Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Ch. 25 .｡.:✧ Basel (2) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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There was only one path open to me. Thanks to my drug addict parents selling me off for pocket change when I was young, I ended up at this workshop as an attendant. Within a few days, I heard both my parents had died from acute overdose.
Even hearing that news, I didn’t feel anything in particular. I only felt a sense of liberation that the blood ties shackling me had finally disappeared. Fortunately, the people at the workshop weren’t too bad. Although my status was no different from a slave, I received a promise that they would set me free once I worked off the amount they paid to purchase me.
And so, as a result of working tirelessly attending to the artisans for a full year without rest, I succeeded in paying off all my debt. I was free now. However, I had nowhere else to go. At the workshop owner’s suggestion, I began learning the craft as an apprentice.
The workshop that had been my owner now became my workplace, my nest, and my place of learning.
“You slowpoke! Why are you taking so damn long? You should be done with 10 by this time, but you haven’t even finished one?”
“…”
Scolding and reprimands, one after another. I was used to it. It was something I constantly heard even when I was an attendant. I knew well that everyone here was rough, so they had no choice but to shout like this while teaching.
So I endured and persevered. Because this was a path all the other artisans had gone through. Because I wasn’t the only one having a hard time. If I suppressed my tears and wore down my body with effort, I would also see the light someday.
My birth may have been lowly, but that didn’t mean I had to live with that lowly status for the rest of my life. Although I received nothing from my parents, I wanted to gain confidence in at least one field. With that singular thought, I practiced day and night, over and over.
“Tay. Take on apprentices.”
“Ah, hello. So you’re my apprentices.”
“…”
A throng of apprentice craftsmen came in. Total newbies who knew nothing. Kids who were picked up from who knows where. I heard the workshop owner had scooped them up from the slums…
“These dull things are low-grade mana stones. If you hold it up to light and it shines, but the crystals reflected inside are impure and irregular, it’s mid-grade. Of course, we have appraisers, but they’re often busy, so we need to know how to tell them apart too. Their main job is assessing the value of top-grade mana stones, after all.”
“Yes!”
It was quite fun having cute apprentices. Watching them suffer and struggle through the same process as me made me chuckle. I must have been like that too, back then. Thinking that, I was reminded of the artisans who had looked after me, so I treated my apprentices even better.
“Well done! Allen! Impressive. Go assist Karl right away! You’d be better off learning how to handle top-grade mana stones from the start!”
“Thank you, workshop owner!”
The apprentices began to surpass me. In my 3rd year, all I did was attend to ordinary artisans. But the apprentices quickly outgrew me and started handling high-grade and top-grade mana stones. That’s when I began to feel something was off.
I was so dull. Only when the apprentices surpassed me did I realize something was wrong.
“Tay is kind, courteous, quick-witted, and all, but…”
“Her hands are quite slow, right?”
“Exactly. Watching her makes me want to go crazy from frustration.”
“We can’t keep her as an apprentice forever, so we’ll have to let her go someday… But the owner is fond of her, so we can’t do that either. Sigh.”
“No one has stayed an apprentice for 3 years, right?”
“No one. Tay has been here the longest.”
The gossip I occasionally overheard pierced my heart deeply. I realized it too late. The fact that I had no talent. The fact that not everyone went through their apprentice days struggling like me.
I was a leech. A leech who ate for free as an apprentice. They could have promoted me from apprentice to artisan, but they kept me as an apprentice because they were afraid I would starve to death. That warm consideration hurt me.
“Allen obtained the 1st-class craftsman certificate today! With this, our workshop has gained another artisan who can handle top-grade mana stones! Everyone, please give him a round of applause!”
“Wow…”
It had been 2 years since the apprentices entered the workshop. Everyone was starting to find their place. Except for one who quit, all of them began taking commissions and working as proper craftsmen. There was even a kid who had become the workshop’s best, handling high-grade and top-grade mana stones.
In contrast, I alone remained the same. Occasionally touching mid-grade mana stones was the best I could do. An assistant to artisans who only got work once in a blue moon. Now, no one even tried to teach me anymore. Everyone had given up.
Because I was too dull. Because I couldn’t learn no matter what they taught me. Even if I did learn, I was too slow.
“Is this the workshop I’ll be working at? I followed the owner’s glowing recommendation, but this workshop is in a sorry state!”
“Hahaha… I’ll show you to your workplace.”
“Who’s that kid? She has the eyes of someone withering away.”
“That child is an apprentice. A 5th year one.”
“5th year? How the hell are you training your apprentices? Put that girl under me! I’ll have to make her useful right away. No wonder your workshop is short on hands when you’re keeping a leech like her around.”
That was my first encounter with my teacher. My teacher who appeared just as I was contemplating whether I should leave the workshop and go back to living in the slums was nothing short of a savior.
Teacher was already famous even outside Basel. While traveling, he met the owner and was impressed by him, so he immediately transferred to our workshop.
“This kid can’t be trained the normal way! Put down the low-grade stones! What’s the point of having her fiddle with things that need to be processed quickly for high productivity all day? You’ll be learning how to process high-grade mana stones starting today.”
“What?”
I was so shocked I could barely speak. Teaching me, who couldn’t even handle low-grade and mid-grade stones properly, how to process high-grade ones? Naturally, many artisans objected. Saying it was a waste of mana stones.
“Look at this! What do you think?”
“Hmm. It’s a well-processed mid-grade mana stone. I can’t find any flaws. Did you specialize it in mana insulation? It even has an additional effect despite being mid-grade.”
“This mana stone was processed by this leech here. She’s causing a fuss, making art despite it being a cost-effective stone, but her skill isn’t bad!”
“But it’s meaningless if she’s not fast enough…”
“What’s meaningless about it! High-grade stones naturally take a lot of effort and time! This girl should be given high-grade stones!”
It was the first time I heard such praise. Although his way of speaking was rough, Teacher was clearly standing up for me. From that day on, I began learning how to handle high-grade mana stones from Teacher.
“Even the raw ore costs more than the monthly salary of most artisans. If you mess up, I’ll have to starve for a month. Got it?”
“Yes, yes!”
“But don’t get too nervous. If your body gets stiff, your measly skills will only decrease further. I’m prepared to starve for a month or so, so work with an easy mind.”
High-grade mana stones were worlds apart from low-grade or mid-grade ones. It was my first time seeing them up close like this. The arrangement of the crystals was relentlessly regular and consistent.
Unlike low-grade and mid-grade stones where you could flexibly cut and process according to the stone, high-grade stones required uniform work. Indeed, my slow hands weren’t much of a problem. It seemed I wasn’t the only slow one when it came to high-grade stones.
Even skilled craftsmen often spent an hour scraping off a speck of dust when processing high-grade stones. I wasn’t the only one who was slow. I wasn’t the only one falling behind. I could do it too. I think I put in even more effort with those thoughts.
“Tay. Just quit.”
“T-Teacher?”
“Leave the workshop. No matter how I look at it, this isn’t the path for you.”
“…”
Teacher’s expression hardened after seeing the finished product. And then he cast me out without hesitation. The teacher who had kindly taught me one by one despite his gruff manner was now turning his back on me.
‘Not my path?’ This was the only path open to me in the first place. I had walked this single path with difficulty. And now you’re telling me to go back? I felt like my heart was collapsing.
“I can’t leave this workshop… I’ve dedicated my life to it, Teacher…”
“What life, you naive little girl! Scram if you’re going to ruin my appetite!”
“Please, I’m begging you. I won’t ask you to teach me anything. I’ll start over as an attendant. So please don’t kick me out. Please?”
“…”
I couldn’t even imagine any other path. So I clung to Teacher, weeping. As a result, I succeeded in remaining as a parasite. But there were no more warm gazes directed at me.
Even Teacher only asked me to bring the necessary tools in a cold voice. He didn’t teach me anything and didn’t expect anything from me. No matter how much I processed low-grade and mid-grade mana stones, the reaction was indifferent at best.
They did sell. At quite a high price too. At 1.5 times the price of ordinary mana stones. But considering it took five or six times longer to process them, it was questionable whether I was making money.
Around the time the second batch of apprentices surpassed me and shed their apprentice status, in other words, my 6th year as an apprentice, I completely lost confidence.
I had long given up on the dream of becoming successful and living proudly. I would live forever as a parasite in this workshop. All because the owner was fond of me. Thanks to someone who left the workshop long ago and never returned, I was living off the workshop’s food even today.
“Welcome, customer. What brings you here?”
“I’m here to sell some raw mana stones. And I’d like to request processing for one of them.”
“Right this way.”
It was a day like any other. Attending to Teacher who ignored me. In my free time, I absentmindedly processed mana stones that were discarded as defective, spacing out.
“And this is the mana stone I’d like to have processed.”
“This is…?!”
A bright light poured out from the reception area. Startled, my gaze was drawn there. A top-grade mana stone. A top-grade mana stone that our workshop had handled only 5 times in 6 years.
I gazed at the top-grade mana stone that briefly appeared, even if from a distance. Its brilliant form, as if it contained the universe. I stood there in a daze for a long time, captivated by its beautiful irregularity.
“Tay! Chisel! Bring the chisel!”
“Ah, yes…”
But I soon averted my gaze and returned to the workroom. That place was a different world from where I lived in the first place. A world where hundreds of thousands of gold changed hands. A world I couldn’t even dare to look up to.
A world where it was a great rudeness for a leech like me to even peek at.
“Hm. Before discussing the purpose, may I first choose the artisan who will handle the work?”
“Of course, that’s fine. You seem to be familiar with an artisan from our workshop.”
“Indeed, I am. A very skilled individual.”
I quietly stood by Teacher’s side as he worked, waiting for the next order. I had already turned my back to the reception desk before getting scolded again. But gradually, footsteps began approaching this way.
“Hahaha. You must want to entrust it to someone you have a personal connection with. But please believe me. Those three are undoubtedly the most skilled in our workshop. I don’t know who you’re looking for, but it would be best to leave it to one of those three…”
“Ah. There she is.”
“Pardon? Who are you referring to?”
It seemed the customer wasn’t going to choose someone with a 1st-class certificate, but a different artisan. I immediately knew who he had come to find. It was Teacher.
Although Teacher didn’t have a certificate, his skill in handling top-grade mana stones was no less than Allen’s. He just didn’t bother to get certified because he found it troublesome and devoted himself solely to high-grade stones.
Saying he was an artisan, not an artist, and that his mission was to supply high-quality high-grade mana stones. He had given up the life of a famous craftsman who completed a top-grade mana stone, made money, and spent the whole year yachting and playing around.
He was a cool person. Someone who had reached the pinnacle of a field and stepped down on his own. That’s why there were customers who went out of their way to seek him out like this.
Just as I was grinning to myself without Teacher noticing, Teacher took off his goggles, stood up, and a puzzled expression spread across his face.
“Tay. Turn around.”
“What?”
And then he spoke to me with a look of disbelief. What happened? I turned around and made eye contact with a well-dressed human man.
Right now, I was filthy with soot all over my face, unwashed, so I felt ashamed just facing him. The cleaner, more dignified, and cooler the other person was, the more wretched I felt in contrast. My body shrunk back on its own.
But the man kept looking at me with a smile on his face. Was he really looking at me? Puzzled, I pointed to myself with my index finger, expressing my confusion.
“I’ll be entrusting it to that child.”
“What?!”
And today. My world changed.
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