As Jhaeros led them out through the back of the shop, Fuyuko was struck by the strong st of the garden lyiween the shop and the house. It leasant st overall, but strong enough to make her sneeze a few times before she adjusted to it. Jhaeros looked a little amused as he asked “Sensitive nose from your lupiage? I mix something up to help with that, but it will dull your sense of smell for the duration too.”

  Fuyuko shook her head slightly while rubbing at her nose. “Yeah, but no thanks. Rather keep my nose sharp, and I think I’ll get used ta it,” It was a lot better ohey got to the house, but along the way, she noticed something iing, “Your fehe wood looks fresh. Got new ones?”

  “Yes, with the upti fresh faces, there have been some less than scrupulous visitors, including some that made themselves sick. A few identified the pnts correctly, but couldn’t do dosage, and the others misidentified the pnt they filched. With the increased i seemed like a good time to put up taller, sturdier fences, and we’re looking at getting a couple of basic wards added too. Raw pnts aren’t as valuable as finalized products, and the stro mixtures usually require specifierals or animal extracts in addition to pnts, so the garden itself hasn’t been much of a target before, but the more people there are, the more likely it is that someone will try something reckless with people they don’t know.”

  Huh. It was hard to imagihat anything as valuable as this garden would have gone ued without guards and stuff. Smaller cities were a lot different it seemed, though the way he said something, “But people have tried to rob your shop before?”

  “Yes, but we already have some well-established, reinforced wards there, plus our most valuable stock gets locked up in a vault that is even harder to get into, so there have been no major is for many years. Now, let me show you your rooms and introduce our children.”

  Despite havily eaten lunch, Fuyuko found it hard to pull her attention away from the rge kit, already w what dinner was going to be. Jhaeros noticed and grinned, “Don’t worry, we’re used to feeding teenagers, and I know how to cook for a rge family. There will be seds and thirds avaible.”

  Fuyuko blushed a little and scratched at her cheek in embarrassment when Gil ughed and patted her head. “The girl’s beeing more of ame meat than I have, and I doly eat light. I’m willing to toss a few more s into the deal if you o cover the costs.”

  Jhaeros shook his head, “Thank you, but no. Now, whis to put you in. Well, Gil, I think you are the easiest, we’ll put you in Ayred’s room, and Fuyuko have Moriko’s. They’ve both moved out pletely now and are married, so they aren’t likely to be needing rooms at the drop of a hat.”

  She felt a little shy about being put into the room that beloo a woman she didn’t know yet but might be w with or for in a few weeks, but after putting her bag and cloak down, she couldn’t help but iigate a little. There wasn’t much left in the way of personal effects, and there were a few outfits tucked away together in a single drawer that looked slightly worn, but there was still a faint hint of the woman’s st left in the room. It was a nice, st that went well with the rest of the family sts that she’d been pig up on.

  After the brief examination, Fuyuko settled all her extra gear in a er a back out to the hallway, to be introduced to Hainako and Gan. The boy was excited and eager at the opportunity to train under a ons master, while his sister was a slightly indifferent sort of friendly. After introdus, Hainako was assigo show her the washroom, which fused Fuyuko at first. How hard could it be? But the reason became clear soon enough; running water indoors was a rich person’s luxury to the luponi’s experience, and as rge as this house was it didn’t feel like the sort of extravagant pce she’d expect to find this type of luxury in. And she was absolutely clueless on how to manipute the devices before she was shown how.

  Her embarrassment at her ignorance was a mild torture, but Fuyuko kept that hidden as she smiled and thanked Hainako before they rejoihe others. There was enough time before dio get some training in, so she, Gan, and Gil headed outside, but she took a moment to pull Gil aside for a brief, private versation.

  “Why does this pce have so much magic everywhere?” She said in a low voice, finally letting a little bit of how overwhelmed she was feeling show, “It’s like they are normal merts in some ways, and rich people in others. I don’t get it.”

  “Mm, it’s rgely a cultural differerionea is very hierarchical, the rid powerful guard their power jealously. Kuic is innately more mixed and ences indepe personal growth. So things that aren’t all that hard and be done by a skilled craftsman with a bit of magic are much more on, and cost less,” he shrugged, “No offense, but I don’t like your homend much. Oh, I’ve seen worse, but any pce that allows even limited svery is not what I call a good pce. The mi of those on top is reflected in how others i. During our travels, have you seen me o press my will against anyone since we entered Danuana or Kuic?”

  Fuyuko bit her lips in thought, then shook her head, “No, all the guards have been calm. They a know stuff, but they weren’t looking for an angle or anythin’.”

  Gil nodded, “They aren’t afraid of those above them, nor do they fear the rise of those below them. Such tactics are not needed for most,” he waved a hand as he tinued, “Don’t get me wrong, there are always some who see the world from that tilted perspective, but they generally do not thrive here, whereas elsewhere it is a way to survive.”

  She frowned slightly at a thought, “Couldn’t you like, ge things? You’re super strong, couldn’t you, like, quer the emperor or something?”

  Gil snorted, “Assuming I managed some tale-worthy epic battle and tried to cim the throhout interference from others, what then? Killing is easy, ruling is hard, and the threat of violence would be my only tool. The empire would shatter, kingdoms fed by who had the stro army would form, and violearvation, and disease would wrack the nd for decades to e. No, it is not a good pce, but it could bee a very, very bad pow, we talk about such things ter. Time to practice.”

  While the two of them had been talking several wooden ons had been gathered. Gil had always had her use her daggers, but the man was so infuriatingly fast and skilled that he never bothered with more than random branches and twigs to use to parry and ter her. Fuyuko was quite happy to switething less dangerous to spar with someone else, and picked out two of the smaller practice swords, which made them about as long as her daggers though not banced for throwing.

  She chose a backward grip for one of them to use for parrying and opportunistic strikes ahe other in a normal grip as she settled into her stance. Gil started them off slowly, calling out one of their names and then a dire or type of attack. This gave the other a better opportunity to parry or dodge, a Gil evaluate their retive skills.

  Fuyuko had expected her training with Gil to give her the advantage an, especially with her longer reach, but Gan had been practig steadily over a much longer period of time and it put them at a closer to even footing, at least within the text of a spar. She felt less certain about how well he’d do against a peryton, but holy, even after all her training, she’d rather not faother one if she could help it.

  After a while of gradually speeding them up, Gil started w on correg their forms and then drilled them repeatedly on specific attack-defend-reprisal routines suited to their styles. He told them that he wasn’t going to let them freely spar for a couple of days until he was certain that they weren’t likely to actally hurt each other much. The hits she’d taken from just this practice hurt enough, though she’d nded a few satisfying hits of her own.

  This tinued until they were informed that dinner was getting close to being done. After they bowed to each other, Fuyuko helped Gan put away the practice ons and theo up and ge quickly. She was about to put her armor ba out of habit then paused, realizing that it might seem rude to wear armor to the diable.

  A quick review of her avaible clothi only skirt & shirt binations as viable choices. She still had some of her older street clothes, but any sort of pants weren’t in good enough dition that she wao be seen in them while in such a nice pce. She was used to wearing the shirt and skirt over her armor, but she hadn’t worn them without the armor since Gil had said her shoulder was healed enough to put the armor ba.

  It made her feel shy and self scious, and part of her wao retreat to hiding under her cloak again, or maybe just hide in the bedroom. But that was ridiculous, so she shook off the idea and made herself put on the ge of clothes a downstairs to join the rest. At least the skirt was mid-calf and overpped with her boots, but having bare legs still felt kind of weird.

  Dinner was a feast that she couldn’t help but devour. There was a whole roast chi and aire leg of mutton to go along with bread and potatoes and heaps of vegetables, and a generous amount of butter for the bread and potatoes. She’d have been happier without the veggies, but all four adults weren’t going to let her escape that fate.

  It wasn’t as bad as she repared for. The onions were sort of gooey but also really sweet, and the roasted carrots were kind of sweet too. The greens, well, not so much, but butter and salt helped her there. Gan seemed to share her opinion about the vegetables, which was nice, but he also kept just looking at her a lot. It made her worried she’d messed up with her clothes or hair or something, but nobody else seemed to be bothered.

  After dinner, she helped up, and then Kaoru wao talk with her alone for a bit and shooed everyone else off. Fuyuko shifted her weight a little nervously when the older woman examined her with a thoughtful expression, “Hmm, I wasn’t going to dig into anything personal, but I think I o ge that. So, by your at, you are from Trionea?” She waited for Fuyuko’s nod before tinuing, “Are you pnning on going bao? Do you know what you pn to do?”

  Fuyuko hesitated, then shrugged slightly, “I, um, well, I was given a suggestion, and I’m che’ out that idea. I might stay nearby, I might not. I dun. And if I don’t stay, not sure what I might do. I might ask Gil ta let me tag along, but he seems ta think this idea is a good one, so maybe not.”

  “Well, you are young, so being uain isn’t unusual. Exactly how old are you?”

  She frowned slightly, but answered “Fourteen.”

  “Mm. Same age as Gan,” Kaoru paused, then smiled and shook her head, “Which got absolutely ion. I wonder if my little boy is about to have his first heartbreak.”

  “Huh?” Fuyuko was taken aback by the ent, and it took her a few moments to figure it out, “Wait, is that why he keeps staring at me?”

  “A tall, pretty girl who is just a little bit exotid from another nd, who is just as happy to spar as he is? Oh yes, he has quite the crush I’m afraid.” The woman looked quite amused at the situation.

  “Er, I ain’t that pretty, I almost look like a boy,” she protested as she tried to sort out her fused thoughts and feelings, then she shook her head, “Um, he seems niough, I guess, but I don’t think I feel anythin’ like that. And I kinda, just, look, I got a lot of stuff ta deal with, I don’t really want ta think about boys or anythin’ like that right now.”

  “That’s more than fair dear,” Kaoru stepped forward and gave Fuyuko a warm hug, holding the tall girl firmly for a moment befiving her space again, “You don’t have to worry about a thing. But if you , please try to ig if he acts weird. Crushing teenagers don’t know what to do with themselves, and it’s worse because you are his first crush.”

  “Er, I’ll try,” She had no idea how to cope with this, and shortly after they went out to the living room, she excused herself, pleading that she was tired from a long day. Which was true enough, but she mostly wao escape from everyone else right now.

  And it didn’t take her long to fall asleep after she’d crawled into the bed, even if she did have to curl up to fit.

  Zagaroth