| Author: Ash | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 2738 characters |
| Translator: Mii | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 0 words |
The next morning, Arnold who returned with Alphonse called me to explain about yesterday’s matter.
To put it simply, the reason he brought out the katana was to divert everyone’s attention away from me.
Since I started staying at this workshop, he told the merchants who often visited the workshop I was ‘a young but skillful blacksmith.’
But no one would believe a child like me was skillful. According to Master, “No one believes me unless they see you working with their own eyes.” I was grateful for that, but also not… Oh well. I didn’t want to stand out, so it’s fine?
Later on, I asked him to keep the fact that I could forge a sword secret, so Master thought he should hide my existence or lie better.
By this time, he had strictly ordered everyone in the workshop not to talk about my blacksmithing skill to any outsiders. The merchants didn’t believe that I had skills, so he changed the story. He told them that there’s another blacksmith who was currently staying in his workshop. That person was bad-tempered, so they rarely showed their face.
Unlike when they heard about me, they easily believed that story. Muu.
However, that changed their perception of me to ‘a newly hired live-in apprentice maid’ even though he said nothing about me. That’s the reason the kids in other workshops invited me to the harvest festival.
After that, my surroundings’ perception of me changed steadily. By the end of the harvest festival, I had turned into an apprentice maid. Since I disclosed various recipes to the landlady, many recipes got shared from her, and I heard that I was quite popular with the neighborhood housewives…
Vector’s request to create a magic sword improved Master’s opinion towards me at once. When we talked about that matter, Master had a strained laugh and told me he didn’t expect that there’s a blacksmith who was far more skillful than him. I told him this resulted from training here, but he didn’t believe me at all. Muumuu.
However, there’s no doubt that a lot of bad things would happen if my ability was revealed1. Master who thought so consulted with Vector, who promised not to leak my information. He then took various measurements.
As a result, they said that Master got the magic sword forged for Vector through his connections.
In addition, Master really had connections to get magic swords and rare weapons, so the Blacksmith Guild believed him easily. In fact, Master used his connections to get two new katanas before the harvest festival.
Making technical analysis using a single sword wouldn’t be possible. Even if he spent a lot of money on the two new swords, it wasn’t for naught. That sounds just like what Master, a metalsmith addict, would say.
And there were traces of some people trying to find the source, probably because Vector’s magic swords had an exceptional performance.
Although Vector had some escorts guard me, Master was still uneasy with that alone. He then made another plan here. He heard about the escorts directly from Vector. However, I hadn’t heard about the escorts from him, so I pretended that I just knew it for the first time. After all, I noticed them on my own.
For that reason, Master wanted to divert the attention from me to him by raising an exciting topic when people were gathering around him.
In fact, the show originally wasn’t only a place for newcomers and young blacksmiths to exhibit their works, but also a place for masters to show off their skills. However, the masters had a tacit understanding not to bring their weapons since it ended up with a fight almost every time… What are you doing, Master?
Anyway, Master Arnold already told them he wanted to announce a new weapon, and the guild executives agreed to it wholeheartedly. That was only to be expected. Everyone was interested in Master’s new weapon. After all, he was also famous in neighboring countries… Master sure was amazing.
He made various preparations like this, bringing three katanas to the show as a reference and several swords he forged.
As I said earlier, two of the katanas were obtained through his connections. They came from a dungeon of the famous Labyrinth City in the neighboring country.
He had disciples who settled in Labyrinth City, and it was possible to get magic weapons through that connection. To be honest, I was surprised to learn that they could get Hourai swords other than purchasing it via imported products.
There were several adventurers in Labyrinth City who had acquired ‘Swordsmanship: Katana’ skill with their own power, and those people would buy up all the katanas found in the dungeon. That’s why it’s not popular outside the city… I wondered how many katanas those people had wasted until they learned that skill. It’s scary imagining the amount of money they spent.
Anyway, let’s move on to the new sword Master completed.
Master’s new sword was a curved sword. A curved sword was called Shamshir, Talwar, or Falchion. Depending on the item, its blade might curve even more.
The curved sword forged by Master had a thick blade, emphasizing its strength. He couldn’t forge a blade as thin as a katana, so this plan might hurt his pride. But he saw the curve of the katana and wondered if he could apply it to something else. That’s where it all started.
Master wasn’t very convinced, but all the curved swords he brought to the show could be used in actual battles, so many merchants offered business talks on the spot. He received suggestions to lengthen the blade and increase the weight to make an excellent curved sword used when riding horses. Master’s eyes were shining when he told me that. He most likely would try making a prototype after this.
Master could forge a sword that could be used in actual battle in just a few months. He was amazing.
… Well, that means Master wasn’t boasting about the katana, but he did it with completely different intentions…
The reason he didn’t tell me in advance was that Ed was in good shape when I supervised him the entire time, so he didn’t want to bother me. And Ed did forge a ‘high quality’ sword, causing me to be unable to refute him.
After Ed finished his sword, Master was busy with a lot of things before the show and didn’t have enough free time to talk to me… Nah, the result was okay, so don’t worry about it.
