The Heavenly Slaughter Star Makes an ID
Despite Rionne’s casual “What do you think? It’s not that big a deal, right?” Enoch found himself unable to nod. It was, in fact, an enormous deal. Tens of thousands of swords raining from the sky? Had Enoch been standing there, he was certain he would have died more spectacularly than anyone else. And she claimed that mincing huge monsters like that would kill most of them? Even smaller monsters would die if chopped that finely. It felt far stranger that anything had survived at all.
“Uh… um…”
As Enoch hesitated, Undine—of all people—jumped in.
Her tone was irritated, but she was right. Just then the smoke from Rionne’s attack drifted away on the wind. When the result was revealed, Enoch clapped without thinking.
A pit so deep its bottom was barely visible. The surrounding stone had crystallized from whatever she had done to the lava. That shouldn’t have been possible at ordinary lava temperatures.
“I-is that so? I thought Enoch would be able to do something like that soon…”
“Rionne.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t think that’s realistic.”
“R-really?”
While Rionne scratched her head, the dwarves who had fled earlier but stopped to watch came rushing back in a noisy crowd.
Undine thrust her chest out proudly even though she had done nothing. The dwarves ran straight past her without slowing down.
“Huh?”
They ignored even Rionne, crowding around the deep crater, tapping its edge, eyes sparkling.
“Ooh…! Look at this!”
“It didn’t just melt and harden normally! The mana caused a mutation!”
The dwarves launched into a technical debate without a single word of thanks to the person who had saved them. Just as Undine opened her mouth to shriek, Liraum strode over, laughing loudly.
“Haha! Sorry, sorry! These lunatics get like this sometimes!”
Behind her, the comparatively sane dwarves finally offered their gratitude.
“We really owe you our lives!”
“If Liraum had handled it, the whole village would’ve been rubble.”
“By the way, are you really the Sword Queen?”
Rionne ignored the strange remark and gave a crooked smile. She cleared her throat, glanced sideways at Liraum, then asked the dwarves,
“By the way, everyone. Liraum claims with her own mouth that she’s the greatest blacksmith among all dwarves. Is that true?”
She had expected them to explode in protest. That would have given her the perfect opening to casually suggest they prove their skill by making Enoch whatever he needed. Instead—
“Well… yeah. Hate to admit it, but it’s true.”
“She’s the best in this village, at least! On the mainland she’s not quite that high—maybe in the top ten.”
Liraum grinned. “Hear that? That’s how good I am.”
“It was actually true…? No way…”
“She’s that good!?”
Rionne pouted, disappointed. She had planned to load up on everything Enoch might need while the opportunity lasted.
“Anyway, I’ll count catching that thing as a debt owed. If you need anything, just say the word. I’ll make it myself.”
“Really?”
“Have you ever seen me lie?”
“Yeah. Quite a few times.”
“Have I?”
Liraum cackled. Rionne ignored her and began listing necessities with sparkling eyes. Armor for Enoch first. Good leather for clothes if they had any. Shoes too—his feet had grown again lately. And then…
“Oh, right.”
Now that she thought about it.
“What about that custom of yours? The whole qualification thing.”
“Ah, that?”
Liraum gave Enoch a quick once-over, then nodded cheerfully.
“Passed!”
Enoch tilted his head. “Based on what?”
“You used it well earlier. Weapons aren’t usually that easy to handle, you know.”
The gauntlets she had made for him normally required an adjustment period. Stably coating delicate weapons with mana demanded exceptional control, plus the process of taming the weapon with one’s own mana. Yet Enoch had drawn out decent performance from the very first try. By Liraum’s standards, that was a pass.
“Be happy. It’s a work by one of the Ten Great Masters—Red Hammer Liraum.”
“Ten Great Masters!? You!?”
Rionne’s mouth fell open. Liraum glared at her in disbelief.
“Do you never leave the house? How do you not know that? What, did you hide a honey pot somewhere?”
“Ah, no… I just don’t have any reason to go out…”
“That’s why you still can’t find a partner and live such a pathetic life.”
“What are you saying! I could find one if I wanted to!”
“Sure you could. Uh-huh.”
Rionne ground her teeth but suppressed the murderous urge with superhuman patience.
Ten Great Masters, huh?
The ten greatest artisans on the continent were collectively called the Ten Great Masters. Roughly nine of them were usually dwarves. Still, the title carried weight.
Rionne glanced around, then sent a thin strand of mana toward Liraum. It was the technique known as sound transmission—carrying one’s voice secretly on mana.
“You know…”
“I’ve got some adamantite I’ve been hoarding.”
“How much?”
“Enough to fully equip Enoch, probably?”
“You crazy bitch! Did you rob your own clan?”
“Who cares about that family?”
“It’s a miracle you haven’t been assassinated yet…”
Liraum’s mouth stayed open in pure astonishment. Rionne continued without concern.
“Anyway, can you make Enoch’s weapons and armor?”
“…He’s really not your son?”
“I told you he isn’t.”
“Well… honestly, I’d be the one asking for the favor.”
The moment she received a clear answer, a bright smile bloomed on Rionne’s face.
“Then I’m counting on you!”
“Was this really something that needed to be said in secret?”
“It’s a secret from Enoch too.”
Outfitting someone of Enoch’s caliber in full adamantite would be the same as walking around with a sign that read Please come rob me. She would give it to him as a gift once his strength had grown enough.
“And when will that be?”
“Master is still a little short… Grandmaster?”
“You insane woman.”
The crazier dwarves eventually came to their senses and joined the saner ones in throwing a grand feast. It was partly to celebrate Rionne for saving the village, and mostly because they simply wanted to drink.
At the moment, Rionne was asking a slightly tired-looking Enoch,
“What do you think of the dwarves? They’re pretty decent people, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Better than I expected.”
“Right!?”
Overjoyed, Rionne pulled him into a tight hug.
“Our sweet Enoch.”
“Hehe…”
“Now you understand a little? You shouldn’t judge an entire race. Of course there are strange individuals, but that’s because they are strange, not because their whole race is.”
The same applied to countries and ethnic groups. There might be organizations whose customs didn’t match, but you could never know a person until you actually interacted with them. At least, that was Rionne’s belief.
“Yeah, I understand.”
“Aww, so good!”
Whether Enoch had fully accepted it, however, remained to be seen.
After returning from the volcano, Rionne and Enoch resumed training. Perhaps seeing Rionne’s true strength up close had stimulated him. Enoch trained even harder than usual, and his talent made the results visible almost immediately.
Unfortunately, the harder he pushed his body, the more he groaned and ached once training ended. Rionne, in her role as Enoch’s devoted guardian, could not simply watch him suffer.
“Enoch, Eri seems to have adapted now too. Starting today, how about learning a little spirit magic?”
“Huh?”
Enoch tilted his head. “Why would I learn spirit magic?”
“Huh…? You don’t want to…?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Enoch stretched out a finger and pointed at Undine.
“Spirits fight by themselves anyway.”
“Ah, so that’s what you thought?”
Rionne cleared her throat and straightened her posture. Her momentarily flustered expression returned to a bright smile.
“Spirit magic obviously involves the spirits themselves, but the practitioner’s own ability is equally important.”
Enoch still looked confused, head tilted. That was understandable—he had grown up watching Undine. A spirit as powerful and deeply bonded with its contractor as she was extremely rare.
“First, you must be able to summon a spirit from the spirit realm and maintain its manifestation.”
In Eri’s case, since she had been born in the middle realm, that step wasn’t necessary.
“Next, you need to build a certain level of intimacy. The channel connecting practitioner and spirit is called a Path. The deeper the bond, the wider and stronger that Path becomes.”
Again, since Eri already saw Enoch as her father, this step was also unnecessary.
…Wait a moment?
Rionne felt a flicker of confusion but hid it and continued.
“That’s the preparation phase. To actually use a spirit’s power requires training. There are many schools of thought, but I only know one well, so I’m afraid I can only teach you that method.”
She knew the others well enough to explain them, but she worried her guidance would be insufficient if an emergency arose. Enoch, of course, didn’t care at all. The method Rionne used? That was preferable.
“Really? Hehe, as expected of our Enoch. Where else could you find such a good child?”
Rionne ruffled his hair vigorously, then extended one slender finger.
“All right. First point lesson!”
Several days passed since they began practicing spirit magic. Once it had settled into a comfortable rhythm, Rionne took Enoch outside once more.
Today they were going to create Enoch’s identification—specifically the relatively simple mercenary badge.