Huh...? The priestess lady froze up.
She did evaluate my skill, right?
Her reaction is kind of making me nervous, though...
“Um, so did I end up with weak household magic, then?”
“Ah! Um, you see... how should I put it...?”
“It couldn’t be... that I’m still magicless, right...?”
“N-no! You have a skill! You do! The Skill Bestowal was successful! You aren’t magicless!!”
She didn’t need to put so much emphasis on the ends of her sentences...
“So what sort of skill is it?”
“...”
“Huh...?”
“...”
“Um...”
The priestess took glancing looks at my face.
“Hah...”
S-she just sighed!
“This way, Ms. Anti.”
“Right...”
She led me through a door to the right, down a hallway. Along the way we passed another priest, who took her place manning the church.
Eventually, we arrived at a small room with a desk and two chairs.
What’s this? An interrogation...?
“Please take a seat.”
She pulled out the chair for me, and then took the other one herself.
“Um...”
“Ms. Anti.”
“Yes?”
“I, Amarron Glacé, have been a priestess for four years now. Well, to be accurate, it has been three years and three months. I may still be a novice, but I believe that through my studies up until now, I have become capable of serving as a proper priestess.”
“Right...”
“What a half-hearted response...”
Well, that’s true...
I’ve got no interest in your personal history, lady. I just care about my skill!
“Ahem. In other words, I’m a splendid priestess who tries to be just and sincere.”
...Should you really be calling yourself “splendid”?
No, wait... maybe she’s had her share of troubles, being such a young woman in this line of work?
“As such, I want to be up front and tell you what I just saw... There is no need for mercy!”
No mercy?! This is a church, right?! This should be the most merciful place around, shouldn’t it?!
She didn’t seem to notice my reaction, and instead smoothly wrote something out on a piece of paper.
She geeeently handed it to me, looking like she was leaning out over an abyss...
Anti Kythera
Human (♀) Age 15
Skill: Gearcraft Lv. 1
“Wha...?”
“(Yup, yup)...”
...What is this? Gear...?
“Gear ‘craft’? What’s magical about a ‘craft’?” I asked.
“I couldn’t say, Ms. Anti.”
“No, but you see...”
“Allow me to explain what’s so odd about your status results.”
Hey! Can you maybe not ignore my question?...
“Firstly, I’m unable to gauge your physical strength.”
“Huh?”
“Please look at this paper. This is the entirety of the information I received by checking your status.”
“Um, so what’s weird about it?”
“It is weird! Normally, you can see things like physical strength, mana, and agility! Don’t make light of us priestesses!”
“Huh? But this...”
“That’s right. I cannot see any such things for you. All that’s there is your name, age, sex, and this strange skill.”
D-don’t call it strange!
“Furthermore, I can’t see your experience value.”
“Experience value?”
“As you grow, you consume the mana stored within your body. It’s also called your level. Please have a look at your status results. The level of your strange skill is displayed, but your own level is not.”
C-could you please stop calling it strange...?!
“Finally, about this bizarre skill...”
T-this priestess really is merciless... sniffle.
“Please don’t cry. In a certain manner of thinking, it’s something to be proud of! It’s likely the first time this skill has been seen in the whole of the history of magic!”
“B-but it doesn’t even have ‘magic’ in the name. It’s just a ‘craft’...”
“...”
Say something, please!
“...At any rate, I have some level of interest in a never-before seen skill. Could you try using it? It may actually be an amazing skill.”
What do you mean “some” level?! What, so you’re only as interested as if you heard your uncle was getting remarried and you were like “Hmm?”?!
Grr, she’s mocking me, just like everybody from class...
Just you watch! Maybe it really is something amazing!
If I give up here, I’m just guaranteeing my own failure! But I’m ready to keep on picking myself back up!
The priestess lady stared at me, puzzled.
Oh, just you wait. I’ll wipe that puzzled look off your face!
“Come forth, Gearcraft!”
“Wow... she actually shouted it...”
...
.....
.......
Nothing happened.
Well no, something did.
A disk appeared before my eyes, floating in midair. It looked to be made of a pale gold metal.
Ah, there’s a hole in the middle.
Sproing.
Sproing, sproing.
Teeth popped out around its rim.
“...”
“...”
There it was.
A gear the size of my palm.
“Can it turn...?”
“Huh...?”
“Well, I mean, it’s a gear...”
....
...Ah.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
“It sure is going, isn’t it...?”
“Waaaaaaah!! Moooooooommy!!!”
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!