Well, that's about it for now.
No, it's a pretty good one.

　The old Naito man next to me strokes his chin and looks at the clock tower in front of him.
　He had set up a large clock tower in the central square of the castle. Since only the great aristocrats have such a thing as a clock, they used to ring the bell to tell time. But there were some people who missed the time or wanted to know the details, so they built the tower.
　I used Big Ben in London as a reference. Its official name was the Clock Tower, or was it renamed the Elizabeth Tower?
　It was just a huge clock in the storehouse, but the dial was covered with a light magic that made it glow like a fluorescent paint at night. The dial is an ancient Partheno numeral, but it's not much of a problem, as it's divided into twelve sections, which is the same.
　The bells were set to ring only at noon. Since there are dials in all four directions of the tower, you can tell the time at a glance if you look at it even if it doesn't ring. The disadvantage is that you can't tell the time right below the clock tower.
　It would be nice if it became a symbol of this city like London.

Oh, this is a magnificent clock tower!
Oh, Olba. Hi, Alma, too.
'It's been a while! Winter's night.........oh, Your Majesty.
Winter's night is fine. Long time.

　When I turned around, I saw Olba, the Mismid merchant, and her daughter, Alma, standing there. Both of them had their fox ears twitching.
　Orba-san often comes to Brunhild, but it's unusual for Alma to come.

'I came today to deliver steel. Alma said she wanted to come to this country with me since her school was on an extended vacation...''
I see.

　Mr. Olba paid me a percentage of the sales of products I thought of (not exactly my idea), from baseball equipment and bagels to kendama, with steel. The steel used to make frame gears is not something you can't afford to have, you know.

''And........about what you asked me to do the other day.......''
Did something get stuck?
Felsen.

　I see... The kingdom of Felsen. Maybe there's no doubt about it.
　Rare metals such as orichalcon are used for each part of the frame gear. Although it's a small amount in terms of the overall amount of frame gear, the amount of orichalcon used in one piece is still quite large. If you strike it back into the sword, it could be as many as ten.
　The first thing the guy who stole the parts of the frame gear would do would be to disassemble it and get to know its structure. And after that, he thought, they must try to build it themselves.
　That's why I dared to ask Mr. Orba to sell a large amount of Orihalcon (though the amount used for one frame gear) to the market. Of course, I put it out there to find a buyer. Of course, I didn't go through Orba's Chamber of Commerce, but set up a fake Chamber of Commerce.
　It's not every day that a precious and heavy metal like the orichalcone is available on the market. And when it comes to buying it, it's quite expensive.
　It's only a rumor that there are people who want to sell orichalcone, and even if there are people who want to buy it, if all they are seeking is a small amount, they will give a suitable reason and refuse.
　Most people usually ask for a sword or so. Orichalcon is precious and difficult to process. I don't know if it's sold at a low price, but even though it's priced higher than the market price, no one wants it as much as they have it.
　The customer who shouldn't be there will come. I don't care if the price is high, just sell as much as you have. It was extremely suspicious.

I looked into it. We checked and found that no such workshop existed. The Orihalcon was sent straight to Felsen, and we were unable to trace it from there, but...
Why?
There's no merchant guild in that country. And business is controlled by the Merchant's Guild.

　Society of Magicians and Traders. It is said to be a huge guild that controls everything in Felsen, wizards, artisans, and merchants. Unlike the merchant guild, it is a trade association only within Felsen, so even Orba couldn't intervene.

''So that means we don't know who the buyers of Orihalcon are...''

　That's as close to black as you can get from calling yourself a workshop that doesn't exist. Since they bought that one, I'm sure it's a place with a lot of financial power........ In the grand scheme of things, it's the entire Felsen Kingdom, and in the small scheme of things, it's individual wealthy people....... As far as I'm concerned, he's a lousy fellow as far as I'm concerned either way.
　Incidentally, that Orihalcon is only the real thing on the surface, and the inside is iron scrap that has been adjusted with Gravity for the same weight. Orichalcong plating instead of gold plating? Moreover, I put jewels in the iron scrap with the same value as the price of the orichalcon.
　It was nothing more than harassment, but I couldn't just hand over the Orihalcon to the thieves, but I didn't think it was a good idea to cheat them out of their money, but when I thought about it, those guys were stealing parts of my frame gear from me, too. You didn't have to put the jewels in there.
　Is this the initiative of the Felsen Kingdom, or is it the actions of a few organizations and so on? That's what I'm wondering. The most important thing is that this is the country where the most refugees from Euron came in.

The Felsen Kingdom is also famous for its research on magic and magic tools (artifacts). It's so well known in the east that they call it Felsen for magic and Restia for swords.



　Well, when the parts were stolen, he was using some weird visual blocking magic. Was that Felsen's technology too?
　A country with excellent magic technology. I don't think they have the technology to make frame gear........
　Well, it's not that the Felsen Kingdom is black at this stage. However, it seems to me that there is a culprit or organization within the Felsen Kingdom that has cheated on the parts of the frame gears, and it's a sure bet that there is an organization.

''Orba-san, please let me know if there's any strange activity in Felsen. I'll thank you for your help.
No, no, no. I'm making so much money for free, and if I take any more, I'll be punished.
'Really? I actually have a water bottle or something that can store warm or cold drinks for a long time.
I would love to hear more about it!

I take out the thermos I created from "storage". It's not difficult to create a vacuum inside a double container if someone has the ability to use wind-attribute magic. I'm sure it's not as good as the Earth thermos, though.
　I explained the structure while drawing a diagram on the ground. Before I knew it, Naito's old man was also looking into the ground and listening to the explanation. Only Alma seemed to be bored, so I sent her ahead to Yumina's place at the "gate".
　As a sample, I also handed Orba several thermos of different sizes and the one that was cut in half from the middle to understand the structure. It's a good idea to make sure that you have a good idea of what you're looking for.
　Well, since Naito's old man is often on the road, he wants this kind of water bottle. I'm sorry I didn't notice, and I regret that I didn't notice.
　We then sent the steel from several of Mr. Orba's carriages at the "gate" to the Babylonian "workshop" and parted ways with them. Mr. Orba was going to go on his way to the Brunhild branch of his shop. Naito's old man also has a construction site inspection.
　As I was returning to the castle at the gate, I saw a familiar face in the city and called out to him.

I called out to him, "Hey. How are you?
'What? Oh, he, Your Majesty!

　　I dropped the spear I was holding and the lop boy turned around with a surprised look on his face. In response, the three companions also looked at me and their eyes widened. The only one who was unresponsive was the white rat on top of the Poya Poya girl's head. I stopped them in a hurry as they tried to kneel down.
　They were the four new adventurers from the slave ship incident in the case of the example, Rop, Fran, Klaus, and Aeon. The white rat on top of Aeon's head is also my summoner.

How's that working out for you?
'Yes! Snow can detect the approach of a hexenbiest, and he can see through it and warn us of a trap.
Yeah. You're good.

　A white rat stands on the head of the wizard girl, Aeon, and twitches his whiskers. ........Hey, didn't you just scratch your head in an embarrassing way? This rat must be really smart.
　But you got the name "Snow"? Is it because of our species name, "Snow Rat"?

"That's how we got promoted to purple during our quest yesterday!

　The swordsman girl, Fran, reports to me happily. Heh. You're pretty fast. So you've graduated from being a beginner.
　In the case of the dungeon search, since you are not being asked to do so, you basically don't earn promotion points. However, if you contribute to so-called map data updates, such as finding hidden doors, new monsters, or stairs to lower levels, you'll earn points.
　The rank of the guild card goes up from black to purple to green to blue to red to silver to gold. It's not too difficult to get from black to purple, as you can usually get up from black to purple over time.

'Snow found a hidden passage. There's a treasure chest at the end of it, and I found this among many things!

　Saying that, Fran showed me a sword made of mithril. It's old, but it's not bad looking. It looks like it has quite a bit of value, but........

''What do you plan to do with this?''
I talked it over with the others, but since this is the time of year, I'm going to equip it and use it myself...
I'd better sell it.
What?

　He explains to the four people who are looking at the Kyoton. Although he has been promoted from black to purple, he is still a fledgling young adventurer. Such a chick is hanging a mithril sword that will be worth quite a bit if sold. Now, if there are a few thug adventurers here who are in need of money, what do you think they will do?

I see...
'If it's stolen, it could still be attacked. I think it's a good idea to make sure they don't get spotted, though.

　My advice from experience. If you can screw them over when they get their eyes on you, it's not a problem. But I don't think they're capable of that yet.

''Hmm, I used to like this sword...''
But it's too big a risk for us. We shouldn't take any risks.
Yeah, but...

　Fran's mouth twitched at the words of Klaus the bowman. You know he has a point.

'Wouldn't it be better to use the money you sold to get everyone's equipment new? We're all getting sore pretty good.
Well that's true. I felt it was a bit bad that I was the only one with a new sword, even though we all found it together. I'll decide to sell it.

　I'm sure you're not going to be able to get away with it.

I'll buy the sword for you then. I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this. It's a celebration for your promotion.

　When I said that and was about to take out about 20 gold coins, I thought for a moment whether I should give these kids a lot of money.
　If I gave them a large sum of money and they were attacked by thug adventurers looking for it, it wouldn't do any good. When I think about giving 2 million yen to 13-year-olds, I hesitate a bit.

''........or rather than buy them out with money, what if I make you guys new equipment in exchange for Mithril's sword?''
""Really?!"

　Wow, it's biting. My heart hurts a little. I feel like I'm taking Mithril's sword away from these kids.
　I've got work to do for twenty gold coins.
　I rented the backyard of the Silver Moon Inn and took out some materials from the Storage and processed them with Modeling.
　Lop with his armor and spear, Fran with her light armor and sword, Klaus with his leather armor and bow, and Ion with his staff and robe.
　We can't use mithril or something like that, so we'll just use ordinary steel. However, the armor is quite light and will be adjusted with "gravity". It looks like normal armor. You'll know it when you equip it, but no one would equip someone else's armor, so it won't be obvious.
　The blades of the sword and spear are also coated with a thin layer of crystal material. This will increase the slicing power and also make them somewhat lighter.
　Klaus's bow was made so that a light 'Accel' grant was applied to the arrows. Arrows with more power than before should be able to be shot with the same force as before. The strings are also made of crystal wood that is made of threaded and more combined. The leather armor has dragon scales sandwiched between the front and back leather. It looks like leather armor itself.
　Aeon's staff has a red and yellow magic stone embedded in the tip. This is because her attributes are fire and light, but this is actually a crystal material disguised as red and yellow. This makes it possible to shoot a large amount of powerful magic with little magic power. The robe is also made of threaded crystal material woven into ordinary cloth. This is also not apparent at first glance.
　And so, the equipment was made to look plain. I explained the equipment to the four adventurers who were blatantly disappointed with the finished product, and they each picked up their own equipment as if they were surprised to see for themselves.

''I'm telling you, you shouldn't tell the other adventurers about it. It's the only equipment in the world. If you're going to sell it, you can buy it from Orba-san's Strand Trading Company.

　It will definitely sell for more than 20 gold coins. That shop's appraisal eye is so sure.
　I told the four people who were thanking me not to worry about it, and gave them four pieces of dragon meat as a gift. You can hear the bells ringing from the clock tower in the central square. It was just noon.
　I handed the meat to Mika from the Silvermoon and asked her to serve the four of us, and then I left.
　I'll go back to the castle and try to find lunch.