It had been twenty days since Grandpa chief left for the capital, Ryu and Jue were being trained by Geld in the afternoon too since he knew the time for their departure is soon and some newbies adventurers were also practicing in the adventurer's Guild training ground.
"Geld brother, I don't think it is humanely possible besides you!!" Ryu whined as he tried switching hands, he held his sword in by spinning it back as it reached near the dummy's head and tried stabbing it on the practice dummy's head from the other side,
"Jue already learned it, Ryu!!" Geld said trying to motivate Ryu.
'Why is it my mistake!? That this brat was practicing it for months!?' Ryu thought as he kept trying, the technique Geld was teaching aimed to surprise the opponent by suddenly changing hand and direction sword approach,
'But I already have a lot of ways to surprise!!' Ryu complained inside his head. It had been 3 days and Ryu still didn't figure it out properly,
Ryu tried multiple times, but it didn't work.
"See big brother, this is how you do it," Jue said as he did the move perfectly on another dummy,
'Big brother must be thinking I am cool!!' Jue thought with a grin but opposite to his thoughts what Ryu was thinking was,
'This brat!!! he is flexing on me now… maybe I was wrong about him changing!!,' Ryu thought as he looked at with a dead gaze of anger, but Jue took it as a gaze of speechlessness,
"Ryu!! Jue!! Grandpa chief came back!" Aiena shouted as she came inside the training ground.
'Savior!!' Ryu thought as he saw Aiena who came,
"Father came back?" Geld asked Aiena,
"Yes, Geld big brother… he called Ryu and Jue home," Aiena answered with a cheerful smile,
"I want to meet Grandpa chief too!!" Ryu exclaimed his only chance of escape, and Geld, who knew the reason for Ryu's enthusiasm, said,
"With this, today's practice come to an end, practice the taught technique at home!!" with a bitter smile and Ryu thought
'The opposite of do not play with a knife at home… it is only possible in this world' and sighed as he and Jue went with Aiena home,
"Grandpa!!" Jue shouted as he rushed towards the Village chief and jumped right into his arms.
The village chief's back bent backward as Jue jumped on him.
'At least remove your knuckles!! They are too heavy for my old bones!!' the village chief thought as he spoke,
"Are you practicing properly, Jue?"
"Yes, Grandpa, I learned father's special sneak move!!" Jue said as he explained the move to him,
"Welcome back Grandpa Chief," Ryu said as he moved toward the Village chief, silence sets in both seeing in each other's eyes,
'This brat have no idea…' the village chief thought irritated and suddenly punched right on Ryu's head,
"What happened Grandpa Chief!?" Ryu asked as he jumped a bit backward, obviously hurt,
'Is it a sudden betrayal…' Ryu thought and smiled as he knew the Village chief would never betray him,
"It is just a reminder for you to remind you of my teachings," the Village chief said with a buddha smile as he thought,
'I won't tell this brat… he should learn a lesson when he found what he did!!'
"Let's sit in my office. I'll give you all your presents!!" Grandpa chief said cheerfully. He really liked spoiling the three of them,
The office was clean and shiny as Hina had cleaned it every day personally without a miss.
"Here these are for you three!!" Grandpa chief put 3 bags in front of Ryu, Aiena, and Jue.
"Grandpa, you are the best!!" Jue said happily as he picked up the bag in front of him. Ryu and Aiena too picked up their bags and Ryu thought,
'They are very light… wonder what the gift is!?' as he looked inside the bag,
"Clothes?" he instinctively said as he emptied the bag's contents on the table. The gifts that the Village chief brought for them were clothes,
"How are they? You like them?" The village chief asked with a curious and expectant gaze,
"They are great Grandpa!!" Jue answered as he put the sand yellow color t-shirt in front of him and asked,
"Does it look good? It is a bit heavy though!!" Jue asked, and Grandpa chief answered,
"You look awesome Jue!! Also, it is heavy cause there is chain mail enclosed in its fabric… these clothes are specially made for adventurers" Jue went out of the room to try the clothing he got,
"Grandpa chief, the jacket seems normal?" Ryu asked as he checked the blue-colored jacket Grandpa chief brought for him. There was also a pant of pitch-black color with straps on the left side for holding daggers,
"Ahh that it is just tearing resistance from bending a lot," Grandpa chief answered with a face that seemed to be an incarnation of stating facts, before Ryu could ask anything further Aiena exclaimed,
"Grandpa!! Isn't this a bit too expensive!?" the dress she got was a white one-piece with long arms embroidered at the end with yellow color and a somewhat short skirt with a blue pattern on the bottom that barely reaches her knees and there was also a hair clip of aqua blue color,
"It is fine Aiena, after all, you are a B-ranked adventurer so no one will doubt, and also I didn't have any sense for girl's clothing, sorry if it's not nice enough I let the shopkeeper choose."
"It is nice Grandpa!! Just but the skirt… I never wore something like this," saying this Aiena blushed,
'Hope we don't have to deal with many lovesick adventurers due to Aiena's looks… if she wore this, her popularity would break the roof,' Ryu thought as he remembered the multiple confessions Aiena got in a row.
"Grandpa chief what about me!! My stuff seems most normal" Ryu asked as scanning Aiena's dress revealed that the dress was a minor magic tool for increasing the efficiency of Miracle attribute's user,
"As I told Aiena, it is fine for her to wear great and expensive-looking gear as she is B ranked… you see a newbie adventurer with expensive gear will attract attention and also envy. So I tried getting something modest for you and Jue…" saying till here Grandpa chief waited for Ryu to nod to be sure he was getting it after Ryu nodded, he continued,
"So I chose for Jue chain-mail embedded armor, but with you, your fighting style includes a lot of jumping and movements in a tricky manner, and chain mail would break even your normal clothes always needed to be patched as they tear a lot… so I asked the shop for best tear resisting clothes and they gave me this… even if you wore this for 7 years, they won't get a tear… obviously if not stabbed at or cut with a sword or anything,"
'Ahh, so this is due to all of those underwear's and shirts I unstitched during my practice in the forest' Ryu looked down with a shameful look,
And suddenly, before he could say anything, a loud shout came from the door,
"My nephew got kidnapped!! Geld what is up with your side of the way… bring my nephew back!!" Rana who suddenly appeared demanded,
The village chief, Aiena and Ryu all titled their head, seeing the sudden appearance of Rana.
"What cat got your tongue!? Bring my nephew back!!" she demanded.
After 40 mins when the confusion settled as Rana sat drinking water,
Hina, who gave her water, asked,
"Are you now fine Aunt Rana?"
'She did it!!' Ryu thought as he knew what this would lead to,
And Rana, with her short frame, jumped right on the ground as moving toward Hina shouted,
"How can I be calm? My nephew is kidnapped!!"
"I mean I squeezed lima in the water… so I thought it would help with your hot head!!" Hina said with a troubled expression, Lima is just a citrus fruit that is orange in color and tastes exactly like lemon but is juicier than lemon,
'You are not helping it!!' Ryu, Aiena, and the Village chief thought in sync as they sighed,
"Ahh Rana my dear friend… calm down, we will get him!!" the village chief said, and slamming her feet on the floor Rana spoke,
"You sure will!! If you don't…." her face looking grim and scary,
what happened was that Rana was visiting Zerah town with her nephew for some reason and while they were reaching the town, a bandit group attacked even though she escaped her nephew was pulled right out of the carriage with another carriage following them and she rushed right here as soon as she set her feet in the town even disregarding the Guild employee that came with her,
"I sure will, bandits are nothing!!" the village chief said, and added,
"We will raise a que…" before he could finish Rana said,
"What que…? I want my nephew back before the evening!!" and the village chief gulped,
'I know this flow….!!' Ryu thought as his and the Village chief's eyes met,
The village chief nodded while Ryu shook his head in rejection, but it was too late as the Village chief spoke.
"I will instantly take care of it!! Ryu, go take Jue and Aiena with you and do your first rescuing quest and bandit capturing quest too. I will get it officiated later. Just hurry up!!"
And Ryu, who was already started getting up, thought with a frown,
'I knew it!!... hope her nephew isn't the same as back then…'
-to be continued