Chapter 9:
Ashley’s Village and Visitors
THE DAY CAME for us to depart for Ashley’s village. Ashley was standing out in front of her house, looking pretty sick of waiting for us. “You’re late! We were supposed to meet thirty minutes ago!”
Ashley glared at me. Well, since she had sharp eyes, she looked kinda cool when she glared. It really fit her! It helped that she wasn’t really intimidating, thanks to her small stature.
“If ya got a complaint, then tell it to Filia,” I said.
“Ugh…” Filia bowed apologetically. “I’m sorry, Ashley.”
We were late because Filia had overslept. Even though Filia wasn’t exactly a morning person, she still didn’t sleep in much these days.
“Oh, Big Sis, it was because of you?” Ashley shook her head. “In that case, don’t worry about it at all!” The moment Ashley knew it was all Filia’s fault, her mood immediately improved. The intense glare from before vanished and she grinned happily. Jeez, she really liked Filia.
“I’ll go ahead and call the Earth Dragon Bus,” said Ashley. “You two can go inside and make yourself at home in the meantime.”
It looked like a pretty nice place from outside, with a red roof and walls that really stood out.
“Huh. Is Jeepupp your home?” I asked.
“Oh? No, it’s not. This is a vacation home. I have one in almost every city,” said Ashley.
“That’s amazing, Ashley!” said Filia.
Wow, talk about being a big spender. That’s what I’d expect from an S-Rank adventurer, though, and she wasn’t bragging or anything. She said it like it was perfectly normal. I couldn’t imagine having a vacation home when you were a kid. Looks sure could be deceiving.
“Well, come on in,” said Ashley.
Filia and I followed Ashley into her house. She led us into her living room…which was completely red. Red ceiling, red wallpaper, red furniture. Everything, red.
“This is amazin’.”
“It’s quite cute, isn’t it?”
“I know, right?” said Ashley, practically bouncing off the walls from Filia’s compliment. “I’m really proud of it!”
Wait, this room was cute? Would our room be cute too if we painted it red?
“Let’s see…” Ashley muttered, fiddling with some kind of flat rectangular item she was holding in her hand, the edges of which extended beyond her palm. “All right, our Earth Dragon Bus will be here in a few minutes. I just sent them a message via Ring Ring.”
“Ring Ring? What’s that?”
“Oh, you don’t know? It’s a magical tool that delivers messages to people far away.” Ashley showed us the red item in her hand.
“Goodness, I’d never heard of such a useful tool!” Filia exclaimed.
“Wow. Yeah, me neither,” I said.
We peered at Ashley’s Ring Ring with great interest.
“Yuri aside, I guess if you don’t know about it, Big Sis, then that means it hasn’t really caught on much around here yet. But I think it definitely will soon. Sending a message to someone far away is so convenient!”
It certainly seemed like it would have a lot of use. Society was steadily becoming more and more convenient. A few minutes later, the three of us boarded the Earth Dragon Bus, and we set off for Ashley’s home village.
✦ ✦ ✦
The afternoon of the following day, we arrived at Ashley’s home village. After wending down a few tranquil village roads, the Earth Dragon Bus stopped in front of Ashley’s house.
“Whew, we’re here! Sis, Yuri, you can leave your bags in your room,” said Ashley, while unlocking the door and letting us into her house.
When we followed in after her, we were greeted by the sight of a bright red hallway. Down that hallway, we were greeted by the sight of yet another bright red room. The various pieces of furniture were of a different style from what Ashley had in her house in Jeepupp, but everything was still red. The whole deal was so coordinated around that one color that it frankly astounded me.
“You really love the color red, huh.”
“Well, yeah. It’s my image color.”
Image color? Was that even a thing? Well, I was already sick and tired of it. I wanted to see a different color already. I hadn’t even known you could get fed up with a color, yet there I was.
“Big Sis, how about this room? Big Sis?!”
“I-I feel sick…” Filia squatted down, holding her hand over her mouth.
I rubbed her back, but it didn’t seem like she was feeling any better. “What’s wrong, Filia? Are you okay?”
“I-I don’t know. I’ve been feeling sick ever since we rode on the Earth Dragon Bus…”
“No way. Big Sis, was that the first time you’ve ever ridden on an Earth Dragon Bus?!”
Filia nodded slowly.
At that, Ashley put her palm to her mouth in shock. “I heard that sometimes people get sick riding the Earth Dragon Bus before they get used to it. The roads we were on yesterday were fine, but the roads today aren’t as well-maintained, so…I…I’m sorry! I never imagined that you hadn’t ridden it before!”
“I-It’s okay. R-really, I’m all right…” Filia wobbled around unsteadily. Her complexion was horrible.
“You don’t look all right at all,” I muttered.
Filia responded by casting recovery magic on herself, and a white light enveloped her body. When the light disappeared, Filia’s complexion had greatly improved, and she looked much closer to normal. “Whew! I think I’m all right now, more or less. I’ve used up all of my magic, though.”
“I-I’m sorry…” Ashley said despondently, hanging her head low.
Filia shook her head and gently stroked Ashley’s velvety-soft red hair. “It’s okay. Really, I’m all right. You’re very considerate of other people’s feelings, Ashley. You’re a kind person.”
“Big Sis…!”
“But I’m surprised that you’re completely fine, Yuri,” said Filia.
“Hey, don’t underestimate me. After all, I’ve trained my vestibular system. A little bit of shaking’s not gonna have any effect on my buffed out semicircular canals.”
Filia looked visibly exasperated at that. Hmm… Maybe…she wanted to touch my muscles?
“All right, all right. Here, you can touch ’em.” I rolled up my sleeves and offered my arm to Filia.
“What a preposterously irrelevant show of consideration,” muttered Filia.
“Yuri…in a way, you’re pretty amazing.”
I didn’t really get why, but Ashley had complimented me. Yay!
Once Filia had fully recovered, we went outside, where we met a landscape completely different from Jeepupp. The houses were constructed in similar fashion, but the village roads were wider. The sun blazed overhead, its rays beating down on us.
“All right,” Ashley announced, “I’m going to head to the village square. Big Sis, come with me!”
“Will do. I’m looking forward to seeing the village where you grew up, Ashley.”
“In that case, I’m just gonna wander around.” I said. I was thinking I’d take a look around the village. But as I was planning my first destination, Filia frowned.
“If you’re out by yourself, Yuri, won’t people think you’re suspicious?”
“Ah…” Ashley’s brow furrowed. “Well, in this village people are kind of homebodies, and you’re right, outsiders really stand out here. With how he looks, he’ll stand out even more… Okay, let’s take Yuri along with us.”
Who could ever be suspicious of such attractive muscles? I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I wasn’t about to risk causing a scene in Ashley’s hometown. I supposed I didn’t have a choice. I decided to just quietly tag along.
As we made our way to the village square, we saw people gathering up ahead—not too many, but enough to actually constitute a proper village, more or less.
One of the people, a young man, grinned when he saw us. “Oh, you’re back, Ashley. It’s been a long time.”
He looked like he was in his early twenties and had a headband tied around his head. He gave off the vibe of a guy who really got into his festivals.
“Of course I’m going to come back for the festival, you know?” said Ashley.
“You really love it, huh?” The young man looked over at us. He had a bright smile on his face, and he looked well-suited for such a sunny place. He was slender, but more muscular than the magic-using adventurers from the guild, so he still had a bit of bulk to him. There wasn’t an abundance of magicians out here, so there were doubtless more opportunities for physical labor than there were in the city. Either way, I always appreciated another well-trained body.
“And who are these people with you?” asked the young man.
Ashley began to introduce us, looking pretty proud. “This is Filia! She’s like my super cute big sister!”
“Nice to meet you,” said the young man.
Filia bowed her head slightly.
Meanwhile, I snorted. What a careless introduction. Well, I suppose no introduction can really say everything about someone, huh?
“This is Yuri,” Ashley went on. “He’s crazy about muscles.”
“Nice…to meet you?” said the young man.