Episode 16—Morgan's Perspective

…That’s strange.

Today it has been one week since Faik abandoned his duties at the royal court.

And yet, Faik hasn’t returned at all.

Even though a large number of weapons have been brought into the workshop…!

Honestly. Faik is holding out longer than we expected.

“Honestly! Does that man have no sense of responsibility toward his work?!”

As I was raging, Letov—the only one left in the room—smiled.

“Now, now. From the Barnast territory to this royal capital is a fair distance. He’s probably been judged incompetent and is walking back here on foot by now.”

“Ha ha, I can imagine it. It’s fitting for that shabby commoner.”

…Well, it would take him about a week on foot.

And with nowhere else to turn to, this is the only place he can rely on.

That incompetent has already lost his blacksmith qualification.

He can’t practice blacksmithing anywhere in this country. So he’ll surely return to this royal court to retake his qualification.

The conditions for re-acquiring it are simple.

He’ll be unpaid for several months. Then, with the wages we’re supposed to be paying him, we can afford a little luxury.

That was the plan we were making when the door to the room was knocked. I glanced toward it and almost fell out of my chair.

I-it’s the Knight Corps Commander.

“Knight Corps Commander… w-what’s the matter?”

“Long time no see.”

“Y-yes.”

The knight corps is divided into several units, each assigned numbers—I’m sure there were double digits—and atop them all stands this Knight Corps Commander.

He is the country’s most powerful figure.

“…I want to ask about an Enchantment. Can you do it?”

Saying that, the Knight Corps Commander pulled out a sword.

It wasn’t his favorite sword, but to be asked by the Knight Corps Commander…!

The reason I trembled with emotion was that the Knight Corps Commander has his own personal blacksmith.

That blacksmith isn’t a royal court blacksmith, but apparently has considerable skill.

I’ve heard he’s quite the craftsman and only makes swords for people he likes.

Usually the Knight Corps Commander asks that genius blacksmith, so he never came down to this blacksmith division.

“Y-yes! Yes! I’ll take it right away!”

I called out, rushing forward toward the Knight Corps Commander.

“No, wait. There’s something I’d like to confirm.”

He produced another sword. It was a sword issued to knights.

“I want to meet the person who applied an Enchantment to this sword.”

…Ah, that one.

It’s the one given to that talentless Faik.

Honestly! Maybe he came here to complain directly about the awful quality of that trashy Enchantment of his.

“Those are for the regular knights, right? All of them were done by a newcomer named Faik.”

“What? Is that so…! In that case—”

“Sorr—”

Just as I was about to bow my head, the Knight Corps Commander smiled.

“Knights these days are quite fortunate.”

“Th-they are— Huh? Wh-what do you mean?”

“When I was a knight, the swords issued to regular knights were mostly barely Enchanted, if at all.”

“…Huh? Ah, I see.”

“That someone would Enchant swords for regular knights this carefully—what a wonderful blacksmith. I’d like to request my sword be done by that blacksmith named Faik.”

“Wh-what!?!”