‘She knows Ayn!’

  His eyes quickly widened in surprise, at her casual mention of the other elf. Although he was hoping to meet him at the workshop, he didn't expect to be so lucky. He followed her inside, clearing his mind and thinking of what to say.

  He wanted to ask her whether she knew what had happened to Ayn after the incident, but at the same time, he didn't want to appear weird. Arthur was a cadet, albeit an honorary one, and worrying about a prisoner might make him seem unusual.

  “Ah, yes, I do know him. Does he still work here?”

  He tried to hide his tension behind a smile, and seeing Gunnhildr's own smile, it seemed to have worked. She placed a finger on her lips, while thinking.

  “Hm, I'm not sure actually. I don't usually pay too much attention to the workers when I'm working on a project. Though…”

  She stopped talking for a moment, glancing around the room. The sounds of gears turning and Ark crackling in the air completely eliminated any chance of quiet, and the heat from the Gemstone lamps filled the room.

  “I don't think I've seen him at all, after that.”

  Arthur clicked his tongue, and lowered his gaze. Even if he knew it couldn't have been that easy, it was still annoying. She dangled the bait in front of his eyes, only to snatch it away before he could even try to bite down.

  She walked towards one of the workbenches further inside the room, while humming a tune. Of course, she didn't do it to mock him, but rather didn't know about his situation. Arthur trailed behind her, before glancing at the table.

  It exuded a familiar feeling, a nostalgic one. Although in the later years of his life he had mainly worked in front of a computer, at an office job, he remembered the days and nights he spent working on projects on his desk for university.

  Gunnhildr's work table, with gears and metal parts which he couldn't properly recognize scattered around, as well as Gemstones and various tools, reminded him of his own desk.

  Though it had a sort of order of its own. Part of the table was filled with tools and instruments, ranging from blades to measurement tape, while another was covered entirely by paper sheets and blueprints.

  “What is it you do here, anyways? And don't say ‘engineering’, please.”

  Arthur asked her, curiously peeking at the blueprints on the table. Some seemed to be Gemstone mechanisms, while others were more similar to weapons. Gunnhildr chuckled at his joke, before kicking a box at the table's foot.

  “Dang, that is pretty much all I do, though… Jokes aside, whatever I'm asked to do. I usually take commissions, you know?”

  She leaned down, placing the box on top of the work table and opening it. Inside were various daggers, knives, swords and other weapons which Arthur couldn't identify properly, if not as weapons. However, he was confused.

  ‘Isn’t this more of a blacksmith's job…?’

  He stroked his chin while staring at the items inside the box. His eyebrows suddenly shot up, and with a doubt just spawned inside his mind, he closed his eyes. As he suspected, once he opened them again in that half-Dipping state, he could see circuits running through the weapons, with a variety of symbols.

  Those were magic weapons!

  Arthur’s eyes widened, and a smirk appeared on his face. Every time he discovered something new about that world it was the same, no matter how used he thought he was to magic. Something like magic weapons existed, his interest was piqued.

  “These aren't… Normal swords, right?”

  They weren't only swords, but that term was encompassing enough. Gunnhildr opened her mouth in surprise, and nodded at him.

  “Hmhm. They're Tyrfingrs, kind of my specialty. I do prefer working on Gemstones, but I have a talent for making those.”

  Arthur stayed silent hearing the unfamiliar term, and glanced at his side, already used to relying on the Archive. He waited a few seconds for the window to pop up, and smacked his forehead with his palm mentally after even more time.

  With how tired he was, he had completely forgotten that the Archive wasn't available to him at the moment.

  “Tyrfingrs?”

  “Right, you're an amnesiac. How can I explain it to you… Hm, in short, they're artificial Cycles… No, you wouldn't know what those are either. Give me a moment.”

  She leaned over the table, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil. He noticed that even the pencils were engraved with circuits, rather than operating through graphite or ink.

  The pencil's tip burned the surface of the paper to write on it, charring the most superficial layer. After a few moments, Gunnhildr showed Arthur what she had just drawn. It took him more than a few moments to figure out what exactly it was representing.

  “Time for a quiz! Do you know how Teiws managed to grow this much?”

  Arthur tilted his head at the sudden question. If he remembered correctly from what he had read, the main reason for Teiws' growth was its first emperor, Tiwez. A great leader, both in the political and military aspects.

  “It's thanks to Tiwez, I believe?”

  Gunnhildr shook her head.

  “You're not wrong, but that's not what I'm talking about. It's thanks to our manpower.”

  She pointed to the drawing with her pencil, tapping it on the surface of the paper a few times. Some highly stylized figures were drawn on it, wielding weirdly detailed weapons of various kinds.

  “You see, the empire has one of the largest military forces of Winguric. I'll spare you, and just tell you the answer, this time: it's thanks to these beauties.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  She circled the drawn weapons with the pencil, before glancing at the box on top of the table. Arthur nodded. He understood that those ‘Tyrfingrs’ were some sort of magic weapons, though he didn't know the details yet.

  “What's so special about them?”

  He tilted his head, and Gunnhildr smiled. That was exactly the question she wanted to hear.

  “Not everyone can use magic, right? However, even a baby can use Ark. That's what the engineers of Tiwez's time figured, and some before him.”

  He nodded, understanding she was talking about Gemstone Technology. That meant that the King Fern of Goetia was in rule before the Empire of Teiws had formed, if he understood the timeline correctly.

  “But they're not just Gemstones, right? Goetia would have made this technology first, if that was the case.”

  He rubbed his chin, thinking about his own guess. Gunnhildr nodded.

  “You're a bright one. Goetia did create Gemstone Technology, you're right, and that's at the base of Tyrfingrs. However, they're a step above simple Gemstone appliances like those lamps, or running water. Tyrfingrs can turn any man or woman, so long as they can use Ark at a basic level, into a soldier.

  “The details on how they work is classified information, of course, but I can tell you that much. Through a combination of Gemstones and other materials, Tyrfingrs can let anyone use a variety of spells, strong enough to fight in a proper battleground. We make up for quality with quantity, and while most of our soldiers are Tyrfingr users, there's still a high number of proper mages in our ranks.”

  Arthur nodded, interested in her explanation. It was a shame she couldn't tell him anything more, but he understood the reason. Tyrfingrs were what allowed Teiws' army to be so overwhelmingly powerful, and if the creation process were to be leaked, every other country and kingdom could copy them.

  Still, it was an incredible feat, that the secrets hadn't got out even once during the Empire's lifetime.

  “So, you make Tyrfingrs? Is that your job, at the academy?”

  Now he was wondering whether this was her actual position, or whether they were simply workshop activities. She shook her head, with a smile.

  “Not quite. I only make prototypes and experiment with the attributes, I can't make a proper one. And I told you already, I take commissions, so it's more of a private business.”

  He leaned towards the table, taking a peek at the box. He was curious about how they worked in practice, after hearing about the theory, even if some of the information was above his pay grade.

  Gunnhildr noticed his interest, and with a smack on his back, picked up a Tyrfingr from the box.

  “Want to check one of these out? I can't let you use them, but I can show you how to use one. Usage of Gunnhildr-made Tyrfingrs is reserved for workshop members, or paying customers, so you'll need to be one of those two to get one.”

  She let out a laugh, and Arthur reciprocated it, although forced. He wouldn't mind joining the workshop as an official member, depending on what perks he would gain from it. If that granted him access to Tyrfingrs, both for usage and for studying, convincing him would be easy.

  Gunnhildr's focus had shifted to the Tyrfingr in her hand, inside a leather sheath, similar to gun holsters. The weapon itself looked almost like a wooden branch, small and thin, with two branches intertwining and ending on two sharp ends.

  On what Arthur guessed was the bottom of the weapon, two small, red coloured Gemstones were present. He squinted. He could see circuits inside the Gemstones, as well as circuits running through the surface of the Tyrfingr.

  It almost looked like a magic wand.

  “I thought they would be… Well, more like weapons. Why that one, specifically?”

  He tilted his head, confused. He could clearly see knives and swords inside the box, but she had picked out that one.

  “Oh, I just wanted to try this one out. I finished it just earlier you see, and it's a pretty unique one!”

  She yanked a blueprint from the table, holding it in front of Arthur's eyes. The drawings on it were of higher quality than the previous scribbles she had shown him, that much was for sure.

  From the blueprint, Arthur could tell that the weapon was more complex than it seemed. The circuits enveloped and covered its surface completely, and were extremely detailed. He could tell, even if he didn't know the meaning of them.

  Curiously, there were some sketches on one of the edges of the blueprint, which looked like ants heads.

  “What's so special about it…? It doesn't look too far from an ordinary branch.”

  Gunnhildr shook her head, with an excited smirk on her face. She clearly enjoyed showing her work and explaining it.

  “You see, I actually made this Tyrfingr with… Ah, well, Sol trusts you, it'll be fine if I tell you some confidential information.”

  She stopped speaking for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders. Arthur raised his eyebrow, wondering whether she would be the reason for the failure of upholding Teiws' secrecy about their weapons.

  “As I was saying, the circuits are made with a paste obtained from ground down Bombardier Ants.”

  ‘Bombardier Ants? Doesn't she mean beetles…? No, it's probably something unique to Irminsul…’

  He thought to himself, stroking his chin. He wondered why she mentioned the ingredient used in the making of the circuits, but quickly answered his own question. He already knew that certain animals had peculiar abilities, such as the Phantom Shark or the Night Reindeer. Most likely, Bombardier Beetles could be used for weapons, rather than for medicine.

  “I see. And, what does it do, exactly?”

  “I was getting there!”

  She pointed at him accusingly, as if telling him to stop interrupting, before clearing her throat and continuing talking. Arthur chuckled.

  “Bombardier Ants have a particular defense system. They're able to innately use fire magic thanks to circuits engraved on their exoskeletons, and a very specific kind at that. You see, when you try to cast a spell with this Tyrfingr, it copies the ants' peculiarity of sacrificing quality for quantity…”

  Arthur tilted his head slightly. He didn't want to speak up and stop her from talking, but his confusion was obvious. Gunnhildr let out a sigh, and after rubbing the bridge of her nose, she nodded to herself.

  “Alright, it's faster if I show you. I'll use the same spell twice, first normally, and then through the Tyrfingr.”

  She extended her hand. Arthur could see the circuits moving and shifting, taking a specific shape. Ark coursed through them, and a flash of light grazed him. Some sort of whip-like construct made out of electricity had formed from her hand.

  “It's a basic lightning shot spell. Now, with the Tyrfingr.”

  She closed her fist, deactivating the spell. Then, she grabbed the branch, twirling it around her fingers for a few seconds.

  He could see the Ark spread from her body to the weapon, coursing from her core to the sharp tips of the branches. The symbols enveloping the surface of the branch lit up, and at the very center, Arthur could see a Y-shaped symbol.

  The spell was the exact same, however, it manifested itself differently. Instead of a singular thunderbolt, the electricity branched off and spread, akin to the interior of a plasma globe. Arthur's eyes widened, understanding what she meant by sacrificing quality for quantity.

  “It divides a spell into multiple, weaker shots?”

  Gunnhildr opened her mouth in surprise and awe, and nodded.

  “Something like that, yes. There's actually many species of insects that have similar effects, but I've found that Bombardier Ants possess the smallest output loss margin.”

  Arthur once again stroked his chin, interested.

  “Interesting… Do all Tyrfingrs have… Attributes, depending on the ingredients used?”

  She nodded and shook her head at the same time.

  “It depends, really.”

  “For example, what effect would a Tyrfingr made with a Phantom Shark scale have?”

  Gunnhildr looked at Arthur with dumbfounded eyes. She scratched the side of her head, and looked away.

  “Well… I never got my hands on something as rare as that… I don't think even if I asked Mr Sol, he could get me one, so I have no idea…”

  Arthur's finger twitched, as Gunnhildr lowered her gaze in embarrassment. His fingers immediately dug into his pockets, wrapping around the tin container of the medicines. In his ears, the sound of mechanical clicking and electrical static was once again heard, coming from a floating text window beneath his eyes.

  [The information Arthur Luria has requested is ready.]