Decem 5th of 4831 AS Morning light shone into the room of a young girl who lived in the palace of Kujyuri. As the light shined on her face, her eyelids twitched as it reflexively responded to its touch. She slowly opened her eyes in response, still a bit sleepy, but she felt nonetheless well rested. Today felt like another usual day for her and she wiped small bits of sleepy sand from her eyes. As she was about to get dressed she realized that she was still wearing her casual clothes for the day before. A feathery red, pink, and white dress that had feather-like ends at her sleeves and with similar patterns sworn into the hem and seams of her attire. Each part was adorned with a feathery pattern in order to give her an elegant look as moved. She had long brown hair with ribbons that adorned her two fluffy ears at the sides of her head. Her ears twitched when she suddenly heard a knock at the door and she called out in response. "Who is it?" "It's me Rulu, are you ready?" Recogn
As Touma launched his flare, Azi exited Shizu’s tent. He had been sleeping for the past few hours and he felt a bit better. After being awake for 5 days straight, Azi's mental exhaustion was peeking. Ironically, due to his experience in the black void he was able to adapt to the uncomfortable feeling of sluggishness that persisted in his body by dulling some of his pain receptors unconsciously. Azi had no idea that he was doing this as the black void still seemed like a lucid dream to him. Seeing Shizu at the center bonfire of the camp site now turned small fortress, he approached her. Shizu noticed that Azi was awake and asked as he approached with a still sleepy expression. "Morning Azi, or more like good night, how is your body? Are you ok?" "*Yawn* Still a bit sluggish but my stamina and magic energy are both restored by about half. What happened while I was asleep and what's with the stone walls?" Shizu explained to Azi about the cursed bait and the current situation they n
"Lady Rulu, we should soon be arriving soon to the source of the distress flare." Said Nosuri who then turned to her brother to ask him a question. "Ougi! Can you see any sign of them in this storm?" With a spyglass in hand, Ougi bounded up out of an open carriage window and was now atop the carriage's roof. Ougi swept his sight across the expanse of snowy plains and noticed an unusual sight in the distance. "No Sister, but I see some stone walls. They must be man made as they aren't natural. We must be in the right place. I suggest we head for the wall and follow along its perimeter." The pair of mercenaries, Ougi and Nosuri, were skilled fighters but also trained scouts from their father who took up hunting as a pastime when his children were in their youth. Nosuri and Ougi were no strangers to navigating in heavy weather, so using what they learned as children they slowed the pace of the caravan to ensure that they did not deviate off course to their intended destination. Yash
After Shizu and her squad of 5 mounted soldiers were able to successfully eliminate the remaining monsters that trailed them, they retreated with Rulu, Nosuri, Ougi, and the survivors of the caravan's vanguard. They still had gengiri on their tail but since gengiri were considerably slower than Kengiri, Shizu's group did not have to worry about being attacked from behind. Azi on the other hand, moved to the destroyed caravan's rearguard. Luckily Yashimu and his four brothers were holding their own, but the soldiers were less fortunate. 5 kengiri had appeared from the snowstorm and made quick work of the 10 rearguard soldiers. Yashimu and his 4 brothers were quite skilled and worked well together so they were able to hold out. Unfortunately, team work could not overcome the ever increasing number of gengiri, so Azi had to act quickly and looked at the white scaled gloves on his hand. Coming up with a quick idea, he dashed to Yashimu's side to tell him his plan. "Yashimu, I am dete
Hearing Shizu’s concerned tone to retreat, Azi turned around and began running to the fort’s wall. He had expended much of his magic energy and was unable muster another infusion into his legs as he had not fully recovered. As he attempted to run, he also felt sluggish as his body was still fatigued but knowing that the situation was dire Azi attempted to infuse any amount of fire elemental energy just one more time into his legs so that he could make a long jump to the wall. When he was 10 meters away from the wall, a bout of dizziness and a heat began to overtake his senses. He fell forward into the snow on all four. He felt sick and when he felt his forehead with the back of his hand, he could tell that he had a fever. Azi cursed in his mind at the luck he had. 'Damnit, not now. Just a few more meters.' He attempted to crawl the rest of the way but the feeling in his body was getting faint. The fur coat he wore helped to insulate him from the snowstorm, but his lack of magic
While Shizu and Kajima lead the expedition party in repelling the incoming attack. Rulu, Yashimu, and Touma were bringing Azi to Shizu's personal tent. Along the way Rulu requested that Nosuri and Ougi bring water, clean towels, and what medicinal herbs they could find in the camp. As they entered, Touma and Yashimu set Azi down onto Shizu's cot. Azi was still shivering but his body was warm and sweated an incredible amount of moisture from every pore on his body. This reminded Rulu of the time she saw her mother ill in bed. She was only a child at the time, but she remembered the helplessness she felt that day. She was a different person now. She could do something. She! Could help this person. With a compassionate tone, Rulu commanded. "Touma, if you have any magic energy left, I need you to cast detection magic on the boy. I need you to monitor his pulse and examine his magic channels." "Understood." Touma gathered white motes of light into his hand, which then began to sprea
Chapter 57 Behind the Darkness In a secret chamber in Kujyuri's capital, numerous young men were sitting around a round table. These men were some of the ordained knights of Kujyuri who took part in Ozen's council. While the men here did not make up the entire council, they made up a good majority of it. A heavy atmosphere permeated the chamber as everyone had grim expressions on their faces. One of those faces was council member Jerome who was in opposition to Ozen. After a recent one on one discussion with Ozen, Jerome was ordered to command a force of 50 mercenaries himself to transport supplies to Shisayama. He was setting out in a few days, and he loathed Ozen's order. He would much prefer the comfort of his home in the capital with his wives, rather than the countryside bum of a village like Shisayama. Remembering that he would likely have to meet Shizu the Man Killer, he sighed in exasperation before he broke the silence. "So how was the operation in Shisayama?" "If you me
The pair of Azi and Shizu eventually released their lips from each other's necks from their nibbling. They now had a crimson red mark adorning the sides of their necks. The two locked eyes and saw the saliva on each other's lips. Both lick their lips which prompted them to move in for a kiss. *Bang* The door to Azi's room suddenly fell off its hinges and in came Kajima who had a pile of people lying on the floor behind him. Shizu was the first to notice the entrance of the uninvited guests and saw that Kajima was standing beside the futon they were in with a frown. Shizu was about to turn her head to meet Kajima's eyes, but a resistive force prevented her from moving her head. She noticed that Azi had firmly held the back of her head as he continued to move his lips closer to her own. Azi's eyes were glazed over from their long intimate exchange of nibbling and Kajima's sudden entrance was not enough to wake Azi from his stupor. "Wait Azi, n-not here we are in publ.....mmmh" S
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