Chapter 57: Momentary Thoughts Part 5 Part 1

What exactly is a “mastery”?

Mastering the art of blacksmithing is not only about making great weapons. It’s not about making them stronger and more durable. It’s the ability…… Ability to be able to read the weapon perfectly, to uncover its true potential and attune it to the person that is going to wield it in the future.

It took me a while to understand that explanation, but mostly because the dialect of Break was rather hard to grasp at first.

「Vorpal…… A true “Vorpal Weapon” remembers the times when it clashed with strong opponents and bested them in combat. Pops can feel those memories and shape the weapons according to those memories, helping the weapon’s true potential to surface.」

「Huh……」

Each time Weissash hits the Vorpal Knife with his hammer, there were golden sparks flying about in the air, as well as magic circles reflecting on the blade’s surface. It was imbuing the blade with magic, and with each hammer strike another magic circle would appear and the blade would absorb even more magic.

「…… Bright flames…… dancing across the night sky……」

「Eh? What…… Oguah!?」

「Sanraku-san! Please keep quiet…… Kyaahyu!?」

Eh? What was it that he just said?

I wanted to ask something, but at that exact moment I was interrupted by Break who delivered a rather powerful blow to my shin, causing me to stagger.

Why you little…… For an NPC to actually attack a Player on their own like that…… You little sh*t…..!

Turning towards her, I could see that she was looking at Weissash at work, so she probably did that so that I wouldn’t try to interrupt his focus for even a single moment.

Emul looked as though he wanted to say something as well, but one sharp glare from Break successfully managed to stop him from doing that.

「Listen.」

「No, you……」

「Just shut up and listen closely.」

「「…… Yes, ma’am……」」

Weissash continued his work without fail, as if he didn’t hear that exchange at all. When we became quiet, both Emul and I realized that what leaked out of Weissash’s mouth was in fact a silent song.

「Flames of the furnaces, dancing in the night sky.

Sparks are born and fly off into the dark.

Dancing gold and singing iron.

Strike and smash and clang and clash.

Thou art the power, thou art the blade.

Born from the soil, cut from the wood, raised in fire, hardened in gold, cooled in water.

The world goes round and round.

Iron from gold, steel from the iron, blade from steel, sword from the blade.

As the dawn breaks, the sword glows.

Reflects the light and banish the dark.

Dancing sword, singing of the world……」

…… I see, so he was using a magic song to imbue a new kind of power into the weapons. By the way, even though he was a guy, his singing voice was so nice that if he decided to record singles and sell them for money he would surely become very rich very fast. The music market is vast and there would surely be a niche that would demand someone like him to perform. In short, I was impressed by his performance, and the other two bunnies had tears welling up in their eyes.

「Now, I would be very happy if someone explained to me what just happened here (loud voice).」

「That was father’s…… I mean His Majesty’s special smiting technique called “The Iron Song”. We absolutely adore it whenever he does that (loud voice).」

I nodded my head to those words. It was surely quite something, and honestly I think that he could even put idols to shame if he decided to make a debut in the music industry.

But I also knew that when it comes to music and singing, especially in video games, it could be a really rocky ground to stomp on. There were a lot of factors that you would have to take into consideration, like the lyrics, music’s tempo, different tones of voice…… I had some experience with that in the past and it is a past that I would rather not revisit. Suffice it to say that my singing voice was so horrible that it would cause my love points with every heroine to suddenly drop to zero on the spot. From the full meter, mind you.

「Is there something wrong, Sanraku-san? You suddenly went rather pale.」

「I’m alright…… I just remembered something that I would rather want to forget. That’s all. Don’t worry about it.」

There’s no use remembering stuff from the past. What happened in the past should stay in the past, and not be brought up anymore.

While I was thinking that, the sound of hammering gradually grew quieter and quieter, until it eventually came to a complete stop.

「Right, that should be more or less done.」

「Eh? Ah? Is it done? Okay, okay, how does it look!?」

Weissash’s declaration helped me focus again and push the traumatic memories away for now. Which was a good thing and I was grateful to him for that.

「Let’s see…… It seems that the true names of Vorpal Knives have been revealed here. They are called Rabbit Moon “Upper Fang” and Rabbit Moon “Lower Fang” respectively.」

「Ooooh……!」

When Weissash handed me my new weapons, I was completely in awe of what I just saw. Up until now they looked like simple kitchen knives, but now they transformed completely into genuine-looking weapons.

Instead of looking like simple kitchen utensils, they were more curved and ornamented, looking kind of like a moon sickle. The shape of the knives was also identical, almost as if the “Lower Fang” was made as a reflection of the “Upper Fang”.

「It’s been a long time since my technique managed to change the shape of the weapon.」

「So it doesn’t change shape every time?」

「It’s not unheard of, but it is extremely rare…… Sometimes even the weapon type itself may even change. Like, knives becoming swords. This weapon is now “Anti-sword blade” I see.」

「Anti-sword blade……」

For as long as I played games, I haven’t heard that name before.

「I do believe that this weapon fits you perfectly, Sanraku-san.」

「Seriously!?」

「I’m serious!!」

Talk about a coincidence. So, maybe I wanted such a weapon on a subconscious level? Or maybe I simply wanted something that didn’t look like a kitchen knife? Anyway, I managed to obtain a weapon that I always wanted, one that I could use in unison and realize its full potential that way…… Wait a moment.

There was this feeling again. As if I had forgotten about something important from the recent past. What could that be……?

「I know that you will handle them well, Sanraku-san. After all, you have displayed the level of skill far better than any possible requirement for such a weapon.」

「You really think so? I have never even thought about myself as a skillful warrior.」

「You have the skill. Trust me on that. I know you have.」

「So without my skill it wouldn’t be possible……?」

I put my new weapons with trembling hands into my inventory and read their description.