Chapter 73: Delivery and acquisition

After parting from Helen, we head straight to Camilo’s shop. The number of product types to be wholesaled has increased by one, but the procedure itself has not changed. After we placed the cart inside the warehouse, we greet the person in charge of the warehouse and we then head upstairs to where the business meeting room is.

After waiting for a while, Camilo and clerk-san came.

“Yoh. How are you doing?”

“So-so I guess. The business is starting to grow because we have more credibility now that we are affiliated with the Count’s House.”

“Oh, that’s good for you then.”

I don’t know how it was for Marius, but at least, it seems to be good for Camilo.

“Did you bring the usual today?”

“Yeah, the usual ones but I also brought 5 halberds.”

“Halberd? Why those too?”

“I want you to sell it to “His Excellency, the Count” for the guards in this town.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Do you think it will go well?”

“It will be fine I guess. There are other places to sell it too. I’ll even buy it myself.”

“It would be helpful if you could do that.”

This completes the negotiation. Both me and Camilo don’t think that Marius won’t buy them, but if he wouldn’t buy it, it would be nice if there was a place to sell them to.

“Alright, then let us go to the next topic.”

Camilo lowered his voice a little.

“You said that you want a rare ore, right?”

“Yeah. Did you find it?”

“Well, you can say that. I only got the information about it and I haven’t obtained it yet, but according to the intel from “His Excellency”, it seems that there’s some “Apoitakara” in the Capital that came from the North. If you want it, I’ll get it.”

Apoitakara ―In the previous world, Apoitakara was a legendary metal that was said to be the same as hihiirokane. But in this world, apoitakara was a metal that was harder than iron produced in the north and it glows a dull blue hue even after processing. That’s what it says from my installed knowledge. It’s not as hard as hihiirokane, but it’s rare enough huh.

“That’s great. Can you get a hold of that for me?”

“Alright. Well, do pardon me if I was too late.”

“It’s okay. It’s good enough that you found it. So, how much will it cost?”

“3 gold coins”

“Oh, that’s quite a price to pay.”

I can buy it with the money I got when I made Helen’s sword and the reward from the Eimurl House’s mess but, it’s still not a price that a normal blacksmith can afford.

“There is a way to get it for two gold coins though.”

“Uh-, I don’t want to be tangled in something troublesome.”

“What are you saying? There’s no such trouble. Well, other than the Count, I got a request from another route to get some mithril and turn it into fine rapiers.”

“I see, it will be the processing fee huh.”

“Well, it is like that.”

Putting aside that there’s no cost on raw materials, one gold coin for the processing fee is not a bad deal. It even comes with an opportunity to deal with Mithril.

“Is it okay to engrave the symbol of our workshop in an inconspicuous place?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Alright, I accept!”

“Then, that’s it.”

When Camilo looked at clerk-san, he nodded back and left the room. After that, we talked about the state of the town and what was going on the other towns as well. When the loading of the luggage was finished, we also left the room, picked up the cart in the warehouse and headed home. On the way back, the guard on duty was different from the one on our way in so we just passed by with a nod.

The degree of our tension on the way back is more tense than when we are on the way going to the city. Well that’s because Mithril were loaded in the cart. There are four of us, and two of the escorts are also skilled, but it is impossible to tell them not to be nervous about the expensive materials. Even with small items, if they realized that there are expensive materials, it is quite possible that they will aim for us to make a fortune. Thus, we tried to keep things as usual as much as possible.

Occasionally, the bushes make rustling noises but Samia says that it’s just the “wind or small animals”. Nothing happened until we entered the forest, and I relievedly stroke my chest. To be honest, I felt more comfortable in the forest where we only have to be careful about bears than on the road where we have to be wary of bandits.

In the end, we got home without any problems. As usual, I had Samia and Diana bring the foodstuffs inside while me and Rike took care of the iron ores, charcoal, and mithril. Although mithril has this silvery glow, it doesn’t look very different from the other metals. It seems that it will shine faintly if processed properly, but that is not the case at the moment. Anyhow, for now, we just brought it in.

The next day, I’m curious about the Mithril, but since it’s better to make a week’s worth of sheet metal, we process it first. Since the four of us split up the work, we were able to replenish a considerable number.

Then, the next day, we finally started forging mithril. Forging mithril is not something that happens very often so Rike was half helping and half observing, while Samia and Diana were just observing.

After grabbing the mithril with the pincers, I raised the temperature of the fire in the fire bed. Normal silver would melt when it reached the temperature at which iron could be processed, but mithril showed no such signs. When I find that the temperature has reached the point where it can be processed with the help of my cheat, I strike it with a hammer on the anvil. Different from that of an iron, a clear sound, like that of hitting a glass, echoes in the smithy. Ordinary steel can be deformed to some extent by this blow, but surprisingly, mithril is difficult to deform.

“This is quite tricky huh.”

“Is it difficult even with boss’ hammer?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t changed much. I should have taken a little more processing fee.”

When I grumbled, the three of them giggled. While listening to them, I hit it again 4 to 5 times but it is already below the temperature that can be processed. I plunge it into the fire bed once more.

“It seems like this will take a lot of work.”

“Well, it’s Mithril. It’s not something an ordinary blacksmith can handle after all.”

“That’s true, but…”

Considering the fact that I’ve been casually processing steel so far, this kind of difficulty is quite vexing. That said, I had no choice but to process it steadily. I swung the hammer again on the mithril I had just taken from the fire bed.

This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.

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