(General POV)
Hephaestus watched as the boy pulled out a magnificent double edged sword from seemingly nowhere. She'd heard of and seen it already, hence why she didn't question it. They boy had not really made any effort to conceal the ability after his many solo dungeon run. Adventurers all over Orario were aware of his storage ability.
What intrigued her though was the sword itself. Libur had reverted to its original form as Excalibur, consequence of Lyze having discarded as of right now. But that did not take away the sheer majesty of the holy sword.
She gingerly took it from his hands, and gazed in awe at the cosmic swirl patterns on the hilt as well as the rubies encrusted on the cross-guard. The hilt looked to be made out of pure gold and the blade seemed to glow with how sharp it was.
"A sword fit for a king." She commented. Lyze rolled his eyes underneath his blindfold at the irony. "Where did you get this?"
"My mentor gave it to me before I came to Orario." Lyze explained. "I don't use it so much nowadays."
Tsubaki stood up and leaned in closer to inspect the magnificent blade and whistled as she ran her gaze along Excalibur's shiny edge.
"Damn kid. That's a good weapon if I've ever seen one." Tsubaki tapped the edge with her finger and drew it back wincing a little as the tip of her finger was nicked. "And crazy sharp too!"
Hephaestus held it upright and flicked the blade, creating a metallic ping.
"Hm, it's made of iron." She murmured and then turned to Lyze. "Your mentor gave you a good sword then. But if you have such a good sword, why do you not use it? Something like this would be invaluable in the dungeon." Hephaestus stared at Tsubaki sucking on her bleeding finger and her eye drooped. "Especially if it so easily someone of Tsubaki's level."
"It's simply for that reason." Lyze gestured to the sword. "It makes things too easy for me with how sharp it is. I guarantee that this sword can rival even the top quality weapons in your Familia."
"Is that so?" Hephaestus raised her brow. "An iron sword?"
"You wanna try and test it?" Lyze offered.
Hephaestus's gaze travelled to a weapon rack in Tsubaki's forge. It was laid with some expensive looking weapons. She knew it was not an important rack as they were Tsubaki's personal creations. Walking over to a sword laid on it that was exceptionally shiny on it, she paused and looked back at her captain.
"Tsubaki?"
"Yes?" The half-dwarf said as she took her finger out of her mouth.
"This longsword right here has Durandal properties doesn't it?" Hephaestus said as she pointed to the specific weapon on the rack.
"Yes it does." Tsubaki replied before giving her a questioning look. "Why do you ask?"
Hephaestus nodded before returning her gaze back to Excalibur. Her smith senses were tingling like crazy. On the outside, it seemed to be a regular, if fancy, iron sword. But...there was something about it that was not quite right. Something she couldn't see with her eye.
She raised it above her head and swung down on the Durandal longsword. The two weapons clanged together. Hephaestus may have just been a smith but she knew very well how to swing a sword and hers was by no means a weak strike. To her surprise, she saw the longsword gain a crack in it as a bit chipped off the blade.
But Excalibur was unharmed. Silence reigned in the forge as each individual person had their own thoughts on the matter. The most profound was Tsubaki, despairing over one of her works being ruined somehow by a regular weapon. Lyze looked on seemingly uncaring, and not at all surprised at what had happened.
The reason why he'd done this in the first place was because he wanted to see what Hephaestus could see in the sword. So far she'd shown no reaction to anything unusual, besides striking a top-tier weapon with it. The crimson haired goddess stood there for a few moments longer, Excalibur still resting on the longsword before she slowly lifted it up and turned around to face him.
"Would you consider selling this to me?" Hephaestus asked him without a moment's delay.
"Er, why?" Lyze asked confused.
"Because this is also a magical weapon as well isn't it?" She asked with a bit of enthusiasm. "Somehow it's enchanted to be sharper and more durable than a high-class weapon without actually being imbued with the Durandal property. This is a treasure! Why would I not ask if I could take this from you, even at a price?"
Lyze raised his brows at her deduction. As he'd expected, she'd figured out some qualities of Excalibur. But she'd interpreted it in the wrong way; meaning she couldn't see the souls inside it. His gamble had yielded results. But it did not completely put him at ease yet.
Even if Hephaestus could not see the souls, she did not have an ability that would let her see regular souls anyway. But Lyze knew someone that very well could...
"I'm flattered that you think so highly of it." Lyze smiled. "But I'm afraid it's not for sale." He said with finality in his tone. Excalibur floated out of Hephaestus's grasp and into his own hands. Immediately he tossed it back into his hammer-space, not wanting the sword to connect with him again and take the form it usually took when he held it. That would raise a whole different set of questions.
"A shame." Hephaestus sighed disappointedly. Really she'd been hoping to buy it so she could study it more, and figure out what was so special about it that it could do what it had just done. And also to find an answer to that nagging feeling in her gut. "Oh well, I guess nothing more can be said on the matter then." Didn't mean she couldn't ask him if she could study it in the future.
"Do you have time on you right now?" Lyze asked Tsubaki, who cocked an eyebrow.
"I guess yeah. Why?" She caught a bag of Valis that was suddenly thrust her way. At the same time Lyze slammed something onto the table in front of them. Or rather somethings.
"I'd like you to make me a weapon Tsubaki, out of these." Lyze said as he lifted up one of the items. "They're horns from minotaur variants..."
Tsubaki's jaw fell slightly open.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyze entered his room with the cloth covered package over his shoulder. Tossing a bag into the corner, he went to a shelf on the wall that was filled with a small number of weapons.
Unravelling the string and letting the coverings fall, he stared at the beautiful red child-sized greatsword in his hands. This was a better quality weapon than everything else he'd had with the exception of Libur. And it looked more menacing as well.
"I'll be taking you out very soon." Lyze said patting the sword before placing it on the shelf in full prominent view. Tsubaki had made him the sword then and there with the remaining time she'd had left that she allocated for him out of her schedule.
Surprisingly it took less time than he thought it would and he'd watched the process very intently. It sort of served as his first unofficial lesson with her as she spoke on how to beat it into proper shape. And the good thing was that he had some more stuff in his hammer-space that could serve as material for weapons.
So he suspected that his first official lesson with her would be on how to mold those. He flopped on his bed and put his hands behind his head as he lost himself in thought.
"Studying under the Hephaestus Familia captain huh?" He murmured to himself before spitting slightly. "That's a protagonist trope if ever I experienced one. That bastard's probably watching me right now as it happens."
The sun was setting and it's last rays were shining through the window. The days were becoming shorter, which meant colder weather would be coming as well. Lyze knew that meant a shortage of certain supplies he'd have to stock up on, plus some other stuff he'd need to comfort himself in the cold. Even manors like this did not seem to have insulation. But what could he expect in a medieval world?
The gentle shine of the sun warmed him a little and he felt a a bit drowsy. Seeing no harm in a little bit of a catnap, he kicked off his boots and dozed off, not bothering about dinner which would be served soon. Nobody would really come chasing him for it apart from Riveria maybe. But he doubted they'd mind too much if he missed out.
The mental exhaustion of the past three weeks fell on top of him as the effect of his first day off from the dungeon in a long while took its toll on him. It helped him fall asleep quicker. The last thing he thought of before he fell asleep was his stats sheet.
---
He was woken up later by a rap on his door. Rubbing his eyes while yawning, he looked out the window to see it was still in the first part of the night. Slipping into his boots, he walked over to the door and pulled it open.
There he was greeted by three familiar faces, who were staring at him in equal measure of worry and expectation.
"Finn, Gareth and Noir? What are you doing here?"
"You missed dinner Lyze. Are you okay?" Finn asked.
"I'm fine actually. Just felt a little tired and thought I'd sleep for a bit."
"Good." Noir cheerfully said. "Because we haven't had dinner either."
"Huh? Why?"
"We're going somewhere to eat lad." Gareth said.
"The Hostess?"
"Nope." Noir said. "This is a place where MEN go. The hostess is for more cheerful settings. Where we're going is a place with good booze and good food. A hotspot for men to socialize."
"And what does this have to do with me?" Lyze asked.
"You're going to come with us." Finn gestured. "Come on. Out you come."
"...Is that an order?"
Finn pursed his lips. "I guess you could consider it so."
"Understood Captain." Lyze sighed as he stepped out of the room, not forgetting to swipe his cloak which was hanging off the back off the door. He locked his room up tight and turned to follow the older men as they'd already started walking away.
They met up with Dain outside who slapped Lyze on the back cheerfully. In fact as Lyze noticed, all of them seemed quite happy about something although he could not figure out what.
Still though, he was not opposed to a good meal from outside. The food made at home had become a little boring lately.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment and Review!
Read 6+ chapters ahead on my Patreon:
Patreon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi
For commissions:
Ko-Fi/ vulkizarozoromi