“Good morning, sensei!”

  Early next morning, with the sun barely peeking over the city walls, I left the Arcane Manor and went straight for the Hostess of Fertility, ducking into the alleyway next to it to meet up with my temporary mentor for the following days.

  Lunoire was dressed in a basic white tunic and beige shorts, with a pair of fingerless gloves in her hand, and was completely taken aback when I greeted her.

  “Uh… what did you just call me?”

  “Sensei. Isn’t that the proper term for teacher?”

  “Well, it is, but…”

  That was what Jirou told me to say when greeting her, something about proper etiquette. But from how the brunette reacted, it must either be the wrong term, or my greeting was too much.

  At least the girls standing nearby found some amusement from it, especially the bck haired one named Chloe, who was bent over while shaking with silent ughter with her hand csped over her mouth.

  “Oh, this is too good, nya!” Chloe chuckled, “Sensei! That Lunoire is a sensei, nya!”

  “Oh, shut up, you!!” Lunoire cried out at her, before turning to the rest of them, “And why are you guys even out here!?”

  Chloe let out a ugh, “Nya just want to see how badly you are going to do, nya!”

  “Of course, it is that…”

  The silver haired girl let out a giggle, “Well, I am curious about the girl who wants to learn under you.”

  I turned to the girl, eyebrow raised as I asked, “Sorry, you are…?”

  “I’m Syr Flores.” She walked up to me and offered her hand to me with a small smile on her face, “I’m also a waitress for the Hostess of Fertility.”

  “Dae, an Adventurer of the Hecate Familia.” I accepted the handshake with a firm grip.

  Smooth silver hair with big grey eyes, a round face with small button nose, dressed in a modest green dress that did little to hide her curves, Syr was very a pretty girl by every definition of the word.

  Yet I couldn’t help notice a certain scent that she seemed to be emitting, a rather sweet scent that reminded me of the scent of Cloud Honey, sickeningly sweet to the point I was choking on it.

  Thankfully, hers wasn’t that bad, so I was still able to tolerate it.

  Lunoire let out a huge, annoyed sigh, before turning to me, “Dae, there is no need to call me sensei; just Lunoire will be fine.”

  I nodded. “Okay, I understand.”

  The brunette nodded with satisfaction, before cpping her gloved hands together, “Alright, let us begin. First, I want you to get into your fighting stance and throw a few punches.”

  “Got it.”

  I raised my hands up to my usual stance and threw out a few punches into the air like how I usually do, mixing in a hook with a few straights within the many different combo of punches—

  “Okay, stop!”

  “Ri-Right!”

  My fists halted as Lunoire walked up to me, shaking her head in exasperation and was clearly not happy with what I was doing.

  She let out long sigh, “For a rookie, your form isn’t too bad; but it will only work well against Monsters, not Adventurers. Against another Adventurer of the same Level and skill, you will always lose.”

  “I…I see…”

  Jirou had said pretty much the same, but Lunoire was definitely more blunt and straight forward with her criticism; not that it wasn’t welcomed, far from it.

  “And that not all.” The brunette got in front of me with both her fists up, “Back to your stance.”

  “Right—whoa!?”

  The moment I raised my fists up, her fist flew and went straight for my sternum, stopping just in front of my top; I immediately took a step back and tightened my guard.

  “Your guard is too loose, leaving you unable to react to attacks close to you.” Lunoire expined, “If that was a dagger, you will be dead.”

  I nodded, “I understand…”

  The brunette walked next to me and got into her stance once more, “Now try to mimic what I’m doing. See my elbows? Tucked in and to your side.”

  “Like this?”

  “That’s too much, loosen up a bit more.”

  “This?”

  “Just a little more. Now, your fists…”

  Lunoire got to work adjusting my stance, moving my arms to a simir guard as hers, adjusting the positioning of my legs so I could quickly reposition myself while not leaving me unbanced, and had me standing on the balls of my feet and not ft on my sole.

  It took alot of changes until she was satisfied with my new stance; using the window’s reflection as a mirror, I could see it to be almost a carbon-copy of her own fighting stance.

  “There you go.” Lunoire nodded with satisfaction.

  “You’re doing good, Lunoire-sense!” Syr cheered.

  Chloe shrugged her shoulders, “Well, if nya failed after spending all nyight working on lesson pns…”

  “Oh, shut it, you!!” The brunette shouted at her before turning back to me, “Next are your attacks; I’ll be honest, you punch slightly better than an amazoness.”

  “…is that a criticism or a compliment?” I asked.

  “She means you don’t know how to throw a punch right.” Chloe helpfully informed me.

  “Yeah, that.” The brunette nodded, “Your foundation is there, but your form is all over the pce, and your footwork is subpar. Not to mention how telegraphed all your strikes are.”

  “Ah… I think I understand…”

  I had been throwing punches purely on instinct and muscle memory, so I hadn’t been thinking about how I threw them and focusing more on where I wanted them to nd.

  Guess that made my attack super obvious, huh? No wonder I couldn’t nd a single hit on Jirou or Lunoire.

  The brunette got into her stance and threw a combo of a couple jabs followed by a straight into the air, “See my shoulders? Your shoulders shouldn’t move as much when you attack, so you won’t telegraph your attacks as much.”

  “Ah, so…” I mimicked her movements, “Like this?”

  “Better, but keep your elbows down. And always go back to your stance afterwards.”

  “Oh, right. So…” I threw my punches again, “Something like this?”

  “There you go. Now, if you want to add power to it, you have to…”

  Lunoire demonstrated and taught me the proper techniques for all of my attacks, adjusting my form each time and had me throw punch after punch till she was satisfied with its execution.

  She had also taught me how to use my entire body to add power to my strikes with minimum movement, which was a huge change from my usual method of rearing back my arm as far as I physically could.

  She then demonstrated some of her combos she often used herself, with some of them making her look like she had grown more limbs with how fast she was throwing those punches.

  I then tried a few of them, with mixed results; but I was able to gleam at possible combos of my own that I could pull off against the Enoch bastard if I got paired with him for the War Game.

  “Nicely done!” Lunoire noted with a smile, “Huh, I might be a better teacher than I thought.”

  “Or Lil’Dae here is a really good student, nya.” Chloe pointed out.

  I scratched my cheek at the sudden compliment, “Uh, thank you?”

  A tap on the nearby window drew everyone’s attention to it, as Anya opened and poked her head out of the window before addressing her colleagues, “Lunoire, time’s up, nya! Mama Mia wants you and everyone back inside!”

  “Woah, has it been that long?” Lunoire noted, “Guess time really does fly…”

  “You should probably get a watch or something, nya.” Chloe suggested.

  “That’s not a bad idea…” She then turned to me, “Sorry, Dae. We’re going to have to cut things short.”

  I shook my head, “It’s okay. I understand.”

  “For now, practice what we have learnt today. We’ll continue the rest tomorrow morning.”

  “Understood. I’ll see you then.”

  “See you ter, nya!”

  After bidding the mentor and the other waitresses farewell as they headed back inside, Syr seemingly staring at me for a moment before heading in, I left the restaurant and headed straight back to the Arcane Manor for my other training.

  And I made sure to practice the punches Lunoire had taught me along the way.

  After lunch, Tris dragged me and Emma out to the Tower of Babel for a sudden shopping trip, in order to both repce the jacket I’d lost down in the Water Capital, and some repcement weapons for my fellow rookies.

  While Emma’s two swords were still in one piece, the bdes were beginning to lose their form from months of constant use, while the head of Tris’s mace had broken off its shaft during her training with Garos.

  And seeing as they were going to go shopping already, Tris thought that I should tag along and get a repcement jacket for me; she had been rather miffed about me walking about in just a strapless top and shorts.

  So here we were, inside the same weapon shop where we bought Emma’s swords months ago; I was quite adamant that my jacket should be the st thing on the list.

  “Hm…” I took a spiked ball mace off the shelves and handed it to Tris, “How about this one?”

  She took the mace in her hands, inspected it from top to bottom, before shaking her head, “No, not this one. The weight distribution is way off.”

  “I see, I see.” I put the weapon back on the shelf I’d found it from, before sighing, “I had thought choosing your weapon would be a lot easier.”

  “Not all maces are the same, you know. Simple, they may be, but it is the small details that make all the difference.”

  “Right…”

  I honestly wasn’t sure if I understood any of it; weren’t maces just used to smash things with their heavy weights? I mean, the one she used before was basically a polearm version of one.

  “I found mine!” Emma decred as she brandished two short swords, “I’m not sure about the name though…”

  Both swords had leather wrapped hilts and circle bronze pommels, sheathed within two leather scabbards with metal fittings; the price tag on them had them as a set of two, costing around the hundred thousand range, almost as much as the ones she was using previously.

  While I was no bcksmith, I could tell that those twin swords were way better than the average ones avaible in this shop.

  “Oh, those are nice.” I noted, “What are they called?”

  “Double Leafy.”

  “…that is a weird name. Who’s the smith?”

  Emma took a look at the tag tied to one of the crossguard, “His name is… Welf Crozzo.”

  “Huh, don’t think I’ve heard of him before—woah!?”

  “Whuh—Tris!?!?”

  Tris suddenly bolted past me and pretty much snatched the swords out of Emma’s hands, the pink-haired rookie pouting and gring at her, though that stopped when she saw Tris reading the tag over and over like a woman possessed.

  “Tr-Tris…?”

  She immediately turned to Emma, “Where did you get these!? Did you see the one that put it there!?”

  “I-In the bargain bins at the back! It was already there when I searched there!” She told her, “Why, is something wrong?”

  “NO! I-I mean, no. Nothing is…” Tris let out a sigh, “It’s no-nothing, just…”

  “You recognise the name?” I asked her, “Someone you knew?”

  “Ye-Yeah…something like that…” She murmured, “I didn’t think he came to Orario too…”

  “…Maybe we can ask the shop owner about him?” Emma suggested, “If he is selling his stuff here, the owner has to know him, right?”

  “That’s true.” I turned to Tris, “How about it?”

  “No! N-No, there’s no need for that.” Tris told us, “It was another lifetime ago, an-and… I don’t want to intrude on his new life…”

  Emma frowned, “Are you sure? He seems important to you.”

  With a solemn look in her eyes, she nodded, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  It was obvious that she desperately wanted to see him, yet there was this sense of sorrow in her eyes that seemed to be stopping her from doing so, like her meeting this smith wasn’t meant to be.

  Come to think of it, she did mention that she came to Orario for a fresh start; did it had something to do with her connection with this Welf Crozzo smith?

  “…If that is what you want.” I noted, “Now, with Emma now found her weapon, yours is the only one left.”

  Tris let out a sigh, “I know… you know what, let’s check out that bargain bin that Emma mentioned. Maybe we can strike gold twice.”

  “Let’s hope so…”

  Following Emma’s lead, which we quickly took over when she somehow led us back to where we started, we reached to the mentioned bargain bin.

  Compared to the rest of the shop, the weapons on sale were simply bunched together in a corner like a bunch of trash, with each weapon and armor type sorted into different barrels and crates.

  It was the kind corner that just screamed cheap leftovers, which was true for most of them looked to be not that well made compared to the other wares, no doubt advertising for Adventurers of the poorer Familia with no other option.

  “You’ve gotten really lucky with yours, Emma.” I told her.

  “Ye-Yeah…” She ughed, “Though they really stuck out of there.”

  “I could imagine—No, not this one.” Tris noted as she rummaged through the barrel of different maces, “Good quality is easy to spot among lesser—oh? This one is…”

  She pulled out a mace that was clearly unlike any of its contemporaries, for it had a slightly longer metal shaft and styled like a torch, with leather wrappings indicating where your hand should go.

  Its head was a red metal sphere encased with six fnges around it, their sharp tips extending above it which gave the impression flickering fmes, making the mace resemble a lit torch.

  “The weight is…” Tris gave it a swing, her smile widening, “Well banced. It is a little longer than I would have preferred, but…”

  “Is it the one?” I asked her.

  “Yup.” She nodded with a smile as she checked the price tag, “And it doesn’t even cost that much either—wait… the smith is…”

  I raised an eyebrow as I came to a simir conclusion, “Is the same guy?”

  “Ye-Yeah… talk about coincidence…”

  Emma let out a nervous ugh, “Does it also have a weird name?”

  Tris gnced at the tag and let out a sigh, “…Burny Crushy.”

  “…I’m starting to see why his stuff is in the bargain bin…”

  “What is up with this guy’s naming sense?” I wondered, “It makes my alias sound normal by comparison.”

  “…Guess that part of him still hasn’t changed…” Tris murmured, “Still, I think I’ll take this. Weird name or not, it is still a good quality weapon for the price.”

  “I guess… as long as we think about its name too much…”

  “Yeah, let’s not…”

  With our decision made, we headed towards the shop’s counter with our purchases, the elderly dwarf manning the cashier was currently in the middle of a conversation with a redhead in bck eastern robes.

  Just as I was about to call up to the dwarf, Tris suddenly called out a phrase I didn’t think would hear coming out of her.

  “Master Welf?”

  The smith immediately stopped talking, before stiffly turning his head to face us, blue eyes widening and jaw dropping with recognition when he saw my fellow rookie; the same could be said about Tris, whose hands went up to her chest as she struggled to say anything else.

  After a moment of tense silence, neither of them saying a word, the smith walked up to her with an unsteady gait, lightly pcing his shaking hand on her shoulder as if he was afraid of her breaking under his grip.

  “Tr-Tris…? Is…Is it really you?”

  “Yes.” Tris reached up the touched his hand, “Yes, it is me.”

  “Oh…oh, thank the gods…!” He let out a shakily sigh, tears forming in the corner of his eyes, “I…I though you have… I’ve always…”

  “That… is a very long story.” She ughed, “I am gd to see you are well, Master Welf.”

  “AHEM!!”

  The moment was immediately broken when the dwarf cleared his throat to get their attention, which I and Emma were extremely grateful for, as we were already feeling rather awkward for being the unintended third wheels of this tender reunion.

  My face was already burning red from second-hand embarrassment already just like Emma’s, though she had covered her eyes in an attempt of giving Tris some privacy.

  And we weren’t the only ones either, for many passerbys were also looking in at the two with a mix of warm expressions and burning jealousy.

  “If you are done flirting in my front door…”

  “Ah-Ah, right! Sorry about that…” The redhead apologised as he wiped his tears away, “I’ll move out the way now…”

  Tris nervously ughed with face flushed from embarrassment, “Ri-Right! My apologies. We want to buy these.”

  She and Emma pced the weapons on the counter for the dwarf to appraise, which had the immediate effect of him staring intently the two items in front of them while the redhead smith looked baffled at our choices.

  He looked at us with an eyebrow raised, “Are you sure? I’m sure there are others of better quality.”

  “Yeah, we’re sure.” Emma nodded.

  “Hah!” The smith ughed at the owner, “And you call my stuff unselble!”

  The dwarf rolled his eyes, “So two people like your shit, big fucking whoop. They are still sitting in the corner collecting dust.”

  “Only because you put it there!”

  “Because no one wants them!!”

  “Anyways!!” I put a stop to their growing argument before asking the dwarf, “How much are they?”

  “Ah, ri-right. They come up to…”

  We quickly make our purchase and left the shop with our goods with the redhead following us into the corridor.

  With how fidgety he was, it was clear that he wanted to talk with Tris some more; she was the same, with her gncing at us like she wanted to ask us to leave her alone with him, but was having trouble finding the right words.

  So, I decided to find them for her.

  “Hey, Emma? Didn’t Lisa asked us to get that for her?”

  She initially looked at me confused what I was talking about, but she quickly caught on to my pn once I winked at her while subtly gesturing at Tris.

  “Ye-Yes! Right! That! Of course! We better hurry, or the shop will close!”

  “Indeed! We must be off! We’ll see in back home, Tris!”

  Before she could comment or argue, we quickly ran away from her and the redhead; I giving her a thumbs-up just before we turned a corner and started to make our way towards the elevator.

  Emma turned to me and asked, “Do you think she bought it?”

  I shrugged my shoulders, “All I know that she will be thanking me for doing so.”

  “I hope so… so, are we going to head back first?”

  “Well, we still have to buy my jacket, so let’s do that first.”

  “Here.”

  “Thank you, Master Welf.”

  “No need for honorifics, Tris. Just call me Welf.”

  “O-Of course, Ma-Welf.”

  The redhead smith took a seat next to her as they both dug into the freshly fried Jagamaru croquettes, on the bench next to one of the city’s many waterways as the sun slowly set in the distance.

  Tris gnced over to the smith, an old friend from another lifetime ago, back before she came to Orario, back when she was just one of the many servants of the Crozzo noble household in the kingdom of Rakia.

  She had been hired by them at a very young age, the only job that was avaible for a young orphan girl like her, who was no other life skills besides from the basic housekeeping, which she had developed from helping around the orphanage that housed her.

  It didn’t take long for their youngest, Welf Crozzo to befriend her, treating her less like a servant and more like a very close friend or a sibling, a feeling that Tris returned and then some.

  That changed after they came of age, when Welf was granted a Falna and gave rise to a Skill that allowed him to forge the forgotten Crozzo Magic Swords.

  The family head immediately wanted to make use of his son’s skill to get back their family’s high standing along the Rakia’s elites, not caring how Welf felt about it all or how disgusted of his father he became to the point that he wished to leave Rakia entirely.

  Wanting to help him escape their kingdom’s grasp, she and his patron goddess at the time assisted him in getting out of the kingdom’s walls, and that was the st she saw or heard of him for years.

  It truly was a relief for her to see him well, and looking a lot livelier than when she saw him st.

  “So, you looked well.” Welf pointed out, “You’re an Adventurer now, huh?”

  “Yeah.” Tris shrugged her shoulders, “I didn’t originally pn on it, but life happens, you know.”

  “Don’t I ever.”

  “What about you? Still a bcksmith?”

  He nodded with a bright smile, “A proud member of the Hephaestus Familia! Still just a Level 1, though. And I still have trouble selllng my wares on account of…”

  “Your weird names?” She pointed out, “That part of you is still the same.”

  “They aren’t that weird! And I happened to think I’ve improved a lot since then!”

  “Burny Crushy.”

  “…It’s not weird.”

  Tris let out a small ugh, “Hephaestus Familia, huh? They are the best smithing Familia in the city. I’m surprised I haven’t seen any of your works until today.”

  “Well, I’m not exactly allowed to use the Familia’s mark until I’m Level 2.” The redhead sighed, “And as you saw at the shop…”

  “Ah… well, at least you have sold two of your works now. That’s an improvement, right?”

  “You’re…not exactly wrong.”

  She patted the smith on the back, “It is truly great seeing this lively, Welf. Helping you escape your family was truly worth it.”

  “…Tris.” Welf turned to her, “What happened after I left Rakia? Was Lady Phobos really…?”

  Tris, after swallowing a bite of Jagamaru, nodded forlornly, “Yeah. Lord Ares was furious that she helped you escape, and sent her back to Tenkai almost immediately.”

  “I see… so that pilr of light then was really…”

  “She accepted her punishment with a smile, Welf. She didn’t regret helping you.”

  “And what about you? I thought for sure that my father would have you…”

  Tris let out a sigh, “Yeah, he was about to. But Master Garon intervened and suggested to have me exiled from Rakia instead.”

  “He did, did he…?” Welf let out a huff, “Didn’t think he would do that.”

  “Neither did I. But I’m grateful that he did.”

  “So, you made your way to Orario?”

  “No, I actually wandered about for a couple of years.” She stated, “I’ve tried to make a fresh start, but it always never worked out in the end. I only came here about more than a year ago.”

  “That recently, huh?” He noted, “You then joined a Familia and became an Adventurer?”

  “I actually tried many jobs first, but I ended up getting fired from all of them before my goddess pick me up.”

  “Sounds like you had quite the hard time. Say, which Familia are you in?”

  “…the Hecate Familia.”

  Welf nearly choked on his croquette at the revetion, the smith quickly spping his chest hard to dislodge whatever potato pieces had accidentally found its way into his windpipe.

  Swallowing and sighing in relief, he turned to his old friend with wide eyes, “The Hecate Familia!? That infamous Hecate Familia!? The one that is filled with all sorts of troublemakers!?”

  “Ye-Yeah…” Tris let out a nervous ugh, “They aren’t really that bad, to be honest. And you saw my two friends, right?”

  “If you say so—Wait, wasn’t the upcoming War Game between them and the Aeshima Familia? Is-Is that why you bought that mace?”

  “It is. My old one broke this morning.”

  “Damn it, of all the Familia in Orario…” Welf grumbled to himself, “I take it you will be fighting in a few days?”

  “We are.” Tris nodded, “Our Familia’s future depends on it.”

  “…I really did not expect you to be involved in just a mess.”

  “As I said before; life happens.”

  A huge sigh left the smith’s lips, before turning to her with a small grin, “I guess I’ll be pcing my bet on your Familia ter.”

  “Woah, you sure about that?” She asked him, “You might lose big time.”

  “Hah! I might!” Welf ughed, as he raised his fist to her, “So, you better win this, Tris.”

  Tris chuckled, as her fist bumped into his, “You bet I will.”

  …To be continued…

  Hey, hey, hey! Next chapter is here!

  And yet another build up chapter before the epic fights! I hope you are as excited as I am about it!

  Honestly, I just hoped that I had done the girls of the Hostess of Fertility justice and had not overdone it with some of their dynamic and character, especially Chloe’s retionship with Lunoire.

  Also, spoilers for those who haven’t seen Season 5 or gotten to Vol 16 of the LN, Dae is a lot of perceptive to Syr’s true identity. Surely that can’t be important ter down the line.

  Also, some more backstory for the other characters! This time is Tris, and I had gone through many revisions for hers before settling on this.

  And before anyone asked, Tris would not be pairing up with Welf; their dynamic would be ptonic and nothing more!

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!