"Phew..."
Having finally gritted his teeth and made it through that thick tailoring tome, Leon tucked the book under his arm, picked up the parchment scroll recording the Moon-Cloth Pack's construction method, and strode briskly down to the small workshop in the basement.
It was a room converted out of part of the house's cellar.
The whole basement, aside from this small personal workshop, also held an ice cellar, a wine cellar, and a storeroom.
The little workshop was furnished quite simply: one workbench, two bookshelves, and a rack piled with all sorts of tools. It was a space thrown together on the fly, with nothing you'd call a professional atmosphere, but for practice it was more than enough.
He switched on the desk lamp, put the single-lens Gale-Force Reading Glasses back on, spread the parchment scroll out across the surface, and pored over every detail on the blueprint. Combining it with the tailoring knowledge and techniques he'd just learned, before long he'd grasped most of what the blueprint contained.
He straightened up and worked out his back, going back over the rough flow of the crafting process, and still felt there were a few spots he couldn't quite wrap his head around.
"Forget it, no use sitting here stewing over it on my own. In the end I've still got to try it with my own hands. That's the only way to really digest those obscure, hard-to-follow points."
Practice is the source of true knowledge.
...
After emptying his mind and resting a bit, drinking a cup of water to recover some energy.
Leon took the handcraft apron down from the wall and tied it on, pulled on his sleeve guards, slotted his scissors, measuring tape, and other tailoring tools one by one into the clasps at the front of his waist, then bent down to go over the draft once more before starting his very first cutting and crafting.
At first, Leon was brimming with confidence, his movements calm and unhurried, the very picture of someone handling it all with ease.
An hour later, fine sweat began to bead on his forehead, and his brow knit without his noticing.
Two hours in, his gaze grew increasingly glazed, and he even started questioning his life choices.
Three hours later, he stared at the mystery product on the table that "resembled a backpack and looked like a cloth sack," looked down at his own two hands, and sank into deep contemplation...
He looked at the finished-product diagram on the recipe, then looked at the "pack" he'd cobbled together by hand, and could only wonder whether some step or detail had gone just a tiny bit wrong somewhere.
"Ah, looks like I really don't have any talent for this tailoring stuff."
"Well, nobody's perfect."
Leon gave a self-deprecating chuckle, then his tone shifted.
"Good thing I've got a cheat."
"Scholar's Heart, activate!"
"Hit me with everything you've got!"
...
...
Just as Leon threw himself back into the ocean of knowledge and buried himself in hard practice, Jeanne and the others arrived at the front gate of the Hephaestus Familia's home base.
Worth mentioning, Tsubaki Collbrande wasn't working at her own personal forge today, but was instead busy in the dedicated workshop inside the home base.
When Jeanne and the rest were announced by the gatekeeper and led here, the goddess Hephaestus happened to be present as well. The two of them were holding a freshly forged Magic Sword, absorbed in studying something.
Hearing footsteps, woman and goddess looked up at the same time. At the sight of Jeanne and her group, surprise crossed Tsubaki's face. After all, they'd only just come by a few days ago.
"Jeanne."
"What brings you here? If you're here to ask about the progress on that batch of custom equipment, you might have to wait a few more days. You know how it is, there's a lot of armament in that order."
Jeanne smiled and waved a hand, greeting Tsubaki first, then bowing respectfully to the goddess.
"Good day to you, Lady Hephaestus."
The goddess responded with a smile.
"Hello there. Jeanne, was it? Mm... if I recall, you're members of the Demeter Familia, yes? Give her my regards."
"Thank you for the kind words."
Hephaestus gave a slight nod. Knowing they likely had business to discuss with Tsubaki, she was about to turn and leave. But as her gaze swept casually over the group...
At first she paid it no mind, but the moment she clearly sensed the aura coming off Jeanne and the others, the surprise on her face could no longer be hidden, and the step she'd been about to take froze in place.
"No wonder that Demeter's been grinning ear to ear day in and day out lately... I figured she'd just bred some excellent new crop again."
The goddess blinked, then shook her head with a wry laugh.
"Who would've thought... so this is what it was about."
"Tsubaki, if I'm not mistaken, that child Persephone just made Lv. 4 a couple of days ago, didn't she?"
Tsubaki nodded in confirmation.
"Mm, Persephone was always a seasoned Adventurer. She spent a good while sitting at Lv. 3, so making Lv. 4 is perfectly normal."
The goddess Hephaestus smiled meaningfully and gave Tsubaki's shoulder a light pat.
"You, my dear, it's about time you had a bit of urgency too, Tsubaki."
With that, the goddess nodded in acknowledgment to Jeanne and the others, then turned and left.
Tsubaki: "..."
Urgency about what? What on earth was the goddess muttering about?
It made no sense whatsoever!
Clearly, this One-Eyed Craftsman, wholly absorbed in the world of forging, hadn't yet noticed certain subtle changes. But as the patron deity of the Hephaestus Familia, the goddess had already caught a faint glimpse of the future's outline.
Perhaps only when Tsubaki discovered that the people she knew well had, one after another, drawn level with her, or even surpassed her, would she truly understand the deeper meaning behind the goddess's words.
Jeanne, Rose, and the others exchanged a glance and said nothing more.
It wasn't that they didn't want to give Tsubaki a heads-up, but as outsiders, lecturing a seasoned senior would come across as arrogant and was hardly appropriate. On top of that, the two sides were friends on good terms, which made it all the more something they shouldn't be the ones to bring up.
"Tsubaki?"
Unable to make sense of it, Tsubaki stopped dwelling on it and pushed the goddess's words to the back of her mind for now.
"Jeanne, what brings you all here this time...?"
Rose, beaming, pulled Iri forward and introduced the two parties.
"Tsubaki, let me introduce you. This is the new member of our Familia, Irisviel von Einzbern. The name's a bit of a mouthful, so just call her Iri."
"Iri, this is the captain of the Hephaestus Familia, the One-Eyed Craftsman, Tsubaki Collbrande. She's not just a Lv. 4 Second-Class Adventurer, she's the finest smith in all of Orario."
"That goddess just now, Hephaestus, you've surely heard that famous name too, so you can put complete trust in Tsubaki's craftsmanship."
Hearing Rose's introduction, Iri's eyes lit up, and the look she turned on Tsubaki was full of curiosity.
...
...
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