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
"I need more hands." This is what Azi said to himself as he looked at the pieces of the blood steel sheets he had finished infusing magical energy into. His magical tethers were connecting his hands to the pieces and an idea clicked in his mind. Looking over to Kajima’s work area, Azi saw numerous hammers of varying shapes and sizes that Kajima would always use. Extending his right hand out, Azi began focusing his attention to his tethers. Currently, he was moving two hammers and connected them to 5 pieces of Shizu custom weapons to prevent the magical energy in the pieces from dissipating. He then began to split his right-hand tether into more numerous small tethers. These tethers then grabbed on to 4 more hammers and 2 metal tongs. Azi's mind felt fuzzy as the strain on his mind when performing the task was like a never-ending headache. Moving so many tethers caused him an incredible amount of mental strain and he could feel his focus starting to dull. Grabbing a stamina potio
Decem 8th of 4831 AS During Kajima's day off, he awoke at the first crack of dawn. He noticed that the sounds from the workshop seemed to have gone silent. This confused him which made him reflexively jump out of bed in a panic. He rushed to see if Azi was ok as today would mark the 5th day Azi was still in the workshop. To him, he thought that Azi must have fainted during the middle of the night and could be endangered. While Kajima did check up on him from time to time during the past few days, he could not help himself to worry about the boy like a doting father. Since the loss of his wife and children, Kajima's house had a silence that was only recently broken by the new company he had in Azi and Shizu. So when the silence returned, he feared that the worst had come to pass. But his worries were wiped away as a soft humming noise could be heard as he approached the entrance of the workshop. His steps slowed as he grew nearer to the workshop door until he was fully stopped in
Decem 8th of the year 4831 AS The wind in her ear and the feeling of the snow being crushed beneath her feet, Shizu and her comrade Touma were on full retreat as they ran as fast as they could to their camp. After rushing back, they ordered the volunteers and soldiers to prepare for battle. On their tail was a swarm of gengiri that were commanded by a few kengiri. Fortunately, the more dangerous kengiri were occupied by the smell of the curse bait and did not fully pursue. While the expedition could push a full retreat back to Shisayama, the effect that a swarm of gengiri and kengiri would have on the nearby ecosystem would be detrimental to Kujyuri as a whole. The forest near Shisayama extended into many other territories and had routes that connected these territories to Yamato and Kujyuri. Numerous merchants and travelers made use of these routes and if they were hindered during their travels, trade and commerce would be greatly affected. Wild animals and game would also dwin