Decem 17th of 4831 AS
A few days had passed and Azi was currently lightly sparring with Ougi in the clearing near Kajima's house. It was just after lunch and both fighters had a surplus of energy after eating a full meal. Kajima allowed Azi to spar with Ougi as he knew that the sparring he would do with Ougi would be less taxing than the sparring he usually did with Shizu.
The usual sparring involved the use of actual weapons and Azi's use of fortification magic which were not present in Azi's current spar with Ougi.
Throwing a punch, aimed at Ougi's chest. Ougi deftly moved the side with a single turn of his waist and then grabbed Azi's outstretched wrist in a firm grip. Repositioning himself, Ougi tripped Azi's leading foot which had caused Azi to fall forward. Ougi used this to his advantage as he swiftly threw Azi over his shoulder.
This caused Azi to impact the cushioning layer of snow on the ground which broke his fall. Groaning a bit, Azi cursed in his mind for letting this happen again. This was the 3rd day that Azi was unsuccessful in his sparring match with Ougi. He was easily outmaneuvered by Ougi deft footwork and years of grappling experience which made it child's play for him to dodge and counter Azi's straightforward attacks.
During Azi's usual sparring, he would usually be caught in a slugfest with Shizu as she mainly prioritized offensive techniques rather than grappling. Azi's punches were also much slower as he was trying to improve his basic fighting skills without the use of magic energy to enhance himself.
Stretching out his hand, Ougi offered it to Azi to help him stand up. Azi grasped it and got to his feet.
"Your strength and basic fighting skills are well trained, but you need to be able to adapt to your opponent. I'm guessing you mainly fought monsters rather than humans going by how straight forward your style is."
Azi could only agree with Ougi's observation. He had never truly trained to fight humans but mainly trained to increase his strength and skill as a way to defend himself. Hearing Ougi's explanation of how he could improve, Azi noted down the suggestions Ougi gave him and made sure to write it down in his brown notebook later.
For the next few hours, with a few breaks, Azi and Ougi continued to spar. Today, Nosuri was not with Ougi but was with Yashimu and Shizu who were patrolling the village outskirts to ensure that the village watch defenses were all in order in preparation for a possible attack from monsters or possible sabotage from Uzuru's spies.
Kajima was with Rulu in the village as she was shopping for groceries and for a few other items she needed to replace the ones she lost in the caravan attack. They arrived home before sunset and began their usual work to make dinner. It seemed that since Rulu's arrival into Kajima's house, the kinds of meals that he had eaten the past couple of days had noticeably changed to a new variety. Kajima mainly cooked dinner and only knew how to make meat dishes which limited what kinds of flavors Azi would experience.
On the other hand, Rulu was proficient in a variety of dishes that she had learned how to make from the royal cooks in Kujyuri and through the self-study of numerous cookbooks and experimenting done while occupying her time in the capital city of Kujyuri.
Feeling that their stomachs felt empty, the pair of Ougi and Azi decided to end their sparring matches. Azi was yet again lying on the snowy ground and both parties opted to get ready for dinner. As they exited the bath, they had forgotten to put their shirts on before exiting which caused Rulu to see the wetted and well-formed muscles of the two men.
Rulu blushed at the sight but was further excited from the sight of Ougi pressing Azi's towel over his head to rub his hair dry. Rulu saw how Ougi brought his face close to Azi's which made her heart race as she saw how close Ougi's lips were to Azi's. Her breathing began to get ragged as a very lewd side of herself began to surface.
This was stopped as She was broken from her excitement when Kajima yelled at the two to get dressed properly and to show some decency in front of Rulu. This got the pair's attention and noticed how red Rulu was which prompted them to apologize. Rulu forgave them but turned away to mutter to herself in a soft tone so that no one could hear or see her expressions.
"Sir Ougi and Sir Azi, together.... doing..... and oh my.....*Blush* *Grin*"
Azi felt a slight chill up his spine but thought that it was just his imagination.
*****
After another delicious dinner of vegetable soup and mixed meat and vegetable dumplings, everyone went to bed. Tonight, Shizu was in high spirits as she was able to get out of the office and was able to smash a few monster heads.
As she held Azi from behind, she told him about her work today which involved a fight with a lone kengiri at the village outskirts. While normal people would be worried about such a powerful monster being so close to the village, Azi was somewhat not normal due to Shizu's training.
Azi turned over and faced Shizu as he began stroking the back of Shizu's fluffy ears as he gave his congratulations to the gleeful kitty in his bed. Shizu smiled and felt a bit of bliss as she felt him stroke her ears. Azi again thought that Shizu was like a cat as he swore that he could hear a purring coming from her throat.
After a bit more pampering and bantering, Shizu brought up an important topic on her mind. Before she continued the conversation she asked if it was alright if she could ask a personal question. Azi had no issue and insisted that she shoot her question.
"You said before that Rulu would make a good wife. Do you think I would be a good wife as well?"
Azi slightly shuddered a bit as he wasn't sure how to answer this question. In his opinion, a good wife knew how to cook, was intelligent, kind, and gentle. He had no idea if Shizu could cook, but when she suggested cooking dinner one day, Rulu and Kajima insisted that she not, which made him suspect that she had no skill in cooking.
Shizu was intelligent as she knew a lot of the more violent topics of fighting and warfare which was in contrast with Rulu's and Kajima's knowledge in more passive topics like cooking and handicrafts.
Shizu was "kind" in her own way as she got along well with Azi, but that mainly involved quite a lot of painful interactions and somewhat embarrassing acts such as cuddling. Finally, Shizu was not gentle as Azi could attest to her immense strength that would sometimes force the air out of his lungs when she hugged him at night.
Azi began to sweat as he was trying to think of an answer that would not get him in trouble with Shizu as the expectant look in her eyes made him grimace a bit in discomfort. Shizu's expectant eyes made it look as if she was begging him to tell her that she was a good wife, but Azi didn't want to lie as he knew Shizu would likely see through his words.
A couple minutes passed which prompted Shizu to ask as she squeezed him a bit tighter.
"Azi? What is wrong? Why are you taking so long to answer?"
Noticing the increasing force being applied to his back, Azi stated the half-formed answer he had in a panic.
"I think you are a ..... good wife to.....um .... me. I um... well would like to be with you ..."
Thinking to himself that this was a poor answer, Azi was surprised when Shizu asked another question rather than rebuke him for his poor response.
"So you would be fine if I lived with you? To eat, sleep, and bathe with you everyday?"
Azi thought for a few moments and believed that this was a question with an obvious answer as they already did 2 of the 3 things she asked. While the memory of his recent "bath" with Shizu was still fresh in his mind, he felt that he would not mind bathing regularly together as they had already seen each other naked.
He had also resolved himself to marry Shizu if he passed her trials and continued to be her apprentice. He was more worried that Shizu would be put off for marrying such an older person like him as he was 27 years old which was 6 years older than Shizu. Shaking off his worry, he gave Shizu his answer as Shizu started to have a growing impatient look on her face
"Yes, I would be fine if we did that every day, but we would have to talk about bathing together with Kajima as I think he would get mad at us if we did that."
Shizu's expression changed to a smile and responded.
"Good! You better remember your words for the future."
She then hugged Azi into her chest and stroked his disheveled head of black hair. Shizu giggled to herself in glee which befuddled Azi as he had no idea why Shizu would be in such a good mood. They already lived together like a family so he wondered why she would ask her previous question but before he could ask, he could hear that Shizu began to softly snore off to sleep.
Feeling her soft chest in his face and her soft hand stroking his head, Azo just opted to enjoy the moment and be glad that he gave a good answer to her question without being subjected to another punishment.
Snuggling closer to Shizu, Azi began to relax as he hugged Shizu's back to further soothe her to sleep. Again, Azi swore that he could hear a bit of purring coming from Shizu's throat but tried to get his mind off of the unusual sound. He was unsuccessful as he had a dream about a large cat toying with him as it purred in his mind.
In truth, Shizu had begun to nibble on Azi's ears and cheek in her sleep which made Azi writhed a bit in his sleep as he was accosted by Shizu's play biting. The next morning, Azi would notice how everyone was looking at him strangely as they were all having breakfast. It was only until he went to look at himself in a mirror that he would see the red marks he had on his face.
This gave him ample ammunition to use on Shizu to tease her which made for an amusing sight for everyone to see at dinner.