Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

pain.

It was as if something was constantly stretching open his brain, and an indescribable pain swirled within it.

Emiya Shirou clutched his head and struggled to open his eyes.

It seems I've messed up again.

We shouldn't be so engrossed in forging.

Emiya Shirou inwardly berated himself. If he had encountered someone with malicious intent, his unguarded unconsciousness would have made him nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter.

Emiya Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose to cheer himself up.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the throbbing and cracking sensation in his head was making Emiya Shirou feel terrible.

"Squeak—!"

At the very moment Shirou Emiya woke up, the door was pushed open, revealing a beautiful woman dressed as a man with red hair, an eyepatch over her right eye, a white top, black trousers, and black over-the-knee high-heeled boots.

She looked at Emiya Shirou, who had just sat up from the bed, with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"Thanks--"

Emiya Shirou thanked the woman the moment he saw her in men's clothing.

The fact that I was able to appear here unharmed is naturally the result of the help of others.

Do you feel any physical or mental abnormalities?

She walked slowly to Shirou Emiya, pinched her chin with her hand, and fell into deep thought as she looked at Shirou Emiya, who seemed to be fine.

"I just have a bit of a headache, but otherwise there's nothing seriously wrong."

Emiya Shirou shook his head in response to the woman dressed as a man, then his expression changed slightly as if he suddenly remembered something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to watch your forging process. If there's anything I can do—"

Emiya Shirou apologized to the cross-dressing beauty in a very sincere tone, regardless of whether she minded or not, but spying on others like this was not a good thing in itself.

Moreover, Shirou Emiya also learned her forging skills, which might be her ancestral forging techniques, a skill she relied on for her livelihood and that she couldn't pass on to outsiders.

Regardless of the circumstances, Shirou Emiya's behavior was wrong.

He could have left without the beautiful woman in men's clothing noticing, but instead chose to secretly learn someone else's forging skills. Shirou Emiya deeply condemned himself for this.

"No, it's nothing serious. But really, besides a headache, you don't feel anything else?"

She has lived in this world for over a hundred million years. Although there is no genius in her current clan who can understand her forging techniques, it does not mean that there has been no genius who could understand her forging techniques in the past hundred million years.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have known the consequences of interpreting the gods' forging techniques in this way.

Because the geniuses she encountered suffered irreversible brain damage after witnessing her forging skills.

Among those people, some were mentally unstable, while others had completely forgotten the forging techniques and were no longer able to learn them.

In short, after that, she rarely displayed her forging skills in front of ordinary people.

However, aside from the headache, Shirou Emiya seemed to have no other aftereffects, which surprised her a little.

Emiya Shirou nodded affirmatively.

Having gone through so much, Shirou Emiya is very clear about his physical condition.

There are only three main types of injuries on my body right now.

The first is the irreversible damage to Shirou Emiya's soul, which even with the help of the Holy Grail could not repair.

Even now, when Shirou Emiya uses projection magic, he still experiences intense pain all over his body, but he has long been accustomed to this pain.

Even when Unlimited Blade Works is activated, Shirou Emiya can act as if nothing is wrong.

The second is the life force that Avalon cannot replenish due to its constant overexploitation.

The tangled white hair on my head is a sign of my weakened vitality.

The third is the activation of the markings; Emiya Shirou has been mortgaging his future.

This is one of the reasons why Shirou Emiya was able to grow to such a level of strength in just a few months.

Of course, even with a clear understanding of his own physical condition, Shirou Emiya did not back down when faced with danger.

"That's really strange!"

Seeing Shirou Emiya's answer, she didn't ask any further questions. If everything was really alright, that would certainly be a good thing.

She was just worried that Shirou Emiya might have some lingering effects that she wasn't aware of.

“My name is Hephaestus, and I am the goddess of blacksmithing—”

Hephaestus, seeing that Shirou Emiya seemed to be in good health, began to introduce herself.

Hephaestus could tell from his eyes that Shirou Emiya did not recognize her.

After all, the number of gods in this world is relatively small compared to that of humans, but the total number is still quite large.

It's impossible for everyone to remember all the gods, especially since many gods rarely show their faces.

If I didn't introduce myself, many people might not recognize me.

For example, there's that virgin goddess who keeps coming to my place to freeload.

"My name is Emiya Shirou—"

Emiya Shirou also got off the bed and responded to Hephaestus very politely.

"Hephaestus? Isn't that the Greek god of forging?"

Emiya Shirou had a lot of questions in his mind.

In reality, Shirou Emiya was not familiar with Greek mythology.

But the reason he understood Hephaestus as the Greek god of forging was because he still possessed an empty shell called the "small world surrounding the heavens".

And the one who forged this shield was none other than Hephaestus.

Emiya Shirou naturally immediately thought of the meaning behind the name.

But, the Goddess of Forging?

Wasn't Hephaestus a man?

Despite having such doubts, Shirou Emiya did not show them.

After all, during the time of Tokyo Butei High School, Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin were real people, Jeanne d'Arc was already in her thirties, and Vlad the Vampire was a werewolf after his transformation.

Emiya Shirou had gotten used to the differences between other worlds and his own.

Moreover, in that parallel universe, Mordred also indicated that King Arthur was a woman.

Since Arthur can be a woman, it's not so surprising that Hephaestus, the goddess of forging, is also a woman.

However, if he really is the god of forging, then it is not strange that he fell into a coma after absorbing the god's forging knowledge.

Hephaestus was naturally unaware of Shirou Emiya's inner thoughts.

"Alright, now that you're alright, you should explain why you're in my forging workshop!"

As a deity, she naturally wouldn't take such a trivial matter to heart, but there were some things that still needed to be clarified.

That's the forging workshop of a god herself. If everyone could enter her forging workshop as easily as Shirou Emiya, wouldn't she, as a god, have no dignity?

She's not some kind of super goddess; she has to work every day, and she could earn who knows how much just selling weapons could make her every day.

She still needed to clarify things regarding her workshop.

Chapter 422 The Blood of God That Could Not Be Used

"Um, if I said I accidentally ended up in your workshop by opening a door, would you believe me?"

Shirou Emiya scratched his head, unsure how to explain it to Hephaestus.

Lying is something Shirou Emiya is extremely bad at.

He is better at winning people over with sincerity.

"Really?"

Hephaestus looked at Shirou Emiya with interest. Although it sounded like a lie, Shirou Emiya's expression suggested that he wasn't lying.

Having lived for over a hundred million years, she couldn't possibly be unable to distinguish between lies, could she?

"Do you remember what that door looked like?"

"The rustic wooden door, devoid of any patterns, with a gradually darkening base, looked heavy and exuded an eerie aura, making one feel no desire to open it."

Emiya Shirou thought about it carefully and realized that this door seemed to be different from the one he had seen at the beginning.

When you first saw this wooden door, it was incredibly black, but now the blackness has gradually faded, revealing its original appearance.

"It doesn't sound like a lie."

Hephaestus nodded slightly.

It might be a prank by some god, but she didn't know which god would do such a thing for the time being.

"Your forging talent is quite good. Did you forge that armor?"

She didn't doubt Shirou Emiya much, nor did she harbor any hostility towards him.

After all, in this world, gods prioritize their own enjoyment, experiencing everything in the lower realms: food, hobbies, friendships, art, and even illness.

For deities, the meaning of many things is not important to them.

"no--"

Emiya Shirou answered Hephaestus very sincerely.

However, if the raw materials are given to Shirou Emiya, he will be able to create [Demon Possession].

Although he has always been a projection weapon, he knows exactly how to forge those weapons.

Of course, Shirou Emiya couldn't forge the weapons from the Hakugun Academy.

Because it is the manifestation of someone else's soul, it is only possible to forge it if their soul is given to Shirou Emiya, who then possesses the skill to forge souls into weapons.