NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Helping out Sanae
As I sit down the woman looks at me confused. "I 'ave never seen ye before!" The black-haired woman drunkenly says. "I am new here, hello." I say shyly. The black-haired girl laughs "Ye seem like yer not from here!" The drunk woman exclaims. I am nervous. Maybe she's xenophobic and I am getting chased out now. "Don't be so nervous! I'll show you how real Tengus drink! Not like Hatate who passed out two hours in!" She laughs loudly.
She orders us two drinks. I only drink a little while the woman takes a big sip. "Tell me boy where are ye from?" Aya looks at me. "I am not from here. I am from outside of Gensokyo." She slams her fist on the table. "Holy shit! That's going to be a top tier news article!" Aya looks at me with great interest.
"News article?" I ask. "Yes, I run the top newspaper in all of Gensokyo!" She proudly tells me while gulping her drink down. "That's so cool!" I say being interested in her newspaper. "Haha! Yes! Once I am not drunk anymore, I'll show ye. Uhm, by the way. Do you still need your cup?" She looks at my cup of alcohol. "It's alright, take it."
She drinks my drink in one go. "Ye know human. Maybe ye should go now. I am feeling sleepy." She says clearly struggling to keep herself awake. "It was nice meeting you, uhm." "Aya, my name is Aya." She lays her head down on the table, looking a bit like the brown-haired girl. I decide to go back to the shrine as there is nothing else to do here.
About an hour later I arrive at the shrine entrance and decide to go to the garden and just relax. When I arrive in the shrine's garden, I see something flying in the distance. It's clearly not a bird. Once the flying thing comes closer, I can finally make up what it is. It seems to be a woman, a witch, sitting on a broomstick.
Instead of flying past me though the woman starts flying towards me. As she lands, I can make out her appearance. She seems to have a stereotypical black and white European witch outfit with a large pointy hat. She has blonde hair and yellow eyes. She also seems to be about as old as me.
"I've never seen a man in the Moriya shrine's garden. Who are you?" She asks seeming to be curious. "I work and live here. I am from the outside world." I tell the witch. "Oh really? That's interesting. I am Marisa it's nice to meet you. People call me the great magician of Gensokyo!" She tells me proudly.
"Oh? So, you can cast magic?" I ask. "Of course, I can cast magic. I am the strongest and most powerful at that as well!" She laughs at my question. I see this as an opportunity to get a little help regarding my Latin problem. "Uhm, witch I am a mage in training, and I have to learn Latin to cast spells, but it's really hard, do you have any advice maybe?" I ask. "My name is Marisa by the way. Did Patchy tell you to learn Latin?" I nod "Ah, I see. Well, that old hag is still sticking to her traditions. You can read Latin with a simple translation spell. Just imagine the Latin text to be in a different language and use 'Verto' and the text will be readable." Marisa tells me happily.
"Thank you so much Marisa! You saved me so much time!" I am so glad I met her. "You know I should probably charge you for this." She tells me in a joking tone. "Anyways I got places to be" Marisa gets ready to fly off again. "Goodbye Marisa!" I yell while she flies off.
I head to the bedroom to try it out, but as I enter, I see Sanae awake. She is tidying the bed. "Good morning!" She smiles. "Good morning Sanae." I think what happened earlier and blush a little. "I noticed you were gone when I woke up, where were you?" She asks. "I was exploring the shrine. The sky was beautiful!" I tell her. "I am glad you enjoyed yourself." Sanae smiles. "I will show you how you can help in the shrine, alright?" I nod.
We head to the shrine entrance. "Over there is a broom. Please clean the entrance. If you need me, I'll be in the garden, alright?" Sanae tells me. I just quietly nod again, grab the broom and clean.
Later on, after cleaning I help Sanae with gardening. "Do you enjoy being a shrine maiden?" I ask her while watering flowers. "Well, yes most of the time. Sometimes I'd wish I were a scientist." Sanae answers me. "Is that why you told me so much about physics and chemistry that one day?" I stop watering the flowers now and look at Sanae. "Yes, I love science! You know, you have to tell me how the outside world looks!" Sanae seems really interested to know. "Not now, maybe in our free time. We kind of need to start cooking now." I tell her. "Oh, yes I nearly forgot. You'll help me, right?" "Of course, it's more fun together."
We head to the shrine's kitchen and wash our hands before we cook. I do enjoy cooking, especially with Sanae, but I am quite clumsy. I cut vegetables while thinking about how many people will be eating. "Sanae, I only really met you and Suwako at the shrine. But there are more, right?" "Oh yes, besides lady Suwako and me there is also Kanako, but she's quite busy right now so you have not met her yet probably." Sanae says while mixing some ingredients. "Kanako? No, I have not met her yet. How is she?" Sanae thinks for a second "Kanako is interesting. She's a really smart woman but she can be greedy at times."
We soon finish cooking the meal. "I'll get the two while you lay the table, alright?" Sanae seemed to have enjoyed cooking with me. "Sure." I answer. I then carefully lay the table as I am excited to meet Kanako.
Soon enough the three women sit on the table with me. They immediately dive into their food. I look at Kanako. She is a blue haired, red eyed woman in a traditional red dress. She looks back at me "You are the mage boy, right?" She asks. "Yes, I am, and you are Kanako I assume?" I say. "Yep! nice to meet you. I hope you are learning the right magic." Kanako says. "Right magic?" I say confused about her statement. "I mean magic that profits us. We can earn a ton of money by using your magic." Sanae steps into our dialog "Don't put pressure on him, he just started!" She looks slightly annoyed at Kanako. "No need to get so pressed." Kanako sounds a little angry at Sanae.
While their little argument is happening, Suwako silently enjoys her food. "You cut the vegetables, didn't you?" Suwako asks me. "How could you tell?" I say being impressed by how she knew that. "Well, Sanae never cuts them correctly despite my constant complaints." I giggle a little.
The four of us finish eating. I want to help and clean the dishes with Sanae. "You don't need to help me. Have some free time." I thank Sanae and head to the bedroom.