The Hyrule Paradox: Worlds Collide | BOTW Isekai (Book 1)

Chapter 31: Introductions

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When they made it back home in the evening, everybody had gathered in the first house. Leenie was the only person not present. Allison and Maria had bought some new garments in the village and dyed them multiple colors. They were admiring them and showing them to anyone who passed by. The living room and the kitchen were bustling with people. Olivia and Amber were making a big batch of mushroom fried rice for everyone. Mayla, Emily, and Drew were talking at the dinner table. Will was chasing Lynn around the living room because she had stolen some of his arrows. Olivia was quick to point out that Jordan stunk after all of that training, and she forced him —and the other guys— to get washed up before they had dinner.

When Jordan returned fresh and clean, the fried rice was ready. Amber must have added some sort of Burmese magic to the rice, because it tasted better than when he usually made it. Everyone began to unwind and chat as they ate, and once it seemed like people were mostly finished with their food, Jordan started the formal introductions. These were helped along by the fact that the new people had already started to mingle with the others, and it made things much less awkward. Ronny had already hit it off with Matt, and Maria was chatting with Amber and Mayla, just like they had back in school.

Everyone went back to their conversations, but Olivia quickly interrupted them before they could get very far. She reminded them that they needed to decide sleeping arrangements especially since they had a new house, which Jordan had completely forgotten about. They now had ten rooms for 15 people, and so there would have to be a deliberation about who would pair up and room together. It turned out that Leenie had decided to move out and stay at the Ton Punn in where they had first stayed when they had reached Hateno.

It wasn't long before everything was figured out. Olivia decided to stick with Lynn, and Jordan agreed with the move, knowing that she would be a positive influence on the young girl. Oscar and Matt decided to pair up, as well as Owen and Will, which made a lot of sense given their similar ages. Amber and Mayla decided to stick together, and finally Drew and Ronny joined up to give them their final pairing. That left Jordan, Maria, Emily, and Allison with their own rooms, which Jordan was personally extremely thankful for. This meant that there would be one unoccupied room in the second house, which they figured would be helpful to have if they ever needed it.

The pairs that stayed the same kept their rooms in the 1st house. Owen replaced Leenie in Will's room. Oscar and Matt were the only pair to have a room in the new house. From there they figured out the finer details, like if they should all meet for breakfast now that they were in two separate houses. The more they discussed, the more fulfilled Jordan felt. He couldn't help but feel like this place wasn't just a temporary stopover, and that they really were establishing roots here and building up their own little human community in this cozy little village.

By the time they had finished their discussion it was dark outside, the evening tints of sunset having vanished entirely. Jordan decided to walk over to the second house and get comfortable seeing as it was going to be his new home, and many of the others followed suit. He opened the door to find a surprise waiting for them on the dining table.

Hylia's gifts had arrived, and Jordan quickly ran back over to the first house to call the others to get their gifts. Maria had received a soft quilt with a forest pattern of soft blue and green colors, and she adored it as soon as she saw it. Allison received a baby harp, which was right in tune with her musical talent. Owen got a set of leather gloves that fit his hands perfectly. Oscar received a special bow made of a foreign material that was lightweight, but gave a durable feel. For whatever reason, Matt had been bestowed a swiss army knife. Even Matt had scratched his head, puzzled by the gift. Once again, Jordan could only assume that the goddess had provided these for a reason, though now he was comfortable with not knowing.

As far as he could tell, they were all happy with their gifts, and that was all that mattered. They quickly decided as a group who would be taking which bedroom so that they could stow the gifts away for the time being and return to socializing.

Jordan ended up sitting down and having a long conversation with Allison in the living room. He had never met a celebrity before, but with how humble and, well, normal Allison was, the conversation felt easy. She asked him all kinds of questions about himself, clearly trying to get to know him better, and she seemed very comfortable in her skin. She gave off a very caring but also very mature feeling that made it easy to tell her things, and they spent a while chatting about all kinds of things, and by the end of their conversation Jordan felt glad to have met her.

He was also aware enough to notice that Maria had been glancing at him throughout the evening, telling him everything he needed to know. He wasn't going to worry about it now, but he hoped that it wouldn't become a problem.

As the night began to wind down and people began wandering off to bed, Jordan and Olivia made sure to remind the new humans that they could come to them if they needed anything. Jordan also decided to take the middle bedroom down the row so that he could be more accessible to everyone in house two. He hoped nothing would happen anytime soon, but he knew he should be prepared. With the day's important mission complete, Jordan fell asleep feeling accomplished, and glad that things had worked out as smoothly as they did. Hopefully, things could continue this way.