The woman before him was a goddess.
Hephaestus.
The goddess of smithing.
For now, hers was merely a mid-sized Familia in the crafting industry, but in the future, the Hephaestus Familia and the Goibniu Familia would divide Orario’s crafting world between them.
At least, that was how it had been in the future Kashi knew.
Every single one of Hephaestus’s followers was a smith. They were nothing but craftsmen who forged swords, tempered armor, and worked with flame and steel.
Only those gifted in the crafting arts became her followers. She did not normally accept people who took up swords solely to fight.
And yet, for some reason, she was walking toward him.
It could not be his imagination.
She and he were the only people in this park.
The red-haired goddess casually perched herself on the bench.
Then, looking at the boy seated beside her, she spoke.
"Would you like to become one of my followers?"
Kashi frowned at once.
A follower.
In other words, she was asking him to join her Familia.
He had just spent half the day being turned away at every place he went.
And now someone was suddenly extending a hand to him?
Naturally, he had no intention of taking it at face value.
"...I’m not a blacksmith."
Kashi spoke quietly.
His were not hands that had ever held a hammer.
Nor had they ever stood before a forge.
They were hands that had survived by gripping a bloodstained sword.
A crafting Familia would accept someone like him?
It would have been stranger not to be suspicious.
Had she somehow seen a smith’s talent in him?
"I know."
Hephaestus answered evenly.
As though she had known all of that from the start.
He did not know how to work a forge. Ordinarily, that meant there was no reason to accept him.
Indeed, that was how her Familia had always operated.
But—
Her instincts as a goddess,
and her intuition as a smith, kept whispering to her.
Do not let him go.
Take that child in as one of your followers.
Every smith dreamed of making the finest weapon.
And at the same time, they wished for someone who could wield that weapon more perfectly than anyone else.
No matter how powerful a weapon was, it meant nothing if its wielder was unworthy. A famed blade was completed by the hand that wielded it.
The boy reflected in Hephaestus’s eyes was still immature.
Rough, vicious, an unpolished gemstone.
But that was precisely why he was so clear to her.
A seed that had not even sprouted yet.
Yet if it bloomed properly, he would become someone who reached higher than anyone else.
Her divine senses were ringing fiercely.
That child would someday become one of Orario’s greatest swordsmen.
And—
the strongest sword she ever forged had to be placed in that child’s hand.
"You don’t have to work at the forge."
Hephaestus spoke calmly.
"That wasn’t why I invited you in the first place."
What she wanted was simple.
For the boy to take up a sword.
And someday, after he had grown and reached the summit, for those hands to wield the strongest sword she had made.
It was a smith’s desire.
A craving to create the finest weapon.
And an obsession with seeing the wielder who could handle it most perfectly.
As though she had read his mind, her words continued, and Kashi fell silent for a moment.
When he thought about it, the terms were not bad.
No, they were actually quite good.
A fine weapon mattered to someone like him, who wielded a sword.
And the future Hephaestus Familia would become one of Orario’s foremost crafting Familias. Their products were the sort of things one could barely obtain even after paying a fortune.
On top of that, Hephaestus herself was among the rare gods who were sensible and decent.
At the very least, she was overwhelmingly better than the Familias he had visited so far.
Even if he continued running himself ragged searching, the outcome would likely be the same.
Familias with good conditions were already full or had demanding standards.
On the other hand, most places that accepted people easily had problems.
They asked for money or showed off strange tastes.
Just thinking about it made his irritation rise again.
Kashi clicked his tongue inwardly.
Then he came to a decision.
He was not stupid enough to turn down an opportunity that might never come again.
"...If you’re all right with me."
His voice had softened slightly.
His words were still rough and prickly, but at least he was no longer as openly hostile as before.
For him, that alone was a major improvement.
Expecting manners from a child who had lived alone without anyone to rely on was close to a luxury.
Living alone was far more exhausting than people imagined,
and people became calloused easily.
Especially in this world.
Hephaestus did not bother to point out his attitude.
Instead, she looked at Kashi with interest and asked,
"Kid, what’s your name?"
The boy was silent briefly before answering shortly.
"Kashi."
His sunset-colored eyes held the goddess’s image.
"I don’t have a family name."
And so, he became one of her followers.
The place they reached after following her was the Hephaestus Familia’s home.
It was quite different from the future he remembered.
Compared to the massive crafting Familia of fifteen years later, it was still small in scale, and the building itself was modest. The current Hephaestus Familia was no more than a growing mid-sized faction.
That was only natural.
After all, this was before "that time."
The first thing Kashi felt upon stepping inside was heat.
The smell of heated iron. The sound of hammers striking. The crackle of sparks. The entire first floor had been arranged like a forge, and several members were working iron.
Kashi silently surveyed them.
Five.
That was about how many members he could see.
Far fewer than he had expected.
Perhaps because he had been thinking of the enormous crafting faction of the future, its present appearance felt more like its founding days.
If I join now, will I practically be treated like a founding member?
The thought passed through his mind.
Then it happened.
A woman who had spotted her goddess walked over.
Black hair.
Red eyes.
And darkly tanned skin.
Most striking of all, like Hephaestus, one of her eyes was covered.
Her overall bearing made her oddly resemble her goddess.
The woman’s red eyes swept over Kashi from head to toe.
"Who’s this guy?"
"Tsubaki."
Hephaestus answered naturally.
"Starting today, this child is a member of our Familia."
Tsubaki Collbrande.
In the future, she would become a renowned smith in Orario and the captain of the Familia.
And a Level 5 adventurer. Though she was not one yet.
Kashi remembered her.
"No matter how I look at him, he doesn’t seem like a blacksmith."
Tsubaki said it bluntly.
Kashi did not reply.
It was not exactly wrong.
"That’s because I didn’t bring him here to raise him as a blacksmith."
Hephaestus’s answer was short.
But that one sentence was enough.
For a moment, doubt flickered in Tsubaki’s eyes.
Hephaestus was exceptionally strict about this sort of thing.
She accepted neither incompetent smiths nor craftsmen without the will to work.
And yet she had personally broken her rule and brought him in.
That meant she had a reason.
"Hmm..."
Tsubaki watched Kashi for a moment, then shrugged.
"Well, if that’s what our goddess says, then that’s that."
There was no objection.
The other members were much the same. They were puzzled, but not dissatisfied. Their trust in Hephaestus was simply that strong.
Tsubaki jerked her chin toward Kashi.
"So, kid, what’s your name?"
"Kashi."
"Family name?"
"...Don’t have one."
A brief silence followed. But no one pressed him further. There was no shortage of people like that in Orario.
"Hmm."
Tsubaki looked Kashi over once more.
"How old are you?"
"...Twelve."
This time, her eyes widened slightly.
"You’re a lot younger than I thought."
Then she snickered and gave Kashi’s shoulder a light pat.
"Anyway, welcome, Kashi."
After that, everything became a blur.
He received a brief tour of the Familia home, was told the rules for living there, and was assigned a room to use.
The room was small. But it was enough for Kashi.
To begin with, all he owned was a single sword. After propping it against one wall, Kashi looked around the room for a while.
It was quiet.
A roof to keep off the rain. A bed to lay his body down upon. And a place where he could lock the door.
That alone felt strangely unfamiliar.
That evening,
Kashi sat at the table with the other members.
The food was not extravagant, but it was warm. There was chatter, and there was laughter.
A modest celebration for his joining.
Someone drank alcohol,
someone teased Kashi,
and Tsubaki laughed boisterously.
Kashi watched the scene in silence.
And for just a moment.
Only for a very brief moment.
The tension that had stiffened his shoulders eased.
The lively celebration went on later than he had expected.
When the dishes had been cleared away and the smell of alcohol had begun to fade,
Kashi followed Hephaestus into a quiet room.
It was time to receive his Falna.
"...Whew."
Once the door shut, Kashi let out a short breath. He was still not used to turning his back on others. The wariness ingrained in him after two years of living alone would not disappear easily.
But someday, he would get used to it. At least, he decided to believe that for now.
His shirt came off, and Hephaestus’s gaze fell upon his exposed back.
There were many scars.
Marks from cuts.
Torn wounds.
Scars that had never been properly treated.
His back was far too rough to belong to a twelve-year-old child.
Hephaestus said nothing for a moment.
Then she pricked the tip of her finger with a needle.
Red divine blood welled up.
She let it fall onto Kashi’s back.
The instant the divine blood touched him,
his back grew hot.
It felt as if something were being engraved beneath his skin.
Kashi frowned, but did not move.
Hephaestus focused quietly.
And then—
"...This is..."
she murmured.
It was an incredibly faint voice.
But Kashi heard it clearly.
A short while later, she slowly withdrew her hand. The inscription of his Falna was complete.
Hephaestus took out a sheet of paper and handed it to Kashi.
"Here. This is your Status."
Her voice was calm.
"Your Skills and Magic are written there too, so read through them yourself."
Kashi accepted the sheet and slowly lowered his gaze.
• Name: Kashi
• Race: Human
• Age: 12
• Level: 1
[Basic Abilities]
Strength: I 0
Endurance: I 0
Dexterity: I 0
Agility: I 0
Magic: I 0
[Magic]
[Avenger Resat] [Recital of Vengeance]
• Enhancement magic
• Greatly enhances all abilities
• Berserk effect increases in proportion to the intensification of vengeful feelings
[]
[]
[Skills]
[Dragon-Slaying Rite] [Dragon Prey]
• Voluntary activation (active trigger)
• Greatly increases attack power against dragonkind
• Greatly boosts all abilities during solo combat
• Greatly increases Excelia acquisition efficiency during solo combat
• Effects strengthen in proportion to the intensity of hatred and obsession
• Effects decrease during group combat
[Sword Star] [Blade of Astra]
• Deepens understanding of the sword as combat continues
• Manifests [Sword Forms]
• Manifests [Oneness of Sword and Self] upon reaching an extreme state
• Greatly enhances the ability to devise and reproduce sword techniques
• Increases the efficiency of accumulating practical combat experience
• Greatly boosts all swordsmanship-related actions
[Vanquish Evil, Reveal Righteousness] [Gram]
• Shatters evil-aligned effects
• Grants the lightning attribute
• Boosts the power of sword strikes
"...Hah."
A quiet breath escaped Kashi as he stared down at the paper.
He could tell it was good.
No, it was excessive, if anything.
The problem was that he had no real sense of just how exceptional it was.
But Hephaestus was different.
She already understood the value of this Status perfectly. And the sheer fact of it was almost absurd.
"I was the one who brought you in, but... this is truly outrageous."
Hephaestus smiled faintly.
"A child receiving Falna for the first time, and you’re born with a set of Skills and Magic too."
Her red eyes rested on Kashi.
"And all three of your Skills are special types."
She continued slowly.
"If the other gods who let you slip away saw this, they’d be pretty jealous."
Her gamble had succeeded perfectly. No, even success was not enough to describe it.
The boy before her was not merely an unpolished gem. Though he had yet to be honed, he was more like a sword already complete within.
Hephaestus naturally reached out and stroked Kashi’s head. He flinched at once, but did not pull away.
It was unfamiliar.
It had been a long time since anyone had touched him like that.
"I’m looking forward to what comes next."
Hephaestus smiled in satisfaction.
Her intuition as a goddess.
Her instinct as a smith.
All of it was certain.
This child would someday reach the very pinnacle of Orario.
And she would watch that process from closer than anyone.
"All right, get some rest now."
Hephaestus gave a light wave.
"You’ll be busy starting tomorrow."
Kashi nodded silently.
Then, gripping the folded sheet bearing his Status, he returned to the room that had been assigned to him.
He lay down on the bed and quietly closed his eyes. For tomorrow.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register