Reincarnated as an SSS-Ranked Blacksmith Who Refuses to Forge Weapons-Chapter 224. You Deserve Good Things

For a moment, the Brotherhood stood on the cliff in the quiet that followed. Then Felix made a noise like a tiny, tired animal, and his Luck System called up a rocking chair that appeared right behind him and caught him just as his legs gave out.

Not many people had the energy to laugh, but a few did.

No one was surprised that the cottage was bigger inside than it looked from the outside. There were enough rooms for everyone, medical supplies that were exactly what they needed, and a kitchen that Lylia moved toward on muscle memory alone before she even took off her cloak.

Seraphine went to bed right away. Her breathing was steady but shallow, and the frostbite on her arms and throat made pale crystal patterns that would take a long time to fade.

Priya's healing from the arena had kept her alive. Now it was up to her body and the slow, steady work of getting better.

Marina sat on the edge of a bed and let Greg wrap her ribs without saying anything, which meant she was hurting more than she wanted to let on.

She watched the window while he worked. When he was done, she put her hand over his for a few seconds and didn't let go.

That first day, few people talked. Dorin made stew to calm his shaking hands.

Elwen found a small workshop behind the cottage. He stood in the doorway and looked at the tools on the bench without touching them.

Felix's Luck System kept making housecats at random times. By nightfall, Donetta had arranged all seven of them on a blanket by the fire, as if she needed something to do.

Greg sat still in a chair by the window for most of sixteen hours.

He held Bork's iron clasp in one hand and Mira's headband in the other. He looked out at the ocean and let himself be exhausted.

The memorial took place on the second day.

No one really planned it. Dorin started it by sitting down in the main room and quietly saying he wanted to talk about his grandson.

Everyone else came in from where they had been until they were all there.

There were no bodies. There couldn't be, but they had stories, and that was enough.

Marina went first. She always did this when she was saying something that really cost her something: she twisted her hands together in her lap and looked off into the distance.

Marina said, "Mira once rearranged my things based on what she called 'romantic resonance.'"

"I found my best dagger in the kitchen, next to the finest cooking knives. I was so mad... I told her it was a working blade, not cutlery." She let out a small breath that sounded like a laugh. "But she was right."

"I thought about Lylia every time I used the dagger after that." She knew before I did, so she put my dagger in the kitchen to make sure I would figure it out."

Lylia was quiet for a long time before she said anything.

"She called me Mistress Lylia even when I told her she didn't have to," she said. Her voice was steady, but just. "She said it gave her a sense of place... of belonging to something."

She pressed her lips together. "She felt as if she were my daughter.... I know the logical explanation: she was a spirit born from magic and love, she lived for less than a year, and she was never human."

"But still... she feels like my daughter, and I let her dissolve into that sphere. Part of me keeps asking what kind of mother would let that happen."

Marina said without hesitation, "The kind who respects her child's choice."

Lylia finally broke down, just like she'd been trying not to for two days. Marina sat down next to her, and they didn't say anything else for a while.

Dorin lit up his pipe. The smoke rose up in the quiet light.

"He was three years old when he first tried to pick up a hammer," Dorin said. "The handle was longer than he was."

"His father tried to take it away from him and told him he wasn't ready... Bork bit him hard enough to leave a mark and wouldn't let go of that hammer for the rest of the afternoon." He turned the pipe in his fingers. "I told his dad, 'Let the boy forge. He's got the spirit.'"

The dwarf, who was old, looked at Greg.

"He grew up to be everything I hoped for him. And then he found his way here, and he became more than that." His face showed that he was both broken and proud at the same time. "Thank you for taking care of my grandson when his own family couldn't see how valuable he was."

Greg couldn't say anything about it. He held the clasp in his hand and looked at the people around him.

Finally, he said, "I'll carry them... Everything they chose, everything they were... I'll make it mean something."

It wasn't very clear. It wasn't even close to enough. But it looked like everyone in the room knew what he meant, which was completely and without reservation.

Dorin looked at him over the bowl of his pipe and slowly nodded once, as if to say, "I believe you."

...

Three days later, Marina found Greg on the small porch of the cottage, watching the ocean turn gold in the late afternoon light.

She sat next to him and stared at the water for a while before she spoke.

"Seraphine meant every word," she said. "When she froze the god and said she loved you, that wasn't crazy."

Greg said, "I know."

"And Elwen... She ruined two hundred years of her family's history to keep you safe... That's not hard to understand."

"I know that as well."

Marina looked at him. "What are you going to do about it?"

She raised an eyebrow when Greg was quiet for a while.

Finally, he asked, "What do you want me to do about it?"

She laughed, a short, real sound that made her smile. "Greg, I'm not going to be jealous..."

'I've seen Seraphine fall for you since the day you gave her a temperature-controlled teacup and told her you made it to see if comfort could be portable..."

"You know that she stared at that cup for an hour." Marina shook her head. "I've been noticing for months. All of us have."

"I didn't mean to—"

"I know you didn't. That's why it happened." She reached over and took his hand. "Here's what I want to tell you."

"I spoke with Lylia after Mira. We had a real talk about our desires and the meaning of all this." She stopped. "What we want is you."

"Alive... present... and whole. If that means sharing you with two women who love you and would throw themselves between you and a god without thinking twice, which we all just saw happen, then we're both fine with that."

Greg opened his mouth. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Shut up," Marina said, not in a rude way. "You deserve good things."

"You're a blacksmith who makes things for the home and keeps saving civilization by accident."

"You're the kindest person I've ever met, but you also have no idea when someone loves you, which is both annoying and endearing." She held his hand. "When Seraphine wakes up and Elwen comes out of that workshop, you need to tell them both that you heard what they said."

"Then you need to figure out how you feel. If you feel what I think you feel, we'll make it work."

"The four of you would—"

"The Brotherhood makes things that are impossible work." Marina simply said, "That's what we always do, right?"

She kissed him then, the way she had wanted to for a long time but hadn't told herself. The sun had dropped another degree toward the horizon, and the ocean had changed from gold to copper when she pulled back.

"Talk to them," she said.