CH 9

Chapter 9 – I Made Some Armor!

“It’s so good…”

Mette, the girl with the ponytail, put the meat into her mouth, and then touched her cheeks with an expression of pure bliss.

The sharp expression she had during the day was gone completely, and she looked at me dazedly.

“The Hell Alligator meat is good, but the Armor Boar isn’t bad either.”

“Ah, the boar is even softer and melts in your mouth…”

The Kijins hadn’t had meat in a long time, and were enjoying it greatly. Men and women, old and young, all were eating excitedly.

But there was one thing that I noticed. There were not many younger men in this village.

Perhaps they had a tendency to be reckless, much like the man who had taken on the Armor Boar during the day… I wanted to do something about that.

Still, when had I last eaten some solid meat like this?

I usually dined on soup and bread.

“Mmm. It really is good… Huh?”

As I was eating the meat, I saw a girl with silvery white hair step out of a tent.

It was Iria, the Fendel chief.

When our eyes met, she brushed away the protests of the guards, and walked towards me hurriedly.

“Iria, shouldn’t you rest for a little longer?”

“No, I feel much better now, thanks to you. By the way, I heard that you went hunting and brought back meat for everyone.”

“No, I just made the crossbow. It was Mette who did the actual hunting.”

Mette’s cheeks were full of meat, and she looked like a squirrel as she shook her head to the side.

Then she swallowed it and said,

“Not at all! Not only would I have not been able to hunt without the cross bow, but Joshua even killed the Armor Boar by himself!”

‘He did it alone!?’ The Kijins around us began to gasp in surprise.

Iria looked surprised as well, but she quickly bowed.

“Y-you did such a dangerous thing for us… You have my gratitude. And on top of what you did earlier in the day, I don’t know how we can repay you.”

“Iria, I don’t need anything. I’ve decided to stay here for a while and make armor and weapons, in exchange for food and a place to sleep. And I’ll help with hunting if I have time.”

Iria looked stunned by this, but Mette nodded.

“Yes! Joshua is going to stay here for a while in order to help us!”

“Wh-what… Th-thank you, Sir Joshua! If there is anything we can do to help, just let us know!”

Iria bowed again, and then I said,

“It’s really nothing. I’m just a Production Magician. It’s my job to make weapons and tools. More importantly…”

I looked towards the scales and skins that lay on top of the tree stump.

“Mette. Will you be able to hunt alone starting tomorrow?”

“Aye, I will be invincible with this weapon! …Ah. Of course, I will be careful to not shout from now on!”

“Yes. In general, you shouldn’t talk while out hunting. But there are times that no amount of hiding will help you. So it would be best if you had some defensive equipment.”

“Defensive…equipment?”

“You know, like armor?”

Mette tilted her head to the side, but Iria nodded.

“Armor…armor. It’s like a shield that you attach to your body, yes? Our ancestors used to have such things, but we have lost the art of making them.”

Said Iria. And then she went to her tent and came back holding some cloth.

“I believe this is a picture of the armor.”

The cloth had a painting of a Kijin that wore armor made of small scale-like plates.

It looked like the armor I had seen mercenary humans from the east wear.

There were different names, but it was lamellar armour.

“So this is the armor of your ancestors. Judging by the look of it, I think these are made of platelets. That’s perfect. I can try and recreate them.”

The scales of the Armor Boar were tough. And so I could connect them and make something similar to this lamellar armour.

As for the other parts, I would use the Hell Alligator skin after tanning it.

And so I immediately retrieved the scales and skins and had Wiz fetch some hemp from the storage tent.

But then, Iria said,

“This one? But according to the legends, our ancestors took a whole year to make this armor.”

“I’m sure they were doing it while working on other things. That’s why it took so long. But for me…”

The last time I had made lamellar armour must have been about five years ago.

And so it was now a recipe, but I think it had taken me around three days to make.

The Knights Order prefered plate mail that covered their entire body, and hardly anyone used lamellar armour.

Unlike simple plate mail, lamellar armour required that you make platelets with holes in them, and you had to connect them with string as if sewing, which was a complicated process.

“…It will be fine. I’m sure I can make it quickly.”

And then I took the string that Wiz had brought.

However, in preparation, I now had to figure out the size of Mette’s body.

“Mette. I’m going to have to measure you.”

“What? Oh, very well! …But it’s a little embarrassing to do it here. Could we go to the tent?”

Mette said as she started to blush.

She was standing as if to cover her chest, which was a little alluring.

“N-no, this is fine. Wind.”

“Huh?”

And then my wind magic surrounded Mette as she looked at me questioningly.

The wind maintained its shape as it was absorbed back into the Magic Workshop. I could now use it as an indicator for the size of the armor.

“All right, that’s good. Craft…lamellar armour.”

It was important defense equipment that ensured one’s safety during hunting.

And so I would make it very carefully.

It was with such thoughts that I used all of the magic energy within me.

And then, it was finished in less than a minute.

I didn’t expect it to be so quick…

“Mette. Stay still.”

“Huh? Ah-ah…!?”

A light enveloped Mette’s body.

And when the light subsided, Mette was standing there in the lamellar armor.

“Woah! So this is…armor!”

Mette looked down at her body.

But while everyone looked at Mette’s armor in astonishment, there was one elder who was sobbing.

And then one of the Kijins approached him.

“Wha-what is it, elder?”

“It was when I was but five years of age…in order to protect me, my father fought against a monster and died… And that armor looks just like the one he was wearing…”

The old man’s voice shook, and then he put his hands together with gratitude as he looked towards Mette.

Iria turned to me.

“He will be 230 this year. The only one in this tribe who is over a hundred years old. He is one of the few who knows about our past. It seems that we still had such armor when he was young…”

“I see…”

To think that someone would shed tears over something I had made…

“I still have plenty of materials left. I’ll make some for the other hunters as well.”

After that, I made five suits of lamellar armor for their best warriors.