9 Days till Odysseus
Shiro received a rude awakening in the form of Kana’s loud voice. The hyper active teenager burst into Shiro’s room and jumped on her bed, forcing the less active teenager to wake up.
“Come on, the sun is out. Time for some fun.”
Kana drew Shiro’s sheets from her. The white-haired girl groaned in annoyance and just looked at Kana with baggy eyes.
“It’s too early, Kana.”
“Never too early for breakfast. Oh, Karma!”
The little black dragon appeared before Kana. She hissed at Kana, but that hiss soon turned into a cry for help once Kana embraced her.
‘Master, this one is too much.’
She said while wriggling in Kana’s absurdly strong grip.
“You’re on your own, Karma. Give me a second Kana, I’ll get ready.”
“Nope. Get up now and let’s go take a bath together. I need to pay back Jasmine. She’s won three days in a row! I refuse to accept that.”
“Eh? Eh? Eh?! B-Bath? Together? I-Isn’t that like… too far?”
The sleepy Shiro was alarmed at the thought of sharing her bath time with someone else.
“Too far? It’s just a bath…”
Shiro crawled back up and covered herself in her cloth, shaking timidly.
“B-But you don’t show your naked body to anyone but your betrothed… or younger siblings, I guess.”
Kana had an expression that suggested disbelief.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never taken a bath with a friend before…”
Shiro bashfully shook her head from the insides of her sheets. Kana dropped Karma and ran out the door, screaming Daisuke’s name. Shiro let out a heavy breath and chanted a spell causing the wind to make shut her door.
The black dragon walked up to her master and craned her neck. This was due to the strange frown on Shiro’s face.
‘Is there something wrong, master?’
She asked curiously, but Shiro wasn’t listening to her. Rather, she stood up and approached the balcony where she opened the glass door and looked at the city. In her direct front, there was a massive wall that separated the palace from the rest of the city. Beyond, Shiro could see at least 3 more walls, each bigger towards the outskirts.
The capital city of Dhijan was divided into three sectors. The Commoner sector, the Noble Sector and the Knight Sector.
It was a bit different from other kingdoms in the sense that it prioritised the safety of its civilians over that of the nobles. Every noble was required to have basic fighting abilities in order to protect themselves, so they were placed in the middle sector.
Of course, the noble sector had the highest quality merchandise and goods, but due to its placement, there was easy access to its resources from the other sectors.
Dhijan prided itself on being a nation of goodwilled descendants of heroes, so whether it was from merely a political standpoint or due to genuine kindness, the nobles always valued the lives of the commoners.
The knights who were at the outermost sector were supposed to be the kingdom’s most fearsome force and needed to have the highest response time, so they were put at the outermost sector in case of enemy attack. It was virtually impossible to launch an attack from the inside, but should that happen, there were warp gates for them to immediately rush to any sector to offer assistance.
There were other cities and villages outside of these walls and they were all governed by other nobles handpicked by the king of the Dhijan nation. Majority were chosen due to their strength and few due to their wisdom. Either way, the Dhijan Hero Nation was one that was perceived as the ultimate kingdom in terms of military strength.
Of course, there were certain issues with the rule, but none of that was Shiro’s concern.
She was looking towards the east, trying to see if she could see it. The outskirts of Larm. Specifically, the West of Larm.
Something had been bothering her ever since the night of the raid.
Was it the fact that her kingdom had been seized by a cult of fanatics? Nope, she couldn’t care less about that.
Maybe it was the fact that her mother and everyone she knew was probably dead? No. She would miss Mr. Sotomura, but he was practically on his death bed. Her younger siblings were not in the New Kyoto Empire at the moment. Since their mother had no real use for them, they’d been sent off to school in the Holy Mexar Empire in order to build trust with the empire. That failed though, and the empire was waging war on them, her siblings had been killed or so she’d heard.
Maybe – No. Shiro had no reason to care about that place at all. Kana too seemed to have no care for that place. Daisuke and Akari were the only ones who were worried for the safety of their parents and the empire’s citizens. Shiro attributed it to them simply trying to act like the most matured out of the bunch. She believed they truly also couldn’t care about the state of things. They’d all faced their forms of torture from their parents.
The reason why she was in such a state was because of that weird message she received from a higher being. She’d assumed that it was her patron god about to awaken her [Sacred], but Seiko and the other paladins had informed her that she had the potential, but she wouldn’t be awakening it any time soon.
Now the question was what exactly spoke to her. And if she remembered right, that being wasn’t particularly pleased with her mother. It wasn’t as godly as she’d imagined it would be, but there was something oddly familiar about it.
When she woke up, her instincts were screaming to her that she was very close to the place she needed to be. It was even more than instincts. It was possibly fate screaming at her that she was very close to something important. At least, that was what she told herself.
Unfortunately, Seiko managed to get to her before she could go any further into the forest. It was only when she got to the nation that she found out that she woke up in Larm. Then suddenly, the statement “Come to the West” made a whole lot of sense.
Whatever it was she had to go to was in the West of Larm. She’d completely forgotten about the danger of the West of Larm, but no one was ever going to let her go. She also hadn’t placed any markers in the West throwing teleportation out of the window.
Considering her status, she and the other Kazoku were placed under high surveillance, though they’d been able to make out some of the hidden individuals albeit not all of them.
‘Master?’
Karma curiously beckoned to Shiro who had no interest in responding to an object lacking in true personality.
“Yeah, yeah you need to hear this!”
Kana’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door, accompanied by extra voices. They sounded like Daisuke and Akari’s voices.
Shiro’s longing gaze disappeared as she realised it was physically impossible for her to see beyond the walls without magic. Maybe a combination of water magic and light magic. She was working on something of that sort, but she hadn’t quite figured it out because she didn’t have time to.
She turned around to face the door as it burst open. Kana came dragging Daisuke by the arm and Akari followed behind closely with their arms behind their back.
“Oh, you’re off your bed… Now let’s go.”
“No! I’m not going to take a bath with you!”
Shiro resisted yet again, throwing a tantrum this time. Daisuke scratched his head nervously.
“What’s the exact problem here?”
He asked, still not sure why he was dragged from the breakfast hall to the girl’s chambers. Akari, who was only here for the ride maintained their smile.
“Shiro-chan doesn’t want to take a bath.”
Kana said.
“Eh? I said I don’t want to take a bath with you! Don’t cut out the last part.”
She roared and ran for the silver haired teenager. Fortunately, she didn’t try running away and was immediately caught in Shiro’s claws.
“But why?”
“Because…!”
“Come on, Kana-chan. If she doesn’t want to bath with you, you shouldn’t force her.”
“Exactly Daisuke-kun!”
Shiro emphasised his point loudly.
“Because you don’t want to doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take a bath together.”
Kana still couldn’t understand what Shiro meant at all. Both Daisuke and Shiro were confused by her, so they had to ask another question.
“Huh? Why do you think she should take a bath with you?”
“Obviously because that’s what I want.”
“Oi, oi! That’s not how this world work-”
Daisuke grabbed Shiro’s shoulder by the arms in an attempt to calm her down as she was shaking Kana’s head with way too much energy. Daisuke was scared the silver-haired girl’s head would fall off.
“Let me handle this.”
A crossed Shiro pouted and walked back.
“Hey, Kana-chan. You think that Shiro-san should go into the baths with you because that’s what you want, right?"
"Um, yes?"
"Ok, but Shiro-chan doesn’t want to bath with you, so you can’t force her, ok?”
“Who made up that rule?”
“Ah!”
“And who made up the rule you’re using?”
“Father taught me that the Taira Clan gets whatever it wants. No questions asked.”
“Eh? What kind of st-… never mind.”
Shiro was on the verge of blowing up, but she calmed down and decided to focus her mind on something else. Akari ended up catching her eye. They waved amiably at her with their usual smile and Shiro couldn’t help but feel that Akari only got more feminine and beautiful each sometime she saw them.
Thinking about how a man was more beautiful than her made her strangely angry so she returned her gaze to Kana. She was about to argue with her, but eventually the anger just left. It’d been weird, but in the recent days getting angry was practically an impossibility for her. She’d found herself caring less and less about a lot of things. It was hard to pinpoint when this started, but she’d have to say about a month ago.
She heaved a sigh and grabbed Kana.
“Fine. Let’s go take a bath together!”
Shiro caved in since her opponent was completely unreasonable.
“Oh great! See? I’m always right. Even the kids back at school agreed with me.”
Kana cockily stated. Daisuke distastefully responded to her claim.
“Forcing your will on others doesn’t make you right… just means you’re a bully.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Excuse me. Would it be alright if I joined you two to the bathroom?”
Akari asked with a raised arm.
“Absolutely not!”
Both Shiro and Daisuke rejected their offer.
“Excellent idea! Come along too, Daisuke! That way it’s all peers bathing together. I’ll even wash your back for you! Hahaha!”
“No.”
Again, both Shiro and Daisuke strongly rejected her command.
“I am not taking no for an answer!”
“Who said you had a choice?”
Shiro asked with a fire ball in her palm. Kana awkwardly grinned, thinking back to the massive fire attack Shiro conjured in their sparring the day before. She had to admit, firepower on that level would definitely do lasting damage to her without her lightning armour.
“Haha… maybe just Shiro and I could take a bath together."
<A/N: A tiny peek at the state of the kids who basically just lost their future. Unusually bright.>
