In the Courtyard

In the courtyard of the volunteer soldiers' lodging house.

"Are you serious?"

"I am very serious."

Suzune gave me an incredulous look.

She'd completed studying Bash, Guard, and Thrust for the expansion of fighting techniques. Each was an offensive technique involving a shield, a defensive technique utilizing a sword, and, well, a thrust assault. They all sound simple, sure. But for anyone who knew nothing about swords and shields, the thorough training the guild provided was a reasonable step to adopt.

Bash fetched 15 silvers, while Guard and Thrust were both 20 silvers. That's a total of about 65 silvers. Suzune bought a heater shield and a longsword for a total of 70 silvers. The heater shield was characterized by its flat top and curved bottom and was made of iron. As a longsword, Suzune would be able to utilize its distinctive features for use by either one or two hands. 

For her armor, it was expensive, as I thought. Suzune spent more than 1 gold for her plate armor outfit. It was cheaper because they were much thinner than me, but still protected her body nonetheless. It was complete with head armor, a Great Helm. It covered most of her face except for the eyes and the tiny pinholes on both parts of her cheeks. I was using the armor type. Much like me, she didn't care much for design.

Yousuke let out an awkward laugh. "Why did you resort to doing that without at least notifying us, Kiyotaka?"

Priests weren't costly with their expenses. Hence Yousuke and Kei voluntarily gave their remaining to other members in need. 

Yousuke and Kei had each learned Heal, Protection, and Assist. Heal targets an area, which is basically healing magic from a distance. Protection was a buff magic and was almost a must to learn. It increases physical abilities, endurance, and speeds up the body's natural healing process. It could be used on six people and lasted thirty minutes. Incidentally, that was the reason why parties were usually only six members at most. Assist is primarily a stacked skill for Protection. They also bought tougher tipped staffs without violating guild rules for using sharp edges. All for 1 gold and a little over that.

I replied the customary way. "Manabu's offer is appealing. And I thought it would come only once, so I took it. I've obtained worthy experience as well."

I was paid in money because of my help. Golds.

Yousuke and Suzune had wrapped up their training in the afternoon of Saturday.

"I definitely didn't expect Spearhead to take an interest with a new recruit," Suzune sighed.

I think it's precisely because I'm a new recruit that he's interested."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing."

She eyed me suspiciously.

"—hey, I brought something for us...!" Kei came to save the day. Well, I had no intention of hiding it. I'll share when the time is appropriate. 

Kei excitedly approached us with something in her hand. A basket filled with food. Suzune was looking somewhat bewildered by what appeared to be sweets on the basket. I felt the same way, though my face didn't show it.

"It should be more than enough for others. Eat them up!"

"Oh, then please excuse me," Yousuke took one. It was a small bun covered in multi-tiered jams. "You bought it with your own money, Kei-san?"

"Yep," she said. "I was initially planning to buy one for just myself, but when I remembered you guys, I figured why not get one for everyone as well while at it? And Yousuke, you don't need to add 'san' to my name. Kiyotaka, Ken, and Kanji didn't do that, much less the girls. You're the only one who does. We should get closer than just work partners, don't you think?"

Suzune took one for herself. As she ate it, her countenance altered ever so slightly. It was amusing, truth be told.

"I see... I'll do that then," Yousuke thoughtfully nodded. He only went out of his way to do that to the girls. Kanji and Ken had told him the same thing about how he should address them, and he'd gone along with what they said.

I savored my sweet in silence. It was actually delicious. The bun alone would have been bland, but with the layers of mixed fruits on top combined cleverly, the insipid taste was completely gone. 

Yousuke shared the identical expression as Suzune.

Kei just overreacted. "Ahh, this feels especially sweet after all that relentless rough training." She's certainly a whiner. More than any of us. Well, sure, the training in the guild was fairly harsh. But it was effective, so I figured it was only natural.

"Don't you think your actions to not taking lessons from the guild is too uppity?" 

"Eh?"

'What's gotten into her?'

Kei and Yousuke were drawn into our conversation.

I responded Suzune. "Not really. There is nothing to learn about, anyway."

"I hardly believe that..."

"Really now?"

I knew I hardly ever demonstrated any special techniques in my fights. But even Suzune should know that the straightforward techniques I repeatedly employed were above average. 'That's not to say what she thought wasn't completely true, though.'

It is the truth that there weren't any enemies great enough for me to adopt elaborate maneuvers. Death Spots included. I rarely attempted to conduct a fair one-on-one fight and preferred to eliminate my enemies in a purely efficient manner. Whether that's morally wrong, I couldn't care less.

Having yet to encounter an enemy capable of minimal bringing out the full force of my physical strength, I never made intricate plans to overcome them either. From an outsider's perspective, I'm just an abnormally built volunteer soldier who relies solely on that to defeat his enemies, with the addition of simply calmer and a bit smarter than Ken. Was Suzune one of the people saw it that way? Is she stupid?

"I can use Rage Blow just fine. Same with Wind, Fast Thrust, Back Thrust, Steel Guard, Somersault Bomb, Tornado Slam, Haze, and many others." Saying so, and with all considerations in mind, I proposed something to Suzune. "We can do a spar to prove that, you know?"