Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 140
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 140
‘The same thing happened when I talked to Mudu.’
That thing had thrashed violently inside the bag, practically demanding I hand it right over.
‘Still, finding out early was a relief.’
If things had gone forward in front of everyone watching…
A complete disaster might have followed.
‘Well, let’s not think about that.’
Lion shook his head.
Rather than borrow trouble, it was better to finish the work quickly and return before sunrise.
Lion brought out the items he had prepared and also retrieved a piece of Snow Mountain Iron he had made earlier in the smithy.
[Snow Mountain Iron Ingot (★★★)]
-A skilled blacksmith’s hand has touched this ingot.
-You could practically use it as a mirror!
[Usage- Smithing]
[☞Click to view recipe.]
Whether because the refining had been well done, this ingot was clearly unsullied by a single impurity—smooth and glossy.
“Anything in the smithy—use whatever you like!”
“What if I end up using everything you have?”
“Ha! Then use everything. You oddball!”
Staring at the iron suddenly brought back the conversation I’d had with Mudu before he vacated the smithy.
‘Honestly.’
Truth be told, helping the fire spirit was only so I could make a hoe.
It wasn’t an act born from any grand scheme or a particularly kind heart… but ever since, Mudu had tried to slip me at least one extra thing whenever he had a chance.
And this iron ingot was probably the same.
“Thank you.”
He had even handed over a smithy he considered his life, without asking a single reason.
And that wasn’t all—he’d prepared everything else I might need and then left.
Lion smiled faintly at the neatly arranged tools and the blazing forge fire.
“Peep.”
“Right. So we have to clean up properly after ourselves, don’t we?”
Lion took the mold out of his inventory.
‘First, I have to make the mold shape.’
The Bubble Mold possessed one excellent feature to match its single-use drawback.
Even a complete beginner could form a mold well.
Perhaps because of that, the method was not difficult at all.
You placed a hand on the mold and imagined the desired shape—that was it.
The approach was remarkably similar to Magic Seasoning B, which I’d once used while eating ramen.
‘In that case…’
Right on cue, a shape came to mind.
Lion closed his eyes and imagined a long cylindrical form that fit snugly in one hand.
It had a screw-on lid and the stability to sit upright without spilling.
On top of that, it had a property that trapped the Witch’s magic power and kept it from escaping.
In other words…
‘A tumbler.’
Honestly, was there a better shape?
It fit beautifully in the hand and kept things warm, so nothing could be better.
Lion recalled the days when he’d used a tumbler.
During corporate life, in a café thick with the smell of coffee, he’d favored a tumbler over single-use plastic containers.
It wasn’t for any grand cause.
Somebody had given him the tumbler as a gift, and using it saved him a little money.
Back when he’d taken his first steps into society, even five hundred won saved had been a blessing.
Why else had he left an hour early and commuted on foot instead of taking public transit?
In that sense, the gift tumbler had been a solid, dependable fellow.
However.
‘At first I used it well, but partway through it gave me some trouble.’
Didn’t a tumbler naturally build up scent and collect grime in the lid crevices when used for a long time?
Lion’s tumbler had gone through the exact same process.
Even scrubbing tirelessly with a scourer couldn’t easily clean the gunk lodged in those thin gaps!
At home things would have been different, but as a new hire I had practically lived at the office.
On top of mountains of work, standing alone at the employee sink all day just to scrub a tumbler was pure torment.
‘Thinking back now, as a new hire why couldn’t I leave work on time?’
What did a rookie even know how to do?
Well, it was all in the past, so it didn’t make me angry anymore, but suddenly recalling it did feel ridiculous.
‘So this tumbler… no, the potion bottle should also be easy to clean.’
Of course, whether the mold could even apply such wishes remained unknown.
Still, didn’t more demanding conditions typically produce better items?
Lion tacked on various options within the bounds of not breaking the mold, then slowly opened his eyes.
And then…
“Oh.”
It looked like it had turned out rather well?
Obviously I wouldn’t know for sure until I poured the solution into the mold, but to the naked eye it seemed pretty decent!
[Blacksmithing Experience has greatly increased by using a special item!]
[Blacksmithing Proficiency has reached Apprentice Lv.3.]
I hadn’t even properly used it yet, but the experience had already climbed quite a bit.
Probably because it was an item purchased from the Shilling Shop, a special bonus was attached.
‘This is an enormous gain.’
Maybe from leveling up two whole stages, I also realized exactly how to use this mold well to produce a satisfying result.
The path now clear, my hands itched to get going.
“Hoo. Stay calm.”
In a smithy, impatience led straight to serious accidents.
Even the blades and searing heat alone were dangerous, but Lion also had to work with obsidian on top of that.
The first two hazards might only injure myself, but one careless move with the obsidian could unleash a major incident.
‘Right. I just have to maintain this exact feeling.’
Lion clenched a hand once, released it, then picked up the obsidian and placed it inside a potion vial he had on hand.
Clink.
The jet-black obsidian settled inside the transparent vial.
“And next…”
The melting agent.
Lion uncapped the melting agent he had received as a freebie when buying the mold and poured it straight into the potion vial with a soft stream.
An ordinary gemstone would lose its natural color the moment the melting agent touched it and turn into glass shards, but…
Sssss—
Elvia’s obsidian was different.
The instant the agent touched it, the clear solution bled black as though inky dye spread through it.
Alongside what sounded like whispers at my ear, a sinister force began churning violently, as if trying to vaporize the entire solution with a seething lurch.
Having succeeded in evaporating every drop, the black fumes didn’t stop there; they crept sluggishly up the inner walls of the vial.
Like smoke from a censer, like something hauling itself upward with both arms, the Witch’s magic backflowed from the vial and spilled onto the floor.
Drip.
Drop.
It was no longer liquid, yet it fell to the ground with the odd sound of liquid splashing thickly.
Still, Lion did not close the vial. He left it alone.
The emboldened black fumes spread all the way down to his ankles, obscuring his vision, and just as they were about to expand their territory outward—
“Nature. Can you help me make sure the fumes don’t escape outside the smithy?”
“Peep.”
Listening to Lion, Nature used the power of wind.
As a gentle wind pressed inward from the outside to stop the territory from spreading further, mana drained steadily from Lion’s body.
‘Incredible.’
Just holding the fumes back cost this much energy. Elvia’s magic was truly beyond imagination.
But I felt neither dread nor fear.
Outwardly it looked violent and gloomy…
‘All the same, it’s Elvia’s power.’
Of course, this power was the heretical strength of demons.
If others were to come into contact with it, a catastrophe might await.
No, a catastrophe awaited for certain. I wouldn’t deny that.
However.
‘To me, it does nothing.’
As though Elvia’s magic had no will to harm me, it showed no reaction at all.
Even the dark clouds rising past my ankles to my calves were simply dark smoke—they posed no threat whatsoever.
Elvia’s will likely suffused it.
I could clearly feel her concern that I might get hurt.
Perhaps because of that, Nature, too, calmly flew over and settled onto my shoulder.
“Thank you. Melting the iron will take a while, so please keep this sealed in well.”
Now it was time to begin the long-awaited iron-melting work.
Lion placed the well-refined iron onto the crucible furnace.
Nature’s power could have melted the iron faster, but Nature was currently tasked with preventing this black smoke from leaking outside.
Which meant…
“It’s been a while. I’m counting on you.”
[Lesser Fire Spirit joyfully agrees to your request.]
[Lesser Fire Spirit nervously glances at the Ancient-class Spirit.]
“Huh?”
Lion smoothly glanced at Nature, perched on his shoulder.
Could the reason she had deliberately sat there be…
…Jealousy? Surely not.
“Peep!”
Perhaps reading Lion’s thoughts, Nature yanked at his hair wildly with its beak.
“Ha ha ha.”
Lion kept laughing even as strands of hair were pulled out.
I mean, an Ancient-class Spirit being jealous of a lesser spirit was just too funny.
“Hey. Of course there’s only you.”
“Hmph.”
First a tch, now a “hmph.”
Undeterred, Lion tilted his head toward where Nature sat and selfishly rubbed his face against its soft down.
This naturally cost him a few more strands of hair, but a reaction like this counted as a reward in his book.
Still, teasing her further would definitely make her truly sulk, so he should soothe her a little.
“If you did everything, you’d tire out too much, so I asked this one for help. If your egg happened to wake and you were asleep, that’d be a bit awkward, wouldn’t it? Right?”
“…Peep!”
[Your companion spirit ‘Nature’ demands a ‘super delicious treat’!]
She seemed willing to let it slide, fortunately.
“Yeah, yeah. When we get back, I’ll whip up something or other.”
“Peep.”
Still apparently displeased with the situation, Nature looked toward the lesser fire spirit, spread its wings wide in a threat display, then fluttered off somewhere else.
‘Honestly.’
Adorable.
[Lesser Fire Spirit’s discipline has been drastically tightened.]
Anyway, thanks to Nature the lesser spirit had fully snapped to attention, so later I really would have to make that truly delicious treat.
Imagining what kind of snack might be good, Lion placed the iron onto the crucible furnace and settled in for the wait.
‘How long will it take?’
Normally, fully melting steel required a good six hours at least.
And what I was trying to melt now was Snow Mountain Iron, even tougher than steel, so I’d been a little worried.
Still, with the help of a lesser spirit here, I thought it might be somewhat faster…
“Oh?”
Quicker than I’d imagined… no, at a visibly rapid pace, the Snow Mountain Iron melted!
‘Come to think of it.’
Hadn’t it been quite some time since this Snow Mountain Iron was first brought here?
In the interim, the lesser spirit seemed to have learned just how to melt metal faster.
And so, right before sunrise, in the deepest dark,
instead of in the sky, a blazing scarlet sun rose at Lion’s fingertips.
[Molten Snow Mountain Iron (★★★)]
-Flawless heat control has gently melted the solid Snow Mountain Iron.
-Clean, with not a trace of slag.
-Whatever you make from this will yield a higher grade than ordinary iron!
[Usage- Smithing]
[☞Click to view recipe.]
[Blacksmithing Proficiency has reached Apprentice Lv.4.]
The Snow Mountain Iron had melted all the way, far faster than expected.
And at the same moment.
Shwooo—
The black smoke that had blanketed the floor up to his knees surged upward and engulfed the small sun.
An eclipse descended in an instant.