan looked unquestionably happy whenever she got in the open-air bath, so I was sure she’d be overjoyed if the cabin had one too, but...
Ever since Miyako was a wage slave, she’d had the feeling she was doomed to have everything she tried turn out wrong, leaving her with even more work. Since coming here, she’d managed to avoid unpleasant situations by employing her knowledge of the game’s scenarios as a kind of precognition, but...
“S-Sorry, Fuuka-chan...”
“I-I’m not particularly bothered.”
Miyako felt choked up.
“Um... Such a pity,” said Fuuka.
Uwaaa, don’t try to console me. You’re making me cry!
As Miyako sniffled... Clank clank clank!
“Wh-What was that noise?!”
“It came from inside the house... Could it be, have they found us?!”
The only other person who should have been coming in and out of this cabin was the girl—or rather, the mature woman—Shan Li the merchant, and they had bought her silence. If they’ve caught up to us, we need to get away. Otherwise my plan to enjoy my two-week (and preferably longer) vacation with Fuuka-chan will be ruined!
“I’ll go take a look!” said Miyako.
She rushed into the kitchen. A bucket had been knocked over. It was the one they had used to store the leftover stew from yesterday to have again for their lunch. The fish stew was all over the fl—Wait, no it isn’t. How can that be? That’s where the leftovers should be. So where have they gone?
“I-Is somebody there?!” called out Miyako, nervously.
“Unyaa,” came an unfamiliar voice. It sounded like that of a little girl.
Has a lost child wandered in here?
“Who’s there?”
“Who am I, you ask? What utter disrespect.”
There was a thud as something jumped onto the table... It was a cat.
“A stray cat?”
“Nyaa, the height of disrespect!”
The meowing cat was somehow... odd. I’ve never seen fur that blue, the color of water. And she’s got something like a fin on her back made from water... no, from slime. And her shaking tail is—
“A snake!” screamed Miyako.
—a snake.
Miyako, who had never been good with snakes, jumped away.
“What’s wrong, Miyako?!”
“Fuuka-chan! There’s some weird cat snake slime thing!”
“Do nyot address me with such a peculiar nyame, fool.”
The Cat Snake Slime Thing pricked up her snake-like tail and glared at Miyako.
What the hell is this creature?
“Wait, could this be...” Fuuka gasped. “A water spirit, an Undine?!”
“An Undine?”
“It’s one of the highest classes of spirits. I’ve only ever seen them in field guides...” said Fuuka, flustered.
Water spirits were one of the four kinds of great spirit: earth, air, water, and fire. They rarely showed themselves to humans, and nobody knew where they lived. They were creatures that every summoner and tamer dreamed of controlling, possessing incredibly rare and immensely powerful magical abilities. Why is something like that in this tiny cabin?
“Nyahaha, it appears you know what you’re talking about. Indeed, I am one of the Undine, what you call water spirits.”
“Cat Snake Slime Thing.”
“What did I say?! That’s not what I am!” exclaimed the Undine in anger at Miyako’s naming sense.
Something was stuck to the corner of her mouth.
“...Ah, our stew!”
“Nyaa?”
✦ ✦ ✦
To summarize the story told by the Undine who devoured Miyako and Fuuka’s lunch:
“So in this garden, there was a shrine dedicated to you. You were sealed here as a water god... The passing years weathered the shrine away and buried it in the earth, until—”
“Until Miyako dug it up?”
The Undine nodded.
“Exactly.”
“And when you ate our stew, you found it surprisingly tasty, so...”
“...So you want to form a contract with us?” finished Fuuka.
“Eeeexactly! You must feel grateful?”
“If you’re a water spirit, does that mean you could fill the hole in our garden up with water?”
“It would be a trivial matter for me.”
“I’d love that!”
“Wait a minute, Miyako! Making a contract with an Undine is a state-level endeavor! Doing that for just a bath...”
“Baths are important too!”
“Besides, why in the world was an Undine buried in your garden?!”
“...Ah.”
“Ah?”
Miyako suddenly remembered the dream she had last night. In the dream, she was digging a hole, when hot water and oil came flooding out. She ignored it because she figured it was the same as the dreams she would have as a wage slave. In those, oil sprang up from her house’s garden, turning her into a millionaire, but...
“So this is what that was about?”
In any case, Miyako dug a hole in the garden and ended up forming a contract with an Undine.
So basically...
“Our quality of life just shot up!”