It had been two weeks since the events of Heroes Giving.
Almost everything had been put on hold since that day. Red and Ru ventured out to 'Recruit a forth' whilst Rider gave both Ota and I an assignment before she headed off towards Nala to collect the parts needed for her new blast furnace.
Merrah had taken up a guest room while plans began to be devised for a new bar, unfortunately, this only led to awkward situations.
While they had been out during the battle against a devil, Arisa tried to keep her in the dark and that led to a much more serious fight, leaving both to sulk about in their own ways while trying to avoid each other.
I found it extremely hard not to pry when their attempts to hide from each other looked so stupid watching from afar that I tried to talk to Merrah about it, but she only told me one word; 'Trust'.
This didn't seem so disruptive until Arisa woke up a week ago screaming 'It's gone!'.
I had a feeling she was dealing with her own internal problems and that maybe, the one who granted her body, was meddling with her in a separate way.
Ota and I thought this had gone on long enough and began to think of ideas to get them to talk. We pieced together an absurd plan based on Adelard's suggestion and I could only describe it as really stupid and far to roundabout.
Strangely, Ota, Enda and Aoife decided to pursue that idea and we quickly found ourselves thrown out for the day, citing; 'secret girls stuff'.
Both of us decided to change into our training gear, complements of the promptly named 'Enda's Self Imposed Sweatshop', thanks to Arisa's offhand comments and the news she was experimenting with a uniform for physical activities.
This new set was dark blue with the old white stripes, the pants were lengthened to just above the knees with no changes to the shirt apart from its color.
Enda prefers to wear short shorts mainly because of material limitation and she got used to combining it with the strangest things. The same could not be said for others, so a change was made.
And so we found ourselves in the training hall.
Over the past two weeks we began to spar together once every few days, learning our strengths and weaknesses.
Aoife's healing was exceptional, but she struggled with combat.
Adelard is a powerhouse with a longsword, weaving faith magic in between attacks.
I'm great at adaptation and tactics, but sometimes fail under pressure with an overreliance on magic.
Ota was struggling, getting used to her horns, but she had gotten rather good at creating armor and maintaining it.
It looked like she was more receptive to everything around her, but overwhelmed by that feeling for now.
The same fine control she had with her Relic could not be said for me, so I've been using it to imitate a training sword to match Adelard as we sparred.
"How do you do that?"
"What? Oh, this?"
"Yeah, don't you have to chant?"
"Nope, well, it's kind of hard to explain. I know I can do it, so I do it, you know?"
It was like he was describing how Ota and I controlled out Relics. With spells, it was recreating the formula, visualizing the effect and its subtle feeling in my head to cast it rather than simple motion. Confidence seemed to be the only difference I could think of, something I sorely lacked.
"So that three tailed fox girl..."
"Kitsune?"
"Yeah, what's her deal?"
"She isn't really in control of her own body or something. Honestly I'd rather not get involved with that"
"But you're willing to help her with Merrah?"
"I don't know how to help her with what she's going through, but with her friend, it's like... Well I grew up in a crowded orphanage, so seeing fights between people was common, just as much as making up"
"Ah, so you think they have a chance?"
"Huh? I mean they're good friends right? She doesn't let anyone touch her tails apart from her so I think they'll be fine"
"I think they're more than friends dude"
I knew at least that much, just not to what extent.
To me, Arisa is an unknown, much more than Ota. I didn't know how to help her, or how to show sympathy because it always felt like I was an outsider to whatever she was going through.
More than anything, I was afraid of making the wrong move with good intentions, so I left it to others when possible.
It made me feel like a coward sometimes.
"Well, they do drink together"
"That's not *sigh* They're like you and Ota"
"What does that mean?"
"She told me you two bathe and sleep with each other"
"*sigh* Great, she's doing it behind my back now"
After realizing both of them turned out to be very receptive to insinuation, she'd run with it as a fun pastime. While her statements weren't wrong, as of late, I started going to the hotspring by myself.
Ru was right, I am a late bloomer.
"So... You two haven't-"
"It's just a misunderstanding, but I don't think it would be right to say what really happened..."
"How come?"
"She... Her heart was just scared, and not by that relic inside it. I won't go into more detail, sorry"
Surprisingly, he understood the truth to what I said. I couldn't tell if it was because of his own past or others around him, but his face turned serious enough as we took a quick water break.
"I get it, it's how she deals with it"
"Thanks"
"Don't thank me for the bare minimum... Anyway, you're not to bad with that sword"
"Thanks, I trained with anything I could get my hands on when I was younger"
"What are you, a Spartan's son?"
"What's a Spartan?"
"You know, those old stories about a small army taking on thousands? They had a big round shield with a pointed symbol on it"
It had been awhile, but I recalled the story from ancient times before magic and gods. To this day those warriors' actions boost morale amongst guards and mercenaries alike to show tactics can overcome adversity of any kind.
However, I didn't realize they were called Spartans, not Paladins.
"Is that what they're called?"
"Yeah, you don't know that much about history do you?"
"Not really, Enda, or I guess her copies, don't teach me much outside of the basics and magic..."
"I don't blame her, she probably hates history"
"How come"
"Way back then, people liked to single out tall people, try to create super soldiers... That sort of thing"
"Nah, no way, she's good enough with magic to escape that sort of thing"
"I guess you're right, although I wonder what she was up to before the dragon thing. Have you seen the statue?"
"Not yet, I've only really been to the canopy district"
I was told at the entrance of the city, the gate leading out towards Merrah's burned down home, a monument was built out of gray unpolished metal dedicated to the heroes party, but I hardly had the chance to explore the city yet.
"Wait, so you entered the city through, I don't get it"
"Oh, I was in a coma when I came here, Ota just lives in a fancy brothel, so I went there on Heroes Giving"
"Bruh, what the hell is your life"
"...I don't know. Hey, why does Aoife always wear a mask?"
"You know how basically everything can be healed?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, I heard it was a miracle that she was born in the first place, and half her mouth..."
"That sucks"
"*sigh* Yep, just, don't bring it up around her"
"I won't"
We grabbed our training swords then walked back into the middle of the hall. While they may only be wooden, or an imitation in my case, they still hurt like hell, luckily Adelard was pretty good with healing both of us as we fought.
It was almost time to head back, so we decided to run this last fight as a duel.
We spar to learn, and duel to win, as the old saying goes.
"Ok, no casting then. Should we make a bet?"
"Bet what?"
I didn't have an allowance, nor did I ever really ask for money, so I didn't have coins to throw around. I did get a few presents though, but that's not stuff you give away on a whim. Arisa gave me a razor and promised to teach me at some point, while Merrah gave me a charm she said was enchanted with good luck.
"How about... The loser has to try to slap Ota's butt?"
"In other words, the loser gets punched... You'd have a better chance just asking for it"
"Alright, I get it, your afraid"
"Not afraid, I just know she won't care"
"...Really?"
"Well, she might take it as thinking you're interested"
"Bro, have you not seen her body, who wouldn't be?"
"Your acting like you want to make it the prize"
I take what I said before back, this is the stupidest plan for today, not fancy kimonos for a New Years festival.
"Just chose something else, I feel like my brain is slowly rotting away thinking about it"
"Ok, what about, the winner gets to date Aoife or Ota?"
"How do you even come up with a stupider idea than your last? Next time you're going to propose a bath with them, wait... You were thinking about it!"
"Tsh! I mean! Both of them have hot bodies!"
"That's not the point! How do you think they'd feel about it, you moron!"
"Hey! Don't blame a boy wanting to be a man!"
"You're an idiot looking to become a bigger idiot! If you lose I'm telling both of them"
"If I win I get free reign!"
Both of us had been so busy arguing we didn't notice Hawk walk up behind us before she decided to discipline us with excessive force.
Training was over for the day.