Chapter III.VI (3.6) - Guest of Honor
Kizu looked over his shoulder, thinking perhaps someone had snuck up behind him. But no, it was only him and Anata.
The man at the head of the table was dressed in a silk kimono with elaborate swirling designs stitched into the fabric. His broad shoulders gave him a rectangular figure and Kizu could see muscles beneath the cloth. Still, his facial features were reflective of Shiroi, and, to a lesser degree, Aoi. Clearly a relative of the family.
“Please, take a seat,” he ushered Kizu in with a booming voice. He gestured at two empty spaces at the table next to Taroe.
The Elite still wore his uniform and looked as disheveled as usual. He stood apart from the rest of the finely dressed nobility all around him, but if anyone found that unusual, they didn’t comment on it.
Kizu kneeled on the cushion and looked down the table at Basil and Aoi. He wished they were closer. Instead, he was sandwiched between Taroe and Anata with Sophia directly across the table from him. None of which were great conversationalists.
After the first round of drinks were served, he discovered why he’d been referred to as the ‘guest of honor.’
“Without you,” the man said. “I would be missing a daughter. Kusatta was a rat of a man who plagued everything he touched. Your service not only saved an innocent life from his glutenous ambition, but also left the world a far better place than before. Good riddance to his death!” He raised his glass high and the rest of the rest of the room followed suit. To Kizu’s surprise, even Taroe, Aoi, and Basil drank to his supposed accomplishment. It wasn’t deserved. Aoi was only ever in danger because he’d decided to keep Anata on Owl’s Respite. And Anata had been the one to really rid the world of Inari Kusatta. She stabbed him with Sojan and commanded the monster to devour him.
Also, there was something sickening about having people celebrate the fact he’d helped kill a person. Even someone vile like Inari. But he accepted the praise with a queasy smile and drank. Then the introductions began.
The man at the head of the table was obviously Aoi’s father, Kotei Iroi. He had a salt and pepper beard on his chin while his cheeks were shaved smooth with his graying hair clasped in a bun. Earnest gratitude exuded from him as he beamed at Kizu.
Kotei Kuroi was the great grandmother of Aoi, and easily the oldest person in the room. Her hands shook as she raised her glass to him and it took her almost a minute to properly toast and drink. When she introduced herself, her voice was slow and tired, but she thanked him with a smile.
Aoi’s siblings all introduced themselves quickly. Including Shiroi, who was quietly interrogating Basil off to the side, Aoi had three older brothers, a younger sister, and a little brother. The sister eyed Anata as she introduced herself as Kiiroi. The little brother just sniffled and rubbed his runny nose on his kimono’ sleeve. His father introduced him as Aka.
Both Basil and Sophia also introduced themselves, though addressing the family rather than Kizu. Basil wore a full men’s kimono. While it was a dark shade far more subtle than Kizu knew the changeling preferred, it was still striking. Sophia also wore a kimono, though hers was a swirl of browns and maroons to match her hair and scales.
“As thanks for your service,” Iroi said once introductions were complete. “I have a gift for you.”
Kizu opened his mouth to protest, but a side-eye glare from Taroe stopped the words.
“The Kaga family is well known to us, and know that our favor shines on them now brighter than ever. We’ve recently helped them arrange a few different favorable trade negotiations from Hon noble families. It should increase your family’s business significantly, not to mention raise their notoriety to even loftier heights. But I also wanted to give you something a bit more personal than a familial boon.”
At a wave of his hand, the dining room door reopened, revealing a person completely concealed in a long black cloak who started walking towards the table in jerky, uneven steps, as if a puppet propelled by strings.
“Allow me to introduce you to…Wakino Yukiko.”
He said the name as if Kizu should recognize it. Taroe’s posture, on the other hand, stiffened. He obviously hadn’t been informed about this new person’s attendance.
“It’s a pleasure to be acquainted,” a woman’s gravelly voice said from below the hood. “Prince Iroi told me you wished to study the art of spatial manipulation.”
“Exactly so!” Aoi’s father said. “I did a bit of research about your interests, and imagine my surprise when I discovered your wish to specialize in spatial spellcraft. Since I happen to be friends with the most accomplished spatial mage in the world, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to introduce you.”
“There is much we still do not know about the far reaches of the world, so that praise is exorbitant. But yes, I have agreed to give you direct lessons.”
She lowered her hood and revealed her face. Or, at least, parts of her face. Large chunks of her head were simply absent, swathes of black void filling the spaces where her left eye, her right ear, and part of her cheekbone should be.
Her single eye bore into him and his heart quickened. Not only because of her horrific missing body parts, but also at the prospect of a new teacher. This had been completely unexpected, but extremely welcome. Learning a heavily restricted branch of magic from someone praised by a prince of Hon. That was…exhilarating! He wondered just how far he might be able to advance in the coming month.
She took the empty cushion next to Sophia. And, while the spot was directly across from Taroe, her eye never so much as flickered in his direction, as if writing off his presence entirely.
“Now then,” Kotei Iroi said. “With all the introductions out of the way, let us feast! To Aoi’s continued health and Kaga Kizu’s heroics!”
An entire tuna instantly appeared on one of the empty platters directly in front of Kizu. Other foods popped into existence alongside it and his bowl filled itself with white rice.
Kizu started to reach for a pitcher of green tea to pour for himself and Anata, but he froze as a detached hand revealed itself from under Wakino’s cloak and floated near him. Dexterously armed with a pair of chopsticks, it returned to her with a pink rice ball wrapped in a leaf.
“The academy was cagey about the details of your abilities,” she said to him as the hand dropped the food on her plate and went back out to fetch more. “The administrator I spoke to was moderately infuriating. So tell me exactly your proficiencies and where you wish to see growth.”
“I can do rapid short range jumps. Around 200 before I get near exhaustion. I’m still limited to areas that I can see. I can also resist beacons. And I have created a gate with an enchantment.”
She frowned and said nothing. The lull in their conversation stretched for a minute, though thankfully others nearby filled it with their own dialogues.
“I guess the areas I want to improve would be pocket dimensions?” Kizu said, awkwardly continuing on. “I find the theory of them extremely interesting. My mentor at Shinzou Academy will be teaching me long range jumps soon, so I’d rather learn something different from you.”
Again silence. Beside him, Anata gobbled up her bowl of rice, using her hands rather than her chopsticks. Normally, Kizu would have tried to correct her manners, but he struggled to look away from Wakino with her gaze scrutinizing him.
“That’s it?” she finally said, her frown deepening. “Gate theory and short jumps?”
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“Yes….”
“You don’t know the basics of spatial barriers? How to stretch or condense space? You can’t even command basic telekinesis?”
Kizu bit his lip. He hadn’t even considered those as aspects of spatial magic. Reluctantly, he shook his head.
Wakino hmped and finally looked away from him. She started eating her food. The dismembered hand fed her.
“They said this was your specialty. In truth, you’re just an infant playing with the toys of an adult.” She bit into a slice of tuna, chewed, and swallowed. “I will create a regime based on this information. However, you will not be touching pocket dimensions.”
Kizu smothered his disappointment. He silently reassured himself he would likely find use for whatever she taught him. She knew better than him what he needed to learn. But…well, he did really want to learn pocket dimensions. He would just need to be patient.
Her attention shifted from Kizu, over to Anata. She said nothing to Kizu’s niece, instead just staring her down, analyzing her while Anata munched on fried burdock root.
Aoi’s little sister walked across the dining room and wedged herself between Kizu and Anata. The ten-year-old princess wore her hair in a braid like Aoi, though far more elaborate, with weaves interlaced with ribbon in a complex pattern.
“You’re Taroe’s bastard?” she asked, standing and looking down at Anata. “I’m Princess Kiiroi, daughter of Prince Kotei Iroi and 24th in line for the succession of the Emperor.”
Anata met her eyes while she continued to chew on the root.
“What’s wrong with your eye?” The princess pointed at Anata’s eyepatch. “Did something poke it out?”
Naturally, Anata remained mute, though she did cock her head.
“I had a one-eyed puppy when I was a kid. She was really really sweet. But then she accidentally fell into a well because she couldn’t see where she was going. I jumped in to help save her, but I was too late. My parents were so angry at me. Do you ever worry that you’ll fall in a well?”
“Anata doesn’t speak,” Kizu said.
Finally, the girl moved her attention over to him.
“Why not? She eats food fine, so she has a tongue.”
Kizu glanced past the girl and Anata over to Taroe, hoping the Elite might help him come up with an explanation. If the Elite noticed, he didn’t care.
“You’re welcome to try asking her,” Kizu said dryly. “Maybe you’ll have better luck than everyone else.”
“You don’t talk like a normal person from Hon,” Kiiroi said. “Your accent is weird, and you’re supposed to use more respectful language. Plus, why do you have green hair? Isn’t that like a cult thing in Tross? Father just said your family is a Hon trading company. Did you go to Tross and join the cult? My cousin calls that ‘going native.’”
“He was raised in the Hon Basin,” Taroe said. “It was a lawless area loosely controlled by a witch coven and we theorize that his kidnapper performed experiments on him, one of which resulted in an altered hair pigment.”
“Witches!” Kiiroi exclaimed loudly, causing several others nearby to pause their conversations to look over at her. If she noticed their attention she didn’t care. Or rather, she pretended to not care. “But you’re a boy. Everyone knows witches hate boys. You are a boy, right?”
Her exclamations drew attention from others nearby. One of Aoi’s brothers gave him a sympathetic nod before pulling the people around him back into their previous conversation, distracting them from his sister.
“Yes. I am a boy. It was an unusual situation. The crone never bothered to explain why. And it’s a misconception that witches hate boys. They just believe them to be lesser conduits of magic. They’ll often still do dealings with men who live in the Hon Basin.”
“What kind of men live in the Hon Basin?” Kiiroi asked, actually sounding genuinely interested, rather than goading.
“Necromancers, thieves, exiles, and occasionally archaeologists. And villagers, I suppose. But they largely avoid the rest.”
“The Basin is shielded by a divination fog that makes tracking outlaws difficult,” Taroe said. “It’s a one-way barrier that lets them spy on us and track our movements while we’re unable to do the same for them. A similar natural phenomenon conceals events in several unique places across the globe, though the Hon Basin is the largest known outside of the World Dungeon.”
Kizu opened his mouth to ask Taroe a question that had been on his mind frequently over the last few months, but Kiiroi cut him off.
“We should just burn the whole forest down. That would solve the problem, right?”
“That is a proposed solution that has been considered.”
“And?” Kiiroi asked, hands on her hips.
“And the parliament vetoed the proposal, before it could even be brought to Honzo’s desk,” a new voice said from behind them. Kizu looked over his shoulder and saw Shiroi. “Stop bothering our guests, Kiiroi. I let you come over here on the understanding that you would just be introducing yourself, not quizzing them about local politics.”
Kiiroi protested and complained, but her brother was unrelenting. Eventually, she gave up and returned to her original seat, glaring angrily back at Shiroi.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said with a sigh. “Kiiroi likes stirring up drama. I think she gets bored of always being cooped up in the palace.”
Kizu waved away the words. “It’s not a problem.”
“She was excited to see someone else close to her age, so I thought it would be a good idea to let her introduce herself. I’m assuming your daughter will attend Shinzou Academy, Taroe? It will be good for both of them to have connections when they arrive.”
Taroe grunted. “Haven’t put much thought in it. Years from that. Probably, I suppose. Last one went to Yamagako. Wasn’t super happy with the result.”
Suddenly Wakino barked a short, humorless laugh. “Yes. it’s the academy’s fault he ran off. Not anyone else’s.”
Taroe froze. For the first time since meeting him, the Elite looked genuinely distressed.
“Yu-Yukiko,” he stuttered. His usual gruff demeanor shifted into clear discomfort. “I apologize. I wasn’t thinking before I spoke. Of course there were things I could have done better. I just meant, it’s an important time for a youth and it’s not something to decide on a whim. There’s much to consider.”
“How often did you visit our son while he was there?”
Kizu’s eyes widened. He did not want to be caught in the middle of this conversation. Shiroi must have thought something similar because he caught Kizu’s eyes and gestured off to the side.
“Kizu! It just occurred to me that you haven’t been given a proper tour of our household. How about a quick walk before dessert?”
Kizu quickly grasped the offered lifeline and dragged Anata to her feet beside him. She made a few more grabs at more burdock root, but he managed to get her to the door while the prince hastily explained to his father where they were going.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Shiroi said, bowing low. “I came over to prevent drama, not incite it. It completely slipped my mind that Taroe and Wakino had a history.”
“It’s fine,” Kizu said. “It might be better to not be ignorant. I’d probably say something stupid otherwise. What did she mean when she said their son ‘ran off’?”
“I’m not certain. I was still at Shinzou Academy myself back when it all went down. And I wasn’t familiar with their son beyond a passing concept of his existence.”
Kizu mulled that over then another thought occurred to him. “Did you, by any chance, know my sister when you were at the academy? Kaga Anna.”
His breath caught as Shiroi considered for a minute.
“I think I’ve heard the name before. It’s possible we shared a class together. I want to say maybe Divination S. But I graduated five years ago. It’s hard sometimes to recall people not directly in my social circles. I’m sorry.”
Kizu tried to hide his disappointment. Then something else occurred to him. He thought back, trying to dredge up the name of her ‘ally’ from the student directory. It had been months ago, back when he first arrived on campus. He was pretty confident it started with shi, but he stretched his memory trying to recall the other syllables.
“What about…Shimizo?”
“Ah! Roku? Him, I do know. We used to play together as children. My father and his used to work alongside one another back in their delving days. Roku actually recently took over his family’s business in town. Did you want to meet him? I’ve been meaning to stop by and congratulate him. I keep putting it off for other responsibilities, but if you’re coming along, it would only be proper for me as your host to show you the way. What do you say?”
Kizu couldn’t believe his luck.
“Of course!”