God Of Crafting

No matter how many times I've talked with Claire or Chihiro about how to behave in the spiritual world, one thing would always come up.

"Follow the etiquette!" Chihiro would warn, only to then go on prolonged tangents about how all sorts of weird rules were in place to keep everyone in check and on their toes.

Apparently, some century ago or so, a huge civil war erupted between the two clans because a provocateur from one side dressed up as a woman, only to throw a huge fit and claim his honor was slighted when someone addressed him as her. There was supposedly some other case when two big clans, with history reaching as far back as the spiritual restoration times, ended up wiped off the face of the world just because someone from their clan didn't bow deep enough when they encountered a young master from the aggressive and domineering clan of the time.

All those strict etiquette rules were in place to prevent those kinds of things from happening, constantly swelling in numbers as people found new and inventive ways to circumvent them for their own advantage.

That's why I didn't really mind when this entire feast was conducted with adherence to the highest standards of etiquette.

Sure, it kept me on the top of my toes as I tried my absolute best not to accidentally anger or insult someone by doing something I wasn't even aware was bad, but…

But it was something I expected. Something I, to the best of my abilities, prepared myself for.

That's why, when the official part of the feast smoothly transitioned into a much more relaxed part where the focus shifted from politics to food and from schemes to just random and casual chats…

I found myself too confused about what was allowed and what was not to do anything but sit straight in my seat, kindly listen to anyone who tried to start a conversation, and occupy myself with slowly trying all sorts of the various foods prepared for the feast.

Some of them, I could vaguely recognize to be a cuisine common in far-away lands. Others tasted like something I was familiar with yet had that rang absolutely no bells in my mind. Then, there were the foods that I could neither recognize by taste nor by looks, making every bite that I took not only a precious opportunity to taste something entirely new but an adventure of finding out whether I liked it or found it absolutely disgusting.

Things became even worse when the feast, roughly yet another hour in, relaxed even further, to the point where everyone suddenly started to abandon their seats, only to take over someone else's spot as the whole crowd started to divide into smaller groups for people to have an easier time talking to each other.

Just like that, Chihiro and Leila suddenly found themselves surrounded by people I didn't even try to recognize. On the far end of the table, the clan's patriarch somehow ended up chatting away with some of the servants and people I could remember sitting nearby, back when a faction within the clan tried to humiliate me.

All in all, if not for Claire opting out of the move and deciding to just stay with me right where we were seated, this entire feast could soon turn into one of the worst experiences of my entire life.

"This is really weird," I muttered silently, just loud enough for Claire to hear. "To be able to do anything I want, yet daring not to move a muscle."

Normally, I would expect this kind of feeling to appear only in a situation when some overwhelmingly powerful opponent would lock their sights on me. But right now? During a feast, nonetheless?

I shook my head.

The fact that I was so cautious about every move I made and every word I dared to say while everyone else was happily celebrating the feast only made me feel all the weirder.

"As far as I remember, we should be free to leave the feast at this point," Claire suddenly pointed out, her eyes tracking one of the servants currently tasked with changing the fuel for the oil lamps hanging all over the walls of the massive feast hall.

She then turned her eyes towards me and smiled.

"Do you want to skip this farce of a feast and go do something else?"

I raised my eyebrows, not expecting Claire to be the one to suggest such a solution to our current problem of discomfort.

"Are you sure it is actually allowed?" I asked, still uncertain whether such a nice solution to our current situation could be real. Or, even more important, if it wouldn't come with a massive baggage of trouble later on.

"To leave?" Claire smiled a little. "Yeah, I did my due diligence and asked Mom before even the patriarch came," she said, making me wonder just what could've happened at her seat before I was close enough to actually see it myself.

"What are we waiting for, then?" I asked as a smile flowered on my lips. Then, not willing to let this opportunity slip out of my hands, I grabbed just one more piece of the delicious meat I found out quite a while ago before standing up from my seat and offering Claire my free hand to help her do the same.

"Oh, so you like the herbal Cocoro too," Claire smiled as her eyes locked on the air-fried piece of perfectly seasoned meat in my hand, only to then gently place her fingers over my extended palm, letting me help her get up. "Any plans for what we should do, or do you plan to just roam around?"

Faced with this question, I took a deep breath in before casting a sweeping glance around the massive hall.

"I do have something in mind, but…" I continued to look around, all the way to the point when I finally spotted just where Chihiro and his wife went off to. "But I need to make sure we are allowed to do it first."

The time I spent being miserably uncomfortable with everything that was going on was also the time that I finally could dedicate to planning for the immediate future, as opposed to how I mostly made my plans to be far-reaching.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

And after giving it much thought, there was one thing that stood out from everything else. One thing that appeared like the solution to both the problems we've managed to already resolve, but also the problems that kept bothering me when I looked at what my future could look like.

"Let's go, then," Claire smiled, only to follow after me as I braced myself for whatever could happen as I ventured out through the bustling crowd to where I spotted the holder to my answer.

"Oh, it's you two," Leila smiled as she saw the two of us, turning her head in our direction long before I would expect her to sense our presence.

'That's a high-ranking cultivator for you,' I thought, only to courteously bow my head in response.

"I'm sorry, but if you wouldn't mind, could you help us out with one thing?"

Taken aback by the sudden and unspecified request, Leila first opened her eyes a bit wider, only to then turn into all smiles as she fully turned away from the ongoing conversation within her circle, all to properly face the two of us.

"As long as it's within my power, I will do my best to help," she announced with a proud smile, as if merely having the ability to help out was the best thing she could ask for in life.

"Actually, we don't really feel all that comfortable here, so I was wondering if there was a place where we could cultivate…" I dragged my voice for a bit, only to then pause… and look directly into Claire's mom's eyes, an act I didn't dare to commit before. "Preferably, somewhere private, where no one would try to disturb us."

At first, a small hint of blush, caution, and concern appeared in the woman's eyes. Yet, as she scanned the two of us for any sign of blush or discomfort, her face quickly relaxed back down before defaulting to just a charming smile.

'No, we don't want to go away to fuck each other's brains out,' I thought, easily reading what was the woman's likely first thought.

"To cultivate in private, huh?" she muttered… Only to then lightly clasp her hands together, instantly summoning one of the many servants swarming around the hall.

"Yes, young miss?" A teenage girl in simple, gray clothes appeared as if she grew directly out of the ground, only to bow deeply to Leila before rising up and looking directly into Leila's face.

"I need you to guide those two to my private cultivation garden," she announced, "The second… No, the third level should be good enough."

"Yes, young miss," the servant-girl bowed with her entire upper body only to then turn towards me and Claire before bowing again. "If you would be so kind as to follow me…"

I looked over at Leila's face again, only to see her wave me away with a slight, lenient smile.

"I still remember how I felt when I first came to this place, so stop minding us and just go and have fun, sweetie," she spoke, happily encouraging us only to then turn right back to her own circle, making it quite a lot easier for us to step away than it would be if she kept looking at us.

"Do you really want to cultivate?" Claire asked as we followed after the serving girl. She made sure to stick close to my arm, close enough to ensure our conversation would remain as private as it could be with so many people around.

"Is it wrong?" I raised my eyebrow, not expecting Claire to have any complaints about it.

'For someone so much deeper into cultivation than I am, shouldn't she be all the more excited about it?'

"No, it's not wrong or anything, just…" Claire hesitated for a second while looking away, only to gather her wits and turn her eyes back to my face. "I wouldn't want you to do things just because you think it would make me happy," she stated, only for her courage to dry out as she, once again, averted her eyes.

"Fear not," I couldn't help but smile. "Because while we are indeed off to cultivate, that's not the full picture," I stated, only to stop for a moment, all for the sake of leaning over her ear and even going as far as to use both of my hands to create a small tunnel between my mouth and her ear, keeping my words from escaping to the outside.

"What I plan to do is redo our entire cultivation from scratch!"