Page 149 of A Soul to Touch

“I was hoping this would never happen,” he growled. “Why do I even have this function when my tentacles already lock us?”

“I don’t know, but I guess that means we’re stuck for the moment.” Then she forced a laugh as she said, “Let’s look on the bright side. At least we’ll get to spend some quality time talking for a bit.”

She guessed now would be the time to ask him anything she wanted since he couldn’t get away from her.

Then her lips tightened. “But you better pet me the entire time to make it up to me, you jerk.”

Faunus tipped his head to the side as he watched Mayumi use a clamp to pull a metal rod from a blazing fire.

The large area at the back of her cottage between the shed and her spring bath was a smithing station fitted with a furnace, anvil, and metal workbench. There was an awning shelter above to keep everything dry.

She’d already smelted her own ores of iron into liquid and poured them into a mould for her rods.

He was curious about what she was doing, especially when she held the metal rod upright and began smacking the end of it into an anvil. She explained that she was upsetting the metal at the orange, hot end of the rod, but he didn’t quite understand how metal could feel emotions.

Apparently, that wasn’t what she meant when he asked her and instead meant that she was compressing the hot end so it would be denser. He just nodded his head as though he understood when he absolutely did not.

She began shaping the end so that it was flattened into what she called a fin. While this piece of shaped rod was heating back up in her furnace, she grabbed a new one and began doing thesame thing.

There were thirty pieces she was working with, all at the same time.

He was thankful she was wearing thick gloves to protect herself, as well as leather from head to toe. The area was hot despite them being outside, and he could see trickles of sweat running down her temples and neck.

The soft glow from the fire and the rod she was working with lit up the features of her face. She appeared serious and stern, and he wondered if that was because of this morning.

Unlatching from her had been painful for them both. Her because of the sharp pain he was sure she’d felt, though he’d immediately healed her so it wasn’t prolonged, and him because he hadn’t liked hurting her.

Faunus had apologised profusely, and she’d just laughed it off afterwards, but she’d come out here and had been working ever since.

She was unusually quiet.

“Why are you doing this?” Faunus asked as he stepped closer, crowding her before she crudely elbowed him out of the way.

“I used most of my arrows last night while we were hunting Demons. I’m making more.” She curled the flat fins when they were hot again, bashing them to manipulate them into a cone until they were ready to be shoved onto a different kind of rod to shape them further. “Smithing is a trade most Demonslayers must excel at before they can rise through the ranks. There is no point in being able to shoot a weapon or cut with it if you’re unable to make them yourself.”

She wiped her brow with her sleeve and then began the process of using a triangular metal brace to cut the arrowheads she was working with away from the iron rod. She then threw those pieces back into the furnace so they would glow red hot again.

The tinging bangs she produced with her metal mallet rang in his ears. It was disorientating, but he remained with her in order to watch. He’d bear the way it pounded his mind, so long as he could stay and watch her.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she continued. “It’s tiring, and this isn’t the best station to produce the finest work, but when you’re just making arrows or doing minor repairs to your weapons, it’s more than enough.”

She used her clamp to pull the loose arrowheads from the fire once more so she could flatten the closed, rounded ends – the cone side was open to slot onto an arrow shaft – making them almost leaf shaped.

“Does that mean you made your sword?” he asked, seeing that what she was making now looked much more... barbaric in comparison.

“No. Items such as my sword... I can’t replicate that quality of work. It’s one of the best swords anyone can get their hands on.” She looked at him from the side. “It was courtesy of my father that I obtained it. He had it made for me when I reached Silver rank to congratulate me.” Mayumi then looked down as she raised her mallet and then brought it down, her lips pursing momentarily before relaxing. “He was never big on words, maybe I got that part of his personality, but it was his way of giving me a precious gift. He valued practicality over the heartfelt.”

“It is hard to tell whether or not you liked your father,” Faunus stated.

A dark chuckle left her lips.

“I cared very deeply for my father. He was tough on me, and maybe those who saw us from the outside would think he was abusive in the way he trained or disciplined me, but it was never done out of malice. He wanted me to reach my full potential, and he wanted me to outlive him. If he had been uncaring,he wouldn’t have done everything he did. He wouldn’t have travelled to one of the best blacksmiths in the north and had my sword made for me. Even with his leg injury, he’d limped his damn way through one of the most dangerous mountain paths just for me. Hard not to feel fondly for someone who risked their life just to give me a sword worth more than most of what I own collectively.”

I wonder what kind of relationship I would have with my own father had I been born with humanity.

His memory of the beginning of his life was foggy, and much of it was of hunting various moving creatures until his mind began to... think.

Leaving them to cool in oil, which she said would help to make sure they didn’t rust, she went inside to make herself some food.

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