Chapter 3: A Duel with a Red Girl

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!

 

***

 

We’d agreed to a duel, so Ashley, Filia, and I went out into the wide-open wilderness. Since it was almost dusk, we couldn’t see any other people in the area.

The way Ashley boldly stood her ground, her long red hair swaying in the blowing wind, showed that she was no ordinary adventurer. Even in my darkening field of vision, she shone a brilliant red.

“I’ll give you credit for not running away, at least. But now, Yuri, I’m going to show you what happens when you pick a fight with me.”

“But you were the one who challenged me to a duel.”

“Err. Wh-who cares about the trivial details?!”

“Yeah, true! Long as I can fight, it’s all fine by me.” I honestly didn’t care who started the fight. The important part was that I could give it my all.

“Yuri,” said Filia, “please don’t overdo it.” She’d really come all this way to make sure I was careful…

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Come on, no matter how much Filia worried, she had to know I wasn’t gonna kill anybody or anything. This was a duel, after all. But a certain someone picked up on that part of the conversation and really lost it.

“What?” Ashley snapped. “You there! The one standing next to him. You think that I’m going to lose?!”

“N-no,” said Filia, “that’s not what I’m—”

“Ugh, you’re just like him! Two unpleasant peas in a pod.”

“N-no way,” Filia groaned. “To think that she’d lump me and Yuri in the same category…”

Wait, what? Shouldn’t Filia be happy to be in the same category as me? What was the big idea, dropping to her knees and hanging her head like that?

I took a deep breath. Let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, enough of this talking stuff. Let’s just start this thing.”

Seriously, I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t gonna wait another second, not with such a great fight ahead!

“Fine by me. I’m going to blast you full of holes!” Flames flowed out of Ashley’s body as she spoke. Her magical energy just kept growing and growing as she took her combat stance.

The heat was so intense that I could feel it from about thirty feet away. “I’m getting real fired up!” I was shaking with joy as I took my combat stance.

 

About ten minutes later, Ashley’s breathing was getting a bit more ragged. Her body was covered in more than a few wounds, all of which were more than mere scrapes—she was bleeding from several places. However, although her body was covered in wounds, she looked pretty much good to go.

“Nice! More! Come at me more, bring it!” As for me, I was only slightly injured. I’d suffered a few burns here and there, but my breathing remained even.

“Grr…I’m not going to lose…! I…I’ll win, I know it!”

“That’s it! Don’t give up! Come at me with all you got!”

Ashley unleashed her most powerful fire magic. The size and the power of her spell were nothing to sneeze at.

“If you’re usin’ fire magic,” I said, “then I’m gonna use this!”

Muscle magic. The strongest, best magic. The magic known only to those who trained their muscles with single-minded devotion. I used all the strength I could muster and launched my fist at the oncoming vortex of flames. There was a loud fwoom, and my fists caught fire. It wasn’t from her flames, though. My fist had ignited the air.

“Hooaaah!” My fist perfectly split the oncoming vortex of flame in half. I closed right in on Ashley.

“Grr…” Ashley tried to resist, but the recoil from her most powerful magic made her a sitting duck. As she was totally defenseless, I brought my hand down in a karate chop motion, stopping just before hitting the back of Ashley’s neck.

“It’s over. I win.”

“Ah…” Ashley was completely stunned. She looked toward my hand near her neck, her eyes blank. I pulled my hand back away, relaxed my stance, and reverted back from my giant form (nearly seven feet) to my normal size.

“That was pretty fun! Wow, you’re really strong. Definitely S-Rank.”

“I… lost…?” she stammered.

“Let’s do this again, Ashley. My schedule’s open—we can do the day after tomorrow, tomorrow, or heck, even today!”

Honestly, this girl was crazy strong. Probably stronger than I’d been when I was thirteen years old. On top of that, this was only a duel. If this were a match where our lives were on the line, she probably would’ve been even stronger. Just the thought of it got my adrenaline pumping; my excitement kept growing nonstop!

But Ashley didn’t respond.

“Hey, Ashley? Did you hear what I said?” I tried asking her again, but still, no answer.

“Ashley, are you okay?” asked Filia, rushing over to her and casting recovery magic.

“What? Did she get a serious injury somewhere or somethin’?” We’d just been having a duel—there was no way I’d injured her so seriously that she couldn’t move…right?

“No, she doesn’t appear to be all that hurt—” Filia suddenly stopped. But why? I took a closer look…and saw Ashley bawling from her reddened eyes.

“Hrk, guh! Hic! I hate you! I really hate you!” And in a flash, not even healed, Ashley got up and booked it.

Filia and I were left just standing there in the wide-open wilderness. With nothing else to do, we walked back toward Jeepupp.

“It sounds like she hates you, Yuri.” Filia sighed. She looked down. “She probably hates me too.”

“Why?” I didn’t understand why Ashley hated me. I hadn’t done anything particularly bad to her or anything.

“Well, it would’ve been rude to read her mind, so I’m not entirely sure, but…frankly, I worried this might happen.”

“Oh? Well, I’d like to hear why, if you don’t mind.”

“That girl… Ashley, she’s an incredible prodigy. She’s an S-Rank at age thirteen, the youngest person ever to reach that rank.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Being the youngest person ever meant that there was no precedent; she really was the first. No matter what field you’re in, it’s incredible to achieve the unprecedented.

“Because she’s such a prodigy, she probably hasn’t ever faced a real obstacle in her life before. And now that she has run into a wall, in the form of you, Yuri…you know what I’m getting at, right?”

“Hm? What do you mean?” I titled my head. “Shouldn’t someone be happy if they’ve never hit a wall before though?”

“Oh,” said Filia, “so you’re that kind of person.”

Now that was a statement that I really didn’t know how to interpret.

“I suppose that you might not understand even if I try to explain it to you, Yuri… Well, I suppose that it’s just that not everyone has the same mentality as you do,” said Filia, coming to a standstill.

I turned back to look at her, and she waved me off.

“I’m going to go look for Ashley,” she said. “I’m a little worried.”

“I see. Want me to have dinner ready for you?”

“No, I’m all right. Have a good night, okay?”

“Yeah, you too.”

Filia and I parted ways, so I went back to Jeepupp by myself. I’d never been good at dealing with other people’s feelings. If I tagged along, I knew I’d probably just cause even more trouble, so I figured that it’d be better to quietly head back to the inn and do some muscle training. I turned back around to look in Filia’s direction one more time before heading back to the inn.

And…I actually don’t know what happened next. That was between Filia and Ashley.