Unexpected Heat and a Stubborn Knight's Suggestion
“Huff! Huff!”
Having completed countless rigorous training sessions as knights, Winston and the Sealix Knights were no strangers to extreme conditions. They had endured far worse on the battlefield, so the blistering heat radiating from the massive blast furnace didn't daunt them in the slightest.
They were strapping on their plate armor piece by piece, yet the armor itself was surprisingly lightweight. Working here was nothing more than assisting the mages, so they figured it couldn't be too taxing.
The real problem, however, was something entirely different.
Plink, plink, plink.
The floor was soaked with sweat, puddles forming everywhere.
The knights carried refined iron ore on their shoulders, towels draped over them to wipe the perspiration.
“Th-this is really too much...”
“It’s like being boiled alive...”
“Even during training, I’ve never sweated this much.”
For the knights, the heat was the one thing they simply couldn’t endure. The sweat from actual combat training and the sweat from labor felt entirely different in value and sensation.
It was forced conscription.
They hadn’t expected to end up doing this, so one by one they grumbled, resentment growing.
“That’s why we signed the contract.”
As Dun, the young knight who enjoyed reading, muttered while hauling iron, the other knights’ eyes widened in shock.
‘Ah, damn it.’
‘We were supposed to roll it.’
‘She planned to exploit us from the start.’
The knight’s full resolve to extract every ounce from them hit like a hammer.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing over there?! Mana isn’t stabilizing at all?! If it wobbles, the iron will deform, you idiot!”
Even inside the deafening roar of the furnace, Lee Dam’s voice sliced through like a blade.
Just like the knights, Lee Dam was drenched in sweat. Wearing only a sleeveless top, her hidden curves were on full display—sweat trickling down, pooling in the deep valley of her chest, impossible to ignore.
“Ah, damn, it’s boiling hot.”
Every time she yanked her sleeve to wipe the sweat, her exposed belly button sent even the knights a jolt of excitement.
“When will this end?”
“I just want to go home.”
“I’m going to die. It’s so hot.”
The tower mages, however, showed no reaction whatsoever and simply kept working. The knights exchanged puzzled glances.
‘Mages at the tower don’t care about women?’
‘Are they all sex fiends?’
‘Or have they already been drained dry by that woman?’
While they debated, a group of brown-robed mages from the Earth Magic Tower entered the furnace.
“Good day. We’re from the Earth Magic Tower.”
“Huh?”
Lee Dam glanced over, eyes sparkling as she bounced toward them like a child.
The Earth Magic Tower’s mages flinched at her provocative appearance, but their calm emotional nature kept it from being obvious.
“Earth Magic Tower?”
“Another job? You summoning us again?”
“We just got milked dry by the Fire Tower last time—don’t drag it out like that.”
Ignoring the Iron mages’ grumbling behind them, Lee Dam marched out of the furnace.
The Tower Lords had already discussed this matter, and it would become a major perk for future blast furnace operations.
Lee Dam didn’t return to the furnace for a long while.
Were they playing outside? But voices occasionally drifted out from there, so probably not.
“Alright, lunch break. Let’s continue.”
It was lunchtime.
Theodore clapped his hands, halting all work.
The knights, still dripping sweat, headed outside the furnace.
Around the furnace, the Earth mages had gathered in a circle, digging a huge hole.
“Hm? What’s this?”
“Construction? What are you building?”
“Are you even building a blacksmith shop?”
While they chatted, Lee Dam peeked at the mages and smirked.
“Hey, get ready. I charmed the Tower Lord into letting me build an open-air bath here.”
An open-air bath?
The ridiculous idea left everyone stunned, but Lee Dam crossed her arms and nodded.
“After sweating like pigs here, we’ll bathe. Feels great, right?”
Soaking in warm water wasn’t a common practice in this era, so the knights felt no special thrill.
There were baths, but you didn’t need to wait for water—just wash in a stream or river, and that counted as bathing.
“Sigh, don’t start whining that you’ll be grateful later.”
Watching their half-hearted response, Lee Dam clicked her tongue. They were already lining up to enter the sauna early, dripping sweat and eager to go.
By harnessing the heat from the blast furnace, the tower had installed a sauna, and pipes carried hot water for a natural hot spring.
Lee Dam wanted to make the most of that furnace heat.
‘I should make a cold bath too.’
Without cooling equipment, they’d just use ice magic, but that would be enough.
She hated heat, sweated like crazy, and had an awkward body for wiping it away anyway.
The construction would take about three days.
That magic could do anything fast and easily was such a relief.
***
After lunch, Lee Dam and Winston had to return to the furnace.
But right now, with the knights left behind at the furnace, they were visiting another tower.
The Fire Magic Tower.
“Now we’re the Fire Tower. It’s really hot here. Feels warm, you know.”
“......”
Winston kept his helmet on without a word. He was wearing only a short-sleeve shirt from the heat inside the furnace, yet the armor helmet made him look like some grotesque monster.
As Lee Dam and Winston entered, a woman with copper skin approached—Sella.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sella. I’m the Tower Guardian here at the Fire Magic Tower.”
A Tower Guardian was on the same level as Theodore at the Iron Magic Tower.
Normally, even external visitors or apprentice mages from other towers didn’t receive such warm welcome.
Especially not the fiery Fire Tower, and especially not when the opponent was Lee Dam.
The Fire mages had already been tormented by her many times; the reputation was well known.
“Quick, let’s go.”
Lee Dam pumped her fist, bouncing on her toes like a kid, humming a tune.
“Understood. This way, please.”
As they headed to the research lab, Winston’s voice leaked from under his helmet.
“Tower Guardian, is this a protective detail?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I came for the Knight Armor. I wanted to hear your opinion too.”
“Oh, I see.”
Winston suddenly forgot why they were there. The only thing they’d done since arriving was haul labor, after all.
“So, you want my opinion?”
“Yeah, right now, what we’re going to see is—”
Lee Dam’s smile was so bright it could light up the whole tower.
That much excitement meant she was expecting something huge.
“A sword. A beam saber for the Knight Armor—!”
***
“Damn! Is this the best you can do?! It’s completely different from what I said!”
It took exactly seven minutes for Lee Dam’s bright smile to vanish.
As she shouted with frustration, Sella’s face darkened.
“B-but, isn’t this enough? What we wanted was a portable, easy-to-handle beam sword that can cut through anything.”
Sella held up a cylindrical device that fit neatly in one hand. Pouring mana into it caused a massive flame to erupt.
“You all messed up! Is this even a sword?! It’s just a fire torch! No beam! No sword! What the hell did you even make?!”
The Fire mages froze, mouths shut.
Their fellow Fire mages, who had been assisting, cautiously stepped back one pace.
They realized they were about to be scolded.
“Look! This! Hey, you said it was a sword—”
Lee Dam snatched the cylinder, poured mana, and a flame bloomed.
If it looked like a sword, sure, but—
“Isn’t this just a long-burning torch?!”
The moment Lee Dam said it, it really looked like nothing more than a fire torch.
“......”
It had looked perfect before the presentation.
The moment the demo started, it felt like a typo in the title.
Since Lee Dam’s words had been correct, the Fire mages had nothing left to say.
“I said we were going to link them together.”
Lee Dam drew a magic circle on her palm. She reached toward the wall, and a beam of white-hot heat shot out.
The ‘beam’ everyone knew.
Thanks to that, a hole was blasted through another tower’s wall, but Lee Dam didn’t care and kept yelling.
“This is a ranged weapon for the Knight Armor! Didn’t I clearly say I wanted it in sword form?! ”
“B-but, maintaining the form is too hard... and the length—”
“You said you would do it! We’re collaborating with your tower to put our name on the Knight Armor—don’t you think we should succeed?! The Iron Tower said they couldn’t make it at first! But with mages swapping in, you made it!”
“......”
“If you can’t, then we should have done it by swapping mages like us! Damn! Make it again right now!”
Shouting as if she were a master breaking pottery.
The Fire mages nodded.
They had promised to make a beam saber—sorry, blade—after all, so they had to.
The disappointment was huge, since the expectation had been so high.
No one seemed able to stop the raging, furious Lee Dam.
“Excuse me, Tower Guardian.”
Winston approached cautiously, helmet on.
He had been standing silently like a statue, so he looked like a dummy.
“What?”
The Fire mages shot him pleading looks, hoping he’d stop Lee Dam.
“I think I can do it.”
Surprisingly, Winston actually offered a solution.
“......What?”
Lee Dam tried to ask how a non-mage could possibly do it, but he gently took the cylinder, condensed the flame, and shaped it into a sword.
“......Eh?”
When Lee Dam gaped in disbelief at how a knight who couldn’t even handle mana properly could do this, Winston scratched the back of his head—only scratching his helmet.
“Using aura, I can do it.”
“Aura?”
Lee Dam blinked several times, eyes wide.
“Damn, could knights actually use aura?!”