“Is this all right, Master?”
In the hot, sweltering blacksmith’s shop, I removed all of my clothes and stripped naked. I was not completely naked, but I was wearing only one pair of underwear, and I felt naked.
“What, you’re not going to take that off?”
“Please excuse me! Isn’t this enough!?”
“Tsk, Can’t help it. …”
“…………, you have quite a beautiful body.”
(T/N: Author why you do this to me, IT AIN’T BL)
“H-ha? Thank you…?”
“Can I touch you?”
“Uhyo!?”
Master’s rugged hands touched my skin. Sometimes he squeezed me hard, sometimes softly, sometimes roughly, sometimes gently, and the indescribable tickle made me wince.
“Don’t move! Be quiet!”
“Ugh, okay, …. Wait, Master!?”
Suddenly, he hugged my waist. His arms were behind my back, and his hands grabbed my buttocks.
“Hey, Master! That’s…”
“I told you to shut up! Hey, tighten your ass up!”
“Eeee!? Like this?”
“Yes! Put more pressure on it!”
“Like this? Like this? It’s too tight.”
“Huh? This is the limit, you’re so――”
“Good evening! Ed, I know I am late getting here, but ……………………”
And then. I turned my attention to the voice coming from the entrance of the forge, where I saw Tia frozen in place as if she had been cursed with petrification.
“…… Ha!? I’m sorry. I’ll be right out.”
“Wait, Tia. Why are you trying to leave?”
“Don’t worry! I-I’m fine! Yes, I know, you can get into that kind of relationship when you’re holed up alone in a place like this.”
“It’s not that! Didn’t you listen what I just said!? Hey, Master, it’s enough!”
“Ah, I get it, I get it. Well, that’s certainly enough. You can get dressed now.”
“Haaaa……”
With Master’s permission, I finally get dressed. In the meantime, Tia had also entered the forge, and before I knew it, she had prepared drinks on the table.
“Yes, come on in, both of you. If you don’t keep yourself hydrated in this hot place, you’re going to collapse.”
“Ah, My bad, Jou-chan.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So, why was Ed naked in Dalton-san’s arms?”
“Ah, well, I was examining his body. Apparently, it was quite different from what I expected.”
“Ed’s body?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact――”
To Tia, who nodded her head with a glass of water in her hand, My Master told her that his dream was to “forge a sword that can defeat the Demon Lord” and that he is going to forge that sword for me to use.
“――So I decided to forge a sword for him. That’s why I was examining his body so carefully.”
“Hmm, I get what you’re saying, but is that normal?”
“Of course not.”
Tia glanced at me, and I responded with a serious face. I didn’t want her to misunderstand that all the blacksmiths in the world make their customers strip naked in front of their stores. If the next time I forge a sword for her, and she strips herself naked naturally, I will die, both mentally and physically.
“Gahaha! Yes, it’s not normal. But this time, I really wanted to see it. After all, this guy is a pervert!”
“Eh, A pervert!? Ed is a pervert!?”
“Of course not! What are you saying!?”
“Aahn? Don’t you realize it? You’re quite a pervert to be able to wield a sword of that caliber with a body that shows no signs of significant training. Thanks to that, I have to make a lot of modifications to the sword I had in mind.”
“Ugh!? T-that’s ……”
My body rewinded every time I went back to that world, so I certainly couldn’t grow muscles or anything. I understood that better than anyone else, so there was no way I could argue with him.
“Really it’s tough. I didn’t expect you to have such a beautiful body. The formula I originally had in mind would probably be too heavy and difficult to use. That being the case, I’d have to do a few trial runs. … It’s annoying.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Yeah. As I just said, I’m thinking of changing the composition of the metals used for the sword to match it. But then, while there would be a surplus of heavy metals that were to be used in large quantities, there would not be enough light metals in stock. This becomes even more difficult when we have to do trials. However, since both of them are rare metals, they cost a lot of money, and above all, it’s not like I can get them easily if I ask for them. That’s why I’m worried about what happened.”
“Material …”
My Master’s concerns conveyed to me were indeed rather insurmountable. I don’t know what these rare metals were, but I guess they were called rare because they were rarely found.
But I had a special banishment skill that allowed me to snicker at that. If it didn’t exist, there was nothing I could do about it, but if it was just hard to find, it didn’t matter.
“Master, may I see that material?”
“Hmm? Yes, sure. Wait a minute.”
At my request, Master got up from his seat and disappeared into the material storage area at the back of the blacksmith shop, and soon returned with a stone in his arms.
“First, this one. This one is called dark night stone, which is the heavier metal I was talking about earlier. This one is in fair quantity, so we’ll be okay this time. … The problem is this one.”
Of the two stones he was carrying, he removed the black one out of the way and held the dull brown one in his hand.
“This is a sunshine stone, a lighter metal. I don’t have enough of this stuff. Once I make an alloy, of course I can’t separate it cleanly, so I’d like to have 30 kilos if possible, assuming I have to run trials to find the right ratio for you. …”
“I see. By the way, what do you mean by rare? Does it come out of mines normally, but in small quantities, or is there almost no place where it is produced, or is it refined only in the body of a special demon beast?”
“Uee..”
My words brought a look of disgust to Tia’s face as she recalled the time when she obtained the pure mithril. But Master answered my question without worrying about it.
“The first one. Sunshine stones can be mined from any mine regardless of the type of metal, but on the other hand, there are no veins. The reason I can’t get enough of it is that I can only find it occasionally when I’m digging around in the middle of nowhere looking for new veins.”
“I see… …, then my next question is, are there any mines of those metals that we could go in and mine?”
“You? Ah, that’s difficult. The mines are controlled by the country, so outsiders are usually not allowed to enter. If I had to say, you might be able to get in with me. ….”
“Ah, then that’s just fine.”
“What is?”
I replied with a grin to my master who had a puzzled expression on his face.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Me, Tia, and Master, let’s go dig for Sunshine stone together! If we can dig there, problem solved.”
“Oi, Oi, Oi, did you hear what I said? I said, it’s a rare metal because you can’t dig it up very often, okay?”
“Fufufufu, I have a secret plan for that. Can you trust me and give me a little bit of your time here?”
As I said this seriously, Master folded his arms and thought for a moment. When he raised his face, I could see a strong determination in his eyes.
“… Alright. At any rate, I don’t have any hope of getting the sunshine stone. Besides, this is my dream in the first place. I entrust the first step to you.”
“Thank you very much. Then, for our dream!”
“Heh, Don’t try that shit with me.”
“Ah, don’t forget me too!”
Master squeezed my hand, and Tia put hers on top of it. The first step of a dream that had grown into a three-person dream was taken here and now.