Chapter 9: Ashley’s Village and Visitors

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.

Hey, that was a little mean, right? I wasn’t crazy. I was just very serious about muscle.

“Oh, by the way, name’s Moichi. Nice to meet the two of ya! I know this is a pretty nowhere village, but I hope you enjoy yourselves. And hey, it’s great to hear that you managed to make a friend, Ashley!” Moichi ruffled Ashley’s head, playfully mussing her hair.

Ashley didn’t seem to dislike it, exactly. “H-hey, I’m pretty popular, okay?! Of course I’d make some friends!”

“She’s pretty prideful,” said Moichi, “but she’s a good girl at heart, y’know? I hope y’all get along.”

“Hey, that’s uncalled for!” Ashley protested.

Moichi quickly apologized to her with a look that suggested he really didn’t mean offense. Somehow, just from that, I could tell that she’d been raised with great care in this village.

“I think of Ashley like my own little sister,” said Filia, smiling sweetly at Ashley. “She’s so cute!”

“Big Sis…” Ashley’s eyes welled with happy tears as she gazed at Filia’s beautiful smile. Moichi himself seemed entranced as he looked at her. Even I felt my heart pound for a moment.

“O-oh yeah, that reminds me,” said Moichi, regaining his composure. “Our village festival is really famous for somethin’. Let me show it to you guys ahead of time. Follow me!”

He quickly and unsubtly changed the topic, trying to divert our attention from his embarrassment over being so thoroughly charmed. Still, we were pretty interested, so we followed along.

“The first time you see it, you’re going to be so amazed,” said Ashley.

“Yeah, it’s specially made right here in this village,” said Mochi.

I couldn’t even imagine what Moichi and Ashley were talking about. I barely knew anything about what this festival even celebrated in the first place.

“All right, if we turn the corner, then…there, look!” said Moichi.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?!” exclaimed Ashley.

Moichi and Ashley both sounded so proud.

“That’s…”

“It really is amazin’.”

It really was amazing. A massive flame burning in the shape of a human body stood about thirty feet tall. Even though it was made of fire, it was elaborately constructed, down to the most minute details. If not for the flickering, you could have easily mistaken it for a giant human being at first glance. In a sense, it resembled Filia’s Wind God. Or, it was a like a fire version of the Wind God. Like a…Fire God?

“A lot of other villages have pared down the process and just made the image of the Fire God on the day of the festival, but not our village. We keep the flame going for a month. During that time, we make small adjustments here and there to our idol. Compared to the Fire God idols in other village festivals, ours is much better. Whaddya think, huh? Surprised?”

So, it was a Fire God after all. I supposed that if they kept it going for a month, the degree of detail made sense.

“Moichi, I was going to tell them all that stuff!” said Ashley.

“Oh, my bad.”

“But I’m assuming you must have other work to do too, right?” said Filia. “You must be deeply religious, keeping the flame from going out for a whole month.”

Yeah, seriously. The cost-benefit analysis for keeping this thing going seemed way off, and…wait, what? That thought seemed pretty intellectual! I guessed I shouldn’t have been too surprised, though, being an intellectual muscle man.

“Oh, it’s not like that, Big Sis. We all just love partying. Of course, we do still worship the Fire God.”

“Yeah, that’s basically the way things are here. In our village, everyone loves to come out and celebrate. Even the grandpas and grandmas come out! Around this time, people forget about their work and just prepare for the festival,” Moichi said with a grin. But his pleasant smile gradually began to fade. “But, uh, this year, I can’t really even think about the festival much.”

“What do you mean, Moichi? What happened?” asked Ashley. She pressed Moichi for answers—it seemed being away from home had left her out of the loop.

Moichi hesitated for a moment. “ It’s…hard for me to tell ya this, but we got word that there’d be an attack on our shop.”

“An…an attack?!”

“Yeah. I thought I’d try and keep it from you, since you’d probably worry, but I figured you’d probably get angry if I did that. I’ll tell you everything.”

This morning, Moichi had found a letter in the store mailbox. The white paper had been sealed with wax, and the words “To the shopkeeper” had been written on the envelope. Moichi had thought it strange that the sender’s name wasn’t on the letter, but he’d gone ahead and opened it.

Inside he’d found one sheet of paper with a message on it: “This shop shouldn’t exist. Tonight, when the full moon shines in the night sky, I will come to destroy it. Until that time, repent for your sins. Don’t forget—this is not the act of a vigilante, but divine punishment.”

“That can’t be…” Ashley gasped.

But Moichi showed the letter itself to Ashley, and sure enough, there were the words Moichi had told us, written in red on the white paper.

“Is that tonight?” asked Ashley.

“Yeah, I think so. But, well, it might just be a buncha kids playin’ around. I was thinkin’ that I’d stay away from the shop today just in case, but I’m not all that worried about it,” said Moichi, tucking away the letter.

Just like he’d said, he didn’t seem that worried. It was clearly still on his mind though.

“What the heck?!” Ashley shouted. “You should be taking this more seriously!” It didn’t seem like she was angry, per se. More that she was genuinely concerned about the safety of Moichi and his shop.

“Look at it this way: Whether I take it seriously or not, they say they’re comin’. In that case, isn’t it better to just roll with it? Don’t worry, Ashley. Nothing’s gonna happen anyway.”

“Moichi,” said Filia abruptly, “if it isn’t too much of a bother, may we guard your shop tonight?” Filia turned her silver eyes toward me. “Hey, Yuri, these people are graciously allowing us to stay in their village, so isn’t this the least we can do?”

“No, no, you got it all wrong, Filia. ‘The least we can do?’ You mean ‘we gotta do it!’” I said firmly.

Of course, all this could well be a prank. But if it wasn’t, then the culprit would be coming to Moichi’s shop. And with the way the culprit announced their arrival in advance like that…it had to be someone strong! Besides, I wasn’t so good-natured that I’d let an opponent like that slip by. I had to fight!

Moreover, as Ashley’s friend, I couldn’t just sit back when her village was in danger.

“Moichi, let us handle it,” I said. “We’ll keep your shop safe for sure!”

“Yuri is right. We’re quite confident in our abilities,” added Filia.

“You guys… Thank you. I’m countin’ on you.” Moichi held out his hand, and Filia and I took it firmly.

“Big Sis, Yuri…”

“Ashley, you got some good friends, eh? That makes me happiest of all,” said Moichi, roughing up her head once again.

Ashley let him do it, then bowed to me and Filia. “Thank you, both of you. I don’t know what else to say, but…thank you.”

“Come on, don’t talk like we’re strangers,” I said. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“You’re a little sister to me, Ashley. I’m not about to let someone wreck something as dear to you as your village.”

“Okay,” said Ashley, her eyes lighting up brightly, “but I’m fighting too. This is my village. I wanna protect it myself.”

“I’m not gonna stop you, but are you sure?” I asked her.

“Well, of course! I am the S-Ranked adventurer, Ashley Arisietta!” she replied, smacking her chest with a thump.

Well said. I couldn’t help but smile at her. Filia and Moichi looked happy too. Ashley had spoken so confidently, after all.

Then Moichi clapped his hands together twice. “Enough with the serious stuff! Now that you’ve come all this way to our village, you need to have some fun!”

With that, the feeling in the air changed. Moichi was exactly right; it would have been rude for us to not have fun. I looked over at the Fire God idol again. Even from a distance, I could tell it was modeled with distinct facial features. It was plain to see that it required a lot of delicate work to keep it going so well.

“Can I get a closer look?” I asked Moichi, deeply interested in the elaborate idol.

“Sure thing.”

With Moichi’s approval, Filia and Ashley and I got in closer to the blazing flame. The closer we got, the more we realized just how incredibly abnormal it was. It was definitely fire, but it seemed so alive. I didn’t know much about non-muscle magic, but this idol was, without a doubt, the culmination of magical wisdom. It impressed even me.

“It really is amazing. The arms are especially realistic,” said Filia in admiration. Even an elf like Filia, who knew a lot about magic, was impressed.

Ashley chuckled proudly. “I know, right? I was a kid when I first saw it, and that’s when I fell in love with the color red.”

“You’re still a kid though,” I said.

“Huh? Mentally, I’m older than you.”

Hey, hey, what the heck was that about?! She was like twelve or thirteen years old. From my perspective, that was basically a baby. I looked to Filia for her undoubtedly objective opinion. “That’s not true at all, Filia, right?”

“I suppose that if I had to judge, I’d say that Ashley is the more mature one.”

“Yay! I love you, Big Sis!”

That couldn’t be, right? I mean, did I really seem so childish? I looked over at Ashley hopping up and down. Did I look even more childish than that? This was shocking indeed.

“But, in terms of physical ability, I can’t lose!” I shouted, jumping into the air to relieve my frustration. I quickly shot up into the sky!

In fact, I shot up to the point where I couldn’t just see the village—no, I could see the entire area around the village in fine detail. I…might’ve jumped too high. I took a quick look around.

Just as my body began to feel the effects of gravity, I spotted something flying near the horizon.

“What is that?”

I didn’t even have to strain my eyes to see there was something flying my way at breakneck speed. From the looks of it, it seemed like a creature. A humanoid one, at that.

“What should I do?” I muttered.

I hesitated for a few moments, thinking about letting out a roar to see if whatever was coming had the will to fight. If it was an enemy, that’d be great…but if it was just someone in a hurry, I’d just startle them. As I wondered, the figure drew closer.

Ah, forget it. I’d just roar as loud as I could. If it wasn’t an enemy, I’d apologize later.

But when the figure was just a hundred feet away from me, it abruptly changed course and streaked down, landing in Ashley’s village.

“Whew,” I said to myself, “that was a close one.”

Still, I broke out in a cold sweat. There was absolutely no murderous intent emanating from the figure; it was probably just a villager or something, and I’d almost attacked whoever it was by mistake. That had been a close call.

“But…huh? Wait, did I make a mistake?”

Something was wrong. The villagers were running away as fast as their legs could carry them, like they were trying to escape from that new figure. That figure headed toward the Fire God idol, and Filia and Ashley stood in front of it to block the way.

Wait, was this the person who was gonna attack Moichi’s shop? Bad thoughts popped into my mind, and I hurriedly kicked through the air to head back to the ground—though, irritatingly enough, I couldn’t get much speed in the air.

By the time I somehow managed to land on the ground near the Fire God idol, the figure was about sixty feet or so away.

“Ashley, is that someone from the village?” I asked.

“No, you can tell just by looking! Those horns… It’s a majin.”

There were definitely two small horns growing out of the figure’s head. And their skin was the same shade as Bezegamoth’s. However, this one looked like a little girl. She was even smaller than Ashley. She had brown skin and long, richly blonde hair. Her eyes were clear and blue, and she was dressed from head to toe in a Gothic Lolita outfit.

So this was why people were running away. Now I knew. A majin was a symbol of great power…and of great terror. They were like living natural disasters; it would’ve been stranger if people didn’t run.

“Wow, this is awesome!” the majin cooed. “I mean, it was already amazing even from up above, but it’s even more awesome seeing it from up close!” The majin approached the figure of the Fire God, almost as if she didn’t care one bit about the villagers fleeing in terror. For that matter, she didn’t seem to care about us either, even as we stood on high alert.

“Hey, you!” shouted Ashley, stopping the majin in her tracks. “Don’t come any closer!”

However, the majin puffed up her cheeks indignantly and shouted back at her. Her voice was shrill and lingering. “Why? You’re close to it! Why am I, Loli Loli, the only one who can’t see it?”

“Because you’re a majin!” shouted Ashley. “If you come any closer to the pride of our village, you’re going to regret it!”

For a moment, the majin Loli Loli looked at the ground. Her fists shook. Then, she looked back up and shouted in a voice so loud that it echoed throughout the entire village.

“You people…are so rude! Always calling me majin this, majin that. My name is Loli Loli Lukis Isarett, thank you very muchly, and you are all so rude! Such rude people!” Loli Loli took one step closer—

And flames blasted her. “I’m not interested in your name!” Ashley shouted. “You’re a majin. I won’t allow you to terrorize everyone in the village, and don’t you dare lay your hands on the Fire God!”

Ashley looked back at Filia and me.

Hey, hey! I thought. Don’t take your eyes off your enemy in the middle of a fight!

“Big Sis, Yuri, please don’t get involved in this.”

“But your opponent is a majin,” said Filia. “Even if she’s little, taking it on by yourself is…”

“I’m sorry, but please,” said Ashley. “I’m an S-rank, and I’m going to protect my own village.”

Ashley didn’t listen to Filia’s warning. I had a feeling it had to do with pride—pride in her own power, pride in not relying on Filia and me—even though she looked like she was breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Do whatever you want,” I said. Honestly, I didn’t really like the idea of fighting someone like Rolly Rolly or whatever she called herself.

“How dare you?!” Loli Loli snarled. Despite getting completely slammed by Ashley’s fire magic, Loli Loli was completely unharmed. Majin were just way more physically durable than humans.

“I’m your opponent,” said Ashley. “Are you going to come at me or not?”

Ashley and Loli Loli faced one another. They were both short in stature. To an average person, this might have looked like a fight between children, but to the trained eye, it was clear they were both uncommonly talented. Only a small number of people could ever hope to win against either of them, including adults.

The villagers fled. The two girls stood motionless. You could have cut the tension with a knife.

Ashley was the first to make a move. She created eight spears of flame behind her and launched them.

“Whoa, that’s amazing!” shouted Loli Loli, surprised. But a moment later, Loli Loli manifested a shield of ice in front of her. All eight spears hit the shield, and all eight left the shield intact. “But I, Loli Loli, am even more amazing! My ability, Absolute Zero, is super amazing!” she boasted, hands on her hips.

“Are you making fun of me?!” Ashley snarled, furious. “Wait a minute, could you be the person who threatened to attack Moichi’s shop?!”

“What are you talking about?! Don’t say stuff that’s hard for Loli Loli to understand!”

For some reason, I was starting to feel a bit of a kinship with this Loli Loli. But for Ashley, an answer that wasn’t really an answer at all just wasn’t good enough. Even if she was an S-Rank, staying calm in the face of a powerful foe while her fellow villagers were in danger was next to impossible.

“All right,” said Ashley, her pupils dilating. “Let’s get dangerous. Infinite Flame!”