The truth is, there wasnʼt any way Shun and Rya could refuse given their immediate options. With an enigmatic smile that seemed to express a hint of gratitude, Shihime began to lay out her plans for them. 

“First of all, youʼll need these.” 

Shihime whispered something to Zhuʼer, who then proceeded to give Shun and Rya each a circular piece of jade. 

Shun curiously picked up his jade piece, feeling its cold weight on the palm of his hand. It looked unassuming at first glance—except for a row of Chinese-esque characters engraved on its face. “This is?” 

“Your temporary permits with your names engraved on them. Please keep them on you always whenever you head outside.” Shihime cleared her throat slightly before continuing, “unfortunately, because this was on such short notice, I wasnʼt able to find a more comfortable accommodation for you two…so, I hope you wonʼt mind staying in a teahouse in Hshiwara for the time being. Hasumi will guide you to your room when you leave the Golden Temple.”

She tilted her head to the side. “And I donʼt mean to understate your abilities, but before you two continue your journey to the Principality, Iʼll like you to undergo some…special training as extra preparation.”

“Special training?” Shun and Rya questioned in unison.  

“Well, it will reflect on me badly should you two die under my care, wonʼt it?” Shihime smiled. “Iʼm obliged to make sure that you two are fully capable of defending yourselves during your stay and also protect my cute Kamuro from any baddies in the future.”

I see…well, it won’t hurt to give whatever training she has in mind a go, I guess. It’s better for me to not solely rely on guns to fight.

A conflicted look flashed across Rya’s eyes, but she nodded her head nonetheless. “I guess that makes sense, but Iʼm totally inept at using weapons to fight, so…” 

“Mhmm, I just so happen to know an individual who is very knowledgeable about magic.” Shihime nodded her head. “I can ask him if he can mentor you in offensive magic types and teach you to control your life force better. Will that be alright with you?” 

She looked down at her necklace and clutched it tightly in her hand. “Y-yes.”  

“That’s settled, then.” Shihime then shifted her gaze to Shun. “Shun, I heard that you require something from me for your weapon to function. Is that true?”

He nodded his head and showed the rifle to her. “Iʼm looking to modify my weapon so that it can shoot firework pellets out from the barrel…you know, like pew-pew-pew-bang-exaaplosion! I want it to do something to that effect.” 

“Uh-huh…” She pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “Well, I think I get the gist of what you want. Iʼll see whether I can do something about that.”

“Thank you.” He handed the rifle to her and hesitantly asked, “um, so what exactly is your ‘special training’ for me?” 

“Mm, well, you’re a soldier, aren’t you? I’m curious about your abilities.” She stood up from her chair and gracefully walked to another set of wooden lattice doors to her right. Sliding it open, a large empty hall lined with tatami mats greeted their eyes. 

Shihime turned to Shun with an inviting smile. “Will you accept a mock duel with me?” 

E-EHH? A sudden battle with the Tayu Oiran?! 

*** 

Shun looked up at the spectator seats in the second floor of the hall. Rya was seated in the front row together with Zhu’er and Lian Xin, a troubled look on her face—despite him reassuring her before they separated that he would not be in any danger

I guess she’s still worried about Shihime…to be honest, I’m also nervous about her being my opponent. If she’s extremely skilled at melee combat, I'll be at a disadvantage. 

He then glanced at the crowd squeezing into the spectator seats behind the front row. It seemed like the news of the Tayu Oiran challenging an outlander to a mock battle had spread like wildfire, and all of Shihime’s subordinates were eager to watch it unfold with their own eyes. The thought of having so many eyes simultaneously on him made him slightly nervous all of a sudden.

“I’ll state the rules of this duel now,” Shihime announced, interrupting his thoughts. “Attacks targeting the face, neck and vitals are prohibited. Time limit is three minutes, and the match will end in a draw once the three minutes is up. The match will conclude when any contestant loses their weapon, is unable to fight or surrenders.” 

A servant pushed a cart loaded with a wide selection of swords into the middle of the arena. Shihime stepped aside and gestured to Shun.

“Since I was the one who raised the challenge, I’ll let you choose a weapon of your liking first.” 

“A-ah…” He slowly inspected the swords laid out on top of the cart. There were different lengths and types to choose from, ranging from a lightweight rapier to a heavy claymore as tall as half his height. The blades, though dull and blunt, were most certainly made out of hard metal—getting struck by any of those weapons would be no joke, he realised with sudden dread. 

Dam*it, I’m not familiar at all with swords! Aren’t there better weapons to choose from? Like a combat knife, or a…wait a minute, melee weapons! Right, isn’t this world’s foundation fundamentally that battle royale game? 

Shun frowned, closing his eyes, as he tried to recollect his memories. 

Thinking back, that silver-haired girl was able to kill me so quickly with one crossbow shot to the back. There’s no way that is actually possible in real life…then, it may just be possible that the damage scaling in this world works exactly like the game itself. How did I not think of that earlier? If I recall correctly, in「 Elysium: Legends Royale」the crossbow has the highest base damage out of all the melee weapons, followed by…

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Shihime asked, seemingly noticing his hesitation. “Do you find none of the weapons available satisfactory?” 

Well then, let’s see whether my theory works. “Shihime, is it possible to request for a specific weapon?”   

“Sure, you can do that. What weapon do you want?”

“U-um, please don’t laugh, but I want to use…” He took a deep breath. “A frying pan.¹PUBG reference for those who are out of the loop.” 

killwrites

Still trying to figure out a consistent schedule following my hiatus, but I will be posting much more regularly soon! 

 

Side note: Sorry, I don't do as much editing nowadays as I'm mostly writing right before I go to sleep, and usually it's like 1 or 2 am by the time I'm finished, so please tell me if you spot any mistakes!

Also, I hope you won't be too turned off by the switch to British English (which is actually what I'm more comfortable with), since I don't want to review each chapter just to change everything from British to American English >_<  of course, if it's jarring I'll re-edit everything to American for consistency~

Thanks as always for reading and supporting my work!