Chapter 310

Chapter 310: Chapter 310

Tsubaki was hammering a glowing billet when Rayleigh entered the Hephaestus Familia workshop.

Three years had done little to tame the city’s greatest smith.

Her eyepatch had slipped crooked in the heat, sparks scattered across her apron, and Tobiume lay within reach beside the forge.

Apparently, a Zanpakutō belonged as close to molten metal as any other tool.

Her hammer stopped when she noticed his burned sleeve and the acid damage on one boot.

Then he lowered the enormous Magic Stone onto a reinforced table, which groaned under its weight, and she turned fully toward him.

"You were supposed to retrieve a missing survey team."

Rayleigh assured her that everyone he had found alive was back in Orario.

Tsubaki looked from him to the crystal and pointed at it with her hammer.

"Then what the hell did you retrieve them from?"

He considered explaining the Irregular, its second mouth, the Monster Party, the collapsing cavern, and the clerk who was probably arranging his death by paperwork.

Instead, he settled for the shortest accurate answer.

"The Dungeon."

Tsubaki’s eyebrow twitched, and Rayleigh moved his head just as her hammer flew past it.

He caught the handle without looking.

At a nearby forge, Welf bent over his work, trying to hide the laughter shaking his shoulders.

He had grown tall enough that no one could mistake him for the furious little boy who had joined the Familia.

Tsubaki noticed him anyway.

"Something funny, Crozzo?"

Welf straightened so quickly that he almost dropped his tool, then assured her he had been thinking about smithing.

Very serious smithing.

His earnest expression nearly undid Rayleigh too, but he managed to return the hammer to Tsubaki’s bench without laughing.

"I’ve reported to the Guild, so I’m going home before someone remembers another emergency commission. If anyone asks, you haven’t seen me."

Tsubaki reclaimed her hammer with a snort, though the corner of her mouth had lifted.

"Go take a bath and get some sleep. You look like shit. And if you’re still favoring that shoulder tomorrow, I’m making you move ingots until it stops."

Rayleigh headed for the door, telling her that might be the kindest concern she had shown him all month.

Tsubaki grinned and raised the hammer again.

He left before she could decide whether to throw it.

...

By the time Rayleigh reached home, Orario had settled into its familiar evening rhythm.

He checked the street out of habit, unlocked the door, and carried his supplies inside.

With the door locked behind him, he could finally relax.

There were few places left in the city where he could do that.

Alfia was in the reading room with a book across her lap and tea beside her.

At first glance, she seemed little changed: silver hair, pale skin, and a straight-backed posture that made even experienced adventurers think twice before approaching her.

Her eyes still had a way of making Rayleigh reconsider decisions he had made years ago.

The changes were in the details.

Her face had more color, and she could stay active far longer without tiring.

Ordinary tea had gradually taken the place of the medicine she once needed within reach.

Rayleigh noticed those things every day; he had spent years working toward them.

She looked up as he entered, taking in the scorched sleeve and damaged boot before her gaze settled on his right shoulder.

He felt tension pass through their soul connection and knew she had already reached a conclusion he wouldn’t enjoy.

"You’ve overloaded your right side again." Alfia closed the book around one finger to mark her place.

"Your shoulder is compensating for something, your sleeve is burned through, and that smell on your boot tells me whatever you fought was spitting acid. Before you tell me everything went perfectly, remember that I can see you."

Rayleigh stopped halfway to the table, abandoning the explanation he had prepared.

"I killed the monster and brought the missing adventurers back alive. I’d call that a successful mission. The shoulder’s just stiff."

Her eyes narrowed, and the pressure in the Reiraku between them increased.

"I questioned your form, not whether you finished the mission. Telling me the monster died is about as useful as telling a doctor the patient eventually stopped screaming."

Rayleigh glanced toward the stairs.

If he moved quickly, he might still get away, but Alfia caught the look before he could act on it.

She set her book beside the tea and rose, heading toward the concealed entrance to the underground training chamber.

He knew then that his evening had been decided.

"You had enough energy to run from the Guild over paperwork," she said without looking back. "You can manage an hour of corrective training. We’ll fix whatever made you overload that shoulder before you do it again in a fight that actually puts you in danger."

Rayleigh followed, feeling thoroughly wronged.

’That Guild clerk cursed me. There’s no other explanation!’

Alfia opened the hidden door, revealing the stairs to the enormous chamber he had built years earlier so she could train without anyone above ground discovering she was alive.

He took off his damaged coat, set his supplies aside, and followed her down with Benihime still at his waist.

He had barely reached the second step when the soul thread between them tightened.

’Wait.’

He looked up to find Alfia’s heel coming straight at his face.

"Hold on, training hasn’t even—!"

The kick cut him off and sent him hurtling down the stairs.

A crash echoed from the chamber below as Alfia lowered her foot and straightened her sleeve.

Only the slight curve of her mouth disturbed her composure as she started after him.

"YOU KICKED ME BEFORE WE EVEN REACHED THE TRAINING GROUND!" Rayleigh shouted from below.

Alfia continued down at an unhurried pace.

"You noticed it before it landed."

There was a brief silence from below.

Then Rayleigh shouted even louder.

"THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT BETTER!"

The concealed door closed behind Alfia as she entered the training chamber.