Chapter 89 Pre Integral Meeting Prep (PIMP)

After a night of intense cuddling, Azi was the first one to wake up. After wrestling himself out of Shizu's embrace, which was much easier as Shizu was somewhat weakened by the grape wine they drank last night.

As he inspected himself, he noticed that the top of his yukata was somewhat sliding down his shoulders and it was the same for Shizu. Sighing to himself, he pulled up his yukata and helped Shizu do the same. She was currently nursing a hangover as she laid in bed.

Patting her head to placate her, Azi informed her of his plans for the day.

"I need to get going to set up for the blacksmith's meeting. So, I'll see you later. For now stay in bed for an hour. I'll tell the staff to come help you get dressed."

He then attempted to get to his feet, but Shizu stopped him by tightly holding onto his arm for support while she attempted to push herself out of bed.

"No I'm fine I can, ugh."

Cut off by the pounding feeling she felt in her head, she slumped back into the futon with a noticeable grimace as if she was having a nightmare.

Worried for her, Azi patted Shizu on the head to hopefully comfort her.

"Stay still Shizu. The grape wine was unexpectedly strong. So take it easy."

"Fine….. But stay with me for a bit?"

Azi sighed to himself as he knew that he could not indulge her this time. Today was a big day for him and there were special preparations he needed to make. Thinking fast, he did what he knew would work.

Shizu let out a moan of pain as her headache continued. The feeling was so uncomfortable that she had to keep her eyes closed to keep the light from entering her eyes. The brightness of the light caused her headache to only worsen and she felt like today was going to be a miserable one.

She then felt Azi's pair of hands hold her shoulder down and thought that he was trying to keep her in bed. She attempted to push herself up to tell him that she was fine, but when she opened her eyes she saw Azi's face so close to her own.

In the next moment, the familiar feeling of Azi's lips was upon her. After getting kissed once, Shizu tried to speak out.

"Wait! Azi! I'm fine. You don't need to hmf…"

With another kiss landing upon her, Shizu was silenced. A few seconds later, Shizu caught her breath and made another attempt to speak out.

"Azi! Stop it….. Hmff"

Another kiss, and this time with a bit of tongue. Shizu shivered at the sensation of Azi's tongue slipping between her lips. This made her reflexively move her hands to Azi's back to embrace him, but with her shoulder's pressed down she was unable to freely move her arms.

Frustration began to well up like a small fire but was easily put out by the ever increasing sensation of Azi's continuous kissing that seemed to grow in intensity.

After a good ten minutes, Shizu was left in a daze. She wondered if this is what Azi felt every time she punished or pounced on him these days and felt a slight sense of fear as it seemed that everything she had done to him was returned in kind.

Tucking her under the blanket, Azi whispered into Shizu's fluffy ear.

"I'll tell Rulu to come nurse you to health. Be sure to let her spoil you rotten."

He then nibbled on Shizu's fluffy ear to prevent her from retorting as she was then racked with both a pleasurable feeling of happiness and uncomfortable sensation of embarrassment.

"No fair." Said Shizu as she pouted. Covering her face with the blanket in an attempt to hide her embarrassment, Azi smiled wryly at this and stroked the top of her head in a gesture of temporary farewell and comfort.

After changing into his casual attire and leaving Shizu in their room, Azi went to inform Rulu about Shizu.

"Here, take this and buy a few stamina potions for Shizu. Saki should know which place to buy them from."

Handing Rulu enough money to buy 3 stamina potions, Rulu nodded in understanding while Yashimu, who was rooming with Rulu, cut in.

"There is no need. Sister should be fine, she has been through worse so there's no need for you to spend money on potions."

"While I do agree that Shizu is tough and strong, I have to argue that as her apprentice it only makes sense to worry about my knight's well being. And if you say that it's unnecessary since I'm not family, I would like for you to remember that we might become siblings in the future." Azi paused and then grinned as he said his next words with a bit of emphasis. "Brother Yashimu."

Rulu blushed at this moment while Yashimu rubbed the back of his head as he smiled wryly.

"*Sigh* You got me there. In any case, thank you." Yashimu paused and a grin formed on his face as he to emphasized his next words. "LITTLE…. Brother."

A tick mark of anger formed on Azi's forehead which was followed by a glare he directed at Yashimu. In a fiery but calm tone of voice Azi said.

"I see. LITTLE …. I believe we should GET TO KNOW each other SOME MORE. MAYBE! A TRAINING LESSON with BIG! BROTHER! Yashimu is IN! ORDER!"

Yashimu was stunned by the aura Azi was emitting as it was similar to his sister's aura during his days of hellish tutelage under her. The instincts that were beaten into him reacted without him thinking.

"YES MA'AM….. Uh I MEAN SIR!"

Azi smiled in response to Yashimu's obedience while Rulu looked on with a slight blush. She whispered to herself so that no one could hear.

"OH Sir Azi and Brother Yashimu together. Like Family, heheheh."

After Azi gave Yashimu a few light pats on his shoulder which made him noticeably tense up, Azi left the room. Relaxing his body when Azi closed the door on his way out, Yashimu let out a sigh of relief.

"That boy has adjusted well, but really, what has Shizu been teaching him? He is like a ….."

*Thump*

Feeling the blood rush to her head, Rulu soon fainted lightly and fell back onto the ground. Luckily a few cushions broke her fall but Yashimu panicked when he turned around to see Rulu lying down while looking a bit delirious. Yashimu reacted quickly albeit in a panicked manner.

"Staff! Anyone! Get an apothecary quick! Rulu is sick!"

At this point, Azi had already left out of earshot of Yashimu's cry as he had begun to rush back to his home. Oddly enough he ran past Kajima and Elder Sung who looked as if they were chatting in the wide hallway.

He gave only a short greeting as he passed by as he hurried to make his preparations.

"That boy sure is hearty. After drinking so much of that grape wine, I'm surprised he's awake. Even without the aphrodisiac, that drink is still strong." Laughed Kajima.

"Don't change the subject Kajima!!! I want an apology, do you know how embarrassing it was for me to "tend" to myself at that age." Rebutted Elder Sung.

"Yeah Yeah. Maybe I went a little too far, but next time hold back on your pranks or else they'll bite you in the butt again."

"Why you! Huh?" Her words were cut off by Kajima's prompting to get on his back as he knelt down with his back to her, which made Elder Sung ask. "Is this another punishment?"

"No, I just noticed how weak in the knees you are. I'll take you around the village today. The blacksmith's meeting gives us blacksmiths a day off so I have time to kill before Azi's meeting." Said Kajima.

Sighing to herself, Elder Sung reluctantly climbed onto Kajima's back with what little strength she had left in her legs.

"Alright then. Let's go to a bookstore, there is a special section I want to show you. Hehehe."

Already, Kajima got a foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach but he sucked it up and began walking with Elder Sung on his back.

*****

Azi soon arrived at his house a little after dawn. The sun was fully visible but had not yet risen high into the sky.

He changed his attire to his blacksmith attire which was originally a white colored attire with lines of black at the hems and seams. Now his clothes were somewhat gray and black from the soot that stained the clothes.

He washed it liberally but the amount of work he did was visible in the color of his attire. Not minding how he looked he headed to his storehouse to grab a few crates for today's meeting. He then promptly went to his forge to equip himself. Tool belt on his waist, a pair of gray lensed goggles on his forehead, and a set of white kengiri scale gloves.

After loading his crates and bags onto a small wagon he borrowed the day before from Ben and Bail, he got to the front of it and began pulling the wagon to the southern outskirts of the village.

The capacity of the wagon was moderate and it was sturdy as it could withstand several crates stuffed with ores and metals.

It was a short trek but when he arrived, he saw a large gathering of tents and mats set out in the large grass clearing located a distance from the southern outskirt's gate. People were moving items and goods around in preparation for the event.

Originally, the blacksmith's meeting was first intended to be a small gathering of all the blacksmiths in the village, but due to Council Member Jerome's suggestion it was turned into a small festival.

Shizu had complained to Azi about how annoying Jerome was and how she was left running around the past few days trying to get the festival preparations in order. Azi asked why she didn't just refuse Jerome's proposal and she revealed how many of the businesses in Shisayama were backed by Jerome.

With so much support, there would be outrage amongst the populace of the village if she denied the proposal. Now, the originally small gathering had turned into a small festival. This also changed what Azi had to do as all the blacksmith's would be showing off their skills while many other shops would be selling goods and performing traditional dances and songs.

The pressure was building in Azi's heart but he continued his way through the festival grounds to his destination.

After setting his wagon with the others at the assigned areas for storing the blacksmith's items, Azi began to inspect himself. He needed to ensure that his new gauntlets would perform as intended so he sent a thin line of magic from the tip of his finger to the gauntlets he had stowed in the wagon. He saw how the runes on the gauntlet shined in response.

He continued his inspection for a couple hours and seeing that there were also no issues with any of his other items, he then moved to the outdoor forge that was prepared for the blacksmith's demonstrations.

The forge was of high quality as it seemed that the rumor's of Jerome's wealth were not exaggerated. The anvil looked new and the forges did not have a single blemish on them.

Wanting to make doubly sure that all was in order with the outdoor forge, he donned his goggles and began to infuse magic into them to activate some inspection magic. A gray white glow emanated from his lenses but was unnoticed by the nearby workers and blacksmiths that glared at him from the corners of their eyes.

Ignoring the blacksmiths, he began to more closely inspect the surfaces of the forge's equipment. Indeed the equipment was well made but a slight anomaly caught his eye.

Azi sighed to himself and spoke to no one in particular.

"I see, well made indeed."

Over hearing him, the blacksmith hid their smirks as they left to attend to other matters.

Out of Azi's earshot, one blacksmith told another.

"The fool doesn't even notice. *Sigh* He is truly a green horn, but on another note, is what Jerome said true? Will we really be given a chance to go to the capital if we do this?"

"Yes, if we demonstrate the power of our creations we can get the attention of many buyers. With the income we can move to the capital and make a killing." Said an older blacksmith.

"But master…..I don't think…." Said a younger man.

"No buts, this is a chance for us to gain status. We can finally get the recognition we deserve."

"Yes, master." Said the young down cast man.

Placing his hand on the young man's head he ruffled his hair with a smile as he told him.

"And stop calling me master. You're my son, so loosen up. Today is going to be a good day."