by CHIROLU
Sylvia Fal had become friends with everyone after they’d started going to school. Since she got along so well with Chloe, she’d also become close to her best friend, Latina. Her father was a guardsman serving at the lord’s manner, so she lived in the upper-class residential area in the western district. However, she was rather relaxed by nature and had no problem being friends with the other two girls, who lived in the rougher parts of town.
Over half a month had passed since Latina left Kreuz. She’d be staying for a while once they reached their destination, so they wouldn’t see her again until around when the seasons changed. The girls would be able to send her letters once they reached Dale’s village, though. Chloe wasn’t very strong when it came to studying, nor was she much of a writer, but she decided to write some of what was going around Kreuz and the like to her friend.
I don’t want there to be all sorts of things that only Latina doesn’t know when she gets back, Chloe thought.
“She says after crossing the ocean, they visited a beastman village.”
“I’ve never seen a beastman in Kreuz. Adventurers who might be mixes come through every now and again, though.”
“I never saw any when I went to play at Latina’s place.”
“I see... I’d like to see one,” Sylvia said, and she looked like she was staring somewhere far-off.
Silvia had been born with divine protection from Akhdar, the god of travelers, so she was predisposed to being curious about foreign lands. Those who had divine protection from Akhdar had an almost instinctual desire to visit worlds they hadn’t seen and gather information they didn’t know.
“Are you going to join the temple after you finish with school, Sylvia?”
“What should I do, I wonder...?” Sylvia was lost in thought in response to Chloe’s question, resting her head upon her joined hands. “Joining the temple would be quickest, wouldn’t it...? And I could study magic then, too.”
“You can use magic, Sylvia?”
“I learned that I have the aptitude, thanks to Latina.”
Because her friends were interested in magic, Latina had taught them the language of spells. Sure enough, most of them couldn’t even manage the pronunciation, but Sylvia was one of the few that had a talent for it. Sylvia dreamed of someday going to the country of the devils, Vassilios, so Latina had taught her devil greetings and terms for everyday conversation rather than incantations.
“What about you, Chloe?”
“I’m gonna carry on the family business. I’ve been enjoying that sort of work a lot lately.”
“Then maybe I’ll have you make me some clothes when we’re adults...”
“Make it something expensive, then!”
While they talking, Rudy passed by.
“Chloe!” he yelled out and tossed a small black fragment at her. Immediately realizing what that was, she hurriedly thrust out her hand to catch it so it wouldn’t drop.
“Hey! Rudy, you idiot! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“What? I did a good job, and I gave it back to you,” said Rudy, tilting his head at Chloe’s complaint.
“Wait, so you did it?”
“W-What? It was hard, and it was tough to use the machines, so I made sure to practice first. Is that a problem?” Feeling awkward, he looked away.
“What’s that? A rock?” Sylvia asked, and Chloe opened her clenched hand.
The black fragment had clearly been carefully polished by machine. As the light hit it, it let off a warm shine. Chloe held up the small item, which had been processed with great care, and watched it reflect the light.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it? Latina gave it to me.”
“Latina did?”
“Yeah. She said I could have it, since I’d treasure it.”
“Why did Rudy have it?”
“I was wondering how to have it polished, and since he had files and stuff at his house, I asked him to do it.” She was glad for that, but he was still overly cheeky, so Chloe shrugged her shoulders in exasperation. “People who can’t be honest with their feelings sure are a pain, aren’t they?”
“Boys really do all act like kids.” They were able to talk like that because girls their age tended to be more mature than boys.
The item in question was the horn that Latina had broken off. Chloe had thought it was beautiful ever since she first saw it.
She couldn’t help but feel frustrated and sad when Latina broke off such a pretty piece of herself. Not wanting to let it be thrown away like it was trash, she had asked Latina if she could have it. At first, Chloe had wanted to do something with it herself, but a devil’s horn wasn’t something a young girl without the proper tools could handle. She’d ended up asking for Rudy’s help and having him process it for her.
“By the way, Rudy, what are you going to do after finishing school?” Chloe asked conversationally, not really meaning anything by it. She only asked because Rudy had butted in when she was discussing it with Sylvia.
“Wha... n-nothing... That has nothing to do with you, right?”
Seeing his overly suspicious reaction, the two girls looked at one another and grinned wide. They were like predators who had cornered their prey.
“Hmm... What are you thinking, I wonder...?”
“N-Nothing! What does it matter, anyway?!”
“Well, fine, but...”
“By the way, a letter from Latina arrived.”
“W-W-Why are you bringing up Latina now?!”
“Huh? So you don’t care about her, then?”
“That’s not it...!”
“If you do, then you should just say so. Right?”
“Yeah!”
“...!”
Marcel and Anthony, who were watching from further away, exchanged subtle smiles at seeing Rudy let out this silent scream and stamp his feet.
“Chloe and Sylvia were going to corner him anyway, so he should’ve just given up from the start,” asserted Marcel with a calm expression.
“You can only do that if you understand what’s going on, though, Marcel...” replied Anthony with a smile.
“You’re going on to advanced schooling, right, Anthony?” Marcel asked, and Anthony gave a nod.
“That’s right.”
“So are you going to end up working for the lord, then?”
“It’d be best if I could do that just like my father. But I don’t know, it could be good to work at a trading company or something, too.”
Anthony’s father served as a low-level official at the lord’s residence. That connection gave him some advantages, but it wasn’t a hereditary position, so there was no guarantee that Anthony would be able to take up the same post as his father.
“Are you going to carry on your family’s bakery, Marcel?”
“I don’t have any reason to do something different, and I do love bread,” Marcel calmly replied.
The majority of children in Kreuz ended up carrying on the family business. Second and third children would have to look for other jobs, but kids rarely bothered choosing a different occupation from their parents.
“Rudy has a big brother, though...”
“Still, he was saying he was planning on being a blacksmith too up until just recently... I wonder what happened all of the sudden?”
The two nodded together.
“Is it Latina-related?”
“It must be.”
“He sure is easy to understand.”
“I wonder why Latina hasn’t caught on yet...”
“It’s because he’s always acting way too cold to her... In a way, it amazing how consistent he’s been.”
“It’s easy for us to tell, though.”
They both nodded their heads at the same time once again.
“He really is an idiot.”
“He sure is.”
“Hey, I can hear you guys!” yelled Rudy, on the verge of tears.
That very moment, the door to the classroom opened, and the teacher smiled at him
with an unamused look in his eyes.
“Mr. Rudolf, the classroom is no place to make such a ruckus.”
“...!”
Coming back to his senses, Rudy looked around and saw his friends nonchalantly sitting in their seats.
He was rather clumsy by nature.
5: The Young Man Arrives at His Home Village
Dale was pushing the horse to run full-speed through the wooded mountain trail. Apparently, their assailants hadn’t expected the small horse to break out into a full-on sprint with two riders, even if one was a child. That’s why this unexpected maneuver proved successful.
After breaking through the surrounding enemies, Dale twisted his body around and fired off mana arrows to hold them back.
“Dale!”
“It’s dangerous, so keep your head down! Just focus on making sure the magic doesn’t cut out! 〈〈Gravity Reduction〉〉”
Checking behind them, he found that the attackers were skillfully hiding their presence in the forest. Even with how perceptive Dale was, he couldn’t say for certain that he sensed all of them.
“Damn!” Dale cursed, clearing away the incoming arrows with the longsword in his right hand. He didn’t slow down long enough to make sure the projectiles had scattered to the ground. He was only able to pay attention to their pursuers in the first place because Latina was taking care of the magic. In addition to gravity control magic to ease the burden on the horse, Latina occasionally also used healing magic, allowing the beast to sprint full-speed along the mountain path with both of them on its back.
“I figured they’d be coming soon, but I didn’t want to be right!”
“Dale!”
“Got it!”
Hearing Latina’s warning, Dale immediately jerked the reins to make the horse jump. He felt the bewilderment of the attackers chasing after them. They’d most likely constructed a pitfall or similar trap. A slight smile crossed Dale’s face, and he had to stop himself from yelling, “Serves you right!”
Dale wasn’t sure whether he would have realized the trap if Latina wasn’t with him. He did have strong powers of observation, but he didn’t have Latina’s special ability. He’d instructed her to tell him right away if she sensed a spot that felt different. It was alright if she was wrong, but this time was clearly a great success.
After the slope ended, the path went flat, and further along was a bare cliff of bedrock. There was nothing but rock to be seen to the left and right, but there was an opening in one spot: a tunnel carved right through it. If they could make it that far, they would be home free.
“I won’t fall for that!” Dale said to himself to psyche himself up. He brought the horse to a sudden stop. Latina’s body floated into the air from the inertia, but Dale used his own body to stop her from falling.
Just as he’d expected, the next instant magic caused boulders to fall and block the tunnel that was their only way forward.
“Are you idiots?! Seriously!”
He drove the horse forward again and started chanting a spell towards the sealed path.
“Oh you who belong to the earth, by my name, I order you shift according to my wishes. 〈〈Ground transfiguration〉〉”
Rather than an attack, this simply shifted the land. But that was plenty. The obstacle in their way was soundlessly smashed to bits, which rained down along with a dense cloud of dust. Dale covered Latina by pulling his coat over her.
The cloud would also block the pursuers’ field of vision.
Dale and Latina slipped through the tunnel, and the scenery opened up before them.
At that very instant, Dale screamed out, “...Damn hag! I told you it wasn’t just me this time, didn’t I?!”
The older woman facing the tunnel wore a troubled expression as she looked at Dale. “Hey now, you shouldn’t call your grandma a ‘damn hag.’”
“And you too, Mom! Did you seriously want to kill your son after seeing me for the first time in a while?!”
“Of course not... I just blocked the entrance a bit, right?”
“If your timing had been even a little bit off, then it wouldn’t have been ‘just’ that!”
“Oh, my... it’s not that big a big deal...”
“That’s right. We always do this much...”
“And you, Dad! You shouldn’t have been shooting at us!” Dale criticized angrily, turning in the direction of the man’s voice he’d heard.
“You fired at us too, didn’t you...?” the voice replied quiet indifferently and without a hint of guilt. “We made sure to take off the arrowheads, you know...”
“You shouldn’t have aimed at us in the first place! They still hurt even without the arrowhead, but you were still trying to hit us!”
“Whatever.” There wasn’t even a shred of remorse in the man’s expression or voice.
As they carried on like that, the remaining pursuers at last caught up.
“You’re awful, Dale. We’re covered in dust.”
“Seriously, this is no way to start your first homecoming in a while...”
“I’m awful?! Me?!”
They were all Dale’s cousins and childhood friends.
“I mean, it was the village head’s orders.”
“Yeah.”
That’s how they responded to Dale’s criticism.
“You seem awfully worked up, considering how we always do this...” Dale’s father said. Then his gaze stopped on the young girl Dale had his arms wrapped around, and he stiffened. The action resembled those of his son, but right now no one pointed that out.
Latina’s round eyes had been darting around, and now she looked up at Dale, still clearly shocked.
“Dale... do you not get along with your family?”
“No, Latina, that’s...”
While Dale searched for words, the surprise that started with his father spread to everyone else.
“A girl?!” they all yelled out at once, causing Latina to jump.
“Wah?!” She narrowly avoided falling off of the horse.
“Well... Granny did say you’d be bringing someone along, but we all thought it’d be one of your fellow adventurers, like always,” Dale’s mother said with a smile. She looked troubled, but also like she was trying to dodge the issue as she waved her hands back and forth all the while.
“Um... Um... I’m Latina. Nice to meet you! Latina is looking forward to staying with you.”
“Oh my, you’re a cute one. Sorry for scaring you like that.”
“Seriously... what would you have done if Latina got hurt?”
“She had you to protect her...”
“Reflect on your actions already, please!”
Dale was walking alongside his parents. He’d gotten off the horse and was pulling the reins, while Latina remained riding. The polite young girl was apparently hesitant to introduce herself from that position. Dale’s parents didn’t seem to mind at all, though. Everyone else went off to clean up the various traps they’d set for Dale. After saying they’d come see him again later, they left. The village may have been remote, but it wasn’t as if visitors from outside never came, so it’d be too dangerous to leave things as they were.
The highway came to an end at the tunnel they’d passed through, which was the only way in and out of the village. The tunnel, carved by using Earth magic on the thick bedrock, was big enough that even large carriages could easily pass through it. And past it was this place, Dale’s home village.
Despite the limited access, the village itself was fairly large. It had a far stronger impact than any of the villages they’d stopped at so far on their journey. There was a path stretching from the end of the highway and through the center of town, with buildings to the left and right of it. Looking about, there were fields made on the sloped land surrounding the village. And the whole of this space was encircled by mountains on all sides.
“That’s my house.”
“It’s big...”
“Well, it’s technically the head of the clan
’s residence... it is pretty old, though.”
Latina was staring with her mouth wide open at the old mansion in the center of the village, which stood out as being noticeably bigger than the other buildings. Rather than feeling just old like Dale said, it felt like a building with a profound history to it.
“Why are the houses different from everywhere else?”
“Hmm...”
Latina asked this because there wasn’t a single building in the village with a red roof. Latina had grown used to thinking of roofs as being naturally red, so this felt quite out of place to her. Instead, the buildings, fitting of being out in the country, weren’t flashy at all and blended into the deep-green mountain backdrop. They were a dull, subdued color thanks to being exposed to the elements, but if you looked closely, each one had a metallic relief at the entrance, adorned with a single flower.
“It’s because our village worships Quirmizi.”
“Dale, didn’t you teach Latina before that Quirmizi is the god people pray to for the harvest, so there are small shrines and stuff for him everywhere?”
“Yeah. How should I put it...? Like how Laband primarily worships Ahmar, this village does the same for Quirmizi.”
“After all, there are a lot of folks in our village with divine protection from Quirmizi,” Dale’s mother added with a laugh. “And about half of the people here can use magic, though it’s mostly Earth attribute stuff.” Now she had a smile on her face.
“Welcome to the village of ‘the clan loved by the earth’!”
This village had no name. If the villagers ever had to give one, they used “Tislow,” but that didn’t belong to the village itself. Rather, Tislow was the name of the clan that lived there.
“So the people in our village don’t have last names, effectively. Everyone’s would be Tislow, so it’d be pointless here.”
“Hmm? But Dale, you always introduce yourself as ‘Dale Reki,’ don’t you?”
“Right, that’s the name of my role in the village. And it sounds good, so I use it as my last name outside the village, too. My ‘Reki’ is a title for ‘someone who goes out and fights.’ I don’t know the specifics, but I was told that in the old language of the clan, it holds that sort of meaning.”
