27 A Plan Forms

27 A Plan Forms

I thought I had been stared at before by the Familia scouts and accepted it as them not realizing I was the kid they had rejected. With me wearing a full matching armor set, they were staring holes through me as they tried to figure out who I was. It was kind of funny seeing them stumbling over each other as they tried to ask everyone around the city who I was.

Maybe I should make a nametag for myself? I thought and it made me laugh, because I doubted that anyone would bother trying to read it.

By the time I reached the address where the Hephaestus Familia conducted family business, and not the storefront, there were about twenty people with weapons following me. I knocked on the door of the building and waited to see who would open it this time. It was just my luck that it was the same asshole that had spit on me and told me to come back when I was stronger.

“Hello, asshole. Remember me?” I asked and I punched him right in the face. I held back, of course.

“GUAH!” The man spat as he was flung back inside the room to land on the floor at a woman's feet. He also spat out several teeth and coughed.

“You told me to come back and here I am.” I said and stepped inside.

“What are you doing?” The woman dressed like a sexy samurai asked me as she drew her weapon.

“I begged to join your Familia and this idiot spat on me and told me to come back when I was stronger.” I said and walked over to him. “I'm stronger now and I came back to spit on him.”

The woman gave me a searching look as her eyes roamed over me, then she shrugged.

I gave her a huge smile before I made a show of building up a lot of spit, then let it go. “PTOO!”

It hit the man's forehead and his head snapped back to hit the floor, knocking him out.

The woman looked from him to me, a bit stunned, then she laughed. “Whoever you are, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen! You and me are gonna be great friends!”

I stepped around the man on the floor and held a hand out to her. “Bell Cranel.”

She looked at my glove-covered hand and at my face.

“Ha. I'm sorry. It's part of the complete ensemble.” I said and slipped the gloves off to tuck into my backpack. I held my bare hand out for her to shake.

She took my hand and immediately ran her fingers over the thick calluses I had instead of shaking it. “Yep, we're gonna be great friends.” She said and then put her hand in mine to shake it. “Tsubaki Collbrande.”

“It's really nice to meet you, Tsubaki.” I said and she let my hand go. “Can you lead me to Goddess Hephaestus? I have a couple of important things to tell her.”

Tsubaki's eyes dropped to the unconscious man.

I laughed. “No, that was personal and it's settled, as far as I'm concerned.”

Tsubaki smiled and waved for me to follow her. I admired her as she led me through the building and up several floors to enter a nice office without knocking. The room wasn't ostentatious or overly-ornate, which was a good indication of the disposition of the goddess running the place.

“Goddess Hephaestus? My new friend Bell Cranel wants to speak to you.” Tsubaki said.

I was a little surprised that she immediately claimed that in front of her goddess.

“Oh? Then it must be important for you to interrupt my very important and essential time set aside to do the important paperwork I absolutely hate to do.” The woman sitting behind the desk said.

Tsubaki laughed and stepped aside to wave me forward. She was only an inch shorter than me and had almost completely blocked me from view. I stepped into the room and Hephaestus cursed in ancient Greek when she saw me, or more specifically, the emblem emblazoned on my chest. Tsubaki looked amused at getting that reaction out of her goddess and stood off to the side of the room with her arms crossed to watch what happened.

Hephaestus stood up and I got a good look at her. She was only 5 foot 5 inches tall, which seemed to be close to the average height of a lot of the women that I've met. She also had a patch over her right eye and short messy red hair. Her chest was a good size for her body type and her tight brown pants left nothing to the imagination.

As I was checking her out, she walked over to me and checked me out with almost the same look that Tsubaki had given me. The blacksmith goddess walked around me twice and her fingertips lightly touched the little details I had made in the armor. She stopped as she faced me and she had to look up slightly as her fingertips traced the flames on my chestplate.

“Tsubaki! Estimation?” Hephaestus asked.

“It wasn't forged. There are no tool marks, splits, folds, imperfections, or even indents to indicate that anything had touched it.” Tsubaki said. “The details are embedded into the metal and not added or cut away, so it was either pressed into shape or came into being in the exact configuration it has.”

“Good. Very good.” Hephaestus said and used a single fingertip to run along the edge of my upper arm piece. “There are no mould lines or marks from removing them.”

Tsubaki nodded and didn't say anything else.

“My new friend loaned me a sword to test in the dungeon and wanted to come along to spend time with me.” Bell said and let her hand go. “I believe her words were that she couldn't let me have all the fun.”

“Damn right!” Tsubaki said, enthusiastically. “We're going to kick ass and push these blades to their limits, then we're going to pass them!”

Eina stared at her for several moments. “You do know that Bell is only Level 1, don't you?”

“Meh, it's just meaningless numbers. As long as you keep your wits about you and you have a reliable weapon, you don't have to worry about anything.” Tsubaki said.

“That... that... is a horrible philosophy for an adventurer to have!” Eina managed to say.

“Ha!” Tsubaki barked the laugh. “That's because I'm a blacksmith, not an adventurer. I only paid the sign-up fee to stop you people from hassling me for going into the dungeon to test my work.”

Bell barked a laugh as well and coughed to cover it up. “Ahem, yes. Well.” He said and motioned to one of the side rooms. “I was wondering about the maps the guild has for the first few floors and I also have an idea that I think could be a great investment...”

Eina's hand shot out and slapped over Bell's mouth to stop him from saying anything else. “Go over there and I'll bring the maps for the upper floors. We can talk more in a minute.”

Bell nodded and he and Tsubaki went to the indicated small room and Eina gathered up what she would need, plus a few more contracts and paperwork, just in case.

*

“I'm sorry, Bell.” Eina's sad voice said. “We can't condone the danger of using an unknown magic spell or provide you with such expensive material for a simple test, only to see if it might work.”

I sat there and was a little surprised that she had said no. “You don't trust me, even after I sold you such important things for a pittance?”

Eina blushed a little and turned her head slightly to not look at me directly.

“What things?” Tsubaki asked.

“One was a thermos that keeps things hot. The second I can't tell you about because they bought the revolutionary idea and now they own it.” I said and that made Eina blush more.

“My Goddess bought one of those things and it's great!” Tsubaki said. “She said it was a great deal for only...”

“You shouldn't discuss the private deals of your Goddess in public.” Eina said and cut her off.

I had to chuckle at that. “It's all right, Eina. I know you sold them for a lot more than what you paid for them.”

“Bell, I...” Eina started and then sighed. “I'm sorry. It's just business.”

“I know.” I said and pointed at the 12 folded maps. “I don't want to know how much those are, do I?”

Eina didn't speak and just shook her head.

“Then I believe my plans need to change again.” I said and stood. “Tsubaki, let's go visit my home briefly while I apologize to my Goddess for breaking my promise about only staying on the top four floors and then we can go into the dungeon as deep as you want to go to test these blades.”

Eina's face lost all it's color and Tsubaki looked like I just gave her the best Christmas present ever. I took Tsubaki's hand and the woman hopped up and hugged me tightly, giving me a huge look down her top, and then I was suddenly over her shoulder and we were outside the Guild Hall.

This seems familiar. I thought and looked down at her cloth-covered ass. It was damn fine.

“Which way?” Tsubaki asked me.

“The old ruined church in the outskirts of the city, that way.” I said and pointed so she could see my hand. “It's not ruined anymore, though. I fixed it up for my Goddess.”

“You are a good child to care for her so much so quickly.” Tsubaki said and ran.

“I designed my armor for her so that everyone would see her emblem. Word of her will start to spread.” I said and kept looking down. “Tsubaki, you have a really nice ass. Do you work out or something?” I joked and she laughed. We both knew she worked very hard at blacksmithing.

Surprisingly, Hestia seemed perfectly fine with letting me go with Tsubaki into the dungeon. That I was also carrying a blade that was worth more than the shop Hestia worked at, only made her happier. So, with her approval, I put my reinforced pick and shovel into my backpack and Tsubaki carried me back to her blacksmith shop to pick up what I had tried to get from the Guild.

A ton of silver powder and to cement an exclusive deal between my Familia and my new investor.