(3º person POV)

The day after the zombie contact, Maria is walking in the street of the outer village. She couldn’t sleep well last night due the zombies. The distorted faces of rotten flesh still haunt her. So today, she came to the outer village to walk a bit and maybe buy something that catches her eyes.

As she walks, she notices that there is someone following her. After some time, she manages to spot her stalkers. Two big guys, dresses in the same was. Dark jeans, white shirt, heavy boots and black leather jacket that are the same. Even if she can’t see it, there is a red bird in the back of the jackets.

(Maria): “These two have been following me for some time now. Well, I should just go into an alley and finish them both. I’m no pushover after all, and I have my barriers after all.”

She tough. She’s right, she can totally handle this situation alone, if the opponents were just two normal thugs. And so, she does, entering the first alley she can find. It turns out that it’s a dead end. Full of courage, she turns around to face the two thugs… only to find them unconscious on the ground, in the entrance of the alley.

Standing between them, is Iori, with an angry face. Maria gets confused, and then startled when Iori begins to approach at fast pace. Maria, scared, begins to retreat, until her back touches the wall. Without any way to escape, she just presses her back against the wall.

As he approaches, she begins feel even more scared, and makes a little jump when he gets close enough and slams his right hand beside mer head (kabedon), and glares at her in the eyes. Even if he’s a little shorter than her, she’s still ultra-intimidated.

(Iori): “What the fuck you think you are doing?”

(Maria): “T-t-t-t-t-they were stalking me! What are you doing here?!”

She tries to be brave. Not really convincing, since her trembling knees give her fear. A vein pops up in Iori’s forehead, and he begins to speak.

(Iori): “Oh, then put yourself in my position. I was walking in the city, when I spot in the streets my favorite toy-“

(Maria): “Toy?!”

(Iori): “Being followed by two members of one of the two criminal gangs that I worked very hard to purge from this city into an alley, ready to get taken down by them and sold as a slave! NOW TELL ME, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”

(Maria): “I was, I was just, ahum-!”

She was without words. His intensity was simply too much for her. Before she could continue speaking, he slammed his other hand in the other side, surrounding her. The loud noise immediately made her stay quiet.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

(Iori): “No excuses! For now on, every single night during the summer vacation, you WILL come to my temple and I WILL train you to be able to fight! Understood?!”

(Maria): “Y-y-y-y-yes!”

She could only reply that. However, he didn’t let her go yet.

(Iori): “What color you are using?”

(Maria): “What?”

She asked confused. She answered, but the immense fear was still there. After all, his expression didn’t change a bit. He was still intimidating her to the point of her almost breaking into tears. And she was, with some tears to fall from the corners of her eyes.

(Iori): “Your panties, you idiot! The pattern too! NOW!”

(Maria): “Plain light blue!”

She answered immediately. The fear mixed up with embarrassment. Her face got red from bottom to top.

(Iori): “Wear black ones tonight.”

(Maria): “B-b-but!”

(Iori): “No buts! WEAR. THEM!”

(Maria): “Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

She ran away, without being able to handle the conversation anymore. Iori didn’t followed her. To make sure that nobody would interrupt them, he put up a barrier when he entered the alley. As she runs away, his angry face immediately dissolves, and he sights.

Looking at the bodies in the ground, he speaks.

(Iori): “Raise.”

Both bodies move, and get up with mechanical movements. They look at Iori with empty eyes. Makes a small move with his hand, as if shooing them. Then, their skin and clothes change color. No, not only color. They turn into statues.

When they finish changing, the ground to around three meters and half in height, with just a humanoid form without any face. Smiling, Iori murmurs to himself.

(Iori): “Earth golems surely are handy, if you know how to use them.”

Both golems approach him, and then, they are just a step away from him, they shrink, turning into small stone statues. Taking both statues, he stores them into his inventory. Snapping his fingers, the barrier dissolves.

(Iori): “Alright, back to the temple. I’ll have to put the golems to clean it. I should go buy some shinais and some kimonos as well. I haven’t groped Maria yet, but since I have seen her body enough, I have a grasp of her sizes. Ummmm”

Iori thinks seriously, walking back to the gates in the wall, just after the bridge over the river that’s five meters wide. As he approaches the old-fashioned bridge made of wood, that goes through maintenance every year, he takes something from his pocket.

It’s a samurai inro… no, it’s different. Although the shape is the same, it’s function is different. Different from the samurai inro, the samurai pillbox, this is a carving of Iori’s family seal. The five clans have their own seals as well, carved with their family crests.

The seal is black, with silvery and golden details shaped like wolves. In the middle of the front, in a circular metal medal made of gold, is written in silver the kanji of “wolf”( 狼=Wolf). In the top, in both side there’s holes, where the black string passes through.

In the point where the two tips are tied up, there are two gold beads. Written above the family symbol, is the families motto: “Written as Wolf(Õkami), read as Great God(Õgami).”

Iori never understood his family motto, and to him, it sounded really cocky and dumb, since the kanji for both words aren’t even similar. Showing it to the guard in the guard post in the side of the bridge, before the same, is the way to show that you have the right to enter the town.

Only the five Clans and the Hiyuuki family have this type of expensive seal. Made of the best wood and with real gold and silver. The other families have normal wooden seals, made without greater details.

Seeing the seal, the guard bows his head respectfully, recognizing the seal. Iori doesn’t bother in speaking with him. It isn’t the usual guard, Guro, whom Iori have known since he was small. As the gats made of wood and iron open slowly, Iori haves a genial idea.

(Iori): “I should just take their sizes from the school’s infirmary! They have the health registers of everybody after all!”

An completely criminal idea.