Literature / Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith

A man dies and is reborn as a character in a girls Dating Sim he played in his past-life. Waking up to Past-Life Memories after hitting his head falling from a tree, he finds himself in the chubby body of the son of a rural noble named Kururi Helan. Kururi remembers the two scenes his character had in the game: Being made fun of by the game’s villainous daughter, and then somehow ending up married to her as a destitute farmer after her fall into ruin.

With no clue how he is supposed to get roped into her fall to ruin, Kururi decides to learn a profession to provide for himself and his future wife: Blacksmithing, while exercising and learning magic. What follows, is a mix of adventure, magical hi-jinks, Slice of Life, and comedy as he collects a wacky group of True Companions and engages in romance with the aforementioned Tsundere villainous daughter, Eliza, as well as developing his father's feudal territory extensively.

Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith (Botsuraku Youtei Nanode, Kajishokunin Wo Mezasu) is a novel series by CK. Originally a Web Serial Novel first relased on Shousetsuka ni Narou in 2015, it began publication as a series of Light Novels in 2016 with illustrations by Kawaku. It has a manga adaptation illustrated by Aya Ishida, which began serialization in Dragon Comics Age in 2017.

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Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith provides examples of:

• The Alleged Boss: Kururi’s father Toral, being a Lazy Bum governing his domain with benign neglect, really just agrees with what his son or Lotson tell him.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: After Kururi and Eliza get Identity Amnesia, this happens to Eliza after Neko-sensei uses electroshock therapy to cure it. She identifies more with her spoiled self than her Housewife current self, and it takes a lot of work for her and Kururi to mend the resulting rift. All of her memories return to her from the trauma of seeing Kururi almost killed.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Kururi gets a lot of this after his Identity Amnesia, most notably, still remaining an Ultimate Blacksmith. All that preparation paid off.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Kururi and Eliza both give theirs to each other after she finally finds out that the ritual they have been preparing to restore the destroyed Helan territory requires his Human Sacrifice. They both declare that it was Love at First Sight.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: The Penal Colony that virtually worship Kururi for his good and forgiving leadership of them, are later emptied out of their prison by Prince Arc in order to help him with his expensive railroad construction. He makes them into this after realizing that they don't mesh well together with regular workers.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When a Alegraden Fonteyne comes to Kururi’s domain demanding that he be allowed to establish a monopoly on medical products to jack up the prices. He demanded a feast, has Jabba Table Manners, calls Kururi stupid, and threatens to crush him with a private army, but the thing that drives the typically All-Loving Hero Kururi to violence, is that he only ate the meat that Eliza cooked, and didn’t touch her home grown and prepared potato dish. Kururi would have told him and his entourage to leave without shoving their heads into jars, if not for that last part.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Appropriately enough, this is how the kingdom’s Penal Colony works.
• Becoming the Mask: When Kururi shapeshifts into a housecat, he spends hours acting accordingly.
• Beneath the Earth: The 'radish' familiars Kururi summons seem to be Nature Spirit race, who have plans to dominate the underground.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler:
  • Kururi for his domain.
  • Kururi’s ancestor from 300 years ago who was the founder of his domain, was also this.
• Berserk Button: For Kururi and Eliza, it’s people disrespecting the other one.
• Body Double: When Kururi takes over the Penal Colony he was throw into, he has one of the prisoners who better fits the part of hardened criminal be his mouthpiece to the corrupt guards. Although by the time Kururi leaves, the guards are familiar with and respectful to him personally.
• Brain Bleach: Kururi reacts to certain things this way:
  • Vaine showing him how he Prefers Raw Meat and gives him the liver of a sheep he slaughtered as Kururi was looking into its eyes.
  • A Head-Turning Beauty Kururi meets transforming into Neko-sensei, revealing that form to have been the result of Voluntary Shapeshifting, also earns this reaction. This receives an amusing Call-Back in a later volume.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: Invoked Trope by Eliza when she’s talking to a cat about her problems and lack of friends. That cat happens to be Kururi practicing his Voluntary Shapeshifting, which prompts a letter exchange and him giving her one of his secrets.
• Came Back Strong: Due to absorbing energy from the magical crystal he bought in the capitol, not only is Kururi resurrected from having his heart stabbed, but he floats and exhibits other powers. Although, not long after that he gets his mana drained from him as part of the preparation for his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Chick Magnet: When Kururi’s trying to help Prince Arc feel better about his Love Hurts problems with Iris by bringing him to girls in his territory to have them fawn over the prince, the girls get rosy cheeked and all ask to shake the hand of… Kururi instead. He notes in his Inner Monologue all the rationalizations of why they would choose him over the prince.
• Corrupt Bureaucrat: Eliza’s father Eyan Deauville, which Kururi notes was what led Eliza into ruin in the game. In fact, his first appearance is being solicited to help an evil aristocrat seemingly at the behest of a bribe or favor, but he refuses because of his daughter’s wishes.
• Cult of Personality: A few of these develop around Kururi, from the downplayed extent of his own people refusing to recognize anyone else as their ruler, to a certain borderline literal cult that he makes into his private army
• Cute, but Cacophonic: The radish familiars Kururi summons. He and Iris would disagree over whether they’re cute.
• A Deadly Affair: The murderer who kills men who cheated on their wives in the capital, that Eliza tells Kururi about in a letter to warn him against cheating on her.
• Deconstructed Trope: The Cat Girl trope is deconstructed with Neko-sensei. Instead of having the most appealing qualities of cats, she has all of their worst traits instead.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: The letter exchange between Eliza and Kururi is a classic example.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Kururi collects defeated foes he convinces to work with him as part of his being The Redeemer and a Messiah Archetype.
• Dragon Tamer: Vaine took up the hobby of doing this after he and Curroshi found dragons in her home country. He gives Kururi’s dragon Poobi, who’s a Spoiled Brat, some much needed training.
• Droit du Seigneur:
  • Iris recalls being worried about something like this when first meeting Kururi, her being a commoner and him a noble.
  • Fregen Dartanel tries to do just that to her with his flunkies at a Masquerade Ball, but she’s a Damsel out of Distress experienced adventurer, and kicks their asses.
  • The visiting fifth prince from a foreign country demands to take Eliza home with him after she beat him up because he likes her spirit, thinking she was a lowly servant. This causes Prince Rhasa to smack him, right after having lectured Kururi about treating his guests better and Kururi showering him with gifts for forgiveness.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Fregen Dartanel can’t get respect from Kururi, Iris, or Prince Arc, no matter what, making him an Unknown Rival to Kururi.
• Eat the Rich: This is the theme of a number of newspaper articles Kururi reads describing his meeting with a collection of nobles who were trying to condemn him. Which may seem a little odd, considering the kingdom still has a feudal governing system.
• Embarrassing Nickname:
  • Kururi’s pet name for Eliza being Eli. She later adopts it as her main name after the two of them get Identity Amnesia, and it’s used to refer to her Housewife personality she had after first getting amnesia, during her Amnesiac Dissonance crisis.
  • The other blacksmiths in the kingdom of Kudan decided on the pseudonym for Kururi without asking him. That pseudonym is ‘’The Great Dancer’’.
• Every Man Has His Price: Although it seems like Eliza’s father Eyan’s price is a little lower than others. After being exposed, losing his nobility and fortune, he sells Eliza’s hand in marriage to the Dartanels, causing her to become The Runaway.
• Evil Laugh: After falling into ruin and losing their memories, Kururi and Eliza do this each night when counting their profits from the blacksmith shop they run together, by candlelight.
• Excalibur in the Stone: Averted. Kururi, as an Ultimate Blacksmith, creates a sword called Excalibur, naming it that due to his otherworldly knowledge. But there is a separate sword in a stone that Only the Chosen May Wield.
• Face Death with Dignity: The sheep Vaine slaughters in front of Kururi to eat raw, has a contented look in its eyes.
• Famed In-Story: Kururi is widely known in his father’s domain as the one who can get things done, and that’s pretty early on. Over the course of events, he becomes famed internationally, leading to assassins being sent against him from far and wide. Some pirates leaders even told their crews to give a share of their booty to him if they see him, seemingly unprompted.
• Fangirl: Kururi has a number of these. In the academy, they’re led by Heart Valentine and form a “club” that swears loyalty to him at pain of death (although that group seems to have as many men). When Kururi tries to cheer up Arc over his broken heart by having girls in Helan territory fawn over him, they just blush and fawn over Kururi instead.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Kururi winces when he hears Rail and his father Toral committing lese majesty with how they talk about Prince Arc, and fear of that prompts Kururi's Passive-Aggressive Kombat dialogue with him.
• Feuding Families: The Dartanel family to the Helan family. Their heir Fregen is Kururi’s Unknown Rival, who’s name he can’t even remember.
• Flawed Prototype: Seeing as Kururi is an inventor, he makes a number of these. Though, if it’s a sword, it’s sure to be a Super Prototype that he sees as one. When he’s working on realizing his train invention, he does indeed go through quite a lot of failed iterations of components; when he tests out his first class seating train car with Eliza, she refuses to cook dinner afterwords.
• Frame-Up: The Dartanel family bribe and torture witnesses into saying Kururi sold them Cursed Weapon swords that made them go on killing sprees. This gets him thrown into a Penal Colony, with its leader being bribed to teach him a lesson. Instead, Kururi takes over the prison, reforms the prisoners, and gets the witnesses also sent there to rescind their testimony.
• Friendly Rivalry: Eliza and Iris. Eliza is especially thrilled to beat her test scores. Eliza actually doesn’t hate Iris so much, and actually learned a lot from her.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe: Often happen where Prince Arc is involved.
• The Good King: The king of the Kingdom of Kudan is one of these, if a bit eccentric. Kururi is a lot like this in his own fief as said king’s vassal.
• Gossip Evolution:
  • Due to the vague nature of the answers Kururi gives a reporter over the Feuding Families conflict between his house and the Dartanels, it causes a whole lot of stories to spread over the two families fighting over Eliza, who said son also tried to force an engagement with. This eventually is partially responsible for the creation of a picture book of the two years later.
  • When Kururi has a meeting with a neighboring lord about building a railway through his territory, said lord is scared beyond belief and tries to kill himself to save his family from retaliation, explaining later a number of exaggerated rumors based on Kururi’s more forceful actions as lord.
  • When Kururi gives threats to a meeting of nobles who were trying to murder and take him down a peg for being too pro-commoner, he gives them a Breaking Speech and exaggerates his own hot-headedness to intimidate him. Someone there talked to a reporter, and his speech was published in newspapers all over the country, resulting in a maid in the capital being a nervous wreck and messing everything up before his meeting with the king.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: It’s implied that the original, game version of Kururi had this, considering the hidden context behind his two appearances in the game.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Blacksmith Zeni Geba is driven mad by envy of Kururi completing a Living Weapon sword better than his own over a few days, when he spent three years making his. This causes him to attack one of his apprentices in a fit of rage and help conspire to put Kururi in prison. He apologizes and Kururi forgives him, and later he becomes one of his personal guard.
• Hands-On Approach: Vaine innocently touching Curroshi where a lady shouldn’t be during their Training from Hell sessions to make her a great warrior, because she’s a Sweet Polly Oliver.
• Harmful Healing: Neko-sensei’s suggestion of brain surgery via wooden stake. Side effects include changes in personality. She’s turned down on that one.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Both Kururi and his father after losing weight become quite handsome, apparently an inherited trait.
• Here We Go Again!: Prince Love being knocked unconscious by Kururi's friends escalating a diplomatic incident.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Eliza not only doesn’t hate her rival Iris, but she actually memorized all of her list of rules for travelling long distances alone, which saves her life. Eliza is also a Supreme Chef.
  • Kururi’s Lovable Coward father Toral is actually a supremely talented painter.
• Historical In-Joke: When Kururi discovers a Magitek Gatling Gun, Iris dubs it as a Watering Machine in order to be able to talk about it without people knowing the device’s true function. This is inspired by the origin of the term “Tank” for armored fighting vehicles; where the factories were officially making water tanks for Plausible Deniability. Naming them watering machines serves that same purpose.
• Hypocrite: Eliza’s father, who says she’s an authority higher than the king, tries to sell her off to the Dartanel family against her will to save his own ass. He later tries to redeem himself under old man Moran and Kururi’s guidance.
• I Am Not Pretty: Kururi is dumbfounded by Iris saying no-one has ever called her beautiful before.
• Idle Rich:
  • Kururi’s father Toral seems to be this, enjoying the serenity of his domain and leaving it in a state of benign neglect. His tastes don’t seem expensive at least.
  • Fregen Dartanel seems to be this. His household did manage to invent the train, but the boy himself is good for little.
  • When Kururi gets gifted an egg of a sapient dragon, after it hatches and bonds to him, he doesn’t discipline it or train it at all. So the dragon (Poobie) ends up as a Spoiled Brat spending his free time at hot springs and drinking.
• Implausible Deniability: Eliza being embarrassed for liking potatoes (a peasant food, while she’s a noble), causes her to deny liking them, and only admit it when wearing masks. She at one point does this with some potato left on her face.
• Incendiary Exponent: After Iris accidentally hits Kururi with one of her flame spells while adventuring, he is left on fire but can’t put it out. His clothes seem to be fine and he’s not hurt. He basically just needed to calm himself down to make it go away. The explanation is that he was born with rare Energy Absorption magic.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl:
  • Fregen Dartanel is so embarrassed about being beaten up by Iris that he points his rage at Kururi instead, causing everyone to believe that Kururi was the one who beat him up.
  • A visiting Prince Love gets drop-kicked by Eliza for destroying a mug that she sculpted for Kururi. Kururi protests that she was the one who did it, but Prince Rhasa doesn’t believe him.
• King Incognito:
  • Curroshi as a neighboring kingdom’s Crown Princess sent away to keep her safe.
  • As ruler of the Helan domain, Kururi uses the Voluntary Shapeshifting magic Neko-sensei taught him, to mingle about the populace. His activities include, going along with being a noblewoman’s toy boy to mock his political opponents, and delivering a number of borderline Public Service Announcement speeches, one to fighting school kids about his new academy (who proceed with their fight after he leaves), and another to a market about blacksmithing. The latter causes a Phlebotinum Breakdown and he flees.
• Life of the Party: Kururi’s pet dragon Poobie, spends much of his time drinking, partying, and relaxing in hot springs. He’s said to be popular with the common folk. He at least returns home for Eliza’s Supreme Chef cooking.
• Living Weapon: Certain magical gems can be made into these by Kururi, distributing their power through said sword like a circuit. His past-life knowledge of circuits seems to be part of why he can do this. Making this out of the living gem of a dragon he slew, allows him to command lesser dragons than it to a limited extent. Another one of the swords given to Prince Rhasa, Excalibur, can launch a Sword Beam.
• The Lost Lenore: Old man Moran, Kururi’s mentor from his household library, had this in the form of Harp Helan, Kururi’s relative. Moran tragically couldn’t see her on her death bed because he was more concerned with his career, became The Atoner after she died calling out for him, and dedicated himself to her life’s work and helping her relatives.
• Love at First Sight: After their Anguished Declaration of Love to each-other before Kururi’s Heroic Sacrifice, he and Eliza both admit to having fallen for each-other like this.
• Malicious Misnaming: Kururi calling the impetuous Prince Love Prince Lamb, even offering him some for a meal.
• Masquerade Ball: Kururi is eventually brought to one in the capital, where he has some fun hitting on one of the disguised guests, exchanging clever puns with what turns out to be Eliza, before an incident breaks out when a noble tries to force himself on Iris.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Neko-sensei, being Long-Lived, trained Old Man Moran in his youth, who went on to train Kururi in magic.
• Mind Hive: The radish familiars Kururi summons are later revealed to have one of these. They remember his past abuses, and expect payment in the form of human slave labor.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: The confrontation Kururi and Iris have with Fregen Dartanel at the end of the Masquerade Ball event has the two loudly proclaiming their identities despite the anonymity of their disguises. Kururi doing it may be a case of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, considering what follows.
• Nature Spirit: The radish familiars Kururu summons are basically these being summoned to possess plants. Their natural habitat is Beneath the Earth, where they compete with other spirits (which may presumably be summoned by a different spell).
• Next Life as a Fictional Character: When Kururi falls and hits his head trying to pick an apple from a tree, he awakens to Past-Life Memories of the world he’s in being a game he played.
• N.G.O. Superpower: Toto’s Gapp Company ends up having a significant armed forces to protect against hostile intervention from nobles, who raid and harass them.
• Not So Above It All: To Kururi’s surprise, Lotson doesn’t seem bothered or worried in the slightest by him cramming Alegraden Fonteyne’s head into a jar, besides wanting to avoid stains that could anger Eliza. He then brings up searching for hot springs and hands Kururi a shovel. So much for being the normal one.
• Not What It Looks Like: After Vaine insists on Kururi trying out raw freshly slaughtered lamb meat, one of the students sees him walking back to his dorm with blood all over his fingers and mouth, and that spreads as a rumor making other students scared of him.
• Odd Friendship: Kururi with King Kudan. Their friendship starts with sliding along the bathroom floor together covered in soap. They’re essentially secret playmates… despite them being adults.
• Official Couple: Kururi and Eliza.
• Ominous Walk: Kururi does this when he’s about to attack Alegraden Fonteyne and his flunkies for their threats. Multiple screams ensue as he crams their heads into jars.
• One-Man Army: Vaine’s father, the commander of Kudan’s Royal Guard, is renown for being able to take on thirty men at a time with his bare hands after his sword breaks. Although some of this may be a Tall Tale from Gossip Evolution.
• One-Word Vocabulary: The radish spirits vocabulary consists of the word “U i!”.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: There is a sword in the stone like this in a secret room of the royal castle the King shows to Kururi. Since he can pick it up, he’s told he has the right to kill the current king and take over, but he says no thanks and is granted more autonomy instead.
• Opponent Instruction: The groups of assassins who try to take on Kururi in his hot springs, who lose track of which group they belong to due to all wearing black, which Kururi helps them re-organize from, as well as warning them that the marble walkway is slippery before one slips and falls.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Kururi’s interactions with Prince Arc often involve these, due to Kururi’s fears of being persecuted for lese majesty.
• Penal Colony: The pit prison. It used to be a normal prison, but after a revolt, the guards decided to just throw supplies down into it once in a while and let them govern themselves. Kururi reforms it into a quasi-cult and it’s later emptied out for them to serve as his personal guard.
• Percussive Therapy: Iris viciously slaying monsters while venting her Love Hurts frustrations at them in place of Lotson.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: When Kururi sees Eliza’s panties and can’t take his mind off of them, asking if her handkerchief is pink too, she punches him but forgives him with that.
• Phlebotinum Breakdown:
  • When Kururi uses his Voluntary Shapeshifting spell from Neko-sensei, it tends to break down. First, when he’s being pampered by Eliza in cat form, getting too excited makes it fail. Secondly, when he is trying to deliver a Public Service Announcement about blacksmithing, that causes him to lose his incognito disguise amongst his people.
• Pinocchio Nose: Kururi takes note, that when Eliza closes her eyes and smiles, that’s the tell that she’s hiding her real emotions, like concern or pride relating to him.
• Plagued by Nightmares: After Kururi’s years long disappearance, Iris had nightmares of him laughing while running away from her. This causes her to sic her guards on him when he does show up, making his running away a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and causing a week of mayhem from the Sustained Misunderstanding.
• Plausible Deniability: Kururi producing Magitek Gatling Guns under the name “Watering Machines”.
• Playing with Syringes: Toto is introduced doing this with his Royal Brat dorm neighbor, spiking his tea with herbs that make him vomit, or pass out.
• Poke in the Third Eye: The Tribe of Priests who specialize in fortune telling send assassins after Kururi because his existence somehow causes their visions to just show him instead of anything useful. One of the assassins said he tried it himself and just got an image of his nostril.
• Politeness Judo: Kururi falls for this when asking if Prince Love forgives him for Eliza knocking him unconscious, prompting the prince to make reparation demands that cause Rhasa to knock him unconscious again.
• The Prophecy: The progenitor of the Helan Household’s prophecy that his red haired descendant three hundred years later will finish his task of eliminating the desertification curse on the land for good at the cost of his own life. What the prophecy didn’t account for, was Eliza’s interference making said sacrifice only be losing his memories and a coma. Although, From a Certain Point of View, you could say that losing all of your memories is a form of death.
• Put on a Bus: Curroshi and Vaine go to the former’s home country, leaving Kururi depressed until Eliza cheers him up.
• Quest for Identity: After Kururi’s Identity Amnesia, he embarks on a longstanding quest to figure out why a noble son like himself would become a blacksmith.
• Rebellious Princess: Maria Kudan, who just wants to adventure, and features in a number of incidental side-stories. Eliza’s mother also has shades of this.
• "Reborn as Villainess" Story: A variation. Kururi Helan is reincarnated into the world of a game he played, as a minor character who only had two gag scenes in the game: Being insulted by, and then married off to the game's villainess Eliza as poor farmers. Accepting his fate except for poverty, minor noble heir Kururi learns to smith to support the two of them in the future. Befriending the game's protagonist and others in the academy, Kururi proceeds to break down the barriers of the tsundere and Spoiled Sweet Eliza, preventing her conflict with the game's protagonist, learning magic, and getting caught up in political struggles.
• Refuge in Audacity: People in Kururi’s domain protest that he’s building a railroad, citing superstitions about a gargantuan dragon underneath the earth that would be disturbed by it. Capitalizing on another less prevalent rumor that Kururi is part dragon, he decides to invite them all to an event, get them severely drunk, and then explain to them in detail that, the dragon under the earth, who’s totally Kururi’s cousin, needs them to build the railroad in order to give it a back massage. This proves Crazy Enough to Work and the rail line is named The Dragon’s Spine.
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • Iris and first prince Arc got married during the Time Skip. Although they hardly seem any closer to each-other than before.
  • Kururi and Eliza eventually, but they had been living together as essentially husband and wife since the moment they woke up after the Time Skip, so it’s frankly only a formality, and everyone who knew them well assumed they were married before that point anyway.
• Relative Button: An extorting and bully neighboring lord threatening his son is what drives Toral Helan to show some spine once in his life, having him to Talk to the Fist.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: It’s a Running Gag that Kururi’s Lovable Coward dad Toral does this whenever there’s anything too troublesome, once literally running away. There are a few occasions where his son follows suit.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: At the Masquerade Ball, everyone wears a magic stone that shifts their voice to hide their identity better. This allows Eliza and Kururi to flirt with one another unknowingly, until Kururi puts together the clues.
• Self-Parody: Poking fun at Kururi’s Messiah Archetype aspects by having him inexplicably accidentally turning glasses of water he’s drinking from into grape juice.
• Seppuku: A neighboring feudal lord Kururi tries to negotiate rights to build a rail line with, sees him as The Dreaded in part due to Gossip Evolution, and keeps on offering more and more out of fear of his entire family being killed, taking Kururi saying he doesn’t want those things as evidence that he wants more instead of less, until he tries to kill himself to save his family and Kururi is forced to choke him unconscious to stop him.
• Serious Business: The King of Kudan is very serious about sliding on bath floors, describing it as if it were a sport, and building a secret chamber specifically to enable it.
• Shame If Something Happened: The first letter Eliza sends to Kururi says that it’d be a shame if he was killed due to spreading word of her secret he overheard.
• Shared Dream: When Iris insists on sharing a room when travelling with Kururi to save costs, he becomes so afraid of Eliza’s potential reaction if the two did anything that he dreams of her punching him in the stomach repeatedly. Iris dreamt of the same scene and couldn’t stop laughing due to the contrast it has with Eliza’s public persona.
• Shipper on Deck: Amongst all of Kururi’s friends, different ones ship him with Iris and Eliza. Rhasa and Curroshi ship him with Iris, while his father and both mentors (Donga and Moran) ship him with Eliza.
• Ship Sinking: Iris gets hit with two of these in quick succession: Overhearing Kururi telling his best friend Rhasa that he doesn’t look at her that way, and learning Lotson is Happily Married. After all of that, she is suitably heartbroken and engages in some Percussive Therapy.
• Shout-Out: The Masquerade Ball conversation between Kururi and Eliza is one to Beauty and the Beast.
• Show Some Leg: Neko-Sensei specializes in this, using her Voluntary Shapeshifting ability to get treated by men.
• Some Kind Of Forcefield: Kururi gets a crash course from Old Man Moran about how to create a White Magic barrier around his house, and the following night four assassins get covered in lascerations from walking into it. It’s supposed to only activate for those with malevolent intentions.
• So Proud of You: Played With. Kururi is proud of the rare occasions his Lovable Coward father Toral is actually responsible and helpful. Played straight when Kururi makes his first passenger train line.
• Standard Hero Reward: A noble that Kururi praises in a widely reported summit, offers his much sought after daughter to him as part of a token of friendship. Eliza, who has been basically unofficially married to Kururi for a long time at this point, tosses her out before she gets to say anything.
• Stealth Mentor: Somewhere in their rivalry over getting the top grades, Eliza managed to learn extensive survival tips from Iris.
• Stink Bomb: Since he’s introverted and a herbalist, Toto wears a cloak that’s soaked in foul smelling herbs to keep people away from him.
• Stupid Crooks: The ten assassins who try to kill Kururi in his personal hot spring. They ask him four times to confirm his identity which causes him to berate them. That was because they’re actually sent by four different groups, and since they’re all wearing black, they lose track of who they belong next to, so Kururi helps organize them. He tries to warn one of them about the marble walkway being slippery, but one just after slips and falls unconscious. Needless to say, they don’t succeed in their mission.
• Suicide Attack: After the Dartanel family get exposed for treason, Brau Dartanel goes missing, only to appear at Kururi’s first public passenger train unveiling, wielding a magical stone that’d let him incinerate the whole train if his demands aren’t met. Kururi knocks it out of his hands, and talks him down from suicide via jumping out of moving train.
• Supreme Chef: Eliza. Kururi and their pet dragon Poobie love her for it. Alegraden Fonteyne disrespecting her cooking served as a Berserk Button for Kururi.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: After Kururi’s Identity Amnesia, upon spotting him in the capitol, Iris orders her guards to seize him in anger. This was enough to thoroughly convince Kururi that she was out to torture him for some kind of sexual harassment he’d done before losing his memories, and that any subsequent offers to him were Too Good to Be True. Despite all the posters and pleas from everyone, he only realizes he’s safe after he’s captured and not being tortured. She ordered the guards to seize him because she was Haunted By Nightmares of him laughing while running way.
• Sword Beam: One of the Living Weapon swords Kururi makes for Rhasa, Excalibur, can launch these.
• Tall Tale: Curosshi tells these to Kururi’s young apprentice Riot, about his time in Gensou Academy. Things like being able to get a hug from anyone boy or girl.
• Telepathy: Dragons are able to telepathically communicate with their bonded master within an hour of hatching.
• Together in Death: Kururi’s Heroic Sacrifice, to save his domain from a magical curse, is interrupted by Eliza declaring that she won’t live without him. This seemingly has the end result of just erasing the two’s memories and leaving them comatose for years, instead of killing him as the prophecy stated.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: This is the dynamic between Iris and Eliza, with Iris as the tomboy and Eliza the girly girl.
• Too Good to Be True: The kind messages written on the wanted posters for Kururi in the capital by his friends seem like this to him, after Iris sics her guards on him. So it takes a week of chases and a big fight with Rhasa to get him to sit and talk with her.
• Training from Hell: Vaine gives this to Curroshi, as well as later to Kururi’s pet dragon Poobie, who’d become quite the Spoiled Brat.
• Tribe of Priests: There is a country famed for its fortune telling. They send assassins after Kururi because his mere presences causes a Poke in the Third Eye where they only see Kururi if they try to use their powers to spy on the Kudan Kingdom.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: After three years of blacksmith practice, Kururi is one of these, getting praise from his Tsundere educator. He was widely considered one of the top ten blacksmiths in the Kingdom of Kudan, but that was before he got into the business of making Living Weapon swords, which are officially designated ‘’god tier’’ and sell for amounts that even nobles can’t sneeze at.
• Uncle Penny Bags: King Kudan, who loves childishly fooling around. He even built a secret compartment in the royal bathhouse specifically for the purpose of sliding across its floor.
• Vampiric Draining: Subconsciously, due to his ‘whirlpool’ type of magic, Kururi is able to rip the mana out of others and absorb it to gain their strength. He only does this on the brink of death, however.
• Verbal Tic: A number of characters always end their sentences with a certain word:
  • Neko-sensei, being a human-sized cat, ends all her lines with Nyan. Since Kururi faces the same issue when he shapeshifts into her form, it’s apparently involuntary.
  • Petal ends every sentence with “Nari”. Which is equivalent to saying “or something” or “and stuff”.
  • The Villainous Glutton merchant Alegraden Fonteyne ends all his sentences with “foo”.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Heart Valentine and Kururi’s Instant Fan Club completely disappear with no explanation after their confrontation with Eliza over her dismissed follower. They were Adapted Out of the manga adaptation considering their ultimate extraneousness.
• Worthy Opponent: Eliza explains that ultimately she considers Iris to be this, having learned a great deal from her and coming to respect her.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Iris’ sword breaks when adventuring during her first meeting with Kururi, which he notes only happened because it was a faulty product. He secretly makes her a new one instead of fixing it like he agreed to. She later fears breaking one of his later swords, ignorant of that fact.
  • Vaine’s father, the Knight Commander, commissions him to make him a sword that won’t break. He goes through so many swords that it seriously effects the Knight’s budget, causing him to take on entire groups of soldiers bare-handed (and win). It most likely broke from him using it like a club (swords are weak on their broad side, strong on the edge). It seems Kururi made or was planning to make a Living Weapon sword for him before events got in the way.
• Xanatos Gambit: The titular plan to become a blacksmith is sort of like this for Kururi’s eventual fall into ruin, figuring You Can't Fight Fate. Due to Amnesiac Resonance after his Heroic Sacrifice, Kururi and Eliza do indeed make out like bandits from his Ultimate Blacksmith skills, staying up each night counting the money with an Evil Laugh.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Kururi resigns himself mostly to his fate of falling into ruin, which is helped in no small part due to how much he likes his fated partner, Eliza. Said fate, being the scenes from the game he transmigrated into: Being insulted by Eliza, and being married off to her as commoners. Indeed, his original fate wasn’t that bad after all. Considering Eliza is tsundere, she might well have had a romance with the game Kururi off-screen; the two only ended up together as commoners because of Eliza deciding to be Together in Death during Kururi’s Heroic Sacrifice, and the two getting Identity Amnesia from it. All that Kururi needed to change was to increase their livelihood, and he wildly succeeded at that.

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