While Helion was forging away with all the materials that Shiro had given him, she sat by the side while admiring his aura when working.
‘Hm… so serious and single minded. Not bad at all.’ Shiro thought with a smile.
{I don’t suppose that there’s a chance that you like him?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
‘Well… I do like him, but I suppose not romantically. It’s more like idol admiration?’ Shiro replied after a short pause.
{I see. Well if you did like him, poor Lyrica would be heartbroken.}
‘That is true I suppose.’ Shiro nodded.
{Speaking of Lyrica, have you determined what kind of like she has for you? Is it dependency like you expected or pure love?} Nimue asked since there was nothing else to do. Helion was forging his weapon so they couldn’t exactly talk to him.
‘Honestly, I’d say it’s the latter. She isn’t exactly dependent on me anymore.’ Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
‘However, as much as I would want to give having a relationship with her a go, since I’ve never been in one myself, I don’t really want to ruin what we have now. It would destroy the party and make things a bit awkward if it doesn’t turn out well. Plus, I’m like… basically her aunt so that’s another barrier I’ll need to get over.’ Shiro smiled awkwardly.
{Ah about that, you haven’t told her that you’re her mother’s friend yet have you? I wonder how she’ll react after finding that out.}
‘I… don’t exactly want to imagine that haha. But since I’m not really familiar with how relationsh.i.p.s go in the first place, I don’t want to be rash and hurt her in the process.’ Shiro shook her head.
Lyrica was a precious friend of hers and she didn’t want to cut that off. However, at the same time, it was inevitable that Lyrica may confess sooner or later down the line. When that time comes, even if she said that she wanted to stay as friends, there will definitely be a gap in between them that wasn’t there before.
{Maybe do some research then? See how experienced people in this field say about it.} Nimue suggested.
‘Mn, that might be a good idea.’ Shiro nodded.
Bringing out her phone, she searched up for how relationsh.i.p.s between friends would work.
There were lots of tips in regard to what one should do when they’re in love with their best friend but not really the other way around.
There were talks about regret and sorting out your own feelings but Shiro was only confused further.
Some were saying that being in love with your best friend was the best feeling ever while some rejected it as much as they could saying that being best friends could be the best kind of relationship you get in your life. Don’t ruin it.
All in all, there was only one way that Shiro could react to the tips and situations she found online.
‘What the f*ck?’
{Hais… romance really isn’t your thing huh my queen. You ace the role of being a murder machine among other things but being normal and romantic is not your best area of expertise.}
‘Of course, it isn’t! I haven’t been in any relationship at all! Hell, I’m basically a v.i.r.g.i.n for life okay!’ Shiro replied feeling a little embarrassed at this talk about romance.
She was fine when talking about someone else but when it was down to her, it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling.
{Hmm… didn’t you say that you would dominate your partner when you told Nan Tian?} Nimue raised her eyebrow.
‘It’s an act you know. Nan Tian’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t like to be stepped over and looked down upon, so I said it to piss him off.’ Shiro clicked her tongue.
{Well well well. It seems like my queen is in fact quite a maiden in terms of love. How peculiar.}
‘Oi I’ll hit you. I’ll admit that I’m a maiden to proper romance, but it doesn’t mean I’m oblivious to what happens after you know.’ Shiro rolled her eyes.
{Haha sure. But like we just found out, what you say and what you think are different when it comes down to it. You may say you know what happens, but you may become a blushing maiden when it DOES happen.} Nimue grinned since it was rare that the bullying role would be reversed. Normally, it would be her that was being bullied due to the stuns that she pulls so she wanted to capitalise on this situation as much as possible.
“Gah!! Alright! That’s enough out of you!” Shiro raged as she felt annoyed by her belittling her like this just because she was a v.i.r.g.i.n for life.
‘Hmph, so what if I’m v.i.r.g.i.n. I can still ruin people’s lives with a single snap of my fingers.’ She pouted in annoyance.
Helion, who was focused on his craft, missed out on the chance of seeing Shiro pout in such a way. Shame.
However, neither Shiro or Nimue realised that this was her slowly becoming ‘normal’. Her thoughts started to stray a little from combat but instead focusing on how she should go about her life. Whether this was because of long term interacting with people like Lyrica or the fact that she had accepted Keomi as her sister, no one knew. It could even be due to her facing her family after such a long time in the trial area.
After calming herself down from the embarrassing talk, Shiro closed her eyes and started to work on some more experimental blueprints in regard to her weaponry.
She wanted to get a minigun as soon as possible so that she could just gun down a huge boss in no time. But with the amount of mana needed for the minigun, it would be impossible for her right now so she needed to make an experimental version of it.
As she was making blueprints, Helion was finally about to finish his task.
His lips curved into a smile as excitement filled his heart. From what he could tell, everything was going well and the failure chance was less than 5% at this stage. If he failed now, he should just stop calling himself a blacksmith.
*BANG!!!!
Just as the last hammer strike fell onto the armour, a ray of light shot up into the sky as mana was consumed rapidly by the armour.
For the tools that had mana inside them, they were drained as well and crumbled to dust.
But Helion ignored that and only wanted to see the formation of his very first red grade equipment.
“A name. You need to give it a name.” Shiro recalled as she had walked beside him and watched the formation as well.
“Why would I need to give it a name?” Helion asked.
“Because what sets the red grade equipment apart from the other’s is the true name’s power. As the creator, you’re given the privilege to give it a meaningful name. The more thought and visualisation you put behind it, the stronger the true name will become.” Shiro explained with a smile.
“I see…” Taking a short pause, Helion thought about what Shiro wanted for this armour.
‘She wanted it to be focused on increasing her INT stat. Therefore, I need a name which should give it a skill that is able to synergise with her as a mage.’
Thinking back to his childhood, he remembered a folk tale about a goddess who was able to conjure the stars with a single wave of her hand.
“Eena. I bestow you with the name Eena.” He said with a smile.
*BOOM!!!!
A galaxy seemed to open up above them as the stars fell and wrapped around the armour itself.
Carving the name Eena onto the surface before disappearing, a wave of energy erupted out and pushed them back by a few steps. Once they stabilised themselves, they looked at the armour in mild surprise.
Even without looking at the stats, they could tell that it was powerful due to the aura it was emitting. However, it seemed almost strange and unnatural. It was calming yet violent. Gentle as the soft night sky but just as dangerous as the raging sun.
Feeling a familiar power fluctuation which she realised was the same as the one she feels whenever she puts on her Celestial Raiment EX, she understood that this was the next stage after ‘normal’ mana.
[Eena – The Goddess Raiment LVL ?? (Red+)]
