Reiko and the others had left the house to go buy some weapons at a nearby weaponry shop, so that the boy and Rica could be prepared and ready for their training.
Reiko left Hajime (the boy from the previous chapter) and Rica for a moment to pick out some weapons for them to use during the training, but Rica was angry at Hajime because Hajime had insulted her when they were on their way to buy the weapons. Rica told Hajime not to talk to her again, but Hajime did not care about that and continued attempting to talk to her.
"Hey, so do you know what kind of weapons your sister is going to pick for us?"
He asked while looking at Rica with a smile, but Rica did not respond to the question, but looked away from him.
"Come on, are you still angry about what I said before?" You know, I was just joking with you." He said again while dropping his smile and continuing to look at Rica. Still, Rica didn't respond.
This got to Hajime's nerves, so he decided to force Rica to talk no matter how long it takes. But in truth, he didn't have all that time to waste on her.
"You know you're the one who started it. So why are you the one who's angry at me? Aren't I the one who's supposed to be angry at you?"
Hajime asked, as he grabbed Rica's shoulder, and added
"You are older than I... Why are you acting like you are some little kid?"
Just one glance and it was obvious the two were the same age, but Hajime didn't like the fact that he was going to grow up someday, so he always made himself sound younger than anyone. Still, in the end, Rica never once replied to him.
Hajime looked down while letting go of Rica's shoulder, turning around towards the road. Rica only smiled as she looked at him, but still did nothing.
"Come on, let's go play in that old building over there!" A kid who was with his friends said to the others while running with wooden swords in hand, and it looked like they were having a good time.
Hajime looked at them with a grin and thought to himself. 'I hope Reiko is also going to buy wooden swords for us.'
What he didn't know was that Reiko was going to buy them real weapons for them both. And he was afraid that if she ever bought them real swords, they were going to end up cutting each other down.
A brief moment passed. Hajime turned, looking across the road with a calm expression on his face. Then, a second later, still observing the road, he saw a man coming out of the store that Reiko had gone to. The man was carrying a spear, and he had a big scar all over half his face.
Hajime only smiled, then, a second later, turned, looking at Rica, who was now playing with glass due to her boredom.
"Huh...? When did she get there?" He thought to himself, still looking at Rica with a complicated face.
"...H-hey, Rica. Isn't that your teacher over there?" Hajime said while he looked at the man with the spear.
"Where?" Rica asked, turning her head to look at the man.
"You are right... It's him." Rica agreed with Hajime. But then, a second later realized something.
"...Hmm...? How did you know it was him?" She asked with a curious expression on her face as she turned and looked at Hajime.
Hajime didn't know who Rica's teacher was; all he did was point at a random person to try and make Rica talk.
"Now you've decided to talk?" Hajime asked, with a grin.
Rica was caught by surprise by Hajime's reaction and said furiously. "What are you talking about?" She blinked.
"I'm still not talking to yah?" She added, while looking away from Hajime.
"Then why are you talking to me right now?" He asked, his grin turning into a goofy smile.
"...N-no, I'm not talking to yah,"
"...I was just asking yah, how yah knew my teacher." She continued nervously while looking away from Hajime.
'Yah?' Hajime wondered while looking at Rica with a confused face. He's been wondering for a while now why Rica was using "Yah" when pronouncing the word "You". But he never asked why; he just kept it to himself and changed the subject.
"You know what?" He breathed softly, shifting his head slightly before looking away from Rica.
"Just forget I said anything," Rica uttered, her face flushed.
....
"It looks like you two are having fun." From nowhere, both Hajime and Rica heard Reiko's voice coming from behind them.
They both spun swiftly and found Reiko standing there with two daggers and an enchanted mage staff in hand.
"When did you get here?" They both asked at the same time, curiously.
"It doesn't matter how I got here," Reiko replied with a smile, and was covered in some kind of gold dust.
"Here." She said while handing out the two daggers to Hajime and the enchanted mage stuff to Rika.
"Be careful when holding those." She uttered.
"I don't want any of you getting hurt before we even start." She said while looking at Hajime. Then she added as she turned to look at Rica. "You, too. Rica."
'Hurt. What does she mean by that?' Hajime wondered with curiosity written all over his face while looking at the two daggers in his hands.
"Come on," Reiko said while she started walking in the direction where another goddess statue in the Kingdom of Melcelut. No one outside the village of Dol knew about the statue, because the statue had just appeared in this village recently, after Nanako had just given birth.
The statue had the same appearance as the one in Mel, but slightly different if compared side by side.
"Huh?!" Both Hajime and Rica responded.
"Let's get going," Reiko said with a smile while she turned her head to look at the two behind her.
....
Later, after they had left the weaponry shop location. They reached the training grounds in this village, which was located near where the goddess's statue was.
"This looks like a good spot," Reiko said while touching the glass on the training field. Both Hajime and Rica watched closer while filled with curiosity. Wondering about what Reiko was about to do.
A gust of wind swiftly started swirling around Reiko. She closed her eyes slowly and uttered "Barstolhlt" with a soft, yet deep voice, and the wind swirling around her started getting stronger and, in an instant, it burst without even producing a flicker of sound.
"What was that about?" Hajime asked while looking at Rica with a dumb founded face. He was expecting more, but a burst of wind wasn't one of them.
"I don't know," Slowly shaking her head side to side, Rica replied as she kept looking at her sister.
"What were yah just doing?" She asked as she approached her Reiko, who was cutting one of her fingers to get some of her blood for a summoning spell.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just setting up a magic barrier." Reiko replied as she continued to cut her finger.
"A barrier?" Confused, Rica uttered
"Yeah, as long as you're inside this barrier, no real harm will fall against you," Reiko said while dripping her blood on the grass she had touched earlier.
"What are ya doing now?" Rica asked.
"Is that blood?" Hajime altered with a mix of fear and hesitation.
'Hajime was afraid of blood because blood made him feel uncomfortable, and every time he saw someone bleeding, he felt like he was getting sick, but his mother had a way to make him feel better whenever he saw blood, and now he can control himself a little bit even though blood stirrers up some bad memories that aren't his own.'
"Coltess!" Reiko called out, and her blood on the grass started growing, and flames of fire started coming out of it.
The blood flashed.
A humanoid creature the size of Rica suddenly appeared out of Reiko's blood. it had ears as long as a Wallaby Kangaroo, its face looked like a doll, and its whole body was covered in fur, and it was armed with two daggers.
"Is that a bunny girl?!" Surprised, Hajime said out loud.
"A bunny what?" Confused, asked as she turned around to face Hajime.
"You know, it's like those sexy girls in clubs wearing a rabbit suit with the ears and a tail."
"Sexy, girl, rabbit." Rica wondered with a confused face while looking at the humanoid creature.
"What's a Rabbit?" Reiko asked with a confused face.
'In this world, rabbits are called "Coltess" or "Bion," and the term Hajime's is referring is from another world, which is not this one.'
"You don't know what a rabbit is?" Hajime asked with a disappointed look.
Reiko looked at Hajime and asked, "Is this your first time seeing one of these things?" but Hajime didn't respond. Instead, he looked straight in Reiko's eyes and showed that he knew what he was talking about, but he decided to stay quiet.
"...So, does this have a name?" He asked while looking at the Coltess.
"No, why don't you give it one, and by the way."
"It's she and not he or transgender," Reiko said with a smile
"Are you sure?" He asked with a mix of confusion and hesitation in his voice.
"Yes, go ahead and name her," Reiko said as the Coltess just stood there and watched, with no trace of emotion on its face.
"Hina." Hajime altered while looking at the Coltess
"Sounds good to me," Reiko said as she moved away from Hajime, and in that moment, the Coltess started moving.
Reiko stopped for a moment and said, "Oh, and Hajime."
"You are going to be training with Hina today."
Hajime looked at Hina and said to Reiko, "Can she even fight?"
"Yes, she can."
"...And you're going to do survival training, where you try to kill each other without hesitation."
"And before you even ask, Rica is going to do the same, but with me. So don't die quickly." Reiko said she and Rica started heading off downhill from the training ground.
Hajime looked at Hina with a smile and asked, "How strong are you?" But Hina did not respond; instead, she moved closer to a huge tree that was near them and removed it from the ground with her bare hands while still holding the daggers.
She threw the tree near the woods where it fell on a slime which was sleeping near the woods.
She started coming towards Hajime while Hajime stood there waiting for Hina to reach him, but the moment she reached him, he charged to attack her because he knew it was over for him if she got too close to him.
He took out one of the daggers he was given and tried attacking Hina mindlessly without checking first that the point he was going for was open or not, but the moment his dagger got close to Hina, she deflected it, and she stopped.