A blacksmith! What an ancient yet novel profession!
In all the knowledge and memories she had studied, a profession like this had all but vanished in the modern world. She'd never expected it to still be mainstream here!
Tsubaki, for her part, was studying Iri with the same look of surprise.
A tall, willowy, alluring figure, a face as flawless as a doll's, and that innate air of nobility... a woman who by every measure looked like the daughter of some distinguished noble house, somehow ending up as one of those adventurers the nobility wrote off as crude and greedy?
Wait!
Could it be that this Lady Irisviel... was another wild girl in the Riveria mold?
Surely she wasn't some "runaway" young lady of a great house who'd happened to cross paths with that lucky bastard Leon, only to get sweet-talked into coming along?
Tsubaki's imagination ran wild with these private guesses, but a hearty grin had already spread across her face.
"Hey there, Iri. You're fine with me calling you that, right?"
"Mm-hmm, Miss Tsubaki."
"Good. Like Rose said, Leon and Rose and the rest of them are all old friends of mine. If you want custom gear, go ahead and ask for whatever you need, don't hold back. As long as it's within my skill, I'll do my best to make it happen."
Iri instinctively glanced toward Jeanne and Rose.
"It's all right, Iri. Trust Tsubaki's craftsmanship."
"Well then, um... by the conventions here, I'd count as a Mage, wouldn't I, Aura?"
"More precisely, you're positioned as both a Mage and a healer, Iri."
"Oh, in that case..."
Irisviel pressed one slender, pale finger to her chin and, with a cute little tilt of her head, began laying out her requirements.
"First, I'd like silver thread as my weapon. It needs excellent magic conductivity, and at the same time it has to have toughness and flexibility on par with weapons of the same tier."
"Second, I need a wand. About thirteen and a half Orario standard units in length, with a core that ideally amplifies healing and alchemy magic, and a material that pairs well with the silver thread."
"And if the two could echo each other in the design, or even merge into one, that would be even more ideal."
"A wand? Silver thread? Wands are what those secretive mages from the great magic nations like to use, aren't they? They're not the long two-handed staves the Mages among adventurers usually go with."
Tsubaki shot Iri a surprised look, noting that distinctive, refined air about her, then broke into a delighted grin.
"Interesting! These are exactly the kind of clever, intricate weapons I love to make! Hang on a moment, let me grab pen and paper and write all this down in detail!"
...
...
A little over an hour later.
"For the shaft, a combination of courage-walnut wood and the paper-pith of the Great Holy Tree. The core is polished unicorn horn, and the silver thread is an alloy blended from rare minerals like mithril and orichalcum. Finally, using chasing-and-engraving work, the silver thread is enchanted onto the shaft, so the two weapons become one. It meets a Mage's magical needs while also serving as a catalyst for alchemy magic."
She handed the design over to Iri, who read through it carefully and nodded, satisfied.
"Thank you, Tsubaki. This will do nicely."
"OK. As for the cost of materials and labor, we can settle it together with that custom batch you ordered."
With Iri's gear sorted out, there was still the matter Leon had asked them to take care of, so no one lingered. After a bit of small talk, the ladies rose to take their leave.
"We're counting on you, then, Tsubaki."
"Haha, I love big clients like you lot. Not only do you ask for all sorts of variety, you always come up with suggestions and ideas that make my eyes light up. That kind of inspiration is precious to me."
"And of course, most important of all, you're willing to spend money on your gear!"
"Everyone except that cheapskate Leon!"
At that, both sides burst out laughing.
Tsubaki watched Jeanne and the others cross the courtyard until their figures disappeared beyond the base's front gate. Only then did the smile slowly fade from her face, giving way to a long, wistful sigh.
"Too fast. It hasn't even been a year, and Jeanne and Rose are already Lv. 3. Even those two little elves, and Kureha who joined later, have all accomplished their Great Feats and become High-Class Adventurers. And... given Leon and the others' eye for talent, if they chose to take Iri in, this new member's gifts are surely no ordinary thing either."
"Tch. I really don't know what kind of dumb luck Leon stumbled into, with these talented, beautiful women running to his side one after another."
"Ridiculous!"
What Tsubaki didn't know, however, was that someone else had been watching Jeanne and the others depart as well: the goddess Hephaestus, up in her office on the floor above.
The red-haired goddess stood still before the floor-to-ceiling window, one hand resting lightly at her waist, her single eye narrowed. Only when those figures had melted completely into the vast snowscape, reduced to tiny black dots, did she slowly draw her gaze back.
"Two Lv. 3s, three Lv. 2s, and one rookie newly stepped into Lv. 1."
"And if you count that Lv. 4, the Shadow of Sorcery, Leon Hart, along with the captain of the Demeter Familia, the Priestess of Desolation..."
"The strength the Demeter Familia has gathered already surpasses the vast majority of Orario's mid-tier factions. Even at the high end of combat power, our Hephaestus Familia now pales in comparison."
"I'm afraid the only ones who can hold an edge over them are the children of Loki, Freya, and Astraea, and maybe that fool Ganesha."
She drew a slow breath through her teeth. "Put it that way, and it really is something else."
"Demeter, you sly thing!"
At the thought, the corners of the goddess's lips curved up into a faint smile, equal parts emotion and fighting spirit.
"Our Hephaestus Familia and the Demeter Familia both belong to the commercial faction. How can I just sit back and let her run away with it all?"
"Hmph. Our Hephaestus Familia bows to no one!"
"Looks like it's about time I tightened the screws on those boys and turned up the intensity!"
Down below, the blacksmiths sweating away and hammering nonstop in the workshop suddenly shivered as one. They couldn't say why, but they all had the feeling that disaster was about to come crashing down on them.
"Damn it, don't tell me Lady Hephaestus has cooked up some new scheme."
"No way, absolutely not!"
"You blasphemer!"
"Beat him up!"
"Aaaaaaah!"
...
...
Leon's house, the makeshift workshop in the basement.
"Haha! Done! This lord's done it...!!"
Leon could barely contain his ecstasy as he gazed at the workbench. There, amid a heap of scattered scraps, lay a barely-stitched-together thing, ugly-cute and rough, but already taking shape, just barely qualifying as a "bag."
He thrust both arms into the air, spun a full circle on the spot in his excitement, and flashed a wide, white-toothed grin.
"With this, this lord's got everything he needs now!"
"Like hell you do!"