All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 233: The Yard Has Witnesses

The market stayed loud through midday, forcing Marrick to borrow two registry guards whenever an argument over chits blocked the payment line.

Hajin left him with the ledgers and took Cassie’s party behind the old tax office, where a packed yard separated the registry from three roof crews eating lunch.

Cassie stood behind Jonas with her staff ready, while he braced a practice shield and Toby waited at the rear with his walking stick.

The three had survived an eight-Shard hunter, a ten-Shard mother, and Hajin’s idea of training, yet the watching workers made Cassie check her staff grip twice.

"The goal is crossing the yard without breaking formation," he said, drawing a line through the dust with his heel, "so reach the wall before I put any of you on the ground."

Cassie glanced at his empty hands before she asked, "Are you using Rings?"

"You will know if I use one," he said, walking toward the opposite wall, "and if you need that warning today, the formation has already failed."

Jonas raised his shield in front of Cassie, leaving Toby half a step behind with his walking stick ready along their open side.

"Forward," she said, giving the order before Jonas had planted his rear foot.

Their first three steps held until Hajin crossed the yard, pressed two fingers against Jonas’s shield and turned his wrist.

Jonas stumbled back into Cassie before her earth brace rose beneath the wrong foot, while Toby left the rear to strike Hajin’s ribs.

Hajin caught the walking stick, pulled Toby past him and tapped Cassie’s exposed side before the formation folded against the ground.

"Again," Cassie said while pushing herself up, keeping her eyes away from the workers gathered near the fence.

"Tell them what failed first," he said, returning Toby’s walking stick.

Jonas rubbed his shoulder before he answered, "She moved before I was set."

Cassie looked at him, then toward the roof crew pretending not to listen and said, "You told me you were ready."

"I said my shield was ready," he replied, scraping dirt from its rim, "but my feet were still wrong."

Toby lifted one hand and said, "I also left the rear because I thought I could hit him."

"You could hit me," Hajin said, stepping back across the line, "but the problem starts after I let you."

They reset while Lana entered through the side gate with her complaint slate tucked beneath one arm, chalk streaking the front of her work dress.

She stopped beside Juna, who had been watching with Ash seated between her feet and one hand resting on his shoulder.

"Registry work finished?" Hajin asked.

"Marrick checked every complaint twice, then gave four back because the names were missing," she said, setting the slate beneath the fence, "so he told me to leave before I started correcting his handwriting."

"He will regret teaching you letters," he said, then pointed toward an empty patch beside Juna, "start with falling."

Lana touched the hunting knife inside her oversized pocket and asked, "Do I take it out now?"

"After the ground stops winning," he said, walking over as Cassie ordered her party forward again.

Hajin showed Lana where to place her foot, how to turn one shoulder and how to keep her wrist from taking her full weight.

She copied him carefully until her heel caught, sending her face-first into the yard before either hand reached the ground. She pushed herself onto her knees, spat dirt beside the fence and returned to the same patch without waiting for permission.

"Your foot went across your own path," Juna said, crouching beside her, "keep it under your hip, or the rest of you follows the wrong direction."

Lana adjusted her stance before she asked, "This far?"

"Closer," Juna said, moving the girl’s ankle with two fingers, "now fall before you have time to become scared of it."

Lana dropped, struck one shoulder and rolled onto her back with both wrists held against her chest.

The impact drove air from her mouth, but she sat up grinning until Vella reached them with a strip of cooling cloth.

"You have learned how to bruise the correct shoulder," she said, wrapping the cloth around Lana’s elbow, "which is progress, though your bones may disagree tomorrow."

"Can you heal it?" Lana asked.

"I can," she said, tying the cloth, "but master wants your body to remember what went wrong, so you get cloth unless something breaks."

Across the yard, Cassie drove her party forward for a third attempt while calling every step before her people took it. The formation moved too carefully now, letting Hajin circle Jonas before Cassie turned her staff to keep him centered.

Jonas followed her call, Toby followed Jonas, and the entire formation rotated until their backs faced the wall they were meant to reach.

One of the roof workers laughed before hiding it inside his cup, making a ridge of earth rise beside Cassie’s staff.

"Stop watching them," Hajin said, standing beside the line she had abandoned, "none of those workers will matter when something is trying to open Jonas’s throat."

"They are judging whether we belong here," she said, lowering her staff while the ridge sank.

"Then show them you can learn," he said, pointing toward her party, "because pretending you never fail will only teach them to stop trusting you."

Cassie swallowed her answer, faced Jonas and said, "I called the advance too early, then held every step too long, so you set the pace now."

Jonas studied her face before nodding, while Toby returned to the rear without offering another clever attack.

A boy wearing a southern courier sash entered through the yard gate with three folded notices pressed under his arm. He passed the first to a registry guard, then stopped after seeing the copper token hanging from Cassie’s open collar.

The token was smaller than a coin, stamped with a broken tower above two crossed lines.

"That came from the Carrow debt office," the courier said, forgetting the notices in his hand, "my uncle used to carry those for collection claims."

Cassie shoved the token beneath her shirt before she asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing from you," he said, stepping back from her staff, "but they closed that office after the remaining claims were transferred north."

Cassie’s fingers stayed against the hidden token while Jonas looked at her without recognition.

"Deliver your notices," Hajin said, giving the courier a path toward the registry door, "then keep walking."

The boy nodded and left, though Cassie did not remove her hand until the gate shut behind him. Hajin had questions, but the workers were still near the fence and Cassie had already hidden the answer once.

"Reset," he said, returning to the far side of the yard, "and this time Jonas decides when you move."

Ash stood while everyone faced the line, planted his feet apart and raised both hands with a growl aimed at Hajin.

He tried copying Jonas’s planted stance, caught one foot behind the other and landed on his backside before Juna could reach him.

The yard went quiet for a second until Ash slapped the dirt, glared at his own legs and tried the same step again.

Cassie laughed before she could stop herself, losing the tightness around her mouth as Jonas raised his shield in front of her.

"Forward," he said once Toby settled behind them.

This time Cassie waited, and the three crossed the first half of the yard together.