kscans

Chapter 55 - Repairing the Magic Sword

The day after Esha's strange episode, Hayato felt a wave of relief as he saw her arrive at the base, acting as if nothing had happened.

Yesterday, after Ren had left, Diite also came by, but her diagnosis was that there were no problems.

From a game perspective, if there were no status issues, there was no need for an examination, but he thought there might be something that a player like himself wouldn't understand. So he had her take a look.

Hearing that there were no issues, Esha had tried to continue her shopkeeping duties, but Hayato stopped her. Even if Diite said there was no problem and she herself said she was fine, there was a high possibility that there was actually a problem. So he had her rest for the day and lie down in bed.

Her demands for snacks were more intense than usual, but he took that as a sign of her being energetic and made several of the snacks Esha wanted. She ate them with her usual gusto, so much so that he almost suspected she was faking it.

However, there was something that he found strange. Esha always opened her mouth wide to eat her snacks, but only yesterday, she ate them bite by bite, savoring each one. As for juices, she drank them normally instead of her usual wild gulping.

On top of that, Esha had started doing something like light stretches on the bed, and her behavior was different from usual. Hayato asked her what was wrong, but Esha only replied that there was no problem.

After that, he asked Ren, who was still at the base, to talk to Esha. He was sure he had explained the situation properly, but from the way she gave him a thumbs-up and a rather clumsy wink, he could see that she had completely misunderstood. He left it, thinking Esha would explain it properly.

Diite, who had examined Esha, was also there, but Esha had sent her away, saying she was fine.

The reason was that while she was happy they had come, having too many people in the room would be tiring. Diite accepted this and told her to call immediately if anything happened before returning to the church.

After that, nothing particular happened, and Hayato spent the day tending the shop.

And today, Esha was working energetically from the morning.

"Um, are you sure you're okay?"

"I apologize for the worry I caused you. But I'm fine now. After receiving such a large quantity of snacks yesterday, I can say that I am in peak condition today. I could slay even a god for you."

"You seem like you could do that normally, though."

Hayato smiled slightly at Esha's usual tone. But that aside, there was something that was bothering him.

(She can joke around, so I think she's fine, but what was that yesterday? She looked sick, was trembling a little, and her head seemed to hurt. I thought this yesterday too, but there's no sense of pain in this game. That should be the same for NPCs. So why did she look like she was in pain...?)

If he was told it was an in-game event, then that would be the end of it, but it still bothered him.

"Esha, you looked like you were in pain yesterday, is that okay too?"

"Yes, no problem. It doesn't hurt anymore, and I can eat as many chocolate parfaits as you can give me. You can serve them every hour, you know?"

"No, that's a bit much. Just have one at three o'clock like usual."

(It doesn't hurt anymore, huh. That means Esha did have a sense of pain at that time. I don't know what that means, but it's a bit unsettling.)

Just as he was about to ask another question, Hayato felt an unpleasant gaze on him.

From the entrance of the shop, Ren was peeking, hiding half of her face and body. Her gaze could be compared to that of a predator that would not let its prey escape for even a moment.

"Ren-chan, good morning. Why don't you come in instead of standing there?"

"No, please don't mind me. This is good enough. You don't have to worry about me, so please continue."

He didn't know what was good enough, nor what he was supposed to continue. He only understood that she was still misunderstanding.

"Esha, you explained everything properly to Ren-chan yesterday, right? For some reason, she's looking at me with the same eyes you use when you look at me and Ash."

"It was a bit difficult to explain, so I just told her that you and I have an adult relationship, Master."

"Why would you say something so misleading?"

"Because that was the answer Ren-sama was hoping for, so I read the room. A capable maid is different in these aspects."

"You usually don't read the room..."

Hayato said, and then looked again at Ren, who seemed to be still peeking at him. Her eyes were clearly sparkling.

"Precious...!"

Hearing those words, Hayato gave up on various things. He thought that no matter what he said, she wouldn't believe him. Besides, for some reason, Esha was smiling even more than usual. It was nothing short of malicious to enjoy seeing him flustered, but if it made her happy, it was a small price to pay.

"Hah, fine. I'm going back to my room then. Make sure you explain properly to Ren-chan."

"Understood. I'll tell her it's a financial relationship."

"Absolutely not."

While Ren's misunderstanding was a problem, Hayato was relieved to see Esha back to her usual self and headed to his room. He then thought about his plans for the day.

He hadn't worked on creating Arondight yesterday because of Esha's issue. So he decided to deal with it today.

The creation of this Arondight was quite special; its quality was guaranteed to be five stars. Also, while the success rate was low, the materials were not lost upon failure, so he could try as many times as he wanted.

Normally, when a creation fails, some of the materials are lost. The fact that this didn't happen made it a rather easy production item.

(Well, if the broken Arondight were to disappear, it would be impossible to make it again. The system probably isn't that harsh.)

Hayato thought this as he began the creation of Arondight.

He put the necessary items in his Item Bag and displayed the menu with his blacksmithing hammer. He then selected Arondight. Unlike cooking, which was instantaneous, blacksmithing was a bit special.

The broken Arondight appeared on the anvil in his room, and he had to hit it several times with the hammer. Normally, items would be consumed with each strike, but since this was a special creation, nothing was consumed. He just had to keep hitting it until he succeeded.

After hitting Arondight several times with the hammer, the magic sword Arondight was completed.

For Hayato, it was made with almost no effort, so he was a bit disappointed. If anything, the mining of Adamantite was the hard part; other than that, there was not a shred of difficulty.

When he makes high-performance weapons and armor through hard work, the joy is great, but when it's made easily, it's boring, Hayato thought.

From what he could see, it was a weapon that boasted considerable performance, but Hayato showed no interest in the sword. In the first place, it was a Demon Lord's Exclusive Weapon. Since no one but the Demon Lord could equip it, it was meaningless no matter how good its performance was.

Hayato went to the shop and asked Esha to call Lunaria.

"Master, Lunaria-sama will be here in about an hour."

"An hour, huh. Thanks."

"By the way, are you going to let Lunaria-sama into the clan? She's definitely strong. The combo attacks from that sword are said to not stop until the opponent is down."

"No, I'm still hesitating. She seems like a hassle somehow."

Hayato was beginning to think that letting Lunaria into the clan would be troublesome after seeing the Hero who came yesterday.

"It's true that Ivan will get involved if Lunaria-sama is around. It would be a hassle, to say the least. It's nice that he's wild, but he's just so overbearing."

It was a harsh comment towards a former comrade, but it was probably not wrong. If that problem could be solved, Hayato thought he would like to have the Demon Lord Lunaria as an ally as he waited for her arrival.