Blacksmith Volume 2 Chapter 12

I had some dried fish with me today.

Since I was being personally taught magic by Neko-sensei, I thought it’d be nice if I gave her something.

 

The dried fish were actually given to me by Vaine.

He apparently caught a large quantity of them in a nearby river, so he was trying to get rid of his extras. When I saw the huge amount that he was giving to me, I was appalled.

He was a bit worried that I would just throw them away, but how could I? They were delicious.

As expected of the ‘fishing season’, all of the dried fish was amazing.

He even smoked them, giving them a distinctive taste. Once I started, I couldn’t stop eating them.

Remembering the fragrance that spread through my mouth, and the crunchiness of their bodies, Vaine had truly created an irresistible food that anyone would want.

 

What I mean to say is; I thought Neko-sensei would like these so I brought some for her, and with two dried fish in hand, I was standing in front of a classroom.

 

This was the room Neko-sensei told me to go to, and after knocking once, I walked in.

 

In the room I looked around for Neko-sensei but she was nowhere to be found.

Instead, there was a beautiful lady sitting in the only chair in the otherwise empty classroom.

With her elbow resting on the armrest, her hand was propped up against her cheek, and even though I had just walked in, she didn’t move the slightest bit in acknowledgement.

 

Our eyes met.

Although this is only my first impression of her, I can’t help but think, she is really beautiful.

She was so out of place here, but that’s exactly what would draw you in.

Her body was so alluring: her arms were slender and long, her legs were no exception, both showing off her skin, each nothing but perfection at first glance.

 

Turning away, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed for some reason.

I could feel my heart beating faster too, but why?

 

“Welcome.”

The lady’s beautiful voice resounded out in the silent classroom.

The room itself was tinged slightly red by the setting sun, growing slightly dark with time.

Somehow it has an erotic feel to it.

“Ah, yeah. Hello.”

“Oh? Why so respectful? You’re never like this usually.”

“Sorry, for some reason I’m a little nervous.”

“Nufufu (sfx: laugh), well you are young afterall.”

 

The lady put her hands to her lips, her figure accompanied with her soft smile was downright graceful. Yet you could clearly feel the adult sex appeal emanating from her.

I could feel my heart throb.

It was the first time I’ve ever met someone like her.

This is exactly what a man would call the ‘charm of a mature woman’.

 

“Hmm? What do you have there in your hand?”

To the lady’s question, I quickly hid the dried fish I had behind my back.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

For some reason it was awfully embarrassing to have dried fish right now.

“Well are you going to stand at the entrance forever then? Why don’t you come inside Kururi?”

“Eh?! You know my name?!”

The moment she called my name, my trembling heart felt like it was going to stop.

I felt really happy knowing that someone as beautiful as her knew me.

 

“Of course I do. Don’t you recognise me?”

“I’m sorry, I would never forget someone as beautiful as you, but I can’t say I do.”

“Nufufu, how terrible. To not remember me, I’ll have to punish you later.”

“Please don’t tease me. So who are you really?”

In response to my question, the lady tilted her head. After swinging it a bit in thought, she nodded and said:

 

“Hmm, you really don’t know who I am?”

“No, I really don’t.”

I’ve been trying to remember with every ounce of my being, but I just couldn’t.

It’d be impossible for me to forget a beauty like this! There’s no way!

 

“Really? This is unexpected, you really don’t know… Whew nyaa, there we go nyaa.”

“…”

 

After casting a spell, the giant hairball we call Neko-sensei showed up with a *Bon* (sfx: poof)

Without even looking in a mirror I could see myself. My face showing signs of joy, sadness, anger, etc. My mind had gone blank, while my heart which was throbbing moments ago had just died.

I will not think. I will not have thoughts. There is nothing. The world’s peace would be disrupted if I did so.

I could only grasp at those happy memories which were now flying away.

 

The door suddenly opened with a rattle.

“I’m here, stray. …and why does he have the face of a dead man?”

Although it seems like Arc said something behind me, it went in one ear and out the other.

“Well, today I’ll just be showing you more of my magic research nyaa. Arc-chan, Kururi-chan already witnessed my magic transformation today nyaa, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again because I’m tired meow.”

“You, just what did you see?”

“…nothing, nothing at all.”

Really.

 

“Now let’s resume our work from where we left off nyaa. Nyah need to work hard since you could only transform your hand before nyaa, and it only gets harder from here on out nyaa. Every year some students give up after transforming their hand because of the difficulty increase nyaa.”

“…understood.”

I was somehow able to muster up the energy to reply.

 

Arc immediately started practicing, but it looks like he going to struggle again like he did before.

 

*Fu~* I decided it would be best to start practicing after I sat down and calmed my mind.

I became considerably fatigued from what had just happened, I’m not sure if I’ll make any progress today.

 

“Before I forget, here, I brought these for you.”

I handed the dried fish over to Neko-sensei.

“Dried fish nyaa? I don’t hate them but… I can’t say they’re my favorite.”

…yeah, my bad. I’m sorry for bringing you cat treats.

 

After Neko-sensei received it, she started to nap in a corner of the classroom that was bathed in the sunset.

 

Well, I guess I should start practice.

To start, I’ll just repeat the steps I could accomplish last time. First, to recap I tried to transform my hand into a paw just like Neko-sensei. By now I could do it without difficulty since I’ve already done it many times before. My fear that I couldn’t do it any more after that shock had disappeared, and I was able to relax a little.

 

“Nyanyanya?! This is amazing nyaa! Its delicious nyaa!!”

Turning towards the excited voice, it was Neko-sensei who decided to start eating the dried fish as she napped.

“Kururi-chan, did you make this nyaa?”

“Unfortunately no, I recieved them from Vaine. He both caught them, and cooked them.”

“Wow, Vaine-chan made these nyaa? That’s unexpected nyaa.”

 

Okay, I clapped my hands against my face to concentrate on the transformation. Neko-sensei also said that the difficulty goes up from here on out too, so I need to focus.

 

“He was able to catch them even though they dart about like that nyaa? Vaine-chan just accomplished a feat greater than magic nyaa.”

 

I desperately tried to transform, although I was certainly wearing the magical power, to actually change my whole body at once was far harder than just my hand. The moment you try to change one part of your body, the spell expires everywhere else and changes you back to normal.

 

“It’s so good nyaa! I can’t stop nyaa, it’s so delicious nyaa! It smells wonderful nyaa, and the aftertaste is perfect nyaa!”

 

I could feel it work, but at the same time I couldn’t. Although it’s hard, I had the self-confidence I could do it by the end of the day.

 

“Nyanyanya, it’s too good nyaa! I need more nyaa! I can’t live without it nyaa!”

 

Would you shut up already?!!

I shouldn’t have brought the dried fish, I’m not pleased with this result.

Arc doesn’t seem to be in a good mood either, or is it just me?

 

No, no… I should be concentrating right now.

With all my strength I exhaled, and operated the magic to the image in my head.

 

At that moment, both my left and right-hands transformed into paws at the same time.

Huh?! Isn’t this actually a great result?!

 

“Neko-sensei…”

“Another success nyaa? That’s amazing nyaa. Kururi-chan, you really are a genius nyaa.”

It was a success, but it was still really difficult. I wonder how many more times I’ll need to practice before I can even do this normally.

 

“Next, you should try to grow a tail nyaa. It’ll be easier to focus on the outside first before slowly transforming the rest of the body.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Now I imagined growing a tail like Neko-sensei.

I collected magic around my butt, and tried to keep the magical power around my hands sustained as I did so.

*Supo!* (sfx: Pop!), with that a cat tail neatly popped into existence.

 

“That’s amazing nyaa, really amazing nyaa! Meow, you should just keep transforming your body steadily.”

 

First it was my foot, then my shoulders, then my legs to my thigh, and then my elbows.

My body’s transformation was gradually proceeding as well.

Finally, I was able to successfully transform my head.

It went so well I even scared myself a bit.

Why was I so successful? I can’t even explain it.

 

“Neko-sensei, I did it nyaa!!” Wait… nyaa?!

“That’s amazing nyaa. This is the first time I’ve seen someone actually complete it besides myself nyaa, and to learn it so quickly too nyaa.”

“Thanks for everything nyaa!”

Huh?! The endings of my sentences are…

 

“Sensei, something’s wrong with how I speak nyaa.”

“There’s nothing wrong nyaa. That’s normal nyaa.”

“…so that’s how it is nyaa.”

Somehow, my mood seems to have sunk quite a bit.

 

“Meow try to compress the magic nyaa.”

“Compression nyaa? I’ll give it a shot nyaa.”

I tried to compress it as I was told.

My body instantly started to shrink.

Just as my body shrunk to about half its size, I stopped after hesitating a little.

 

“You can be even smaller if you want to nyaa. So what do you think nyaa? Isn’t it amazing nyaa?”

“It’s amazing nyaa!”

 

After I replied with a excited voice, my magic power seems to have fluctuated a bit, and I returned to my usual appearance as a human being. “Ah.”

Though I was a little relieved to be back to normal, in both form and size.

 

“Meow you just need to practice on maintaining it. For meow try aiming for one to two hours.”

“Yes!”

This is great, I was able to do it in the end.

 

Though it seems the prince still hasn’t been able to do it yet.

Of course, I was caught immediately after and pressed for the trick to do it, but I just replied it was a secret since I didn’t really know.

 

Neko-sensei eventually lost interest in my success, and I was now giving tips to Arc as we walked back to the dorms.

We continued practicing until evening, but in the end he was only able to transform his hands.

 

“That’s not bad nyaa. Close, but not quite nyaa. You keep making the same mistakes prince, nyaa.” This ‘study group’ we have seems to have become a habit after Neko-sensei’s classes end.

I was a bit worried that the prince was going to come to my room again tonight, but he didn’t in the end. That’s a relief.

 

Even so, I wonder why I was able to do it so smoothly?

Is it because I got closer with Neko-sensei today?

…oh well, I don’t really want to think about it.

I headed back to my room, and immediately fell asleep.

 

In the end, I had nightmare that night.

“Uwah!!! The beautiful lady is Neko-sensei, and Neko-sensei is the beautiful lady!!! Uwahhhhhh!!!!”

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