“See you later, master.”
With a packed lunch in one hand, and Mia’s hand in the other, Hikari heads off to the adventurer guild.
Rurika and Sera are right behind them, which leaves me and Chris.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go too? I’m basically just going to go walk around because I want to.”
“I know you like walking… But I’m kind of interested in seeing the city too.”
No problem then. We’ll just chat while looking around and seeing what the city’s like.
In the area from the port to the castle, there are guilds and commercial facilities, but then that stops all of a sudden and it turns into a residential area.
As for the castle itself, there is the big gate, but also walls like ramparts around it, so we can’t see it.
It feels not unlike the area around the castle in Elesya, but once I start looking at it more closely, something feels off.
There are long-range weapons like ballistae on the walls, but they’re pointed inward.
At first I figure it’s just a coincidence and there’s nothing to it, but they’re all pointed in the same direction.
The construction of the walls themselves is a little odd too. There are ladders to climb them from this side, like those walls were built to protect the city from whatever’s inside.
“It feels weird.”
Chris is tilting her head, because I think she notices it too.
We keep going up and down stairs while walking around the city, and most people we see are either elderly or children.
I don’t see anyone my age, or a generation above.
“Is everyone working somewhere?”
“It seems so…”
It’s no wonder Chris is mumbling. We’ve been going around for a while now, but we haven’t seen a single person working.
We haven’t seen any spaces where it looks like people would be farming or producing food in general either.
We find a square along the way, so we stop there to eat, but other than the voices of children we hear from time to time, it’s completely quiet.
“Should we go to the guild and meet up with the others?”
“Yes. They are probably done training.”
“I don’t know, Hikari was pretty fired up. I think they’re probably still going.”
I say, and Chris agrees.
When we do get to the adventurer guild, the male receptionist comes running, looking pale.
“T-this way…”
He takes us to the training area, where we see the four girls… And two kids I don’t recognize.
They’re a boy and a girl, and the boy is approaching Hikari. The atmosphere feels volatile, but what happened?
We walk over to Rurika and the others to learn what happened, but before we hear anything, Hikari notices us, comes running, and hugs me.
“Master, help.”
Hikari is actually sounding troubled for once, and then I realize that the boy is really glaring at us.
“The hell are you!?”
The boy yells, and the girl hits him.
“Apparently these two kids heard about us somewhere, and they started talking to us. Then there was this and that, and it ended up with him and Hikari doing a mock battle. Hikari beat him completely, and now I guess he took a liking to her…”
Rurika offers us a simple explanation, but does that mean that he’s looking at me with jealousy because Hikari is holding on to me?
“I think so.”
I whisper to Chris, and she agrees.
“Hum… Hikari is my friend, so…”
“Are you Hikari’s master!? I’ll make you regret enslaving her!”
We’re not seeing eye to eye here. He’s really worked up.
“I challenge you!”
He says while furiously waving a wooden sword.
“Beat him up, master.”
Hikari looks really bothered by him. It’s rare to see her like this.
“Hum… Sorry mister. I’m Sahana, and this is my twin brother. Can you please beat him up, no, wipe the floor with him like an old rag?”
The girl standing next to him walks over to me, introduces herself, and says something I really wasn’t expecting.
“He’s bothering me too.”
She says with a big smile on her face. I see a big vein on her forehead for just a second, but it’s gone after I rub my eyes. Did I imagine that?
She forces a wooden sword into my hand, and pushes me in front of the boy.
I can’t say I feel good about that.
How do I even fight a boy around Hikari’s age? I can’t fight seriously.
I turn around, and Hikari is nodding with her fists clenched, and the girl named Sahana is also making a fist.
“Nice of you to come, villain. My name is Sirk! Let’s go!”
It’s looking like I can’t get away from this fight.
But still, it’s a kid. And a kid I don’t even know. I can’t risk hurting him, so I need to be mindful of that. I hope I can just fling his sword away, but…”
“All right, here I come!”
The fight starts before I can gather my thoughts, as he suddenly charges at me. I rush to raise my sword, and feel a heavy impact.
There was some distance between us, but he cleared it in an instant.
That’s not a normal speed for a kid. He’s not as fast as Hikari, but that’s still not something a kid should be able to do.
And the slash. His technique is by no means good, but each attack feels rough and heavy.
“Not bad! But!”
He takes a deep breath, holds up his sword high, and charges again.
At first I think about using a skill to deal with it, but instead jump back when he swings down.
He ends up swinging at the air and hitting the ground hard.
Immediately after I land, I rush towards him, hit Sirk’s sword before he can pull it back up, and successfully fling it away.
““Match!””
Two voices echo at the same time.
I look at Sirk, and he’s glaring at me with a frustrated look on his face, but it also looks like his hands hurt.
I just flung his weapon away, but that came after he received the impact of hitting it on the ground
“That’s my master.”
Hikari sounds happy and hugs me, and I see tears welling up in Sirk’s eyes.
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Ah the pain of losing to the harem, feels bad man. I wonder if the dragon king is in danger of Turing feral and that’s why they have weapons point Ed in palace direction. Well hope everyone has a great weekend
Thanks for the treat.