56: The Maiden's Oath

The Maiden's Oath

Two weeks passed by in the blink of an eye, which has lead to a few interesting developments.

On the left side of the Takagi Estate, a decently-sized section of trees have been cut down to give some more space for the batch of survivors currently living inside of tents that were clumped together, which had clearly been affecting the mental state of each one. In turn, this should help a lot with creating new housing areas, along with providing them a bit more freedom to roam around.

Most of them probably thought the idea belonged to Yuriko but I was actually the one who thought of it. She just approved of the concept.

During the two weeks that had quickly passed, Saeko has crawled into my bed late at night for a number of times. The simple cuddling eventually developed into long make out sessions that left the both of us feeling hot and bothered. However, neither of us have made the first move just yet.

After all of the sexual tension that has already built up, I can tell that it'll be pretty soon.

Speaking of purple haired women, Rika Minami came to mind. These past two weeks has provided the two of us both enough time in order to gain a basic understanding of the other, and I was able to eventually feel like I had gained enough from her that I could write a fairly accurate summary of the female sniper.

Rika Minami was an easygoing albeit straightforward woman. However, she also likes to tease people and isn't afraid about the subject of sex at all. Whenever there's ever been time for the two of us to hang out, she would usually feed me quite a bit of information about guns that I had no knowledge of beforehand, which sometimes even lead to the woman giving me some hands-on experience by shooting her prized sniper rifle, the Heckler & Koch PSG-1.

The dark-skinned woman had made sure to tell me that she rarely ever did that with anybody whatsoever. That was pretty interesting to hear.

She would usually attempt at teasing me in order to throw me off and get distracted while I was aiming, which never really worked until the purple haired sniper got a little handsy from time to time. Although, it was always fun to hang around with her.

In all honesty, we had gotten pretty close within such a short amount of time. It was always amusing to witness Shizuka get a little jealous and pout about it.

Kohta was one of the more surprising ones, to be honest. With a little assistance from me, Kohta had been given a space inside of the garage in order to set up a workshop area. However, that wasn't the surprising part. It was the fact that the big guy had actually decided to sign up for a position as a guard and join one of the patrol squads.

He was essentially leaving the group, due to the fact that becoming a guard would most likely take up a large portion of his time, and that would lessen the chances of him being able to hang around us to a great extent. Yuriko had actually questioned me about it, wanting to know whether or not she should approve of the decision, and I had confirmed it myself instead.

It's because I understood the intention behind it and he obviously knew that I would, due to the fact that he still hadn't talked to me about it. As a matter of fact, he got the position about four days ago, and that's around the last time that we both saw each other. It's not like either of us had a problem with the other, it's just that things are obviously going to change as time passes.

Plus, Kohta gaining a position as a guard will simply allow him to better protect the Takagi Estate from the undead, which is something that I had absolutely no problem about.

Miku and Rei have also made quite a significant change during the two weeks that passed. It was a project that they had apparently been talking out with Yuriko, and I had never really asked any of them what it was about, but the project was revealed just two days ago.

Once a few housing areas are built for the survivors, Yuriko had also announced that there was going to be an area for children built in order to play a bunch of games. It was basically going to be a playground, a sports area, and some kind of daycare center specifically for the youngest ones.

Miku and Rei had essentially decided to take care of a bunch of children, along with a few other adults that felt the need to contribute in some type of way.

With all that being said, things were honestly beginning to look pretty nice around here.

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"Mr. Luca! How are you, sir?" A young man gestured, respectfully tipping his hat in my direction as a friendly greeting.

I nodded back towards him, in the middle of carrying two lightweight containers full of materials to a group of workers that needed them for something. "I'm doing pretty good. What about you?"

The fact that I even reciprocated the greeting seemed to excite him for some reason, which caused the young man to begin following me towards my destination for a conversation along the way. "W-Well, sir... I've just really been wanting to thank you for everything that has been done for all of us." He said, scratching the back of his head in a nervous manner.

I raised an eyebrow at him, confused as to what he meant. He clearly noticed my facial expression, deciding it was best that he gave a better explanation.

"Some of the people around here are a little too prideful to admit it but most of us have seen your noble actions. While we're aware that Mrs. Takagi has been doing a lot of the work, you're clearly the one that has been shining a spotlight down on our living conditions. Don't get me wrong, while everyone is extremely thankful that she has allowed them into her home and provided shelter for each person, we were all beginning to feel just like a packed herd of cattle waiting to be eaten."

... Well, I definitely wasn't expecting this to happen.

"I see."

The young man blinked once, and then twice, staring at me in confusion due to my short-handed reply to his little speech. "... Uh, s-sir?" He asked, continuing to walk beside me.

"What's your name?"

He blinked a third time, eventually recomposing himself to answer. "Koda Shasu, sir."

Turning to glance at him, I examined his physical appearance in just a couple of seconds before refocusing back on the path in front of me.

Koda Shasu was a skinny young man with medium-length shaggy blonde hair and light brown eyes, a red V-neck shirt covering his torso, along with khaki shorts and white sneakers. Not to mention, he was also wearing a black shade hat in order to conceal most of his head from the sun.

"Well, Mr. Shasu-" The young man quickly cut me off, flailing his arms as if he was waving away a swarm of bees. "Please just call me Koda, sir!"

All I did was nod.

"Well, Koda... I'm not sure what to say. You're actually the first person to say something like that to me, and while I'm grateful for the recognition, I wasn't the only person that has had a hand in making all of this happen. If it wasn't for all of the people willing to work on any of this in the first place, none of these things would've probably come to fruition. You should thank them as well."

He frantically nodded in response. "Y-Yes, sir! I'm aware of that. It's just that you were clearly the catalyst for most of these things, which is why I wanted to thank you firsthand!" Koda said with an amusing amount of excitement, which brought a smile to my face.

After that, the young man took a glance downwards and somehow finally noticed the fact that I had been carrying two containers full of materials for the entire duration of our conversation, and that's when he decided to lend a helping hand.

"Here, let me help you out!" Koda said, motioning for one of the containers. Internally shrugging my shoulders, I decided to do as he asked and gave him the one held in my left hand, which was also just slightly lighter than the other one.

Right as the container left my fingertips, Koda grunted in shock as he grabbed it with both hands and strained himself to keep it within his grasp. "Woah- Urk! It's so heavy!" He gasped, his veins bulging out of physical exertion.

My eyes widened at the display, surprised as to just how difficult it looked for him to even hold it up in his hands. "Are you okay, man? I can take it back-"

"N-No! I'm good... it's fine!" Koda attempted to reassure me, trying his best to put on a confident facial expression. However, it was clearly ineffective.

... Huh. I didn't know that it was so heavy. Blame the superhuman strength.

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It was the next day.

The sun beamed into a window, brightening up the surroundings with it's golden light.

"Good morning, sleepyhead..." I mumbled, kissing Saeko's forehead as she proceeded to slowly wake up. The purple haired girl was wearing a thong and one of my tank tops, which was currently giving me a great view of one of her pretty pink nipples.

Laying on my chest, Saeko raised her head and placed her supple lips on mine, granting me a kiss that would've caused my manhood to harden if she hadn't pulled away just a few seconds earlier.

Somehow escaping the purple haired woman's tight grasp, I proceeded to dress myself and head for the door.

"Meet me inside of the dojo in an hour." I said briefly, leaving the sleepy woman with a confused facial expression.

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Saeko was speechless.

"This is for you." I said casually, acting as if this wasn't really a big deal.

The purple haired girl began sputtering incoherent words, actually finding it physically difficult to speak from what was transpiring in front of her so early in the morning.

Held within the palm of my hand was a special sword called the Murata-tou that had been kept within the Takagi bloodline for ages. It was a Meiji era Guntō.

"I-I can't take that, Dante..." Saeko tried to politely decline. However, I wasn't planning on taking no for an answer. Leaning forward, I placed the bladed weapon into her hands, and she froze up for a couple of seconds.

The room was quiet, filled with just the sounds of our light breathing. Saeko slowly took ahold of the sword, admiring the bladed weapon's appearance. It obviously had some age to it yet still held a certain kind of beauty.

Not knowing what else to say, Saeko simply went for the first thing that came to mind.

"Thank you very much."

I nodded in response, starting to get back up in order to leave the purple haired girl to her own devices, but it appeared that she wasn't done quite yet.

"I... I have come to a decision."

Settling back down onto the floor, I motioned for her to continue speaking, curious as to what she was going to say.

Taking a deep breath, the purple haired girl suddenly prostrated herself before me, which took me by surprise. However, what happened next turned that brief surprise into genuine shock.1

"I, Saeko Busujima, swear to forever remain loyal to my lord and master, Dante Luca. I will be the blade that cuts into your enemies, the shield that protects you from harm, and a trustworthy servant. I swear to fulfill every duty with my upmost devotion."

... Holy shit.

There's no way that she just came up with this on the spot. Saeko had to have been thinking about this for a while.

The room fell into complete silence, devoid of any noise whatsoever as the both of us held our breath unconsciously. I had been rendered speechless for a moment just like she had been at first, the tables unexpectedly turning on me, which was amusing to think about.

However, in all honesty, I just couldn't find a reason to deny her indirect request. A smile crawled onto my face as I placed a hand down onto one of hers, which caused the purple haired girl to raise her head in response.

"I accept."

All of a sudden, I felt something impact my chest, and instinctually looked down to spot what it was. Saeko had placed the sword down onto the ground in order to jump into my arms, tears in her eyes as she cried joyfully while repeating the same words over and over again.

"Thank you!"

It was said in a tone of voice that indicated just how happy she was to hear my response, for reasons that were truthfully unknown to me. However, if it made her happy... then I was okay with it.

"C-Can I sleep with you tonight? There's something that I've been wanting to give you..."

All I did was nod, tightly hugging her in my arms the entire time.

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