053: Blooming!

November 8, 2020 - 6 minutes read - 1210 words

“Hmm… is it finally over?” Gates

“Well, perk up after wrapping up an encounter like this. This is the last one.” Rumba

Rumba look over at Gates, who is currently lying on his back. Gates sees my concerns and laughs it off.

“It was a strong blow…” Gates

“Really?” Al

After the first goblin emerged, more came along, even some higher rank goblins appeared. I was watching how our escorting adventurers were dealing with the flock of ten goblins, but Gates entire plan looked to be calling for help. Fortunately, the carriage with Rumba and Nord was nearby, so those two ran over and started attacking the goblins. The goblins were defeated by the those two, but Gates fared differently, he was knocked down by a high goblin early in the battle.

High goblins are a more powerful form of goblins with reddish brown skin and they’re slightly taller than average goblins. They’re still shorter than an adult human, expect around 120cm height for a high goblin.

Gates caught the high goblin’s club with his circular shield. The blow didn’t look too bad, but Gates suddenly groaned and fell to the ground. What happened? It was just a wooden club hitting an iron shield? The goblins are confused, but try to take advantage of the situation. I use a Fire Lance magic to discourage them from attacking Gates.

Rumba arrived and started to annihilate the goblins while I kept the goblins away from Gates with magic. According to Gates, the shield wasn’t held properly and it gave him a blow on the chin. The high goblin’s blow must have been stronger than expected and gave him a mild concussion. How pathetic…

Rumba and Rowe are stripping off materials from the goblins in order to be ready to depart again. The other escort, Gates, is recovering.

“My long-suffering chin…” Gates

“I’m out!” Al

We’ll have to hurry, since the dead goblins may attract other monsters. Rumba led the saddened Gates over the carriage, and our journey resumed.

Seven days later, after we had passed more villages and towns, we were approaching the royal capital. Since our goblin encounter, we hadn’t run into any other monsters, so we had kept a good pace. We expect to arrive in the royal capital around noon tomorrow.

I"m tired of being cooped up inside the carriage. It might be nice to venture outside and talk with Rumba and Gates. I’m tired of playing cards.

“What’s next, Old Maid? Poker? A nervous breakdown?” Al

“I’d like to play Tycoon” Elna

“Well, I’m tired of playing cards.” Al

I give the cards I was holding to the person collecting up the cards and left the carriage. There are card games in this world, but they use a different collection of cards from what I’m used to. I ordered a blank sheet of cardstock, it’s only a little stiffer than normal paper, but I can’t complain that much. I wonder if the deck of cards will be the next Reversi?

I’m lying on my back on the carriage, watching the blue sky go by. I wonder if I could use some magic as a distraction. There’s nobody around, so maybe I could launch some magic into the sky? Fireworks are nice to watch, but I haven’t seen any in this world. It’d be nice to liven things up, so I raised my hand to the sky…

“Hmm, is something wrong?” Rumba

“What are you up to?” Gates

The two escorts are confused by my behavior, I’ll ignore them for now. I’ll start with an image of a firework, then use Fire Magic. It flies up to a high height, then explodes at that altitude. It’s like a flower blooming in the sky. I’ll try it with more magic power this time, it makes a humming sound as it goes even higher than the previous one. It then explodes with a bang sound and scatters into falling flames.

“Oh!” Rumba & Gates

“I know that’s Fire Magic, but it’s an interesting variant!” Rumba

“That seems like it would be better at night.” Gates

“You might be onto something Gates! Those sparks against the night sky would be beautiful!” Rumba

“But I’m not satisfied with these, I’d like to see a flashier version.” Gates

“Ok, I’ll try practicing some more” Al

I start shooting off new variations. I fire off flower shaped fireworks, blue and white flames that scatter in different patterns. I also tried changing the size of the explosion and raising the volume. I should put on a show when we get back to the village, Thor should love it.

The carriage suddenly stops, and due to momentum, I fall forward.

“That hurt, I fell on my butt” Al

“Oh, shit!” Rowe

“What is it?” Al

“What’s wrong? Looks like the horse got spooked!” Rowe

Father Nord came out of the carriage looking annoyed. I was banned from shooting magic while the carriage was in motion, and brought back inside.

“Al, would you like to blow up my dress with magic?” Elna

Elna is really dreading the party, she’s asking for ridiculous things with a crazy look in her eyes. Nord almost choked on the tea he was drinking at the time.

“Do not” Nord

“That fabric is thin and soft to the touch, it would burn well.” Elna

Elna is smiling, but don’t stereotype me as a pyromaniac please. Just because I’ve used Fire Magic a lot this trip doesn’t mean I’m obsessed with it.

“If he does that, it’d light the carriage on fire too.” Nord

“I don’t mind” Elna

“No, Elna! You need the dress to attend the party.” Nord

“Well, may I don’t need to attend the party” Elna

“No! There a lot of cookies stored in the carriage!” Mina

“Ok, well you don’t need the cookies.” Sarah

“We’re getting off track here! Please give me some cookies!” Mina

“…” Sarah

Sarah is sitting gracefully and sipping tea, trying to stay out of the insane chat going on. She takes a bite of a cookie and smiles a bit. I got to see the cute side of Sarah. When she noticed I was watching her, her cheeks turned red. Apparently she’s a bit shy.

“Even so, Al, I was surprised you were able to improve that magic so much.” Nord

Nord is trying to distract Elna from the previous conversation by changing the topic. Good attempt!

“That’s true! It’s much better than when you tried it a few days ago. The chant was ‘Hanabi’? It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Elna

“Indeed, so what is it used for?” Nord

“Just entertainment to enjoy the colors and sounds.” Al

“…” Nord & Elna

My parents have an expression that screams, “that’s so Al”.

“It could be useful, Mr. Alfred” Sarah

“Al doesn’t get it” Elna

“Yeah, I’m not sure” Al

“But it is interesting to watch, it’s beautiful” Mina

“Ah, you can use the fireworks to convey information across distance to many people. You can launch it to show where you are, or vary the color and type to convey other things as well!” Sarah

“Good idea” Nord

“That could be convenient” Elna

Well, it could be convenient, but I’d rather just use it for entertainment.