kscans

Chapter 106 - The Great? Inheritance - 2. To the Village

A carriage rattled along a rustic road leading to a small village, Chippo Village. Sitting on the driver’s seat was the beastman scout, Fray. Yes, the party that had accepted Yuri’s request was none other than "Lucky Footsteps."

They had accepted this request free of charge for the rather incomprehensible reason that "Yuri has helped us so much, we’d be cursed if we didn’t do at least this much." Yuri had shown reluctance, so they settled on him paying for lodging and food, and Adon had provided the carriage.

"Oh… so you were all away in another town for a while."

"Yeah. As soon as we got back, we were roped into hunting that bear."

"Well, enough about us. More importantly, Yuri, I hear you got into quite a brawl while we were away."

"We heard a story about you bullying some thugs who tried to pull a scam on you."

"Come on, ‘bullying’ sounds so bad. They were adults, but they were being a little too naughty, so I just gave them a little punishment."

"A punishment so severe that grown men cried and screamed…"

"Isn’t that what punishment is supposed to be?"

To Yuri, who asked this with a straight face, the party could only nod with indescribable expressions. Indeed, that was the essence of punishment.

"Well, knowing you, Yuri, you probably got up to something else after that, didn’t you?"

"How rude."

While exchanging such banter, Yuri recounted the recent events. The whole party leaned in to listen, but from the part about Mand, Adon’s head chef, trying to "borrow" his Magic Stone Tool, the behavior of the two half-elves, Katra and Dalia, became strange.

"...Come to think of it, I gave you all stone tools too, didn’t I."

Just as he was about to ask if they were useful, the two half-elves flinched. Yuri, who keenly noticed this, felt a bad premonition and posed a question to them.

"...Um… I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spread the word about the knife too much…"

"I’m sorry!"

"I wrote about it in a letter to my village!"

To summarize the story of the two half-elves, it went like this.

First, as a premise, elves possess a large amount of magic power, and because they are well-versed in it, they have poor compatibility with metal tools that have low affinity for magic. As a result, they have great difficulty equipping weapons like knives. This is their current situation. They can equip items made from the materials of magical beasts like dragons, but those are invariably few in number, and both the price and processing fees are high. However, Yuri’s "Magic Stone Tool" is not metal, so elves and half-elves can equip it without any problems, and what’s more, it has a high affinity for magic, making it a creation that seemed, in a sense, to have been born for elves. There was no way elves, who struggled to secure blades, would not be interested. As for whether the elves could create it themselves, the matter was not that simple.

First, elves are indeed proficient in magic, but the magic they can use is almost exclusively limited to wood, water, wind, and light attributes. Those who can use fire, earth, and dark attribute magic are extremely few. For the fire attribute, it is almost impossible to practice in the forests where elves live, or rather, it is strictly forbidden, so even if they have the aptitude, they do not improve. On the other hand, for earth and dark magic, it seems to be a racial matter, and almost no one is born with the aptitude. In the case of half-elves, perhaps due to the significant influence of their human parent, some are born who can use the three magics below fire, a nearby example being Katra who can use fire magic, but still, almost none are proficient in earth and dark magic. In short…

"We can’t make the kind of ‘stone tools’ you made, Yuri-kun."

"We want them so badly we could die, but we can’t make them ourselves. Do you understand?"

"So… there’s a very high probability that they’ll be extremely interested in my stone tools… is that it?"

"Not a probability. It’s a certainty."

A merciless finishing blow was dealt to Yuri, who was holding his head, envisioning an ominous future. It was not just elves, but any magician would be interested upon seeing such a thing.

"It is a new type of magic tool, after all. Of course they’d be interested."

"A magic tool!?"

"Oh? You didn’t realize it yourself, Yuri-kun? This is a bona fide magic tool."

"If you attach a magic stone, even someone without magic power could use it, right?"

While Yuri stood there stunned by the unexpected turn of events, Kudol and the others joined the fray.

"No, this knife has an excellent edge even without magic power, you know?"

"It’s perfect for butchering game, just as you said, Yuri-kun."

"Um… butchering is fine, but please don’t use it for combat, okay?"

"Hmm? Why not?"

"It’s certainly hard, but I think that means it lacks flexibility. If you use it roughly, there’s a risk it could break."

Remembering the ceramic knives he had seen in his previous life in Japan, Yuri listed their shortcomings. Even if they were not exactly the same as ceramic knives, it was better to be careful. If it broke during combat, it would be fatal. But as Yuri was stating this, a voice reached him from the driver’s seat.

"But from the feel of it when I used it, it didn’t seem like there was any worry of that."

The voice belonged to the beastman scout, Fray. With his beastman’s excellent hearing, he had apparently heard the entire conversation inside the carriage.

"Used it… Fray-san… you used it?"

"Yeah. I wanted to see what it was like. It was against a Forest Bear, but there were no problems at all."

"That may be… I don’t think it would break right away, but… as I said before, while its hardness is one thing, there’s a possibility it lacks toughness. Please don’t be overconfident."

"Got it. But Yuri, from what I felt, its toughness seemed on par with an iron sword."

"Is that so?"

Yuri did not realize it, but his "Magic" Stone Tool was not a mere ceramic. It was a masterpiece enhanced by Yuri’s magic power. At the stage when 【Appraisal】 began to display it as a "Magic Stone Tool," it had already surpassed ordinary ceramic knives and acquired a toughness comparable to iron tools. Only Yuri remained unaware.

Meanwhile, while Yuri and Fray were discussing the performance of the Magic Stone Tool, inside the carriage, Kudol, the leader of "Lucky Footsteps," was questioning the two half-elves.

"...You two, I hope you didn’t leak Yuri’s personal information…"

"Ah, we didn’t go that far, of course."

"We just told them we obtained an amazing knife through a certain connection. …And that it was made with Earth Magic."

"We also didn’t reveal who else has one, or how many there are in the first place."

"Well… if that’s all…"

…It was not all right. As soon as we return to Laurenzen, I will discuss countermeasures with Adon. Yuri made a firm resolution.