"Got it. When combined, these weapons will be called Song of Ice and Fire. Separately, the hot one will be called Passion of Fire, and the icy one Frostmourne."
Kanna had no father in this world either, so she was not worried that the name might carry some strange curse or karmic consequence.
Compared to that ice-and-fire greatsword, these names still sounded unreliable, but they were much better. Besides, they were Kanna's weapons. She could call them whatever she wanted, and nobody else needed to interfere.
Otherwise, if she insisted on naming the greatsword Pink Fuzzy Bunny, then anyone who lost to Kanna in a match would instantly die of embarrassment when they had to admit they had been defeated by Pink Fuzzy Bunny.
Compared to that, this name was actually acceptable once everyone thought about it.
On the upper levels of the landship, Closure had not gone outside with them. Instead, she came up to meet Kal'tsit, and the two stood by the window, looking down at the devastated ground Kanna had swept through.
"Although I probably shouldn't say this, with Kanna's current destructive power, isn't giving her something this strong a little ridiculous? I think if the old Kanna could tear down all of Rhodes Island without supervision, then now she only needs a third of the time."
Even though Amiya trusted Kanna deeply, the strength Kanna displayed still gave the older members quite a headache. A child who could easily destroy more than half of Rhodes Island had now been given a weapon designed specifically for massive targets. Wasn't that just improving her demolition efficiency?
"Don't treat Kanna like a child."
Kal'tsit was silent for a moment after watching Kanna's demonstration before she spoke.
"Although she looks young and can play with children like Popukar, you need to understand that she is extremely intelligent and possesses strong self-control. If she were truly an ignorant little girl like she appeared to be, Rhodes Island would have been torn to pieces long ago.
So rather than worrying that she might lose control because of a tantrum, I'm more concerned that her strength will grow too quickly for her to control."
Downstairs, although the test had already ended, Kanna was still overflowing with excitement.
This thing felt far better than she had imagined. In greatsword form, Lightning Wedge blinked into Little Dragon Person Charge, then Thunder Strike, then an invincible super-duper spinning whirlwind combo—a standard weapon warrior combo with no explanation needed. Sand and stones flew everywhere, and its momentum was unstoppable.
After snapping the chopsticks apart into dual-wield mode, the blades became narrower, making them easier to swing. Against large creatures, she could unleash a healthy and hygienic ice-and-fire double-heaven back-scrubbing technique, guaranteeing that after one set, half their backs would be raw and the other half cooked.
And in dual-wield mode, the weapons were nowhere near as outrageous as the greatsword, making them perfectly suited for fighting in cramped terrain.
Her satisfaction with the weapon Vulcan had crafted was at 120%.
Greatsword mode was imposing enough, while dual-wield mode had beautiful color shifts. As for whether they would be too conspicuous and attract enemy attention on the battlefield, there was no need to worry about that at all.
After carefully observing Kanna's fighting style, Vulcan had considered that with Lightning Wedge's rapid transformations and displacement effects, it was nearly impossible for enemies to catch Kanna. Add the lightning constantly spilling off her body once she entered combat, and it was already fortunate if she did not go looking for trouble. Nobody should expect to have much chance of causing trouble for her on an ever-changing battlefield.
After returning to Rhodes Island, Kanna strapped the weapon horizontally across her back and ran toward where Rosemary and Eyjafjalla were, her smiling face making Vulcan, who had gone through tremendous effort for this weapon, feel immensely satisfied.
After all, as a blacksmith, what could make one happier than seeing a customer delighted by one's weapon?
~~~~It's Going Premium~~~~
That day, Rhodes Island was holding a new round of its big eater competition.
When Kanna won first place with an overwhelming advantage, she looked up and saw the heavens and earth change color, the sun and moon losing their light.
Just as she wondered what was happening, a voice resounded between heaven and earth. ~~~~~It's going premium! It's going premium!~~~~~
Going premium???
Would there be barbecue too???
Kanna looked around in confusion and found everyone beaming with joy. It turned out that aside from Catastrophes, Terra also had a blessing from the gods. Before that blessing arrived, the words "It's going premium" would continuously ring out.
It was called the Premium Blessing, and anyone who heard it would be happy for an entire year.
All right! I received a notice from my editor. It's going premium tomorrow.
When I first wrote this book, it was purely because I had nothing to read. I couldn't find anything else I wanted to read, so I simply wrote one myself.
I never expected its performance to be pretty good along the way. Being able to go premium proves that this novel has caught everyone's eye, and that truly is my good fortune.
This is all thanks to the tremendous support of all you readers.
I'm very happy.
The road ahead is still long, and Kanna's journey has only just begun.
I hope everyone can continue walking this road with me.
PS: Stop sending me Clue 2 and Clue 7, aaaaaah! The moment I open it, it's all 2s and 7s. I can't use them all up. Scary ⊙▽⊙
Finally.
I wish everyone great appetites and excellent health!!!!!
Anyway, nobody reads too much of this stuff, so I won't keep wasting everyone's time.
Let me pad this out with a few more words~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Padding.
A.
Few.
Words!!!!
Saving Someone Halfway Only Brings Endless Trouble
Besides, with Kanna's strength and her personality of never hiding herself, she would sooner or later become known alongside Rhodes Island's name. As Kanna's weapon, it would naturally become known to more people as well. If it could earn the recognition of the world, that would be the highest honor a blacksmith could receive.
When Kanna bounced upstairs, she saw Rosemary and dum... Eyjafjalla heading out. The moment Eyjafjalla saw Kanna, she darted over and reached for the greatsword on Kanna's back, excitement gleaming in her eyes.
"When Vulcan made them, I heard their voices. They really are strong, and so are you. Just now, the weapons kept laughing happily. This weapon really suits you." As someone with mysterious Originium Arts, Eyjafjalla had always been particularly fond of weapons, though not everything excited her. She had thought highly of this pair of twin swords when they were forged, and after watching Kanna's test, she seemed to hear the swords' joyful voices. Thus, she acknowledged Kanna as their owner.
"Hehehe!" Kanna rubbed her head, her face full of pride.
Although she wanted to run wild after getting her weapon, Outcast would return in two days, leaving her no opportunity to have too much fun. However, Kal'tsit and Outcast later held a meeting and lifted Kanna's restriction from going onto the deck. She was allowed to practice her weapon on the deck every morning, though she was forbidden from damaging the deck or anything around it.
After that, every morning, the deck gained a Little Dragon Person who either carried a "door panel" or wielded two red-and-blue "lightsabers," flashing around everywhere while wildly swinging them.
That day, she went upstairs in the morning as usual. By then, Rosemary had also been promoted to a full Operator under Kal'tsit's insistence despite the objections of others.
Because of her Originium Arts, Rosemary was not suited to indoor training either. With Kal'tsit's approval, she became Kanna's partner for training on the deck.
The weapon she used was seven floating greatswords specially customized for her by another master craftsman of Rhodes Island, Whitesmith. At Kanna's invitation, she became Kanna's practice partner.
And Kanna kindly carved seven names onto the blades of those swords using Yan characters.
They were Roaming Dragon, Azure Branch, Competing Star, Sun Moon, No Question, Sky Waterfall, and Abandon God.
According to Kanna, a sword only became more powerful after it had a name. Although Rosemary did not understand why Kanna became so excited whenever this topic came up, seeing Kanna's eager expression made her happily agree.
A few days later, Kanna received a mission. Someone from the group of villagers she and ACE had previously rescued had come to ask for help.
They said that after reporting the matter to the lord, the village chief had indeed been removed from his position. However, nobody expected him to get wind of it somehow. When the group prepared to return to their former home and start over, he viciously led a band of infected bandits to intercept and abduct all the villagers. He then forced the uninfected villagers into the mines to dig for Originium, causing most of those who had escaped Originium infection during the previous Catastrophe to become infected by the Originium dust in the mines.
ACE had already taken on another mission and was no longer aboard Rhodes Island. Considering Kanna's strength, Kal'tsit had Outcast lead the team, with Kanna accompanying her to provide humanitarian aid to those villagers.
Kanna had actually expected something like this when she heard the news, because ACE had already said on the way back that he did not think the villagers' actions would end well.
After all, anyone who could become a village chief was still a minor noble. Even after being dismissed, it would not truly hurt his foundations. On the contrary, their accusation would only anger him.
At the time, ACE had merely said that those people would probably suffer retaliation. He just had not expected the other side to be so ruthless, throwing them into the mines and turning ordinary people into the infected.
Kanna did not actually feel sorry for them. When they had parted ways before, she had clearly seen the estranged looks in their eyes when they learned that the Rhodes Island group that had rescued them was composed of infected people.
And the reason they were going this time was merely because Outcast believed Kanna should witness Terra's cruel side.
Kanna had no particular opinion on that. In her view, if the opposition between ordinary people and the infected was unavoidable, and Originium infection was an inseparable part of this world, then unless everyone in the world became infected, or everyone's culture and beliefs rose to a higher level so there were no more ignorant masses who isolated and excluded the infected, it would be difficult to reverse the infected people's current status.
Of course, if Amiya became the Demon King Patriot spoke of and ruled Terra as an infected person, that might reverse the situation as well. Only then, it would probably be the uninfected who suffered oppression from the infected.
A week after leaving Rhodes Island, the convoy arrived at its destination: a town outside an estate in Glamorgan County, where the minor noble's territory lay and where the villagers were being imprisoned and enslaved.
When Kanna heard the name of the place, she nearly sprayed the milk in her mouth... Well damn, she had not expected Victoria and Artoria to already feel familiar enough, and now Glamorgan had appeared too.
She just wondered whether the lord of Glamorgan County changed often.
After arriving, the convoy did not go directly to the target estate. Instead, they entered the town under the name of a medical company and began promoting Rhodes Island's Originium-blocking medication and treatment plans.
Meanwhile, several Operators skilled at infiltration and reconnaissance quietly slipped away from the team and headed for the estate to investigate.
Upon hearing that they were a medical team specializing in treating the infected, the mayor seemed hesitant. But Outcast decisively produced a contract and stated that after taxes were deducted, he would receive half the profits from medication sold in town. He immediately welcomed the Rhodes Island team with a broad smile.
Because ordinary people discriminated against and feared the infected, the medical team did not enter the town itself. Instead, they set up tents in an open area on the outskirts.
For the first day or two, nobody came. Outcast was not in a hurry, since selling medicine and promoting Rhodes Island were merely side activities during their mission. They also needed time to gather information about the minor noble from the town.
Two days later, just as Outcast was compiling the intelligence they had collected, people began arriving one after another, their faces hidden as they quietly came to the medical team's entrance under cover of night.
Life Is Easy, Living Is Easy, but Life Is Not Easy
The medical team did not appear nervous in response. Instead, they skillfully took out medication and promoted it to these people. After hearing about its effects and treatment results, the visitors silently took out money from their clothes, exchanged it for medicine, and silently left. From beginning to end, none of them spoke even once.
"Do you find it strange?" A voice came from behind Kanna as she secretly peered through the tent flap at those strangely dressed people.
She turned around and saw Medical Operator J.A. J.A. was the doctor who had been talking with Eyjafjalla when they first encountered her, and she later became Eyjafjalla's attending physician. This time, she had been temporarily assigned to accompany Outcast and was one of the personnel maintaining a public front for Outcast's covert arrangements.
Kanna nodded.
"The circumstances of the infected are far worse than what you have seen or imagined. Perhaps you have stayed at Rhodes Island for too long, so you have never experienced that kind of prejudice.
Mobile medical teams like ours, which treat the infected, can only ever operate in remote corners of towns and cities, and we are charged extremely high taxes.
This situation is already the best working environment I've encountered in all my years traveling outside.
And those infected people—do you think they do not want to come here during the day to buy medicine?
Do you think they do not want to bargain over the price? It's because they do not dare, and they cannot.
They do not dare make a sound, in case someone they know hears them and discovers that they are infected or have infected relatives.
They cannot bargain because they fear we might refuse to sell them medicine. You need to understand that this medicine might save their lives.
That is the situation of infected people in these small towns.
Once they are discovered to be infected, they are either driven into the wilderness to fend for themselves or captured by the lord and made into miners. Those infected who can escape to infected communities in major cities either have extraordinary luck or exceptional strength. Otherwise, this land will swallow them with ease."
Outcast was still studying the operation plan beneath the lamplight. J.A.'s low, hoarse voice etched the plight of the infected into Kanna's heart through simple words.
At that moment, she somewhat understood why the Reunion Movement could rise with such unstoppable force, and why Mephisto's bloody and terrifying actions could still be accepted by other infected people.
Victoria's attitude toward the infected was not considered particularly bad among the nations, yet the oppression and discrimination they endured were already so horrifying. Then on Ursus's land, the nightmare of the infected, what kind of oppression and treatment did those people suffer?
Thinking about it this way, their bloody retaliation against ordinary people became somewhat understandable.
While medicine was being sold silently outside, Outcast finally completed her puzzle.
"Kanna, can I trust you?" Outcast looked up and asked.
"Of course, Granny. You can always trust Kanna." When Outcast called her name, Kanna immediately raised her head and puffed out her chest, standing before her with a "serious" expression.
Seeing Kanna's appearance, Outcast's exhausted face revealed a faint smile.
"Good. According to the intelligence, a vehicle carrying supplies will depart from the town tomorrow morning and head to the target estate. I need you to find a way to sneak into the vehicle. Once you receive my signal, cause destruction within the estate. The bigger the commotion, the better. You must draw that man and all his guards over. Afterward, depending on the situation, you may attack, retreat, or keep them occupied. Granny trusts your strength. In a direct fight, they will certainly be no match for you, but your safety must be your first priority. If you sense danger, you must leave immediately."
After the previous period of tests and training, Outcast had gained a fairly good understanding of Kanna's strength.
Most battles that looked extremely dangerous to others were merely ordinary play to Kanna. It was like her daily sparring with Rosemary—if other Operators trained with Rosemary even once, they would be lucky not to die or lose half their lives. Yet Kanna did it with Rosemary every day.
So Outcast was not worried that Kanna could not complete the mission. Instead, she worried that Kanna might get carried away and draw the attention of Victoria's higher authorities to the team.
"Mission accepted!" Ever since last time, the system seemed to have jammed. It had not managed to produce a new mission after all this time. Could the reward from the previous mission have been so powerful that the system crashed?
But Kanna felt no pressure about it. With her current strength, even if she immediately went to Lungmen and fought the Reunion Movement, she was confident she could confront the Black Snake and Patriot head-on before retreating unscathed.
Under the cover of night, Kanna followed an Operator and sneaked toward a spot not far from the target vehicle.
"Based on our earlier reconnaissance, there are two people in the cab: the driver and the passenger. Nobody will be guarding the cargo compartment, but someone will conduct one final inspection of it before departure. An armored vehicle will also lead the truck to protect it along the route. So your best time to infiltrate is after they finish checking it. Use that whoosh move of yours to fly in."
The Operator pointed at a truck in the distance and the armored vehicle beside it as she spoke to Kanna.
Kanna nodded, indicating that she understood.
"When are they leaving?"
"Based on the timing of the last two trips, early tomorrow morning. The estate is some distance from the town. If they leave too late, it will be dark by the time they reach the estate and return. If they want to get back in the afternoon, they have to depart as soon as dawn breaks." This Operator had traveled between the town and the estate several times already, so she knew the distance and the enemy's departure time very well.
"Kanna, why don't you lie down here for a while? I'll watch the convoy for you, and wake you when it's almost dawn?" Seeing Kanna staring wide-eyed and motionless in the convoy's direction, the Operator asked softly.
"Okay, then I'll leave it to you!" Kanna thought that she probably would not have a chance to sleep during the next day, and she did not know when Outcast would send her a message. She should sleep a little more now, lest she fail to resist dozing off in the truck tomorrow and get noticed. If that happened, this master infiltrator would lose all face.
In the morning, Kanna vaguely heard the sound of a horn beeping.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the Operator cautiously observing the convoy. When the Operator saw Kanna wake up, she smiled and nodded.
Before you continue