God Of Crafting

"Now, just stay quiet and try your best to look dignified."

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With this single instruction, Chihiro turned towards the doors and grew as silent as he became still.

He wasn't made to wait for long, though.

Before I could even count to ten—assuming I ever bothered to do so in the first place—the carriage doors swung open, pulled away by the very same butler that came to greet us back in the border city.

Right now, however, rather than being the one to guide us around, he simply stood by the side, perfectly fulfilling Chihiro's instruction from just a moment ago, even though they were clearly not aimed at him.

"Let's go." Seeing her dad take the first step outside, Claire quickly grabbed my hand and gave it a tight squeeze followed by a bright smile. She then let go of my hand and followed her dad, taking just a second at the carriage's doorstep to fix her clothes before slowly stepping out.

'You can do this, man,' I thought, pulling on my robes to straighten them out before running my fingers through my hair. Then, having no further excuse to delay the inevitable, I took in a shallow breath before following in Claire's and Chihiro's steps.

I first came up to the carriage's step, taking a moment to let my eyes adjust to the bright light of the outside. Then, after casting a quick, sweeping look across the area, I breathed out and finally stepped down to the street.

"…come into the Corian palace," a middle-aged man in butler's clothes announced, already speaking by the time I left the carriage.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

'Could you make it any more obvious?' I thought, barely sparing the man a single glance. 'Since you've already decided to treat me like some sort of idiot, how about you have the balls to make your displeasure obvious?'

I didn't need to be an etiquette genius to realize that welcoming the guests before I'd fully embarked wasn't something that was supposed to happen.

That is, for as long as we followed the naive assumption of the Corian clan being perfectly happy with my presence on the premises of their estate.

Without this naive misconception, however, the message was clear.

Chihiro was an honored guest, who had all the rights to visit his wife's clan.

Claire, a direct descendant of the clan's bloodline, was more than just welcome on its grounds.

When it came to me, however…?

I was either some random tourist making use of the opportunity to be a nuisance to everyone around me, or, in the way worse case, I was like a stray dog lusting after the swan.

And while the clan could do nothing about Claire's fancy to have me by her side, they were more than happy to express their displeasure in those small, sneaky ways, clearly designed to be even more humiliating by making their jeers into something they didn't expect me to catch on.

'Well, I'm here just for business and Claire's sake, so,' I looked around, at two rows of maids and butlers creating a corridor for the three of us to walk up on, and a group of much fancier-looking men and women gathered at the entrance to what had to be the biggest building in the entire estate.

Still, for how serious and dignified they all looked, I just couldn't help a small smirk flashing on my lips for but a slight second.

'Filthy barbarians.'

With just this single look, I could tell that quite a huge chunk of stuff that became common sense in the modern side of the world—how people's customs advanced along with advancements in society at large and the deepening of the population's understanding of the world around them…

Those customs, things I would consider pretty damn fundamental… They were absent in this place.

'Now I get what was that unpleasant feeling,' I thought, relaxing all of my facial muscles, only to stop just a few feet shy of Chihiro before closing my hands behind my back, clearing my face of any and all expression, and then just… impassively staring ahead, paying absolutely no one a single iota of my mind.

'I thought this was some sort of a defensive formation or something, but to think they are all… just dirty!'

It was the smell of this place that was throwing me off so much. And it wasn't even because it was some sort of awful, gut-twisting odor.

No, the truth couldn't be any further away from it.

By no means have I ever smelled something as nice as the air at the foot of the palace before in my life. But…

This kind of smell, I was long accustomed to it, back from my times at the cramped condo when I lived surrounded by older people. People who didn't have the strength to keep themselves as clean and hygienic as they did in the past, resorting to use all sorts of chemical sprays to merely mask the bad smell, as opposed to getting rid of its source.

Regardless of the spray used, it would always create this sickeningly sweet, corrosive smell that appeared to numb the back of my nose.

As great as the air smelled here, in one—if not the most—representative place in the whole estate… It was just another kind of this familiar, corrosive sweetness.

'Filthy animals,' I thought, doing my absolute best not to let my disgust show on my face. 'You are all young and healthy, so what's stopping you from getting a damned shower?!'

"Despite the clan's doubts, you've proved your qualifications to step upon the sanctified soil of the ancestral lands. As such, both you and your wards, we welcome you to the land of the truth-seekers and invite you all into our humble abode."

By now, it was an entirely different person speaking. Yet, even then, I could still sense their hostile eyes locking in on my face for a moment, before moving on, fully disregarding my existence.

'I mean, it's better if they all ignore me, but…' I gritted my teeth a bit, still struggling not to see all those men and women as but filthy barbarians. 'It still stings!'

I breathed out.

'My eyes, that is.'