Why Become Human? (3)
Why become human?
Right now, if I were to define what kind of being I am, I could sum it up in exactly three sentences.
1. I died from an accident.
2. But I was reincarnated into this world and reborn.
3. I love cold weapons.
Ah, let me correct that. It's not just "love" them, but "love" them more accurately, closer to the essence.
Anyway, based on these three sentences, the moment I became old enough after reincarnation, I built a makeshift smithy and devoted myself to forging weapons of any kind.
“So, how was it? Smooth sailing?”
“No.”
As soon as I arrived at my room, I pulled out one of the books densely packed in one corner and answered Arma.
It couldn't have been smooth sailing.
The first time I tried to build the makeshift smithy was at seven years old. Since there was no one in this mansion who was friendly to me, I had to literally build it alone as a seven-year-old child.
Bringing in the potter's clay to make what could barely be called a furnace, personally hammering out a discarded hammer to use as a tool, and staying up all night to guard the embers — that was routine.
Of course, despite all that effort, there was no way the smithy and equipment would impress me. After all, what a seven-year-old child could achieve was limited.
“Still, thanks to the money allocated to me, I was able to start somehow.”
“Money, you say?”
“Yeah. When I turned eight, they gave me a pouch of gold coins. It was money I could use until I was twelve.”
Thanks to that, from age eight, I could buy proper bellows, tools, steel, and so on. The maid didn't like it, but since the command to buy whatever was given, she followed. The Ardeum steel used this time, the wind-magic inscribed bellows, the high-quality stone, the clear water, all bought with that.
However, since the amount wasn't enough to build a full smithy inside the mansion, the overall level remained crude.
Thinking about it, I'm exactly twelve now.
Thinking back, it seems like they were talking about the Selection or something back then, but honestly, I don't remember. Right after receiving the gold coin pouch, I was happily pondering what tools and metals to buy.
“Back then, the maid said something when giving the gold coin pouch...”
“Do you remember?”
“Something like, since this is the last money you can use in life, use it as you like.”
“…………”
The maid's temper has been bad since then. No, she had been thoroughly ignoring me since we first met. Still, I ignored her too, and she got irritated. Isn't it peaceful to just ignore each other and live together?
“Back then, the Creator said you were eight years old, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Although I don't know much about human etiquette and ethics, she is still a very rude person.”
“Still, I can sympathize with one thing.”
“What?”
“Even if I don't know what the Selection is, I hope she leaves quickly.”
After all, what was the reason I had to be in the makeshift smithy? Because that maid set a time limit of one day. Because of that utterly useless restriction, I couldn't be out for more than 18 hours a day.
So, if I separate from the maid, I can become free like she said. It means I can stay in the smithy 24 hours a day to eat and sleep without any problem!
Imagining the happy future, nodding my head, Arma, who had come close unnoticed, was looking at the book I pulled out intently.
“[The Basics of Forging, written by the Edinburgh Workshop]?”
“Blacksmiths have to learn it no matter what.”
“Just from seeing that you created me, the Creator is already a wonderful craftsman.”
“I don't think so.”
Even though the sword I worked so hard on became human like that, I couldn't figure out the cause at all.
The reason I was flipping through forging-related books as soon as I came to the room was because of that. If weapons turned into humans, anyone who heard that from modern times would suspect it was AI video or drugs.
But this world I was reincarnated into is a medieval fantasy world where mystery and magic live. Actually, no matter what world I was born in, it's not that important, but unfortunately, it means this world where a tragic event could happen where my sword becomes human.
But there was no gain at all.
None at all.
I had gathered books to fill one side of the wall, but among all these forging-related expert books, there wasn't even a single line mentioning anything similar or like Arma.
Still, I found some content about ego weapons that contain human souls, but the starting point is completely different from Arma who became human and can freely return as a sword.
“This is quite... interesting.”
Watching Arma, who was devouring the expert books with sparkling eyes beyond just showing interest, made me sigh. It's fortunate that she can return as a sword, but I couldn't show such stimulating appearances to everyone.
“Arma, do you have any strength?”
“Of course. I am the sword of the Creator, anything the Creator wants...!!”
“Then, the hammer?”
“Yes?”
“Yeah, if you press the bellows for me instead. I was having trouble pressing it alone anyway.”
After all, there's no one to complain, and even if someone did, Arma is my sword. I had no intention of destroying or giving her elsewhere. So, without just leaving her, I had to use her as an assistant.
I thought I made the best weapon.
Today's Arma, I was confident was the masterpiece of my life, but Arma is no longer a 'weapon'. Fortunately, she can return as a sword, but calling something that can transform into a human a weapon is impossible.
If I thought of all that as weapons, I would have liked two-legged walking giant robots or smiling android girls instead of cold weapons. But what I dream of, what I want, is crude, heavy, and heavy cold weapons.
I don't completely reject magic or unknown abilities.
After all, the cold weapon should be the main actor, and it shouldn't turn into a human or a magic launcher. This is very important. If I just use embedded magic in the sword to destroy it without hacking or something, it's not a 'sword' but a 'magic' sword.
In other words, Arma is a wonderful weapon, but she couldn't become the 'best weapon' I wanted. So, I had no choice but to use her as a completed work and assistant.
“By the way, Arma, do you know why you became human?”
“What I know is that the Creator created me and breathed life into me.”
I know you were created, but what about life? Anyway, since Arma herself doesn't know, there was no way to find out now.
“Then, do you know basic common sense?”
“I know to some extent. When you created me, the Creator's memories flowed into me.”
“It's fortunate that you don't need to teach letters. Then, read some books. I'll do some training.”
“Understood... Creator? Training?”
I didn't answer Arma's question. After all, she would know immediately by looking.
Taking off the cumbersome upper clothes that were annoying for training, ignoring Arma who was making a silent scream, I started squatting. Today, start with 10 sets lightly.
“Hup, hah.”
“Creator, what is this...?”
“Strength is the life of a blacksmith.”
After finishing the squat, I picked up the dumbbell I made myself and did push-ups, etc., torturing my body in various ways.
Even though the 12-year-old young body screamed, I ignored it cleanly. If asked if it's hard, of course it's hard, but if I don't train my stamina like this, it's much harder in the smithy.
While sweating and training my body, for some reason, I heard the sound of Arma swallowing her saliva.
“Y-your body is in good shape.”
“If this isn't enough, I can't do blacksmith work.”
Inhaling the air that was boiling enough to evaporate sweat, and swinging the iron hammer constantly for hours to days, that's what a blacksmith does. Stamina and strength were essential beyond basics.
I don't know proper exercise methods, but such brutal exercise has been continued since childhood, so it was having a significant effect. At least when I was 8 or 9, I would get exhausted or faint in the smithy, but now, when making Arma, I only felt extreme fatigue and exhaustion, but didn't fall.
If I fall in the smithy, the weapon I'm making will fly away. I have to keep increasing my stamina.
If a heated iron cools down, slag won't fall properly, and it's hard to shape it by reheating. Moreover, if oxygen enters the softened iron, the process has to be repeated from the beginning.
This is training I repeated endlessly for blacksmith work even in my previous life. No matter what world I reincarnated into, no matter how old I am, I have to steadily train my body.
“B-but, are you training only in the room? If this mansion is this big, you could do it in the garden or walking path...”
“Leaving the mansion is forbidden.”
“...Yes?”
“I don't know the reason, but I've been like that since childhood. I haven't been out of this mansion.”
The maid also locked the entire mansion when I tried to leave, filled the windows when I tried to escape through them, so I just gave up. Anyway, when asked to buy something from outside, she buys it well.
“Then, have you never gone outside?”
“Yes. Well, there's a training ground in the center of the mansion...”
“Training ground...?”
“It's not managed at all, so I can't use it.”
“...Isn't managing such spaces the user's job?”
“Maybe so.”
“That maid is too obvious.”
“Yeah, but that's about it.”
The maid doesn't refuse my errands, doesn't not give me food, doesn't demolish the smithy. She really takes care of my food, clothing, and shelter minimally.
Moreover, since I don't have any use for places like training grounds, we just ignore each other and live.
“If you blocked even blacksmith work, the story would be different, but it's not to that extent.”
“Creator, pardon me, but are there other people in this mansion?”
“Just me and the maid, and a minimal number of servants?”
“...You can't go outside, but a luxurious mansion, the existence of a training ground, minimal servants, giving a gold coin pouch to an 8-year-old child, but locking up a bloodless person in this wide mansion.”
“Arma?”
“The Creator said he is a noble.”
“Maybe so?”
I haven't felt it, but the maid called me master at least. The mansion also gave that impression.
“Although I don't know all human habits, generally, it's common for parent organisms to protect and raise the child organism until they become adults. Other intelligent species except some exceptions do the same.”
“Probably so.”
“Then, even so, having the child live alone in this mansion without parents, having no usable people, but having a training ground in the center of the mansion... I think there are two possibilities.”
“Tell me.”
“Either the Creator's family all died in an accidental accident, and the family is on the verge of ruin...”
If it's on the verge of ruin, I can't explain the unnecessarily luxurious mansion, the maid who goes beyond rudeness to contempt, and the gold coin pouch given to 8-year-old me.
“Or, originally, this place... isn't a normal noble family.”
In the end, only the second conclusion remained.
Kong!!
“...Huh?”
“Rian Edelwein, listen!”
Just before answering Arma's conclusion, the mansion shook, and a loud voice echoed.
Since there were no windows in my room, I couldn't see outside, but I hurriedly put on clothes and ran to the first floor lobby outside the room. The source of the voice and vibration was right there.
In the lobby, the few servants who were there, including the maid, were lined up and bowed their heads with respect and reverence they had never sent to me before.
However, I didn't get angry at that fact. Just as they ignored me, I ignored them, and above all, my body was trembling a little.
Even without facing the existence standing outside the door yet, just with this presence, I unconsciously accepted that he was a person worthy of such respect and reverence.
Kiiik!
The door opened.
The door that hadn't opened once for me in 12 years, as if it had fulfilled its role, opened wide.
“Is Rian Edelwein you?”
“Yes.”
“I proclaim to you, a member of the great bloodline, a member of the oldest martial family, and the one who inherited the blood of Edelwein.”
There was one knight in white armor standing there. The presence that seemed to fill the mansion and the vibration as if an earthquake had occurred was the result of just one knight.
The knight shouted in a deep voice, and our eyes met, adding weight to his dignified face. From the flesh like a deep-rooted old tree, something beyond ordinary strength, something out of the ordinary, flowed out mixed with pressure.
“The day of the Selection is coming soon, so all of you, the Edelweins of this generation, will gather.”
“......”
“And the strongest one will remain.”
Kong!
When the knight stomped his foot, the ground shook, and from the cracks starting from under the foot, a flag with a pattern of swords and spears strangely overlapping rose.
The knight, who lightly pulled out a flag bigger than me, planted the flag in front of me.
“Only this will prove you. Follow.”
The knight gestured as if he had finished saying everything. Probably the Selection started from now, and as the knight said, follow with that flag. But the only thought that came to me after hearing the knight's proclamation was one.
It wasn't even a question about what kind of power the knight was using, nor was it protesting that a 12-year-old kid was supposed to follow carrying a flag that was easily 2m or more alone, nor was it curiosity or anxiety about the mystery of the Selection.
“Ah.”
That white armor.
Too beautiful...