After dinner, Jin once more went to the place where the debris was stored.
When he told the manager he had separated the materials to their constituent parts, the manager was astonished and with great haste went apparently to tell it to their superiors, as soon the Minister of Magic Kelhidore and another important-looking noble came.
“Oh, you must be Jin-dono. I heard from the one who’s in charge of this place that you separated these?”
The noble whose name Jin didn’t know said to him. The noble looked about 40 years old, his hair was thinning and in a swept-back style, he was a skinny and a tall person. He faced Jin and,
“I am this country’s Minister of Domestic Affairs, my name is William.”
He introduced himself.
“Hm, alright. I have to first explain to minister Kelhidore something about this matter.”
“What is it?”
Jin then took the Elradrite out of his pocket,
“This is the Elradrite I picked up from Dominique. To tell you the truth, I was just helped by this thing with the whole separating incident.”
Thereupon the two’s slightly frowning faces right away returned to normal.
“I see, so this stunt was carried out with Craft Magic amplified with an Elradrite.”
It looked like they misunderstood the meaning of Jin’s words quite well.
“So, I’ll return this.”
Jin said and handed the Elradrite over to Kelhidore.
“Hmm, I’ll certainly have it. It’s a little late, but looking at this mountain of separated materials I don’t see a problem, do you, Minister?”
“Not at all. Instead of wasting the materials they can be recycled. With this the Minister of Finances should be happy too. Jin-dono, you were after some materials, right?”
The Minister of Internal Affairs asked about Jin’s motive. Jin honestly told the minister that he needed Mithril and a bit of some other materials.
“Hmm, if that’s the case then take anything you need from here. Because after this, I’ll have the materials carried out.”
The minister gave his permission so Jin went to gathering the materials with high spirits.
Mithril. Enough to make the dagger and the brooch.
Some aluminum, copper, zinc, and tin.
Splinters of variously colored Magi Crystals.
If a Magi Crystal broke into pieces it became worthless. Because even if repaired using the Craft Magic [Fusion] it wouldn’t produce any Magic Energy.
You can think of them as magnets. Magnets have north pole and a south pole, and opposites attract each other.
Magi Crystals also emit lines of Magic Energy much like lines of magnetic force, but the crystals don’t emit a lot of Magic Energy in itself. That’s why if you gather a lot of pieces of broken Magi Crystals, the orientation of the lines of Magic Energy become random and they interfere with and cancel each other out, and the resulting Magic Energy output becomes weak.
(This doesn’t happen with magnets).
“Hmm, are you fine with just that? If there’s anything more you need please tell me. His Highness Prince Ernest also told me to accommodate for your wishes, you see.”
“Eh. His Highness did?”
Seems he was pleased with Lotte’s matter.
“Thank you very much. But this much should be enough.”
“Is that so. Then I’ll have the remaining materials carried out.”
“Alright, thank you very much.”
Jin gave his thanks and left the scene. The materials were heavy, but when he had gone out of sight of the two ministers he had Reiko dispel her [Stealth] and take over for Jin in carrying them.
“Alright then.”
After piling up the materials in his own room, when he was about to finally begin manufacture, there was a knock on the door.
“Yes, who is it?”
Instead of Jin, Reiko went to open the door and,
“Good evening, is Jin-kun around?”
It was Stearina.
“Ah, Stearina-san.”
Jin also got up and greeted her.
“Is now a good time?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Well then, I’ll take a bit of your time.”
After getting his permission Stearina stepped in the room.
No one saw the person watching this all…No, except for Reiko, no one noticed. And Reiko judged it wasn’t particularly worthy of reporting about.
If she reported every little thing every day to Jin, she’d just be a bother to him. Therefore, there was no reason she should report about his friend Elsa being on the other side of the hallway.
Even with Elsa there, as Jin had things to do he’d surely just go back to his room. Reiko came to that conclusion.
＊ ＊ ＊
“That’s…Stearina, san?”
Elsa had something she wanted to ask Jin about, so she went to the hallway so as to visit Jin, but precisely then she happened to see Stearina enter Jin’s room.
“Jin, kun. …And Stearina-san?”
Having been beaten to it, although Elsa went back to her room for a moment, she felt vague sadness in her chest so she again went out to the hallway.
She then snuck up to Jin’s room without making a sound, and,
(I, shouldn’t be, doing, this, but…)
After settling her inner conflict she tried pressing her ear against the door.
“…Oh my, I didn’t think it to be your first time doing this.”
“Please don’t flatter me.”
“It’s not flattery. You’re really amazing, Jin-kun. You’ve beat me.”
“…!”
Elsa reflexively stepped back.
(What, was that conversation?)
Then once again, she nervously brought her ear near the door.
“Amazing, having it get this hard, I’ve never done something like this either.”
“It’s different from usual?”
“Jin-kun, you’re just as good as I anticipated. No matter which girl it is, they’ll be pleased with this.”
“Haha, wouldn’t that be nice.”
“I can guarantee it.”
Somehow Elsa couldn’t listen any longer.
Elsa left from there as if running away, returned to her room, and threw herself down on top of the bed.
“Young lady? Is something wrong?”
Mine asked worriedly, but Elsa didn’t answer and just lay there face-down.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Usually, you can’t get Mithril this hard though?”
Stearina seemed surprised and said to Jin.
“Ah, it’s because I mixed a little bit of copper to it.
He replied.
“Eh? Really?”
“Yeah. Mixing a bit of copper to the metal makes it harder.”
If the so-called 925 Sterling Silver was heated to about 500 degrees Celsius, then kept at 250 degrees for a while to harden it, then left to cool on its own and it would become even harder. In addition, it becomes harder to tarnish than pure silver.
Jin knew this as he had learned the basics of metals’ properties in his rookie training, but it seemed it wasn’t yet known in this world. Or rather, even if alloys were made, it looked like the mixtrue’s ratios weren’t closely controlled.
“And then you apply [Hardening], and [Surface Treatment]. That’s, how should I say this, rather amazing.”
The finished dagger was shining with a silver color, its length about 40 centimeters. It was thin and light. Furthermore, as Jin went through the finishing touches with all of his effort, it was in every aspect stronger than a steel sword.
“But this shape, size, and lightness. It seems easy to use even for a girl. ”
“If that’s so, then good. Next is the scabbard and the grip.”
Jin said, took some aluminium and used [Forming].
He made it a precise fit for the size of the blade, shaped it, and finally set the Magi Crystal fragments into the scabbard.
On the grip he made subtle carvings to prevent slipping, and at the tip of the grip he also inlaid Magi Crystals.
“Now it’s complete.”
The beautiful dagger was complete. The scabbard was aluminum, its color a subdued gold studded with tiny Magi Crystals. Pulling it out a clear silver-colored blade made its appearance.
“You couldn’t buy a thing like this for even a million Torr, huh.”
Stearina commented.