Uncomfortable Cohabitation (4)
I sank into thought.
The iron content changed the final product? Then what about the ingots? Using expensive ones right away felt a little wasteful…
I sorted through the stones Priest Daniel had brought, picking out the darker ones. He had said the darker stones contained more iron. If that was true, the results would differ again.
I attempted a combination with the stone that held the highest iron content. The Young Master stayed quiet—probably because I had snapped at him earlier. Thanks to that, it was easy to concentrate.
This time the finished product showed fewer blotches and a far more uniform color.
“Hmm…”
This was a very important discovery.
“Young Master?”
“Yes!”
He answered with full-throated vigor. Looking at him, I almost laughed.
What? Just because I got a little irritated earlier, he’s acting like this? He’s a grown adult—why does everything he does end up looking cute?
“Could you check the mana conductivity?”
“Of course.”
I held out the piece I had just made alongside the previous one.
“Would you compare them?”
When the Young Master grasped the iron, I could see mana flowing through it.
“The conductivity is almost the same.”
Slightly different because of the iron content, but the conductivity itself was similar?
I noted the result down in my memo pad for now.
“Next is black iron? I should try that.”
Comparing the mana conductivity of a black iron ingot against the black iron I produced myself seemed the most accurate approach.
I followed the scrap iron combination method exactly—only this time a black iron ingot went into the pot instead of a stone.
“Hmph…”
I was a little nervous.
The odds of success looked high, but…
I still couldn’t be completely certain.
I drew a deep breath and steeled myself. There were plenty of materials; failing once—or even two or three times—would be fine. Yeah. Let’s keep it light.
I dropped the black iron ingot into the pot with a solid plop.
Then, gently stirring the contents with a spear, I began to pour in holy power.
“Hup!”
About ten minutes later my breath caught in my throat. This was not the reaction of a successful combination.
Sister Mary noticed it as well; her expression turned grave.
“I-is it because the materials changed…?”
With anxious eyes I continued the work. Even knowing it would fail, I had to finish the attempt. That was the only way to learn what had gone wrong…
How much is this ingot worth, anyway?
I snuck a glance at the Young Master sitting in the chair and watching me. He still hadn’t caught on.
“Ah…”
And as time passed, smoke rose from the pot—the unmistakable sign of failure.
Only Priest Daniel, who had no idea what was happening, looked completely bewildered.
“I-it failed…”
I gave an awkward smile and looked at the Young Master.
His expression… he was trying to act as if everything was fine, but he seemed a little flustered.
“I-it’s fine. F… failures happen.”
Hearing Maximilian’s hollow-sounding laugh made my heart soften.
“What should I change…?”
While I fiddled with another black iron ingot, Sister Mary cleaned out the pot.
What attribute does black iron have? Since it’s a mineral, ordinary earth? Or composite? Surprisingly, it might even be fire.
For the next try, should I mix black iron with stone? There are still plenty of materials…!
I tried it at once—and failed immediately.
When I produced yet another batch of waste, the Young Master’s eyes trembled.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“N-no. I-it’s a necessary… a-affair.”
He seemed to understand that trial and error was required—he had seen it before—but his body was far more honest than his words.
“H-how much does this black iron cost?”
“Not much. About thirty gold per ingot.”
The moment I heard the price, my breath locked in my throat. What? Thirty gold?
I had already wasted two of them—sixty gold?!
“E-e-expensive…”
Considering scrap iron had sold for roughly twenty gold… it didn’t seem that expensive, and yet… I couldn’t sell this scrap iron carelessly. Putting iron with high mana conductivity on the open market in a place full of people? Rumors would spread at once and I would be dragged into all sorts of trouble.
“It’s fine.”
I couldn’t look the Young Master straight in the eye. If I had known the price, I never would have used it so freely…
“I-it’s really fine.”
“Y-yeah. Who’s saying anything?”
I couldn’t bring myself to touch the black iron again, so I picked up an iron ingot that supposedly contained a little silver.
“How much is this one?”
“About the same price.”
When I asked why anyone would use silver-mixed iron, he explained that silver raised mana conductivity higher than ordinary iron. I didn’t know much about it, so I simply listened and thought, Oh, I see.
Iron should still work with the same combination method, right?
Silver iron? I placed the ingot in the pot and began the combination. This time the reaction was good. The contents melted into a thick slurry, mixed together, and gave off colorful, mysterious lights.
The phenomenon that appeared when the formula had no problems.
“This should work.”
Seeing the signs of success, a little hum escaped me of its own accord. I poured in overflowing holy power in generous amounts, trying to shorten the combination time.
As the minutes passed, a bright rainbow light appeared, and…
“Oh, it’s different.”
It was neither the blotchy iron I had made before nor the dark iron produced by high iron content.
Because of the silver? The color was silver-gray? Silver-white? White-silver? I didn’t know how to name it. In short, it was exactly the color that came to mind when one thought of iron.
“Congratulations.”
I gave the contents a rough look and began taking notes.
The finished product could be examined anytime. What mattered was leaving a proper record.
“Young Master? Would you check the conductivity?”
“Yes, of course I should.”
The corners of the Young Master’s mouth rose high. Well, success was something to be happy about.
Priest Daniel was looking around with sparkling eyes, clearly fascinated by alchemy.
“Is it interesting?”
“Yes. I think I understand why Sister Mary praised it so highly.”
I glanced at Sister Mary, who was still cleaning the pot. She had praised me?
“Saintess, you must properly recognize the value of alchemy.”
I merely shrugged. I knew it was a special technique in its own way. Still, with magic and magic tools already existing…
“How is it?”
“The conductivity is much higher. At this level, it seems possible to forge a magic sword.”
“That much?”
“Yes. If this leaks out carelessly, it could become a serious problem.”
That was a bit of a headache…
“Then?”
“If you take it to any ordinary blacksmith, it will cause controversy. It would be better to find a place that can keep the secret.”
He said that any blacksmith with a sharp eye would notice at once.
“How about borrowing the temple’s power?”
The temple, huh…
“There are blacksmiths at the temple as well. Since they forge holy knight equipment, their skill is quite decent.”
Listening to Priest Daniel, it sounded promising.
“But there aren’t any in the capital.”
Huh? None?!
“That’s true.”
According to Sister Mary, the capital had no blacksmiths. There were several reasons, but the main one involved relations with the royal family.
I didn’t really understand what that had to do with anything, but if that was the case, then so be it.
“Young Master, do you know anyone?”
A blacksmith who could keep secrets and possessed excellent skill… What good were connections if not for moments like this?
“Unfortunately… there is no one I can truly trust.”
He explained that outstanding blacksmiths who were not followers of the fire god were mostly bound to some noble house or registered with the royal family.
“What a waste…”
That meant even if I made the stuff, I couldn’t use it!
No wonder the Young Master had never used the scrap iron I gave him.
Should I just finish combining all of this silver iron? I stopped mid-thought.
Should I try mixing it with black iron…? Suddenly my experimental spirit flared back to life. I had succeeded, so I ought to fail a few times too, right?
I had mixed black iron with stone, but never with iron.
My reckless challenge failed again.
“Keugh!”
The moment waste formed from the failure, the Young Master crumpled with an expression of pure agony. I had split the ingot in half for the attempt, so it was only about thirty gold wasted rather than sixty…
But thirty gold was still no small sum.
“Sh-should we stop?”
Seeing him suffer made my heart soften.
“N-no…”
If you’re going to say that, don’t make that face…
My resolve weakened, so I decided to simply use the materials Priest Daniel had brought. Working through all the stones, sand, and clay he had carried in produced a considerable quantity of scrap iron.
“Really, Julian’s holy power is endless.”
Sister Mary, who had volunteered to help with the simple work, collapsed after only a few combinations.
“Haha…”
Thanks to her assistance, I managed to finish the scrap iron combinations quite early.
“Next, shall I try something else…”
I told them to put the iron away since I wouldn’t be using it anymore.
“Please organize the finished products carefully… and pack the remaining ingots well.”
“Understood.”
The Young Master, who seemed to have recovered a little, diligently carried the loads.
As for me… I went back to the warehouse and brought out the tobacco leaves again.
“That’s tobacco, I see.”
“You know it?”
“Yes. It’s a famous item.”
It had harmful effects on the body, yet many people used it as a mental stabilizer or simply because it looked stylish, or so I was told.
“Even at the temple I’ve seen people of means smoking it with pipes.”
If you smoke inside the temple the smell would cling forever…
“I’m worried about the smell.”
“It’s regulated so that it may only be used outdoors.”
So that was why I had never seen it while I was at the temple?
“But what are you planning to make with this?”
Priest Daniel asked, clearly curious.
“Tobacco, right?”
When he asked why, I explained that alchemically combined finished products sometimes lost their side effects.
“If the drawbacks of tobacco disappeared, I thought it might become a rather decent item.”
“Indeed…”
Well, that was only my hope, of course.
“But why did you buy it in this state?”
Huh?
“Yes?”
“As far as I know, tobacco is thoroughly dried until it turns brown, then shredded into small pieces before use.”
Uh……?
Even checking my knowledge from my previous life, the color of tobacco was brown—similar to the color of a withered plant. In other words, it was not supposed to look this fresh and green.
“I-is that so?”
To think I had overlooked something so basic!
“Th-then I should dry it thoroughly.”
I really hadn’t known…
I decided to take every last tobacco leaf out of the warehouse and dry them all.
I should have looked into it a little before buying…