630 Don't Ask That, Abbreviated
There's a shield in the room. All by itself. It's a round shield.
Around 60cm in diameter. A very ordinary looking round shield.
"To tell you the truth... I'm at an impasse. I cannot decide how should I decorate this shield."
Dongoro added to her.
"Tell ya what, errything this workshop produced came straight outta her head. My stuff's all curtly made. She's the one putting up all the flashy stuff on. Also, folks tend to look down on her just cause she's a woman, so the workshop got my name on it."
Dongoro confessed that this should have been Makiru's workshop instead.
(Uh, why'd you tell me something that crucial! How is it even my business, seriously!)
"I have pupils in this workshop. Those kids are, um how do I say it, very crafts-oriented. Oh I'm not saying that as a negative. They're all good kids who don't have a prejudice against me for being a woman. They're all tight-lipped, I'm sure they won't tell outsiders regarding this matter."
Not sure what you want me to do with all this information. I thought all I needed to do was to give my amateurish impression on her work before immediately exiting left.
Yet here I am listening to some deep topic I absolutely can't give a resolution to.
"My pupils put more importance on technical skill, they all believe in me... Everytime I give them difficult orders, they would go 'That's shiso for you!' for some reason..."
Are those pupils masochists or what? Also, they give the impression of being decoration fanatics.
Even hearing about them makes me want to put some distance. She's been enduring that kind of pressure all this time huh.
Apparently she's hit a roadblock as of late.
"Please, I would like to hear your opinion. Coming from someone that wields that beautiful weapon, katana, might give me a fresh new idea... Ah, do forgive me. I'm imposing so much..."
Being relied on by this girl is not a bad feeling, but this issue is not exactly simple for me either.
I'm not sure the stuff I have in mind would even be considered good design.
But there's no way I could just blurt out, 'No can do' now. That'd be heartless of me.
"...Hm? You have pupils? Err, I'm sorry for asking something personal, but Makiru... san? How old are you?"
"Eh? Ah, yes, I will be 21 this year. Is there, something wrong?"
(She was an aduuuult!? Who saw that coming!? She's older than mee!)
She looks like a dwarven little girl no matter how you look at her. Apparently female dwarfs all have red hair. With hers in pony tail, she doesn't look 21 at all.
The way she talked and behaved have always been adult-like. I got the wrong idea on my own. She's a young lady.
"Err um, yes, I would be glad to help."
I gave my okay to deceive myself away from the guilt of treating Makiru like a kid inwardly.
"Then, could you show me all the design you have drawn so far as a reference?"
And so, Makiru put all the sketches and drafts she had made on the table.
I look over them one by one. In an effort to buy time. For me to squeeze out an idea.
After about five minutes, I proceeded to speak about the idea that came to me while comparing her sketches.
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