Placing the cooled ingots into the wooden crate, Azi looked at the now orderly filled crates of stacked ingots. He had just completed Manu's order of 100 ingots of blood steel.
He now had four days to prepare for the blacksmith's meeting and he truly wanted to make an impression so he would use this time to attempt to make his own custom equipment.
But he ran into a snag.
"No! I am not letting you do that again."
"But Shizu it's the only way I can make the equipment."
"Too bad. I won't have you passing out on me again just for you to make something as trivial as equipment. A knight's health should be greatly cared for."
Shizu and Azi were in the living room of his house and were having lunch. Azi had suggested that he would have to do another marathon of forging to create his equipment, but Shizu was not having it. The last time he did such a stunt, he ended up sick and almost died during the expedition.
She wanted Azi to find a less drastic way to create his equipment in a manner that was both easy to do but was still able to deliver the functionality he wanted. For reference, Shizu weapon could be considered a top class thaumaturgic equipment due to its overwhelming amount of mana capacity.
This was due to how Azi had infused and charged it with his own large supply of magic energy over the course of hours. This took intense focus and was taxing on his body, but the result was a magic staff that acted like a second store of magic energy.
The strain of focusing and working for that long would possibly put him in danger and he was suggesting to do this over the course of a much shorter span of 4 days in comparison to the original 1 week he had planned for Shizu's custom weapon.
Azi saw how Shizu was not having it, so much so that she stood up from her chair and walked over to give him a hug to get her point across.
He could feel that she was trembling, and Azi knew that she was likely remembering how he had tried to sacrifice himself during the expedition. He too felt an overwhelming sense of fear grip him as recalling the experience had shaken him.
What was also worrying them was the unusual phenomenon that occurred during his little stunt. No one had any idea of how Azi was able to suddenly emit flames from his body and burn the small area around him.
The thaumaturgic experts like Touma had hypothesized that Azi's magic energy went out of control due to the over-taxing work he had put himself through.
He also explained that Shizu's magic energy was resonating with his own.
When they heard this, Elder Sung was present as she was a medical expert and she hypothesized, offhandedly, that it was the power of love which was for her own enjoyment as it made Azi and Shizu blush.
Touma had coughed wryly and continued to explain that it was a rare occurrence for thaumaturges. Resonance occurs between those who work exceedingly well together. Past cases were twins, siblings, or just close friends.
But details of the incident were kept a secret under Shizu's orders as she knew that people from other nations would likely be a bother as they would be chomping at the bit to use the incident as a way to get close to them. In fact, all details related to Azi and Shizu's relationship were kept within Kujyuri.
Ozen had a policy of keeping a few things secret from his other fellow kings, this was especially so with the other 8 Great Generals. They were all rivaling factions that wanted the emperor's favor, so any advantage they could gain over the other was a boon they would not so easily part with.
"There has to be another way." Said Shizu, her voice tinged with concern. "You've been working yourself around the clock. I know you are stressed for time, but you don't have to push yourself." Her hug tightened but it wasn't so hard and felt somewhat gentle.
Azi somewhat relaxed at her words, he had felt pressured these past couple of days. He had been in his shop since first dawn till the moon was high in the sky. He only really stopped working when Shizu came into the forge and forced him to go to bed.
"I'm sorry for worrying you. I'll… try to figure out a solution."
Azi hugged her back and the two of them spent a bit of time comforting each other.
After Shizu's worries were placated, Azi was left in the living room with his thoughts.
He was thinking on how he could circumvent the issue at hand. He could not spend long nights only working as he knew that wasn't an option when Shizu was living with him.
In an attempt to think of an alternative idea, Azi began to look over his past sketches. Pulling out his most updated notebook from his toolbelt, he browsed the drawings he had recently thought of.
He furrowed his brow as he found no solution after trying to wrap his mind around the problem. Thinking that he needed more to think on, he got more of his designs from his storehouse.
During his 1 month rest period, Azi had to keep himself busy, so he turned to drawing as it was the most useful activity he could do to make use of his free time. Most of his earlier designs were simplistic but had very little functionality or specialty, while others were highly complex but needed a lengthy amount of time and effort to create.
The original plan was to make a gauntlet that had the same "seal" rune on it to give it a high capacity for storing magic energy.
With it, Azi could cast numerous spells or even enhance his strength in a pinch. But due to his current issue he still felt truly stuck, but inspiration hit him. Literally.
As he was moving to grab a few more sketches, a prototype had fallen from a high shelf while he was in the storehouse.
It didn't hurt as it wasn't that hard, but it still left a sore spot. He looked over to the ground and saw a prototype kengiri glove. Instead of it being made from one large piece of kengiri carapace to act as a large knuckle duster, each knuckle had a small kengiri carapace placed on it.
His idea was to add more penetrative force to his punch through his knuckles but found it difficult to use as the small pieces broke easily. This made him think back to the indirect way of rune inscribing he did on Nosuri and Ougi weapons.
This made the gears in his head turn and he began to note down his thoughts.
*****
Leaving the house, Shizu had gone to warn Kajima about Azi's growing workaholic habits. After making her presence known with a loud shout.
This caused Kajima to subsequently throw a hammer at her since she had again disturbed him while he was working.
They then quickly settled down after a bit of bickering. A seated Kajima then told her to keep an eye on Azi and to see if Elder Sung could get him some sleeping medicine that she could put into his dinner to make him forcibly relax.
"Isn't that excessive Uncle Kajima? I know we need him to get proper sleep but drugging him seems like a drastic action."
Kajima raised a brow as he then admonished her.
"Do you really want to argue about this with me? I know about the medicine you got from Elder Sung. I'm not happy about it, but I trust you to take care of him."
Shizu's eyes widened as she had thought that no one had known, but remembered the mouth that Saki had on her, she grimaced in guilt while under Kajima's glare.
"But that was just for a surprise. I can't forcibly drug him to bed every night."
"If you don't think this is a good option, then go ask Elder Sung for an idea."
Kajima then promptly kicked Shizu out of his house as he was somewhat irked by how she had barged into his workshop while he was working. Kajima was somewhat getting fed up with the two passionate idiots and gave up on trying to moderate their relationship directly.
Taking his advice, Shizu went to Elder Sung but instead found Saki at Elder Sung's shop.
"Where is Elder Sung today?" Asked Shizu.
"She is on call at the village barracks. I'm manning the shop today. If you wanna talk you can ask me for help."
Shizu narrowed her eyes in an accusatory manner. "Really? I find that hard to believe."
Responding with a shrug, Saki then plainly stated. "Do or Don't believe me, either way I'm sure Azi will get his act together. But if not, I do have an idea. How about you have him relax at a hot spring inn before the meeting."
Shizu smiled wryly but remembered how Kajima would likely admonish her for trying to get Azi into a public bath and she knew that Azi would deny the invitation due to how she had tormented him in the bath before.
"I don't think that will work. And how exactly will that help?"
"Oh you don't have to worry about the modesty part, the hot spring requires that everyone wear a set of special clothing to ensure that a level of propriety is kept." Saki then turned away from Shizu to grab something behind the counter.
This hid the grin she was making from Shizu's sight as she added.
"This will help, as it will bring Azi some peace of mind and give him a chance to relax and maybe reflect. I heard about the bathing incident from Kajima and I think that if you spend time with him under the stars, he might want to open up a bit more and take time off work to enjoy a few luxurious pleasures. That boy is such a stiff sometimes."
Shizu laughed in agreement, Azi had a serious side to him that she found attractive but also somewhat scary. His level of focus when he worked made him forget to eat or even sleep, but what was more worrying were his eyes.
They were fixed in a perpetual stare or were dozing off to look at something far away as he worked. She had seen him look at the night sky before they went to bed and she wondered what was running through his mind.
Saki then presented a bundle of papers onto the counter which were vouchers for a night's stay at a hot spring inn in the village.
"I have a lot so give one to all you close friends and bring Azi with you. I'll bring something good for you two to drink as well, think of it as a congratulatory gift to your new life together."
Saki winked one of her eyes which made Shizu blush a bit as she accepted the offered vouchers, after saying her farewell to Saki and she asked her to send her regards to the absent Elder Sung. Saki assured her that she would let Elder Sung know of what they had talked about and sent her on her way with a wave of her hand.
After the sounds of Shizu's steps became too faint to hear, a voice came from the back of the shop.
"Did it work?"
With a grin, Saki plainly stated.
"Yup, I guess this is the moment?"
After giggling to herself in an unusual manner, Elder Sung came out from the back of the shop. "Yes, I hope they have a very nice night." Said Elder Sung, her tone expectant and foreboding.
Saki, who was wearing a fur coat inside the shop, suddenly shivered at the sudden chill down her spine.