Thank you, @Grey089, for joining the memberships.
I'm truly grateful.
...
Chapter 76: Mother and Daughter, Each Playing Matchmaker for the Other.
.....
Kihara made it home, dropped onto the sofa, and stayed there.
Enome took one look at him, quietly circled around behind the couch, and began working her fingers through the tension at his temples with the practiced gentleness of someone who had done this before and intended to do it well.
"Was it that difficult? Bringing Hitamuki and Maidena along today?"
Kihara closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. "They both have issues — the kind you'd expect from new Guardians. It's not physical exhaustion. It's the mental load."
"I'm sorry. Having the Ace Guardian babysit new recruits is... a very Bud Town thing to happen." She kept her voice light, but the apology was genuine. "Normally we'd assign that to someone else, but with the way things are right now..."
She didn't need to finish the sentence. The recent wave of departures had left the guild in a state that could charitably be called understaffed and more accurately described as Kihara and a collection of people who were still figuring out which end of a weapon to hold. The Guardians who remained were either fresh out of their probationary period or hadn't started it yet.
"If it were anyone else asking, I'd have said no," Kihara said, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "But the one asking was you, Miss Enome."
Something small and electric flickered through her chest.
She responded by reaching down and pinching both his cheeks, stretching them gently outward with soft fingers and a raised eyebrow. "And what exactly do you want with a thirty-one-year-old woman, hm? Don't you think Eshune suits you far better?"
"...Eshune is a little young for—"
"You can wait for her to grow up, you know~!"
The daughter is trying to set me up with her mother. The mother is trying to set me up with her daughter. I would very much like to say 'I'll take both' out loud.
He did not say this out loud.
"Anyway," he said instead, "you mentioned two more new recruits coming in. What classes?"
"Black Mage and Warrior."
"...Gender?"
"Girls, both of them~"
The premonition settled over him like a familiar weight. Kihara opened his eyes, reached up, and gently enclosed one of Enome's hands in his. His tone was earnest in the specific way of a man making a formal request.
"Miss Enome. You don't have to be quite so enthusiastic about recruitment. If you keep sending me problem children back to back, I will eventually break."
"Ah~!! Kihara and Mom are flirting at home~!! When do I get to call you Dad~?!"
Eshune came bouncing through the doorway, school bag swinging from both shoulders, wearing the expression of someone who had timed her entrance perfectly and knew it.
"Eshune. I've told you to stop teasing us like that!"
"Ow ow ow~! Kihara~ Mom's being mean to me~!" She pressed a hand to her head and burrowed into Kihara's side with the practiced pathos of someone who had weaponized being adorable.
"Here, let me." He rested a hand on her head and gave it a gentle rub.
"That's the spot~!"
Enome watched the two of them from behind the sofa, something quiet and warm moving through her expression. Set aside the youthful face — his manner with Eshune was natural, unhurried, the easy comfort of someone who simply knew how to be present for a child.
Like a—
"No, no, what am I thinking—" She slapped both cheeks with her palms, sharp enough to sting, and turned toward the kitchen with purpose. "I need to start dinner."
The moment she disappeared around the corner, Eshune lifted her head and shot Kihara a look of absolute triumph.
"I saw her waver. I saw it. We're so close — just a little more and you're officially my dad, I can feel it—"
"Eshune. Your mother just tried to match me with you."
"WHAT."
She stared at him, lips pursing into a small, indignant pout. Something complicated moved through her eyes — surprise, calculation, and something that might have been a more genuine feeling underneath both of those.
"...And what do you think about that?" she asked, quieter than her usual register.
"Honestly? I want both."
She studied him for a long moment. "You know I could tell Mom you said that and get you kicked out of the house."
"I know. But lying felt like the worse option."
Something in her expression shifted — the calculation dissolved, replaced by something that looked like genuine satisfaction. A smile crossed her face that was several years older than it had any business being on a face like hers. Then she leaned over and pressed a quick, light kiss to his cheek.
"You pass." She pulled back, looking pleased with herself. "But you have to make Mom happy first, okay~?"
[Wow, Master — this girl might actually be more mature than her mother.]
[Standard 2D protagonist energy. Sit down.]
Two more new recruits arrived. Kihara's problem child roster expanded to four.
"I'm Tokishikko Dana. Black Mage." The girl with the perpetually flat eyebrows delivered this introduction from a position of complete physical collapse — upper body draped across the front desk like a coat someone had left behind. She gestured loosely at the person beside her: a pink-haired girl who was large in every measurable direction.
"That one's Hanabata Nokinsu. Warrior."
"...Hello."
"Tokishikko, you can't just sprawl on the counter in front of a senior like that!!"
"Hmm~ but he's so tiny and cute, I'm sure he'll forgive a tiny little breach of etiquette~"
Enome's stomach dropped. From behind the counter she stole a sideways glance at Kihara.
His smile had the precise quality of a smile that was not connected to any positive emotion occurring internally.
She had learned, over the past two weeks, that Kihara was remarkably even-tempered about most things. The one reliable exception was any reference to his size.
Tokishikko was about to have a very instructive afternoon.
Maidena had classes today and wouldn't be joining them — which left Kihara heading out with three, toward the abandoned training grounds on the outskirts of Bud Town.
"Nokinsu..." Hitamuki kept glancing at the pink-haired warrior with the expression of someone working through something significant. "I know that name. Isn't Nokinsu a famous equipment brand? Does that mean Hanabata is a... a young lady from a wealthy family??"
"Correct. This one's the genuine article." Tokishikko delivered this with the flat affect of someone reading from a legal document.
"Distinguished lineage and everything."
"Th-then — should I call her Lady Hanabata?!"
"Hitamuki, please don't," Hanabata said with the patience of someone who had been having this conversation her entire life. "I'm just a regular teammate. No need for all of that."
The abandoned training grounds were a flat stretch of packed earth ringed by old wooden posts, far enough from town that noise wasn't a concern.
Kihara stopped them at the center. "Alright. Social time is over. Before we do anything else, I need to assess your actual capabilities. Every one of you."
Hitamuki tilted her head. "Shishou, aren't we going into Bud Forest today?"
"Maidena isn't here. No healer means outdoor fieldwork is a liability. This is more productive."
"Oh..." She nodded, approximately understanding.
"So." Kihara's expression shifted into something that carried faint but unmistakable traces of deliberate intent.
"We fight. One at a time. I will wring every last drop of capability out of each of you." He turned his gaze to Tokishikko. "Starting with you."
Tokishikko's eyebrows, previously at their resting altitude of mild disinterest, ticked slightly upward. "...This feels like targeted retaliation."
"I have no idea what you're referring to. This is attentive mentorship from Bud Town's Ace Guardian."
He bent down and picked up a fallen branch from the ground. Straightened. Held it in his right hand, angled loosely toward her. His left hand went behind his back.
The killing intent that began to seep into the air was quiet, measured, and absolutely genuine.
Hanabata took a small step backward. Then she grabbed Hitamuki by the arm and moved them both to a respectful distance.
"Tokishikko... I think he's serious. Be careful."
"Yeah, a little late for that advice."
Tokishikko was not unintelligent. She understood that the comments she'd made earlier had produced a consequence, and that consequence was currently standing in front of her holding a stick like it was a weapon that had personally wronged someone. She tightened her grip on her skull-topped staff, let her mana rise, and committed.
"Bolditzi!!"
Gold lightning cracked from the staff's crown — a bolt like a compressed arrow, fast and bright —
— and detonated against the ground three meters to Kihara's right.
He looked at the scorch mark. He looked at her. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Not a one-and-done Black Mage. Just a Black Mage with no aim whatsoever.
"I don't even need to dodge you."
"Shut up and stop moving around!!"
"I'm standing still."
"Bolditra!!"
A thicker bolt this time, more power behind it, and this time she had actually aimed — he could tell by the trajectory, the way the mana had gathered with clear directional intent. He took two steps to the right. The bolt carved a blackened furrow through the dirt where he'd been standing.
"The power output is solid," he said, with the clinical tone of someone filling out an evaluation form. "Targeting and reaction time need significant work."
"FINE. You want range?? EAT THIS. Boldika!!"
Tokishikko detonated a wide-area lightning blast.
The radius was generous. Impressively generous, actually — it spread well beyond Kihara's position and rolled directly into Hitamuki and Hanabata, who had been watching from what they had believed was a safe distance.
The resulting explosion of light and force left three of the four new Guardians with significantly ventilated uniforms.
Kihara stood at the center of it, completely untouched, looking at the aftermath with the expression of a man whose worldview had just received minor but meaningful confirmation.
He turned back toward Tokishikko.
"Area attacks," he said pleasantly. "With friendlies in the area."
Tokishikko looked at her two smoking teammates. Back at Kihara. She opened her mouth.
"I'll double the training time," he said.
"For everyone."
Three voices produced three different variations of despair simultaneously.
....
Thank you for reading.