“It’s because I’m intentionally keeping myself in this form. When I’m in a proper fight, it’s different, you know?” I replied, and let my body surge with might.
In the blink of an eye, my body morphed into the correct form for a serious fight. My muscles swelled and bulged, tearing my jacket in seconds, and in an instant I was halfway to buck naked. One head taller, too—just over six feet in total.
“What do you think? Amazing, huh?”
Just as I expected, Filia’s silver eyes went wide.
“No, nonononono, this is too much. You even got taller! You completely turned into some kind of inhuman…master of muscle!” Filia wailed.
“Come on, don’t praise me like that, you’re makin’ me all bashful.”
“I’m not praising you!”
I didn’t normally bother to transform. Getting all bulky hindered my movement and put stealth out of the question. There was nothing better than training your muscles, but bigger isn’t always better. It all depends on the situation, and sometimes having an average body is more appropriate to your needs. That was why I put a limiter on when I wasn’t fighting, to restrain my borderline-divine muscles. After Filia’s shower of compliments, I reverted back to my average-body form and shrugged on a spare jacket.
“Besides, even in this state I’ve still got a fair amount of power.”
I picked up a small, reasonably sized stone on the ground and squeezed it. When I opened my hand it was a pile of sand.
“Look.”
“Are…small stones something that can just be pulverized like that?”
“Depends. Do you lift?”
“I think I, um, know enough about this for now,” Filia said, whatever she meant by that. She seemed bowled over.
“Let’s see…also, I can shoot out fire.”
“You can use fire magic? So, that means that you are a magician, right, Yuri?”
“I certainly am. But my fire isn’t from fire magic, it’s muscle magic.”
I flexed my arm for emphasis. Filia looked at me with a blank expression.
“Muscle magic?”
“You know, magic that can only be used by training your muscles.”
I punched the air in front of me. My fist cut through the air fast enough to break the speed of sound and a sudden fiery boom cracked through the silence.
“See?”
“But…but I didn’t detect any trace of magical energy whatsoever. What was that?”
“Simple: I punched through the air with sufficient speed. Went so fast my fist caught fire.”
“Your fist caught—could you repeat that last bit?”
“I punched through the air with sufficent speed. Went so fast my fist caught fire.”
“Hhuhhh?! Um? Wh-what do you mean?”
It seemed Filia was perplexed by my novel type of magic. Not too surprising, considering I was pretty sure it was fairly unique. It was even possible magic like mine didn’t exist outside of the forest.
“Muscle magic doesn’t use magical energy, ya see.”
“Then it isn’t proper magic, is it? It would qualify more as a, um, a feat of strength,” said Filia, still looking stunned. I didn’t quite get what she was trying to say. You just can’t explain some things to people who don’t work out, you know?
“Hey, Yuri. This may be a little touchy, but, ah… You wouldn’t happen to be a monster or something, would you?”
“Wha—that’s just mean! I’m a human!” A monster! Come on, really? Me, your average dime-a-dozen hardworking joe! Man, what a weird girl!
Our banter took us the rest of the way down the road such that by evening, around sunset, Filia and I arrived safe and sound at the castle wall. Looked way taller than a person, I’ll tell you. Taller than my cottage too—like four or five of my cottages stacked on top of each other.
“Wow. You ever seen anything like this before, Filia?”
“Not at all! It’s amazing! We elves coexist with nature, so we don’t build anything like this.”
A few folks wearing leather armor hung around in front of the gate, but they let us through without any problems. But then, why were those guys standing there in the first place?
The conclusion hit me right quick: they were meant to keep monsters from getting into the town or something. We’d encountered a few critters between leaving the forest and getting to civilization, so there had to be some kind of danger. (Needless to say, we’d thrashed every beastie we met on the way.)
More importantly: the town! Once inside, we were met with rows and rows of wooden buildings lining dozens upon dozens of paved streets. I could hardly take them in one at a time, let alone all at once—it was my first time seeing a real township, so naturally my excitement was through the roof!
“All right, all right, all right! What are we going to do now, Filia?!”
“Hmm, yes, what should we do, Yuri? For the time being, I propose we find lodging at an inn. Agreed?”
I clapped my hands with a satisfying, thunderous slap. “An inn, huh? Ha! I wouldn’t have thought of that at all! You’re really something!”
“And you really aren’t all there, are you?”
“You think? Well, okay, if the inn doesn’t work out—worst-case scenario and all—we can just sleep on the street, probably. Nothing to worry about there. We’re bona fide monster hunters; nobody’s gonna mess with us and get away with it.”
“That sounds awfully barbaric, Yuri…”
Once we got to the inn, I realized I didn’t have any money to pay for a room, so I had to ask Filia to spot me. Sure, she told me not to worry about it, but it seemed pretty unmanly to make a lady pay. Also, we now had to think of ways to earn more money before we could even think of doing anything else. I started mulling our next step as we went up to our room.
Once there, Filia and I sat back, relaxed, and let our hair down. The room came with what I understood were your usual accommodations for an inn, except…there was just one bed.
“Hey, Filia? Did you get us a single?”
“All right, all right! Maybe I did, but we don’t have a choice. Not unless your muscle magic can summon up a little extra cash for a double!”
Looked like our financial affairs were in worse shape than I’d thought. Maybe it was because we were in a closed room by ourselves, just the two of us, but Filia’s expression seemed to stiffen somewhat. These are the times that a man’s gotta be a real man.
“You take the bed,” I told her. She was the one who’d paid for it, after all, and a man’s gotta recognize that.
“Urging me to use the bed…” Filia covered her mouth. “Aha! I know your game! You want me on the bed so you can go after my enticing, nubile body! You foul knave!” Filia huffed, crossing her arms in front of her unjiggly breasts for emphasis.
I blinked. “What are you talking about? I’m just saying that since I can sleep standing up, I don’t need the bed. As long as I get an hour in, I’ll be good.”
“You only need one hour of sleep? How bizarre. I suppose I saw you sleeping like that in the forest, but I didn’t realize you just…did that all the time.”
“Besides, you’re the one who paid for the room, Filia. It’s only natural that you get the most use from it, don’t you think?”
“Ha! Mister Muscles is more gentlemanly than he appears, hmm? Just the two of us… Just the two of us here in a lonely room in a faraway inn, a friendly hulk and a most elegant and beautiful lady, and you’re going to be sleeping standing up.”
“Beautiful lady? Where?” I jerked my neck up and made a big show of looking around.
Filia hopped in front of me, trying to get into my field of vision, but gave up pretty quick. “Hmph!” She puffed out her cheeks. “You have angered this elegant lady. Good night!”
“Sure, g’night.”
And with that, our very first night in the city came to an end.