RECAP
Dantë Biyu, older brother of Kahokayo Biyu and the Fifth Officer of Brevity, has challenged Kaizenji Kawari to a duel in the Koronese city of Yubiyubi—on the condition that Sorah, Ruri, Yuanyuan, and Itchiro (Sorah's father) stay in Mogumogu.
Dantë currently has one of Sorah's siblings (Asya) hostage and plans to keep him until Kawari bests him in the duel. If he wins, then he vows to take Kawari under arrest of the Royal Marshal. So Kawari, Kaizenji Yodomi (Kawari's older brother), and Kahokayo venture to Yubiyubi to accept Dantë's deal.
When they enter the city, Kawari encounters the familiar mandarin arbitrator Rosentine d'Émori, whom he asks for help in training to defeat Dantë.
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Since D’Émori and I made that deal, I looked forward to the remaining five days before Dantë’s challenge. Of course, those days would be short, and perhaps I wouldn’t be able to gain anything substantial within the short period. But still, even if I had no chance of winning against an Officer of Brevity, I wanted to put up a fight. Maybe even impress him.
The following afternoon, I returned to the Biyu Residence. My legs moved fast, as if eager for the evening with D’Émori. Her cryptic words she’d said, that assimilation was very hard in Koroné, lingered in my mind. Throughout the times I’d traveled with her, the rude instances given by the people here…were not normal.
I arrived at the front gate to the residence. On the porch of the mansion, I couldn’t see Kahokayo nor my brother. I concluded they must’ve gone inside already. Kahokayo’s bodyguard, Gayuo, stood beside the gate and greeted me with a bow.
“Good afternoon, Mister Kaizenji Kawari,” he said with his hand to his chest, “Have you come back from your brief luncheon?”
“Yes, I have.” I scratched my head, as Gayuo began opening the gate to the manor. Those formal words didn’t resonate well in my mind. I felt like a university student coming back to campus from their lunch break. My footsteps reverberated on the stone walkway while the bodyguard followed behind. “Where is Miss Biyu and?...”
“Lady Biyu is currently in her study with Sir Kaizenji Yodomi.” He kept one hand behind his back and the other to his side. “She has arranged two bedrooms for your stay as guests, and I moved your belongings there.”
Gayuo guided me to the right of the porch, and entered the mansion through a side door. Inside was an entire array of bookshelves, with tomes piled on top of each other. The sunlight brightly lit the study. In the organized clutter of it all, Kahokayo sat by the wooden round table, reading a book. A tray of snacks lay beside her on the table, while she set her book down and stood.
“Ah, are you done with your arrangement with Rosée?” Kahokayo asked and made her way around. Gayuo excused himself out and closed the doors behind us. I turned to her and nodded. “Yodomi promptly left for the courtyard right before you entered. Have you perhaps heard of ‘qendoh’?”
“Oh...kendo? Yeah, it’s a martial art practiced in my world.” I folded my arms and decided to overlook Kahokayo calling D’Émori by ‘Rosée’, which Dantë had used to refer to the arbitrator also.
She clapped her hands together. “Surely it must be a skillful sword art in your country. Yodomi, when he requested the blacksmiths to forge him a blade, they were astonished by his description.”
“I see…” I smiled sarcastically. My brother was talented at using that bamboo sword growing up. I couldn’t help but sulk in comparison.
“Do you also practice ‘qendoh’?”
That question jabbed me in the chest. “Well, I tried it for a bit but…I wasn’t never that good at it.”
“Hm…” She lowered her head and ran her hand over the book on the table. “I’ve had that same feeling. I’ve never bested my brother in shield spells, so I focus my specialty on healing. Dantë was that amazing.”
“...” Even I began to stare at the floor. I guessed we had our own feelings about our siblings.
She looked back up and covered her mouth with a hand. “I…apologize for dampening the mood again—I just wished to make conversation. With five days before your duel in Baubau Arena, we should be productive in training you to face my brother. While I’ve come up with a few of my own solutions, do you perchance propose any yourself?”
I gritted my teeth a little. I pondered whether I should tell Kahokayo about my plan to train with D’Émori. The Biyu siblings had connections to each other, which was how Dantë managed to screw with us in the first place when we met with Yodomi and Kahokayo. Although when I took one more glance at Kahokayo’s resolute face, I remembered that she never intended for her brother to know about the situation. She’d taken a sucker punch by Sorah’s father to make a point back in Mogumogu, and if she did work with Dantë, there wouldn’t have been an altercation.
“I do. Arbitrator D’Émori and I have arranged something,” I told her with a step forward, “So no need to worry on that part.”
Her eyes widened, before she tilted her head with a sad smile. “I understand. For the next five days I will continue to host you and Yodomi, and guarantee no interaction between the Biyu and D’Émori residences. You see, Rosée doesn’t take liking to us very much…”
“It’s fine. We agreed to meet in the evenings so I’ll only be gone for dinner.” I walked towards the windows and looked up at the cloudy sky. Only a couple more hours until sunset. “Though I might have to ask—where does Arbitrator D’Émori live?”
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“Well…”
That evening came, and I’d prepared myself for the worst. Kahokayo’d told me that the D’Émori Residence was on the opposite end of the city, in one of the poorer neighborhoods. So I packed some of my equipment and left early, hoping to be able to avoid the sort of ghetto nightlife of that district. Walking along a great avenue lining the entirety of Yubiyubi, I noticed the difference between the gentrified shopping districts and the high-line outlets. Some thrift stores had their windows boarded up, while parlors were illuminated with extravagant chandeliers. People gawked at my appearance, turning their heads before wandering off doing their own thing. My presence didn’t really feel that welcome anyway.
Eventually I made it to the doorsteps of a fairly large estate, a two-story structure that stuck out from the less-maintained buildings. Its gate had been seemingly stripped off its hinges, with the only remaining fence encircling the house. At first, I hesitated to even step forward. But nevertheless I swallowed my doubt and began heading towards the portico.
There were no lights coming from the windows on the second floor. I leaned over to check the first-story windows to see the same. I scratched my head, wondering if she was even home.
Someone touched my shoulder. “Hey.”
“Ah!” I whirled around and reached for Zhongji Ruidao on my back, only for me to loosen my arms.
“Calm down,” D’Émori said, still in her gray uniform, as she walked up to the door and unlocked it, “You came early while I was still working, so that’s on you if you waited.”
“Sorry…”
She opened the door and looked at me, her longsword rattling behind her. “Come right in. I’ll take a minute to get changed, so you can wait in the living room.”
“Thanks for having me.”
I lowered my head slightly before entering her home. Unlike its outward appearance, the interior had been well-kept. Perfectly straight picture frames hung from the walls, and the furniture had no speck of dust. D’Émori disappeared to the second floor while I walked to a long rectangular table in the center of the first floor. I grabbed a chair and sat down, as a faint scent of florets permeated the living room. My eyes began to wander, noting the comforting silence of the abode. No butler or maid greeted us, as it seemed the mandarin arbitrator lived by herself.
Nothing in particular stood out to me in this house, except for a family portrait located by the staircase. It depicted a father, a demihuman mother, and a daughter with gray hair—although the father’s face was blotched out in black ink.
Before I could question it D’Émori came down from the stairs wearing more casual clothes, with her longsword at her hip. She urged me to the backdoor and led us outside. As I stepped down from the patio into the backyard, I realized that it was just a dirt lot. No trees or plants, no garden ornaments or décor. The peaceful plot had nothing but the chirps of bugs echoing into the night.
“So…” She sat down on the edge of the patio walkway and dangled her legs. “Can you tell me about this demihuman you’re about to face?”
I went a few more strides into the darkness and recalled what I’d seen Dantë do. I turned around, holding Zhongji Ruidao to my side. “He’s an adept user of magical barriers. Like, create them in an instant and is hard to break.”
“Hm. Barriers…” D’Émori propped her hands and rested her head in contemplation. Then she lifted one finger. “Have you heard of ‘shield-piercing techniques’?”
I shook my head. “Not at all.”
“Open your chart. Can you summon a shield?” She jumped down and joined me in the backyard.
“No…”
I could see D’Émori’s expressions of ‘huh?’ and ‘you can’t even do that?’ type of face. Since I was Level 0 I wasn’t capable of using any skills or spells, except for the ‘effluences’ given to me.
“Okay…” She sighed for a moment, before extending her arm out. D’Émori chanted and summoned her chart as a hexagonal barrier materialized in front of her. “Draw your blade. I want to see how you’ll attack this shield.”
I pulled my sword from my back and unsheathed it. Zhongji Ruidao, as far as I knew, contained no special abilities other than that AoE blast, so I expected nothing less when I rushed up and slashed at the shield. My arms stopped mid-strike while the sword bounced off D’Émori’s barrier. My hands stung as the handle wrap burned my skin.
She walked around it and inspected what’d happened. “You practice a Zhounese sword style…that is surprising.”
“Hah.” Seemed like Maîtresse’s training didn’t fail me somehow.
“Anyways, remember what you felt upon impact. You’ll experience many spells that have a counterattack, so if the sensation feels wrong you need to be prepared,” D’Émori explained while leaving the hexagonal shield floating in the air.
“What does that have to do with—”
She drew her longsword and thrusted at the barrier. A high-pitched crackle sounded, and the magical shield shattered into nothingness. I stood there in awe as she flicked her blade away, much like the chiburi I’d witnessed in kendo matches. I sheathed Zhongji Ruidao to my side.
D’Émori handed me her sword. “Although using a spell or skill is more suitable to break shields, they can be done with weapons alone. Use my claymore.”
“...” Still processing what I saw, I took the weapon from her hand. My hand instantly collapsed under its weight as the blade tip dropped to the ground.
[System Message]
Weapon Equipped
[Espadon Ohzorain d'Arbitrage]
Activation Cost: 55 EP; Upon activation, gain 1 stack of Droiture, and can stack up to 2 times; Droiture: Increase effect resistance by 60%, and increase DEF by 1.5% of Lingual Cognizance; When attacking while having at least 1 stack of Droiture, deal 50% of base damage more to monsters.
“See? My equipment doesn’t have any special tricks for shields.” She shrugged her shoulders. Then D’Émori reached over and put my other hand on the sword handle. Even with two hands, my arms struggled to hold up the longsword.
My head turned to her. “It’s a bit heavy for me…Shouldn’t I use my own?”
She lifted my grip by holding the hilt between my two hands. “I don’t know how Zhounese blades work, which is why I’ll teach you using my sword first. Only then you can apply it to your own. Are you ready?”
Grasping her longsword, I knew these five days wouldn’t pass by slowly. For the short period I needed to prepare myself for Dantë’s duel. Now, I didn’t know if my efforts would be futile, but as long as I put up a lasting fight…surely the gods of this world would look upon me. I should be thankful that Arbitrator D’Émori even decided to put up with me.