Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"Thank you for being here, Lady Hephaestus, though I didn't expect you to be available without prior notice," I said to the goddess before me. Hephaestus narrowed her eyes in my direction.
"I'm curious. When the captain of my Familia told me that one of my sons wants to create a magic sword, and when said son is someone who considerably hates magic swords, well, I suppose you can understand my suspicions." Hephaestus said defensively, staring at me. I just smiled at her.
Welf had finally agreed; apparently, 200 million Valis was a truly tempting price, especially since I didn't even want the magic sword Welf was going to create. Welf was still in a bad mood, but he still led us back to the central part of Orario, to Tsubaki's workshop.
Welf had a quick chat with Tsubaki, who seemed surprised and immediately went to tell Hephaestus, and here we were now. In Hephaestus's personal workshop, Lucy and Tsubaki stood by the door. Lucy was leaning lazily against the wall with her eyes closed, but I knew she was navigating the Backyard.
Welf had gathered all the materials and prepared the tools he needed, and he had settled into Hephaestus' workshop with ease.
"I'm just a scholar seeking knowledge and to satisfy my eternal curiosity," I said easily. I heard Welf snort mockingly as he lit the oven.
"You really are a crazy elf. I don't even know why you're hiding your ears." Welf mocked, glancing at me sideways.
"An elf?" Hephaestus asked, confused, as she looked at my ears. I had removed the High Elf Race badge during the journey under the pretext of keeping it hidden; I simply shrugged and put it back on. That seemed to surprise Hephaestus and Tsubaki; I saw her grip the hilt of her sword.
"Please excuse my need to hide, my name is Serena Prince, and I'm... somewhat incognito." I said playfully, Hephaestus's eyes widening.
"You are the King of the Elves," Hephaestus said, her eyes shining with understanding. I could see Welf stumble in midair and almost burn his hand as he spun around and stared at me in disbelief. Tsubaki also looked at me dumbly.
"Oh?" I asked simply as I looked at Hephaestus curiously.
"Yes, you're... the wife of Miach's new child, Bellatrix Prince," Hephaestus said, sounding amused. "Miach never stops talking about his new child and his crazy theories. I really thought he was out of his mind," Hephaestus snorted, amused.
"Are you a King?!" Welf asked incredulously, his gaze dropping down to my body.
" I am, and yes, I am a King regardless of my gender, and Bellatrix is my queen," I said easily. Hephaestus looked at me for a few seconds and nodded, satisfied.
"Then I have no problem at all. Miach talks a lot about his new daughter when we have the opportunity to meet," Hephaestus said, sounding exasperated.
"Wow, I didn't think a... King would be here in Orario, I guess the guild doesn't know anything, right? " Tsubaki asked curiously, I hummed.
"I wasn't planning on staying long. I came to visit Bella for a few days. I spent last night with her, Miach, and Naaza. I really wanted to meet the god who took my wife in, but I don't have enough time for a long vacation, so honestly, I don't have time to play around with the Guild." I said distractedly. Tsubaki sighed, but nodded.
"I still can't believe you're Bellatrix Prince's wife. There are terrible rumors about her, from how she insulted the entire Loki family at the bar, to how she's capable of massacring all the monsters on the first floors, even at level 1."
"Now I don't feel so guilty about stealing 200 million valis from you for a sword you didn't even buy." Welf said dryly, and I laughed amusedly.
"Bella is... she moves at her own pace," I said with a loving sigh. "As long as she doesn't make enemies of the whole town, I have no problem with it," I added absentmindedly.
"Isn't insulting one of the strongest families making an enemy of the city?" Welf mocked as he placed the metal over the fire.
"I mean, there are rumors of Bella and Riveria-sama getting together." Tsubaki noted with a hum.
"I didn't know you were in on the gossip." Hephaestus mocked Tsubaki, who just shrugged and smiled cheekily.
"Gareth came to service his weapons, and we ended up talking. Apparently, several members of the Loki Familia met with Bellatrix Prince. Anything to say? " Tsubaki asked, turning to me. I smiled at her amusedly.
"Secret." I said playfully, Tsubaki shrugged again.
"That's a shame, I'll find someone else to talk to," Tsubaki said with a confident smile, and I just snorted, amused.
Finally, Welf began forging the sword as he started hammering the metal hard on the anvil.
"We'll be here for several hours. You can leave Lucy if you want, go for a walk." I said, glancing at Lucy. Lucy opened her eyes and stared at me.
"It's not necessary, I'll stay." She said distractedly as she closed her eyes again. I quickly saw what she was doing, and she seemed to be modifying the Quickhacks to suit her needs.
"Bodyguard?" Hephaestus asked curiously, I just hummed.
"Something like that, she's one of my wives too." I said playfully. Lucy's eyes widened, and I winked at her. I could see Welf miss the anvil horribly, the hammer slipping from his hand.
"You have several wives?" Welf asked incredulously. I chuckled.
"I have 6," I said playfully. Welf looked at me incredulously, his expression filled with envy and jealousy.
"You know what, I think I'll charge you 300 million Valis." Welf grunted as he raised the hammer once more.
"Welf." Hephaestus snorted playfully, shaking her head. Welf just clicked his tongue.
We continued chatting lightly as I watched Welf hammer the metal, slowly shaping it. I pulled out a small notebook and started taking notes; it wasn't really necessary, but if I wanted to sell the idea that I was just a scholar, it was better to stick to paper. I jotted down grand magical formulas as I typed quickly.
We spent almost six hours inside the workshop while Welf finished creating the magic sword. He had decided to make something short and quick, so he had chosen a dagger to forge.
I watched him throughout the entire process, never taking my eyes off him. Almost immediately, I could see that Blacksmith was easily replicated when his hands began to glow slightly, but Crozzo Blood didn't arrive until almost the end of the forging.
I almost wanted to smile broadly as I felt them both inside my Reality Marble. Now, all I had to figure out was how to use it without having to forge sword after sword. As much as creating Magic Swords interested me far more than forging ordinary weapons, it would be truly useful to be able to create weapons out of thin air with different effects, like Sword Birth could achieve.
"And there you have it, a magic sword." Welf spat dismissively as he raised the dagger. At no point did he make any sign to hand it to me; I just nodded.
"Thank you, that answered all my questions." I said easily as I smiled at him and tightly closed the small book where I had been writing. I reached into one of my pockets, pulled a bag from my inventory containing 200 million valis, and threw it in his direction.
"Wait, that's it?" Welf asked incredulously. "I really thought you'd try something to get the sword," Welf said, surprised. I snorted amusedly.
"I told you I just wanted to see the creation process, nothing more," I said, shrugging. "But... I could see you hate magic swords." I said distractedly, and Welf snorted.
"I do, one-"
"You don't need to tell me, I've already researched everything I could about you." I interrupted, and Welf frowned. "Now, let's say, you never tried... to change how magic swords work?" I asked curiously. Welf froze.
"Change... how they work?" Welf asked, confused. I nodded while smiling.
"Yes, instead of expending their own magic to the point that the sword breaks, the sword could use the wielder's magic. That would make them unbreakable; it would only cause the same effects as normal magic on the wielder," I said playfully.
I could see how not only Welf had frozen, but Hephaestus and Tsubaki had also frozen; the three of them stared at each other rigidly as if it hadn't occurred to them.
"It looks like you'll be busy. I'd better go and leave you three alone." I said playfully as I leaned toward them. "Thank you for everything, it was a pleasure meeting you." I said easily.
Lucy and I left Hephaestus's workshop, ignoring the three of them starting to chat animatedly, and began walking through the streets of Orario once more, this time heading towards Twilight Manor. It was already past noon; Welf had finished much faster than I expected.
"So, it worked?" Lucy asked casually, and I hummed lightly.
I raised my hand and let the dagger Welf Crozzo had just forged project into my hand. I quickly scanned it and whistled softly in amazement. I could see it possessed incredibly powerful flame magic for such a simple dagger; truly, the Crozzo family's skill was unbelievable.
"It works, the magic swords created by Crozzo can be projected easily without any problem, the best thing is that the disadvantage it has doesn't bother me, in fact, it's perfect for my ability."
"The fact that the magic swords function on their own until they break is no problem; creating them is cheap, and I don't have to use extra magic to activate them. I could use hundreds of thousands of them without getting tired," I said easily. Lucy nodded slightly.
"If you want other weapons with different magic, do you need to forge each sword from scratch, or can you create different ones?" Lucy asked curiously. I grimaced.
" Unfortunately, yes, I have to forge them. I was able to copy the Crozzo blood and the necessary skill, but it seems I'll have to forge each one separately. I'll have to see if it's really worth it. I have no experience forging weapons in the traditional way. I have memories, experience, and blueprints that were granted to me by my projections, but I don't know if that will be able to replace real experience and knowledge." I sighed wearily.
"I mean, would they be stronger than your magic or weapons made with Light?" Lucy asked with a hum, and I sighed again.
"Not really? Even if I made hundreds of swords and threw them all at once, I could do the same with my magic with extreme ease. The weapons of The Light are... extremely variable, they depend heavily on the Light of the wielder and change their form to create new manifestations of The Light, so I wouldn't have any problem pushing them to the limit."
"The only thing that would make magic swords useful is if I could place some specific spell, enchantment, or curse inside them, but even then, it still wouldn't be strong enough to make a difference." I said with a grimace.
"Then don't." Lucy said, shrugging her shoulders. I saw her take a cigarette out of one of her pockets, clicked my finger absentmindedly, and lit it immediately. She barely flinched as she took a long drag.
"It seems so, I'll just have to put it aside. I mean, I could give them to my Schiavos and have them attack indiscriminately, or hope that GLaDOS has some army of robots and arm them with magic swords, but for the moment, it doesn't seem really appealing. It's not like I'm going to be fighting any army anytime soon." I said with a grimace.
"And it's not as if Rebecca and Bellatrix wouldn't be the first to jump into said hypothetical enemy army." Lucy snorted amusedly; I snorted too.
"Let's go to Twilight Manor, Riveria should be waiting." I said playfully, shaking my head. Lucy just nodded with a smile.
Getting to Twilight Manor was quite easy; there was no need to use a portal. Simply walking around town was quite fun as I took in everything around me.
Once we arrived, Riveria was already waiting for us at the door.
"Riveria." I greeted her with a smile, and she returned it.
"Serena, Lucy, you arrived just in time," she said with a gentle smile. "Come on, I've already prepared everything, and I've already explained what they have to do," Riveria said easily as she turned around and started walking.
"I'm surprised they agreed," I said, slightly impressed. Riveria hummed.
"They're good people, most of them would just do it because I asked them to," Riveria said with a smile.
"Thank you." I said simply. Riveria nodded while glancing at me with an amused smile.
"No, thanks to you. You're paying them 10 million each. I said they would because I asked them to, but I couldn't resist rewarding them," Riveria said, winking at me. I snorted, but nodded curtly.
Finally, we arrived at the back of Twilight Manor. In this fairly large courtyard, almost a dozen people were waiting, people I didn't know. In addition, there was also the group of 6 that I had already met: Loki, Ais, Bete, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya.
" Very well, everyone! Thank you for accepting my request. As I explained, I want you to come one by one and demonstrate your skills and magic before us. Then you are free to leave." Riveria said loudly. "Any questions?" I saw an elf raise her hand slightly. " Yes, Alicia?" Riveria nodded in her direction.
"Riveria-sama, if... It's not too much trouble, could we... know who she is?" Alicia asked while pointing at me. Riveria glanced at me sideways before smiling.
"This is Serena, she... she's my fiancée," Riveria said without hesitation. Everyone fell silent before a commotion erupted.
"Loki-sama! You were aware of this!? " Alicia asked forcefully, almost horrified. Loki just let out a laugh.
"Don't worry, Alicia-chan, I was aware of everything, and I agree with her decision. Sera-chan is good for her. I hope everyone respects Riveria's decision. Are we all in agreement?" Loki said cheerfully, opening her eyes slightly. All the members of the Loki Familia shuddered and straightened up.
"Yes, Loki-sama!" they said at the same time. Loki just laughed happily.
"Thank you, Loki-sama," Riveria said with a smile, though I could hear the mental sigh in her head. I was sure they'd approach her after we were done here alone. I chuckled. "As you know, and as we've already announced, we'll soon be teaching a new type of magic to those who have the aptitude and want to learn."
"Serena is the creator of this magic. She's a scholar who enjoys studying and creating magic, and since she's letting our family learn her magic, I wanted to help her a little with her research. She's quite interested in the magic and skills granted by the Falnas, and she wanted to write down her findings. And as I said before, you'll receive compensation for this, so don't worry," Riveria added quickly.
"I suppose I'll go first." A deep but gentle voice said, and I turned to watch a dwarf approaching.
" Ah, Gareth, I wanted to introduce you to Serena," Riveria said cheerfully as Gareth approached.
"A pleasure. Riveria has told me EVERYTHING that's happened," Gareth said easily, extending his hand. I just nodded. I guess "EVERYTHING" meant absolutely everything I was involved in. Not that it bothered me. I returned the handshake, feeling him squeeze my hand tightly. I immediately felt Gareth's skill, Dvergr Enhance, which greatly increased strength, being copied.
"It's good to meet the important people of Riveria," I said honestly, smiling as I easily ignored the strong grip. Gareth just chuckled.
"I hope you'll take good care of our little Riveria!" Gareth said with a cheerful laugh, but I felt his hand squeeze even tighter.
"Little? I'm twice your age." Riveria snorted, and I just laughed, shaking my head. My eyes flashed with amusement. I increased my physical strength considerably and returned the grip much tighter. Gareth's eyes widened in surprise before he burst into laughter as he released his hold.
"Good, that's more like it!" Gareth said cheerfully. I could hear Riveria sigh in relief. "Alright, let's begin!" Gareth added as he walked away. My eyes sparkled as I watched him use his Earth Raid magic, destroying the ground around him.
Alright, let's get started.