Tenshi Translations

Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 2

 

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You can grab the PDF here.

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Running through the beginner areas.
Being depressed after getting his butt kicked in PVP.
His eagerness to raise his stats.
All his nakama from the guild.
Laughing loudly while sending entire armies flying.
Risking his life to clear dungeons.
Shedding tears for those who he failed to save.
Wielding an assassin’s dagger.
The promise with that person.

The sight of his back as he left for the last time.

“I remember.”

Schnee replied softly, pressing her hand to her heart.

“Even if you tell me to forget, I will remember.”
“No way I would tell you to forget.”

The smile that she was directing his way was so dazzling that he unintentionally responded in a brusque manner. As she had not been able to make this expression back when she was an NPC, Shin was secretly a little glad that she could now make a face like that.

“Wait a moment. Does this mean that you were saying those programmed lines despite having self-consciousness?”
“Not exactly. Though I did have a self, it was when the death game began that I became fully aware. Before then, it felt like I was watching a movie. Like having an overhead view of myself without feeling any particular emotions.”

In other words, Schnee was saying that though it was her own memory, it felt like it was someone else’s. It was a very subjective experience, so Shin could not empathize. However, he perceived the situation of being fully conscious but completely unable to control one’s body as a painful experience, and thus decided to not press the topic any further.

“I see. In other words, you also know about the logging out, and everything beyond that.”

The true meaning behind the words “going back.” Shin had his suspicions from the way Schnee was talking earlier, and apparently he had guessed right. If she had memories of the game era, then everything makes sense.

“Yes. That time, when dying had turned into a real concern, it came to the lips of many adventurers every once in a while. That there was another world different from this one, one that they called ‘real.’”
“Yea ............ Oh, I see now, that’s why those who set off to look for me split off from those who decided to wait.”
“............ Yes.”

Schnee affirmed his deduction with a troubled smile.
The last battle in the death game. If Shin wins, then Schnee and the rest would disappear. If Shin loses, then they would lose their Master. Whichever way the coin fell, there would be no happy ending. When faced with the baffling situation where Shin had clearly won, but they still continued to exist, it was understandable that each of them reached a different answer to the question of what path they were to take next.

“‘You all should have consulted me beforehand’ is not really something that I should say, huh.”
“If we did, then it would only have served to unnecessarily worry Shin. What we did was the best course of action back then.”
“Even if you say so ......”

When he had left Tsuki no Hokora, he had done so with full intention of ending things. However, if he had known about this hidden problem of his support characters, it might have caused him to hesitate at a critical moment.
In addition, it wasn’t like he could have done anything about it even if he had known.

“At that time, we were not yet fully autonomous. We had only a small degree of control, and were incapable of speaking like we are doing right now. So it was impossible anyways.”
“Well, come to think of it, I did feel like the NPCs were acting strangely human-like after the death game started. Hearing that you guys were self-aware is making me think about all sorts of things.”
“Your personality is still as difficult as ever, eh, Shin?”
“Oh, shut up ...... Leave me alone.”

Shin responded gruffly to Schnee, who was grinning wryly with a troubled face. When he had learned that the support characters had been self-aware, the first thing that came into his mind was the question “Did I treat them right?” Schnee’s remark had been right on the mark.

“Even if you knew it, though, you would have gone off to fight.”
“...... That’s true, yea.”

Several tens of thousands of human lives weighed against a bunch of 0’s and 1’s. Even if the data had a bit of self-awareness, the question of which is worth more was a no-brainer.

“And on top of that, you made that promise, didn’t you?
“............ Yes. Yes I did.”

To help as many people as possible go home.
That was the promise that Shin had made.
It was precisely because they knew of that promise that Schnee and the other support characters couldn’t say anything.

“Alright, how about let’s wrap up this solemn atmosphere. It’s our long-awaited reunion, after all.”
“...... Good call. Whatever we say now is too late anyways, so let’s call it quits with the dark reminiscing. No more!”

Schnee clapped her hands together loudly and adopted a more cheerful stance before the mood got any more depressing. Going along with it, Shin decided to raise his voice too.

“First of all, we’re going back to Tsuki no Hokora and having a big party to celebrate our reunion. Don’t worry about the ingredients, I’ve got a ton of them stored away in my inventory.”
“Good idea! I’m going to unveil the results of the many years that I’ve poured into my Cooking skill!”
“So, what level is it at now?”
“About a month ago, I finally got it to level IX.”
“Are you serious?!”

Now she could cook even high level monsters. At this level, even a simple, low-leveled soup made by her would turn into an amazing dish that grants bonus buffs. In the majority of guilds, chefs were valued as highly as blacksmiths. Making dishes out of rare ingredients could give unbelievable buffs. If two players with the exact same level, profession, and skillset were to fight, the one who ate something beforehand would win, hands down.
One of the reasons why Rokuten had been so great, aside from the members and their stats, was because they had a level X chef in the guild. Through eating, maxed out stats could be boosted slightly beyond the cap for a limited period of time.
Incidentally, the only people who knew this fact was only Shin, who had maxed out all his stats, and the other members of Rokuten. It was they who had noticed that Shin’s damage output was different from usual due to the food. No one else in the game knew because no one else had been fully capped.

“Though I’m not as good as Cook-sama, you may keep your expectations up!”
“Hell yeah! You can count on me for the ingredients!”

His eyes swept over the rows of ingredients in his inventory as a “fu fu fu” escaped from his mouth. They had been in there since the game, but he had already confirmed that everything was still fine to eat.

“By the way, Shin. There’s something completely unrelated to the questions just now that I wish to ask about.”
“Nn? What is it?”

Just as the conversation was taking a lighthearted turn, Schnee asked a question while looking above Shin’s head.

“May I inquire after the identity of the one over there?”
“Over there? ...... Oh.”

After repeating a bit of her question, he quickly understood.
She was talking about Yuzuha, who was sound asleep on top of his head.

“I can only see its name and level. Does that mean you Tamed it?”
“Yea, due to certain circumstances, I ended up contracting it as a partner. Its name is Yuzuha. I’ll tell you this only because it’s you, but its race is Elemental Tail.”
“............ When I saw the tails, I thought that it was just a demon fox, but I see. So it’s an Elemental Tail, huh.”

Schnee had frozen for a split second after hearing Yuzuha’s race. However, she went back to normal almost immediately, as if saying “Well, it’s Shin after all.”

“Tails?”
“? Shin, could it be that you haven’t realized it yet?”

Shin tilted his head in confusion, not fully understanding what Schnee was talking about. He didn’t remember Yuzuha’s tail having such noticeable characteristics. Moreover, plural form?

“Just the fact that there are three tails erases any possibility of it being a normal demon fox.”
“Three, you say?”

It registered all of a sudden. He realized that he had been feeling a tail hitting him from both behind his head and near his ears for a while already.
He raised his right hand and grasped a tail. It was fluffy.

“Fumu.”

Next, he raised his left hand and grasped a tail. This, too, was fluffy.

“...... Fumu.”

Lastly, he focused his senses on the back of his head. There was indeed a slight perception of fluffiness.

“............ Fumu.”

For now, he let go of the tails, held Yuzuha by its torso, and brought it in front of his face.

“Kuu?”
“Indeed, there are three.”

Yuzuha woke up from being moved. As it did so, its three tails began to wave to and fro lazily.
When Shin checked its level, he discovered to his surprise that it was now over level 400.

“...... No way, it can’t have gone up that much!”

Considering that its level had been slightly above 200 earlier, the change was too abrupt. The monsters that they had defeated while raising Rashia’s level had not been enough to level Yuzuha up even once. With that as a reference, it was ridiculous to think that the fight with the Skull Face Lord afterwards had made Yuzuha’s level jump up by almost 200.

“All I can think of is that something else must have happened.”

Shin was convinced that something must have happened without him knowing about it. He had previously heard about the average leveling up rate of partner monsters from Cashmere, another member of Rokuten. That’s why he was so sure. This ridiculous growth spurt was impossible.
The first probably explanation that came into Shin’s mind was that conditions had been cleared for a hidden quest. It had happened to him many times during the game, so he was extremely familiar with it. If his memory served him right, there were indeed quests related to partner monsters.

“Schnee, how are hidden quests treated in this world?”
“To the extent of my knowledge, I have never heard of any quests activating. Also, after Shin disappeared, I have never again heard the voice from the sky. I haven’t heard anyone mention anything even remotely similar to it.”

The ‘voice from the sky’ that Schnee was talking about was most likely the system announcements.
There were quite a lot of hidden quests in THE NEW GATE that activated when certain conditions were met. Unlike the quests that could be picked up at the Guild, when the activation conditions were cleared, there would be an announcement informing the player of the details of the quest that had just been activated.
Originally, this was what Shin thought had happened, but there had been no announcement, so he hadn’t even noticed Yuzuha’s new level. In the first place, according to what Schnee said, the probability that the system was still around was extremely low.

“At any rate, is the fact that there are more tails now because of the higher level?”

Shin just threw that question out there while looking at Yuzuha.
There had been no young Elemental Tails back in the game, so he was completely clueless in regards to how they grow.
Unexpectedly, all this could be happening as a natural part of growing, instead of some quest or something else.

“Kuu~ ...... Good morning, Master.”
“Hah?”

Having failed to pick up on Shin’s mental state, Yuzuha yawned widely and gave his greetings like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Wait a minute, Yuzuha. You’re able to speak now?”
“Kuu? I think when the black thing went away, my head cleared up.”
“Black thing?”

When Shin heard ‘black,’ the first thing that came to mind was the core of the Skull Face Lord that he had split in half just now. When he thought back, he remembered that he had met Yuzuha amid a sea of Skull Faces too. It somehow did not feel strange to think of the Lord as the head of those Skull Faces too.

“The black and round thing inside the bones. The thing that Master cut apart.”
“That sounds like the core of the Skull Face Lord to me.”

Apparently, Shin’s guess had been on the dot. Shin’s gamer instincts were telling him that there was some connection between Yuzuha and the Lord after all.
Either Yuzuha had absorbed some of the Lord’s power, or some seal on Yuzuha had been released. Unfortunately, with the Lord dead and gone, there was no way to confirm which it was.

“For now, you’re forbidden from speaking in front of other people. Normal demon foxes can’t speak, after all.”
“If it’s just us, then it’s fine. This applies only when there are other people around.”
“Nn, can I still speak inside my head?”
“Oh, telepathy? That’s totally fine.”

Even if speaking out loud was NG, they still had telepathy, so it wasn’t like they had to maintain complete radio silence. Yuzuha seemed to have instinctively understood that it was the more important of the two, so Shin nodded immediately.

“But Shin, with three tails, there’s no way it could pass off as a Little Fox.”
“Can we do something about that? There are some sub-species of demon foxes that have more than one tail, right?”

In actuality, there were many different kinds of demon foxes, and indeed there were those with multiple tails. Rather, it could be said that those with a single tail are in the minority. The problem lay elsewhere. All of those demon foxes with multiple tails had a higher level that normal people might consider dangerous.
Some examples of demon foxes with three tails included Flame Tails and Tail Leaders, but even the weakest of those were above level 250. In this world, it would be hard to bring such monsters around freely.

“Perhaps we could try it pass it off as ‘it is only a kid’?”
“But it would eventually become full-grown. Let’s see ............ Hey, Yuzuha. Do you know how to shapeshift, by any chance?”
“Kuu? Some forms I can take, and some forms I can’t.”
“Can you make it so you only have one tail?”
“Ea~sy~”

So saying, the three tails turned into one tail with a ‘pon.’

“Ohh!”
“Wonderfully done.”

It wasn’t an illusion passing off three tails as one; there really was only one tail now. It also didn’t feel strange.

“Is this good?”
“It’s perfect. Is it tiring?”
“No problem!”
“In that case, can you make it so that you only have one tail whenever we are in a place where other people can see? It would be really helpful if you could.”
“Un, okay~”

Yuzuha easily agreed. It did not seem at all opposed to the subterfuge.

“...... That somehow got resolved quite quickly.”
“Yes it did. With this, the secret would no longer be easily exposed.”

Schnee also gave her seal of approval.
For a split second, it felt to Shin like the matter was fully resolved only after Schnee’s endorsement.

“Yuzuha great?”
“Ou, very great, very great.”
“Kuu~~”

Clasping Yuzuha to his chest, he stroked its head for a job well done. Yuzuha basked in the praise.

“............ so cute.”
“Nn?”
“Ah! Nothing, that was nothing.”
“...... Do you want to pet it?”
“Yes please!!”

Though she was strong, Schnee was still a girl. She apparently really loves cute things.
Yuzuha also looked like it was really enjoying being in her hands.

“All things considered, Shin, you still continue to surprise me, like you always have.”
“Nn?”
“No one has ever successfully Tamed an Elemental Tail before.”

Stopping her hand, Schnee spoke with a tinge of wry resignedness in her voice. In the first place, back in the game the settings did not allow any players to tame Elemental Tails. Schnee’s surprise was understandable. The reason why there was resignedness mixed in was because she knew all the crazy things that he had done during the game era.

“Though you say that, you don’t sound very surprised, though.”
“Well, I was surprised for a bit, but then I felt like if anyone could do it, it would be you. And it’s not the high level version that we fought against in the past anyways.”
“True that. That one was so strong that even Rokuten didn’t have the leisure of going easy on it.”

Shin remembered that fight. Employing magic of all elements and dealing powerful physical attacks with its fangs and claws while moving with an agility that belied its huge body, it was a monster that even players with maxed out stats could not let down their guard against. That was the true form of an Elemental Tail.

“Kuu?”

The menace of a fully-grown Elemental Tail could not be seen at all from the Yuzuha that was curled up in Shin’s arms.

“Well then, I think it might be about time for us to start running in earnest. Actually, I have some companions who’ve gone on ahead. They might be raising a fuss.”
“If that is the case, then let’s hurry. Looking at the time, we might be able to catch up to them yet.”

Considering Shin and Schnee’s movement speed and the fact that Wilhelm was on foot and not riding a horse, they could easily catch up. However, Wilhelm’s physical capabilities had been boosted by the buff that Shin had cast on him earlier. The situation being what it is, Wilhelm and Rashia would probably have gotten quite far away by now. If they manage to reach the Kingdom and tell people about what happened on the Plains, things would get quite troublesome for Shin in several different ways.

“Let’s go at full speed. I really don’t want to draw anymore of the Guild’s attention.”
“If you had told me this earlier, I would have been fine with waiting to do the explanations later, you know.”
“This and that are two separate matters.”

Seeing her make the face that she did, there was no way that he could have asked to do it later. But he couldn’t just say that, of course.

“Alright, off we go!”

After making sure that Yuzuha was comfortably settled on his head, he took off with Schnee by his side.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to catch up with Wilhelm and Rashia.
Soon after the sun’s face peeked out from beyond the horizon, scattering the last few wisps of morning fog in their way, the two figures ran abreast of each other.
Shin and Schnee had been running together for about half a day. That was all the time they needed to come into Wilhelm’s detection range.

“Now that you’re here, I’m going to make you spit out everything.”
“Why do you sound so belligerent even though we just got here?!”

Wilhelm had been keeping a sharp eye on the surrounding area while protecting Rashia, who was currently napping. When Shin and Schnee arrived, even though they had joined up safely, Wilhelm flared up at Shin in a threatening tone almost immediately.
Rashia was fast asleep, probably due to fatigue.

“Well, pretty much Schnee just showed up and took down the Skull Face Lord by herself.”
“Hmph.”

The response to Shin’s words was an attack with a demon spear. The sound of the attack was not very sharp, but there was still a significant amount of strength behind it.

“Dude! That’s dangerous!!”
“After letting off that crazy amount of magical power, the hell you pretending like it’s all someone else’s achievement. You probably rampaged all over the place, didn’t you?”
“How did you know?!”
“Of course I do!! More like, are you trying to insinuate something by catching up so quickly after sending us off with a freaking flashy move like that? You were pulling your punches? You could afford to pull your punches against something like that, ah? Gimme back the years I lost from desperation, damn you!”
“Wait, wait, wait, calm down! It’s my bad for making a joke like that but isn’t using Venom going a bit too far?!”

Though Wilhelm was attacking Shin, he was not fully serious, of course. It was more like a rougher sort of playing around.
Wilhelm was an A rank adventurer. He fully understood how dangerous the thing that they had met was.

———— If he fought, he would die.

Even putting aside the fact that Rashia had been there, that was what Wilhelm had felt with every fiber of his being. All the tough spots and dangers that he had been in could not hold a candle to the presence of death in that place. The army of undead had given him the impression that they were ready to march to war against entire countries.
In spite of all that. He had been running so desperately to reach the Kingdom and ask for reinforcements, and had decided to take a short break to keep his strength up. When he did so, the person who had supposedly stayed behind to fight actually caught up with himself. He was more than a little concerned with what had happened to the army that had made him so apprehensive.
The sudden sense of exhaustion that followed his desperation and the relieve that he felt upon hearing that the entire incident was resolved mixed together uncomfortably in his chest. Therefore, he was using Shin to vent off some of the irritation and vexation that he was feeling against the unfairness of the world, thinking that there probably wouldn’t be any divine retribution even if he managed to dump off some of these negative feelings onto Shin.
Needless to say, not a single one of the attacks landed on Shin.

“Tch.”
“Did you just blatantly click your tongue at me?! It was just a joke, man!”
“A ‘joke’ my ass. You totally had a “I didn’t do anything” look on your face. Stop screwing around and give me a proper explanation.”

Shin had apparently gone a little too far with the messing around.
The loose atmosphere from before dissipated as Wilhelm glared at the two of them.

“Shin, it’s about time to get to the main topic.”

After watching the exchange between Shin and Wilhelm, Schnee stepped forward.

“Oh, it’s you. So, he’s the one?”
“Long time no see. It appears that you have fully grasped the situation already. Do you still want further explanation?”

Wilhelm’s words seemed to have some deeper meaning behind them. Clearly, some sort of meaningful exchange had just taken place.

“Guys, can you put things in a way that I can understand?”

Shin had no clue why Wilhelm had been so easily appeased.

“Don’t you know? The name ‘Schnee Raizar’ is famous for being someone who never yields, never gets won over, and never kneels, be it to kings or the Pope.”

What firmness of character.

“Isn’t that just a disrespectful person?”
“I will never kneel to anyone other than Master.”

He had only knowledge from light novels to go on, but Shin felt that it might not be a great idea to take such an attitude with royalty. However, for Schnee, it was a policy that she would never concede on.

“Well, in the first place, there isn’t anyone who values their life so little as to pick a fight with her.”
“So that’s the reason why she gets away with it, huh.”

Even if someone wanted to punish Schnee, no one could touch her if she got serious.
Of course, that was just the more trivial reason. Both her way of speaking and her attitude is respectful, she lends her strength whenever strong monsters appear, and she maintains a neutral stance by not being affiliated with any faction or organizations — these are the real reasons why no one wants to fight her. More like, anyone who wished her harm would get showered with blows from all sides with a “What do you think you’re doing!!”.
A powerful entity who would lend her strength in times of trouble. The list of achievements that she had built up over 500 years was not merely for show.
As a natural consequence of being who she was, many people had approached her in secret to try to convince her to join their camp, but no one has ever succeeded.

“I can completely understand why they would want to win her over as an ally.”
“Anyways, for someone like that to be obediently following you, well ......”
“Ahh, so from that ......”

So he had already been seen through. He didn’t know how familiar Schnee and Wilhelm were with each other, but when put like that, he understood that anyone could have come to that conclusion.

“So you’re a high human?”
“And also my Master.”
“For all it’s worth, yea.”
“Don’t you ‘for all it’s worth’ me. But if it’s like that, then I finally understand. That amount of magical power was seriously no joke.”
“Sorry, that was still me holding back.”
“...... The master of Schnee Raizar, huh. I see, you are much more than I had expected from the stories ...... Oi, then the fox sitting on a high human’s head is most likely not a normal fox either, is it?”

While shrugging his shoulders with a “gimme a break” kind of feeling, Wilhelm’s eyes fell on Yuzuha. Mixed inside his tone was a sense of resignation that had gone beyond surprise. The reason why there was no fear in his voice was most likely because he had gotten to know Shin without being influenced by any preconceptions.

“Kuu?”
“Yea, it’s not a Little Fox. Its level just broke 400 after that last battle.”
“...... I don’t even feel surprised anymore.”

Wilhelm looked intently at Yuzuha with a sigh. It wasn’t that he was not surprised at this little creature being more than level 400, but it’s just that what he had learned a while ago had been that much more shocking.

“So this is why your answer was so vague when I asked whether you were a Chosen One.”
“Yea. In my case, I am much stronger than Chosen Ones, but I didn’t start out this strong. There are very few people like me in this world, right? That’s why I decided to just pass myself off as a Chosen One.”
“I see, I see. But well, if you two are going to move together all the time, then it’s only a matter of time before other people find out.”

What Wilhelm was saying had merit. Schnee and Tsuki no Hokora were famous. If a man was to sudden appear by her side in a seemingly close relationship, those with good ears would start digging around.

“I was hoping to deal with it somehow with magical skills. Time can be bought by making good use of illusion magic.”
“I have a feeling that the illusion magic you are thinking of is not exactly the one that I have in mind. I’m not going to be surprised even if you transform into a monster.”
“What do you think I am ......”
“You’re pretty much a walking cataclysm. Don’t be strolling around the place, Mr. “Oh I Can Raze a Country to the Ground When I Wake Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed.” I wouldn’t be able to rest easy if I was a lord.”

Only when Shin retorted with “I won’t rampage around for no reason” did Wilhelm lower himself to the ground. It was not exactly comfortable to both talk while standing up and fix Rashia’s bedding every once in a while as it slips off, so Shin and Schnee urged him to sit down.
Rashia was sleeping so soundly that she did not appear affected at all by all the ruckus happening around her. Wilhelm had calmed her down by pointing out that he himself, a high rank adventurer, was around. And on the topic of Shin, he had pointed out that someone who could use so much magical power wouldn’t go down easily. As she had witnessed firsthand Shin using skills, those words were enough to alleviate her worries. Though she had combat experience, she still couldn’t tell the difference between power levels, so she didn’t actually fully understand the situation.

“Speaking of, are there any records about us left behind?”

The last time he was at the library, he didn’t finish looking everything up, so all he knew was only what Tiera had told him. He was willing to admit that there was most likely a part of himself that had unconsciously steered away from that topic. No one would enjoy looking up their own dark history on their own accord.

“To some degree, yea. Well, all I know is that you guys were strong as heck and that each one of you had an ridiculously high proficiency in a different profession. Some people in those professions still treat you guys like gods.”
“There are still anecdotes and legends of the others being passed down.”
“Uweh, that sounds like another annoying thing I have to deal with. But then again, we did start off as a crafting guild, so we would never let anyone surpass us in our respective fields.”
“Hah? Didn’t you guys get bored of being the strongest and then start making things to kill time? That sounds more reasonable.”
“Wilhelm, I haven’t been training my Cooking skill only to kill time!”

So it turns out that indeed some discrepancies had risen from the stories. Though it was true that all members of Rokuten had ridiculously high stats, the main reason why they had gotten together was because of crafting.

“That’s wrong. See, even when the levels are the same, humans are the weaker race. In my case, I got into Blacksmithing as a way to make up for that. It was unbelievably hard work to raise my level and my Blacksmithing together at the same time.”
“Most of the time you spent as a beginner was just running away, wasn’t it?”

Shin nodded. At the beginning, he had been so weak that the present him could not even imagine it anymore.
The difficulty of purposely raising one’s combat level and crafting level at the same pace was something that people without experience in playing online games could not understand. Due to the game system and the level of difficulty being what they were, each profession required a ton of work to master.

“No normal person could do that.”
“Those who could were called high players.”
“Well, you could also just call them game addicts.”
“High p- ...... What?”
“Anyways, I kept on making weapons to make it easier to level up. I then equipped those weapons, went out, and defeated strong enemies to level up. I then took the materials dropped by those guys to make even stronger weapons. Then stronger enemies, and so on went the cycle.”

The person who had just casually used a word that only players would know was Schnee.
As question marks floated above Wilhelm’s head from hearing a word not of this world, Shin matter-of-factly described something that residents of this world could not do.
In the first place, this world was not so lenient as to allow someone to make higher tier weapons as easily as Shin made it sound. Taking Blacksmithing as an example, crafting skills were slightly easier to level up than attack skills, but THE NEW GATE was not indulgent enough to let any half-hearted player cap anything.
Therefore, players made a distinction between combat-oriented guilds and crafting-oriented guilds. Most people who tried to be a part of both at the same time either gave up almost immediately or somewhere in the middle. Almost nobody stuck with it to the end.
On the system side, most combat-oriented players could only make low level recovery items like Potion X, while a lot of crafting-oriented players had a little bit of experience with fighting. However, most of it was on the level of “better than nothing.”
Rokuten’s fame was indeed partly due to the member’s fighting power, but also partly due to their crafting prowess.

“I give up. You are what normal people would call an idiot.”
“How rude of you.”
“Do you know about absurd it sounds? No sane person would even think of doing what you did.”
“Probably the only ones who could consider it are the long-lived races likes elves and pixies. Not that they would, though.”

Just as Schnee said, only long-lived races like the elves and pixies could consider it in earnest, but neither of those races had any affinity towards Blacksmithing.
To residents on this world, the very idea was madness. The only reason why Shin had been able to accomplish it was because it had been a game. Using items to boost xp gain and reading Books of Secrets to learn skills, it was his single-minded pursuit of strength that made Shin into what he was today.
With that said, he had truly poured an enormous amount of time into the game. It was impossible for someone who lives and breathes in this world to imitate what he had done.

“Well, it’s not like we didn’t know we were abnormal. Every member of Rokuten was remarkable. If it wasn’t for my Blacksmithing, I couldn’t even compare to them. Kain could build an entire castle in a day, Cook would prepare and cook dragons, Cashmere would be making monster farms left and right if you took your eyes off her, and Hecate would mass produce Elixirs and Philosopher’s Stones like they were low level potions. Leid’s dolls could even fight toe to toe with holy beasts.”
“Shin also forged many holy swords and demon swords, didn’t you? And if you didn’t like it, you would melt down even Ancient grade swords and reforge them. Filma shrieked when she saw you do that.”

Schnee grinned wryly as she reminisced about the past. Indeed, Shin had frequently melted down and reforged weapons that he wasn’t satisfied with, even if they were Ancient grade or Mythology grade.
Incidentally, Filma was number 2 among Shin’s support characters, and she was a greatsword user. Shin finally understood why she had been so despondent for a while.

“Each and every one of you sounds like a freaking monster. More like, your specialty was Blacksmithing, huh.”
“Ou. By the way, do you want me to upgrade Venom a little?”
“Screw you.”

Wilhelm immediately shut down the Shin who was grinning sleazily and laughing like a suspicious merchant. He had no doubts that Shin would indeed make Venom better, but the strange way that Shin was speaking gave him pause. To be blunt, he was sure beyond a doubt that there was no way Shin would stop at a normal upgrade.

“When you feel that it’s not enough for you anymore, just give me the word. Since it’s you, I’ll strengthen it for you at a really low price.”
“Why do you have the look of an unscrupulous merchant, huh?!”
“Oh don’t worry about it, it’s just my Blacksmithing blood coming awake, you see?”
“............ Okay, okay, I concede that your main profession is definitely a craftsman. Come to think of it, you’re making the exact same face those gambling old timers make.”

People of the same occupation tend to speak and do things the same way in every world. The faces of the dwarven craftsmen that he had shown Venom to came into Wilhelm’s mind.
What he had seen blazing fiercely in those eyes was a mixture of the innocence of a child who has found a new toy and the fighting spirit of a warrior who has found a worthy adversary. When he took another look at Shin, he realized that Shin had the same eyes too.

“Anyways, don’t you dare start showing off your techniques at the smithy. Since it’s you, you’d probably be using mystery somethings or long-lost secret arts to make your weapons.”
“I’m not going to do anything flashy like that! I was just thinking that it has been a while since I’ve held a hammer in Tsuki no Hokora!”
“If I let you do it, I have no idea what’s gonna happen. The craftsmen that helped me were telling stories about Rokuten’s blacksmith making longswords that could exchange blows with Legend grade weapons.”

Originally, the performance ability between Normal grade and Legend grade weapons was so great that even if you bunched up a lot of Normal grade ones together, a single blow from a Legend grade would shatter them all. Of course, Wilhelm was not gullible enough to believe those stories.

“Oh come on, that’s a bit ...... wait a second. Wasn’t there that experiment where we tried to find out how far we could enhance a Normal grade weapon?”
“Oi ...... that’s a joke, right?”

When Wilhelm was about to say that it really was impossible after all, Shin closed his eyes like he was trying to remember something. If the story just now was truth, it would shatter the common sense of Blacksmithing. That’s why Wilhelm had been so sure that it was just exaggeration. But the sight of Shin wracking his brains started to erode his confidence.

“Are you perhaps referring to the experiment suggested by Leid-sama and Hecate-sama?”
“Oh right! So that no one could ever complain again about low quality materials, we took a random piece of iron and slapped every enchantment we could onto it. Then we used the best facilities that we could find to forge it into a longsword. Well, after that we accidentally placed it onto the shelf in the store and someone bought it. He was so shocked that he came back and asked us about it afterwards.”
“...... What the hell.”

Incidentally, the person who had bought the sword had intended it as a gift to another beginner player. Later, he discovered the other guy one-shotting monsters that were supposed to be out of his league. The one who received the present just thought that the monsters were weak. The player who had bought the present did not check the stats when he bought it, thinking that it was a normal longsword.

“That time, everyone was so shocked at what we had managed to do. But then again, it really was just made of iron, so its durability was really low. We made several of them and tested them against actual Legend grade longswords, and they only lasted 10 or 20 blows.”
“Please listen to your own words and realize how crazy you sound.”

Realizing that Shin was a prime example of someone who does not understand common sense, Wilhelm pressed a hand to his head. Blacksmithing was not so lenient that the grade of the weapons could be decided solely by the blacksmith’s skill. But so what. Even though it was common sense for a Normal grade sword to shatter immediately when exchanging blows with a Legend grade sword, Shin had made several ones that could last around 20 blows. Thinking of the chaos that would happen if swords like that were to start circulating around in the market, Wilhelm could not help but let out a huge sigh.

“Okay, okay, I get it, I fully get it now. I have no more doubts about you being a high human. What I know to be common sense is now lying at my feet in shreds, all thanks to you.”
“He’s my Master, after all. He can’t be bound by today’s common sense.”
“Ku~ku~!”
“It wasn’t a compliment!”

Wilhelm retorted at the Schnee who was looking really proud for some reason and the Yuzuha who was nodding approvingly. He was likely still a bit shaken, as he failed to notice that Yuzuha was responding like as if it could actually understand the conversation going on.
As for Schnee, she was looking so proud because of how widespread this legend about Shin was.

“Nn ...... Nnnn?”

Just as Wilhelm was thinking “Oh man, these guys are hopeless” and letting out another sigh, Rashia, who had been sleeping at his side, woke up. They had apparently been making a little too much noise. It must have been hard to continue sleeping.

“Eh ...... Shin ... -san?”
“Yo.”
“Ah, good morn- ...... Wait, no, why are you here?!”

She was still half-asleep, but when she saw who was sitting in front of her, she unconsciously shouted in surprise. He was supposed to have stayed behind after helping them escape that crowd of monsters, but her eyes were telling her that he was here. And Yuzuha was still riding on his head as usual.

“Things somehow worked out.”
“Eh ...... ?”

Rashia looked towards Wilhelm for help, as if she was asking “What is he saying?”. Her eyes were filled with disbelief.
Wilhelm caught the glance and returned it.

“He said that someone who just happened to pass by helped him out.”

Wilhelm’s gaze shifted to Shin and Schnee as he explained. His eyes were saying “We can’t tell her.”
With a barely perceptible nod, Shin also agreed to keep the fact that he was a high human concealed from Rashia. Different from Wilhelm and some royals who were acquainted with Schnee, Rashia was not familiar enough with her to deduce Shin’s identity through Schnee’s attitude. It wasn’t really a problem for Shin if she found out, but she might come into danger for possessing valuable information. There was no guarantee that a possible information leak in the future would not drag her into trouble.
Therefore, the three of them decided to pass it off as Schnee just passing by.
As for Wilhelm, Schnee was the one who had given him his letter of introduction, so she already knew that she could trust him.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Schnee Raizar. I have the honor of serving as the Acting Manager of Tsuki no Hokora.”
“Thank you for the courteous introduction. My name is Rashia Luzel. I ............ Excuse me, what did you just say?”

Rashia asked Schnee to repeat herself, looking like she had heard something unbelievable.
Of course, it wasn’t that she had misheard. It was simply that she could not believe what she had heard.

“She said she’s Schnee Raizar. You know of her too, right? She’s that one.”
“............ That one?”
“Yea, that one.”
“Why does it sound like you two are making fun of me?”

Being called “that one” so many times in a row made her sound like some weird person, for some inexplicable reason. In this case, it was being used with a positive connotation, though.

“Don’t worry about the details. Oi, don’t just freeze up, Rashia. Get your act together.”
“U-Um, I’m Rashia! It’s an honor to meetuh ............ owww.”
“Nice to meet you. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

Schnee continued on as if Rashia had not bit herself at all. So mature.

“Thanks to Schnee’s help, we managed to kill all of the monsters. Everything’s fine now.”
“You two defeated all of those monsters?! As-As expected of the『Saint』-sama.”
“Saint-sama?”

Shin had been ready to begin extolling on Schnee’s strength and achievements, but question marks suddenly appeared above his head at the term that he had never heard before.

“Ah, I’m so sorry! Even though Schnee-sama has not accepted it, I unintentionally ......”
“Not accepted it?”
“Before, I got a notice from the headquarters of the Church expressing their intention of acknowledging me by granting me sainthood. I turned it down, though.”
“Was it bad to accept it?”
“Yes. As someone who had the honor of serving high humans, I have no intention of affiliating myself with any powers that be. However, accepting the position of sainthood would naturally cause everyone else to think that I’ve allied myself with the Church. This was something that had happened more than a hundred years ago, though. So they haven’t given up on it yet, have they?”

She sighed in a long-suffering manner at the unexpected revelation.
Even though the Church wanted to acknowledge her as a Saint, if she herself refused to accept the position, then the Church can’t make claims on their own accord about her joining their camp.
As he was currently involved with a dispute inside the Church, Shin worried that Schnee’s help could be interpreted as her affiliating herself with the Church. Religious organizations were troublesome everywhere and throughout all ages.

“You can just call me ‘Schnee,’ I’m fine with it.”
“How-How could I? The honor is too great for me.”
“You’re way too freaking tense.”
“And you should take this more seriously!”

Though a bit exaggerated, Shin actually thought Rashia’s reaction to meeting Schnee the more normal one.
Shin himself had a long relationship with Schnee, and Wilhelm was a person who is rarely reserved. That’s why the two of them were able to talk freely and not freeze up. However, any normal person would be nervous in this situation. Tiera had said that even children in this world knew Schnee’s name, so he can imagine how famous she must be.
When meeting such a famous person, the usual reaction is what Rashia is doing.

“Come on, stop fidgeting around suspiciously and get ready to leave. Whatever the reason, we’ve shortened our traveling time, but that’s no reason to start taking things easy.”

Shin and Schnee didn’t get much rest from this break, but Wilhelm now fully understood that they didn’t even need the rest anyways.

“Good idea, let’s get going.”

So saying, Shin and Schnee also stood up. As Wilhelm had said, their trip back had been shortened after great trouble. There was the orphanage to return to, so they shouldn’t go out of their way to take things slowly.
As everyone began their own preparations, Rashia turned around in a fluster and began to pack away her bedding. To be fully honest, Rashia still didn’t understand exactly what had happened, but she was satisfied just knowing that Schnee had taken care of everything. It wasn’t that she had forgotten the fear that she had felt when surrounded by rows and rows of enemies. Rather, it was that she believed in Schnee that much.

“This has turned into something much bigger than I had expected.”

Seeing the look of trust that Rashia was directing towards Schnee, Shin muttered to himself. It was not hard to imagine what a fuss it would cause when he began traveling together with Schnee. Just going out to buy something could turn into a commotion.
With a sigh, he decided to make an elaborate and thorough disguise.

 

 

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