My head is spinning...
The thing in front of me right now is... big sis...?
"Hey... youuuuu... you can't do this to meeeee..."
"No... whaaat..."
Ah, my tongue won't move properly. My head is spinning too... Where am I, again? I definitely...
Blaaaaaaargh...
Off to one side, they were collectively making mung-bean pancakes on the floor. Since this was the Western cultural sphere, did that make it pizza?
"Where am I... and who am I...?"
Ugh, I need to sober up.
"Big sis, I'm just going to get some air for a moment..."
"Hey... you can't do this to meeeee..."
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I truly am sorry..."
This time, she had grabbed Limus—someone she had never even spoken to before—and was talking to him, while Limus was actually humoring her. Would he even be able to handle this tomorrow...?
"Hah..."
I chugged the cold water that had been sitting in the middle of the table and headed outside. The cool autumn breeze hit me, and it felt like my mind was clearing.
"What, you're still alive?"
"Ah... Mama Mia... I'm alive..."
"You're half dead already."
"What on earth happened...?"
"You treated everyone to bomb shots and forced them to chug them. Everyone got completely wasted, and when I tried to throw you out, your goddess got drunk and rented the whole place until tomorrow morning."
"Our goddess really does have deep pockets."
This place had only been open for two years, but it was already pretty famous, and she had rented out the entire restaurant...
"So how does it feel?"
"What do you mean, how does it feel? Right now, I feel half ecstatic and half like I'm about to throw up."
"I mean becoming Level 2, you brat."
Ah, Level 2...
"Well, how should I put it? It still doesn't quite feel real, but..."
"Mm..."
"I'm incredibly happy."
"I think I understand why everyone struggles so desperately to level up."
Really, right now I felt like I could do anything. Of course, the alcohol coursing through me probably had something to do with it, but the difference in strength from when I was Level 1 was so enormous that it made me feel even more that way.
"Everyone feels that way."
"When they level up for the first time, they become intoxicated by the difference in power. They set their sights on higher places and try to descend even deeper."
"But be careful."
"Don't let that brief feeling of omnipotence intoxicate you into making the wrong choice."
"You're still young. You have a bright future ahead of you."
"Think about your future."
It was advice, I guess... But maybe because I was drunk... I didn't really get it...
"Right, Mama."
"What?"
"I sold a weapon to [Heavy Warrior]. Today's company dinner is, technically, being paid for with the money I made from that sale."
"You did? As a Level 1?"
"I did! And I'm Level 2 now, you know?"
"So what happened?"
"Well, what happened was..."
I told Mama Mia every last detail.
How, while eating, I had resolved to make a weapon for the great feat I needed to reach Level 2.
How, after agonizing over what to make, I decided to forge the greatsword of the Great King from the legends I remembered.
How I made a wooden model of the weapon and ran all over the place looking for materials.
How, after gathering everything, I hammered away in a trance for four days and nights, completed it, and collapsed.
How I slept for a day, rested another day, fully finished the sword, and had my goddess inspect it.
How, while we were talking about the sword, [Heavy Warrior] arrived and I ended up selling it to him before I knew it.
I told her every single thing. Wasn't there some of it I shouldn't tell her? Normally, there were things in there that I shouldn't reveal. But I trusted Mama Mia. We weren't related by blood, but I considered Mama Mia family, and Mama Mia considered me family. If I couldn't trust my family, then who could I trust?
"Hah, well... That's quite a turbulent life story for a mere sword to have."
"Right? Right?"
"You brat... Still, you did well. You actually managed to sell a weapon to [Heavy Warrior]. Once word of that gets around, more people will come looking for you. You might end up with a nickname like, 'the monster who could make weapons for [Heavy Warrior] even back when he was Level 1.' Hahahaha!"
"What's that supposed to be...? That's weird..."
A brief silence passed between us. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was the kind of silence where, without needing to say anything, we could understand how the other felt amid the stillness.
"Mama, I never told you why I came to Orario, did I?"
"Wasn't it to make cool weapons? Isn't that what every blacksmith wants?"
"Haha, unfortunately, that's a little off. Listen carefully. What I'm about to tell you is something only my goddess and our captain in all of Orario have heard."
"Oh? Go on, then."
"You see, I want to create fantasies."
"Fantasies?"
"Yes, fantasies. I want to summon back into this land the fantasies that have been forgotten by people, denied, and sunk beyond oblivion, never to be remembered again."
"In a dream world overflowing with nothing but blood and hunting, I want to hammer out the sword that scattered noble moonlight."
"I want to forge the way of a swordsman who crossed the walls of the world to cut down a single swallow."
"I want to make the divine spear of a god cast out by his family, and whose very name was erased, simply because he had the wrong kind of friendship."
"To let fantasies that no one knows, that only I remember, see the light here once more. That is the dream I came to Orario to achieve."
"And today, I took the first step toward that dream. The sword I sold to Ottar, [Gwyn]. My first recreation of a fantasy. Beginning with [Gwyn], I intend to unleash countless fantasies upon Orario."
"So watch me, Mother. Watch the fantasy chronicle, [Tales of Illusion], that your son will write."