Sparring

It took Locus the whole day to get up to the mountain's top. The blindfold hadn't hindered him as much as he had expected it to, since the eyes hadn't been a big help in the first place.

"How about you stop teleporting me down the mountain?"

"What's your problem? Do you want to walk down?"

Genken had teleported to a point about a meter to Locus' left.

"For starters, you could warn me."

"Isn't a falling rock enough of a warning?"

"It's not a nice warning."

Genken waved his hand.

"Ah, that's just what you think."

"So you'd like to wake up every day because of a rock that's about to crush you?"

"Let's start with the training."

Locus rolled his eyes.

"You'll spar with me without your gear."

"I'm not allowed to use anything?"

Genken grinned.

"You're allowed to use the blindfold."

Locus sighted and put it back on.

"So what am I supposed to d-"

Locus' body jumped to the left.

"Did you just try to punch me?"

"Obviously. And you dodged it again. You have good reflexes."

Locus felt Genken's presence even without seeing him.

He used his right leg to kick in the approximate direction of Genken's chest, but Genken effortlessly caught Locus' foot.

"You need to be sure of what you're aiming at. Don't focus on whether or not this is the right direction."

Genken let go of Locus' foot. After an evening that was filled with Locus' attempts to hit Genken, the two of them decided to stop.

"You haven't used your teleportation."

"It wasn't necessary."

"Very mild..."

While Locus got himself some stones for dinner, Genken teleported away and returned about ten minutes later, when Locus had just gotten ready to dig in.

Genken had brought a fancy-looking cup and a plate with an expensive meal.

It was a streaming hot steak, with salad on one, and potatoes on the other side of the plate.

"Did you seriously go to get some dinner from the city?"

"Sure did."

Genken held out his hand and made a fully laid table appear beneath it. He put down the plate and the cup and went on to invite Locus to the table by winking his hand.

"Thanks for this honor, your highness. I appreciate this seat almost as much as I would have appreciated another one of these nice-looking plates you got there."

"Oh, this?"

Genken pointed at his plate.

"It's the china our inn provides us with, free of charge."

Genken took a bite out of his steak while Locus just watched him.

"Don't look at me like that. You chose not to prepare a complicated meal for yourself. You quite literally have the ability to do better."

Genken was right. Locus could have prepared a similar meal, but he didn't have enough energy to do so. Locus took a bite out of his bread.

"You could have asked me if I wanted something."

"But then the whole point of accommodating to the life of an adventurer would be lost."

"By the way, how come you know so much about adventurers and stuff? Aren't you an F-rank?"

Genken looked down at his food.

"In this guild's territory, I am."

He looked back up to Locus.

"Originally, I was part of the Mastermind Guild."