As Jhaeros led them out through the back of the shop, Fuyuko was struck by the strong scent of the garden lying between the shop and the house. It was a pleasant scent 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 lupine heritage? I can 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 once they got to the house, but along the way, she noticed something interesting, “Your fences, the wood looks fresh. Got new ones?”

“Yes, with the uptick in fresh faces, there have been some less than scrupulous visitors, including some that made themselves sick. A few identified the plants correctly, but couldn’t do dosage, and the others misidentified the plant they filched. With the increased income, it 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 plants aren’t as valuable as finalized products, and the strongest mixtures usually require specific minerals or animal extracts in addition to plants, 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 imagine that anything as valuable as this garden would have gone unmolested 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 incidents for many years. Now, let me show you your rooms and introduce our children.”

Despite having recently eaten lunch, Fuyuko found it hard to pull her attention away from the large kitchen, already wondering 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 large family. There will be seconds and thirds available.”

Fuyuko blushed a little and scratched at her cheek in embarrassment when Gil laughed and patted her head. “The girl’s been eating more of our game meat than I have, and I don’t exactly eat light. I’m willing to toss a few more coins into the deal if you need to cover the costs.”

Jhaeros shook his head, “Thank you, but no. Now, which rooms to put you in. Well, Gil, I think you are the easiest, we’ll put you in Ayred’s room, and Fuyuko can have Moriko’s. They’ve both moved out completely 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 belonged to a woman she didn’t know yet but might be working with or for in a few weeks, but after putting her bag and cloak down, she couldn’t help but investigate 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 scent left in the room. It was a nice, clean scent that went well with the rest of the family scents that she’d been picking up on.

After the brief examination, Fuyuko settled all her extra gear in a corner and went back out to the hallway, to be introduced to Hainako and Galan. The boy was excited and eager at the opportunity to train under a weapons master, while his sister was a slightly indifferent sort of friendly. After introductions, Hainako was assigned to show her the washroom, which confused 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 large as this house was it didn’t feel like the sort of extravagant place she’d expect to find this type of luxury in. And she was absolutely clueless on how to manipulate 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 rejoined the others. There was enough time before dinner to get some training in, so she, Galan, and Gil headed outside, but she took a moment to pull Gil aside for a brief, private conversation.

“Why does this place 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 merchants in some ways, and rich people in others. I don’t get it.”

“Mm, it’s largely a cultural difference. Trionea is very hierarchical, the rich and powerful guard their power jealously. Kuiccihan is innately more mixed and encourages independent personal growth. So things that aren’t all that hard and can be done by a skilled craftsman with a bit of magic are much more common, and cost less,” he shrugged, “No offense, but I don’t like your homeland much. Oh, I’ve seen worse, but any place that allows even limited slavery is not what I call a good place. The mindset of those on top is reflected in how others interact. During our travels, have you seen me need to press my will against anyone since we entered Danuana or Kuiccihan?”

Fuyuko bit her lips in thought, then shook her head, “No, all the guards have been calm. They needed ta 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 continued, “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.”

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

Gil snorted, “Assuming I managed some tale-worthy epic battle and tried to claim the throne without 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 forged by who had the strongest army would form, and violence, starvation, and disease would wrack the land for decades to come. No, it is not a good place, but it could become a very, very bad place. Now, we can talk about such things later. Time to practice.”

While the two of them had been talking several wooden weapons 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 counter her. Fuyuko was quite happy to switch to something 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 balanced for throwing.

She chose a backward grip for one of them to use for parrying and opportunistic strikes and kept the 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 direction or type of attack. This gave the other a better opportunity to parry or dodge, and let Gil evaluate their relative skills.

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

After a while of gradually speeding them up, Gil started working on correcting 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 accidentally hurt each other much. The hits she’d taken from just this practice hurt enough, though she’d landed a few satisfying hits of her own.

This continued until they were informed that dinner was getting close to being done. After they bowed to each other, Fuyuko helped Galan put away the practice weapons and then went to clean up and change quickly. She was about to put her armor back on out of habit then paused, realizing that it might seem rude to wear armor to the dinner table.

A quick review of her available clothing left only skirt & shirt combinations as viable choices. She still had some of her older street clothes, but any sort of pants weren’t in good enough condition that she wanted to be seen in them while in such a nice place. 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 back on.

It made her feel shy and self conscious, and part of her wanted to 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 clean change of clothes and went downstairs to join the rest. At least the skirt was mid-calf and overlapped 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 chicken and an entire 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 was prepared 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. Galan 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 clean up, and then Kaoru wanted to 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 need to change that. So, by your accent, you are from Trionea?” She waited for Fuyuko’s nod before continuing, “Are you planning on going back? No? Do you know what you plan to do?”

Fuyuko hesitated, then shrugged slightly, “I, um, well, I was given a suggestion, and I’m checkin’ out that idea. I might stay nearby, I might not. I dunno yet. 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 uncertain isn’t unusual. Exactly how old are you?”

She frowned slightly, but answered “Fourteen.”

“Mm. Same age as Galan,” Kaoru paused, then smiled and shook her head, “Which got absolutely no reaction. I wonder if my little boy is about to have his first heartbreak.”

“Huh?” Fuyuko was taken aback by the comment, 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 exotic and from another land, 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 confused thoughts and feelings, then she shook her head, “Um, he seems nice enough, 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 before giving her space again, “You don’t have to worry about a thing. But if you can, please try to ignore it 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 wanted to 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.