“Erm, is there some problem with upper high-class spirits?” Rio asked Dryas, glancing sideways at the elders’ reactions.
“Nothing in particular. Oh, but it might be a big deal to the villagers who worship spirits. I’m already treated as a deity for being a high-class spirit, so if an upper high-class spirit appeared it might cause an uproar.”
“...Then why don’t you wake it up and ask if it’s an upper high-class spirit yourself?”
“I wouldn’t recommend that. It must have depleted most of its energy, as it’s in a deep sleep. Waking it up carelessly might make it sleep even longer, but if you leave it alone it’ll wake up on its own eventually.” Dryas shook her head, putting the sleeping spirit within Rio first.
“That makes sense... I understand.”
There were several points he was still curious about, but Dryas was a being worshiped by the spirit folk, and it would seem rude if he kept hounding her with questions. He decided to save them for Ursula later, and refrained from asking any more questions at the moment.
“Hmm. But if the spirit within Lord Rio is a high-class spirit at minimum, then we may need to reconsider our conduct toward Lord Rio himself,” Ursula said with a worried expression.
“What... do you mean by that?” Rio asked inquisitively.
“To put it broadly, it may be wiser to treat Lord Rio with reverence, like a holy man. We won’t ask you to take on any duties; we’ll simply adjust our perceptions for our own accord. You will not be burdened.” Syldora replied with a wry smile, sensing Rio’s doubtful wariness.
“Reverence...? No, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything to deserve that. Suddenly treating me that way will only bother me.” Rio said awkwardly.
“Gahaha! Well, don’t let it bug ya. Think of it as the village giving you an even warmer welcome!” Dominic said heartily, as always.
“Haha... I guess I shall.”
Rio could do nothing but nod with a strained smile.
◇◇◇
After meeting with the elders and Dryas at the town hall, Rio met up with Latifa and had lunch before Ursula led them to their new residence.
It was a few minutes’ walk from the town hall, near the center of the village. Many of the council members in the village had their houses located here.
They arrived at a treehouse that was supported by the trunks of numerous trees.
“Wow! Look Onii-chan, there’s even a deck! It’s so wide! And with such a nice view!” Latifa ran around excitedly. One couldn’t blame her — it had the feeling of a secret base. A fully loaded treehouse certainly had a charm that could make a child’s heart dance.
“Hoho, how energetic. My house is next door — Lord Rio, please feel free to drop by any time. The house is already furnished, and I shall have Sara and the girls bring you your food.”
“Thank you very much. You’ve really prepared everything.”
“Oh, no need for that. Let me show you around the house.” Ursula smiled happily and walked in.
“Come on, Latifa... Let’s go. Ursula’s giving us a quick tour of the inside.”
“Yay, okay!”
Rio and Latifa followed her inside. The moment Latifa stepped into the entrance hall, she let out a loud cheer.
“Whoa!”
The first sight that greeted them was a wide and open living and dining room. Elegant furniture was placed about the room, and a sliding door connected to the deck outside. On top of that, there were several bedrooms along with a master bedroom, a kitchen, and a restroom, all fully stocked.
Honestly, no matter how you looked at it, it was far too large for just the two of them to live in.
For the most part, artifacts covered all of the utilities they required, allowing them to live a life nearly as comfortable as that of modern Japan.
“If there are any artifacts you don’t know how to use, ask the girls later. Lastly, let me show you the bathtub.”
“You even have a bathtub? I’d love that.” Rio’s expression brightened greatly at the mention of a bathtub.
“Oh? That look on your face tells me you enjoy your baths, Lord Rio. In that case, you may look forward to this. The bathtub in this house is rather magnificent, if I do say so myself,” Ursula said proudly, a big smile etched onto her face. Her confidence did not betray Rio’s expectations, as he found himself being filled with a sense of elation at the sight.
“Amazing. So this is a bathtub of the spirit folk.”
“Right? It’s amazing, Onii-chan! I want to jump in right now...”
Rio’s moods generally didn’t fluctuate up or down by very much, but that rule didn’t apply when it came to the bathtub of this house. Latifa’s eyes were sparkling, too.
Firstly, there was a proper changing area for clothes. Secondly, opening the door to the bathroom revealed the area to be clearly separated into a bathing area and washing area, just like a Japanese-style bath. This made it possible to wash the body before submerging in the water.
The floor, walls, and tub were all made of wood, a natural material that helped the space give off a wonderful, unusual quality suitable for refreshing oneself. Finally, the best part of all was the door that led to the outside deck, where another wooden tub was placed. In other words, an open-air bathtub — enclosed, of course, so that no one could peek.
“Hoho, I’m glad you find it to your liking,” Ursula laughed merrily at Rio and Latifa’s happiness.
“Umm, excuse me?”
Shortly before the sun was about to set, after Ursula had left already, Rio and Latifa were allocating rooms and organizing their belongings when they heard the sound of a girl’s voice from the entrance.
It was probably Sara and the girls. Ursula had mentioned earlier that they would be bringing groceries over.
Rio hurried to the entrance and opened the door, and sure enough, there stood Sara, Orphia, and Alma.
“Good evening, everyone.”
“G-Good evening!” Rio greeted them amiably, which the girls returned with extremely stiff nerves.
Orphia was managing a smile, but it was rather strained. Alma had a cool and serious expression, nodding her head in greeting.
“I’ve heard the details from Ursula already. Thank you for all that you’ve done. Please, come inside.” While he felt a little uncomfortable at their reaction, Rio invited them all inside anyway. The three girls thanked him and hesitantly made their way in.
“Latifa, Sara and the others are here.”
“Hello, Latifa.” After being introduced by Rio, the girls greeted Latifa sitting on a sofa in the living room.
“Oh, hello again.”
Latifa responded politely, watching them carefully to judge their moods. At some point, she had gotten rather close to them. She had probably opened up a little when Sara and Alma took her in while Rio was speaking with the elders.
“Umm, Master Rio. I apologize for the interruption, but would it be all right if we brought the items in?” Sara asked, nervously jumping straight to business.
“Of course. Please do,” Rio agreed pleasantly.
“Thank you very much. Orphia, if you’d please.”
“Okay. Let’s start with moving the foodstuffs to the pantry. Our own belongings can come afterwards.” Sara and Orphia exchanged words.
Rio thought he heard something he should make a comment about in their conversation just now, but decided it must have been his imagination. The reason for that was the fact that the girls seemed far too empty-handed to be moving items.
“Umm, you all seem to be empty-handed... Where might the items be? I can help carry them.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We have them with us. Orphia, please.”
Sara giggled at Rio’s question, then asked him for the pantry location and headed there. Rio tagged along with the girls, curious as to what they were going to store there. Latifa skipped along next to Rio.
“Dissolvo.” Once they arrived at the storage room, which was kept at a low temperature with an ar
tifact, Orphia held out a hand and chanted some kind of spell. The space before her hand started to warp, bending and twisting until various food items suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Huh?!” Rio and Latifa’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What Orphia used just now was a magic artifact... the Time-Space Cache. It uses the user’s essence to create an isolated dimension in time and space with the sorcery embedded in it, then withdraws items from the dimension when the user chants a certain spell,” Alma interjected with a rather proud explanation, having concluded the reason for their shock.
“To think such artifacts existed... that’s amazing. Can spirit folk use time-space sorcery too?”
“Yes. However, we’re limited by how much energy it consumes. The only ones who can use it are those with large amounts of ode... what humans would call essence. That is why high quality spirit stones are required to create artifacts with time-space sorcery embedded.”
“Spirit stones? Not enchanted gems, or essence crystals?” While Sara and Orphia started arranging the items to the side, Rio was unable to hold back his curiosity as he questioned Alma.
“Yes. It is an object that differs from the enchanted gems and the essence crystals crafted from them. You may think of them as a superior version, to put it broadly.”
“I see.”
With a nod, Rio finally joined the others in organizing the food. Alma did too, and for a while they harmoniously went about working out where to place what.
Occasionally, Rio would come across a food item or ingredient that didn’t exist in the Strahl region, but did exist on Earth, making him secretly react in astonishment.
“What’s this...?” After spotting an item he simply couldn’t let go of, he turned to ask Alma to identify it.
“Those are the grains from threshing rice husks. It’s one of the products from threshing, and we eat it by boiling it or frying it.”
The word she had used wasn’t the exact same pronunciation as the Japanese word for rice, but from the description of how it was prepared, there was no mistaking it.
“While we have ingredients that are prepared in a similar way, this exact thing isn’t available in Strahl.”
“It was originally grown in the Yagumo region, after all. If I recall correctly, it was brought into the village over the long course of history and we started cultivating it.”
“I look forward to both cooking it and eating it.”
Thus, they chatted as they worked until they had put most of the food away in the pantry and returned to the living room. Latifa had been talking with Sara and Orphia while they cleaned up, allowing her to open up and feel a bit more relaxed compared to when they first arrived.
“So, umm... Master Rio. Which rooms shall we sleep in?”
After tea had been prepared and everyone was sitting on the sofas for a breather, Sara brought up the topic rather timidly.
“...Huh?” Rio gawked at Sara’s words.
“Eh? Umm, the head elder... Elder Ursula didn’t tell you anything?”
“Uh, tell me what?” He had an inkling of what was going on, but asked anyway to settle his heart.
“We were told to live with Master Rio in this house and attend to you two...”
Sure enough, Sara’s words were exactly as Rio expected.
“......Whaaat?! You’re all going to live with us here?” Latifa responded with amazement after a few seconds to think.
“Yes. Will that be a problem?”
“W-Will it?” Orphia asked, prompting Latifa to look up at Rio sitting next to her.
“No, that’s...”
Rio’s expression conveyed a sense of disapproval. Though they were all young boys and girls, it was one boy to four girls — just imagining it made him feel weary.
“Erm, is it too much to ask after all?” Sara asked Rio with an anxious face.
“...Umm, is everyone here okay with that?” Rio asked. “I’m a man — and a human one at that, you know? If you came here on an order, then please don’t force yourselves to do this.”
His thinking was that Sara and the others might not want to live together with a stranger like him.
“We’re completely fine with it! Master Rio is a savior. And we can’t apologize enough for how terribly we treated you. So we’d like to repent for our actions through this!” Sara insisted heatedly, with Orphia and Alma nodding at her side.
“Ah, no, but... I don’t need repentance or anything.” Rio said, shrinking back.
“I-I understand that we may be a nuisance to you! We were actually worried that Master Rio would be the one to oppose this... It’s true that we were told to do this, but we’re happy to follow through with it! We want to get along more with Latifa, too!” Sara expressed wholeheartedly to the best of her ability. Rio could sense the determination within her; she wouldn’t back down easily.
The silence in the room continued for a moment, until....
“Lord Rio, I’m coming in.” Ursula appeared in the doorway.
“Ursula...” Rio shot her a questioning glare, wondering if all of this had been her doing.
“I overheard part of your conversation. Regarding the topic of living together with the girls, Lord Rio, I would like to humbly request this of you.”
“Even if you say that... isn’t it undesirable for them? Sara and the others are of the same bloodline as the council members of the village, right? There’ll be bad rumors if they live with a human like me.” Rio whispered in Ursula’s ear, having briskly stood and approached her.
“All the more reason, then. Rumors about Lord Rio and Latifa are already spreading through the village. If the village council were to treat you like the plague, those negative rumors would be even worse.” Ursula shook her head dismissively.
“Will it really be all right?”
“It shall be. As a head elder, I guarantee this. This is an action we’ve taken for Latifa’s well-being. Lord Rio, you intend on leaving the village one day, no? Then it would be undesirable to continue this dependency she has developed towards you. You need individuals beside her who can be her guardian, her friend. While those girls still have a long ways to go, they’re all good girls.”
It was exactly as Ursula said. If he were to consider Latifa’s future, Rio had to be less protective of her.
“...You’re right. Both Latifa and I would greatly benefit from this.”
“Oho! Then may I take that as a word of acceptance?”
“Yes. If it’s not too much trouble for Sara and the others...”
Thus, it was decided that Rio and Latifa would live together with the spirit folk girls.
That night, to celebrate their new life together, they decided to hold a modest feast. The attendants were the new residents of the house — Rio, Latifa, Sara, Orphia, and Alma — and the three head elders, Ursula, Syldora, and Dominic, for a total of eight people. As the evening approached, they went about preparing the feast in the kitchen. Sara, Orphia, and Alma took charge of the cooking, while Rio asked to help out.
However, sure enough...
“Master Rio, please take a breather,” they all told him.
“We’re going to be living together from now on, so there’s no need to accomodate me so much. We’ll all just get tired that way, don’t you think? And I’d prefer it if you stopped calling me ‘Master’ too,” Rio told them with a forced smile. The three girls looked at each other.
“Then, umm... Would it be okay to just call you Rio?” Sara asked on behalf of the group.
“Yes, that would be fine. Then let us do the housework in a similar fashion. We can decide the specifics another day, so let’s just cook together for today. This way we can check each of our skill levels at cooking too.”
“I want to eat Onii-chan’s cooking!”
Rio’s suggestion made Latifa excitedly jump into the conversation. The three girls — especially Sara — seemed concerned about assigning chores to Rio, but Latifa’s final word made them cave to his wishes.
Then, after discussing who would be making what, they finally began preparing the food.
As a matter of fact, Rio was desperate to cook.
There were so many ingredients in the pantry that weren’t available in Strahl, so he wanted to try to remake as many of Earth’s foods as he could. Latifa would surely be ecstatic too. He would only make western foods that children liked — pasta, omelettes, and meat patties.
With skillful hands, he completed the cooking all the while avoiding getting in the way of the others, making Sara and Alma widen their eyes with awe.
“Fufu, this is fun... Cooking with everyone,” Orphia said, preparing food and grinning happily.
“Rio... is as good at cooking as Orphia.” Alma said. She was still a little reluctant to call Rio without a title.
“I-I won’t lose either!” Sara said enthusiastically, tackling the ingredients even more seriously.
In no time at all, a feast was upon them. The living room of their new house was soon buzzing with life.
“Gahaha! Your food’s great, kid!” Dominic laughed heartily, gulping down the alcohol in his metal cup.
“The ingredients are all items I’m very familiar with, yet the dishes are all new and innovative. I’m surprised to experience something this good at my old age.”
“Yes, what wonderful skill. My favorite is this egg dish with tomato.”
Syldora and Ursula smacked their lips at Rio’s cooking.
“I prefer this one here with potato and cheese. Its perfect with alcohol. Alma, what about you?”
“I like the meat dish best. It looked very difficult to make, but the taste is definitely worth it,” Alma replied as she munched on a patty.
“Ehehe, all of Onii-chan’s cooking is delicious!” Latifa beamed proudly as she ate the pasta.
“Rio, teach me how to make it next time,” Orphia requested pleasantly.
“O-Orphia, isn’t that rude?!” Sara warned her in a panic.
“Sure, I don’t mind. In exchange, teach me how to make some of your village’s dishes too.”
Blessing of the Spirits Page 14