After leaving the throne room, Yashimu hurried to find Rulu to ensure that she was ready for her trip to Shisayama. Rulu was the youngest daughter of their family and had a weak constitution during her childhood which left her bedridden for the most part of her life. Only in recent years had Rulu been able to move more freely out of her sick bed as her internal magic energy began to mature and allowed her to sustain a healthier body. It was common knowledge that all people in the world have internal magical energy, but it is less developed during childhood and matures when children reach their adolescence at about age 15. Unfortunately, some people on rare occasions lose their internal magical energy later in life. This affliction was what Rulu's mother suffered which caused her to develop an illness that eventually took her life. Ozen took the loss of his wife the hardest and changed the most from her passing. He used to have a laxed and outgoing demeanor, but in the years after
After a good hot bath, Azi came out of the bath in a change of sleep clothes and with a towel he used to dry his hair. Moving to the living room, he greeted Shizu and Kajima who sat around the dining table. It seemed that they were waiting for him as Shizu had a somewhat hungry look on her face as she stared at tonight's meal. Azi could not blame her as it seemed that they would be having a large amount of delicious meat for dinner as a large roast of what looked like beef was on the table. The animal that was butchered for this meat was a cow-like animal called a moosu which looked like a hairy brown yak with a pair of long blue horns. After a bit of nagging from Shizu, the three of them started filling their bellies full of the sweet and savory meat. After such a large and heavy meal, everyone felt ready for bed and that is what they did after cleaning up after themselves. Of course, Shizu joined Azi in his bed and the two had a short talk about their day. The first to talk was
After a few non alcoholic drinks and a bit of bantering to get the conversation going, Ben started to talk business as he noticed the new hammer on Azi’s toolbelt. "So how's that hammer holding up? Is the metal any good?" "So far I have no complaints, the durability and strength are similar to that of refined steel under certain conditions. After I examined it yesterday for any strains or cracks, I found no issues from the tests I performed the day before. Here. Take a look." Azi fished through his bag and took out a brown notebook. Before handing it to them with his hammer, he flipped to a specific page to show the notes he took down concerning his observations and experiments. Ben and Bail looked over the notes and their eyes began to widen as they were amazed by what they read. Bail then grabbed the hammer and began to give it an appraising look. "Is it true, can it really replace refined steel?" Asked Bail, his voice tinged with excitement. "Not completely, it makes for a c
Azi's last destination before heading home was at the village barracks. There, he went to look for Touma to discuss some pointers on magic and runes. Touma was considered an advanced thaumaturge who originally lived in the capital of the Empire known as Yamato.The reason for his relocation was due to how he got fed up with the toxic and bitter rivalry between the competing factions in Yamato and requested to be reassigned to Great General Ozen's army. Each Great General had their own personal armies and Ozen's mostly consisted of spearmen and very few thaumaturges, so when Touma came knocking Ozen agreed heartly.Since his reassignment, for the past couple years, Touma has been teaching apprentices to become thaumaturges in Ozen's army. This gave him enough experience to become a somewhat decent teacher but he was still more of a researcher. Using the talisman Touma previously gave him, Azi poured his magical energy into the piece of paper and suddenly an arrow appeared on the paper
With the day's light fading, Azi rushed home to make it in time for dinner and to obtain his long-awaited dessert. Seeing that the lights were still on in Kajima's house, Azi rushed to the door and slid it open as he declared his presence. "I'm home, Kajima! What's for dinner!?" "You got here just in time. Go get cleaned up in the bath, we are having roasted meat with some wrapped vegetable dumplings tonight." "Were you able to obtain the dessert?" Asked Azi who looked on with expectant eyes. Laughing, Kajima quickly placated the boy with a jerk of his head. "Not to worry I was able to obtain a single serving before they were all sold out." Pointing over to the kitchen counter, Kajima indicated a small wooden container that held the dark colored pastry. When Azi saw the wooden container, his excitement grew and without batting an eye to Kajima, he quickly made his way to the bath. Kajima laughed at the boy's child-like excitement which contrasted with his actual age. He then t
Setting the drunk and asleep Azi in bed, Shizu moved over to the closet next to Azi's bed. She then took out a set of her own sleeping clothes as it had become normal for her these past few weeks to treat Azi's room as her own. She felt that it was a bother for her to walk to her room every morning to get a change of clothes, so she moved some of her clothing over to Azi's closet. This way she was able to change clothes as soon as she woke up. She had also been training Azi to learn court etiquette by having him dress her in a formal manner. This was part of the intended apprenticeship training she had in mind and she expected Azi to rise in rank in the future, which meant he needed to know court etiquette as it was necessary for meeting the Emperor, a King, Great Generals, or associating with other nobles and knights. While Shizu would usually have Azi change her clothes she would sometimes change in the bathroom so that she could enjoy a bath. She knew that Azi was likely in a dee
A usual morning in Kajima's house involved everyone coming down for breakfast at first light. Azi would eat a light meal to then go do his morning training while Shizu would have a big appetite due to how she knew that her work would keep her too busy to eat a proper meal later in the day. But today, Kajima opted to not cook breakfast as he knew that Azi would be a bit hungover from the alcohol and would be cared for by Shizu. His suspicions were correct as the dining room was empty at the crack of dawn. Knowing that the two were going to have a late start to the day, Kajima left the house and went into town to buy some prepackaged foods. Returning home a couple hours after first light, he found Shizu at the dining table with reports spread out in front of her. He could also hear the metallic clanging and banging coming from the workshop which he suspected to be from Azi. "Morning Shizu, Is Azi alright?" Still focused on her work, Shizu responded to Kajima in a plain tone. "Yeah,
Awaking in an empty bed, Shizu's eyes blinked awake. A bit of panic filled her mind since she did not feel the familiar sensation on her arms or the familiar scent she was becoming accustomed to.Hearing the sound of metal clanging and banging muffled by the door of her room, Shizu remembered that Azi was still working.She thought that it was unnecessary for him to ban her for 7 days from sleeping in the same bed as him, but she remembered what Kajima said yesterday."Azi is currently challenging himself, it is best you comply for now. If it gets dangerous for him, you and I will step in but for now leave him be. He has made his choice, it's time to see who he will become from his choices."With his words ringing out in her morning mind, Shizu wondered if her actions were the cause of why Azi was pushing himself. She was quite harsh on him in the past month of training and knew that this was because Ozen had told her to accelerate his training so that he would be able to produce resu