Early TNG Vol. 15 Chapter 1 part 3 (Patreon)

Note: This part has not been TLCed yet, and might slightly differ from the public version.  If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write it in the comment. Thanks.    

Translator: Dario

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After leaving the castle, Shin, Schnee, and Luxuria headed towards the institute. The town had been severely damaged too, but the institute -albeit, part of it- was in a pitiful state.

“We’ve got more than enough time to fix it.”

Shin talked while looking at the ruined structures as they headed towards Hilamee’s office.

He was a blacksmith, but there was a reason why he was so confident about fixing buildings.

All Rokuten members shared part of their specialty with other members.

In Shin’s case, he had taught his smithing and metal engraving skills to Reed and Cook. On the other hand, when he built his guild house, Tsuki no Hokora, he was taught all sorts of things by another Rokuten member, the “Blue Magician” Cain.

Thanks to that, his architecture skills were not too high, but he was rather proficient. Architects required imagination too: taking advantage of the fact that he was in a game, Shin too had built all sorts of bizarre constructions.

“I already knew that you were something else, but well...you really can do anything.”

“Not really...I’m just a bit experienced, but by a professional standpoint, I wouldn’t be good at all. Architecture and alchemy are the only things I can handle, other than blacksmithing.”

Shin’s architecture skill level was IV, alchemy was X. He needed alchemy to create potions for his smithy work, so it was much higher, but that was all.

If he was told to create the same things as the “Red Alchemist” Hecate, his answer would be a flat no. Alchemy required much more than just a high level.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, his trading skills, farming and animal raising skills etc were all around II: he had just acquired them and leveled them no further.

After taking in Yuzuha as partner his taming skills had grown a little, but he was still inferior to professional tamers even in that world.

“Being able to do ‘only’ that seems already enough to me...well, I guess it’s different if we use the standards of the old times.”

Luxuria knew of the game era before the “Dusk of Majesty”, so she understood why Shin classified himself in that way.

“It would be more than what we could ever ask, but is it really okay? You will end up standing out, won’t you?”

In the headmistress’ office, Hilamee made a troubled expression after hearing Shin’s proposal.

Being a skilled fighter was already enough to draw attention. If the information that he was capable of creation skills spread, many more people would seek to contact with him. Even if there were particular circumstances, Hilamee was concerned that Shin had to show his true abilities before others more than necessary because of his involvement with Erkunt and her.

“I’ll do just enough to let people think I’m worthy of my A rank. It’s a bit late to worry about standing out anyway.”

Shin had already given up on avoiding to stand out too much.

He was not based in any country, so as long as he left the country where he was, it was pretty much impossible to contact him. If someone followed him, it would be all too easy to lose them.

“The circumstances are what they are, so let’s just accept our sweet Shin’s kindness, no? We just have to thank him properly later.”

Luxuria held Hilamee’s shoulders from behind and interjected. Hilamee couldn’t see it, but Shin did not miss that her smile widened when she said the words “thank him”.

“I know already that your “thanks” are going to be something bad...”

“Oh my, I’m hurt.”

Luxuria’s lips pouted. It was rather childish for an adult to do, but her charm made it mysteriously acceptable.

Shin, however, glared at her. Even as an angel, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that her gratitude would be sexual in nature. She was not a devil anymore, so Shin thought that she wouldn’t need to draw energy from people’s sexual activities, but Luxuria said that, contrary to his expectations, she still possessed that ability.

“To think that not even a king could ever hope to have an angel service him...”

“I know what you really mean anyway. Besides, why would I go to any other woman for that when there’s Schnee at my side?”

Shin then pulled Schnee closer to him. Her look had turned sharper because of Luxuria’s words, but Shin’s sudden action took her completely by surprise. Even now that they were husband and wife, she still seemed not to be used to such physical contact.

“Look at them, I’m getting jealous...in this world polygamy is not rare at all, you know?”

“Where I’m from monogamy is the norm, and fiction is more than enough for harems. Why are you so persistent, anyway? Because I’m a High Human?”

In the beginning, Shin thought she was provoking him out of curiosity. It wasn’t enough to explain her behavior anymore, though.

“To fall in love with the person who saved you in a tight spot...is not so strange, isn’t it?”

“I watched you get beat up without doing anything and attacked once in the end though. That’s what made you fall in love?”

Luxuria said that Shin’s attack was what triggered her transformation, but he argued that those were two separate things.

“That was one of the reasons. Maybe because I used to be the lust devil.”

“What do you mean?”

“The strong emotion you and Schnee share...I think I was attracted to that. It’s clearly different than other humans’.”

Luxuria had grown interested because she was the lust devil. Before she could realize it, it had changed into a feeling unlike infatuation or love.

“One other thing is that...you didn’t show an excessive reaction after learning of my true nature, maybe? Normally, people would outright reject any contact with a devil.”

“”Maybe?”, she says...”

Luxuria caressed Shin’s hand, the one opposite to Schnee’s side. Shin didn’t react much, but a normal person would probably scream and knock it away. Even if she was an angel now, people would usually hate to even be remotely close to a devil.

King Kreunzeit, who wasn’t a Chosen One or even a former player, normally conversed with Luxuria, but that was an exception among exceptions.

For Shin too, Luxuria was “someone to defeat”. Surely a troublesome opponent, but still not enough to show an excessive reaction to.

“I can’t help it, can I? I don’t care about how it started anymore. I’m surprised too to be so attached, you know? I have never felt like this before in my life...”

Luxuria’s had tightened her grip on Shin’s.

Normally, devils played and toyed with others. They sought weaknesses in their hearts, stimulated their desires, charmed them. There was no affection in that. In other words, they were complete beginners in terms of approaching someone not to manipulate them, but simply because they hoped the other person would like them.

“Well...I can understand if you’re feeling confused. Kind of. Even so, it has nothing to do with this.”

Shin thought what people call “first love” was what bloomed inside her. Considering that, Luxuria’s words and actions were understandable. The feeling of liking someone else couldn’t be suppressed, even if one wanted to.

He couldn’t comply with her desires, though. Schnee too had come closer, as if hugging him, so Shin was presently sandwiched between them. He couldn’t see Schnee’s expression, however, which was quite scary for him.

“Schnee is a much more fearsome enemy than you, I see.”

“I’m not going to let you go any further.”

Between the two ladies’ smiling gazes, sparks were flying. Schnee was ready to do battle.

Hilamee, who was observing the situation, decided to interrupt at that moment.

“Ehm, if possible, I would like to resume our discussion about the rebuilding...aaah!?”

The two ladies focused their gaze on Hilamee, which was enough to make her retreat several steps. Shin mentally saluted her courage.

“What is going on here...”

Masakado, who had arrived late, expressed his confusion at the situation. His expression clearly showed that he thought he had arrived at a very bad moment.

“Anyway, like Hilamee said, let’s discuss the rebuilding now, okay?”

Shin used the silence created by Hilamee and Masakado and tried to change the topic with all his might. It was their reason for visiting, after all: Luxuria’s topic was completely unrelated.

“....understood. We will talk about this again another time.”

“We don’t have to...”

Luxuria winked and Shin felt a headache was coming.

They managed to finally return on topic, so he avoided thinking about Luxuria and talked with Hilamee about rebuilding the school. Shin’s skill level was high enough to restore the mostly ruined buildings to their original state. He also mentioned using the opportunity to rebuild them stronger than before.

The institute used a modified version of the technology employed to build the guild houses, but the building itself used the same standards as that world’s architecture.

“Both I and Masakado have battle-focused skills, so all we could do was use the sturdiest materials to build it.”

In the game era, all they had to do was to send a request to a creation guild, which -provided an appropriate price was paid- could build a school as strong as a fortress, that could repel monster attacks easily. That was not possible now, though. It was obvious for the buildings to be in ruin after suffering the brunt of a devil’s attacks.

“I guess I will focus on making it as resilient as possible. My skill level isn’t high either, but I should be able to use Cain’s techniques to fill the gap.”

The “techniques” Shin mentioned were real-world techniques, adapted to be used in that world. Schnee’s method to temporarily repair the breached wall, an earthen net supported by ice, was ideated based on the structure of concrete.

In the game, many players thought of walls as compact masses of earth or metal. 

Cain, however, who was an architect in real life, came up with this idea and put it into practice. Thus some real-world techniques could be adapted to the game world. Other players too noticed that creation skills did not have to be used strictly as they were created, so a part of creator-type players knew about such techniques.

Shin too was one of the players who realized it by himself. When doing smithy work, he thought that since he was moving his body, he might as well imitate real blacksmiths, and noticed that the resulting gear was higher in quality.

“Don’t imitate Cain so well that you add in self-detonation devices, okay?”

“I won’t, I won’t....there’s no one else who would put stuff like that, anyway.”

Hilamee, who knew of the High Human who made it a personal rule to insert self-detonation devices in everything he created, made it clear that she wanted no such thing.

Shin too had been encouraged to equip Tsuki no Hokora with one, but refused.

The detonation devices themselves were made by Hecate, designed to blow away only the building itself and its interior. They boasted it was an incredible item that would never cause damage to anything outside it, but because of that its concentrated power was high enough that not even a High Human could survive the blast easily.

“Leaving bombs and such aside, I’d like to start working immediately, but is there anywhere you want me to start from?”

“Let me see...we cannot start the lectures right away anyway, so I would ask you to start from the dorms next to the school buildings. It’s difficult for us to let the students coming from afar stay in inns for a long time, after all.”

Many foreign students came to Erkunt to study, but except a few affluent ones most of them lived in the students’ dorm. Their school expenses would be a little higher because of it, but it would still be much cheaper than renting a room at an inn.

The inns in the city had also suffered damage because of the monsters, so the situation was still problematic. For the students’ sakes, the rebuilding of the dorms was the highest priority.

“Okay, I’ll start right away then. I’ll finish within today, so they can rest easy.”

Shin headed to the students’ dorm location right away: there was no time to lose. There, he found a half-destroyed building. The parts still standing were cracked in many places, looking like they could crumble anytime.

“I see, I see, looks like it won’t be hard.”

Shin used a skill and displayed the dorm’s structure in his mind. The parts used to build it were not too rare, so he could handle it by himself. All the wreckage was still there, so he had materials to spare. Shin touched the wrecks and activated a skill.

The structure plan of the students’ dorm, as displayed in Shin’s mind, materialized itself before his eyes, with the same size as the actual building. Shin moved his hands in midair and the wreckage turned into liquid form, gradually filling the blueprint he materialized.

The wreckage started filling the building plan, like water filling an empty container. It almost seemed like it was dancing according to the commands of an invisible conductor’s baton.

“A few more adjustments and---”

“Shin?”

Hilamee had been watching over the construction, but she apparently couldn’t wipe the thought of the self-detonation device from her mind and grabbed Shin’s shoulders from behind. Her tone was enough to express that she was admonishing him not to play any tricks.

“Easy, easy, I’m not going to do anything weird. I was just thinking of reinforcing the walls a bit.”

“Is that true?”

“Of course!”

Shin acted offended because of the suspicion. High Humans’ abilities were well known, but their personalities were often not trusted much. 

Shin restarted operations and raised the walls’ resilience by about 30%. The approximately completed dorm glowed faintly, then showed itself just as it was before the destruction. The furniture and accessories likely used by the students were all outside. Many things had been broken when the building came down.

“I can’t do anything about them, so the rest is up to you.”

It wasn’t impossible for Shin to fix them too after a bit of research, but repairing the buildings took precedence at the moment. He thus decided to leave that kind of work to Hilamee.

“The structure inside is the same as before. I can’t do anything about the furniture, so they’ll have to do something about it themselves.”

With sleeping bags or similar, the students should be able to get by. The most important thing was to have a roof over their heads, first of all. Hilamee informed Masakado via Mind Chat and they started relaying the communication to the students.

Masakado had stayed in the school building, to be ready to contact the students as soon as the dorm was restored.

“Okay then, onto the next one.”

Skill-based construction work could be done at a speed that would leave professionals speechless. Visualization of the structure and rebuilding. The Erkunt institute of magic regained its original look within the day, with added resilience to boot.

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