Botsuraku Youtei Nanode Kajishokunin wo Mezasu

Blacksmith Volume 2 Chapter 18

After returning to my room, I immediately opened the seal on the envelope and took a look at the paper inside.

This was the report that was described on the paper:

Perpetrators:

Leader: Maury Gapp

Followers: Tomilu Gain, Ryan Christopher

Details of Event:

Around 16:00 the three mentioned above had trespassed into the greenhouse.

After being caught by Toto Gapp, a dispute broke out inside.

Maury was then seen exiting the building holding something that looked like a plant.

The fields were then vandalised by the three, fleeing the scene after.

Toto Gapp then proceeded to intercept them, but they were too fast and got away.

Tomilu, and Ryan have both been confirmed to not have a direct relationship with Toto.

Toto is confirmed to be part from the branch family of Maury’s noble line. Toto was unilaterally targeted because of this relationship.

That is all, at the time this report was created.

I will ask for the usual remuneration for payment.

Before that though, I will request something to investigate the relationship between Eliza Deauville and Kururi Helan, of course, this will only be a joke.

Thank you for your payment.

Hey! What the hell’s with that end?!

Bastard!

Even so, this is a surprise. I didn’t know he had this kind of information network.

Well, this is a good thing if you disregard the end. Putting aside my complaints, this really is a great report.

If I had to describe my feelings after reading the report in one word.

It would be ‘anger’.

Judging by the contents, this is obviously an attack on Toto.

Moreover, this is just another way for him to exploit his position as part of the head family.

He didn’t even fight Toto one-on-one. There’s no way the Toto who doesn’t exercise much would be able to fend off three people.

Toto even gave chase afterwards and became tattered because of it.

Somehow, I see Toto’s pain in the palm of my hand.

It’s frustrating.

This report is really concise and easy to understand though, I think I might ask him again if I need more info on something.

Now who should I show this too…

No, that’s not enough for what they did.

I can’t forgive them! I’m going to get revenge on the three of them for sure!

They’re the reason why Toto couldn’t open up to us. It wasn’t his fault! The impact of what could happen between their families would be too severe. It was smart of him to give up the pursuit.

Well, when it gets down to it, this means that I can’t afford to just fight them directly. My relationship with Toto is already known, so that means if I do anything, it’ll automatically be linked back to Toto.

I can’t just stay silent and let things be though, I have no intention to forgive them for what they’ve done.

They might decide to continue their harassment if I leave them alone.

I need to take action!

After thinking about it for a while, I couldn’t think of any good ideas.

No matter what I do, it would always end up with them linking it back to Toto.

I don’t think about these things very often after all, I’m a pacifist.

How pathetic, I can’t even think of one way to take revenge for a friend.

I went to sleep that day thinking this over.

Falling asleep was worse, it made me recall a bunch of things.

I ended up having a nightmare that night.

Once morning came, after checking myself in the mirror I realized I was deathly pale.

That dream I say last night was awful, it gave me chills just remembering it. It would give goosebumps to someone on a warm day.

Its definitely a dream I don’t want to see again.

…it was a good idea though, for a nightmare.

Reflected in the mirror was my face breaking out into a grin. It might’ve been a nightmare, but it was a good dream,

“Alright.”

Let’s try this out.

As the day went by, I set out to look for Maury Gapp in the classrooms.

It took a while, but eventually I was told that he was a student from the D-class.

I immediately went to confirm this, and there he was!

A guy with a cleft chin and flowing blond hair. That’s definitely Maury, no doubt about it.

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What a damnable-looking face. I wanted to punch it just by looking at it.

No, wait… calm down Kururi. This and that are separate matters, I need to be calm.

Once school finished, I hurriedly ran to Class D to track down Maury.

In the end, I found him leaving with his two-person entourage out of the classroom.

I then proceeded to follow them, doing my best to be sneaky.

Eventually arriving at a deserted corner of the school building.

This is their usual hangout spot, you’ll see them gather here from time to time.

Apparently it’s also the place where they kept the goods they stole from Toto, the face pack plant was there, completely withered. There’s no way that it could be used now.

“Wasn’t the face that Toto made yesterday absolutely hilarious? He was crying so desperately for us to give this back, what a fool.” Maury said so as his entourage began to laugh.

‘What a humble guy’ I thought sarcastically.

“Whatever the case, this plant seems to have a great monetary worth to it! We’ll make a killing once it grows up!”

“Let’s do it, it’s already ours isn’t it?”

“Yeah, hahaha~”

Well not anymore.

I was clenching my teeth in response to the laughing of the trio.

Using transformation magic, I took on the appearance of one of the radish magic organisms.

A human-sized one.

Complete with a gross old-man’s face, and short unnatural limbs.

This is probably the biggest shame in my life, taking on such a grotesque appearance.

Why would I do such a thing you ask? Well, this is what happened to me in my dream last night.

I was attacked by a giant radish that wanted to get revenge on me for my herbicide massacre.

It was horrible, no matter how I begged forgiveness it continued to beat on me in revenge.

I shudder just by thinking about it.

Well, it did give me this idea on how to humiliate these guys.

“U~i, are you having fun?”

“W-what the hell are you?!”

The trio jumped up in surprise to my sudden appearance.

There is no such thing as mercy in my vocabulary right now, I’m going to give these guys hell.

“U~i, this is divine punishment for destroying all those herbs the other day.”

“How stupid, I don’t remember doing anything like that.”

One of the grunts threw those words at me, he probably doesn’t believe that this fairy-tale like situation is actually happening right now.

Well, it’s time for them to learn of their mistake.

It’s time to resort to violence!

I slammed my fist into the Maury’s face, blowing him away.

The grunts just stood there in shock, amazed at the powerful blow to the jaw I just dished out.

Maury grumbled “Get him…” as he tried to get up.

I wasn’t going to just let them attack me though, so I threw another punch into the grunt’s nose as I turned around.

“Ahhhh!!!”

That person fell while letting out a heartbreaking sound.

Grunt #2 wasn’t any harder to beat.

While I was distracted though, Maury took this opportunity and jumped me from behind.

I was somehow inverted mid-fall and was completely pinned down.

He rode on top of my belly, and began throwing punches at my face over and over again.

“Die! Die! Die! Die!” With every fist he threw down more verbal abuse. I was able to hold on for a little while, but at this rate…

This is bad, I won’t be able to keep the transformation up!

I need to change the situation!

Parrying one of the fists he swung down, I grabbed at it and twisted it with all my might.

“Owowow, that hurts!”

Maury’s face twisted in pain, while I pushed him off me and escaped.

As a result, I was somehow able to escape that bad situation there.

I hope you enjoyed beating because now…

It’s my turn.

“Dammit, just die already!”

To the me who had started to fight back again, Maury whipped out his hand and release flame magic.

Magic in a hand-to-hand fight is taboo!! Is what I thought, but I guess in his point of view he’s being attacked by a monster rather than another person. So I guess it’s more like self-defense then.

Flame magic caught onto the grass growing on my head.

“Hothothothothot! Uwawawawawawawawa~!”

I struggled to put it out, but I couldn’t reach it because of my short arms.

Realizing the this struggle was useless, I put it out by using a spell.

My human figure than appeared with a ‘Poof!’

“You’re… Kururi Helan! Haha, did you come to take revenge for a loser like Toto? Hahaha!”

Oops, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Also it seems like they know about my relationship with Toto.

“Toto didn’t ask me to do this.”

“Do you think we’re stupid? We know all about your friendship, so after beating you up, we’ll strangle him just to the point before he croaks, to make sure he never messes with us again.”

“He really is uninvolved this time! This was all my idea!”

“Lies! As if we could believe that.”

“I’ll apologise for this, so beat me up all you want. Just leave Toto alone!”

“Oh? What a wonderful friendship, then I guess we’ll just have beat you up too!”

Smiling as they said that. I was suddenly hit with something at the back of my head, something that let out a sharp noise.

This is the first time I’ve ever felt this way. My fists were clenched and trembling at this feeling.

Maury sent a kick into my stomach and I went flying.

A dull sound cracked out when I fell. I think I might’ve just broken something.

This isn’t good though, I’m not sure how much of this I’ll be able to take.

“How about a deal then? We don’t really want to hurt you, but at the same time, we can’t just let this matter go as if it was nothing, right? Swear on your name as Kururi Helan. Handover Toto so he can get his punishment for this, punishment for biting the main house that has taken care of him all this time, and punishment for daring to be related to me in the first place!”

“Go to hell.”

I retorted with a whisper at the last moment, but they didn’t really like that response.

The three of them started to surround me, their fists clenched and ready to be swung.

Sorry Toto…

My plan was too shallow, I ended up involving you even though you tried to stay out of it so badly. I have no choice but to do this now, no matter how shameless it is.

“I’m sorry.”

I gently let out those words before activating my magic.

* * *

That day I was called to the teacher’s office.

I was reported for carrying out violence.

Needless to say, I was the one punished for starting it.

There was no excuse, so I just took whatever they threw at me head on.

I was to be locked up in the punishment room for three days because of this.

They call it a room, but it’s more of a cell really.

With that said, being locked up in it for three days to encourage reflection isn’t the worst punishment they could’ve given me.

Now I have three days to relax.

After entering the punishment room, I have all the time to think in the world about whether my actions were right or not.

I don’t think I was in the wrong, but that’s useless now. Might as well think about something else.

After school, Toto ended up paying me a visit.

“I heard about it. You got into a fight with Maury, didn’t you?”

I didn’t answer Toto’s question. I couldn’t even look at him.

“To recklessly start a fight with three people like that, you really are brave, you know that?”

“…sorry.”

“Please don’t blame yourself, I’m actually really grateful for what you did.”

I raised my head to look at Toto, completely surprised by his words.

“You thought I’d be angry? At first I was surprised yeah, but you know I’m not stupid enough to get angry at a friend who started a fight thinking about my well-being.”

“…but now you’re going be involved with a bunch of annoying stuff, right?”

“I’m not going to die from something like that though. Certainly, its going to be hard in my territory for a little while, but this is much better than before. My mood has been clearer than its ever been before, and I’m really glad about that.”

Toto said so while showing me a rare refreshing smile.

We talked for a bit before he had to leave.

Now that he was gone, I had nothing else to do, so I started thinking again.

He was like that because… I guess it’d be better if I didn’t answer this now.

I don’t really want to think right now.

That’s good, what I did wasn’t useless afterall.

Soon it’ll be seven, meaning it’s almost time for my evening rice.

It’s a little regrettable that I only get rice for dinner, but this is a punishment after all.

As I thought that, the door to the room had opened. Alright, it’s time for the rice!

“I passed the interview, so they allowed me to deliver a meal.”

“Eliza?!”

The person who entered while carrying a meal was Eliza.

Why?! I wasn’t just anxious about the meal she had, but about Eliza herself.

A meal? What? Why is Eliza here?

Maybe because it’s been awhile since the last time I ate, but I was more focused on the food she was holding there rather than herself.

I was that hungry.

“Eliza, why are you-”

“Its because I thought that you’d be bored in this place. Here, I brought my favourite book for you to read, I know you’ll enjoy it.”

“Oh, thanks. ‘The Flower Prince’ huh? …wait, isn’t this a fairy tale?”

“It is, but the contents of it are surprisingly dark.”

“Thanks anyway, it really is boring here, you know? So this will really help.”

“Well, I thought you might need it.”

Eliza let out a small giggle.

My impression of Eliza has completely changed from the calm image I had of her from before.

At first you would think she’s quite the cold person just by her looks, but if you actually got to know her, you would find that she’s actually quite the softy.

Looking at her pretty face that was happily smiling, my heart went and skipped a beat.

“Kururi, I’ve come to visit you.”

At that moment, as if to break that good atmosphere we had, came in Iris with her usual smile.

“Ah.”

Immediately aware of Eliza’s presence, Iris’s expression had hardened.

“S-sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“No, its nothing. I’m actually really glad you came.”

“Really? Well pardon my intrusion then.”

She entered while saying so and sat down next to Eliza.

“So Eliza-san came here as well… I believe this is the first time we’ve actually talked face-to-face, I’m Iris, but you already knew that right?”

Iris’ slightly cold voice made the atmosphere even more uncomfortable as it was.

“Well, I had an idea.”

While Eliza’s sharp response just made it worse.

…I wonder what’s this unpleasant feeling that’s building up right now?

“Anyways, because you didn’t come to class today, I brought a copy of my notes for you.”

“Your notes?! Thanks!! I was a bit worried about missing classes with the exams so close, but I should be able to survive with this, thank you!”

“Don’t worry about it, I knew that you would want these.”

“You sure are attentive Iris, you’ll surely become a great bride someday.”

She responded with a “I don’t really know about that…” as she blushed while fiddling with her hair.

Iris seemed to be really happy from my praise.

“It’s a bit late, but why don’t you eat your meal now?”

Eliza asked me.

“I’ll do that later, I can’t just eat alone while you two are here. Maybe I’ll just study a bit for now.”

“As in, you’re going to start using those notes?”

Ugh, what am I supposed to say in this situation?!

“I always read a bit before I go to bed, so I don’t see why I should stop now. Well, I’m also looking forward to reading ‘The Flower Prince’ book you gave me as well.”

“Is that so?”

Eliza’s mood seems to have lightened up just now.

“Kururi… you got into a fight today, right? I heard it from Rail, I know that you did it while thinking about Toto, so I know that you weren’t in the wrong! No, after I heard about it, I thought you were really cool at that moment, I really did!”

Iris suddenly cut into the conversation, and started talking about today’s events.

Well, Iris was also angry about what happened to Toto. Contrary to my expectations, she actually seems happy with what I did.

“I can’t really say that was the best thing for me to do though. I ended up being a bother to Toto. After all, if I did nothing then he wouldn’t have gotten caught up into this family feud any further.”

“Of course you did the right thing! I believe you did!”

Now Eliza’s cutting into the conversation. Why?

“I also thought you were cool…”

She said with a low voice I could barely hear. I wonder why she’s so tense right now?

“You definitely did the right thing Kururi, I believe in you.”

Eliza said so with her eyes closed.

“I said I believed in you first…”

Iris followed up while looking away.

“Yeah uh, thanks.”

To this painful air that seemed to flow around them, I was somehow able to squeeze out a response.

“Kururi, we’re here.”

“Huh? Why’s it so quiet?”

Vaine and Crossy suddenly entered as well.

It looks like they’ve noticed the weird atmosphere here too.

Well, I guess now that they’re here things will get better, right?