The New Gate Vol 2 Chapter 3

Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 1

Shin and Schnee ran Indian file across the Plains and into the forest.

For Shin, leaving the items where they were would have been no loss at all, but then the place posed the danger of being utilized as a fort or fixed artillery battery, so the two of them took care to completely dismantle everything. There were traces of the interception magic having activated, which proved that several Skull Faces had actually been sacrificed to the contraption. As the base wasn’t that far removed from the Plains, several of them had made it all the way over here.

“Oh by the way, didn’t you accept some work? Are you done with that?”

Shin asked Schnee when he was almost done with collecting the items.

“What is your role?”

“...... Is it perhaps related to the uproar just now?”

“Are you serious ......”

While asking Schnee for the full details behind the current situation, he wracked his mind trying to remember if there had been any eyewitnesses of the battle. After making conversational noises for a while, he finally concluded that to the best of his knowledge, there hadn’t been anyone else aside from Schnee who had been close enough. There were those knights and adventurers that he had helped out with the fireballs, but they should only be able to confirm the direction from which the fireballs had come from.

“I’ll be fine for a while. Though I’m supposed to split everything fairly and evenly, if I start early then it’ll become a case of first-come-first-served. That’s why I’m waiting for all the squads to get back first. Considering the distance of deployment, it would take roughly a whole week for everyone to reconvene. There is not much need for me to hurry.”

Both Shin and Schnee had so much to ask each other about. While heading towards Tsuki no Hokora, the two of them continued filling each other in on their own current situations.

“I have a ton of stuff to ask you, so it might be better if you went first. It’s not like I’ve a whole lot to say anyways.”

In light of the amount of time that they have together, they decided that Shin would be the one to answer questions first. In actuality, Shin had been in this world less than a month, so there wasn’t much to talk about.

“Understood. In that case, please allow me to go straight into asking several things on my mind.”

Schnee asked Shin three things.

Secondly, why his battle power was so much higher.
Thirdly, what his plans are from now on.

She wanted him to go into detail for each and every question.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Yes.”
“After that, I defeated Origin. Everything was supposed to have ended then, but there was this gigantic door in the boss room at the lowest level of【Gate of the Otherworld】, you see. It opened after Origin died.”

Explaining everything to Schnee brought his memories of that time to the surface. How the door that he had thought was just decoration had opened with a heavy, grinding sound, and the scene beyond it.

“The door ...... you say.”

“I see, so that’s how it was.”

Schnee looked like she believed what Shin was saying. A look that spoke of a reassurance that had not been present during heir initial reunion came over her face.

“Schnee?”

“Oooook then.”

Question marks were dancing above Shin’s head as to why Schnee was in a strangely good mood, but he didn’t want to pour water on her parade, so he decided to not press further.

“Gifts, you say? What kind of Gifts are they?”

“No, all three are Gifts that I have never heard of before. What effects do they have?”

Shin explained the Gifts succinctly and briefly.【Liberator】was not relevant to his stats, but he explained it as well, feeling that there was also some sort of significance to it.

“I know right. When I first saw my stats I thought it was some kind of a joke.”

Shin understood completely the current feelings of the Schnee who had just interrupted him. If a Chosen One got their hands on even one of these Gifts, the power balance of the entire world would be destroyed.

“Why not?”

“I see. Then that would be impossible, you’re right.”

When they later decided to temporarily halt the search and returned to Tsuki no Hokora, they heard reports from other support characters of their own masters disappearing too, and realized that Shin most likely had been successful in clearing the dungeon. That led to the question why they themselves had not disappeared, as was the plan. They decided to split up to investigate. Some held out hope that the fact that they had not disappeared as proof that Shin might still be in this world.

Somehow, Shin was able to visualize who went to which group.

“Master, considering where Tsuki no Hokora was placed at that time, it wasn’t strange at all that the information didn’t get to us immediately. Do you remember where we were?”
“...... True.”

Shin had noticed a strange time interval before the ruckus caused by the support characters, but as Schnee then pointed out, Tsuki no Hokora had been set up right next to a boss monster area in a remote region. As the support characters were incapable of using the Chat function, it was normal for some time to have passed before information made its way over.

“Gonna shove it all on me, huh.”

“Well, you do have a point.”

With all this said, with the achievement requirements being as impossible as they are and Shin being someone who had already maxed all his stats before the Gifts, Schnee did not believe that anyone strong enough to be a threat to the two of them would ever appear.

“Yes, what is it?”
“Umm, the way you keep calling me ‘Master,’ can you change that somehow?”

Though it was completely unrelated to the conversation so far, it was something that was really bothering Shin. It was alright back during the game because there was a clear distinction of her being an NPC, but it was extremely embarrassing being addressed so in the current circumstances.

“I mean, it’s not exactly a problem ...... OK yea it’s a problem. Schnee is someone pretty famous in this world, right? If someone like you calls me ‘Master,’ there will definitely be a huge commotion.”
“Mu, I see your point.”

Even Shin fully understood the influence of the name of Tsuki no Hokora. The reason for that was undoubtedly Schnee herself. If someone suddenly appears that she would revere as ‘Master’ appears, there’s no way it wouldn’t cause waves in the world.

“But then what should I call you by?”

“?! Th-That’s ......”

For some reason, Schnee was looking downward and squirming about while opening and closing her mouth silently. After a while, she looked like she had readied herself for something and raised her face to look straight at Shin.

“Ye, yea.”

On Shin’s part, he was thinking “Eh, what is up with this reaction?!” while embarrassment filled him from head to toe.

If one was being objective, this situation could be glossed over with a “Ah, this always happens, I know this,” but it was very hard to do that when it actually happens. It wasn’t that Shin didn’t have any experience with love, but he didn’t have so much of it to be unaffected by this.
In additional, Schnee’s expression had rarely changed back during the game, so this gesture of being so obviously embarrassed while looking at himself with upturned eyes and calling his name so softly was extremely, exceedingly, exceptionally ———— moe.

“Eh?”

“Understood. From now on, I will be calling you by ‘Sh-Shin.’”

Schnee was trying really hard to act calm, but the blush in her cheeks and ears betrayed her. Being so familiar with her normal calm self, this sharp contrast was causing a very intense agony in Shin’s chest.

(So this is the famous ‘gap moe.’ I get it ...... because I am so familiar with her normal self, this is proving so much more powerful than when Selica-san does it.)

After confirming at the corner of his eye that Schnee’s ears had returned to their normal color, Shin resumed the conversation from before.

“Yes, let’s. I apologize for showing you such an unsightly side of myself. I’m fine now.”

Shin felt that her voice was still a bit on the squeaky side, but he let it go in order to continue the conversation.

“Information?”

“Yes. However, it was a shallow investigative mission, so I still don’t know what the center of it is like.”
“I see.”

He didn’t know if the key to returning to his former world laid inside those Holy Sites or not. The only way to make sure was to go there in person.

“Nn?”

Schnee called out to Shin as he was thinking about going to Holy Sites. Slightly different from before, her voice was now a bit stiff.

“............ Yes, I am.”

There would be no meaning in giving a vague answer.
As for lying ...... there was no way he could lie to her.

“...... Sorry.”
“Please don’t be. From the way you were talking just now, I had already sort of realized that that is what you had decided.”

Schnee nodded with an understanding smile on her face. Though it greatly resembled the reassured look from just now, Shin felt a twinge of something being off.

“So, Schnee. How much do you remember from before, from back when this was still a game?”

Shin asked this to put his finger on the sense of unease. Based on several words that Schnee had used in the conversation just now, he kind of saw it coming.

“Everything ...... ?”
“Yes. From when I first came into that place with you by my side. Starting from that time.”

Running through the beginner areas.

His eagerness to raise his stats.

Laughing loudly while sending entire armies flying.

Shedding tears for those who he failed to save.

The promise with that person.

The sight of his back as he left for the last time.

“I remember.”

Schnee replied softly, pressing her hand to her heart.

“No way I would tell you to forget.”

The smile that she was directing his way was so dazzling that he unintentionally responded in a brusque manner. As she had not been able to make this expression back when she was an NPC, Shin was secretly a little glad that she could now make a face like that.

“Not exactly. Though I did have a self, it was when the death game began that I became fully aware. Before then, it felt like I was watching a movie. Like having an overhead view of myself without feeling any particular emotions.”

In other words, Schnee was saying that though it was her own memory, it felt like it was someone else’s. It was a very subjective experience, so Shin could not empathize. However, he perceived the situation of being fully conscious but completely unable to control one’s body as a painful experience, and thus decided to not press the topic any further.

“I see. In other words, you also know about the logging out, and everything beyond that.”

The true meaning behind the words “going back.” Shin had his suspicions from the way Schnee was talking earlier, and apparently he had guessed right. If she had memories of the game era, then everything makes sense.

“Yea ............ Oh, I see now, that’s why those who set off to look for me split off from those who decided to wait.”
“............ Yes.”

The last battle in the death game. If Shin wins, then Schnee and the rest would disappear. If Shin loses, then they would lose their Master. Whichever way the coin fell, there would be no happy ending. When faced with the baffling situation where Shin had clearly won, but they still continued to exist, it was understandable that each of them reached a different answer to the question of what path they were to take next.

“If we did, then it would only have served to unnecessarily worry Shin. What we did was the best course of action back then.”
“Even if you say so ......”

In addition, it wasn’t like he could have done anything about it even if he had known.

“Well, come to think of it, I did feel like the NPCs were acting strangely human-like after the death game started. Hearing that you guys were self-aware is making me think about all sorts of things.”

“Oh, shut up ...... Leave me alone.”

Shin responded gruffly to Schnee, who was grinning wryly with a troubled face. When he had learned that the support characters had been self-aware, the first thing that came into his mind was the question “Did I treat them right?” Schnee’s remark had been right on the mark.

“...... That’s true, yea.”

Several tens of thousands of human lives weighed against a bunch of 0’s and 1’s. Even if the data had a bit of self-awareness, the question of which is worth more was a no-brainer.

“............ Yes. Yes I did.”

That was the promise that Shin had made.
It was precisely because they knew of that promise that Schnee and the other support characters couldn’t say anything.

“...... Good call. Whatever we say now is too late anyways, so let’s call it quits with the dark reminiscing. No more!”

Schnee clapped her hands together loudly and adopted a more cheerful stance before the mood got any more depressing. Going along with it, Shin decided to raise his voice too.

“Good idea! I’m going to unveil the results of the many years that I’ve poured into my Cooking skill!”

“About a month ago, I finally got it to level IX.”
“Are you serious?!”

One of the reasons why Rokuten had been so great, aside from the members and their stats, was because they had a level X chef in the guild. Through eating, maxed out stats could be boosted slightly beyond the cap for a limited period of time.
Incidentally, the only people who knew this fact was only Shin, who had maxed out all his stats, and the other members of Rokuten. It was they who had noticed that Shin’s damage output was different from usual due to the food. No one else in the game knew because no one else had been fully capped.

“Hell yeah! You can count on me for the ingredients!”

His eyes swept over the rows of ingredients in his inventory as a “fu fu fu” escaped from his mouth. They had been in there since the game, but he had already confirmed that everything was still fine to eat.

“Nn? What is it?”

Just as the conversation was taking a lighthearted turn, Schnee asked a question while looking above Shin’s head.

“Over there? ...... Oh.”

She was talking about Yuzuha, who was sound asleep on top of his head.

“Yea, due to certain circumstances, I ended up contracting it as a partner. Its name is Yuzuha. I’ll tell you this only because it’s you, but its race is Elemental Tail.”
“............ When I saw the tails, I thought that it was just a demon fox, but I see. So it’s an Elemental Tail, huh.”

Schnee had frozen for a split second after hearing Yuzuha’s race. However, she went back to normal almost immediately, as if saying “Well, it’s Shin after all.”

“? Shin, could it be that you haven’t realized it yet?”

Shin tilted his head in confusion, not fully understanding what Schnee was talking about. He didn’t remember Yuzuha’s tail having such noticeable characteristics. Moreover, plural form?

“Three, you say?”

He raised his right hand and grasped a tail. It was fluffy.

“Fumu.”

Next, he raised his left hand and grasped a tail. This, too, was fluffy.

“...... Fumu.”

Lastly, he focused his senses on the back of his head. There was indeed a slight perception of fluffiness.

“............ Fumu.”

For now, he let go of the tails, held Yuzuha by its torso, and brought it in front of his face.

“Indeed, there are three.”

When Shin checked its level, he discovered to his surprise that it was now over level 400.

“...... No way, it can’t have gone up that much!”

Considering that its level had been slightly above 200 earlier, the change was too abrupt. The monsters that they had defeated while raising Rashia’s level had not been enough to level Yuzuha up even once. With that as a reference, it was ridiculous to think that the fight with the Skull Face Lord afterwards had made Yuzuha’s level jump up by almost 200.

“All I can think of is that something else must have happened.”

The first probably explanation that came into Shin’s mind was that conditions had been cleared for a hidden quest. It had happened to him many times during the game, so he was extremely familiar with it. If his memory served him right, there were indeed quests related to partner monsters.

“To the extent of my knowledge, I have never heard of any quests activating. Also, after Shin disappeared, I have never again heard the voice from the sky. I haven’t heard anyone mention anything even remotely similar to it.”

There were quite a lot of hidden quests in THE NEW GATE that activated when certain conditions were met. Unlike the quests that could be picked up at the Guild, when the activation conditions were cleared, there would be an announcement informing the player of the details of the quest that had just been activated.
Originally, this was what Shin thought had happened, but there had been no announcement, so he hadn’t even noticed Yuzuha’s new level. In the first place, according to what Schnee said, the probability that the system was still around was extremely low.

“At any rate, is the fact that there are more tails now because of the higher level?”

There had been no young Elemental Tails back in the game, so he was completely clueless in regards to how they grow.
Unexpectedly, all this could be happening as a natural part of growing, instead of some quest or something else.

“Hah?”

Having failed to pick up on Shin’s mental state, Yuzuha yawned widely and gave his greetings like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Kuu? I think when the black thing went away, my head cleared up.”
“Black thing?”

When Shin heard ‘black,’ the first thing that came to mind was the core of the Skull Face Lord that he had split in half just now. When he thought back, he remembered that he had met Yuzuha amid a sea of Skull Faces too. It somehow did not feel strange to think of the Lord as the head of those Skull Faces too.

“That sounds like the core of the Skull Face Lord to me.”

Either Yuzuha had absorbed some of the Lord’s power, or some seal on Yuzuha had been released. Unfortunately, with the Lord dead and gone, there was no way to confirm which it was.

“If it’s just us, then it’s fine. This applies only when there are other people around.”

“Oh, telepathy? That’s totally fine.”

Even if speaking out loud was NG, they still had telepathy, so it wasn’t like they had to maintain complete radio silence. Yuzuha seemed to have instinctively understood that it was the more important of the two, so Shin nodded immediately.

“Can we do something about that? There are some sub-species of demon foxes that have more than one tail, right?”

Some examples of demon foxes with three tails included Flame Tails and Tail Leaders, but even the weakest of those were above level 250. In this world, it would be hard to bring such monsters around freely.

“But it would eventually become full-grown. Let’s see ............ Hey, Yuzuha. Do you know how to shapeshift, by any chance?”

“Can you make it so you only have one tail?”
“Ea~sy~”

So saying, the three tails turned into one tail with a ‘pon.’

“Wonderfully done.”

It wasn’t an illusion passing off three tails as one; there really was only one tail now. It also didn’t feel strange.

“It’s perfect. Is it tiring?”

“In that case, can you make it so that you only have one tail whenever we are in a place where other people can see? It would be really helpful if you could.”
“Un, okay~”

Yuzuha easily agreed. It did not seem at all opposed to the subterfuge.

“Yes it did. With this, the secret would no longer be easily exposed.”

For a split second, it felt to Shin like the matter was fully resolved only after Schnee’s endorsement.

“Ou, very great, very great.”
“Kuu~~”

Clasping Yuzuha to his chest, he stroked its head for a job well done. Yuzuha basked in the praise.

“Nn?”

“...... Do you want to pet it?”
“Yes please!!”

Yuzuha also looked like it was really enjoying being in her hands.

“Nn?”
“No one has ever successfully Tamed an Elemental Tail before.”

Stopping her hand, Schnee spoke with a tinge of wry resignedness in her voice. In the first place, back in the game the settings did not allow any players to tame Elemental Tails. Schnee’s surprise was understandable. The reason why there was resignedness mixed in was because she knew all the crazy things that he had done during the game era.

“Well, I was surprised for a bit, but then I felt like if anyone could do it, it would be you. And it’s not the high level version that we fought against in the past anyways.”
“True that. That one was so strong that even Rokuten didn’t have the leisure of going easy on it.”

Shin remembered that fight. Employing magic of all elements and dealing powerful physical attacks with its fangs and claws while moving with an agility that belied its huge body, it was a monster that even players with maxed out stats could not let down their guard against. That was the true form of an Elemental Tail.

“Kuu?”

The menace of a fully-grown Elemental Tail could not be seen at all from the Yuzuha that was curled up in Shin’s arms.

“If that is the case, then let’s hurry. Looking at the time, we might be able to catch up to them yet.”

Considering Shin and Schnee’s movement speed and the fact that Wilhelm was on foot and not riding a horse, they could easily catch up. However, Wilhelm’s physical capabilities had been boosted by the buff that Shin had cast on him earlier. The situation being what it is, Wilhelm and Rashia would probably have gotten quite far away by now. If they manage to reach the Kingdom and tell people about what happened on the Plains, things would get quite troublesome for Shin in several different ways.

“If you had told me this earlier, I would have been fine with waiting to do the explanations later, you know.”
“This and that are two separate matters.”

Seeing her make the face that she did, there was no way that he could have asked to do it later. But he couldn’t just say that, of course.

“Alright, off we go!”

It didn’t take long for the two of them to catch up with Wilhelm and Rashia.

Shin and Schnee had been running together for about half a day. That was all the time they needed to come into Wilhelm’s detection range.

“Why do you sound so belligerent even though we just got here?!”

Rashia was fast asleep, probably due to fatigue.

“Hmph.”

The response to Shin’s words was an attack with a demon spear. The sound of the attack was not very sharp, but there was still a significant amount of strength behind it.

“After letting off that crazy amount of magical power, the hell you pretending like it’s all someone else’s achievement. You probably rampaged all over the place, didn’t you?”

“Of course I do!! More like, are you trying to insinuate something by catching up so quickly after sending us off with a freaking flashy move like that? You were pulling your punches? You could afford to pull your punches against something like that, ah? Gimme back the years I lost from desperation, damn you!”
“Wait, wait, wait, calm down! It’s my bad for making a joke like that but isn’t using Venom going a bit too far?!”

Wilhelm was an A rank adventurer. He fully understood how dangerous the thing that they had met was.

———— If he fought, he would die.

In spite of all that. He had been running so desperately to reach the Kingdom and ask for reinforcements, and had decided to take a short break to keep his strength up. When he did so, the person who had supposedly stayed behind to fight actually caught up with himself. He was more than a little concerned with what had happened to the army that had made him so apprehensive.

Needless to say, not a single one of the attacks landed on Shin.

“Did you just blatantly click your tongue at me?! It was just a joke, man!”
“A ‘joke’ my ass. You totally had a “I didn’t do anything” look on your face. Stop screwing around and give me a proper explanation.”

The loose atmosphere from before dissipated as Wilhelm glared at the two of them.

“Shin, it’s about time to get to the main topic.”

After watching the exchange between Shin and Wilhelm, Schnee stepped forward.

“Long time no see. It appears that you have fully grasped the situation already. Do you still want further explanation?”

Wilhelm’s words seemed to have some deeper meaning behind them. Clearly, some sort of meaningful exchange had just taken place.

“Guys, can you put things in a way that I can understand?”

Shin had no clue why Wilhelm had been so easily appeased.

“Don’t you know? The name ‘Schnee Raizar’ is famous for being someone who never yields, never gets won over, and never kneels, be it to kings or the Pope.”

What firmness of character.

“I will never kneel to anyone other than Master.”

He had only knowledge from light novels to go on, but Shin felt that it might not be a great idea to take such an attitude with royalty. However, for Schnee, it was a policy that she would never concede on.

“So that’s the reason why she gets away with it, huh.”

Of course, that was just the more trivial reason. Both her way of speaking and her attitude is respectful, she lends her strength whenever strong monsters appear, and she maintains a neutral stance by not being affiliated with any faction or organizations — these are the real reasons why no one wants to fight her. More like, anyone who wished her harm would get showered with blows from all sides with a “What do you think you’re doing!!”.

As a natural consequence of being who she was, many people had approached her in secret to try to convince her to join their camp, but no one has ever succeeded.

“Anyways, for someone like that to be obediently following you, well ......”
“Ahh, so from that ......”

So he had already been seen through. He didn’t know how familiar Schnee and Wilhelm were with each other, but when put like that, he understood that anyone could have come to that conclusion.

“And also my Master.”

“Don’t you ‘for all it’s worth’ me. But if it’s like that, then I finally understand. That amount of magical power was seriously no joke.”

“...... The master of Schnee Raizar, huh. I see, you are much more than I had expected from the stories ...... Oi, then the fox sitting on a high human’s head is most likely not a normal fox either, is it?”

While shrugging his shoulders with a “gimme a break” kind of feeling, Wilhelm’s eyes fell on Yuzuha. Mixed inside his tone was a sense of resignation that had gone beyond surprise. The reason why there was no fear in his voice was most likely because he had gotten to know Shin without being influenced by any preconceptions.

“Yea, it’s not a Little Fox. Its level just broke 400 after that last battle.”
“...... I don’t even feel surprised anymore.”

Wilhelm looked intently at Yuzuha with a sigh. It wasn’t that he was not surprised at this little creature being more than level 400, but it’s just that what he had learned a while ago had been that much more shocking.

“Yea. In my case, I am much stronger than Chosen Ones, but I didn’t start out this strong. There are very few people like me in this world, right? That’s why I decided to just pass myself off as a Chosen One.”
“I see, I see. But well, if you two are going to move together all the time, then it’s only a matter of time before other people find out.”

What Wilhelm was saying had merit. Schnee and Tsuki no Hokora were famous. If a man was to sudden appear by her side in a seemingly close relationship, those with good ears would start digging around.

“I have a feeling that the illusion magic you are thinking of is not exactly the one that I have in mind. I’m not going to be surprised even if you transform into a monster.”

“You’re pretty much a walking cataclysm. Don’t be strolling around the place, Mr. “Oh I Can Raze a Country to the Ground When I Wake Up On the Wrong Side of the Bed.” I wouldn’t be able to rest easy if I was a lord.”

Rashia was sleeping so soundly that she did not appear affected at all by all the ruckus happening around her. Wilhelm had calmed her down by pointing out that he himself, a high rank adventurer, was around. And on the topic of Shin, he had pointed out that someone who could use so much magical power wouldn’t go down easily. As she had witnessed firsthand Shin using skills, those words were enough to alleviate her worries. Though she had combat experience, she still couldn’t tell the difference between power levels, so she didn’t actually fully understand the situation.

“Speaking of, are there any records about us left behind?”

The last time he was at the library, he didn’t finish looking everything up, so all he knew was only what Tiera had told him. He was willing to admit that there was most likely a part of himself that had unconsciously steered away from that topic. No one would enjoy looking up their own dark history on their own accord.

“There are still anecdotes and legends of the others being passed down.”

“Hah? Didn’t you guys get bored of being the strongest and then start making things to kill time? That sounds more reasonable.”
“Wilhelm, I haven’t been training my Cooking skill only to kill time!”

So it turns out that indeed some discrepancies had risen from the stories. Though it was true that all members of Rokuten had ridiculously high stats, the main reason why they had gotten together was because of crafting.

“Most of the time you spent as a beginner was just running away, wasn’t it?”

The difficulty of purposely raising one’s combat level and crafting level at the same pace was something that people without experience in playing online games could not understand. Due to the game system and the level of difficulty being what they were, each profession required a ton of work to master.

“Those who could were called high players.”

“High p- ...... What?”
“Anyways, I kept on making weapons to make it easier to level up. I then equipped those weapons, went out, and defeated strong enemies to level up. I then took the materials dropped by those guys to make even stronger weapons. Then stronger enemies, and so on went the cycle.”

As question marks floated above Wilhelm’s head from hearing a word not of this world, Shin matter-of-factly described something that residents of this world could not do.

Therefore, players made a distinction between combat-oriented guilds and crafting-oriented guilds. Most people who tried to be a part of both at the same time either gave up almost immediately or somewhere in the middle. Almost nobody stuck with it to the end.

Rokuten’s fame was indeed partly due to the member’s fighting power, but also partly due to their crafting prowess.

“How rude of you.”

“Probably the only ones who could consider it are the long-lived races likes elves and pixies. Not that they would, though.”

To residents on this world, the very idea was madness. The only reason why Shin had been able to accomplish it was because it had been a game. Using items to boost xp gain and reading Books of Secrets to learn skills, it was his single-minded pursuit of strength that made Shin into what he was today.
With that said, he had truly poured an enormous amount of time into the game. It was impossible for someone who lives and breathes in this world to imitate what he had done.

“Shin also forged many holy swords and demon swords, didn’t you? And if you didn’t like it, you would melt down even Ancient grade swords and reforge them. Filma shrieked when she saw you do that.”

Incidentally, Filma was number 2 among Shin’s support characters, and she was a greatsword user. Shin finally understood why she had been so despondent for a while.

“Ou. By the way, do you want me to upgrade Venom a little?”
“Screw you.”

Wilhelm immediately shut down the Shin who was grinning sleazily and laughing like a suspicious merchant. He had no doubts that Shin would indeed make Venom better, but the strange way that Shin was speaking gave him pause. To be blunt, he was sure beyond a doubt that there was no way Shin would stop at a normal upgrade.

“Why do you have the look of an unscrupulous merchant, huh?!”

“............ Okay, okay, I concede that your main profession is definitely a craftsman. Come to think of it, you’re making the exact same face those gambling old timers make.”

What he had seen blazing fiercely in those eyes was a mixture of the innocence of a child who has found a new toy and the fighting spirit of a warrior who has found a worthy adversary. When he took another look at Shin, he realized that Shin had the same eyes too.

“I’m not going to do anything flashy like that! I was just thinking that it has been a while since I’ve held a hammer in Tsuki no Hokora!”
“If I let you do it, I have no idea what’s gonna happen. The craftsmen that helped me were telling stories about Rokuten’s blacksmith making longswords that could exchange blows with Legend grade weapons.”

Originally, the performance ability between Normal grade and Legend grade weapons was so great that even if you bunched up a lot of Normal grade ones together, a single blow from a Legend grade would shatter them all. Of course, Wilhelm was not gullible enough to believe those stories.

“Oi ...... that’s a joke, right?”

When Wilhelm was about to say that it really was impossible after all, Shin closed his eyes like he was trying to remember something. If the story just now was truth, it would shatter the common sense of Blacksmithing. That’s why Wilhelm had been so sure that it was just exaggeration. But the sight of Shin wracking his brains started to erode his confidence.

“Oh right! So that no one could ever complain again about low quality materials, we took a random piece of iron and slapped every enchantment we could onto it. Then we used the best facilities that we could find to forge it into a longsword. Well, after that we accidentally placed it onto the shelf in the store and someone bought it. He was so shocked that he came back and asked us about it afterwards.”
“...... What the hell.”

Incidentally, the person who had bought the sword had intended it as a gift to another beginner player. Later, he discovered the other guy one-shotting monsters that were supposed to be out of his league. The one who received the present just thought that the monsters were weak. The player who had bought the present did not check the stats when he bought it, thinking that it was a normal longsword.

“Please listen to your own words and realize how crazy you sound.”

Realizing that Shin was a prime example of someone who does not understand common sense, Wilhelm pressed a hand to his head. Blacksmithing was not so lenient that the grade of the weapons could be decided solely by the blacksmith’s skill. But so what. Even though it was common sense for a Normal grade sword to shatter immediately when exchanging blows with a Legend grade sword, Shin had made several ones that could last around 20 blows. Thinking of the chaos that would happen if swords like that were to start circulating around in the market, Wilhelm could not help but let out a huge sigh.

“He’s my Master, after all. He can’t be bound by today’s common sense.”

“It wasn’t a compliment!”

As for Schnee, she was looking so proud because of how widespread this legend about Shin was.

“Nn ...... Nnnn?”

Just as Wilhelm was thinking “Oh man, these guys are hopeless” and letting out another sigh, Rashia, who had been sleeping at his side, woke up. They had apparently been making a little too much noise. It must have been hard to continue sleeping.

“Yo.”
“Ah, good morn- ...... Wait, no, why are you here?!”

She was still half-asleep, but when she saw who was sitting in front of her, she unconsciously shouted in surprise. He was supposed to have stayed behind after helping them escape that crowd of monsters, but her eyes were telling her that he was here. And Yuzuha was still riding on his head as usual.

“Eh ...... ?”

Wilhelm caught the glance and returned it.

“He said that someone who just happened to pass by helped him out.”

With a barely perceptible nod, Shin also agreed to keep the fact that he was a high human concealed from Rashia. Different from Wilhelm and some royals who were acquainted with Schnee, Rashia was not familiar enough with her to deduce Shin’s identity through Schnee’s attitude. It wasn’t really a problem for Shin if she found out, but she might come into danger for possessing valuable information. There was no guarantee that a possible information leak in the future would not drag her into trouble.

As for Wilhelm, Schnee was the one who had given him his letter of introduction, so she already knew that she could trust him.

“Thank you for the courteous introduction. My name is Rashia Luzel. I ............ Excuse me, what did you just say?”

Of course, it wasn’t that she had misheard. It was simply that she could not believe what she had heard.

“............ That one?”

“Why does it sound like you two are making fun of me?”

Being called “that one” so many times in a row made her sound like some weird person, for some inexplicable reason. In this case, it was being used with a positive connotation, though.

“Don’t worry about the details. Oi, don’t

Chapter end