"Well, I guess it's normal for you to be surprised," Gala said. "Since we are part of the hero's party, which is sponsored by the king himself, we get to enjoy these kinds of privileges in exchange for keeping the Human Kingdom safe from any strong monster attacks."
"I see. That makes a lot of sense."
We were chatting in my new room, a few hours after the king's guards escorted me here. It was located at the far end of the palace. The room was big and comfy for me.
Gala was accompanying me at the moment, lying down on my new bed in her nightgown. (I was wearing my nightgown too.) We were chatting with each other to pass the time.
"Do you have any further questions about all of this? I'll be happy to answer them."
"Hmm." I thought about it for a while, until a thought came upon me. "Actually, there is this one thing. Why does Dralk have the "hero" job? Jole said back then during the ride that Dralk's father was the former hero. Does the job pass down from generation to generation?"
"In a sense, yeah. The library has books relating to his family's history, so you can check it out there."
"Okay, I will."
"Do you know where the library is? I can show you around the palace if you want."
"Maybe later."
"Sure thing."
Her sharp, red eyes were looking at mine. Now that I look at her face up close, I was made aware of her beauty. Aside from her pretty face, she had fair, white skin, and her long, scarlet hair was tied to a ponytail. She was the type of girl who would make any man fall for her in an instant.
"Say, Gala. Are you interested in someone at the moment?"
"Huh?!" Gala's face immediately turned beet red. "W-Where did that come from all of a sudden?!"
"Ooooh, so you are interested in someone~" I went on the bed and crawled towards the blushing girl. "Who is it? Tell me! Tell me!"
"H-Hey! I d-didn't say I like someone!"
"Your face tells me otherwise!" I said, poking on her flushed cheeks.
"Noooooo! Stop it!"
"If you won't tell me, then I'll just guess myself!"
I didn't know any boys associated with Gala, so there were only two candidates that I know could fit the bill.
At first, I tried considering Dralk as a possible candidate since Gala talks (or rather, scolds) him frequently, but upon realizing that Dralk has a closer relationship with Alene due to them being childhood friends, the option is becoming less and less likely.
So, among all five of us, there was only one candidate left.
"Is it Werd?"
"......!!!" Gala's face turned even redder, glancing in the other direction.
"Haha, I knew it! It is Werd! It's him, isn't it?! Isn't it?!" I said, trying to poke the cheeks of the blushing girl in front of me.
"Nooooooooo! Don't tell him, please!"
Gala tried to get up and get off the bed. But, seeing her intent of escaping, I grabbed her by the waist and pinned her down on the bed, fastening her arms and legs as she tries to shake her way out of my clutches.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"Not unless you tell me the whole truth first! When was it? How was it? Which part of Werd are you attracted to? Come on girl, tell me everything!"
"Why do you want to know?" she said, finally relaxing her muscles in defeat.
"Just curious," I said. "We're comrades now, so why not have some small girl talk between us? So that we can get to know each other better. Don't worry, I'll share my experiences with boys as well."
"...Fine. Let me go and I'll tell you."
----------------------------------------
We spent the next few hours chatting, talking about ourselves and our history.
It turns out that Gala and Werd first met two years ago, back when the king first made the hero's party. Ever since then, the two of them frequently talk together and fight together during their missions, it was no wonder that they grew so close together in a short span of time. Plus, Gala said herself that Werd was the "type of guy" that she liked, so I guess that's that.
As for me, however...
I forgot for a moment that I was originally not from this world, meaning that all the stories of random boys confessing to me during high school didn't fully apply to this world. So instead, I tried to alter the stories a bit, making them fit in with this magical world. It was a miracle Gala managed to believe them.
"I'm bored..." I said out loud, lying backside on the soft and fluffy bed. It made a spring sound as I did so.
"Do you want to take a walk around the palace, then?" Gala suggested.
"Sure, why not."
We both got out of the room and made our way down the long hallways of the palace.
Outside the tall windows to our side, the sun can clearly be seen setting on the horizon, its yellow-orange ways giving light to the desolate hall in front of us. Maids could be seen loitering around, one of which is lighting up the candles to illuminate the halls for the night.
The palace, despite it being a four-story building, is actually large in terms of land space.
Which meant that this place had a lot of different rooms.
We first entered a two-story room full of books, which I assume is their library. Aside from a big chandelier hanging right above us as we went in, there are candles all around the place, lighting it up to provide as much light as possible to the quiet readers inside.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
"This is the library. Here we keep a copy of almost all of the books you can see in the kingdom," Gala said in a whisper. "Here you can find all books, ranging from the earliest ever recorded history to magic spellbooks covering all the different elements in this world. If you ever want to learn something new, you can go to this room."
I'll keep that in mind, I said.
"By the way, are there any fiction books here?"
"You can check them out, right at the back over there. There are twelve shelves dedicated to all the fiction humanity has written so far."
"Twelve shelves?"
"You'd be surprised at the height of them."
"......."
I'll check them out later.
The library was divided into two floors. The first floor had fewer shelves than the second floor, but there were tables and chairs scattered all around for the readers to take their time and relax. The second floor didn't have any chairs or tables but instead contained a lot of thick books relating to different topics.
One book that particularly caught my eye while I was exploring the second floor was a very thick hardbound, titled The History of the World, According to our Fathers. It was a bit high for me to reach, but after an extensive routine of tiptoeing and light jumping, I managed to successfully obtain the book, landing on the floor with a loud thud that echoed around the room.
Thank goodness for strong legs!
Carrying the heavy book by hugging it with both of my hands, I made my way down the first floor and placed it on top of a table.
"Huh? Where did Gala go? She was here just a moment ago."
I looked around the place for a bit until I finally find her in the fiction section. She seemed to be very invested in a book that's title clearly indicated it was a romance novel, to the point where she still didn't see me standing near her.
A thought passed my mind of me scaring her as a small prank but ultimately decided against it. I didn't want to jeopardize our friendship.
But it's nice seeing fierce girls such as Gala show their soft sides once in a while.
I went back to the table where I left the book, sat down, and started flipping its pages.
Wait. There was something not right about this situation.
I could clearly understand the words that I was currently seeing right now. But, as I looked closer, the language that I was reading wasn't Japanese. There wasn't the usual katakana, hiragana, and kanji I was used to reading, nor was there the S-O-V sentence structure that was predominant in the Japanese language. Instead, it was similar to English (a subject which, by the way, I am pretty good at if I do say so myself), using letters that were similar to the English lexicon.
It's not only that I was able to read it, I was speaking it too ever since day one. The words that were coming out of my mouth was from a language I didn't recognize at all, but I didn't notice since I was able to understand them easily. The thought never occurred to me since then, until I saw the written words in this book.
How in the world could I understand this language?
Maybe it is one of the privileges Hygieia gave me that I wasn't aware of?
In any case, it certainly saves me the advantage of learning an entirely new language. Nobody here seemed to speak Japanese or English either, which would have made communication with the people of this world even harder. I'm grateful for that.
Another thing to ask Hygieia about when we meet again.
I was about halfway through the book when Gala finished up her book, so we both exited the library together. I placed back the thick book in its original position and tried to remember it so that the next time I go to this place again I could continue reading it.
We continued our tour of the palace. Gala showed me rooms of various sizes, from a huge ballroom to the maid and servant's quarters.
A particular place caught my eye as we were exploring the basement of the building. It was a large room with stone walls, and everywhere you can see people wearing white, roaming around and doing various things related to cuisine. It looked like the kitchen of a fancy restaurant.
"This is the kitchen," Gala explained. "Here the best chef that the Empire has to offer cooks the rations of the Royal Family and its residents. This place was one of the first rooms built when the palace was being constructed thousands of years ago, so it has this place has a long and rich history behind it."
"I see..." I was too focused on the cake that was on the countertop being displayed. "You bake cakes here, too?"
"Yes, we sometimes do when the king is in the mood for sweets," Gala said as she walked over. "Oh, you're interested in the cake that I baked?"
"You baked this?" I asked, pointing at it. Taking a closer look, it was a vanilla cake, covered with a white layer of frosting and decorated with red cherries on the top. There were five candles on top of it.
"Yeah, I baked it awhile ago, before I went to your room to chat. I just left it to the chefs here to take it out of the oven and decorate it when it is done."
"The candles on the top. Is this a birthday cake for someone?"
"Nope. I thought it would be pretty to add a bunch of candles on the top, for decoration."
"Then what is this cake for then?"
"Snacks for us." She said as she picked up the plate containing the cake. "Come on, let's bring this to the dining hall and look for the boys."
Since Gala was holding the cake, she had to be careful not to make an accident, so we walked slowly towards the dining hall. She placed it in the middle of one of the small square tables and called a maid to fetch their plates and utensils.
"Hisami, can you do me a favor and fetch the others for me? I'll guard the cake here so that it won't get disturbed before you come back. The boys should be in the game room right now, and you would probably find Alene there too. But if she's not, then you could check in her room. It's the room right across yours."
"Okay, sure."
"You memorized the way there?"
"I think I've got the hang of it."
"Good luck not getting lost!" Gala shouted to me as I exited the room.
Luckily for me, I did not get lost.
Dralk and Werd were playing an intense game of billiards when I entered. At first, I questioned how a game that came from my world somehow made its way over here, but when humanity first invented spherical balls, poking it with a stick as a pastime became inevitable. All it takes is a couple of hundred years for someone to come up with the idea of poking the balls into a hole.
At the back of the room, I spotted Alene sitting on a chair reading a book. She seemed to notice me enter the room, but quickly continued to read when she noticed me looking at her.
"Hi, Hisami. You want to join?" Werd greeted me as he handed me a cue.
"Werd! No fair!" Dralk exclaimed. "I thought this was a battle between us two men?! Why are you inviting a girl to our showdown?!"
"Oh, no. I'm not going to play. I just came here to tell you guys that Gala is waiting for us in the dining hall."
"Ahh, it's already time, isn't it?" Werd said as he looked at the clock on the wall. "We can continue this later, Dralk. We have to attend a celebration."
"Celebration? What celebration?" I asked.
"Looks like Gala didn't tell you," Werd said, forming a smile on his face. "Well, you'll find out when we get there."
Slowly we all made our way out of the game room and into the dining hall. Alene followed suit, but she stayed behind Dralk's back the whole time.
Hmm. Something is definitely going on with those two.
Maybe I should investigate this next time.
When we came back, the table was already set. Gala was patiently waiting for us, and together we all took a seat around the table.
The candles on the cake were lighted.
"Gala, what's this all about?" I asked her. "I thought we were having snacks. Why are the candles lit?"
"I'll get straight to the point, Hisami. This is a celebration for you joining the party!"
"Welcome to the hero's party!" They all shouted, hands in the air.
"Eh?!" I was genuinely surprised by the turn of events that I was left there with my mouth opened, stupefied.
"Haha, she's surprised! Cute!"
Gala glared at Werd, which prompted him to shut him up. Her sharp, penetrating eyes seemed to do the trick.
"You guys, you didn't need to do this for me, really..." I said, trying to hide my embarrassment.
"Nonsense! You're a new member of our squad, so a small celebration like this is a must!" Gala said. Alene nodded in agreement.
"T-Thank you, everyone..." I said, my face red with embarrassment. "I'm not sure what to say..."
"Well, I do!" Dralk exclaimed, and with that, he got his glass (of water) and raised it in the air. We all followed suit. "I hereby declare a toast to the new member of my party, Miss Hisami Enatsu. May the goddess' blessing be with her for all the years she live!"
"Cheers!"
And with that, in the middle of the dark, desolated dining hall that was only illuminated by the candles on our table, me and my new best friends chatted merrily with each other throughout the night.