CH 99

“Master, you’ve got to get in a better mood.”

“Shut up, what Master! I don’t remember taking as an apprentice a man who talks so much and then abandons me at the most critical moment!”

Lunch time had become a regular occurrence. As I ate my thick meat sandwich, which had become a staple of my lunch, My Master turned away and said while shaking his rich beard. He has been able to talk to me normally, but it seems that he was still in a bad mood.

“But, even if I had stayed there, I would be of no use. Or would you have preferred me to stand idly by doing nothing while My Master was busy looking over and signing papers?”

“… That won’t be pleasant.”

“Right!? Then it’s a good thing I went home after all!”

“Damn, you’re getting better and better at that! You know, you could have brought me something to eat or something.”

“I didn’t want to leave the store empty right after it was robbed! But I couldn’t just close down the store without permission, and to begin with, You wanted alcohol, didn’t you? I can’t give alcohol to a man who is doing paperwork in a stuffy office!”

“Don’t worry about the details!”

“No, it’s not detailed!?”

“Kuhuhuhuhu …………”

Then Tia, who had been watching the exchange between me and My Master, clamped her mouth shut and began to laugh. The two of us looked at her sullenly, but Tia’s laughter didn’t stop.

“What is it, Tia?”

“I’m sorry, Ed …, I just thought you two are really close.”

“Huh!? Oi girl, I can’t ignore that. What’s so friendly about me and this heartless bastard!?”

“Maybe it’s that you don’t get into fights when you argue like that? If you really couldn’t forgive Ed, wouldn’t Dalton-san have beaten him and kicked him out long ago?”

“….Tch. Say whatever you want.”

At Tia’s words, My master said so and bit his sandwich. Even in this short period of time, Tia understood that any further teasing would really put him in a bad mood, so she glanced at me and laughed before blatantly changing the subject.

“By the way, what happened to the thief, or rather, the Hero?”

“Ah, I was wondering about that too. What happened, Master?”

“Hmm? Ah, He was released as usual and went back to his country.”

“I see. I’ve heard the story, but was it really okay to release him without any charges?”

In response to Tia’s simple question,My Masted folded his arms with a difficult look on his face.

“Well, if you ask me whether it’s fine or not, it’s probably not fine, but if you treat the Heroes as criminals, it’s going to cause a lot of trouble. If we try to pursue it too hard, what nonsense he said may turn out to be true. If that’s the case, the safest thing to do is to pretend from the beginning that nothing happened. I wanted to be reasonable, but I’m not so young that I’m willing to fight a country for something like that.”

“Eh, It’s obviously a bad thing, but it’s a lot of trouble to catch them, after all, the authority of a Hero is really great.”

“I wish I could produce results that match that. Seriously, it’s impossible to keep using the contract that was decided 500 years ago. In the first place, these guys aren’t really trying to defeat the Demon Lord right now.”

“Eh, Is that so!?”

Tia, surprised, turned her head toward me. But even I was not that knowledgeable about the state of affairs in this world. Inevitably, I turned my gaze toward my Masted, who continued talking while stroking his beard.

“That’s right. It’s already been 500 years since the Demon Lord appeared. With this long time, it’s enough for the concessions to be established. With the cause of fighting the Demon Lord, taxes can be squeezed as much as they want, and if there is any trouble, it can be settled by saying “A Demon Beast did it” or “it’s the Demon Lord’s fault” for the time being. It would be a waste of time to defeat an opponent whose evilness would not become a problem no matter what we forced on them.”

“That’s…then why did that Hero steal the sword from the shop?　It’s not like he wanted a strong weapon to fight the Demon Lord, right?”

“I don’t know. Either He just wanted to look good, or he couldn’t stand the fact that he was denied ‘being a Hero’ because I refused. …… If you ask me which one is it, it’s probably the latter? Otherwise, He would have called the country and pulled the big shots out. And then I wouldn’t have been able to say no to him, so I would have to forge a sword for him. Well, it’s performance will probably be the same as the other few swords, but it will be a “Hero sword”‘ that emphasized appearance with a lot of decorations.”

Saying this, My master grinned wickedly. It was so terrifying that even adults, let alone children, would run away barefoot.

“Wow, Master, you look so evil, huh?”

“Che, Shut up! I’m going to make the sword exactly the way the customer wants, so it’s fine. In fact, there’s no shortage of requests like that, you know? I’m not much of a decorator, so in that case I refer them to another blacksmith.”

“Eh!? Did My master show such consideration!?”

“Keep talking!”

“Guha!?”

The impact that reverberated through the skull was so strong that it put the offensive power of an unskilled soldier to shame.

“Now, enough of this nonsense! Oi Ed, the sword you are forging, show me when you’re done.”

“Ah, yes. I understand.”

“Ah, how quickly it goes by when you’re having fun.”

Master quickly left his seat, I hurriedly began to prepare, and Tia somewhat regretfully cleaned up the scene to end the lunch time. A short time later, I handed him the finished sword, and he stared at it with a serious expression on his face.

“H-How is it…?”

“……………………, it’s so-so.”

“Again ‘so-so’ huh…”

Since the first day, I have received nothing but “so-so” feedback from My master when he sees my sword. I could not help but feel a sense of inexpressible uneasiness at the lack of change, but as if he could see right through me, My Master’s mouth twisted into a smile and said,

“You know, a blacksmith’s skill is something that takes five to ten years to hone. You can’t make visible progress in just a month or so.”

“No, I know, but… I’ll do my best.”

“Heh, if you can say that without being rotten, you’ll get a little better eventually… By the way, Ed, this one has a very thin blade, why?”

“Huh? Ah, there was a time when I wanted to pursue sharpness, or rather, I used that kind of sword.”

When asked by My Master, I explained the reason for the sword being only half the thickness of a normal sword. What I had in mind was naturally the “Sword of Thin Life,” but since this one was just a practice piece, the degree of perfection was not comparable.

“Well, … the last time I had you cut the bars, I thought again, You, you’re quite the master, aren’t you? Why aren’t you a Hero?”

“Why you ask, even if you say that… I don’t know the selection criteria for heroes.”

The biggest reason was, of course, that I was not from this world, but it was also true that I did not know the criteria for selection of Heroes. Generally, it was said that they were appointed by the king or emperor, but since they were recognized by the country as well as the nobility, it was not just a matter of being strong enough.

“Well, that’s right. I don’t know about that either. But… Hmm.”

My master, who was looking at my forged sword from all angles and tapping it with a small hammer to check the degree of metal fatigue, placed the sword at his feet and spoke to me again.

“Hey Ed. You, do you want to try using my forged sword?”

“What!?”

I had not expected such a suggestion, and again I made a dumb noise.