Chapter 106 Arrival in Kujyuri

On the 7th day of the journey, the caravan arrived at the gates of the Kujyuri. The welcome was quite extravagant since word had reached the capital that Rulu would be returning. 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 common people 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 act during the ambush from the Uzuruans, Ozen's 4 youngest sons had accompanied the caravan but 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 the attention she was getting caused her to feel somewhat uncomfortable. Yashimu patted her on the back to help calm her down.

Additionally some of the more veteran citizens had noticed an unusual sight. Usually, Shizu would be beside Rulu but this time, as they gave her a warm welcome they noticed the small boy that sat in front of her while on her horonon mount. The small boy looked embarrassed and seemed to be keeping his head down while putting an unusual pair of goggles over his eyes.

They wondered just who his boy was and were somewhat perplexed that Shizu would share a mount with a young man but assumed that this was an exception as the small boy could have been a child Shizu had aided during her travel to the capital.

Unbeknownst to the crowds of people, Shizu was keeping her posture upright and presenting herself with an air of pride and dignity. She was also telling Azi in whispers to sit up straight but he refused to do so as the current situation was too embarrassing for him. An hour before arriving at the gate, the caravan had stopped to make preparations for a small parade march they would make through Kujyuri's gates.

Shizu had offered Azi to sit with her on her personal horonon mount so that they could enter the capital together. At first, he denied the offer as he still did not want to get near Shizu as he had yet to forgive her for the bite mark she made on his neck.

But Shizu insisted and eventually got Azi to agree since she took Yahsimu's advice and agreed to be less clingy for the next few days.

Azi was now somewhat regretting his decision as the numerous stares he got made him feel uncomfortable as he knew that he looked like a child being taken care of by Shizu. While Azi believed that Shizu only wanted to show him off since word of his appointment as her apprentice would soon spread, he felt as if Shizu knew that this was going to happen as he could notice the small grin on her face.

Azi finally turned his head up when he wanted to get a better look of where they were going. Looking down the stone paved road, he saw a large tower of stone that rose high up into the sky. Touma had explained to Azi that this was the castle of the capital of Kujyuri.

He had first laid eyes on it from a top of a cliffside that neighbored the capital city and it looked enormous from a far, but the size of it really hit him when he made his approach. He had also learned that the castle was actually not made by the Yamaton people but was in fact a reused ruin from the age of Divine Strife that was gifted from the Emperor to Ozen when he was appointed as a Great General.

The castle was an enormous tower that oddly enough looked somewhat damaged as a gash at the top of the tower made it seem like there used to be more of the structure there. A few rivers ran through the city and shrubbery dotted the castle's outer perimeter and walls. Nonetheless, the castle looked sturdy and the snowy landscape that surrounded it was populated by numerous buildings and houses that bustled with activity and life.

Originally, according to a history book Azi read, this land was once a wasteland that was inhabited by monsters. Ozen had found this piece of land and thought that it would make for a good place to relocate his capital city.

The mountains provided environmental defenses, the largely flat area made it easy to build on, and the remnants of the rivers could be revived. If he reclaimed the land, he could further his expansion by using this location as a staging point to push further into the western frontier. He was only a king at the time and believed that there was more land he needed to reclaim for his people.

Successfully reclaiming it caught the attention of the Emperor who christened Ozen the title of Great Reclaimer and Great General. With his new position and resources, Ozen grew his new capital city in a few years and it now stood as a testament to human progress against the dangers and obstacles of the world.

Azi marveled at the sight of the castle and estimated that the castle looked to be 50 meters tall, but he couldn't say for sure as the sight only grew bigger as they approached down the main road of the capital.

Unbeknownst to Azi, many older men in the crowd were giving him looks as they eyed the forging hammer at the side of his toolbelt. Many of them also took notice of the metal buckle on Azi's toolbelt that contained his blood steel squares.

Ozen had already started to spread a rumor about Azi's new material the day he received a sample shipment from Manu. This was Azi's first batch of blood steel that he made for Manu, who had subsequently sent it to Ozen who shared the new material to many of the capital's blacksmiths.

These blacksmiths were told of what Azi looked like as the black hammer and gray lens goggles made him somewhat standout from the others in the caravan.

After some time, the caravan dispersed when they arrived into the large courtyard of the castle. It was a large circular area that Azi felt could have housed a small village inside.

Getting down from his mount with Shizu, he pondered if he could ask to explore the capital but before he could get a word out he heard a familiar voice he was not expecting.

"RUUUUUULUUUUUUUUU-CHANNNNNNN!!"

Dashing out from behind one of the many enormous trees that decorated the courtyard came a large figure that wore green. With its arms outstretched, the figure in green approached Rulu with thundering steps and a great amount of speed.

Startled by the sudden call of her voice, Rulu was soon subject to a tight hug from the figure in green who bellowed out a gafor.

"Bwahahaha, welcome home my little Rulu-chan. Let me see. Oh my! How you have grown!"

"Father! Please, I was only gone for a few weeks and this … this is embarrassing." Rulu said meekly.

"Nonsense. I can see that you've grown even more beautiful, oh daughter of mine. Arencha going to give me a welcome kiss on my cheek?"

Rulu began to blush furiously, she remembered doing such a thing when she was younger without care of who watched, but now that she was older she felt an overwhelming sense of shame that made her face go red.

Noticing the change in Rulu's face the figure in green, who everyone identified as Ozen, started to shout for an apothecary as he worried that Rulu had gotten sick.

As this happened Azi looked on in somewhat mild shock of how unkingly Ozen was acting which prompted him to ask Shizu if that was really Ozen.

Before he got a word out, Shizu explained. "I told you before, Our family really loves Rulu."

"I see." Azi said, but he felt that this sense of love was very heavy and overbearing. He had asked Rulu during their time in Shisayama on if she missed home and Rulu gave him a somewhat tragic answer.

She told him that she felt that the capital city, Kujyuri, felt more like a prison and that she was glad that she left.

Looking on as Ozen instructed an apothecary to examine Rulu, Azi could somewhat understand how being forced to live in the capital city could feel like a prison. Rulu seemed to be unable to refuse her father's actions or his attempts to care for her which was in sharp contrast to her somewhat independent attitude when in Shisanyama.

Azi mused the idea in his head that in the capital city Rulu was a cage bird, but while in Shisayama Rulu was more of a bird in flight.

"Come on Azi. I'll show you to your room." Shizu said, as she then took Azi by the hand and began to lead him into the castle. This broke him from his musings and he began to focus on what he needed to do.

Shizu had told him that he would likely be swarmed by officials when he got to the capital, so she promptly got him out of the courtyard and into a room so that he could have some privacy as he settled in.

She knew that this was a wise decision as she could already see that a few other nobles that were in the courtyard began to stare at Azi.

While Azi and Shizu left, the rest of the caravan began to unpack and started settling back into their own abodes.

Opening the wooden door to a room, Shizu showed Azi his quarters for the time he would be staying in Shisayama. This was a guest room that would be usually reserved for visiting nobles but was prepared for Azi since he was her apprentice.

It had a beautiful bed, a table and chairs for dining or working, and a closet with numerous shelves to hold his belongings.

"Is there a common bath in the castle?" Azi asked as he had become used to bathing every other day and with luck Azi was now disappointed with Shizu's answer.

"There is a common bathing area for the servants and guards, but the royal family has their own personal bathing areas." Shizu then grinned a bit and added. "There is only a single bath for the royal family so we tend to enjoy mixed bathing with our family members. If you want, you could join us?"

Not looking perturbed at Shizu's tempting jab, Azi jabbed back. "Sure, but be sure to not bite me in the bath in front of your family. I think they might start seeing you differently if you showed them such an unusual habit."

Shizu blushed a bit at the idea of her family getting the wrong idea about her blunder and fired back with a somewhat embarrassed tone. "Oh yeah, then you should be careful in stopping yourself from sucking on my tits. They might start seeing you as a pervert."

His shoulders slumping heavily at the reminder of his perverse actions in the past, Azi started to blush as well and attempted a rebuttal.

The two would continue their argument and teasing in the room but unbeknownst to either of them, a servant that was passing by had caught sight of the two in the doorway and was prompted to ask if they needed any assistance.

She stopped herself as she thought that she saw sparks flying between the two as they grinned and glared at each other as they argued. The servant shrugged as this was a somewhat common occurrence to see that Shizu was arguing with someone, but what was surprising to the servant was that to her, the young man was standing his ground.

From this event, a rumor started to spread that the Ordained Knight, Shizu the Man Killer, had gotten into an argument with a young man who was able to talk back to her and be able to continue to do so without getting injured. The rumor would only continue to grow as the pair's future interactions would fuel the gossip that continued to deepen the rabbit hole of rumors within the inner castle.