Tina's Workshop Story: The Blacksmith Girl with Sake and War Hammer - The Resonance of Black Steel and the Smoke Signal of Bootlegging

The Vandor branch facing Chromgard's central square was quieter than usual. The early afternoon sun glared off the stone walls. Behind the polished oak reception counter, the elderly clerk Ganzo had his ledger spread open. The brass-rimmed reading glasses perched on his aquiline nose gleamed dully in the light from the window. Tina stood before that counter, her face smeared with sweat and mud. The war hammer Donnergram was slung across her back, and she was breathing heavily. Her right arm was swollen from the battle with the Garza bandits, purple bruises surfacing here and there. Behind her, Leon, Leena, and Milia stood in a line. All three were covered in wounds, but their faces held a strange sense of elation. Beside them, a foreign swordswoman with a long black ponytail—Tsubaki—stood silently. "Four prisoners from the Garza bandits. Confirmed annihilation of twenty-eight members, including the leader. I demand payment of the bounty." Her voice was hoarse, but a strong will dwelled in her small, fierce eyes. Ganzo stopped his fingers from turning the ledger pages and studied Tina carefully over the top of his reading glasses. "...Didn't think you still had this in you. When you retired fifteen years ago, weren't you saying you couldn't swing a hammer anymore?" "Don't treat me like some old fossil. I'm still active, dammit." Tina forced a laugh, hiding the pain in her right shoulder. Ganzo chuckled in his raspy voice as he checked the wax seal stamped at the edge of the ledger. Branch Chief Borg Hammerfoot's seal of approval. He slowly stood up and reached for the massive iron safe behind him. *Clank.* The sound of a heavy lock disengaging. What he pulled out was a grimy leather pouch. It was heavy. When he untied the leather cord, a dazzling golden radiance spilled forth. Gold coins. One hundred and twenty. "The bounty for exterminating the Garza bandits: one hundred and twenty gold coins. Count them." The moment the leather pouch was placed on the counter, a heavy *thud* echoed. The atmosphere changed. A strange heat—neither tension nor joy—enveloped the first floor of the Vandor branch. Leon swallowed hard. Leena's greenish eyes were glued to the pile of gold coins. Only Milia remained calm, unconsciously tracing figures on the floor with the tip of her staff—but her fingertips trembled faintly. "One hundred and twenty..." "Amazing... so many gold coins..." Tsubaki quietly watched the scene, a small smile on her lips, saying nothing. Tina touched the leather pouch with trembling hands. The cold sensation of metal on her fingertips. Fifteen years ago, when she was still active, she had received rewards like this many times. But this time was different. (With this—) She murmured in her heart. (I can pay the fine. I can light the fire in Tsuchiototei's forge once more.) "Leon, Leena, Milia." The three straightened their backs. "You did well. Without you lot, these gold coins wouldn't be here. So—we split the reward evenly. Any objections?" "Huh!? Th-this much... for us!?" Leon raised his voice in shock. "Obviously! You guys were fighting those bandits with everything you had, weren't you!? Leena was firing arrows like crazy, saying this was no time to worry about her chest or whatever!" "...Did you just bring up the topic of your chest, Leena?" "I did not! Milia, you did that on purpose!" Leena shouted, her face bright red. Leon hurriedly stepped between the two of them, and Tsubaki watched the exchange with keen interest. Listening to her disciples' commotion, Tina divided the gold coins in the pouch into four. "First, from my share—I'll pay the fine of one hundred and twenty gold coins. The rest will go to repairing Tsuchiototei's forge and buying materials. And then..." She paused for a breath. "Booze. I'm gonna drink distilled liquor till I burst!" At that moment, a cheer went up in the Vandor branch. The one who shouted was Leena. "Yes! Boss, that's the spirit! I'm drinking too!" "Leena, you are fifteen years old. Drinking alcohol is prohibited." "Shut up! Don't sweat the small stuff!" "Um, but... the prohibition order is still..." At Leon's words, the room fell slightly quiet. Tina grinned. "Ah, that's right. That stupid ordinance from that rotten magistrate is still in effect. But—" She pulled a folded piece of parchment from her pocket. It was a copy of the prohibition law's text that Milia had found in the Vandor branch archives. "Milia, explain that loophole to them." Milia readjusted her grip on her staff and began speaking in a calm voice. "The prohibition law, Article 3, proviso, states the following: 'Provided, however, that this shall not apply to alcoholic beverages manufactured by a licensed brewery and for which the appropriate liquor tax has been paid.' In other words, products from a licensed brewery that have properly paid their liquor tax are legal, regardless of alcohol content." "Huh? But I thought distilled liquor was banned..." "By the definition in the text, 'distilled liquor' refers to alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of twenty-five percent or higher. Meaning—an alcoholic beverage disguised as ice wine, with an alcohol content of twenty-four-point-nine percent, is not 'distilled liquor' but 'brewed liquor.'" "Haha! That's how it is!" Tina clutched her stomach and burst out laughing. "Are you really a mage? You've definitely got the talent for being a lawyer." "...I am a mage. However, I believe law is also a kind of magic. Both are entirely about the strict definition and interpretation of words, after all." Her intelligent, pale blue eyes sparkled mischievously. Leon was dumbfounded, and Leena was shouting, "I don't really get it, but basically, we can drink, right!?" Tsubaki, after quietly watching the scene, softly opened her mouth. "Interesting. It is not only martial prowess. In this country, there is also an art of fighting with words." —Her voice sounded somewhat lonely. Tina looked at Tsubaki's face. Her sharp, jet-black eyes were gazing into the distance. "Tsubaki, what will you—do? You're heading north, right?" Tsubaki gave a small nod. "Yes. To unravel the mystery of the sword my master left behind, I must investigate the smithing techniques passed down in the northern mountains. I have met interesting weapons and an interesting blacksmith. It was a good journey." She gently touched the scabbard of the sword on her back—the black steel blade. A scabbard engraved with unfamiliar foreign patterns. Slumbering within it was a metal not of this world. "Tina-dono. Someday, without fail, I wish to have a duel with you." "Yeah, come anytime. If it's a duel, let's do it over some drinks." Tina joked. But—inside, she felt differently. (That sword...) She recalled the moment after the battle in the abandoned village, when she had touched Tsubaki's sword. The voice of the metal she tried to read with her smithing magic was complete silence. A perfect stillness, removed from the laws of this world. That sensation was—exactly the same as the fragment of "otherworldly black steel" her father had left behind. (The mystery my old man left behind... it's starting to move now.) Her heart pounded rapidly. Tsubaki smiled quietly, as if seeing right through Tina's inner thoughts. "Then, farewell. Good blacksmith." As she was leaving, she suddenly stopped. Her eyes caught the short bow gripped in Leena's hand. "...Good balance. Light, and easy to draw." Leena looked blank for a moment, then smiled bashfully. "Hehe, well, that's 'cause I've got no chest, so it's easy to draw. The bowstring doesn't hit my breastplate!" "Pfft!?" Leon choked. Milia silently put a hand to her forehead. Tsubaki took Leena's self-deprecation with a serious face. "...I see. I, too, sometimes find my chest a hindrance. During battle, it is heavy and makes my shoulders stiff." A moment of silence. Leena burst out laughing. "Ahahaha! I totally get that! Boss never has to worry about stiff shoulders, after all!" "Shut up! What kind of remark is that! Even I get stiff shoulders!" Tina yelled back, but her voice was mixed with laughter. Watching the four of them, Tsubaki showed a soft smile befitting her age. Then, they exchanged a firm handshake, and she departed on her journey north. Tina watched her go intently until her back was no longer visible. —That sword. —I'll definitely unravel its secret. Her blacksmith's soul was quietly, but surely, blazing. It was nearing dusk when they returned to Tsuchiototei. The two-story stone smithy facing East Street had been left abandoned, destroyed days ago at the magistrate's instigation. The wreckage of the shattered forge was dyed red by the setting sun. [The scent of alcohol was no longer here.] Tina stood before the ruined forge. (Fifteen years ago, when I retired from adventuring—I thought I'd start everything over here.) With trembling hands, she touched the remains of the forge. The cold feel of stone. Once, a red-burning flame here had heated steel to incandescence. "...I'm fixing this." She placed the bag of gold coins she had received at the Vandor branch on the ground with a heavy *thud*. "First, pay the fine. Then—repair the forge. I'll make a huge racket so that shitty magistrate can't help but hear my hammer ring." Just then, a voice came from behind. "Master! I'll help!" Leon began carrying rubble with his wounded arms. His face was still pale, but the look in his eyes was different. It wasn't the eyes of the timid, nervous boy he had been until now. "I'll do it too! Boss, where should I pile this rubble?" Leena, her red side-tail swaying, hoisted a large rock. "I as well—the structure of a smithing forge is quite interesting. I would like to use this opportunity to research the optimization of heat distribution." Milia set down her staff and promptly began sketching the internal structure of the forge. (These guys...) Watching her disciples, Tina felt a warmth spreading deep in her chest. —This is where it begins. The repair work continued into the night. With the remaining gold coins after paying the fine, they bought new firebricks and rebuilt the inside of the forge from scratch. An old adventurer friend—Magus, the owner of the tavern "The Copper Cup"—showed his face just as the framework of the forge was nearly complete. "Hey, Tina! I heard you took down those bandits!" The fat, jovial man—Magus Oren—rushed over to the sweat-drenched Tina and slapped her thick shoulders heartily. "Ow, that hurts, Magus! My shoulder's half dead right now!" "Sorry, sorry! But hey, now we can drink! So—when's that stuff arriving?" Magus lowered his voice and whispered into her ear. Tina grinned and pointed to a small barrel hidden in the shadow of the forge. "It's already done. Thanks to Milia's new theory." "Milia's? What do you mean?" Milia, continuing her sketch by the forge, answered coolly. "It is simple. We disguise distilled liquor as ice wine. The alcohol content is twenty-four-point-nine percent. We repackage it into wine barrels from a licensed brewery procured in Tora post town, pay the liquor tax, and sell it legally. Legally speaking, this is not 'distilled liquor' but 'brewed liquor.'" "...Whoa, whoa, whoa." Magus's eyes went wide. "Is that seriously legal!?" "According to the letter of the law. However, how the officials at the magistrate's office will judge it is another matter. In any case—the risk is far lower than illegally distilling liquor." "There you have it! Magus, we'll be using your underground storehouse. I'm also counting on you to arrange sneaking the barrels past the guards' eyes." "Leave it to me! Don't underestimate a former Copper-rank adventurer, yeah? Darkness and hidden passages are my specialty." Magus opened the hidden door leading to the underground storehouse, his fat belly jiggling. —And so, the foundation of a moonshine network, connecting from the basem

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Episode 6

Name: Tina's Workshop Story: The Blacksmith Girl with Sake and War Hammer
Author: Novelia

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