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In the past, Reibana’s only ally and trading partner was the country with the shortest distance away across the sea. But that country had been absorbed into Seperion, invalidating the alliance and trade agreements. On top of that, Seperion had attempted to invade Reibana, souring relationships between both countries.

But now they had amended their relationship, the Sashimi Harbor, located in the Sashimi Peninsula in western Reibana, was in full activity once more.

Two figures were there now, sent by the head of the Urado family.

“Hey cutie, wanna go hang out somewhere?”
“Zip it, Ruri!”

A stern voice hit Ruri after she tried picking up a girl who was walking by them, and before Ruri could react, her companion grabbed the neck of her clothes and dragged her away.

“Let…let gooo, Jinkuro. I was just messing around a bittt.”
“A bit?! I take my eyes off you for just one second and you’re already chasing after skirts!”

Jinkuro was a wolf demi-human who was starting to show the first signs of aging, and had served the Urado family for more than a decade. He was Ruri’s mentor and foster parent, making him one of the few people she had to respect.

“We’re part of the Urado Mori, guardians of the Urado family. At least try to act the part!”

The Urado Mori were ready to defend the Urado family with their lives. That gave them a higher position than most other servants and retainers, as they managed most of the western side of the country. Such a position demanded both ability and decorum, so Ruri’s actions were inexcusable.

“But I dooooo. I’d die for Lady Ryuka any day.”

Hearing Ruri’s reply with her usual unconcerned attitude made Jinkuro sigh as he released her.

“Then work properly too. The visitors are friends of Lady Ryuka, aren’t they?”

As part of their efforts to rebuild the trading routes, both countries had sent out exchange students to get familiar with their respective cultures. They were all part of influential families too, so that once they grew up they would have a better idea of how to interact internationally.

Ryuka, Ruri’s master, was also one of them. She had made many friends during her stay in Seperion, including someone related to trading, giving Ryuka a chance to get started with international trade faster than the other exchange students.

“I believe it’s that ship there.”

Merchant vessels were required to display a company banner and country flag, so Jinkuro quickly spotted a ship that matched their visitors. The sailors were unloading the cargo, and a cat demi-human with amber eyes watched over them.

“Excuse me, I’m Jinkuro, envoy of the Urado family. Are you from the Nekome Store?”
“Yes, I’m Amy, director of the international business division of the Nekome Store.”

The cat demi-human girl turned around hearing Jinkuro and greeted him with a friendly smile, though her eyes seemed to be examining him carefully.

Amy and Ryuka had signed a contract between the two while they were still in the Magic Academy, agreeing that once they graduated, Amy would open an international business division in her family’s company, and Ryuka would let her open a branch in her territory in Reibana.

“Could you please wait a bit? We’ll be done unloading the cargo soon.”
“Of course.”

With the business side of things done, Amy turned to Ruri.

“It’s been a while, Ruri.”
“It has, Amy. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

At first Ruri mostly saw Amy as her master’s friend, but with time they realized they had many things in common as well, so they were rather friendly with each other.

“I didn’t know your company also shipped internationally.”
“Actually, we don’t. We only started the division after my contract with Ryuka, so I had to commission a ship and crew from Hanmyo Transport.”

Opening an international business required obtaining permits from both countries, hiring ships and crew, establishing sea routes, and so on. Amy’s family business was large in Seperion, but even they struggled to complete all the requirements.

So in the end they commissioned a separate company with experience transporting merchandise over water.

“From who?”
“Amy, the cargo is done being unloaded now. Ah-”
“Oh.”

Ruri saw a girl descend from the ship, who had grayish blue hair tied into a high ponytail.

“Marize?”

Surely enough, the girl was Amy and Olivia’s junior by two years, Marize.

She had protected a ship from pirates during the break of her second year at the Magic Academy, earning her the trust and loyalty of the sailors, who decided they wanted to work more for her than for Hanmyo Transport, and caused a bit of trouble when she had to resume taking classes. So now whenever she had no classes, she would return as supervisor of their ship.

Also, their ship ended up being named Beluga.

“I almost didn’t recognize you, you’ve gotten so…so…so damn big!”
“My eyes are up here!”

Marize had always been on the taller side, and in the past year had grown even more, standing as tall as Ruri. But Ruri had been looking somewhere else.

Before graduating, Amy’s relationship with Marize was not the best, due to an incident involving Olivia, and they had not exactly made up even though they were working together. Their collaboration was simply a product of their needs, Hanmyo Transport had ships, and the Nekome Store needed a way to travel across the sea. The fact that one of the sailors aboard Beluga was native to a fishing village on the coast facing Reibana was a nice bonus.

Amy did not let her personal matters interfere with business, and Marize did not want to cause any trouble to her uncle, so things were surprisingly smooth.

Marize was completely new to that line of work, and had no experience with business, so often she would be lost at what to do, and Amy had to reluctantly teach her how to do things.

“That should be all your work done, right Marize? Then as we agreed, I’ll be meeting with the locals to set up a local branch now. We’ll be staying for two days, and you’re free to do anything you want until we return.”
“An inn has been prepared for you, let me guide you there.”

Amy was not just transporting merchandise, but would also meet with some people in Sashimi Harbor. The crew of Beluga would be staying at an inn during that time.

Just as Jinkuro was about to take them there, Ruri pulled on Marize’s sleeve.

“Say say, why don’t we go on a bit of a walk? Just the two of us. It should be fine, right Jinkuro? I can drop her off at the inn later.”
“You really are hopeless… Alright, you can go, just make sure you’re back at a reasonable time.”

This was not the first time Ruri was leaving during work hours. But there was a reason why she was still kept as part of the Urado-Mori.

Jinkuro would have chastised her if she tried doing that in a more serious situation, but since she was friends with the visitors he figured he could turn a blind eye to her antics.

“Let’s get going then.”
“Huh? Wait, Ruri?”

Without waiting any longer, Ruri pulled Marize away.

With the trading routes restored, foreign cultures and people started taking root in Sashimi Harbor, so Marize did not really stand out. Though just a few years prior it would have been a different story.

“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
“No particular reason. If I had to think of one, I guess I’m curious about the Academy and things over there. And I just wanted to walk around for a bit, get some tea, and maybe do some shopping.”

Marize did not recall being particularly close to Ruri. Sometimes when Marize trained with Olivia she would see some of Olivia’s friends, but that was it. She had never expected that Ruri would want to hang out like that.

That did not mean that Marize disliked Ruri either. Though there was one time during a school excursion when Marize tried to practice against Ruri’s sword, and was essentially beaten up in a one sided fight.

But Marize did not hold any grudges since then, and did not mind hanging out with Ruri now, showing she had matured a bit too.

“Well, I wouldn’t say there’s anything happening over there. There’s no strong students left since Olivia and Mathias graduated, so it’s just boring most of the time.”

Marize had been transferred to Classroom A for her second year, placing her amongst the strongest students currently enrolled, but she was not the strongest by any means. She would still lose during practice matches, and other students like Oswald were much stronger in terms of raw magic power, even if they were weaker physically. There were also plenty of third year students who Marize could not compete with.

But even with all of that considered, there was no student who seemed leagues ahead of everyone else.

“I don’t think it’s really fair to set the bar at the level of those two, if I’m being honest.” Ruri had also noticed how unnaturally gifted those two were, and she felt bad for anyone trying to compare themselves to Olivia or Mathias.

“Oh yeah, since I’m in Reibana now, I thought I might as well buy a sword like yours, I think you called it a katana before? Do you know of any store nearby that might have one?”
“There’s plenty of shops, but I doubt you’ll find one as excellent as mine.”

“Is your katana really so special?”
“This is a katana that was once enshrined in the lost woods deep within the mountains, it’s name is Shisui, but through a Bankai release it gains the name Meikyou Shisui. And by combining mastery of the Earth, Sea, and Sky techniques it gains the ultimate technique Avan Strash…”

At that point Ruri realized that Marize was taking seriously everything that she was saying.

(Natalia would’ve already bonked me in the head… I miss those days…)

After returning to her home country, Ruri had often blabbered about random references no one understood, just like with Marize. Back during the graduation ceremony, Natalia had thanked Ruri for giving her a safe space to be her true self, but that went both ways, as Ruri also appreciated having someone who understood references from her past life.

“Oh yeah, let’s go to a tea house around here. Since this is your first time in Reibana I want to introduce you to our food.”
“Oh, umm…sure, let’s go.”

Ruri quickly switched topics to somehow cover for her earlier failure, and Marize followed.

The two went to a random tea house around there, sitting with their backs to the street as Ruri ordered for both of them, given Marize’s lack of knowledge of the local dishes.

Meanwhile there was someone following after them, quickly weaving through the crowd to not lose sight of them. After breaking out of the crowd, the small shadow proceeded with muted footsteps, keeping a low profile while getting closer to Ruri…

“Oh, that’s not something you should touch, little man.”

Ruri’s hand quickly took hold of the wrist stretching out towards Shisui.