My 【Repair】Skill Became an Almighty Cheat Skill, So I Thought I’d Open Up a Weapon Shop

「Sakura! You’re back!」

「Geez, where did you go?!」

Silvia ran up to Sakura at full speed, grabbed her hands and shook them with a smile.

At first, the other customers looked to see what the commotion was. It wasn’t until several of them recalled where they had seen Sakura did they begin a commotion of their own.

Many of the adventurers who worked at Greenhollow Town knew about Sakura as the female samurai from the eastern lands who defeated the rumored dragon.

Adventurers who arrived in town afterwards probably heard rumors about her too.

Some looked up to her or saw her as a role model. Others had a one-sided rivalry.

Since they were all fellow adventurers now, they gazed at her with all sorts of feelings, more than what I felt myself.

However, Sakura did not react to any of the adventurers’ stares, and came up to me to talk in the same way she did before.

「I apologize for this abrupt request, but I would like to speak to you about getting a new katana made. May I have some of your time?」

「Of course. It’s almost lunch break for us, so let’s chat while we eat.」

I always closed the shop for an hour during the noontime so I could take a break.

Of course, that was because I, the shop owner and the only employee here, needed a lunch break. 

I usually went to Spring Leaf Pavilion’s dining hall to eat, but with Sakura’s request, we decided to eat at my house instead. 

I supplied the ingredients, and Silvia prepared them for us.

「Food’s ready. Sakura, sorry for making you help out.」

「I couldn’t help the two of you with the opening of the shop, so I should at least do this much.」

Silvia served the dishes in an experienced manner, and then joined us at the table.

Once we began our meal, our first topic was about Sakura.

「Luke-dono, I must apologize for not being present at your shop’s grand opening. I tried to finish my business as soon as I could, but I did not expect you finish your preparations so soon…」

「Luke-san was amazing. He【repaired】the entire building and all of the weapons in an instant.」

Silvia assertively explained to Sakura what happened while she was gone.

I basically didn’t have to explain anything myself.

「Even so, I was shocked by how well-made the shop was. Not to mention, you have a lot of customers too. You must have made more money than the amount used to open up your shop.」

「Actually… You remember that sword you used to kill the dragon with? Somehow I sold it for ten big gold coins!」

「Big gold coins?!」

Sakura’s eyes opened widely in shock, and stood up abruptly.

「And ten of them too?! If it were me, I could live off of that money without working for the rest of my life then!」

「Uh, wouldn’t that require a lot of self-restraint?」

Since one small gold coin was enough to comfortably feed a family for a month, ten big gold coins would translate to roughly a hundred months; in other words, around eight years.

It was a lot of money, but definitely not enough to live off of for a lifetime. Just what sort of lifestyle was Sakura imagining?

「The tengu who live on Mount Miyama could live for several hundred years… oh, sorry, I am going off-topic. What sort of person was the one who purchased the sword?」

「Tengu? Um, anyways… They were two men who didn’t really look like adventurers. I think they might’ve been nobles or knights. They left right before you came, so maybe you passed each other?」

Timing-wise, it wouldn’t be strange for them to see each other outside, but Sakura shook her head.

「No, I did not notice anybody like them. I may have been too excited about getting you to make me a new katana, and thus did not pay much attention to my surroundings.」

「Nothing will come out of flattering me like that.」

「I am only stating the truth.」

The two girls looked at me with respect.

I didn’t think I could ever get used to this. I have never received much praise during my fifteen years as an adventurer, so I was never prepared to receive comments like this.

I decided to change the conversation into something I was more comfortable with.

「When do you want your sword made? If you want me to use the dragon-killing material, I’d have to gather more. If that’s the case, I would like you to accompany me…」

「Thank you for the offer, but I would like you to use a different material that I  prepared.」

「Did you bring it with you?」

「Yes, I did. Ah, but first, let’s have lunch!」

Sakura enjoyed Silvia’s cooking with a relaxed expression.

Even though she said she was excited to have me make her a new katana, it seemed like she was more excited about Silvia’s food.

Then again, Silvia’s cooking was really good.

I heard that different people were in charge of the kitchen on different days at the Spring Leaf Pavilion, but even among them, I thought that the food was tastiest when Silvia was in charge.

「If only I get to eat your cooking every day. Don’t you think so too, Luke-dono?」

「Hmm, yeah, I do. Then again, my food situation wasn’t exactly the greatest until I came here…」

「I don’t mind doing that for you, Luke-san.」

Silvia answered so casually and suddenly that Sakura and I looked at her in shock.

「The Spring Leaf Pavilion does dinner delivery service. We don’t usually do it, but I can make an exception for you, Luke-san. I’ll even make it cheap.」

「Ahh, I see… how cunning of you.」

「I’m just following my grandma’s footsteps..」

So following her footsteps meant doing a heart-stopping sales pitch. Considering how much fortune I had in my breast pocket, I might actually take her up on that offer. Maybe when the shop gets busy.

Once we finished eating, we moved onto the main topic.

After the dishes were cleared, Sakura laid out something that was tied up with a cloth and unraveled it.

「This is the material I would like you to use, Luke-dono.」

Inside the cloth was a raw ore with a brilliant red shine to it.

I had never seen that material before. At first glance, it looked like a jewel. However, there was no doubt that it was actually some sort of metal.

「In my homeland, we call this 『hihi’irokane』.」

「Hihi’irokane… I’ve never heard of it before.」

「As a matter of fact, one of the goals of my journey was to find a person capable of creating a katana with this.」

「…huh? Does that mean nobody in your homeland can do it?」

Sakura did a small nod at the question.

「The eastern regions have lost the ways of manufacturing things using the hihi’irokane long ago… Nobody can create new weapons or armor using them. I found an alchemist in the western region and had high hopes that he could do something with the metal, but alas, he too could not do anything…」

「…So you decided to leave the metal with somebody else, and prioritized your training first.」

「Yes, since the main goal of my journey is to train myself.」

Then, Sakura happened to meet me, and she learned about my skill and how it could【synthesize】an unknown metal with a sword. She must have thought that I could do the same with the hihi’irokane.

Her hypothesis was quite coherent.

It was highly probable that I could【synthesize】the hihi’irokane with a katana, just like I did with the labyrinth walls.

「Are you sure you want me to do it? Isn’t this a precious metal?」

「With the amount of money you have made, Luke-dono, this is not valuable at all. Please, feel free to use your skill on it.」

「Guess I have no choice….」

I couldn’t shake off the fear of failure.

The amount of trust I had in myself was nowhere close to the amount that Sakura had for me.

Strictly speaking, the trust I did have trended off to the negative side. If I saw myself, I would never believe that I could accomplish such a feat.

This was the after-effect I got from the fact that until recently, I had no redeeming qualities other than my【Repair】skill. 

Even though my skill had gained new abilities like【analyze】, 【disassemble】, and【synthesize】, my self-esteem hadn’t gone up at all.

However, I knew I couldn’t stay this way forever. My low self-esteem was a fault of mine that I had to improve.

「…Alright, I’ll try.」

「Thank you!」

「Don’t complain if I fail though, okay?」

After I said that in a joking manner, I took Sakura’s katana and the hihi’irokane to the workbench next to the living room.