RECOLLECTIONS CHAPTER 2 ARE YOU A SWORD?
Aiz Wallenstein
LEVEL 1
Strength: E489 ? D502 Endurance: E434 ? 438 Dexterity: D597 ? C605 Agility: C606 ? 615 Magic: I0
Riveria looked at the girl’s updated Status’s numbers and sighed.
“Half a year since becoming an adventurer…That’s an impressive rate of growth.”
“I knew she had potential, but to come this far…”
Finn smiled wryly after she handed him the sheet that had been translated into Koine.
Loki had updated Aiz’s Status first thing that morning, and she had informed Finn and Riveria once they returned to the manor after finishing a mission for the Guild.
“At this rate, she’s headed for a pretty crazy level-up. Far as the familia’s concerned, it’s all sunshine and rainbows…But as for Aiz herself, I’m not too happy about this.”
The familia’s patron goddess sat cross-legged on top of the office’s desk.
“Yes…With how she’s been wearing herself down, that’s to be expected.”
“She’s constantly asking for more training with Finn and Gareth, and she’s been serious about her studies. She has largely learned to control her emotions, but…that girl still does not take care of herself. Training, training, training. Always training.”
“She’s only learned some of how to handle herself in a fight, but it was enough to let her brute-force her way a little. I might have been a bit premature giving her permission to go into the Dungeon.”
“That said, with the Evils runnin’ rampant in the city nowadays, it’d be a problem if Aizuu didn’t keep gettin’ stronger, either. It’s not like y’all will always be around to protect her.”
The fact that Aiz did not pay any heed to the toll on her body was bothering them. The first-tier adventurers had no complaints about her desire to learn more and more from them, but she was too impatient. To put it bluntly, she refused to pay attention to anything other than becoming stronger.
There was plenty of blame to go around, though. Finn and Gareth had seen a spark of something in her techniques and then witnessed her joy at receiving instruction, which eventually led them to unwittingly teach her too much.
“Do you know what the lower-class adventurers call Aiz now?”
“What?”
“It’s a riot. She’s the Doll Princess.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Seriously. Our Aizuu is waaay cuter and more huggable than any doll!”
“That’s not what they mean.”
Riveria felt her frustration rise a notch and stared at the ceiling after Loki’s joke.
“Anyone who keeps plungin’ ahead without rest eventually falls on their face…Not that we can get that through to her, though…”
Her quiet confession resonated in the office as Finn and Riveria nodded in silent agreement.
The second hand on the big grandfather clock that Loki had bought on a whim ticked audibly. Finally, Riveria spoke up.
“What is Aiz doing?”
Loki just shrugged and smiled wryly.
“Dungeon, what else? Gareth’s taking care of her.”
“Gishaaaaaaaa?!”
A monster howled its dying cry as a single slash of a sword sliced into it.
Without waiting for the purple moth’s severed body and wings to hit the floor, Aiz landed and charged on to the next prey.
“—!”
“Gegaaah?!”
The sword’s edge neatly ran through the gap in the killer ant’s exoskeleton. She struck it at one of the few joints in its carapace. A spray of blood gushed from the giant ant monster’s soft interior. As it faltered, she landed a second strike, effortlessly slaying it.
“Aiz, don’t be so reckless! Come back for a moment!”
“I can keep going!”
Ignoring Gareth as he defeated a monster to the side, Aiz advanced, her long golden hair fluttering in the air.
The armor she had equipped was a prum armor dress, a grade above the Guild-provided gear she used to wear. The sword she held was a steel shortsword purchased from a weapons store. The former had been modified to match Loki’s tastes; the latter Gareth had given to her after using his judgment to pick it out. Armed with those two items, Aiz dove straight into the swarm of monsters. The way she used her small body to close the distance and gain the upper hand against them was reminiscent of a quadruped on the prowl.
Her movements had become unimaginably polished in half a year. It was almost unrecognizable compared to when she used to rely on only brute force and overkilling things left and right. She cut down on the unnecessary movements and power, using her speed and precision to take out the monsters. Using the information she had learned about her enemies, she hit their weak point with greater precision than ever: Since her current targets didn’t have a proper head, she simply sliced into the magic stone in their chests.
It was all the product of their lessons. Aiz was gradually developing her own fighting style: a preemptive frontal charge coupled with speedy slashes. However, that gave them one more thing to worry about.
“Her defense is all over the place…Sheesh, she’s really only thinkin’ about defeating them.”
A killer ant’s counterattack cut her cheek, but Aiz paid it no heed as she thrust her sword in retaliation. The leather and white metal plates of her armor dress bore countless nicks and scratches from monster claws and teeth. By accepting that damage, though, Aiz was able to unleash twice as many attacks of her own.
She despised defense and disregarded it because she considered it inefficient. Gareth was left troubled as he watched her fight unfold.
Coincidentally, at the same time as Riveria and the others were worrying about her, the girl was ignoring the pain and simply continuing to swing her sword.
“Ngh…!”
“Good grief, you’ve destroyed another weapon.”
Right as the last monster hit the ground, her steel sword cracked before shattering into pieces. Aiz’s muted expression shifted, her eyebrows scrunching a bit. Gareth groaned.
“Aiz, you need to account for your own body and take better care of it. Eventually, the bill comes due.”
“…I can win against the monsters. It’s fine.”
“I’m not talkin’ about winnin’ and losin’ here…”
Aiz turned away, wiping the blood dripping down her cheek. Gareth could only sigh. But he declined to push any further as he collected the magic stones and drop items.
Among the three of them, Aiz preferred Gareth’s company to the rest.
They hadn’t yet known each other half a year, but the things he taught her were more exciting than the subjects of Finn’s lessons and simpler than Riveria’s. But more than anything, he did not talk much. She had made becoming strong her ultimate goal, after all, so she was grateful for that.
The dwarf warrior’s line of thought appeared to be that pain was just another experience Aiz could benefit from, so he wasn’t as fussy as Riveria. And it was so much less stressful for her because of that. Riveria had been scolding her more often lately—and Aiz was rebelling against it—so this was a way for her to maintain her emotional equilibrium.
“Let youngsters make mistakes. And then have them learn from them.”
Aiz did not grasp the true meaning behind Gareth’s words, but she interpreted it conveniently for herself.
“Gareth, just a little more…”
“No can do; we’re headin’ back.”
He was not going to let her force the matter further.
Cut off before she could even finish, she gave a look of dissatisfaction that only the four of them had seen.
“Unbelievable, breaking swords after only a couple of swings…Look, this is the last one I’ve got.”
Pulling double duty as a supporter, Gareth handed her a spare sword. It was her third one on this trip alone. He grumbled about getting too much practice finding cheap weapons from no-name weapons shops as he handed her a potion, too.
They were on the seventh floor.
Currently, they were holed up in a room that dead-ended off the main route.
Under Gareth’s instructions, Aiz had stopped actively hunting monsters and was in the process of reluctantly heading back when she suddenly changed her mind and her expression along with it. The stench of monsters pervaded the passage, which stirred up her desire to battle and to kill.
Aiz was already rather muted, but when she was in the Dungeon, she seemed entirely emotionless. She just kept slaughtering monsters with a frozen expression.
The Doll Princess.
Even when a monster’s blood splashed across her face, her expression did not change in the slightest. The other adventurers had given her the nickname half in fear, half in scorn as she continued to do nothing but hunt monsters. In this half a year, the newest member of Loki Familia had shaved away at her emotions until there was nothing left in her quest to wipe out all the monsters. She had become something of a legend around the Guild and among the lower-class adventurers. At the same time, though, she was the obvious candidate for super rookie of the year.
“Gareth.”
“What?”
“The armor…is getting…tight…”
“Huh, already? No, I suppose around your age is when humans start to mature. We just got it fitted, though. Hmm, I guess we should get it changed.”
“I want a custom…weapon, too. One that won’t break.”
“The little newbie’s tryin’ to make a joke. Learn how to not break your weapons first.”
“…Then let me go to the tenth floor next time.”
“That’s not happening.”
“…Why? I already went there twice before…”
“I heard you got full of yourself and nearly let an orc murder you. You’ve gotta get permission from Riveria and Finn first.”
“…”
On the way back, she verbally sparred with Gareth. He would not go along with what she really wanted, though, and her frustrations showed even more clearly on her face.
Feeling more and more constricted by the limitations placed on her lately, Aiz was turning into a big ball of rebelliousness. It wasn’t quite bad enough to call a temper tantrum, but she was visibly sullen and unhappy.
She seems to act like the young girl she is around the four of us, though…Gareth observed. That Doll Princess nickname aside, her rebelliousness ain’t much different from when we first met her…Though lately she’s been looking especially haggard…
Watching her from a step back, he felt that despite the muscles she had developed, her arms and legs were scrawny.
“Uwaaaaaaaaa!”
All of a sudden, several screams erupted from somewhere up ahead.
Aiz sprang into action fast enough to give anyone watching whiplash as she rushed toward the source of the screams. She arrived at the path that connected to the sixth floor above.
“Gaaah?! Damn it! Don’t screw with me!”
“There’s too many of them!”
“Someone heeelp!”
A swarm of killer ants was gathering around a handful of parties with different emblems. The lower-class adventurers were having a rough time, since a swarm that size was rarely encountered on the upper levels.
“A swarm of killer ants! Some adventurer messed up and pulled a pass parade?!”
A first-tier adventurer, Gareth could immediately tell what had happened. A killer ant had gotten wounded, panicked, and released pheromones to call for reinforcements. An adventurer’s failure to finish the job had escalated into the situation before them.
The pass parade had occurred on the main path and managed to block off the connecting path, leaving them no way to escape. Seeing the agitated monsters, Gareth nearly joined the fray, but then—
“?!”
Aiz dove in headlong without analyzing the situation at all.
“Wait! Aiz!”
Gareth’s attempt to stop her fell on deaf ears, drowned out by the cries of the killer ants.
With the adventurers’ plight as an excuse, she broke past the limits that Riveria and the others had told her to maintain. Unleashing the full force of her Status, the girl transformed into an angel of destruction. Her face emotionless, her golden eyes filled with an overwhelming desire to kill, she swung her sword like the God of Death’s scythe.
“Th-that’s Loki Familia’s…”
“Golden hair, golden eyes…No mistaking it…”
“Uwah…”
Even as their claws lashed at her, wounded her, drew blood, she slaughtered monster after monster. The adventurers who had asked for help paled, speechless as they watched her fight.
The monsters screeched as shattered exoskeletons burst in the air and severed limbs and heads soared across the passage.
In the midst of the feral attacks, her fierce sword techniques exterminated the swarm of killer ants one by one.
“…A killing doll.”
“Doll Princess…No, War Princess.”
Someone mumbled as the monsters’ blood and lamentations alike disappeared into the battlefield.
Gareth stood by himself, silent, watching the murderous scene that left no room for him to intervene.
“…Done.”
Finally, the mountain of corpses was complete.
Standing in the center of the beasts’ grave was a bloodstained golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.
The silent corner of the Dungeon was painted red. Since it was along the main route, a great many people witnessed it.
The adventurers were frozen in place, having caught a glimpse and sensed a portion of the girl’s madness.
Before their eyes, the girl, covered in wounds, looked up at the ceiling in the labyrinth with no sky.
Finally, cracks ran along her sword, and it shattered into shards like silver raindrops.
“I want a sturdier sword.”
Expressionless, Aiz made her demand in a sharp voice.
“Those are the first words out of your mouth right after you come back?”
Riveria massaged her brow, as if trying to soothe a headache.
The office had become a lecture hall. After returning from the Dungeon, Aiz was immediately called in. Even if she hid the wounds using a potion, the stains from all the blood splattered across her armor couldn’t be scrubbed away. The elf was furious after hearing the gist of things from Gareth.
That said, Gareth himself seemed unconcerned.
“Aiz, that’s enough! Your behavior has been intolerable lately!”
“No…it isn’t. I do my studies. I listen to what Gareth and Finn say, too.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about! You need to take better care of yourself!”
“More importantly, my sword—”
“What do you mean, ‘more importantly’?! You think I’ll let that slide? Fool!”
It’s started again. Gareth looked worn out. Reaching a stopping point in his paperwork, Finn looked on with his now well-practiced wry smile. Loki was away dealing with another issue as Riveria’s scolding heated up.
“Don’t think it’s fine just because you’re improving! This is exactly how adventurers who haven’t properly developed their abilities get themselves killed! And you went and used your Skill despite what we said! Even after we told you so often not to rely on it and use your normal Status to fight!”
“…Stupid elf.”
“What?!”
“Calm down, Riveria.”
Gareth tried to soothe Riveria after Aiz’s absentmindedly whispered response. The high elf winced as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were full of hurt.
“…And you’ve been so focused on training that you haven’t been eating properly.”
Riveria took Aiz’s right arm.
Even taking into account her young age, it was far too scrawny. There was no extraneous flesh at all. Only refined muscle, skin, and bones. Almost swordlike in the way it had been honed for a single goal. Her once beautiful golden hair was in similarly terrible shape.
Aiz was spending literally all her time training. She ate the minimal amount of food required to sustain herself, angled for any chance to steal a moment with Finn or Gareth for a mock battle, and spent all her free time practicing sword swings. Given how early she got up, she was probably losing sleep. She had probably accumulated a tremendous deal of fatigue.
Aiz pulled her arm away from Riveria, an awkward look on her face.
That face had become hollow as well.
Or rather—it had been sharpened.
To a dangerous extent.
Her battered body had definitely gotten stronger, increasing the power she could call upon.
But at this rate, it was almost as if—
“I can fight. So it’s okay. More importantly…”
More importantly.
Aiz didn’t notice that the moment she said it, Riveria’s face contorted in anguish. Her eyes filled with sadness.
Only Finn and Gareth noticed their friend’s response.
“I want a weapon that won’t break. A weapon that can fight more.”
Stepping away from Riveria, Aiz settled her gaze onto Finn, the captain.
He glanced over at Gareth, standing behind the girl. The dwarf was holding the shortsword that had broken in the last fight.
“If money is the problem…I have enough, right? Use all of it…if you need to.”
All the things she had gotten from the monsters she defeated were exchanged for money, which was deposited in her savings. Riveria was managing it, though the payments for her items and weapons were deducted accordingly. Even accounting for the necessary costs, Aiz had managed to kill over three thousand in the past six months, so if she used all her savings, it was more than likely she’d get a fairly good weapon. She was sure of that.
However.
“Aiz…I’m in agreement with Riveria. We can’t give you a strong weapon when you’re in this state.”
Finn flatly rejected her request. Glancing back to Aiz, he continued.
“Even if we ignore your current condition, you’ve gotten so focused on your goal that you can’t even notice when the people right in front of you are worried.”
Riveria quickly looked away from Aiz.
Aiz did not understand what it meant, but she was also too worked up to think it over.
Why don’t they get it? They know how hard I’m working to fulfill my wish. Those were the sorts of thoughts swirling in her heart.
Aiz gritted her teeth, her shoulders quivering, before finally dashing out of the office.
“Oi, Aiz!…Haaah, good grief.”
Gareth stroked his beard as she disappeared down the hall.
Back in the office, Riveria bent over, looking down helplessly to avoid meeting Finn’s eyes.
“…What was it they said in the Far East at times like this?”
“Ah, I remember that.”
Finn’s and Gareth’s voices hung in the silent room, exchanging glances as they held back a sigh.
“No child knows how dear she is to her parents.”
Aiz ran away from the manor via a back door.
A swirl of wildly different emotions crossed her doll-like face as she pumped her arms, trying to escape. She was not just running away, though. She had a goal in mind.
She was headed for Northwest Main Street, also known as Adventurers Way.
I’ll find one myself!
An angry glare rising on her face, she let out the full torrent of discontent she had built up at their stubbornness.
Since it had come to this, she decided to find a sword that met her standards on her own.
At this point in time, Aiz was famous, often called the Doll, but she also had some simplistic views and a naughty streak that befit her age. It was particularly striking when she was dealing with Riveria and the others, and how much she despaired when she felt they had abandoned her. It could even be called sulking. The truth was that she had already run away from home like this several times before.
And as per usual, Aiz had set off based purely on emotion.
Requesting a made-to-order weapon from a smithing familia would be best, but…
Perhaps because of her childish nature, Aiz had pressed her face to a certain weapons shop’s show window on more than one occasion, staring at the wares on display. But she had also been stunned at the sight of more than seven zeros lined up on the price tags before.
More than anything, though, she did not have any connections with a smithing familia. It was entirely unrealistic.
I guess I have to look for a weapons shop…
The next best alternative was searching for a hidden gem.
Aiz was not a connoisseur, but in the past half a year, she had at least learned which weapons cut well and had good durability. Being able to find a weapon that suited its owner was a crucial skill for adventurers.
Northwest Main Street was a major spot for businesses catering to adventurers. As would be expected of a place called “Adventurers Way,” there were countless different specialty shops marketed toward adventurers lining the street. And of course, that included weapons shops.
As for payment, the adventurers’ shops would generally be willing to accept a commission if someone showed a familia emblem. Doubly so in her case, since she had the Loki Familia emblem. She could arrange the payment from her savings once she had her hands on a sword.
—Think about it later. At that point, Aiz seemed to realize she was no different from a child who insisted on having a certain toy. Bending her values to suit her goal, the seven-year-old girl wanted something special for herself, even if her time as an adventurer influenced what that something would be.
Irritated with the adults who would not let her have her way, she kept rushing ahead without thought.
“…Rain?”
The drops began falling at the worst possible time.
The gray clouds filling the sky had brought a heavy downpour to the city. Normally, Aiz was indifferent to getting drenched, but when the rain started to blow horizontally, even she faltered.
Bedraggled and weather-beaten, she paused her search and fled into the nearest building.
She glared up at the sky, water dripping from her hair, clearly uncomfortable in her soaked clothes.
“—Waaah. Man, I’m beat! I could see it was gonna rain, but who knew it’d be this bad?!”
A woman entered the building that Aiz had taken shelter in.
She had a dark complexion and short black hair. Her body was curvaceous in a way that a childlike Aiz could not begin to match, and her voluptuous breasts were just peeking out from her top as she started to undress.
“I have to meet up with the goddess, too…What a disaster.”
But most distinctive of all was the jet-black eye patch over her left eye.
Human…No, a half?
As Aiz focused on her, struggling to determine her race from those characteristics and the general mood about her, the woman wringing out her top finally noticed the girl.
“Oops, someone was already here, huh? And such a cute little girl to boot. Sorry you have to see me like this. You were so small, I didn’t notice you!”
“…I’m not small.”
The woman was stripping down to just her bra without shame and laughing teasingly. Aiz unconsciously reacted to her bluntness and objected despite only just meeting her.
“I’m sorry; I’m sorry!” The woman laughed before squinting her right eye, examining the girl. Aiz was just starting to scowl back when the woman’s face lit up.
“Golden hair, golden eyes, and an impertinent, surly look. Would you by any chance be the little girl in Gareth’s familia?”
“!”
Aiz’s eyes opened in surprise.
“You know Gareth?”
“Of course. I’ve contracted with him. I see; I see. You’re the Aiz Wallenstein he mentioned…”
After convincing herself of the young girl’s identity, she offered her name.
“I go by Tsubaki. Hephaistos Familia blacksmith.”
Aiz was stunned again at the name she spoke—not Tsubaki but that of the familia she belonged to.
“Oh, I’ve heard stories about you and your rampages, massacring a swarm of monsters. You’re called the Doll Princess, aren’t you? Ha-ha-ha, you are certainly as pretty as a doll, but—”
“Please!”
“Hmm?”
Aiz interjected as Tsubaki stroked her chin. She had a request for the bemused blacksmith.
“I’d like you to make a sword for me!”
Hephaistos Familia was the biggest blacksmithing group in the Labyrinth City at the moment. Their name was known around the world. Even someone as oblivious as Aiz recognized the ???????? logo. If she could get a member of that famous smithing familia to make a sword for her, then…
Aiz looked at her with hopeful eyes.
“Hrmph…”
In response, Tsubaki squinted her right eye.
“Why do you want me to make you something?”
“Because I think you must be an amazing blacksmith…!”
“Why do you want a sword?”
“The swords I use…all break…so I want a sword that won’t…!”
Aiz did not notice Tsubaki’s gaze as she stumbled over her words, looking for how to respond.
Her gaze swept over the girl’s body. Scrawny limbs, bruised skin, unkempt hair.
“If you got a sword, what would you do?”
“—I want to become strong.”
Finally, her right eye met the dark flame in Aiz’s grim, golden eyes.
After a moment’s pause, Tsubaki smiled.
“I refuse.”
When Aiz was visibly shocked, she elaborated.
“I have no intention of giving you a weapon.”
“Why?!”
“I’m not interested.”
“Wh—?”
“No, ‘I can’t stomach the thought’ might be a better way to put it. Either way, give up. Craftsmen are the kind of people who won’t budge if they’re not interested. Myself included.”
Aiz was about to argue more with Tsubaki, since she was being so vague about why she was turning down the request, but then the smith responded.
“Besides…‘I want a sword that won’t break’? What a strange thing to say.”
Time froze when she heard the next words out of Tsubaki’s mouth.
“If you want a sword that’s not broken yet, there’s one right there, isn’t there?”
Tsubaki pointed straight at Aiz.
“Eh…”
The girl could not move.
Her outstretched finger was definitely pointing at Aiz.
What is she saying?
At the moment, Aiz was not even wearing a sword belt, let alone a sword.
A sword…Where…?
No.
What she is pointing at.
What she is looking at is—
—me?
The moment Aiz instinctively realized it, the woman narrowed her eyes and curled her lips. To Aiz in the moment, the smile looked like a mockery.
“Oh, the rain stopped.”
Aiz was frozen stiff, but Tsubaki ignored her and cheered the rain passing.
“Well then, little girl. If you want a weapon, look elsewhere.”
She parted with those words.
The wound remained in Aiz’s heart, as if a sharpened blade had stabbed her.
A sword that hasn’t broken yet?
A sword that will someday break?
Me…a sword…?
Even after Tsubaki left, Aiz could not move from that spot.
“Oh, ye finally came back!”
The sky was shrouded in darkness.
Gareth breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Aiz approaching the manor, hanging her head.
“Where’d you go, lass? I was just lookin’ for you with Riveria.”
“…”
“We were getting worried…Aiz?”
Noticing her unusual behavior, Gareth changed his tone as he called out to her. Her shoulders jumped. She lifted her face and finally noticed Gareth was there.
“Gar…eth…”
“Did something happen?”
“…I met a person with an eye patch…Tsubaki…”
“What? What about Tsubaki?”
Watching Aiz sluggishly nod, Gareth furrowed his brow as if sensing what had happened.
“Did she tell you something?”
“…”
He waited patiently without speaking, and finally the young girl explained in her small voice.
“She…I’m…a sword…”
“…”
“I’m a sword…That’s what she said…”
Even as she was speaking, Aiz could not understand why she had been so stricken by it.
But that gaze and the smile she saw at the time were still etched into her brain. Those words had struck her at her core.
I’m a sword?
Not a person, a weapon?
A sword that would someday break? Destined to be destroyed?
All of a sudden, Aiz did not know what she was anymore. She lost sight of herself. Those simple words of Tsubaki’s—the assessment she could not deny—had shaken her.
Her heart raced to an uneasy beat.
Aiz didn’t want to look in a mirror. She was afraid she might not see herself in the reflection. She might see something else entirely.
“Oof, Tsubaki…Ye sure opened a big can of worms.”
Seeing Aiz in this state, Gareth breathed his biggest sigh of the day. He had forged a direct contract with the smithing specialist and he knew her personality all too well, which was why he directed an extra-large complaint her way.
Gareth called out to the still-soaked girl.
“Aiz, after you warm up in the bath, come to my room.”
“…Eh?”
“I’ll talk to Riveria and Finn for you.”
Gareth left Aiz with that as she looked up to see him lumbering back to the manor.
Aiz just stood there for a minute before slowly dragging herself to the bath to get rid of the chill like he suggested. After steadily warming herself up, she changed into the dressing gown that had been prepared for her at some point. She wandered hesitantly for a bit before heading to Gareth’s room.
Her destination was directly beneath Finn’s office, at the north end of the collection of spires that formed the manor.
“Aye, so ye came?”
Aiz thought the room was the exact opposite of Riveria’s.
Axes and greatswords and other large weapons and shields were everywhere, giving it a vaguely rustic feel. In the corner was a sooty treasure chest that showed its age, drawing the eye. There was a large desk, shortened to suit a dwarf, and a collection of tools that appeared to be for tinkering with things was laid out across it. There was a large collection of documents as well, though not as many as Riveria had. Instead of magic-stone lamps, there was a lantern that looked like it burned coal.
In the middle of the room, Gareth was sitting on his bed. His ax, what looked like Aiz’s shortsword, a hand towel and some wool, some knives and other tools were all spread across a sheet atop the bed as well.
“Gareth, that’s…”
“Aye. I’m going to teach you how to maintain your weapons.”
Aiz blinked over and over at his sudden declaration.
Not minding her reaction, Gareth beckoned to her. “Come on—over here.”
Bewildered, Aiz did as he said and sat on the bed with him. She watched him as he sat at ease, rummaging through the sparkling tools before suddenly pushing her sword and a cloth into her hands.
“Try to do it just like I tell you. First, run it along the core of the blade…”
“L-like this?”
Following his instructions, she began the weapon’s maintenance. Aiz grew flustered when she couldn’t emulate Gareth’s movements the way she intended; it forced her to acknowledge once again just how unskilled she was. Still, she did not have anything else to do at the moment, so she silently focused on her work.
After Gareth taught her what to do, he returned to wiping down his own weapon. When Aiz made a mistake or did not know what to do next, he would wrap his large hand around hers and tell her, “Like this,” explaining it in a few words.
She had thought he always sounded so exciting, but the way he put his hands on hers was soft and kind.
It was difficult to describe the mood as the time passed. The dwarf fell silent as the two of them continued to polish their weapons together.
If she’d had a grandfather…it probably would have felt like this.
As something whispered in the recesses of her heart…
“Aiz, ye see…you have to take care of your weapons like this.”
Gareth broke his silence.
“…?”
“If you leave them soaking in monster blood, they’ll rust. If even a speck of dust sticks to them, the edges will grow dull. Weapons seem sturdy, but the reality is that they’re delicate things.”
“…”
“There’s a saying. ‘Weapons are an extension of their wielder.’ We have to take care of them as parts of ourselves.”
“That’s…What?”
Without raising his face, still focused on his ax, Gareth narrowed his eyes.
“It’s the same for adventurers.”
“!”
Aiz opened her eyes wide at those words.
“Look at the sword in your hands. It’s the weapon you were using today. It’s covered in wounds…just like you right now.”
“…!”
“That’s what Tsubaki meant.”
The rusted shortsword in her hands exemplified the truth that Aiz had refused to recognize.
Just like Gareth said, the sword was damaged all over. She looked at all the nicks left on it. This extension of Aiz was crying out in pain right now.
She saw her scrawny arms, scarred skin, and damaged hair reflected in the steel blade.
“If you don’t pay attention, it wears down, and wears down, and wears down…and in the end, it breaks. Gone too soon.”
“Oh…”
“But if ye take proper care and maintain it…Look, just like you see before you. Damaged weapons can regain their luster.”
With one hand, Gareth lightly picked up his ax, its maintenance complete.
Just as he’d said, the weapon glinted with a sturdy light despite some lingering scars.
“Breaking isn’t the only fate swords can have. If you can bring back their shine like this, if you put together the broken pieces, they can be reborn, too.”
“Gareth…”
“That’s why you have to take care of your weapons—and of yourself, too. If you can do that, it will be your first step to becoming a fine adventurer.”
Looking at Aiz, Gareth broke into a wrinkled smile.
With his compassionate expression buried in his beard, he seemed cheerful and kind, like a gentle old man.
His hand felt warm as he patted her head, tousling her hair.
For a second, Aiz thought she felt a tingling in the backs of her eyes, but she dismissed it as her imagination. There was no way that could be.
Aiz looked down at the sword in her hands and began polishing it again.
She restored the shine of her blade as Gareth looked on with a peaceful gaze.
From that day on, Aiz made a daily habit of taking care of her sword.
She would do it every night without fail in the room she had been given on the top floor of the spire, working by moonlight beside the window instead of turning on a lamp. Sitting atop her bed, she would trace over her damaged sword.
She had stopped saying she wanted strong weapons. She used the one Gareth had picked out for her like an extension of herself, carefully balancing her fiercer sword techniques and her more precise techniques in their due places. She stuck with it until it was time to part, and at that point, she felt like she had acquired something important.
She also started eating properly at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She even managed to get the carrots she hated into her mouth with a straight face, with all the stiffness of a mannequin. Though she did wince once they were safely inside. The more senior members of the familia who she did not interact with much were shocked to see her in the dining hall and struggled to contain their laughter at her struggle against the carrots.
“Aiz.”
“Riveria…”
“Could…That is, would…you let me help you take care of your hair?”
“…Okay.”
And she also brushed her hair.
Riveria was surprised when Aiz nodded at her doubt-filled request, but finally she smiled and brought the girl to her own room to arrange her hair.
The first time, there was an awful lot of exchanges like “Owww!” and “J-just be patient!” but as the days passed, Riveria’s care reached a level fit for a queen—elegant and gentle, reminiscent of a loving attendant.
She stood directly behind Aiz, who sat in a chair as the brush ran through her hair with soft sounds. Glancing at the full-length mirror, she noticed that Riveria’s face looked gentler than she had ever seen it before.
“Hey…Riveria.”
“What is it, Aiz?”
“Are you growing your hair out?”
“Hmm, yes. My hair has always grown quickly. When I explore the labyrinth, it gets in the way, so I usually cut it short whenever I come back to Orario, but…”
“…?”
“…Loki…said that it was better for someone in my position to let it grow out, so I decided to give it a try.”
“In your position?”
“N-nothing for you to concern yourself with.”
Riveria’s jade hair extended down her back, held in place by a single hair band. She did not hesitate to say it was just a whim, but the reason she had picked that golden hair band was because of the golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.
Aiz was still far younger, but from behind, they looked almost like sisters, or perhaps a mother and daughter.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Hearing the sound of the brush through the cracked door, Finn, Gareth, and Loki peeked in so silently that even the high elf first-tier adventurer did not notice them. They exchanged smiles.
The prum leader nodded deeply, as if acknowledging something.
“Aiz, I’m going to have a weapon made for you.”
This was the first thing Aiz heard after being called into the office.
At first she did not know how to respond and just stared in puzzlement.
“What’s this? It’s the custom weapon ye’ve been wanting, isn’t it? You should be happier!”
“…Is it okay?”
“Yes. We all talked it over and agreed that now is the right time.”
Aiz’s gaze shifted from the smiling Gareth to Finn and then to Riveria standing next to them. The high elf smiled suddenly with closed eyes.
Setting Aiz aside, since she could not quite believe it was real yet, Loki started bubbling over in excitement.
“Awww right! Aizuu’s first-ever made-to-order weapon! I’ll take care of getting it made like I did with the armor. It’s gonna be a suuuper-special blade!”
“It’s a weapon for a lower-class adventurer. Don’t get carried away.”
As Loki excitedly fist-pumped, she was brought back down to Earth by a blow from Riveria’s staff.
“Guooo?!”
Leaving their patron goddess rolling around on the ground, they split up.
However, as the days passed, Aiz couldn’t deny the excitement growing in her.
She couldn’t say whether it was anticipation or trepidation. Most likely, it was some of both.
Aiz went to see the craftsmen who had taken the order a few times, and then she spent several sleepless nights waiting for the day to come.
And so, one week after Finn’s pronouncement…
“You’re here, huh…?”
A stern-faced old god waited in the workshop beneath the three overlapping hammers of the faction’s emblem that hung overhead.
Goibniu Familia. They were slightly less well known, but they were a solid smithing familia whose quality neither surpassed nor fell behind Hephaistos Familia’s.
According to Loki, “The old man’s curious about ya!” so Aiz was a bit tense as she followed behind Goibniu.
Riveria and Gareth looked on as she took the item that was placed on the pedestal.
“Try drawing it.”
“…Okay.”
She drew the blade from its scabbard and held it in both hands, raising it up.
It was significantly longer than any sword she had used before. It was still in the shortsword category, but for Aiz’s current size, it was effectively a longsword. The blade’s body had a wave running through it, a line dividing the extra-hardened blade edge from the more flexible spine. She could tell even without testing it that it was incredibly sharp.
It was a beautiful sword with a pale tinge of blue to it. Riveria and Gareth were astonished, while Aiz had been left speechless and instantly in love.
“The sword’s name is…Sword Air.”
“Sword Air…”
The sword’s name tumbled from her lips.
Raising her first trusted sword to the ceiling, Aiz saw Sword Air’s blade shimmer.
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