Book 21: Chapter 2 (3)
Kluck and the white-haired man didn’t look surprised. Or rather, they had no expression on their faces. They stared intently at the longsword on the stand with straight faces.
The other blacksmiths seemed to come to their senses when they met Shin’s eyes, and resumed their work.
Pretending nothing had happened, Shin returned his gaze to the longsword.
The longsword on the stand was darkening from the edge of the blade. As the magical power that had been trapping the heat in the iron escaped, the temperature was dropping. After a while, the blade changed to the color of steel. It gave off a dull glow in the light leaking from the other forge.
“Um, it’s finished.”
Shin called out to the supervisor after making sure that the longsword had completely cooled. He had been told beforehand that the supervisor’s job was to transport and store the finished product.
“Hmm? Ah, I see. That’s right. We’re supposed to keep the finished product here. Can I have it?”
The supervisor carefully wrapped the longsword Shin handed over in cloth and put it in a box in the corner of the forge. It seemed he was going to carry it all together to where the judges were.
Among the blacksmiths who resumed their work, only Kluck and the white-haired man, apart from Shin, completed their work that day. The remaining blacksmiths didn’t have good results, with some breaking the blade midway through, perhaps due to impatience, and others abandoning, saying they would start their training over again.