After their brief exchange that morning, Altaïr and Nymera tacitly agreed not to bring up their "future plans" again.
Altaïr and Isis went to the Gathering Hub to settle the quest.
Normally, 5★ Hunters who completed a 6★ quest would have to undergo a fairly involved review process. Although being led by a High Rank Hunter meant they had not technically broken any rules, the Guild would still scrutinize the circumstances.
After all, the divide between 5★ and 6★ marked the boundary between Low Rank and High Rank.
Perhaps the Kamura Guild was simply lenient, or perhaps it was because Minoto had personally witnessed the entire hunt. Whatever the reason, the quest settlement went remarkably smoothly, and they received their reward on the spot.
Their delight turned to unease when they saw the bright red "Quest Complete" stamp in their Hunter's Notes, along with a note Maki had casually added as a joke: "The entire hunt was completed by Altaïr and Isis. The party leader did not intervene."
Isis eyed Altaïr warily. "Don't you dare write to Amos and tell him the two of us hunted an Espinas!
"Otherwise... I'll write to Karin and sell you out!"
Altaïr had snitched on her plenty of times before. When it came to keeping incidents like this quiet, his credibility with her was nonexistent.
Altaïr raised both hands in surrender. "Fine, I won't write to him. We're in the same boat this time."
Of course he would keep quiet. Getting them both in trouble would do him no good either...
Once the quest settlement was complete, Isis dragged Altaïr back to Yan's clinic. She made him activate Beast Soul Possession in front of the physician for another examination and only relaxed after Yan confirmed there were no lingering effects.
After leaving the clinic, Altaïr sought out Maki and shamelessly asked to train under her for a few more days. Maki tossed him right back out. Did he really think the Village Chief of Kamura had nothing better to do all day? She had plenty of work waiting for her!
Isis, meanwhile, returned to the Training Area to condition her body and hone her skills. Altaïr's performance during the hunt had put considerable pressure on her.
After mastering Spirit Release Unsurpassed Slash, his strength had already edged slightly past hers.
Now, after coming to Kamura Village and mastering the powerful Hunter Art of Beast Soul Possession, he had grown stronger yet again and was already nearing the threshold of 6★.
She had to find a way to catch up!
Before long, however, Altaïr came racing into the Training Area as well. The two immediately locked horns and trained from late morning until dark, neither willing to leave first.
When mealtime came and neither had returned, a worried Yomogi asked around until she found them at the Training Area. The moment she learned what they had been doing, her little brows shot up and she gave them both a thorough scolding.
Yomogi was petite and stood less than 160 centimeters tall. Beside the two tall, powerfully built young Hunters, both over 190 centimeters, she looked almost like a child.
Her presence, however, was formidable. She berated them until they could only stand with their heads bowed, then strictly forbade them from setting foot in the Training Area again before finally letting the matter drop.
It was not as though Altaïr and Isis failed to understand the importance of balancing exertion with rest.
No matter how hard they trained, they still needed time to relax their minds and let their bodies recover. Otherwise, hunting after training and training after hunting would become an endless cycle that even a body made of iron could not withstand.
But they were young and recovered quickly, and each was driven by the inexplicable conviction that they absolutely could not lose to the other. Neither was willing to rest first.
Had Yomogi not stepped in as their elder and put a stop to it by force, they would have kept pushing each other until dawn.
—--
The next day dawned.
Altaïr rose early and headed into the yard out of habit, intending to put in a few hours of sword practice, only to find Yomogi glaring at him.
"Nymera said you know how to cook. Come help me make breakfast." With that, Yomogi turned and walked into the kitchen.
Altaïr rubbed his nose and followed her.
Breakfast in Kamura Village was as light as ever: rice balls, pickled radish and other small side dishes, and hot soup with tofu and seaweed.
With three active Hunters currently staying in the house, however, Yomogi had prepared exceptionally generous portions. The rice balls alone filled a large platter to overflowing.
Without Altaïr's help, it would have taken Yomogi quite a while to prepare everything by herself.
Breakfast was ready, yet Isis still had not appeared. Altaïr found that rather strange, since she was usually an early riser.
Yomogi went to wake Nymera while Altaïr stopped outside Isis's room. Hearing movement within, he slid open the shoji door without giving it much thought. The sight before him left him speechless.
Isis was doing handstand push-ups on her futon. Since her body weight alone was not enough, she had deliberately put on her Armor and strapped her weapon to her back. Judging by the sweat pouring off her, she had already been at it for quite some time.
When she met Altaïr's deadpan stare, embarrassment crossed her face, but she did not stop. "Just thirty more in this set. Give me a minute..."
She picked up the pace and grunted through the remaining repetitions before finally lowering her feet and standing upright. When she looked up, however, Altaïr was no longer the only person at her door. Yomogi was watching her with a helpless expression, and a bleary-eyed Nymera stood behind her with her hair in disarray.
Banned from the Training Area, she had simply hidden in her room and started training in silence instead, had she?
Yomogi crossed her arms, looked from Isis's awkward grin to her own daughter's vacant stare, and suddenly decided that pushing oneself too hard was not necessarily a good thing. Nymera was just fine as she was.
"Hurry up and shower, then eat breakfast. I need the two of you to help with something." With that, Yomogi quickly walked away.
Isis, who had expected another scolding, breathed a sigh of relief.
She rinsed off the sweat with a quick shower and wolfed down the simple but plentiful breakfast. Once she had finished, Yomogi came over carrying two sets of clothes and handed one to Altaïr and the other to Isis.
"Kamura Village enjoys spring weather all year round, so winter is our busiest tourist season. We've had so many visitors lately that the shop can't keep up. I want you two to help out."
Altaïr and Isis exchanged glances.
They had spent the past several days staying in Yomogi's home and eating her food, and she had looked after them in every possible way. Naturally, neither could bring themselves to refuse.
They could also guess that Yomogi had called them into the shop less because she was short-handed than because this was her way of forcing them to take a break from training.
Otherwise, after breakfast, there would have been two people hiding in their rooms to do bodyweight exercises instead of one.
Serving tea, kneading Dango, and stirring bean paste counted as light physical labor for an ordinary person. With a Hunter's physique, it barely qualified as anything more than rest and relaxation.
Since Altaïr knew the basics of cooking, he changed into a practical cook's outfit with a short jacket.
Yomogi naturally would not let a novice prepare the Dango sold to customers, so she set him to work processing ingredients instead.
The ingredients for ordinary Bunny Dango were not complicated, but some of the special menu options, particularly those offered to Hunters, involved far more than glutinous rice and bean paste.
They combined all manner of nutritious ingredients, including medicinal herbs, in carefully balanced proportions to produce effects similar to medicinal cuisine.
They might look like light snacks, but at heart they were no different from Canteen meals.
After receiving Yomogi's permission, Altaïr eagerly recorded the recipes in his notebook.
Most would be difficult to recreate after he returned to the Old World because many of their ingredients were unique to the region. Even so, the few recipes that relied on widely available ingredients would be enough to improve his Canteen cooking by leaps and bounds.
The improvement was not merely a matter of flavor. His cooking would no longer produce only calorie-dense food that filled the stomach, but true Canteen meals that could enhance every aspect of a Hunter's physical performance.
As for combinations that would make even Isis frown, such as Bitterbugs fried with Mandragora, what did it matter? They could simply be swallowed like medicine.
While Altaïr processed ingredients and copied recipes in the kitchen, Isis changed into a short emerald outfit styled like Yomogi's and joined Nymera as a waitress.
Yomogi had found the largest clothes she could, but they still did not fit. The elbow-length sleeves and cropped pants looked like short sleeves and shorts on Isis, and her extraordinary height drew plenty of covert stares.
The shop's entrance curtain lifted, and two elderly men walked in together. Both looked to be at least eighty, yet their backs remained perfectly straight.
Isis hurried over and bowed with a little too much force. "Welcome!"
The old man in the bright leather jacket removed his wide-brimmed hat and stared at Isis for several moments before turning to his companion. "I haven't visited in more than ten years. Has Kamura Village really changed this much? A little... no, a very big young lady built like that, working as a waitress in a tea shop?"
"Hahaha!" The other old man, broad-shouldered and built like a tiger, planted his hands on his hips and roared with laughter. "Who knows? Anyway, spirits blazing!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)