God Of Crafting

Chapter 89: The problem and its problematic solution

"Scythe or not a Scythe, I don't care," Claire stated with great determination in her voice as she suddenly relaxed her grasp over my waist and moved her hands over to my shoulder...

Only to pull herself aside and then circle to my front.

And when I saw the look on her face...

'I'm in trouble, aren't I?'

"Tim, there's a lot of things that I'm willing to accept. There are a lot of ways in which our relationship doesn't fit the norms of this day and age. But while this makes me turn a blind eye to quite a lot of things..."

Claire bit down her lips and lowered her head before taking a deep breath and looking back up again as she locked her stare right on my eyes.

"But I don't want to see you in such a state ever again," Claire stated while staring right into my eyes. "Can you promise me you will never end up like you did just now?"

Claire's face looked as serious as it could get. Her eyes didn't waver in the slightest, showcasing just how determined she was to get this promise out of my mouth.

But in all honesty, it wasn't something that I could guarantee, so how could I make a promise over something that wasn't fully within my power?

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm able to make that kind of a promise," I said while shaking my head all the while trying to cope with my mounting exhaustion. "As in, it's not like I don't want to make this promise, but..."

I hesitated for a second, only to decide to just be honest and open about my reasoning.

"But I don't want to make a promise that I'm not sure it's within my ability to keep up. That's why, instead, I can promise you I will do my best to never let myself end up like I did today."

Claire bit down on her lips again... but ended up holding her protest back.

"That... I can accept," she muttered while lowering her eyes. She then sat back down on her heels and leaned back a bit. "But then..." she mumbled while still keeping her eyes down on the floor...

Claire shook her head before raising her chin and looking straight into my eyes again.

The prototype of the QI condensation device that I sold to her all those days ago and then the finished and actually nicely-looking device that I sold during our negotiations with her father.

Neither of those two devices had to be turned on as they were designed to just work their magic in the background for as long as the materials it was made with wouldn't deteriorate and degrade to the point they would lose their qualities.

And as soon as Claire brought those two devices over and pretty much pressed them against my chest...

It was a weird feeling, but despite the pressure she added to my chest, it suddenly felt as if I could breathe properly again. As if the air I was breathing for the entire day was so thin I could hardly catch any oxygen in it.

I took a deep breath, savoring every tiniest bit of the air that suddenly grew thick with the now condensed Qi, only to feel my exhaustion suddenly recede like a wave of filth washed away by a jet of pressurized water.

"Haaaa...." I heaved a long sigh as my body now properly relaxed as opposed to just shutting down in a desperate bid to preserve whatever spiritual energy was left in it.

It was just a single breath, way too little to fully avert the side-effects of overexerting myself... but all in all, it was better than nothing.

"How is it?" Claire asked, raising her concerned eyes and locking them on my face as she waited with anticipation for my answer.

"Better..." I admitted before heaving a short sigh only to then greedily take another breath of the Qi-rich air, "Much better."

"Haaaah..." This time it was Claire's turn to breathe out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear..." she muttered only to then energetically shake her head and reach out for my shoulders again as she, once again, looked straight into my ears. "So now that we know what the issue is, how do you plan to solve it?"

Claire's question was as hard... as did it serve as something to jolt my memory and bring back the one idea that I deemed interesting but potentially too dangerous to just craft like that.

"Actually, I do have an idea..." I muttered before averting my eyes, not really sure whether bringing such a game-changing device to life wouldn't be akin to inviting disaster to my life, even if it could pretty much solve the problem we currently faced. "The thing is, if there are things that we can sell and then there are things that sell we cannot, the thing I'm thinking about right now..."

I hesitated to even bring the details of this idea up as if merely speaking about it would be akin to printing myself a ticket to the stake on which I would soon burn.

"Just say it, there's no use dancing around the topic," Claire chastised me a little while the anxiety in her eyes gave way to the familiar spark of curiosity.

"The thing I'm thinking about right now could possibly be the spark of the second iteration of the war to end all wars."