Quite some time has passed since I reincarnated on this island, and I’ve met all sorts of people and touched upon all sorts of things.
And perhaps as a consequence of this, life here is pretty comfortable, and without many things I’d call inconvenient.
And so, a new craving has been budding inside me…
“Katima’s happy about finally inviting you two.”
“Hahaha, sorry it took so long.”
We haven’t really had much contact with other races besides divine beast people, but I want to change that. I want everyone to have fun together.
And that’s part of the reason why I’m going with Reina to the village where Katima lives.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when we meet this new race, but right now, we’re walking up a mountain, and it feels like we’re going up a precipice.
“So Katima, what are alfar like?”
“Hn? That’s hard to answer.”
Katima starts groaning. I guess it really was kind of a weird question. I mean what are humans like? I’d have trouble answering too.
And yet, Katima looks like she’s really trying to answer it. She’s a pretty serious girl.
“Well, alfar worship great spirits.”
“Yes, you said that before.”
“High alfar like Katima receive their blessing, so we’re really strong.”
“Blessing?”
“Yes. The great spirits are the greatest beings on this island. Katima and the others receive some of that power, and that’s how we can live in this place.”
Maybe saying stuff like that is why they get into fights with divine beast people. I’m guessing alfar like Katima and divine beast people both have their gods, and are unwilling to back down on that front.
Well, it’d be fine if they could respect each other. As for me, I don’t really have a god I worship, and the same can be said for Reina.
The god that reincarnated me seemed unfortunate in various ways, and it’s hard for me to say I revere said god.
“But what are high alfar?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Katima said that so casually, that I ignored the fact that I’ve never heard about that before.
I guess I can sort of figure it out, but…
“High alfar are like Katima.”
“Hum…”
“So, like remarkable alfar?”
“Mufuh.”
Katima nods with a satisfied expression. She shows a lot of emotion considering how little her face moves.
“Katima should explain. Elves have high elves too, that are like royalty. And elves and alfar are originally the same, just with different spirits to worship, so…”
“Are you royalty, Katima?”
“Hn? What’s that face? Doesn’t Katima obviously look distinguished?”
Katima puts her hands on her waist, and tilts her head with a puzzled expression on her face.
I look at her up and down… And I really don’t sense anything resembling royalty from her.
Not to mention that she spoke about elders before, so it didn’t really feel like it was a kingdom of sorts.
“Still, it sounds like you live in an incredible place.”
“It sure does.”
“Alfar are mountain people that worship the great spirits of fire, earth, and darkness.”
I feel like it’s less of a mountain and more of a cliff. It reminds me of Ayers Rock in Australia.
I saw it a few times when I was flying, but I guess it really is the place where Katima’s people live.
We’ve been walking along this cliff for quite a while now, so I guess her village is pretty high up, because there’s no sign of it yet.
And it doesn’t look like Katima’s pace will slow down any time soon, even though she’s carrying that big stone axe on her back.
The same goes for me, but of course, when I look at Reina…
“Uh?”
“What?
“Nothing, it’s just that it looks like you’re doing pretty well.”
She’s sweating a little, but she’s walking at her regular pace. Even though I feel like when we first got to this island, she got tired a lot when we walked together…
As I’m thinking about that, she makes a somewhat exasperated face and sighs.
“I spend every day on this island too, don’t I? It makes sense that I would build up my stamina and get better at controlling magic energy.”
“Ah, that’s right. You can use physical strengthening, right?”
“Exactly. Well, not that it’s relevant to you.”
It’s true, I don’t need to use that. I have far more stamina than a regular person.
That’s why I wasn’t thinking about it too much, but apparently Reina has gotten better at using her magic
She was already strong enough to be a part of a group known as the strongest mages in the world, so she must be really talented if she still has room for improvement.
Unlike my fake super power stamped on me by god, her power comes from her own effort. Maybe one day she’ll be able to adapt well enough to be able to live on her own on this island.
“It’s great.”
“Well, humans can adapt to an environment even if they don’t like it… It was like this with my master too, come to think of it.”
It sounds like she doesn’t really want to remember it, as her eyes look a little dead. I don’t see that expression on her face very often.
From what I heard from her about her master, it sounds like her training when she was a kid was no joke.
But what does it mean for her to lump it together with life on this island?
“No, I should say that this is a lot more hardcore. I never imagined I would see a calamity level monster casually strolling around like this.”
I can’t really relate. I strongly associate monsters of this island with food in my head.
“That’s just you, Arata.”
“Well, I get that, but…”
“Arata’s weird.”
Katima? Even I can’t help but feel hurt when you say it so bluntly.
“Oh, almost there.”
Katima says as she takes off running, and as we follow her…
“Uwah!”
“Incredible…”
We can’t help but sound impressed by what we see.
“The whole cliff… Houses…”
It feels like they live with the mountain. There are all sorts of houses lined up with the cliff, but in a civilized way.
The word village led me to imagine something more… Pastoral, but it’s completely different from what I imagined.
There are dragons flying past each other in the sky, letting out shrill sounds.
It feels like the sort of desolate yet very fantastic sight that would be in a game I played before. Like this really is a fantasy world.
“This…”
“Yes. This is the alfar village where Katima lives.”
Says Katima with vast mountains behind her and a big smile on her face, looking very charming and like she’s shining.
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