The next morning…
The day started early for the village. Rio woke up before sunrise and made his way to the living room of the chief’s house.
“Good morning.”
“Oh my, you’re quite the early riser there. Good morning,” Yuba replied with widened eyes. She was already awake, sitting on a cushion in the living room after lighting the fireplace.
“I was thinking of helping out the villagers today with any tasks they might have. But first, could I help you make breakfast in any way?”
“Is that so? If you’re offering, then you’re more than welcome to do so. I look forward to it.”
And so, Rio and Yuba spoke for a while. Until… “Mrrgh… Good morning, Granny…”
Ruri appeared in the living room, half-asleep and still wearing the underwear she had slept in. It was a slightly scandalous appearance for a girl of her age to be wearing before the opposite sex. Hidden beneath her underwear were limbs that emphasized her feminine softness, and plump breasts that accentuated her upper body.
“Good morning… Have you forgotten about Rio here, by any chance?” Yuba said with stifled laughter.
“…Huh? A-Ah!”
Ruri finally realized that Rio was right there. She hurriedly looked down at herself, then blushed as red as a ripe apple. Rio avoided eye contact, but she took that to mean he had caught a glimpse of her unladylike form.
“I-I’m going to change!” Ruri covered her body with both her hands and ran back to her room.
Rio gave a tired sigh. He had encountered similar situations numerous times before, back when he lived with Latifa in the spirit folk village. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like Ruri had the personality to irrationally get mad at him for it, but they would probably be awkward around each other for a little longer.
Sure enough, when Ruri returned from her room several moments later, she watched Rio from the corner of her eye.
Ah, well. I guess there’s no helping that…
Ruri was his older cousin, so Rio could honestly say that no strange feelings had risen from that. But that wasn’t the case when it came to Ruri’s point of view, because she didn’t know Rio was her younger cousin.
“So, are you any good at cooking, Rio? You offered to help with breakfast.” Yuba smiled cheerily.
“Y-Yes, please leave it to me.” Rio nodded with an embarrassed look.
“Then, let’s have you make breakfast today and see how it goes. Ruri, go with Rio to trade for breakfast ingredients and introduce him to everyone. Have the village girls get used to seeing his face around here.”
“Eh? O-Oh, okay. …Let’s go, Rio.” Ruri hesitated for a moment, before giving an uncomfortable nod. She still seemed to be feeling humiliated about her foolishness earlier.
“Oh, and tell Sayo to come to the house with Shin. We’ll be having breakfast here,” Yuba requested.
“Yes, ma’am…” Ruri answered dully before leaving through the front door with Rio.
Their first destination was the kitchen garden behind the village chief’s home. Unlike the fields that were managed by the village, the kitchen gardens were owned by each individual house.
“Our village operates primarily on bartering and trading. The first thing we do every morning is harvest the vegetables grown in our kitchen garden. Then, we bring them to the village square and trade them with the vegetables grown by other families. That makes up the ingredients for a day’s worth of meals,” Ruri explained as they gathered the vegetables grown in the village chief’s garden. Once they were done harvesting them, they headed toward the village square.
The square was already filled with young women from the village chatting noisily with each other. They ranged from their mid-teens to late twenties in age.
“Morning, everyone!” Ruri greeted them energetically, moving to join a circle of the girls.
“Oh, Ruri. Good mor—” The girls noticed Ruri and cheerfully made to return her greeting, when they noticed the unfamiliar boy behind her and froze on the spot. Before she knew it, Ruri was getting questioning gazes from all the girls.
“Erm, this is Rio. He’s the son of one of Granny’s old acquaintances and has been traveling around the world. That’s why his clothes look a little strange. He’ll be staying at our place for a while, so I wanted to introduce him to everyone… Go on, Rio.” Ruri carefully watched the reactions of the other girls as she timidly introduced him. She then prompted him to step forward.
“Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rio. I have yet to acclimatize myself to life here, so I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive any inconveniences I may cause in the future. It is a pleasure to meet you all.” Rio adopted a friendly smile as he gave his well-mannered greeting.
“Uhm… It’s nice to meet you too,” the girls replied, mildly embarrassed.
“Hey, Rio. There’s no need to use such formal language with us. Everyone gets nervous when a boy like you acts that way,” Ruri advised with a wry smile.
“Ah… I’m afraid I’m more accustomed to this form of speech. I will do my best to adjust accordingly,” Rio replied with a smile similar to Ruri’s.
The women of the village watched their exchange closely; they seemed to be feeling rather bashful in Rio’s presence. However, they all shot implicitly questioning looks in Ruri’s direction — looks that said it wasn’t fair for her to be the only one close to him.
The only men that the village girls had in their social circles were rough and rowdy, making Rio’s gentle and calm demeanor like a breath of fresh air. His handsome yet androgynous face only accentuated his allure even more.
Haha… They’re definitely going to try to pry more out of me about Rio during work later.
Ruri smiled bitterly to herself; she could feel the silent pressure coming from the girls. She glanced at Rio to see him standing somewhat uncomfortably on the receiving end of all the girls’ shy scrutiny. He shifted his gaze toward Ruri, seeking help with a troubled expression. Ruri was taken aback by the unintentional eye contact, her body shaking with a flinch.
…Hmph. He didn’t even care about how I felt before.
Ruri recalled how Rio had seen her immodest morning attire earlier and pouted her lips as she blushed. She knew that it had mostly been her own fault, though. It was obvious that taking it out on Rio here wouldn’t make the situation any better. She had mixed feelings about the storm of questions the girls would surely bombard her with later… but she just wanted to head home for now.
And so, she decided to rescue Rio.
“Come on, now, let’s get these ingredients traded already. It’s almost time for work!” Ruri snappily wrapped up the conversation and began to move around, trading for vegetables.
The girls all looked like they wanted to talk to Rio, but they couldn’t find the right timing to do so. Ruri took that as a blessing and swiftly piled the vegetables into her basket. Once she had gathered all the ones that she needed, she turned to address Rio, who happened to be the one carrying the basket.
“Okay, all done. Let’s go, Rio.” She pushed his back to prompt him to move. “Ah, that’s right! Sayo!” Ruri turned back, remembering one last thing.
“…Huh?” Sayo was among the girls silently staring at Rio. Her body trembled with a start when her name was called, and she looked up in question.
“Granny wants you to come to our house with Shin. We’re gonna have breakfast together,” Ruri explained briefly.
“Eh… Ah, okay. Got it.” Sayo nodded timidly.
“You’ll find out what she wants when we meet, I guess. See you soon!” With those parting words, Ruri hurriedly left again. Rio gave a small bow to the slightly confused village girls and trailed after her.
◇◇◇
After the events at the village square, Rio returned to the village chief’s house and began to prepare breakfast. The village was low on dried meat and seasoning, particularly salt, so he dipped into the reserves of his Time-Space Cache to supplement his recipe. After all, there were enough ingredients and spices stored inside to last several years.
However, he hid the existence of the Time-Space Cache, as it was too troublesome to explain. He simply removed enough supplies to seem as though he’d retrieved them from his backpack instead. It was still a fairly large amount of meat and seasonings, though — enough to make Yuba happy.
“This is wonderful. Dried meat is a luxury around here, and we have very few opportunities to buy salt, so there’s never enough. Are you sure it’s all right, though? This many ingredients wouldn’t have been cheap, no?” Yuba asked hesitantly.
“I don’t mind,” Rio replied, shaking his head gently. “There’s no point in letting it go to waste, so please accept it as rent for my stay. I’m going to make breakfast with this now… Enough to serve five people, is that right?”
“Yes, Sayo and Shin will be coming later. Thank you. Ruri, go stand with him and watch.” Yuba saw them off as Rio and Ruri went to kitchen together.
Since they were going to be living together from now on, they needed to find out how good Rio’s cooking skills were. He would prepare the food alone, and Ruri would act as his judge.
“The firewood’s already been prepared — I’ll show you where later. All the kitchen tools and tableware are in that cupboard. If there’s anything else you need to know, feel free to ask.”
“Okay. What should I do about water? I can generate it with spirit arts if needed.”
“Ah, you can use the water in that jug there. Either Granny or I will use spirit arts to refill it once a day, but I guess you can use spirit arts too?” Ruri asked with raised eyebrows. Spirit arts were more commonplace than sorcery and magic in the Yagumo region, but the number of users there was fairly small.
“…Yes. So, you two can use it too…” Rio’s eyes widened a little in surprise.
“Yeah. Our family line has always had a really high aptitude for spirit arts, despite the fact that we’re commoners. That’s part of the reason why Granny’s the village chief. Other than me, Sayo and her older brother Shin also have the ability to use spirit arts, so we’ve all been learning together since we were young.”
“I see… So that’s how it is.” Rio nodded in understanding.
When compared to elves, dwarves, werebeasts, and other spirit folk, humans generally had a low aptitude for using spirit arts. However, very rarely, someone with a high aptitude for using it was born. This meant that his father, Zen, could probably use spirit arts too, Rio mused to himself. It would have been nearly impossible for his father to make the harsh journey between the Yagumo and Strahl regions without them.
Rio found that information fascinating, but he couldn’t afford to let his goal fall to the back of his mind.
After using spirit arts to light the firewood in the kitchen furnace, he began to cook. The menu included rice, miso soup, meat, and a vegetable stir fry, along with the pickled vegetables Yuba had already made.
Incidentally, there were many seasonings available in Yagumo that were reminiscent of Asian foods on Earth — including both soy sauce and miso — which made it easy for Rio to recreate the taste of Japanese food. Rio had come across all kinds of ingredients and condiments during his time in the spirit folk village, but being able to collect those he hadn’t seen before in the Yagumo region made him feel a keen sense of satisfaction.
“…Hmph. I guess you’re pretty good, Rio,” Ruri muttered absently as she watched Rio prepare the ingredients with an experienced hand.
“Thank you very much. I have to be able to do this much, since I travel alone.” Rio shook his head bashfully.
“No, no, this isn’t just some average level of skill. Your knife-handling is even better than mine.” Ruri gave a slightly conflicted smile. The two of them continued to chat idly and opened up to each other, bit by bit. Less than an hour later, they’d finished cooking all of the food.
“Look, Granny. Rio made us a delicious-smelling breakfast!” With a cheerful grin, Ruri carried the completed dishes into the living room and served them on the table.
“Oh? This certainly looks nice. It seems we’ll have no problem leaving Rio on cooking duty.” Yuba broke into a surprised smile at the sight of the dishes lining the table.
“Umm, excuse me.”
A cute feminine voice could be heard from the entrance, where the door was left wide open. There stood Sayo and a boy standing behind her; he was around Rio’s age.
“Ah, Sayo. Welcome. Come in, come in. You too, Shin.” Ruri waved the two of them inside with a smile.
“O-Okay. P-Please excuse the intrusion.” Sayo gave a polite bow and timidly stepped through the doorway.
“Yeah, excuse us.” Shin followed after her.
“Good of you two to make it — you’re just in time for breakfast. Come on up.” Yuba summoned the two of them closer as Ruri returned to the kitchen.
“Thanks, Gran, for feeding us breakfast.” Shin thanked Yuba and lowered himself onto a cushion by the fireplace.
“Thank you for the meal, Lady Yuba.” Sayo sat down too and bowed her head. However, she seemed rather nervous as her eyes glanced around the room.
That was when Rio came out of the kitchen, carrying more dishes. “Good morning, Sayo.”
“G-G-Good morning, Sir Rio. Is there anything I may be able to help you with?” Sayo asked nervously, offering to help.
“…No, it’s fine. We just finished serving it all. All that’s left to do is eat.” Rio gave pause at how Sayo had addressed him, then put on a smile and shook his head. In the meantime, Shin was curiously watching Sayo’s peculiar behavior.
“Rio, Ruri, you two come sit down too,” Yuba ordered. Both Rio and Ruri took their seats.
Everyone settled down in a horseshoe shape around the table, with Yuba sitting at the center. Ruri and Sayo sat at her sides, while Rio and Shin sat beside them. Sayo gave a polite bow to Rio, who sat diagonally opposite her, making Shin shoot a suspicious glare between them.
“This is Rio and Shin’s first time meeting, yes? Shin, this boy is named Rio. He’s the son of an old acquaintance of mine. He’ll be staying in our house for a while. Rio, that’s Sayo’s brother, Shin.”
An indescribable mood threatened to settle in the room, but Yuba ignored it as she casually introduced Rio and Shin to each other.
“My name is Rio. It’s nice to meet you.” Rio pasted on a sociable smile and bowed at Shin, who sat directly opposite him.
“…Right. You too,” Shin replied rather bluntly, seemingly wary of him. Sayo, who sat beside him, looked like she had something to say.
“All right, Rio went through all the trouble of making this meal, so let’s eat it before it gets cold. We can talk more after,” Yuba suggested. Then, as their gazes gathered on the plates in the middle of the table…
“Hey, Gran… This stir fry has meat in it. Isn’t that a bit fancy for breakfast? Did you pocket some extra for yourself because you’re the chief? How sneaky!” Shin’s eyes immediately locked on to the pieces of meat in the vegetable stir fry.
Meat was a luxury that couldn’t be eaten in the village very often. They kept cattle, but not for consumption — the cattle in the village were valued for their labor, and were used for things like transporting goods and plowing the fields. The only occasions where they could eat cattle meat was when the work cattle were disposed of from injury or old age, or when the distribution of hunting spoils came around to each family.
“There’s no need to panic. I haven’t been sneaky — this is meat that Rio brought with him,” Yuba explained with a wry smile.
“Oh, so that’s what it is. Well, as long as I can eat meat, I don’t care. …Hey, this is good!” No sooner had he heard the explanation, Shin was shoving the stir fry into his mouth and complimenting the taste with rounded eyes. He gulped down some rice while the flavor of the stir fry was still in his mouth.
“Mind your table manners, Shin,” Sayo warned.
“Never mind that — you try it too. It’s so good. Ooh, this miso soup is great too!” Shin didn’t seem to care at all about Sayo’s warning as he dug into the meal with vigor.
“Geez…”
Sayo pouted her lips unhappily, but the moment she tried the stir fry her eyebrows rose in shock at the taste. “It’s delicious!”
“Right?” Shin said with a smug nod.
“The miso soup is delicious too. D-Did you really make all of this yourself, Sir Rio?” Sayo asked with a hint of envy.
“Yes. I’m glad the taste is to your liking.” Rio nodded with a faint smile. “Ahaha, they both said what I wanted to say. It’s really good, Rio.” “Indeed, you have quite the skill. Very impressive.”
Ruri and Yuba both agreed with smiles tugging at their lips.
“Thank you very much. I made extra rice, so feel free to get seconds.”
“Whoa, seconds! Thanks, Sayo.” Shin turned to Sayo next to him and offered out his empty bowl.
“Goodness, Shin! Have a little restraint!”
“Sayo, there’s no need for me to hold back. I’m a growing child, so pile on as much as you can.”
“I-I’m sorry, Lady Yuba. My brother is… Just… Thank you for the meal.” Sayo bobbed her head at both Yuba and Rio, then started to scoop rice into Shin’s bowl from the pot next to her. Once she returned the full bowl back to her brother, she returned to eating.
Everyone ate the breakfast Rio cooked with gusto. Then, once they had finished eating and poured a round of tea for everyone…
“Now that we’re no longer distracted by the delicious meal… Shall we get to the main point? Shin,” Yuba addressed the boy.
“Hm, what is it?”
“I called you here for a reason. I’d like to have Rio try out the work that the hunters do. Could you take him to Dola’s place after this?”
“…Huh? This guy as a hunter? Are you serious?” Having completely forgotten that Yuba had called him here for something, Shin’s delightfully full and satisfied expression turned dubious at her words.
“I am. He said he wanted to help with work in the village, so I asked him what he could do. He has quite a versatile set of skills, including the ability to hunt. Dola was looking for more people to help out, no?”
“That’s… true, but… It’s a really rigorous job, you know? Does he have the stamina? He looks pretty fragile,” Shin said, looking at Rio doubtfully.
“It’s all right — he’s not the type to lie. I’ve already confirmed that he can cook and use spirit arts, after all. He’s been traveling around the world at a young age all alone, so I have a feeling he’s quite the expert already. He has a very fine weapon on him, too… He might even be stronger than you,” Yuba said with a grin, provoking Shin.
“S-So what? I can use spirit arts too. We’ll see what you’ve got.” Shin wavered for a moment, before putting on an air of composure.
“Well, that’s the situation. I’m counting on you to explain that to Dola. Have a look at Rio’s skills — if it seems like you can spare the time, choose one of the younger juniors and assign them to train him.”
“Fine, fine. Better hope he doesn’t waste too much of our time,” Shin muttered with an unhappy nod, clearly underestimating Rio.
“Shin!” Sayo scolded him, having picked up on what he had meant.
“All right, all right. You’re so noisy. Hey, Rio. We don’t have much time, so let’s get going.” Shin stood up and walked briskly over to the front door.
“S-Sir Rio, I’m so sorry! My brother needs to watch his mouth more.” Sayo hurriedly bowed her head at Rio, but he gave her a gentle smile and shook his head, as though he wasn’t bothered at all. Then, he followed hastily after Shin.
“Good grief. Rio’s the younger one by a year, yet so much more mature. Don’t worry about it, Sayo… I’ll have a word with Rio later,” Ruri said with an exasperated sigh.
“O-Okay.” Sayo nodded timidly.
“Now, Sayo… And you too, Ruri. It’s your turn next,” Yuba said.
“Huh? Us too?” Ruri gawked in surprise, not expecting to be addressed.
“Yes. Rio has only just arrived in this village, after all. He might seem like he’ll be fine because of his calm demeanor, but there is a lot he is still not used to. There will be many villagers wary of his status as an outsider. So, could you two please look out for him?” Yuba said in a serious tone and bowed her head deeply at the two girls.
“Y-Yeah. Of course we will. Just leave it to us.” Ruri was taken by surprise at the rare sight of her grandmother lowering her head like this, but immediately nodded with a smile.
“I-I’ll do my best, too, if it’s within my abilities!” Sayo nodded enthusiastically.
“Hmm, can I just think of him like a new little brother of mine? Or an older brother to Sayo? She already has Shin, though,” Ruri said while she stretched her neck.
“I-I can’t possibly dare to imagine Sir Rio as my older brother!” Sayo interjected fearfully at Ruri’s words.
“Ahaha… By the way, what’s with calling him ‘Sir’ Rio?” Ruri asked with a mocking smile.
“Eh? W-Well, don’t you think he kind of seems like nobility? Like someone unreachable…” Sayo faltered, replying with a slight blush to her cheeks.
“I see…” Ruri watched Sayo with a grin. “W-What is it, Ruri?”
“It’s nothing. Now, shall we get to work? We’re heading off, Granny!” Ruri swiftly stood up and ushered Sayo toward the door.
“Ah! H-Hold on, Ruri!” Sayo struggled to keep up. “Go on, now,” Yuba said, seeing the rushing girls off.
“…It seems like things will be quite interesting around here,” she muttered, smiling.
◇◇◇
Shin led Rio to the foot of the forest mountain. Despite his crankiness coming out of the village elder’s house, Rio continued to engage Shin in conversation until they were chatting amicably, his sour mood long since forgotten.
“Right, here we are. This mountain forest is where we hunters do our work. We generally hide ourselves away in the forest from morning ’til afternoon, then help out in the fields with whatever free time we have afterward. If you want to know more, you should ask the master… Oh, speak of the devil. This is Dola, our boss.”
Shin was giving Rio a brief explanation of the hunters’ work when the man named Dola — who had come up in the conversation with Yuba, too — appeared. He seemed to be in his late forties, with a large build and a sturdy frame.
“Yo, Shin — you’re early. Is this the Rio kid, then?” Dola approached, greeting them casually.
“…What, you know about him already?”
“Well, yeah. My daughter met him this morning. Hm, I see… This is certainly… He looks a bit delicate, but I can see why the girls would go crazy over him.
Well, not as crazy as they do for me. Wahaha!” Dola laughed heartily.
“It’s nice to meet you — my name is Rio. I’ll be staying in this village for a while, so I’ve come to help the hunters with their work on the orders of Lady Yuba. I look forward to working with you,” Rio said, introducing himself and giving a simple overview of his circumstances.
“Right, same here. So, do you have any experience in hunting?” “Yes, I do.”
“Oho? I’m glad to hear that. We actually had two other hunters, but they’re both injured right now. The only hunters that can work are this apprentice, here, and myself.” Dola said with a happy smile.
“That old lady Yuba said if it seemed like you had the hands to spare, to bring a younger guy from the village and train him as a junior. In any case, we’ll see how he goes,” Shin interjected with a slightly amused look on his face.
“Why are you acting all smug for? You’re still half a man yourself,” Dola said exasperatedly.
“S-Shut up! I’ll hunt something way bigger than him!” Shin snapped back with motivation.
“Yeah, sure, I look forward to it. Just don’t go overboard.” Dola gave a light shrug of his shoulders. “Now, I want to know exactly how talented Rio is. Our spare hunting equipment is stored in that shed over there, so let’s head into the mountains as soon as you’re ready,” he said with a shift of his attitude that indicated he meant business.
After that exchange, they all gathered inside the shed and prepared to go hunting. Dola and Shin had been wearing work clothes that were easy to move around in, but they changed into thicker clothes and boots that they needed for traveling up the mountain. Then, they put on a straw overcoat, and equipped themselves with a hunting knife and bow each.
Meanwhile, Rio had been wearing his slightly thicker battle armor to begin with, and had daggers and throwing knives in his belt already, so he decided that all he needed was to borrow a bow.
“That’s a real strange getup you’re in, there. You sure you’ll be fine in just that?” Once Shin finished changing, he looked Rio up and down with skepticism.
“Yes, these are my traveling clothes, so they’re made to be very durable,” Rio nodded.
Dola came over to inspect the texture of the clothes. “So it seems. The fabric seems pretty tough. Well, I’m sure this’ll be fine,” he said, giving his stamp of approval.
“All right. Let’s go already,” Shin said a little hurriedly and rushed out of the shed.
“Just so you know, that’s him being more excited than usual. You must’ve set fire to his competitive heart, Rio. Now, we should set off too.” Dola gave a short huff of laughter, a smile playing at his lips as he left the shed. Rio followed him.
“Now, Rio. There’s something I need to say before we enter the mountain,” Dola said once they were outside again.
“Yes? What is the matter?”
“It’s about that way of speaking of yours. You don’t have to speak so stiffly with us. It makes me itch. There’s no time to worry about manners when you’re in the middle of a hunt, after all.”
“That’s true… It’s just, it’s almost become a habit at this point, so if you ask me to suddenly drop it it’d be very difficult… And make me even more awkward than I originally was. But I’ll do my best.”
“Haha. Well, it’s not a bad thing. If you’re saying it’s easier for you to speak that way, then there’s no need to force yourself to stop. Okay, I want to test your skills and explain a few things, so let’s head into the mountains. Do you have any questions before we get started, Rio?”
“Just one. If you have any hand signals for communicating without speaking, could you teach me them beforehand?”
“Hand signals? What are those?” Dola and Shin both curiously tilted their heads.
“Movements you make with your hand to communicate your intentions without saying anything by giving meaning to a gesture. Something like move forward, freeze, or be silent, for example.” Rio explained.
“Ah, I see. Now that you mention it, we do use some gestures to give really simple instructions. But, the specifics of what to do and where are a bit vague, so we don’t really have a set of fixed gestures with meaning.” Dola came to the realization he had been using hunting hand signals regularly without really thinking about it.
“But… Is there a point on deciding things like that? Who cares as long as you understand? Things like ‘go’ and ‘stop’ you can tell by the mood and some simple pointing.” Apparently, Shin had yet to understand the importance of hand signals.
“There is a point. If you don’t decide the rules of communicating beforehand, you may end up being even more confused. When you want to communicate something more complex, you’ll be stuck.”
“Hah… I guess Rio has a point. All right, seems interesting. If you insist on it that much, then you must have your own gestures for when you’re hunting. Teach us those.” Dola seemed to accept Rio’s explanation, showing ready willingness to implement the use of the hand signals to communicate during hunting.
“Well, if the boss says so, then I guess…” Shin agreed. And so, Rio taught some simple sign language to the two of them. Then, several minutes later…
“All right. We’re a little bit behind schedule, so let’s head out! The two of you, follow me.”
Under Dola’s leadership, they finally departed for the village hunting grounds in the mountains. Dola lectured Rio on the village rules of hunting as they walked, but they eventually ran out of things to talk about and began to actively communicate through hand signals instead.
As an experienced hunter, Dola’s adaptability meant he was quick on the uptake; he mastered the sign language Rio taught him without delay.
Shin still has a ways to go, but Rio is handling him wonderfully. He said he had experience… That’s impressive for a frail appearance like his. But, he doesn’t seem like he’ll have a problem. If he proves himself with his hunting abilities, then he can work by himself from tomorrow onward.
Dola smiled wryly. Shin’s hunting attitude was still far too reckless, and he would often miss the hand signals Dola sent. In contrast, Rio’s abilities were worthy of high praise.
The way he silenced his footsteps, the way he concealed his presence, his ability to spot traces and trails of their hunting prey, and his knowledge of the animal’s behavior — no matter how you looked at it, Rio was adept at everything.
And so, Dola and Rio naturally split the search for hunting prey between them, moving in a two-top formation with Shin trailing after them, which he was not pleased by in the least. Even though he regularly went out hunting with Dola, he had always been on the receiving end of instruction, and was never given responsibilities of his own. Yet, a newly recruited outsider like Rio — someone younger than him, no less — was being trusted and given a share of hunting responsibilities. It was almost as though he was being a burden to Rio. Perhaps Rio thought of him as a burden. And while the thought had never even crossed Rio’s mind, just the possibility of it made Shin feel overwhelmingly frustrated.
On top of that, Rio brought up his wisdom about sign language and had drawn Dola’s attention with it. In Shin’s eyes, Rio looked like he was trying to butter up Dola, making him even more distrustful than before. Eventually, his frustrations developed into irritation, leading to the inevitable distraction of his focus.
“Hey, Shin. What’s wrong? If you’re going to slack off, go home. You’re in the way.” Dola noticed his distracted demeanor and decided to warn him.
“…That’s not it,” Shin muttered sullenly, making Dola furrow his brows.
“There it is.” Rio said after he had already fired his bow. The arrow cut through the air with a fwip! It flew on a direct trajectory for their prey — almost as if it was being sucked in — and struck its target over twenty meters away, piercing a bird in a tree.
“O-Ooh, a Lenou bird! That’s a tough mark! These flighty birds get really nervous around others. Hunting them is difficult.”
“I’m sorry. I fired the arrow at my own judgment… The bird had noticed us and was about to take off otherwise,” Rio apologized, looking regretful.
“No worries about that. More importantly: your bow arm is amazing. There was barely any time between when you nocked your arrow and when you fired it. And at this distance too — what a sight!” Dola, letting his irritation toward Shin disperse, turned to praise Rio instead. Shin’s expression grew even sulkier.
“Thank you very much.”
Rio gave a short word of gratitude before hurrying over to the Lenou he had shot down. He grabbed it by the legs and pulled out a dagger with his free hand, slicing its neck to drain out the blood. He wore a serious expression as he worked, even offering a short moment of silence in appreciation for the prey that had been sacrificed for food.
Dola watched Rio toiling away with his familiar hand and let out an impressed sound. “Oho. Fine! We can’t lose either, Shin,” he said enthusiastically, urging Shin on.
“I know! As if I’d back down…!” Shin replied angrily. Dola saw right through his attitude and gave a wry smile in exasperation as he approached Rio.
After finishing up all the procedures that needed to be done right away, the party resumed their search for prey. Rio and Dola steadily took down wild birds and rabbits as they proceeded through the forest. The sight of their efforts lit a fire within Shin, who didn’t want to lose to them. However, he found himself unsuccessful, unable to catch a single animal.
Thus, time passed by until the early afternoon.
“Okay. It’s still a little early, but we can wrap things up here. The two of you did well — we have more meat that we’re bringing back to the village than usual,” Dola announced the end of the day with a pleased smile.
“I only got one, though. It was all you and that guy, boss,” Shin muttered, sulking slightly.
“What are you saying?” Dola asked, a tired expression on his face.
“This is the result of the three of us working together. You also helped in the cornering of the prey, Shin. Thanks to that, our arrows were able to land where we wanted them to.”
“That’s right. Cornering the prey is the important work of a hunter, too.” Dola agreed with Rio’s opinion, but Shin remained sullen, clicking his tongue before briskly walking down the mountain alone.
“Geez… He’s hopeless. Sorry, Rio. I’ll talk to him later, so just think of it as a brat’s tantrum. Don’t let it bother you.”
“…No, it’s fine. I’d like to apologize, too. If you could pass that on for me, I’d be grateful,” Rio apologized with a regretful expression.
“…There’s no need for you to apologize, but all right. Also, I reckon you’d be fine hunting on your own from tomorrow onward. I have to look after the juniors, so if you could hunt enough to cover my share, that’d be great. Do you think you could manage that?” Dola scratched his head with a guilty look, shaking his head as he spoke.
“Sure — leave it to me,” Rio replied smoothly.
“All right, I’m counting on you. Now, let’s get back to the shed and get to cleaning our kills.” Dola slapped Rio on the shoulder with a grin.
◇◇◇
After they had finished cleaning all the animals, Rio took some of the meat and headed back home.
“I’m back,” he said into the house from the doorway, but there was no reply. There was no one in the living room, nor in the kitchen to the right of the clay floor.
…Is no one home? Well, I guess it’s still during work hours right now.
Rio decided to first get rid of the stench of wild animals that clung to him. There was no bathroom inside the house, so he took the bath bucket in the kitchen and went outside. He went around the back of the house and placed the bucket on the ground, then raised the ground that surrounded him with spirit arts to create walls to enclose the space. Then, he used spirit arts to fill the bathing bucket with water.
After that, he equipped the Time-Space Cache artifact he received from the spirit folk village onto his left hand and chanted the spell “Dissolvo.” The air near his hand immediately began to distort, and four small metal bottles appeared in his palm. Each contained various soaps and detergents to wash his hair, body, and clothes. Naturally, they were made by the spirit folks.
Rio grabbed the bottles in both hands, took off his clothes, and climbed into the bath bucket. Then, he used his spirit arts to freely control the water and clean his hair and body with the soap.
It’d be much more convenient to have some kind of bathroom, even an outdoor one. I’ll ask Yuba if I can build one later. We could even lend it to the other villagers to use.
After he had washed his hair and body, he went about washing the clothes he had been wearing that day. Several minutes later, Rio changed into spare clothes and returned the raised earth wall around him back to the ground.
Then, he spotted Ruri and Sayo standing a fair distance away.
“…Oh, so it was Rio after all,” Ruri let out a sigh of relief. A strange structure had been constructed behind her house while she was out, so it was only natural for her to be suspicious.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Rio apologized with an apologetic expression.
“No, that’s fine… Did you move the ground with your spirit arts just now?” Ruri asked curiously.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm. I’m not good at earth spirit arts, so I don’t really understand… but is it something you can manipulate that easily?” Ruri didn’t seem to accept Rio’s smooth answer, so she turned to ask Sayo beside her.
“I-I don’t know. I’m not good at earth spirit arts either… But compared to what I can do, it doesn’t seem like something simple…” Sayo offered her own opinion uncertainly.
“…Well, it’s not that hard if you practice it a lot,” Rio noted. Since he wasn’t able to measure the level of the average spirit arts user in the Yagumo region, Rio gave a vague reply to avoid answering completely. He figured he should only explain as much as was needed.
“Well, whatever.” Ruri didn’t seem to be too bothered by that, and suddenly began walking forward. She came closer to Rio, twitching her nose as she sniffed the air.
“Hmm… But what’s this…?” Once she was directly in front of Rio, she stared up at his face.
Rio hesitated. “Erm, what do you mean?” he finally asked.
Sayo curiously approached as well, watching the two of them from a closer distance with a blush. “Huh?”
“I knew it! There’s a nice smell coming from Rio!” Ruri said, face brightening with a vibrant smile.
“…Oh, the stench of the animals we hunted was clinging to me, so I washed up.”
“Huh, so that’s why. It’s a really nice smell, though… Come smell it, Sayo.” Ruri gestured for Sayo to come closer.
“E-Eeh?! I-I’m fine! I can smell it from here just fine!” Sayo shook her head with a bright red face.
“There, there — there’s no need to be so shy.” Ruri ducked behind Sayo in a quick movement and pushed her forward toward Rio. Sayo continued to insist against it, but she wasn’t resisting with any particular fervor.
“Oh…”
Once she was right before him, her face was flushed red all the way to the tips of her ears. She looked down.
“See, doesn’t he smell nice?”
“Y-Yeah…” Sayo agreed in a nearly inaudible voice. Unsure of how he should appropriately react to the situation, Rio simply stood there with a forced smile on his face.
“Hey, Rio. What is this smell?” Ruri asked. “I think it’s the soap.”
“Huh? Soap? You mean the soap you use to wash your body and clothes?” Rio’s answer made Ruri’s eyes widen in shock.
“Yes, that soap.”
“Huuuh? Why do you have soap, Rio?”
“Why? Because I made it myself, I guess…” Rio’s eyes widened at Ruri’s surprise, though it wasn’t unreasonable for Ruri and Sayo to react in such a way. While soap did exist in the Yagumo region, it was a luxury item. It wasn’t an easy thing for a commoner to lay their hands on, so vinegar was often used as a substitute.
“Y-You made it? Rio, you can make soap? Phew! In our village, Granny’s the only one who really knows her medicine, but even she doesn’t know how to make soap. Isn’t it amazing, Sayo?”
“…Yes, it’s amazing.” Ruri and Sayo both turned to look at Rio with gazes full of admiration.
“As long as you have the materials, it’s pretty simple. I’ll leave it in the house, so feel free to use it later. You too, Sayo,” Rio said, embarrassed. The two girls blinked blankly at him.
“Wait, what?! We can use them too?!”
“Of course. I’ll make some more when I have the time, so there’s no need to hold back on using it.”
“Wow, I can’t wait! Thank you, Rio!” Ruri and Sayo clapped their hands together joyfully.
“So, why are the two of you here?”
“Oh, we saw Dola and Shin on the road just now, so we figured you must’ve come back, too. If you were going to wash yourself, you’d need hot water and firewood, so Sayo said we should come back and make sure you knew where to find those and how to do it,” Ruri said with a grin, looking at Sayo.
“Ah, no… I, umm…” Sayo struggled to find words in her embarrassment.
“So that’s how it is. Sayo, thank you for your consideration. I used my spirit arts to make the water, so I was fine.”
“Huh… Y-You used spirit arts to make the water?” Sayo asked with a look of utter disbelief. Ruri was surprised, too.
“Yes, I did. Is there a problem…?” Rio asked, wondering why the two girls were so shocked.
“Ah, no. It’s just that hot water is a lot more difficult to make with spirit arts than cold water.”
“…Oh, I see. There’s a trick to doing it… Shall I teach you sometime?” Rio offered casually.
“E-Eh, really?!” Sayo said, eager to accept his offer. “Y-Yes.” Rio nodded, taken aback.
“Good for you, Sayo! You’ll have to work hard,” Ruri giggled with a smile, ruffling Sayo’s head.
“I’m counting on you,” Sayo said, bowing her head shyly at Rio.
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