Meanwhile, in the spirit folk village…
It was early afternoon, and Masato was hard at work training along with Arslan and the others while Miharu and Aki were receiving a spirit arts lesson from Orphia. It hadn’t been long since Miharu, Aki, and Masato had moved to the village — roughly two months had passed since Masato had started receiving sword lessons from Rio.
Spirit arts were an ability that could be learned by any human, but it wasn’t something that could be achieved in a day. Compatibility varied by species, as well as learning time. In order to be able to use the most simplest of spirit arts, a human of the Yagumo region would take roughly a year and a half to two years, whereas a spirit folk child would generally take half a year for the same result. Though, in rare cases, there were exceptions…
“…Ah, I did it!”
Miharu and the other Earth children had shown remarkable progress in these last two months. Miharu, who had been staring fixatedly at the empty air in her outstretched hand, let out a happy cry when a small bubble roughly one centimeter in diameter appeared in her palm.
“Yup, you did it! Your activation time has been growing shorter and shorter every day!” Orphia, who had been standing to the side as her instructor, said in praise. She was just as delighted as Miharu was.
“That’s amazing, Miharu. I’ve only just started being able to detect ode…” Aki, who had been holding her hand outstretched nearby, murmured somewhat enviously. Unlike Miharu, Aki had yet to reach a level where she could activate a spirit art.
Reaching the point of spirit art activation required the acquirement of three skills first — detecting ode, visualizing ode, and detecting mana (of these three, only ode detection was necessary to use magic). In addition, it required the manipulation of ode and conveyance of one’s will into mana, which would normally take a regular human over a year of training.
Miharu was a special case for being able to activate a spirit art in a mere two months, though Aki was also learning spirit arts at an exceptional pace for a human. At her learning rate, she could catch up to Miharu in a few more months.
“Miharu may be amazing, but Aki isn’t losing to most spirit folk in terms of progress either, you know? I don’t know the reason why, but the three of you have an extraordinary amount of magic essence.” Orphia must have heard Aki’s muttering, as she spoke up with some words of encouragement.
“…Essence amount aside, my growth is barely any different compared to Masato, though…” Aki pouted.
“Hmm. That’s because Masato is just as amazing, but I guess it’s hard to feel that when there are no other humans to compare yourselves with,” Orphia said with a bittersweet laugh.
“Speaking of which, how long did it take for Haruto to learn spirit arts?” Aki asked, the question suddenly popping into her mind.
“Ahh, umm… Rio has a contract with Lady Aishia, so he’s a bit of a special case, so to speak…” Orphia replied with some difficulty.
“Was he fast?” Aki asked nervously. Miharu listened to them, curious about the answer too.
“I believe he said he was a child when he was suddenly able to use it one day…” Orphia gave in and replied.
“Wow…” Aki’s eyes widened.
“Yeah…” Miharu was also taken aback with shock.
“But Rio’s case is really one-of-a-kind, so the two of you mustn’t compare yourselves with him, okay? You’re all unique… There’s no need to rush yourselves,” Orphia said the to the two of them, encouraging Aki not to lose confidence.
“…Okay. But I at least want to learn it faster that Masato!” Aki nodded enthusiastically, cheering herself up.
“Hmm. Well, you are siblings. I suppose having a rivalry is a good thing?” Orphia tilted her head, looking at Miharu beside her.
“Yup. They’re close, after all.” Miharu nodded with a smile.
“T-That’s not true!” Aki shook her head furiously out of embarrassment. “Oho? What’s going on here?”
“Aki’s face is red!”
Latifa and Vera took a break from their nearby training and came over, noticing Aki’s blushing face.
“We were talking about how Aki and Masato are really close siblings,” Miharu replied with a giggle.
“D-Don’t, Miharu!” Aki reddened further and whined.
“I see, I see,” Vera said with a grin, looking at Aki’s face.
“W-We’re not! Maybe with Onii-chan, but definitely not with Masato!” Aki turned away to hide her embarrassment and puffed up her cheeks. If Masato had been present, she would have been even more embarrassed.
“Fufufu. We know, Aki. Right, Latifa?” Vera nodded along, then looked at Latifa.
Latifa grinned widely. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“That look tells me you two definitely don’t get it…” Aki glared at Vera and Latifa reproachfully.
“Ahaha, it’s okay. I’m also really close with my Onii-chan, too. We’re the same!” Latifa said with a carefree smile. Vera also puffed out her chest proudly.
“I love my sister Sara very much, so I’m the same, too!”
“…Hmph. Fine, whatever. It’s true that I’m close with my Onii-chan,” Aki muttered under her breath, hiding her bashfulness.
“Fufu.” Miharu and Orphia exchanged looks before breaking into giggles. Alma and Sara also wandered over from where they had been training nearby.
“Miharu, Orphia — shall we get ready for the cooking class soon?” Alma asked.
“Ah, that’s right. Let’s go, Miharu,” Orphia suggested.
“Okay,” Miharu agreed cheerfully. She had been trying to make the most of her skills to help out the village as much as possible. In order to do that, she had taken over the cooking class Rio had sometimes held for the women of the village. She’d also taken to teaching crafting classes. Orphia was her assistant.
“I’m sure you need as many hands as you can get. We’ll help out, too, so let’s go together,” Sara offered.
Latifa and Vera exchanged glances before immediately jumping in. “We want to go, too!”
◇ ◇ ◇
Afterwards, Miharu’s group relocated to the village community center. They worked together to prepare for their cooking class in a large food preparation room.
The women of the village gradually gathered, and the class commenced without incident. The participants were split into groups in order to create cream tart cakes, which was the recipe of the day. Despite being nervous about her instructor role, Miharu worked with Orphia to teach the village women. Time passed in the blink of an eye.
“Now, it’s time to try it!”
They moved to the community cafeteria to taste the results. Vera’s wolf ears and tail shook from side to side as she gazed at the sliced cakes expectantly.
“Hurry up, Miharu! Quickly!” Latifa was urging Miharu to cut the cakes faster.
“Smells good…” While Aki wasn’t rushing anyone else, she did stare at the apple cake with intense longing.
Miharu giggled with amusement as she sliced the cakes with a careful hand. “Wait just a little longer.” After serving the cake to the younger ones first, she then went on to place a slice of cake each on a plate for Sara, Orphia, Alma, and herself. During that time, Orphia prepared tea for everyone. With that, it was finally time dig in.
“Thank you for the food!” they all said before trying the cake.
“Ooooh!” Latifa, Vera, and Aki all looked extremely satisfied with the result. “Yup, this is very delicious.” Sara also took a bite of cake before nodding happily.
“When everyone works together, it tastes even better,” Alma said with a smile.
“It’s rather fun cooking and eating in a different environment than where we normally are. The people who joined the class also seemed to have fun, so it’s all thanks to Miharu.” Orphia nodded along, smiling at Miharu. The other tables in the cafeteria were occupied by village women who chatted amicably while enjoying their cake.
“Huh, me?” Miharu was taken by surprise and widened her eyes.
“Yup. It’s all thanks to Miharu taking over the instructor role from Rio that this class could resume,” Orphia replied immediately.
“Ahaha, I don’t know if I can make a good substitute for Haruto, but if it helps the village out even a little, then I’m glad.” Miharu grinned a little unsurely.
“This is much more than just a little. Everyone looks forward to Miharu’s cooking classes.”
“Yes, please have more confidence in yourself.” Both Sara and Alma spoke up to encourage Miharu.
Vera nodded along. “That’s right! Miharu’s cooking is just as delicious as Rio’s cooking. The seasoning is just slightly different, but that’s because they’re foods from Rio’s hometown in the Yagumo region, right?”
“…Yeah. Though there are some Strahl foods too,” Miharu nodded uncomfortably. While Latifa and the older girls had been present at the discussion about bringing Miharu and the others into the village, Vera didn’t know they were from another world. She still believed they were from the same town as Rio.
“I see. There are some foods that are similar to our village, but there are lots of foods in the world that we don’t know about, too. It’s really been a good thing that Rio and Miharu came to our village!” Vera hummed in appreciation before beaming with a happy expression.
“Fufu, thank you. I’m also very grateful I was able to come to this village and meet all of you. It’s all thanks to Haruto.” Miharu smiled happily as she spoke.
“Yes! It’s thanks to Rio that I was able to become friends with Latifa, so Rio really is our savior!” Vera looked at Latifa and nodded enthusiastically.
Latifa smiled cheerfully, returning Vera’s gaze. “Ehehe.”
“…It’s true that if Rio hadn’t been there, we would have never been able to meet with Latifa nor Miharu or Aki like this. When you think of it that way, it’s kinda miraculous.” Sara muttered sentimentally.
Latifa giggled. “Looking back now, the first time Onii-chan and I visited the village, we had no idea what would happen,” she said with amusement.
“Guh…” In contrast, Sara, Orphia, and Alma all looked rather guilty.
Aki watched the exchange between the spirit folk girls in silence, suddenly remembering the past. Come to think of it, back when Masato first received Rio’s approval of his warrior training, Alma said something in the hot springs… About how the first time Haruto and Latifa wandered into the forest, she had chills fighting him just like when she was watching the warrior training.
Back then, she had been able to catch a rare glimpse of the cold side of Rio. Now, she was completely distracted by thoughts of that interaction, making her curious about what happened in the past.
“…Now that I think about it, Latifa was brought to this village by Rio too, right? What happened back then?” Aki asked nervously.
Latifa pondered over where to begin. “Hmm. Well, to sum it up, Onii-chan was mistaken for a kidnapper and thrown into a jail…”
“Huh?! Really?!” Aki’s eyes widened in shock. Miharu also turned her attention towards them in surprise.
“Yup. Umm, the elders have told you why the people of this village live far away from humans, right? So we always have a barrier put up around the village for warding away humans,” Latifa said, beginning with an explanation of the backstory.
“Ah, did you end up fighting because you entered the barrier without permission, or something?” Aki asked, taking a guess.
“Yeah. It was around four years ago, I think. We crossed the barrier without realizing it and were camping in the forest when we were attacked. I was asleep, so I was already carried to the village by the time I woke up…” Latifa said, reminiscing. The countless barriers that stretched around the village were all of a very high quality. At that time, Rio still hadn’t learned the ways of spirit arts properly, so while he was able to ignore the effects of the barrier and pass through, he hadn’t noticed its activation.
Aki was taken aback before hesitantly looking over at Sara and the other girls. “Were Sara and the others there, too?”
Sara nodded regretfully. “…Yes. When we saw Latifa sleeping, we mistook her for an abducted village child and ambushed Rio. There was no excusing our actions.”
Orphia and Alma also recalled that time with sullen expressions.
Aki must have felt the air getting heavier as she spoke up in a hurry. “B-But the misunderstanding was cleared up, right? You’re all as close as family now. I’m a little curious about what series of events led to that happening with everyone.”
“…Yes, we noticed the misunderstanding itself immediately. Rio had traveling equipment for both himself and Latifa, after all…” Sara explained hesitantly.
“It was in the middle of the night, but we hurriedly reported it to Elder Ursula when we realized Latifa might not be from here. She got angry and ordered us to release him immediately, so Alma and I headed to the jail cells, I believe…” Orphia continued.
“…Yes,” Alma agreed heavily as she recalled. “But the jail was freezing cold and Rio had passed out in only a thin layer of clothing, so his body was completely chilled. He didn’t even twitch when we called out to him, so we
were pretty panicked for a while there, thinking he had died.”
“Ahaha. Alma was quite panicked at the time. She was rushing to check that he was still breathing.” Orphia reflected on the bitter memory and smiled faintly.
“I-I wasn’t that panicked… But I was worried,” Alma explained herself with embarrassment.
“Fufu. You were so relieved when you were able to confirm he was still breathing. Then, we tried to wake him by shaking him, but Rio just wouldn’t wake up…” Orphia said.
“…Come to think of it, Rio was muttering something in his sleep. When he woke up, he also seemed to coming out of some kind of dream, all dazed and stuff…” Alma noted.
“Ah, right. Yeah, he seemed rather disappointed when he saw our faces, almost like he wasn’t seeing us. His expression was really sad too…” Orphia also seemed to have remembered Rio’s face at the time, as she looked rather conflicted. Just what kind of impression did she have of Rio at the time?
“…Something like that happened?” Latifa’s eyes widened in interest. Miharu, Aki, and Sara had also been listening silently, looking at Orphia and Alma with gazes of deep curiosity.
“Yeah. If I’m not mistaken, I think he cried a little. Maybe he met someone in his dream? If so, we may have done something awful when we forcefully woke him up…” Orphia spoke about her complicated feelings regarding the past with a shameful expression.
“…What did Onii-chan say at that time?” Latifa couldn’t help but ask.
“Umm, I don’t know what it was about, but… It sounded something like yattoaeta or miichan, maybe?” Orphia answered to the best of her ability. Naturally, she didn’t know what those sounds meant; the words Orphia had heard Rio utter were Japanese words, after all — the words for I finally met you and Mii-chan.
“Eh…?” For Miharu, whose mother tongue was Japanese, Orphia’s words made her heart skip a beat.
Aki and Latifa — the latter of whom was hiding the fact she had memories of her past life — both twitched in interest as well.
Sara noticed the change in Miharu’s expression and called out to her curiously. “Is something the matter, Miharu?”
“Ah… Nope. It’s nothing.” Miharu kept a smile on her face as she shook her head.
…There’s no way. Haruto said he was a university student anyway, she told herself.
However, an indescribable feeling squeezed around her heart, which was thudding away for some reason. She couldn’t get Rio — no, Haruto — out of her head.
But then, she noticed how Aki was staring at her. “Hm?” Miharu pasted an awkward smile on her face and tilted her head.
“…” For a brief moment, Aki’s face twisted with a terribly bitter expression before she immediately averted her eyes.
Could Miharu have… And what… was Aki’s face just now? Latifa had been secretly observing the two of them. She knew that Haruto used to call Miharu by the nickname “Mii-chan,” which was why her instincts immediately considered the meaning behind Aki’s brief expression. She wondered if it was possible they had made the association with Haruto.
But there weren’t enough hints as to what was really going on. All Latifa had heard from Rio in the past was that Amakawa Haruto’s parents divorced because of his mother’s infidelity, leaving a young Haruto and Aki to go their separate ways. There was no way for Latifa to know how Miharu felt about Amakawa Haruto now, much less Aki’s unawareness of the reason for her parents divorce or her complex emotions towards Haruto and a father that she had no blood relation to. There wasn’t enough evidence for her to come to a sensible conclusion about Aki’s expression. Even if Latifa could imagine such an answer, she had no way of confirming it since she was hiding her own previous memories from Miharu and everyone else.
But, even so…
I want to know. Latifa grinded her teeth in frustration. She wanted to lay bare everything she knew about Miharu, Aki, and Amakawa Haruto. She wanted to talk to them about it all.
But she couldn’t. Rio had stopped her. There was no way Latifa would disobey Rio’s words by going behind his back, no matter how distressed it made her feel.
The most she could do was come up with a question that pressed the core of the matter in a roundabout way, and watch for the reaction. “…Mii-chan, huh? I wonder what it means. Right, Miharu?” Latifa kept a smile on her face as she fearfully addressed Miharu, who was sitting beside her.
“Y-Yeah. Who knows?” Miharu tilted her head with a somewhat unnatural smile.
This reaction… She really does remember Onii-chan after all, doesn’t she? Latifa deduced. She also shot a glance in Aki’s direction, who had a faint wrinkle in her brow and an obviously sour expression on her face.
…Does Aki remember Onii-chan too? But this… Latifa could make somewhat of a guess at how Aki felt from her expression, but she couldn’t discern the reason behind the emotion that Aki was displaying.
“Aki?” Vera also noticed how Aki’s expression had stiffened and peered at her face curiously.
Aki quickly put on a bright expression. “Hm? What’s wrong, Vera?”
“…No, it’s nothing,” Vera said, shaking it off as her imagination. Then she turned to Sara and the others. “Please, continue with what you were saying,” she urged.
“Continue… Well, what happened next was Latifa waking up and running into the jail cell, causing a huge commotion, if I recall,” Sara said wistfully.
“Huh, Latifa did that?!”
Starting with Vera, everyone who wasn’t present back then — including Aki and Miharu — turned their interest towards Latifa.
“F-Forget that already!” Being the center of attention, Latifa tried to cut off the conversation in embarrassment.
“No, I want to hear it! Right, Aki?” Vera said. Aki laughed and nodded in amusement.
“Yeah, I do too.”
Miharu and the older girls giggled as they agreed.
“Let’s see. The moment Latifa opened her eyes, she started running around in search of Rio without even listening to us. Uzuma and I had to chase after her in a panic,” Sara said.
“Geez! You shouldn’t tell them about that, Sara!” Latifa blushed red and tried to stop Sara from continuing.
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