Pawahara Seijo no Osananajimi to Zetsuen Shitara, Nanimokamo ga Umaku Iku Yō ni Natte Saikyō no Bōke

[The Number One Genius of the Village]

“Is she still depressed?”

“Yeah. The fact that she was captivated by Hesperios gave her quite a shock, apparently.”

When we took a glance inside the workshop, what came into our sight was the figure of a petite dwarf woman holding her knees and dropping her shoulders—Nazarie-san.

Yes, she was the one who had her chin lifted up by Hesperios and was swinging her hammer around attacking her own friends.

After defeating Hesperios, I did my best to treat the injured with Magmell.

Perhaps because the speed of our coming to the rescue, no one died fortunately, causing us to sigh and pat our chests in relief.

Of course, we received words of gratitude from the villagers, including the village chief, and the half-destroyed village was immediately undergoing reconstruction work, but one person, Nazarie-san, was still really depressed.

She was the number one blacksmith in the village and her skill at blacksmithing was so great that she was called ‘Matchless Genius’. When Hesperios came attacking, she went out with great confidence to repel him, yet she was captivated by him in no time, committing a big blunder.

Because of that, she had been like this since yesterday, telling everyone to leave her alone.

“This is troubling. According to the village chief, she’s apparently the only one able to meet your expectations, and we need to get you a new weapon as soon as possible given the fact that your Hinokaguzuchi has shattered.”

“Well, can’t be helped. She tried to stand up against the enemy in order to protect her friends, yet she got manipulated and hurt those she wanted to protect. Anyone would get shocked by that.”

“Yeah. But well, in her case, there may be another factor, though…”

“?”

As I tilted my head to Zana’s words that sounded like implying something, Tirna, who had been helping with the village’s reconstruction work, approached us and said, “How’s Nazarie?”

“Hmm, we can’t tell at this point… Though I think she’ll calm down after a while…”

Then.

“—Mm, then now is your time to act, Exa. Give Nazarie some headpats.”

“Huh?”

Tirna’s words came out of nowhere that I became wide-eyed in shock.

However, Zana seemed to agree with her as she laughed and said, “True. That might be for the best.”

“Wait, hey, huh? A-are you being serious now?”

“But of course. You’ve made so many saintesses… no, women smile. I’m sure you can bring smile to her face as well.”

“O-ou…”

Since she had said that much, I had no choice but to nod.

“Do your best, Exa.”

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

Tirna also gave me her support, so I became feeling like I could do it somehow.

――Yosh, I’m going to do it.

I’ll make her smile as wide as she possibly can.

Nodding inwardly, I went to the side of Nazarie-san who was still hanging her head in shame alone in the workshop, prepared myself mentally, and patted her head, saying, “It’s okay, Nazarie-san. I’ve beat that guy Hesperios.”

But.

――PAH.

“W-what are you doing all of a sudden!? Are you mocking me!? That’s gotta be it, right!? Waaahhh!? I hate youuu!?”

“Ehh…”

I ended up receiving a triple-hit combo of getting my hand shaken off with great force, making a girl cry, and getting told I was hated to my face.

Huh, wasn’t this a total failure…?

◇ ◇

Afterward, I managed to calm Nazarie-san down with a cup of sweet hot milk and was able to have a conversation with her little by little.

“I see. In short, you wanted to defeat Hesperios by yourself, didn’t you?”

“That’s right… Since everyone in the village called me a genius… I thought I had to live up to their expectation… So I stood against that guy with my new hammer, but… to think he’d be an incubus…”

Gloom, Nazarie-san slumped her shoulders, and I gave a bitter smile.

Well normally, women could never escape the charm of an incubus.

Even if Nazarie-san wielded her best weapon, the matchup was simply too bad…

“Please don’t be that depressed. I probably would have ended up the same if the opponent was a succubus.”

By the way, ‘succubus’ was the female version of incubus, a demi-human race that could dominate males.

In other words, they were lewd onee-sans.

“Right!? I’d have won brilliantly if the opponent wasn’t an incubus, too! Yes, I just happened to be out of luck this time!”

“Y-yeah. So please don’t fret over that kind of guy. He’s already no more than dust, anyway.”

As I cheered her up, Nazarie-san nodded vigorously, “Yeah,” and said, “I’ve regained some energy thanks to you. You have my gratitude, youngster. And I’m sorry for earlier. I thought for sure you were just mocking me.”

“No way. I would never do that to someone who is so depressed.”

“Umu, I believe you. You’re not that kind of man, my intuition tells me that.

“As such,” Nazarie-san puffed up her chest and said, “I’d like you to allow me to introduce myself again. I’m Nazarie—the number one blacksmith of this village.”

“I’m Exa. You can think of me as the mediator between the saintesses.”

“Umu, I’ve got it. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Harem King.”

“Yes, likewise… hm? Harem King…?”

It may not necessarily be wrong, but that kind of nickname is a bit…

As I made a melancholic expression, Nazarie-san somehow began fidgeting, “A-and…” and said, “uhh, if it’s okay with you, can you pat my head again…? I reflexively shook off your hand earlier but, it was kind of comfortable actually, so…”

“Haha, I understand.” Nodding, I patted Nazarie-san’s head again.

How should I put it, she was surprisingly straightforward, and I found that cute about her.