Hyakinthos looked dissatisfied, perhaps even hurt, but he kept quiet under Apollo's raised hand.
Eleonora wrote something in her folder with a calmness that made Rayleigh wonder how much of this she intended to report and how much she intended to remember for herself.
Apollo finally sighed.
"How cruel. When a child speaks with such sincerity, even a god looks petty if he refuses."
Daphne's expression clearly said he had already looked petty, but she did not say it aloud.
Cassandra's hand tightened around hers in silent gratitude for that restraint.
Apollo took the pen.
Before signing, he looked at Hephaestus.
"I will acknowledge the contract and sponsor the listed price under the payment structure written here. However, Cassandra remains my child, and I expect that training involving a weapon this unusual will not be conducted without informing me."
Hephaestus nodded once.
"You will be informed of formal training. You will not turn that training into a performance."
Apollo smiled. "Still so stern!"
"I'm a smith. I prefer tools to be used properly."
"And children?"
Hephaestus's gaze hardened enough that the air in the room changed.
"Children are not tools."
Cassandra stared at her.
Daphne's expression softened before she looked away.
Apollo's smile lingered, but it lost some of its ease. He looked at Cassandra, then at the contract, and finally signed.
The pen moved elegantly across the paper.
Eleonora stepped forward to witness the signature, then Hephaestus signed as seller and guarantor.
Cassandra's hand trembled when she took the pen, but Daphne leaned closer and quietly adjusted the paper so she could sign without smudging the ink.
When Cassandra wrote her name, the room did not shake, no divine light descended, and Yumeutsutsu did not chime dramatically from the display room below.
Rayleigh was grateful for that.
The last thing he needed was a sword with a sense of legal theater.
Eleonora took the completed contract and checked each clause carefully.
"On behalf of the Guild, I recognize the contract as witnessed. The terms are unusual, but given the nature of Zanpakutō and the prior public sale conditions, they are acceptable. I will file the ownership restriction as part of the weapon registration, with Cassandra Ilion listed as the sole wielder."
Cassandra stared at the contract as if the words had not fully reached her yet.
Daphne gave her hand a squeeze.
"It's done. You signed it, the Guild witnessed it, Hephaestus-sama backed it, and Apollo-sama cannot suddenly decide your sword looks better as a trophy in someone else's hands."
Apollo laughed softly at that, though Hyakinthos did not look amused.
"My Daphne grows sharper every year."
Daphne's expression tightened, but she bowed just enough to remain polite.
"I learned from surviving Apollo Familia, Apollo-sama."
Rayleigh's mouth twitched.
Hephaestus looked like she had decided not to hear that.
Apollo rose gracefully.
"Then I suppose my Cassandra has gained a very troublesome partner."
Cassandra's eyes flicked toward Rayleigh almost instinctively.
Rayleigh lifted both hands.
"Don't look at me like that. I accept responsibility for the blade's forging, not every personality defect he develops from now on."
Daphne gave him a flat look.
"You said that last night too."
"And I'll keep saying it until someone believes me. Based on Cassandra-san's life experience, I understand that may take a while."
Eleonora looked at him with polite curiosity. "Does repeating yourself usually work?"
"Almost never, but habit and pride are difficult illnesses to cure."
Cassandra laughed at that, soft but clear enough that Apollo's gaze returned to her.
For a moment, the god looked less like a collector admiring something beautiful and more like someone seeing a child of his stand in a place he had not arranged for her.
Then the moment passed.
Apollo smiled again.
"Take care of the sword, Cassandra. If destiny has chosen you for something interesting, then I hope you will show me what kind of story it becomes."
Cassandra bowed her head, but her answer came without the old helplessness.
"I will take care of him, Apollo-sama. But I don't want my fear to become a story for someone else anymore."
Apollo studied Cassandra for a long moment, then gave a small bow that was somehow both accepting and amused.
"Then perhaps you should make it your own story first."
It was very Apollo answer.
But for now, that was enough.
...
After Apollo left, the room remained quiet for several seconds.
Then Daphne slumped in her chair with the exhausted relief of someone who had survived a battle without drawing a weapon.
"I cannot believe that worked. I was ready for yelling, shit poetry, Hyakinthos saying something stupid, and Rayleigh making it worse by being technically correct in the most irritating way possible."
Rayleigh loosened his shoulders.
"That is a very specific prediction, and I resent how plausible it sounds. It worked because Apollo-sama liked the shape of the result better than the shape of the argument. If we had tried to corner him, he would have made a scene. Letting Cassandra-san speak made refusal look ugly."
Daphne glanced at him. "That sounds manipulative."
"It was," Rayleigh said, without trying to soften it. "Negotiation is manipulation with better paperwork. The important part is that no one lied to Cassandra-san and no one took her choice away."
Daphne stared at him for a moment before sighing.
"I hate that you can say things like that and still sound helpful."
"Specific lighting, Daphne-san. We discussed this."
Cassandra covered her mouth, but her shoulders shook with a tiny laugh.
Hephaestus collected the duplicate contract and handed it to Cassandra.
"Keep this copy safe. If Apollo respects the contract, you may never need to use it. If he does not, you bring it to me or the Guild immediately."
Cassandra accepted it with both hands.
"Thank you, Hephaestus-sama. I don't know how to repay you."
"You repay me by training properly, not letting the sword bully you into reckless behavior, and telling Rayleigh when something feels wrong instead of trying to carry everything alone."
Cassandra nodded quickly. "I'll try."
Daphne looked at her with a very pointed expression.
"Try harder than last night. I am still not done being angry about the sneaking."
"I know..."
Rayleigh coughed lightly.
"To be fair, if Cassandra-san had not come last night, we might have had a much worse incident today."
Daphne turned toward him.
"Do not encourage midnight sneaking."
"I am encouraging prophetic responsibility under extremely specific circumstances."
"That sounds like midnight sneaking wearing formal clothes."
Hephaestus looked at Rayleigh.
"She has a point."
Rayleigh sighed. "Traitors. All of you!"
Eleonora, who had remained quietly near the door, closed her folder.
"Before I return to the Guild, there is one more matter. It is not directly related to Cassandra's contract, but since Hephaestus Familia is already involved with unusual weapons, Ouranos may request a private report from Rayleigh soon."
Rayleigh's good mood thinned.
"What kind of private report?"
Eleonora smiled politely, which immediately made him distrust the answer.
"The kind where the Guild asks questions first and decides how much trouble exists afterward."
Daphne pointed at Rayleigh.
"See? That's how you sound half the time."
Rayleigh placed a hand over his chest.
"I feel unfairly attacked during my own legal victory."
Eleonora's smile did not change.
"I will not discuss the details here, but there have been signs of movement beneath the city. Not in the Dungeon. Beneath Orario itself. Old routes, sealed areas, and people who should not have access to either."
The room's mood changed immediately.
Hephaestus's expression sharpened and Rayleigh's thoughts moved just as quickly.
Beneath Orario.
Old routes.
People moving where they should not.
Knossos was the obvious possibility, but obvious did not mean simple.
He knew the place existed, knew enough about Evilus remnants and the darkness under the city to dislike the direction this was going, but knowing the outline of a nightmare was not the same as having a key to its door.
Eleonora's gaze met his for a brief moment.
There was something behind her professionalism that did not fit a normal Guild clerk.
Rayleigh noticed it, but he did not press her in front of everyone.
Not yet.
"I'll speak with the Guild when summoned," he said. "Preferably after I sleep, repair the shop, and convince Hephaestus-sama not to bankrupt me for ceiling damage."
Hephaestus looked at him.
"I have not decided your punishment yet."
"That is why I'm still hoping!"
"Hope is admirable."
"Expensive?"
"In your case, yes."
Rayleigh winced.
Cassandra stood, clutching the contract as if it were as important as Yumeutsutsu itself.
"Rayleigh-san."
He looked back at her.
"Thank you. For the sword, for the contract, and for not letting everyone decide for me."
Rayleigh's expression softened.
"You walked into the shop on your own. You answered the trial on your own. I helped with the legal mess afterward because I created the troublesome weapon that caused half of it."
Cassandra paused, listening to something through the connection. Her face warmed faintly.
"He says he is not troublesome."
Rayleigh looked toward the floor.
"He is absolutely troublesome."
Cassandra listened again, then flushed even more.
"He says you should look in a mirror."
Daphne lost the fight against laughter.
Even Hephaestus's lips curved slightly.
Rayleigh stared at the floor with the profound disappointment of a creator betrayed by his own work.
"I see. He has been officially hers for less than an hour and already developed better aim."
Cassandra laughed properly this time.
It was still quiet, still fragile in places, but it sounded real.
That was a good enough ending for the sword's first day.
...
By the time Cassandra and Daphne left with the contract, Yumeutsutsu remained sealed in the shop until Cassandra's first formal training session could be arranged.
The sword did not complain aloud, but Rayleigh felt a faint ripple of irritation from below as he passed the display room.
He ignored it.
Hephaestus walked beside him, reading the Guild notice Eleonora had left behind.
"You know what this points toward."
Rayleigh nodded.
"Knossos, or something close enough to be equally annoying."
"You sound calm."
"I'm not calm. I'm tired, hungry, and emotionally prepared to throw myself into work instead of thinking about the underground death maze beneath the city."
"That is a very specific kind of not calm."
"I like to be precise."
Hephaestus folded the notice and looked at him.
"Before you get dragged into Guild trouble, Ais still needs help. Welf has been hovering around the forge pretending he does not want advice. Airmid sent a message asking whether the strain from Zanpakutō can affect Mind recovery. Astraea also wants to speak with you after hearing about Cassandra's sword."
Rayleigh stopped walking.
Rayleigh stared at her. "Hephaestus-sama, did you just summarize my entire week as a threat?"
"I summarized your responsibilities."
"That is worse."
"You also forged another Zanpakutō recently and have not told me its name."
Rayleigh's hand drifted toward the slender blade at his side.
Unlike Senbonzakura or Ruri'iro Kujaku, this one carried a quieter presence, elegant and dangerous in a way that felt less like a storm and more like a woman smiling behind a fan while deciding where to cut.
He had not forged it for sale.
He had forged it because too many problems around him now required precision, barriers, restructuring, and tricks sharp enough to survive Orario's growing absurdity.
"Benihime," he said.
Hephaestus looked at the blade, then back at him.
"That sounds dangerous."
Rayleigh smiled faintly.
"She is."
"Is she also troublesome?"
"Probably."
Hephaestus sighed.
"Of course she is."
Rayleigh looked toward the stairs leading down to the forge, where Welf was almost certainly pretending not to wait for him, and then toward the street where Cassandra had disappeared with Daphne.
Rayleigh rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"I miss when my biggest problem was money."
Hephaestus gave him a dry look.
"You still owe me for the ceiling."
"Thank you, Hephaestus-sama. That was exactly the emotional support I needed!"
"You're welcome."