@kuraiaku generally, blacksmithing is a production class. So while fighting would level you up, it wont level up your blacksmithing. Healing classes also get levels from fighting but generally they leach off the party.
He is not doing this for her sake, he just wants blacksmith. @tuatara1 I hate when writers go with this pseudo intellectual bs, they think its smart but its not.
Did he just talk circles around a naive, helpless, and enslaved woman at her lowest point to get her to trust him? That's shady, manipulative, and deceptive.
@Doomer Oh no she did love her, she just loved herself and her plans more.
I believe she originally had no love whatsoever for the lil' girl, but after some time passed she grew some affection for her, but not enough to lose a convenient tool. So once her plans went down the drain and her life came to a certain end, she decided to do a first and last act of true kindness, cuz you gotta remember she could've easily killed her or sent her to die (you gotta read between the lines for this kind of things, japanese love the "unspoken things" theme).
That being said, the MC outright said that he was mixing truths, half-truths and lies in his speech, so it's up to us to figure it out.