Chapter 79 - Secret Workshop (part one) (1/2)

We were running through the Crucible Street at dusk.

Just as the last chimes of the church’s bell were resounding, Tirnanog and I arrived at Turm Wand Store.

It was to meet Gilbert, not Harold.

The other person who noticed cobalt oxide was said to be Gilbert.

It was difficult to say whether or not he was going to be inside the wand store, but it was better than looking for him blindly.

『As usual, there is no sign of a customer.

The store owner doesn’t seem to be in the store, but there is a sign of the redheaded brat.』

“That’s rather convenient.”

Even when I went inside the store, no one came out to greet me.

Looking around, Harold was polishing the shelves quietly with an almost dead facial expression.

He shouldn’t have to clean anything at times like this.

No, perhaps it was more painful for him if he didn’t distract himself by doing something.

“Harold, are you okay?”

“Ah……? Aa, Erica, welcome.

What is it? Have you found a wand that match your taste?”

“You don’t seem to be fine. Unfortunately, we’re not here as a customer.”

『Is Gilbert in the back?』

“Aniki? Aa, Aniki came back a while ago.

It seems he was going to make something difficult that he couldn’t afford to fail, so right now he’s shutting himself inside the storehouse, but……”

After all, it was as we expected.

When I exchanged looks with Tirnanog, he nodded.

“Harold, this is something you also need to hear. Let’s go together, okay?”

『Even if you say no I will force you to come with us.』

“Eh, ah, wait……, the store! There is only me manning the store!”

“We are your only customers in these two days, right?”

“T-that’s true, but! Aah, jeez, let me lock the door first at least!”

As Tirnanog manhandled him, Harold was kicking and struggling.

We let him go to lock the store, then we headed to the storehouse in the back of the store.

☆

“Yo, everyone, what’s the matter?”

Gilbert seemed to have just completed the preparation, and was about to clear up the alchemy tools spread on the desk.

I glanced at the container placed on the desk.

Gilbert quickly hid it in his bag.

Again, Gilbert seemed to be keeping secret about the blue pigment that he had found.

Because Harold knew nothing, so somehow it felt like that.

In a sense, it could be said that we met him just in time.

It would be difficult to meet him after he went somewhere else to make it.

Tirnanog rolled an indigo blue glass bead on the table.

Gilbert reached for it with a relieved expression.

Tirnanog’s hand caught his stretched hand with a lightning-quick movement.

『As expected, I knew you would recognize it at a glance.』

“We come to talk about it.”

When Tirnanog and I pressed him, Gilbert cast his eyes down and laughed.

“Hahaha, you caught me. Even though I thought that I would be able to evade questions until the prototype was completed.

Not only you are aware of the identity of the smelt, you seem to be able to make the actual thing in just a few hours.

As expected from the daughter of the head of the alchemists. You cannot be measured by ordinary means.”

Gilbert muttered thoughtfully.

No, no, it was because my friend was a phantom beast, I myself was just an ordinary and mediocre girl.

But I couldn’t say that.

“W-wait, what are you talking about! Are you leaving me out of loop?”

『Wait, wait, Harold. Let’s explain it in order. I will let Gilbert explain it.』

“Mister, so you’re leaving it all to me.”

Gilbert smiled bitterly and lowered his hip back on the chair again.

When he put the container in his bag back to the table, Tirnanog released his hand.

Gilbert breathed a sigh while gazing at the glass bead through the light of the lamp.

“Aah, after all it’s a fine coloring.”

“Is it a blue glass? It’s certainly rare to see such a thing.

What’s up with this glass?”

“This was made of the waste inside the barrel that was kicked off by Botchan.”

『To be exact, I made a blue-colored glass rather than the glass itself.』

“Hee……?”

“This is a rather rare metal on this continent called cobalt oxide.

Far from a waste, it seems to be worth twenty times that of silver of the same weight.”

“E, eeeehhhhh—!?”

Harold cried out with his eyes wide open.

He had to be surprised because what he thought was just a waste turned into treasure.

“That……what a coincidence.”

“Indeed, it’s an amazing coincidence.

Surely the proportions of the metals contained in the ore deposit and the smelting method thought of by Earl Nibelheim have ended up producing this result.”

“You mean, if we sell this rare metal called cobalt oxide, we can regain even the loss of the fraud!?”

“I wonder about that.”

“Well, that’s what one would think. That’s why I couldn’t say it.”

Harold who recovered from his shock raised a voice full of joy.

Gilbert and I shrugged and exchanged glances.

“It’s not about how much you can sell, the problem is how to sell it.

For example, if you sell it as a material for blue glass, there is only a limited demand.

If you sell it to the temples, churches, and part of the aristocrats and merchants, the consumption will reach the limit.”

“If they know that cobalt oxide can be made as long as the silver ores in the northwest areas haven’t been exhausted yet, its value will be lower than it is currently.”

“No way……”

“You shouldn’t sell the cobalt oxide itself, but the added value born by it.

Just as how the Nibelheim territory isn’t just selling a mass of high-purity silver, but a high-quality silverware.”

“Hahaha, you are still a child but you sure know your stuff, Ojou-san.

That’s why I also thought that I want to pitch in and help my important younger brother.”

『After all, what kind of person are you, Gilbert.

You are not just an ordinary youngest child of a wealthy merchant.』

“I’d like to return those words to mister as it is.”

Gilbert smiled wryly at Tirnanog’s pointed question.

“To begin with I didn’t collect the smelt for some insight I had.

When I used analysis magic because I was worried whether harmful substances were mixed, I discovered it by chance.

But mister, you didn’t use any magic or anything.

You are not just an ordinary escort of a duke’s daughter.”

『I am a very ordinary guardian. And my old friend was a famous alchemist.』

Tirnanog continued to sidestep the question without lying as usual.

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders at his response.

『What were you doing before you returned to this place?』

“I was pursuing my dream. It took me ten years for that dream to come true halfway.”

“Specifically, what is that dream?”