Chapter 526 - Meanwhile: Part 2
“—…Hmm. I’m just not feeling it.”
I wonder how much time had passed as I sat there, grumbling and trying this and that. The words tumbling from my mouth were ones I was getting tired of hearing myself.
In her familiar workshop, leaning back in her favorite, well-worn avatar chair, with a recently discovered flavored tea in one hand, the artisan gazed up at the ceiling. In her other hand, her coppery eyes reflected two mismatched ‘pebbles.’
One was jet black, a mirror stone of death holding a ‘star’ within, embodying will and aspiration.
The other was amber, a lost stone of legacy holding a ‘flower’ within, embodying reliance and the unusual.
They were part of a commission she had received a while ago from that certain bearer. As always, he’d given her the most wonderfully vague and yet perfectly understanding order: “Make something interesting.” It had been some time, but this difficult piece remained untouched.
Due to various circumstances, the path forward had unexpectedly opened itself. However, her own selfish pride as a Magicrafter was preventing her from activating her craft, refusing to create anything subpar.
A few days ago, she’d received a conscientious report that he’d be leaving the virtual world for about a week. Now, on the second night of his and his rowdy friends’ absence, she found herself facing a self-imposed deadline five days from now… and at this rate, she probably wouldn’t make it.
Kagura wasn’t the type to believe that creating something good meant time was no object. After all, any client would surely be happier the sooner they received their commissioned item.
At least, that’s how she viewed the business between an artisan and a client—as a kind of ‘match.’ It was only when you slammed down a creation with a speed, quality, and ingenuity that surpassed their every expectation—
That the client would be truly, wonderfully surprised and delighted.
…Therefore, she had no choice. Letting out a reluctant sigh, Kagura opened her friends list and placed a call to the name at the very top.
“—Ah, hello. I’m heading over now, so clear some time for me.”
Sometimes, relying on others is a necessary form of decisiveness, she murmured to herself as an excuse.
◇◆◇◆◇
“You’re really the epitome of a free spirit over here, as always.”
“You’re the one who told me to be that way. I’ll take it as a compliment.”
Ten minutes after her unannounced declaration, the red and the crimson Magicrafters came face-to-face on the top floor of the headquarters, a place she hadn’t visited in a long time.
One was a man. An artisan with his long hair tied back at the neck, dressed in simple, rugged smithing attire.
He looked the part, but he was currently seated not in a sweltering workshop, but at a desk. In his hand was a pen, not a hammer, and before him was not fire and steel, but a mountain of documents.
And the other was a woman, her own long hair tied up high in a ponytail. Dressed in a slightly casual, deconstructed kimono, she carried herself with her usual dignified air, but…
“You’re the same as ever, here and over there. Maybe the gods told you desk work suits you best.”
“That’s a harsh joke. Give me a break…”
His expression and tone were a good twenty percent more relaxed than his usual ‘free spirit’ self, according to the man. Aware of this, Kagura paid it no mind and snorted at her acquaintance’s tired face.
“You say that after climbing the ladder all by yourself. You’re enjoying it, aren’t you, one way or another?”
“Well, about that… Anyway, as you can see, I’m quite busy. If you have business, I’d appreciate it if you’d get to it.”
After a familiar exchange of lighthearted jabs and smiles, the man prompted her to get to the point, and she gave a single nod. “Alright.”
“…Ah, I see. So it’s a ‘Lost Echoes,’ is it?”
At the first glance of the amber stone placed on his desk, he gave a delighted laugh. Before this rare specimen, his coppery eyes, the same as Kagura’s, took on a faint glow.
“Magic-condensed amber with a cherry blossom… and not just a single petal, but the whole thing, calyx and all. That’s incredibly rare. A collector’s dream, this is.”
“Well, yeah. After all, the one who picked it up was none other than the [Traveler].”
“Oh ho… is that so? I see, so it’s not just any rare item—which means this is a commission from that favorite of yours.”
Kagura shot a glare at his amused gaze and tone, dismissing it as she plopped down into the guest chair as if she owned the place.
No one present would dare chide her, nor was their relationship one where such minor impoliteness would be an issue.
“Who are you trying to make small talk with? It’s not like it’s interesting anymore.”
“Hey, hey, it’s been over a month since the Four Pillar War. There’s plenty to catch up on…”
“Is there?”
“…………Well, I guess not really.”
They exchanged another unamusing remark and a comfortable smile—and then, the four coppery eyes almost simultaneously shifted into those of craftsmen.
“You were at the last event too, weren’t you? Then you must have thoroughly examined that pebble on site.”
“Oh, I did—and let me tell you, I was thinking, ‘Those bastards, how dare they.’”
“Your language is terrible, Clan Master-dono. We can’t let the subordinates hear you.”
“Oops, my apologies, Sub Master-kun. Let’s keep that off the record.”
As he spoke, the man called Master pulled a ‘pebble’ from his inventory. It was a jet-black stone containing stardust—a [Stardust Relic] that had fallen into his hands during the recent [Starry Paradise] event.
Seeing him stare at it with disgust, Kagura let out a quiet chuckle.
“Well, that was the first thing I thought when I saw it, too—that you would definitely sulk about this.”
“Of course I would… It’s like I was desperately fumbling and fiddling with a lock, trying to open a door, only for someone to kick it open from the other side.”
“Hah, if it lets you move forward and have fun, isn’t that a good thing?”
“You hedonist…”
With a ridiculously long sigh that seemed to signal either complete resignation or a forced attempt to move on, the man placed the [Stardust Relic] on the desk, next to the Sacred Cherry Amberstone that was already there.
“Timely… no, I suppose you only brought this to me now because of the timing.”
“Pretty much. The path is open, but if we’re aiming for the best, it’s better to rely on a specialist, right?”
She meant the words sincerely, but the man on the receiving end just smiled wryly.
“Specialist is a strong word. I just messed with it because no one else would…”
“But the result is that you know more about it than anyone else, isn’t it?”
“That’s true,” he eventually conceded, though the wry smile remained. Unlike the openly confident Kagura, his slight lack of confidence and unreliability was a known fact among his inner circle.
And it was also a known fact that the skill of [Scorching Arm] was more trustworthy than anyone else’s.
[Lost Echoes]—rare stones that had wandered into the present, carrying with them relics of the past that no longer existed in Arcadia, along with condensed primal magic.
A general term for materials that were known to be useful for something, but had been left to rot as no method to extract their inner power had been developed.
Unprocessable items that would lose their light the moment you tried to extract their power, whether by breaking, drilling, or melting them. A piece of the Magicrafters’ history of defeat, where years of effort yielded no breakthrough, and everyone had revised their perception from ‘Rare’ to ‘Useless.’
He, who had continued to research them half as a hobby and half out of sheer stubbornness, must have been truly furious.
For the system itself, of all things, had presented a solution without any warning—the answer of extracting memories from the residual magic to form matter.
Any Magicrafter capable of seeing the color of magic would understand the process after seeing it just once. The phenomenon of items emerging from crushed [Stardust Relics] was the very trigger for the next technology that many artisans had been seeking.
As of yet, most hadn’t realized. And that is precisely why—
“Let’s have a joint production for the first time in a long while. Lend me a hand.”
The ‘first of its kind’ to be born from this should be something that could be presented without shame, no matter how many people look back on it from whatever future.
The former and current top artisans. If the two highest-ranking artisans teamed up, they had more than enough star power.
“…………I’m pretty sure I said I was busy.”
Even as he said it, the smile that played on his lips was a mirror image of the Fire-Player’s. The man—Clan Master of Mirage Workshop, [Scorching Arm], Enra—tossed his pen onto the desk as if discarding it and pushed himself up with an old man’s grunt.
“Well, I can manage a few days of slacking off.”
“You’ll be the one managing it in a few days, though.”
And so, Kagura fell in step beside Enra as he walked off with the commissioned items.
“I’m granting my niece’s ‘request,’ you know. You could show a little more appreciation. You used to be so cute, always clinging to me and calling me ‘Uncle, Uncle!’”
“I-I… y-you were the one who made me promise to ‘thoroughly role-play even when we’re alone in the virtual world’…! I’m enduring the embarrassment and acting, so could you please stop breaking character so suddenly…?!”
“Because I knew you’d mess it up in a heartbeat if you didn’t make a habit of being thorough at all times… Well, in the end, my plan failed and Fire-Player Kagura’s character-breaking act became famous anyway, so I’m thinking I can just give up on all of it.”
“Don’t call it a character-breaking act…!”
The two artisans, a close uncle and his niece, disappeared into the workshop at the back of the room.
And now the character-breaking act is exposed to the readers.