"Touya, look at this." = Normal speech.

'Touya, look at this.' = Thoughts/Telepathy.

(One hour later.) = Time skip.

~Yo, it's God.~ = Phone call.

"Come forth, fire!" = Chanting.

[Kingdom of Belfast] = Title/Place/Rank/Weapon Name.

{Gate} = Spell name.

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

(Inside of the [Silver Moon Inn] at [Reflet].)

"Elze and Linze are 'feeling unwell' right now, so they want to take a day off from today's guild work," Yumina explained as she walked down the stairs and made her way to the table Touya, Yae, and Sally were sitting at.

"Really? Will they be alright? Should I use {Recovery} to heal them?" Touya prompted.

"Don't!- I mean- It's not a status ailment so {Recovery} might not work." Yumina faltered, waving her hands as she continued, "Rather, this is just a normal sickness."

"Let's just say they want to get some rest, Touya-Dono." Yae, seemingly knowing what Yumina was talking about, added in.

"Huh? Sure I guess I'll just let them rest." Touya backed down, confused by their insistence until Sally spoke up.

"What they mean, Master, is that our twins are having their 'time of the month' right now." She remarked, continuing to eat her biscuit treats. Yumina and Yae blushed at her bluntness but nodded in agreement.

"Oh… I see…" Touya coughed into his hand as he slowly nodded his head, wanting to change the subject, he spoke, "So, do any of you have any plans? I'm looking to see what quests are on the board today, any of you wanna come with me?"

"I must decline. I already made plans to train and hone my skills today." Yae shook her head but thanked him for the offer. Touya nodded at her response, a bit sad she wouldn't join but he understood her drive to get better with her sword.

"I don't have anything planned for the day, I'll gladly join you, Touya." Yumina smiled as she hooked her arms around Touya's.

"I was thinking of showing Kohaku around town, so I can't join you Master." Sally answered, taking another bite of her biscuit treats.

"Oh yeah, speaking of Kohaku, where is she?" Touya asked, he was surprised to learn that the former [White Monarch] was actually female but he quickly got over the shock and continued as he usually would.

"Right here, Master." Kohaku answered, walking towards the group in her smaller form. She hopped onto the empty chair at the table and sat on it, "I would've preferred if you were to show me, but I figured I could use this as an excuse to get to know Sally more."

"Okay, I trust you won't do anything too crazy, Sally." Touya emphasized, staring at Sally who nodded and smiled.

"Trust me, Master, I won't do anything, I promise… Maybe." Sally grinned as she answered.

Touya raised an eyebrow but sighed, he wasn't gonna be dealing with that for now. So, he opted to stand up, saying goodbye and walk with Yumina towards the Guild Hall. leaving the three alone with each other.

Taking that as her que to leave as well, Yae bowed and went towards the door, going to wherever she goes to train but before she could open turn the handle. Sally called out to her.

"By the way, Yae, if you're still free later do you want to spar?" Sally offered, ever since their fight at the [Eastern Forest] Yae had semi-daliy challenged Sally in spars to see her progress, the former assassin gladly accepted it whenever she brought it up and the end result ended the same.

Yae would get her ass handed to her.

Though, gradually, Yae was gonna close that gap and be able to stand on equal-footing with Sally one day, which was helped immensely to her training harder and taking notes from Touya on how to properly apply and use her skills.

Sally smiled, she was glad that Yae was one of the only people, other than her Master, who can last more than a few seconds with her, and was gladly waiting for the day Yae is her equal in combat.

"Yes. I am indeed free for a spar. We shall meet at our usual training spot once I am done with my training." Yae nodded, and with that, she opened the door and went out, closing it behind her and left Sally with Kohaku by themselves.

Finishing her biscuits, Sally dusted the crumbs off her hands and turned to face Kohaku, the divine beast crocked an eyebrow, waiting for the former assassin to say something.

"So, what do you wanna see first?" Sally asked, hopping off her chair and grabbed the small tiger cub, cuddling her.

"I was thinking of sight-seeing near the town square and go from there." Kohaku replied.

So, with that, the two servants of Touya Mochizuki went out and started their plans for the day.

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

(Inside of the [Guild Hall] at [Reflet].)

"There isn't really that much to see here…" Touya sighed. His eyes were on the board but nothing was catching his eyes that both paid well and was enjoyable. He turned his head, gazing over to Yumina who was in the same boat as him.

"Let's keep checking, there might be something that we missed." Yumina coaxed, she gave her husband-to-be a smile before staring at the board once more.

"I guess." Touya shrugged, however, just as he was about to turn back to the board, he heard loud shouting behind him. The noise had caught his attention and he turned back around seeing a large group of adventurers huddled up together, blocking his view from whatever the noise was coming from.

Yumina too heard the commotion and was just as curious as he was, both teenagers looked at each other and nodded, leaving the board and went to investigate what was going on that caught the attention of almost everyone in the guild hall.

Making their way through the crowd, both teenagers were greeted to the sight of two older men with their blades drawn and in a bladelock, Touya frowned, crossing his arms as he watched what seemed to be senior adventurers act like a bunch of fools. Yumina sighed in disappointment, sharing her fiance's sentiments about the scene in front of them.

'Just a bunch of idiots making a scene.' Touya mentally spat, annoyed at the scene in front of him, he watched with careful eyes as the two drunkards continued their pointless fight.

"How crass…" Yumina whispered under her breath, Touya nodded in agreement.

"Fuckin- stand still!" The bald drunk yelled, swinging his sword hitting nothing but air as the man with a mohawk dodged his attempts.

"Are you really a blue-ranked adventurer?! You fight like a little kid!" The man with a mohawk mocked him, laughing as he blocked a swing and parried it away from him.

"Why you little-" The bald man let out a warcry as he suddenly sprung forward, catching the mohawk guy off guard and hastily avoiding the swing, however in doing so, left the people behind him exposed to the charging and drunk man.

Yumina's eyes widened as she saw the blade coming straight for her and tried to move out the way, thankfully, Touya moved in front of Yumina, shielding her body with his and grabbed the sword with his gauntlet-clad hands. He pushed the sword out the way and shoved the drunkard to the ground, Touya was still hugging Yumina close to his body, protecting her, not letting go as he eyed the two drunkards. The princess looked up and saw her savior with anger plastered on his face.

"What the fuck are you two doing?!" Touya snapped, his voice easily heard throughout the guild hall as the two drunkards winced when they now realized what they were doing and how much of a scene they were making.

The way Touya was acting was a weird yet reassuring thing to Yumina, normally, he wouldn't act like this, but with how he saw the blade almost harming Yumina, something in his mind snapped and his body moved without a second thought and shielded her from harm.

"Stay out of this kid, this ain't any of your problem, let the adults handle this." The bald man Touya shoved scoffed, getting back up to his feet and grabbing his sword.

"It's my problem when you almost hit my fiance." Touya hissed, still hugging Yumina close, eyeing the two drunkards.

"I know you, you're that fucker who has all those girls flocking over him." The mohawk guy said, eyeing the couple and especially Yumina, "Hey, little lady, how does it feel knowing your boyfriend here is cheating on you with those bitches?"

The two narrowed their eyes at the statement, the frown on their faces deepening as the drunkard continued to run their mouths.

"Yeah, how about you ditch that lousy playboy and get with a real man, like me." The bald man smirked, well, as much as he could while being intoxicated.

"Shut up old man, she ain't dating your old ass, she would want a younger, energetic guy like me." The mohawk guy laughed.

Yumina stared at the two with disgust, wondering how such men got to be adventurers with these personalities.

"I'd rather not, I would never betray my fiance for you, never in a million years." She chastised.

The two men scoffed at her denial, but then turned their attention to the young man and frowned, how did this playboy get to have such a loyal fiance while simultaneously getting the attention of other females. It pissed them off to no end and now they are gonna put an end to it.

"You." The mohawk guy pointed at Touya, "You fucker, hand me over the pretty lady and I'll make sure you don't look like a piece of shit once I'm done beating your ass."

"Make me." Touya taunted, finally letting go of Yumina and faced the two drunkards with his hands lifted and in a fighting stance.

"Cocky fuck." The mohawk guy hissed before he lunged forward, sword over his head and was adamant to bring it down on Touya.

The younger man simply moved away from the downward slash and grabbed the back of the older man's collar, he slammed the mohawk guy into the floor and kicked away his sword.

Touya turned and was able to avoid a slash from the bald man. His reaction speed far surpassed these two and even if these blue-ranks weren't drunk, he doubted they were even a fraction faster than him.

He grabbed the older man's outstretched sword arm and broke it, the bald man yelled out in pain while he felt his arm bend backwards but was cut off as Touya karate chopped the back of his neck, knocking him out cold.

"I ain't done yet!" The mohawk guy from before yelled, trying to catch Touya off guard but ultimately failed as he turned and dodged out of the way of the wild swing. Touya reeled his fist and sent an uppercut, hitting the chin of the mohawk guy and sent up flying to a nearby table.

He just hoped that it was the same table these two drunkards were using beforehand.

Once the 'fight' was over, Touya was greeted with praise and whistles from his fellow adventurers as they congratulated him on dealing with the undesirables and protecting his girl.

He earned the utmost respect of the male adventurers while the females praised him, happy to see a man protect his fiance, then, everyone just dispersed, going back to their tables and continued what they were doing before and went on with their day like nothing happened.

"You okay kid?" An older adventurer asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, not like they could hit me anyway." Touya shrugged, ripping his attention away from the two drunks and faced the concerned adventurer.

"No, not that, these two couldn't hit shit." The older adventurer shook his head, "I meant will you be okay, those two are from the parties, Steel Fangs and Poison Snakes. They might get their buddies and jump you."

"Steel Fangs? Poison Snakes? The hell are those?" Touya asked, Yumina already walking to his side and thanking him for protecting her earlier.

"You don't know?" The older man crocked an eyebrow.

"I don't know about them either." Yumina shook her head.

"Well kids, They're well-known parties around here, both of them full of blue-ranked adventurers. Fuckers even think they own the place." The older man scoffed, briefly staring at the downed forms of the rowdy adventurers before turning his gaze back to the one that put them in their place.

"They were blue-ranked? I thought they were the same rank as me, a green-ranked." Touya inquired, not believing that such adventurers were higher rank than him yet were weaker.

Then again, he was blessed by God himself, so he was definitely a cut above the rest.

"Nah, as much as I want to say you're right, these two are blue-ranked, though they might as well be purple-ranked with fighting skills like these, probably were just lifted to blue-rank because they were a part of their respective parties." The older man quipped and then sighed, "Listen, just stay safe, okay kid? Their parties are bad news."

With that, the older adventurer left and went to the reception desk and talked with the staff to see if they could get these two out of the premises.

The couple stared at each other and shrugged, moving on from the event and went back to checking the request board for any quest to take. When they did get to the board, a guild staff had just placed another paper onto the board and left.

Curious, Touya and Yumina went up to the board and checked what was new.

"[Monster Subjugation: Repel Spider]. What the heck is a 'Repel Spider'?" Touya asked, reading more of the description and was left with even more questions than before.

"If I'm not mistaken, a [Repel Spider] is a sort of monster-like spider that is able to predict a person's move and acts accordingly to its situation…" Yumina answered, taking the piece of paper from Touya's hand and inspected it, "And if I remember correctly, it has the ability to lock a person in place with just its stare."

"That sounds dangerous…" Touya remarked, surprised that this wasn't a higher up quest, only being a blue-ranked quest when alone but was allowed for green-ranked if with a full party.

"While yes, you would be right. But due to an exceptional adventurer, they found out the best way to deal with these monsters was to lure them into a trap and kill them with fire." Yumina informed her fiance, she then kept the paper and was about to walk to the reception.

"You know an awful lot about this thing, Yumina." Touya conversed, walking with Yumina to the reception, agreeing to take this quest with her.

"Yes, before I first joined you and the others. I was able to acquire a book of monsters and read through it just in-case I ever encounter them." Yumina nodded, taking his hand with her own and locking fingers as they made their way to accept the quest.

"Mind if I could borrow that sometime?" Touya asked, hoping to learn more of the monsters too if he was gonna continue as an adventurer.

"I do not, I'll gladly hand you it if you want, I can always buy another one." The princess smiled as they stopped and handed in the quest to the receptionist.

"Oh? Are you sure you want to accept this quest?" She asked, eyeing the contents of the request and back at the two who were going to accept it.

"Yeah, we're sure." Touya nodded, while it would be arrogant to say it outloud, but he was pretty much sure that the spider wasn't something he hadn't seen before.

"Well, seeing as you were able to beat two blue-ranked adventurers earlier, even if they were intoxicated, I guess this can be used as a promotion… Though are you sure you want to join him?" The receptionist asked Yumina, the princess nodded with fire in her eyes, "Well, I guess I can't persuade you, ok, I'll finish the acceptice and you can start the quest."

The receptionist smiled and took out a stamp to mark the quest, she stamped it and gave the two the paper and told them they could go today if they want to catch the Repel Spider.

The two nodded and smiled, they left the guild hall and went where the Repel Spider currently resided, which was the [South Forest].

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

(At the [South Forest].)

"Is there anything I should know about this thing?" Touya asked. He and Yumina came to the [South Forest] via {Gate}, and were trekking through a forest clearing with his yari in hand. Sally and Kohaku didn't join them for this quest, but he wasn't gonna ask them to leave their plans just to help him on the mission, even if he was their Master, he was sure he could handle this with Yumina.

'Though, why are the quests in a forest most of the time?' Touya mused, while he was confident in his ability to traverse through a forest and was adaptive enough to use his spear not to mention his skills in hand-to-hand combat. But even with those facts it still didn't answer why most of the quests he and the party took were in forests. This meant that he would one day need something shorter than a spear to use for quests, 'I really need to use my katana more often, I think I even left it back at the Inn.'

"For one, it is very strong, stronger than most monsters its size." Yumina started as she pointed out the Repel Spider's traits, she moved a branch out of her way and continued, "Two it has a deadly venom, if it were to strung you, you would surely die after a few hours, though with {Recovery} I doubt it would be a problem, but I would rather you be careful, and third, the web it has are as strong as steel, but thankfully fire seems to be able to melt them easily."

"So use fire? I can do that, maybe a fireball would be enough to take it down?" Touya opined, he was passively using {Search} to find the Repel Spider. But without knowing what it looked like, he only had to go over the spider factor of it. Which being in a forest, meant he was filled with information of many, smaller spiders and he had to distinguish between them. Which was easier said than done.

"Yes, but it's not going to be an easy answer, the Repel Spider would know about that and dodge it, despite its large size, it is very agile." Yumina told him. She summoned Silva and some of her wolves and sent them for scouting duty.

The silver wolves barked and went ahead of the two, making their way deeper into the forest and relay anything they could come across that would seem to be important. She telepathically communicated with them as she and Touya made their way through the forest.

"So, how do you deal with this thing exactly?" Curiosity took over Touya, wanting to know just how to deal with something like this.

"Like I told you back in the guild. The best way to defeat it is to lure it into a trap and kill it with fire, one that covers an entire area." Yumina explained.

"Speaking of before, there was also something I wanted to know, what do you mean by it being able to lock you with its stare?" Touya asked, pushing away branches as he walked.

"It doesn't really lock you with its stare per say, it's more like it reads your intent of hostility." Yumina began, while simultaneously communicating with her summon, "It has the innate ability to read the hostile intent of a person and react accordingly, coupled with its agility makes it a very dangerous foe."

"Hold on." Yumina raised her hand, stopping in her tracks and Touya as well, the princess took a second before speaking up once more, "My puppies have discovered the Repel Spider's web nest, it should be nearby."

"You think burning the nest would draw its attention?" Touya pointed out, staring forward at the path they were currently taking.

"Yes, I think that should work, I can tell my puppies to keep a lookout for the Repel Spider as well." Yumina nodded and led Touya to the nest.

The journey to the spider's nest was brief, they haven't encountered anything that was in the way - Which was strange, usually a pack of [Horned Wolves] would come out and fight them whenever they go near any of the forests but they haven't encountered a single one ever since they arrived here.

Once they arrived at the site of the nest, They were greeted with the sight of large webbing covering an entire section of the area. At the base of the nest were Silva and his pack, they were at guard. Listening for any indication for the monster their mistress told them to keep an eye out for. Yumina and Touya locked eyes for a brief second before nodding to each other and stepping forward into the nest, wordlessly, Touya conjured up a small flame in his hand and began burning the webs.

The flames latched onto the webs and burned them, one by one, the nest started burning away until it was nothing but ashes in the forest ground.

"They burn nicely." Touya quipped, burning more of the webs in the area. Yumina giggled at his joke and followed closely.

However, before Touya could burn another web, the distinct sounds of Yumina's wolves barking caught their attention and not a moment later, a wolf was flung past them, clashing into a nearby tree. The wolf whimpered as it weakly tried to stand up again.

Touya snapped his head towards the area where the wolves were, he saw two of them facing a large, black and purple spider, its red eyes glowed as it dodged a charge from a wolf and raised its leg, getting ready to stab the silver wolf only for It to avoid a bite from Silva. Angered, it slammed its leg against the wolf and batted him away. Silva was flung in the air, crashing back into the ground, the air knocked out of him, the Repel Spider charged and was just about to stab the downed wolf but Touya intervened and saved his fiance's summoned beast.

Touya's strength was able to overpower the strength of the spider and pushed it away from SIlva, Yumina recalled him and the remainder of the wolves back, unsummoning them as she took an arrow from her quiver and let it loose towards the spider. It dodged. Like it knew where it came from despite its back being turned. It jumped back and attached itself onto a tree, observing its surroundings while keeping its eyes on the most dangerous enemy here, which is Touya.

The teenager felt its gaze, and it sent a slight chill down his spine as he stared deep into its dead, red, eyes.

Steering his nerves, Touya went on the offensive. Yet, just as Yumina said, the Repel Spider expertly dodged his attempts at stabbing it and responded with its own attacks. Now on the defensive, Touya blocked and parried the attacks away from him. Thankfully, Yumina was able to relieve some of the pressure by firing two arrows at the monster, both of which it dodged and turned its attention towards the bow user. The Repel Spider lunged at her, intent on biting her with its mandibles. Yumina saw the attack coming for her and leaped into the air to avoid the charging spider. She spun in the air, taking two more arrows from her quiver and using her wind magic to enchant her arrows and fired them on the spider.

It left a green streak in the air as the arrows hit true, embedding themselves onto the body of the spider. It screeched, turning back around just as Yumina landed beside her fiance, already having another arrow at the ready. It lunged once more. This time Touya intervened, standing in front of Yumina as he raised his spear and blocked the incoming spider.

The collusion kicked off a large gust of wind yet Touya held his feet down, keeping himself firm despite the impact. Yumina took this as an opportunity and fired her arrows which forced the spider to withdraw from the deadlock and narrowly avoid the arrows from hitting it once more. Seeing just how outmatched it was, the Repel Spider tried to retreat only to stop in its tracks as it would've been engulfed by the flames courtesy of Touya. With quick thinking, it shot out its webs towards the two, Touya and Yumina were forced to dodge lest they be immobilized by the webs. However in doing so, the Repel Spider took that window of opportunity and ran.

"Looks like it ran, but that's okay, I already know what it looks like so {Search} would be all I need to find it again." Touya informed Yumina, offering his hand as she accepted it and helped herself to stand back up to her feet.

"Do you have a plan?" Yumina asked. Walking towards her arrows that missed the spider and retrieved them.

"Yeah, I do and it's gonna be as easy as pie." Touya smirked which caused Yumina to crook an eyebrow, curiosity filling her mind.

As Touya began to explain his plan to Yumina, the Repel Spider was busy fleeing the forest, intent on avoiding another confrontation with the duo and relocating to another place far, far from here. However, while it was running away a translucent door appeared, blocking its way and what came out was Touya, his spear at the ready as he charged towards the spider. The Repel Spider was caught off guard and was almost stabbed to death had it not read the hostility Touya was emitting.

Jumping back to create some distance from him, the Repel Spider tried to use its intimidating gaze against Touya only to find that he was not flinching at the slightest and was even smirking through it.

Seeing that its last resort was not effective at all it tried to hightail it out of there only for a wall of flames to erupt, entrapping the Repel Spider with Touya. Not willing to give it a second to think, Touya lunged, his spear poised to kill the spider with one swift thrust. Sensing the incoming danger it dodged and used its legs to fight back. Touya dodged and blocked them, spinning his weapon as he used the momentum to do a wide slash which caused the spider to jump back and avoid it.

But, it jumped back too far and its back slammed against the scorching hot flames of the fire walls Touya put up. Screeching in pain, the spider recoiled forwards as it tried to mitigate the damage it acquired. At the same time Touya once more pressed the attack, thrusting his spear forwards to stab the screeching spider. And once more, the spider dodged, however, a green streak sped past the {Gate} spell and found itself embedded onto the spider, the impact and rudeness of the arrow threw off the spider's course. Smirking, Touya changed his grip on his spear and prepared to throw it at the downed spider.

Taking aim for half a second, Touya threw his spear and it hit the spider's head dead center, killing it as the life in its many eyes left. One last final screech filled the air before silence and the ambiance of the forest took over. When the fight was finished, Yumina stepped out of the {Gate}, a smile on her face as her gaze fell onto the fallen Repel Spider, she walked past it and straight for Touya who greeted her with a smile of his own.

"I do believe your plan worked perfectly, Touya." Yumina praised him.

"Yeah it did." Touya nodded, walking over to the dead spider and retrieving his spear, he placed his foot on the head and yanked the spear out of it.

"How did you know it would work?" The princess asked, curious as to how Touya figured out how his plan was gonna work.

"I thought since you told me about the spider's ability to sense hostility, I figured it would need to see me eye to eye in order for it to work, and when it tried to use it on me when we first encountered it, that was all I needed to formulate a plan to kill it." Touya explained, while he finished cutting off the head of the spider and putting it into a pouch for the guild to confirm, "So, I thought of using {Gate} and having you fire an enchanted arrow through it."

"I see, but what would happen if it didn't work?" Yumina inquired, thinking while it was ingenious, she knew that it was not infallible.

"Well, I'm glad it worked, cause if it didn't I would've just used the same spell Linze used to blow away the debris back at the [Old Royal Capital Ruins]." He shrugged, Yumina sweatdropped at his causal confession of blowing up the forest just to kill the Repel Spider, but it wasn't like it wasn't warranted.

Soon enough, after their conversation, Touya opened another {Gate} back to [Reflet] to cash in the kill to the guild. He gestured to the gate, Yumina quipped on how much of a gentleman he was and accepted, going into the gate first with Touya just behind her.

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

(At the town of [Reflet].)

After handing the spider head to the guild, the duo left a few coins heavier and Touya promoted to blue rank, the two thought of celebrating the occasion, unfortunately they were stopped by a group of adventurers.

Doing so, in the middle of broad daylight, in a gradually large crowd that were watching them.

Touya narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area, 12 total people were here, all of them armed and the drunk bald guy he fought earlier was at the front row, a scowl on his face.

"Yo. We've come here to pay for what you did to me earlier." The bald guy growled, his sword at the ready.

"So, you came to settle the score and yet you came here with your entire party just to gang up on one person." Yumina frowned, "How utterly pathetic, have you no shame? Or are you embarrassed to be bested by someone younger than you?"

"How ruthless, Yumina." Touya chuckled, still, he was a little pissed off that this guy won't back down, "I guess we're justified, this is self-defense so long as we don't kill you."

"Need some help with that?" A familiar voice called out, catching the attention of everyone involved and saw Sally and Yae walking up to them. Yae was holding Kohaku in her arms, the white tiger was looking ready to reveal her true form to smite these heathens.

They were originally going to their usual spot to spar but seeing a large crowd and hearing the familiar voice of Touya, they had to check and see what was going on, turns out, it was him and Yumina being ambushed by a bunch of thugs.

"Sure, could always use some extra hands for some ass-whooping." Touya quipped, getting a giggle from Sally as she summoned her scythe, brandishing it and pointing it at the thugs. To say that they were intimidated was an understatement.

"Very well, let us clear out these undesirables." Yae set Kohaku down and unsheathed her sword, flipping it so the blunt part of the blade is what she would be using.

"Don't fucking make fun of us! We'll show you to respect us! The Steel Fangs!" The bald guy yelled, pointing his sword at them and ordered his party to charge, "Get them!"

What followed wasn't even a fight. To even call it a fight would be an insult to the word, it was more akin to a one-sided slaughter. Within a matter of seconds, the majority of Steel Fang were on the ground, all of them with near-fatal injuries but still very much alive, if barely.

The bald guy's back collided with the ground, he tried to crawl away but Touya boot kept him in place, applying a little more pressure, Touya relished the view of the struggling thug underneath him.

"Where did all that bravado go?" Touya mocked, leaning forwards which in turn applied more pressure.

The thug tried to say something but the added weight of Touya made it hard for the words to even leave his mouth. Nevertheless, he was still able to choke out his words.

"You- Fuckin' brat-" Anything he was about to say, Touya cut him off with a brutal punch to the head, his gauntlets leaving a noticeable mark.

"Look buddy, I was content with just beating your ass back in the guild, you and that mohawk guy were annoying and almost harmed my fiance. Maybe I would even forgive you if you apologized to her." While he was explaining, Touya rolled the thug onto his back and placed his foot on his stomach to keep him in place. The teenager's glare sent shivers down the older man's spine, "But then you decided to attack me, in broad daylight no less! Not I just can't have that, you made this personal…"

"And I don't do half-assed things when it comes to this. Sally." The former assassin perked up to her Master calling her, the raven-haired female walked up next to Touya, a smile on her face as she eyed the downed thug with glee.

"Yes master?" Sally replied, Touya pulled out a series of ropes and cloths, giving them to her.

"Tie them up, imma give them their punishment." He informed her, nodding, Sally went around to each thug and tied them up. Touya was impressed by how efficient she was and how fast she was able to tie them all up.

Deciding to be impressed more later, Touya conjured up stone pillars and went around to every thug, slicing their clothes and hanging them upside down on the pillars. Once the last thug was hanged, Touya dusted off his hands and smirked as he admired his work.

He then pulled up a sign that read "WE'RE THE PARTY: STEEL FANGS WE'RE LOOKING FOR NEW MEMBERS!" Many people who watched the fight were now laughing at their expense as they were hanged upside down and stripped naked, Touya walked up to the bald guy and crouched down, slapping the man's face to wake him up and out of his shock.

"Keep coming back to fight me and I'll make sure you get even more embarrassing punishments!" Then, Touya did a snipping gesture, "...Hell! The next time you come for another round, I'll slice off the tips with a pair of scissors."

As soon as he said that, he left, letting their imagination take them to whatever he meant. A satisfied smile on his face as he walked back to his group.

"Woah, that was pretty brutal, Master!" Sally praised, watching with unkempt glee at the suffering the Steel Fangs experienced as people gathered around and paraded their naked forms, "Wouldn't want to get on your bad side after seeing this."

"Yes, I can concur, such merciless methods you employed, Touya-dono." Yae nodded while slightly shivering at the way Touya seemed to have enjoyed what he did.

"I had to break their spirits, break their pride. Make sure that they wouldn't try this again. If I didn't they might even try to kidnap any of you or worse." Touya explained, shifting his focus to the band of broken adventurers, "I'd rather not let that happen if I could help it, so I had to thoroughly break them."

But then, as soon as he finished his sentence Touya remembered one crucial fact.

'Wait a second. That other guy belonged to another party- The Poison Snakes! Shit!-' Touya said the last part out loud, which caught his companions off guard. He quickly opened a {Gate} to the [Silver Moon Inn] and ran through it.

Hoping that he wasn't too late, Touya was greeted with the sight of Barral and Dolan, sitting at their chairs playing shogi while the Poison Snakes were all piled on top of each other, beaten up and bruised all over their bodies.

"Oh welcome home, that was pretty fast." Dolan greeted them with a wave of his hand.

"Ah, Touya." Barral smiled.

"What happened?" Touya asked, the rest of his party following him through the {Gate} and were greeted with the same sight as he was.

"Those guys came in here while we were playing shogi and demanded I bring Elze and Linze out." Dolan spoke, shaking his head as he recalled the events prior, "I told them they weren't available but they just wouldn't listen and tried to barge in, so I thought I'd take this as a way to see If I got rusty after retiring."

"Honestly, even with Barral here, these guys probably wouldn't even best me. Were they even adventurers? I saw the blue card on them and they were weaker than purple-ranks!" Dolan laughed, Barral doing the same.

"So, what's up with them? You know these guys, Touya?" Barral asked, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Kinda…" Touya scratched the back of his neck, awkwardly trying to answer the question.

"Well, whatever it is, fix it, it's your fault they tried to waltz in here like they own the place!" Micah scolded him, the teenager winced knowing he was exactly at fault and went to remedy the situation.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

Just like before with Steel Fang, he rounded all of the downed Poison Snake members, tied both their hands and legs to a pillar he created, stripped all of them naked and placed them at the town square for all to see.

All of that in record time.

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

(A day after, at the [Silver Moon Inn].)

"And that's what happened." Yumina explained.

"Woah, all of that in just one day?" Elze asked.

It had been a day after the incident, with Elze and Linze feeling better than yesterday, the others thought to tell them the events of yesterday to catch up on what they missed.

Needless to say, they missed quite a lot when they were, uh, 'sick' so Yumina and the others filled in the blanks for them.

"Indeed, it was quite a spectacle to witness." Yae nodded, she turned her head slightly to Touya before continuing, "Elze-dono and Linze-dono should have seen what Touya-dono did to those scoundrels."

"Yeah, I think it's safe to say we won't be seeing those guys anytime soon." Sally giggled, playing with Kohaku while they conversed.

"Mhm, I agree. He had such a serious and scary look on his face, it did scare me a bit." Yumina smiled.

"Please stop teasing me…" Touya groaned, being subjected to some light teasing from his party mates as they recalled his endeavors yesterday.

"What - Were you so worried about us yesterday? The thought of us being in danger that you couldn't help yourself and worry about us?" Elze teased, getting a kick out of his reactions to teasing and finally getting back at him for teasing her when they first met.

"Of course I would." Toiuya sighed, a worried and concerned look on his face, "It doesn't matter whether or not I'd be worried, if you were in danger I would always come and help you no matter what."

His statement caused both sisters to blush, his bold declaration caught Elze off guard and didn't think he would passionately confess that he would save them no matter what.

"I'm lucky that Dolan and Barral were there, but it wouldn't always be like that, what would happen if they weren't? If something bad ever happened to you two I would never forgive myself." Touya declared, a hand on his chest to emphasize his words.

The blush on both sisters deepened even more, once more, Elze was caught off guard that the words she was gonna say died in her mouth, feeling embarrassed by both the bold declaration and her own feelings. Elze and Linze opt to turn their heads away before they blushed redder than a tomato.

"R-right…" Elze blurted out, saying a silent thank you in return as she tried to bite back her blush, Linze wasn't faring any better.

"Say, Touya, would you do the same if Yae, Sally and I were in danger as well?" Yumina inquired.

"Of course, why wouldn't I? All of you are important to me, I'd do anything in my power to make sure you stay safe." Touya replied.

Just like with the twins, Yae blushed, she turned her head to hide her reddening face while Yumina beamed at his statement, Sally smiled, a sweeter one than her usual smiles and nodded before going back to entertain Kohaku.

"Is that so…" Yae whispered. Her raging blush present.

"As expected of my husband!" Yumina beamed, a big smile on her face.

Gradually silence took over the table they were sitting at and Touya realized how awkward the atmosphere was now, he dared not say anything as he figured the girls would want a few more seconds to recompose themselves.

Deciding to break the ice, Yae coughed into her hand and composed herself, she changed the topic which thankfully cleared out the awkward atmosphere.

"Th-that being said - People say those two parties had disbanded and fled the town, likely far from here." Yae informed the rest of the party, "It seems that Touya-dono's actions have caused a great blow to their pride."

"Good, I expect that with them as an example, less people are going to interfere with us in the future." Touya sipped his mug, "And hopefully that means we won't encounter those kinds of people again."

"Yes, though I may ask you something, Touya-dono?" Yae inquired, catching his attention and raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"I never would have thought you were capable of such things. You reduced two groups of men of their pride. Crushing them to the point of tears, I am rather shocked that you could do that." Yae pointed out. The rest of the girls agreed with her, they didn't think he was capable of doing that much less the lengths he took to do them.

"Yup, I was wondering about that too, you seemed to enjoy it even, Master." Sally added, "I wonder what you'd do to me if I misbehaved, would you 'punish' me too, Master?"

The way she said punish almost caused Touya to choke on what he was drinking, thankfully he was able to stop himself and only did a mild coughing fit, everyone else at the table, sans Yumina, gave Sally the stink eye, to which the former assassin just brushed off like she usually does.

Recomposing himself and biting down a blush on his face, Touya spoke, "To answer that, Yae, my grandfather always told me that if someone had beef with me, I'd either clear it out or make sure they never cross me again, and seeing as those parties tried to ambush me and harm Elze and Linze, I went with the latter."

"I see, thank you for answering my question, Touya-dono." Yae nodded.

"No problem, Yae, any time." Touya nodded.

After a while the party started talking about random topics, which then slowly halted until they all went their separate ways, Elze and Linze went to the guild to make up for yesterday's absence and get a quest with Yumina joining them. Yae, Sally and Kohaku invited Touya to come with them around the town and he gladly accepted it.

They got up and left the table, saying their goodbyes to the other group as they went to spend the day together.

=-=-=-=-=-X-=-=-=-=-=

And that wraps up this chapter.

Now, the next one should be up in a couple of days. This was originally supposed to be all in one chapter but then it hit 10k+ words and I realized I might as well separate the chapters into two.

With that said, Merry Christmas to everyone! I plan on finishing up this arc before the whole Mismede Journey begins. That's where everything should start to kick off.