Artifact Repair
Artifact Repair
Visiting the place where the ball had been held while wearing the same clothes gave me a rather strange feeling.
But after my leisurely walk, I found that the mansion was no longer as brilliantly decorated as it had been during the ball.
Instead, the massive, unadorned estate gave off an imposing, intimidating aura.
There weren't many people waiting outside the house, either.
Only the old noble who had spoken with the Princess during the ball stood outside, waiting for me alone.
"Welcome to the residence of Grand Prince Julian de Carlos."
He bowed politely to me.
The residence of the Grand Prince. Every word of his greeting felt incredibly heavy.
He had welcomed me in his capacity as a butler, but I couldn't comfortably accept a greeting from someone who held a noble title.
"Thank you for inviting me. I am Alex."
I bowed to him as though he were the master of the house, but he politely stepped aside to avoid my bow.
"There is no need to show me such excessive courtesy. The Grand Archduchess is waiting."
As expected, there was no way to outdo a noble armed with perfect etiquette.
I followed his lead and stepped inside the mansion.
The massive estate was kept spotlessly clean, even when no ball was being held.
Before, I hadn't given much thought to what it took to keep such a huge house so clean.
But now that I had visited the Duchy and met the Grand Prince in person, I couldn't help seeing things differently.
The Grand Prince likely intended to return to this house.
No—not this house, but the royal palace next door.
And keeping this mansion in such pristine condition was probably a way of preserving that resolve.
Thinking of it that way, I saw the old noble guarding the mansion alone in a new light.
If my guess was right, the old noble before me was no ordinary butler.
A moment later, the far-from-ordinary butler spoke to me.
"I heard you had an audience with the Grand Prince in person."
To think he even knew I had met the Grand Prince—he really was no ordinary butler.
"Yes, I met him briefly before returning."
"I see."
At my reply, he stopped and turned to face me.
I thought he had something to say, but it seemed we had already arrived at the room where the Princess was staying.
He stepped back and knocked on the door.
"It is Alex."
A maid opened the door from inside, and he bowed to me once more.
"Please take good care of the Princess."
It was a farewell loaded with multiple meanings.
Everything about his actions and words so far felt truly noble.
Faced with a noble's greeting for the first time in a while, I raised my hand in response.
Since he wasn't asking me to take care of the Grand Prince, I could respond to his greeting wholeheartedly.
Inside the drawing room, the Grand Archduchess sat waiting for me on a sofa.
Various refreshments and tea had been beautifully arranged on the table in front of it.
Even at a glance, it was obvious how much care had gone into the tea and refreshments.
The maids standing in a line against the wall had flushed faces and were sweating, as though they had been rushing around until just moments ago.
'Indeed, this is what proper preparation looks like.'
I had never seen this from my mother, who wasn't a noble, and even the Duchesses who disliked me had never prepared like this when they met me.
Come to think of it, I don't think the Princess, Miss Balea, or Katrin had ever prepared like this when meeting me either...
As that thought crossed my mind, I felt a little depressed.
Had I simply not met any normal women all this time?
'No, they must have just felt comfortable around me. That's definitely why.'
"Welcome. If you aren't in a hurry, please sit down and enjoy some refreshments with me for a moment."
I cleared my mind of stray thoughts and accepted her invitation.
"Thank you for inviting me."
Perhaps I had spent too long around people I felt comfortable with. The etiquette I had studied so hard didn't come easily to my tongue.
I felt like I needed to tense up a little more.
Fortunately, however, the Grand Archduchess wasn't a particularly rigid person.
Seeing my stiff expression as I replied, she waved her hand to dismiss the maids.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. I will call for you later, so please leave us for a moment."
At the Grand Archduchess's instruction, an elderly maid stepped forward.
"But leaving the two of you alone with an unrelated man is..."
An elderly maid objecting to the Grand Archduchess's words. She was likely the Head Maid who had watched over her for a long time.
Even in a duchy, a Head Maid who cared for the Grand Prince's daughter would likely hold a noble title.
Technically speaking, she might even outrank me.
"It's all right. He is someone my father has met in person. And surely, you don't distrust me, do you?"
The Grand Archduchess slightly raised one arm to show the Head Maid.
A ring and a bracelet glittered on her arm.
'They must all be artifacts.'
The Grand Archduchess's words also carried multiple layers of meaning, and fortunately, the Head Maid relented this time.
At the Head Maid's gesture, the maids filed out of the room.
"She is the one who took care of me when I was sick. Since my mother passed away, I have looked up to her as a mother, too."
The Grand Archduchess explained who she was on the Head Maid's behalf.
The Head Maid's earlier objection hadn't been about status; it had come from genuine concern for the Grand Archduchess.
"It must have been hard on you, right? Forcing royal palace etiquette on someone training to be a knight is a terrible thing to do. I used to ignore it a lot, too, using my illness as an excuse."
Ugh. I thought I had done a decent job, but I guess my shortcomings were obvious to someone who had been properly raised.
"We would have had to dismiss everyone before long anyway."
The Grand Archduchess said this as she offered the refreshments once more.
"Still, we prepared all this with great care, so you must enjoy it."
As she offered me the refreshments, the Grand Archduchess asked various questions about the Academy.
Since she would also be attending in a few days, she seemed to have a lot to ask.
"I'm a guy, and I'm in the Knight Faculty, so things might be quite different for you."
She didn't mind what I said.
"It's always better to hear from different people. I've asked the Princess a lot of questions, and I've also heard many things from Miss Balea. I'm truly glad Miss Balea is in the Inherited Ability Faculty."
As expected of Balea. It seemed she had already wrapped the Grand Archduchess around her finger.
I had to talk about the Academy for quite a while.
The Grand Archduchess listened intently, even though I was a male student in the Knight Faculty and a loner.
As we talked, I couldn't help bringing up the things I had experienced during the first semester.
I could only tell her what was common knowledge, but even that was enough to make her eyes change.
Nodding to herself, the Grand Archduchess asked me another question.
"But how did you become so strong? Is it perhaps because of that artifact?"
She was referring to the dagger she had seen that day.
That dagger had certainly helped.
When I gave a vague nod, the Grand Archduchess continued.
"Our conversation has gone on longer than expected. It would be troublesome if you stayed too late, so since we've brought it up, let me take a look at your artifact."
Finally, we'd reached the main point.
While I didn't mind talking with the Grand Archduchess, the reason I had come here was her inherited ability.
"First, please make me a promise before I look at the artifact."
The Grand Archduchess looked at me and spoke in a serious tone.
"My inherited ability—the power to repair broken artifacts—is a secret known only to my father and my brother."
Considering what had happened in the Duchy, I suspected there were others who knew, but I nodded without hesitation at her words.
"You have no idea how much I regretted letting it slip after seeing your dagger, Young Lord. But once the words were out, I couldn't take them back..."
For a princess of a nation to take back her own words was unthinkable.
"In return, please promise me you'll keep this secret."
She asked me to swear an oath.
"You must keep it secret from your family, and even from the Princess. Can you swear on your honor?"
It wasn't an oath sworn in a temple, just a verbal one.
To a 'bastard' like me, honor wasn't anything grand, and this oath wasn't particularly valuable to me.
But that didn't mean I wouldn't keep it.
So, instead of my honor, I staked something else.
"I will guard this secret with my life."
It was something cheaper and more commonplace than what others might offer, but to me, it held a different kind of value.
Though she didn't know what I was thinking, the Grand Archduchess seemed satisfied with my oath.
"But in that case, didn't you tell the Academy about your ability either?"
"I told them it was an ability to analyze artifacts. It's included in my actual ability, so it's not a lie, and I've heard there are people who possess only that specific power."
A certain person who possessed only that ability came to mind.
Although he used it far too well to be described as having 'only that ability,' hearing the Grand Archduchess's words made me feel a bit sorry for him.
Our idle chatter quickly came to an end, and we immediately began the preparations.
"Just a moment."
The Grand Archduchess cleared the refreshments from the table. It seemed we'd talked much longer than expected; the tea and snacks were almost completely gone.
Once the table was clear, the Grand Archduchess held out her hands.
"You can place it right here."
"It seems to require a lot of preparation."
"If it were an ordinary artifact, I could do it on the spot. But the dagger you had, Young Lord, was no ordinary artifact. It didn't seem easy, even with my ability. I'll probably suffer for a few days after fixing it."
At her words, I fell into thought once more.
Repairing the artifact seemed more difficult than I had anticipated.
Right now, I had an artifact that needed repair even more than the dagger.
It seemed I had to make my move here.
"I'd also like you to keep the artifact I possess a secret, Your Grace."
"Don't worry. It's only natural for an artifact repairer to keep the owner's secrets. I intended to keep it a secret from the start. I won't tell my father or anyone else."
When I said that, the Grand Archduchess answered immediately.
"Ah, and please call me by my name instead of Grand Archduchess. My name is Frida."
"Yes, Grand Archduchess Frida."
I said her name immediately, as she had asked. Having done this with the Princess before, it came easily.
Since she had promised to keep it a secret anyway, I pulled out the artifact I'd kept in my pocket.
"How did you fit something so large in your chest pocket? Is it an artifact bag?"
As I pulled out the orb, the Grand Archduchess immediately noticed the artifact pouch.
"But that doesn't look like a dagger..."
She also realized that I hadn't pulled out the dagger.
I placed the orb on the table.
"Oh my god... My goodness..."
The Grand Archduchess's jaw dropped when she saw the orb I'd produced.
It seemed she could tell at a glance just how incredible an artifact it was.
"To think an artifact in this state is still alive."
Ah, so that wasn't the reason...
After examining the artifact for a long while, the Grand Archduchess glared at me.
"It's so damaged that it's hard to even figure out what it's used for. Are you asking me to fix this?"
Well, yes, but...
The Grand Archduchess radiated an aura so intense that I felt like I was about to get scolded.
As I sat there with an awkward expression, the Grand Archduchess let out a sigh.
"I'm sorry, but it's impossible. My skills are lacking. If my late mother were here, she might have been able to do it... but I'm not at that level yet."
It wasn't because the artifact was too grand, but simply because it was too broken for her to handle.
I suppose that was a relief in its own way. It meant there was still a chance.
Before it broke completely, all that was needed was for the Grand Archduchess's skills to improve enough to repair the orb.
"Grand Archduchess—no, Grand Archduchess Frida, how does your ability grow?"
When I asked hurriedly, the Grand Archduchess answered reflexively.
"By handling many artifacts, repairing them often, and growing my mana... Wait, why are you suddenly asking that?"
But before she could even finish her sentence, she glared at me once more.
It seemed this was as far as I could push it.
The Grand Archduchess held out her hand to me.
"Stop showing me artifacts like this and hurry up and show me the dagger."
I handed her the dagger instead of the orb.
That day, accompanied by a brilliant light, the Grand Archduchess succeeded in repairing one artifact.
The Grand Archduchess ended up bedridden for several days due to mana depletion, and I came to see the vision of the dagger, which had finally regained its voice.
A vision of a firebird flapping its wings filled my sight.
[I am the Hero's weapon.]
[Are you my new master?!]