Chapter 84

The next day, today’s visitors were only Rike and Ridi, while Sermia and Diana had gone to gather fruits and other things, saying, "There are elves, so..." It seems that even in this world, there’s a vague image of that sort. Ridi had been eating meat normally last night, but once an image is formed, it’s not so easy to shake off.

I thrust the misshapen lump of mithril-embedded sword into the forge to heat it. When the time was right, I took it out and hammered it. I felt it getting harder, little by little. On the other hand, it also felt more cohesive. The sparkling particles—magic power—seemed to be increasing little by little.

"Ridi."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Is the magic power increasing?"

"It is. As expected of Aizou, you’re very skilled at weaving magic power into the metal."

Ah, so this is it. I remember seeing similar particles when working with steel.

"I also feel it getting harder."

"That’s right. I’m glad I asked you to do this."

Ridi nodded in satisfaction, alone. There was no particular explanation. Ridi is the type who assumes that what they know, others know too. I had a colleague like that at the company I worked for in my previous world.

Anyway, if she’s not denying that it’s getting harder, perhaps mithril in this world gets harder when it contains magic power. But when I made the rapier, it didn’t happen...

For now, I’ll put that thought aside and focus on the idea that it gets harder when it contains magic power. I concentrated my cheat power and hammered carefully to ensure the forging went well.

Until now, I hadn’t been conscious of it, but it seems I was pouring magic power into it at this time. Each time I brought down the hammer, the sensation in my hand became slightly heavier. Since I needed to increase the force of my hammering accordingly, it was quite a heavy task.

I repeated the process several times. Each time, the sensation became heavier, but eventually, it stopped getting heavier. Perhaps I’ve reached the limit of "weaving in magic power." If so, that’s a relief. Any heavier and it would be too difficult to process.

In the end, it took until mid-afternoon to finish the forging. The subsequent work will be tough... We had a slightly late lunch together, and in the afternoon, we continued.

From here on, I need to put in some serious effort. I heated it in the forge and hammered it to stretch it. The process and content are the same as when working with steel, but the difficulty level is much higher. Just like when joining the fragments, maintaining the magic power while keeping the temperature suitable for processing and the areas where the hammer can be applied are very delicate, and re-heating is often necessary before much stretching can be done.

"This is more challenging than when I made the rapier."

I couldn’t help but complain.

"Even for a master?"

"Yes. It’s like being asked to run at full speed on a thin rope high up in the air."

I responded honestly to Rike’s words. If this is how it goes with mithril, I’m already dreading what will happen when Apoitakara comes.

I noticed Ridi looking worriedly at me. I can’t say things like this in front of the client; it’s a lack of professionalism as a craftsman.

"It will take time, but I’ll make sure to restore it properly."

I said to Ridi with as much of a smile as I could manage. Ridi’s expression visibly relaxed. Good, let’s keep going.

By the end of the day, I had only managed to stretch it by about a third. It was still far from the shape of a sword. I wonder if Rike learned anything from this. Since we’re going to the city tomorrow, it might be better for Rike to do the forging from the day after tomorrow until the sword is complete. While we’re at it, I’ll let the next trip be in two weeks. A bit of overcautious risk management seems just right. I still have plenty of living expenses, so there’s no need to rush.

Sermia and Diana returned from their gathering with a lot of berries similar to blueberries and leaves that smelled like peppermint. Before dinner, I put some firewine in a small bottle and soaked the well-washed blueberries in it. I’ll use some for the sauce tonight. The leaves that smelled like peppermint, when chewed after washing, had a stronger scent than peppermint from my previous world, but they were almost the same, so I’ll make a mint tea with these leaves tomorrow morning.

The sauce and the blueberries themselves were well-received by everyone, including Ridi. When I mentioned that we should all drink the firewine with the blueberries soon, everyone’s eyes lit up. In this regard, everyone, including Ridi, is a girl. Rike was practically jumping with excitement, but I’ll just ignore that for now. That’s the dwarf for you...

Tonight’s dinner was lively with talk about the village where Ridi is from. As she had mentioned before, they eat birds and deer normally. However, the village has a fairly large field, and the proportion of root vegetables and leafy vegetables is quite high. She firmly stated that there are no likes or dislikes when they leave the village.

Well, tomorrow is the day we go to the city. With the work starting the day after tomorrow, I need to keep going.