“Got some rare materials, so I thought I’d bring ’em over to you.”
“Oh, now these are certainly something...”
I took the materials that dropped from Yggdrasil to Kraft over in Mismede as a little gift. I was the only one in the present time that had these materials. I was pretty sure Kraft would be overjoyed at getting his hands on such rare wood. Such godly materials should go to a god of crafting, naturally.
“This wood is tough but without any peculiarities or dead knots, and it’s light to boot. You’ve brought me something interesting, indeed.”
Kraft used a broad-bladed knife to swiftly cut a piece of lumber to an appropriate length, then took another fairly large knife to shape it before alternating between a chisel and file to create a wooden sword in a flash. And when I say in a flash, I mean it. It took him about a minute.
He’s insane... That’s even faster than I can make one with [Modeling].
The god went straight back to his wood-chopping station, stood up a stump of wood, and cut it right in two with the sword.
Hang on, someone other than Moroha can cut wood with a wooden sword?!
“Hm, might have sharpened it too much. I was considering making something for your kids, but if I don’t blunt the blade, it’ll be way too dangerous.”
Was he aware that my kids were already using real swords on a regular basis?
After making adjustments, Kraft handed me the wooden sword. I was surprised by how light it was. Not that I thought it would be heavy, but now that I was holding it myself, I could feel how much lighter it was compared to a regular one. It was like the difference between a wooden and a plastic bat. I personally found that if a sword was too light, it would end up being harder to use, but kids like Frei could probably use it no problem...
“How are things going with the sacred treasure? Managing to use it all right?”
“Yeah, good enough. Though it’s my kids using it, not me...”
It was pretty ironic that I couldn’t wield the sacred treasure that I had personally created. Though to be fair, it wasn’t even accurate to say I couldn’t wield it, it was that I shouldn’t wield it. If a ward of God Almighty like myself were to use the sacred treasure, I would no doubt end up influencing the world to a very noticeable degree.
Sacred treasures like Sousuke’s instruments or my smartphones were fine, but it became a lot riskier with a weapon. That said, using the harpbow as a harp would probably fly. Not that I could play the harp to begin with.
“Once we take down the wicked devout and the remnants of the fallen god, I’ll be sealing it away in [Storage].”
“Smart decision. If you try to store it in the Divine Realm’s treasury, you’ll never be able to find it when you need it most, which is unfortunate when there’s no guarantee you’ll never need to use it again.”
Gods came in all shapes and sizes, and some could be particularly troublesome, just like the servile and fallen gods that had escaped to this world. What Kraft was trying to say was that there was always the chance I’d need to get involved in related conflicts in the future.
A battle between gods is no laughing matter...
“Many gods love battle, after all. From gods of martial arts to gods of war... In the past, I would’ve referred to the god of combat like this, but in his case, he puts more emphasis on training others, so he’s less of an issue. He seems to mainly look forward to the growth of his students nowadays.”
Apparently, Uncle Takeru used to have nothing in his sights but pursuing the pinnacle of combat. It took hundreds of millions of years before he started calming down and became who he is today. Even gods were young once.
It wouldn’t feel right to only bring a souvenir back for Frei, so I had Kraft make another wooden sword for Yakumo, and then little wooden animals for the rest of the kids. Naturally, I made sure to pay him for his services. It was a little expensive, but it was cheap when you consider it was made by a god...kind of.
Anyway, I said my thanks to Kraft and returned home with all the freshly crafted creations. While I was walking down the corridors of the castle, I bumped into Hilde, so I asked if she could hand the wooden sword over to Frei—but she refused.
“Didn’t you say it’s a present? You should give it to her yourself.”
That was very true. Frei and Yakumo both happened to be at the training grounds when I went with Hilde, so I handed the wooden swords over to them right then and there.
“Wow, it’s so light! It’s so easy to swing!”
“Thank you very much, father.”
The two happily accepted the gifts and went straight to giving them a swing—weapons really were one of those things you couldn’t help but want to try out the second you got your hands on them. The girls went straight into a mock match. I was glad they looked so happy. Just this once, I would ignore the incredibly violent sounds of their swords, ones that wooden ones really shouldn’t be able to make...
Apparently, everyone else was in the living room. When I headed over, the rest of the kids, except for Steph, Linne, and Yoshino, were having tea and lazing around together with Leen, Linze, and Yumina. I showed the wooden animals I’d had Kraft make and let the children pick whichever ones they liked. Quun went for the bear, Arcia the dog, Elna the small bird, and Kuon abstained.
“I can wait until the other girls come back.”
“What a gentleman! You’re such a wonderful older brother, Kuon!” Yumina exclaimed, then madly pat Kuon. Resigned to his fate, Kuon simply stood there with a distant smile on his face.
“Hang in there, Kuon...” I muttered.
“Mother Yumina in the future isn’t this aggressive with him...” Quun awkwardly said and smiled, having overheard.
Well, Yumina had achieved her lifelong dream (?) of giving birth to a successor, so her enthusiasm made sense, but even she would calm down after six years.
“We’re home!”
Suddenly, Steph, Linne, and Yoshino all appeared in the living room at once. Gold was with them too. Yoshino must have teleported them here. I’d already warned them so many times to be careful where they teleported because they could give people a fright, yet...
“Daddy, here, for you! We found it in the left forest! It’s a present!”
Just as I was about to scold Yoshino, Steph shoved a small wooden box into my face as if to discourage me from doing so. A present? Left forest must have meant the western forest. Guess that was where they’d been out to play.
Brunhild wasn’t particularly home to many strong monsters, but there were wild dogs and wolves in the area, so I’d much rather they didn’t go out on their own like that... Not that my kids were weak enough they would be taken down by some stray animals, of course.
We did have the incident with Kuon and Allis running into the Marchosias, though, so it could be a little worrying. Maybe I was overthinking it, but I did want them to be more alert. That aside...
“What is this?”
“Open it, open it!”
Not even showing a little bit of doubt toward the excited Steph, I opened the lid of the box.
“EEEYAH!”
My hand slipped the moment I saw what was inside. The box fell onto the carpet, and what was inside came wriggling out and began crawling all over the floor.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
“Oh my.”
Linze and Yumina screamed in unison, while Leen sat there, looking mildly amused.
They were bugs—three caterpillars, to be precise. They were quite big, at least ten centimeters long. Those caterpillars were letting off a rainbow light as they wriggled about at my feet.
“Wh-Wh-What are these?”
“Aren’t they super pretty? I caught them!” Steph exclaimed.
Pretty...? Well, the color sure is something! But ignore the color and it’s just a caterpillar!
“Were you always scared of bugs, darling?”
“I’m not scared, it just gave me a fright!”
I didn’t dislike bugs, really. I just didn’t particularly like them either. I could touch beetles and cicadas fine, but I was a bit more grossed out by larval bugs.
...Sorry, that was a lie. I really didn’t like them.
I was relatively okay with bugs that had a hard shell, but these kinds of caterpillar-like bugs were too much for me. It was weird when you considered I could even squish a cockroach with a slipper perfectly fine.
“See?” Linne said as she turned to Steph with a sigh. “Even if the colors are pretty, everyone hates the bugs, Steph.”
“Really? But they’re so pretty... Daddy, do you hate them?”
“I don’t hate them, I’m just a bit bad with them...”
I was waffling with my words trying hard to not hurt Steph’s feelings after she’d been kind enough to bring them back as a gift. Meanwhile, Leen was crouched down on the floor, picking up the caterpillars and returning them to the box.
How the hell can you grab them with your bare hands?
Then again, she was a fairy who used to live in a forest, so bugs were probably an everyday thing to her.
“Yup, there’s no doubt about it. These are rainbow silkworms.”