Kazu wakes as Anna is still cuddled up to him and still sleeping. He kisses her forehead and says, "Good morning beautiful, welcome to tomorrow."
Anna half asleep mumbles, "Beautiful to you morrow too… what? wait…I mean… Good morning… to you too"
Kazu quietly laughs, "Wake yourself up and I'll get the twins."
Anna nods as Kazu leaves the room, as he gets to Felix's room he realizes he forgot to put on shorts. He figures they are about to bathe together again, so it should be no big deal. He wakes Felix, then goes into Felina's room to wake her. As he opens her door, she runs right into him while she is on her way to wake her brother. She bounces off his stomach, and lands on the floor. Kazu immediately wipes the dust off her and helps her up then checks her for injuries. Besides a little redness on her little booty, she seems perfectly fine. The three of them make their way back to Kazu's room. Just outside his room, at the top of the stairs, Lina was just standing there, arms full of folded towels, and her jaw hanging in shock.
"Good morning Lina, you okay this morning? You look like you saw a ghost." As he finishes talking to her he remembers he was still not dressed. Kazu, acting as if everything is normal, continues talking, "Ummm… We are heading to bathe. If you want to, you can join us… we are all family here."
Lina, gaining some of her composure, managed to finally look Kazu in the eye. She replied to him speeding up as she talked. "Thank you sir, maybe next time, not that I don't want to, I just have a lot to do this morning. Enjoy. Bye." She then hands the towels to Felix and scurries back downstairs, looking back at him every other step, blushing the whole time.
Kazu and the twins finally make their way into the bathroom. The twins tell Anna about running into Lina, and how strange she was acting. Anna teases Kazu about traumatizing the "poor maid" for the whole time they are bathing, at least until the twins start asking questions she was not ready, nor willing to answer.
Before they get out of the bath they hear a knocking noise coming from downstairs, he looks through the windows into the foyer and Kazu says, "Looks like Tara is here, I guess it's time to get out of the bath and get ready for the day."
As Kazu enters his room Tara bursts into his room. "Are you ready to lear… Woah mama…" She turns around. "Sorry Kazu, I didn't mean to see your… you… ummm… wow… yeah… let me… leave… so you can… get dressed."
"Is every woman I know going to see me naked today? I guess I should just call Rask in here to finish the set." Kazu said with a laugh.
Kazu's laugh ends abruptly when he hears Rask say, "Mam you can't just run up here, this is the master's roo…m…" Rask stops talking as she sees what is at her eye level. Lina comes in directly behind Rask, still trying to keep them from entering.
"Game set, match…" Kazu says while laughing. "Anyone want to take a good look while we are all here?"
Tara replies, "Well since you are offering, I'll…" She says as Lina starts to pull her and Rask out of the room. Tara continuously looks over her shoulder as she is pulled out of the room.
Anna, still in the bathroom and now wrapped in a towel, is now laughing at Kazu's situation. The twins in their innocence are confused as to why it's such a big deal.
Anna walks up to Kazu and asks, "Why are you not embarrassed? Almost everyone you know has seen you undressed at this point, and yet you do not seem affected at all."
Kazu smiles and answers her, "Why should I be embarrassed? I am comfortable with how I look, and everyone here is someone I trust and care about. You are all Family now… Get used to it."
Felina hugs Kazu, "Y lyke how you look too, don't change… Well you can get dressed, just don't change… as a person." She says with a giggle.
Kazu picks her up, hugs her and kisses her forehead. "Go and get dressed kitten. Those that want to try to learn earth magic, meet me and Tara in the back yard in 10 minutes." Kazu says as he puts Felina back down.
The twins run out of the room to go get dressed. Anna drops her towel into the laundry basket and then goes to the dresser she appropriated to get dressed.
A few minutes later they both head downstairs. Once on the first floor, they hear 3 female voices coming from the living room. As Kazu and Anna approach they hear the conversation. Anna stops Kazu, motioning to him to keep quiet.
The three in the room are talking slightly above a whisper about Kazu, "Okay, I know… I didn't mean to barge into his room while he was bathing, but damn, I knew he was fit, but not that fit. He could probably carry everyone in this house all day and not get tired. But what really surprised me was his…" Their conversation was interrupted by the twins noisily running down the stairs.
Anna and Kazu enter the living room with the twins close behind.
"Are you ready to come with me so we can do it Tara?" Kazu asked with a smirk.
Tara blushes, "Do what? Oh, earth magic… the reason I came by. This time."
Kazu and Tara make their way to the backyard, everyone else follows behind.
Kazu addresses everyone once they are away from the house. "Today Tara is going to teach me earth magic, you are all welcome to quietly watch, and if you want to learn, we can work on that after."
Finding out earth magic is very similar to the metal manipulation magic that he taught himself, it ended up being very easy for him to learn.
Kazu ends up showing Tara the metal magic, which she picked up easily. Two hours later almost everyone has been trained in both magics, some use it better than others. Anna, Tara, and Rask are the most adept at both. Felix picked up metal magic easily, but has issues using earth magic. Lina can use them, but she is not very adept at either. Felina is not showing any affinity for either magic, she looks to be on the verge of crying so Kazu takes her to the side to help her.
"When we were showing you the magic energy flow, could you feel it? Kazu asks.
Felina responds, "Yes Y can feel yt, but Y could not match yt."
"Try to flow your magic in your hands so I can feel it? I want to see if I can figure out what types you can use." Kazu instructs.
Felina puts her hands on his and circulates her energy, Kazu concentrates on the flow and after a few minutes her magic affinities hit him.
Kazu informs her, "Well you can not use elemental magics, you seem to have rarer magic. Your energy is telling me you are a beast tamer, and summoner."
Felina asks, "What are those? Y've never heard of eyther." She turns to the rest of the group 5 meters away and loudly asks, "Have any of you heard of a beast tamer or summoner?"
Tara is the only one that has an idea, "I heard of a guy that could get birds and some small animals to do stuff for him. Is it something like that?"
Kazu responds, "Just like that, though that is just the basics. You can get them to do stuff for you, see through their eyes, they can even talk to you. Also the stronger you get, the more powerful of animals you can tame. If she gets strong enough she could tame a dragon. Plus with the summoner magic she can call forth mythical creatures. The strongest summoners can call angels to help them."
Anna asks, "What's an angel?"
Kazu responds, "If memory serves me right, an angel is basically a holy being that works for a god, they are good with protection spells and wide area attacks. With the right summons Felina could defend the capital from attack by herself, when she gets strong enough."
Anna runs over to Felina, picks her up and hugs her. "I knew you were going to make us proud.
Felina giggling replies, "Y styll need to learn yt and get stronger."
Anna sets her back down, then says, "We'll help you anyway we can. Well most likely Kazu will help, but I'll root for you."
Kazu says, "Rask and I will wait for the builder to arrive, the rest of you can practice your magic or do whatever you want, including wait with us. I'll probably play with earth magic to see if I can make a foundation for the building I want built."
Rask, Felix and Tara stay with Kazu. Felina runs off into the orchard looking for small animals to try to practice on. Anna goes with Felina, and Lina goes back inside to do some work."
Kazu and his group head to where he wants to build the smelter and forge. He goes down onto his knees and then places both hands on the ground. A look of concentration takes over his face, and the ground starts to shift. The loose dirt flows like a wave to the edge of the building's footprint, until all that's left is the granite 4 meters below.
The ground softly shakes for a moment, and the granite begins to rise. The dirt that was moved earlier moves into the ground under the granite slab. The slab settles onto the fresh dirt underneath, crushing it down. The slab is now about a meter under the ground surrounding it. He raises the slab back up so the top of the slab is a meter above the ground, the bottom of the slab is still not seen. Kazu then pulls in dirt from up to 10 meters from the slab to level the entire area. When done the 5x15 meter granite slab sits 21 cm above grade and is perfectly level.
Kazu stands and looks back at his group. The builder was standing next to Rask, both staring at him. Kazu smiles and says, "Hello, I do not believe we have met. I'm Kazu."
Kazu steps up to the builder and shakes his hand.
The builder smiles at him and asks, "I'm Va'mel… Can I hire you to do all our foundations? Usually we have to bring in cut stones. You did in 15⁰ what we normally do in three days."
Kazu says, "If I am free I can help, but If you have an earth magic user, I can teach them how to do it… probably."
Kazu, Rask and the builder talk for a while about what he wants to build. After another hour they conclude their discussion and decide on a price.
While walking to the front to see off the builder and Tara, Five wagons come through the front gate. Three wagons have lumber and two are full of metal. Kazu has them place the wood near the grapevines in the backyard. The metal is placed in the work shed.
By the time everything is unloaded and put in place the sun is setting. As the delivery people leave Kazu and Rask make their way back inside the house.
Everyone is sitting in the living room chatting about their day. Felina was telling her brother about getting a squirrel to come to her, then to get it to bring her a fruit from the tree. Anna and Lina were discussing Kazu.
As Kazu walks in he calls for Lina, "Lina, I need you… can I get you to help me out?"
Lina blushes, "Yes sir, How can I help you sir."
As she reaches him, he responds, "You are family now, it's just Kazu. I am very proud of the work everyone put in today so I want to make a special dinner. Let's go see what we have, then I'll decide on what we'll make. Felina, you should join us too."
They go into the kitchen, and look through ingredients. There were plenty of dried spices, flour, fresh fruit and vegetables, several types of baking powders, eggs, potatoes, and three fresh chicken. It's at this point that he realized that there are no refrigerators or freezers in this world. He decides to make Ramen. First he mixes the kansui then mixes it in with the flower, salt and water. While he is making the noodles, Lina is preparing the chicken, and both women are watching what Kazu is doing. He flowers, twists, folds and repeats until he has the desired thickness of noodles, then cuts them to length. After Lina finishes preparing the chicken, she joins Kazu in preparing the ramen. Kazu steps back into a teaching role, Lina takes over as the cook and Felina is watching intently. While he is instructing Lina, Kazu takes some time to make some Hashi, better known as Japanese chopsticks, out of some old worn out wooden spoons.
Before long, following the aroma, everyone in the house makes their way to the kitchen. As Lina finishes cooking, they prepare trays with the bowls of ramen, everyone else rushes back to the dining room. Moments later Lina, Felina and Kazu bring in the trays of food. Lina serves the bowls of ramen, adding a fork and spoon to each place setting. Kazu comes behind her and places a pair of Hashi near each bowl, then takes his seat. Everyone watches Kazu as he takes his first bite with the Hashi, then tries to do the same. Kazu ends up explaining how to use them, eventually everyone figured out how to use them well enough to eat the meal.
After dinner everyone, worn out from the magic practice, heads up to their rooms for bed. The two that live on the first floor finished their work for the day then also went to bed.
Anna again sleeps cuddled up to Kazu, gently rubbing his chest as they fall asleep.