Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter Pr

Prologue: The Reticent Blacksmith

Ren was blacksmithing in the village. He lifted a piece of softened, red-hot metal from the blazing forge, placed it down on the anvil, and started to hammer it. There was a clanging sound as sparks scattered. He worked the metal gradually into the shape of a weapon.

I was watching him work as I made accessories alongside my fellow accessory-making student, Imiya. Ren continued to swing his hammer with intense concentration, completely absorbed in making more weapons.

“Shield Hero?” Imiya asked me.

“Huh? Right, sorry, I’m here,” I replied. I decided to stop looking over at Ren and get back to work.

My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I was once a regular university student until I read a book in the library called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. Before I knew it, I’d been summoned to a completely different, fantasy world. I was summoned to play the role of one of the characters from the book, the holy Shield Hero. The world I was summoned to was at risk from a series of disasters known as the “waves.” I was summoned to help fight off that destruction, but that proved to only be the start of my troubles.

First, I was framed for rape. That was bad. Even after I cleared my name, there were all sorts of other issues. I was still seeking the one who framed me, a woman now named “Bitch,” but she continued to elude justice. I wanted to put her to the sword as quickly as possible, but while she kept on showing up in the places we visited, she always managed to get away—often with the help of her mysterious allies.

In any case, suffice it to say that it had been one thing after another since the day I was summoned here.

It had first seemed to be simply about surviving the waves and restoring peace to the world, but all sorts of other information had come to light in the time since my arrival. We’d recently learned that the waves were being caused by an advanced civilization from yet another world. They were called “the ones who assume the name of god.” They had a habit of turning other worlds into their playthings. If nothing were done about the waves, they would cause different worlds to merge. And if too many worlds merged in a single place, they would all be wiped out.

This made the ones who assume the name of god our enemies, and they weren’t taking our resistance lying down. One ploy they were using to try and stop us was to pick megalomaniacal losers out from other worlds and send them to ours as the “resurrected,” with orders to kill the heroes (the heroes were the ones who could combat the waves) and destroy information and records from the past, as well as all sorts of other convenient gear. It had already taken us a long time to learn just this much, and we’d been through all sorts of battles along the way. I’d even traveled to yet another different world, where I made friends with a girl called Kizuna Kazayama, the Hunting Tool Hero.

We had received word from Kizuna that she and her allies were on the ropes, hounded by more resurrected sent by the ones who assume the name of god. We’d headed back to her world to help out, but this had placed us on the radar of the sworn enemies of S’yne, a girl joining us from a world already wiped out by the waves. This unwanted attention ultimately resulted in me and a group of my allies being sent back into the past of the world I had been first summoned to.

That was the tip of the iceberg in terms of the shit I’d had to wade through since arriving here—and now we were stuck in the past.

However, more recently, things had taken a turn for the better. We had succeeded in killing one of those who assume the name of god—one of those causing the waves. He had been hosting what seemed to be some kind of wave death game, and we’d managed to catch him off guard and kill him.

We’d learned some more things during that battle too. For a start, none of the most powerful weapons we heroes could wield were able to hurt the ones who assume the name of god. The 0 series of weapons, however, had proven most effective. I had obtained the 0 series by placing a drop from a red potion into my shield, which we found in some ruins back in the time period I was originally summoned to. As the name suggested, the 0 series was a very risky-looking set of weapons that had zeros across the board for all stats, including attack and defense. It was most ironic that these hunks of junk were effective against the ones who assume the name of god, those wielders of seemingly infinite power.

Based on the vague information we had received from those same ruins, it sounded like the role of the four holy heroes was to buy the worlds some time until those who could actually drive off the ones who assume the name of god could arrive . . . a group now being called the God Hunters. The 0 series had likely been left in this world by the God Hunters in the period between when we were in the past and when we can come from in the future. That was why we had managed to kill that one who assumes the name of god.

Our current goal at the moment, however, was to find a way back to the future we had come from. We hadn’t completely defeated the ones who assume the name of god, but finding a way home was important too, so we’d just have to do both of those things for a while.

That was the situation.

In that exact moment, we were making new weapons and armor for the sake of the village and villagers who had been sent back into the past along with us. We could expect more fighting in this time period. We had a forge in the village, and all sorts of materials at our disposal, so if we threw in some crafty people, we could make some good stuff.

I was leaving weapons and armor to Ren Amaki, the Sword Hero. He had been apprenticed to the weapons old guy—one of my staunchest allies—back in our time and learned plenty of forging techniques from him. Meanwhile, Imiya and I—both students of accessory making—were helping out by making accessories. Taking advantage of the blessings and techniques provided to us by the four holy weapons, we could turn out gear that was better than gear made by a lot of so-called professionals.

“Shield Hero, what do you think about this stone here?” Imiya asked me.

“Let’s have a look.” I lifted the stone to the light and peered into it. “No translucency problems, that’s for sure.” I could check the quality of materials just using the skills provided by my shield, but sometimes they could still be cloudy or flawed in minor ways even after I used the skill, so it wasn’t one hundred percent accurate.

“We need to heat-treat it, don’t we?” Imiya said.

“That will really bring out the color,” I agreed. “But go too hard and you’ll crack it. Imiya, I’ll leave that side of things up to you.”

This world was a lot like a video game. Equipping accessories provided bonuses to stats. The accessory dealer who taught me the craft was actually one of the most skilled creators in the world, and in turn, I could now make pretty good products myself.

I also knew of at least one other person who had stepped on the path of accessory making—a guy called L’Arc. But Imiya was a lumo therianthrope—a mole girl, basically—who was one of the slaves in my village. Her real name was too long for me to remember. Her skills with her hands had allowed her to apprentice with me under the accessory dealer. I watched her use earth magic to shape the stone she was holding in her hands. She could even alter things like its density. All very useful tricks to have.

“I think this stone can be used now,” Imiya said.

“Okay. We’ll get it heat-treated. What about the design?” I asked.

“We’re mainly making accessories for the Sword Hero, correct?” Imiya confirmed with me.

“That’s right,” I replied. “I was thinking of making a scabbard, but Ren asked for something else. He wants to remove the hassle of even having to sheathe his sword.” Attaching accessories to a hero’s weapon could provide all sorts of additional effects. Sometimes they just provided a pure stat boost, but they could also change skills or do other stuff. Some effects could only be applied to a sword through the use of a scabbard, but in that case the sword had to be sheathed in order to gain those benefits. The results of doing so could be quite dramatic—Raphtalia, the Katana Hero and my right hand, could attack at an even faster speed than normal by drawing her blade from her scabbard. This time, though, I was going to make something that could be attached to the pommel of the sword—like a key holder, basically. “I’m also hoping we get lucky and make an accessory that gives float skills an auto-tracking function,” I said. Trying to work that out would be completely trial and error. Ren wasn’t all that great at using the Float Sword skill, but he also seemed strangely obsessed with getting better with it.

The one who assumes the name of god had used a similar method to attack us. It was a convenient feather to have in your cap, even just from the perspective of increasing your number of attacks.

Even if we didn’t bag something related to the float skill, there were other appealing skills we might get our hands on. Key-holder-type accessories could also be passed on to Raphtalia and other party members.

“I think the Sword Hero would like this kind of design,” Imiya said, quickly sketching out some lines. Even just a rough image could help to give the desired item form. I drew my own design for a gemstone-like key holder. It was nothing too large, easy to use, added a little accent when equipped, and was something Raphtalia and the others could also use easily. I also made some that looked like bird wings and some like those long-range weapons from that one famous robot anime. They basically looked like onions, unless you knew what you were looking at. People who hadn’t seen any of that anime would be super puzzled by it.

Then I looked over at Imiya’s design, and it made me furrow my brow. It looked like something a middle-school kid would like—a magic circle with a silver cross and a gemstone in the middle. The whole thing was set up to look like an eye. It was pretty twisted.

“Tell me about that,” I asked her carefully.

“What about it? I’m sure the Sword Hero will love this kind of design,” she replied. She was right; Ren probably would love it. He’d once tried to pull off the whole too-cool-for-school thing. But he’d probably be too embarrassed to take this if he was offered it directly; like even if you had a collection of porn, you wouldn’t admit it to a family member.

“Sure, why not?” I eventually conceded. “If he doesn’t want it, we can give it to someone else. I can try it out too.” Either way, I wanted to see his reaction.

It might not have much of an effect as an accessory for me, but it could be cool to just wear it for decorative purposes. It could fit around the gemstone part of my shield, like a cap. That might be cool.

“What do you think for materials?” Imiya asked. “I’m still trying to decide my overall approach . . .”

“How about using some Glawick ore? That will give it floating properties and might draw out the desired effect—or at least raise speed,” I pondered.

“Okay. I’ll try that,” she agreed. It was easy chatting with Imiya because she possessed the same skills as I did and understood where I was coming from.

We made a mold, melted down the metal, and poured it in. As I checked the metal as it melted in the forge, a string of different accessories started to take shape. Even as we worked, the sounds of Ren’s hammer provided metallic percussion in the background. He was so focused on his work that he didn’t seem bothered by us bustling around him. That intense focus was one of his best qualities, but it was also a weakness—when he concentrated too hard, he lost all awareness of things around him. I peeked over at what he was making . . . It looked like a katana. Both Ren and Raphtalia could use a katana, so it would be useful.

He placed the hot katana into water. Maybe he was finished. I tilted my head when I noticed that the water was swirling around.

“Phew!” Ren wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up, then turned around when he realized I was behind him. “Hey, Naofumi.”

“You were pretty deep in the forest, huh?” I said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he replied.

“How’s the finished product? Any good?” I asked. He pulled the weapon from the water and looked it over. It wasn’t completely finished yet, and the blade itself was still dull, but it still looked like there was some kind of vortex of air swirling around it. “Looks good to me. A nice new weapon. Like a wind katana or something?” An elemental weapon. I’d seen them somewhere before.

“Huh . . . to be honest, this isn’t going to be close to what my master can make,” Ren admitted.

“Really?” I asked. The appraisal technique offered by my shield indicated that he was maintaining a high level of quality, even if he wasn’t finished yet. The rules of this world allowed an energy called life force to be imbued into things to increase their quality. Adding life force to food, for example, would make it taste super delicious. I often used this technique myself when I was making accessories. It was no exaggeration to say that simply being aware of this technique, and being able to apply it, would make a decisive difference to the quality of the item you were making.

On the other hand, while it was enough to make you almost as good as a specialist craftsman, it still wasn’t quite enough to allow you to compete with them. Of course, I intended to compete . . . eventually.

“Yeah. If Master was making this, he would be finished by now, and it would be better than mine,” Ren said. Ren’s master was a terrible womanizer—a lot like the Spear Hero Motoyasu had been before his complete break with reality. Internally, I called the old goat “Motoyasu II.” He was a great blacksmith though; I wasn’t doubting that. He just wouldn’t make any weapons for me. “This just makes me feel—again—that I really can’t compete with him,” Ren admitted.

“Don’t beat yourself up too badly, okay? This intense concentration is all very well, but you need to make sure to get some rest,” I told him. While I was away in Kizuna’s world, Ren had been left in charge of the village—and the sense of responsibility that had created had left him immobilized. He had been looking out for the villagers, dealing with Motoyasu and his rampages, and also training hard—that was a lot to take on. I’d known about all that stuff, but it seemed he’d been forging weapons as well. That was a schedule so packed I was left wondering if he got any sleep at all. Maybe he had been hoping to work himself to death.

“I will,” he replied. “What about you, Naofumi?”

“Just need to piece these together and buff them up a bit. Right, Imiya?” I said.

“That’s right! We’ve finished a few of them already!” Imiya said brightly, lifting up some of the accessories for Ren to see.

“Take a break later and go test these out, okay?” I said to Ren.

“Okay. I’ll let you know what effects I find. I’m also making a shield for you to use, Naofumi, so that’s something for you to look forward to,” Ren replied, showing me the work-in-progress shield. He was using the materials from the Phoenix we had defeated a while back, and it looked red and warm to the touch already.

“Looks like a hot one,” I commented.

“That’s due to the materials,” Ren replied. “Master says they’ll split apart if the temperature isn’t carefully controlled.” The Spirit Tortoise materials had been hard to handle too, and it had taken the weapons old guy a decent chunk of time to complete my Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield—which was now the shield I used the most. From that perspective, Ren was probably doing well just to keep the shield in a cohesive shape. He must have been instructed in how to handle these materials, or this would surely have taken him even longer to pull off. “I can’t match my master—or the old guy—and I don’t quite have a handle on these materials either, so it could be a pretty rough job . . . but it might produce some skills you can use. Look forward to it,” Ren said.

“You bet,” I replied. Ren already had his own sword made from Phoenix materials, a weapon he had received from his master. It was called a “Scissors Sword,” able to split into two blades or be used as one big one.

Ren was looking at the katana he made, sighing to himself.

“You got a problem there?” I asked.

“What makes you think that?” he replied.

“The way you’re acting, it would be strange to think otherwise,” I stated. From what I had seen, it looked like a pretty solid weapon. He’d mixed in some of Filo’s feathers she had shed. That was likely to make Motoyasu jealous, if he heard about it. Filo had recently become “Filo of the Wind,” one of the four heavenly kings, in Kizuna’s world. That made her well suited to providing materials. It was impressive that she was still helping out, back here in the past. Maybe I should have Ren use the remaining feathers to make a staff for Melty.

“It’s just . . . whatever I make, it feels like I hit a wall. I can’t match my master in anything, let alone quality. Master said my work is too bland, that I’m just doing what I’m told—what I think he wants—and I need to put more of myself into my work . . . but I don’t really know what that means,” Ren said. In this new light, I looked at the katana, shield, and other practice pieces that Ren had made. I saw it immediately.

“Yeah, bland. That really is the word,” I commented.

“Shield Hero, I don’t think you should . . .” Imiya said, stunned at how blunt I was. I loved getting that kind of response from her—like I did with Raphtalia. The banter would have proceeded even more smoothly if she finished her sentence and pushed me a little harder.

At that moment, Raphtalia herself was off with Eclair—a knight from Melromarc, who was Ren’s guardian. They were helping out with our trading. The two of them had been training too. They got along pretty well.

“What I mean is they’re balanced but average . . . no outstanding strengths, but no staggering flaws either,” I said. They would be easy to use, for sure. I didn’t hate that. But they could be a little more . . . stimulating too.

“Hurts my ears to hear it,” Ren admitted. “That’s exactly what Master said to me—that I’m not working a production line here. Can you tell me what I should be doing instead, Naofumi?” I wasn’t sure I should tell him anything. Keeping quiet might be better for Ren’s own personal development. One could often improve at something by simply doing it repeatedly. Even before we started training, I was using my free time to make accessories and medicine. Making medicine had been pretty easy, especially with my cooking experience.

I showed Ren the designs that Imiya and I had just come up with.

“This is the answer here,” I said.

“That looks pretty nice,” he said, but also furrowed his brow a little. Then he looked at the one Imiya created and didn’t seem sure what to say. It was written on his face though; he wanted to use it.

“We designed this to add an auto-tracking feature to your float weapons. Hopefully it will work,” I told him.

“You did?” he replied. “Okay then . . .”

“We’ll make it using materials suited to that purpose,” I assured him. I seemed to remember not only the accessory dealer but also Motoyasu II telling me that a deep understanding of materials was vital for accessory work. He only mentioned it once, so I’ve pretty much forgotten about it.

Ren had a bigger problem than that, anyway.

“Ren, you need to stop holding yourself back. That’s why you keep choosing these plain, unremarkable forms. You need to bring your adolescent semi-goth, death-metal sensibilities to the fore! Let your freak flag fly!” I told him. As soon as I said it, I knew it was a terrible line. So cheesy and bad. I would never have gone for that myself, if someone said that to me.

“What the hell? What are you talking about? I’m not into that stuff!” Ren shouted, shaking a little woodenly and averting his gaze. This was exactly what I’d been thinking about before—he understood the truth, deep inside, but was too embarrassed to admit it.

“You were a jerk when we first got here,” I told him, keeping the blunt streak going, “but I think you would have been better suited to this kind of work. You need that kind of confidence! Let Motoyasu work with Filo’s materials and I’m sure he’d make something better than this!” Motoyasu had already been making clothing for the filolials by hand. His skills with needle and thread were so impressive the Sewing Kit Hero S’yne considered him a rival. The source of that power was his insane—almost sick—love for Filo. If I asked him to make clothing that would allow Filo to shine even brighter, and that used Filo’s materials . . . the results would be so epic I almost considered doing it. Of course, Filo was highly unlikely to wear anything Motoyasu made.

“You think that’s all I need to do?” Ren asked.

“That’s how this world works. Makes me sick to say it,” I told him. The student from the bottom of the barrel has more room to grow than the perfectly sculpted honor student. It sounded like the main character from some pulpy novel, and I could kind of understand his desire to deny it. “What I want to say is you need to push down your reason a little and work based on instinct. Presupposing you have the skills required for the task, of course.” He was able to blend Filo’s feathers into metal, so he had to be pretty good at this. I might be able to use a Filo feather as an additional little decoration, but I couldn’t hope to mix them with metal. The two hardly seemed compatible to me. Being able to pull that off told me that Ren’s forging skills were already pretty advanced. What he needed was to break free of the internal limitations he placed on himself. If he continued to be reticent, taking the bland and safe path, he would never be able to bring out the true potential hidden in these materials.

The weapons old guy and Motoyasu II had cautioned him on this point too. Back then he had been trying to make a sword, but it had turned into a katana. They had told him to listen to the voice of the materials and then bend them to his will, but Ren clearly hadn’t made it to the “bending” part yet.

“Start by using life force as you work. That should provide you with some kind of image; make what you see,” I suggested.

“Ah. Master said something like that. I think I get what you mean,” Ren replied.

“So go get good at it,” I told him. I’d never heard the “voice” of ingredients when I was cooking. That annoying rotund noble had gone on about the ingredients being happy, but who cared about him? No one, I was hoping.

It almost made it sound like I was bending the ingredients to my absolute will. That wasn’t the case. I was just cooking them based on my culinary experience. I wondered if that was the “voice of the ingredients.” Nope, I was pretty sure it wasn’t. I’d been working within the realm of home-cooked foods, basically, but recently my confidence in that area had taken a drop. I’d been called things with a kitchen theme too, like the “Pot Lid Hero.” I still hadn’t forgiven the one responsible for that, and never would.

“I get it, but . . . easier said than done,” Ren admitted.

“Let your embarrassment go. No one makes the perfect product their first time out. Honing yourself a little at a time is how you get better at things like this,” I reassured him.

“Okay. Can you watch me for a while? If you think I’m holding myself back, let me know,” Ren suggested.

“I might break your concentration, but okay,” I agreed. Ren nodded and then started preparing the katana for another forging. “We’ll keep going with our accessories too. Don’t worry, I’m watching,” I said. Imiya and I started working on our accessories again, a short distance from Ren. Keeping focused on providing the assistance to float skills for Ren, I took a Glawick ingot created from Glawick ore and started my work. I’d need to add some gemstones too.

I nodded when I saw that Imiya had selected a gem shaped like a cat’s eye. It had a vertical line running through it, and it was aptly called a “green cat’s eye.” Adding an eye gem to the eye design for an accessory, in hopes of adding a tracking effect, made sense. I’d been planning on making a similar choice, so we were able to proceed without even having to talk to each other. I had to melt the ingot, pour it into the mold, cool it, then buff it up. Imiya was already cutting the green cat’s eye. The work proceeded smoothly, and each time I had a spare moment, I looked over at Ren.

With more clanging, his hammer was beating on the heated katana, further working it into shape. At a glance it didn’t seem much different than before, but then I noticed the top was thicker . . . it was taking on a design like a bird. Then Ren started to rework that, trying to return it to normal. I tapped him on the shoulder and wordlessly signaled for him to leave it. He snapped back to himself with a nod and then restored that thickness.

I wasn’t sure myself, but this did look like the right shape for a weapon using Filo’s feathers. It had a bird-based feel now and looked like it would move pretty fast—but it didn’t look like the easiest weapon to wield either.

Imiya and I continued our work, watching Ren while making our own accessories. Watching mine cool, picking my moment, I proceeded with the buffing and discussed the plating and other techniques to use with Imiya. Eventually we were finished.

 Glawick Ingeye quality: excellent

 Cross Glawick Third Eye quality: excellent

“Next, magic imbuing,” I said. “First we should try them out and confirm their effects.”

“Okay. Just adjusting the output during magic imbuing can create all sorts of changes. This really is a deep and complex subject,” Imiya replied. Imbuing an accessory with magic could provide additional effects, but we had discovered that using a hero’s weapon could noticeably change the effects from before and after the imbuing. If the effect we wanted was already there, it wasn’t worth the risk of losing it.

That was good enough for the prototypes, anyway. We moved on to making multiples of the same accessories in order to increase our chances of creating desirable effects. As we went about our work, a wind suddenly whipped up inside the forge. I looked in the direction it was blowing from to see the katana that Ren was shaping taking on even more wind than before.

“Looks like it’s working,” I commented dryly.

“Try to calm down!” Ren shouted at the blade, not at me. All that wind gusting around made it look pretty hard to hold onto. “I haven’t even sharpened you yet!” He had a frustrated look on his face. The wind continued to whirl around the weapon. It was like the blade was out of control; that sounded pretty rock ’n’ roll to me. The wind katana continued to blow up a storm, completely ignoring the commands from the one who had created it. I checked it over and saw that it had definitely changed to a better product overall—just one that seemed even harder to handle. Failing to listen to anything people said sounded a lot like the one who had contributed her feathers to this endeavor. That would make sense. In which case, I had to calm it down. I moved my face closer to the weapon.

“If you don’t quit right now, I’ll have you reforged as a naginata and give you to . . . Motoyasu,” I murmured. The weapon seemed to shake on the spot, and the wind immediately dissipated.

It was like Filo herself had become the weapon.

“Wow. That seems to have totally changed its attitude,” Ren said.

“I only tried it because you said you used Filo’s materials. I didn’t really expect it to work,” I replied.

“That’s a big help, anyway. If I can follow through on this, it should be the best weapon I’ve ever made,” Ren said.

“Good luck,” I told him. He replied with a firm nod.

It didn’t take long after that for Ren to finish his katana made from Filo’s materials.

  Heavenly Wind King Katana quality: excellent

  imbued effects: Demon Dragon’s protection, power of the four heavenly kings, filolial blessing, agility increase, wind blades, quick charge

I was lucky that appraisal worked on it, maybe because of Filo’s feathers. It also seemed Filo’s new role as the heavenly wind king was superseding her role as a filolial. “Wind Blades” apparently allowed blades of wind to be fired off just by swinging the weapon around, while “Quick Charge” allowed the user to charge up power more quickly.

“Looks like a pretty good katana to me,” I said. “What about the stats on it?”

“Not quite at the same level as the weapons Master made from the Spirit Tortoise or Phoenix,” Ren admitted. With the Demon Dragon blessing and by channeling my rage through the Demon Dragon and Filo, I might be able to push them a little higher. That wasn’t bad.

“Go ahead and weapon copy it, Ren. Then we can give it to Raphtalia and see what kind of abilities it gives her,” I said.

“I’ve copied it already,” he told me. He changed his sword to the Heavenly Wind King Katana. The original had a strange shape, but for some reason, his had turned into a far simpler blade. “The equip effect allows for the use of wind magic. It has haikuikku too.”

“That’s all Filo stuff,” I said. When Ren had this sword equipped, it would expand the range of magic he could use. As it was an equip effect, he wouldn’t be able to use it with anything other than the Heavenly Wing King Katana, but it was still a super high-spec weapon.

“The techniques inside . . . it has charge reduction and a bonus to agility when leveling up,” Ren reported. The focus of the weapon was definitely placed on speed. “There’s also a skill called Wind Cutter Whistle.”

“What does that do?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. It doesn’t sound like anything I know from Brave Star Online. I’ll just have to give it a try,” he said. A new and powerful skill at this point would make things a lot easier in the battles ahead. My expectations were rising a little. We left the forge and Ren unleashed the skill in a spot with no one else around.

“Wind Cutter Whistle!” Ren shouted. His sword started to glow faintly. Maybe he had applied some kind of element to his weapon. Ren could already use Magic Sword, so this probably wasn’t going to be all that useful after all. Ren proceeded to gingerly swing the sword, and we heard a high-pitched whistling noise.

That was when the filolials passed the forge, chattering happily about feeding time. There was a strange atmosphere in the air . . . like something surreal. The voices of the filolials almost started to sound like crows.

“Any effect?” I asked. He swung it a few more times, and I could tell the sound was changing. “I bet Itsuki could use that to cast magic just by swinging it,” I commented. Once he had played music on a leaf to cast magic. Maybe a weapon like this could trigger his sound magic.

“Sorry. I don’t get along well with instruments,” Ren replied.

“This could just be a dead skill,” I said. But it might also turn out good for something. At least Ren was making good progress as a blacksmith. “Let’s check the accessories we made,” I suggested. We spent the rest of the day conducting tests around the forge. I also had Raphtalia copy the Heavenly Wind King Katana, and she ended up with pretty much the same stats as Ren. She also got a skill called “Wind Wing Cutter,” which was a quick draw skill to be unleashed in the air. The blade took on a winged shape and launched a powerful vacuum blade in a straight line—a perfect re-creation of one of the heavenly wind king’s moves. I could see Filo throwing a typical hissy fit if she saw this, like she was being told she was no longer needed. Now Raphtalia could do the same things as she could. Her dissatisfaction at being made one of the four kings were already hard enough to deal with.