The Big Book Of Amaguji

A 7 Day Countdown With Magic, Leaves And Rose Petals Still Lingering In The Air

The eternal shadow over the Maledicti Forest was a drastic downfall on their part. Their testing grounds was now completely unusable unless they were specialists in stealth, which they weren't. The forest's first and now only quadrant relies on mindlessly attacking with no real strategy and you know what? It sounded crazy enough to actually work. Well, with something else to support it, of course.

That's were the 'Rose' quadrant comes in.

Strategically placed assassins hidden within any insignificant obstacle such as trees and rocks welcomes a foundation of other strategies to add on top of that. It was the warrior's absolute dream until that day a few years ago. Apparently, one of the Rose cadets was forced to kill the king and failed. Then, to avoid anymore assassination attempts, he kicked every Rose assassin out of the kingdom and basically got rid of the whole quadrant due to the immense amount of money to hire new cadets.

They now are known to reside in the creeks and crevasses in trees and feast on leaves and animals that pass by. Even the mage that illuminated the forest with soft colors and lured fireflies was kicked out due to his placing in the Rose quadrant.

It was stupid of King Saihara on his part but he is immensely parinoid at times, even admitting his decision to being impulsive but he believed in the idea of working hard to surpass any difficulty. So, he let the warrior quadrant train in anything way battle related they believed will benefit them in the future, which is actually a huge relief for the magic section of the warriors. Rantaro, being in said section, was really tired of mastering one spell at a time by casting it again and again. At least he could create a whole new island made of trees near Greenland if he wanted to.

He loved being blessed with magic, dont get him wrong but he hated the mandatory solitude you have to endure to actually become more powerful. He didn't like to stay in one place for long and envied anyone in the non-magic warrior section of the quadrant. As they travel and patrol the miles and miles of complete darkness, Rantaro would be cooped up in a literal tree house with a kerosene lamp. He sighed pathetically, he suggested to King Saihara to make him the first ever person in both quadrants but he said the warrior count would be 'inconsistent'. He sighed again, he was running out of raspberries for food too.

"Marcel, we're going again."

An owl flew on the wooden perch on Rantaro's desk, "Who!" It said.

"Wished you could actually talk though. Come on."

Rantaro grabbed his fanny pack, his notebook and kerosene lamp then headed straight towards the forest. The guards in front of the forest stepped aside to let him through and promptly returned to their original places.

"I'm always a little scared when going in this forest. How about you?"

"Who."

"Nevermind."

Rantaro's eyes passed over every bush to see if any fruits were present on it. Minutes felt like hours just looking over leaves and shrubbery before seeing a light in the distance. Nothing was screaming 'safety' to him, I mean, he hasn't seen that much light in months.

"What's over there?"

"Who, who."

"I wonder..."

He then saw a shadow in the direction of the light, "Oh! Hide!" He whispered-yelled to no one in particular. While Rantaro hid in a nearby bush, the figures walked right past him. A sighed of relief escaped Rantaro's mouth a little too loudly, causing the figures to look around suspiciously.

Rantaro felt something cover his mouth. Clawing at the supposed hand, Rantaro whiffed out the lamp and calmed down, the person having no clear intentions of killing him. The stranger shushed him and held his head back. A girl with long pigtails was looking over him.