Dante was irritated and embarrassed that he couldn't deny the allegations being thrown at him mercilessly by the children. He continued walking to his training site, a small way into the forest behind the town. That is where Rita and Dante would train his swordsmanship. A small humble shack sat alongside some crops, and a small field with a training dummy and wooden weapons lodged along the wall. Dante grasped his sword as he approached the training dummy.
"Hello there, old friend. I will whack you a bit to get my words straight.
"..."
The dummy spoke nothing as Dante took a deep breath and struck the dummy, one slash after another, fully connecting with the rough exterior of its body. The whacks of the dummy sounded off through the trees; he wasn't a beginner at his training, as Rita taught him from a young age. She was a skilled swordsman before settling down as a tavern owner, though Dante never understood why she put down the sword and stopped adventuring as far as he could remember. The thoughts would continue as he slashed the dummy some more.
"One, two, and three!"
"Whack, Whack, TWHACK!"
The sounds continued as the dummy shook from the impact of the wooden sword. This continued until Dante rested his wooden blade and took a moment to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
"No, that last swing was off… it's supposed to be more like…"
He repeated the motion from Rita's teachings, trying to get it down as she'd shown him before. It would never come close to how fluid her motion was. He sighed, taking a breather and looking at the sword once more. His mind was calmer than before; it had always been like that whenever he held a weapon. Though it wasn't always like this in the past.
—
"You've got to hold it correctly, dove. If you don't, you'll drop it before you even get into a fight!"
"It's hard…especially if you swing so hard!"
"This ain't nothing, sweetheart; you're only getting 5% of my power!"
"This is only 5%!?"
"Just kidding, more like .5%."
She chuckled as a much younger Dante began to pick up his wooden sword and prepare his stance. His tiny feet pressed into the ground and shifted slightly as he prepared to attack. Gripping the blade handle, he pushed forward and tried to swing at a seemingly unsuspecting Rita.
"I got you now!" he said as he raised his sword above his head and swung down as hard as he could before being met with a force that felt like he had hit a rock with his sword. Rita's blade had stopped the brunt force of his attack before he flew back as the sword he once held flew into the air and landed a few feet away from him.
"You're not gonna catch anyone off guard if you yell when you attack Dove."
"Ouch! That hurt!!!"
Dante yelled as he looked at his now red-hot hands. The friction of the sword being repelled sent a shock through Dante's hands as he blew onto them to cool them down. Rita watched as she set down her sword and crouched next to Dante. She inspected his hands and held them tenderly. Slowly, a green glow began to circulate around his hands. The sensation was like a cool breeze cooling his sores, slowly removing the painful red pigmentation from his skin.
"I won't be able to heal your boo-boos forever; this is why you must hold your sword properly next time, okay?" She gave off a small smile as she rubbed his head, and he moped. Rita had been caring for Dante for as long as he could remember, though he had no idea how exactly she ended up caring for him or why. She then let go, picked him up, and held his hand as they walked away from the training area.
"How about we get you something to eat to cheer you up?"
"....sniff…Okay…"
—
The thought of that memory showing face at this time perplexed Dante, though he knew it would sit with him as she never had to exactly do anything she did. So he was thankful, even if he didn't have the gall to say so out loud. He looked at his hand and gripped it firmly, finding his resolve once more to ask Rita what he wanted. As it turned out to be his 16th birthday, he had one wish since hearing the stories of outsiders he'd eavesdrop on that'd entered the village. He'd always wished to see what it's like to adventure out of the town like the many people who'd come in and out freely. Though he'd have to hide his appearance from any outsiders who decided to visit.
Dante stood up and began to walk back to his room to freshen up before walking off to tell Rita of his wish; not only has he listened to her many requests over the past few weeks, but he's also helped the townspeople in many ways, or at least he'd believe he did, as some wanted nothing to do with him due to his seemingly erratic behaviors and overbearingness to help. Though he felt as long as his heart was in the right place, no harm could be done, no matter how seemingly bad it could be.
After reaching the Tavern again, Dante retreated to the back of the tavern building where another small shack belonged. It was Rita's storage for her Tavern, "Sylphs Retreat," which was pretty popular among adventurers coming to take on the monsters in the nearby Eurus Mountains, east of the village of Riverant.
They'd often come down from the mountain to grab some grub before returning to their homes, and Rita's place was the only spot in the village.
He entered the storage room and walked through another door to a secret room made explicitly for Dante. It wasn't much, but his bedroom had a handmade bed, and some books scoured the floor. He looked around a bit before finding his favorite jacket under a pile of books. He smiled as he picked it up and began to walk back out of his room before noticing something sticking out in the storage. It was a box of shabby shape but clearly hadn't been there before from Dante's knowledge.
He inspected the box suspiciously as he reached for it, but it fell over, scaring him. He looked around frantically, hoping Rita didn't hear him snooping around the storage, but nobody was around. He sighed in relief before noticing a small photograph that seemed to have slipped out of the box; some words were on the back. Dante picked up the photo and inspected it.
"To my shining star, don't dampen your shine for anyone!"
your loving teacher,
...….
The name was smeared a bit, so he couldn't make out who it was exactly. Though he noticed the image on the other side, it showed a group of people wearing adventuring gear, one looking seemingly similar to Rita as they shared the same tattoos and were held by another person. A more petite, statured woman with bright orange hair. She seemed to have been really close with this person, though Dante couldn't recall ever hearing her talk about them; his curiosity was piqued. Looking back at the box on the ground, something was sitting inside. He decided to open it up and look to see what it was holding.
"A wand? I didn't know Miss Rita owned one of these…" he said, picking it up and inspecting it. It wasn't like a typical wand he'd see some adventurers wield as he hid away, but it was a golden metallic color, donning a red gem on the handle. Dante flipped it around to get a good look at it; the feeling of the wand was warm, which was odd since it had been sitting in storage for who knows how long. He peered into it more before feeling a spark come from it. The heat peaked for a moment, which caused him to drop it out of shock. Clearly, this thing was still active somehow, but why? He shrugged it off and put the box back where it was found.