The Seirei Gensouki Spirit Chronicles
Chapter 1: Life in the Village

The next morning.The day starts early for the village. Rio woke up before sunrise and walked into the living room of the village chief's house.

“Good morning.”

“Yeah, you just get up early there. Good morning,” replied Yuba with widened eyes. He was already awake, sitting on a pillow in the living room after lighting the fireplace.

“I'm thinking of helping the villagers today with any tasks they might have. But first, can I help you make breakfast in any way? ”

“Is that so? If you offer, then you are welcome to do so. I look forward to. ” So, Rio and Yuba talk for a while. Till…

“Mrrgh .. Good morning, Grandma ..”

Ruri appeared in the living room, half asleep and still wearing the underwear she had worn to sleep. It was a rather embarrassing appearance for a girl his age to wear in front of the opposite sex. Hidden beneath her underwear were limbs that emphasized her feminine gentleness, and plump breasts that accentuated her upper body.

“Good morning .. Did you forget about Rio here?” Yuba said with a stifled laugh.

“...Huh? A-ahs! ”

Ruri finally realized that Rio was there. He hurriedly looked at himself, then reddened as red as a ripe apple. Rio avoided eye contact, but he assumed it meant he had caught a glimpse of his body shape.

“A-I'll change clothes!” Ruri covered her body with both hands and ran back to her room.

Rio sighed tiredly. He had experienced a similar situation several times before, when he was living with Latifa in the spirit village. Fortunately, it seemed like Ruri did not have the personality to be angry at him because of that, but they would probably be awkward around each other for a little longer. Sure enough, when Ruri returned from her room a moment later, she noticed Rio from the corner of her eyes.

Ah, okay. I guess no one helped …

Ruri is his older cousin, so Rio can honestly say that no strange feelings have arisen from her. But that wasn't the case when it came to Ruri's point of view, as she didn't know Rio was her younger cousin.

“So, are you a cooking expert, Rio? You offer help for breakfast.” Yuba smiled cheerfully.

“Y-Yes, please leave it to me.” Rio nodded with a shy expression.

“Then, let's make breakfast today and see how it works. Ruri, go with Rio to trade the breakfast ingredients and introduce him to everyone. Have the village girl get used to seeing her face around here.”

“Eh? O-Oh, okay. … Let's go, Rio.” Ruri hesitated for a moment, before nodding uncomfortably. He seemed to still feel embarrassed about his previous carelessness.

“Oh, and tell Sayo to come home with Shin. We'll have breakfast here,” Yuba asks.

“Ya, Ma'am ..” replied Ruri listlessly before going through the front door with Rio. Their first destination was the kitchen garden behind the village chief's house. Unlike the fields managed by the village, the kitchen garden is owned by each house.

“Our village operates mainly on barter and trade. The first thing we do every morning is harvest the vegetables grown in our kitchen garden. Then, we took him to the village square and exchanged him for vegetables grown by other families. It becomes an ingredient for a day's food,”

it was clear Ruri as they gathered the vegetables grown in the village head garden. After finishing harvesting it, they headed to the village square. The square was already filled with young ladies from the village chatting noisily with each other. Their ages range from mid-teens to late twenties.

“Morning everything!” Ruri greeted them excitedly, moving to join the circle of girls.

“Oh, Ruri. Geez— ” The girls noticed Ruri and cheerfully made a greeting, when they saw an unknown boy behind her and froze on the spot. Before she realized it, Ruri got the questioning gazes of all the girls.

“Erm, this is Rio. He is the son of one of Grandma's old acquaintances and has traveled the world. That's why his clothes look a little strange. He will stay at our place temporarily, so I want to introduce him to everyone .. Come on, Rio.”

Ruri watched the reactions of the other girls carefully as she timidly introduced her. He then pushed her forward.

“Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Rio. I haven't adjusted to life here yet, so I hope you can forgive any inconvenience I might cause in the future. Nice to meet you all.” Rio smiled amiably when giving a polite greeting.

“Uhm .. Nice to meet you too,” replied the girls, kind of embarrassed.

“Hei, Rio. There is no need to use such formal language with us. Everyone gets nervous when a boy like you acts like that,” Ruri suggested with a wry smile.

The women in the village watched their conversation closely; they seemed to feel somewhat timid before Rio. However, they all stared implicitly with questioning gazes towards Ruri's – gaze which said it was unfair for her to be the only one close to her.

The only men that the village girls had in their social circle were rude and rowdy, making Rio's gentle and calm demeanor like a gust of fresh wind. His handsome yet androgynous face only further accentuated his allure.

Haha ... They will definitely try to pry more about me with Rio during the later work.

Ruri smiled bitterly at herself; she could feel the silent pressure coming from the girls. She glanced at Rio to see him standing rather uncomfortably on the receiving end of all the girl's bashful attention. He turned his gaze towards Ruri, looking for help with a troubled expression. Ruri was surprised by the unintentional eye contact, her body trembling in trepidation.

… Hmc. He didn't even care about what I felt before.

Ruri recalled how Rio had seen her disrespectful morning clothes earlier and pouted her lips as she blushed. But he knew it was mostly his own fault. It's clear that taking him out at Rio here won't make the situation any better. He had mixed feelings about the storm of questions that the girls would definitely bombard later. Then, he decided to save Rio.

“Come, now, let's trade these materials. It's almost time to work!” Ruri quickly ended the conversation and started moving, trading vegetables.

All the girls seemed to want to talk to Rio, but they were unable to find the right time to do so. Ruri considered it a blessing and quickly piled vegetables into her basket. Once he had gathered everything he needed, he turned to speak to Rio, who happened to be the one carrying the basket.

“Okay, everything is done. Let's go, Rio.” He pushed his back to push him.

“Ah, true too! Sayo!” Ruri turned around, remembering one last thing.

“...Huh?” Sayo was among the girls who were secretly staring at Rio. His body trembled at first when his name was called, and he looked up to ask.

“Grandma wants you to come to our house with Shin. We'll have breakfast together,” explained Ruri briefly.

“Eh ... Ah, fine. Understand.” Sayo nodded malumalu.

“You'll know what she wants when we meet, I guess. See you soon!” With those parting words, Ruri hurriedly left again. Rio bowed little to the village girls who were a bit confused and followed after him.

◇◇◇

After the incident in the village square, Rio returned to the village chief's house and started preparing breakfast. The village was short of dried meat and seasonings, especially salt, so he dipped in the Time-Space Cache reserve to add to his recipe. After all, there were enough ingredients and spices stored in it for the past few years.

However, he hid the existence of the Time-Space Cache, as it was too difficult to explain. He simply took out enough supplies as if he had taken them from his backpack. However, it is still quite a lot of meat and seasoning – is enough to make Yuba happy.

“This is amazing. Dried meat is a luxury around here, and we have little chance of buying salt, so it's never enough. Are you sure it's okay? All of these materials are not cheap, are they?” Yuba asked hesitantly.

“I don't mind,” replied Rio, shaking his head gently.

“There is no point in letting it go to waste, so please accept that as a rental for my stay. I'll make breakfast with this now .. Enough to serve five people, right? ”

“Ya, Sayo and Shin will come later. Thank ye. Ruri, stand with him and watch.” Yuba saw them off when Rio and Ruri went to the kitchen together.

Since they will be living together from now on, they need to find out how good Rio's cooking skills are. He would prepare his own food, and Ruri would act as the appraiser.

“Burning wood has been prepared – I will show you where later. All the kitchen utensils and cutlery were in that closet. If there is anything else you need to know, feel free to ask.”

“Good. What should I do with water? I can produce it with spirit arts if needed. ”

“Ah, you can use the water in that jug there. Either Grandma or I will use spirit arts to fill it up once a day, but I guess you can also use spirit arts?” Ruri asked with raised eyebrows. Spirit arts were more common than magic in the Yagumo region, but the number of users there was quite small.

“...Yes. So, the two of you can use it as well .. ” Rio's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“Yes. Our family line has always had a very high aptitude for spirit arts, despite the fact that we are ordinary people. That's part of the reason why Grandma is the village chief. Besides me, Sayo and her older brother Shin also have the ability to use spirit arts, so we have all learned together since we were young. ”

Splice..