Suddenly, in front of me, Anette presented a golden spear that was split in half.
It took the form of a trident with one large blade and two smaller blades on each side.
I knew what this spear was.
Ding ding!
“It’s the Thunder Spear Aspetra…!”
This meant I had a rough idea of what was happening now.
Uh-oh… wait, but isn’t the Aspetra event supposed to be a mystery event?
Here’s the gist of the story:
Anette, the president of the Student Council, comes from a family in the House of Arnoira.
A relic of a deity, the Thunder Spear, has been damaged.
Then, based on someone’s testimony that Emily visited the Student Council Room, she gets tangled up in the incident.
The event revolves around finding the culprit who broke the spear to prove her innocence.
That’s the general flow of the incident I remembered.
But above all, the real culprit is waving the broken spear right in my face….
The outcomes of the event can vary.
In the end, since it’s about proving Emily’s innocence, the player will find evidence and point to someone as the culprit.
Depending on the validity of the evidence presented, the identified character becomes the culprit and gets punished.
And in one of the endings, it’s revealed that the true culprit is none other than Anette Nell Arnoira herself, standing right in front of me.
“Um… are you talking about this…?”
“Yeah, is there any other weapon besides this spear?”
Her arrogant expression made it feel like she was looking down on me even though we were facing each other.
At least, I roughly understood the situation.
The true culprit of the spear damage — Anette Nell Arnoira.
In the game, she caused the incident to shift the blame for the spear she broke onto someone else.
But for some reason, now she’s choosing not to shift the blame to others.
She wants to entrust the repairs to me.
“Why are you asking me for this?”
This was the biggest question.
Why was she opting to repair it instead of pushing the responsibility onto someone else like in the game?
And why me?
I, Ken Feinstein, a player who’s done multiple playthroughs, was learning only now that I had crafting skills.
There’s no way something like this would be entrusted to a mere extra character…
“Hmph, it’s nothing special. I just happened to watch Siegfried’s tournament yesterday.”
Suddenly, an unexpected name popped up.
Siegfried?
“I heard it from the winner’s comment. Hehe, it must be you, right? The one who made that demon sword.”
“…Demon sword?”
It’s probably about the black sword I made for Siegfried.
That sword shouldn’t even be called a demon sword to begin with.
More importantly…
I recalled Siegfried’s victory speech from the day before.
……
“I’d like to thank my junior from Epiris Academy, Ken Feinstein, for creating this sword and for my victory in this tournament.”
Damn it! So that’s why!
All my questions about how the student council president knew me were answered.
“That demon sword wasn’t ordinary, I can tell. If you could make something like that, you could fix this spear too.”
“……”
Repairing weapons…
I’ve never done that before.
Honestly, should I just pass and send her away?
But that wouldn’t be a possibility….
From the moment she entrusted it to me rather than harming other craftsmen in the city, she had no other option.
She even went as far as bringing me here against my will.
She picked me, an academy student, and not some crafting NPC for repairs.
“I’ll give you whatever reward you want. How long will it take?”
She must secretly want this weapon fixed quickly.
“…U-uh, I’m not sure that’s possible on such short notice.”
Even in the game, she probably didn’t want to take full responsibility for pushing it onto someone else.
If word got out that she had entrusted the repairs, it would spread like wildfire.
Then it would reach the head of the Arnoira family through the academy.
So, it makes sense to ensconce her secrets with an academy student that she could manipulate easily, rather than a general NPC.
This was a demand I couldn’t refuse.
“…Can you give me about three days?”
“I’ll give you two. Make it happen.”
Then why did you even ask?
This was a troublesome situation.
Despite her status as the student council president, the Arnoira family is as prestigious as the Martinez family in the royal kingdom.
The daughter of such a family could do anything to me if she set her mind to it.
……Wait a second.
Thinking back, this could be an opportunity!
I calmed my pounding heart with a sudden realization.
I leaned back and sipped my tea leisurely, then looked back at her.
“Alright, I’ll repair it within two days.”
Anette smiled, clearly pleased that I accepted her request without a fuss.
“Fufufu, you’re easy to deal with. So, how much do you want for the reward? I’m not the type to be stingy.”
Beneath her calm exterior, she was probably feeling anxious about the spear damage right now.
Accepting a two-day timeframe must have brought her some relief.
If so, let’s gladly take her outrageous conditions.
I won’t turn down the reward.
“This is what I want.”
I raised my finger and pointed at her.
“……What?”
Anette stared blankly at my finger.
After pondering momentarily on what I meant, she soon grinned deviously and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Fufufu, so you’re more lustful than you appear. You want my virginity, huh?”
“No! I meant the necklace around your neck?!”
Why would I ever ask for that, am I out of my mind?!
Flustered by Anette’s sudden comment, I couldn’t help but raise my voice with excitement.
But Anette reacted more sensitively to the raised pitch than to the content itself.
“Y-YOU mean THIS? You idiot, do you know what kind of item this is?!”
Of course, it’s more reasonable than asking for your virginity, right?
“I know it’s the Moonlight Necklace blessed by the goddess, directly bestowed upon the head of the Arnoira family.”
“Then you should know how precious this item is…”
Anette glared at me with fire in her eyes.
But she misunderstands.
The one feeling anxious here isn’t me.
“Well then, you’ll need to make a choice. You can either take responsibility for the necklace’s loss or face punishment for the broken spear.”
“Y-You! How far do you know….”
She must be taken aback.
No one else should know that she’s responsible for breaking the spear, but now a regular student she just met mentioned it.
But, she couldn’t harm me or refuse my request.
The Arnoira family is the household of a priest.
The Moonlight Necklace isn’t the only one of its kind in existence.
In due time, the blessings will return, and they will create a new necklace.
The fact that she received it from the head is important, but the necklace itself doesn’t compare to this spear.
The scales are definitely tipped in my favor.
Anette, who knows this better than anyone, suddenly broke her composed demeanor and fell deep in thought.
“…Ugh.”
Resigned to the unavoidable reality, Anette glared at me again.
“Fine, I’ll give you this necklace.”
Just as I expected, Anette made her decision.
“…But there’s a condition.”
“A condition…?”
Oh, I didn’t see that coming.
She reached out her hand towards me.
With her fingers raised were her index and middle fingers.
This meant two conditions.
“One, nobody must know about this spear.”
Of course, one condition was a confidentiality clause.
That’s a valid request since she’s asking for repairs to hide the damage.
Now, about the important last condition.
She raised her index finger and said,
“Two,… the repair must result in a perfect restoration.”
“……Huh?”
She didn’t wait for my response and crossed her arms, sipping her tea again.
Her sharp gaze locked onto me.
It was clear she wouldn’t hand over what I wanted unless I agreed to her conditions.
……Perfect restoration?
What she probably meant was just to patch up the spear enough that it wouldn’t be noticed.
Repair it to the extent that the fact it was broken could be hidden.
However, she offered me a better result than that.
A perfectly restored spear to the point that no one would ever suspect it had been broken.
What should I do…
I had only two days left.
In that time, I had to raise my skill level enough to repair the spear.
Of course, I could forfeit the necklace and accept monetary compensation instead.
But right now, that necklace was essential for me.
If I had that, it could serve as a substitute for the Goddess’ Pendant.
That would be the item for breaking Raphne’s curse.
It’s a substitute necessary for creating the Goddess’ Pendant.
I realized something recently while crafting items.
There’s a difference between reality and the game.
For example, regarding the combination of black metal and absorption stones.
In the original game, only armor can be crafted from that combination.
But here in reality, I transformed that into a sword.
The same goes for Mary’s raincoat.
There isn’t a crafting method using spirit stones for clothing in the game.
So, if the Goddess’ Pendant shares a similar property, could I perhaps create a similar item using different materials?
A light bulb went off in my head; that’s how I came to think of the Moonlight Necklace.
The Moonlight Necklace was a specially made necklace blessed by the goddess, crafted by the House of Arnoira, the family of the vice-mayor of the Kingdom of Lilias.
Its nature resembles that of the Goddess’ Pendant, which is a national treasure of the kingdom made with blessings from the goddess.
If so, it would be worth a try.
“…In that case, could I ask for one day’s grace?”
I bowed my head and made my request to Raphne.
“…Huh? W-What do you mean?”
Raphne seemed flustered by my response.
But I had no choice.
I had only two days to increase my repair skills through grinding and fix the spear.
To cover for the lack of time…
“You mean to sleep over?”
I needed to raise my proficiency through a sleepless night.
Even though Raphne usually insisted I stay longer, I worried she might take offense at my sudden request.
But after all, she’s a girl, so how would she feel if a guy asked to sleep over?
“Wow! Really? You’re actually going to sleep over? Wow!”
“Uh? Is that okay?”
“Yeah, yeah! Totally fine! You can sleep over as much as you want!”
Thankfully, Raphne was delighted and grabbed my hand.
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