「Ah, welcome back, prince!」
Dorothea, who seems to have been waiting for
them, is standing at the gate of the fort and waving her big gloved hands in
the air. Every time she bounces, her black ponytail swings nimbly.
「And everyone else, welcome back!"
Dorothea also greeted the rest of Alexis'
party.
「Now, could you please come to the workshop
as soon as possible? The equipment is eager to meet its new master!」
「Oh, yeah. But... can't we do it tomorrow?」
"After all, I'm tired from the
dungeon," Alexis thinks.
「No way, we're doing it now. Come on, come
on!」
Dorothea pulls his hand firmly, and he ends
up going.
**a
* * *
The workshop in the basement of the fort was
well lit even without torches, thanks to the fire in the furnace.
And there, in line with the wall of the workshop,
in front of the armory and the weapons shelf, Dorothea says, "Ta-da!".
She presents the weapons and armor of five
people, all of them shining with a dull blue-white shine.
Seeing it, the five people exclaim in
amazement, "Wow...", "It's magnificent", "Well
done", and so on..
To these people, Dorothea explains the
situation with her chest puffed out. Although it is not important, this posture
shows the smoothness of her chest.
「I stayed up all night and finished the five
of them perfectly. And I'm calling it the [Magic Crystal Series]. Well, it was
difficult to process, but the materials are light, strong, and highly
conductive to magic power, so it was worthwhile for me to make them」
Dorothea then began to explain about the
armor.
First was a lightweight chain mail to be
worn under the conjurer's robe and the healer's robe. The chain mail is a
masterpiece because it is as light as a cloth and has a high conductivity of
magic power.
Next is a breastplate for engineers to wear.
It seems to have been made for Lorenzo's body shape, and it is thick and well
fitted with shoulder pads.
Next is a medium armor for an attacker. The
attacker must have both defense and mobility, so the armor must cover the upper
body well while not interfering with the movements of the lower body and hands.
Fransisca's form is feminine, matching her
figure, and the armor somewhat reminiscent of a dress. According to Dorothea,
this is her "first priority".
Finally, there is the heavy armor for the
guardian. The so-called full-plate armor covering the entire body is what is
required for a guardian.
As is the case, the new armor newly made by
Dorothea covers the entire body, and in addition to the armor itself, the
related accessories, such as gauntlets and sabatons, are also well made.
The form of the armor looks rather piercing,
perhaps due to its articulated joints.
There was also a big shield.
Unlike the square shaped shields that Alexis
has been using so far, this shield is shaped like a rhombus with a slant. It is
supposed to make it easier to wield weapons.
「Next, I will explain the weapons!」
The first weapon Dorothea explained was a
staff for conjurers.
Dorothea explained that it is made entirely
of magic crystals from the tip to the end in order to take advantage of the high
conductivity of magic power, which is her "second priority".
However, there were no crystals long enough
to be used for the staff （which Dorothea
named magic crystal） in the warehouse, so
multiple magic crystals were used to compensate for the lack of crystals.
Therefore, the small decorations attached to
the handle are said to be the connecting parts.
「This is for you, Fatima-san」
Dorothea handed the staff to Fatima. And
Fatima, who took it, muttered.
「Oh, it is very light. And it fits nicely in
my hand」
「Isn't it? I was particular about the
diameter and so on」
Dorothea then moved on to the healer's mace.
The mace's tip and base were made of magical
crystal.
「Sara-chan seemed to like big weapons, so I
made it the same size as the original mace. What do you think?」
Sara smiled as she received the mace from
Dorothea.
「Yes, thank you. It's just the right size.
And you should call me "Sara-san"」
「Eh?」
「Sa-ra-san」
Sara gives Dorothea a smile that makes her
feel like she doesn't know what to say or do.
「O-okay... Sara-san?」
Sara smiled and nodded her head.
"What's wrong with this Sagrado
person?" Alexis thought while looked at Sara.
But then, he shook his head slowly and said.
「...Women are always have a mystery. Don't
you think so?」
「Y-yes...」
Dorothea was puzzled, but decided to move on
to the next weapon.
「This is the engineer's bow. Look at this
string!」
Dorothea showed Lorenzo the bow and he
shouted "Whoah!" as if he has noticed something.
「This string, it's not just a string, is it?」
「That's right. This is the third point that I
am obsessed with. I made the strings by stretching the magic crystal thinly.
Anyway, this stone is an interesting material, it's rigid yet flexible... it
seems to change its properties depending on its shape. Although it's hard to
process it... but it was a material worth making. I even made a hammer out of
the magic crystal because it was so hard to process」
「I'm sorry, thank you for your help」
Lorenzo says this to her, and Dorothea just
smile and says, "No, it was fun, so it's okay."
「Okay, now let's see what's next」
Dorothea's next object is a sword. It has a
familiar handle.
「Oh, that, so that's how it came to be」
**b
Fransisca said and walks toward Dorothea
with smiles.
「What do you mean?」
Alexis interjects, and then Dorothea says,
"Isn't it looks familiar to you?" while points at the handle. It was
a fine handle decorated with silver and inlaid with emerald stones.
「Dorothea asked me to leave the magic sword
of the wind with her」
Fransisca's explanation reminded Alexis that
the hilt had originally belonged to her.
「The sword seems to have had its magic effect
contained in the hilt. And its body was made of silver steel. So, by using the
hilt like this... Eii!」
Dorothea suddenly turns her head in the
direction of no one, and swings the sword lightly.
Whoost! A gust of wind blew.
「I-I made a magic crystal longsword with
magical effects!」
After saying this, Dorothea handed the sword
to Fransisca.
Fransisca said, "Thank you very
much," and accepted it smiling.
「Now, this is the last weapon. This is the
real thing. I made it as the prince ordered...」
Dorothea looks back at the last remaining
weapon and sighs heavily.
「This is the biggest mess I've ever seen!」
The sigh was so loud that Alexis couldn't
help but groan.
「Hey, hey, hey! Is that how you speak to the
sixth prince of your country, blacksmith of Krangal?」
「I don't care. I mean, you don't care about
that either, right?」
Having been told off so bluntly, Alexis
could only smile wryly.
Meanwhile, Fransisca blinks at Alexis' new
weapon and exclaims.
「Whoa! This... is a very unusual shape」
As Fransisca said, Dorothea grabbed the
handle and lifted up the weapon, which had a long spear-like handle with a
sword-like blade attached along the handle.
It would be more appropriate to say that the
scythe's sickle was replaced with a curved sword along the handle.
「I made it just in case, but can you handle
it properly?」
Dorothea asked as she handed it to Alexis,
and Alexis answered, "It seems so."
「Guardians usually carry a lance or a spear,
since they handle weapons along with their shields. But I'm only used to
swords. On the other hand, a short weapon like a sword is hard to use while
holding a shield. That's why I asked her to make a weapon with this shape」
Fransisca was horrified when she realized
that this was Alexis' idea at its best. It was like she had forced him to
become the attacker.
「I-I'm sorry...」
When Fransisca apologized to him, Alexis
puzzled and said, "Hmm? Why are you apologizing?".
（I've heard before that he doesn't hold a
grudge against me, but I guess he really doesn't hold a grudge against me...）
Fransisca was impressed to know that. She
was somewhat proud of Alexis-sama.
**c
「Well, we're all done now...」
Dorothea nodded her head in satisfaction
when she saw that the weapons had been distributed to everyone.
「Now, make sure you take your protective gear
with you. Well, I feel like a weight has finally been lifted off my shoulders.
I think I can sleep tonight for the first time in a long time」
Hearing Dorothea's words, Alexis was
startled.
「Hey, hey. You said you were up all night, so
you didn't sleep at all?」
「Eheheh, when I see unusual materials, my
blacksmith's blood starts to boil. And this is what happened. Anyway, if you
see any other strange things... bring them back to me. So, I'm counting on you」
After saying these words, Dorothea mumbles
"munya munya" and slumps over backwards.
「Whoa?!」
Alexis dropped the weapon in his hand and
supported Dorothea's body. He pulls her up and puts her wobbly head on his
chest.
On his chest, Dorothea was breathing softly
in her sleep.
「She's asleep...isn't she?」
After staring at Dorothea, it was Sara who
blurted out
「Alex-kun, why don't you take her to her
room?」
「Yeah, that's the only way」
Alexis let out a sigh. But she had worked so
hard to get to this point.
「Good job」
After saying this, he puts his hand on
Dorothea's head.
「......」
「......」
But he notice that there are about two
people staring at him.
「Hmm, w-what is it?」
Alexis turns to each of the two people who
are looking at him uneasily. It was Fransisca and Fatima.
「N-nothing...」
Fransisca's gaze drifted to the other and
she turned her head.
「...n-nothing?」
Fatima answers nonchalantly with a cool
expression on her face, but the restless tapping of her feet indicates that
nothing is going on.
「...You're very popular, aren't you,
Alex-kun?」
Sara murmurs with a vague smile.
「Hmm? What are you talking about?」
Alexis, who was confident enough to be proud
of his lack of popularity, looked at Sara suspiciously.
Thanks for reading...
