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Chapter 21: - The Blacksmith’s Song Shakes the Ears and the Old Man’s Head Glows
The first half will be from Tia’s point of view.
The sound of thump, thump, thump echoed through the air. The strong, high-pitched sound made my ears clench at first, but now that they were used to it, it tickled my ears like joyful music.
Strong, weak, high, low. Each one echoed through the world like the sound of a baby’s birth, then quickly melted away. I enjoyed listening to the music with fascination.
Clang, clang, clang. It was a human boy, much younger than me, who played it single-mindedly. He fought evenly with the hero Alexis, had strange tools that even I have never seen or heard of, and he was now absorbed in blacksmithing.
How in the world could someone who had lived only 20 years have such skill and tools? Mysterious, mysterious, very mysterious. No matter how much I stared at him, I could not stop being intrigued, and I kept staring at the boy.
Ting, ting, ting. When the boy saw me for the first time, for some reason he suddenly started crying. When I first saw this boy, for some reason, I felt a sense of nostalgia that made my heart tighten. (T/N: Awww)
I don’t know, but I don’t hate him. He always surprised me, amused me, and made me laugh. So, just being with him like this warmed my heart. My heart was dancing to the sound of hammering.
Clang, clang, clang. I danced to it. My father back home once laughed at me and said, “Your ears are more eloquent than your mouth,” but I found it useful in times like these. If I swayed gently to the sound, I could dance happily even while sitting down.
Clang, clang, clang. I wonder how much this young boy would surprise me this time. Hiding my mouth, which was about to curl up, I waited patiently for the right moment.
Clang, clang, clang. Like the sound of bells announcing happiness. As if to awaken a slumbering child.
Tap, tap, tap
Tap, tap, tap
Come, child of steel. The mischievous child filled with Edo-chi’s feelings would be unveiled 
 soon.
★★★★★
“Fuuuuuuuuuu 
”
I let out one deep breath and finally relaxed my shoulders. It was the morning of the sixth day in the workshop. I finally finished forging all my weapons. Since today was the last day I could rent this place, I could say that I was just in time.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah, I am.”
I felt energy draining out of my body. I grinned and answered Tia’s voice, who had been watching me the whole time.
“I mean, I didn’t think you’d seriously be watching this all the time. 

 What was so fun about it?
“It’s hard to put into words what, but at least I wasn’t bored, right? For me, it probably went by rather quickly.”
“Yeah. 
?”
Except for when I was eating and sleeping, the rest of the time I was just hammering away, you know? I really couldn’t understand the sense of time of 
 long-lived species that six days like that went by so fast. Maybe it was like spending the day just staring out the window on a rainy day. 
 I think I understood a little bit of what she meant.
“So, Ed. What have you made?”
“What do you mean? You’ve been watching me, so you know what I did, don’t you?”
“Hmmm. I only saw you, Ed. I didn’t watch what you were making, okay? Because if I saw it, I wouldn’t be surprised when I came face to face with the finished product.”
“Ehhh 
???”
I could understand if you were watching the mithril change shape over time, but what was really fun about 
 watching me, especially if nothing had changed? If it were the other way around and I was staring at Tia the whole time 
 Huh? I may never get tired of it. No, but Tia was a beautiful girl, and I was like an average brother around here, you know? Ahh, I can’t figure it out.
“Well, in that case, let’s clean up here, and then we’ll go to Alexis and the others. After that, we’ll show them off.”
“Wow, that’s so exciting! I’ll help you clean up.”
“Oh!”
With the help of Tia’s excited hands, we quickly put away my tools. After making sure the furnace was properly cooled down, I closed the door and returned the key, and arrived at Alexis’s room again. Well, his room was the biggest and best room every time, and that was all that mattered.
“Hey, Ed. Did you make it? 
 Is that why you showed up at my doorstep?”
“Ahh. The best product is complete.”
I confidently noded to Alexis, who brushed back his fuzzy blonde hair. The first thing I did was to take out a pair of gauntlets with a dull, glossy color.
“First of all, this is for Gonzo
.-sama.”
“Mm-hmm? A gauntlet? It’s a very unusual shape. ..?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it useless as armor if your hands are exposed so much?”
“Hahaha. You’re right, Tia; but this is fine.” I reassured her.
While the Gauntlets worn by old man Gonzo usually covered from the wrist to near the elbow, The hand was almost invisible, the fingers were completely bare, and the only metal part was the back of the hand. This didn’t protect the fingers and disqualified it as an armor, but for 
 Old man Gonzo wearing this, it would be the best solution.
“Gonzo-sama’s fist is much sturdier than a piece of metal, so we cannot expect mithril to be effective in reinforcing it. So, this is an adjustment to maximize the power of his fist. Gonzo-sama, would you like to try it out and put some magic into it?”
“Like this? Ohhhhh!?”
When he poured magic power into the gauntlet according to my instructions, the dull-colored gauntlet glowed white, and his fist was enveloped in a pale light. The result was a combination of strength as an armament and strengthening by magic power by stretching pure mithril-like nerves through the well-forged steel.
Incidentally, this would not work with ordinary mithril. In order to achieve the same effect, the ratio of mithril would have to be greatly increased, making it more of an ornament than a piece of armor, which would have made it difficult for him to use.
“My fists are glowing!? Have my muscles finally reached the realm of glowing!!?”
“
 I don’t know that realm, but by efficiently converging the magic from the entire arm, you should be able to increase the power of your fist close to a double. Try it later.”
“What!!? All right, then, let’s go give it a try!”
“What!? No, later. 

”
Before I could stop him, old man Gonzo burst out of the room. He had a really big smile on his face and his head was shining, so there was no point in chasing him.
“
 Haa~. Don’t worry about Gonzo. So, Ed. That wasn’t the end, was it?” Alexis said.
""
“Oh, yes. Then, this is the next one.”
I then took out a thin rapier in a dazzling white scabbard. The scabbard was a practical item, so there were no glittering decorations, but the beauty of the material alone made it a gem that was more eye-catching than any work of art.
“A thin sword? Surprisingly, I thought you would use a regular sword.”
“What are you talking about? This is Tia’s. Here.”
“What?”
Tia was surprised for some reason, and I handed her the thin sword. However, Tia only stared at it in her hand and didn’t pull it out.
“Ah, Tia? Well, can you pull it out for me?”
“Ah!? Yes, of course. Well, excuse me. 







”
Tia unsheathed the thin sword without making even the slightest sound, even though it was not lubricated with oil. The blade has a quiet silver sheen, and Tia looked like a hero in a painting,
 if she hadn’t left her mouth open so dumbly.
“Beautiful 
.”
“Right? And of course, it ain’t just a thin sword, either. Try using some simple spirit magic?”
“Y, yeah
. wow!”
Perhaps she used chantless wind magic. The blade of the thin sword was enveloped in a pale green color, and the wind swirling around the blade was faintly visible

“What?!! What!? A lie!? For such weak magic, I can see the wind properly 
!?”
“Heh heh heh. How’s that?”
The overwhelming affinity with magic and the retention of magic power that resulted from the use of pure mithril as a material made it possible to use spirit magic, which fundamentally could only be used by flying, as if it were normal magic, to stay on the sword and use it for attacks.
“With a standard magic sword, you can only attack with the attribute it comes with. However, if you combine it with your spirit magic, you can attack with the attribute you need at that time. The sword itself is rather fragile, so be sure to have some kind of spirit magic, even if it is weak, in it before attacking. Also, don’t forget to put on a magic enchantment that increases durability when you stop at a suitable town before using the sword in earnest.”
“What!? Even if I don’t impart the enchantment of increased durability, it can still be used in this state!?”
“I designed it that way. As long as it is one of the known attributes, you can use it however you like”
The combination with spirit magic was only a sword’s ability, so it was a separate category from the enchantments to the sword itself. However, for this reason, the strength of the blade was quite low because it was built completely with mithril only. If it was to be used in actual battle, it would easily break or bend without either an increase in durability or the next best thing, an increase in sharpness.
As I explained these things, Tia, who had finished listening to me, carefully put it into its sheath.
“Thank you, Ed. I’ll take good care of this.”
“Ah.”
Tia hugged the thin sword as if she were holding a baby, and I smiled back at her with a sense of satisfaction that I had accomplished what I had set out to do.