episode_0185

Although the nobles fought each other’s factions, calling themselves nobles and royalists, at the same time, the place that both factions cared about the most was the royal family. Whether it means good or bad.

It was natural that if weapons made of erythronium alloy were delivered to the royal family, it would become a huge topic of discussion.

“Hmm… … .”

And, as if he knew that part, the Crown Prince appeared to be quite concerned.

Aside from simply receiving the weapons at a low price, I could clearly feel that they were worried about whether there could be other benefits.

Then, as if he realized something, he made an audible sound.

“It would be better to talk about it after seeing Mugu in person. It’s not that I doubt you, but if something like this happens, shouldn’t it be checked several times? If you do it wrong, there will be criticism of military payment corruption and other things.”

Since I only explained it in words without showing him the actual thing, I nodded at the crown prince who seemed to be unable to guess accurately.

“Of course. Isn’t it the customer’s legitimate right to present confirmation of the original item?”

“The more I look at you, the more you seem closer to a merchant than a warlock… … .”

I shrugged my shoulders at the Crown Prince’s remark that he seemed like a merchant, and immediately decided to go see the erythronium alloy weapons with him in person.

To be precise, it was a direct demonstration of the use of weapons. I decided to show it by directly clashing with the existing weapon and the erythronium weapon.

There was no better way to compare the performance of weapons.

And, of course, the place to show such a demonstration became the training ground where the royal knights sharpened their martial arts.

Since it was a direct demonstration of weapons, it was a large space with many people who could protect the crown prince, who could be said to be the next king.

Anyway, after it was decided to demonstrate the weapons directly at the training hall, the crown prince and I headed straight to the training hall.

The knights there were grumbling about having to suddenly stop their training, but when they saw the crown prince, their grumbling melted away.

Instead, curiosity began to replace the grumbles about training when they heard that a new weapon was being demonstrated.

People who were grumbling, ‘I thought something would have happened if I just did a little more-’ said, ‘It was already time to change weapons. It changed to ‘that’s good.’

Thanks to this, it was easy to ask for cooperation. No matter how powerful the crown prince was, it was not easy to rent the gymnasium they used.

“Then, is it a form of calling two knights and having them spar?”

“Oh, there is no need to mobilize knights. No matter how much you spar, you can’t ignore the possibility of getting hurt as there are differences in the level of weapons, right?”

“How can we see this without the articles?”

“The skeleton is perfect for this kind of situation and has no problem even if you get hurt.”

The crown prince nodded as if he understood what I said. From his perspective, it seemed like he didn’t want his main force, the knights, to get injured while checking their weapons for no reason.

Anyway, thanks to the cooperation of the crown prince and the knights, I was able to use the training hall to my heart’s content, so I immediately prepared to demonstrate the weapons.

We took out two skeleton knights to replace the knights, and brought in the previously used weapons and weapons made of erythronium alloy.

And, while I was preparing, the knights did not sit still either. As the Skeleton Knight was in front of the Crown Prince, as many as five knights surrounded the Crown Prince, perhaps trying to protect him. Even, a wizard who I don’t know where he came from deployed a translucent shield magic in front of the crown prince.

Of course, the sight wasn’t particularly unpleasant. As the crown prince, it was natural that safety was important.

If unlucky, there was a possibility that the existing erythronium alloy weapon would shatter during the demonstration and splinters would fly out, injuring the crown prince. It was the same as excluding that part, so there was nothing bad for me.

On the contrary, I felt fortunate that I could show the true colors of the erythronium weapon by moving a little more vigorously.

With that in mind, the two Skeleton Knights I had taken out equipped themselves with two types of weapons. In addition to the existing weapons made using elixirs made of steel, each of the two Skeleton Knights was equipped with weapons made of erythronium alloy to which elixirs were added.

“Is that the newly made weapon? There is no big difference in appearance.”

“Deterioration. If you look closely, you can see a symbol on the sword face, breastplate, greaves that protect the shins, and snake braces that protect the forearms. Besides that, it feels a little more shiny than the existing weapon.”

As the two Skeleton Knights were fully equipped, the Skeleton Knights received a lot of attention. The crown prince as well as the knights were looking at the skeleton knights as if they could take them down with just their eyes.

Thanks to this, I discovered symbols indicating the use of erythronium, and also discovered that the armor was more shiny than existing weapons due to the influence of erythronium.

In the case of armor worn and moved or weapons to be wielded, very little change was made to the appearance because the external aspect had a great influence, but as the knights observed it so thoroughly, the differences were immediately noticeable.

Of course, there was no problem with the differences being revealed, so it was decided to immediately begin sparring between the Skeleton Knights to demonstrate weapons.

“Now the sparring between the Skeleton Knights will begin. For reference, the performance of the dark magic invested and the Skeleton Knight used in sparring are all set to be the same. The only difference is in the armor.”

After pointing out what he needed to know in advance, he immediately gave orders to the Skeleton Knights.

Cheaeng-!

And, as soon as the command was given, the two Skeleton Knights swung their swords at each other.

Two swords boasting sharp blades swung at very high speed and struck each other. However, a single collision did not result in a victory. Both swords were very pale, but because the swords were covered with black magic, they were not immediately damaged.

“The day has just flown by a bit?”

“The difference in the speed of use of power… … .”

“The mana the armor holds at the moment of defense is different. No, it must be dark magic now.”

However, there were things that were immediately visible even if they were not damaged.

The hardness of the material itself, the speed at which the black magic moves, and the total amount of black magic that can be held at once were visible. To be exact, it was close to what was visible thanks to the knights’ strength and visual acuity.

To me, the only difference was that it contained dark magic, but it seemed like the knights had already figured out the superiority of the erythronium armor.

Anyway, the Skeleton Knights, who received all the attention from the knights, continued sparring close to battle, making quite a bit of noise. Armor made of iron made a clanging sound, pieces of bone clashed with metal and made a sharp sound, and swords clashed with each other, making a sound similar to the sound of a bell.

“Oh… … . It’s settled.”

And, the battle lasted for about a minute and came to a conclusion.

The weapon made of erythronium alloy was not only able to cut the existing weapon in two, but also cut through extremely hard armor.

The Skeleton Knight was still standing upright, but he had lost his weapon and his armor was shattered to the point that if he were a human, he would have suffered such a large stab wound that he would have collapsed immediately, so it could only be said that the showdown was over.

“Sir Wagon. What do you think about that weapon?”

When the decision was made, the crown prince, who was protected by the knights, had a conversation with the knight next to him.

He may have trained himself in his own way, but he seemed to have decided that it would be better to listen to the opinion of a knight who had held a weapon his entire life.

Naturally, the knights who were watching the sparring by the crown prince’s side all gave favorable reviews to weapons made of erythronium alloy. The basic statement was that it simply looked more solid, and there were also comments such as that the mana response rate could be seen to be higher.

Looking at that, I once again explained to the knights what I had briefly explained to the Crown Prince.

As it becomes harder, the weapon lasts longer, the armor is a little thinner and lighter, but boasts better defense, and the mana response rate is increased, so it naturally stores mana, so there is a difference even if you don’t use mana. It was an explanation, etc.

“Yes? Does this mean that the mana reaction rate has increased compared to a regular iron sword? Existing products are so much better that they cost five pennies!”

“I can’t give you a detailed explanation because it’s a secret, but it’s because this new product has a very good response to Mana.”

This was possible because erythronium was very friendly to mana and dark magic, but I had no intention of explaining that.

Instead, I gave several erythronium weapons to the knights, thinking that it would be better to experience them firsthand than to explain them. Some people were wearing armor, some were holding helmets, and some were holding swords, and each was infusing mana into them.

Of course, since it is difficult to input mana when black magic is filled, the Skeleton Knight gave him unused weapons.

“Oh, oh oh!”

“Senior, with this sword, I can defeat you.”

“This arrogant guy? Hey, I’m going to use this too!”

Of course, all the knights holding erythronium weapons looked excited. This is because it was clearly felt that more mana was used and faster than the weapons used previously.

And, the knights who were so excited immediately turned their gaze towards the crown prince.

Eyes full of meaning, ‘Can you buy this for me?’ were drawn to the crown prince.

In the eyes of the knights, the crown prince eventually nodded and decided to accept my proposal. That is, instead of receiving erythronium weapons at a low price, you can openly subdue monsters and bandits.

Of course, it was not just a verbal promise, but a formal contract that was properly signed.

However, one unfortunate thing is that since the princess’s share in the development of the erythronium weapon was quite large, she had no choice but to adjust the price at which it was sold to the royal family.

Although it is not at the level of zero profit, considering that it is a military supply to the royal family, it can only be said that the profit has been reduced significantly compared to the original profit.

I felt a little sick to my stomach, but I decided not to worry about it since it gave me the name value of being a product supplied to the royal family.

It was obvious that if the royal family used erythronium weapons to fight a subjugation war, the number of people looking for erythronium weapons would increase.

I quickly realized that this was not just wishful thinking or wishful thinking. And that was even before the weapons were delivered and the subjugation war began.

“Brother. Do you know what? Elite among knights… … I envy you for what it is.”

“What does that mean, envy?”

“I heard that it was a newly made weapon, but the royal knights overlooked it. As you know, the distribution of the knights I serve is a bit low, and since the supply of weapons may be cut off in front of him, he is saving up money to buy it at his own expense.”

“… … Uh, somehow our driver asked me if I wanted to buy the weapons he used!”

Immediately, rumors began to spread from the knights and their squires who had seen and touched the erythronium weapons in the training hall.

Thanks to the Crown Prince’s favor, I decided to spend the night at the palace, and thanks to that, I was able to hear those rumors myself.

“Hey, did you hear that? I heard that Sir Muteni said that he could defeat his senior, Sir Senpai, with just the newly supplied weapons?”

“Oh my, really? Didn’t Lord Muteni get broken by Lord Senpai every time? But if you say something like that, the weapon must be really good.”

Even as evening approached, rumors were spreading through the mouths of the maids.

“… … Wouldn’t it have been enough to just demonstrate at the training hall?”

I thought they gave it to me cheaply for no reason. Of course, I didn’t truly regret it because it’s better for publicity to have actual results rather than just rumors.