“Wow, amazing!” she exclaimed. “You’ve got skills, Eizo!”
“Thanks,” I replied. “Now try the middle one.”
“You got it,” she said, pumped up now. She selected the next knife, the so-so one, in high spirits. When she slashed through a new bundle, the straw fell apart again with a gentle rustle. This knife also bit deep into the log but didn’t split it all the way through.
“Hmmm, not bad,” I remarked.
“Not bad? What’re you talking about? It’s incredible!!!”
I was relieved by Samya’s enthusiasm. Judging by her reaction, I didn’t need to go all-out when smithing. A middling amount of effort was perfectly sufficient. I was also genuinely happy to hear her compliments, but I put on a poker face because I didn’t want to trigger her sharp senses.
“Try the last one,” I said.
“Oh, okay. Sure.” Her excitement faltered against my cool facade. She lifted the knife that I’d worked seriously on and sliced through the last straw bundle.
The knife had sunk halfway through the log, but this time, there was no rustle from the straw. It was completely silent.
“Huh?” Samya said, bewildered.
“Pull the knife out,” I instructed.
“R-Right.” When she raised the knife, the halves of the bundle and log slid apart slowly. It was like a scene straight out of a manga or anime. “Wh-What just happened?”
“Calm down,” I said. “It’s dangerous for you to panic right now.”
She broke out of her spell and looked over toward me. “Ah, r-right. Y-You’re right,” she stammered. “My bad...”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry I didn’t explain beforehand,” I replied. Of course, anyone would be shocked to see a knife cleave a log in two. I would’ve been stunned too, had I not suspected what would happen beforehand.
These results confirmed my hypothesis: the cheat had given me top-tier blacksmith skills and the ability to make first-class items.
“Well, I suppose I won’t be able to sell the third knife,” I said.
“What? Why?” Samya said, shocked.
“Maybe if it were to a swordsman, but otherwise, this knife is too dangerous to sell to a normal person,” I said. “Think about it—what if I sold it to a perfectly average family, and one day, the mom’s hand slips while she’s prepping dinner? She might lose a finger.”
People around here didn’t use cutting boards either. Instead, they sliced vegetables and meat held straight in their hands. Cutting boards were more common up north apparently.
“Oh, that’s true,” she said. She looked disappointed.
“But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to sell it to someone who knew their way around a sword,” I said.
“Why don’t you give it to me?”
“Really?” I asked. “You want it?”
“Y-Yeah. When I’m hunting, it would make skinning and cleaning animals a lot easier.”
“All right then. It’s yours.” I already had the first knife I’d made. Besides, it’d be a shame for this knife to go to waste, and I’d rather Samya have it than a stranger.
“Are you sure?!”
“Yeah, I don’t mind, but you’ll have to wait a bit,” I said. “I’ll make a scabbard for it when I have some time between making items to sell.”
“Awesome! I’m not complaining—I know a good deal when I see one!”
“Okay, I’ll have it back to you soon.”
“Woohoo!”
It was almost like trying to tame a wild animal with food. Not almost... She was already living here, so I was well into that process already.
In any case, after seeing the results of my experiment, I now knew what direction I should take my smithing in; rather than making anything extraordinary, I’d focus on creating everyday items. I could take my time, make things over two or three days, and accept repair work here and there as well. Quantity over quality. Of course, I wasn’t going to ignore quality completely. I wanted customers to come away satisfied, so I’d make sure all the blades and tools that I forged were sharper than average.
For the next four days, I churned out a series of knives and shortswords, along with hoes, sickles, and axes. I didn’t have to spend much time on them at all; speed might’ve been part of the cheat, or maybe it was a side effect of not having to put in much effort. I forged some high-caliber items for my own use, but for the most part, I was only aiming for above-average quality.
While I worked, Samya rested obediently. She avoided moving around too much, and even when she helped me with my sharpness experiments, she took it easy and didn’t use much power. Or had she gotten weak from the lack of exercise?
Out of curiosity, I asked her about it, and she replied, “The faster I get better, the faster I get to play around with your knives.”
I’d have to make something nice next time, so I wouldn’t let her down. Besides, I was a sucker for compliments, even roundabout ones.
The next morning, Samya and I were eating together as usual. Today, however, I had a big announcement to make.
“I’ve decided to take a break today!” I burst out.
“Uh, okay,” Samya said, turned off by my enthusiasm.
It was my first holiday here in this world! It hadn’t even been a full week, but the idea of a holiday itself was novel to me. I’d barely taken any time off in my previous job. Once, I’d even worked forty-five days straight with no weekends or vacations. A little while before I’d come to this world, my company had finally stopped making us do dangerous levels of overtime, but that hadn’t been out of concern for the well-being of the employees—it had simply been to avoid legal liabilities.
In this world, I was no longer beholden to a working schedule of five business days a week. I could take breaks whenever I wanted! As a bonus, I didn’t have to worry about using up my paid vacation days. So who cares if Samya thought I was weird? With these perks, I would’ve been crazy not to get excited.