TinyTL

Kanaa-senpai8-9 minutes

　Three days had passed since then, and Alexis had been waiting at the fort.

「Prince, prince, prince..!」

　He hears a loud soprano voice in the distance.

　Before he had woken up, the door to his room slammed open and in came Dorothea.

「...what are you doing? You should at least knock...」

　Alexis gets up from the bed and glares at Dorothea with a grumpy look on his face.

「Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just so excited because I finished it.」

　Dorothea smiles shyly and seems to have stayed up all night again.

「You really...」

　He was about to reach out his hand for her rudeness, but he saw a giant who came behind her with a slight bend.

「Prince, I beg your pardon for granddaughter!」

　The one who laughs behind Dorothea's back is a muscular giant with two arms as thick as logs—or rather, Dorothea's grandfather, Vincent Penfold.

「Oh, uh... no, it's okay.」

　Alexis' face was tight as he hurriedly pulled his hand back.

　"...that was close..." he patted his chest inwardly.

　If he had attacked Dorothea without noticing his presence, his skull would have been crushed by now.

　It was a chilling experience, but it woke him up at once.

「Prince, can you come now?」

　Dorothea called to him, and Alexis nodded his head.

「Yes, then go back to the workshop and wait for a while. I'll be there when I'm done getting ready」

「Okay. My grandfather and I will be waiting for you, prince!」

　Dorothea said and left with her grandfather, who thanked him.

　After seeing her grandfather's backside, who was still bending his head to go through the door, Alexis muttered to himself.

「Big as ever...」

（...I wish I could share some of his height...）

　He was thinking like that.

* * *

　After Alexis got ready, he decided to go to the workshop as promised.

　He went down the stairs and entered the workshop in the basement, where two young blacksmiths were in the middle of making weapons for the soldiers.

　They were hammering heated metal in a furnace and polishing finished swords. Vincent is standing beside them, giving them instructions and occasionally accepting a piece of bright red metal handed to him and hammering it with an additional hammer.

　Perhaps because they are concentrating on their work and the noise of their work is loud, they do not seem to notice Alexis' arrival.

（Well, it's not a good atmosphere to call out to them...）

　Alexis looks around. He wants to call out to Dorothea, but he can't find her.

（Where the hell did Dorothea go?）

　Just as he thought, he heard the sound of shoes coming down the stairs.

　He turned to see if Dorothea had come downstairs, but it was Fransisca.

　She came down in her normal clothes, rubbing the corner of her eyes sleepily, and immediately saw Alexis and smiled at him.

「*Yawn*... Alexis-sama, good morning」

　Her greeting and smile were more faint than usual. From the looks of things, it seemed that Fransisca had also been woken up.

　Alexis quickly raised his hand and called out to Fransisca, who had come up next to him.

「Yeah, good morning. Did they wake you up too?」

「...Yes. Alexis-sama too?」

「Yeah. They woke me up with a bang」

「...Fufu. Just like me」

　While they were talking, they heard someone coming down the stairs again.

　This time it was Dorothea.

「Oh, both of you are here already!」

　Behind Dorothea was a knight in full armor with her head completely covered by an armet—or Eden.

　Eden only gave a slight benediction without saying a word.

　"—Then," Dorothea formally opens her mouth.

「Now everyone's here, and since Grandfather seems to be busy, let's go. I'll explain about the weapons」

　Dorothea started, and the group nodded.

* * *

　Dorothea led them to the armory located at the back of the workshop.

　From there, Dorothea brought three weapons. There was a one-handed sword, a spear-sword, a long spear.

　As ordered by the prince, she used that mysterious ore as the material for the weapons.

　Saying this, Dorothea shows the spear-sword to Alexis and the others.

　The design is a complete change from the long spear-like hilt with the sword blade attached to the handle, and a single-edged sword with a sharp tip is extended on each side of the grip.

　This design gives the impression of a long, slender axe rather than a sword or spear.

　The most notable feature of the sword is the sword blade, which has a bluish-white shine. The whole sword part emitted a dull bluish-white light that seemed to be clouded with white.

「Princess said that it is not good to put too much ore in one place, so I tried to adjust the content in various ways... is this enough?」

　Dorothea showed it to Fransisca, who nodded her head and clasped her hands together.

「Yes, I think it is well done. But still... you understood me after I explained it to you. That's amazing, Dorothea-san.」

　Fransisca smiles at Dorothea, and Dorothea starts to giggle.

「Well... it was a bit of a struggle, but I managed...」

「What exactly were you briefed on?」

　Alexis asks Dorothea while receiving the weapon.

　Dorothea recalls what happened then, "Well".

「She explained it to me in various onomatopoeic sounds, such as 'vague,' 'warm,' 'fluffy,' and so on」

「I couldn't come up with a good explanation. So, I told Dorothea-san to make the light stronger than this.」

　Fransisca told Alexis as she pulled out a pendant from her chest.

　She was talking to Dorothea, who had trouble with her eyes alone. Dorothea seemed to get the message, and she nodded with a wry smile.

　"Well," said Dorothea, turning to Fransisca and lifting her one-handed sword.

「Next is the princess's weapon」

　"Yes, please," Fransisca responded.

　Dorothea nodded, pulling the sword out of its ornate scabbard.

　Fransisca's wind magic sword had also been redesigned.

　Instead of being broader than its previous version, it has a cavity in the center, perhaps to reduce the density of the ore.

　The sword's design seems to have been changed only in the body of the blade, but the hilt is still used, perhaps to maintain the effect of the magic sword.

　As expected, this sword also emits a cloudy bluish-white light.

「Thank you, Dorothea-san」

　Fransisca took the sword from Dorothea and put it in the scabbard after looking at the shape of the sword's body.

「This last one is Eden-san's weapon」

　With these words, Dorothea presented Eden with a spear.

　Eden firmly took the spear, which had a pale glow, in both hands.

　Eden was still silent, looking at the spear.

　Seeing her like this, Alexis felt compelled to speak to her, so he talked to her.

「...With this weapon, you will be able to mourn Aniki...」

「......」

　Alexis looked at Eden, who nodded in silence and felt relieved.

「We'll go into battle together next time, Eden.」

　Eden replied in a muffled voice, "...hmm".

　After watching them, Dorothea nodded her head.

「Well, now we have the weapons of the three vanguard members」

　Dorothea looks around at Alexis, Fransisca, and Eden.

「Those ores seem to be very precious, so I haven't been able to make a weapon for the rear guard this time...」

　Alexis nodded, knowing what Dorothea was going to say.

「—Yes, but this is enough to defeat Aniki」

「...yes」

　Dorothea's expression turned dark for a moment as if she was intimidated by an enemy she had not yet met. However, she immediately smiles victorious smile.

「This is the best I can do. But did your best too. Let's win for sure!」

　At Dorothea's words, each of them nodded their heads broadly.

Edited Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.