Chapter 22: Two Of Four

"B-but why?"

"Cause' ya lack drive', you even want to do anythin' with your life kid?"

"I... haven't really thought about it"

"By er third day here', Ari had already got er' card, rank, and on er' to make a name of herself. You, you ain't er', ah get it, but you ain't even tryin'. Ya gotta see what ye can do when go all out kid"

"Am I-"

Was I ready?

I'm not ready for this... I can't.

Nothing's changed, not really.

Sure I can pull off an overhead strike, but when am I going to use it?

Hell I've only been able to pull that off once too!

How many situations would really need a weapon to be cut?

I can't move at her speed, just swing!

"Woah ther', I aint askin' you teh jump through hoops yet, Just meet em'. It's called a party for a reason kid"

"Oi Oi Oi V! Why wasn't I told about this?"

"Why I'd tell you somthin' you object to? I didn't even tell the boss lady. Heh! Her version of love is anthin' that don't kill ya! She don't understand the weak, and you, sure as shit don't understand anyone, outside of them schemes at least"

"*Tsk* Yes I do! Did you at least check who they are?"

Rider has her way of getting through to people, even if we don't want to hear it.

Throughout this entire conversation she didn't even turn around, reading someone's 'life force' was second nature to her, not only from her skills she picked up through training as a monk, but as a High-Drake able to sense the world around her through subtle vibrations.

That single reason is why Arisu tends to call her 'Big Liz' when they're both around strangers. Apparently 'small scaled things with or without four legs' could do the same thing where she is from.

Her descriptions suck as much as Enda's names.

Maybe it is about time I see what I'm really capable of.

"Course I did, who'd you think I am?"

"Do. We. Know. Them?"

"Uhhh, Maybeh? You go all over the place, so how the hell would I know?"

"*Grrr* Keep deflecting and I'll bring out the marshmallows and ropes again!"

"Woah! Woah! Woah! No need fer that! I doubt these two know em"

"So this doesn't involve Tsu-chan?"

"No. What she's goin' through *sigh* When she's ready, I'm sure we'll all know. Raght now, you know what she's lookin' for"

"Yeah, I know. Well what are their names and ranks?"

"Ask em yourself, they're almost here"

From what I could tell, Enda trusts Rider a fair bit. She knows how to hold back, and from my experience, how to teach just as well as her. The past they share started long before I met her, and both their appearances are incredibly deceptive in relation to their age.

Enda thought training together with Ota would be enough for me to grow.

Simply put, it wasn't, and we ended up hard stuck.

Rider knows what we prefer, that Ota and I tend to play it safe then only take risks until we're thrown into a corner.

We needed a push, even if we didn't want one.

"Hey, Sis, did you check out the Crepe stall?"

"Wait what? A Crepe stall? Where! Also, why do you keep calling me Sis? It's Big-Sis alright?"

"Hmmm, I don't know about that..."

"What!?"

"I mean, I kinda see you as one of the Sisters from the-"

"-Hey, are we interrupting something?"

"-..."

Two young people reached the top of the stairs nearby carrying platters of food.

A petite beast-kin woman with long dark green hair and fair skin wearing a black face mask and choker sporting a casual dress and overshirt standing next to a young human man with slicked up blonde hair, blue jeans and pale green loose buttoned shirt.

"Hey! Welcome to the tower, behold my harem of- Ow!"

Before she could even finish breaking the ice with a joke, Arisu was hit across the face with a brush that soon turned to smoke, as Merrah walked out in silence.

Rider tried to warn her indirectly and even without using my blessing, it was obvious she was pushing it.

It'd been a long week, and not everyone could move at her pace. Instead of acknowledging Merrah's effort to comfort her, she cracked a joke that did not land with the person who knew enough about her past to feel like she was lied to.

The broken ice reformed harder than before.

"Sis, she was right, you don't understand people at all"

"I- *sigh* shit. I talk you later"

Realizing her mistake, she took off upstairs, changed, then grabbed the drink and glasses on the way out as Merrah left them behind. Soon after she rushed back up, grabbed her new scarf and a small thin box from a nearby cupboard in the kitchen, then headed back downstairs.

She continuously insulted herself under her breath as she left.

Nobody spoke a single word for a few minutes afterwards, and the two strangers slowly sat down on the couch, placing the food trays on the tea-table.

It consisted of a collection of biscuits, fruits and sorted cheeses, my best guess is that this was meant for the nobles before they had to deal with whatever popped up, or was spare food. It's always hard to tell with Enda.

"Uh, I'm Touji... That's Ota... She's, kinda, uh, just processing things right now?"

"Hey, I'm Adelard, my name has a silent d at the end... if you want.. to.. spell... it..."

His voice started off strong but slowly drifted away as his pastel eyes scanned around the room in nervousness. I'd never seen such interesting irises in my life before, combined with the beast-kins deep blue these two strangers had distinct appearances.

"I'm Aoife Swiftsteal, even though it sounds like Eefa, it's spelt a-o-i-f-e"

"Are you Batoris-is-es, uh, sister?"

Arisu called him a 'Bunny-boy' because of his ears, hers seemed to match and move with her mood like Arisu, and right now, pointed backwards behind her head, sharing Adelard's embarrassment.

"Huh, you know him?"

"Yeah, he did my check up after I- uh, never mind"

"Oh! You were the guy in the coma that grew strong as the thing sucked you dry!"

"Woah wait what! You got attacked by a succubus of something?!"

I could tell Rider was enjoying this far too much, trying her best to hold back her laughter while her tail betrayed her true reaction to this public execution.

"I wasn't sucked dry... Well I guess I was, but-"

"-Bro's got that coma rizz"

"SHUTUP OTA! It was a relic! The relic drained my mana and almost killed me! That's all!"

I've never been so embarrassed in my life and of course Ota decided to evolve from slime to sassy oni at the worst possible time!

I reached for the grip to prove my innocence and to realize my mistake, I had left my new coat and relic back at the lab.

"Heh, yeah sure. You have any idea what that paladin was up to while you were out cold? She still hasn't shown her face to you after I caught her''

"...Uhhhh"

"...Oh, sorry, I should have worded that differently. Soooo, like, what does it do?"

"Urgh, I left it downstairs, but it can change and mimic other weapons-"

"Wait-wait-wait-wait. Touji. Don't you know what that thing is? Why we've been trainin' you? Enda should of told you by now"

"All I know is what Sis told me... But first, Ota, are you ok?"

"I... Think so? It's weird, like I can feel things, but it's more like a smell? Like swimming and feeling water on my skin, but it's my horns..."

What she described was how my blessing felt when I focused on someone, except more concentrated on a single part of her body, a second pair of hands so to speak.

"*sigh* Listen carefully kid, that thing's name wasn't lost to history bah chance and our group, heh, aptly renamed the 'misfits', has always described it as' one thin'. Before it was even used to behead the destroyer and I saw its power first hand, ah didn't believe it mahself-"

As she spoke, it felt as if the room warped around me, and the only people left in existence were Rider and me.

Darkness and silhouettes without contrast. No furniture, no fireplace, not a wall or light in sight but each of our bodies.

What she told me next was a truth that the world itself would hide from anyone and everyone who didn't need to know, less they dig too deep.

"-so many different craaazy bastards, each pullin' off a feat that seemed even more impossible, and that means more than you realize from me kid. That relic don't mimic nothin', and it's only limited bah its user. If Enda ever got her hands on it, with her mana supply alone, she could cut the three moons in half in one swing, taking the world with em-

-We know it's name, and that ain't nearly as important as how our creed has always described it, 'the weapon that burned the heavens and froze over hell'. That dumb green wire grip, it belonged te' someone like myself... someone you met before, tha very day you jus' happen to be chosen-

-He probably called himself somthin' stupid that day, heh, maybe he even went and convinced someone else with a name even dumber than that. *tsk* It's all the same to us, and if you can hear me now kid, it means I can tell you a secret. Rider, V, Vickie *sigh* even mah scales aint what they truly are-

-Who am I kiddin'? You caint hear me, I doubt you could even call me bah any of ma real names. Conquest? Yeah sure, ah get it. Conflict? Yeeerp, caint even short that one either. Strife though *sigh* I like that one. Urgh, such is the life of the first horseman in a world with a new pocalypse' always rearin' its ugly head-"

Once again, the world existed around me, with a single change.

Rider, or I should call her, Strife, was no longer covered in crimson scales.

Now, I saw them as white.

All the while she kept carving the firewood with her sharp claws, as if nothing happened and she just rambled off to herself as the world stood still just for us.

Ota didn't notice, neither Adelard or Aoife.

Just me.

"-So, if you can master it, use other energy, not jus' mana, and don't think you can only create what you've seen. Well, I believe you could rise to the top, like everyone in this room raght now"

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, us as well?"

"Yeeep, you're all roun' the same rank bah my count, even if those two got-"

A horn rang out across the city and we all rushed to the window, even Rider.

In the distance, a small army emerged from a snowed over quarry, heading towards a singular, large two story building within the open field.

"Gotta love that good ol' council. Stupid and corrupt to the bitter end"