Celestial Hymn 6 (Patreon)

Celestial Hymn
Chapter 6

-VB-

A whole month had passed since the visit of the king and the royal family, and yet, not a single power came to me from the Celestial Forge.

Bummer, really.

I made a grand promise to myself about “raising myself up through technological revolution,” but here I was without much to show for it in a span of time other Celestial Forge-blessed individuals might have already gone and made a name for themselves that rung around the world like it was nobody’s business.

For all of the good things I’ve done, comparing myself to those monsters made me feel a little pathetic.

“You seem down recently, milord.”

I looked up from my paperwork and saw Rosia.

I sighed. “Just things not turning out as I want them to.”

She raised an eyebrow with a mild exasperation. “Milord, you are betrothed to a member of the royal family, have a town that you turned into a city, and decorated the city with numerous works of art. This small township that has seen nothing good for generations has finally seen prosperity. What could have possibly gone not as good as you had hoped to, milord?”

I huffed while leaning back into my black leatherbound office armchair. I unfortunately did not have any powers or knowledge related to blacksmithing, so I didn’t have springs and the like to make an office chair, which I also didn’t know how to make. As such, I had been forced to settle for a normal chair, and this was one part of the whole that irked me.

“Yes,” I grumbled honestly. “I had a high expectation of myself, and yet, all I have done falls short of it.”

She looked at me incredulously.

“... Perhaps that is the burden of a great man.”

I barked out a laugh. “I’m not great!” I chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Hell, I especially messed up when I kept getting the eyes of the big lords.”

She hummed in understanding. “Smallfolk” like her lived a longer and peaceful life if they didn’t catch the attention of the lords and their ilk.

I wondered what my life would have turned out to be if no one paid attention to me. I would still be in Vale living under that good lord doing whatever it was that I wanted to do. Maybe I would have gotten some ridiculous power sometime down the line, and I would have done … ridiculous things. I probably wouldn’t have done more than carve out my own little fiefdom in the mountains.

Actually, that’s not that much different from what I was doing now except my current situation had more scrutiny so I felt extremely uncomfortable about it all.

“Am I being too hard on myself?” I muttered as I leaned back.

“Yes.”

I looked at her without moving my head from the rounded headrest of the chair.

She stared at me directly with respect and deference. She was also getting bold lately, wasn’t she? Rosia spoke her mind to me more often than not as time passed.

“In fact, I would not be surprised if a few noblewomen or daughters of rich merchants came to see you and your art in the following months and years. Depending on how you treat them, I suspect that they will try to seduce you if only to get you to take care of them.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her more directly instead of from the corner of my eyes. “Oh?”

“Milord, you are a responsible and rich man. As a woman, I would be glad if you took me on as a mistress because I know that you aren’t one to abandon me on a whim or other duties, because you take the initial responsibilities and duties first before others.”

I blinked. “... You are getting really bold, you know that, right?”

She smirked, cheeky woman. “Oh, I just know what I want, milord. If you don’t want me, then I’ll be a little upset and broody, but it’ll be just that.”

“You’re not even going to try to seduce me as you said other women might?”

“We know about each other well enough that it would be too obvious, and if you haven’t bedded me yet, then you certainly won’t start bedding me now.”

I snorted. “Whatever. Get back to work.”

She bowed and left.

She also did so after making sure I got a good look at her rather shapely rear swaying back and forth.

I rolled my eyes at her antics.

Who knew that the women most suspicious of me when I first hired her among others would later come and bluntly ask me if I wanted her as a mistress.

Well, she did manage to cheer me up, though, so maybe I’ll send her a bonus or something.

I winced as Celestial Forge “woke up” again and tried to reach out for something new. To my surprise, it caught something.

I was lucky I was alone in my office because a golden ball of something technologically advanced materialized over the course of a single second at my eye-level before dropping onto my lap. I caught it before it hit and I inspected it.

What the fuck was this?

There was a key already attached to a keyhole at the top. I turned it and …

I raised an eyebrow as a small computer opened up.

‘Okay…’

I accessed all of its contents with only a few intuitive clicks. Slowly, my eyes widened as I grasped just how important this golden sphere was.

This was big.

The spherical ball that had dropped onto my lap was a database on all manners of armors, weapons, and items from a world that had high tech melee combat. How to build power armors and high-tech magic swords.

I cackled.

-VB-

Celestial Forge gives “Ar Tonelico Database”