Inside the sweltering workshop, the charcoal in the hearth was fanned into a roaring blaze by the bellows, the firelight casting a bright glow across the stone walls.
Ailiya ignored Leo, who was pretending to be well-behaved and quiet in the corner, treating him as nothing more than a non-existent puff of air.
She focused all her attention on the raw mithril ore in front of her.
Ailiya took a deep breath, channeling her pure magic power smoothly down her arm into the iron tongs. The dark blue light, as solid as a physical substance, perfectly enveloped the pure white raw mithril stone.
Under the dual tempering, the once-indestructible mithril finally began to turn red, with the edges showing signs of softening, almost liquefying.
With a keen eye and swift hands, Ailiya used the tongs to pick up the mithril and firmly placed it on the anvil. With her other hand, she skillfully raised the heavy blacksmith’s hammer.
Clang!
The first blow landed with a forceful, heavy sound that cut through the air. The deafening metallic collision exploded in the stone room, sending sparks flying like brilliant fireworks.
What followed was an extremely monotonous, time-consuming process that tested endurance and micro-control.
Ailiya took the luminous blue ingot she had previously refined and, through continuous hammering, folding, and forging, gradually and evenly fused the blue ingot into the mithril’s texture.
Sweat trickled down her fair cheeks, following the elegant curve of her neck, soon soaking the collar of her coarse work clothes.
Yet inside that seemingly delicate young girl’s body, there erupted a resilience and stability that even a grown, strong male blacksmith would envy. The impact point and force of each hammer strike were as precise as a machine.
Leo, sitting not far away, had initially watched with great interest, his eyes wide as he tried to glean some ultimate technique for using magic power from this “hidden master’s” blacksmithing movements.
But as the unchanging, monotonous, and utterly hypnotic “clang, clang, clang” of the hammering continued for over an hour…
His pitiful three-minute enthusiasm had long been worn away by the sweltering heat and boredom.
He hadn’t slept well to begin with, and the wounds on his buttocks and back still throbbed faintly.
In this warm, even stuffy environment, Leo listened to the extremely rhythmic hammering. His eyelids began to droop uncontrollably.
His head bobbed up and down, like a chick pecking at rice.
Eventually, he shifted his body, leaned against the corner, and fell asleep with his mouth open, even letting out a faint snore.
Clang!
With the final, exquisitely precise shaping blow, Ailiya let out a long breath.
She used the tongs to pick up the newly formed dagger, still radiating terrifying dark-red heat, and unhesitatingly quenched it in the nearby bucket of cold water.
Hiss—!
A massive cloud of white steam instantly rose, carrying the pungent smell of metal, filling the entire stone room.
[Ding! Forging complete.]
[Obtained life experience points: Blacksmith 300]
[Sub-profession: Silversmith Blacksmith LV.3 → LV.4]
Hearing the generous experience notification in her mind, Ailiya curled her lips in satisfaction.
Without bothering to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she took the quenched dagger in her hand and examined it closely under the faint light.
It was a short dagger about twenty centimeters long.
The entire body displayed an extremely understated, non-reflective dark silver.
The blade was light yet tough, and the center of gravity perfectly matched the size of her palm, as if it were custom-made for her.
The next moment, a translucent attribute panel that only she could see appeared:
[Mithril Shadow Blade (Dagger)]
[Quality: Fine (Blue)]
[Special Effects: Magic Conductivity +30%, Extremely High Sharpness, Attached Weak Armor-Piercing Effect.]
[Evaluation: A deadly weapon forged by a novice but talented blacksmith. An excellent choice for murder and robbery.]
“Even though the quality is only blue fine, not reaching the rare purple equipment, at this stage, it counts as a decent transitional weapon.”
Ailiya twirled a beautiful blade flourish in satisfaction.
The dagger spun between her fingers like a silver fish, making an extremely faint, sharp sound as if it were cutting through the air.
With a compatible weapon like this, the power of her mana infusion and assassin skills would increase by at least one tier.
Ailiya sheathed the dagger into the custom scabbard at her waist, then turned to look at the small leftover scraps of mithril and luminous blue ingot on the anvil.
“It would be a waste to throw them away.”
She casually removed the blue sapphire flying bird hairpin from the side of her ear—the one Leo had bought at the market on a whim, which was pretty but utterly useless.
She relit the furnace and heated it slightly.
Ailiya melted the leftover mithril and blue ingot scraps and very precisely plated the surface of the hairpin, also engraving a tiny energy storage array.
[Mithril Flying Bird Hairpin]
[Quality: Normal (Green)]
[Special Effects: Can store a trace amount of magic power, used for faint illumination.]
[Evaluation: A slightly refined magical accessory. Better than nothing.]
Looking at the renewed hairpin, now emitting a faint silver glow, Ailiya casually clipped it back into her short silver hair.
Though the attribute boost was negligible, for a perfectionist player like her, not wasting any materials was a habit.
With all this done, the temperature in the workshop gradually dropped.
Ailiya turned and glanced at Leo, who was still fast asleep in the corner, even with a suspicious trail of drool running down the corner of his mouth.
Her ice-blue eyes instantly turned cold.
Ailiya walked over to Leo and looked down from above at the defenseless Rookie Young Master.
She extended her gloved hand and ruthlessly tapped Leo’s flushed cheek with the back of her hand, with just enough force to wake him up without actually bruising.
“Young Master, time to get up.”
“Your hidden master has finished forging.”
Through his blurred vision, Leo gradually made out Ailiya’s cool, clear face leaning in.
When he noticed the flying bird hairpin in her short silver hair, now glowing with a faint silver light of magic power, his eyes showed a moment of infatuation.
‘I never thought… that cheap hairpin I bought on a whim at the market, even forced on her, she’s been wearing it all along.’
‘And she even deliberately reforged it?!’
‘Does that mean… she actually values the gift I gave her that much?’
Leo’s mind wildly filled in the blanks, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch upward.
“A… Ailiya? You finished forging?”
Leo quickly wiped the drool from his mouth, his eyes brightening as he looked at the cool, beautiful new dagger at Ailiya’s waist, trying to change the subject.
“Wow! Is that made from my raw ore? That’s so cool!”
“Correction. This is my raw ore.”
Ailiya flipped her wrist, and the dagger disappeared seamlessly into her sleeve.
As she untied the heavy leather apron, she used a flat tone to shatter Leo’s pink fantasy:
“Also, the hairpin was just to avoid wasting the leftover materials. Please cease your fantasies.”
“Since you’re awake now, it’s time to start your first lesson.”
“Really?! Starting now?!”
Leo perked up instantly, even forgetting the pain in his butt.
“That’s right.”
Ailiya walked to the basin, washed her hands, dried them, turned around, and looked down at him.
“First lesson. In any wilderness or unfamiliar environment, even if you have someone you consider ‘absolutely safe’ with you, never easily expose your sleeping posture or your back.”
“In the ten minutes you were snoring just now, I had at least thirty opportunities to kick you out of this room without any hindrance.”
The excitement on Leo’s face froze instantly, and chills inexplicably ran down his back.
“We have half a month until we depart for the royal capital.”
Ailiya paid no attention to his pale face, like an extremely strict instructor issuing orders.
“I’m not teaching you any flashy moves.”
“Starting this afternoon, go to the training ground. I’ll attack you with a mop. Don’t waste magic on counterattacks—you can only dodge.”
“When you can survive for one minute without me hitting your head, we’ll move to the next step.”
“Huh? Only dodge? That just makes me a pure punching bag?!”
Leo wailed.
“If you can’t even make the most basic dodges, you won’t even have a chance to strike.”
Ailiya cut him off without mercy.
“If you can’t take it, you can give up anytime. I’m very busy, you know.”
With that, she picked up the wooden basin she had used to wash her face, pushed open the door, and walked straight out, leaving Leo with a cold back.
Leo gritted his teeth and touched his still aching butt, but secretly swore in his heart that he would never let this woman look down on him!
Time flew like a white horse passing through a gap. Half a month passed quickly in the estate’s dull yet extremely fulfilling “special training.”
During this time, the backyard of the Kastian Manor echoed every day with the rhythmic sound of wooden sticks striking and Leo’s inhuman wails.
But under Ailiya’s almost inhuman high-pressure defensive training, the kid’s nerve reflexes and evasion instincts actually improved noticeably.
At least now, he could slip through Ailiya’s casual mop attacks like a slippery loach, barely surviving for ten seconds.
Finally, the day to depart for the royal capital arrived.
The morning mist had not yet dissipated. On the stone path of the estate, a spacious yet low-key carriage was already parked. The outer panel of the carriage bore the thorn crest of the Kastian clan.
Madame Elsa was dressed today in a dark long skirt, covered with a cloak.
“Leo, hurry up. We must reach the next city, Stelan, as soon as possible, and catch the direct airship to the royal capital from there to ensure we arrive before the coming-of-age ceremony.”
Leo had changed into a set of exquisitely tailored noble formal wear.
Due to the recent hellish special training, his brow had lost some of its former frivolity and gained a trace of youthful steadiness.
He looked at the familiar estate, feeling inexplicably nervous and reluctant.
“What, not even out the door, and the Young Master is already thinking about backing out?”
Ailiya appeared silently behind him, carrying a black suitcase that wasn’t very large.
Today, she wore her signature black-and-white maid outfit, perfectly accentuating her slender yet explosive waistline.
The mithril flying bird hairpin was pinned beside her ear, giving her an overall aura of cold, frosty beauty.
“Who’s backing out! I… I’m just reminiscing about my territory!”
Leo retorted immediately, but when he turned and saw Ailiya’s outfit and that hairpin, he froze for a moment, his ears reddening.
“Enough, stop the nonsense. Get in the carriage.”
Madame Elsa walked over, interrupting the two’s daily bickering.
She glanced at Ailiya, and the two exchanged a knowing look that only they understood.
“Payment for services rendered. Rest assured, Madame.”
Ailiya nodded flatly and was the first to step onto the carriage’s footboard.
With a crisp crack of the whip, the wheels began to roll.
The estate’s party officially set off on their journey to the royal capital.