POV: Yasudera Azuki

BOOM

[Azuki now!](Eriko)

I ran ahead to the monster. It’s a so called minotaur. It’s lower body is like a bull, it’s head is a bull’s too. It’s upper body has hands and it normally holds a big battleaxe. Thanks to Eriko’s magic the minotaur was thrown off balance so ran to the minotaur. In it’s desperate struggle it tried to hit me with the battleaxe but Hisagi came between us and deflected the blow with her sword.

[Thank you!](Azuki)

[No problem, finish it!](Hisagi)

I stabbed my spear where it’s heard is located. I already made a small hole in it’s body earlier so this time my spear reached its target. The minotaur roared and fell to the ground.

[Good job Azuki, Hisagi.](Eriko)

[[You too.]]

[Ehehe, so is this the last one for today?](Eriko)

[I think so, I’m pretty tired. Let’s go back now.](Hisagi)

[Yeah, I’m tired too.](Azuki)

We took out the magic crystal and went to the transfer stone. It’s a stone that is located on all floors. We can enter the dungeon and leave so thanks to it we don’t waste much time. Our levels didn’t increase by much. We gather the magic crystals from the monsters that drop them to sell them at the guild. After our first dungeon exploration our class begged to the king to allow us to go into the city. After some time we managed to get him agree to our request but on one condition.

That condition is to not leave the city and go outside. I personally think that he is just trying to lock us up in the castle. I also wonder why can we normally walk throughout the city without any problems. I mean we are summoned “heroes” shouldn’t there be some sort of commotion? I think that he didn’t tell anyone about us, it feels like he is trying to keep our existence a secret or something.

We teleported to the outside of the dungeon and there were soldiers already waiting for us. I guess they are here to keep an eye for us so we don’t run away.

[They are here, again](Eriko)

[Even if we have complains we can’t do anything. I would like to travel this world though.](Hisagi)

[Yeah, I wonder if there are other races.](Azuki)

[Other races?](Hisagi)

[Well something like elves or animal people? They appear in the fantasy genre quite a lot you know?](Azuki)

[Yeah, I think onii sometimes also talked about that. It shouldn’t be surprising if there are other races here. I wonder where onii is.](Eriko)

[I think he should be in this world too, he was in the class when it happened after all.](Azuki)

It seems that Eriko’s mood got worse when she though about Satoru. Well he is the only person besides us who she can trust fully. I think that she misses him too. When we talked about Satoru she would always eagerly talk about him. I feel that she is my rival but I don’t know why. She also seems to be shy around strangers, I doubt she would trust us as much if we didn’t know about Satoru.

We walked to the soldiers so we could go to the city.

[Are you done fighting monsters?](Soldier)

[Yes, we are going back to the city.](Azuki)

[Okay then, let’s go.](Soldier)

We followed them and went to the city. When we arrived those soldiers left us after entering the gate and went to the stone building that was near the gate. I believe that it’s those soldiers barracks. We went to the guild to sell the magic crystals to gain some money. Every magic crystal went for 3 silver coins so it’s quite a lot of money. Everything in this city is expensive though.

After leaving the guild we were walking in the city without a purpose.

[Want to go to the cake shop? The sweets there were delicious.](Azuki)

[Oh yes, I suddenly have an appetite for something sweet. Let’s go there.](Hisagi)

[Okay I will go too.](Eriko)

There is a nice place that sells good sweets. They are a little expensive and you need to wait a little but they are worth it. They are on the level of sweets in japan. We finally arrived at the cafe and looked around for any free spots. We found one and quickly moved to sit there. Even if this place is a cafe it still have many people visiting it. Probably because the sweets here are delicious. The tea is also quite nice.

We ordered some sweets and talked while waiting for the sweets.

[How do you girls think, when will we be strong enough to leave this place?](Azuki)

[I don’t know. For now we are on the 24 floor and we can defeat the monsters with some difficulty. The adventurers guild says that it has forty floors but with each floor the monsters are stronger than before or are in groups.](Hisagi)

[So we will need to spend some time before we fight those on the higher floors.](Eriko)

[I wonder how long it will take, I have a feeling that we just need to have better skill with our weapons. Minotaur’s movements aren’t hard to read, but if we have a good way to deal with them then it should be easy to fight them.](Azuki)

[I think so too.](Hisagi)

While we were talking our ordered sweets came.

[Here you go, please enjoy it.](Woman)

[[[Thank you]]]

We began to eat the sweets. I ordered a strawberry cake and a chocolate cake. Their sweetness is great. I feel that I could eat ten of them and still not get enough of it. Hisagi ordered a vanilla cake and hot chocolate. Eriko on the other hand ordered an orange cake and a raspberry cake. We indulged ourselves in those cakes and spent time happily savoring them. When we finished them we paid for our order and left the cafe.

[I wish onii was here, he could also enjoy those cakes.](Eriko)

[Really? I didn’t know that Satoru liked sweets.](Azuki)

[He likes them but not too much. He likes to eat other things though.](Eriko)

[Then I need to get better at cooking!](Azuki)

[I can tell you what he likes, he mostly likes meat so if you make good meat dishes he is going to be pleased.](Eriko)

[Thank you Eriko, are there other things that I should be good at?](Azuki)

[Well I don’t really know, s-sometimes onii hugs me or pat’s my head.](Eriko)

[I’m jealous.](Azuki)

[Now now girls, I know that your maidens talk is important but considering our plans there is one thing you are forgetting.](Hisagi)

[Maidens talk?! That’s not it!](Azuki)

[Okay okay, it isn’t.](Hisagi)

[So what is it that we forgot about?](Azuki)

[This](Hisagi)

Then Hisagi pointed at our bracelets.

[If we want to leave this kingdom we would need to throw away those bracelets. They can track our location after all.](Hisagi)

[Ahh, that’s right. I almost forgot about this, but can’t we just remove them normally?](Eriko)

When Eriko tried to remove it, it didn’t budge. Eriko let out an astonished voice.

[Huh?](Eriko)

Even if she used all her strength the bracelet still didn’t come off.

[Huuuh?](Eriko)

[That’s right, it seems that we can’t remove those bracelets but I don’t know why.](Hisagi)

[Hmm, I don’t want to ask about them to the commander. I feel like we will be in danger if we do so. It doesn’t seem like others noticed it too.](Azuki)

[Boys probably have the best time of their lifes right now so no wonder they didn’t notice it.](Hisagi)

[It’s probably the case, Mitsumaki has been trying to invite me into their team a lot lately. I won’t accept it though.](Azuki)

[That Mitsumaki guy is a bastard! He seemed to insult onii a lot right? I hate him!](Eriko)

[Yeah, he isn’t that great of a guy. He shines in the worst moments thinking that he is like a hero from a story. He is trying to appeal to Azuki all the time, honestly it’s annoying. He should have already noticed that Azuki don’t really like him.](Hisagi)

[Why doesn’t he notice it? I though that his grades were the best?](Eriko)

[I don’t know what is going through his head, the same goes for Satoru.](Hisagi)

[Well onii can be a little unsociable but he has his reasons.](Eriko)

[I didn’t know that?](Azuki)

[Really? Reasons like what?](Hisagi)

We arrived at the castle gates.

[Well from what he said to me there was a situation in his childhood. I will tell you about it when we get to our room.](Eriko)

Me and Hisagi nodded. We first went to eat something, we took our time so it was almost time for dinner. The dishes from the castle are great, I sometimes go to the kitchen to learn from them. They happily teach me so I’m very thankful to them. In the corner of my eye I could also see Mitsumaki trying to charm the maids.

We ended our meal and went to the room quickly as to not get caught by Mitsumaki.

[So Eriko, can you continue that talk from later? I’m really interested.](Azuki)

[Sure, onii in his childhood hated bullying so he didn’t really stand out. On time he noticed that there was a girl getting bullied but he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know the cause of her getting bullied so he decided to report to the teachers about that girl. The teachers did scold those bullies but it only worsened the situation. They got angry at the girl because they though that she told about them to the teachers.

When he saw that those bullies were trying to beat up that girl he chose to step in. He told them to stop bullying her but they didn’t care. They got angry at him for helping her and changed the target from her to him. He screamed in anger and stood his ground but because they had more people he was at a disadvantage. When he almost passed out the teachers came in and stopped the fight.

He heard her say thank you when he looked her way but on another day the girl didn’t show up at school. A week later he heard that the girl changed schools. Because of that the bullies changed the target from her to him and from that moment he didn’t really trust other people. Though he said that now that he is more mature he can’t really find fault in that girl.](Eriko)

[Well that’s a tragic story, right Azuki?.](Hisagi)

(I can’t believe it, that story is about me. The girl in that story is me, that is also the reason why I like Satoru. I was sorry that I couldn’t meet him on the next day because I moved and transferred schools. I didn’t even know that those bullies changed the target from me to him.)

Was it because of me that he changed? I began to accuse myself but the call from Hisagi brought me back to reality.

[Azuki?](Hisagi)

[A-ah yeah that is a tragic story.](Azuki)

[Now now, let’s talk about something brighter! How about...](Eriko)

Just like that we spent the rest of the day talking before going to bed.