Chapter 3:
A Duel with a Red Girl
WE WERE HEADED to the guild; we’d finished a request, so it was time to alert somebody.
“Thank you for your hard work. The request is complete.”
“Thanks.”
That was that, and we were about to head on back to the inn when we ran into her.
A new adventurer stepped into the guild. She had long ruby-red hair, done up in twin tails. Her eyes were narrow and almond-shaped, and they shone with a fierce, unyielding spirit.
From head to toe, her small body was clothed in red. She wore a sleeveless red shirt with strings around her shoulders and red shorts, with her thighs boldly left exposed. She was about one head shorter than Filia, who was about five and a half feet, which left the girl at almost five even. This young woman looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old, based on her appearance.
As soon as the girl came into the guild, people started talking.
“Hey, isn’t she…”
“Yeah, she’s the one they talk about…”
Apparently, she was a pretty famous adventurer, so she attracted a lot of attention. Ignoring those around her, she briskly walked up to the counter.
Just as I was about to leave the guild, I collided into the girl’s shoulder. “Oops!”
The impact of the collision was completely different for her than it was for me. Even without releasing my well-trained muscles, I stood about a foot taller than this slender young girl, give or take. In order to help the girl and stop her from falling back on her backside, I released my muscles and put my arm around her back. It was a close call, but I successfully kept her from falling.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” I said. “Are you hurt?”
The girl turned toward me, lightly rubbing her shoulder. “Ow…oh, no, no, it’s okay. I was the one who wasn’t paying enough attention. Thank you for stopping me from fallllllyahhhh?! Monsterrrr!”
The girl’s high-pitched scream echoed throughout the guild.
I slid into a fighting stance and scanned around the area. “Monster?! Where? I wanna fight it!”
“You! You’re the monster! What is up with your body?! You were totally normal until just a minute ago!” she stammered.
She thought I was the monster? How disappointing. What was it about me that made people think I was a monster in the first place? I mean, I’d instantly grown a head taller, and my body was now covered with thick muscle armor because I’d released my muscles. But that couldn’t be it, right?
“No,” said Filia, standing beside me, “that sounds about right.”
Filia must’ve read my mind again or something. She’d said something out loud too, but it wasn’t pleasant and I just decided to ignore it. And ignore it I did indeed, quite magnificently!
More importantly, I needed to clear up the red girl’s misunderstanding. She was still trembling, shaking her small head in my arms.
“I’m not a monster,” I explained. “This is muscle. I got like this after training.”
“That’s not what training does! Are you crazy or something?!” she shouted.
Uh, no? It was just what happened if you trained enough, actually? And hey, I wasn’t crazy! “I’m an intellectual muscle man. Anyway, uh…if you’ve got enough energy to yelp like that, I don’t gotta worry about you being hurt or anything. I’m gonna let you go now, okay?”
“W-wait a minute…” Just as I was about to pull my arm back, she suddenly started panicking, like she was flustered about something. But why? She didn’t seem to even like me, and she couldn’t be injured with the way she was acting.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
The girl gave my face a fleeting glance, then she looked from side to side as if she was feeling awkward about something. Her gaze bounced around the room. “I think you dislocated my back?” she said, looking down, her face going a little red.
A silence fell between us. The adventurers who’d been silently watching it all reacted at once to those words.
“Hey, did she just say that her back was dislocated?”
“Pfft. So much for ‘Flame Princess’ Ashley, huh?”
“Guess she’s actually pretty weak.”
“Well, come on, don’t say that. I mean, she’s a thirteen-year-old kid.”
“C’mon, you’ve always been the one to make fun of her the most!”
“Bwa ha ha ha ha!”
The adventurers’ scornful laughter filled the guild. The girl’s face turned a deeper shade of red at their cruel jeering.
“It’s probably better not to pay them any mind,” said Filia gently. “Rubbish people say rubbish things.” Then she used her recovery magic on the girl.
As soon as the girl’s back was healed, she hopped out of my arms. “How dare you?” The girl looked pretty angry. Her face was bright red, and her small fists were shaking. Well, I supposed any girl her age would be mad if someone just told her to ignore people bad-mouthing her.
“You cretin!” the girl shouted, pointing her finger at me aggressively, like kapow! “How dare you humiliate me like this?”
Wait, me? “How is this my fault?”
“I’m not saying that you did anything. It just so happens that I don’t like you! I’m challenging you to a duel!”
“Oh, a duel! Nice!” She seemed pretty strong, after all, even if I preferred to be the one doing the asking when it came to fighting strong people.
The word “duel” had a really nice ring to it too. There’s something about it that just excites people.
When Ashley heard my reply, she narrowed her eyes at me and let out a surprised “Hmm! Confident, aren’t you? I guess you don’t know who you’re talking to. I am Ashley, the Flame Princess!”
The way that she touched her lips at that last part, she was positively oozing appeal. Didn’t really seem to be a thirteen-year-old kind of thing to do.
“Nope, don’t know anything about that at all. Who is she?”
I clearly saw a vein bulge on the girl’s forehead for an instant. The appeal from before was nowhere to be seen now. The way she gestured now, all huffy and angry, definitely seemed a lot more appropriate for a girl her age.
“What do you mean, who?!” she demanded. “I just told you my name, didn’t I?!”
“Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
“Huh?! Stop messing with me!”
I sighed. “For crying out loud…”
The girl jabbed her finger at me once again. “My name is Ashley Arisietta. I’m a genius magician, and the youngest person ever to achieve S-Rank!”
To think that she was so polite enough to introduce herself a second time. This kid was serious.
More importantly…
“Oh, S-Rank? That’s awesome! You’re so strong, I can’t believe it! I’m so happy! My name’s Yuri, so…all right! Let’s fight!”
And that’s how I ended up fighting the S-Ranked adventurer, Ashley. I’d never faced any S-Rank anything before, so I was raring to go!