Chapter 52: Takemikazuchi Familia's Blacksmith Request
After leaving the Hephaestus Familia, Shirou returned to the base of the Hestia Familia. The location of the base hadn't changed—it was still the basement of a ruined church—but the number of people there had increased by one compared to before.
"Welcome back, Lord Shirou!" As soon as Shirou returned to the base, Lili ran out happily to greet him. Similarly, Hestia and Bell were already waiting for him inside.
Although Lili had previously gone to Loki to face judgment, most of her offenses were just petty theft.
The real crimes were largely committed by other members of the Soma Familia.
So, when the divine assembly conducted the judgment, the gods presiding over it didn't pay much attention to her.
They merely asked her to hand over all her possessions as bail and warned her not to commit any more crimes. With that, she was released.
In contrast, the rest of the Soma Familia, including the mastermind Zanis, were harshly judged in court. Zanis himself was sentenced to life imprisonment and thrown into Orario's prison. This was proof that Orario did, in fact, uphold a basic legal system—even though it often seemed ineffective, once invoked, it was carried out strictly.
After losing all her possessions but regaining her freedom, Lili decisively sought out the god Soma and expressed her desire to leave the Familia. Although she was Soma's last remaining follower not imprisoned, Soma still agreed to let her go and revoked her Falna.
Lili then rushed to Hestia, pleading with all her might, and ultimately gained Hestia's approval. Now, Lili had officially become a supporter of the Hestia Familia, and her daily work involved teaming up with Bell to explore the dungeon.
Thanks to her excellent supporter skills, Bell's dungeon exploration became much more efficient, and he was already capable of progressing beyond the tenth floor.
"But a supporter, huh..." Thinking about supporters, Shirou couldn't help but recall his agreement with Hephaestus and casually mentioned to the others that he would soon be entering the dungeon in the role of a supporter.
"Shirou-Nii's joining another adventuring party as a supporter?" Bell was clearly the most surprised. "That can't be! With your strength, Shirou-Nii, you could explore the dungeon solo without any issues!"
After witnessing Shirou slay the Lone Maze King with his own eyes, Bell had a clear understanding of Shirou's power. That's why he couldn't comprehend why someone so powerful would want to take on a supporter's role.
"Because Lord Shirou is special," Lili said, understanding the situation better than Bell. "Even though Lord Shirou is strong, his public level is still only Lv.1. Let's not discuss why that is for now, but outsiders definitely wouldn't believe in his strength. The goddess Hephaestus must have genuinely meant well when she asked other Familias to let Lord Shirou join a party."
"That's right," Shirou nodded in agreement with Lili. "So I've already accepted. I don't know how many days this dungeon expedition will take, so I'll be counting on you all to take care of the Familia."
"Leave it to me, Lord Shirou!" Lili immediately patted her chest in assurance, showing a determined attitude of willingness to go through fire and water.
Bell, however, still couldn't quite accept it. He looked up to Shirou with great admiration and considered him a goal to pursue, so it was hard for him to accept that someone he viewed as a hero would become a supporter.
Shirou noticed Bell's thoughts and gently patted his shoulder. "Being a supporter isn't a lowly job. It's also an essential role in any team. You've been teaming up with Lili for quite some time—surely you don't still look down on her role as a supporter, do you?"
"N-no, of course not..." Hearing Shirou's words, Bell seemed to let go of his hang-ups a bit.
He stopped dwelling on Shirou becoming a supporter and refocused his thoughts on his own dungeon progression. "Lately, I feel like I've hit a bottleneck," Bell said to Shirou. "No matter how many monsters I defeat, my stats don't seem to increase anymore, but I still can't see the light of reaching Lv.2."
"I don't really know either..." Shirou had never broken through to Lv.2 himself, so he couldn't offer much advice in that regard. This clearly showed the difference between a strong and a weak Familia. Strong Familias always had experienced seniors who could provide guidance and help juniors grow faster.
In the Hestia Familia, although Shirou's strength exceeded his level, technically there were only three Lv.1 adventurers. So, there was no one who could advise Bell on how to level up to Lv.2.
"Maybe we could ask adventurers from other Familias," Shirou suggested.
The first person who came to his mind was the Sword Princess, Ais.
As a Lv.5 adventurer, she likely had some solid insights.
However, Shirou had heard that Ais and several members of the Loki Familia had recently gone dungeon exploring again. Although it wasn't the entire Loki Familia, it was still an elite group, so they likely wouldn't return to the surface any time soon.
That meant Shirou would need to ask someone from another Familia for advice on leveling up to Lv.2.
He wasn't doing it just for Bell—Shirou himself also wanted to level up. While he didn't think leveling up would bring a massive boost in strength, if it allowed him to gain the [Blacksmith] skill, then it was definitely worth it.
The two discussed matters related to leveling up and agreed that Shirou would ask higher-level adventurers for tips. With that, night fell, and everyone went to sleep.
Now that the Familia had one more member, the cramped conditions of the Hestia Familia's base were becoming a problem.
Before, Hestia slept on the couch, while Shirou and Bell slept on the floor. But now that Lili had joined, having her sleep on the floor too was a bit awkward.
Although Lili didn't mind and even excitedly wanted to sleep next to Shirou, Shirou didn't think that was a good idea.
However, changing bases required a lot of money. For the Hestia Familia, financial problems remained unresolved. They would have to endure for now and wait until they earned enough to relocate.
.
.
.
The next morning.
Bell and Lili once again teamed up to head into the dungeon. Both were full of motivation, eager to improve the Familia's living conditions through hard work.
Shirou was naturally happy about this and, as usual, planned to go to the Hephaestus Familia to practice Blacksmith. He still had two days before he needed to join the adventuring party per his agreement with Hephaestus, so there was no rush.
His Forging had been making steady progress lately. Even without the [Blacksmith] skill, he felt capable of producing powerful weapons—perhaps even Noble Phantasms—but his success rate was still not very high.
And once Forging failed, it wasted a large amount of materials, which was a serious loss for the currently struggling Hestia Familia.
This clearly showed how costly Blacksmithing was. If Shirou didn't occasionally work part-time at the Hostess of Fertility, he wouldn't even qualify to practice Forging.
Because of this, Shirou was mainly Forging low-level equipment to improve his success rate, avoiding attempts to forge high-tier gear that could result in huge losses upon failure. Blacksmith the [Hassan's Dagger] for Bell back then had been a major gamble. Thinking back, if he had failed, they would have been buried in debt.
So, to steadily produce powerful weapons, Shirou was pouring almost all his time into practicing Forging. Today was supposed to go the same way—until Hestia suddenly called out to him.
"Shirou, do you remember Takemikazuchi?"
"Of course, it's thanks to him that I got that food stall job."
Shirou naturally felt grateful to the god Takemikazuchi. Although he no longer worked at the food stall, he had promised to help if Takemikazuchi ever needed a favor.
"Is Lord Takemikazuchi looking for me?"
"Sort of. Apparently, his Familia ran into some trouble."
"Trouble?"
Shirou didn't understand what she meant. Hestia didn't know how to explain it either, so she just brought Shirou along to the Takemikazuchi Familia's base.
They walked through Orario's streets and alleyways until they reached a remote and desolate area. There, they arrived at a building styled in the architecture of the Far East—something that shouldn't even exist in Orario.
The familiar beams and tatami mats almost made Shirou think he had returned to his original world. Of course, he quickly noticed the differences—while it looked similar, many of the details were not the same.
"Takemikazuchi! Take! Get out here!"
Hestia was quite close to Takemikazuchi and casually called out his name. In response, the doors of the house opened, and a black-haired girl in a purple kimono with a single ponytail stepped out.
She seemed to have expected their arrival and spoke formally: "Thank you for coming, Lady Hestia. Lord Takemikazuchi is waiting inside."
"Mm," Hestia nodded and led Shirou inside.
They went to the inner part of the house, where they found Takemikazuchi. He seemed deep in thought, with a very serious expression. Only when he saw Hestia arrive did he return to his usual gentle demeanor.
"Welcome, Hestia. Emiya."
"So, what exactly do you need from us? I only heard that you wanted Shirou's help..."
"Yes, this matter truly requires Shirou's assistance."
Takemikazuchi looked deeply at Shirou and spoke: "This may be sudden, but... could I ask you to craft a weapon for my Familia member, Yamato Mikoto?"
As he said this, he gestured toward the black-haired girl beside him—clearly Yamato Mikoto herself.
"Craft a weapon?" Shirou raised an eyebrow, not expecting that kind of request. "If you're looking for a blacksmith, wouldn't it be better to go to the Hephaestus Familia directly? Why come to me in private?"
"The reason is... funding," Takemikazuchi sighed. "For some reasons, my Familia is in a serious deficit right now. We probably can't pay a single coin. So, I was hoping you could forge the weapon for free. Of course, I'll write an IOU and repay the debt the moment our financial problems are resolved."
"What? But Take, even though you're as poor as I am, you should've earned quite a bit selling food, right?" Hestia was surprised.
"Well... due to some complicated circumstances, all that money is gone. My Familia members even charged into dungeons they shouldn't have, trying to earn money. As a result, some were injured, and Mikoto's weapon—Shinonome—was destroyed in the battle."
Takemikazuchi's explanation made Shirou and Hestia realize just how dire the god's situation had become. But they still couldn't understand what kind of reason had driven his Familia into such poverty that they were forced to take on dungeons above their level.
Takemikazuchi, seemingly unable to explain the real reason, simply showed a pleading expression, hoping for the Hestia Familia's help. Hestia had no authority to make this decision, so she left it up to Shirou.
After thinking for a while, Shirou slowly said: "For some reasons, I'll be acting as a supporter in a dungeon party soon, so I won't be able to forge immediately. But I can listen to your request now and forge the weapon as soon as I return from the expedition."
"Really?" Takemikazuchi's face lit up with excitement at Shirou's words and he agreed without hesitation.
Mikoto, however, had a somewhat complicated expression. She seemed doubtful of Shirou's Blacksmithing skills and didn't think he could craft a truly useful weapon. But as Takemikazuchi said, their Familia was already in such dire straits that they couldn't even obtain ordinary weapons—getting a custom weapon from a professional blacksmith was already a stroke of fortune in misfortune.
"What kind of weapon would you like, Miss Mikoto?"
"No special requests. But if possible, I'd prefer a tachi." Mikoto didn't hold much hope for Shirou, so she gave only a simple answer.
Shirou noted her needs and searched through his Unlimited Blade Works armory. He quickly found a large number of weapons matching the tachi type.
After all, while tachi weapons weren't extremely common, they were still easy enough to find. Shirou then pressed Mikoto to provide more specific requirements to help him craft a weapon better suited to her needs.