Complaint

 
 
 ☆
 
 
 At the workshop’s reception desk, two well-built men glared at each other across the counter.
 
 A slender young man was flustered beside them.
 
 ”I just got it back from repairs! How’s it break after just using it once! You skimping on the repairs, aren’t you!!”^[1]
 
 The customer that appears to be a guy with the air of an adventurer hit the counter with his fist. The impact made the sword sheath on the counter jump.
 
 ”What’d you say? Say that again!! You tryna find fault with our work?!”
 
 The unshaven craftsman on the inside of the counter slammed the counter as well.
 
 The sword jumped again.
 I feel rather sorry for counter-san.^[2]
 
 ”S-, stop it please! Both of you!!”
 
 Frantically wedging his way in between the two is the slender young man, who appears to be an employee.
 
 ”…”
 
 I see.
 I somehow understood the situation.
 
 
 
 The argument between the two guys continued, ignoring Anna and I as we entered the shop.
 
 Only one of them, the slender employee, sent an apologetic [please forgive us] gesture this way.
 
 ”Thanks to this thing breaking, one of our guys barely managed to not die!”
 
 ”Magic tools are just an aid. Don’t blame the weapon for your lack of skill!!”
 
 ”What the 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕, you 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚍!!”
 
 It was already an explosive situation.
 If it weren’t for the wide counter, they’d have probably already started brawling.
 
 ——— I can’t have them quarrelling in our shop.
 
 I walked briskly to where those two were, and spoke to the customer.
 
 ”Could I have a minute, Customer-sama.”
 
 ”Huh?… Who are you. The shop assistant?”
 
 The man’s appraising gaze.
 Seems he’s apparently having a hard time getting a grasp of who I am.
 
 Well, I guess this is the kind of reaction you’d make if you were suddenly approached by a weirdly dressed girl in a workshop.
 
 As expected, I couldn’t come to the workshop in a dress, so today I was wearing my own work clothes… which were like a restaurant waitress’s elegant outfit…
 
 At first glance, though I don’t look like a noble, I don’t look like a simple town girl either. On the other hand, the design is too practical for the daughter of an influential merchant.
 Such is the clothes’ subtleties.
 
 
 
 Getting back to the story.
 
 I wonder how I should answer his question.
 I am involved with the workshop, so saying I’m [a shop assistant] isn’t wrong, no?
 
 Hesitating for an instant, I nodded with a smile on my face.
 
 ”… yeah. I am like a shop assistant. So, that magic sword of yours, may I give it a look please?”
 
 ”Don’t really care.”
 
 The male customer pushed the sheathed sword in front of me.
 As I tried to take a look at the sword’s hilt…
 
 ”Oi, you! What’re you doing without permission.”
 
 The unshaven craftsman yelled at me.
 He intimidated me across the counter.
 
 ”What’s someone not involved butting in—”
 
 ”Boss, stop Boss!!”
 
 The slender young man held the flustered craftsman back.
 The man he called [Boss] is now glaring at the young man.
 
 ”What, you. An outsider’s sticking their head in! What you mean, [no]?!”
 
 Rather vulgar, huh.
 
 When I frowned, the young man frantically pointed in Anna’s direction.
 
 ”There, Boss, look at that please! that!!”
 
 ”Haah?”
 
 The one called Boss looked at Anna with a dubious expression… which became pale once he understood.
 
 ”……?”
 
 I wonder what it is.
 I turned to Anna, and understood.
 
 The tool bag she’s carrying for me.
 
 It looked like a travel bag two sizes smaller, and was clearly engraved with an owl and vines… in other words, the Owleyes crest.
 
 ”Shi-…”^[3]
 
 Seems he understands that I am [involved] in this workshop. The boss sunk into silence with an anguished face.
 
 Huuh, I sighed, calling [them] as I set my mind on something else.
 
 ”Coco, Mel, help me.”
 
 
 
 “Okey-dokey!”
 
 “Y’called?”
 
 The bears flew energetically out of the satchel slung over my shoulder, dancing in the air.
 
 ””Woah?!””
 
 The three guys were surprised by the sudden event.
 
 ”Are those… magic tools?!”
 
 The boss opened his eyes in surprise.
 
 Giving the surprised three guys a sidelong glance, I manipulate the bears and grab the sword in question, holding it up to eye-level.
 
 ”……hm?”
 
 I tilted my head.
 
 The hilt’s grip has fine grooves engraved in it, and magic channels crawl along them.
 The lines of magic metal moulded to those channels are thick, and they’re awfully irregular.
 Almost as if the lines were once cut, then forcibly spliced together here and there.
 
 ”……”
 
 Just to be sure, I had Coco and Mel spin around to the reverse side of the hilt to confirm.
 
 ”… this is terrible.”
 
 I said so unconsciously.
 At the same time, I lost my cool.
 
 
 
 ”You there!”
 
 I glared at the boss.
 
 ”Wh-, what is it…”
 
 ”Are you the one in charge?”
 
 ”Yes, but what?”
 
 He looks openly displeased.
 ——— no, the one who’s angry is me!
 
 ”Please take a look at this for a bit.”
 
 I manipulate Coco and Mel, thrusting the hilt at him.
 
 ”Woah?!”
 
 The boss is taken aback as the sword flies right before his eyes.
 
 ”Seeing these traces of repair, what do you have to say?”
 
 At my words, he looked at it displeased and began reluctantly examining its state.
 
 And then one sentence.
 
 ”It’s terrible, this thing.”
 
 He remarked almost like it was someone else’s problem.
 
 As I was about to unconsciously yell at him [Aren’t these the repairs being done in this workshop you’re in charge of?!], he looked over his shoulder to the youth next to him.
 
 ”Oi, you. Bring the guy that did this repair.”
 
 ”O-, okay.”
 
 The young man checked the ledger in a panic, and disappeared into the back of the workshop.
 
 
 
 We waited for a bit.
 
 Having called the craftsman who did the repair, I looked on dumbfounded as he was brought to the storefront.
 
 ”Isn’t he still a child!”
 
 Before me was the craftsman said to have done the repair, a young boy who appeared to be in his early teens. maybe the same age as me, or maybe one or two years older.
 
 The young boy, his clothes and skin black with soot, glanced this way and blurted out a murmur.
 
 ”… you’re a child too, aren’t you.”
 
 Ah, yeah. Now that you mention it, that’s true.
 
 The term [child labour] just crossed my mind, but this isn’t Japan. He may be a child, but in this world, he needs to work if he wants to live.
 
 ”Oi, Jack. Did you do this repair?”
 
 The boss asked the young boy in a threatening voice.
 
 Manipulating Coco and Mel, I moved the sword in front of the young boy, Jack.
 
 ”Wha-, what the 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕’s this?!”
 
 Jack was surprised by the bears floating mid-air, holding the sword.
 The boss didn’t answer his question, instead pressing for an answer by saying [Well?].
 
 The young boy reluctantly checked the sword, and then said as though spitting the words out—
 
 ”… it’s my work.”
 
 The next moment, the young boy was blown to the side.
 

TL Notes:

[1]Why do speechtypes have to be so difficult? fyi, he’s supposed to sound rough here, hence the grammatical errors. Sigh… Please tell me if I’m going overboard with it, or if it feels too unnatural, etc. ↩

[2]a small detail hidden here regarding Japanese culture. I don’t properly know the details, so if you want to find out, just search up about their way of bringing up their children with the belief that everything houses a god, iirc (I might be mixing things up here though) ↩

[3]I tried. He didn’t actually say 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚝, but it was one of those Japanese onomatopoeia with that kind of meaning. ↩

Two changes to the way I upload these chapters.
First, I’ve done some wrangling with the letters to stop certain words getting blocked out with asterisks. Hopefully rough speech won’t get interrupted like that any more. If you notice any words getting blocked out that I haven’t picked up on, please point it out in the comments below, and I’ll add it to the list of words to bypass.
Second, I’ve started using italics for the bears’ speech. The author uses a different type of quotation to show that something isn’t the same as normal human speech when it comes to what they say, so I decided to show that via italics instead.