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Without any major incidents, the days in Forligen continued.

In the mornings I went to the Alchemists’ Guild, and in the afternoons I stayed indoors quietly.

Sufi and the others avoided the busy mornings at the reception desk and instead went to the Adventurers’ Guild in the afternoon to help out at the orphanage.

Since then, I hadn’t felt any strange presence, and our routine had completely stabilized. It had almost been a month since we arrived in this city.

It felt like I had been traveling for a very long time since leaving the village, but when I actually counted it, it had only been a little over two months. That was practically the same amount of time since I met Noche and the others. Before I realized it, being together had started to feel natural.

Come to think of it, I had never formally decided how long we would rent the Alchemists’ Guild staff dormitory. I hurriedly checked with Chýtis Philip, and he told me we could continue using it for free for up to half a year.

Apparently that had been the plan from the start when the paperwork was done. Honestly, that was a huge help.

And so, with some time to spare, today at last I finished the gifts for the three of them.

■■■

In the morning, I told them that the Alchemists’ Guild was closed today.

They had gotten completely used to this Apartment 404, and Sufi and the others were living fairly freely.

Noche was on the balcony, observing the scenery of Tokyo. Filia was adjusting underwear sizes with a sewing kit and adding stitches so you could tell whose was whose.

Sufi tossed the dishes into the washing machine and was cleaning the bathroom.

After checking on the three of them, I took the equipment I had prepared out of the Western-style room that had become my study and atelier. It wasn’t forbidden, but maybe Sufi was being considerate—none of them came in unless they had business.

“Everyone, got a minute?”
“What is it, nya?”

The first to come was Noche, who had nothing to do. She had been shocked when she first learned this was another world, but now she knew more about what could be seen from the balcony than I did.

“I finally finished everyone’s.”
“Oh, the stuff you were making, nya?”
“Yeah.”
“Alice, sorry to keep you waiting. What’s up?”
“What is it?”

Following Noche, Filia and Sufi, who had stopped their work, also gathered in the living room.

Once everyone was there, I lined up the equipment for the three of them on the table.

What I made were three survival knives, two short swords, and one short mace.

In the end, the two I originally planned to make were scrapped, so these were completely new. Things stopped going well halfway through, so I asked other alchemists who specialized in blacksmithing and metallurgy for advice.

Even alchemists famous as blacksmiths usually make things using both a furnace and hammering, and when I told them I was trying to do everything with “Forging (Alchemy)” alone, they were dumbfounded.

They said the fact that I could do it at all was strange, but still gave proper advice, starting with, “If it were me…”

“Forging” is fundamentally an alchemical technique for freely deforming or moving the shape of the matter you interfere with. Using it to imitate forging in the first place is inefficient.

It depends heavily on the precision of the magic circle, the skill of the caster, and the properties of the material, but if you can master it, the degree of freedom is virtually limitless.

That’s exactly why Forging is both the foundation that alchemists learn first and something that can become the ultimate technique for a great alchemist. The blacksmith-specialized Alchemist went on angrily that he himself was only at the level of a blacksmith in a provincial city, had just barely reached the second tier through brutal effort, and that I should think about how it feels for an adult to be asked for advice by a child who outranks him.

For some reason, he got extremely angry partway through, but still properly demonstrated the process in his workshop.

He then hammered heated iron into the shape of a knife, drenched in sweat from the heat of the furnace. Along the way, he used “Analysis” to check for uneven composition and impurities, and combined it with “Forging” to make fine adjustments that would be difficult with hammering alone.

Grandpa was practically retired, and between repairing magic tools and brewing potions he was already busy. I’d never had the chance to carefully observe another alchemist’s work.

The smithy-alchemist who taught me really felt like a professional. His knife was incomparably better than both the ones sold at weapon shops that the female staff had bought, and the knives I had tried making myself.

Apparently he supplied goods to the lord’s knight order and high-end shops in the city center, so it was only natural I had never seen them before.

I could understand why most master blacksmiths in the world also double as alchemists. Incidentally, among non-humans, mountain folk (Dvergr) have the highest number of alchemists, apparently because it’s convenient for blacksmithing and craftsmanship.

He let me take the finished piece as a reference, so I tried adjusting the composition balance and distortions of a properly made knife.

It really was much easier than doing everything with alchemy alone, and I was impressed while also realizing how important it is to follow proper procedures.

Still, thanks to that, I more or less got a feel for it.

When I thanked him and returned the knife, the blacksmithing Alchemist stormed out for some reason. The metallurgy Alchemist who had been there too looked at the door he left through with a face that seemed almost sympathetic, then patted my head and said, “Don’t worry about it,” leaving me confused.

After those strange events, I kept practicing, and finally completed weapons I could give to everyone.

The blades were iron, and the edges were made from a mysterious metal that had been used in the storage room… it doesn’t rust, is light, and hard—probably some kind of alloy. Even after analyzing it, I couldn’t really tell what it was, so it might be Unknown itself, or an alloy created by the Unknown.

Calling it “mysterious metal” forever felt wrong, so I borrowed the name of my former organization and called it Pandora Steel.

It’s hard to process into blades normally, but I forced it through using alchemy. Thanks to that, I think I managed to make sturdy blades that don’t lose their sharpness easily.