Chapter 243: Missed Morning Sun

After returning to the Count’s territory for the first time in a month and a half, it felt quite nostalgic just to be back home.

“It seems like there haven’t been any break-ins or anything.” 

Claudia said as she checked the house’s keys.

In this era, since there are no banks, it’s common for people to either carry their valuables with them or pay a storage fee to nobles or major merchants to keep them safe. People who consider investing the money entrusted to them will appear a little later.

Claudia had also divided her gold coins and entrusted them to several major merchants. When asked why she didn’t entrust them to the Count’s family, Claudia said.

“Those places make you go through troublesome procedures every time you withdraw money and keep asking about the intended use.” 

In other words, it’s just that she doesn’t trust nobles.

They don’t mind using the money entrusted by commoners for their own purposes, and they even think they’re incompetent when it comes to managing money.

I was also worried that someone from the same profession might sneak in to steal the sword-making technique, but I quickly dismissed that idea.

After all, Lutz isn’t keeping the technique a secret; asking him directly would be the quickest way.

Also, the residents of the artisan district are mostly acquaintances. If an unfamiliar person is wandering around, it will immediately become a rumor, and if a familiar person is behaving suspiciously, it will also become a rumor.

If someone were to break into Lutz Workshop to steal the sword-making technique and liven up the blacksmithing industry in the count’s territory, along with related decoration, magic enchantment, and retail industries, they would be immediately caught red-handed and beaten up. There are plenty of people in this town who are itching to test their swords.

Lutz and Claudia decided to take it easy for a while. Whether they could really relax or not was another matter.

The next day, when Lutz woke up in the bed on the third floor, it was already past noon.

“Whoa… I overslept.” 

Lutz said as he stuck his head out of the window and squinted at the sky.

There were no particular promises or plans with anyone. Nevertheless, waking up in the afternoon brought about a sense of guilt or something indescribable towards someone.

“Hey, Lutz, good morning.” 

Claudia also woke up and sat up in bed. She was completely naked. With her ample breasts and smooth skin on full display, Lutz, who should have been accustomed to it, felt somewhat embarrassed. There is a different charm between seeing skin in the dim light and under the sun.

“Oh, you’re up quite early.”

“In this case, should we say ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’ for greetings?” 

“Saying ‘good afternoon’ on the bed is a bit surreal. ‘Good morning’ should be fine.” 

“Right. Well then, good morning.”

“Yeah, good morning, Lutz-kun.”

They laughed together, put on their scattered clothes, and then descended to the living room on the second floor. Their meal was dried meat they had bought during their journey.

“I’ll go shopping for groceries and clean the house today.” 

When Claudia said this while biting the dried meat that was as hard as iron, Lutz tilted his head with a suspicious look on his face.

“Do we really need to clean? We haven’t lived here for a while, so it shouldn’t be dirty.” 

“Do we really need to clean? Of course! There’s a thin layer of dust all over. You see, houses will die if no one lives in them.” 

“Is that so…”

“Your attitude hasn’t changed a bit, Lutz-kun. Well, never mind. Leave the house to me. What are you going to do today?”

Lutz looked out the window and thought about what he could do at this time.

“I’ll go pick up the donkey we left with Patrick-san. And I’ll also decide on a schedule for the discussion about sword making.” 

“On your way back, could you buy some donkey feed?” 

“Okay.”

After swallowing the semi-solid dried meat, Lutz stood up.

When he went to the workshop, despite the sudden visit, Patrick welcomed him warmly.

“Hey there, Kyouka-chan, welcome!” 

“Patrick-san, I’m Lutz. Kyouka is this sword.” 

Lutz said, pointing to the sword at his waist.

“Oh, is that so? Well, regardless, welcome.” 

Such exchanges had become quite common.

Led into the reception room, Lutz first thanked Patrick.

“Thank you for always taking care of Donkey-chan.” 

“No problem. We have plenty of donkeys at our place, so adding one more is no big deal. More importantly, hmph, I’m glad to see a famous sword. I’d be willing to take care of a hundred of these.” 

“It’s impossible to prepare a hundred famous swords.”

While conversing, Patrick was staring intently at the master sword “Kyouka Suigetsu” handed to him by Lutz. If left unattended, he might even lick it.

“Oh, it’s beautiful, truly splendid. To think that such a lovely sword defeated the Flame Demon… It’s just incredible.”

“The one who dealt the fatal blow was Ricardo’s ‘Sakura,’ though.”

“Indeed, Sakura-chan is splendid too, but it was Kyouka-chan who essentially killed the flame demon, if you will.”

Lutz understood Patrick’s point. By stripping the flame from the invincible Flame demon, it lost its essence as a demon. It could indeed be said that he killed the concept of a demon.

Although he hadn’t witnessed the battle, Lutz recognized Patrick as a respectable craftsman, able to make such evaluations.

“Phew… That was quite the treat. Thank you very much.”

Patrick sheathed Kyouka Suigetsu and returned it to Lutz.

“Is that enough?”

“If I keep looking, I feel like my heart will burst from excitement. The bigger issue is that I almost don’t mind dying like that. ‘Dying for love isn’t so bad!’ or something like that.”

“That’s certainly an issue…”

Kyouka Suigetsu was a magic sword with ancient characters engraved on its blade. It was crafted using a new technique of melting down a four-character magic sword to use as material. It contained magic power which was likely higher than any other magic sword on the continent, even surpassing the ones presented to the king, like “Amaterasu” and “Rose Garden.”

Patrick, being highly sensitive if not outright eccentric, might indeed get so overwhelmed by seeing such a thing up close that he’d fall ill or something.

Satisfied, Lutz accepted the sword.

“Patrick-san, aside from picking up the donkey today, I have another matter to discuss.”

“Oh, I see. Let’s hear it.”

“I want to share the information I acquired during this journey.”

“Information sharing?”

“Yes.”

Until now, each craftsman had been doing their own thing independently. So Patrick tilted his head, wondering why Lutz suddenly wanted to share information this time.

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