Lucy, who had been waiting to teleport, frowned as she rembered the perverted apostle and the other trash who had clung to her when she left the church.
The starting point of that chaos was the perverted apostle. Up until then, he had been so grateful, constantly bowing and saying, "If you need any help, call anyti." But in front of the perverted followers of the church, he suddenly made his request.
"Lady Arlen, would you grant permission to express the inspiration I gained from you as art?"
The perverted apostle had twisted his words, but the intention was clear. Just like he had once painted my portrait, he wanted to create an artwork with as the subject.
When I heard that, I imdiately rejected the idea with a serious expression.
What did they think would happen if I let these crazy people run wild?
When I heard that the perverted apostle had been singing songs about , I was already terribly embarrassed. I didn’t want to experience anything worse than that!
The apostle backed off reluctantly, but the church’s perverted followers didn’t.
Hearing my rejection, their faces fell as if the world had ended, and soon, one by one, they began kneeling beside .
“O incarnation of the Goddess! Please! Please grant us your permission!”
“Please, I beg you! You may take my life, but please allow my inspiration to be expressed!”
“Please reconsider! I will never cause you any harm!”
The sight of grown n bowing their heads and crying in front of a girl was so disgusting it was almost unbearable.
I wondered if this was what it felt like to be a noble during the Joseon Dynasty, hearing their subjects beg for rcy, but even so, my resolve did not waver.
In fact, seeing that spectacle only made my resolve stronger. The mont I gave them permission, I could already imagine the kind of ridiculous things that would happen.
When I heard that they were willing to give half of the profits from the art, with the rest being donated to the world, I was a little tempted, but even then, I was able to reject their offer.
The mont I broke down was because of one painting that the perverted apostle showed .
"Lady, please, at least look at this draft before making your decision."
He carefully pulled out a piece of paper from his coat, and on it was a drawing of looking into a mirror and puffing up my cheeks.
The image, drawn with the Aesthetic Sense skill, depicted trying to appreciate my own beauty.
I rembered just having woken up from fainting not long ago, and I couldn’t understand how he could create a picture so detailed, almost like a photograph.
Even though he must have rushed to complete it, why was it so beautifully done without any flaws?
Staring at the picture with a complex feeling, the perverted apostle proudly spoke.
“Such beauty should not remain only in our mories!”
The perverted apostle shouted without an ounce of malice, but to , his words were clearly a threat.
Not only had he seen acting coy in front of a mirror, but he also wanted to immortalize it in a painting. Wasn't this an attempt to socially assassinate ?
Proudly boasting about having more paintings like this, the perverted apostle pushed to the brink. I couldn’t bear to watch my personal history spread to others.
But after discussing with my grandfather, I imposed a few restrictions. Whether they would be effective or not, that was yet to be seen.
“Lady Arlen, you may enter now.”
Having left the church, I chose to visit the Teresha Empire’s Arena instead of heading straight to the Arlen Territory.
With not much ti left before I returned to the academy, I needed to find a replacent for my broken armor.
In the anti, I could also see if my Aesthetic Sense could help in selecting the right gear.
As expected, the people in the arena streets recognized . Not only did my appearance stand out, but the things I had done there were too nurous to forget.
Perhaps because of that, as soon as it beca known that I was looking for armor, all sorts of street vendors ca rushing to direct to their blacksmiths.
“At our forge…”
“We’ve been supplying weapons to the territory for a long ti…”
“If you co to our forge…”
I had planned to look around at several forges from the start, so I followed them and inspected the weapons on display.
To sum it up quickly, there were no proper forges among the flashy ones.
They were decent enough, but that was about it.
Even without Aesthetic Sense, I would have skipped most of them. There were a few decent forges, but even their weapons weren’t that impressive from my perspective with Aesthetic Sense.
It would be better to repair my broken armor than to wear sothing like that, so I simply passed them by.
As I visited one forge after another, I began to sense the atmosphere of the blacksmiths growing more hostile.
“What’s the problem? This armor was praised by the Lord himself!”
It was obvious what the blacksmith was thinking.
Since I didn’t say anything and just shook my head, he probably thought I was a naive kid playing around.
But the truth was, I was staying silent because I was worried it might lead to a fight.
The other blacksmiths watching this scene seed to think the sa way, their eyes sharp with tension.
Do they really think this is good?
For an average person, the armor wasn’t bad, but for soone like , it was far too shabby.
Hmm. It feels like a waste of ti to keep looking at the goods from these amateurs, and the way they look down on , thinking I’m small and cute, is starting to annoy . Maybe it’s ti to set them straight.
“Hey, ugly old man, don’t you see anything wrong with this?”
“...What do you an by ‘wrong’?”
“You don’t see it? Hmm, shorty, what do you think? Does this look good to you?”
“What are you saying…”
“Anyone else? No one? Is no one going to speak?”
I looked around at the other blacksmiths, but none of them stepped forward. They were all too busy watching each other’s reactions to say anything.
I thought blacksmiths would be more eccentric and unpredictable, but it seems like reality is a bit different.
This is boring.
With no one standing up, I pouted and grabbed the armor in front of , crumpling it with my hands.
The sight of the armor, made of fairly good tal, breaking so easily made the room fall silent.
No one expected it to break so easily.
“How can you be working as a blacksmith with skills like this? I guess all of you here are just amateurs.”
I tossed the bent armor in front of the blacksmith and, smirking, tapped his chest lightly before speaking with a mocking voice.
“Spend your life making stuff like this. But don’t co out into the streets. If you see any real goods, you’ll regret ever stepping outside.”
Leaving the trembling blacksmith behind, no one tried to stop as I walked out.
They knew that they could end up in the sa position as him, so they didn’t dare intervene.
If I had known it would co to this, I should have just gone straight to Arlen Territory. What a waste of ti.
Anyway, in a few months, I would be looking for semi-final level armor, so maybe I’ll just repair what I already have for now.
‘Then maybe I should just not wear armor? At my level, wearing any regular armor would just get in the way anyway.’
As I continued discussing with my grandfather, still searching for a faint hope, I spotted sothing shining in an alley in the blacksmith district and tilted my head.
That looks... similar to the feeling I got from the sword’s hand.
With curiosity in mind, I trusted my Aesthetic Sense and headed toward the alley.
The forge inside the alley was impossible to describe in a positive light.
The shabby, old building looked like it would collapse the mont a heavy rain hit.
However, the weapons on display inside the forge were different.
The worn-out weapons had no flashy decorations, but each one was of exceptional quality, enough to make any warrior covet them.
Even the mangy dog and the bald man were clearly struggling to hold on to one of the weapons with wide eyes.
“Custor, we apologize, but why would the Lady of Arlen co to such a humble place…”
“You fool, why would soone as noble as co to this filthy place?”
I flashed the token I received as a reward for winning in the arena, and the blacksmith’s eyes trembled.
“What is this? Is this not enough? You’re greedy despite being so shabby…”
“No! Of course not! How could the token given by the lord be insufficient! But, our master is currently away, so we are not producing any weapons at the mont.”
After hearing the explanation that they were not making any weapons but would customize the ones already made, I sighed deeply.
I had finally found a decent place, but they weren’t doing business right now?
I was really frustrated, but the quality of the weapons was so good that I knew I couldn’t find anything better elsewhere.
Hmm. Hmmm.
“Well, then just bring out the best armor you have made. Even if you can’t do anything else, you should at least manage that.”
After thinking for a while, I finally decided to compromise with reality.
The armor they had already made would surely be better than the junk made by the other blacksmiths.
“Armor...?”
The blacksmith, after looking up and down, thought for a while before going inside and bringing out a set of armor.
The blacksmith rambled on about the tal and its features, but I wasn’t listening.
I had already decided to buy it even before he started talking.
What really caught my attention was the seal stamped on the armor—an artisan’s seal that could only be found on items crafted by the legendary blacksmiths in the Soul Academy’s world!
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