Tsubaki Collbrande

Tiah Mat woke up, feeling more powerful than ever. It was a most pleasing sensation. She felt — no, knew she became… enlightened. Her mind, clearer than ever, allowed her to understand more of the world surrounding her. Every fiber of her being felt more powerful. She even allowed herself to stretch a little.

Tiah Mat's Master was very generous. Despite her shameful inability to push through the first barrier, her Master still fed her copious amounts of his qi. She was not one to question her Master's motive, for she knew he held great wisdom, one which she could only hope to glimpse one day.

But when she realized her Master's qi, transformed into her own, slowly pushed her through the obstacle standing between her and her aim, she was enlightened.

Truly, how formidable her Master was.

That was why Tiah Mat felt indignant when she noticed her Master's tension. Her body coiled against his neck not only gave her a sense of security, but also allowed her to gleam her Master's emotion, the skin contact making the barrier between their souls less powerful.

Her Master's sorrow was her sorrow, she decided on that day. Her Master's fury was her fury, she declared on that day. So, she abruptly shifted to see what threatened her Master like this, ready to protect her Good Master with her life. Who dares?!

And Tiah Mat saw one of the weakest mortals she had seen so far. She had no qi! Such a thing was beyond her comprehension. She was as shaken as if she was looking at one of the great mysteries of the world.

And then she was vindicated. Why was this mortal not paying respect to this Good Master?

She hissed, looking at this ungrateful monkey. This was utterly unforgivable.

And then she was made aware. This was the threat!

This mortal's body was not taught the way of the sky like her Good Master was. But it mattered not. If her Good Master thought of this monkey-sized mortal as a danger, then that was what she should be treated as.

Tiah Mat contemplated the discussion between her Good Master and this… mortal. How unfair! She was devoid of the ability to talk to her Good Master. How she wished to communicate with him like two of his own kind.

But alas, she was not capable of that. She could barely scratch the surface of her Master's intent when he talked to her. She should not be greedy for more. Not yet, not when she was still weak and unworthy. Greediness had often led to her potential demise in the forest.

If she was to become her Good Master's protector, then she shall rid herself of every flaw.

However, she could not get rid of the satisfaction she felt when the female mortal bowed in tears to her Master. She felt… most pleased.

…And, witnessing her Good Master's expression, she realized she had a long way to go to even emulate a fraction of her peerless Master's greatness. Truly, the path to greatness was not an easy one.

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Tsubaki Collbrande, owner of Tsubaki's Workshop and Master Smith for the Hephaestus Familia — also, its captain. Wearing a sarashi, the considerable size of her bust hidden behind it nearly spilling out, and a crimson hakama. She hammered with all of her strength at the svelte piece of metal in her tongs.

The heat of the forge didn't bother her — no, as a Master Smith, this heat felt familiar, soothing instead. The clang, signifying another perfect hit on the metal, resonated.

The wrinkles in the middle of her brows did not originate from the difficulty of her work. No, the reason for her current troublesome thoughts was the assistant she employed a couple of hours ago.

She had gone against her principles, all for a possibility. The materials she was working with, the temperature she was employing, were too dangerous for a normal human. Her experience had taught her she could not afford to employ someone below Level 2. The problem was middle-tier adventurers would never settle for being her errand boy, even if she had one of the best reputations as a blacksmith in the city.

A day in the dungeon far out-earned what she was willing to give to an assistant, after all.

She could admit he had a decent… very decent body, but it shouldn't compare to even the thinnest adventurer above the first level. Such were the rules of the game.

But it did. Even more surprising, he didn't seem as bothered by the heat as she imagined an unblessed person would be.

Sure, he couldn't come in front of the heat without his skin burning, but he could at least stand in this place, which was leagues above what anyone else should be able to endure without the bonuses granted by a blacksmith development ability or special resistances.

And she'd be damned if she didn't find that interesting. Maybe an innate affinity to blacksmithing? Or to Fire Magic — though blacksmithing seemed much more plausible. She was so curious.

Clang! Her eyes flickered back to the slab of steel in her hands. Slightly darker than common steel, but barely moving under her strikes: mithril. One of the rarest materials in the mortal plane. As the captain of the best smithing Familia in the city, she always had a steady supply of it. The things I do for men, she chuckled to herself, as if telling herself a private joke.

She did as she always did with what interested her in life: She jumped in. Tian — he was called — was now an official employee of her shop, with a generous pay to top it all off. The reason she dismissed the fire affinity theory was Tian was a natural with minerals as well, able to tell apart two seemingly identical ingots with just a glance.

Now, she didn't know if it would translate into any real skill in blacksmithing, as she had not come around and offered Tian the chance to test things out in the forge yet, but she had not been as excited about a potential prospect ever since that Welfy boy joined the Familia.

He turned out to be a disappointment, so she would have to be careful with this one. Just like the hammer she was currently forging, slowly shape him into someone worthy…

Clang! Tsubaki smirked. Now Hephaestus could not tell her she didn't take her responsibilities as a captain seriously anymore. If Tian turned out to be someone with the potential of a Master Smith, like she suspected him to be, she would never stop gloating to her goddess about it.

It would benefit both herself and the Familia in the end, so Hephaestus wouldn't be able to get mad, anyway.

Clang! Her smirk became wider.

Just as her hammer was about to strike down onto the mithril, footsteps emerged from inside the shop. Her senses were far better than the baseline human, or dwarf, because of her high level. She even recognized whose footsteps she heard after only hearing them once. Tian.

Her eyes gained a gleam as her lips parted to show her white teeth. Her smile reached her eyes, but her concentration never broke. Every strike was precise and perfectly morphed the malleable metal.

Her sense of smell was better than others—which were already far more attuned than normal—and so she could smell something strange on Tian. No, it came from him. He smelled of the Earth, the ground everyone was born from, of the blood of the earth, metal, and the forest.

It wasn't a normal scent he exuded because he played too long in the mud. No; It was something deeper, something she couldn't understand fully, something which first sparked her interest in him.

And something which took over her mind and never let go ever since.

That Crozzo boy had potential and was fun to tease, but maybe her first poor bet was a gift from the sky. And he ended up being more interested in Hephaestus than herself. In the end, she wouldn't have been able to capitalize on the opportunity in her hands now if she had done so in the past with Welf.

She would leave Welf-boy to her goddess. She had found a far better catch.

Talking about the catch in question, he was getting closer and closer to the forge. The hammer she was forging started to take its shape.

The moment he opened the door, she turned her head around, looking at him. Clang! One last hit on the mithril.

Now that she understood his potential, she realized… he was pretty tall. He was also pretty muscular — top-heavy for sure — but that was just better for smithing. The tight T-shirt on him really highlighted his attributes.

And she knew all about highlighting one's best points. She didn't wear her sarashi only at the forge after all.

She narrowed her eyes. Yep, not a bad bet at all…

The grin never left her face in the end.

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A/N: Tiah Mat is super petty. And she's fun to write. Hope you enjoy her as much as I do, her interactions with Bella will be interesting, to say the least.