Azrie

Rip double release. I'll just do this instead. Also, some of you misunderstood something. I am never going to drop this novel, ever. Unless I stop writing entirely this novel will continue to exist. It's a pledge I made to myself. Whew, how dramatic... 

Cough, I hope you people enjoy this chapter. Cough. Have a good day, and thanks for reading.

I started hearing the door being periodically and gently knocked; waking me up. As I was getting up, I heard the door knocking again, this time it wasn't really gentle.  

“I am coming.”

I let the person outside that I am up, and there is no need to keep knocking. However, there was no reply coming from the door. 

Bang. 

Bang! 

I could see the door practically being punched, making horrible creaking sounds and literally folding from the thunderous force. Prompting me to start trembling. 

BANG! 

What is happening?! Who is outside?! Wait… This is not even an inn?! Where am I?! Hello?! Looking around all I see is nothingness and then there is a door that is repeatedly being smashed. What is going on?! 

As I was thinking I saw the door get blasted. What was behind the door was not human, I could not see the head of the thing. 

“Breakfast is here.” It was a gentle voice. 

Wait...

“Breakfast is here.” Hearing the voice one more time, my eyes open again somehow. Except I was at the inn. ‘What was with that dream?’ I confusedly muttered as I went towards the imposing and daunting door. It was the room door, however, it made me feel weird considering the dream I had. I opened the door. I saw the man, I could not see his head because he was too tall for the doorframe. 

He looked down to see me and gave me whatever he was holding and then left. It was warm and smelled nice. Looking at whatever I received; it was like a basket with ceramic plates stacked on top of each other… ‘I hope the food is not squished together’ I hopingly murmured. 

I set the food on the table. I noticed Aizen was already up and did not wake anyone. I did not feel like waking anyone either, not after the weird dream at least. Fenri did not seem hungry. Aizen on the other hand, curiously looked at the basket and decided to see what was inside. She saw the pilled plates, her face also turned grim. However, the harmonious scent coming from the basket quickly changed her mind and removed the plate that was on top of everything. There was another plate, and another one, and another… After four plates and finding four spoons on the last plate. There was something that looked like a small iron pot with a myriad of vegetables. I recognized some carrot and zucchini, I did not recognize anything else. I also noticed a ladle. I don’t know what material it was made out of, but it had a nice silvery glint to it. 

“Hmhm.” I noticed some fumbling coming from the beds and some fabric rustling. I kept hearing more rustling from the beds; the girls were waking up from the food smell; Aizen did not care and just started serving herself, seeing her I just sighed. 

“Yami is mean.” Cecil quietly told Ari; she nodded. 

“Um, what did I do?” I quietly asked. However, they just ignored me and sat on the table. Leaving me standing. I ended up sitting as well. I served the girls seeing they couldn’t quite do it themselves since they weren’t tall enough. 

“Thanks.” Cecil silently said as she started eating. I barely managed to hear it. I wondered what she was thinking about. Ari started eating as well. 

I stared at my empty plate and served myself, from what I could tell there were only vegetables, Aizen seemed to be enjoying it, seeing her gaze was just looking at the pot like a predator after she had finished her plate. Noticing this, I decided to start eating. They were vegetables; good vegetables. Letting juices spread through my mouth every time I chewed. 

We finished breakfast, not knowing what to do we just left it there and left the room. 

“Is it fine to not clean anything?” Cecil suddenly asked, however, I just shrugged, everyone shrugged. She did not say anything after that. We continued walking down the entirely wooden hallway. I still felt tiny, like if I was in an environment for giants. We arrived at the counter without saying much. The thing was standing there, looking at the same spot as yesterday. I put the key on the counter and he just took it with one hand and did not say anything. Like that, we left and I led the group towards the point where the merchant was. 

‘What a weird inn-keeper, looking at a wall until night time? What could he be doing? Isn’t he a totem or something? I wonder if he has a title like: ‘the immovable’. It would be quite interesting if that was a thing. He did not even react to Fenri. Did he even see Fenri?’ While I was thinking, I noticed the merchant wagon. He seemed somewhat uneasy; biting his nails and slightly trembling for some reason, as soon as he saw us his face became clear and he practically stopped shaking. When we were in front of him, he just looked at all of us and gave me a cold gaze.

“You are late.” 

“We never set a time.” Aizen nonchalantly chimed in. The merchant froze for a second and placed his hand on his chin as he was thinking something, however, he ended up sighing. And began speaking again. 

“That is true, we will be leaving now. Hopefully, we can reach the capital today, I am glad it wasn’t a long trip. I have lost way too much already.” I could clearly hear his melancholy. After he finished speaking he just led us to the back of the wagon like last time. 

We boarded the wagon without saying much and it started moving. 

I wonder what kind of place the capital is like? It must be amazing, considering it’s the largest city and most important one, otherwise it wouldn’t be named capital. At least I know that much. I want to see if there are any new alloys or metals in general. Or like she called them: ‘rocks’. I will throw her one of those rocks if she calls them like that again… She did seem quite interested in the academy. I wonder what the magic and combat academies encompass. I mean, sure they encompass what they say. But how far? Does magic academy take summoners into account because they use mana to summon? Hmm… 

Also, I wonder why people look at Fenri with fear sometimes? Sure his presence is intimidating when he tries to. But, looking at him just laying on the ground in front of me is not scary at all. I mean he is just a wolf, right? Or was it a monster wolf? They look the same anyways, wait. Are there normal wolves in this world? Another question… I need too many answers for too many questions… Sigh. 

Now thinking about it, what kind of religion does the church worship? I mean, it seems pretty generic at first with the whole discrimination against beastkin, but. Why only beastkin? At least that’s what it looks like to me, then again the thought of purifying a beastkin sounds terrifying. I shudder just thinking about it. If something were to happen to me and Fenri nor Aizen could help me. I certainly need some type of weapon, I did make that dagger… Wait… Where is the dagger? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I still need something, a dagger would be convenient and simple. Also, I think they are easy to use? I mean, they are quite light, but they do have a short range.   

I looked in my inventory for daggers, I did not have any. ‘Looks like I will need to make one?’ I thought about it for a second, I normally would be enthusiastic about it. But now I have mixed feelings. ‘Having everyone knowing me, is annoying, now I am a beastkin so I think it got worse. What do, what do? I guess I will make one if I get the chance.’ After thinking, I arrived at a reasonable conclusion. 

“Yami?” Ari called out for me while tilting her head. I could only assume she was wondering about my random mutters and fixedly staring at the ground for quite some time. 

“Ah, sorry. I was thinking I needed a weapon.” I said with a wry smile while scratching my neck. This made Ari even more confused and asked. 

“A weapon? Why would you need one?”

“To protect myself.”

 I nonchalantly answered Ari’s confusion, however, she looked at me with piercing eyes instead. 

“You are joking right?” ‘how could this be a joke. Isn’t it obvious? The lumberjack almost did something bad to me, it would be bad to let it happen again. Besides, I already reassured Aizen. 

“No.” I dismissed Ari. 

I noticed she sighed and stopped caring after my insightful reply. I guess she failed to see why I needed a weapon, but that did not matter to me. Soon enough, Cecil seemed interested in something. 

“So, why do you need a weapon?” 

“I already answered that.” What’s the point of her question?

“Well, why would you need protection if you already have Fenri?” 

She casually said while petting him. We were sitting in a little circle with Fenri at the center. Aizen seemed to have dozed off. After I took a quick look around, I assumed it was fine to say it. Since it didn’t matter if Fenri heard me, I assumed he already knew anyway. 

“Well, if Fenri happens to be away, and I need to fight. It would be better than having nothing.” 

Cecil, hearing my casual reply seemed to agree with those thoughts and nodded. 

I guess, I can continue thinking now? Well, let’s see… The ‘continent’ is weirdly shaped and I think it connects to another bigger continent, based on what I heard from the inn lady it seemed that most of this ‘continent’ was human land. With very few members of other races, and apparently to leave the continent I would need to go through the holy city of, of... I already forgot the name... Doesn’t that sound quite extreme? Well, I guess I should worry about it when we go there? If we need to even go there? I can’t think of many reasons to go. Also, despite everything being so religious. I don’t recall ever seeing a church? Huh…

“Ari, why haven’t we seen a temple or something from the church?” Might as well ask her. 

“...” she seemed somewhat stiff hearing me but started speaking. 

“Do you want to visit the church?”  Hearing her, I just shook my head. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw me deny it.

“Well, one of the major reasons as to why we haven’t seen any cathedral of sorts, it's because small towns like the previous two ones, do not have them. They cannot fit them. The church just seems to just enjoy building big buildings to be able to, 'shelter the divinity'. Or whatever that man meant.” It sounded perfectly reasonable, but there was something wrong. 

“That man?” I curiously asked. I noticed Ari froze yet again. 

“I’d rather not talk about it,” she dejectedly said. I did not want to keep prying, considering that one time when she seemed to want to talk about herself I told her not to if she did not feel comfortable so... 

“Yami, why did you want to know about the church, you did not show much interest in it before.” She looked at me while tilting her head. 

“Well, I was just thinking. ‘What if we wanted to leave the continent,’” I casually informed her. 

“Ah… right.” 

Looking at shadow casting over her face, I decided to just stop thinking about it and not mention it. 

I wonder, what could make her give that sort of reaction? She doesn’t seem very religious anyway.