Chapter 66 - Crucible Street (part three)

Tirnanog and I went under the sign of the tower and crescent moon and entered the Turm Wand Store.

As usual this store seemed to only have few customers.

Let alone customers, I couldn’t even find the clerk.

『We have come to pick up the wands.』

When Tirnanog called out, Harold emerged from the back of the store.

Apparently, Harold was the only clerk.

“Welcome! Wait a minute, I will call Master!”

“Thank you, Harold.”

Harold just got a little look and went to the back in no time.

We waited for them and sat on a chaise longue.

After a while, the shop owner was brought by Harold and appeared at the storefront.

“Well, I apologize, but can you give me an hour more?”

The shop owner made an apologetic expression.

When I heard the detailed explanation, he said that it took some time to charge the wands.

It seemed that the wands created by Onii-sama were obfuscated and difficult to analyze.

Everything included the unexpected mechanisms that couldn’t be found at the estimation stage.

『Oh, there is no problem. I believe in your skills.』

“I appreciate it.”

Tirnanog nodded magnanimously and sat down on the sofa.

The shop owner ordered Harold to prepare the teaware just like yesterday and went to the storefront to lower the ‘not open for business’ sign.

Harold who came back to put the teaware on the table, whispered into my ear the moment the shop owner left.

“Do you want to go to Aniki’s place today? We can listen to his lectures, or do some more trial shoots.”

“To be honest, that’s what I intended to do.”

“Haha, say that quicker! That’s great!”

The shop owner came back when we tried to go to the back of the store.

He saw Tirnanog drinking tea by himself and looked around with a surprised appearance.

“Hey, Harry!”

“Master~! I’m going to talk about making golems with this lady, so we’re going to the back!”

“Wait a moment. Why are you suddenly talking about golems?”

“No, it’s just that this lady knows about golems in detail.”

As expected, Harold got caught by the shop owner who chased him.

Harold told such a lie while making eye contact with me.

I nodded my head in a hurry.

The shop owner seemed to have remembered something and stared at me and Tirnanog alternately.

“Haha, certainly……but, I hope he doesn’t annoy you, Ojou-san.”

“No, it’s a lot of fun.”

The shop owner released his hand from Harold reluctantly.

The shop owner went back to his workshop, after saying ‘Don’t trouble her too much’ to Harold.

“Well then, Tir. Please pick me up at the storehouse after you finished receiving the wands.”

『Umu. You got it.』

When I waved my hand, Tirnanog raised his cup in reply.

As Harold pulled my hand, I headed to the door leading to the storehouse.

☆

“Oya, so you have come to visit today as well, Ojou-san.”

When we opened the door of the storeroom, Gilbert was there preparing something.

Canceling the compound he was working on, he hurriedly put his tools away.

Was he working?

“Do we get in the way?”

“No, no need to worry because I was just killing time.”

Harold put a circular package on the desk that Gilbert had cleaned up.

It was collected earlier by Harold when we were passing through the backyard.

From the package there was a delicious smell.

“Oh? What’s this? It has a nice smell.”

“Hehehe, Aniki, have you had your meal?

Tada~! Gizella-obasan gave me this candy onion tart!

Don’t hesitate to eat it, go on, eat!”

When he opened the package, a big brown tart appeared.

It didn’t seem like a snack, it seemed to be more of a side dish tart.

Looking at it, Gilbert looked up to Heaven exaggeratingly.

“Ku~h! Seriously, tell me quicker in the morning!

I have eaten properly at my older brother’s store!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Eh~, is that so? Then you don’t need this?”

“I do! When I start to feel hungry, please warm it up again.

Please just leave it be for now, Botchan.”

“Alright.”

I sat on a vacant chair and watched over their exchange.

The room was cluttered as usual, so it seemed that something would break if I moved around carelessly.

“So, what’s your business here? Do you want to see my cool face that much?”

“A-ni-ki?”

“Hey, hey, I’m just kidding. Is it the continuation of the lecture about wands? I got it ready.”

“Alright!”

“Please take care of me.”

Gilbert put the bag which was placed in the corner of the room on the desk after the tart package was removed.

He looked like he was having fun as he spread the contents of the bag.

Gilbert’s second wand course was starting.

“First of all, from the part that had become ambiguous yesterday.

We’re going to explore the Alteration of spells a bit more.”

It seemed that we wouldn’t use a blackboard for today’s lecture.

Gilbert referred to the wands arranged on the desk.

“There are certain standardized things in the spells that can be charged into a wand.

When constructing a normal spell, it is the norm to combine the least burdensome and most convenient particle size.

Well, as long as you think about the size and power.

This also determines the creation time and the complexity of the spell-building.”

Arranged on the desk, there were three Magic Missile wands.

Even though it was the same kind of wand, each wand had a different design.

“The most basic way of making this wand is this.”

He pointed to the wand with the most familiar specification among the three.

It looked like it was made of very common materials and was in accordance with the commonly known recipe.

“Now then, there are two ways of doing Alteration to the magic of a wand.”

Gilbert advanced the lecture while looking at me and Harold alternately.

When he did that, Gilbert seemed sincere.

I thought that people were missing out because of his tendency to act insolently around people he wasn’t close with.

“The first way. Construct it into an extended state during the creation time and charge it. This one is easy to understand.

It’s a heavy burden at the time of creation, but it’s a way to make the wand easier to use.

The more spells that make up the high-order magic, the harder it is to break up the established composition.

That is why it costs time and material.

This technique is the specialty of Duke of Aurelia, the head of Visitor’s Clan.”

Gilbert pointed towards the wand with elaborate design.

It was a special wand made of materials that seemed to be much more expensive than the first one.

As I had been told, many of Otou-sama’s wands were specially made.

Harold watched the luxurious wand with shining eyes.

“Making something like this, it seems very fun~~!”

“Haha, the reason why you can enjoy the burden of creating extended wands is because Botchan is special.

The remodelling of the magical structure is generally difficult and painful.”

“Heeh, no way~!”

Ever since he was told that he was special, Harold seemed to have become even more involved in making wands.

It certainly would make me happy if I was told that I was suitable for doing what I liked to do.

“Then the second way. In this case, it can only be performed by performers of a certain disposition, but the creator will have it easy.

Generally speaking, you just need to stuff in large quantities of magic with standardized particle size into a wand.

This is the way to use the method you were using yesterday.

Along with the command execution of the wand, the performer places a load on the magical structure, break and distort the spell, then reconstruct and activate the desired result.

It is necessary for the performer to have a strong enough inhibition to endure the burden on the magical structure and the knowledge to reconstruct as they desired.”

“……And my disposition is suitable for this?”

“That’s correct, Ojou-san. By the way, here is the wand sample.”

Gilbert handed the third wand to me.

H-huh? It was heavy?

The size and the materials seemed to be the same as the standard wand, but it was somewhat strange and heavy.

And the build was considerably thoughtful.

There was a fine design that wouldn’t be seen if you didn’t look closely that seemed to be applied on the whole wand.

“Using this method, you will need many times as much charging as usual.

Efficiency gets considerably worse because the spell is broken and distorted, and it deviates from the optimum particle size.

Even though you can put 200 or 300 charges, the magic that you can perform will only two or three times.

Therefore, it is suggested to prepare a dedicated wand for that purpose.”

I stared at the wand in my hand.

In short, it was a wand that was charged many times as much as a normal wand.

“Because this is a borrowed wand, I cannot let you use it……

Here, this is the wand you used yesterday.

It should be able to have 100 charges stuffed into it, but right now the amount of charge is zero.”

“Eh……”

It was surprising that it would be empty.

I thought that 70 charges would remain since I used 30 for yesterday’s simultaneous shooting.

“Both methods will have a recoiling reaction, that is, the magical power that flows back to the user at the time of execution is huge.

However, there are many things that heavy wands like this do when it was used, so there is a further burden on users.”

“Ha~……if it was someone with a constitution like me, they absolutely shouldn’t use it……”

Harold said while rubbing his right arm.

It was the part that was wounded by the reaction of the wand when he was young.

“But, if we’re only talking about creating wands, both methods will be easier for someone with zero inhibition value.

No matter if it was a glasswork-like wand that was stuffed with troublesome spell construction, or if it was a strong and heavy wand that can withstood mass charges.”

“Both methods seem interesting, either way I’d better be able to live up to the expectations.”

I noticed that Gilbert had a slightly surprised look.

He cleared his throat and kept talking.

“Incidentally, it was the Nibelheim family of alchemists in the northwestern area that had developed heavy wands with a large amount of spells.

Our Turm family helped out with the mass-production.

The main user of this relatively low-cost wand is the lower level soldiers who cannot arrange for expensive wands.”

“H-heeh, the Nibelheim family, huh……this is my first time hearing that.”

“The soldiers use this wand to bash their enemies while burning their arms.”

Due to the disquieting information of his parents’ home, Harold seemed somewhat nervous.

So Nibelheim’s industry was not only producing silverware, but also producing wands as weapons during the war, huh.

“So, Botchan’s ancestor gained hundreds and thousands of money from war.”

Shock appeared on Harold’s face.

Gilbert grinned devilishly.

“W-why do you know that I am someone from Nibelheim family, Aniki?

Moreover, you were speaking like my family is the bad guy.”

“It’s fine, isn’t it. Since I’m also someone from Turm family, why are you a bad guy?

Regarding my knowledge of Botchan’s parents’ home, well, if there is something like this—”

Gilbert took out a notebook from his bag.

In that notebook was written the name ‘Harold Nibelheim’.

“Aniki, is that my……?”

“Eehh!? Are you the son of Earl Nibelheim?”

I decided to be surprised exaggeratingly.

I also noticed Harold’s last name, but this ‘surprise’ was deliberate.

I was hiding my identity as a duke’s daughter right now, and this should be the natural reaction.

“Wait! Erica! Y-y-you don’t have to worry about it—”

“No way……why is the son of a noble household come to a place like this.

I, I have been very rude……”

“No, no, no, you don’t need to worry. Please stop the honorific, I beg you.”

Harold became flustered.

Gilbert was grinning unapologetically.

I also felt like laughing but endured it.

“Well, my father also had a rank.

Although it is only a Viscount below the Earl and he has handed it over to my eldest brother.”

“Aaah~~~, stop with the revelation~~~.”

“Eh……then, he was the Turm’s principal!?”

“Yeah, well. Since I’m the thirteenth child, I’m just an ordinary man who is not concerned with such things like the family inheritance or concession, you know?”

This was unexpected.

No way, that shop owner was the rumored wealthy merchant who bought the noble peerage, that Turm elder!?

I thought that he was not an ordinary person, but I didn’t think that he was the former principal.

“Good grief, it’s not unreasonable that customers will rarely come here.

The head of the Turm family is the shopkeeper, and the son of Earl Nibelheim is the clerk.

Unless you aren’t affected by scary things, or very particular about wands, right?”

“So that’s why there aren’t that many customers.”

By the way, the one who recommended the Turm Wand Store to me was the daughter of Rails family who had a personal view about wands.

I wondered if this was some kind of surprise.

If possible, I wanted more detailed information to prepare myself, Tricia-san.

“No, this store is popular among neighboring aristocrats……although only one person will come every two days.”

I guessed this store was not popular, wasn’t it?

I thought so, but I decided to keep my silence for now.

“It’s surprising that Ojou-san will care about it.

Oops, we got derailed.

Since you now got a deeper understanding of the wands, do you want to trial shoot again?”

Gilbert had an evil-like expression while still smiling gently, as he urged us to the testing field.