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Chapter 202: Runesmith. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2021-07-18 00:02:31 +0000 UTC“Let’s try it out! Pour mana in… and shoot!” Outside in the training field of House Helvas’s mansion, Ellaine, wearing her repaired dragoon armor, was concentrating her mana into her sword before swinging it. Six blue glowing lines suddenly lit up on the sword, before the sword’s blade split into seven individual shards, all held together by one single, thick mana thread.
In awe at the blade shards dancing in the air, Ellaine kept swinging her new sword around, testing how long the thread could extend. The mansion’s guards began to take notice, watching Ellaine play with her new “toy” before being called out by the Count. Once the spectators were gone, Ellaine’s father returned his attention back to his daughter.
[“Oooh, the blacksmith did a fine job with your blade, dear. The extension of the weapon is controlled by how much mana you pour into the weapon, and you can retract it whenever you want by decreasing the flow of mana. Easy to control,”] Klea’Hatma, without revealing her eyes, spoke to us through her telepathy. [“Hmm, how about releasing my powers to see how it works with them?”]
“Please, take care not to startle my guards, ‘Ellaine,’” the Count warned, not to his daughter but indirectly at the demon since he couldn’t say her name out loud.
Ellaine’s whipblade was finally finished. The blade was made using the metal of the High Ogre’s axeblade, which was able to withstand my [Dreaflare Aura] at point-blank range, a handle and crossguard made from Cernust’s broken antler-horn, and a few of my old, shed layers of my claws and carapace spikes. Just from the materials used, most adventurers would immediately recognize this as a high-tier weapon.
In addition to those, the weapon itself had a mechanism inside its rather large crossguard. Under Grimnir’s instructions, Ellaine managed to contribute to her own weapon by implementing the mechanism needed to control the whip part of the weapon by how much mana she was pouring into it. With this mechanism, Ellaine could control the length of the mana thread released and extend or contract the blade’s reach. Grimnir did mention it could use some more tweaking, but Ellaine could do this herself once she became better at tinkering.
“Woah!” Once done with the tests, Ellaine stopped pouring mana into her weapon and it snapped back into a sword, causing Ellaine to fly backwards as the recoil of the retraction was unexpected for her. “Ouch!” she groaned before I helped her up, chuckling at her mistake.
Her father sighed as he saw this, scratching his head. “Your training will have to increase if you wish to learn this weapon, Ellaine. Don’t forget to come back home the moment your classes are over.”
“Well, if you could help me skip a few lectures, I would be able to train more. Right, Father?” Ellaine’s mischievous comment only earned her a fierce scolding from her father, who was trying to inject more discipline into Ellaine’s character, similar to how he would train a soldier or a squire. Ellaine has been training with her father daily since we arrived in Griffonpeak, and it seemed their relationship has improved a bit. I mean, Ellaine was acting more relaxed around him, in my opinion.
Speaking of school, Ellaine just came back from the academy just a few moments ago. When she learned Grimnir had finished both making her new weapon and repairing her armor, she instantly changed out of her academy uniform and jumped right into her armor. Poor Josine had no experience armoring a knight up, so Count Helvas had to teach Ellaine’s maid how to do it.
When her father told her to name her sword, as it was customary for a knight, I couldn’t help but think of Farron’s weapon, back in Firwood. “Caliarus” was its name. I guess I should have figured it out back then when I saw his profile and that he had “Artorian Lionheart Sword abilities,” that Farron was a former Knight of the Lionheart.
However, Ellaine decided to hold off on naming her weapon for now, since she wanted to do it after she passed the knight’s exam. Still, this was her weapon’s stats.
<Dragonclaw Whipblade: A finesse weapon made using the claws of a sunfang dragon and the horn of a forest drake, bound together with white voldunna alloy. Forged using the flames of a high-rank dragon, the mana of the dragon was infused into the weapon’s metal, increasing the blade’s mana accumulation. A combination of high-quality materials and artificer work, this unorthodox weapon acts not only as a sword but also as a powerful whip
Attack Power: 1877
Skill: [Mana Conductor Lv. 5] [Mana Efficiency Lv. 4] [True Sword Mastery Lv.1] [Decreased Weight Lv. 5] [All Damage Enhancement Lv. 1] [Herculean Power Lv. 1] [Speed of Sound Lv. 1] [Aerial Fighter Lv. 8] [Mid-Air Maneuvering Lv. 5] [Mind’s Eye Lv. 1] [Durability Loss Reduction Lv. 10] [Improved Abnormal Status Infliction Lv. 6]>
Still a bit weaker than Farron’s weapon, but Grimnir mentioned he could reforge it stronger and better as we gained better materials. Still, it would serve her good enough for now.
“Hmm?” After helping Ellaine up, I noticed somebody leaving the mansion. With blond hair similar to Marianne’s, I realized it was Ellaine’s elder brother, Jonathan. “Hey, Jonathan, welcome back. Are you leaving for training again?” I waved at him before he left on his gargoyle, prompting him to turn around to respond.
“Ah, Lady Hestia, good day! Yes, I am currently leaving to train with the other squires,” he waved back at me.
“Dedicated, amazing. Oh, would you have some free time before then? Ellaine just received a new weapon. Would you like to see her wield it?”
“My sister’s? Uhm, I apologize, haha, but I must take my leave right now. Maybe next time, Lady Hestia!” Suddenly breaking his gentleman-like behavior, Jonathan’s brows frowned a bit when he saw Ellaine before jumping onto his gargoyle and flying off into the orange sky.
Ellaine looked dejected while Count Helvas sighed deeply as they saw Jonathan leave. Jonathan has been acting weird around Ellaine since they met up at the academy again, and I also heard they had a meeting with their parents the day before. It's their family business, so I didn’t want to pry, but I felt it sucked that they were acting like this.
However, my thoughts didn’t last long as somebody suddenly interrupted them.
“By Crustacia’s twin locks, are you lasses trying to have me burn the wagon down! I told you to come over here now if you want to see a runesmith at work!” It was Grimnir, peeking his head out of the RV, shouting at us with a red face. He only had stubble for now, but his hair and beard were slowly growing back.
With Ellaine’s sword and armor finished, Grimnir decided it was finally time for him to begin working as a runesmith again, which means he wanted to rune up Ellaine’s equipment. He had been preparing for it since midnight, apparently, and he was frantic enough to shout at us to hurry the fuck up.
As we didn’t want to anger him, we all went over to the RV, including the Count. Unfortunately for him, Grimnir wouldn’t have it.
“I did not invite you, ankong,” Grimnir called out Count Helvas, calling him “human” in dwarven. “Sorry, Count, but runesmithing isn’t for everybody to see. I might have been dishonored and exiled from the Ankor-Nazta, but I still ain’t letting any outsiders watch my craft. You ain’t a runesmith, you ain’t learning!”
“Then why are you inviting my daughter and the others then? Aren’t they onlookers just like me?” the Count asserted, seemingly unsatisfied that he couldn’t see something in his own yard.
“You want me to kick the lasses out every time I want to work on some runes? The wagon only has so much space until I figure out how to turn the lass’s [Room] into a rune,” Grimnir argued back. “Enough arguing! The damn furnace has been on since damn midnight! You four, get in here now, or I’ll shut the door!”
Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and I immediately did what Grimnir said, leaving the Count behind as we entered the RV. Suffice to say, when Grimnir mentioned he might burn the RV down, he wasn’t kidding.
“Ack! What is this heat!” Saori complained as we closed the RV’s door shut. As I looked at Grimnir’s forge, I could see the flames flaring like a beast.
“Urgh, it’s still bearable but why can I feel the heat despite my armor’s skills? Just how warm is it, Master Grimnir?!” Ellaine questioned the dwarven smith, barely sweating since her dragoon armor was made using my scales. I wasn’t sweating, but I could feel the heat creating a veil around me. “Tasianna, could you—”
“No!” Grimnir interrupted Ellaine with a shout. “Don’t change the damn temperature, bladdarg! Do you know how long I had to keep the damn flames going, waiting for you to come back home?! Fucking enough, I’m sweating! Here, look!” Grimnir pointed at his slightly damp forehead.
Still not understanding the situation, I had to finally pose a question, “You said you’ve been preparing for this since midnight. Are you kidding me, you’ve been keeping your furnace on since then?! Why?!”
“Runesmithing,” Grimnir grumbled before pulling a cloth, revealing an anvil underneath it with multiple shining runes. “Do me a favor, Tasianna. Cast [Air Shield] around us. You should be able to control it perfectly with your Goddess’ blessing, right?”
Tasianna did exactly that. When she cast [Air Shield] with her catalyst blessed by Zephira, she could control the spell to let air in and out whenever she wanted. Normally, when casting using either a normal catalyst or no catalyst, [Air Shield] blocked air from coming in and going out, so it didn’t just block sound but also kept oxygen and carbon dioxide from crossing the barrier, so you had to dispel it before it suffocated you. Tasianna’s didn’t have this problem.
Once the spell was up, Grimnir continued, “To tell you the truth, I was lying to your father, Ellaine. Technically, I’m not even supposed to show you lasses any of what I’m doing. The runesmithing guild is a dwarven-only guild, and, as with every other tazongn craft, we don’t like letting others learn our trade secrets. We especially don’t like sharing our craft with the other races. The runesmithing guild, though, is especially stubborn. It’s an exclusive art for only dwarven runesmiths and their apprentices.”
“I have heard about that, Master Dwarf,” Tasianna stated. “This jealous possessiveness of their runecraft is linked to the dwarves’ lives before the Origin Gods’ advent in Peolynca. I heard that runecraft was made to alleviate the dwarves’ inability to cast magic, and, as such, your people are unwilling to share their crafts with others. You are telling us to keep this a secret, correct, Grimnir?”
“Aye, correct, fiflei,” Grimnir nodded, calling Tasianna “fairy” in dwarven. “I can’t lie to the God of Runesmithing, but I can still trick the other runesmiths. I don’t care about the guild’s rules anymore, but I still agree I shouldn’t be sharing our race’s proud craftsmanship with outsiders. Can I have your word on this, to not share any knowledge I impart on you? Close your lips under the God of Oath’s eyes?”
Seeing as Kargryxmor is looking down at us, breaking a promise like this would be kinda awkward. Still, I don’t intend on betraying Grimnir’s trust.
All four of us nodded, swearing we won’t share any runecrafting secrets to calm the anxious Grimnir down. Grimnir glanced at the demon, prompting her to answer, too, [“Not like it will interest me, so speak away.”]
Grimnir scoffed at Klea’Hatma’s response but accepted it regardless. “Then, let’s get started. Lass, your sword. I need to add a fail-proof to it.” Grimnir glanced at his newest creation with pride, looking up into the ceiling of the RV. He then placed it on a workbench and pulled out a couple of iron ingots.
“Listen well, for a runesmith never repeats this lesson to their apprentices,” Grimnir said as he placed the iron into his forge. Once it started glowing orange, he pulled it out and began hammering the impurities away from it. “Rune magic, as we runesmiths call it, is our race’s attempt to even the battlefield between you magicians and us magic-less. In the words our shrine maidens of Crustacia say, who have learned of the reason for our inability to use magic, it is both a curse and blessing that our original creators gave us on our birth.”
Dwarves weren’t like the other races, for while the others were always born with flesh and blood, the dwarves originated from the ores of the world. When Crustacia arrived and became the dwarves’ patron Goddess, the dwarves’ shrine maidens began talking to the Goddess of Earth to learn more about the reason why they couldn’t cast magic, why they couldn’t use their Goddess’s gifts like the other races.
“We aren’t able to commune with elementals like the other races, even though we were made by the original ruler of the Earth element, an Earth Elemental Emperor. Neither can we use conventional catalysts like staves, spell rings, and such. Without elementals and catalysts, we couldn’t produce mages before the Divine System. I was told my race was hopeful when Goddess Crustacia accepted us, so we felt deeply betrayed when we couldn’t cast any Earth spells even then.”
Crustacia was able to change the biological make-up of a dwarf to allow them to become mages, but Grimnir told us this was a sacred ritual, so rarely done that only a handful of dwarven mages existed. If you asked me, I would guess that Plesia probably had a say in it. If you think about it, changing a whole race’s DNA would be considered “impactful.”
Still, Crustacia revealed the reason for their inability to the dwarves. The Earth Elemental Emperor, one of the old “gods” of Peolynca, who controlled the world’s Earth elements as its primarch, was the creator of the dwarves. Using ores and rocks to create their form, which they then turned into flesh and blood, the Emperor was able to bring the dwarves to life. The elemental’s reason for creating the dwarves in this way was unknown even to Crustacia.
I wonder if this is the truth, but then again, why would Crustacia lie? The dwarves were furious that they couldn’t cast the spells of their own patron Goddess, so if she lied, it wouldn’t have ended so well. Well, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, since Aurena had nothing bad to say about her.
“Still, it’s not like us tazongs would be content with this. Before the Origin Gods came to our world, we created the first runic tattoo.”
From what I heard from Talon, the illusionist from Cedaraille, I knew he was a runic tattooist and that the craft came from the dwarves. Grimnir explained runic tattoos were made to resemble magic circles, however, they used the dwarven language and their culture’s engravings. Conventional catalysts made using alchemy were useless for a dwarf, so they came up with a version they could use.
Dwarves weren’t able to expel mana from their bodies, so it was simply impossible for them to combine it with the elements and mold it. For example, if mana was mixed with one of the six elements or the composite elements, its color would change corresponding to them. That’s why the magic circles were colored according to the element of the spell.
Dwarves could only channel their mana through objects related to the earth — rocks, metal, wood, plants, and blood were primarily examples. They could still empower their fists and weapons with mana to cause massive damage, while their body was protected by their “stubborn” mana, reducing any incoming magical damage, as mentioned in the dwarven racial skills [Body of Earth] and [Dwarven Magic Resistance].
“Blood is our catalyst. The main material used in runic tattoos is blood. A runic tattooist traps mana inside these blood tattoos using special equipment, while chanting like a magician, to grant them power. This means that runic tattoos could act like spells for us,” Grimnir explained after finishing hammering the impurities out of the iron ingot. He then placed it back in the forge and began melting it. “It all changed when the Origin Gods came to our world. That was when our ancestor, the father of runesmithing, made his way to the top. Etch this into your minds, lassess, for his mortal name is Dhuinn Gleiubnekkar. The God of Runesmithing, Dhuinn.”
Dhuinn Gleiubnekkar was an ordinary inko blacksmith before he created runesmithing. Unwilling to accept the fact his race couldn’t understand and use the spells of his patron Goddess, Dhuinn dropped his hammer and anvil to pursue the answer for this question, sorting through some of the last notes of the God of Magic, Istari, before he ascended to godhood.
Despite reading and trying to understand it with the help of the mages of Aleistunum, Dhuinn got nowhere. As he slowly slipped into insanity, Dhuinn resorted to the only skill he learned during his lifetime and that was his smithing. Going back inside a forge, Dhuinn began smithing, dedicating all his new works to Crustacia instead of the God of Smithing, Bleidla.
During this time, Bleidla was still the subordinate god of Danterno and, as such, the faith Danterno should have received went over to Crustacia. During his time with the Aleistunum mages, he made some friends amongst them, who helped him create phenomenal artifacts. With a mindless obsession of praying to Crustacia for answers, after five years of smithing works just for her, she finally gave him the knowledge he needed to create runesmithing.
“It sounds like Goddess Crustacia also has a hand with runesmithing,” Saori mentioned. “So shouldn’t she get the credit for creating it?”
“Guess so, but either way, the result of this dedication was runesmithing. There are four rules we runesmiths must always follow, and the fourth one is the ‘Rule of Work.’ Always show your respects to your seniors, for they have sacrificed their time on Peolynca for your success,” Grimnir said before taking a wooden bottle from his workbench, opening the lid to reveal it filled with blood. “Number one, Rule of Blood. Blood is the most essential part of runesmithing, for it binds mana to create rune magic. Three runes may be placed on any item, and two additional slots open up for every rank above D. That wyvern was a B rank monster, so using his blood allows me to place up to seven runes on any weapon or certain pieces of armor.”
“This includes Saori’s and mine, right?” I asked, to which Grimnir nodded. Farron’s Caliarus had seven runes, if I remember correctly, so I wondered whose blood he used.
“Runesmithing isn’t easy and it's more akin to a ritual than actual smithing.” Grimnir then threw more charcoal into his furnace, stroking the flames as the ingot kept melting into liquid metal. “There are two phases, the first is the preparation. Let the fire of the forge roar when the moon stands up in the sky, and allow it to live until dawn comes. Splatter the forge fire with the same blood as your runes, for the fire will enhance the mana of the metal. Heat iron ingots until they glow orange and hammer the impurities away. Allow the purified ingot to melt and rest until the rune forging begins.”
He then turned around, staring at us as we gulped from anticipation. He picked up Ellaine’s sword and removed the blade from the mana thread, picking blade shards up and placing them next to his runic anvil. “This is my runic anvil; it aids in the mana binding and allows me to create certain runes more easily with the assistance of my [Master Runesmith] skill. Lasses, I need your help as my assistants. My cousin and my former apprentices used to do it for me, but I only got you four now. Mind lending this fool of a dwarf a hand?”
““““Of course!””””
“Alright, then let’s begin. Don’t get overwhelmed now…” Grimnir took in a deep breath before his lung released his bellowing voice. “Ellaine, get a cloth and make sure not a single drop of sweat gets on the rune! Tasianna, pour some of the beer in that cask into a bucket and get water ready for everybody to drink! Hestia, feed the fire charcoal as necessary to keep it going as hot as it is now! Saori, once I say so, quench the shard in the bucket of ale and clean it off with this hair cloth! Umslid fie Dhuinn!” (Honor to Dhuinn!)
The four of us jolted into action, preparing what we needed to do while Grimnir began to take the first step of the second phase. He told me to take out the bowl with the liquid iron from the furnace, since I was the most heat-resistant person in our party, and to bring it over to him as fast as possible. He picked up a hand-sized metal stick, dipped it into the liquid metal before beginning to use it like a pen, carefully drawing a magic circle with accuracy and deftness.
“Ellaine, a spoonful of blood! While Bleidla’s heat singes my beard!” Grimnir shouted, ordering Ellaine to splash some blood onto the iron drawing the moment he finished. “Time is of the essence!” Picking up his ever-molten voldunna hammer, he imbued it with mana before striking the first shard of Ellaine’s sword.
The massive metal clang resounded around us, causing our bodies to shiver at the impact this master blacksmith could produce. “Saori, hold the tongs like this! Don’t let it go otherwise my strikes won’t have the impact needed, alright?!” High Strength was needed to hold onto the tongs as Grimnir continuously struck the blade shard three times every second with the power of a veteran warrior. Thankfully, Saori had the second highest strength in our party, staying unperturbed by rattling shockwaves sent through her arms.
“Uuuuuuuh, huuuuuaaaaaandaaaa vieeeeeeeee.” Unexpectedly, Grimnir stopped shouting commands and began singing. Grimnir’s bass was incredibly deep, causing me to snap my head around and smile. “Saaaaaarlooooontaaaaa fieeee uuuuumsliiiid! Feeeeelknuuuuln lasaaa mahoooooj’ku ruuuuunek daaaaaahbu, Cruuuuustacia.”
[“I think this is a song dedicated to Crustacia, Lady Hestia. I’m not sure, but this might be related to the ‘ritual’ like Grimnir mentioned?”] Tasianna informed me. Regardless of what it was, we girls didn’t let this stop our part of the work.
His voice really has a good bass. Yeah!
As Grimnir continued the song three more times, his forehead began to form sweat beads, which were quickly cleared away by Ellaine. Tasianna finished pouring beer into a wooden bucket and was beginning to hand everybody a mug of water to drink. The moment Grimnir stopped his song, Tasianna poured his share down his throat as he kept on swinging.
With his throat parched, Grimnir transitioned to something similar to chanting. I couldn’t understand the Dwarven tongue yet, but the structure of the chant made it obvious enough for me; it transcended the language barriers for me. After the chant was done, he once again began to sing Crustacia’s song until the rune suddenly began to glow blue.
“Saori!” Grimnir commanded and Saori quenched the shard in the bucket of beer. Steam exploded from the bucket, filling the room with a sickening alcoholic smell. After it settled and Saori wiped it clean with the cloth she was given, she gave Grimnir the blade shard back and he inspected it.
He poured mana through the shard, and the rune once again glowed blue. “Excellent. I hope everybody has the stamina because we still need to do this seven more times. One on each shard and one on the handle. I will not stop until this is finished, so you lasses better not give up!”
““““Got it!””””
Seven times. We had to repeat the same process six times. While our response was filled with vigor, by the time the third rune had to be applied, Tasianna began to feel dizzy from the heat. With Ellaine too focused on wiping Grimnir’s sweat away like a surgeon’s assistance, I had to take over Tasianna's role for the moment until she recovered.
By the fifth rune, Saori’s arm started to ache from the constant ringing Grimnir’s hammer caused. Once Tasianna was back inside, we had to shuffle people’s roles around. I held onto Grimnir’s tongs, Ellaine kept the furnace’s fire up, Saori poured water, and Tasianna wiped Grimnir’s waterfall forehead.
During all this chaos, Grimnir never stopped working once. His hammering and singing filled the smithy with sound, never leaving it silent for a second. Although he was dehydrating himself from the constant sweating and breaking his voice, Grimnir kept working.
Once all shards had a rune, it was time for the very last rune on the handle. Far smaller than the rest of the shards, this last rune required the most concentration and accuracy from Grimnir. Not only was the rune on the handle different compared to the other seven on the shards, but so was the chant Grimnir spoke. Everything else, however, was the same, and when the last rune glowed blue and received a beer bath, Grimnir let out a deep sigh and fell onto the ground, exhausted.
“Grimnir!” I called out, healing him in case he was hurt.
“I’m good, I’m good, lass,” Grimnir said through bated breath. He pulled himself up and picked up the shards and handle. He opened up the door and called us out, before throwing the shards on the ground. “Give me a dragorade, lass. I actually feel like I’m building up too much arcane corruption. I used up too much mana while I was working.”
Every hammer strike was filled with mana, filling the rune with it. After eight runes, Grimnir must have been exhausted physically, mentally, and magically. I looked up in the sky after I gave him a dragorade to drink, realizing we’ve been working until the moon was at its highest point. Grimnir set his furnace on fire last midnight and it was kept alive for a whole day.
Damn.
“This is the fruit of our labors,” Grimnir said after finishing his drink.
The blade shards of the whipsword were on the ground and Grimnir was holding onto its handle. He poured mana into the sword, activating the rune and like a domino effect, the runes on the shards lit up, too. They shook wildly before flying over to the handle, perfectly aligned.
Ahh, a retrieving function in case the mana threads snap!
“[Utility Rune: Retrieval], that is the name of this rune. A very popular rune for throwing axes amongst us tazongs. I etched the number of the shards, making sure when the shards reformed into the sword, they would fit.” Grimnir then swung the sword, now attached to the mana thread again. After whipping the blade around, he deactivated the blade’s mechanism, retracting the mana thread without the shards. As the blade pieces began to fall to the ground, Grimnir activated the rune again, the pieces flew back to the handle and it was back to normal.
Grimnir then turned to Ellaine, handing her sword back. “The Rule of Blood is non-negotiable. More runes than what the weapon can handle and it will break. Thankfully, the retrieval rune and its connector runes count as one single rune on an item.”
“You mean?!” Ellaine’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, we still have six slots left for your sword. Sadly, we used up all the blood, so we have to stop today. Ahhhhhh, seven runes, not good for anybody’s health with how us tazongs aren’t immune to arcane corruption. You fairies have it good, Tasianna.”
Tasianna shrugged. “Sure, but we make good mana battery fuel as a result, right?”
“Haha, true, true! Sorry about that, lass, I misspoke, haha!” Grimnir laughed with the giggling Tasianna. “Well, let’s take a break for now. We took a day off from work today, so we need to continue this another time. Don’t wanna work like this and create something like those ‘runes’ those humans can make for ya, hahaha!”
“Huh, what do you mean by that, Master Grimnir?!” Ellaine asked bewildered.
“What do you think, lass? Do you think a runesmith would teach a human anything more than a basic tattoo rune? I’ll make sure you learn what a [Passive Rune: Silence] actually looks like!”
Time went by again but we didn’t let this time go to waste. We still kept doing what we usually did — restaurant, white grace work, singing, smithing and potion selling now that Tasianna was an alchemy guild member. Nevertheless, as we broadened our horizons within Griffonpeak, we also had other activities ready for us.
The mage’s guild was a perfect place for us to test new custom spells and train our skills. The magic barrier around the training area meant we could sling spells as much as we wanted, so we were able to train our resistance and magic skills at a safe location inside a city. Tasianna also asked Maverina if she could find a talented alchemist teacher for her. Sure, we could have asked the alchemy guild, but we figured somebody from the empire would have more contacts for us to work with.
Also, about the fulinoe leaves, well, Maverina seemed to have figured out something and is acting suspiciously around us after Saori had President Sarlenzia raise the prices of fulinoe leaves specifically for the mage’s guild. Maverina wanted them so badly, she couldn’t say no to the price. She took 68% of our Davi, so we’ll just take it back the legal way, right?
After some more theology lessons, I felt I was filling my head with too much info from the holy book to the point I got sick of it.
In any case, time went by peacefully as we lived our life and got used to Griffonpeak. Once the first of SpringBloom arrived, it was time for us to prepare for King Drangleic’s ball.
It was time for the idol to enchant Artorian noble society.
