Chapter 4: I Just Want to Go Home!

After the Squadlit, past the Valley of the Shadow of Grapes, the hero's party entered the Farmer's Villa. The farmers in this zone where known for their voracious attitude towards efficiency and agriculture optimization. Due to being near several other locations, including the capital, Farmer's Villa had a tourist attraction center including an inn and a small gift shop.

Our hero slid a copper coin into the slot of a crane machine, powered by magical technology.

"Ohh... Oh!" she exclaimed, while carefully guiding the crane across a small plush shaped like a cow. "I've got you now!"

The crane arm had managed to pick up the plush, if only for a moment. The cow would defiantly slip out of its mechanical clasp, reaching freedom in its den once more. Aria let loose a sigh of indignation.

"Tsk, tsk..." Lorette started, feigning annoyance. "Waiting for me to save you again, hero?"

Aria stared at her friend with droopy eyes, water beginning to pool up as her expression became pleading.

"H-hey! I get it, no need to cry..." she huffed, turning to the machine. Secretly, she allowed herself to feel a hint of amusement, threatening a smile to fall upon her face. Aria practically jumped onto Lorette, as she entrapped her in a hug.

"You're my hero!"

"Pffft-" Mallow could be heard spitting his coffee in the background.

Lorette would go through a few copper coins to rescue the plush cow from the crane machine, to leave it in the hero's capable hands. She had some prior experience, as machines like these had been popping up lately around her hometown. Magical technology had come a long way, spurred on by recent developments with the popular guild Cumulus Cognizance Corporation, known colloquially as Cloud Corp.

Life's been simpler since magi-tech came around... but I still feel a bit weird depending on it so easily. Lorette thought to herself. Just a couple decades ago, nobody would have envisioned the technology would be so common-place that it could be spent on simple entertainment machines. The guild's influence had become so vast that it practically had as much authority as the church, the body with the most power outside the kingdom. As she pondered, her steady grip and aim brought a toy cow to the outside world, to be snatched by an enthusiastic Aria.

"Yeah!"

---

The party would venture to the central hub of Farmer's Villa, where a wide-scale teleporter lay - another invention of magical technology. While normally citizens would pay a tax for the amount of magic it costed to operate, the three were privileged with a pass granted by the church. For as many inventions Cloud came up with, they sure seem to only make stuff with profit in mind... Lorette thought to herself.

They approached the hub entrance to be checked before passing through. Noticing that Aria seemed a bit apprehensive, Lorette gave her hand a squeeze. The hero gave a light smile upon noticing, and a friendly squeezing back.

"Good to see you again, Mallow!" The guard, a hefty man with a flowing braided beard and a set of plate armor, spoke up in a jovial manner. "I see the troubles of the hero haven't overcome you yet."

"Well, we made it. Despite my directions..." Mallow hissed. Despite his words, his tone didn't imply any malice, Aria could even spot the hint of a smile with her keen vision. "That 'hero' hardly listened to them anyway. I was practically a chaperone."

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"Right, and I take it you're returning now?" The guard's eyes wandered to the two young women besides Mallow. "Where... where is he? I had thought you a party of three?"

Silence permeated the building as Lorette checked over to Aria, to make sure she wasn't in a panic. Let's hope she at least thought of something to - her thoughts were interrupted as Aria stepped closer to peer into the man's armor.

"Oooh! Lori look! A mirror!" Aria exclaimed. "Don't I look cute? I do! D-do I?!"

"Ah..." Lorette slowly brought her palm to her face, before relenting to hold her friend's shoulder instead. While mirrors weren't the most rarest of objects, it wasn't common place within the inns they had been to on the journey, and neither herself nor Mallow wore reflective armor. The hero herself only really wore segments of fluted armor strapped on top of her hard leather, to allow for more flexibility.

The image of Aria in the mirror began to redden as she realized there was a person attached to this mirror, and that she could be seen as staring at his chest. Despite this, she looked, and saw her figure slightly shorter than Lorette's, both in feminine outlines.  The image then appeared to squirm with glee.

"We are, um, returning." Lorette said, returning her gaze to the guard. She then brought out their passports, with their magical fingerprints located on them.

"I, I see." The guard huffed. It was a trivial matter to process the passports and check that they were correct, using a scanner tool to compare it to their database. Even so, he dragged it on quite a while stealing glances at Aria. "The hero, you know, has always been a bit of an odd one. Well, but to think he would -"

"She," Lorette corrected, her tone flat.

"Well, I... Hmm..." The guard began stutter a bit, seemingly not knowing quite what to think or say. "I'd never... Ah, blast it all. I don't get paid enough to pry. Your passes check out, the teleporter is free to your discretion."

"Thank you," Lorette breathed a sigh of relief as the man began to walk back to his post and allow the trio to move through. Aria seemed a bit saddened as her mirror became more distant from her, but the hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

Using the teleporter itself wasn't terribly complicated. A setting on a display nearby allowed them to change their destination to the capital city. From there, it was simple to press the button and allow the stored up magical energy in the machine do the work.

"Swoosh!" Aria let out a sound effect, as the teleportation finished. The machine itself was nearly silent, not making any sudden noise, but that couldn't stop the hero's narration.

After giving the slightly smaller girl a head-pat to satiate her bubbliness, the trio walked out and into the capital city - their home.

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