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To be honest, I was making light of Rico’s talent. So this was the real genius, huh? A naturally genius girl was really different from a fake product like me.

After teaching her two times since then, the level of her [Mana Sense] and [Mana Control] went up in no time.

Furthermore, she had successfully learned non-attribute magic. Plus it had risen to level three in no time. Wasn’t she growing faster than me?

By the way, her growth rate was insane since she spent as much time practicing it during the magic lesson after the literature and arithmetic class. A genius brimming with motivation was really amazing.

In addition, Triela had shifted to a slower direction. Yeah, it’s pointless to compare herself to Rico. Do it in moderation; slow and steady is the best option~

Now let’s return to the main subject.

I didn’t want to neglect my training because I had been teaching and taking care of other people recently. In a day or two, I train my smithing with all of my might. I wanted to reach level six of [Blacksmith] soon, really.

That’s why I focused on making swords and took my established break in the courtyard just before noon. Oh, Triela and Rico weren’t coming today. In fact, more often than not, I spent most of my time lazing around in the courtyard more than chatting and teaching.

By the way, I was chatting with the leatherworker, Delia, today. While drinking shaved ice with salt and lemon juice. The salt was important! It was summer after all.

“Ahh. It’s still hot.”
“Well, it’s August.”
“Right… Master and the others have to stay confined in the smithy, so it’s probably hell for them… Ah, that’s the same for Ren.”
“I can make ice on my own, so I think my situation is a little better.”
“Ah, you’re right.”

As so, we idly chatted, but then it seemed like the younger son came here from the smithy. Ah, calling him the younger son gave off a bad feeling, isn’t it?

“…Tsk.”

Ohh, he immediately clicked his tongue after he noticed me. He really gave off a bad feeling.

“Hey, Ed! Stop it already, can’t you!?”
“Hah!? It doesn’t have anything to do with Delia, right?”
“There’s no way it has nothing to do with me!”

Oh my, Delia seemed to be on my side. Great, do it more~

“You don’t seem to understand, but because of your attitude, the neighbor’s workshop had been saying a lot of things about our master, you know?”

…I heard that the neighbor’s workshop had been treating me as a young yet skillful customer. Actually, rather than a customer, I paid them to use the smithy, but they wouldn’t know unless the craftsmen or the master talked about it.

And then, not only that the master praised my skill, but the craftsmen here also did that and it raised their motivation to improve. Yet in the midst of it, the regular tradesmen and neighbors saw that only the master’s son took an unreasonable attitude towards me.

As a result of that, a few people started saying that the master lacked leadership qualities since the master became a craftsman in his own place and couldn’t even discipline and lead his own son.

“Even master has scolded you many times. Are you actually stupid?”
“But… that’s my own actions.”
“I’m telling you that the others won’t perceive it that way! You’re really stupid! How about dying now?”

Ohh, telling him to die is a bit too much… well, I strongly agree with her, though!

“I’ll say this as well, but if you keep acting like this, I will tell the master to drive you out. Also, that’s the consensus of everybody’s opinion. Naturally, the landlady and Al also have the same opinion.”
“What!? Big brother and Madam too…?
“That’s the proof that your attitude has gone too far.”
“…It’s this guy’s fault!”

Oh my, now he was glaring at me.

“Okay, that’s no good. You’re already hopeless. I’ll go to the master’s place now.”
“W-wait!”
“I won’t wait~”
“No, wait! I… I know what you’re saying! But I can’t accept something I can’t understand!”
“But at least you don’t have to act like that! You stupid!”

Ah… Seems like there’s no way to deal with him anymore.

But from what he’s saying, he had a reason for acting like that, huh? I didn’t think I was responsible, but… hm. Even if he understood, he was not convinced. Even if he saw the difference in our ability, he didn’t sense it. That’s why his heart became heavy at once.

“Er, Ed… Edward?”

What was his name again? He should’ve introduced himself, but I couldn’t remember the names of annoying guys.

“…What?”
“Please bring your hammer and come to my smithy. I will forge the sword from now on, so pay attention to me.”
“Hah!? Why would I do that—”
“Noisy, shut up. Just listen to me and bring your hammer fast.”

Could he stop making me irritated? Because of that, I carelessly roughen my manner of speaking with a smile~☆

“……”

He became silent and went to get his hammer. Do that from the beginning, really.

“…Ren, you’re scary when you’re angry.”
“Is that so?”¹

I only grinned since laughing would be offensive by nature.

With that, I returned to the smithy I rented. Well now, it’s Sparta. I’ll become Spartan. Let’s go without holding anything back~

“The sword we’ll forge from now on is the same one as this. Please take it and have a look.”

I held out the finished sword that I set against the wall. Just take it already. Hurry, hurry!

“Why am I doing this…”

Don’t grumble like that, how irritating… Listen to me and be quick!

“Right, we will forge the same sword now. It has to be exactly the same.”
“I understand that even if you don’t say it again and again.”

I said it because you definitely didn’t understand.

“…Then we’ll start.”
“Yeah…”

After saying that, I started forging the sword, but… this guy was useless, he really didn’t understand at all!

“Why are you using your hammer first there!”
“What? The finished product has that length, so I have to stretch it here, right!?”
“If you make that part too thin now, it’ll become even thinner when you hammer it after that and the strength will decrease. You can’t even tell that much?”
“What…!?”

“The sword has a low quality because you’re forging it carelessly and tried to varnish over the mistake on the way. Are you forging it after thinking about the process until it reaches the final form?”

“That’s…”
“Your hands are stopping! What are you doing!?”
“…!”

…As a result of our exchange, a completely rubbish sword was completed.

For some reason, there was a slender one-handed sword with a long blade in front of us. He should be making a broad sword, but before us was a one-handed straight sword with a slightly wider blade, though. It’s mysterious, isn’t it?

“Do you know why this happened?”
“…”
“I told you to make the same thing as that sword, right?”
“…It’s different from that, but isn’t this one pretty good?”
“Right, that’s if we think of this as a slender sword. But the sword you tried to make this time is not this. It’s that sword. Then this is a failure. Poor work. Garbage.”
“…You don’t have to say that much.”
“I saw the sword you forged before, but… I thought the person who forged it was skillful.”
“…Skillful?”

Why did he look a little happy? Was he stupid?

“I’ll say this first, but it’s not a compliment. It’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“Yes, the opposite. The master also said it. This won’t sell. It seems like you also made the sword differently from the one you originally tried to make, just like this time.”
“…”

He sure was silent. But that’s good.

“In the middle of forging, you irresponsibly hammered the metal and hammered it, again and again, to fix it after that just like what you did before. Am I wrong?”

“……”

“If you don’t reflect on why you failed or what went wrong before forging a sword, your technique will never improve.”

Well, I guess he also had a talent and skill to fix it into something in its own way. The people who had talent but didn’t polish it should just die. I was jealous, 𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖙!

But well, I did this because I was in the teacher mode these days! Usually, I would just insincerely cajole and break their heart until the end! But this time, I even taught him practical skills properly. I’m kind, you see?

After that, as a result of my endless unpleasant talk, Edward’s eyes looked dead as a fish. It seemed like his heart also broke in the end. I guess I overdid it. Let’s reflect on that~

And because I spent too much time in teaching him, I ate my lunch alone because I was a little late. Damn, Edward! 𝓕𝓾𝓬𝓴 you!

Eh? You’re wondering why I wasn’t having lunch with Ed? That guy was sitting on a bench in a courtyard and muttered something for a long time, so he didn’t eat at all. I didn’t know what happened to him after that.

After eating my late lunch, I trained my blacksmithing again until night. Hmm, I felt like my speed in forging increased again… Well, it wasn’t a problem, so it’s fine, isn’t it?

Aside from that, I missed my daily routine. I had to think about some countermeasures… I went to bed and dozed off while thinking about various things. Good night—

“Fwahh…”

And the next day, I went to the dining room while stifling a yawn…

“Good morning, teacher!”
“Ah!?”

Teacher!? Who is that!? Rather, who said that?

“Teacher, I have snapped out of it! Just how stupid I have been…! From now on, I will hone my skills and aim to be a great blacksmith like you, teacher!”
“Ah, yes.”

Ahh, er… D-do your best? …Eh? Who is this? Edward? Seriously?

After that, I didn’t really understand but Edward had allayed his emotions and corrected his conduct. Even so, he kept following me, making my mood extremely sour during breakfast. Master thoughtlessly hit my back to thank me and gave another mithril ingot as a token of gratitude. Even the older brother wanted to forge swords with me but I rejected him… I didn’t get it, but it was a tiring day.

After all, doing things on a whim was no good. I had to keep doing as usual to have peaceful days. However, I didn’t think the improvement of Edward’s attitude was bad.

Well, the direction of my annoyance had changed, but it was better than making me angry, right? Hmm?

On that night, when I laid down in my bed while feeling mentally tired, I checked my status and noticed that the [Blacksmith] had reached level seven.

…Apparently, I had accumulated enough experience points? However, the experience to go to level seven wasn’t the same with the experience required to become level six. In this case, it was probably the experience of teaching people, I guess?

This was probably what called an unexpected lucky break. But with this, I could finally make a magic sword. Oh, I also wanted to make katana. It was a novel weapon. I learned the sword-drawing techniques during my junior high school days because of my severe “chuuni” at that time. If I could make use of it, my untrained melee combat abilities might be a little better.

With that in mind, Edward’s case might not have been so bad.

Then the next day.

“Good morning, teacher!”

I took it all back. This was really annoying.

1. Silva: Smile, just keep smiling. It is the best solution to violence.