“Alright! Now that it’s melted perfectly, that’s enough for today. Sorry it took longer than planned.”

“No problem.”

In the end, we poured magic for about six hours. The swords were stronger than Gladden had expected. But that didn’t mean he could quit in the middle of melting them, so it took this long.

“All we have to do now is wait for them to harden and then go home once.”

“Okay…. once?”

I said okay and was about to leave with Sophie, but the word “once” bothered me.

“Yeah. Tomorrow we’re going to be staying overnight with no rest, so you might as well go home while you can.”

“…Overnight stay?”

“Yeah. Didn’t I tell you?”

“I didn’t hear about that!”

I never heard anything about that. Just to be sure, I looked at Sophie to confirm, but she shook her head. It seemed that Sophie hadn’t heard about it either.

“But you said it’d take more than three hours to keep pouring…”

“After that, I’ll forge the sword, so you can take a break for half an hour or so.”

“Oh, I see…”

That’s right. You can’t just pour magic power for 3 hours a day to make a sword from scratch…. I’m going to leave the elf and the beastmen to Shana and Claudia. I’ll have to go report on that and apologize. I can clean my body and clothes with magic, but I need a change of clothes if I’m going to stay the night. I decided to leave the hut and go home.

“Um…Sophie…”

“Yes?”

“I’m Sorry.”

On the way home, I apologized, thinking that it was indeed a nuisance to detain her for a week, but Sophie looked puzzled.

“I told you before that I would have no problem with just one week for your sake. But since I’m going to be in close contact with you for a week, you’ll have to take responsibility if it becomes a habit.”

“What do you mean by “responsibility?”

“Specifically, you’ll either marry me, or you’ll stick with me for as long as I like. I prefer the former.”

“You don’t have to be specific! And don’t even tell me what you want! Thanks.”

Maybe Sophie was joking about the responsibility so that I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

We went home once and put our clothes and stuff in the magic ring. And after that we headed to the school’s practice field where Shana and the others were.

“Huh!”

“Ha, ya!”

“I can’t feel it. Hit me harder!”

When we entered the training ground, we found that Urza and his sister Carina were having a mock battle against their big brother Bequa. Then they stopped the mock battle, probably because they realized we were here.

“I’m sorry Shana, Claudia, but I don’t think I’ll be able to come here for a week or so starting tomorrow.”

I explained to Shana and Claudia the specific circumstances that prevented us from coming here.

“Then, when the sword is finished, I’ll allow it if you’ll have a mock fight with us.”

“You mean us, two against one?”

“Yes.”

“I understand.”

There’s nothing wrong with a mock battle. I even wonder if it’s allowed. But two against one in a mock battle…that’s still a winnable fight, right?

“It’s bad enough for Bequa and the others.”

“No problem, I’ll be stronger than Zeros in a week, and I’ll look back on you!”

Bequa is so determined to get stronger that I regret the fact that I’ll be slacking off by not coming here for a week.

“Uh…”

“What’s wrong?”

Carina grabs my sleeve and looks like she wants to say something. I bent down a little, looked her in the eye, and spoke to her as gently as I could so as not to intimidate her.

“Will you have a mock battle with me again?”

“I’ll do it as much as you want.”

“Ah, thanks!”

When Carina said that, she blushed and hid behind Bequa, perhaps embarrassed.

“I’m sorry about that, Elira.”

I said to Elira, who was standing at the edge of the room.

“Then you’ll attend to this when the sword is finished.”

“Hmm?”

Elira came up to me and showed me a piece of paper. The contents of the paper were

<<In the name of Emily Jeanette, Queen of the Elves, if Elira Almerek and Zeros Adolfo go outside of Royal capital  together, Elira is responsible for everything that happens outside of the royal capital, and the Elves will not blame anyone for this.>>

It said.

“In other words?”

“Come hunt monsters with me.”

Could it be that Elira went out of her way to get this permit from Emily?

“Of course, it’d be a nuisance to take so many people with me, so only Zeros can go.”

Is this a condition of Emily-san’s trust in me, that she be with me? Or is there some other intention? I have no idea.

“Then I’ll go with you too.”

“It’s going to be a nuisance to devote so much manpower to me alone, so I’ll go with just Zeros alone.”

Elira countered Sophie’s words about going with her. Then the two glanced at each other for a moment, and Elira turned to me again.

“Of course, I’m not saying we’ll go every day. Twice a week is fine.”

“Well, twice a week would be fine.”

“Zero-niisama!”

“Well, that’s a deal then.”

Two times a week will be fine, since I can spend the rest of the time with Bequa and the others. I don’t want to stay at level one forever.

Elira looked satisfied and walked away from us again. Then Sophie in a foul mood and I, left the training grounds and headed for Gladden’s hut.