"Chancellor! How could someone of your standing have made such a request?"
The voice belonged to a sturdy, middle-aged man.
"Boulton, you are being far too loud," the chancellor rebuked, but the man didn't seem to hear him.
"Armaments must be forged! A sword hammered from steel is hard to break, and a shield made by layering and stretching iron is resilient. You know well that cast swords break instantly and are useless! Cast shields shatter; they cannot serve as protection! It is the same for armaments made by a magi craftman. Have you forgotten what happened the year before last? Even if they don't break, they bend immediately. They won't cut! Forcing soldiers to use such things is as good as ordering them to die! I cannot believe you are sane! I am adamantly opposed to this!"
He rattled the speech off in a single breath. Jin felt a strange sense of déjà vu, then—
"...Father..."
Gloria muttered with a weary face. It seemed the man called Boulton was Gloria’s father. They were a remarkably similar pair—at least in how unfortunate they could be.
Hearing his daughter’s voice, Boulton finally noticed her.
"Oh, Gloria! What are you doing here? And Princess Lieschen! No matter how well he repairs automata or constructs golems, I, Boulton, cannot accept entrusting him with our armaments!"
His voice was booming. Hanna was already covering her ears.
"Father..."
"What is it, Gloria? Right now, I am presenting my opinion to the chancellor..."
As Boulton began to speak, Gloria silently held out her own short sword.
"Hm? You mentioned the other day that you broke your sword. Is this a new one you’ve acquired? Hmph... W-What!?"
Boulton took Gloria's short sword, and his eyes practically glowed as he examined it.
"Oh! This magnificent grain! The edge is hard, the core is soft. It is tough throughout! You have found a fine sword! Surely it is the work of a master blacksmith?"
"Yes. It was made by Jin-dono, the man standing right there."
"Hmph, Jin-dono, you say?...There is only one such man—the Honorary Magi Craftman of the Kingdom of Egerea... S-Surely not!?"
"That is exactly who he is."
At long last, Boulton realized that his daughter's short sword had been crafted by the magi craftman known as Jin.
＊ ＊ ＊
Boulton was a baron and the armament administrator for the Ministry of General Affairs. He had apparently served in the ritter corps in his youth.
That same Boulton was now bowing so deeply his head touched the floor as he apologized to Jin.
"I am truly sorry! A lifelong blunder! To think there was a magi craftman capable of forging such a masterpiece!"
"It's really all right."
Jin truly didn't mind. He had simply been stunned by the man's intensity from start to finish.
The chancellor and the princess looked on as if this was a daily occurrence.
Elsa privately thought the man was like an even more extreme version of Reinhard, but she kept her face neutral. Hanna merely filed him away as a "funny old man."
To pass the time, Hanna was busy playing a clapping game with the princess.
So they have games like that here, too, Jin thought, letting Boulton’s apology wash over him.
＊ ＊ ＊
"And so, metals have internal boundaries, and they break along those boundaries. If the areas enclosed by those boundaries are large, the metal becomes brittle."
Once everyone had finally settled down, they sat in a rest area in the corner of the workshop to talk.
"Boulton possesses an evil eye, much like my own," the princess interjected. "The 'Microscopic Magic Eye'."
"Princess!"
Once again, she had let something important slip. She was even more honest than Jin—excessively so.
"Microscopic... that means you can see very small things, doesn't it?"
Boulton looked shocked when Jin asked.
"W-What!? To deduce its nature just from the name! Just who are you..."
"I told you, I am the Honorary Magi Craftman of the Kingdom of Egerea."
Jin stated this firmly and urged him to continue the interrupted explanation.
"Umu. I had heard that magi craft was flourishing in the Kingdom of Egerea, but I did not realize it had reached this level..."
Saying so, Boulton resumed his lecture.
Jin understood that what Boulton was describing were "grain flow" and "metal particles."
Metal is composed of minute crystals; the finer and more dense those crystals are, the tougher the metal becomes. Refining these metal particles is one of the primary goals of forging, which is why forged aluminum wheels are stronger than cast ones.
Jin had learned all of this during training sessions back when he worked in the metal industry.
"It was my view that armaments like swords made with magic had haphazardly arranged boundaries, making them unfit for practical use. However, the sword you produced..."
Boulton continued to drone on. Gloria was clearly her father’s daughter.
"All right, all right, that's enough. In short, Jin-dono's swords are highly practical, yes?"
Chancellor Powell finally voiced the conclusion, looking thoroughly exhausted.
To this, Boulton replied, "No, they are more than that. It would not be an exaggeration to call them masterpieces."
He said it with absolute conviction.
After the initial commotion, they had performed a test cut on a straw bundle and confirmed the blade’s quality. Since then, Boulton had remained remarkably humble.
Jin felt sheepish, Elsa watched Jin’s face, Hanna smiled, and Reiko looked immensely proud.
"I see."
The chancellor closed his eyes and crossed his arms, lost in thought. After about two minutes, he opened them again.
"Jin-dono, you have my gratitude. To be honest, I suspected you. I thought that while you claimed to be from Egerea, you were actually an agent for Unifilar or the Kingdom of Franz."
He lowered his head slightly as he spoke.
"What! Powell, that is..."
The princess started to protest, but the chancellor silenced her with a hand.
"Your Highness's eyes were correct. An enemy agent would never provide us with weapons and golems of this caliber."
As for how he knew about the golems, he had apparently been secretly observing the mock battle between Jin’s creations and Heinz.
The chancellor concluded by saying he would report to the King immediately and asked Jin to accompany him. He ordered a messenger soldier to request an immediate audience.
"Well then, shall we proceed?"
The group left the workshop.
Princess Lieschen, Chancellor Powell, Armament Administrator Boulton, and Vice-Captain Gloria—an illustrious lineup—walked through the palace alongside Jin, Elsa, Hanna, and Reiko. Maids and guards cast curious glances their way as they passed.
"I would like the younger girls to wait here."
Elsa and Hanna were guided to a reception room near the royal office. When Jin glanced at Reiko, she understood his meaning perfectly. She gave a single nod and, after checking the area in infrared mode, held up four fingers.
This meant that the two Secret Mobile Units assigned to Hanna and the two units assigned to Elsa were nearby.
Relieved, Jin stepped into the King's office with the chancellor. Reiko followed, as always.
The princess stayed with Jin, while Gloria stayed with Hanna and Elsa. Boulton took his leave.
"You've come, Jin."
Whether he had been notified in advance or not, King Alois III was waiting.
"I have heard. I am told you completed the swords and the golems in a single day. You have done well. You have my thanks."
Alois III clasped his hands on his desk.
"Now, in addition to the promised payment, I wish to grant you a reward. Is there anything you desire?"
He looked Jin in the eye as he asked. Producing so much in such a short time had earned Jin an extra boon.
Jin had something in mind, but he started cautiously.
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of the scale of what I've accomplished."
He wanted to see how the King would respond.
"Hm, I suppose that's true. For my part, I would have liked to employ you as a royal magi craftman, but that is not possible."
Jin's title as an Honorary Magi Craftman of the Kingdom of Egerea was proving to be a very useful shield.
"It would please me if I could grant you territory and have you settle in our country," the King continued.
The chancellor added his own proposal.
"Even if it does not go as far as full lordship over territory, we could grant you the rights of governance or autonomy over a specific piece of land."
Jin’s ears perked up at that.
"That sounds like a good idea," Jin said simply.
The chancellor jumped on his reaction. "I-I see! So Jin-dono does desire territory?"
The Klein Kingdom's priority was not to simply pay Jin and let him leave; they wanted to tie him to the country by giving him land.
"No, rather than territory, perhaps it would be better to call it a leased territory," Jin replied.
A leased territory was a piece of land that one country lent to another for a fixed period. Sovereign rights ostensibly remained with the lender, but the actual administrative and governing rights belonged to the borrower.
In this case, the Klein Kingdom would be leasing the land to Jin as an individual. While it was a weaker tether than traditional lordship, it was a condition the kingdom could easily accept.
"Hm. Is there a specific piece of land you have in mind?"
Alois III asked, looking as though he was starting to understand Jin's angle. Jin's answer was already decided.
"Yes. In that case, I would like Kaina Village."