📍 Noki Port — Leen Sisters' House | Evening
Daleen opened the door before Kiyoshi could knock.
"Kiyoshi!" Her eyes went wide. "It feels like you just got back from your last trip. Now you're off again?"
"You could say that." He scratched the back of his head. "I'm accompanying a friend to the MMM."
Saleen appeared from behind her sister, already smiling. "Come in, come in." She stepped aside, then noticed Kavato standing behind Kiyoshi and Sakura. Her eyes moved over him once — the posture, the way he held himself, the remnants of something formal in the way he stood. "Who's this?"
"My friend," Kiyoshi said. "Kavato."
Kavato straightened and bowed. The bow was precise without being stiff — the kind that comes from years of it being expected. "Allow me to apologise for the late introduction. I am Kavato. I am an alchemist."
Saleen tilted her head. "You're a noble."
It wasn't quite a question.
Kavato's expression shifted slightly. His fingers moved to where a family crest would have been on his collar, found nothing, and stopped. "Not anymore. It is a complicated story. And I am not officially an alchemy master yet."
Daleen snorted from the kitchen doorway. "Nobles are more intricate than they seem."
"Nobles can be quite troublesome," Kavato agreed.
Kiyoshi nudged him with an elbow and glanced around the room. "Keep it down. It causes problems if the wrong people overhear."
Kavato nodded, understanding.
Sakura had her eyes closed. Her nose was working. "Where is Galeen?"
"Kitchen," Saleen said.
"That's why I smell good fish."
As if on cue, Galeen came through the kitchen door with a platter of steaming fish, the smell filling the room immediately. She set it on the table and looked at all of them. "You never cease to amaze me, you two. Always showing up and always going somewhere."
Daleen clapped her hands. "Dinner is ready. Sit down."
They sat. The chorus of thanks for the food went around the table before anyone touched anything.
Sakura explained the trip between bites — escorting Kavato to the MMM for his alchemy master registration. Saleen nodded, impressed. Galeen asked two questions about the process and then went quiet in the way that meant she was thinking about it.
"Becoming a master alchemist," Saleen said. "That is an accomplishment."
Kavato smiled at his plate. "If I get there."
"You'll get there," Sakura said. She said it the way she said most things — not to comfort him, just because she believed it was true.
Two hours later they were back on the road, the cart loaded and moving.
"Thank you for having us," Kavato said at the door.
"Anytime," the sisters said together.
Kiyoshi waved. Sakura waved. The cart pulled away from Noki Port into the dark.
📍 The Capital Road — Cart | Early Morning
The shortcut was faster but the path was rough — jagged ground, deep ruts, the cart jolting every thirty seconds. The main road would have been smooth but busy enough to cost them hours. The driver had made the call without asking.
Sakura woke when the light found her face through the canvas.
She sat up slowly, blinking, and pushed her hair back behind her ears. Across from her, Kavato was already awake — had been for a while, by the look of him. He was staring out the gap in the canvas, or had been, until she moved. Then he was staring at her instead. Then he was staring very hard at the floor, his face going red at a speed that suggested he hadn't meant to be caught.
"Kavato." Sakura studied him. "What is it?"
"I — nothing. I just remembered someone."
"Who?"
He fidgeted with his sleeve. "It is complicated."
Sakura looked at him for a moment. Then her expression settled into something gentler. "There is nothing complicated about you," she said. "Whatever it is — if you need help, ask. We are friends. Kiyoshi will do anything for a friend, and so will I."
Kavato managed a small smile. "Thank you, Sakura."
In his mind, very quietly: I said I remembered a cute girl. Not an assassin monster with tiny—
He did not finish that thought in any direction that led somewhere good.
"Kiyoshi," Sakura said, turning. "Kiyoshi."
Kiyoshi was slumped against the cart wall, head back, snoring at a volume that did not match his size. She poked his cheek. Nothing. She poked it again.
He mumbled something. The words were soft and slurred and not quite coherent, but the shape of them was: I'll protect you, Sakura... I'll heal you... don't worry...
Kavato looked between them. "You are lucky to have someone like him."
"We are not like that," Sakura said immediately.
"I see." Kavato's small smile came back. "You make a good match anyway."
The cart hit a deep rut.
The jolt threw everything forward — bags, passengers, the tin cup Kavato had been holding that went off the side. Kiyoshi came off the wall and landed half across the seat and half across Sakura and his hand, moving independently of any conscious thought, found somewhere it absolutely should not have been.
He was still asleep.
"Sakura," he mumbled contentedly, "when did your — it was small before..."
Sakura's eye twitched.
Her fist connected with his head at a speed that would have impressed Nanime.
Kiyoshi woke up fully and immediately, blinking at the ceiling. "What — what happened—"
"Nothing happened," Sakura said. Her voice was very level. Her face was a specific colour.
Kavato was laughing into his hands.
"What's so funny?" Sakura's eyes moved to him.
Kavato composed himself with visible effort. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
Kiyoshi rubbed his head and looked around in genuine confusion. "Did I miss something?"
"Nothing happened," Sakura said again, in a tone that ended conversations.
Kiyoshi looked at Kavato. Kavato looked out the canvas gap. Kiyoshi decided not to pursue it.
📍 The Capital Road — Roadside | Late Morning
The cart stopped for no obvious reason.
The driver leaned around the front. "Boy on the road."
They looked. A boy with pointed ears and wild brown hair was standing at the roadside with a large bag slung over one shoulder, waving at them with his free hand like he'd been expecting them specifically.
"Hi!" he called. "I'm Daishi. Are you heading to the MMM? Can I come?"
Kavato scooted sideways without hesitation. "Hop in."
"Thanks!" Daishi threw his bag in first and climbed up after it, settling in like he'd been travelling with them for weeks. He looked around at everyone with open curiosity.
Kiyoshi studied the ears. Pointed, but not elven — different shape. "Are you a dwarf?"
Daishi grinned. "Fifty percent. My father was a dwarf. My mother was a witch. So — pointed ears, short-ish, good with my hands, slightly terrifying when I'm in a bad mood."
"Why are you going to the MMM?" Sakura asked.
Daishi's eyes lit up. He reached into his bag and produced a length of wooden tube bent into an L shape, holding it up like it was sacred. "I invented the greatest thing in the world."
Kiyoshi took it and turned it over. "What is it?"
Daishi straightened. "The 3rd Eye. You look in one hole — you see out the other end. Even around corners. I put mirrors inside." He paused for effect. "Come closer. I'll tell you the real use."
They leaned in.
"You can see cute girls without putting your head out of a bush."
Sakura's hand moved before she made a decision about it.
Daishi yelped.
Kavato's nose bled slightly. He turned to look out the canvas gap.
"Now what are you thinking?" Sakura said.
"Nothing," Kavato said.
Kiyoshi turned the device over again. The L shape was functional but the angle was wrong — the mirrors weren't aligned properly, which meant the image came in at a tilt and the range was cut in half. He could see exactly what needed adjusting.
"Daishi," he said. "There is a problem. The alignment. I can fix it but I need to reshape the casing slightly."
Daishi grabbed his arm. "Do not break it."
"I promise."
Kiyoshi worked carefully — bending the joint angle by a few degrees, adjusting the mirror positions by feel. It took about four minutes. When he was done it was a proper periscope — full range, flat image, correct angle. He handed it back.
Daishi looked through it. Then looked through it again. Then stared at Kiyoshi.
"That is godly." He turned it in his hands. "Now I can see cute girls with ease—"
Sakura's fist.
"Stop that," she said.
Daishi rubbed his head and turned back to Kiyoshi with an expression of complete and total reverence. "Can I take full credit for this idea?"
"Of course," Kiyoshi said. "It is your invention. I just adjusted it."
"And you will teach me more?"
"If you want."
Daishi stood up in the moving cart — which was not recommended — and pointed at him. "Then I am your student from this moment. Be proud, Master, because I will become the greatest inventor in the world. I will make things nobody has thought of. I will change everything." He sat back down. "Starting with the periscope."
Kiyoshi ruffled his hair. "I look forward to it."
Sakura watched this with the expression she wore when something was more charming than she expected. She didn't say anything.
After a while, she looked at Daishi. "Don't you need to go home after the MMM?"
The brightness in Daishi's face changed. Not extinguished — just lowered.
"Both my parents passed away a long time ago," he said. Matter-of-fact, the way people say things they have said many times and learned not to cry about. "I lived with my grandfather until recently. He passed away too." He shrugged the bag on his lap. "I sold our house for a hundred small gold."
Kavato frowned. "Daishi. A house should fetch at least four hundred small gold, even in a rural area. They swindled you."
Daishi considered this. "Maybe. But it is all right. I only need this much."
Sakura reached out and squeezed his hand once. "That is good to hear."
Kiyoshi looked at Sakura. Then at Daishi. Then at Kavato. He did the numbers.
"We were already thinking about buying a house in Ramiya," he said. "With what we have, and what Daishi has — how much do we have now, Sakura?"
Sakura counted in her head. "A hundred and fifty gold."
Daishi immediately pulled his pouch out and offered it to them. "Take mine too. I am living in Master's house anyway."
Kiyoshi looked at him. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Then we have two hundred and fifty gold." Kiyoshi looked at Kavato. "We need fifty more."
Kavato straightened. Something settled in his expression — the particular look of someone who has found a problem they intend to solve. "Do not worry," he said. "I will find a way to get fifty gold."
The capital appeared through the canvas gap not long after — walls first, then towers, then the full spread of it coming into view as the road widened.
The driver called back: "Here we are."
They all climbed out.
"Thank you," they said, more or less together.
The city gates were ahead of them.
✦ CODEX — Chapter Twenty-One ✦ World Archive: Entries Relevant to Chapter Twenty-One
ENTRY 083 — DAISHI: BACKGROUND
Age: approximately 14–15. Half-dwarf, half-witch. Pointed ears, brown hair, built shorter than average. Father was a dwarf. Mother was a witch. Both deceased. Raised by his grandfather until recently — grandfather also deceased.
Sold the family house for one hundred small gold after his grandfather's death. Market value: four hundred small gold minimum. He was swindled and is aware of it and does not consider it worth dwelling on.
Inventor by nature and by type. His first registered invention: the 3rd Eye — a periscope device using internal mirrors to allow vision around corners. Improved by Kiyoshi on the road to the capital.
Has declared Kiyoshi his master. Intends to become the greatest inventor in the world. These two things are stated with equal seriousness.
ENTRY 085 — APPRAISAL SPELL
F-rank variant: accessible to anyone, including non-awakened. Shows an adventurer's title only. A-rank variant: usable only by B-rank or higher magic users. Shows species and title for people. For weapons, shows rank and name — but only when used by a B-rank or higher blacksmith.
Titles become public knowledge through this spell. The Leen sisters knew Kiyoshi and Sakura's titles — Holy Sword Healer and Lightning Reaper — because Appraisal is available to anyone.
End of Chapter Twenty-One Codex.