This is my first update of the year.
I hope you'll all continue to support me this year as well.
By the way, I posted the last update of last year a little while ago.
It was the second day of the rest period. With the tournament finals coming up tomorrow, I would normally have spent the day preparing, but instead I'd been standing in the kitchen since morning.
"I don't think I messed it up, but... Alright! It's set properly."
I took a flat, amber-colored piece out of the refrigerator-type magical tool installed in the kitchen (built by me, supervised by Grandpa and Aina) and touched it to check.
"Now for the all-important taste, though..."
I placed the flat piece on the cutting board and pressed a knife against the grid-like grooves to snap it into pieces. Then I popped one of them into my mouth to check the flavor.
"Mm, success! If this is anything to go by, the other flavors should be fine too."
What I'd been making was hard candy. The day before, one of the festival stalls had been selling corn syrup, so I'd bought a large quantity and tried refining it into portable food for quick energy replenishment.
Incidentally, in this world, when people said "candy," they meant liquid syrup. Hard candy drops apparently didn't exist here, and even Grandpa had never heard of them.
So I'd tried making it from memory of the candy I used to eat in my previous life. Fortunately, the ingredients were simple enough that I remembered them, but since I'd added my own twists, I'd been a little worried about whether it would work out.
The ingredients were the corn syrup I'd bought, sugar, a little honey, and lemon juice. I put them all into a pot and simmered them down, being careful not to let them burn. Then, after removing from heat, I stirred with a rice paddle to draw off the heat and poured the mixture into a tray to set in the refrigerator. Using that as the base flavor, I also tried making several varieties with different additions — some with raisins, some with chopped lemon peel, some with a bit of rock salt mixed in.
"These would be perfect for when we're out hunting. Next time I've got some free time, I'll mass-produce a batch!"
One by one, I broke the candy slabs into pieces, sorted them by flavor into jars, and packed them into my bag.
While I was packing the candy into my bag, I sensed a presence behind me and turned around. There was Slarin, staring at me. It seemed that, quite unusually, she was showing interest in...
food.
Or so it looked.
Slarin came right up to my feet, and when she noticed a piece of candy that had fallen from the cutting board onto the floor, she extended a tentacle, picked up the fragment, and absorbed it into her body.
"Is it good, Slarin?"
As if responding to my words, Slarin bounced her body up and down. It seemed she had taken a liking to the candy I'd made.
Since it was rare for Slarin to ask for something, I divided roughly half of each type of candy and handed them over. Rather than eating them right away, Slarin stored them in the Magic Bag inside her body.
When I noticed that Shiromaru and Solomon were, unusually, not reacting to the food, it turned out the two of them were still fast asleep.
They probably hadn't noticed because the candy didn't give off a strong smell.
I asked Slarin, who was enjoying her candy, to watch the house, and headed off to Kelly's workshop.
There were still some onlookers lingering near the manor, but none of them tried to talk to me, so I ignored them, figuring they were probably just idling around or something.
Incidentally, the three-member stalker group from yesterday had been there since the morning as well, but they didn't try to speak to me either, so I ignored them too.
When I arrived at Kelly's workshop, the door was still locked, so I used the key that had been left with me to let myself in.
Inside, Kelly and the female dwarf staff members were all sound asleep on the floor, completely unaware that I had entered.
I first checked on Kelly to make sure she was alright, then spoke to wake her up.
"Ughh... Morning, Tenma... it's over there..."
Kelly responded as though she were only half awake, pointing at the Adamantine sword. Wrapped around the sword's hilt was a pure-white rope woven from Shiromaru's fur, and from the looks of it, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
"I'm going to test the feel of it out back for a bit."
I picked up the sword and told Kelly that. She was sitting cross-legged, rocking back and forth, waving her hand like a ghost. She probably didn't even hear me.
In the workshop's back garden, I swung the sword and tested the feel of the hilt, and the result was excellent. Shiromaru's fur was naturally slick, so I had worried it might be too slippery even as a rope, but when Kelly and the others had tied and braided it together, they had apparently made the knots intentionally large, and those knots served as grips to prevent slipping.
"Not too bad, right?"
Kelly came shuffling up behind me as I was swinging the sword, yawning.
"Yeah, it's great!"
The sword had originally been an all-black, rough-looking piece, but thanks to the dragon carved into the side of the blade and the pure-white rope, it had come out looking like something you could call a work of art — or at the very least, fit for ceremonial use.
"Thanks, Kelly. So how much do I owe you?"
I pulled my wallet from my bag, but Kelly shook his head.
"No, no. The Grand Duke already paid me more than enough for the sword adjustments and the engraving work. And as for the rope, Tenma provided the materials — all we did was braid the fur. So the labor's practically included in what the Grand Duke already paid!"
It sounded like Ernest had paid extra in case I pushed for more, so Kelly figured the rope-braiding fell under the adjustments already covered.
"Besides, we got tons of goodies from Tenma. The new technique worked out great, we got to eat good food, and we received a generous advance payment... Any more and it'd be too much."
Seeing Kelly smile like that, I decided it wouldn't be right to push payment, and I tucked my wallet back into my bag.
"Still, Shiromaru's fur is seriously top-quality material! It's smooth, beautiful, strong, and on top of that, it has various resistances. That rope — even if you tried to burn it with fire, it barely catches at all."
Having various resistances — in this case, magic resistance to fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, and ice, and sometimes even poison and paralysis — is quite rare for a single material. Body fur and similar materials tend to be fundamentally weak against fire, but Shiromaru's fur can apparently withstand even that.
"That's incredible... I knew Shiromaru had high magic defense, but I had no idea the fur itself carried resistances."
I had noticed that Shiromaru barely reacted to ordinary magic, but finding out that one of the reasons was its fur was a real surprise. I'd always assumed it was just because of Shiromaru's physical capabilities and high vitality.
With that bit of speculation about Shiromaru's fur out of the way, we moved on to the final fine-tuning of the sword.
When I say fine-tuning, it was mostly just adjustments to the grip area, so it didn't take much time.
"All done!"
I had Kelly re-tie the rope on the handle and adjust it to a thickness that felt comfortable in my hand.
"That wraps up half of the Grand Duke's request!"
"Half the request?"
I couldn't quite make out what Kelly meant, so I tilted my head and asked him to explain.
"That's right,
"Not yet."
"The request isn't fully complete yet. This is just an adjustment for the tournament. I've left the post-match sharpening in so the sword will still be usable after the tournament's over. So bring it to my workshop once the tournament is done!"
Saying that, Kelly whacked me hard on the back.
Female or not, she was a dwarf blacksmith. Kelly's strength was nothing to scoff at even compared to top-tier adventurers, so my body went flying.
"See ya. Don't forget to bring the sword! I'm going back to sleep."
Yawning, Kelly headed back to her workshop and slipped into the futon she'd been sleeping in.
I had been thinking about returning the key, but Kelly had already started snoring, so I had no choice but to lock up in her place and leave the shop.
I continued walking as a sort of stroll, browsing the food stalls along the way, but once again the stalker trio was following behind me.
I was getting tired of ignoring them, so I lured them into a narrow back alley.
The trio followed me into the back alley without a shred of suspicion.
"Hello there."
I waited just inside the entrance of the back alley and called out to the trio. Startled, they reflexively tried to flee.
"Ah, don't run away. I've more or less got
a handle on
who you really are. I have to say,
nobles
engaging in stalking behavior is really not a good look… but I'll keep it quiet with His Majesty the King, so please, stop this sort of thing. I believe there'll be an opportunity
to meet officially
sometime soon, so until then, take care."
Before they could utter a word, I rattled everything off in one breath, then kicked off the wall and leaped up onto the rooftop of the building.
Had they been nobles I didn't know, I would have reported them to the King, but what worked in their favor was that they hadn't tried to harm me — and also, that one of their acquaintances happened to be someone I knew.
A party was scheduled to be held at the royal castle in just a few days. Since I had already secured a prize finish (third place or above) in the tournament, I was to receive a special invitation, so there would be an opportunity to meet them then.
Once more I glanced at the trio standing there with their mouths agape, then took my leave.
I hopped across the rooftops without being noticed, dropped down into a deserted back alley, and let out a deep breath to steady myself.
"Was I being a little too much of a show-off?"
I regretted putting on an act that didn't suit me, even if the point had been to catch them off guard. …At the very least, doing it solo hit harder than I expected.
Just to be safe, I used "Search" to track the trio, but they hadn't moved from the spot where I'd left them.
I chose a route that would take me away from them and headed back to the mansion.
——— The Trio's Side ———
"Hey… you let her slip away without saying a word again, didn't you?"
"What a coward."
Two of the trio were berating the largest man among them.
The big guy scratched his head and let out a groan, crouching down as if trying to shrink his large frame.
"…Can you blame me…? If I messed things up, our family's territory could end up on a downward spiral again…"
The other two stared at him in disbelief at the timid voice coming from the man who looked nothing like the part.
"Nah, that's not going to happen anymore. From what my father told me, he doesn't seem the type to hold a grudge."
"I heard the same thing. But if Lion — or rather, if he found out we were tailing him, there's a chance his attitude could change."
When the smallest of the three — though even he was about average height — said that, the man called Lion shot to his feet.
"Well, isn't that partly your fault too?!"
Lion let out a loud shout, but the other two didn't seem the least bit bothered. It was apparently business as usual.
"That's not true. We properly warned you. You're the one who got scared, chickened out, and hesitated despite our warnings."
"Albert's right. We cooperated at least the minimum—"
"—or more than that, even."
"We did our part and then some. Everything after that is Lion's responsibility. We have nothing to do with it."
"Grargh~!"
Lion glared at the two of them while growling. But it had absolutely no effect—they both wore cool, composed expressions.
If a stranger had witnessed this scene, they would have screamed and called for the guards. That's how much intensity Lion's face held—enough that no one would ever think he was a noble.
"Hey, hey, Albert. Maybe your—"
"Absolutely not! It has nothing to do with him!"
Albert cut him off curtly, shutting him down without a moment's hesitation.
"Then Cain! Your—"
"That's completely out of the question! It'd be like picking a fight!"
The man called Cain also shut Lion down before he could finish. However, unlike Albert, his refusal came with cold sweat running down his face.
"Well, he did say there'd be a formal opportunity to meet soon. That means he's still willing to listen to what Lion has to say... right? Probably."
"Hey, Albert! Don't phrase it as a question!"
"Even if he does listen, whether he'll cooperate is a whole other matter."
Hearing Cain's words, Lion's body began trembling uncontrollably. And then—
"This is all... ALL of it is that damn old man's fault!"
He howled at the sky with a deafening roar.
"But if he ends up offended, that's entirely on Lion."
Lion slumped to the ground, completely deflated by Albert's words.
A few minutes later, they were greeted by official questioning from the guards.