"So you're the apprentice swordsman that Mister Teru here has vouched for? Well, do your best, and if you do good on the job, we'll see about getting you paid." The manager said before he turned to lead me and Teru to where three carts were being prepared. "Now, I'll introduce you to the supervisor for this trip."

The manager introduced us to a bearded middle-aged man called Supervisor Murata, who introduced us to the rest of the small caravan. There were three coachmen, one of whom had an teenaged apprentice with him, and another swordsman guard like Teru, for a total of 7 of us.

"It's smaller than I thought." I said to Teru after seeing the size of our caravan.

"Because the main mode of transporting between Shimamaki City is by ship. We will mainly be transporting goods to the villages in between."

After everything was ready and the goods secured, we set off.

"Have a safe trip!" The manager bid us farewell as we left.

I was seated in the back of third wagon as we left the town heading east, towards the mountain range in the distance. I was listening to Teru make casual conversation with the driver up front.

It took us about three hours at a casual pace to reach to the mountains.

"How far is the first village?" I asked our driver, Mister Bando, as we took a short break once we reached the mountains.

"Don't worry, we won't be camping tonight." Mister Bando chuckled. "We should reach the village around sunset.

After entering the mountains, we travelled southeast. The trip was mostly eventless. I spent most of the time trying to meditate on the bumpy wagon and enjoying the mountain air. Mister Bando's words proved true as we reached a village in a valley as the sky was turning orange.

"These walls are newly done, they weren't here last time I stopped by. Seems like they contracted outside help to get it done so fast." Mister Bando said as we reached the village walls.

We entered the village and arrived in front of a two-storey shop where someone came out to greet us. While we were all beginning to help unload the wagons, Teru tapped on my shoulder and pointed across the street into an alleyway.

"Go do something about that." He said.

Looking over, I saw a young girl being harassed by three young men, who all seemed around 16 years old.

"Why don't you help?"

"I can...if you really want to carry all this stuff inside." Teru gestured at the box he was holding.

"Is this a test?" I sighed.

Teru grinned in response. I let out another exaggerated sigh to let Teru know how I felt about the task he gave me before I walked towards the alleyway.

Now that I was closer, I noticed that the girl was holding a cat. The girl had her back against the building while one of the young men had arm out against the wall to block her path one way, while the other two blocked her from the other side.

"You can't take back your word like that Nui, you promised to marry me." The young man holding his arm out said.

"I was a little girl when I made that promised."

"But a promise is a promise."

"I don't want to marry you anymore."

'What do people usually say in these situations?'

"Ahem." I cleared my throat and everyone looked over. "Can't you see she looks uncomfortable."

"Can't you see we're in the middle of something private?" The young man said.

"Yeah, this is none of your business, so skedaddle." Another one of the young men said.

"I can't. You see, my MASTER, who is across the STREET, doesn't like seeing this type of thing." I stressed the words and put my hand on my sword for emphasis, hoping these guys would take the very obvious hint.

"Hey, what should we do?" One of the young men asked with worry.

"He's just messing around with us, look at that toy. What can this kid even do to us?"

"I don't want to start no enmity with no samurai."

"Fine, lets go." The young man gave one last glare at me as they turned to leave.

'Easy.' I thought to myself.

It turns out I was celebrating too soon because at that moment something whizzed past my ear and hit the young man in the back of the head.

"OW!"

The thing dropped to the floor, and I discovered it was a pebble. I turned around to find Teru across the street, grabbing a barrel from the wagon while his shoulders were shaking up and down, like he was laughing to himself.

"You little shit, you hit me."

I turned around to find the young man had turned around and was now moving aggressively towards me, with the other two following along.

"How immature..." I sighed as I unsheathed my bokken and readied myself.

The young man suddenly broke into a charge and I responded with a horizontal slash to his midsection, winding him. The other two had used that chance to close the distance and one of them grabbed my weapon with his hands, the distraction was enough for the other to grab me from behind, trying to get me into some kind of hold.

I let go of my training sword and jumped to headbutt the guy behind me in the chin. As he let go of me, I leapt towards the guy who now had my weapon and aimed a punch into his stomach before he could swing it.

I looked up to see the girl watching us in shock.

"What are you sightseeing for? Go!" I shouted at her.

The wake up call prompted her into action, the girl turned around and hurried away with quick steps. Seeing that young men were recovering and about to go for round two, I decided my task was done. I turned around and bolted across the street, ducking behind the wagons and into the building. Supervisor Murata noticed me enter and he looked up from the notes he was reviewing.

"Oh, you're back, we'll be staying here tonight. There are two empty rooms upstairs, the six of you can decide on the arrangements yourselves." He said.

"Got it, thank you." I said before hurrying upstairs and out of sight of my possible pursuers.

I woke up early the next morning, and since I was free, I went outside the village to the nearby forest to get my daily training in. I found a clearing and ran through the various movesets for the Woodcutter's Lament multiple times.

At some point later, while I was running through the forms for the Thunder Step One-Sword Style, I heard footsteps approaching. I continued until a figure appeared from beyond the foliage, it was the girl from yesterday, along with her cat.

"Are you new? This is my first time seeing you with this group." The girl asked.

I nodded.

"There was this boy my age who passed by this village a few weeks ago, Rokku. He helped build the new wall. You remind me of him. Although he was new at his job, and people looked down on him, he also trained very hard every morning like you do."

'This is normal for any gym goer.'

I thought about Kuro, who trained almost all day ever since he moved into the dojo.

"Compared to the samurai, this isn't much." I said. "Is that a tabby?"

"Yes! His name is Momo." The girl said excitedly. "Do you also have a cat? I'm Nui by the way."

"Zai, and yes, a bobtail named Kin." I stretched my fist out slowly to the cat, who sniffed my hand. The cat's tail raised and I took that the signal to give him a chin scritch. "You should be more careful walking around alone all the time."

"Hehe." She laughed it off.

'This girl...'

"Next time someone attacks you, kick them in the balls."

She looked at me confused.

I pointed, "In the groin area, it really hurts when guys are kicked there. But please be careful not to destroy their future. If that doesn't work, use this part" I pointed at the heel of my hand, "and thrust it upwards like this. Right into their nose. If you use enough force, you can easily break their nose."

"Thank you. And for yesterday." She came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek before walking away. "When you grow older I wouldn't mind marrying you."

"I'm not interested in little girls." I said to her retreating back

"I'm thirteen, I'm older than you!"