Chapter 322: The Craftsmen

After returning to the royal capital from Gillet, I immediately parted ways with Ren-san and the others and headed back to the villa. I had been looking forward to everyone welcoming me, but they hadn’t returned from the unexplored dungeon yet—it seemed I was the first to arrive.

I had so much I wanted to share right away, so I felt a bit restless, but they should be back within a few days. For now, I decided to reward Ash for transporting us to the Sarevo Ruined Cathedral. Well, “reward” was just the magic cores that Ren-san and the others had given me on the way back.

I felt a little guilty for not having prepared a reward of my own, but Ash didn’t seem to care about my restlessness at all and enthusiastically started devouring the magic cores.

All the familiars were eating them with gusto, but I wondered if magic cores were really that delicious? I was a little tempted to try some, but according to Sheila-san, they’re something humans shouldn’t eat.

The mana potion was created through alchemy to make magic cores consumable for humans, and I had tasted a sip before, but it was far from what you’d call delicious. Well, mana potions seem to mix in all sorts of things in large quantities to the point where you can’t even tell what magic cores taste like, so they’re probably completely different from magic cores themselves.

That’s exactly why I wanted to taste a magic core… but yeah, I should probably refrain. It’s like giving dogs onions or chocolate—it could be life-threatening.

After watching Ash finish off the magic cores with envious eyes, I made my way to Ash-san’s house. No particular reason—I was just bored.

I had gone to Sid-san’s place first, but he was working on the inn construction again today, so I left without saying a word. With the beastkin adding to our manpower and the rapid pace of construction, the inn was nearing completion.

To avoid getting in the way of the construction, it was better for me not to show my face. That’s why I came to Rozzo-san’s place, but unexpectedly, Rozzo-san also seemed quite busy.

“Oh? Sato-san! Back from your trip?”

“Yes. I just got back, but… you seem to be having quite a hard time, Rozzo-san.”

Rozzo-san had come out of his house drenched in sweat, with drops falling from his magnificent beard. If I had known he was in the middle of working, I wouldn’t have stopped by, but it felt wrong to call him out and then just leave.

“Yeah! I’ve been working on that electric charge storage device you requested! Come on inside for a bit!”

I let myself be guided and went into Rozzo-san’s house. In the smithy at the back of the house, there were three people I didn’t know, who bowed their heads respectfully the moment they saw me.

“This is the device in question! I’d like to test it out a bit, if that’s alright?”

“Before that, I’d like an introduction to these people…”

“They’re not really worth introducing, but whatever! This scrawny one is Yoan. This little one is Ingo. And the one with the long jaw is Yan!”

“Rozzo-san, your introductions are far too crude! I am Yoan, a magic tool craftsman in the royal capital. Ingo works at the same shop as me, and Yan is a blacksmith at the site of Rozzo-san’s former shop!”

“I am Sato, someone who acts as the… leader? of sorts for this village. Pleased to meet you.”

After exchanging greetings with the three people I had just met, I took another look at the device. It was quite large, but its appearance resembled a generator. They must have used the charger and solar generator I had given them as references, but the fact that they could reproduce it to this extent with otherworldly technology was astounding.

“Sato-san, what do you think? Will it function properly?”

“I won’t know until we actually test it, but it certainly looks like it will work. It’s truly amazing that you managed to build this in such a short time.”

“Well, it wasn’t just my power alone! If we won’t know until we test it, let’s go test it right away! That hedgehog is at your house, right?”

“I’d love to test it immediately too, but Helena isn’t here right now, so we can’t.”

At my words, Rozzo-san and the others tilted their heads in confusion. Rozzo-san aside, Yoan-san and the others didn’t know Helena, so they probably had no idea what was going on.

“Helena? What’s she got to do with this?”

“Elec and Trick only discharge electricity at Helena. We might be able to force them to discharge by scaring them, but I absolutely don’t want to do that.”

“I see. So since everyone’s out, we can’t test it now! I can accept that, but being disliked so much that they’ll only discharge at her—that’s rough!”

“It’s actually the opposite. They seem to discharge electricity because they’re so happy to see her.”

“What the heck! Forget testing the device, now I’m curious about those hedgehogs! Can we go check on them right now?”

“Of course. I was actually thinking of treating Yoan-san and the others to my cooking as thanks, so why don’t we have a meal at the villa?”

“Alright! That’s too good to pass up! You guys are in for a treat!”

Rozzo-san made a big fist pump, but Yoan-san and the others wore bewildered expressions. Gradually, they started looking at Rozzo-san with strange eyes for getting so excited about an old man’s home cooking, but I figured the fastest way to make them understand was to let them taste it.