kscans

Chapter 119 - A Job and Smithing

After a night on Earth, we returned to the other world. After transferring back to the Empire, I headed for the orphanage I had helped during the festival. I was there to teach them how to make katsuobushi.

The reason was something that happened while preparing for the festival. I had asked one of the children, "Why do you want to be useful?"

At the time, the child had looked sad and said, "A while ago, our livestock broke through the fence and caused trouble for the people in town. The soldier-uncles caught them all, but they had broken things at the stalls and in people's yards. Yorune-oneechan paid for all the damages. So, we want to repay her kindness, even if it’s just a little."

He looked like he was about to cry as he spoke.

As I comforted him, I realized how deeply grateful these children were to the people who raised them. That being the case, I felt bad just letting them help out. When I asked a few other children, they told me they didn't do anything other than look after the livestock and medicinal herbs. It seemed that finding work even a child could do was difficult, no matter the world.

But now that I was back from Earth, I had found a job even children could do.

Tina and I arrived at the orphanage. As soon as the children saw us, they all rushed over.

"Ah! It’s the big brother and the pretty big sister! What are you doing here today?"

"What? What is it? Are you going to tell us a story?"

"Thanks for coming! We don’t have anything to give you, though…"

They all spoke at once.

"Today," I told them, "I came to teach you a certain recipe."

At my words, the children looked at each other, then turned back to me with wide, curious eyes.

It seemed I had their interest. I headed for the kitchen. The ingredients were simple: wheat flour dough, soy sauce, katsuobushi, and green onions.

First, I rolled out the dough and cut it into thick noodles with a knife. Next, I put the noodles in boiling water. While they cooked, I added katsuobushi to another pot of hot water to make dashi stock. After removing the katsuobushi, I seasoned the stock with soy sauce to make the broth. Once the noodles were cooked, I put them in a bowl, poured the broth over them, and topped it with finely chopped green onions.

It was udon, a specialty of Japan. I served a bowl to each of the children and to Tina. At first, they looked at it with a "what’s this?" expression, but they skillfully ate it with forks. Soon, the children were slurping up the noodles with incredible speed. Tina wasn’t as fast as the children, but she ate with rapt attention.

After they had finished every last drop of the broth, the children exclaimed, "That was delicious! What is it?"

"I’ve never tasted anything like it! Are you going to teach us how to make this?!"

It was a barrage of questions.

I calmed the children down. "Hold on, hold on. What I’m going to teach you how to make is the ingredient called katsuobushi that I used in this."

I showed them a piece of katsuobushi. The children stared at the unfamiliar object.

I continued my explanation. "This is made from a fish called a bonito. I’m going to teach you how to make it, so everyone, please come outside."

I led the children out to the courtyard. Using the tools I had brought, I showed them how to make it, just as I had read in the book. They all listened intently. It was inspiring to teach such an eager audience. The children on Earth often only half-listened, wrongly believing they could do anything once they entered society. Talking to them had been painful. Adult adventurers in this world were no different from those on Earth, but the children here were sincere.

After I had explained everything, one of the children asked, "How long does it take to make this katsuobushi?"

"Let’s see," I replied. "It takes at least seven days. Can you handle that?"

The children all nodded in unison.

"We can do it! No problem!"

"No matter how long it takes, we’ll do it!"

"Thank you, big brother!"

Their voices were full of determination.

I felt a sense of relief. After helping them with the first step, I entrusted the rest of the process—the repeated resting and smoking—to them.

Tina and I left the orphanage and immediately transferred to the Kingdom. Next up was forging the Hihi'irokane into a weapon at the smithy. I lit the furnace and heated the Hihi'irokane. Then, I began the process of hammering it into shape, heating it, and hammering it again.

Three hours later, I had forged it into the shape of a longsword. After quenching it in water to cool it, it was a translucent silver, so clear it was like looking into a spring.

An `Analysis` showed it was stronger than Adamantite and lighter than gold. It was a magnificent creation. I adjusted the hilt with `Matter Conversion`, and it was complete.

I went to find Tina inside the house. "Tina, I made a sword from the Behemoth material. Would you like to try using it?"

"From that material? But wasn’t it blackish?" she asked. It was a fair question. The material had been black before I started, but as I repeatedly heated it, it had gradually turned white.

"It turned white during the forging process," I said. "It’s strange, but that’s what happened. Anyway, why don’t you give it a test cut?" I brushed aside the question, forcing a change of topic.

Tina didn’t press the issue and took the sword. We went outside, and she swung it horizontally at a nearby tree. The tree was sliced through effortlessly and fell to the ground. There was no visible damage to the sword, not even a single nick. Its strength was truly something to behold.

"This is even more amazing than I thought," Tina said. "To have this kind of cutting power without imbuing it with magic… I’ll try channeling some magic into it."

She focused her magic into the sword. It began to glow faintly red, and when she swung it horizontally at another tree, it didn’t just cut it in two—the pressure from the swing made the very air tremble. This was dangerous. If she wanted to, she could probably blow several people away with the wind pressure alone. It was powerful, but difficult to handle.

Tina was astonished. "The power is incredible. I’ll have to be very careful when I use it."

She sheathed the sword and offered it back to me, but I said, "I made that sword for you. Of course, I don’t mean you should throw away your current one. But you don’t have much equipment. This is in case your sword breaks. A dagger isn't much to rely on, is it?"

I had made her a dagger for use in tight spaces before. Even so, I felt she needed one more weapon. Any more than this would be excessive, though.

After a moment of thought, Tina replied, "You’re right. Even though my sword is made of Orichalcum, there’s no guarantee it will never break. Your sword has broken before, after all. I will gratefully accept it."

She held it as if it were precious. Her gesture was incomparably cuter than when I had given her the dagger. So much so that I found myself staring.

Sensing my gaze, Tina composed herself and returned to her usual posture. "Ahem. So, what about your sword, Shinsuke?" she asked, clearing her throat conspicuously.

I tried to remain calm. "Oh, right. I’m going to make one from the same Hihi'irokane now. After that, I’m going to modify my Japanese sword and armor with `Matter Conversion`. If you’d like, I can change your armor to Adamantite as well?"

Tina replied, "That would be great. Please do so after you’ve finished your work."

She turned and walked back into the house. She was walking quite fast. She must have been really embarrassed. I returned to the smithy and resumed my work.

Four hours later, the Hihi'irokane sword was complete. I also reconfigured my Japanese sword to be fifty percent Tamahagane, thirty percent pyrophoric alloy, ten percent Rhenium, and ten percent Hihi'irokane. Then, I converted my Japanese armor to Adamantite.

My equipment was ready. I went inside and added Adamantite to Tina’s Mithril armor. In the process, her silver armor turned a grayish color.

"I don’t really care about the color," Tina said, apparently reading my expression. "Please don’t worry about it."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I checked the time. It was five in the evening. Somehow, the whole day had passed.

"Let’s rest here today," I said. "We can go back to the Empire tomorrow."

Tina agreed.

That night, we had grilled monster meat for dinner. And as the night wore on, Tina was wearing her green armor. I brought out the crucifix from the storage room. As usual, I crucified Tina and enjoyed her body, armor and all.

This time, instead of the whip, I started tickling her with a feather duster I had made from a monster bird’s feathers. It was more delicate than using my hands, and the soft sensation made Tina unable to hold back her laughter. I continued to tickle her as I listened to her voice. Normally, I would have stopped, but my mischievous desire to tease her rather than see her suffer was greater.

When I saw tears in her eyes, I finally stopped. As she panted, catching her breath, I said, "We’re just getting started." I cupped her chin and gave her a wicked smile.

With vacant eyes, Tina pleaded, "Please… be gentle…" her breath ragged.

Her words blew away the last of my reason. All night long, I continued to tickle Tina, enjoying plays other than whips and pain, as if she were a captive knight.