My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World: Volume 11 (eBook)

Tamamaru (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9017-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Winter is waning in the Black Forest, and the buds of spring have begun to emerge. Unfortunately, this is also a season of political intrigue for Forge Eizo. Counterfeit knives are still circulating around the kingdom, threatening Eizo's and Camilo's livelihoods. Ever the enterprising merchant, Camilo comes up with a scheme to catch the perpetrator: Marius and the margrave will lay a trap, and Eizo will forge a forgery of his own. This will be no ordinary counterfeit-Eizo must make a knife using the legendary metal orichalcum! With opposing political factions roiling beneath the surface of the kingdom's hierarchy, everyone must play their part to expose the counterfeiters. Can Eizo master the unyielding orichalcum? Or will his failure hammer the final nail in the coffin of his blacksmith life?

Textauszug

Chapter 1: God’s Metal

When the winter had been at its coldest, and the frosty wind had nipped at our skin, we at Forge Eizo had been notified that counterfeit versions of our knives were circulating around the kingdom’s capital. These blades even had our fat cat insignia engraved on their pommels. I wasn’t planning on getting into a confrontation over the issue, but merchants liked to make money, so they would probably keep selling the fakes. Our forge could potentially suffer a bit of an economic blow.

I had quite a bit of money saved up, and we were practically self-sufficient, so there weren’t any immediate concerns. But if I were no longer able to make a living as a blacksmith, I’d have no choice but to close up shop, which would cut off all my income. Marius, who was a part of the ruling political faction of the kingdom, was in hot pursuit of the mastermind behind the fakes. So far, we’d learned that they were being produced and distributed by people within the duke’s nonruling faction, but we could only catch those low on the social ladder. And since those people could easily be cut off from the mastermind, catching them would do us no good.

Thus, a plan was hatched to publicly pursue the counterfeiters. I would forge a blade that would be handed over to an emissary of the empire as a kingdom souvenir. This emissary (who would be in on the ruse) would claim to have bought the knife in the capital. And when the emissary showed the knife to Marius, the count would point out that it wasn’t a genuine Forge Eizo product, but a fake.

This would create a larger fuss and would force an even more serious investigation. House Eizo—that is, beastfolk Samya, Rike the dwarf, Marius’s sister Diana, Lidy the elf, the famous mercenary Helen, Seventh Imperial Princess Anne, and I—was briefed on the plan in Camilo’s shop, located in the city. My primary concern was about this “fake” blade I’d be offering.

“What material should I use?” I asked Camilo.

He turned toward the head clerk, who nodded and left the room.

“Ah, well, we’ll need you to forge a bit of a farce,” Camilo admitted. “I’m sorry to always drag you into things, but...”

“Hey, it’s too late now,” I replied.

Camilo flashed a strained smile. “I can’t deny it, but it’d be great if you could phrase that a little kinder.”

“Two geezers don’t need to be overly sensitive with each other, do they?”

“Guess not.”

The head clerk returned holding a sturdy box. It wasn’t very large, maybe just big enough for a cat to happily squeeze into. The head clerk handed the box to Camilo, who placed it on the table. It was roughly in the shape of a treasure chest one might see in an RPG back on Earth, but the top of the box wasn’t rounded—it was flat and made of wicker.

“Here it is,” Camilo said, opening the box.

An item emitting a blinding light appeared before my eyes, but that light immediately died down. The glow must’ve come from magical energy, I guessed. When I was able to take a good look at the object, it resembled gold, but the sliver of sunlight it reflected gave off a rainbow sheen. It sort of looked like a bit of gold caked in oil slick.

I glanced at Camilo, and he nodded back at me. I took that as my cue and reached out to take the item from the box. It was cold to the touch, and when I pressed it, the surface didn’t give way to my finger.

“Color aside, this feels metallic,” I said.

It wasn’t malleable like meghizium, and it wasn’t faintly warm like hihiirokane. I lifted it into the air and found that it was a lot heavier than it looked.

“It’s hefty.”

“Well, yeah, I guess it is,” Camilo replied.

“What is it? It’s not adamantite, hihiirokane, appoitakara, or meghizium—I know that much.”

I’d seen every single one of these ores, but this metal didn’t look like any of them. If I had to choose, the lump most closely resembled adamantite, but it clearly had a unique characteristic that differentiated it from the adamantite I was familiar with. I’d never seen or felt this metal before.

“I guess there’s some stuff that even you don’t know,” Camilo observed.

I sighed. “The world’s filled with so many things that I don’t know—it’s sometimes depressing.”

My smithing cheats rarely gave me details on items or a guide on how to process them. My installed knowledge, which was the source of my information about this world, wasn’t much help either, unless it directly pertained to my life or safety. Many times, there was just a chunk of information missing, and it would only be filled in when I learned the name of whatever I was handling. Sure, there was some fun in learning new things, but there were many occasions where I just needed the information immediately—there were upsides and downsides. In any case, no matter how long I gazed at this metal, I just couldn’t identify what it was, and I raised my hands in the air in surrender.

“Nope. Haven’t got a clue,” I said.

“You see...” Camilo began, his smile growing broader. The room fell silent—someone nervously gulped, and even that small sound seemed deafening. “This, my friend, is orichalcum.”

Everyone stood up with a loud clatter as they saw me almost drop this precious bit of metal from sheer shock.

“This?!” I cried.

Silence settled over the room once more, and the orichalcum flashed another rainbow glimmer—I could’ve sworn that it smiled at me. Only then did my installed knowledge provide me with further information, all too late. But I didn’t need cheats and installed knowledge to know about this metal; it was extremely famous, even back on Earth. It was a divine metal that literally everyone must’ve known about.

While mithril was similarly sturdy and lightweight, orichalcum was said to be exponentially better. A blade made of this metal wouldn’t rust, bend, or break and was light to wield.

I’d restored a mithril sword before—it’d been shattered to pieces, but I’d been able to faintly tell that it’d been used in battle. Mithril didn’t show much wear and tear compared to other metals, but it was still obvious when it had been used. Orichalcum was likely capable of hiding those traces completely.

Now, my concern was how my smithing skills (cheats) would fare against this priceless metal. I was certain I could make a terrifying blade, and I was only keen on working with this metal when a hero came to me asking for help, claiming that the Demon Queen was invading the land—or something like that.

“Does it have any special powers?” I wondered. “Like maybe it can call forth water or something.”

Diana’s eyes glimmered with excitement. “Like how appoitakara glows!”

“Yeah, but that just glows—nothing more.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. It’d be great if it could summon water, but unfortunately, no dice.”

“Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen appoitakara do that before.”

Diana frowned pensively, and I could relate to her all too well. In fact, if appoitakara was capable of summoning water, I’d be way more excited for it than anything.

“I’ve heard that orichalcum can call forth lightning,” Anne said.

“From who?” I asked.

“A minstrel who visited our home.”

“Interesting...”

Her home was the imperial palace, and a minstrel that had been invited to such an honorable place must’ve had some stories that were worth listening to. God existed in this world, so even absurd tales could potentially be true. To be honest, my cheats are very close to the realm of absurdity... Still, minstrels were known to speak of tales and legends, and Anne’s casual demeanor made it clear that she took that story with a grain of salt. And I should too.

“I’ve heard that it can bring forth earthquakes,” Rike said.

“At that point, the quality of the weapon itself doesn’t really matter, huh?” I replied.

“Agreed. I think the rumor just implies how impactful and astonishing the metal is.”

It seemed even the dwarves had stories of their own. Rike wasn’t a noble, but dwarves were a race mired in tradition, and they excelled in smithing. While I hesitated to just brush that story away, I agreed with Rike—it was probably an exaggeration, a mere metaphor to express just how awesome orichalcum was. For example, if someone was so fast that people said they practically soared through the sky, the rumor mill would start and eventually circulate that the person could actually soar through the sky.

Camilo twiddled with his mustache. “Personally, I haven’t heard of orichalcum being capable of supernatural feats.”

“It might not come with any bonus powers, but are you sure that you should hand over this precious metal to the empire?” I asked.

“Well,” he said as he scratched his cheek, “truth be told, the orichalcum actually came from the empire.”

I raised a bemused eyebrow; Anne clearly looked restless.

“So technically, while this is a gift from the kingdom, we’re just returning an item back to the empire, its rightful owner,” Camilo explained.

“I’m shocked that the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.8.2025
• Reihe/Serie: My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World
• Illustrationen: Tamamaru
• Übersetzer: Tamamaru
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Alternate Universe • Blacksmithing • Catgirl • Isekai • Light Novel • middle-aged protagonist • not the hero
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9017-3 / 1718390173
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9017-1 / 9781718390171