The second day of rest. The finals of the tournament were coming up tomorrow, so I would normally spend it preparing for it, but I had been standing in the kitchen all morning.

'Probably not a failure but... okay! It's solidified properly.

　I took out a single amber-colored plate of something from the refrigerator-type magic tool in the kitchen (made by me, supervised by Grandpa & Aina) and touched it to make sure it was OK.

''The rest is all about the taste...''

　He placed the board on the cutting board and broke it open by placing the knife against the gridded grooves. He popped one of them into his mouth to taste it.

'Yes, it worked! By the looks of it, the rest of the flavors should be fine too.

　What I was making was candy. I found a stall that sold water candy, so I bought a lot of it and modified it as a portable food that could easily replenish my energy.
　By the way, in this world, the word "candy" refers to water candy, and I've never seen hard candy balls before, and my grandfathers have never heard of them either.
　He had never seen hardened candy balls, and his grandfather had never heard of them either. Fortunately, the ingredients were simple enough that I remembered them, but I was a little concerned about whether I would succeed as I tried to modify them.

　The ingredients consisted of bought water candy, sugar, a little honey and lemon juice, and I put these in a pot and boiled them down, being careful not to burn them, and after removing them from the heat, I took the heat off while kneading them with a rice paddle, and poured them into a bat and put them in the fridge to harden. This is the basic flavor, and I made several other flavors such as chopped raisins and lemon peels, mixed with a little rock salt, and so on.

It's good for hunting and such. Next time when I'm not busy, I'll make some more!

　I broke one candy board after another and put each type into a bottle and put it away in my bag.
　As I was putting the candy away in my bag, I felt a presence behind me, so I turned around to find Slarin there, looking at me. He seemed to be unusually interested in the food (candy).
　When Slarin came to my feet, he noticed a piece of candy spilled from the cutting board on the floor and reached out with his tentacles to pick up the piece and take it into his body.

'Is it good, Slarin?'

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this as well.

　At this point I thought Shiroumaru and Solomon were unusually unresponsive to food, but they were still sleeping soundly.
　Perhaps they didn't notice because they didn't smell strong enough.

　I asked Slarin, who was enjoying his candy, to stay with me and I headed to Kelly's workshop.
　There are still some wild horses near the mansion, but no one has tried to talk to me, so I'll just ignore them as potatoes or something.
　Incidentally, there were three stalkers from yesterday's morning, but they still wouldn't talk to me, so I ignored them as well.

　When I arrived at Kelly's workshop, the door was still locked, so I used the key I'd been keeping and went inside.
　Inside, Kelly and the other female dwarves on staff were sleeping soundly on the floor, seemingly unaware that I had come in.

　I checked on Kelly first, and since she seemed safe, I called out to her to wake her up.

'Ughhhhh good morning Temma I've got it right there...'

　Kelly pointed to Adamantine's sword with a half-sleepy reaction. The hilt of the sword was wrapped with a pure white rope made of woven Siloumaru hair, and from the looks of it, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it.

''Don't go back to the back for a bit to see how it feels.

　I took my sword and told Kelly so. Kelly was sitting hunched over, rowing the boat and waving her hands like a ghost. Maybe he didn't hear me.

　I swung the sword in the workshop's backyard to feel the hilt, and the results were good. The hair on the Shiroumaru was inherently smooth, and I had expected it to slip even if I used it as a rope, but Kelly and the others seemed to have deliberately made the knot bigger when they tied the hair together, and the knot was non-slip.

'Pretty well done, huh?'　

　Kelly came from behind me, wielding her sword, yawning.

'Yeah, good job!'

　The entire sword was originally black and seemed to have a martial impression, but thanks to the dragon and pure white rope dug into the side of the blade, it looks like a work of art, or perhaps a ceremonial one.

'Thanks Kelly. So what's your fee?

　I pulled my purse out of my bag, but Kelly shook her head.

'No, I don't want it. Originally, the Grand Duke paid us more for the sword and the carving, and even the rope was made of tenma, and we only had to weave the hair. So the labor is included in the Grand Duke's fee!

　Apparently, Master Ernest (the Grand Duke) was paying more for the time I said I was unreasonable, so Kelly thinks it was within the adjustment that I knitted the rope.

'Besides, Temma gave me a lot of gifts. The new technology is working well, we're getting good food, and I'm getting more in advance for my fees... any more and I'm overpaid.

　I put my purse away in my bag as Kelly laughed at that and I knew it wasn't a good idea to pay for it.

'Shucks, Shiroumaru's hair is pretty good quality material! It's smooth, clean, sturdy, and even has all kinds of resistance. That rope won't burn very well if you try to burn it in a fire.

　It is quite rare for a single material to have various types of resistance (in this case, fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, and ice magic resistance, but it can also include poison and paralysis). In particular, materials such as body hair are often basically vulnerable to fire, but Shiroumaru's hair is also resistant to fire.

''That guy's amazing... I knew that Shiroumaru had a high magic defense, but I didn't know that it was also resistant to hair.''

　I had noticed that Shiroumaru didn't care too much about eating ordinary magic, but I was surprised that one of the reasons for this was because of his body hair. I had thought it was because of Shiroumaru's physical abilities and life force.

　That's about the extent of Shiroumaru's body hair, and we began the final fine-tuning of the sword.
　It didn't take much time, mainly because it was only a matter of adjusting the hilt, even though it was a minor adjustment.

''That's it!''

　I asked Kelly to retie the rope on the handle and adjust it to a thickness I could use.

'I suppose that concludes half of the Grand Duke's request!

Half of what you asked for?

　I asked, tilting my head back, not quite sure what Kelly meant by that.

'Yeah, I'm not completely done with the (...) request yet. This is an adjustment for the tournament. There's still some sharpening left after the tournament so that it can be used after the tournament is over. So, after the tournament is over, I'll bring it back to my workshop!

　Then Kelly slapped me on the back as hard as she could.
　Even though she's a woman, she's a dwarven blacksmith there. Kelly's power is comparable to that of a top-notch adventurer, so my body flew lightly.

''Well then. Don't forget to bring your sword! I'm going to sleep again.　

　Yawning, Kelly walked back into the workshop and crawled under the covers she had been sleeping under.
　I was about to return the keys, but Kelly started snoring early, so I had no choice but to lock the door for her before leaving the shop.

　As it was, I continued walking around the stall, chilling out instead of strolling, but again, the three stalkers were following me.
　I got tired of ignoring them, so I lured them into a long and narrow back alley.

　The three of them followed me to the back alley without any suspicion.

'Hello,'

　I waited a short distance from the entrance of the back alley and called out to the three men. The three of them seemed surprised and reflexively tried to run away.

'Oh, please don't run away. I've roughly (...) grabbed your identities. As expected, I don't think it's a good idea for a nobleman (...) to work at stalking you, but I'll keep his Majesty the King in the dark, so please don't do anything like this. I'm sure we'll have a chance to meet formally (...) in the near future, so until then, have a good day.

　I wound up at once before they could speak, and I jumped up onto the roof of the building, kicking the wall.
　If these were unknown nobles, I would report them to the kings, but fortunately for them, they were not trying to harm me, and they probably knew someone who knew me among their own people.

　A party is scheduled to be held at the royal castle in a few days. And since I'm sure I'll get a special invitation as I'm sure I'll get a chance to meet them at that time as well, as I'm sure I've already placed third in the tournament.

　Once again I looked at the trio with my mouth open with a pout and then left.
　I jumped unnoticed on the roof and descended into an unpopular back alley and breathed out loudly to catch my breath.

'Was I a little off-putting?'

　Even if it was to exploit the emptiness of the three of us, I regretted a bit that I shouldn't do something that didn't suit us. ........At least, the damage is surprisingly large if you do it alone.

　Just to be sure, I used 'Search' to explore the trio, and they hadn't moved from where we had just split up.
　I went back to the mansion, choosing a path that would take me away from them.





　---SIDE three guys---.

Hey you're not talking to me again.
You a**h*le.

　Two of the three men were nipping at the largest man.
　The large man let out a snarl as he scratched his head and crouched down to make his large body smaller.

''Well it can't be helped but if I mess up, the family's territory may end up going downhill again.......''

　The other two men gasped at the man who spoke in a blabbering voice that didn't match his appearance.

'No, because that's not the case now. From what I've heard from your father, he doesn't seem to be so rooted.''

'I heard that too. But it's possible that Rion... or rather, that he'll change his attitude when he finds out that we've been following him.

　When the smallest of the three (though he was about average height) said this, the man called Rion stood up vigorously.

''That's because of you guys, too!　

　Rion lets out a loud yell, but the two of them don't mind one bit. Apparently it's always the same.

'That's not true. We did give you some good advice. You were the one who didn't listen to the advice and got scared, sloppy and hesitant.

Albert was right. We've done the least amount of ... cooperation. The rest is Leon's responsibility. We had nothing to do with it.

Ugg~　

　Rion glares at them with a snarl. However, they are completely ineffective and look cool.
　If an unseen third party saw this scene, they would call out for the guards while screaming. That's how powerful Rion's face was...It's hard to believe that he's a nobleman.

''Hey, hey, Albert. I knew it was your........
'No! It's nothing to do with him!

　Albert refuses to say no to her in a covered-up manner.

Then Cain! Your.....
Absolutely not! It's like trying to pick a fight!

　The man called Cain also refuses before Leon finishes saying it. Most of all, this one, unlike Albert, disagrees, breaking out in a cold sweat.

'Well, he said we'll have a chance to meet formally soon,' That means he's still willing to listen to Leon... right? Maybe.

Hey, Albert! Don't say that in a questioning way!

Well, even if he listens, it's not like he's going to cooperate.

　Hearing Cain's words, Rion's body started to pull and shake. And.........

It's all because of my godd*mn father~~~!

　He barked loudly to the sky.

'But if I've offended him, it's because it's Leon's fault.

　Rion crumples to the ground disappointedly when he hears Albert's words.
　A few minutes later, they were waiting for the guards to question them about their duties.