One thousand.
A battalion-sized force.
It was a small number on a battlefield where tens of thousands clashed, but arming and maintaining a thousand soldiers was no easy task.
Swords, helmets, breastplates, greaves, and so on.
Five or six different pieces of essential equipment alone were required.
Outfitting them as light infantry took about 200 stone of steel. Filling the force with heavy cavalry, the elite fighting arm, required 600 stone.
That was enough to keep a furnace running without rest for days.
WHOOOOOM— WHOOOOOM—
The blast of heat rushing from the furnace was scorching.
“You truly intend to invest?”
“Yes. I’ll fund the reconstruction of that blower and the expansion of the furnace.”
Therefore, to win a war, steel production first had to provide a solid foundation.
“Now I have seen everything. Do you have that much money to spare?”
“Ha ha… not exactly.”
“In return, from the molten iron produced here to the finished steel—give me a slight discount whenever I buy it.”
“Hmm….”
“It is a fair offer, is it not?”
The association head scratched the tip of his nose and smiled.
“Hah, your mind certainly works in strange ways.”
“It’s still better than buying elsewhere.”
“Fine. I will think about it for now.”
The association head gazed into the fire for a moment before speaking. His face, illuminated by the flames, looked strangely forlorn.
“…Yes. Forty stone a day is the limit right now… but someday, I would like to raise it to one hundred.”
“Just trust me and wait and see! Ha ha ha!”
I answered with confidence in my voice.
There were still many untouched mountains around Oxhorn Pass. If we operated them properly, we could probably build two more furnaces.
‘Then we could produce one hundred stone. No, even more.’
As we left the furnace, the early-winter chill seeped into every breath.
RUSTLE, RUSTLE—
We were pushing through the grass on our way back to the village.
His steps stopped.
His gaze searched somewhere far away.
“Come to think of it… there is something troubling me these days.”
“What is it?”
“Perhaps the furnace is acting up, but the fire will not obey me. The temperature simply refuses to rise.”
“Why? Is something broken?”
“No. The equipment is perfectly sound.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“……It is only a guess.”
“Yes…?”
The association head chose his words for a moment, then the corner of his mouth twitched.
“That werewolf or whatever it was died, did it not?”
A werewolf in the middle of a conversation about the furnace?
Was he talking about the Lycanthrope?
“Yes, I heard about it too.”
“Ever since that thing disappeared… the imps have been running wild.”
“What does one have to do with the other?”
“When the leader vanished, the balance of the mountain collapsed.”
“Ah… then the imps—”
Imp.
They were not particularly threatening, but to put it crudely, they were demons obsessed with fire.
“—Exactly. Starting a month ago, the heat from the furnace began disappearing… as though someone were sucking it away.”
“If the heat fluctuates, refining becomes difficult?”
“You know your stuff, ha ha.”
It might be their doing….
It was too early to be certain, but the timing was far too perfect.
My fist clenched before I realized it.
While I was lost in thought, the association head changed the subject.
“I have rambled long enough. Let us inspect the workshops now. We will visit the Eisen Workshop first.”
“Yes, sounds good.”
“Eisen is proud. Watch every word you say.”
“Of course.”
The association head quickened his pace.
The road gradually widened, and the smell of fire stung my nose.
***
We arrived at the workshop district in the center of the village.
CLANG! CLANG!
The sound of hammering metal mingled with acrid smoke. Amid the heat belched out by the flames, dwarves bustled back and forth with their sleeves rolled up.
“Work the bellows harder! It hasn’t melted enough yet!”
“Oh, that’s enough! Are you trying to burn it again?!”
“Enough, enough! All that’s left is the hammering!”
This was a true dwarven village.
STEP, STEP.
“By the way, how much Sea Steel are you planning to buy?”
“I’m thinking of fifty stone.”
“Hmm… I do not know whether there will be that much steel for ships this far up in the mountains.”
I had expected that to some extent.
I had prepared a contingency as well.
“Then I’ll use both workshops. That’s the only way to get enough volume.”
“Yes. You should see them for yourself first. Take a look and then decide.”
We stopped before a sign that read ‘Eisen.’
“Eisen, are you in there?”
“Who is it?!”
‘Is that really a human voice?’
That was my first thought.
It was a thick, gravelly voice, more like a sound drawn from inside a furnace than a human voice.
“It is me, the association head.”
“What do you want?”
A man appeared.
His arms were scorched by fire, and a thick beard hung down to his chest.
He looked like the word ‘dwarf’ given human form.
“Ah, this young fellow says he wants to buy Sea Steel.”
“We already sent our goods to the association, did we not?”
“He said he wanted to see the workshop for himself, ha ha.”
Eisen’s long eyebrows twitched.
The tongs in his hand came down with a CLACK—
“What do you expect to learn by looking?”
“That is….”
The association head turned toward me.
It was my turn now.
“Hello. I’m Mikael. I came to buy Sea Steel.”
“So? What would a brat like you know from looking at a workshop?”
“Well… I wanted to see both your workshop and the Bromir Workshop.”
There were two things I needed to confirm.
First, whether I could secure fifty stone.
Second, if that was impossible, how large the quality gap between the two workshops was.
However—
Eisen snorted harshly.
His eyebrows twitched.
‘…Huh? Is this not going the way I thought?’
“Are you saying you intend to compare our workshop to that place?”
“…What?”
His voice grew hotter than the furnace.
“I will not sell to you! Get out!”
“That is not what I—”
“Did you not hear me? Get out!”
Even the association head could not calm him.
“No, Eisen, just settle down for a moment….”
“Enough! I will not sell. Are you taking that brat’s side?”
“N-no. I am not.”
‘Could he at least let me finish speaking…?’
I muttered only inwardly as the association head and I eventually headed for the Bromir Workshop.
“Eisen has always been exceedingly proud….”
“…Ah, it’s fine. I wasn’t trying to compare you.”
Bromir would probably be no different….
‘I need to change strategies.’
“AHEM!”
When the workshop sign came into view, the association head deliberately cleared his throat loudly.
“Bromir! Are you in there?”
A moment later, the workshop owner shoved open the door and emerged.
“Association Head? What brings you here again?”
“This young fellow wants to buy Sea Steel.”
“How much?”
“Fifty stone.”
“Fifty stone? Association Head, no workshop can turn out that much all at once.”
‘So I have to buy from both workshops after all.’
The calculation ended quickly.
I could not repeat the same mistake.
I immediately stepped forward.
Then, without giving him time to breathe, I poured out everything I had prepared.
“Hello, I’m Mikael. I want to buy Marine Steel from both your workshop and Mr. Eisen’s. I heard the steel each of you makes is slightly different…. So I came to ask whether there might be a way to reduce that difference.”
This time, I avoided saying anything unnecessary about ‘seeing the workshop.’
All I needed was to standardize the specifications.
“Reduce the difference?”
“Yes.”
“That will not be easy. Wait a moment….”
Bromir’s eyes wavered as he slowly rolled a piece of metal across the workbench.
“Hmm… We could match the composition, but that would require sharing our refining methods. That would be difficult.”
“What is a refining method?”
“Let us simply call it the way we handle the fire’s breath.”
What in the world was fire’s breath supposed to mean…?
I was not entirely sure, but was it something like the secret arts mages were said to pass down only in secrecy?
“…Then how about this?”
In any case, I intended to change the way I handled this deal.
Before, I had used mixed purchasing to make them compete against each other. This time, I meant to have both workshops produce in tandem and standardize the output.
If I had to give it a name—‘joint production.’
For the record, even the Chancellor did not know about this.
The association head and Bromir looked at me at the same time.
“……?”
“……?”
I cleared my throat and spoke.
“Each of you can keep your refining method secret. Instead, make sure the finished steel does not rust after being submerged in seawater for two days and that its grain does not split when struck three times with a hammer after cooling. That should be enough to call both products the same Marine Steel.”
“Hmm. Who will judge the results?”
“The association head will personally compare the finished Marine Steel!”
The association head stared at me in surprise.
“……Me?”
“The… wine….”
He had clearly said he would help me in some other way in exchange for the discount.
‘I remember that very clearly.’
“Ah… ah, right. Bromir, I will speak with Eisen. It was twenty-five stone each, correct? When can you have it ready?”
“It will take four full days.”
“Very well. Then we will purchase it four days from now.”
The atmosphere, taut with heat like a flame, cooled slightly.
After all those twists and turns, I succeeded in standardizing the specifications for the Marine Steel.
After parting with the association head, I headed to the arms shop.
The day was already drawing to a close.
***
CLANG! CLANG!
I could not bring myself to step inside the arms shop.
Holding my breath, I watched the gatekeeper’s final movements.
Garen, who had arrived at the arms shop before me that morning, was the same.
He too held his breath as he watched the moment a masterpiece was born.
HISSS—! SHAAAAANG!
A streak of molten metal ran through a seam and vanished in a burst of white vapor.
The association head raised the hammer high for the final blow.
‘Good. It’s almost finished.’
CLANG—!
A short, heavy reverberation filled the workshop.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP.
The gatekeeper flinched at the sound of my applause.
He nearly dropped the hammer in his hand.
“Good grief, you startled me. How long have you been there?”
“Only a little while. Heh heh.”
“Good. You came at the right time. Everything you asked for is finished.”
“Wow… the pauldron too?”
“Yes.”
He held out a pauldron gleaming silver.
A horned demon emblem had been engraved across its surface, rippling in the firelight.
“And this… can he truly hold it with one hand? I made it because you asked, but even to me, it looks like a monster.”
A double-edged greatsword about three times the gatekeeper’s height lay on the anvil.
Its blade was as broad as my waist, radiating an oppressive presence that made it hard to breathe just by looking at it.
“Mr. Garen, can you lift it?”
“Ha ha! I’ve been waiting all day. I’ll swing it right now.”
“Yes. Make sure there’s nothing around you first… We can’t have you breaking something again.”
“Of course!”
HUP— WHOOOOSH! CRASH!
Garen reproduced the applied version of the Overhead Strike exactly as I had taught him.
When he brought the greatsword down through the empty air, dust billowed violently.
……No, but why was he so good at it?
It had only been one day since I taught him.
“You’ve already mastered it?”
“Well….”
Garen scratched his head.
“I had nothing to do while the sword and pauldron were being made… so I kept imagining the movements in my head.”
“……?!”
I was speechless for a moment.
‘Did he practice visualization training…?’
It was a training method in which one kept the body still and repeated the movements only in the mind.
To reach that level of proficiency through that alone….
Perhaps he was more talented than I had thought.
In any case, it was time to pay.
“Sir, the performance is undeniable.”
“Heh heh, of course.”
“Then how much is it?”
I took out the extra crate of wine I had brought and set it beside the anvil.
I had no intention of forcing him to lower the price… but a gift like this might still help with the bargaining.
“Hmm. Wine….”
SNIFF, SNIFF.
The gatekeeper’s nose twitched.
“Fine, little merchant company head. Considering the gesture, I will knock a little off. Fifteen gold coins for the greatsword and eight for the pauldron. You have the money, I assume?”
“Of course.”
I smiled and opened my pouch.
A short, heavy clink of gold coins striking one another rang out from inside.
“I’ll come again next time, sir!”
“Good. Next time, I will fit you for a suit of armor as well.”
The moment the payment was finished and we stepped out of the arms shop, Garen let out a thunderous shout.
“Merchant Company Head! Thank you!”
“Oh, there’s no need to thank me… In return, there’s something you need to do with me tonight.”
“What? At this hour? Is it a swordsmanship lesson?”
“No….”
After thinking for a moment, I changed my answer.
“No, that’s right. I suppose it is a lesson. Tonight, we’re doing practical training.”
“Practical… training?”
“Yes. You can’t sleep anyway, can you? Hurry and get ready. I’ll explain the details on the way.”
And so I ended up visiting the furnace twice, even though neither visit had been in my plans.