Chapter 1 A Month Later

-1 month later-

Still the middle of winter of the Yamaton Calendar, it is Decem 2nd of the year 4831 AS (After Strife). Two guards of the village of Shisayama were standing at their post along the 3 feet tall stone walled perimeter of the village outskirts. These two guards were tasked by their leader to guard the western outer entrance with a squad of 6 people.

The entrance had no gate and was just a dirt path that went between the opening in the stone wall.

4 of their group were not present at the post today as they had previously decided to work in pairs of two which allowed the other four the chance to go see their relatives and friends in the village. It also allowed them to get sufficient rest throughout their rotation of guards but left the gate somewhat understaffed.

While this warranted worry, they found that since Yashimu's investigation the number of monster attacks had lessened in the past couple weeks.

So the 3 pairs thought they would be in the clear and would rotate in 8-hour shifts around the clock to always keep an eye on the outer western entrance.

From the village path came a small girl with brown hair. She looked to be about 7 years old and was carrying a boxed lunch in her dainty pair of arms. One of the 2 guards recognized the approaching girl to be his youngest daughter.

Turning his whole body around and the guard ran in her direction while raising his arms in front of him so that he could welcome his daughter with a hug.

"Airi, what brings you here today? Shouldn't you be with your mother?" As he hugged his adorable child he patted her head with a somewhat jesting tone.

Giggling at the somewhat comedic tone her father had, little are gave him a big smile as she returned the hug.

"Mama told me to give you this, Mama complained that you don't eat enough. So Airi brought you lunch mama made." Said Airi, who then held out a wooden lunch box.

The man could not help but smile at her daughter's playful tone and gratefully accepted the proffered lunch box, the aroma coming from it smelled of his favorite smoked meat and cured vegetables.

"Thank you, sweetie. Now, it is time that you get going back to your mother. Make sure to behave and be a good girl, alright?"

"Okay papa, but one more hug." Demanded his cute child.

His smile now turning a bit wry, the guard moved to hug his daughter, but stopped mid-motion when he heard the concerned outcry from his fellow guard.

"WE GOT TROUBLE. GET OVER HERE!"

The guard's expression turned concerned and he spoke in a fatherly tone to his daughter as to not frighten her.

"Airi, run home, Daddy has some work to do."

With a concerned smile Airi responded and obediently turned herself away from him. She began running back to the village, unaware of what was about to occur. She did not know what made her papa stop himself from giving her a hug, but she was taught to always listen to him no matter what.

But after only a few steps, curiosity got the best of her, and she stopped to turn around to see what was happening.

As the guard returned to his post, the two of them took up a defensive stance with their spears pointed at the approaching foe which was a swarm of gengiri. They numbered 10 in total and the two guards felt a trickle of sweat form on their brows as they felt that death might have come for them this day.

Sure, the guards could run away, but they understood that if they fled, many of the villagers working in the field near the entrance, and Airi, would likely be killed. Usually, a group of 4 would be on duty at all times but due to Kujyuri lack of manpower they had to make do.

In a snap decision the guard followed the protocol set by their years of training and launched a red magic flare from a tube-shaped device.

Now at best, the pair of guards would only need to buy time for reinforcements to arrive to help pull their ass out of the fire they found themselves in.

In the distance, a figure could be seen running along the outer perimeter of the wall. His attention was drawn to the red light of the flare in the sky, understanding what it meant he started to speed up his pace.

With the guards' full attention on the gengiri approaching their position, they did not notice the approaching figure. It was not until they could hear his heavy footsteps that crunched down on the snowy ground.

The guards initially worried that the noise was from more gengiri, but to their relief it was just a short young man with black disheveled hair wearing slightly thick clothing to help against the cold. One of the guards called out to the young man.

"Run back, Get out of here!"

The young man noticed the shout from the guard in the distance and looked over to his right. He spotted the approaching swarm of gengiri and concern marred his expression.

Not heeding the guard's shouting he began changing the direction of his running, but it was not in the direction the guards were expecting.

Letting out a hard breath to tense himself up, the young man began sprinting towards the group of 10 gengiri. He bellowed out a war cry that got the small swarms attention. The two guards stood in befuddlement at the sight but recomposed themselves as they ran forward to provide support to the short young man.

Their pride as soldiers and their duty as gate guards stirred them to action as they would not let a random villager take over their role.

Approaching quickly with his thin incest legs, the first gengiri was now only a few paces from the young man. Holding a pair of open palms out to his left and right, the young man gripped both his hands into fist that had a match sized flame in each palm.

In the next moment, his arms burst into flames that ran along the length of his arms. Grinning, the young man reeled back his right arm, jumped forward, and punched out at the foremost gengiri.

The blow caused a sound of a bang then a kaboom as the gengiri's body was struck by the young man's fist and which made the gengiri erupt into a ball of exploding fire that was pushed into the gengiri behind it. The resulting fire had engulfed the other gengiri and they burned to an ashy black stain that contrasted with the snow-white ground.

The young man then did the same with his left fist and another two gengiri met the same fate as the first two.

With his arms no longer engulfed in flames he turned around and shouted at the guards.

"Throw me a weapon!"

Seeing the impressive prowess of the young man, one of the guards responded by tossing his spear to the young man who caught it and gave it an appraising look. Furrowing his brows, the young man broke the spear in half. He held the half with the spear head in his right and the now self-made wooden stake in a reverse grip with his left.

The young man again cried out another war cry and charged the closest gengiri. With swift and precise swings, the heads of two gengiri went flying away from their bodies. Purple blood trailed behind the flying heads which stained the ground in purple lines of blood.

A group of three gengiri showed a hint of intelligence and attempted to get around the young man's right side to flank him, but this was foiled by the two guards who suddenly charged at them.

One guard used his spear and stabbed at the soft underside of the gengiri, the other guard withdrew his single edged sword from the sheath at his hip and sliced at the remaining two gengiri that were caught off guard.

Both soldiers reinforced their bodies with their internal magical energy, but it was not as pronounced as the young man's as his arms were shining a bright blue color.

The last gengiri was finished off by the short young man as he stabbed the gengiri in its head with the sharp point of the wooden stake he held in a backhand grip.

With the gengiri now lying dead upon the white snowy ground. The pair of guards and short young man took a couple moments to recompose themselves and survey their surroundings.

"All clear, how about you two?" Said the short young man.

"Clear as well." Said the 1st guard.

"Yup all Clear." Affirmed the 2nd guard.

Nodding to the two guards in affirmation, the short young man introduced himself.

"Sorry for interrupting your battle. My name is Azi, I'm an apprentice to Lady Shizu and Blacksmith Kajima. I saw your flare so I moved to assist as per the protocol."

Surprised by his name the two guards offered him their thanks. Azi's position as Shizu's apprentice meant that he was considered part of the army of Kujyuri. This also meant that he had an unofficial position higher than the two guards.

"Yes, thank you for the assistance Sir Azi. I have heard the rumors about Lady Shizu's apprentice, so I know a bit about you." Said the first guard.

"Same here, but I know more about your work with Blacksmith Kajima. Speaking of which, you think I can have my spear back." Asked the second guard.

Scratching the back of his head, Azi apologized. "Sorry but I broke it, but don't worry I will fix it up for you at no cost."

"Really?" Asked the second guard. While it was inappropriate for a soldier to ask for reparation from a fellow soldier who was of a higher position than him, the guard saw the amicable expression Azi had and graciously accepted as it would be in poor taste to reject the offer. "Well, if you are offering, I'll leave it in your capable hands."

"Thanks, on another note. Since I have worked up a good sweat I think I'll call it a day for my morning training. I'll be heading home but please come to Kajima's place tomorrow to pick up the spear. Either myself or Kajima will be waiting for you in the morning. Good luck with your work."

Azi waved goodbye and he soon stepped into a running pace towards the southern part of the village.

As the guard waved goodbye to him and noticed that he had a skip in his step as he ran. Meanwhile, Airi had run up to her papa and asked while grasping his leg. She was worried about her father and it pushed her to stay and watch the fight as it occurred.

"Daddy, who was that kid?"

Grimacing at the comment his child made, he noted that he would have to fix a misunderstanding his child had about Azi. While everyone in the village knew of Azi's position as apprentice to Ordained Knight Lady Shizu and Blacksmith Kajima, not everyone knew his actual age due to his outward appearance.

"Just a well-known apprentice. I'll tell you more when I finish work today." Said the second guard as he patted the head of his child with another wry smile.

******

After aiding in the defense of the village's western outer entrance, Azi continued on to the cooldown part of his morning training after running laps around the outer perimeter of the village as many times as it took until he worked up a good sweat.

He would end it by performing practice swings outside Kajima's house with a self-made forging hammer and a heavy greatsword he had previously used in his drunken fight with Shizu. He continued to practice at least 100 swings with each hand each day.

He had gotten used to reinforcing his body to carry heavy loads so swinging the oversized greatsword was currently no problem for him, but I did make his arms sore which helped his muscular development.

The purpose of this training was mainly a means of increasing his strength and endurance so that he could keep up in a long fight or work long hours in the forge. His internal magical energy helped with his stamina, but there was no issue with having more strength and stamina at his disposal.

For the past month, Azi has been simultaneously receiving combat lessons from Shizu and blacksmithing lessons from Kajima. He was also tutored by Shizu in learning the written language of Empire of Yamato which was surprising at first to Shizu but not so much when she considered that Azi had amnesia.

They all assumed that he forgot how to write due to his issue with his memories.

Azi's progression as a fighter had progressed quickly at Shizu's recommendation and to Kajima's worry. Kajima warned Azi multiple times to not be too rash with his training, but he could not contain the gung-ho attitude Azi exhibited when learning or training.

In the end, it paid off as Azi was seemingly like a bottomless well. No matter how much they taught him, he seemed to never run out of space for knowledge and techniques he could add to his mind.

This did come with some struggle as Shizu was very "forceful" with her methods. At times, Azi feared that his life was in danger and had to dig deep in order to get through her training. He would at times join the village watch in their hunts to thin out the monsters near the village.

With that experience and his constant efforts, Azi was now able to spar with Shizu on equal footing for long periods of times, but he still failed to achieve a win in all the bouts they had. At best Azi could keep up with Shizu's basic movements, but he still fell short when it came to technique and skill.

On a less violent note, his skills as a blacksmith were coming along quite nicely, as Azi was now able to take on simple commissions such as weapon's maintenance on behalf of Kajima. He also helped Kajima with the basics of his work, such as forging ingots, monster butchering, and weapon repair.

In all he was still not yet as good as Kajima as a blacksmith or as skilled as Shizu as a warrior, but he has become their second hand in their daily work.

Even with his new role as their helper, Azi was still keeping his previous promise concerning Shizu's weapon. The progress on the prepwork for its repair was also nearing completion as Azi felt that he was confident enough to now move forward with his plan.

Wanting to go an extra mile as thanks for Shizu's tutelage, even though he sometimes still gets the shivers when he thinks back on the initially hellish days, Azi was going to ensure that her weapon was better than it was before. To do so, he used his engineering knowledge of material science and experimented to find a suitable replacement for refined steel. He did this back breaking work for weeks as he did not want to use lower quality materials for Shizu's weapon.

Sure, the weapon could be easily mended with a simple reforming but the durability and loss of material from the reforming would cause a discrepancy in Shizu's detailed specification. Compensating for the discrepancy would need the use of refined steel but Azi had yet to get the needed supplies to create the rare alloyed metal.

Now close to his goal, he just needed to gather a new supply of materials and confirm his final hypothesis on his forging process. If he was proven right, Azi could begin reforging Shizu's custom weapon.

Giving one final swing of the greatsword for the 100th time, he had completed his morning training. Stabbing the large sword deep into the ground so that no one could steal it, Azi turned away to make his way into Kajima's house with anticipation in his eyes.

(Welcome to VOLUME 2 LIFE IN SHISAYAMA)

(Time skip and much has happened)

(Comment if it was too much or too little in the future chapters to come.)

(Welcome to VOLUME 1 of DDD)

(This series starts off in the second volume of TTT)

(Comment if you are confused.)

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