God Of Crafting

"So you really are THAT keen to play the arrogant young master role?" I asked, only to chuckle, genuinely amused for the moment before I quickly recalled how he dared to try to put his filthy hands on my woman. "What next, are you going to ask if I'm courting death, then try to fight me, only to have your face slapped and start a chain of escalation that will end with this whole side of the world turning into a nuclear wasteland?"

What I suggested wasn't just a story I conceived on the go but an actual scenario I could see happening.

First, the issue would escalate locally, with the two of us coming to blows. Then, regardless of who would win the fight, the other party would explode with a thirst for revenge, holding nothing back on their path to reclaim whatever they lost in that duel. For me, it would be an obvious reaction to this man kidnapping Claire, while for this idiot, it would be all about regaining his face.

With the seeds of the great conflict now sown, this would continue to escalate, with both sides involving more and more third parties in it, ranging from clan elders and the patriarch on that young bastard's side to Chihiro and my uncle on my side.

Once the conflict reached the stage where the supporters of both sides would engage each other, the conflict would inevitably escalate to the national and global level, with the fragile stalemate of the cold-war-like situation between the modern and spiritual worlds breaking over this small conflict as both sides would invest an enormous amount of manpower and resources into this conflict, trying to get one over the other in the one thing the superpowers of the Cold War period loved the most—proxy wars.

This, in turn, would either drag on for tens of years while slowly escalating to the point where burning down cities or nuking entire clans would become commonplace. That, or the conflict would escalate rapidly, quickly leading to an intense exchange of both sides' greatest strength, resulting in a barrage of nukes from the modern world and an invasion of powerful spiritualists capable of vaporizing entire towns with a single punch from the spiritual side.

"Don't you think that you overestimate your own importance to the world, kiddo?" the young master laughed out while locking his hands behind his arms, his amusement mixing with anger in his eyes. "Or do you really think the modern world will care that much for you, just because someone taught you a lesson here?"

At first, I wanted to reply. But, feeling a surge of emotions through my bond, I closed my mouth and allowed Claire to emerge from behind my back, step toward the man…

And then slap him across the face with a look of disgust all over her own.

"Who the hell do you think you are to lay claim to me as if I were a commodity to be bought or traded?" Claire asked, her eyes burning with fury while her expression made her look like someone who just saw a dog licking its own balls. "We are in a loving, committed, confirmed, and consummated relationship, and yet you dare to approach me, proclaim me to be yours, and then insult the one to whom I willingly promised myself?"

What started as a dick-measuring contest had now turned into Claire unilaterally bashing the young master while looking like an incarnation of wrath itself.

"Wait, what?" Reaching up with his hand to his cheek, the young master stared at Claire wide-eyed while massaging his stinging cheek.

Yet, rather than flying into a rage over having his face literally slapped in front of quite the huge crowd… he raised his eyes, locked them on Claire's face, then moved them to me, then back to her, only to return them to me… And after repeating those steps a few more times, his eyes widened as the look of pride, wrath, and amusement all washed away by nothing but great shame, surprise, and then… something else that I couldn't quite put a name on.

"Wait, so you two are a thing? Like, for real?!"

Hearing this, I just couldn't help but get reminded of all the insults he threw our way, ranging from personally attacking me to treating Claire as if she was something he was owed.

"We are, so what?" I stated confidently, crossing my arms over my chest, only to then step forth and unwind my arms, all just so I could reach out with my arm, put it in front of Claire's stomach, and gently push her to the back.

'I don't really feel like letting her stand so close to this bastard…'

"Oh damn…" the young master muttered as he retreated a step… only to then bend down in half as he lowered his head while shouting, "My apologies!"

'Wait, what?'

"I'm sorry for my behavior just now, I really am!" he said out loud, paying no mind to the crowd around him. "I had no idea that you guys were an actual couple but was stuck believing you were just some dog lusting for a swan's flesh despite having no right to it!"

That…

That kind of made sense.

Heck!

Knowing the culture of the spiritual world, he made a perfectly valid point!

And yet…

This explanation was too damn perfect. Too damn fitting for the circumstance. And after everything I've seen in my life thus far, rarely were any conflicts resolved by such a convenient explanation of it all being just one big misunderstanding.

Then again…

How could I keep pushing the man when he already did as much as openly apologize for his mistake in front of a huge crowd?

If this were the modern world, I would outright assume he was just trying to play the public, opting to keep his personal relationship image to a minimum, even if it came at the cost of losing out in the current exchange.

But in the spiritual world?

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Apologizing in front of a crowd like that held a much, MUCH greater weight than it would back in the modern world!

"I can see that you are not convinced of my intentions, so allow me a few words to explain," the young master raised his head, only to cast a quick glance at my suspicion-ridden face and then start to rapidly spout out words, too quick for me to add my own two cents or steer the conversation to another topic. "I was under the impression that Claire, the very girl that you are clearly close to now that I look at it, was promised to me by her mom. But it seems that due to you two living over in the modern world, the update of her marital status… To put it short, it never reached my ears!"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Once again, this made perfect sense and aligned with what I knew about Claire's situation.

There were indeed some news of her mom working in the backstage of the clan to arrange for her to stay in the spiritual world, a privilege Chihiro had to reach the peak of martial cultivation to be considered worthy of. Yet, while Claire was quite clearly Chihiro's daughter… she got half of her blood from Leila's line, whose standing allowed for much greater wiggle-room within the clan.

With that in mind, it only made sense that with something as simple as inter-marrying within the clan, Claire would gain the right to reside within the spiritual world that, in the eyes of all those ignorant of all that I've already achieved, was one hell of a massive boon for someone of her cultivation rank.

Then again, while all of it made perfect sense upon giving it some thought… it simply made too much sense. And for a young master like the one standing before us to give up on the woman he was promised, a woman he was willing to come to blows for…

This one single detail was something that convinced me there was something going on at a deeper level than what I could see through right now.

"Well then, now that this matter—what I greatly hope for—is resolved," the young master picked right up where he left, removing all of his shock, shame, and regret from his face as he replaced it with the very same cheerfulness he approached the crowd with, "where are the two idiots that dared to step into the third floor of the cultivation garden? Or did they already turn, only for you guys to deal with…" he turned and cast a quick glance over the crowd of cultivators, most likely not missing how their faces suddenly turned all awkward, only to then turn his eyes onto the two of us…

"Oh…" the young master made a small sound as he connected the dots of the two alleged monsters and then the two of us standing right in front of him with not an ounce of insanity to be found in any part of ourselves. Yet, while his face turned blank and his mouth moved in an attempt to say something...

"I hate to disappoint you again, young master, but it was all a false alarm," I stated, only to then look over my shoulder at the cultivation garden before allowing myself a small chuckle. "And I really don't get what all this fear is all about. Between what we saw and experienced back there and how you all react to someone getting to the third floor," I shook my head, "that place really wasn't all that much of a big deal."

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