"TO OUR NEW, UP AND COMING BLACKSMITH! CHEERS!" Making a toast with a raised cup of sake, Kajima congratulated Azi for his recent success. While they had already celebrated the news of Azi's workshop, today's dinner had an excessive amount of people which made the situation devolve into a party. So, following the flow, everyone raised their cups of sake and drank it down with festive expressions and cheers. Moments before the start of the impromptu party, Azi was given a large pouch from Kajima. When it was dropped into his hands, he was stunned by the weight and the number of silver and bronze coins and plates that were contained inside. He knew that Ben and Bail were going to give him a share of the sold blood steel weapons, but he was not expecting such a large amount, this was due to how he was not kept in the loop about the business side of Bail's work which was quite secretive. While surprised, he was also somewhat relieved and excited as he could do so much more with this
Undice the 1st of 4831 AS A large tent was erected in the snowy grounds on the outskirts of the southern part of Shisayama. Under the tent was an area sparsely populated by a large table, chairs, and few wooden crates filled with writing supplies. With a charcoal pencil, Azi was checking the final details of his house's blueprint. For the past week, Azi had been overseeing the construction of his house with help from Manu who was the approver of the construction project. Azi had put a great deal of time and effort into planning out the first floor which included his living room, bathroom, kitchen, storehouse, and finally his workshop. The floor plan would be similar to Kajima's abode but would be less than half the size as it did not include the extra spare rooms, a large living room, and family sized bath. It was much like a downsized version of Kajima's house since Azi had no intentions of getting any additional residence other than himself at the moment. Manu had suggested maki
Undice the 14th of 4831 AS Waking up a bit after first light, Azi awoke to the familiar sight of his room in Kajima's house. He could feel the warm blanket of the futon bed upon his skin but felt a slight tingle of cold air somewhat tickle his legs. His slight movements caused a bit of air to enter the gaps between the blanket and bedding, making him shiver a little. Luckily, there was a warming sensation that was comforting him from behind. Moving in a practiced motion that seemed as if he had done this too many times, he turned his body over and saw Shizu's sleeping face. Her red hair covered one side of her face which made her appearance seem as if she could enchant any man, but Azi knew better. This woman was more like a wolf in sheep's clothing and without fear, he dared to wake the beast. He parted her crimson hair away from her face, which caused Shizu to stir in her sleep. In reaction to the slight touch of his hands, she tightened her grip around Azi's back. While Azi w
Undice the 15th of 4831 AS As the unknown figure reached their hand to Azi's neck, they quietly knelt down next to him in a somewhat timid manner which contrasted with the somewhat overly tensed hand. The extended fingers of their hand looked like a shadowy claw in the moonlight, but it suddenly changed to a cupped hand and moved to touch Azi's cheek. The hand brushed softly against his face and the figure came into view under the moonlight that shone through the window across from the bed. It was Shizu and she had snuck in when Azi was fast asleep. Her plan this night was to surprise him the next morning with the news of her officially moving in with him and to tease him while he was in a drowsy state of mind. But while she could have just slept at Kajima's house and then surprise him when he woke up, she felt that her plan would give her a greater element of surprise and expected that she would get a much better reaction out of him. She had already gotten the okay for her move
After recovering from Shizu's morning surprise, Azi was now seated in the wagon pulled by Kokona. Across from him was Shizu who was pouting somewhat as Azi had refused to sit on her lap or get close to her after her little prank this morning. His pride was somewhat damaged as a result of her actions and he was not in the mood to indulge in the antics of his tormentor. "It was just a prank. Come on, stop pouting and come over here." Shizu held her hands out in an inviting hug, but to her dismay Azi turned his head away from her with a hmph. Shizu slumped in frighten a depressed look and walked over to her sister at the front of the wagon. "Wah, Rulu! What should I do? He’s really mad at me." *Sniffle Sniffle* Patting the top of her elder sister's head, Rulu timidly placated her the best she could. She couldn’t tell if her sister was really sad or not, but she tried to push her sister away since she was getting a bit too close. Luckily, Kokona did not need instruction to pull the
Placing the cooled ingots into the wooden crate, Azi looked at the now orderly filled crates of stacked ingots. He had just completed Manu's order of 100 ingots of blood steel. He now had four days to prepare for the blacksmith's meeting and he truly wanted to make an impression so he would use this time to attempt to make his own custom equipment. But he ran into a snag. "No! I am not letting you do that again." "But Shizu it's the only way I can make the equipment." "Too bad. I won't have you passing out on me again just for you to make something as trivial as equipment. A knight's health should be greatly cared for and should not be undermined." Shizu and Azi were in the living room of his house and were having lunch. Azi had suggested that he would have to do another marathon of forging to create his equipment, but Shizu was not having it. The last time he did such a stunt, he ended up sick and almost died during the expedition. She wanted Azi to find a less drastic way to
Undice the 21st of 4831 AS It was one day before the blacksmith's meeting and Azi was pounding away at a piece of blood steel on an anvil, he was sweating so much that drops form and dripped to the ground from his brow. After shaping the metal to his specification he then tempered it and looked over to his left. On a nearby table was an hourglass he had bought during his shopping spree with Shizu and Rulu days prior. The top was completely empty of sand so Azi began to put down his hammer and stowed the shaped piece of metal. He then pulled up a chair and turned over a smaller hourglass next to the larger one. Azi had bought these hourglasses as he wanted to have them as a decoration in his house. The second one was quite small and cute but was also functional. The other larger hourglass was the same and estimated to time for 2 hour intervals while the smaller one was for half an hour. Azi used these to solve his issue of not being able to keep track of time while he worked. Whi
As Azi approached, Shizu tensed as she knew that Azi was likely going to tease her. Worst of all, they were in public and she would have a little time to avoid him due to how close they were. She had once again made Azi sit in her lap as they enjoyed the hot spring but it would seem that her teasing actions and words have backfired on her. She tried to back away but Azi pursued quickly nimbly for someone walking in the water. Knowing that she could do nothing to avoid him, she closed her eyes in a panic as her imagination began to picture what he was about to do. Darkness covered her vision for a few seconds but in the next moment she felt the unexpected sensation of two hands grasping her cheeks. “Azi?” Peeking one eye open, Shizu saw Azi’s head move close and then felt his lips upon her forehead. The nearby girls blushed at the sight while the men hooted and hollered at the somewhat sweet sight. Azi then lowered himself into the water and hugged her as he rested his head on h
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