Episode 33—Knight Corps Commander's Perspective

“Knight Commander.”

“…What is it?”

When called, I immediately turned my gaze to the knight.

He handles management of supplies and such, but his brow was furrowed.

“Knight Commander… um, I’d like you to check something, if you could.”

“…What’s the matter?”

“These are the swords that are to be issued to the knights this time.”

Those were swords made by pressuring the blacksmith division to perform Enchantment.

So they finally finished, it seems.

Recently, deliveries had practically stopped, and as a result many knight swords had begun to have the original Enchantments break.

As a result, we had to reduce the number of personnel able to sortie, which was quite troublesome.

“They’ve been delivered safely, then.”

I answered that, but the knight’s expression stayed clouded.

“Yes. But… um, the quality is so poor—”

“…What do you mean?”

The knight drew a sword from its scabbard and pointed it toward me.

I started to analyze its magical information, a bit on guard.

The reason I’m on guard is simple. When you try to read magical information beyond your talent, it can make you feel sick, or you might not see it at all.

…Well, the reverse is also true. Things that are too sloppy can be impossible to see.

That’s why I was cautious—but when I saw that magical information, I almost had my eyes pop out.

…Wh-what’s this!? It’s like a child’s scribble!

If you use a sword of this quality, it’ll break from the inside!

“D-did you distribute these?”

“…N-no, we didn’t. We were unsure whether they were defective or somehow too high-quality… so we hesitated.”

That’s right. Without innate talent it’s hard to see, and differences in skill also prevent accurate readings.

That is why training smiths is difficult, and skilled people are all the more precious.

“These are defective! The Enchantment ruined what would otherwise be fine swords.”

If it’s just the Enchantment, it can be repaired relatively easily, but once it’s damaged you need to reforge it.

There’s a huge time difference between an Enchantment that takes minutes and a reforge that takes at least close to an hour.

“All of these were delivered from the blacksmith division?”

“Y-yes…”

“…Are there any left that still have good-quality Enchantment applied?”

“…Th-there are some left. Only a few… but not enough to equip for the upcoming monster-subjugation expedition.”

“…Sigh.”

What a joke, having no swords for the knights…

“…For now, stop issuing swords to knights who already have their own. Give the remaining swords to new knights who can’t afford to buy one at all. And don’t forget to inform them not to use them recklessly.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll go see Mr. Figa once. I’ll try to negotiate to see if he can do even a little Enchantment.”

“Understood.”

Mr. Figa is the blacksmith who made my sword.

He’s very cantankerous and wouldn’t take a job only for Enchantment… but there was no one else to rely on right now.

Even so, negotiating with Mr. Figa is enough to make me sigh just thinking about it.

This is all caused by the careless work of the people in the blacksmith division.

I’ll go check the situation later.

“…And Faik’s whereabouts.”

That man named Morgan seemed to still be hiding something.

I should investigate various things.