17 Solving the situation

"Pass the axel!"

The thunderous sounds of metal hitting metal was the one thing I could hear inside this peculiar place. Yet, even amidst this something that could only be described as utter chaos, the low, vibrant voices of the men shouting were still audible.

"Pump more air!"

Just a few moments ago, I considered the insides of the shared guild to be messy, but this place opened my eyes to just how chaotic a single place could be.

"Welcome to the smithing guild. As I said… they have quite peculiar requirements for the apprentices."

Looking at the tangled mess of huge, bare-breasted men oozing sweat in the heat coming from many furnaces and stoves, I couldn't be as far from disapproving. Just based on the body-build rule alone, I would rather get squeezed out from my insides in this crowd than did something productive.

"Teacher, I'm sorry for being insolent, but I think I'm already tired after all the events that took place today. If that would be possible, could we move the rest of the tour for another occasion?"

Just seeing the mess in front of me was enough to sap all my energy dry. This wasn't something that I was willing to endure in this new life of mine. While keeping male confidants would soon become an important part of my plans for the future, I still preferred to surround myself with beauty rather than rowdiness.

Strictly speaking, I was in a romantically… tough spot in this world. If I were to believe all the clues, my current body was about eighteen years old and had its needs… It didn't change the fact that I had the mind of a man past his thirties. For me, no amount of young beauty of the people around my physical age could be arousing, as I saw them as nothing more but kids.

On the other hand, one might think that I would turn my attention to the seniors of mine instead, but in that situation, my young physical body was putting me instantly at a disadvantage. After all, it wasn't a difference of one or two years, but over a decade!

But, no matter how hard it was for me to decide now or would be in the future in which direction I would point my eyes, it didn't change one thing. Life seemed a lot brighter when one was surrounded by women rather than a bunch of males!

And that's why, no matter how potentially profitable it could be for me, I would never agree to join this community of burly, sweaty men!

"If that's your wish, then let's not waste any more time."

From this point on, the situation quickly returned to the normal. Even the pace of the female teacher returned to a normal one that didn't make me confused whether I should run after the teacher or just walk beside her.

"Listen… You might now know this, but since I was the one who brought you to the academy, I'm directly responsible for you. That's why, if you have some things that do trouble you, you don't need to hide them away from me."

Only now did the female finally made it clear what caused her mood to worsen so much. And it wasn't even the matter of the discipline that I could, at least in her eyes, disrespect back in the shared guild.

But I was as far as one could be from believing those words. While the outside of everything looked pretty similar to what one could expect from a world within some trashy cultivation novel, those few, rare moments when I could spot a glint of coldness in the eyes of my teacher when she was ready to claim the life of another… Those rare moments were enough to wake me up from this fake daze, reminding me once again that even if society in this world worked differently, some dirty aspects of human nature would always cause certain situations.

"Teacher, it's not that I didn't want to share, I just found the situation to be unfitting for such revelations."

Coldly assessing my previous actions, I would have to be stupid or greatly underestimate the woman I was dealing with to claim that nothing actually happened. My question… Seemed to have several huge implications behind it, pointing me towards the estimated value of my purifying ability, while warning the woman about some special means that I might possess.

If I were to play it completely as a random joke, passing word, I would only bring more attention to my head than by saving myself with some believable yet fake story.

"Come on, then. What made you disregard the discipline so much as to ignore my direct order?"

Standing up in one place, the female either proved to be an insanely great actor or a genuine person. With the hope clearly visible in her eyes, the rest of her face was hidden behind a mask of a pout. It would truly take a genius to play this kind of double-act, making reconsider the doubts I had about her potential intentions…

Only to reaffirm myself in the decision to play the situation safely.

I wasn't as naive as to believe that woman of such character would ever manage to reach the heights required to receive the title of the teacher in the first place!

"This might sound a little stupid and childish…"

Raising my arm and scratching the back of my head to add a bit of the dramatic acting to the story I came up with all the way back when we were marching towards the smithing guild, I smiled uneasily before raising my eyes at the female.

"I thought that the liquid in the cup… turned a little brighter, but given how I just joined the sect, I didn't want to appear as someone arrogant enough to believe they could achieve something like that on the first go. I'm sorry teacher, but I did it in hopes of saving myself some further troubles were my split of a tongue were to be misunderstood by the other disciples who work hard to achieve the actual results."

Lowering my head as I finished this teary story, I didn't even bother to attempt glancing at the female in a stupid attempt to gauge her reaction. Doing something like this would only potentially make her wary of my words, hinted that I expected them to achieve some kind of result instead of just clarifying the misunderstanding!

"Ah… So that was the case."

Once again, I could tell whether this female was such a great actor or if she was genuinely relieved by my answer. After all, that was the entire point of acting in the first place. But given how blind sighting myself to a single perspective of what I guessed so far, would at least make my moves less flexible, and at worst - lead to some unexpected and unwanted trouble. That's why, unless I could say for sure that something was wrong with somebody, I still had to give them a limited credit of trust.

"Well, that doesn't mean I don't want to see that cup. I hope you will find some time tomorrow to repeat what you did… in a more private place."