It’s the day of the Hobgoblin subjugation.
We ended up going over to old man Gallus’ smithy in order to receive the sheath we ordered.
「Hey, I’ve been waiting. Come and take a look!」
『Ooh, this is my sheath, huh!』
Handed over from old man Gallus was a stylish black leather scabbard. It’s a bit plain, but because the tailoring is good it doesn’t look too shabby.
「Nn, Teacher.」
『Mhm. Then, right away……』
I’m excitedly sheathed into the scabbard as Fran raises the scabbard up to just below my eye-level.
*supo*
『Oーh……』
It’s very calming. It’s roughly the same feeling I got when I fit into the pedestal. Rather, it might have been that the pedestal was designed to be sheath-like to give me peace of mind.
『Aーhh……』
I let out a voice as if I’m in paradise — the kind that one would let out when they take a dip in a hot bath. This really is good… I didn’t know that swords would have such a strong desire to be sheathed, even though I am one.
Moreover, thanks to the skill of old man Gallus it’s a perfect fit. It’s like I’m tucked into my own personal futon, giving me peace of mind. If it’s like this, then I want to be in a sheath all the time… It’s just that relaxing.
『Old man Gallus. You’re the best. Seriously.』
「Gahaha! It’s good that you like it!」
「Teacher, happy.」
『Yeah, this is a great sheath~』
「It’s not just a regular sheath, you know?」
Gallus had an impish smile on his face as he took the sheath in his hand.
「Rather than just making some dull old scabbard, I installed a couple of tricks, you see.」
『What?! Is that true, Lon**rk[1]?!』
「Lon**rk? Who’s that?」
『Ah, excuse me. I was a bit too excited.』
Still, there’re tricks in the sheath? Looking at it, I don’t see anything…
「See these metal fittings here?」
「Mhm.」
「Well, when you remove them like this –」
*paka*
「Opens lengthwise.」
「Ou. Even without using the young miss’ hands, you’ll easily be able to get out of the sheath by using Telekinesis.」
『Hmm? That’s pretty good. It’d also make it easy to get back into the sheath.』
Controlling the metal fittings using Telekinesis, moving in and out of the sheath can be accomplished in no time.
「Convenient.」
「Right? It was a bit tough to find a good way to implement it while keeping its strength, you know?」
Even though he’s a Blacksmith, his leatherworking is first class. As expected from someone with Blacksmithing at the highest level possible.
『Then, may I gratefully accept?』
「Ou. Go for it.」
「Nn.」
Now to go to the meeting place. It seems that everyone who’ll be participating in the subjugation will be gathered in front of the gate. Because the Goblins haven’t started pouring out of the Dungeon just yet, it seems like it’ll be possible to exterminate them without causing any damage to the surroundings.
『I wonder how much damage we’ll be able to do with this many Adventurers…』
There’re about 50 people gathered.
「Not very strong.」
『Donna is the strongest, it seems.』
Donna is Rank C, and is famous as an instructor who trains beginners. There’re other Adventurers of Rank C gathered, but there didn’t seem to be any objections with Donna being the leader.
「Oi, what’s a child doing here?!」
For Fran, however, there seems to be an objection. Well, to a group of Adventurers with their tension rising by the second, having a young girl mix in would undoubtedly thin out the energy in the air, so of course there would be fellows who become irritated.
「What’re you even doing, carrying a sword around like that?」
The source of the voice in this case is — Aren’t you a child as well?! Well, that’s what I’m led to believe judging by the slender youth’s appearance. He’s wearing tidy, fully intact armor, so there’s a clear air of inexperience.
Because G Rank Adventurers shouldn’t be able to participate, he should be F Rank or above…… But he has the appearance of someone who wouldn’t even be able to beat a Goblin. His Status is a little higher than a Goblin’s, but it’s only a slight difference.
Maybe, rather than ranking up through combat, he did things like delivery quests and such, and was allowed to Rank up after doing nothing but baggage-carrying requests. With Sword Arts Lv1, he’s by far the weakest Adventurer I’ve seen so far. To call upon even people like this… There really must not be enough people.
「Exterminating Goblins.」
「Hey, this is an important fight to defend Aressa. Children like you will only get in the way! Only Adventurers with ranks above F can participate anyways, so kids should just go home!」
He makes an unpleasant face as he says so. In response: Fran, who works at her own pace, casually ignores the young man and simply stands absentmindedly.
「Hey, did you hear me?」
「 ? 」
「Tsk. Come on, this isn’t a playground for children. Go play Adventurer over there.」
Most likely, this young man is feeling anxious about the upcoming fight against the Hobgoblins. Well, there statuses will be far superior to his, no doubt. And so, after getting all worked up, his mind is in a strange place. Because of thi