A spotless dark sky stretched above forests that reached the horizon.
The calm sky had a single dot traveling across the full moon. A small boat hanging from a paper balloon, breaking the serenity of the scene with the loud voice of a young girl.
“HAAAH?? What do you mean you don’t know where the other relics are!?”
The young girl pointed an accusing finger at a raven haired man.
“You said you were on this damn quest for world peace of whatever the hell for YEARS! How could you not have looked that up!?”
“Please calm down Yuri…”
Hikaru attempted to pat her head, but his hand was swatted away by Yuri’s small hand.
“I.Will.Not.Calm.Down!”
Gritting her teeth, she stared him down and folded her arms. Hikaru used this chance to get past her defenses and patted her head, her anger seemingly instantly dissipating while being patted.
“Calmed down now? Can I continue with what I was about to say before you interrupted me?”
“…yes…”
She answered with a small voice and looked down while being patted.
Harboring complicated feelings over being treated as a child, she decided to let it go just this once, since she felt she was being slightly unreasonable.
“The locations of the relics, is usually kept secret by the churches. While no human would dare touch them without consent of the god, something else might.”
At this point he had stopped patting Yuri and concentrated on a small map he had taken out.
“Other than human..? So there really are elves and dwarves and other races!?”
Visibly excited, Yuri was not too surprised as magic existed in this world, so the chances of something else fantasy-like existing was not unexpected.
“Elves and dwaruvus? What are those?”
Not recognising those terms, He gave her a curious look.
“Maybe they’re called something else here..you know, beings that look like humans but live much longer and have longer ears or are much shorter and more powerful-”
She began explaining those terms in more detail before being cut off by Hikaru.
“If it’s humans with longer ears and life spans, we have those. But they’re not some other race. They are just humans that had been infused with nature mana from living in mana rich forests for hundreds of years. Same thing for the shorter more powerful dwaruvus, as you called them. Those exist but they’re just humans who are slightly shorter since living in a mining town, it’s more beneficial to fit trough smaller tunnels.”
While explaining this, Hikaru wondered what sort of horrible world Yuri was from where humans were classified as different races simply by looking different.
“I see…that makes sense I guess”
Feeling slightly disappointed, She wasn’t disheartened however. As the figures she admired in her childhood did exist, just slightly different.
“Either way, that’s not what I meant when I said something other than humans. There is..a theory that the relics have a connection to the realm the gods reside in. ungodly creatures aren’t able to enter there, but if something that used to live there were to acquire a relic…well who knows..”
“Like a fallen god…`?”
Her thoughts drifted to a certain angel that fell from heaven.
“No, gods don’t just fall from the heavens, they are banished for reasons unknown and forced to wander the mortal realm, robbed of their former power for eternity.”
Hikaru wore a solemn look while explaining that.
“Okay fine, banished gods, whatever, but how do we find the relics of they’re so hidden?”
She didn’t expect anything from Hikaru by now, but she at least needed a clue of where to start.
“Well…I don’t know their precise location,but they are most likely to be in places like royal castles, churches of said god, or any other important location”
He flipped the map and pointed at a large blob in the middle of it.
“One of them is likely to be here, in the capital city Urnan. The people there follow the god Tyr, the warrior god, so they are all slightly fixated on the idea of duels. It’s where I earned a lot of my reputation as a knight and acquired the job as Mako’s bodyguard. They should have the relic of Tyr somewhere inside the city.”
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“Mnn..well it’s a start I guess, once we are there I guess we can buy some information with these trinkets I brought along, but first we need to trade them for some coin..”
The sun slowly rose while Yur’s thoughts drifted to making plans of what they would once they arrived.
—
The pair finally arrived at their destination several days later. Yuri gratefully fully stretching her body.
“Finally, now I can get proper sleep and a shower that doesn’t include washing myself with a damp cloth…”
She was sad to admit, but she did feel some shame when she washed herself with Hikaru next to her.
So she had tried to get them to land somewhere so she could hide behind a tree. Hikaru refused however, as he believed it to be too dangerous to do so around these parts. As such Yuri was forced to go along her business as a girl while making sure that Hikaru wasn’t looking. Which was quite stressful.
“Indeed. Don’t go running off on your own however, and stay close to me”
He warned her while scanning the area with a serious gaze.
“I’m not a small child, even if I may look smaller than I used to be.”
She hmphed and walked off without Hikaru, before being grabbed by him from behind.
“I’m not saying this because you look young. You currently have the body of a pretty young girl, so it would be dangerous to wander about on your own. Although these people value honour, they do not value women as much, so just stay close to me since I’m worried about your safety!”
Saying that in a slightly forceful manner, Hikaru had an obviously concerned expression.
“Alright…geez..calling me pretty…I’m a man damnit..i can take care of myself..but I guess I can stay wit you if it makes you feel better..geez, worse than my mother..”
She complained while blushing slightly, annoyed with her own reaction and slowly walked alongside Hikaru.
“Now first off…i do have some money..but we should start by going to the market and selling those trinkets”
Hikaru bought a small map from a salesman and started searching for the location of the market place on it.
“Sure, it’s probably the place where all the wagons with boxes are going, so let’s follow their lead”
She dragged Hikaru along, who was still busy concentrating on the map he bought.
They eventually arrived at the marketplace. A large wide area where merchants sold directly out of small tents and stalls, which displayed various wares. Others simply chose to display their items on dirty blankets laid out on the ground.
The place was bustling with people and it was safe to say that this was indeed a city of a warrior god. All the men had some kind of weapon strapped to them, even the few women that could be seen were displaying small daggers on their waists.
Yuri looked incredibly out of place with her bright pink dress and cute appearance, which drew many of the men’s gazes. Making Yuri very uncomfortable. They all looked disappointed and minded their own business once they noticed that Hikaru was escorting Yuri. Making her very thankful for his presence.
“I see a small gold sellers stall over there..”
Hikaru pointed at a stall full of glittering items, while slowly heading towards it.
“Ah welcome, what can I interest you with, sir and madame? Mayhaps a wedding ring or a golden tiara for the young lady?”
The merchant began to show his wares, making Yuri slightly annoyed with his misunderstanding.
“No, we are here to sell, honorable merchant.”
Taking out several rings from Yuri’s bag, Hikaru showed the merchant.
“Ah excellent quality, it is a sad day indeed when a noblewoman is forced to sell her trinkets…but it is a lovely day for me!” The merchant grinned while examining the rings “Ah yes, highest of quality, these will fetch a nice price, how about 10 gold coins for the lot?”
Yuri’s eyes filled with a small glint. She had seen the currency of this world, and just the gold in the rings was worth far more than ten golden coins. So she took a risk in being slightly direct.
“That’s quite funny, but we are in a hurry, so could we get the real price, we have no time to spend on jokes.”
Yuri attempted to smile in the same manner she had seen all shrewd women do in various TV shows.
“Ah of course, of course, forgive me madame, I had to see if you were actually the legitimate owner of these rings, we do get quite a lot of thief and actors trying to sell things like these on the market. Is 50 gold coins a reasonable price?”
The merchant began to count out the coins without waiting for an answer.
“Yes that will be sufficient” She said while sighing mentally.
“Phew dodged a bullet there” She breathed out after they were a bit away from the stall.
“What is a ‘bullet’, if I may ask?” Hikaru asked while they wandered the market.
“Never mind that, just something from my world, we need to find some new clothes for me, I can’t walk around in this frilly thing. I look like a sheep among a pack of wolves.”
She looked around for a stall that sold modest clothing.
“Quite the analogy, yes it would indeed settle my nerves a bit if you were walking around in something less conspicuous”
Patting Yuri’s head, his hand was slapped away in the usual manner.
They soon found a merchant that sold simple clothes. Yuri bought a simple white dress with a few spares, after Hikaru struggled with convincing her to buy those. He had told her of how the women in this world did not wear men’s pants, and Yuri would probably bring more attention to herself if she wore pants rather than a pink dress. Which was incidentally sold to the merchant for a single copper piece.
After they were done with the market they headed towards the center of the city in order to find an inn they could stay at, a couple of questions and bribes later, they found an inn that asked no questions, could be used to buy some limited information and furthermore served reasonable breakfast and dinner for a meager cost.
They arrived at the “leaky tit”, an inn presumably run by a pervert or a large bosomed woman. They succeeded in ordering a room to share, but that was only after Yuri had complained about wanting separate rooms, before being silenced by Hikaru, who simply said. “It’s cheaper and safer, what would be the problem?” .
After an early dinner of hard bread and stew from questionable meat, they headed to their room in order to sleep off the weariness of their travels.
Hikaru made himself comfortable on the floor after Yuri complained about there being only a single bed, and trying to sleep on the floor herself, Which Hikaru couldn’t allow.
Thus ended their first day in the city of Urnan. With Hikaru falling asleep to Yuri’s quiet snoring.