THE COLDEST DEMON GOD
An Unwanted Hero's Ascension
Volume 1 — Summoning & Rejection
Chapter 21 — One Function at a Time
Water struck the black fabric and refused to disappear.
The first droplets flattened against the weave, trembled beneath the pale morning light, then gathered into clean beads. Renjiro tilted the square over the wash basin. Water rolled across the surface in silver lines and fell from the edge without leaving a dark patch behind.
Good.
He turned the cloth once between his fingers, feeling the lightness of it, the strength hidden beneath an ordinary linen texture, then pressed it against the inside of his forearm.
Thirty seconds was enough.
Heat collected beneath the material almost immediately. The skin under it grew warm, then damp. There was virtually no airflow.
Renjiro pulled it away and looked at the sample again.
"Useless."
That was technically unfair. It would make an excellent rain cover. A pack liner, perhaps. Something thrown over equipment during a storm. As clothing, however, it solved one problem by creating another.
Morning had only just begun beyond the shutters of the Willow Rest. Aureum's rooftops were still washed in weak grey-gold light, and somewhere below, a cart rolled over wet stone left from the previous night's mist. Inside the room, five black fabric samples lay in a neat row across the small table, each one marked by a different failure.
His notebook remained open beside them.
Stage Three - Single-Function Enhancement
Water Resistance
Attempt One - Successful surface rejection. Breathability failure.
Attempt Two - Reduced density. Water penetration under pressure.
Attempt Three - Layer separation instability.
Attempt Four - Mana retention excessive.
Attempt Five - Waterproof. Breathability unacceptable.
Renjiro rested one elbow on the table.
Divine Creation had not failed.
Again.
It had given him exactly what he had asked for. He had asked for fabric that water could not penetrate, and the result had obeyed with irritating precision. The mistake was his definition.
Clothing was not supposed to defeat water in isolation. It had to deal with the body wearing it as well: heat, sweat, movement, pressure, repeated folding, dirt, friction. A surface that rejected rain but trapped everything underneath was only half a solution.
His gaze shifted toward the original Asterian samples stacked near the window.
Earth had answered similar problems with membranes, layered textiles, chemical coatings, carefully engineered fibres. Renjiro understood the principles well enough to recognize them, but understanding a finished idea and reproducing its entire manufacturing logic were different things.
Asteria complicated the problem further.
Mana was everywhere. In soil. In water. In wood. In ordinary cloth that had never been enchanted at all.
He could probably recreate a modern waterproof membrane from memory and force Divine Creation to fill in the details.
Probably.
Renjiro's expression flattened.
He had developed a growing dislike for that word.
More importantly, copying an Earth solution without understanding how it behaved under ambient mana would simply replace one unknown with another.
Better to understand both systems first.
Then combine what worked.
He folded the fifth sample and stored it inside Void Box beneath a category he had created that morning.
Experimental Material - Water Resistance / Failed Clothing Application
None of the failures went into the rubbish. Failed results were still results.
Renjiro closed the notebook, stood, and reached for his ordinary coat.
Breakfast first.
Then research.
Apparently this was becoming a routine.
He was fine with that.
✦ ✦ ✦
Rain began halfway through breakfast.
There was no thunder to announce it. No wind slammed against the shutters. One moment Aureum's morning was merely overcast; the next, a steady grey curtain had settled over the street outside the Willow Rest, softening distant rooftops and turning the stones below into dark mirrors.
Water whispered from the eaves.
Renjiro paused with a piece of grilled bread halfway to his mouth.
Convenient.
"You planning to stare it dry?"
The innkeeper passed behind him carrying two plates.
Renjiro looked away from the window. "No."
"Good. We've tried that."
The man continued toward another table as if the matter were settled.
Renjiro watched him for a moment.
Broad shoulders. Greying hair. Permanent suspicion toward travellers, weather, suppliers, and apparently most forms of optimism. Renjiro had spoken to him almost every day since moving into the Willow Rest.
He still did not know his name.
That had somehow become strange.
"By the way."
The innkeeper stopped.
"What?"
"What's your name?"
Silence settled between them despite the rain tapping steadily against the windows.
The man turned very slowly.
"You've been sleeping under my roof for more than a week."
"Yes."
"You eat my food every day."
"Yes."
"You've paid me."
"Yes."
"And only now you ask my name?"
Renjiro considered the sequence. "Yes."
The innkeeper set down the cloth in his hand.
"Edric."
"Renjiro."
"I know."
"Right."
Edric stared at him for another second, then picked the cloth back up.
"Why now?"
Renjiro glanced at his plate. "I keep talking to you."
"That is usually how knowing someone works."
"Apparently."
Edric muttered something under his breath and walked back toward the counter.
Renjiro resumed eating.
Social maintenance, he decided, also required calibration.
Troublesome.
By the time breakfast ended, the rain had strengthened enough to blur the opposite side of the street. Renjiro returned upstairs, took one of the failed waterproof samples from Void Box, and slipped it into his coat.
A basin test had already told him what the material did.
Weather would tell him what it felt like when everything else moved around it.
He locked the room behind him and stepped outside.
Cold rain met him immediately.
Perfect.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Eastern Adventurer Guild smelled of wet leather, wool, and stone.
A dozen cloaks dripped near the entrance. Boots carried thin trails of muddy water across the floor, and someone had placed wooden buckets beneath two leaks near the eastern windows. Adventurers crowded under the commission boards, noticeably less enthusiastic about anything that required leaving the city walls.
Mira Vell sat behind her usual counter with a stack of papers in one hand.
She looked up as Renjiro approached.
"You're dry."
Renjiro glanced at his coat. "Yes."
"You own a coat."
"Yes."
"That wasn't a question."
"I know."
Mira narrowed her eyes.
Renjiro looked toward the boards. Several outdoor requests remained untouched despite being ordinary work.
Reasonable.
"What's available?"
"In this weather?"
"Yes."
"You know normal people avoid rain when possible."
"I've noticed."
Mira began sorting through a smaller pile.
"Short distance?"
"Preferably."
"Combat?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Danger?"
"Low."
Her hand stopped.
She looked at him carefully.
"That almost sounded responsible."
"I'm testing something."
"There it is."
Renjiro waited.
Mira sighed and pulled free a commission sheet.
"South Market apothecary. Their regular delivery runner injured an ankle this morning. Two sealed medicinal crates need to go to a clinic near the western residential district."
"Why Guild work?"
"One crate contains processed monster gland extract. City couriers won't handle registered alchemical materials without the right permit."
Renjiro read the request.
"Dangerous?"
"Not unless you drink it."
"I wasn't planning to."
"Good. Three kilometres, give or take."
"Fine."
Mira stamped the sheet, but did not immediately hand it over.
Her eyes moved to his coat.
"You're really going to walk across Aureum in the rain carrying medicine."
"Yes."
"For research."
"Yes."
"What are you testing?"
"Cloth."
Mira stared at him.
Then she slowly pushed the commission across the counter.
"Of course."
Renjiro took it.
"Anything else?"
"Yes." She pointed at him. "If whatever you made explodes, do not do it near the medicine."
"It won't explode."
"You say that with far too much confidence for someone who just admitted he's testing it."
Renjiro considered that.
"That's fair."
Mira blinked.
For some reason, agreeing with her seemed to offend her more than arguing would have.
Renjiro left before she recovered.
✦ ✦ ✦
The South Market was quieter in the rain, but not empty.
Awnings stretched over storefronts in uneven lines, forcing pedestrians into narrow dry channels along the buildings. Steam drifted from a baker's open doorway. Water rattled down metal gutters. Horses stood beneath canvas covers while merchants shouted prices across the wet street as if rain were merely another customer to outlast.
The apothecary occupied a narrow building between the bakery and a shop selling candles, lamp oils, and household charms.
Renjiro slowed before he reached the apothecary door.
Small pieces of inscribed ceramic hung beneath the neighbouring awning. Most were no larger than a palm. Some gave off faint warmth. Others carried barely visible currents of mana.
Civilian magic.
Not spectacular. Not military. Not designed to kill anything.
Exactly the kind of thing he had been neglecting.
He stepped beneath the awning and focused on one ceramic tile.
Appraisal Eyes opened.
HOUSEHOLD DRYING CHARM
Origin: Valentian Civilian Enchantment
Primary Function: Accelerated Moisture Evaporation
Method: Low-Heat Mana Output • Airflow Assistance
Power Requirement: Ambient Mana Recharge
Effective Area: Small
Risk: Low
Efficiency: Moderate
Limitations: Slow on Dense Materials • Can Damage Delicate Fabrics if Overcharged
Renjiro read it twice.
Heat and airflow.
Simple.
Not because the people who made it lacked imagination.
Because simple worked.
The shopkeeper noticed him through the glass.
"You buying," the man called, "or studying it to death?"
"Studying."
"That costs extra."
"How much?"
The shopkeeper laughed.
Renjiro stared.
Apparently it had been a joke.
He went inside anyway.
Ten minutes later he emerged with the drying charm, a low-grade warming stone, and considerably less money.
Research had expenses.
Repeatedly.
The medicinal crates were waiting next door.
They were sealed in treated wood and marked with red alchemical handling symbols. Renjiro checked the seals, the weight, the labels, and the delivery address before lifting one crate beneath each arm.
They were not heavy.
That was irrelevant.
He kept his pace ordinary as he stepped back into the rain.
Water drummed against the crate lids and hissed from the edges of awnings. His boots splashed through shallow runoff gathering beside the road. Around him, Aureum demonstrated half a dozen solutions to the same weather.
One merchant had wrapped his goods in treated hide.
A courier wore a waxed cloak darkened almost black by rain.
Two adventurers walked beneath a translucent film of mana that curved above their shoulders and pushed droplets aside before they touched cloth.
Renjiro's attention followed the spell as they passed.
MINOR RAIN WARD
Type: Civilian Utility Magic
Elemental Basis: Wind • Water Deflection
Function: Redirect Low-Mass Falling Water
Mana Consumption: Low
Stability: Moderate
Limitation: Inefficient Against Strong Wind • Physical Projectiles Unaffected
Another approach.
Instead of changing the garment, remove the environmental problem before it reached the garment.
Useful.
Still not the same objective.
Personal equipment should remain useful even when concentration failed, mana became inconvenient, or a spell was disrupted. A rain ward could supplement good clothing.
It should not replace it.
Redundancy was better than dependence.
Renjiro stored the observation and crossed the next intersection.
Then stopped.
Not because of traffic.
Three familiar figures stood beneath the covered frontage of a magic-supply shop ahead.
Tachibana Akari.
Ishida Daichi.
Fujita Ayane.
A Valentian knight waited several paces behind them, close enough to intervene, far enough to pretend he was not controlling where they went.
The sight of three people from Class 3-B beneath an Asterian shop awning should have looked more absurd than it did.
Perhaps Renjiro was adapting too quickly.
Akari noticed him first.
Her eyes widened.
"Kurogane-kun?"
Renjiro shifted the crate beneath his left arm.
"Akari."
Daichi turned next. He had been broad on Earth; Asterian training gear and the sword at his hip only exaggerated it.
"Kurogane."
"Daichi."
Ayane gave a small wave.
"Hi."
"Hi."
For a few seconds, rain filled the space where conversation should have gone.
Akari's gaze dropped to the sealed crates.
"You're working?"
"Yes."
"For the Guild?"
"Yes."
Something changed in her expression. Not surprise exactly. She had clearly heard enough by now to know he had joined.
"You really became an adventurer."
"Apparently."
Ayane studied the alchemical markings.
"Medicine?"
"Delivery."
Daichi glanced at Renjiro's coat, the crates, then the rain flowing from the edge of the awning.
"You doing okay?"
"Yes."
The answer came without effort.
Because it was true.
Akari's fingers tightened around the edge of one sleeve.
There was something else she wanted to say. Renjiro recognized the hesitation before she spoke.
"Kurogane-kun... about when you left the palace..."
He waited.
No anger surfaced in her face. No accusation.
Only guilt.
"I wanted to-"
A carriage cut through the intersection.
Its wheels struck a channel of muddy water near the curb and sent a brown sheet outward. Renjiro shifted one step without disturbing either crate. The spray missed him and broke harmlessly across the stones.
By the time the carriage passed, Akari's words had gone with it.
Renjiro did not rescue her from the silence.
He did not force her to finish either.
"You don't need to say it here."
Akari looked at him.
"That doesn't mean I shouldn't say it."
"No."
A small pause.
That was a better answer than an apology thrown into a crowded street because circumstance had finally placed them face to face.
Daichi looked away toward the rain.
Ayane's expression softened.
The knight behind them stepped forward.
"Lady Saintess, we should continue. Your scheduled return-"
Akari's shoulders tightened at the title.
Renjiro noticed.
She noticed him noticing.
Neither commented.
Interesting.
Daichi gave him a short nod.
"See you around."
"Probably."
Ayane smiled faintly. "Try not to get sick in the rain."
"I won't."
Akari almost smiled as well.
"That sounds very confident."
"It is."
The knight looked faintly confused.
Renjiro continued down the street.
He heard Ayane say something quietly behind him, but the rain swallowed most of it.
He did not listen harder.
He had medicine to deliver.
✦ ✦ ✦
The clinic smelled of boiled herbs, clean linen, and something bitter Renjiro could not identify.
A healer inspected both seals before signing the Guild sheet.
"Good. We were running low."
Renjiro looked past him.
Several patients waited along one wall: a woman with a wrapped wrist, an old man with a bandaged hand, two children coughing into cloths while their mother sat between them.
Nothing appeared critical.
"Anything else?" Renjiro asked.
"No. Guild handles the payment."
Renjiro nodded and turned toward the door.
Rain hammered the street beyond the awning.
It had become heavier.
Perfect.
He took the experimental fabric from inside his coat and unfolded it.
The healer watched.
"What's that?"
"Failure."
The man blinked.
Renjiro stepped outside.
Rain struck the sample hard enough to flatten the fibres beneath his fingers. Droplets still gathered and rolled away without penetration.
He wrapped the material around his forearm.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Two.
The trapped heat returned exactly as before, only more obvious now that the air around him was cool.
Renjiro opened Appraisal Eyes.
EXPERIMENTAL WATER-RESISTANT FABRIC - V5
Creator: Renjiro Kurogane
Base Structure: Reinforced Linen Composite
Primary Enhancement: Water Rejection
Water Penetration: Negligible
Air Permeability: Poor
Thermal Venting: Poor
Mana Distribution: Stable
Structural Integrity: High
Wearability: Low for Extended Use
Evaluation: Functional Material • Failed Clothing Application
Exactly.
Renjiro removed the cloth.
The healer had followed him to the doorway and was now watching with the careful expression of someone reconsidering what kind of adventurer had just delivered his medicine.
"You make cloth?"
"Currently."
"You're an adventurer."
"Yes."
The healer looked at the Guild card beneath Renjiro's coat.
Then at the black square of fabric.
Then back at Renjiro.
"Right."
Renjiro stored the sample.
The rain had confirmed what the basin already suggested.
He did not need stronger water resistance.
He needed controlled permeability.
A material that behaved differently depending on which direction moisture tried to move.
That was a structural problem.
Which meant the drying charm had just become more interesting.
He turned back toward the South Market.
✦ ✦ ✦
The charm shop owner looked up when Renjiro returned.
"You broke it already?"
"No."
"Then why are you back?"
"Question."
The man's face tightened.
"That's worse."
Renjiro placed the drying charm on the counter.
"How does the airflow component maintain direction?"
For the first time, the shopkeeper stopped treating him like an amusingly strange customer.
His eyes sharpened.
"That's not a normal customer question."
"I'm not a normal customer."
"I noticed." The man picked up the charm. "You enchant?"
"Learning."
"From where?"
"Here."
The shopkeeper stared at him.
Rain clicked against the windows.
Eventually he sighed.
"Fine. The heat circuit loosens bound moisture. The air circuit carries it away."
"I know."
"Then why ask?"
"The airflow."
The shopkeeper tapped three narrow marks cut into the lower edge of the ceramic.
"These."
Renjiro leaned closer.
The symbols were small enough to disappear into the decorative pattern if someone did not know where to look.
"They aren't generating wind."
The man's eyebrows rose.
"No."
"They're creating a pressure difference."
A longer pause.
"Yes."
Interesting.
Not pushing air.
Creating somewhere for moisture-loaded air to move.
Renjiro focused Appraisal Eyes more narrowly this time.
The charm unfolded into relationships rather than labels: heat, gradient, pressure, mana flow. The structure was crude compared with anything Divine Creation could produce.
But crude was not stupid.
It used the minimum necessary mechanism and no more.
Renjiro approved.
"How much for a blank charm tile?"
The shopkeeper named a price.
Renjiro bought six.
The man placed them into a small paper packet.
"You're going to try making one."
"Yes."
"You'll crack at least three."
"Probably."
The shopkeeper smiled.
"Come back when you crack four."
Renjiro left with no intention of giving him the satisfaction.
✦ ✦ ✦
He cracked two.
The first tile survived less than a second.
Renjiro had barely fed mana into the pattern before the energy gathered too sharply along one edge. A dry snap cut through the room, and the ceramic split into three pieces across the table.
He stared at them.
Too concentrated.
The second attempt lasted six seconds.
Better.
Then a pressure imbalance formed through the centre and the tile fractured with a sharper crack, one half jumping hard enough to strike the wash basin.
Renjiro picked it up.
"Acceptable."
The third did not break.
It worked.
Too well.
A square of wet cloth lay beneath the tile. Renjiro activated the pattern and watched moisture lift from the fibres almost instantly.
Then a thin ribbon of smoke curled upward.
He shut the effect off.
The cloth had gone from wet to nearly scorched in seconds.
Renjiro opened the window.
Cold rain-scented air entered the room.
From downstairs, Edric shouted.
"What are you burning?"
"Cloth."
"Why?"
"Research."
A pause.
"That answer made it worse."
"Nothing's on fire."
"It smells like something is."
"It was."
Silence.
Then footsteps hit the stairs.
Renjiro opened the door before Edric reached it.
The innkeeper stopped on the landing.
Renjiro looked at him.
"No fire."
Edric leaned sideways.
Two broken ceramic tiles.
One blackened fabric square.
Several intact samples.
Notebook.
Wash basin.
Table still present.
Curtains still present.
No fire.
Edric slowly straightened.
"You pay extra if you burn the room."
"Reasonable."
"And the table."
"Reasonable."
"And the curtains."
"I'm not testing the curtains."
"That wasn't permission."
"I know."
Edric stared at him for another second, then turned and walked downstairs without another word.
Renjiro closed the door.
Attempt Four.
Lower heat.
Less aggressive pressure difference.
Wider dispersion.
He placed a fresh wet cloth beneath the tile and activated the pattern.
This time, nothing dramatic happened.
Good.
Moisture left the fabric slowly. The surface warmed, but only slightly. No smoke appeared. No scorching. After several minutes, Renjiro lifted the cloth and rubbed it between his fingers.
Dry.
Warm.
Stable.
Appraisal Eyes opened.
UNNAMED UTILITY MAGIC PROTOTYPE
Creator: Renjiro Kurogane
Function: Controlled Moisture Removal
Method: Low-Heat Mana Transfer • Pressure-Guided Airflow
Elemental Interaction: Fire • Wind
Output: Low
Mana Consumption: Extremely Low
Material Damage Risk: Minimal at Current Output
Stability: Stable
Combat Application: Negligible
Civilian Utility: High
Renjiro's gaze stopped at the final line.
Civilian utility.
Good.
Not everything needed to kill something.
He deactivated the charm and looked at the ceramic tile resting in his palm.
The tile was not the function.
It only held the pattern.
Renjiro already understood the pattern.
He set the ceramic aside, picked up another wet square of cloth, and focused.
Not Divine Creation.
Mana.
A trace of heat entered the fibres.
Tiny.
Controlled.
Then airflow.
No gust. No visible wind.
A pressure gradient.
Moisture loosened from the cloth, lifted, and travelled toward the open window. The fabric warmed beneath his fingers while cool damp air left the room.
Ten seconds.
Dry.
Renjiro stopped.
No chant.
No magic circle.
No flare of light.
Only mana doing something he understood.
Appraisal Eyes caught the residual structure before it dispersed.
UNNAMED UTILITY MAGIC - MANUAL CAST
Function: Controlled Moisture Removal
Caster: Renjiro Kurogane
Elemental Interaction: Fire • Wind
Output Control: Stable
Mana Efficiency: High
Structural Requirement: None
Current Limitation: Requires Conscious Direction
Status: Successful Prototype
Renjiro looked from the dry cloth to his notebook.
He wrote:
UTILITY MAGIC
Moisture removal - successful.
Tile structure unnecessary after mechanism understood.
Do not automate until repeated control tests.
Potential applications:
Clothing.
Camping gear.
Food preparation.
Tool maintenance.
Shelter.
Wet fuel.
Medical sanitation - research required.
His pencil stopped.
Medical use required actual knowledge. Removing moisture was not sterilization. Warmth was not disinfection. Similar-looking outcomes did not make two processes equivalent.
He drew a line beneath the note.
Then returned to the fabric problem.
Pressure.
Direction.
Moisture movement.
The charm itself was not directly transferable to clothing, but the principle was.
Instead of sealing a fabric completely, he could engineer microscopic pathways that reacted differently depending on the direction and state of moisture.
Liquid water from outside encountered resistance.
Warm vapour from inside escaped.
Structure first.
Mana only reinforcing behaviour instead of carrying the entire burden.
For the first time that day, the problem became smaller.
Renjiro's mouth shifted into a faint smile.
Better.
✦ ✦ ✦
Attempt Six took forty minutes.
It failed after repeated flexing opened tiny channels wide enough for water to creep through.
Attempt Seven took fifteen.
Better breathability. Poor performance under pressure.
Attempt Eight took six.
Renjiro held the result beneath the lamp.
It looked disappointingly ordinary.
That was intentional.
Black cloth. Tight but not unnatural weave. No visible enchantment. Nothing that would make a merchant stare twice.
He soaked one side.
Water gathered on the surface.
Nothing passed through.
Renjiro reversed the sample and introduced warm moisture from the other direction.
Vapour escaped far more easily.
Not perfect.
Enough.
He created a simple long-sleeved shirt from the material.
No armour.
No self-repair.
No impossible resistance.
Just one function solved properly.
Renjiro changed.
The fabric settled around his shoulders without clinging. He raised both arms, rotated, stepped into a forward stance, cut through the air with an imaginary blade, recovered, lowered his centre of gravity, turned again.
No pull across the back.
No restriction at the shoulders.
No excess cloth at the wrists.
He poured water over one sleeve.
Droplets rolled away and struck the floor.
Renjiro waited.
The trapped heat from V5 never came.
Appraisal Eyes opened.
EXPERIMENTAL TRAVEL FABRIC - V8
Creator: Renjiro Kurogane
Base Structure: Reinforced Composite Weave
Physical Durability: High
Water Resistance: High
Air Permeability: Moderate-High
Thermal Venting: Stable
Mana Distribution: Low • Uniform
Self-Repair: None
Magic Resistance: None
Impact Resistance: Moderate
Appearance: Civilian-Compatible
Structural Stability: Stable
Evaluation: Suitable for Extended Wear
Renjiro read each line carefully.
No self-repair.
No magic resistance.
No absurd durability.
One problem solved.
That was enough.
He sat, opened the notebook, and added one line beneath Stage Three.
Water Resistance / Breathability Integration - VERIFIED
Then another.
Do not add another function until field wear is complete.
Renjiro closed the notebook.
The temptation arrived immediately.
Self-cleaning.
Temperature control.
Repair.
Impact resistance.
Magic resistance.
Concealment.
Then perhaps-
No.
One function at a time.
He had already learned the lesson more than once.
Apparently learning something did not prevent reality from checking whether he meant it.
Renjiro changed back into his ordinary shirt and stored the experimental one inside Void Box.
Tomorrow he would wear it outside for several hours.
No dramatic testing.
Walking. Heat. Movement. Sweat. Rain, if the weather remained cooperative.
Normal conditions revealed failures controlled experiments missed.
Earth had taught him that much.
A knock sounded at the door.
Renjiro looked up.
"Yes?"
Edric's voice came from the corridor.
"Message."
"From who?"
"Blacksmith."
Renjiro opened the door.
Edric held out a folded scrap of paper with two fingers.
Renjiro took it.
Six words had been written across the centre in Bram's heavy hand.
Tomorrow. Afternoon. Bring your hands. - Bram
Renjiro stared at the note.
Edric leaned slightly closer.
"What does that mean?"
"Katana."
"That explained nothing."
"It's a sword."
"Then why didn't he write sword?"
Renjiro looked at him.
Edric immediately raised one hand.
"No. Never mind. I don't care."
He walked away.
Renjiro closed the door and read the note again.
Tomorrow.
Final fitting, most likely. Grip. Wrapping. Assembly. Perhaps sharpening.
Bram had already made one thing clear: Renjiro would not be permitted to stand around while the weapon was completed.
Good.
He placed the note beside the notebook.
On one side of the table sat the first stable clothing material he had improved without simply commanding Divine Creation to make something perfect.
On the other sat a blacksmith's message about a weapon being completed by hand.
Creation.
Craft.
Magic.
Three different methods.
None needed to replace the others.
Outside, rain continued to silver Aureum's roofs. Through the upper window, the Imperial district existed only as a distant wall and a handful of towers blurred by weather.
Akari, Daichi, Ayane, and the others would return there tonight.
Renjiro would not.
The thought carried no bitterness.
Only difference.
He picked up the experimental shirt again, feeling the ordinary-looking fabric fold beneath his fingers.
Tomorrow he would finish testing it.
Then he would finish a sword.
Not Divine.
Not perfect.
Not permanent.
A mortal blade made from Asterian steel by a difficult blacksmith who complained too much.
Renjiro looked toward Bram's note.
His expression softened by a fraction.
He was looking forward to it.
End of Chapter 21