PreCursive

  I couldn’t dawdle in the dining room forever, however. As much as I might have wished to, I had pns for the rest of the day. And while they didn’t involve any of my new hobbies, ercial or otherwise, I was still looking forward to it.

  My friends were ing back from their hunt today, after all.

  Well, they were supposed to, at least. The specific team of Oni Huhey’d signed on to apany had said they’d be back roughly a week after departing, and that week had passed. From my previous experience from my own expedition with this team, they were a bit of a stickler for things like timetables.

  Tarus had fully cleared the horizon by the time I decided to leverage myself up from the table. The rest of the regur inn residents were only starting to appear in the dining room when I idled my way back up to my room to get ready. Ohere, I dressed myself in a mahat wouldn’t mark me as a disrespectful fn tourist. I was actually finding that I didn’t mind the local style of robes all that much. It reminded me of Venix and his own sense of style, which made sense sidering how much time he’d spent in this try. But while his were white with pink es, I preferred bck robes embroidered with golden branches.

  g my belt tighter, I eyed my personal on rack up on the wall of my room with pride. Once upon a time, all that I’d had to my name were the two daggers that I’d fed from Oninite ba Helstein. I still had them, of course, and I still enjoyed using them. In fact, I took them down from the rad slid them into my wide cloth belt at the small of my back.

  But that wasn’t all that I had these days.

  Up there were two new additions to my repertoire.

  My personal sword, and my bow.

  While the local style seems to prefer curved swords such as Venix’s, I personally didn’t. I’d found that I still had a prefereowards longswords, and had tinued practig with them. Thus, when I’d had the ce, I’d bought up a good amount of Onie one for my personal use as I had the Proficy Talent at the time. And holy, it just seemed like the style here in Kawamara to have a sword on you at all times. I noticed that people were just taken more seriously if they were visibly carrying one of their katanas on them.

  Thus, my personal bde had been born.

  It was a longsword, of course, but perhaps a bit shorter than the length of Grey’s own Stelrum. Double-edged and with an antlered motif at the crossguard, the hilt had been ed in a supple crimsoher. At the time of f, I was a little lost as to what metal I should use to terbahe Oninite. I had eventually decided on going baething I was familiar with using. I’d scoured the Hinagan marketpce for some of it aually found it.

  Aetherically potent gold.

  The hilt had been fed from the metal, and the bde itself had ended up with some small inclusions of it running down the length. The final produded up looking quite striking. I…had wao , in the same way that Grey had named his own bde. After some deliberating, I had settled on something.

  Thus, Terractus had been born.

  I took the sheathed bde down from the wall, and slid it in my belt on my left hip. It rested fortably there, quite literally made for me. I had no need for the bow I had made in much the same manner and from the same materials as Terractus, so I left it on the wall. But as I was leaving my room and slipping on the bamboo ical hat that seemed to be the style here in Hinaga, I did take the staff that had used to belong to Tzo. I holy thought of it as more mihese days, though.

  I probably didn’t , but if nothing else, it worked as a fine walking stick.

  Prepared, I left the inn, exging a nod with the sharp-eyed proprietress as I did so. The older womaurhe nod slightly, the expression on her eborately painted faever moving an inch.

  Stepping onto the busy streets of Hinaga, I was grateful for my hat as the spring sun was certainly shining brightly today. A delicate floral st filled the air, as the many cherry blossom trees that lihe impeccably streets of Hinaga were in full bloom. Petals dahrough the air as people went about their business, only casting the occasional gnce my way, but not being overly rude about it. Another reason to be grateful for my hat, I suppose.

  It helped to hide my ears.

  Eventually, I successfully meandered my way to one of the side gates of the city, stopping only briefly along the way for a small local snack that I liked to call ‘chi on a stick’. I’d developed a bit of a taste for the saucy strips of grilled bird in my time here.

  Idly nibbling on my snack, I stayed out of the way as I came to a stop at the well-guarded entrao the city. This wasn’t the main gate where merts and traders came a at all hours of the day, trundling along in their carts and wagons. This was the gate meant for adventurers, warriors, and huo e and go about their business. Here the guards and funaries of the Hinagan bureaucraspected the kills and treasures that their martially ined returned with.

  And collected their due, of course.

  It seemed like I had impeccable timing, as the rge party of Oni Huhat my friends had apanied were just arriving at the same time I did. The massive armored cart they were using, almost remi of the ironcds of the Uprising, was being ied by the officials of Hinaga. Over a dozen massive warriors bd blue yered armor stood stoically by as equally massive Hinaga soldiers red and gold rifled through their trophies. I don’t think the Hunters even cared, as the vicious visage of their snarling masks simply stared straight ahead as the taxmen collected their due.

  They were probably used it, by now.

  Not so for my friends, it seems.

  Well, at least one of them.

  I had to stifle a ugh as I watched Renauld uselessly try and argue with one of the toll collectors as they took his bag away and started rifling through it right in front of him. The Gnoll was so agitated that he reached up and ripped his small little box hat right off his furry head and threw it into the dirt in frustration. The bureaucrat just ignored him as Renauld clutched at the hems of his locally styled Healers robe with an evil stare.

  In trast, her Azarus or Liora seemed to care all that much, if probably for different reasons. My oldest friend here in Vereden just his shrugged his owned yered and cquered armored shoulders and handed over his bag for iion, likely ung about the tax. He’d always had a different frame of mind about wealth, ever since I’d known him. Probably because of his upbringing as a noble, even if he couldn’t cim that title anymore. However, he did look a bit tired standing there in his personally fed armor, styled in the same manner as the Hinagan’s, colored a solid steel grey. It must been a long, tough march, after an equally long, tough hunt.

  I'd found that the Oni in these parts certainly lived up to their reputation.

  I’m not sure what Liora thought the entire se. It was always hard to tell sidering her high mastery of her emotional state. She could have hated the iion, but I found that unlikely. Not much seemed to bother the former infiltration specialist. She stood still as her own bag was taken from her, barely budging in her form-fitting fightihers. I’d offered te her whatever on she desired, but the Gnoll woman had deed. These days, she seemed to disdain using anything bded, even the hooked dagger that she always kept on her. I believe she had truly abandoned her former life as an assassin, as Baldric had wished.

  Good. That made two of us.

  She was lookier these days, and not just because of the ge in vocation. There hadn’t been the resources for it ba Elderwyck, so pretty much as soon as we had touched down here in Hinaga, she had sought out a Gyreite church to have the eye Nerexxa had stolen from her regeed. No more eyepatch for her.

  Now I didn’t feel bad about having my own eyesight returo me.

  As my friends were being fleeced, I tossed my now stid wandered up to the squad of Hunters, making sure to cck my staff onto the cobblestoo announce my presence. I probably didn’t o, sidering the high perception that seemed io these warriors, but it olite. The mask of the Huhat I ko be this troop’s leader turned in my dire as I approached. “Kuroshō,” He aowledged me with a slight dip of his head, the massive man’s deep voice eg out of his mask.

  I returhe nod respectfully. I had personally seen this man swing a battle-mace rger than I was to effortlessly pulverize the skull of an Oni with plete indifference. Frankly, I wondered if he might have been strohan General Lonstripe had been. But of course I didn’t dare to Observe him.

  That was an actual crime, here in Hinaga.

  They took their politeness very seriously.

  “Captain Takao,” I said with a small smile. “Did you have a productive hunt?”

  The rge man grunted in assent. “Two newborns, one elder,” He said in satisfa, causing his fellows around him to nod along. “They shall not trouble the people any longer.”

  “Good,” I said decisively. When I’d gone on my own hunt with Captain Takao’s squad, I’d seen firsthand just how vital their service was. A fully grown, Prime Oni was not something to disregard. Aire vilge had been blown down into sm ders by the time we had tracked the creature down.

  At that point, all we could do rovide vengeao those poor people.

  I’d found that being an Oni Hunter was work, all around. Little to no moral ambiguity to be found there.

  As we’d been talking, I caught Azarus’s eyes from across the checkpoint. He quirked an eyebrow at me, visible underh his helmet, causi at him. He smirked, and then nudged Liora, which I doubted he’d o do. The fent had likely noticed me that instant I approached the gate. Still, she turned her head just enough to nod at me in aowledgement.

  Renauld was still too busy arguing uselessly to a funary who had pletely disregarded him to notice me.

  I chuckled silently and leaned on my staff, settling in to wait on them.

  It was o see my friends again.

  …………………………………………………

  Half an hour ter, the four of us had retreated to a local tea house not far from the warriate. This pce ur location for those returning from the field, and thus, was a bit more rowdy than some of the other establishments I’d tried out here in Hinaga. As a result, it was mostly self-serve.

  For obvious reasons.

  I ly side-stepped one warrior with a truly impressive beard as he stumbled around drunkenly, eventually falling ft on his face to the cheers of his patriots. I kept the tray of refreshments I was carrying far away from the man as I threaded my way back to the table where my friends were.

  It had been a bit of a surprise to find out that alcoholic tea of all things opur with the Kawamarans. Holy, it wasn’t as disgusting as it sounded.

  I suspected a bit of Alchemical shenanigans were at py.

  This was actually our third round of the day. It might have only been a week sihe st time we’d seen each other, but it was still o chat and catch up over drinks and snacks. We’d already filled up, though, so it was just the tea for now.

  I set the tray down on our table to a round of thanks from my patriots, each of them p themselves a cup from the pot. I did the same as I sat down, not b to hide my amusement at the way Renauld was gl down into his own cup.

  “It couldn’t have been that bad,” I said to him teasingly. “The toll collectors would probably get shanked if they took too much.”

  Renauld looked up from his cup to give me the evil eye. “It’s the damned principle of the thing,” He grumbled. “Whoever heard of a toll being paid in cores of all things? Just take your damn gold like a proper ftfoot!”

  “How very Herztalian of you,” Liora said mildly, taking a small sip of her tea. I saw her withhold a small smirk as Renauld wi the words, ahe noll a wounded look iurn.

  Azarus rolled his eyes and gingerly took a sip from his own cup. He wi the taste as I stifled a ugh. The dwarf wasn’t a huge fan of the local variety of tea, pining that it was too weak for his tastes. He’d been whining about it ever since we’d nded on these shores. He deliberately set down his cup and then pulled out a fsk, p a measure of something dark into it.

  Guess I should have gotten him some of that boozy leaf juice, instead of the normal stuff.

  When he was done, he looked over at me and cut through bickering from noll rades. “So, what’s the news?” He said bluntly. “Anything from down south?”

  My smile faded at the reminder as it grew quiet at the table. Guess it was finally time to break the jovial atmosphere. Too bad.

  I'd e while it sted.

  Renauld and Liora were listening with rapt attention now, because all of us had been involved in one way or another.

  I took a deep breath a my cup dowing their eyes. “Well,” I started with a humorless smirk.

  “The war is over, now.”