"Yo, Finn, you've finally come. I've been waiting a good while for you all."
While Leo was sizing up this strongest smith in Orario, she had already come over with a hearty smile and greeted Finn at the head of the group.
The smiths behind her greeted the people they knew in Loki Familia as well, and though the two sides belonged to different Familias, their relations looked fairly cordial.
Hephaestus Familia was a Familia of smiths to begin with, and its senior smiths were all sought after. Any number of adventurers begged at their doors, hoping they would forge weapons and armaments for them, and these senior smiths in turn favored famous adventurers, hoping their own works would display their full brilliance in the hands of such renowned adventurers and make their names ring out.
Thanks to this, famous adventurers and smiths tended to have mutually beneficial, friendly relations. Such smiths in particular usually had considerable connections, forming contracts with numerous powerful adventurers and forging weapons and armaments tailored to them, so such relationships were never bad.
Quite a few members of Loki Familia had cooperative relationships with smiths of Hephaestus Familia and had used their works, Bete the werewolf especially. The metal battle boots he wore now were the work of Tsubaki, the strongest smith in Orario.
So seeing Tsubaki approach with that hearty smile on her face, Bete pursed his lips and moved the foot with the metal boot on it.
"We'll be relying on you this time, Tsubaki."
Finn said a few polite words.
"Not at all. This is a rare opportunity for us too. I should be the one thanking you."
Though Tsubaki was a woman, she had the smith's characteristic warmth and bluntness, grinning broadly, not the least bit bothered by Finn's pleasantries.
She wasn't just talking either. For smiths like them, who rarely entered the Dungeon, this opportunity really was hard to come by.
Because their main occupation was smithing, forging weapons and armaments for others, smiths naturally had far fewer chances and far less time to enter the Dungeon than adventurers did, so a smith's Level was generally not very high.
Yet if smiths wanted the Blacksmith Development Ability, the ability to forge superior equipment, they had to reach at least Lv.2.
Development Abilities could only be obtained on leveling up, so to become a senior smith with the Blacksmith Development Ability, one had to find some way to level up.
Under such conditions, how to accumulate enough excelia and win the chance at a Rank Up was often one of the things that troubled smiths most.
And even after leveling up and becoming a senior smith, going any higher likewise required finding chances to accumulate excelia and challenge great feats.
As one of the largest Familias of smiths, Hephaestus Familia had size and resources enough that this problem didn't quite trap them.
But a chance to go on an expedition with Loki Familia was another matter entirely.
An expedition by the city's strongest Familia would take floors below the 50th as its target.
The drop items, rare materials, uncommon minerals, and so on found there were the high-grade goods the market most lacked, and their appeal to any smith was lethal.
Going on the expedition with Loki Familia meant reaching the Deepest Floors below the 50th, broadening their horizons, accumulating excelia, and gaining a chance at Rank Up, and also obtaining ultra-rare forging materials. Why wouldn't they?
So when Finn and Loki promised to hand over all forging materials obtained from the Deep Floors, both Hephaestus and Tsubaki accepted the invitation without hesitation.
It benefited both sides, so there was no need to stand on ceremony.
"We'll be in your care from here on, everyone."
Tsubaki's gaze swept slowly over the members of Loki Familia, and then she said this with a great laugh.
The members of Loki Familia had no objection to going on this expedition alongside Hephaestus Familia either, and they responded with smiles.
If their partners had been a Familia that might need looking after, or that might even drag them down, they certainly wouldn't have put on pleasant faces, but Hephaestus Familia was different. Every one of them was a senior smith, Lv.2 at worst, with Lv.3 and Lv.4 not rare either, and Tsubaki as their captain was a Lv.5 first-class adventurer, so there was no chance of them dragging anyone down.
On top of that, the two sides knew each other well enough to be sure the other party was trustworthy, so everyone's attitude was amiable, and even Bete, who loved picking fights, said nothing, lounging off to one side with a "quit yapping and let's get moving" look about him.
Still, with the two Familias joined up and an expedition ahead of them, they at least had to compare notes.
Finn had already started calling people to take inventory of both sides' supplies, and together with Riveria and Gareth he was recounting their fighting strength and reworking the formation.
Tsubaki, the captain of Hephaestus Familia, took the hands-off approach, leaving the arrangements entirely to Finn and the others, and instead walked straight over toward Leo and Ais.
"Long time no see, Sword Princess."
Tsubaki greeted Ais first, with the look of someone perfectly at ease.
No, it wasn't quite that. The two of them already knew each other.
"...Long time no see."
Ais nodded to Tsubaki, looking a little bashful, which put an interested expression on Tsubaki's face.
"I hear you made it to Lv.6. Congratulations." Tsubaki spoke with some feeling. "That little girl from back then has turned into such a remarkable adventurer. You never can tell how things will go."
Ais didn't react much to that, but Leo asked a question out of curiosity.
"Have you two known each other a long time?"
Leo had picked up on signs of it from the atmosphere between them, hence the question.
Though he knew the original work, he didn't remember everything, and Tsubaki wasn't a character with a particularly important role, so about the relationship between Ais and Tsubaki, Leo had only half an idea, knowing merely that the two were old acquaintances.
Tsubaki put it like this.
"A long time indeed. I met this little girl back when she'd just come to Orario and joined Loki Familia." Tsubaki said cheerfully. "That was about ten years ago, I think... no, it should be nine."
"She was frightening back then. Wore a look of bitter hatred toward everyone, like she might pounce and bite at any moment. Calling her a naked blade would be putting it mildly."
Having her childhood dark history suddenly exposed by an old acquaintance, Ais was visibly uncomfortable, squirming in a way so rare that Tsubaki was amused by the sight.
"So you were that fierce when you were little?"
Leo couldn't resist teasing Ais, which turned Ais's cheeks red.
"B-back then I didn't know any better..."
The girl mumbled in a tiny voice, though it wasn't clear whether she was explaining anything.
Leo knew, in fact, that back then Ais had just lost the people closest to her, her heart full of hatred and grief, wanting only revenge, wanting only to get stronger, and so she had been especially reckless then.
Riveria had once said that back then, the moment nobody was watching her, Ais would vanish who knew where, and once she slipped into the Dungeon she would fight like her life meant nothing, charging at any monster she saw with red eyes to cut it down, with no regard at all for whether she lived or died. Calling it trading life for life was generous; it was practically trying to kill herself.
Avenger, that Skill that turned back on its user, was one Ais would switch on whenever she felt like it back then, with no restraint at all, so that every day she walked the edge between life and death, never stopping until she'd been battered head to foot.
Ais in that state would hardly have left a good impression on anyone.
"Back then you were like a sword with no scabbard, one that would keep on fighting no matter how chipped and broken the blade got. I thought to myself that with you like that it couldn't end well, that sooner or later you'd die in the Dungeon."
Perhaps because she was recalling the old days, Tsubaki was in a talkative mood and went on at length.
"Such a scrawny little slip of a girl, and back then I didn't understand at all why you'd push yourself that hard, throwing your life away even. It made me not want to forge a weapon for the you of that time in the slightest."
Ais fell silent.
Generally speaking, on seeing an adventurer with potential, a genius likely to shine brilliantly one day, a smith should be eager to forge a weapon for them and form a long-term contract, letting them make a name with her work. But seeing Ais back then, with her limitless potential, Tsubaki had felt no desire at all to forge a weapon for her, from which one could imagine how little Tsubaki had thought of Ais's prospects.
No matter how much potential she had, carrying on so recklessly would inevitably cut her short. It was that thought that made Tsubaki lose interest in Ais and not want her own work to sink into obscurity along with her.
"But you've changed now."
Tsubaki's tone shifted, and her expression softened.
"Hm?"
Ais raised her head, not quite understanding.
"What I mean is, you're no longer a sword without a scabbard, you're a fine blade that's found its sheath."
Tsubaki reached out a finger and tapped Ais on the forehead, smiling.
"You don't show much expression these days, but that also means you don't have to stay sharp at all times. You only leave the sheath and let your edge out when you meet an enemy you have to cut down. A you like that finally looks like someone with a future."
"A sword needs a scabbard to hold it, and you should have your own place to rest too."
"If I'd known back then that the brat who looked ready to kick the bucket any minute would turn out like this, I might have made my move early and pulled you in as a regular customer."
Tsubaki laughed heartily as she spoke, and it was clear that whatever she said, she didn't actually feel much regret, and was instead sincerely glad about the change in Ais.
"...Sorry for worrying you."
Ais said it gingerly, which earned an even heartier laugh from Tsubaki.
"I didn't do anything. The ones who worried over you would be Finn and Riveria." Tsubaki said with a smile. "And the companions at your side. They're the ones you should thank."
Ais turned her head to look at Tiona bickering with Bete, Tione clinging to Finn and refusing to let go, Riveria giving Lefiya some instruction or other, and Gareth taking inventory with Raul and the others, and finally turned to look at Leo beside her, and gradually grew distant.
By then Tsubaki had at last put her gaze fully on Leo, her eyes beginning to shine.
"Anyway, you must be that Monster Rookie of Loki Familia that the whole city's been buzzing about, right?" Tsubaki sized Leo up with the look of someone eyeing a piece of uncut jade, her gaze burning. "Going from Lv.1 all the way up to a Lv.5 first-class adventurer in only three months of straight Rank Ups. When I first heard about it I wondered if somebody was pulling my leg."
Under the weight of that scrutiny, Leo showed no discomfort at all and spoke composedly.
"Honestly, I was surprised myself. I never imagined I had it in me."
That was the truth.
At the very beginning, Leo had never once imagined he could put up results that defied the heavens like this. He had only thought to accumulate excelia steadily and grow stronger little by little, and see whether he might rise in the world and become a first-class adventurer like Ais and the others.
He had never thought of himself as a genius, still less that he could grow at a speed that left even patron deities stunned, the way Bell Cranel did, and finally become a hero everyone looked to.
He hadn't expected that as a visitor from another world he would end up uncovering a bug of a Skill like Stranger from Another Star, vaulting him into being a Monster Rookie in others' eyes and completing in less than three months a goal he had once only been able to dream about, which had made him marvel countless times at how unpredictable things were.
"How about signing a long-term contract with me?" Tsubaki held out the olive branch directly, sounding like she couldn't wait. "With how fast you're growing, I imagine you're plagued by your equipment not keeping up with your strength, aren't you?"
"Sign a long-term contract with me, and no matter when it is, I'll forge you the equipment best suited to your strength."
An invitation from the strongest smith in the city would surely be an extremely rare thing for the many adventurers who longed for fame and for powerful weapons.
Earlier on, Leo might well have been tempted.
Unfortunately, Tsubaki had come too late.
"I already have a weapon that suits me."
Leo shook his head as he said it.
Only then did Tsubaki shift her gaze and see the sword at Leo's waist, hidden by his hooded cloak.
And once she saw it, her eyes couldn't move away.
"That sword..."
Cyclops's one exposed eye widened slightly without her meaning it to, as if she had seen something unbelievable, or rather something she had dreamed of, and she closed the distance to Leo, coming right up in front of him.
"What are you doing?"
Startled, Leo took a step back.
"Tsubaki?"
Ais spoke up in surprise, sounding somewhat puzzled.
Tsubaki paid neither of them any more attention, staring fixedly at the sword at Leo's waist, and even crouched down to examine it closely.
"Th-this sword...!"
Tsubaki spoke up with sudden excitement.
"Can I have a look at it?!"
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