INTERLUDE
THAT NEVER-COOLING IRON
Welf Crozzo
Level 2
Strength: H118 -> 177 Defense: H123 -> 191 Dexterity: H143 -> G 233 Agility: I71 -> H138 Magic: I72 -> 98 Blacksmith: I
Magic
Will-o-Wisp
• Anti-magic fire
• Chant: “Blasphemous burn!”
Skills
Blood of Crozzo
• Ability to produce magic swords
• Can increase potency of magic swords during creation
Veritas Burn
• Grants resistance to flame
• Amplifies power of fire-element attacks
The same day Lilly leveled up, Welf received a Status update.
In addition to the growth of his abilities, he developed a new skill. Having only recently reached Level 2, there was no way he was going to hit Level 3 yet—he wasn’t Bell, after all—but the combat experience he had gained during the expedition had still borne fruit.
Possibly as a by-product of being “tempered” in such extreme conditions, he had developed a skill that enhanced his proficiency with the element of fire, which meant that any of his magic swords of the same element would become even more potent. Unsurprisingly, Hestia, being inexperienced in battle, was very pleased with these easily understood results.
For Welf, though, these were trivial issues. He had a far higher priority to be happy about.
“My latest magic sword. Please, have a look at it.”
In the third-floor office of the northwest main street branch of Hephaistos Familia , Welf was unable to conceal his pride as he presented the weapon to the goddess before him.
It was Shikou-Kazuki, and it had been forged in the Dungeon.
“………”
The goddess who was inspecting it, Hephaistos, narrowed her left eye (her right being covered by an eye patch) and ran her gaze carefully over the length of the blade.
There was no more nerve-racking moment for a smith than this one. It was harrowing. A literal deity of the forge was evaluating his work from a position of utter mastery.
As a matter of course, any artisan would hang on every word of a goddess like Hephaistos, or a god like Goibniu. It was enough that some who were dangled out over the cliff like this never wanted to pick up a hammer again. To smiths, the evaluations these deities gave were the literal word of god.
However, this one time, such anxiety was far from Welf’s mind.
This wasn’t because he expected a favorable response, though. It was because he felt a deep satisfaction in what he had created. Even if it were judged badly, it simply meant that he would have to be prepared to redouble his efforts to reach new heights.
Welf felt only an intense commitment to surpassing himself, having poured his whole being into the magic blade in front of him.
“Goddess, as you now know, Welf forged this magic sword while he was in the Dungeon. The idiot created it in a place of death where he lacked the proper tools and preparation. I ask that you take these trying circumstances into account when you hand down the judgment of your unclouded eye.”
In addition to Hephaistos and Welf, there was a half-dwarf woman in the room as well, her generous bosom wrapped in a strip of white cloth. Resting her chin on her hands while sitting at what was normally Hephaistos’s desk, Tsubaki teased the supplicant even as she spoke up for him with a smile on her lips.
Welf would have been far more comfortable if Tsubaki wasn’t here for this, but she had absolutely insisted on being present. As Welf stared daggers at her after she’d mentioned details he would’ve preferred not to be shared at this very moment, Hephaistos finally spoke, breaking her silence.
“Indeed, this is no Crozzo Magic Sword. It’s yours—a Welf Magic Sword.” She ran her fingertip along the blade, which already bore the marks of considerable wear after seeing use in the Dungeon. She had undoubtedly noticed already that it had been forged of adamantite.
Hephaistos’s eyes were faintly reflected in the vivid red of the blade, as though to illustrate the essence of Welf’s skill, and most of all, the fire and spirit he’d put into the piece.
The magic weapon was strikingly beautiful.
“So, Goddess—your verdict?” Tsubaki asked, as though to speed the proceedings along.
There was a short pause. Then the master of the forge spoke. “…It’s adequate.”
Something surged within Welf so strongly that he tightly clenched his fist.
That short utterance was all Hephaistos had to say. But it was enough to send Welf’s spirits soaring. His body burned like a furnace. That was how highly he valued the Goddess of the Forge’s words.
Tsubaki’s expression was smug as she watched the two of them, every bit the senior apprentice pleased with the evident progress of her junior.
“…The pinnacle you both strive for is still distant. You must continue to walk the path.” Hephaistos had been nearly expressionless the entire time, but here she finally smiled. She held Shikou-Kazuki out in both hands, and Welf received it with both hands, as though accepting a blessing from his liege lord.
In place of a sheath, he rewrapped the blade in white cloth as he imprinted the heft of the weapon into the palms of his hands, carefully, as though savoring it. Hephaistos looked on fondly, like a guardian deity watching from the heavens.
Then—
“…Ahem,” Hephaistos coughed in a deliberate manner. As though to wipe away the serenely divine expression she’d worn up until that point, her cheeks reddened, and she closed her eyes.
From Welf’s perspective as he stood opposite her, she looked askance, and her mouth worked as though she were trying to force something out.
When she did speak, it was in a rambling manner, her words halting in a most un-Hephaistos-like way. “Well, it’s got its rough and unrefined spots, but you did put your soul into its creation, so…and I suppose that even I, a goddess, would not have imagined that you would come so far in such a short time, so…what I’m saying is…and…just a bit, mind you, really just a bit…I suppose I wouldn’t be remiss to acknowledge your skill…”
As she spoke, the red tint in her cheeks deepened. Tsubaki looked on, grinning.
Welf being Welf, whatever it was Hephaistos was trying to say, he understood the true meaning behind her words.
He clenched his fist in triumph again.
The scarlet-haired, scarlet-eyed goddess opened her eyes and looked back at Welf, returning his smile.
Then, the moment Hephaistos summoned her resolve, he, too, raised his voice to make a statement.
“As promised, I will go out with y—” she began, but—
“Thank you, Goddess!! I will build on this progress, and I swear to craft a blade you will fully approve of!”
Welf spoke so emphatically that it completely drowned out what the goddess had been about to say.
Hephaistos froze.
Tsubaki did the same.
And Welf smiled triumphantly. He was absolutely confident that he had understood what it was she wanted to say. She would not allow him to stagnate after showing her a piece like this. He ought not to indulge in complacency but rather set his eyes on the next peak to scale. To reach the pinnacle, and to keep the grand promise he held in his heart, he had to continue striving forward.
“If you’ll excuse me!” Welf barked, then turned on his heel. With no regrets whatsoever, he opened the door and left.
All he wanted to do now was head straight to his smithy and begin crafting new weapons.
Behind him, he left Hephaistos and Tsubaki both quite dumbfounded.
After Welf left, the shocked Hephaistos finally raised her voice in a girlish cry. “…Unbelievable!”
Her cheeks were even redder than they had been, her face a tapestry of anger, wounded pride, and frustration. She stared furiously at the doors through which the boy had left and stamped her foot once, adorably.
If a certain younger goddess and dear friend of hers had been there, she would have been shocked.
Beside her, Tsubaki rubbed her forehead and heaved a sigh at the uncharacteristic outburst.
“He’s so thick-headed…He managed to attain such skill, and now weapons are his only love interest,” grumbled the master smith, conveniently ignoring how ironic it was for that line to come from her mouth. “That forge-addicted idiot…”
“Yessss!”
Welf ran through the streets of Orario, his white-fabric-wrapped magic sword slung over his back.
He wore a huge smile across his face as he sped through the alleys, taking great leaping strides, yelling loudly enough to startle the demi-humans he passed. The joy he’d hid and hid and hid from Hephaistos and Tsubaki was finally allowed to escape.
He was like a little boy.
This was a side no one ever saw from Welf, as he was usually very careful to act in a manner that he thought was most befitting for a senior member of Hestia Familia . If anyone was supposed to act like this, it would be Bell.
If asked whether he was as happy as he seemed, Welf would’ve replied—
Damn right I’m happy!
After all, Hephaistos—the greatest smith he knew—had called his work “adequate”!
Any smith, Welf included, knew perfectly well how difficult that appraisal was to get.
To have a piece deemed “adequate” by the Goddess of the Forge, one who stood atop the very pinnacle of the craft, was an unparalleled honor.
He had been acknowledged, even if it was just a crumb of recognition. Although their first meeting had been a coincidence, the Master of Fire had instantly drawn him in, and now he’d finally scored a point.
“Yes!” he cried out again. As he ran, he gave into the impulse and pushed off the ground with his right leg, leaping into the air. Reason would’ve told him to pull back and restrain himself, but the feeling that wanted to burst from his chest could not be denied.
—He had loathed magic swords. Probably from the very first day he was able to forge them, he had hated them.
But now, finally, if only a tiny bit, he was able to love them.
“I feel like I can finally accept you guys a little.”
He continued to run with no particular destination in mind, and suddenly found himself in Central Park.
Welf slowed his pace, the warm sun bathing him in its light.
As adventurers passed around him, he looked up.
“Phobos…are you watching?” he murmured, gazing up into the expanse of the wide blue sky, thinking of all the moments that had made him who he was. “I’m doing it. I’m really doing it.”
Eventually, the corners of his mouth curled into a mischievous smile.
In the spaces between the clouds, he thought he saw a certain goddess’s face, smiling the same way.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login