With my eyes slowly opened, the scenery of a small narrowed and dusty room came into view. With a small yawn, I raised my upper body and got to my feet.
The figure of the sleeping Alya could be seen laying down on the bed, her blue exquisite dress was disheveled and greatly exposed her long snow-white thigh.
Her long waist length silky green hair was scruffy and covered most of her face. After glancing at her I opened up the wooden window allowing sunlight to illuminate the room.
"Mm."
The sunlight shone on the face of Alya causing her to open her emerald eyes. Due to the light of the sun, she promptly covered her face blocking out the sunlight.
"Oh, so you're awake?"
I asked. In a slightly surprised voice.
"Mm, I would much rather sleep a bit longer, I stayed up late collecting mana from you while you were sleeping."
She explained in a sleepy tone, her hand was rubbing her eyes which looked half asleep. Seeing that I couldn't help but laugh, aren't spirits supposed to be perfectly fine without sleep?
"Anyway, it's time for us to get going. I would much like to find that nine tailed beasts before it gets dark."
I said while keeping my gazed towards the window. The beautiful scenery of the outside reflected in my eyes. Upon seeing it closely like this I notice how bad the conditions of the village crops were.
Those plants look like they haven't had water in years
I thought so while observing the state of the field, the plants were clearly withering away. The entire field was dried up as though water had never touched it since it was created.
When I glanced towards the sky, I noticed there wasn't a single dark cloud anywhere near the village.
While on the contrary, there were many dark clouds covering the top of the mountain's peaks.
"I think we should help them on the farming development before we leave."
I muttered to myself.
"Hmm... did you say something?"
Alya who was fixing her disheveled dress suddenly asked.
"No, it's not something we should worry about right now, I'll go wash up then we can leave."
I said before heading towards the small bathroom next to the entrance door.
***
After washing up for 5 minutes, I finally exited the bathroom. There the figure of Alya came into my line of sight.
"…. Why did you change your look?"
I asked in a somewhat baffling tone. There was the figure of Alya dressed in a pink colored miniskirt that reach a little above her knees, while wearing a orange sleeveless shirt that went well with her skirt.
Her bright green hair was styled in a twin ponytail and continued to hang down her back. Seeing this my mouth was flopped opened.
"Hm. What's wrong do I not look good? Maybe I should change back to my original look then."
Alya said in an amusing tone, when seeing my reaction.
"N-no that's not it, it's just… why did you suddenly decide to change your appearance?"
I asked in a slightly flustered tone.
"Fufufu… Oh is that all? Well, I just found this appearance more beautiful, could it be you think differently?"
She batted her long eyelashes while tilting her head to the side. Her green, emerald eyes clearly state. 'I won't take no as an answer.' Seeing that I gulped before nodding my head vigorously.
In the end it's better to go with the option that wouldn't bring any harm to the person answering the questions of the woman, after all I was always good at reading the atmosphere. I also don't particularly dislike her current appearance; I was just really curious about her sudden change.
When hearing my answer, a beautiful smile bloomed on her face. I swallowed my breath upon gazing at that beautiful smile. And, perhaps finding my reaction strange Alya tilted her head with a puzzled look.
"An-anyway let's go, shall we?"
I said, changing the topic. I then promptly opened the wooden door with a creaking sound. And the fresh morning air drifted through my nostrils. Because it was still early in the morning, not many people were out, there was only a handful of villagers who were out and about.
"Aren't you going to bring Alice along with us?"
Alya who was following me from behind suddenly asked.
"No, I think it would be better for us to go alone, don't you agree?"
"Of course, if she comes along, we're going to have to slow down our pace, which would be undesirable since we want to hurry back before nightfall."
Alya said nodding her head in understanding. Thus, we hurriedly made our way to the outer perimeter of the village, the unsightly sight of the three adventurers hanging from a thick tree branch became visible, their face was completely stiff freezing from the cold air they had to endured throughout the long night.
"You didn't put a barrier on them?"
I asked Alya who had a nonchalant expression on her elegant face.
"Humph, I say they deserve this much for all the trouble they had caused us."
Alya send them a look of pity before turning away in a huff.
Unable to come up with any meaningful retorts I also turned my gazed towards the forest. Ignoring the pitiful cries of the ones whos were tied up while shivering from the lingering cold.
Although I can't help but feel bad for them, I do agree that they deserve this much for all the trouble they had caused the village.
With that thought in mind, we both made our way towards the direction we were given the night before.
We started walking up the scrappy mountain, the ground was muddy and wet from rainwater, many of the branches had collapsed and was blocking the path ahead, however, Alya would completely destroy them with her wind blades.
Creating a path easy to be walked through, the atmosphere was extremely quiet aside from the occasional sound of birds or the roars of wild beast. The rustling of the tree branches which would sometimes shake due to the constant wind also reached out ears.
Our journey has been smooth sailing for the most part, until we finally made our way up the foot of the hill.
"Sigh, that felt like a long walk."
Alya muttered as she let out a small breath. We had been constantly walking up a hill after hills the entire journey, even though it was just a mere two hours walk it felt much longer.
I then took out a water bottle from my bag and gave it to Alya, Alya gently took the bottle of water and slowly place it at her mouth, quenching her dried throat.
After drinking for twenty seconds, she finally removed the bottle from her mouth, and a refresh sigh escaped her mouth. I then took the bottle to satisfy my thirst.
Hmm… my body shudder from the sudden drop in temperature, even though it was hot a moment ago when I ran my gaze around the surrounding, I noticed there were traces of ice and snow scattered around. Seeing this I widened my eyes.
"The shrine should be somewhere around here, right?"
"Yes, according to the village chief there should be a huge shrine somewhere around these parts."
I replied while putting back the bottle inside my bag. We then started searching for the shrine where the nine tailed beasts dwelled. Alya and I split up searching for the shrine we were told about.
I searched the areas which are completely frozen, if the fox beast likes the cold, then I figured it would be somewhere around these parts but…
"Found it!"
While I was searching, I heard Alya's voice resounded. I then made my way towards her location and then…
"Isn't that a bit big for a shrine?"
I muttered completely dumbfounded.
The shrine was approximately 30 cm in height and its width was roughly 20 cm. The entire shrine was completely blue and encased with ice that seemed to be made from crystals.
The shrine sparked due to the intense sun rays that continued to shine. There were also two sculptures of a fox on both side of the shrine.
"This isn't really what I'd expect a shrine to look like."
I muttered a bit surprised by its appearance.
"Why do you care what it looks like, we should draw it out and eliminate it."
Alya said in a nonchalant voice.
"Hmm… I feel kind of bad for exterminating it when it hadn't done anything to us though."
I said a bit guiltily. But if we don't then, those villagers will surely continue to meet many hardships while they continue to live their lives in this forest.
After sighing I readied myself, even if it's a crime as long as it's for a good cause I'm willing to do it.
"Now, mother of fire blasts my target, flare ball!"
A magic formation was formed. Followed by a huge torrent of fire which quickly converted into a ball of fire measuring 5 cm in diameter.
The ball of fire then went towards the shrine made of ice. In mere seconds the shrine of ice should be nothing more than melted puddles of water, or so I thought.
BOOM!!!
Once the ball of fire was at a distance of 3 meters, a powerful bolt of lightning was fired towards the ball of flames. The ball of flames then exploded in midair once the lightning bolts had made contact.
"Eh."
I let out a surprise voice from the unexpected turn of events. On top of the shrine of ice, stood a nine tailed fox beast, with its entire body completely covered with silver fur, its nine silver tails moved swiftly from side to side in a violent manner, its deep red eyes narrowed dangerously as it glared at us from a distance.
"Fufu…. Looks like you made it quite angry, huh."
Alya said completely amused.
I wanted to say this isn't the time to be talking leisurely. But before I could get those words out. The nine tailed fox jumped up into the air and released a breath of cold air.