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* BloodBrothers: Prince Rhasa is this with Kururi, with Rhasa calling him Anaki (big brother), and them verging on HeterosexualLifePartners.
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* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Kururi eventually regrets that having Vaine and Curroshi exercising in the middle of his apartment while he was crafting a certain sword really lowered its end quality. He’s actually been working with one hand tied behind his back for much of his blacksmith career.
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Also known as ''Botsuraku Youtei Nanode, Kajishokunin Wo Mezasu''.
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* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: 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 HumanSacrifice. They both declare that it was LoveAtFirstSight.]]
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* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Kururi and Eliza both give theirs to each-other each other after she finally finds out that the ritual they have been preparing to restore the destroyed Helan territory requires his HumanSacrifice. They both declare that it was LoveAtFirstSight.]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallintoruincover.jpg]]
A man dies and [[NextLifeAsAFictionalCharacter is reborn as]] a character in a girls DatingSim he played in his past-life. Waking up to PastLifeMemories 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, SliceOfLife, and comedy as he collects a wacky group of TrueCompanions and engages in romance with the aforementioned {{Tsundere}} villainous daughter, Eliza, as well as developing his father's feudal territory extensively.
Also known as ''Botsuraku Youtei Nanode, Kajishokunin Wo Mezasu''.
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!!''Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith'' provides examples of:
* TheAllegedBoss: Kururi’s father Toral, being a LazyBum governing his domain with benign neglect, really just agrees with what his son or Lotson tell him.
* AmnesiacDissonance: [[spoiler: After Kururi and Eliza get IdentityAmnesia, 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.]]
* AmnesiacResonance: [[spoiler: Kururi gets a lot of this after his IdentityAmnesia, most notably, still remaining an UltimateBlacksmith. All that preparation paid off.]]
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: 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 HumanSacrifice. They both declare that it was LoveAtFirstSight.]]
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: [[spoiler: The PenalColony 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.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: 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 JabbaTableManners, calls Kururi stupid, and threatens to crush him with a private army, but the thing that drives the typically AllLovingHero 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.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Appropriately enough, this is how the kingdom’s PenalColony works.
* BecomingTheMask: When Kururi shapeshifts into a housecat, he spends hours acting accordingly.
* BeneathTheEarth: The 'radish' familiars Kururi summons seem to be NatureSpirit race, who have plans to dominate the underground.
* BenevolentMageRuler:
** Kururi for his domain.
** Kururi’s ancestor from 300 years ago who was the [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder of his domain]], was also this.
* BerserkButton: For Kururi and Eliza, it’s people disrespecting the other one.
* BloodBrothers: Prince Rhasa is this with Kururi, with Rhasa calling him Anaki (big brother), and them verging on HeterosexualLifePartners.
* BodyDouble: [[spoiler: When Kururi takes over the PenalColony 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.]]
* BrainBleach: Kururi reacts to certain things this way:
** Vaine showing him how he PrefersRawMeat and gives him the liver of a sheep he slaughtered as Kururi was looking into its eyes.
** A HeadTurningBeauty Kururi meets transforming into Neko-sensei, revealing that form to have been the result of VoluntaryShapeshifting, also earns this reaction. This receives an amusing CallBack in a later volume.
* CagedBirdMetaphor: InvokedTrope by Eliza when she’s talking to a cat about her problems and lack of friends. That cat happens to be Kururi practicing his VoluntaryShapeshifting, which prompts a letter exchange and him giving her one of his secrets.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: Due to [[EnergyAbsorbtion absorbing energy from]] the magical crystal he bought in the capitol, not only is Kururi resurrected from having his heart stabbed, but [[PowerFloats 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 HeroicSacrifice.]]
* ChickMagnet: When Kururi’s trying to help Prince Arc feel better about his LoveHurts 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 InnerMonologue all the rationalizations of why they would choose him over the prince.
* CorruptBureaucrat: 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.
* CultOfPersonality: 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
* CuteButCacophonic: The radish familiars Kururi summons. He and Iris would disagree over whether they’re cute.
* ADeadlyAffair: 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.
* DeconstructedTrope: The CatGirl trope is deconstructed with Neko-sensei. Instead of having the most appealing qualities of cats, she has all of their worst traits instead.
* DefrostingIceQueen: The letter exchange between Eliza and Kururi is a classic example.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Kururi collects defeated foes he convinces to work with him as part of his being TheRedeemer and a MessiahArchetype.
* DragonTamer: 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 SpoiledBrat, some much needed training.
* DroitDuSeigneur:
** 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 MasqueradeBall, but she’s a DamselOutOfDistress 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.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Fregen Dartanel can’t get respect from Kururi, Iris, or Prince Arc, no matter what, making him an UnknownRival to Kururi.
* EatTheRich: 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.
* EmbarrassingNickname:
** Kururi’s pet name for Eliza being Eli. [[spoiler: She later adopts it as her main name after the two of them get IdentityAmnesia, and it’s used to refer to her {{Housewife}} personality she had after first getting amnesia, during her AmnesiacDissonance crisis.]]
** The other blacksmiths in the kingdom of Kudan decided on the pseudonym for Kururi without asking him. That pseudonym is ‘’The Great Dancer’’.
* EveryManHasHisPrice: Although it seems like Eliza’s father Eyan’s price is a little lower than others. [[spoiler: After being exposed, losing his nobility and fortune, he sells Eliza’s hand in marriage to the Dartanels, causing her to become TheRunaway.]]
* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* ExcaliburInTheStone: Averted. Kururi, as an UltimateBlacksmith, creates a sword called Excalibur, naming it that due to his otherworldly knowledge. But there is a separate sword in a stone that OnlyTheChosenMayWield.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: The sheep Vaine slaughters in front of Kururi to eat raw, has a contented look in its eyes.
* FamedInStory: 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.
* FeeFiFauxPas: 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 PassiveAggressiveKombat dialogue with him.
* FeudingFamilies: The Dartanel family to the Helan family. Their heir Fregen is Kururi’s UnknownRival, who’s name he can’t even remember.
* FlawedPrototype: Seeing as Kururi is an inventor, he makes a number of these. Though, if it’s a sword, it’s sure to be a SuperPrototype 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.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler: The Dartanel family bribe and torture witnesses into saying Kururi sold them CursedWeapon swords that made them go on killing sprees. This gets him thrown into a PenalColony, 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.]]
* FriendlyRivalry: Eliza and Iris. Eliza is especially thrilled to beat her test scores. Eliza actually doesn’t hate Iris so much, and [[StealthMentor actually learned a lot from her.]]
* GiftGivingGaffe: Often happen where Prince Arc is involved.
* TheGoodKing: 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.
* GossipEvolution:
** Due to the vague nature of the answers Kururi gives a reporter over the FeudingFamilies 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 BreakingSpeech 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.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: It’s implied that the original, game version of Kururi had this, considering the hidden context behind his two appearances in the game.
* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Blacksmith Zeni Geba is driven mad by envy of Kururi completing a LivingWeapon 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.]]
* HandsOnApproach: Vaine innocently touching Curroshi where a lady shouldn’t be during their TrainingFromHell sessions to make her a great warrior, because she’s a SweetPollyOliver.
* HarmfulHealing: Neko-sensei’s suggestion of brain surgery via wooden stake. Side effects include changes in personality. She’s turned down on that one.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Both Kururi and his father after losing weight become quite handsome, apparently an inherited trait.
* HereWeGoAgain: Prince Love being knocked unconscious by Kururi's friends escalating a diplomatic incident.
* HiddenDepths:
** 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 SupremeChef.
** Kururi’s LovableCoward father Toral is actually a supremely talented painter.
* HistoricalInJoke: When Kururi discovers a {{Magitek}} [[GatlingGood 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 PlausibleDeniability. Naming them watering machines serves that same purpose.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* IAmNotPretty: Kururi is dumbfounded by Iris saying no-one has ever called her beautiful before.
* IdleRich:
** 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 SpoiledBrat spending his free time at hot springs and drinking.
* ImplausibleDeniability: 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.
* IncendiaryExponent: 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 EnergyAbsorption magic.
* IWasBeatenByAGirl:
** 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.
* KingIncognito:
** Curroshi as a neighboring kingdom’s Crown Princess sent away to keep her safe.
** As ruler of the Helan domain, Kururi uses the VoluntaryShapeshifting 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 PublicServiceAnnouncement 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 PhlebotinumBreakdown and he flees.
* LifeOfTheParty: 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 SupremeChef cooking.
* LivingWeapon: 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 SwordBeam.
* TheLostLenore: 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 TheAtoner after she died calling out for him, and dedicated himself to her life’s work and helping her relatives.
* LoveAtFirstSight: [[spoiler: After their AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to each-other before Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, he and Eliza both admit to having fallen for each-other like this.]]
* MaliciousMisnaming: Kururi calling the impetuous Prince Love ''Prince Lamb'', even offering him some for a meal.
* MasqueradeBall: 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.
* MasterApprenticeChain: [[spoiler: Neko-sensei, being LongLived, trained Old Man Moran in his youth, who went on to train Kururi in magic.]]
* MindHive: 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.
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: The confrontation Kururi and Iris have with Fregen Dartanel at the end of the MasqueradeBall event has the two loudly proclaiming their identities despite the anonymity of their disguises. Kururi doing it may be a case of NiceJobBreakingItHero, considering what follows.
* NatureSpirit: The radish familiars Kururu summons are basically these being summoned to possess plants. Their natural habitat is BeneathTheEarth, where they compete with other spirits (which may presumably be summoned by a different spell).
* NextLifeAsAFictionalCharacter: When Kururi falls and [[TapOnTheHEad hits his head]] trying to pick an apple from a tree, he awakens to PastLifeMemories of the world he’s in being a game he played.
* NGOSuperpower: Toto’s Gapp Company ends up having a significant armed forces to protect against hostile intervention from nobles, who raid and harass them.
* NotSoAboveItAll: 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.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: 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.
* OddFriendship: Kururi with King Kudan. Their friendship starts with sliding along the bathroom floor together covered in soap. They’re essentially secret playmates… [[ManChild despite them being adults.]]
* OfficialCouple: Kururi and Eliza.
* OminousWalk: 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.
* OneManArmy: 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 TallTale from GossipEvolution.
* OneWordVocabulary: The radish spirits vocabulary consists of the word “U i!”.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: There is a sword in the stone like this in a secret room of the royal castle the King shows to Kururi. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* OpponentInstruction: 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.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Kururi’s interactions with Prince Arc often involve these, due to Kururi’s fears of being persecuted for lese majesty.
* PenalColony: 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. [[spoiler: Kururi reforms it into a quasi-cult and it’s later emptied out for them to serve as his personal guard.]]
* PercussiveTherapy: Iris viciously slaying monsters while venting her LoveHurts frustrations at them in place of Lotson.
* PervertRevengeMode: 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.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown:
** When Kururi uses his VoluntaryShapeshifting 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 PublicServiceAnnouncement about blacksmithing, that causes him to lose his incognito disguise amongst his people.
* PinocchioNose: 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.
* PlaguedByNightmares: [[spoiler: 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 SelfFulfillingProphecy and causing a week of mayhem from the SustainedMisunderstanding.]]
* PlausibleDeniability: Kururi producing {{Magitek}} [[GatlingGOod Gatling Guns]] under the name “Watering Machines”.
* PlayingWithSyringes: Toto is introduced doing this with his RoyalBrat dorm neighbor, spiking his tea with herbs that make him vomit, or pass out.
* PokeInTheThirdEye: The TribeOfPriests 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.
* PolitenessJudo: 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.
* TheProphecy: [[spoiler: 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, FromACertainPointOfView, you could say that losing all of your memories is a form of death.]]
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: Curroshi and Vaine go to the former’s home country, leaving Kururi depressed until Eliza cheers him up.]]
* QuestForIdentity: [[spoiler: After Kururi’s IdentityAmnesia, he embarks on a longstanding quest to figure out why a noble son like himself would become a blacksmith.]]
* RebelliousPrincess: Maria Kudan, who just wants to adventure, and features in a number of incidental side-stories. Eliza’s mother also has shades of this.
* RebornAsVillainessStory: 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 SpoiledSweet Eliza, preventing her conflict with the game's protagonist, learning magic, and getting caught up in political struggles.
* RefugeInAudacity: 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 CrazyEnoughToWork and the rail line is named The Dragon’s Spine.
* RelationshipUpgrade:
** [[spoiler: Iris and first prince Arc got married during the TimeSkip. Although they hardly seem any closer to each-other than before.]]
** [[spoiler: Kururi and Eliza eventually, but they had been living together as essentially husband and wife since the moment they woke up after the TimeSkip, so it’s frankly only a formality, and everyone who knew them well assumed they were married before that point anyway.]]
* RelativeButton: 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 TalkToTheFist.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: It’s a RunningGag that Kururi’s LovableCoward dad Toral does this whenever there’s anything too troublesome, once literally running away. There are a few occasions where [[LikeFatherLikeSon his son follows suit]].
* SecretIdentityVocalShift: At the MasqueradeBall, 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.
* SelfParody: Poking fun at Kururi’s MessiahArchetype 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 TheDreaded in part due to GossipEvolution, 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.
* SeriousBusiness: 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.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: 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.
* SharedDream: 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.
* ShipperOnDeck: 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.
* ShipSinking: 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 HappilyMarried. After all of that, she [[LoveHurts is suitably heartbroken]] and engages in some PercussiveTherapy.
* ShoutOut: The MasqueradeBall conversation between Kururi and Eliza is one to Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast.
* ShowSomeLeg: Neko-Sensei specializes in this, using her VoluntaryShapeshifting ability to get treated by men.
* SomeKindOfForcefield: Kururi gets a crash course from Old Man Moran about how to create a WhiteMagic 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.
* SoProudOfYou: PlayedWith. Kururi is proud of the rare occasions his LovableCoward father Toral is actually responsible and helpful. Played straight when Kururi makes his first passenger train line.
* StandardHeroReward: 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. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* StealthMentor: Somewhere in their rivalry over getting the top grades, Eliza managed to learn extensive survival tips from Iris.
* StinkBomb: Since he’s introverted and a herbalist, Toto wears a cloak that’s soaked in foul smelling herbs to keep people away from him.
* StupidCrooks: 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.
* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: 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 [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal talks him down from suicide via jumping out of moving train.]]]]
* SupremeChef: Eliza. Kururi and their pet dragon Poobie love her for it. Alegraden Fonteyne disrespecting her cooking served as a BerserkButton for Kururi.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Kururi eventually regrets that having Vaine and Curroshi exercising in the middle of his apartment while he was crafting a certain sword really lowered its end quality. He’s actually been working with one hand tied behind his back for much of his blacksmith career.
* SustainedMisunderstanding: [[spoiler: After Kururi’s IdentityAmnesia, 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 TooGoodToBeTrue. 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 HauntedByNightmares of him laughing while running way.]]
* SwordBeam: One of the LivingWeapon swords Kururi makes for Rhasa, Excalibur, can launch these.
* TallTale: 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.
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, 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.]]
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: This is the dynamic between Iris and Eliza, with Iris as the tomboy and Eliza the girly girl.
* TooGoodToBeTrue: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* TrainingFromHell: Vaine gives this to Curroshi, as well as later to Kururi’s pet dragon Poobie, who’d become quite the SpoiledBrat.
* TribeOfPriests: There is a country famed for its fortune telling. They send assassins after Kururi because his mere presences causes a PokeInTheThirdEye where they only see Kururi if they try to use their powers to spy on the Kudan Kingdom.
* UltimateBlacksmith: 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 LivingWeapon swords, which are officially designated ‘’god tier’’ and sell for amounts that even nobles can’t sneeze at.
* UnclePennyBags: 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.
* VampiricDraining: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* VerbalTic: 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 VillainousGlutton merchant Alegraden Fonteyne ends all his sentences with “foo”.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Heart Valentine and Kururi’s InstantFanClub completely disappear with no explanation after their confrontation with Eliza over her dismissed follower. They were AdaptedOut of the manga adaptation considering their ultimate extraneousness.
* WorthyOpponent: Eliza explains that ultimately she considers Iris to be this, having learned a great deal from her and coming to respect her.
* WreckedWeapon:
** 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 LivingWeapon sword for him before events got in the way.
* XanatosGambit: The titular plan to become a blacksmith is sort of like this for Kururi’s eventual fall into ruin, figuring YouCantFightFate. [[spoiler: Due to AmnesiacResonance after his HeroicSacrifice, Kururi and Eliza do indeed make out like bandits from his UltimateBlacksmith skills, staying up each night counting the money with an EvilLaugh.]]
* YouCantFightFate: 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. [[spoiler: 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 TogetherInDeath during Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, and the two getting IdentityAmnesia from it. All that Kururi needed to change was to increase their livelihood, and he wildly succeeded at that.]]
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A man dies and [[NextLifeAsAFictionalCharacter is reborn as]] a character in a girls DatingSim he played in his past-life. Waking up to PastLifeMemories 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, SliceOfLife, and comedy as he collects a wacky group of TrueCompanions and engages in romance with the aforementioned {{Tsundere}} villainous daughter, Eliza, as well as developing his father's feudal territory extensively.
Also known as ''Botsuraku Youtei Nanode, Kajishokunin Wo Mezasu''.
----
!!''Expecting to Fall into Ruin, I Aim to Become a Blacksmith'' provides examples of:
* TheAllegedBoss: Kururi’s father Toral, being a LazyBum governing his domain with benign neglect, really just agrees with what his son or Lotson tell him.
* AmnesiacDissonance: [[spoiler: After Kururi and Eliza get IdentityAmnesia, 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.]]
* AmnesiacResonance: [[spoiler: Kururi gets a lot of this after his IdentityAmnesia, most notably, still remaining an UltimateBlacksmith. All that preparation paid off.]]
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: 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 HumanSacrifice. They both declare that it was LoveAtFirstSight.]]
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: [[spoiler: The PenalColony 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.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: 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 JabbaTableManners, calls Kururi stupid, and threatens to crush him with a private army, but the thing that drives the typically AllLovingHero 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.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Appropriately enough, this is how the kingdom’s PenalColony works.
* BecomingTheMask: When Kururi shapeshifts into a housecat, he spends hours acting accordingly.
* BeneathTheEarth: The 'radish' familiars Kururi summons seem to be NatureSpirit race, who have plans to dominate the underground.
* BenevolentMageRuler:
** Kururi for his domain.
** Kururi’s ancestor from 300 years ago who was the [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder of his domain]], was also this.
* BerserkButton: For Kururi and Eliza, it’s people disrespecting the other one.
* BloodBrothers: Prince Rhasa is this with Kururi, with Rhasa calling him Anaki (big brother), and them verging on HeterosexualLifePartners.
* BodyDouble: [[spoiler: When Kururi takes over the PenalColony 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.]]
* BrainBleach: Kururi reacts to certain things this way:
** Vaine showing him how he PrefersRawMeat and gives him the liver of a sheep he slaughtered as Kururi was looking into its eyes.
** A HeadTurningBeauty Kururi meets transforming into Neko-sensei, revealing that form to have been the result of VoluntaryShapeshifting, also earns this reaction. This receives an amusing CallBack in a later volume.
* CagedBirdMetaphor: InvokedTrope by Eliza when she’s talking to a cat about her problems and lack of friends. That cat happens to be Kururi practicing his VoluntaryShapeshifting, which prompts a letter exchange and him giving her one of his secrets.
* CameBackStrong: [[spoiler: Due to [[EnergyAbsorbtion absorbing energy from]] the magical crystal he bought in the capitol, not only is Kururi resurrected from having his heart stabbed, but [[PowerFloats 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 HeroicSacrifice.]]
* ChickMagnet: When Kururi’s trying to help Prince Arc feel better about his LoveHurts 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 InnerMonologue all the rationalizations of why they would choose him over the prince.
* CorruptBureaucrat: 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.
* CultOfPersonality: 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
* CuteButCacophonic: The radish familiars Kururi summons. He and Iris would disagree over whether they’re cute.
* ADeadlyAffair: 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.
* DeconstructedTrope: The CatGirl trope is deconstructed with Neko-sensei. Instead of having the most appealing qualities of cats, she has all of their worst traits instead.
* DefrostingIceQueen: The letter exchange between Eliza and Kururi is a classic example.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Kururi collects defeated foes he convinces to work with him as part of his being TheRedeemer and a MessiahArchetype.
* DragonTamer: 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 SpoiledBrat, some much needed training.
* DroitDuSeigneur:
** 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 MasqueradeBall, but she’s a DamselOutOfDistress 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.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Fregen Dartanel can’t get respect from Kururi, Iris, or Prince Arc, no matter what, making him an UnknownRival to Kururi.
* EatTheRich: 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.
* EmbarrassingNickname:
** Kururi’s pet name for Eliza being Eli. [[spoiler: She later adopts it as her main name after the two of them get IdentityAmnesia, and it’s used to refer to her {{Housewife}} personality she had after first getting amnesia, during her AmnesiacDissonance crisis.]]
** The other blacksmiths in the kingdom of Kudan decided on the pseudonym for Kururi without asking him. That pseudonym is ‘’The Great Dancer’’.
* EveryManHasHisPrice: Although it seems like Eliza’s father Eyan’s price is a little lower than others. [[spoiler: After being exposed, losing his nobility and fortune, he sells Eliza’s hand in marriage to the Dartanels, causing her to become TheRunaway.]]
* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* ExcaliburInTheStone: Averted. Kururi, as an UltimateBlacksmith, creates a sword called Excalibur, naming it that due to his otherworldly knowledge. But there is a separate sword in a stone that OnlyTheChosenMayWield.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: The sheep Vaine slaughters in front of Kururi to eat raw, has a contented look in its eyes.
* FamedInStory: 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.
* FeeFiFauxPas: 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 PassiveAggressiveKombat dialogue with him.
* FeudingFamilies: The Dartanel family to the Helan family. Their heir Fregen is Kururi’s UnknownRival, who’s name he can’t even remember.
* FlawedPrototype: Seeing as Kururi is an inventor, he makes a number of these. Though, if it’s a sword, it’s sure to be a SuperPrototype 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.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler: The Dartanel family bribe and torture witnesses into saying Kururi sold them CursedWeapon swords that made them go on killing sprees. This gets him thrown into a PenalColony, 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.]]
* FriendlyRivalry: Eliza and Iris. Eliza is especially thrilled to beat her test scores. Eliza actually doesn’t hate Iris so much, and [[StealthMentor actually learned a lot from her.]]
* GiftGivingGaffe: Often happen where Prince Arc is involved.
* TheGoodKing: 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.
* GossipEvolution:
** Due to the vague nature of the answers Kururi gives a reporter over the FeudingFamilies 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 BreakingSpeech 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.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: It’s implied that the original, game version of Kururi had this, considering the hidden context behind his two appearances in the game.
* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Blacksmith Zeni Geba is driven mad by envy of Kururi completing a LivingWeapon 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.]]
* HandsOnApproach: Vaine innocently touching Curroshi where a lady shouldn’t be during their TrainingFromHell sessions to make her a great warrior, because she’s a SweetPollyOliver.
* HarmfulHealing: Neko-sensei’s suggestion of brain surgery via wooden stake. Side effects include changes in personality. She’s turned down on that one.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Both Kururi and his father after losing weight become quite handsome, apparently an inherited trait.
* HereWeGoAgain: Prince Love being knocked unconscious by Kururi's friends escalating a diplomatic incident.
* HiddenDepths:
** 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 SupremeChef.
** Kururi’s LovableCoward father Toral is actually a supremely talented painter.
* HistoricalInJoke: When Kururi discovers a {{Magitek}} [[GatlingGood 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 PlausibleDeniability. Naming them watering machines serves that same purpose.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* IAmNotPretty: Kururi is dumbfounded by Iris saying no-one has ever called her beautiful before.
* IdleRich:
** 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 SpoiledBrat spending his free time at hot springs and drinking.
* ImplausibleDeniability: 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.
* IncendiaryExponent: 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 EnergyAbsorption magic.
* IWasBeatenByAGirl:
** 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.
* KingIncognito:
** Curroshi as a neighboring kingdom’s Crown Princess sent away to keep her safe.
** As ruler of the Helan domain, Kururi uses the VoluntaryShapeshifting 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 PublicServiceAnnouncement 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 PhlebotinumBreakdown and he flees.
* LifeOfTheParty: 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 SupremeChef cooking.
* LivingWeapon: 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 SwordBeam.
* TheLostLenore: 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 TheAtoner after she died calling out for him, and dedicated himself to her life’s work and helping her relatives.
* LoveAtFirstSight: [[spoiler: After their AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to each-other before Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, he and Eliza both admit to having fallen for each-other like this.]]
* MaliciousMisnaming: Kururi calling the impetuous Prince Love ''Prince Lamb'', even offering him some for a meal.
* MasqueradeBall: 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.
* MasterApprenticeChain: [[spoiler: Neko-sensei, being LongLived, trained Old Man Moran in his youth, who went on to train Kururi in magic.]]
* MindHive: 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.
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: The confrontation Kururi and Iris have with Fregen Dartanel at the end of the MasqueradeBall event has the two loudly proclaiming their identities despite the anonymity of their disguises. Kururi doing it may be a case of NiceJobBreakingItHero, considering what follows.
* NatureSpirit: The radish familiars Kururu summons are basically these being summoned to possess plants. Their natural habitat is BeneathTheEarth, where they compete with other spirits (which may presumably be summoned by a different spell).
* NextLifeAsAFictionalCharacter: When Kururi falls and [[TapOnTheHEad hits his head]] trying to pick an apple from a tree, he awakens to PastLifeMemories of the world he’s in being a game he played.
* NGOSuperpower: Toto’s Gapp Company ends up having a significant armed forces to protect against hostile intervention from nobles, who raid and harass them.
* NotSoAboveItAll: 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.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: 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.
* OddFriendship: Kururi with King Kudan. Their friendship starts with sliding along the bathroom floor together covered in soap. They’re essentially secret playmates… [[ManChild despite them being adults.]]
* OfficialCouple: Kururi and Eliza.
* OminousWalk: 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.
* OneManArmy: 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 TallTale from GossipEvolution.
* OneWordVocabulary: The radish spirits vocabulary consists of the word “U i!”.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: There is a sword in the stone like this in a secret room of the royal castle the King shows to Kururi. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* OpponentInstruction: 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.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Kururi’s interactions with Prince Arc often involve these, due to Kururi’s fears of being persecuted for lese majesty.
* PenalColony: 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. [[spoiler: Kururi reforms it into a quasi-cult and it’s later emptied out for them to serve as his personal guard.]]
* PercussiveTherapy: Iris viciously slaying monsters while venting her LoveHurts frustrations at them in place of Lotson.
* PervertRevengeMode: 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.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown:
** When Kururi uses his VoluntaryShapeshifting 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 PublicServiceAnnouncement about blacksmithing, that causes him to lose his incognito disguise amongst his people.
* PinocchioNose: 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.
* PlaguedByNightmares: [[spoiler: 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 SelfFulfillingProphecy and causing a week of mayhem from the SustainedMisunderstanding.]]
* PlausibleDeniability: Kururi producing {{Magitek}} [[GatlingGOod Gatling Guns]] under the name “Watering Machines”.
* PlayingWithSyringes: Toto is introduced doing this with his RoyalBrat dorm neighbor, spiking his tea with herbs that make him vomit, or pass out.
* PokeInTheThirdEye: The TribeOfPriests 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.
* PolitenessJudo: 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.
* TheProphecy: [[spoiler: 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, FromACertainPointOfView, you could say that losing all of your memories is a form of death.]]
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: Curroshi and Vaine go to the former’s home country, leaving Kururi depressed until Eliza cheers him up.]]
* QuestForIdentity: [[spoiler: After Kururi’s IdentityAmnesia, he embarks on a longstanding quest to figure out why a noble son like himself would become a blacksmith.]]
* RebelliousPrincess: Maria Kudan, who just wants to adventure, and features in a number of incidental side-stories. Eliza’s mother also has shades of this.
* RebornAsVillainessStory: 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 SpoiledSweet Eliza, preventing her conflict with the game's protagonist, learning magic, and getting caught up in political struggles.
* RefugeInAudacity: 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 CrazyEnoughToWork and the rail line is named The Dragon’s Spine.
* RelationshipUpgrade:
** [[spoiler: Iris and first prince Arc got married during the TimeSkip. Although they hardly seem any closer to each-other than before.]]
** [[spoiler: Kururi and Eliza eventually, but they had been living together as essentially husband and wife since the moment they woke up after the TimeSkip, so it’s frankly only a formality, and everyone who knew them well assumed they were married before that point anyway.]]
* RelativeButton: 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 TalkToTheFist.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: It’s a RunningGag that Kururi’s LovableCoward dad Toral does this whenever there’s anything too troublesome, once literally running away. There are a few occasions where [[LikeFatherLikeSon his son follows suit]].
* SecretIdentityVocalShift: At the MasqueradeBall, 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.
* SelfParody: Poking fun at Kururi’s MessiahArchetype 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 TheDreaded in part due to GossipEvolution, 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.
* SeriousBusiness: 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.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: 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.
* SharedDream: 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.
* ShipperOnDeck: 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.
* ShipSinking: 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 HappilyMarried. After all of that, she [[LoveHurts is suitably heartbroken]] and engages in some PercussiveTherapy.
* ShoutOut: The MasqueradeBall conversation between Kururi and Eliza is one to Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast.
* ShowSomeLeg: Neko-Sensei specializes in this, using her VoluntaryShapeshifting ability to get treated by men.
* SomeKindOfForcefield: Kururi gets a crash course from Old Man Moran about how to create a WhiteMagic 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.
* SoProudOfYou: PlayedWith. Kururi is proud of the rare occasions his LovableCoward father Toral is actually responsible and helpful. Played straight when Kururi makes his first passenger train line.
* StandardHeroReward: 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. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* StealthMentor: Somewhere in their rivalry over getting the top grades, Eliza managed to learn extensive survival tips from Iris.
* StinkBomb: Since he’s introverted and a herbalist, Toto wears a cloak that’s soaked in foul smelling herbs to keep people away from him.
* StupidCrooks: 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.
* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: 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 [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal talks him down from suicide via jumping out of moving train.]]]]
* SupremeChef: Eliza. Kururi and their pet dragon Poobie love her for it. Alegraden Fonteyne disrespecting her cooking served as a BerserkButton for Kururi.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Kururi eventually regrets that having Vaine and Curroshi exercising in the middle of his apartment while he was crafting a certain sword really lowered its end quality. He’s actually been working with one hand tied behind his back for much of his blacksmith career.
* SustainedMisunderstanding: [[spoiler: After Kururi’s IdentityAmnesia, 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 TooGoodToBeTrue. 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 HauntedByNightmares of him laughing while running way.]]
* SwordBeam: One of the LivingWeapon swords Kururi makes for Rhasa, Excalibur, can launch these.
* TallTale: 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.
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, 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.]]
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: This is the dynamic between Iris and Eliza, with Iris as the tomboy and Eliza the girly girl.
* TooGoodToBeTrue: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* TrainingFromHell: Vaine gives this to Curroshi, as well as later to Kururi’s pet dragon Poobie, who’d become quite the SpoiledBrat.
* TribeOfPriests: There is a country famed for its fortune telling. They send assassins after Kururi because his mere presences causes a PokeInTheThirdEye where they only see Kururi if they try to use their powers to spy on the Kudan Kingdom.
* UltimateBlacksmith: 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 LivingWeapon swords, which are officially designated ‘’god tier’’ and sell for amounts that even nobles can’t sneeze at.
* UnclePennyBags: 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.
* VampiricDraining: [[spoiler: 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.]]
* VerbalTic: 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 VillainousGlutton merchant Alegraden Fonteyne ends all his sentences with “foo”.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Heart Valentine and Kururi’s InstantFanClub completely disappear with no explanation after their confrontation with Eliza over her dismissed follower. They were AdaptedOut of the manga adaptation considering their ultimate extraneousness.
* WorthyOpponent: Eliza explains that ultimately she considers Iris to be this, having learned a great deal from her and coming to respect her.
* WreckedWeapon:
** 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 LivingWeapon sword for him before events got in the way.
* XanatosGambit: The titular plan to become a blacksmith is sort of like this for Kururi’s eventual fall into ruin, figuring YouCantFightFate. [[spoiler: Due to AmnesiacResonance after his HeroicSacrifice, Kururi and Eliza do indeed make out like bandits from his UltimateBlacksmith skills, staying up each night counting the money with an EvilLaugh.]]
* YouCantFightFate: 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. [[spoiler: 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 TogetherInDeath during Kururi’s HeroicSacrifice, and the two getting IdentityAmnesia from it. All that Kururi needed to change was to increase their livelihood, and he wildly succeeded at that.]]
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