The automaton with pale purple—that is, "wisteria purple"—hair was quite a splendid sight.
"It looks great."
When Jin praised it, Reinhard replied, "Yeah, I'm relieved to hear you say that. Now I can move on to the next stage!"
"Next?"
"That's right. This is the base body. Normally, she'll serve as an attendant for me and Berche as an automaton. And then..."
Reinhard pointed to the materials in the back of the workshop.
"She'll wear the armor made from this and become the 'Black Knight'!"
Reinhard still seemed to have quite an obsession with the "Black Knight."
"I see, so that's the plan."
Building another Black Knight under the exact same concept wouldn't be very interesting, so this time it was a female-type. And when the time came, she would don the armor and become the Black Knight.
"That's pretty intriguing!"
Jin didn't dislike that kind of thinking at all. In fact, he loved it.
"And this is the material, huh..."
The glossy black material was "Gigant Peeder carapace."
It was light and tough. Perfect for armor.
"This is the carapace from the smaller Gigant Peeder, right?"
Judging from its thickness, Jin guessed it was from a 10-meter-class specimen rather than a 50-meter-class one.
"Yeah, that's right. As you'd expect, while the weight might be fine, the thickness of a 50-meter-class would be too much."
Reinhard continued:
"This brings me to the other thing I wanted to consult you about. Using the Gigant Peeder carapace is fine, but I'd like to add some variety in certain sections..."
While using a single material for the entire body was fine, Reinhard wanted to switch up the material for specific accent points.
"Like for the gauntlets, for instance."
Since gauntlets were protective gear covering the hands, he wanted flexibility if they were going to be detachable.
"Ah, in that case, I know of a great material."
Jin remembered the composite material he had examined with Saki yesterday.
And so, Jin and Reinhard headed together to the research workshop at Saki's house.
"Oh, what a rare sight."
Seeing Jin and Reinhard show up together, Saki let out a surprised remark.
"Reinhard became interested in that composite material you mentioned yesterday."
When Jin said that, Saki, as if finding someone entirely in agreement with her, grabbed Reinhard by the sleeve and pulled him toward the back of the workshop.
"I see, I see! Look, here it is!"
Saki held out a slightly translucent, black mass.
Looking closely, it seemed she had tested various blending ratios since then, as about ten clumps were scattered across the desk.
"This ratio seems to be the best. I'd love it if you could test it out and give me your impressions."
"I see, so this is it."
Having heard about it from Jin on the way over, Reinhard understood well what Saki was offering.
"'Forming.'"
The mass changed shape, turning into a thin sheet about 30 centimeters square.
"Hmm, it's quite soft in this state....Let's see what happens when I channel mana into it... 'Reinforce'... Oh, this is..."
Through Reinhard's magi-craft, the sheet of new material hardened.
"Reiko, could you check its strength for a moment?"
Jin was also curious about how much it had been reinforced, so he asked Mini-Reiko on his shoulder.
"Leave it to me, Father."
With that, she hopped lightly down from Jin's shoulder.
"Lord Reinhard, please hand it to me."
"O-Oh, sure."
Reinhard complied with Mini-Reiko's request and handed over the sheet.
"Thank you very much."
Receiving it, Mini-Reiko first tried bending the sheet.
"...It is quite durable."
Next, holding the sheet in her left hand, Mini-Reiko punched it with her right fist.
Even so, the sheet did not tear.
"I believe both its hardness and strength are sufficient for gauntlets."
Knowing its intended use, Mini-Reiko reported to Reinhard.
"Oh, really?! Thank you, Reiko-chan!"
Turning back to Saki, he added:
"Saki, thank you. The timing couldn't be better. Please teach me the recipe for this material!!"
"Sure thing, Reinhard."
Saki also looked pleased that the material she had just developed was being put to use right away.
Jin felt relieved that Reinhard's consultation had been resolved, but at the same time, he found himself wanting to make something with the material as well.
So Jin also chimed in:
"Saki, teach me the recipe too."
However, Saki gave a slightly bewildered look.
"Huh?...Sure, but it's probably not a hundred percent perfect yet, you know? It feels like there's still room for improvement."
"Is that so?...Then Reinhard and I will help out, and we can wrap it up in no time!"
"That's a great idea! All right, Saki, let's do it! We definitely should!"
Reinhard was just as enthusiastic as Jin.
Thus, by noon that day, the new composite material combining "Gigant Peeder carapace" and "Ground Spider resin" was perfected.
"Ah, food tastes so good after getting things done!"
Reinhard happily slurped his lunch of zaru soba.
While some people preferred plain mori soba to appreciate the aroma of the buckwheat, many in the Jin Family enjoyed it with various condiments.
Jin had also come to enjoy eating his first serving plain, his second with nori and wasabi, and his third with grated daikon.
For that reason, each serving portion was kept small. This was also effective for enjoying freshly boiled noodles with each refill (since leaving boiled soba sitting caused it to lose its aroma and become soggy).
The broth could also be adjusted to taste, whether sweet or savory.
Incidentally, Saki added shichimi or ginger in addition to wasabi, while Reinhard added agedama to make it chilled tanuki soba (Kanto-style).
Elsa had wild vegetable tempura, Lishia had shrimp tempura, and Berche also had shrimp tempura. Hanna preferred nameko mushroom and grated daikon soba, while Martha liked eating hers topped with plenty of shredded nori.
Goose was having just one bowl of hot kake soba, and today Marcia was eating yamakake—that is, soba topped with grated mountain yam.
Rodrigo and Toa had Cha-soba, while Beena cracked an egg into her broth for chilled tsukimi soba. Louis was eating mori soba with heaps of shalot (green onion).
Mine and Vivienne had seconds of zaru soba, and Marikka had tempura soba with itopo (sweet potato) and natsuri (pumpkin) tempura.
And Milowina elegantly enjoyed one serving of mori soba and one serving of Cha-soba.
They finished with soba-yu and rounded off the meal with buckwheat tea.
"Ah, that was truly delicious."
Marikka spoke with deep satisfaction, and it was a sentiment shared by everyone.
"Everyone is always crafting such a variety of things, aren't they?"
Milowina remarked in her characteristically gentle manner.
"Yeah, that's true....Though, this might be the very way Hourai Island was dreamed to be by the Predecessor... by Adriana Barbora Tsetse."
Jin replied as he blew gently to cool his buckwheat tea before taking a sip.