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
On the 7th day of the journey, the caravan finally arrived at the gates of the Kujyuri. The welcome was quite extravagant since word had reached the capital that Rulu would be returning early. Even though she had only left the capital for a few weeks, she was very much missed by her people as the usual sight of Rulu helping the commoner had become a daily occurrence for them.This was also a special time as all of Ozen’s children would be returning. While not making any noteworthy actions during the ambush from the Uzuruans, Ozen’s 4 youngest sons had accompanied the caravan and were delegated to grunt work by Shizu to aid in the guarding of the second carriage under Touma’s command.The 4 brothers sighed in relief when they rode past the gate on their personal hororon mounts. They heard the cheers of the citizens grow loud at the front of the caravan since the people began to catch sight of Rulu, who sat on the front seat of the front carriage with Yashimu.Rulu blushed a bit, as th
Finished with situating the captured assailants, the caravan returned to its journey to the capital Kujyuri. The assailants were tied up and sat in an empty space in the supply carriage pulled along by the second carriage of the caravan. A guard took the reins at the front while at the back, Azi and Touma sat inside. Touma, who was in charge of the second carriage’s safety, was currently applying a magic binding spell on the assailants which caused them to feel sluggish and heavy. This magic spell derived its roots from colorless magic as it did not emit any elemental color when used. When Azi asked Touma about the spell, he commented that it sounded like gravity magic which sparked Touma’s natural curiosity that came from being the scholarly thaumaturge he was. A lengthy conversation about Azi’’s rudimentary knowledge about physics ensued and this was somewhat like a kind of punishment for the assailants. The constant back and forth of the two made it impossible for any of them to
After a somewhat rough awakening, Azi now stood outside of the carriage he was just sleeping in. The cold night air chilled his skin but it did little to help his situation as he could still feel the stinging heat from the red teeth marks on the side of his neck. He looked to his right and saw the offending person who had bitten him in his sleep. Noticing his gaze, Shizu turned her head away in embarrassment and coughed a bit to divert the conversation. “Let’s get going. If we don’t act quickly, the enemy will get away and we'll be left with no answers to our questions.” Azi sighed and gave a nod of agreement before running off with Shizu who was followed by a group of their caravan’s guards. Meanwhile, Kajima and Yashimu had agreed to stay near their carriage in order to keep watch over their belongings and to guard Rulu. Of the caravan’s guard detail of 50 people, 20 guards protected the first carriage, 10 guards with Ozen’s four youngest sons and Touma protected the second car
Duodecem 18th of 4831 AS During the end of winter, snow was still prevalent in the nation of Kujyuri as it was known for its year long snowfall. The caravan, while unhindered from the lessening snow, still felt the effects as the personnel still slightly shivered from the cold while in the middle of their trek through the forest and mountain paths of the snowy nation. It had been 3 days since the caravan had begun the 7 days journey to the capital and all their pace was good. It consisted of three carriages that each pulled along an additional storage carriage that was filled with the caravan’s belongings and supplies. They traveled in a line formation and were protected by the remaining group of guards that came with Rulu when she was traveling out of Kujyuri for the first time. Over half of her original guard was killed during the trek to Shisayama since they redirected their travel path to answer a distress call made by Shizu and her forces who were out on an expedition concern
Duodecem the 15th of 4382 AS On a somewhat warmer winter morning, for the first time in a while, Azi was spending time outside of his house and getting some exercise by sparring with Nosuri. As two arrows came flying at him, Azi jumped to the side in a panic. Being somewhat quick on his feet, he narrowly dodged it but was unable to retaliate against his opponent as he did not have his gauntlets equipped nor was he reinforcing his body with magic energy. In fact, Azi was purposefully not using his magic since the scrutinizing gaze that Shizu gave at the side told him to not even dare to try it. The reason for this started with Azi who, after constant protest, was able to convince Shizu to let him out of the house under the condition that he would be supervised by her at all times and that he did not use any magic. Shizu added the no magic condition as she had started to suspect that his magic energy was somewhat unusual and out of control. Recently, she deduced that a possible cau
A few days after Azi awoke from his long slumber, he felt a familiar, but overly warm sensation encapsulating him. His eyes flickered open as his usual habit of waking at the crack of dawn kicked in. He moved his head to survey his surroundings and he again felt a soft sensation brush against his cheek. Believing that it was a pillow, Azi proceeded to bury himself in its ever comfortable feeling. Unexpectedly, what caught his attention was that he felt as if the pillow was pushing him closer. It took him a couple seconds to realize that there were a pair of arms around his head that were holding him firmly while at the same time a pair of legs were wrapped around his lower waist. Waking up a bit more, Azi then realized that he was in the somewhat clingy, but unsurprising position of being hugged like a pillow by Shizu. For the past few days, Azi noticed that Shizu had become more clingy since the day he woke up. She would usually hug him from behind whenever they slept together in
On the night of the fourth day after the incident, Shizu had invited Rulu, Nosuri, and Ougi for dinner as Rulu offered to make Shizu a meal to help lift her spirits. While Shizu wanted to help cook for everyone she was not allowed into the kitchen due to Rulu’s insistence, so Shizu was relegated to setting the table. Her mind was still on Azi as he still showed no signs of waking up anytime soon, but after placing down the last of the plates Shizu caught a whiff of the food and felt her mind calm a bit. She then saw that the meal was ready as Nosuri and Ougi were walking over with plates of food in hand. Taking another whiff of the delicious smell in the air, Shizu sighed in relief and she complimented Rulu. “Your cooking always smells so good Rulu, I truly wish I could eat your food everyday.” Shizu then proceeded to rub her cheek against her younger sister’s as she gave a forceful hug charged with sisterly love. “T-Thank you Sister, but please not in front of the others. P-Ple
Shizu slumped on the couch in the living room of Azi’s house. It was a piece of furniture they had picked out on their day out due to how soft and comfy the black colored couch felt to the touch. Filled with Horonon feather, the couch felt somewhat firm but pliable like a stiff bean bag. Its outer cover was made of fur from an animal that was not local to Kujyuri which made buying it quite pricey, but the two of them chose to splurge a bit on their shopping date.It had been 3 days since the festival disaster and since then, Shizu and Yashimu were at work as they took turns throughout the day to take command of the relief efforts. One would take command of the village guard while the other would rest. It was currently Shizu's turn to sleep but she had to attend an unscheduled meeting with Jerome who demanded to see Azi.Shizu told him that he was injured during the disaster and that he would not be able to see anyone at the moment. This caused Jerome to protest and reasoned that he h
“Damnit!!” Shouted Jerome as he pounded his fist into the top of the table he sat at. He was currently inside his room at a luxurious inn. After his failed attempt to join the fight, Jerome was whisked away by his mercenary captain, Ghost.Due to Ghost’s rough handling of Jerome, the captain had inadvertently caused Jerome to pass out. While passed out, he had a continuous nightmare of his traumatic experience which eventually woke him hours after the battle ended. He was then called to meet with Shizu and Yashimu to discuss the relief efforts to combat the issues that will arise from this sudden monster attack. Jerome expected to get a tongue lashing from both of them, but he didn’t expect what was now on his table.After their meeting, Yashimu gave Jerome a packet of papers and was instructed to review them for the meeting that would take place the next day. It was already the middle of the night but Jerome, a “hard working” council member, pushed forward with his pride as his fuel