Chapter 67 Morning Planning

After Kajima understood the current situation from Yashimu and Rulu, he sat Shizu and Azi down on the floor of the dining room. As they sat on their knees, they looked up in horror at the expression of rage in Kajima's eyes. He began his tirade about the modesty that an unmarried man and woman should have.

This was countered as Azi and Shizu explained what really happened with blushing faces. They took turns as they retold their intimate moment during last night and described it as a lucid dream. Kajima's eyes of wrath lessened as they explained the details and learned that I was nothing sexual, but a concern began to mare his expression.

He worried that Shizu was possibly forcing Azi down the path of her choosing by constantly enticing him with her body and antics, but it seemed that Azi explained how it was his own choice. While it was an unconscious choice, it was still his desired intent and emotions.

This made Yashimu and Rulu blush at the side as they heard Azi's confession that he wanted to be by Shizu's side. Shizu also blushed and fidgeted her hand as she mumbled to herself. On the other hand, Kajima sighed but smiled wryly.

While he desired to keep Azi out of danger, he could not deny Azi the ability to choose his own path as he would consider himself a hypocrite if he attempted to force his protection on him.

Sighing again, he decided to move on from the topic but made sure to keep a closer eye on them, he would want to confirm how they truly felt about each other but did not have to worry about them crossing any lines. The events of last night seemed to have convinced Kajima that both Azi and Shizu knew the boundaries of their relationship even when unconscious.

"Alright, while I do have questions I will ask them at a more private time. We all have a lot of work to do today so let's eat breakfast, Rulu can you set the table?"

Getting up from her chair, Rulu nodded and began setting the table with somewhat red cheeks but kept her composure in check.

When the spread of food was set out, everyone was sitting in their usual positions from last night's dinner, which meant Azi had to sit in Shizu's lap again.

"I get the feeling I'll be sitting in this spot from now on. You didn't plan this, did you Shizu?"

With an accusing eye, Azi asked Shizu about his situation, which Shizu only retorted by scoffing.

"Don't act like you don't like it."

Shizu began petting Azi's disheveled black hair which in turn made him sigh in defeat as he relaxed in the moment.

After seeing it for so many times, everyone had gotten used to the duo's lovey dovey actions. While still a bit embarrassed by the sight, they could stand to bear with it in their everyday life especially since they learned about the details of Shizu's trials and Azi's position as her apprentice.

It was common knowledge that apprentices and knights who swore fealty to each other were almost like family. So the closeness that Azi and Shizu displayed, while over the average, did not cross any norms when their situation was understood.

Everyone then discussed the plans for the day, Kajima asked first.

"So Shizu, when will Manu be back?"

"Maybe a week, and our brothers will be back at around the same time as well."

"I see, you best get to your office soon. There is likely work you have to do. How about you, Azi?"

After swallowing a bite of bread, Azi answered.

"I don't know, if I can't train or forge maybe I'll work on my apothecary skills, but if I have your permission can I do some handicraft and light training with your sword outside?"

"I can agree to that, but no sparring or blacksmithing for long periods of time. I can't have you getting sick, you have only somewhat recovered."

"Alright, Teacher. Hahaha"

"Hey, only call me that when we have lessons. It's embarrassing."

Kajima blushed a bit which was a welcome sight as Azi started to tease the much larger man, this exchange got everyone around the table to chuckle a bit and prompted Yashimu to add to the conversation.

"I'll be helping Shizu with her work. Rulu, how about you?"

While handing over a jug of water to Nosuri, who had choked a bit on the food from her laughter, Rulu said.

"I'll do some housework and some shopping. I lost some of my belongings during the attack on the caravan, so I need to replace a few items. Nosuri, Ougi can you accompany me as my guards."

Recovering with a drink of water, Nosuri affirmed with a nod of confidence.

"Umu! You can count on me Lady Rulu. We won't let a single hair on you get hurt."

"Agreed sister, but don't forget. We need to handle our finances and weapons."

While Ougi did agree with his sister's gung-ho attitude, he had to remind her of their situation which made Nosuri slump a bit. Cutting in, Kajima came to their aid.

"If it's about your weapons, have Azi take a look. He may be an apprentice but he can do the basics of weapon maintenance. How about it Azi? Are you ready to work with customer's face to face?"

While Azi's work on previous commissions were with weapons, he never had to talk with the person owner of the weapons he worked on. Azi thought that this could be a good learning experience to hopefully catch up to Kajima's expertise in custom weapon creation. Looking over to Nosuri and Ougu he nodded in agreement.

"Why not. Nosuri, Ougi I'll take you to the workshop to get you settled. Sound good?"

At Azi's words, Nosuri and Ougi bowed their heads in reverence and spoke in unison.

"Thank you Sir Azi for your help."

"No need for the sir, just call me Azi."

Waving his hand to placate them, the brother sister duo again said their thanks.

When breakfast concluded, Kajima and Rulu began their usual cleanup of the dining room and table. Azi led Nosuri and Ougi into the workshop, while Shizu had Yashimu carry bags full of documents she had left in Kajima's house.

Entering the workshop, Azi donned his goggles and began to warm the forge with the supply of charcoal and fire magic from his palm's.

Focusing his magic energy into his hand, a matchstick flame appeared in his palm, balling his hand into a fist he absorbed the subsequent red motes of magic energy which led to his arm being set ablaze. Pressing his fist against the pile of charcoal, the flames on his arms dissipated as the black charcoal began to be set aflame.

As he did this, he asked Nosuri and Ougi about their situation and learned that they had little money for the repairs and understood that they only wanted a way to extend the remaining lifetime of their weapons until they could afford a replacement.

As Nosuri and Ougi spoke, they looked on at the sight in surprise. They had never seen such an unusual way of lighting a fire or even the use of magic in such a way. Before Nosuri could ask a question, Azi interrupted her.

"Pass me over your weapons, I need to take a look."

Nodding, Nosuri and Ougi handed over their weapons which consisted of a longbow, arrows, and two sabers. Azi again felt deja vu as he had seen these weapons before from somewhere but could not remember where. Shaking off the sudden buzz in his mind he focused magic energy into his goggles.

They began to glow a slightly white gray glow that was unnoticeable unless you really focused to see it.

From Azi's perspective, his vision zoomed with the amount of focus he gave which allowed him to see the cracks in the bow's wood, the dull edges of the arrowheads, and the chips and nicks in the sabers. He deduced that the battle during the fort's defense was a hard fought one.

The kengiri's carapace are harder than the gengiri as it took a couple of strikes from Azi's magic infused fist to be able to crack or pierce it. Refined steel blades or arrowheads would take a considerable amount of force to slash through the carapaces which also meant the same force would wear down the used weapons.

Placing the sabers into the forge, he heated them so that he could more easily straighten them. They were slightly off center and Azi wanted to sanitize the blade with the heat of the forge. After heating them until they became red hot, Azi began straightening them with a few good strikes of his forging hammer.

After cooling the sabers in a basin of water, he grabbed a whet stone and began sharpening the arrow heads and sabers. He could not forge Nosuri and Ougu a new version of their weapons from his supply of blood steel as he did not want to face Kajima's ire.

He can, however, do a bit of handicrafts and basic blacksmithing to get their weapons back into fighting form. For Nosuri's bow, he restrung it with a lower quality string and bundled the worn-down but high-quality string. He returned it to Nosuri and told her that he could not do anything about the string but reassured her that the string he used would serve her well.

The low-quality bow string was commonly found on the market, but Azi had an idea on how to make it last so that Nosuri could save a bit of money to afford a more proper repair.

After giving their weapons a proper sharpening and recentering, Azi then looked through his supply of materials. He had plenty of blood steel left over from Shizu's weapon forging, but also had gengiri carapaces and beowolf fangs. He ran out of kengiri carapaces as he used those up when making and testing prototypes of his gloves.

Grabbing a few gengiri carapaces and beowolf fangs, Azi began to shape the carapaces with a refined metal saw and did more detailed work with his carving knife. He fashioned the carapaces into thumb size squares and engraved a small rune on them with the beowolf claw.

His plan was to use the other rune he could use which meant "reinforce" to indirectly extend the weapon's lifetime. He did not have the choice to remake the weapons without going against Kajima's demand so he thought this would allow Nosuri and Ougi to continue using their weapons effectively.

After engraving the rune into 15 thumb side square pieces, he began to place 5 of them onto each weapon. 5 would go on each of the handles of Ougi's two sabers and the last 5 would go onto the grip of Nosuri's longbow.

Nosuri and Ougi had no idea what Azi was doing but could not ask as Azi had such an intense look of focus that they did not want to interrupt him. It was as if they were looking at a calm pool of water that was completely still.

Azi's motions were smoothed and seemed as if he practiced them numerous times before but seeing him add such unusual pieces to their weapons got Ougi's curiosity up in arms.

"Excuse me Azi? But what are you adding to our weapons? I understand that you were sharpening and recentering them but what purpose do these black pieces have?

Turning his attention away, Azi looked up at Ougi who stood beside him at the stone worktable. Seeing the squinted eyes of the man and the furrowed brow that indicated his worry, Azi placated him.

"I am adding a reinforcement rune indirectly to the weapons to extend their durability. I can't make you a new weapon or use the forge for complex repairs. This is the best I can do to ensure your weapons don't break in your next battle. If you don't mind, please stand back, this last part needs a lot of focus and concentration."

Hearing a reasonable explanation, Ougi stepped back when prompted. Nosuri wanted to ask for details but opted to stay silent as Azi's arms began to glow.