“Did you see that?!”, “The beautiful lady with Feugan!” “The
lady Mimiru brought! She is strong!”, “That beautiful lady just knocked out
Bannon!”
“She just killed Bannon!”, “Mimiru finally brought someone
to off Bannon for her!”, “She first brought a dragon to deal with the
guildmaster and now somneone to deal with Bannon”
“Better not get on Mimiru’s bad side!”, “I-I-I think I owe Mimiru
some money what should I do?!”, “Ill lend you some money, man! better than to show
up dead on a alley!”
“OII!!! I Brought no one here to do nothin’ to Bannon!! Ya hear me ya nosy lot?!!” Mimiru hotly exclaimed
as she stood up and slammed the table with her arms, while protesting to the
other adventurers that had been whispering, rather loudly at that, in the
tavern side of the building they found themselves currently in.
“Look here he is alive n’ well! See?!” Mimiru continued while lifting Bannon and showing him forth with such an ease that made the poor
passed-out adventurer seem like little more than a ragdoll on her hands.
“He is breathing! So he is alive! If anything this is what
happens to him for his philanderous ways! He just came here and hugged a total
stranger to him! It is divine punishment to playboys!!” As Mimiru now passionately explained,
somehow shifting the events that took place, it somehow seemed to calm down the
group of adventurers.
“She is right, it was bound to happen some day”, “You had it
commin man, why'd ya have to be such a horndog?”, “We will miss you Bannon”, “Hope we
can drink again in the afterlife”, “Cheers to Bannon!!”
That and many more comments went thru the tavern, most of
them killing the still living Bannon, all over again.
“Well I think its about time we move to a more private
setting. Besides, the guildmaster should be ready to receive you properly, Miss
‘Naa” and with that said, Kara smiled warmly at Ayi, she then nodded to both
Feugan and Zoey, standing from her seat with delicate movements more fitting to her maid attire than to her obviously muscular body. After signaling to Mimiru, she took
care of Bannon, lifting him with ease and carring the unconscious man over her
shoulder, with even much more of an ease than Mimiru showed.
“Ah… ok, yeah! that makes sense” Ayi stood up form her seat just
like the rest of her group, following them now to what seemed to be the back of
the building.
As she was following them, Ayi noticed how the towering maid
was carrying Bannon like his weight was of no real concern or burden at all, which
in her eyes was an impressive feat. She had lifted Bannon from the ground, but
it was mostly due to the close position she took, and years of training and practical experience lifting
friends in such a manner with bear hugs they would not soon forget. It hadn’t been
easy to lift a fully grown male in full plate, but she had developed a proper
technique by now.
She intended to ask about such strength, but as seeing how
Kara was making small talk with Feugan, Zoey and Mimiru, she shied away from the
idea. Preferring to just watch them and enjoy the warm sight in front of her.
As they finally reached the end of a long hallway, they
exited the main building and Ayi found herself in what could only be described
as some sort of training grounds walled within the grounds of what must be part
of the adventuring guild. With groups of people obviously performing different
kinds of weapon training, others running laps around the field and some even
doing classic pushups and jumping jacks. Bringing forth many memories from her
physical training as part of the Armed forces.
As they went through the training yard, something out of
place caught her attention, she notices some of the obvious newbies in training
are clustered in groups doing vastly different tasks than the rest.
The sight vastly confuses her. She had divised among the
many groups performing physical training, groups of the most unfit people she
had ever witnessed, running laps or doing some variant of jumping jacks,
burpies and other kinds of cardio excersices. Being performed by either the scrawniest
looking people in the whole place or by the most -rotund-. She could make a
guess as to why. it’s not hard to guess that being an adventurer requires you
to be in at least a decent enough physical shape. Which in fact brought the
real concern as to why were they within the adventurer guild while being in
such bad shape. She had the passing idea that it was some sort of fitness
program for locals, but the people on the streets looked far more healthy than
the poor fellows “running”. They somehow made a slow jog look like the most grueling
activity, sweating bullets and some even falling to the ground completely
exhausted. She had even witnessed the full sprint, exhaustion and fall of such
a fellow, all within perhaps a lapse of just 10 seconds.
But what really threw her for a loop were the groups
composed of most physical fit people she had seen since arriving to this new
world. Overly muscular men and women, with bodies obviously more apt to be in a
bodybuilding magazine than to go into a forest to pick herbs and kill slimes. They
were… halfnaked and… meditating? It was very hard to tell and utterly
confusing, a few were sitting in a lotus pose around a small campfire, which
was by all means less weird than the others sitting on the lotus position
inside of a small pool of water which covered their lower bodies with an overly
pristine fluid she could only guess it was water. She really didn’t want to
entertain any other possibility than water.
Those were the easiest to take seriously, as there was group
that was either on the same lotus position (or at least she assumed they were!)
while being covered by soil all the way to their necks, making them look like
the silliest mounts of dirt she had ever seen. With all of them showing faces full of determination and keen concentration for a purpose that pretty much eluded her, and she was
certainly sure that even if someone tried to explain it to her she would ask
for them to repeat themselves, if anything, to make sure she wasn’t deluding
herself into some more feasible reason.
And now that she was paying more attention to this
meditating group of individuals, she realized there were a few of them on the rooftops,
half naked too, and doing some sort of slow movements that made her think of tai
chi videos she had seen in the internet. But with muscular men and women in their underclothes, on rooftops...
“Oh those are the advanced groups they… uh… I think it would
be better if the guildmaster explained that, it would be easier to understand.”
Kara interjected as she realized that Ayi had lagged behind, having come to a
complete halt and looking intently at the group of half naked musclebound
adventurers.
Ayi was definitely looking for some sort of explanation for
such a behavior, then again, she had very valid doubts it was even possible to
explain without having to rely on “oh it is because of magic”.
Now that she thought about it, that seemed about right. yes.
Must be magic.
