Ryuji didn’t know what to do anymore. Should he leave the city and… and what? It’s not like he was a survival expert. His school had computer sciences and home economics, not woodland survival. Sure, he had infinite money but what good was that going to do him if he ate people? One thing he had noticed was conspicuously missing from the book he had read was a cure for becoming a werewolf.
Ryuji wasn’t sure where to go or what to do so he stopped and tried to think clearly about it. Since he hadn’t seen any indication that people actively tried to hunt werewolves down simply for the sake of eradication, he had a little bit of hope. There wasn’t anything in the bit he read that said he wouldn’t be either. He cursed himself for freaking out and losing his chance to read the rest of the book. He wasn’t exactly in a position to just go back and read the rest of the book. He really didn’t have any leisure time remaining.
Ryuji decided that he would just have to wrap all his affairs up in the city and go traveling for business reasons. It was really the only way he could see to go. He would leave enough money in various places that he could afford to travel and he would get a map of the local country or kingdom or whatever and he would pick a destination. He would say that he had to go there and would pass the time of his transformation in the woods or the wilderness or whatever.
In the woods? A sudden realization hit him; he had been attacked by a werewolf on their first transformation cycle. He did vaguely remember that first night had been a full moon. There was another werewolf in the area, maybe even in the city itself! He wondered briefly if the people were safe around a werewolf after their first transformation. Would they… no! he had to stop himself from that line of thought. He had to get himself settled out and leave as soon as humanly or elvenly? Possible!
Ryuji had only just left the noble’s district and was thinking on what he was going to tell Karen. He was on the south main road. The main road was split in three directions pretty much right in front of his master’s shop Potions and Such. The south main road then split into the east and west main roads. It was fairly busy as usual but not so much that he was likely to be run over or that he was likely to run someone over if he wasn’t watching closely enough, which he wasn’t right now.
Because it wasn’t one of the busiest times of the day and foot traffic wasn’t that heavy, he was surprised when he found a set of feet headed right at him. He tried to adjust his path to avoid theirs but they adjusted to intercept and he was forced out of his thoughts to look up and see why. There, coming towards him, was a dark-elf woman in a rather brazen outfit. She certainly had the looks for it but the cut of her skirt didn’t leave a lot to the imagination and her top was little more than a sports bra with a few buckles holding the center together.
What finally sparked his memory that he had seen her before was the pair of huge meat cleavers tied to the belt at her waist. Where had he seen her before though? He couldn’t seem to recall but she certainly seemed to be coming to him. her eyes were locked on his face and she wore a grin full of an unreadable emotion. He wasn’t sure if he should be wary of her or not and decided that if she were to reach for her cleavers at any point, he would bolt while trying to get to the town guard post in the noble’s district. For the moment, he just stopped and waited for her to approach. His biggest worry was whether she was perhaps the owner of the stand that he had shortchanged on meat when he bought it off of the cat beastfolk Kyarako.
When she got a few paces from him she stopped and looked him up and down. Her eyes seemed to linger on his spell-casting component belt for a bit longer than anything else. When she met his eyes again she finally spoke up but it wasn’t really what Ryuji was expecting to hear at all. “I’ve been looking for you, you know. I’m Miyako. I’ve heard that you became master Dorn’s apprentice! I was wondering, would you be willing to join my party at the mercenary’s guild? Please?”
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Miyako couldn’t believe her luck! She had finally spotted the sun-elf and he was headed her way. He wasn’t turning away or ducking down an alley, just walking straight up the road with his head down in apparent thought. As she got closer she could see that he was every bit as handsome as she remembered but those thoughts could come later. She had considered just asking him to tell her how to get an apprenticeship but why would he reveal his secret to her? She needed something to use as leverage to get the info from him.
If he was interested in her, she might be able to seduce the info out of him. She was reminded of the day she had almost caught him several times. He was with a woman that day, a human if she remembered correctly. Seduction might not work but she would have to try something.
If she were to give up, it would mean three years of trying to get an apprenticeship would have been wasted. When she got closer and had a look at him, she was startled to see him already wearing a wizard’s spell component belt and thought that it really looked good on him. He would probably look good in… Stop that! How would she be able to get the information?
She was looking him up and down when she spotted something besides his wizard’s belt. He was wearing a dwarven sword of a really good make. He had all the things he would need to face about any threat! That was it, He was probably a fellow mercenary! She had her approach, now she just had to stick to it. Besides, she had been told no by Dorn probably a hundred times by now. She just had to be persistent and she would get what she wanted.
Ryuji was left a little speechless. Here was this woman he had never actually met claiming she was looking for him. Then she says she heard he was Dorn’s apprentice but that part wasn’t exactly something he’d hidden. He did kind of walk through the middle of town with Dorn, carrying an armload of wizard’s supplies. She might have seen him then but he seemed to remember her from before.
Her request was the easiest part to deal with. He really didn’t have that choice. “Sorry, I never made it into the mercenary’s guild. I probably wouldn’t mind helping you out on an assignment or something but you see, I can’t. Sorry again.”
Ryuji went to walk past her but the woman reached for him. She didn’t grab him but she probably would if he hadn’t stopped. He didn’t have time for this. She looked a little hesitant but spoke up after looking at his belt again. “You already have a wizard’s belt though. I see a bunch of the stuff in the vials on it. Is all of that for show? I mean, is that just a way to show off that you got an apprenticeship or can you use any of that?”
Ooh, ouch! She wasn’t being nice. Ryuji was now a little annoyed. “Yes, I can use some of this. I didn’t just buy it as a way to show off. I’m not the kind of person who enjoys showing off just to get attention. If I wanted to do that, I have a lot more ways of doing it than wearing a belt.”
Miyako smiled internally. If she could rile him up maybe she could make him say yes just to spite her before he realized it. “I don’t get it then. You could easily get into the mercenary’s guild just knowing wind magic! What’s stopping you, too scared?”
Ryuji was momentarily indignant at her statement but then he realized she was baiting him. there was a smirk but also a slight look of hope. Still, he knew there was more to the whole wind magic thing than Dorn had told him! “Oh, really! And just what is it I could do as a wind mage? How do you know I could get in, eh?”
There it was, she had him now! He was the kind of guy who let his ego get him into things and she could use that. “What, You mean you didn’t know? A wind mage is very useful. They can distract enemies with rustling leaves and blowing dirt. If you teamed up with a hunter, you could spook game or even monsters with sudden gusts, and then they could land a kill. You really didn’t know that?”