Episode 13

“…It’s terrifying.”

Habits that have seeped into you are terrifying.

I woke in a canopy bed and turned my gaze to the clock that sat in the room.

As usual, I had woken at 5 a.m.

Court work was basically from 9:00 to 18:00.

Emphasis on basically.

In my case, I needed to be at the workplace by 6 a.m. to do things like clean each room.

Of course I had to finish the work left undone yesterday and also check whether any new tasks had come in.

…Well, since I usually worked until around midnight, new tasks were generally not a problem.

A blacksmith’s work includes Enchantment of course, but for equipment whose Enchantments were about to expire, the blacksmith division had to send maintenance requests to each department.

Blacksmithing wasn’t just about making weapons. Since we also made small goods, we showed up in a fairly wide range of departments.

The next biggest was probably the cooking department after the knights’ division. They managed food within the court.

…I thought it was about time to tend pots and knives, and for now I left the room.

There was nothing to do even if I woke at this hour.

Maybe I’ll go to the workshop and make a weapon for the first time in a while.

I straightened my back slightly and started walking toward the workshop.

Along the way I passed by some maids.

From what I heard, the maids were divided into early and late shifts.

…An impressive work system, I thought. For the record, I handled both early and late shifts by myself.

But that’s beside the point.

I entered the workshop and immediately checked the magic ore placed in the corner of the room.

Magic ore is a mineral imbued with mana. Enchantments cannot be applied unless a weapon is made with magic ore.

It seems that weapons used to be made from iron and the like, but now this magic ore is mainstream.

Applying Enchantments to iron doesn’t improve quality much, but magic ore is different.

Whether or not an item had Enchantment could change its sharpness two or threefold. Above all, magic ore could be recovered from monsters, making it easy to gather.

It’s no joke that when an un-Enchanted weapon clashes with an Enchanted one, the former can easily be cut to pieces.

I quickly grabbed a piece of magic ore and filled my hand with mana.

There are several types of magic ore.

The highest quality is the Esrea magic ore, followed by Eirea, Birea, Cirea, Direa, Irea, and Efrea magic ores.

The ones in this smithy were mostly Efrea and Irea magic ore—not particularly good stuff. But this ore was the most commonly circulated. In any case, I’m not trying to make the highest-quality weapon now; I’m just smithing as a break.

I used Fire magic and heated the lifted magic ore.

It seems they used to use bellows and hearths to melt magic ore, but these days such things are hardly used.

This smithy did have an old-fashioned hearth, but it didn’t look like it was being used.

Once the magic ore softened, I began striking it with a small hammer.

A ‘kin’ sound echoed through the workshop. I liked that sound.

Maybe I’ll make a knife this time. I thought that as I kept hammering the magic ore.

…Understanding the mana information inherent in the magic ore, I heated and cooled it repeatedly to shape it.

What I’m using now is Irea magic ore for processing, but normally the work would start by processing it into higher-purity magic ore.

It’s a process of combining multiple magic ores to strengthen the mana information inside. It’s called mana smelting.

Since it was originally done with iron, the name still bears that legacy.

This time I’m not making such a solid weapon, so I won’t take the time for mana smelting. Doing so would remove impurities and produce something finer, but I’m not planning any particular use for it now.

Old smiths valued experience as much as talent.

They learned in their bodies to judge temperatures accurately and how much force to use when striking metal.

Even now those things can of course be compensated for by experience, but today’s smiths were a profession influenced by innate talent.

First, you must be able to use Elemental magic. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth… if you can’t use these four elements, it’s hard to become a smith.

And next, as I’m doing now, a “body resistant to heat” becomes important.

You heat the magic ore directly with mana transmitted from your hands. Apparently ordinary people cannot withstand that heat.

Now… shall I move on to the next task?