"Is she still depressed?"
"Yeah. The fact that she was captivated by Hesperios gave her quite
a shock, apparently."
When we took a glance inside the workshop, what came into our
sight was the figure of a petite dwarf woman holding her knees and
dropping her shoulders—Nazarie-san.
Yes, she was the one who had her chin lifted up by Hesperios and
was swinging her hammer around attacking her own friends.
After defeating Hesperios, I did my best to treat the injured with
Magmell.
Perhaps because the speed of our coming to the rescue, no one
died fortunately, causing us to sigh and pat our chests in relief.
Of course, we received words of gratitude from the villagers,
including the village chief, and the half-destroyed village was
immediately undergoing reconstruction work, but one person,
Nazarie-san, was still really depressed.
She was the number one blacksmith in the village and her skill at
blacksmithing was so great that she was called 'Matchless Genius'.
When Hesperios came attacking, she went out with great confidence
to repel him, yet she was captivated by him in no time, committing a
big blunder.
Because of that, she had been like this since yesterday, telling
everyone to leave her alone.
"This is troubling. According to the village chief, she's apparently the
only one able to meet your expectations, and we need to get you a
new weapon as soon as possible given the fact that your
Hinokaguzuchi has shattered."
"Well, can't be helped. She tried to stand up against the enemy in
order to protect her friends, yet she got manipulated and hurt those
she wanted to protect. Anyone would get shocked by that."
"Yeah. But well, in her case, there may be another factor, though…"
"?"
As I tilted my head to Zana's words that sounded like implying
something, Tirna, who had been helping with the village's
reconstruction work, approached us and said, "How's Nazarie?"
"Hmm, we can't tell at this point… Though I think she'll calm down
after a while…"
Then.
"—Mm, then now is your time to act, Exa. Give Nazarie some
headpats."
"Huh?"
Tirna's words came out of nowhere that I became wide-eyed in
shock.
However, Zana seemed to agree with her as she laughed and said,
"True. That might be for the best."
"Wait, hey, huh? A-are you being serious now?"
"But of course. You've made so many saintesses… no, women
smile. I'm sure you can bring smile to her face as well."
"O-ou…"
Since she had said that much, I had no choice but to nod.
"Do your best, Exa."
"Yeah, leave it to me."
Tirna also gave me her support, so I became feeling like I could do it
somehow.
――Yosh, I'm going to do it.
I'll make her smile as wide as she possibly can.
Nodding inwardly, I went to the side of Nazarie-san who was still
hanging her head in shame alone in the workshop, prepared myself
mentally, and patted her head, saying, "It's okay, Nazarie-san. I've
beat that guy Hesperios."
But.
――PAH.
"W-what are you doing all of a sudden!? Are you mocking me!?
That's gotta be it, right!? Waaahhh!? I hate youuu!?"
"Ehh…"
I ended up receiving a triple-hit combo of getting my hand shaken off
with great force, making a girl cry, and getting told I was hated to my
face.
Huh, wasn't this a total failure…?
◇ ◇
Afterward, I managed to calm Nazarie-san down with a cup of sweet
hot milk and was able to have a conversation with her little by little.
"I see. In short, you wanted to defeat Hesperios by yourself, didn't
you?"
"That's right… Since everyone in the village called me a genius… I
thought I had to live up to their expectation… So I stood against that
guy with my new hammer, but… to think he'd be an incubus…"
Gloom, Nazarie-san slumped her shoulders, and I gave a bitter
smile.
Well normally, women could never escape the charm of an incubus.
Even if Nazarie-san wielded her best weapon, the matchup was
simply too bad…
"Please don't be that depressed. I probably would have ended up the
same if the opponent was a succubus."
By the way, 'succubus' was the female version of incubus, a demihuman race that could dominate males.
In other words, they were lewd onee-sans.
"Right!? I'd have won brilliantly if the opponent wasn't an incubus,
too! Yes, I just happened to be out of luck this time!"
"Y-yeah. So please don't fret over that kind of guy. He's already no
more than dust, anyway."
As I cheered her up, Nazarie-san nodded vigorously, "Yeah," and
said, "I've regained some energy thanks to you. You have my
gratitude, youngster. And I'm sorry for earlier. I thought for sure you
were just mocking me."
"No way. I would never do that to someone who is so depressed."
"Umu, I believe you. You're not that kind of man, my intuition tells me
that.
"As such," Nazarie-san puffed up her chest and said, "I'd like you to
allow me to introduce myself again. I'm Nazarie—the number one
blacksmith of this village."
"I'm Exa. You can think of me as the mediator between the
saintesses."
"Umu, I've got it. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Harem King."
"Yes, likewise… hm? Harem King…?"
It may not necessarily be wrong, but that kind of nickname is a bit…
As I made a melancholic expression, Nazarie-san somehow began
fidgeting, "A-and…" and said, "uhh, if it's okay with you, can you pat
my head again…? I reflexively shook off your hand earlier but, it was
kind of comfortable actually, so…"
"Haha, I understand." Nodding, I patted Nazarie-san's head again.
How should I put it, she was surprisingly straightforward, and I found
that cute about her.