Chapter 21: The Sword Princess's New Friend.
....
Kihara had always known better than to underestimate how far off the rails a natural airhead could go, but long-lost siblings was a destination he hadn't anticipated even by that standard.
"Miss Aiz — how old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"I know I have a young face, but I'm in my mid-twenties."
"...!?"
Aiz didn't speak. Her eyes had gone wide enough to be genuinely remarkable, the disbelief in them so complete it was almost architectural. She looked like someone who had just been informed that a fundamental law of nature had been quietly revised without her knowledge.
Her brow furrowed slightly. "Then... would we be... older brother and younger sister?"
"Is there any possibility that we have no familial relationship whatsoever?"
"That does seem logical. But then why do I feel so drawn to you?"
"Drawn to me?"
Kihara turned it over. Aiz's background, as far as he recalled, was anything but simple — there was spirit blood somewhere in her lineage, tied to the ancient races that had existed in this world before the gods descended. Spirits were rare, mysterious, and divided by elemental affinity — fire spirits, earth spirits, wind spirits — a magical race in the same category as elves, but older and rarer still.
He had no direct connection to any spirit. But he did carry Cirno's blessing — and Cirno was a fairy of ice, a creature of nature with affinities that might register as adjacent to spirit-kind for someone sensitive enough. It was the most reasonable explanation available.
"I've received a blessing from a particular kind of being," he said, keeping it deliberately vague. "That might be what you're sensing. It's not a shared bloodline — it's probably just resonance."
"I see." Aiz absorbed this with a small nod. "Thank you for taking the time to explain."
She stood, preparing to leave — then appeared to remember something. Her mouth arranged itself into a smile that was clearly the product of recent coaching and considerable effort, the result being technically correct and absolutely rigid.
"Then we're friends now, I suppose. I look forward to it. Goodbye."
"Oh — right, goodbye!"
Shinobu watched the whole exchange from the shadow-space, arms wrapped around her knees, expression somewhere between baffled and impressed.
He actually made friends with Aiz Wallenstein through a series of increasingly unhinged conversation attempts and one accidental mention of potato snacks.
...Is this skill or phenomenon?
Aiz returned to the Loki Familia at a brisk pace. The fresh bite marks and claw gouges in the gate pillars registered briefly as something she'd ask about later. Riveria's office took priority.
Two knocks.
"Come in."
"Riveria!"
"Aiz, you're back." Riveria set down her report and looked up at her with a warm expression. "Did you get the answer you were looking for?"
"Yes. Kihara said a particular race blessed him — that's probably why I sense something familiar in him. And I followed your advice. We're friends now."
"Good. What are you planning to do next?"
The soft focus in Aiz's eyes sharpened immediately, her entire bearing shifting in the way it did when she'd decided something — like a blade being drawn.
"Dungeon training. Push my parameters as far as they'll go."
Her daily life was genuinely that simple: eat, sleep, fight, repeat. Without the interruption of this morning, she would have gone straight underground at dawn and not emerged until evening.
It was a pattern that had long worried all three of her Familia's senior members. A bowstring held at constant tension eventually snaps. Any blade, however fine, degrades without maintenance and rest.
And a person driven by vengeance who never permitted themselves any reprieve was, in Riveria's assessment, a person approaching a breaking point they might not come back from.
She had watched Aiz grow from a child into the fighter she was now. Kihara's appearance was the first genuinely promising disruption to that cycle she'd encountered — someone Aiz had sought out of her own accord, without any particular reason beyond instinct. Whether he ever joined the Loki Familia or not was secondary. What mattered was the connection itself.
Riveria did not want Aiz to become a second Ryuu Lion.
"Riveria, why do you look so serious suddenly?"
She pulled herself back and reconstructed her smile. Loki made a convenient scapegoat.
"Nothing serious — I was thinking about the bite marks Loki left in the gate pillars this morning. They still haven't been repaired and it's giving me a headache."
"Loki was following me?"
"Finn intercepted her. Don't worry about it."
She tilted her head slightly. "You've made a new friend — a rare thing for you. Rather than going straight to the training hall, why not take a little time to think about how you'd like to spend time with him next?
Friendships need investment to grow."
Aiz considered this with the same methodical attention she gave to dungeon floor plans. "Then I'll substitute sword training at the practice ground for dungeon exploration today. I'll plan in my room afterward."
"Good. Don't push yourself too hard."
Riveria watched her go, then rose and walked to the captain's office, where Loki and Finn had been waiting.
"We can say with reasonable confidence that Mr. Kihara has had contact with spirits — and not just contact. He carries an active blessing from one."
Finn's expression shifted through something complicated.
If I'd sent Tiona to recruit him even a week earlier...
He set the thought aside. "Someone blessed by a legendary race before they even had a Falna — that explains the Level 3 defeat. Spirit-blessed individuals tend to be fundamentally trustworthy by nature. I support Riveria's proposal."
Loki clicked her tongue. "I don't, for the record. Why should my Aiz go out of her way for some no-name kid with no level and no money?"
"Loki." Finn's voice was patient. "Every adventurer starts at Level 1. And Kihara is in a brand-new Familia with a recently-descended goddess — the difficulties of solo exploration in that situation aren't trivial. Hold your criticism."
"Fine. Then let's see how long it takes him to reach Level 2. Aiz went from Level 1 to Level 2 within a year. If this kid you're all so impressed with can't manage it in the same timeframe, I'm vetoing the whole plan."
As ultimatums went, it was more reasonable than it sounded — given what Kihara had already demonstrated, and a spirit blessing on top of that, hitting Level 2 within a year was not a meaningful obstacle. It was closer to a formality.
Clearly, Loki had never actually opposed the idea of giving Aiz a safety net. She was simply annoyed that Aiz had approached him voluntarily — something Loki herself had never once received — and was expressing that annoyance through targeted obstruction.
Had Kihara been present to hear any of this, he would probably have laughed hard enough to lose a tooth.
My strength comes from Cirno's blessing?
She didn't saddle me with a permanent intelligence debuff of nine. I should be lighting incense in her honour.
....
Thank you for reading.