Kanjori

Chapter 15: Encounter

The sun had gone down and we decided to camp out for the night. Throughout the day, I spent my time learning to suppress my aura, as well as a couple tricks on how to increase my damage output.

Romeo seemed to be a nice person, but I couldn't forget the smile on Damian's face that day. The smile of a man who's thoughts had been confirmed. If there's any way for me to get information on Mr. Gregorio, it'd probably be from his son, right?

"Hey Rin, you alright? You've been staring at the ground for a while." Romeo asked.

I looked at him and nodded. "Yeah I'm alright, I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"What's up?"

"Well, I don't mean to be rude or intrusive but, I've been curious about you and your family."

Romeo looked towards the campfire and smiled. His eyes looked rather sad as the reflection of the fire caused his eyes to twinkle.

"Well, since I was a child, I've been trained to be a knight. My dad would put me through rigorous training almost everyday, but I'd stick to it because I loved my dad and I wanted to make him very proud. One day when he wasn't home, our house was raided by some men and I failed to protect my mother. She's gone now.."

At that very moment, I realized that his eyes weren't twinkling from the reflection of the fire, but rather, his tears were beginning to well up in his eyes.

"I never wanted to lose anyone close to me again, so I began training ten times harder than before, and eventually became one of the strongest knights in Kusaga. Unfortunately, the king of this land is a pacifist wuss who doesn't believe anyone should fight, so the knight system here was abolished. I've been running the inn with my father ever since."

"It must really suck to have trained just to end up working in an inn, but it's probably best that way. You can protect your dad, because you'll always be there with him." I said while hugging him.

"What about you, is there anyone you love, Rin?" Romeo asked while remaining in my arms.

"My best friend Damian. He's always been there for me through thick and thin, and he would never betray me" I replied.

Romeo pulled back and looked directly into my eyes. Though it was almost unnoticeable, I could see slight discomfort in his face.

"That Damian guy, if he really did care for you like you care for him, wouldn't he be here right now? He would've never agreed to leave your side if he felt the same love that you feel for him."

"I don't understand what you mean by that, we all agreed to train by ourselves."

Romeo maintained his eye contact with me as he leaned in. "It's pretty evident that the two of you are only friends, so I doubt he'll mind what I'm about to do."

Before I could react, Romeo pulled me in and kissed me.

Everything seemed to have frozen in that very moment. I could no longer hear the sound of the flowing river, nor did I feel the heat of the campfire near us. Thoughts about my friends and my plans for the tournament quickly left my mind and were replaced with images of Romeo. For a second there, it almost felt like all the weight on my shoulders had been removed.

We pulled away from each other, and I saw his lustful eyes slowly look towards my lips. He was about to move in again for another kiss, but quickly jumped back.

A blade had cut through the log we were sitting on.

"Rin, it's the cloaked person I was talking about!" Romeo yelled as he drew his sword.

A dark figure stood before the campfire, crouched down with a dagger in their right hand. They quickly looked back and dashed towards me, but I rolled over in the nick of time.

"That's the Lazarus Dagger. A weapon that drains the life out of other people in order to restore life to its user" Romeo noted.

"I heard it was stolen from the land of Yukino, but I thought that was just a silly rumor" I replied.

The cloaked person looked at the two of us, returning to the crouched position they were in earlier.

Romeo's aura thickened as he pointed his sword out in front of him. The density of his aura caused the campfire to go out, but the cloaked person remained in their position.

"I Romeo, knight of Kusaga, will be the one to slay you, you cloaked demon" Romeo announced.

As a response, dark aura flowed from the dagger, engulfing the cloaked person. They then blitzed forward, clashing with Romeo's sword.

Romeo swung his sword upwards then jumped back, and I immediately dashed towards the cloaked person.

They spun around and kicked me in the stomach, causing me to fly into a tree.

Before my back could hit the tree, I rotated and pushed off of it with my legs, propelling me towards the cloaked person.

They jumped up and kicked me into the dirt.

Romeo sent out a large slash of aura which was easily avoided by the cloaked person, but I followed up the attack with my special attack, Blue Mince.

The X shaped aura slash that flew towards the cloaked person split in two, and made impact.

Romeo and I both dashed towards them, but they flipped and stood on their arms, and kicked the two of us in the face.

The cloaked person then jumped into the trees, and ran away.

I was going to pursue them, but Romeo grabbed my arm and shook his head.

"I believe that the cloaked person and myself both had the same goal in this fight. It was simply a way for them to gauge an opponent." Romeo said while sheathing his sword.

"Are you sure? It seemed like they came at us with the intent to kill, I mean, they literally tried to chop my head off while I was still sitting down" I replied.

"Did you not notice that they barely used their dagger after that? It must've been nothing more than a test of speed. From what I've gathered, the cloaked person is at the very least on the same level as a knight, and owns one of the sacred weapons."

Romeo looked at me with eyes that were filled with determination.

"Whoever it is, no matter how strong they are, I assure you, I will defeat them."