Episode 100

The Eirea Magic Ore and Esrea Magic Ore are clashing, and I can hardly draw out any of Esrea’s advantages.

By cooling and solidifying the blade, the Esrea Magic Ore has returned to its natural state as Magic Ore.

However, that’s as Magic Ore, not as a sword. The processing into a sword has completely failed.

Practically, it’s just a sword made of Eirea Magic Ore with a bit of Esrea mixed in.

And because Esrea has mixed in unnaturally, its magical power is interfering with the Eirea Magic Ore.

If you use a sword like this in combat, it’ll break sooner or later.

At that rate, it would be better to remove the Esrea Magic Ore.

But a sword made only of Eirea Magic Ore probably wouldn’t be enough.

That won’t do.

They asked me to process the Esrea Magic Ore because the current sword can’t pierce a Horned Dragon’s armor.

“This will need to be remade.”

I have to melt it down from the start again.

But doing the same thing as last time won’t mean anything.

I need to approach it from a different perspective.

That method… I can’t think of one.

“You’re having a hard time, aren’t you?”

“…You surprised me. Bestel, you can come here too?”

“I’m like a spirit of the smithy. I can move to any smithy in this town.”

What an annoying poltergeist…

But he’s just in time.

“Bestel, have you ever worked with Esrea Magic Ore?”

“Of course.”

“I-if so… do you have any tips?”

I asked Bestel, and he crossed his arms.

…If only this could give me some clue.

I watched his mouth hopefully, but Bestel shook his head.

“I basically don’t teach smithing. Apprentices learn by watching.”

“…Just like my stepfather.”

“Ha ha ha, that’s how it is. If I had to say something, like I told you before: observe the Magic Ore more.”

Observe the Magic Ore, huh.

…Honestly, I’m already watching it a lot.

What more can I possibly look at?

I don’t know. But for now, I just have to try various things.

Only, it’s already late today.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

“Faik. How did it go?”

At dinnertime, Alicia asked.

She was asking about my Magic Ore processing, of course.

Still, it’s been a long time since I saw Alicia’s face.

It’s a little disappointing that I can’t give her a good answer.

“…No, it’ll probably take a while longer. How’s the shop doing?”

I asked in return.

Because today I had asked Alicia to look after the shop.

Alicia alone can handle sales in the shop. Refy and the soldiers are helping, and we’ve talked about temporarily closing the shop if it gets too hard.

However, Alicia can only handle the sale of goods.

Adding new items is my job… but right now I can’t do it.

There are still reserves.

But since I don’t know when the Esrea Magic Ore processing will finish, it’s hard to manage the shop long-term.

“There weren’t any particular problems.”

I breathed a sigh of relief at Alicia’s smile.

I know the soldiers are guarding the place, but I still worry.

“I see. How are sales doing…?”

“So-so. I checked the stock, and at the current pace we should be able to keep open until the end of next week.”

If that’s the case, we might manage…?

Since the shop is closed on holidays, we have about ten days of leeway.

I have to finish processing the Esrea Magic Ore during that time, come what may.

The Horned Dragon could descend on the town at any time.

I need to hurry and get the work done as much as possible.

“…I see. For now, explain the situation to our regular customers. Especially Ivas and the like.”

“Yeah. He came by today and I talked to him right away.”

“Is that so.”

“He said, ‘Amazing! I’m looking forward to it!’”

Alicia mimicked Ivas as she said it.

She made a pretty good impression, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“I have to work hard to meet their expectations. Also, if there are any Enchantment requests, keep them with you. I can handle that much.”

An Enchantment won’t take that long.

I can’t let people use damaged weapons, so I’ll take on that kind of job anytime.

“Understood. We’ll manage things here, so Faik, focus on the Esrea Magic Ore.”

“…Yeah.”

Alicia has helped me this far. I have to do my best.

Still, I haven’t found a hint on how to process it.

How should I deal with it tomorrow…?

As I was thinking that, Alicia put her hand to her chin and made a thinking gesture.

“What’s the matter?”

“There’s something I’m a bit curious about… I think the first head of the family once made weapons from Esrea Magic Ore.”

“…Well, that figures.”

No surprise there. He had skill recognized even by the king back then.

He probably worked with Esrea Magic Ore at least.

“…If we search, there might be notes from that time in the archives.”

“…You mean that place?”

I remembered the time I studied there with Alicia before.

She said they keep a lot of books there and it’s hard to know which is where.

Finding something in there would be a daunting task.

Those notes might even contain information about Esrea Magic Ore.

That would be very helpful, but searching might take a lot of time.

“Okay. I’ll look for it when I have time too.”

“…Alicia. But are you sure you can do it?”

“Leave it to me. I want to help Faik.”

Even though she looked a little embarrassed, her clear words made my chest tighten with happiness.

I grit my teeth to hold back the welling emotions, then nodded.