Chapter 140 It’s Firing Up (2)

#3 Other Stories: A Cat’s Story

I would have screamed, “Why are you doing this?” if I could.

“Here, kitty.”

The owner of this house looked at me with serious eyes after grabbing my front legs with both hands.

“I really do not want to know what you are.”

Yet, he trapped me and had the silver-haired girl next to him! She was practicing punches in the air and looked at me now and then. She scared me.

“However, my daughter saved your life. You agree to that, right?”

I managed to stop myself from nodding, as she had truly saved me and ignoring that would degrade me to a beast.

“So, if my daughter is in danger, you have to do your best.”

“Meow.”

I could trade my life for hers, as I would have been already dead if not for her.

“I think you understood.”

“Meow.”

I did not nod, even though the man seemed to think I was more than a mere cat. I needed to act like one, just in case.

“That’s a shame…”

I ran away from the girl, who looked at me with dissatisfaction. She was quieter than usual today.

“Then, next.”

“Grandpa?”

The lizard looked at the man, and I realized that she was waiting for the next victim.

“Hello, Coco?”

“Yes?!”

While the lizard flinched after seeing the girl punching the air, it spoke with the man again.

“Coco, what will you do when your mother is in danger?”

“Mommy? Danger?”

“Yes, you would need to protect your mother if such a thing happens, right?”

“Yes!”

“Yes, that means that you have to learn magic.”

“Magic?”

“Or use dragon breath.”

“Breath?”

What is that man requesting to a lizard less than a year old?!

“Yes, dragon breath means you shoot flames out of your mouth.”

“Oh?”

Look, the lizard looks confused!

“Also, you can go outside and play with your mother if you learn it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, learning Polymorph can make it happen.”

“I will!”

I wanted to scream at the lizard that it was all nonsense. Even if that lizard was a baby dragon, it could not use magic and dragon breath during infancy.

“How can I learn it?”

“Hmm…by feeling magic and concentrating?”

Also, the man knew nothing, and the lizard remained confused.

“It’s all right. This one will teach you.”

“Hi!”

“Ah!”

The man placed the silver-haired girl in front of the lizard.

“No!”

Of course, since the girl made one’s survival instinct run wild. However, the man only smiled.

“You don’t want to protect mother?”

“I want to!”

“What can you do, Coco?”

“I can do things!”

“No, you can’t.”

The man was goading the infant, and then he asked the silver-haired girl to bring in my benefactor.

She came up running to the man.

“Daughter.”

“Yes, Daddy!”

“Don’t you want to go outside with Coco and play?”

“I do!”

“Yes, yes.”

I could feel something was going wrong for the lizard, but I could not do anything or speak.

“I need Coco’s help to make that happen.”

The lizard looked lost as my benefactor looked in its direction.

“Coco, let’s try!”

“I will!”

While Coco looked happy at her words, its eyes were downcast on seeing the silver-haired girl. I felt sorry for that infant. However, I was still in danger, as she also stared at me with a predator’s smile.

However, the man seemed to have a reason, and everything he said was to protect her.

It meant that this had some meaning, and while the silver-haired girl could take care of everything, it was better to be prepared.

**

All right, this was the end. I wanted the old man next door to come back, but this was the best I could do. While I wanted the cat to talk, using the Metal Bat on him may make him run away, but I could use her on the dragon. While I knew that it was an infant, the Metal Bat had worked wonders before.

While I did feel sorry, the Metal Bat did not cause damage, only pain.

“Well, now’s the time to get prepared.”

I had woken up after my daughter’s tears, as I had spent most of my life in strange conditions. Even if she were a demon, I could manage the situation if necessary.

“So, now…”

I used a heavy pickaxe with both hands and knocked on the door, and the underground hole became larger. When one wanted to escape, one started by making an escape route.

#4 Other Stories: An old man’s story

It was not easy to find dwarves and even more difficult to ask them to create weapons. While I went to them with a lot of money, they were artisans. Most of the weapons they sold were failures or made for practice, and while they were adequate, I wanted the best sword there is.

However, dwarves did not trust humans.

“You did not go yet?”

The blacksmith of the Red Hammer Clan looked and me as he spoke.

“I will not do so until I receive what I had come for.”

“Everyone says that, but no one had gotten our weapons until now. So waiting will not help.”

He was saying the truth, as it had already been two months. I had been waiting like an object all that while when an elder came up to me.

“Why do you want such a weapon? Can’t you just rely on your swordsmanship?”

“I just want a weapon that suits my skills.”

“You’re skilled?”

“Yes.”

“Then why wait like this? Humans make a good one every once in a while.”

I closed my eyes, as I did know that. However, I wanted an amazing weapon like Merln’s and compare myself before and after. I told him what happened with Merln, and he asked me what the name of the weapon was in a shaking voice.

“I only know that it had been made by a dwarf.”

“How did you feel?”

“I wanted death, but it seemed to go farther away.”

“Was that weapon silver?”

“Yes.”

He then held both my hands with his shaking ones.

“We are comrades.”

“Yes?”

“We have suffered from the same weapon!”

He told me his story with tears. He told me that the Metal Bat had been made ten years ago by an opposing clan who thought weapons were not for a war, unlike the Red Hammer Clan.

“However, everything changed after being hit with that weapon. What I had made were mere fakes. I thought I wanted to just die, and then realized that killing with a single blow was mercy.”

He came back with a red longsword and held it in front of me.

“This is the best weapon our clan has. Will you accept it?”

I had come for this and was about to say yes…

“Will you go against that silver weapon?”

I hesitated, and he understood me.

“Would that be difficult?”

However, after much thinking, I came back with the sword after a week.