Chapter 8:
Gorillalas Are a Lot like Gorillas
AFTER RUNNING for three days and for a total of two thousand miles, I returned to the city, my body slightly covered in dust. People mistook me for some new kind of monster, but…eh. Someone blasted me with magic as we passed one another without even bothering to say a word, so I stopped, thinking that they’d wanted to fight.
“Huh?” they said, surprising me. “Wait, are you…human?”
Wasn’t it obvious? How could I be anything else? When I talked to him, he revealed a shocking truth: the guild had mistaken me for some kind of new monster, and now they were trying to organize a team to take me out. Oof. Made me realize I needed to stay instead of head out for more training. I’d wanted to run for another two thousand miles, but I didn’t want to cause more trouble, and I was worried about Filia.
“I’m back!” When I got back to the inn, Filia and Ashley were there. Ashley had come to visit again. She was dressed in red clothes, as usual. Jeez, she was all about that tomato aesthetic, huh?
“Yuri, welcome back!”
“Thanks. Am I interrupting anything?” I didn’t really know how this stuff worked, being a guy and all, but I didn’t want to break up girl talk. Maybe my timing was a little bad.
“Not really,” said Ashley. “But ideally, I’d rather be the only one here. Yes,” she added, pouting in disappointment, “that would be the best.”
“Be the only one? For me? Aw, come on, knock it off! You’re embarrassin’ me…”
“No, not for you!” Ashley snapped. “What are you acting all embarrassed for?!”
“Oh, you knew I was acting? You’ve really got talent.”
“Talent for what?”
“You’ve gotta figure that one out for yourself.”
“Huh?! I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying!”
If you just give people all the answers, they won’t develop the ability to think for themselves. So you see, I was helping Ashley become a more perfect adult in the future. Such is the burden of an intellectual muscle man!
“Hmph! Yuri, you big idiot! I don’t even care!” she pouted, turning around and sitting down away from me in protest.
I couldn’t help but smile at the huffy look on her face, which she didn’t even try to hide. “Come on, don’t pout. You’re charming.”
“Ch-charming?! Hey, wait a minute Yuri! You’re treating me like a child, aren’t you?”
“Naw! Sorry, sorry. There, there.” I patted Ashley on the head.
“There, there?! You are treating me like a child!” Ashley puffed her cheeks out angrily.
I patted her head again. “Sorry. Really.”
“Well, okay…as long as you’re sorry.” Ashley let out a snort and crossed her arms. I couldn’t help but find it adorable that she was trying so hard to act grown-up, but I wasn’t about to tell her that and get her mad at me all over again.
“You two always get along so well,” said Filia nonchalantly, watching our banter. Filia really did look at Ashley like a little sister.
“So, what were you talkin’ about?” I asked.
“Ashley told me about a festival in her home village. She invited me to come.”
A festival, huh? “That sounds good! You should go.”
There are times when you just want to cut loose, ya know? She needed to have fun in her life. I didn’t intend to try to stop her from getting it. Even if we were partners, I didn’t want us to be joined at the hip or anything.
“Why don’t you come too, Yuri?” asked Filia.
Huh. I hadn’t expected that. A festival… Had I ever even been to a festival? I couldn’t remember anything like one. “Uh, sure, I suppose doin’ something like this once in a while could be fun.”
Maybe I’d find something at the festival that could make me stronger. You can’t get strong without going everywhere and doing everything. You gotta be voracious!
“Are you coming too, Yuri?” asked Ashley.
“Guessing you don’t want me to?”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” she said. “The more people come to a festival, the more fun it is.”
I was a little surprised by that. I mean, I’d thought that would’ve been against the idea, but…
Ashley suddenly frowned, as if she understood my feelings. She turned her face away from me. “I don’t dislike you or anything, Yuri. I think of you as my friend.”
“I see. Thank you, Ashley.” Ashley was a little bit headstrong, but she was just a thirteen-year-old girl. I couldn’t bring myself to poke fun at something she’d mustered up the courage to say. “You know, somethin’ tells me you and I are gonna get along just fine.”
“Hmph, w-well!” Ashley stammered. “I don’t think so.”
“Way to be a tsundere.”
“H-hey! Shut up!”
“Yes, I have been simply certain that you two would get along swimmingly,” said Filia, just as happy-go-lucky as ever. “Yuri, Ashley…I suppose my intuition was correct.”
Well, if I could get along with Ashley, that was good enough for me. “When do we set out for your village, Ashley?”
Ashley began to count on her fingers. “If we take the Earth Dragon Bus, we could get there in a day, even accounting for breaks. I’d like to get there before the day of the festival, so…three days would be good. Is that okay, Sis?”
“Yes, that works quite well,” said Filia.
“Cool,” I said. “Wanna go and handle a request before we go, Filia?”
Filia nodded. “Sounds fine to me. We’ll go out early in the morning tomorrow and see if there’s anything suitable.”
With our plans decided, I got up to go clean myself off in the shower—but I’d hardly taken a step before the high-pitched cry of a child rang in my ear.
“I-I’d like to come along to help with the request too. Is that okay?”
It was Ashley, of course. Ashley had been clinging to Filia all the time lately, so it wasn’t exactly odd that she wanted to come with us.
“Sure, you can tag along.”
Finding out just what the youngest S-Rank ever was truly capable of couldn’t hurt, you know? After all, fighting a duel is totally different from fighting monsters.
Ashley’s eyes lit up. “I’ll go get ready!” she cried, and ran out of the room.
“She’s awfully restless, huh,” I said, smiling wryly.
Filia beamed. “Tee hee! Yes, she is.” I wondered if she was happy that Ashley and I were finally growing closer. Which reminded me—Ashley was going to be tackling a request with us, so it seemed to me it’d be an opportunity to test out my brand spanking new skill while we were at it.
Fresh out of the oven, it was time for a glorious debut! It was the first time I’d be using it in actual combat, so my heart was pounding!
My indoor training got even more intense that day. In the blink of an eye, day stretched into the late night.