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Published at 5th of March 2021 11:02:36 AM


Chapter 122

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Author: Ash Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2498 characters
Translator: Mii English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 1118 words

 

The sounds of striking irons echoed in the blacksmith.

Several small furnaces were lined up by the wall of the long rectangular room. Young blacksmiths were swinging their mallets down in front of each of them.

I was watching them without doing anything.

Anyway, I was spending my energy to supervise these chicks. But I was freer than I expected.

From the day after I accepted the task to supervise Ed and other apprentices, I started watching them work every three days, but I didn’t have much to do. Ah, I did it once every three days since I naturally had to train‌.

I could give them advice, you say? But talking too much when they were working would break their concentration, so that’s a bit… But then, only looking at them was pretty boring. How troublesome.

However, I wasn’t just looking at them. When I was bothered by something, I would tell them properly. Ah, that apprentice over there is…?

“Hey, you’re hitting it a bit too much. You must forge it later on to balance the shape, so it’s okay to make it a little thicker now.”
“Ah, yes! Thank you very much!”

Well, it’s something like this.

“Teacher, what should I do about this?”
“Please do as you like.”
“…Yes.”

Ed also called me out, but I cut him down completely. My reply depressed Ed, but I could only answer him like this.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I was bullying him. I was giving him supplementary lessons; you know? Plus, I was watching him. Telling him exactly what he should do would be bad, too.

“You’re the only one who knows the image of the sword you want to make. Even if there’s only a little progress, there’s no choice but to forge as many swords as possible to get closer to your perfect image.”
“Ah… Yes! I’ll do my best!”

I was responding to Ed and the apprentices differently, but well… they had differences in the level of their blacksmithing skills. I wasn’t just discriminating against Ed because I didn’t like him.

The two apprentice boys were around the same age as me, but they literally just started swinging their mallets and didn’t have enough skills yet. So there’s no way they could forge the sword they want.

What they were forging right now was a dagger. For the time being, their products met the standards of this workshop. Master instructed them to practically touch what the veteran of this workshop forged as a sample. Then they had to make the same thing. Well, it would be hard for them to ‌make something with this kind of quality during this winter, but they might ‌put up something at the show if they worked hard. That’s why the two apprentices were fully motivated.

There’s also a novice boy I was currently entrusted to assist, who was a couple years older than me. He was practicing to forge a sample sword in the workshop.

A sample sword was the sword used for the basis when receiving forging requests in workshops and schools. Based on that, the blacksmith would change the weight, the length, the balance of the center of gravity as the customer ordered.

I also made it before, but I didn’t have many chances to use it.

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Apprentices were basically in charge of blacksmithing-related chores. They carried the steel materials or prepared the coke1 for the furnace. The shop boys did chores that weren’t related to blacksmithing. They were also in charge of watching the store.

Novices often assisted the actual blacksmithing work, such as wiping sweat, preparing drinks, preparing water to cool the sword that had been hardened for tempering, and a lot more things. Anyway, quenching was… let’s omit it for now. Forging a sword sure was complicated.

After a novice could forge a sample sword, they would be treated as an independent person at this workshop. That’s when they started forging a few swords.

Then there’s Ed.

Ed could forge the sample sword in the workshop with no problem, so he was treated as an independent man. However, Master told me ‌he couldn’t accept forging requests since he had a strange habit.

Originally, the blacksmiths in this workshop could start making weapons for forging requests after they became a veteran that had gained some experience. But Ed was Master’s son. He also had talent, so he could accept the request in advance. And he also had the skill to make a proper weapon when he officially became an independent man.

But well… he got ahead of himself because of the difference in treatment with his brother and got a strange habit… Of course Master wouldn’t let him work anymore. His older brother Al started taking forging requests two years after becoming an independent man.

After I mercilessly straightened Ed, he devoted himself to train more seriously than before. I could see that Master hoped that Ed would get a good result at the New Year’s show.

I also heard that Master Arnold wanted to outwit the person in charge of the other workshop diagonally opposite ours. He had a bad relationship with them, and the other workshop’s Master’s heir would also present their work in the show later on, so…

Wait, shouldn’t Master watch Ed on his own? I thought so, but it seems like he couldn’t refuse the request he was working on right now since it came from a fairly influential person. Master gave me a vague explanation, but since this probably involved Vector, it might be related to the royal family.

That being said, Ed and the son of the workshop diagonally opposite ours were not on good terms. In addition, Al also didn’t get along with them. Al told me that if he had free time to compete with them, he would ‌do it to defeat them, or something like that? For me, I think Al was more correct as a craftsman.

No, Master Arnold had the same idea as Al, but he was poking his head at every occasion, and Al naturally got pretty upset about it. I can relate to him a lot.

Ah, I strayed from the subject.

Honestly, I had nothing to teach Ed. In the first place, there was the orthodox way to forge weapons, so teaching how I did it might make him stray from the teaching in this workshop.

Even if he might eventually work on his own, I believe he should still follow the way of this workshop until it ‌happens. I feel bad for Ed, but I basically only looked at him. I wouldn’t touch anything unless he did something that would make an awful result.

 

References

Silva: No, not coca cola! Coke is a fuel converted from coal and is used in a blast furnace.
Robinxen: You can also get petroleum coke. Coke is very useful for heat but it’s awfully bad to burn for the environement.
Author: Ash Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2797 characters
Translator: Mii English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 1310 words

 

On the other hand, the apprentices hadn’t even mastered the basics yet, so I literally could only teach them the foundation. But I didn’t interfere much. I think it’s better to let them work hard while facing problems so they could think for themselves. But if there’s anything they didn’t understand or if they had ‌questions, I would answer it properly. I also praised them if they did well. After all, I’m the type of person who improved with praises.

For the novice… Honestly, I had nothing else to do but to watch him. All he did was just forging the same sample sword repeatedly. But that didn’t mean I was ditching him.

He should be able to forge something else too for a change, right? Then I could ‌monitor him properly.

When I tried recommending that to him, he forged a different sword he had in his mind. Then his precision when he forged a sample sword after that increased at once. I guess he learned something when he made that sword.

Later, I secretly checked his skill with [Appraisal]. His [Blacksmith] level remained the same, but his [Metalworking] level had risen. That means his understanding of handling metal had deepened, I guess? Hmm.

Eh? I was supervising them better than I thought, even if I was unmotivated? Well, I already took the task, so I would do it properly, okay? Motivation and job were two different things altogether!

With that feeling, I spent the end of the year supervising them every two days. On the last day of this year, I secretly stayed up late to make and eat soba, celebrating the New Year’s Eve.

Ah… This is it. Japanese custom!

I couldn’t find buckwheat flour since I stayed deep in the forest last year. But since the memory of my previous life had returned, I would like to get a hold of it soon.

By the way, I didn’t invite anyone to the workshop. Sorry.

And the workshop didn’t operate on the first day of New Year, so I spent that entire day sleeping.

First shrine visit? This world also had the custom to go to the church and pray for the first time to celebrate the year, but I didn’t go since I wasn’t that religious. In the first place, I didn’t have any plans to go.

Yeah, that’s the plan, but Triela and the others came on the second day of New Year and forcibly took me away. It’s cold, and it’s going to snow, so could they leave me alone? No? …Seems like they wouldn’t let me go, so I gave up and followed them.

Ah, don’t worry since Norn and Bell were also with me. And as usual, the way I behaved to boys and girls were different.

By the way, the state religion of this country was the God of Wind, making our destination the temple of the God of Wind… Not really. We’re going to a church in another place. Most people also prayed in the square in front of the temple during New Year, but I wanted to try praying in the church.

The chapel of the church was surprisingly empty, as everyone else went to the temple. Nobles used the chapel of the temple, so commoners couldn’t enter it. F̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g privilege!

After praying in the church’s chapel, we received the vegetable soup prepared in the square in front of the church. We ate them before going home and talked about what we were doing these days.

Triela and the others ‌earned small money by doing chores in the town. They were mainly scraping snow.

They used a lot of preserved food on our way home from O’Neill, so they were worried that the winter food they had prepared might not be enough. Yet in reality, they had considerable savings thanks to the sale of the orc.

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That being said, buying food in the middle of winter was expensive. The profit from the sale of the orc was enough for them to spend this winter with no problems, but having more money wouldn’t hurt. That’s why they were devoting their time to earn some pocket money.

Also, Triela and Rico trained their magic skills by practicing magic circulations. Only both of them could supply magic power to the hot water supply magic tool, so they seemed to have it rough.

Since I advised them to take a bath every day to avoid hygiene problems, they had been trying to follow my words to their utmost effort. Being careless about hygiene during winter was especially bad. They would easily catch a cold, plus the recovery would take longer than usual. It’s better to keep the environment clean so they wouldn’t catch a cold in the first place. Getting sick would cost them a lot of money.

Regarding the water heater, I thought ‌I might have to teach magic to the boys. But they apparently had done a lot of things. Triela and Rico also had the intention to teach them.

However, Cain and Maricle were planning to take goblins’ subjugation requests starting from the beginning of the year, so all the boys had been practicing in the mornings and evenings every day.

Hmm, I didn’t know if this was good or bad.

Hunting one goblin would generate more income than a day’s chores done by eight people. This was ‌better in terms of income.

However, only Cain and Maricle could take subjugation requests. It’s scary to think about how they might get injured. And it would cost money, too.

However, Maricle had mastered the shield. His skill was exceptional considering his age. Thanks to the equipment I made for him, it’s unlikely that he would get any fatal injuries.

In that case, the problem was Cain. But even if his equipment was inferior, Cain was a genius when it comes to using his body.

Triela told me ‌he was getting stronger at an amazing speed in his daily practice. Also, he sometimes went to the inn where Neil was staying and trained there… Since Neil had returned to the capital, that means Vector also had returned as well… Did the demon cleaning-up operation go well? …Oh well. It didn’t concern the orphanage, so I didn’t care.

…That’s that. But did Vector also get involved with Cain and the others?

Well, it’s up to him to decide if he wanted to take these kids to his team… I didn’t want them to get involved with him too much, but they would get more opportunities by sticking with Vector. Hmm…

No, no. Cain, Maricle, and Triela were the ones who decided on the party. Maricle and Triela would definitely not agree if they didn’t think it was safe. Cain also was able to think a bit after receiving Maricle’s preaching on our way home… right?

Kuro was wrapped in a blanket and curled up in the bed since she disliked the cold. She also put a board on the bathtub and rolled up on top of it. Is she a cat!? …Well, she is.

Arle studied cooking when she had time. Boman joined her after he finished practicing. That being said, he didn’t waste any food materials, so there was no problem. Should I go ‌look next time?

How about me, you ask? I didn’t really have anything to say… I hadn’t stepped out of the workshop until today, and I didn’t really have to tell them about supervising the apprentices, right?

We talked about those things and dispersed before noon.

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Hmm, let’s go home quickly and eat something… The stock offered by the soup kitchen wasn’t enough at all. There were no food stalls during New Year holidays, so I couldn’t take a tour of eating too.

In the midst of the light snow, I returned to the workshop in quick steps.





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