Aguas Calientes, the town most closest to our second World Wonder, Macchu Pichu. Now due to the electrifying shark-wrestling match held in the middle of the ocean, I seem to have been sadly still under the effects of the megavolt charge's zaps. This basically meant we couldn't continue until I got it all out of my system, so we had to make a stop here. It's a good thing, too, cause this place looks gorgeous. A real resort type feel to it, it's got tons of hotels to pick and choose from, and most importantly of all - It's right at the base of Macchu Pichu, so we can go there whenever we want!
"You doing better, zapman?" Issei went to pat me on the back, but accidentally shocked himself in doing so.
"Yeah, at least the stuttering stopped." I sighed, "Though I've got a real nasty headache right now, and my legs can barely sit still."
"It may sound bad, but you should probably skip out on taking a shower until all that electricity leaves your body." Freddy then wondered, "Geez, usually that high of a voltage could power an entire village. It's actually incredible how you're still alive..."
"Eh, I've cheated death before." I pulled down my shirt to reveal the bullet wound in my chest, "In any case, it's not like I'm completely fine either. I have to constantly Focus on Healing myself with my Green Iro, otherwise I'm sure my heart would have seized hours ago."
That being the case, what's the best way to discharge all this stored up energy? I imagine it's like static electricity, where you just touch enough conductive stuff until it's all passed down, or maybe you'd ground yourself or whatever? Hmm, ground, passing down... A-ha!
"I got it!" I pointed to the dirt road leading up the mountain, "Let's go visit Macchu Pichu on foot!"
"How about you calm down a bit, zappy?" Issei knew better than to physically hold me back this time, but still insisted on me not going through with this plan, "You're tired, you're woozy, and you're surely not thinking straight. Look, we'll fly up there with the airbike in the morning. Until then, rest up and regain your strength."
"I'd take you to a doctor, but we really can't do that because you don't have any documents with you." Freddy apologized, "It's a shame, but we'll have to figure this out on our own."
"I tried Googling the symptoms, but obviously, the Internet doesn't expect anyone to keep themselves alive with Healing powers, so it doesn't have an answer." Issei sighed.
"Guys, I'm telling you, the best way to discharge is to use up all that stored energy!" I remained firm in my stance.
"Rest!" They shouted.
"No rest!"
"Rest!"
"No rest!"
This bickering kept going on until they both got tired. As for me though, I still had plenty of energy left, obviously, so in my Eyes I won the argument. Still, I can understand where they're coming from, and even though my argument won, I can at the very least agree with most of the points they made during the argument. So yeah, I'll let them have this one, which makes the total score go 1-1. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
"Finally! Thank you!" Issei raised both hands in worn-out gratitude, "Geez, we could have found a nice comfy hotel by now if you had just accepted it from the start."
"Whatever, let's just choose the closest one to our ride." Freddy pointed to all the nearby hotels before settling his finger on one, "Eeer... Sure, that one."
"Tierra Viva?" I tried reading the foreign sounding name of the place.
"It looks expensive." Issei frowned.
"Nephew, you're in a tourist town that's known for being the closest to one of the new Wonders of the World." Freddy shot back, "Everything here is bound to be expensive."
"That's not what he meant though." I added, "Issei wanted to ask how we'll be able to afford it. Won't we run out of money?"
"Haha, that's the beautiful part, Luneski!" Freddy opened the glovebox containing tons of our extra megavolt batteries I had made, "Be they megavolts or just random doohickeys, as long we have you, a human 3D printer, then such problems will forever be a thing of the past!"
"Heh, if you say so." I shrugged, albeit a bit jittery, "Then, let's go set ourselves up in a room to sleep in."
"Aye!"
And with that, we had entered the hotel with steeled resolve. The actual building was very tall, and it seemed to have focused on building it's rooms more so with higher ceilings than broader walls. Either way, it didn't feel at all claustrophobic, and in fact it was quite spacious. Walking up to the counter, we had asked for a room.
"¿Perdona?" The person working at the booth tilted his head.
"Oh right, that's gonna be an issue." Freddy clicked his tongue before whipping out his phone, "Dammit, I'm not picking up any nearby free wi-fi signals, so I can't even use any online translators..."
"WE NEED WI-FI." Issei tried talking louder in hopes of breaking the language barrier with volume.
"Disculpas, ¿tienes alguna reserva?"
"No, wi-fi!" He repeated, "No algunas!"
"Un momento." He then turned to another girl standing next to us.
"What's he doing now!? Oi, you can't just leave mid-conversation!" Issei fussed.
Geez, what an embarrassing situation. Well, I guess it was to be expected that we'd run into this at some point, but I at least thought it wouldn't be as difficult to at least get by. Whatever happened to English being the universal language? This dude only speaks... Actually, what language even is that? Let's see, it's in Peru, so... Peruvian? Is that right?
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"What now?" I pondered as we waited for the guy to finish talking with the girl.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Hey." The girl then surprised us by calling out to us, "Come here."
"Hm?" We looked around to make sure she was definitely talking to us.
"Yeah, you three don't speak Spanish, right?" She smiled, "Come here, I'll help translate, so tell me what you need!"
Well, I'll be damned! We actually lucked out by meeting with a local! Or is she just a fan of the language and culture? Who knows, but I don't care as long as we get our hotel rooms!
"Right, then we'd like to book a room to stay in for the night." I explained.
"No duh, why else would you go to a hotel?" She giggled.
"Got us there..." Issei shriveled up from embarrassment.
"Then let me be more specific - We'd like a one night stay at a three bed room." Freddy cleared his throat.
"Ah, gotcha." She then spoke with the hotel staff a bit before turning to us, "He's asking what your budget is."
"Anything, we'll pay whatever they have free, so just tell him we need to take a rest." I sighed.
"Is that so..." She hid a wry smirk before telling that to the staff guy, "Mhm, ya veo."
"What's up?"
"Yeah, they don't have any 3 bed rooms available, I'm afraid." She shook her head, "Only a four bed room."
"Well then we'll just take that, then." I reasoned.
"This is a tourist spot, they can't just book a perfectly good 4 person room for 3 people." She explained, "It'd be inefficient."
"What? What kind of logic is that, dammit?" Issei frowned, "But if that's how it works, I guess it can't be helped. We'll have to look for someplace else..."
"Not necessarily." She winked at us, "I got an idea, if you don't mind hearing me out."
What proceeded was her revealing to us quite the devious plan indeed. Seeing as the staff here didn't understand English, we could freely plot in front of them without fear of them getting mad. Now when it comes to the plan in question, it was actually quite simple. She was a tourist just like us, apparently, and had reserved a room for herself here ahead of time. That being the case, she just came here after us, so the staff don't know that. If she were to register into the four person room with us, she could just cancel her own stay and get her money back, we could all share this room, and continue on about our day without any issues.
"A perfect plan, except none of it feels perfect." I immediately felt uncertain, "Among other glaring issues, that plan involves you to sleep in the same room as three other strangers, and ones who are male at that. How can you just blindly put yourself through that?"
"Hey, we're both tourists, aren't we?" She smiled carefreely, "We can't afford to be overly-cautious, I know I can't at least. Besides, you three all have rings on your fingers, so I doubt you'd try anything."
Hm? She already noticed the rings? Wait a second, I know I have my wedding rings from Cecily and Marina, but how come Issei and Freddy have some as well?
"Ah, this is just a matching ring Othelia and I got a while back." Issei pointed it out, "We're planning on getting one for Eleanor too, so don't worry. Honestly, you just found out about it now?"
"I never bothered to take note of it in the first place..." I then turned to Freddy, "And you?"
"This isn't even a ring finger ring. It's on my middle finger, so it's purely cosmetic." He shrugged, "I found it in the junkyard while I was digging out the airbike."
"It really feels like you're married to it at times, uncle..."
"You have an airbike?" The girl sounded interested, "Exciting! We don't have those here yet, so I'd really like it if you showed it to me tomorrow!"
Here? I thought she said she was a tourist? Eh, must've just been a slip of the tongue, I'm sure.
"A-Ah, I mean sure, but..." Freddy looked super uncomfortable being put under pressure like that.
"I dunno, lady. I think it's better to not complicate things and just go to another hotel..." I was about ready to given up, when...
"Dude, it's night time already!" Issei fussed, "She offered it, so don't be an ass and refuse!"
"Right, it's like she said - We can't afford to be overly-cautious." Freddy chimed in, "It's just one night until we're all rested up, after that we're going to the World Wonder."
"Guys..." I sighed, "Well, alright then. You know best."
After a bit more talking, with the help of this lady traveler we had somehow managed to book ourselves a one night stay at the hotel. The staff worker looked quite annoyed for some reason while he was talking to her, but we nonetheless made it to our room. She dropped her luggage onto the farthest bed away from the other three, suggesting she was gonna be sleeping there.
"Luckily you got that far one, miss...?" Issei thought to ask her name finally.
"Sandy." She replied, "Sandy Smith."
"Nice to meet you Sandy." I nodded, "I'm Lune, this guy's Issei, and that older guy there's his uncle Freddy."
"What a group." She chuckled, "But I guess that's the fun of adventuring, eh? You get to share the wonderful experience with anyone, and you get to see so many incredible things."
That I can agree on. Sandy seems to be quite the lively kindred spirit. It seems Issei and Freddy were right to go along with this plan, since she seems to be legit. We at first thought the air in the room was gonna be quite awkward, but she soon made it super fun with her numerous stories of her travails. Spanning from all across Europe, to the far reaches of Asia and Africa, it was like there was no place on Earth that she didn't visit. Honestly, I could hardly keep up even whilst looking at the map, and judging from the other two's reactions, it seems she wasn't making up location names either. Before long, it was time for bed. Obviously the three of us didn't have anything more comfortable to slip into, but we were surprised to find out that she too just felt like sleeping in her current clothes. I guess regardless of gender, when you're a traveler, you don't have time to change into sleepwear.