Chen Nian’s POV

Even though I was the person who pulled the sneak attack, I have to admit that it was a shitty move on my part.

‘Oi, oi, how did you block the damn move that I made? Dying already, (TN: original 要死要死, if anyone knows a more appropriate translation) my skills must be damn rusty.’

‘Don’t worry, my skills are also real f*cking rusty.’ They were. I had bee in the army a full seven years ago, after serving for only one year after university. Also, I hadn’t been exercising since I quit, so I had to use a five times temp.Boost on my STR and DEF to even barely defend against the attacks.

‘What’s the matter? Cannot answer? Secret method? What kind of bullshit thing do you keep hidden under your sleeve? First the explosion and then the dual wielding and that weird spear-javelin-sword that you have? How the hell does it even teleport into your han—’ Edward complained as I hesitated.

‘Aiyah, just shut up already. I have no obligation to answer all of your questions.’

As Edward pouted, he suddenly lit up as if he found some bargaining chip.

‘As your father-in-law, you should just tell me. What’s the harm, it’s not like I will ever use that data to harm you or anything.’

Thomas fell of his chair.

‘Ok I’ll tell you. The sword has an ability to teleport to my hand, but only when it has hit something. If I had teleported it when my hand was a bit closer to your neck, it would have shattered your brain stem. Done?’ I sighed, both in exasperation and in admiration, since I made it myself.

‘Ahahaha, so I was checkmated the moment I came into close combat fighting. That was ingenious planning from you. But then, since it is your weapon’s ability, it doesn’t count as your ability.’

‘B-but I crafted it.’

‘You did?’

He looked at Thomas, who I forgot was even there. He nodded.

‘I told you already. I said that he created that weird triangular sword, so I wanted to laugh at him.

‘But even if it is technically his ability, are you sure that you can accept your defeat?’

‘Ahahaha, it’s my loss. I was caught up with the battle, so I didn’t notice the swords, so it’s my loss.’ Edward said, laughing like a deranged bastard who was still drunk on the fight.

‘You’s better get that leg treated.’ Thomas complained.

I then remembered the injury that I had caused.

‘Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…’

‘No problem, hahahaha. Now, I’ll go to the doctors’.’ Edward said, standing up with a long walking stick. ‘Oh yeah, Thomas, can you help repair everything damaged in that spar? For a bulk discount?’

After Thomas agreed while complaining to high heaven, Edward emitted a terrifying amount of killing intent towards me. The room’s gravity suddenly felt a hundred times stronger. I could barely breathe with all of the pressure I was feeling. Even the system responded to it.

[System warning

A huge amount of killing intent has been detected. Automatically activating temp.Boost for all stats.]

Who was Edward to emit such dense killing aura? I felt the 2x everything flow into me. Refusing to let myself to be defeated by that f*cker Edward, I straightened my back and stared at him in the eye. At that moment, the pressure I felt increased twofold.

[System warning

A tremendous amount of killing intent has been detected. Automatically compounding temp.Boost for all stats]

I felt the 2x everything flowing into me, resulting in a total multiplication of 4x. I nearly got down to my knees, but I forcefully pushed my body to get up again. As Edward smirked at me, I unfolded my middle finger.

At that moment, all of the pressure released. I did not expect it to release so suddenly, resulting in my face being stuck in the ceiling.

‘Ahahaha! It won’t be so easy next time.’ Edward laughed like an ass, pulling me down, ‘Thomas, add this to the tab.’

Why is he asking a weaponsmith to fix the roof of a building anyways?

Chapter 17: Invite

After that somewhat embarrassing incident with the killing intent, I went back to the weaponsmith’s with owner. I decided to ask him the questions that I had been curious about.

‘Why did he ask you to fix the roof? Who is Edward really? Aren’t you curious about the father-in-law part?’

‘This old man is not only a weaponsmith, but a blacksmith, a carpenter, a locksmith, and a mason.

‘—wait, did you not know about Edward’s identity? The former fourth ranked adventurer? Motherf*cking dumbass. What kind of son-in-law are you? The hell? Go boil your head in the bottle of beer that they sell in the tavern. Maybe then you can remember clearly with your decoration of a h— sorry. You see, I really admire him.

‘Of course I’m curious about the fuck happened with you and Mary. I wonder how the hell such a stinky bastard like you was able to snatch up such a beauty. Seriously, the world must have turned upside down for such an ugly bastard like you to get someone like her.’ Owner ridiculed with a grin on his face.

‘Ohhh, so you like her, huh? Too bad you’re 30 years too late. Oh, yeah, even if you are thirty years younger, she’s already taken.’

‘Heh, cheeky bastard. I’m married.’ He parried my ridicule with two words.

* * *

I went back to the spare anvil at that shop, unsure of what to create. I couldn’t exactly create anything other than weapons, so I don’t know what to create now that I had all the weapons that I needed. At that moment, a female voice rang out from the door.

‘Is Chen Nian here?’ It spoke in a demanding tone.

Did I know any girl other than Mary? Based on the voice’s pitch, it was likely a girl around 17 or 18. Nope. The only girl I knew of that age range was Mary. Well, it was probably some small thing, so owner can probably handle it for me.

‘Oi, you smelly bastard, already cheating on Mary? She’s asking you to join her for something.’

Why would anyone care about me, a useless bum who’s a weaponsmith?

As I walked up to the counter, I saw a beautiful girl with hair down to her back. Her face was beautiful, like a face carved out of white jade. She was wearing a chestplate armour and some chainmail. Her breasts were of average size, not too big, not too small.

‘Sorry, I’m not officially working at this shop, so I can’t help you create a weapon. Although you can order it privat—’

‘No, I’m not here for your weapons, I’m here for you.’ She said, pointing her finger at me.

The f*ck was she talking about? I’m not anything special. I hadn’t done anything to attract that… much… attention, right? My mind flashed back to the explosion, and the engagement, and my duel with Edward, and— I guess I could have attracted a lot of attention.

‘Let me introduce myself. I’m Elise, the hero fighting the devil lord. I want you to help me kill the devil lo—’

‘No.’

* * *

‘What? I haven’t finished talking ye—’

‘No means no.’

I didn’t want to be tied up in this devil lord business. The game’s campaign is based on someone from a different world killing the devil lord. Clichéd, I know, but there is a reason why this exact plot, or deviations of it, are so popular.

After all, if this world is about to get destroyed, I can just step up when I am threatened. Such a naïve and selfish thought. I wish that my reason was as simple as that.

Actually, doing that just sounds boring. I’d already seen all of the difficulties that they encountered, so there will be nothing new, assuming that no timeline alterations happened. Even if they did happen, it would be too dangerous for my liking. Knowing the standard character stereotype (TN: basically tsundere, without the dere part. For now(￣∇￣))— yup, she’s already clenching her fists.

‘Why? Why do you not want to join me? Geez, the fate of your world is on the balance!’

Time to use that selfish reason as an excuse.

‘Well, it’s not my business yet.’

‘Seriously? I’m not even from this world, but I still care more about it than you.’

‘Well I’m not fr—’ I stopped myself from saying more. Sh*t, she was already looking suspicious.

‘A-anyways, I will contact you next time. Please think it over carefully.’ She said, before turning around and leaving. I just walked to the back of the store. Owner was sitting behind a stand, listening to what I said, with a shocked expression stuck to his face.

Honestly, it was as expected, with Owner’s mischievous personality and all. I just ignored him and went back to thinking up an idea.

‘Weh! Shouldn’t you be angry at me for listening in?’

‘Not really, it wasn’t a very secretive conversation.’

Owner looked even more incredulous when he heard my reply.

The hero is someone who was looked up to by all people in this world. If word gets out that I had refused to help her, they would think that I was ‘selfish’ and ‘a terrible person’. How could a conversation that could result in such an outcome not be a secret?

However, it seems that owner believes that I have a reason not to participate in such an adventure, since he wasn’t looking at me with disgust.

‘Why would you decline such an invite?’ He asked in a rarely seen serious manner.

‘Well, it sounds boring.’ I stated the true reason.

‘Understandable. Have a nice day.’ He said, before, to my confusion, guffawing. Maybe he would have done the same?

I sat back down at the anvil, wondering what else I could make.