The Blacksmith's Bargain
It was a distance that would have taken two hours at a normal walking pace, but that hardly applied to my sister and me—not with the power we possessed.
By reinforcing our bodies and running hard, the distance melted away and the time shrank with it. After about an hour of running, the border garrison's outpost came into view. We had covered in one hour what should have taken two.
"It's been a while since I've been out here."
The Instructor had brought me once before, back when he gave me my sword.
"Yeah."
Calling it an outpost made it sound grander than it was. There were no long stretches of ramparts—just the barracks where the soldiers lived and a watchtower rising high above them. Of course, if a real fight ever broke out, those barracks would serve as makeshift walls well enough.
Ever since the garrison had been established, the raids and provocations had dropped to about once a year, which had been a huge help to the village. Before that, they said, the attacks had come constantly—but that was more than thirty years ago. Neither my sister nor I really knew those stories.
These days the provocations were so rare that the place was mostly used as a training camp for green recruits with less than a year of service. The Instructor had told us as much.
"It really does look like a school."
Aside from the watchtower, the barracks buildings had a layout not so different from the school I'd attended in my previous life. So this was where the soldiers ate, slept, and trained…
We headed for the only place on the grounds that was open to outsiders: the forge. The Instructor and my stepfather had both warned us not to wander into the other buildings—they were military facilities, after all.
As we drew near the forge set out on the open ground, a wave of heat rolled over us. Standing at the entrance, I spotted a familiar crest on the door. I hadn't known what it was before, but I did now. That was the crest of the god Vulcanus.
Most blacksmiths worshipped Vulcanus, or so I'd heard…
"Who's there?"
As we stepped inside, a big, burly man with a wild beard appeared.
"Hm? Village brats, are you?"
"Yes, village brats we are."
He recognized us right away—probably because the villagers kept bringing him tedious commissions. Blacksmiths hated being asked to make household goods instead of weapons. Men who wanted to forge blades had no love for turning out kitchen knives, plowshares, and meaningless things like cooking pots.
Those things mattered to our daily lives… but a blacksmith didn't see it that way. In the end, we were the ones who needed him more than he needed us.
"There's something I'd like you to appraise first."
I pulled the Scrap Iron from my bag and held it out. The pieces varied in size and shape, but the color was more or less the same.
"Hmm…"
The blacksmith's eyes, which had been regarding us with clear displeasure, changed. He examined the metal carefully, then set the Scrap Iron down beside him.
"Crude iron. Where did you get it?"
That I'd made it myself was a secret I had to keep, of course.
"I picked it up."
"Don't lie to me. There's no mine or vein anywhere near here."
That much was true. If there had been a vein, people wouldn't have left it alone. All sorts of folk would have flocked in to dig it out—especially nobles and merchants. They never sat still when there was profit to be had.
"Does that matter?"
The blacksmith started glaring at me. He stroked his beard, then began appraising the iron properly.
"It's iron, all right, but the purity looks low… probably mixed with other metals. The strength doesn't seem bad, though. And something's been done to it—the mana conductivity is unusually high."
High mana conductivity…? Because it was made with Alchemy? Or was there some other reason?
"What's good about high conductivity?"
"Makes it easier to channel mana through, and you lose less of it in the process."
"So it's good material, then?"
I'd only awakened my power recently, so I didn't fully understand—but it sounded like a compliment.
All that careful combining had been worth it. Mana and Holy Power were essentially the same, so the conductivity should work for both, right? For starters, I wanted a stick about the size of a pair of chopsticks to use in my combinations.
I explained what I wanted made. The blacksmith's face twisted into a scowl.
"And also a somewhat larger rod…"
The other piece was a rod for stirring a big pot.
"Hmm… what do you need it for? Don't tell me you're planning to use a staff as a weapon?"
Uh… well? I could use a spear, so a staff wasn't entirely out of the question.
"That's not it. Why?"
"You didn't bring this to have weapons forged?"
"I was going to use it for stirring pots…"
At that, the blacksmith's expression crumpled badly.
"If that's all you need it for, sell this to us and I'll make you a rod out of something else."
"I don't want that. I need something that conducts mana well."
I was going to use it for combining, so that conductivity—whatever it was called—mattered. Neither of us would budge.
"Then instead of a plain rod, why not make something that can serve more than one purpose?"
"More than one purpose…?"
"That thing on your back isn't just for decoration, is it?"
What I was carrying…? I reached behind me and my hand found the spear.
"A spear's too long, though…"
A stirring rod only needed to be about a meter at most. And if you made the shaft out of iron, it wouldn't flex properly, which made spear techniques awkward.
"Tsk. What a waste. What a waste. Even as a staff, this stuff would make something decent."
A staff…?
"Don't staves need mana stones too?"
"I've got mana stones. You're not going to use all this iron anyway—we can trade some of it for a stone."
The word staff tempted me a little. Now that I'd awakened my power, I would have to learn how to wield it, and since that power was Holy Power, learning Holy Magic was a given. Mages and priests used staves as weapons, so I could use one too.
"D-does Holy Magic need a staff as well?"
"Having one helps."
Whether it was magic or Holy Magic, a well-made staff improved efficiency—or so he said. The blacksmith launched into an eager explanation.
"So a spear's out, but a staff is fine?"
"Well…"
I lightly wrapped Holy Power around my hand.
"Ohh…"
The blacksmith slowly studied the Holy Power rising from my palm.
"That's a tremendous amount of Holy Power."
"So this power really is Holy Power, then?"
"It is."
Suddenly the blacksmith thrust out his right hand, and power surged from it. The color was a little different from what I released…
"You're a follower of Vulcanus."
"I am. Ready to listen to me now?"
Being a devotee of Vulcanus was supposed to be proof of exceptional skill, wasn't it?
"If you can handle Holy Power, a staff isn't a bad choice at all."
The blacksmith rattled on by himself. Since I already knew how to use a spear, combining spear and staff would be even better, he said. And if I needed it for stirring pots, he'd build that function into the butt end.
"So I sketched out a design like this. What do you think?"
I looked at the drawing he'd scratched into the floor. Being a hybrid of staff and spear, it wasn't particularly long.
The blade of the spear was straightforward enough, and he planned to set a mana stone where the shaft met the head. At the rear end—where the butt cap would be—he'd shaped a diamond-like form that would help with mixing contents, he explained.
"You can use it as a spear, a staff, and a pot-stirrer. How's that?"
Watching the blacksmith puff out his chest with such smug pride put me in a slightly foul mood. Mister… was this really something to get that worked up over?
"It looks fine."
My sister, who had been watching the whole exchange from the side, spoke up.
"R-really?"
"You're going to use it for combining, right?"
"Yeah."
That had been the goal from the start. Until now I'd been using wooden tools, and every time I combined something, I could see them wearing down a little more. Soaking in liquid for long stretches was more than wood could take.
"I'm thinking roughly one meter thirty for the length."
It felt like he was asking whether I agreed. Back when I'd been a man, I might have thought that was too short. For me now, standing under a hundred and fifty centimeters, it was more than enough.
It would be a bit long for combining work, but since it could double as a weapon, I supposed I would have to live with it.
"Heh heh. With this design, half the iron you brought should be plenty."
"You said you'd set a mana stone in the socket—how much iron are you planning to take?"
"Not all of it, surely…?"
"I have a rough idea what this material is worth, you know."
"One chunk of this size will do."
The blacksmith pulled from my bag the iron for the spear and the iron to trade for the mana stone. Even after that, four chunks of Scrap Iron remained.
"Should I have a sword made for you, Emma?"
I'd been planning to make a sword for myself, but somehow I'd ended up commissioning a spear-staff hybrid instead, which rather reduced the need for a blade.
My sister shook her head.
"I'll give you a fair price. Why not sell the rest?"
"Sell it?"
"Yes. That much should be enough to forge one sword."
Having said that, the blacksmith started calculating.
"How about twenty-five gold?"
A well-forged sword went for about twenty gold, didn't it? The mana conductivity was good, but at the end of the day it was still Scrap Iron. Factoring that in, the price seemed fair enough. And the fact that I'd be getting money out of it was a plus.
There wasn't much to spend money on in the village, but right now I needed coin. I had to buy books on magic and Holy Magic, and equipment for Alchemy as well. All of that took a lot of money.
I should sell it, then. So many things I wanted to buy were already springing to mind.
While I hesitated over my answer, the blacksmith started fretting.
"Twenty-seven gold! Any more than that and I'm taking a loss!"
Huh? I'd been ready to sell at twenty-five.
"Then I'll sell."
"Ah—and for the record, the commission fee for making the spear is five gold."
"Ah?"
I hadn't factored that in! The blacksmith grinned as he pulled the coins from his pouch and handed them over.
"How long will it take?"
"Two days."
"Then I'll come back then."
With the staff commission settled, we returned to the village.
"Wow—isn't this basically a creative economy?!"
Iron made from stones, water, sand, and clay I'd picked up in the forest… and it sold? For a considerable sum, no less?
As long as I had enough time, didn't that mean I could print money?!
"I'm going to keep making iron for a while!"
While working on Alchemy combinations, I'd often thought how nice it would be to have proper tools and equipment. Originally I hadn't had the money, so getting them had been hard. I'd almost given up.
But now I had a method for printing money?
Ah! I couldn't hold back! I'd already been planning a trip to the city to buy books—this was perfect timing.
"Yuli, you look happy."
"Yeah. I'm going to make a ton of iron and buy some books."
"I'll help."
My sister looked at me and clenched her fist as she spoke.
"You'll help?"
"If we do it together, we can make more."
The combination method was already established. More hands working meant more iron produced.
More iron equaled more money!
"You'll really help?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's work hard!"
I took my sister's hand as I said it.
"Yeah!"
She beamed with pure delight. I had been neglecting her a bit lately…
The moment we got back to the village, we tried combining. We set up identical stations side by side and worked together, but after making just one piece, my sister said the mana drain was too much and needed to rest.
"Your mana can't handle it?"
The combination itself had succeeded. The resulting iron was the same as what I made…
"Yeah. I'm tired."
I'd already had a sense that my pool of power was fairly large… but comparing it directly like this made the difference feel even greater.
I checked the power remaining inside me. Hmm… at this rate, I could probably combine about four more times?
Compared to my sister, it wasn't two or three times more—it looked like five times or more…?
We worked hard combining Scrap Iron together. After a single combination, my sister needed a long rest; I did not. My arms ached, but I gritted my teeth and kept going.
We combined so diligently that the sun set before we knew it. After sharing dinner, I sent my sister home. We'd see each other again tomorrow anyway, so I told her to get a good rest at her place.
When I entered my room, I looked at the divine statue. I stood before it and offered a prayer with a devout heart.
"Goddess, thank you truly for the grace you have given me. Because of this abundant Holy Power, I've learned how easy combining can be. Thank you so much."
Gratitude, and more gratitude.
The next morning, when I woke, something felt… different. As if my power had grown stronger.
Could it be because of the prayer of thanks I'd offered yesterday?
But there was no downside to growing stronger, was there? And it might have just been my imagination…
I clenched and unclenched my fists a few times, then offered another prayer before the statue.
Thank you, Goddess!
Our Goddess really is merciful!