Chapter 46 Drive

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, Shizu remembered that Azi was still working.

Shizu 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."

Remembering Kajima's words, Shizu wondered if her actions were the cause of why Azi was pushing himself. She was quite harsh on him in the past 2 weeks of training and knew that this was because Ozen had told her to accelerate his training so that he would be able to produce results.

Results that the council would be unable to refute so that Ozen could establish his seat of power for the remaining time he needed to fix the nation's problems and protect his family from the noble families.

With the death of his wife, the fragile health of his youngest daughter, and a hostile western foreign neighbor. Ozen could not be blamed for his paranoia for the safety of his nation and family. The dissent of the new council members only compounded his stress as he now had to worry about enemies in his court.

Sighing, Shizu endeavored to keep her promise to Azi and be by his side. Getting out of bed Shizu got dressed and walked into the dining room and connected to the kitchen.

She saw Kajima at the kitchen table gathering food into bags and wooden crates. Notice her approach Kajima instructed Shizu.

"Good timing Shizu, grab those buckets of water."

Turning her attention to a couple buckets of water beside Kajima, Shizu asked no question and did what she was told. The tone of Kajima's voice was serious and soldier-like, Shizu knew that this must be important, so she complied.

"Follow me, we need to get these to Azi. He has already eaten and drank through the supply of food I gave him last night. The boy's going through so much food that I have no idea how he fits it into his stomach."

Moving to the workshop Kajima opened the door and Shizu followed inside.

Not noticing the entrance of two people into the workshop. Azi continued to manipulate his magical tethers to simultaneously infuse magical energies and pound metal. Using the metal tongs in his hand he moved the red-hot piece of metal around on the anvil to get the hammer to hit it at just the right angle.

Bandages were applied to Azi's face and arms and a noticeable amount of sweat permeated his body and clothes. The sweat had formed into puddles on the ground but some were already fully evaporated by the intense heat of the forge.

Shizu flinched a bit back at the heat but nonetheless proceeded to refill the empty container of water.

Hearing the noise of splashing water, Azi stopped his work and went over to grab a drink. Still having his magical tethers conjured he walked past Shizu without batting an eye and proceeded to dunk his cup into the container to fill it.

He then drank the water quickly and immediately went back to work.

Shizu was dumbfounded by the sight of Azi's appearance. His body was bandaged like an injured soldier, but his eyes had a fire in them that seemingly burned hotter than the forge. But while he looked as if he was in pain, what left Shizu's gobsmacked was how there was a wide smile on Azi's face.

He grinning with a devilish smile.

A smile that relished in what he was doing and was standing in defiance of all the pain and heat he was experiencing. Shizu noticeably gulped down what she believed to be fear as the sight had really spooked her even her battle maniac senses.

Noticing Kajima signal her to get out of the workshop, she moved to the exit that connected to the house. As she left, she got one last look at Azi's back and thought to herself.

'Is that really Azi? He seems so different from his usual self. What is driving him forward? Has he gone crazy? Maybe drunk?'

Shaking the thoughts away from her mind, she refocused herself and thought about what she needed to do today. Getting her reports and letters in order, Shizu left the house and made her way to her office in the village chief's house.

Entering her office she called out.

"Manu, are you here?"

"Yes Lady Shizu, What can I do for you?"

Manu, the village chief, has been working as Shizu's assistant the past 2 weeks. While Shizu did not get along with people of the opposite of sex, Manu was an exception as he was a family friend that was like a brother to Yashimu.

"I need an update on our current situation. With my sister coming to visit I prefer if we have everything ready?"

"I understand. Currently, the village has an adequate number of guards on watch. In total 100 guards are manning the entrances and exits of the village in rotation shifts. We have 50 men also periodically culling the forest monsters.

Finally, the group of 50 that went on the recent expedition up the western mountain came back with no losses, but about half of them were injured.

A concern we have now is that the soldiers are getting worn down as we haven't been able to give them a break."

Shizu heard Manu's report and reading the recent complaints that came in from the leadership of the soldiers in the field, Shizu realized that at the rate they were going.

Stamina and weapon supplies would be the first to break. She knew that they could not let up on the expeditions as they were currently the only viable method to find the cause of the increasing monster attacks.

Looking over to a nearby map that showed the surrounding areas around Shisayama,. There were X marks that showed the areas the expeditions had already surveyed.

There were only a few places left on the map that could possibly have the answers they were looking for, but they were to spread out to search together within the remaining days Shizu had left before Rulu would arrive.

Seeing that if she did not take a risk here, the village and, more important to her, Rulu, would be endangered from the increasing monster attacks.

"Lady Shizu, there is no need to be rash about this. Even if we find the cause we would still need time to rectify the problem."

Shizu glared at Manu with eyes that bore into him, which made him flinch back. He knew of how protective Shizu was with her younger sister so he held back his retort and kept silent as Shizu declared her plan.

"No it is an issue. I expect my sister to have a safe visit without monster attacks, so that is what we will endeavor to do. In order to find the cause of the increase in monster attacks we will lead two expeditions."

"Two!? We don't have enough men. If we pull from the watch and forest culling teams, the village would be put in danger."

"Yes, which is why we will give the recently injured some time to recover, 2 days should suffice. We will then split the remaining men we have into two groups.

15 soldiers will go with me to the western forest and the remaining troops will search the remaining location in the eastern forest. Lastly, we will put out a call for volunteers amongst the villagers. If we tell them this is for Rulu, I'm sure they will agree to help."

Sighing, Manu could only nod his head in agreement at Shizu's last statement. The peasantry were in favor of Ozen and this extended to his family. This was more so for the youngest daughter due to how there was a controversial rumor about her childhood illness.

When Rulu found out about the death of her mother, she became gravely ill. This was the official story, but the peasantry had suspected that the cause of the Ozen's wife's death and Rulu's apparent sickness was caused by someone in the noble families.

This was believed due to how the peasantry did not favor the noble families as their new council member recently wasted the tax money on projects that did little to enrich the nation's peasants.

This was also due to how a member from a noble family had tried to poison Shizu during her trial for her hand in marriage. These facts were common knowledge for all citizens of Kujyuri, so the people rallied behind Rulu and did all they could to support her. The rumors spread and to this day Rulu is loved and protected by all of the Kujyuri's people.

After more discussion on other less trivial matters, Shizu and Manu began putting their plan into action.

In the meantime, Azi was hard at work. He had already completed 4 of the 24 metal pieces he needed to complete the Shizu's umbrella by the end of the 2nd day. But Azi found that his pace was slowing and that he would not make the 7-day deadline at this rate.

He thought to himself.

'At this pace I won't have any time to finalize the runes and magical energies. If only I had more hands.'