I clumsily scratched my head, waking up wasn’t easy. Especially as I recalled the comments made yesterday by the blacksmiths. Now that I think about it… is everyone in the craftsmen guild a blacksmith? That doesn’t make much sense now, does it?

Well, no matter… What especially made me mad was what they said after I left the room with the nice receptionist…

* * *

“I’ll be looking forward to tomorrow~” he said in a very pleased tone. I, of course, nodded enthusiastically as we left the room.

“So they did that, huh…”

“They did…”

“Disgusting…”

I absolutely had no idea what they meant or were insinuating for that matter. All I did was drag the guy into an empty closet… Oh…

“I didn’t do that!” I turned red.

“Do what?” Ari asked in confusion. Jer stayed silent, almost as if he knew what was going on.

There was a brief silence due to my high-pitched scream, however, they just started whispering to themselves. I opened my mouth to refute, but before I could say anything I felt a cold sensation on my shoulder, it was Jer’s hand. He quietly stood there and shook his head, essentially telling me it wasn’t worth it.

“Now, now, guys. Don’t be so hasty,” a blacksmith commented. “She might’ve been talking about the so-called blacksmith she wanted to bring.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“I would love to see this blacksmith in action, he must be renowned, although, I cannot think of any that fits her requirements.” They started laughing.

I couldn’t help but pout in annoyance, Ari and Jer consoled me by patting my back.

* * *

I shook my head in the deafening morning silence, I didn’t have time to worry about such things, although there was something that bothered me.

“It’s early.” The light piercing through the window had a blue hue.

I rubbed my eyes to look at my surroundings, Ari was sleeping with me as usual. However, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion as soon as I failed to realize where Jer was. I mean, he was basically a giant armor, it couldn’t have been that hard to find him in a room?

I scratched my cheek as I glanced around, all I saw was a sculpture on the hallway of a medieval knight… No, wait…

With self-doubt, I carefully left the bed and made my way to the statue, the metal had a blue shine to it due to the light. I slowly extended my hand towards the armor, maybe it was made of some quality material. Suddenly I saw it slightly shake, making me freeze for a slight second before sighing.

“Do you sleep like that?” I whispered to him.

“... Old habits…” It looks like he wasn’t very keen to respond.

I shrugged and looked around the room, unable to find anything to do I stared out of the window, such boredom was unbearable. I could not wait any longer.

“I want to go…” I said with lethargy. Jer tilted his head.

“Go where?” His confusion was understandable.

“The forge, I had agreed to show up in the morning to be guided there.”

“Ah, so that’s why the both of you went alone into the closet?”

I stopped. “W-What did you think we were doing?!”

“Nothing really…” He averted his gaze. I sighed.

I thought for a second and looked back at him. “What did Ari whisper to you?”

“Well, she said that you had sky-high standards and thought of rare items and below as disposable.” I couldn’t help but remain silent, not being able to deny it or accept it was painful.

“How about I ask you now?” He gently suggested, I nodded. “What’s your relationship with um, blacksmithing?”

“It’s my life.” I answered in a monotone voice, Jer remained silent and waited a few seconds.

“Did you spare me to make me your slave? I know you’ve said otherwise, but looking at you, I really get that idea…” He sounded pitiful all of the sudden. I grew flustered and shook my head.

“I-I, just thought a talking undead was interesting… that’s all…” I did not know what to say to him, could it be he is already having regrets about being resurrected?

“Being a monster is hard.” He sighed. “Having to look at you is mentally tiring, maybe other people don’t see it, but I do. I don’t know what sins you committed, but they weigh heavily on your soul.” Ha?

“I don’t need your pity,” my stern tone took him aback. “If it’s so hard for you to accept me as your master then a proper contract can fix the deal,” I suggested, of course, Jer stiffened.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, a summoning contract. If you see me as your master then my evilness-sinful-deeds shouldn’t be perceivable to you.”

Jer sat there in silence, thinking about his situation. He stood up and went to do some things, I stayed seated not really knowing what he was doing. A minute later he placed a sheet of paper on the table along with ink and a quill.

“Do it.” I, naturally, tilted my head.

“Just like that? No thinking about it? No, nothing?” I asked with extreme confusion, I was only answered with a single nod.

With my unstable hand I dipped the quill and started writing a contract, basically stating that Jer was my belonging, acting on his own volition and following my absolute commands/orders, he will recognize me as his only master in a subconscious manner. Or something along those lines it said. Of course, the redaction was akin to a 10 year old, since I had no idea about proper punctuation, however, I can at least say that it was readable.

After I finished, I looked at the paper with slight confusion, it was different from the Fifi contract, therefore it was my own custom contract; meaning I had to also have to use a different procedure. After thinking for next to nothing I took out the knife the dwarf made me.

“T-That is…” Jer stuttered as he gazed over it. Without paying attention I scratched my thumb with it and drew blood, smearing it all over my beautiful contract. It felt almost as if I was doing some type of witch-craft summoning ritual. Ouija board?

I looked at Jer and he was in a state of shock. Seeing that he had no such thing as blood I got close to him with the contract, I placed it on his hand essentially giving it to him.

“W-Wait what are you doing?” He asked in a panic.

“Finishing the contract, of course.”

“B-before that, what was that knife you used?”

“This?” I asked as I took it out. “It was made by the Capital’s Craftsmen Guildmaster, it’s great right?!” I said with slight excitement.

“It’s… perfect…” I nodded in agreement. “I-Is that your quality standard?”

“I suppose.”

He firmly looked at me.

“I Jermud will humbly serve under your name as you command, oh, Master!” What had gotten into him all of the sudden!?

And his hand burnt… No, wait… the contract turned into cinder… That was it…

“Is it done?” He asked with confusion.

“I think so… more importantly, explain! A-And, what is this Master thing?! I am just Yami!”

I looked at him with slight panic, what had gotten into him? Why would he act like that out of nowhere, why, when, where?! Too many questions, this was unusual!

“You see, from a young age I was taught that I was meant to follow someone in life, however, no matter where I went there was no one to follow. My mentor reassured me, telling me I would realize it when the time comes… I think the time is now…”

“I see…” What’s with that cliche story?! “B-Besides, all you are seeing is a high quality item, no such thing as a divine revelation! Yo⁠—”

“Ah, you people are noisy!” Ari yelled in a high-pitched tone.

“Morning…”

“Good morning…”

We both greeted her in awkwardness as she groggily got to us, looking at us with confusion and trying to figure out what was the big deal. However, Ari did not notice anything special.

“I will just sleep…” She absentmindedly said as she walked back to bed, I did not expect her to even wake up. Mistakes were made.

“Keep it down, okay?!” She screamed to us across the room.

After a brief pause, I looked back at Jer, who was looking away and into a wall.

“So, that’s it?” I asked with disappointment as I attempted to keep my voice down.

“That’s it…” He confirmed my disappointment.

I dropped my shoulders. “You didn’t need to be so dramatic…” I laid on the couch with sadness washing over me. I thought he would speak of a legend or something. I don’t know… I just think he made such a big deal out of nothing, I mean, he was a hero in his time. Just because he saw a high-quality dagger it did not make me, you know… “The chosen one,” if you will.

I stood up and looked at him right in the visor. “Listen, I don’t care if you think I am the chosen one, all I did was pull out a high-grade dagger, got it?”

“Got it…” He agreed in awkwardness.

I felt a bit more at ease after his confirmation. The couch was feeling a bit comfortable before I knew it, I fell asleep…

* * *

I felt an odd warmth striking my back as well as a rhythmic humping, if you could call it that. Bouncing up and down, I slowly opened my eyes and immediately was blinded, having to close them again and carefully opening them. I quickly realized I was somewhere outside and the sun was radiantly shining.

“Huh?”

Where was I? What was this bouncing? I looked to my side, I was tall, so far away from the ground, it kind of gave me nausea, then I realized.

“What are you doing?”

“You had agreed with the guy from the guild you would be there, no?” Jer gently asked me as he sighed.

Jer was carrying me as if I was his daughter or something, he knelt and allowed me to get off from him. I felt warmness in my cheeks as people stared at us with curiosity, some were surprised others grabbed their chest as if it was a heartwarming moment. I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone so I ended up looking at the ground as I walked.

“What happened to Ari?”

“She stayed in the room, saying something along the lines of: I don’t feel well today, just let me rest… Although I kind of feel like she just didn’t want to come with you for whatever reason.”

Ah… I suppose she might be scared of what I do, yeah… that reminds me that I should try to keep a low profile.

“I see, what will you be doing?” I asked Jer as I tilted my head. He looked back at me with confusion as if it was a silly question.

“I will be watching you make the armor, since you did say you could smith.” Yeah…

“Okay, that’s fine. I suppose…” Jer tilted his head from my lack of security but we continued walking.

It only took a few seconds for us to reach the guild, seeing everything was in the same plaza. Which kind of made me thankful it wasn’t across the town or something, what if I hadn’t woken up and Jer carried me all the way there?! That would be terrible.

“What is she doing?”

“I don’t know… Hey, Yami we are here already.”

“Eh?” I lifted my head in confusion.

The man from yesterday was looking at him with complete confusion washed on his face, I had been looking down as I held my head. Fantasizing about possible bad outcomes was bad for me.

“I am sorry…” I apologized as I scratched my head. “Good morning…”

“Good morning…” The entire thing was totally awkward! “I am Al.”

“Yami…”

“Ah well, now she is here. Let us go to the forge.” Jer intervened, essentially saving me from the awkwardness.

“And you’re?” He turned back at him.

“I am…” He looked at me for help, I just nodded, he could figure it out.

He took a brief pause, and I’ll never forget what he said. “Her father.”

“”Eh…”” We both let out words of confusion.

“Haha… Yeah, let’s go… F-Father…” I stuttered as I struggled to keep smiling.

Al, on the other hand stood there frozen. His eyes widened and he approached Jer with security. “Your daughter is very admirable, tell me—what kind of things did you teach her? For her to become such a great smith, and more importantly, how did she start to want to do such things? Were you okay with it?!” He started interrogating… How did he even buy it?!

“Em…” He looked at me for help.

“Ah sorry, he didn’t know anything until it was already too late…” I interrupted, Al nodded.

“I see.” He looked at Jer. “You sir, have a very respectable daughter, you should be proud!”

“... Yeah…” I could already sense the regret in Jer. Served him right to be honest.

“Well let us go.” Al gave a rough pat on the shoulder to Jer, and after that we started walking, following behind Al, he was weird to say the least, from what I could tell he seemed to care about the youth, and probably was happy to hear that I was a talented blacksmith or something along those lines, I don’t quite get it.

I shrugged as I thought about it. There was no point in overthinking it.

“So, where did you guys come from? I don’t think you lots are from here.” Al asked in a friendly matter, Jer scratched his helmet.

“Um, we come from outside the capital…” I awkwardly said as I scratched my head, almost as if I was embarrassed about it.

“I see,” he dropped his shoulders. “It’s been rough… Don’t you think so as well?”

“Yeah…” I had no idea what he was talking about.

“To think it hasn’t even been that long since the King was replaced and things are like this…” He looked around at the calm and empty streets with sadness.

“Yeah…” I agreed like a dummy again.

“You know, I guess neither of you can understand it. This city used to be crowded with food stands, weaponry, more food stands and carriages, it was a flowering business. Everything was going so well…”

He looked at the sky with a melancholic look. “Then the news arrived…

New king: Gazel defeats old King, survival of the fittest, it was quite unbelievable, but of course, we celebrated as our kingdom does. The strongest thrive and protect the weak, that’s just our nature, things continued as normal. However, for Gazel it kind of just seemed as if things were off, he wasn’t satisfied with how things were going. He thought someone was after his strength, maybe a necromancer? Who knows what one could do with such a powerful corpse.

And so it began; law after law, restriction after restriction, until eventually it killed the economy, the adventurer’s guild still does great since he cannot impose laws on them due to it being some sort of big network that does not benefit any nation. However, the other guilds struggle, even if they don’t have the problem of laws imposed on them, they do suffer from the lack of trading. It’s sad really…” He wiped a tear from his eye.

“That sounds awful…” Jer muttered.

“It is, although I assume you guys experienced something similar.” Al said with a bitter smile.

“Yeah…” One-hundred-percent, totally, yeah…

Although something was weird, I mean. Couldn’t Aizen put him in his place whenever she wanted? Well, the bigger problem is that he is skeptical about everything based on what I heard. Also, doing such a thing to your villages is bad to say the least.

“So he is a terrible king?” Al stiffened as I said that, stopping in his tracks and leaning to my ear.

“Yes, but public slander can get you killed,” he paused. “So, don’t do it…” I slowly nodded.

We continued walking without talking much, there was a palpable awkwardness between me and Al now, I guess he got nervous from my question, I don’t blame him… I wonder how Aizen is doing? She should be doing fine, or at least I would like to think so.

I thought about random things as we walked through the town streets, they weren’t as wide as the capital’s, nor as pretty or white for that matter. Although the town was in great shape and had general cleanliness, aside from the lack of foot-traffic. There was no street vendors unlike the capital, some shops were closed, in others you could see personnel doing mundane tasks as they had no clients.

“Is this a small town?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Well… It is, although this was once known as the Trading Town of Zirconia ⁠— Niyer!” he said with pride. “Although that time has passed…”

“Em, didn’t Zirconia disappear?” I asked with genuine confusion.

“No? I mean, I suppose it technically disappeared, since it became Sorinea and thus a nation was born ⁠— the nation of Zirconia.”

“Oh…” I let out a gasp of realization, IN ALL THIS TIME I HADN’T HEARD THE NATIONS NAME.

“I am stupid…” I muttered to myself. “I am stupid… I am stupid…” I kept going… “I am stupid…” And going… “I am stu⁠— ouch!” I was smacked in the head with something really hard.

“I don’t know why you are muttering it, but I felt like I had to stop you.” Jer reprimanded me.

“Yes…” Although, I was still deeply upset.

“Hey, don’t fight. We are almost there.” Al nicely informed us.

I promptly lifted my head, I had just been following behind his steps without really paying attention to where we were going, I did not need much awareness to do so since the streets were fairly empty.

“We made it.” He said with a pleased voice as he waved his hand to the place.

It was an open forge the only special thing about it was a small black sign that said ‘obsidian’ on it, so it wasn’t that private. It was in the middle of the street as well… How is that private?! Well… I suppose it can be considered private if it’s privately owned… I think…

“That is…” I pointed at a booth right next to the forge.

“You can buy materials to work at the forge. There, you can even buy tools in case you’re lacking.” He gave me a quick run-down of how it worked. “And well, of course, to use the forge you need your guild registration.”

“Andd… who is running it?” I pointed at it, it was completely empty, even the place was completely deserted.

“Ah forgot to mention, it’s my turn today,” he said as he puffed his chest up with pride.

“I see…” I was a bit confused, but I guess it saved me from having to explain any more things.

As I thought about it, Al moved behind the stand like an npc vendor, I stiffened a bit since it was the first time seeing such a monotone behaviour since I came here.

Without thinking too much about it I approached the booth.

“Can I have twelve mithril ingots? And a hammer, tongs as well.” I said without care, he became confused.

“Didn’t you have your own kit?”

“Yeah…” I made a bitter smile knowing what would happen if I used my own things on the mithril. Sure it sounds interesting, but I don’t want to kill Jer, nor I want to die. “Just give me what I asked for, okay?”

He took a step back. “Okay, so six mithril ingots?” I nodded, he seemed a bit stiff. “That would total up to 12 cobalt coins.” I shrugged. “I mean, mithril is really expensive, you know? 2 cobalt coins per ingot.”

“So… how is it 12 cobalt-coins total, then?” Math just did not add up, whatsoever.

“Ah, fifty-percent discount from being an obsidian rank through the guild, and free blacksmithing kit for any obsidian rank smith,” he concisely explained. “Although, I have no idea why they would use the guild’s basic kit…” he muttered thinking I would not hear him.

“Right, sounds good.” I reached into my pocket and pretended to shuffle for something as I took a coin bag out. I rummaged through it until I found the brightest object in it and handed it to him.

“I see you’re no pushover, huh…” he muttered as he received the mithril coin.

“By the way, how do you stop people from using the forge if it’s open to the public?” I asked out of curiosity, he tilted his head in confusion.

“I mean, there are normally guards, but since there is no blacksmithing activity as of recently they have been doing other things, although as per rule there must be a guard when a blacksmith works here.”

“So? Can J⁠— Dad be my guard?” I asked him with pleading eyes.

“Y-Yes…” Great! Jer seemed awfully stiff from hearing my pathetic girly voice, but… it had to be done…

Cough! “More importantly, I need to go fetch the things you asked for, I will be bringing them on a cart, feel free to look around the installations. I will also be bringing your change” He left.

I sat there quietly giving Jer a deadly stare.

“I had to do it!” he pleaded.

“Sure, whatever you say.” I turned around and started looking at the forge, I was upset to say the least.

I didn’t look much at the forge, it basically looked like some type of community thing, it had a back wall and the side walls were built until half-way through, so basically it was as if it was a split rectangle, it had a roof covering the entire construction. The back wall had furnaces that were already running, coal to each of the sides and a quenching tank next to each pile of coal.

There were a bunch of two-horned anvils as well, one for each furnace, almost as if each of them were a mini-forge! I noticed grinder at the corner, it also had a chair, but that wasn’t relevant! It was a grinding stone with a crank, I sighed, it was one of those tiring grindstones that murder your hands…

My eyes widened as I observed it one last time, it had something very special about it. The crank was not directly connected to the stone wheel!

It was connected to a big gear, that then connected to a small gear that was pivoted to an axle, this axle travelled across the entire frame and went into another big gear, before connecting to a small gear and going to the stone. I did not understand how many rotations I would get on the stone with a single crank at the crank… Did I just? Well, anyway, the gear ratios were pretty nice, it basically meant I did not have to make much effort to make it spin decently fast. I was amazed.

“Impressive right?” I heard someone’s voice behind me, turning around I found Al with a fully loaded cart. “Someone a long time ago designed this wheel, it’s amazing!” I bet. “Here are your things, if you need anything you can find me at the bar. Also, about the mithril bar with manufacturing errors… that one is free, so you get 13 bars instead. I will be leaving now.” He waved and left. .

I was left with a pouch on my hand and a cart to my side. I opened the pouch and out of curiosity I looked inside; 8 obsidian coins and 8 cobalt coins. Maybe I was rich after all? No, I probably just got lucky...

I looked at the cart, it indeed had everything I wanted along with the mithril bars, although one of them was just as big as two of bars, I suppose it was the one that went wrong, although it just seems like they used a different mold during the smelting. Although… it was twice the quantity? Was it really free? Well whatever.

I shrugged and started pushing the cart to the nearest furnace and got to work. It was nice, it barely rattled due to the huge wheels, everything was nice and tight at the bottom of the cart as well. I grabbed the tongs and froze seeing the mithril, it was so pretty, such a precious metal. Shining with brilliance… Almost as if I was enchanted by it.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I am sorry…” I muttered as I caressed it, I felt oddly emotional all of the sudden. Just the thought of making it borderline a crumpling stone when it had a magical dark-blue shine to it felt almost as if I was making a betrayal to the world’s beauty.

I sniffled quietly for a bit as I wiped my eyes desperately trying not to cry, it just felt bad doing such a thing to such a precious metal… Even though the result was mesmerizing… It felt as if I was destroying something that shouldn’t be destroyed, it was a hard feeling. I felt guilty.

As I trembled I felt a shadow cast over me.

“Do you need help, you seem to be struggling,” Jer gently offered.

“I-I am okay… If you want to watch that’s fine.” I gave him a weird crooked smile. “I hope he didn’t notice I was feeling bad about a piece of metal... “ Thankfully my murmurs did not reach him.

Jer wordlessly stood to the side and watched me work, or rather just watch me since I wasn’t working yet, I guess maybe he was curious? I glanced at the the cart, it had a wide assortment of tools— a few hammers, chisels of various shapes and the tongs I had just taken a hold of. I did not think I would need a different tool so it didn’t matter.

With a shaky hand I held the ingot in the tongs and placed it inside the furnace, all I had to do was heat it, not quite melt it. It was nice seeing the ingot kind of set ablaze as soon as it was placed inside⁠—enveloped by the flames with their warm and candescent touch.

“Would it bother you to explain the process?” Jer suddenly asked.

“I mean, if you want I can explain it…” I absentmindedly said as I watched the burning ingot with a smile on my face.

“Please do.”

I breathed in and out.

“The ingot has to reach a certain temperature to be malleable by my hammer, so I can do something with it. In this case I will flatten it into a plate and re-heat the plate to make the armor pieces using the anvil.”

“I see…” He probably didn’t understand a thing…

I kept watching the ingot happily, even though the smell made me want to cough, I completely forgot about it the more I focused on watching.

“So, can you tell just by looking?”

“I can feel it. I-If that makes sense…” I stuttered as I realized how stupid it sounded.

“I see…” Yep, he definitely did not understand me at all!

I sighed and went back to looking at the mithril, it was no longer the bright white, instead it was a gentle orange. Shining and calling out for me ⁠— it was ready, I was sure of it. Without hesitation I took it out using the tongs and placed it atop the two-horned anvil.

I reached into my pocket and paused as I recalled what I last did with my hammer. I sighed in defeat and reached into the cart and grabbed the basic hammer, it was just a normal blacksmithing hammer made out of iron and wood for a handle. It felt oddly light in comparison to my other hammer, I would say my hammer was at least three-times heavier.

With a bit of doubt I moved to hammer the mithril as I held it in place with the tongs.

DINK!

Ahhh… It made that blissful metallic clink, music to my ears, or rather. I guess it would be a pleasure at this point, hmmm… I noticed the metal deformed ever so slightly from being hit, I guess the hammer had enough mass to make an effect, since heating it with something that was too light would certainly not work.

With refounded enthusiasm I started hammering with fervor, I wanted to make a mithril armor with that enchanting metallic glow that it possessed.

DINK! DINK! DINK!

One hit after another, singing a nice rhythmic song to my ears, it almost felt like art! It was slowly becoming flatter and flatter, one hit at a time, flattening it with the hammer and maintaining the metal over the anvil’s face, it would’ve been bad if I somehow slipped, so I had to keep that in mind.

The metal was starting to lose its glow and becoming harder. Naturally, I did what any other experienced smith would do ⁠— throw it back into the furnace ⁠— reheat it. I waited a few seconds as I watched for it to reheat, I noticed a shadow casting next to me, I had forgotten.

“Ah, sorry… I am reheating it since it needs to stay hot for me to work with it during this stage.” I concisely explained what I was doing, although I received no reply, I guess Jer was just appreciating what I was doing instead.

I took the plate out again and started hammering once again; the clinking of the metal was music to my ears, it was relaxing and made me feel secure. Without even realizing it, I started humming.

It was faint and melodic, although I did not realize it. I was enjoying myself, it felt great to work on something this often.

I took the plate out of the furnace and moved it to the anvil, giving it a few love taps to flatten it decently. The plate wasn’t very big, however, that wasn’t an issue. Armor was made out of segments, so I could make small parts and at the end assemble it.

Once it was flat I smiled, It was time to the most fun part, at least what I would say was the most fun.. “I am going to start shaping the armor, or rather, a piece of it,” I informed Jer as he thought.

I moved it to one of the horns. Horns were amazing, they allowed the smiths tog curve things while keeping it consistent, it was basically a mold in a way. Due to the shape of horns you could make broad curves or tight curves. I firmly pressed the metal on the horn and started hammering from the center to the outer parts. This allowed the curves to be gentle and not sudden, at least I believed it to be that way. There was no such thing as blacksmithing guide 101 anyway.

The pleasant clinking was still there, although it was a lot slower and more consistent, having to make precise hits to not completely dent the metal while molding it. In this case I was making the armor’s bracelet, or rather one of it. I still had to make everything else. I was far away from finishing it, but I was enjoying it.

Hit after hit, it slowly was taking the shape I desired, or rather the one I was giving it. I did not reheat the metal because it became harder to mold as it cooled, it would normally be bad but it also made it harder to dent. So I could basically flex it along with the anvil’s horn.

It took a few more minutes of hammering but it was eventually finished, at least the shape of it. It was time to move into the next step: to remove the blemishes on the metal and all the imperfections I had left with my hammering. Seeing the metal was still hot I reseated it on the anvil and started giving it some taps to get rid of the dents.

While it wasn’t the best method to go about it, it was rather convenient. It would flatten the metal and leave slight signs of trauma on it, although it was nowhere near as noticeable as the dents. The process did not take long and it wasn’t that satisfying since the metal clinking was a lot more quiet due to the carefulness I had to treat it with, although smashing something with a hammer was slightly entertaining.

The metal was still hot, so I ran into a problem as I finished. I had to get “rid” of the trauma on the metal, the slight dents that were left after correcting the more noticeable dents. The problem was that mithril did not need annealing, that wasn’t a problem itself but you would normally grind after annealing, however, the mithril was still hot so I had no idea how it would go.

I approached the grinder looking for a solution.

“Hmm... “ I thought for a second as I looked at the grindstone and the grinder itself, the gears were pretty and I even noticed the axle seemed to be oiled with something, almost as if it was lubricated. I got slightly excited thinking about how well it would spin, until I gave up. “It doesn’t matter if it’s hot!” I disregarded my previous thoughts and brought the clearly hot metal to the grinder.

Once I was close to the grinding stone I noticed something very weird. One side was rougher than the other, almost as if they both had different uses… Although it was something I hadn’t seen before I did not have to think much about it to realize what the true reason for it was.

“This… just made things a lot easier…” I muttered with a grin.

I sat down on the chair that was right in front of the grinder, I was still holding the metal plate with my tongs, I did not have nearly enough grip with the tongs to actually grind, it felt as if the metal would slip up. I naturally did what any lazy person would do. I re-adjusted my grip on the tongs to be closer to the tip, it was something dangerous, however, I did not want to get up and grab a different pair of tongs, or just a glove.

I held the metal against the rough part of the grindstone and started cranking the lever, or the crank. I quickly realized that the gear ratios were ridiculous, it was spinning decently fast without giving it any real effort. Since the lever was decently large thanks to physics it also felt easier to turn.

I pressed the metal against the stone, it was spinning fast enough that it started to throw sparks. I stopped spinning it from the unexpected behaviour and the potential risk, in the end I threw away the tongs and grabbed the metal with my right hand ⁠— the gloved hand. It was mildly hot but it was not hot enough to set everything ablaze.

“Jer, start turning the lever!” I commanded.

He tensed up for a second and sheepishly got closer to the lever and started turning it. He was surprised by how easy it was so he started going faster, and faster…

“Don’t go so fast…” I said with a bit of nervousness, I did not want to know what would happen to my skin if it brushed against something going that fast. He did not keep going any faster but kept it at that deadly pace. I sighed and with a bit of doubt I pressed the metal against the rough side of the stone.

It was a bit awkward to handle since I was doing it one handed, but thankfully since it was in the shape of a bracelet there was plenty of surface area to hold. It started throwing sparks yet again, however, I was prepared and angled the metal downwards, so all the sparks would be thrown to the ground.

It felt nice to grind something so peacefully, after a few minutes I noticed the blemishes were gone.

“Okay stop.” I stood up. “Now it’s time to harden.” Jer had stopped spinning the stone, thankfully.

I made my way to the furnace before I froze. I felt a bit unsettled, I felt nervous and insecure. Almost as if somebody wanted to kill me. I lifted my gaze and looked around, I quickly noticed the amount of people looking at me, almost as if I was something that they had never seen before. However, most of them had shock and awe in their face, now the threatening thing I felt.

Then I noticed, there were also a lot of people looking at me with rage and hate… I swallowed my saliva seeing some faces, most of the people in a bad mood were blacksmiths from yesterday.

“Em, hello…” I sheepishly waved at them with my free hand.

There was a short silence.

“Don’t: ‘hello’ us!”

“What are you doing here!”

“This is the wrong forge!”

They all roared at me, making me take a step back, I was not used to being shouted at from anger. Anger was different from bloodlust, one felt hostile and the other felt hostile, but I just was not used to verbal hostility, at least not from blacksmiths. So it was an unusual experience for me.

“No response?! Don’t get so over yourself!” He took a step into the forge before one of the smiths grabbed his hand.

“Hey! It’s the obsidian rank only forge, if we get found out we could be in deep trouble!”

He shook his fist. “You expect me to believe she has permission!” He was pointing at me. “I don’t care anymore, I will be bringing her to the guards!” He started walking towards me, I did not know what to do so I took a step back in irrational fear.

“What are you⁠—” Jer stepped in front of him.

“I am the guard on duty, she does have permission.” He calmly informed him.

“You are just his companion, how do you expect me to believe such a thing?! Move!” He tried to push Jer aside but of course Jer was like an unmovable statue.

“What is going on here?!” It was a familiar voice as I saw the crowd getting split. It was Al, his eyes widened seeing the ruckus that was going on.

“Al, the girl is using the forge without permission!” The person in front of Jer pointed out in anger.

“Em… She does have permission, so how about you guys let her work and we can all watch together?” He clumsily suggested.

The blacksmith paused in shock and nodded with a bit of difficulty, almost as if he was reluctant to accept it, even though he did not protest.

“You can go back to work,” Al signaled.

“Okay…” I sheepishly continued, although I started to feel nervous. I had not realized that everyone was looking ⁠— all the blacksmiths, the nearby shop owners, even the people that were passing by… I certainly wouldn’t have done the ghetto method of grabbing it barehanded...

I felt a hand on my shoulder, looking up it was Jer. Even though I could not see his eyes, he was looking at me, all I saw as an empty black visor, jet I felt a slight sense of reassurance. I realized I was not alone here and the fact that he could help me.

“I… am going to stop explaining…” I muttered to him, he nodded and moved aside to let me work.

With my new determination I made my way back to the furnace and stuck the metal back in.

“Is she working with mithril?!”

“That’s mithril right?!”

“Why is she reheating it?!”

I heard gossip behind me, although something was off… Didn’t the dwarf guildmaster do the same thing? Or am I being silly? I mean, is there a specific way to do mithril? I shrugged my thoughts off and continued watching the metal inside the furnace. It had to get really hot.

A few minutes passed and it was finally shining with candescent energy, I thought for a second before realizing it was getting close to its melting point, although the furnace shouldn’t be able to hit the melting point, I think…

“Wow, it didn’t melt…”

“It didn’t…”

“Just how…”

I heard some gossip, although I was thinking about the strange behaviour I had just seen in the furnace. As I wondered about it I took it out and submerged it into the quenching tank. Although, it wasn’t quenching this time, it was hardening. Metals needed a lot of reheating and constant working, although mithril did not require annealing so it wasn’t a problem. I just needed to make it harder.

It let out a nice sizzling sound. I was hardening it. By making a metal reach a really high temperature and then submerging it into something like oil, it sends a shock through it due to the sudden changes, it essentially froze the particles/molecules…

“Haha…” I let out a dry laugh as I realized how ignorant I was to the process of blacksmithing, and such research is no longer available for me… Sigh. Now that I think about it, what were they gossiping about? Ah right… ‘It didn’t melt.’ was it? I mean, was it supposed to melt? Does mithril store heat or something like that? Well, that would certainly make it fun to work with.

I waited until the sizzling stopped, and took it out. Shaking the oil off, I threw it into the furnace again.

“She did it again…”

“Why…”

“If it keeps storing heat it will surely melt…”

Looks like I was right… I should probably thank them for informing me sometime, although seeing the Dwarf did not explain it to me while he gave me a walkthrough of his knife I suppose it was common knowledge. Good job me...

I looked back into the furnace and it seemed to be extremely hot, hotter than ever. I took it out and had a troubled face to say the least. I was supposed to temper it at a lower temperature to relieve the pressure on the armor piece, however, it was hotter than before. This was definitely bad…

Although I wonder how did the guildmaster do it? Didn’t he do the same thing? Did he use some kind of trick or something? Huh… Now that I think about it, didn’t he just reheat it and maintain it at a constant temperature? I don’t ever recall it being lower than usual, things I forget… What a pain. I sighed and just imagined how the dwarf did it.

Although he just stuck it in and out, I guess that retained the temperature? I began doing it and sure enough, I did not notice it get any hotter or cooler. I guess mithril just lost it’s heat really quickly, but well, it didn’t matter. I kept maintaining a constant temperature as well as I could, I did not have a thermometer to actually tell.

This went for a few seconds, although I noticed everyone was completely silent. I continued doing my things, throwing it into the quenching tank one last time. It once again let out a nice sizzling. I took it out and moved back into the grinder, gesturing Jer towards the lever. He began spinning it. This time I used the smooth part of the rock.

The piece of armor looked clogged, it wasn’t clear per se. I grinded it with the smooth part and sure enough, I saw the white shine from mithril. The smooth side of the grind stone was for polishing, although I wonder if it was some type of special mineral, I mean, to be this reliable at things… I wanted one.

I absentmindedly polished the metal as I had fantasies with me having a grindstone, it was nice to imagine I had such a useful tool near me at all times, hehe~

A few minutes went by and it was finally glistening in the dark blue hue, or whatever hue it was at this point. I kept confusing it… It seemed to be fully finished, the gauntlet just needed to be pinned with metal, which I could do later.

I finished working with a single ingot in about an hour, although thankfully it was early morning. At least not mid day, although I still had eleven ingots. I sighed seeing how many ingots I had left as I set the piece aside.

“That was impressive.”

“I guess she isn’t bad.”

“Looks like a subpar obsidian smith to me.”

They blacksmiths just kept talking among themselves as I moved myself to pick up another mithril ingot, I sighed once again and got to work. It was the same: heating, smashing, shaping with the anvil horn, removing blemishes, heating and hardening, heating and tempering, polishing.

Before I realized another hour went by, and another piece was done. I took a look at Jer and looked at his armor, needless to say, I was feeling lazy. His visor was not damaged and even looked brand new, although it was dark, which did not combine well with the mithril. He had some type of dark chainmail below and it seemed mostly intact, although if he took the cloak off you could clearly see his ribs through the bottom of the chest piece. Thankfully his armor was a two part chest piece.

I started carefully observing him, he became a bit stiff from my inquiring stare but did not move. I had to assess what I needed to do and didn’t need to do, I was already feeling lazy from making two gauntlets. I did not need to make an entire armor.

He needed new thigh pieces for both legs, an abdominal piece, and his back if I remembered correctly was fine. I grinned and gestured Jer to move closer.

“Hey, is it fine if I just make new pieces for the broken parts in your armor?” I asked him.

“Sure, I don’t even see why you are going to such an extent for me…” he regretfully admitted.

I did not reply to him and started working. I heated another ingot and repeated the same process.

DINK!

The metallic clink resounded once again, for some reason some people ‘Ooh’d’ I didn't quite get it, what was so impressive. I monotonously flattened the ingot and used the anvil horn. I looked back at Jer and his thighs, it felt a bit weird looking at someone’s thighs but I had to at least eye-ball the measurements right.

Thankfully I was great at eye-balling things, so it wasn’t a struggle to shape the metal to cover half of his thigh, one for reach side, of the leg and then they would get fused together.

Seeing mithril kept heat inside it would be easy to melt and fuse together, for that I could probably use another ingot and use it as solder wire, or something.

I kept looking at the folds of his thigh, at some point I realized he was slightly trembling, almost as if he was flustered, although I did not understand it. After some more careful viewing I finally visualized how the armor piece worked, it basically had two plates per leg, one outer and one for the inner thigh, each of them had slight folds instead of being completely curved, so it was almost like a square. They did have slight bending.

Thankfully I realized as I had just started the shaping process. I took the sheet of metal and placed it on the edge and started curving it, I had made it a rectangle this time, I started hitting it on the side of the face, that way it would make it fold. Once that was done, I left it there and went for a broad chisel on the cart.

I grabbed it almost as if it were a stake and started hitting the behind of it with my hammer with strength. This time I laid the sheet on the table part of the anvil, since I did not want to dent the face of it. I hit it hard and it went through, although the mithril was pretty soft. I basically started cutting the excess away since the shape was already done. However, it was definitely oversized for his thigh, therefore I gave it the shape of his current thigh-piece.

“What is she doing…”

“I’ve never seen someone use that tool before.”

“I’ve never seen someone use it that way…”

They were muttering nonsense now. I moved into the hardening by heating it again and cooling it down very quickly, it was weird since it was clearly hot but it got heated incredibly quickly. Although I do know now that mithril does have mana inside of it, could it be it also has some kind of heat memory? That would be weird but cool I suppose.

As I thought about random things I started to do the tempering, it did not take long to get it to a constant temperature thanks to the quick-heating of the mithril and I left it in the quenching tank. I moved to make the other thigh pieces.

I used the same method for every single one of them, for some reason it made everyone wow. Almost as if they hadn’t seen my way of smithing before, it was definitely awkward but I did not let it deter me.

I monotonously made all of the thigh pieces, it wasn’t hard but it definitely took a while. This did not stop some of the smiths that were watching from making some comments although at this point no one was making negative ones, almost as if they had acknowledged something. Well, it didn’t matter.

I sighed as I finished the last piece, although none of them were grinded, so they all looked like a potato kind of. I started heating another ingot and had to start doing the bottom chest piece. Naturally I looked at Jer, except I couldn’t see anything.

“Something wrong?” He asked.

“I need to see your chest piece.”

“Oh…” He thought for a second and leaned close to me.

“Do you have some type of paper or somewhere where I can draw something?” I thought it was weird, but I had nothing, so I shook my head. “That’s bad… Alright, you could see, although it would be quite awkward to show it to you here…” I nodded.

“Hey, how about you go away for a bit, and go back to the inn. There you take the chest piece off and bring it to me, just to clarify, I need the bottom one.” He thought for a second and nodded.

He left leaving the crowd in bewilderment. I looked at Al, who was basically looking with almost as much attention as everyone, I hadn’t stopped smithing so it was probably a weird sight to behold. I approached Al which made everyone get confused.

“Hey Al, my dad left to get some things, I am just informing you since you said I needed a guard.”

“Ah…” He thought for a second. “If it’s just a bit alone it’s fine.”

I started walking back to the furnaces since it felt comfortable there.

“Hey!” I turned around seeing someone called for me, it was one of the blacksmiths that was watching, he seemed a bit younger than all of them, although I could tell since all of them were wearing leather aprons, almost as if all they did was smith all day.

“I was wondering if you could…” He stopped. “Teach me?”

I thought for a second, teaching someone sounded fun, but eh… “No.”

After my cold reply I felt the mood darken without reason, although I had nothing to say. I made my way to the only chair in the forge, it was of course, the chair next to the grinder. I sat there to wait, I noticed a few people stopped watching and went to do their things, although some people left and came during the entire process, it had been 6 hours and the sun was past mid day, it was actually time to eat, although I wasn’t feeling hungry.

I waited for a few minutes and Jer approached with awkwardness. He handed me a really heavy bag, it had the bottom chest piece and that was it. Although he was behaving weirdly.

“Hey,” He whispered into my ear.

“Yes?”

“Turns out, a lot of my bones are in a terrible state…”

“And?” He paused for a second, almost as if he was deciding if he should tell me or not.

“And turns out my armor supports a few of them…” I gasped for a bit. “So, I am going to need a good chest piece.”

I thought for a second. “I see… Although, can I ask how is it that you can stand if you basically lost support for your column?”

“Em, Ari helped me by putting a long and thick stick to support me, although it feels weird and I don’t like it…”

“I-I see…” I thought about something really weird for a second and looked at his lower chest piece.

In the meantime Jer sat down on the chair.

The piece had the same type of fold like the thigh pieces, except this one curved around behind the back and then was dented inwards, almost as if it was following the column’s shape. Which made me realize why he mentioned it. It was completely torn and it was missing one side entirely. It was somewhat big too, I noticed it dug into the chest piece with a pointy edge into it and then into the crotch area as well, it was definitely weird.

I observed it with curiosity and thought about the best way of making the parts.

I started by heating an ingot and following the same shaping process, this time I made a big rhombus, the perfect shape! Thankfully the badly manufactured ingot came to the rescue. It kept the thickness consistent with the other pieces as well as just being overly big.

I made the square and split it diagonally from corner to corner by setting it on the edge of the face as usual. Once I was satisfied with the result I moved into curving the outer edges with the horn, this time I was starting from the inside to the outside, so it was a bit weird.

However it looked pretty consistent, I moved into the hardening and tempering, it was a bit tiring having to stick things in and out of the furnace to heat and reheat, I also felt the same with the oil tank, thankfully it was decently sized so I could fit most of the things, normally they were slim but this one was big.

I finished half of the inner chest piece and grabbed another ingot and got to work. This time I just made it a rectangle and folded it with the face of the anvil once again after taking it out of the furnace, however, I held the fold away from me so that it was pointing outwards, then I placed it on the horn and started to curve the sides, the fold was facing towards the ground.

After curving both of the sides it kind of looked like an open book just judging from the contour, although it was how it was supposed to go. I heated it once again and quenched it in the tank, then I heated it and started taking it in and out, again… I was getting extremely tired yet there was still people watching… Haa…

I finally finished and looked at all of the pieces that needed polish, I was pretty annoyed and wanted to get this done with, so, I wasted no time and got to sorting the pieces, inner thigh with outer thigh, making pairs and I had three sets of pairs. Then I thought about how to fuse them and decided that I would melt an ingot.

“But then that would mean, I would need to…” I muttered. “Ah, whatever!”

I dispelled my concerns in annoyance, having to melt the ingot and then somehow connect the pieces using the molten metal would be extremely troublesome even if I connected them, since I would need to file away all the excess metal or something, but at this point I could not be bothered to think about a solution.

I looked around the forge and found what I was looking for, a decently big ceramic crucible, although it could not fit an entire ingot. I sighed in defeat as I heated another ingot, then I hammered it a bit and chopped a side from it using my stake, I mean chisel.

I placed the small piece I had cut on the crucible and moved said crucible into the furnace, meanwhile I tossed the ingot into the quenching tank, it went in and started sizzling.

“DID SHE LOSE IT?!”

“WHAT DID SHE JUST DO?!”

“Relax, she knows what she is doing!”

“I hope so…”

Smiths started to freak out, I would’ve freaked out if I treated a metal like trash, but I was just tired and annoyed, it had taken more time than what I thought it would. No, I knew it would take that long, I just did not have the patience for it… Sigh.

I waited on the crucible to get the mithril to melt, something curious about it is that the furnace did not need to be extremely hot, I realized mithril just accumulated heat, although I wonder how long it took to forget it, since it was a material with memory, just like paper. It remembers the changes made to it in a sense.

It took a few minutes but it finally had molten liquid, people were confused and thought I was smelting. I took the crucible out with my tongs and set it on the ground then I thought about how to hold the armor pieces together to throw a bit of liquid on them. Hmm… What a problem, just as I thought it wouldn’t work…

I sighed in defeat. “Who wants to help?” The young boy from earlier raised his hand, I waved him over.

“W-What can I do?” He nervously asked as he trembled.

“Okay, I am going to need you to look for a way to hold the armor pieces together so I can pour the melted mithril on top of them.”

“Wha… Why?” I sighed.

“Just do it and you will see.”

He reluctantly nodded and went away, I saw the crucible was getting cool so I kept sticking it in and out of the over to keep it at a nice temperature for me to use it. Eventually the boy came back with some bricks. It did not much thinking for me to realize what he wanted to do with them. He set them on the ground spaced from one another, and set the armor in between, carefully lining it up and tightening the bricks to the sides.

Almost like a clamp, except it was a terribly bad version of one. He did so for all pieces.

“Now, what are you going to do?” He asked once again.

“Just watch.”

I breathed in and out and focused on the crucible, I started pouring a small thread of molten metal on the part that the armor connected to one another, I could’ve used rivets or something else entirely but I could not think of anything else at that moment, and of course.

“She is ruining them!”

“She definitely lost it.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

They thought I was ruining the armor, I would’ve thought the same as well, I started keeping the warmth of the crucible so it would not turn into solid mithril, I bet I looked pretty dumb by using the technique of taking it in and out repeatedly, I did not think it was close to my best work at all, but it was a learning experience.

I observed the pieces as my muscle memory took care of taking the thing in and out. The boy was confused and observed as well, and surely enough as anyone expected it solidified and connected the pieces. I gestured him to turn them around, he wordlessly did and I did the same action of pouring mithril over them once again.

I noticed some people sighed and left, almost as if I had ruined whatever I was doing, but I guess they forgot I could just grind the excess and polish it, and it would almost make a flawless transition due to it being mithril. Thankfully the gauntlets did not need me to do this since they were kind of a slot-in thing.

I set the crucible aside and watched it cool down.

“Um, what’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?” The boy looked at me.

“Y⁠— Dark Shadow the blacksmith.” I made a bitter smile as I said it, he cheerfully nodded.

“Thank you for your teachings! I feel like I have learnt a lot watching you, I will work hard to become an obsidian blacksmith and maybe even be able to work under your wing one day!”

“... Sure…” I did not know how to tell him that I don’t plan on staying here…

I looked at the armor once again. “Oh it’s done.” I said with a pleased tone and took all of the pieces with a bit of the struggle, I moved them towards the grinder. Jer was still sitting there and watching with curiosity, he was about to stand up but I put my hand in front of me.

“Just spin while you are sitting.” He nodded and started spinning the thing as I grinded, I did not pay attention but all the sparks were going into his visor, some people were horrified. I did not notice… and well… he just didn’t seem to care either.

I continued grinding the excess of the molten mithril and noticed the connection seemed incredibly strong, then I realized that the mithril had gotten hot around the edges and connected itself, it felt almost as if everything went my way but I had just discovered a mithril welding technique. I grinded and grinded, and they were finally smooth and looked like single pieces, although they still did not look shiny.

Then I switched sides and started using the polishing part of the stone, it slowly but surely got the glistening white, and it started to reflect the sunset. I had finished just in time. I heard a faint scream in the background but I did not notice as I happily grinded.

“There you are…” I heard a familiar voice next to me, turning around it was Ari, the boy was just as confused. “Neither of you told me you would be gone the entirety of the day…”

“Ah sorry… But look what I made!” I showed the last piece, it was shining in an almost pearlescent white.

“Sigh, I mean… I guess? I love how it looks, but you made it, so… to be expected?” So cold…

“Em, who is she?” The boy pointed at Ari.

“My sister.” I said without thinking, Ari blushed a bit and the boy nodded.

I noticed the crowd of people started to gather once again, some people were pointing at the armor almost as if it was majestic. Al had just arrived from the bar or wherever he was and his eyes widened, a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead and he left in an almost olympic sprint. I couldn’t help but be weirded out.

I looked at my work once again; the multiple pieces of armor. I smiled with satisfaction.

“Well, Jer, does this seem good?” He nodded.

“More than good.” I smiled.

“Alright then, time to encha⁠—”

“Wait!” Al arrived from his sprint.

I couldn’t help but be confused as I took a step back, he had come out of nowhere and he was all sweaty, I was confused to say the least.

“What?”

“I-I brought someone.” He pointed at the distance from the street, to the horizon.

I saw a silhouette calmly approaching, it seemed pretty normal, except for… Oh… The silhouette got closer and closer, it was a man with golden hair, wearing glasses and a full on butlery outfit, except instead of being black and white it was brown and white. His long ears slightly trembled from the wind but his face remained serene as ever.

It was an elf.

“Eh…” Ari let out her insatisfaction, we have had nothing but bad experiences with elves, it almost felt like a bad omen.

He arrived at our side. “This is the town’s enchanter, his name is classified due to reasons.” I see…

“Nice to meet you, he extended his gloved hand at me. I shook his hand with my right hand, and that was it. “I see, weird. What do you have here? Such unique armor, do you mind if I enchant it?”

“I-I…” I went silent, was it a yes or no? What would happen if I said no… I wanted to enchant it… “I suppose, is it free?” he laughed.

“Just this once it will be.” I nodded.

He took his gloves off and knelt on the ground, he kind of looked like a gentleman but I was still uneasy. He touched all of the armor pieces and closed his eyes. “Oh god, please hear me. I shall obey your will, just let me see the true nature of these items.” I had never heard an enchanter before.

I saw him shake once for a moment, and then he stood up and opened his eyes. Then he started trembling.

“Legendary…” he muttered.

“What?” Al asked since he couldn’t hear.

“The armor is Legendary…” He said with regret.

“Eh…” Just legendary?! I USED MITHRIL!

Oh, well, that was good enough I suppose. He turned to me with a complete serious face, no trace of his gentle smile, his eyes were cold. The bad omen had come.

“As per rule of the kingdom, I will have to take this armor. Legendary items are meant only for the royal family.” Eh…

“WHAT?!” I shouted, I did not just work more than 6 hours for it to be taken away!

“Are you perhaps, resisting?” I felt threatened....