"Fufu. That tickles, Vera."
Vera rubbed her cheeks against Latifa's, making her giggle at the ticklish
sensation. Their ears flicked happily on top of their heads.
"Since we're such close friends now, what do you think about playing
outside together? Would it be okay if I introduced Latifa to the others,
sister?" Vera asked after she was satisfied with how much they had played
together.
"Sure, go ahead. But remember that there will be children who can't
understand her tongue, so you two have to mediate between them. Got it?"
Sara said, giving her permission after stating her one condition.
"Of course!" Vera chimed in. "Yeah! Let's go already. I wanna play
tag!" Arslan added.
Vera and Arslan took Latifa's hands and pulled her into a dash towards
the entrance. As they headed outside, they ran into Rio, Orphia, and Ursula,
who had just returned from their spirit arts lesson. Seeing Rio made Latifa's
expression liven up in a flash.
"Ah, Onii-chan! Welcome back!"
"Wahoo, is this Latifa's brother? He's so cool!" Vera looked at Rio's
face and grinned.
"Hoho, how lively," Ursula said.
"Ah, Head Elder! Good day."
"Hello, Head Elder."
Arslan bowed politely at Ursula, with Vera following in kind.
"Are you going out, Latifa?" Rio asked.
"Yup. We're going to play outside. Is that okay?" Latifa said timidly.
"Of course that's okay. I'm glad. I'll make dinner and wait for you, so go
play all you want. Thank you for treating Latifa nicely, you two." After
giving permission for Latifa to go out, Rio turned to Vera and Arslan.
"I see... So Latifa's brother is the human who came from outside the
village. I've heard the story from my sister, Sara. It's very nice to meet you,"
Vera greeted Rio politely, as Arslan bowed nervously.
"P-Pleased to meet you."
"Thank you. It's very nice to meet you too. I hope you'll be good friends
with Latifa."
"We sure will!"
"Yes!"
Rio returned the greeting, to which Vera and Arslan both nodded enthusiastically.
"If you'll excuse us, Sara and I will accompany the children."
"We'll leave the rest to you, Rio. Orphia."
Sara and Alma left to supervise Latifa and the others.
"Okay! We'll have some tea and start making dinner. Have fun." Orphia
saw the outside group off with Rio and Ursula.
"We will. We'll be back soon — hey, you! Wait up! Don't run ahead!"
Sara chased after Latifa and the others in a hurry.
"Hoho... How energetic they are," Ursula mumbled with a smile. Rio's
mouth was also turned up in a peaceful smile.
◇◇◇
And so, several months passed since starting their life in the village. With
so much to learn, the busy and bustling days went by in a flash. On one such
day, after Rio and Latifa had become accustomed to life in the village...
Rio was in the middle of his spirit arts lesson with Ursula and Orphia,
when Latifa came running toward them at an incredible speed.
"Onii-chan!" She skidded to a stop just before colliding with Rio, then
latched onto him. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck and climbed
up his back, until she could peer over his shoulder at his face.
"W-What's wrong?" Rio asked, slightly thrown off-balance. At the same
time, Vera and Arslan appeared, followed by Sara taking up the rear.
"Hey, you!" As soon as Sara appeared, she scolded Latifa, Vera, and
Arslan.
"What did you do, Latifa?" Rio asked again as Latifa rubbed her cheek
against Rio's face innocently.
"Sara won't give us any break time. She said I couldn't come see Onii-
chan!"
"Don't lie, Latifa. Your statement is intentionally misleading; I said you
could see him once you finished studying. I'm only mad because you snuck
out before you were done," Sara responded to Latifa's unhappy words in a
logical manner. Latifa puffed up her cheeks in a pout.
"But studying every day is boring! I want to learn spirit arts too."
"You have many other things to learn right now. And you've started
learning spirit arts already, no?"
"But I want to be with Onii-chan."
"You shouldn't be selfish like that," Sara said with a stern shake of her
head.
"I don't wanna! Hmph, Sara's such a grump." Latifa muttered under her
breath. Sara's mouth dropped open in dumbfounded shock.
"Wha... Latifa! Sit down right there!"
"Don't wanna!"
"Kuh, this child..." Sara's body trembled as Latifa mockingly stuck out
her tongue. Her cute and fluffy ears and tail were twitching in a menacing
way.
"S-Sara, don't you think Latifa must be feeling lonely?" After watching
silently until now, Orphia quickly stepped in to calm Sara.
"That's right, sister. Latifa just wanted to see her brother. She's studied
so much more than us, so she deserves the break! Don't you think?"
Vera tried to chime in with her support, but suddenly...
With a noisy, flapping sound, a human-shaped figure descended from the
sky.
"What's wrong? There seems to be a commotion over here..." It was the
winged werebeast, Uzuma. She looked around at the gathering of people and
widened her eyes upon spotting Ursula and Rio. She immediately dropped to
one knee before them.
"I-If it isn't the Head Elder and Lord Rio. Good day..."
"Hum. It's been a while," Ursula nodded.
"H-Hello, Lady Uzuma." Rio returned the spirit folk's greeting
somewhat awkwardly. This made Uzuma turn to look at Rio with wide eyes.
"You've already learned to speak the language of the spirit folk?"
"Y-Yes, if it's at an easy enough level, at least. I'm... I'm still not used to
it, though. I learned together... I learned with Latifa," Rio replied to Uzuma's
question in a stiff manner.
"I'm surprised. And, well... I am sorry for what happened in the past."
"...Oh, no. I am still not used to your language yet, so please excuse my
use of the Strahl tongue from here... In regards to what happened, I have
heard that you were punished by being put under house arrest. Please do not
let yourself be troubled by the incident any further. All is forgiven." At first,
Rio wasn't quite sure why he was being apologized to, so he took a moment
to respond.
"Uzuma — long time no see. When did your house arrest end?" Sara
asked Uzuma, joining in on the conversation.
"Long time no see, Lady Sara. It just ended this morning."
"I see. Will you be returning to work today?"
"No, I am still resting from my warrior duties. The first thing I wanted to
do after I was allowed outside was to apologize to Lord Rio..." Uzuma said,
expression clouding over with guilt.
Rio gave a strained smile and shrugged. "Don't worry about it."
"So you don't have anything else to do for today, Uzuma?" Sensing the
awkward air between Rio and Uzuma, Sara changed the topic out of
consideration.
"Yes, nothing in particular."
"I see... then, would you like to spar? It's been a while, right?"
"O-Oh, sure. I don't mind..." Uzuma nodded mildly.
"Ooh! Uzuma and Sara are sparring?! I wanna see that!"
"Do your best, sister!" Hearing the word "spar" made Arslan and Vera
jump with excitement.
"Who's stronger?" Latifa asked her two friends curiously.
"That'd be Uzuma, of course."
"My sister, for sure!"
Arslan and Vera replied at the same time, but with different answers.
"No, no... Uzuma is the warrior chief. Sara's strong, but she can't defeat
her yet."
"That's not true!"
"You're just biased towards your family, Vera!"
"Grrr!"
Arslan and Vera bickered like noisy spectators.
"But I think my Onii-chan is the strongest!" Latifa chimed in, unable to
endure listening silently any longer.
"Sorry to say this about Rio, but my sister is the strongest."
"Uzuma is definitely stronger than everyone else!"
Vera and Arslan immediately shot down Latifa's statement, but Latifa
refused to back down, too.
"That's not true. Onii-chan drove away a whole flight of demi-dragons
by himself!"
"A whole flight of demi-dragons, you say..."
"Impressive as always."
Uzuma and Ursula both murmured in awe. Sara and Orphia also threw a
look of respect Rio's way.