After staring at it in silence for a bit, Bruno turned to ask me, "My lord, this mold…this isn't like anything that I've seen before. Are you sure that this will even work as a blade?"
I just said with a smile, "There's no problem. As long as you follow my orders, it will all be fine."
Bruno had a look on his face that made it seem like he didn't seem to believe me, but he had no choice in the end.
After all, I was the lord of this territory and the one that ruled over him.
If I gave an order, he had to follow it.
So Bruno poured the molten mixture into the mold that I had prepared.
He had thought that it would even break out of the mold, but to his surprise, the mold worked perfectly.
After waiting a bit, he opened up the mold to reveal…a block of iron.
This wasn't iron that was in a specific shape, but rather iron that was in the shape of a square. There was no way that something like this could be used to make a blade.
Or at least that was what Bruno thought.
Seeing it take form like this, I gave a satisfied nod before saying, "Come, it's time to hammer it."
"Eh?" Bruno said in a confused voice.
But in the end, he still followed me after seeing the way I looked at him.
I held the tongs that held the piece of metal in place while he slammed his hammer down on it.
After he hit the piece of metal a few times, I raised my hand for him to stop before using the tongs to fold it on itself. After folding it, I gave him the signal to slam the hammer down again.
Seeing this, Bruno revealed an even more confused look and he started to hesitate.
So I had no choice but to say, "Stop stalling and do it already."
"Oh…" Bruno said before bringing the hammer down again on the piece of metal.
He slammed it a few more times before I folded it again.
We repeated this a few times before I gave a satisfied nod.
Bruno couldn't help looking at me with a very strange look as he couldn't see how this piece of iron would become a blade.
But I said, "We're putting it back into the furnace."
"Huh?" Bruno said, but I was already moving over to the furnace.
Using the same tools that he used before, I tossed this piece of iron in and waited for it to heat up again.
This time, I didn't let it heat up completely, just enough that it was malleable enough for us to hammer again.
When it was at this level, I turned to Bruno to say, "Get ready, we're going to be hitting it again."
Using the tongs, I pulled the piece of metal out again and put it on the anvil before saying, "Start hammering."
Bruno snapped out of his daze and started hammering the piece of metal again.
Like this, we folded the iron a few more times before putting it back into the furnace.
This time, Bruno wasn't as dazed as before and stood beside me as I heated it. He looked at the piece of metal heating up as he asked, "How many times are we going to be doing this?"
I said with a smile, "Normally, traditional blacksmiths would do this around ten times to make sure that the metal is properly folded in on itself."
Bruno looked at me in shock when he heard this.
Ten times?
Even if he was a blacksmith, he could feel that the strength of this metal wasn't normal. It was much stronger than anything he worked with before, so it was hard for him to hammer it.
He could already feel his hands going numb at the thought of doing this eight more times.
Seeing the look on his face, I said with a teasing smile, "But of course, people have found that the process is basically done after around two times. So there's no need for us to do that any longer. We just need to shape the metal into the shape of the blade and apply the lacquer and we'll be done. It's not like we're professionals trying to make a Masamune or a Kotetsu after all."
Hearing this, Bruno couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.
However, he also couldn't help muttering, "Masamune? Kotetsu? What are those things?"
I just revealed a mysterious smile without saying anything.
Once the metal was heated I took out the piece of metal and then showed Bruno a drawing of the shape that I wanted it to be.
Bruno could tell that this drawing was of a sword, but it was a shape that he had never seen before.
There was only a blade on one side and there was a blunted edge on the other.
This weapon didn't seem that efficient…but since it was what the lord wanted…he had no choice but to go along with him.
This time, I held the metal with the tongs as Bruno started hammering it into the shape that I wanted.
He was a bit clumsy since this was his first time doing this, but we were able to get the shape of it in the end since he was a skilled blacksmith.
When he looked at the blade, Bruno couldn't help feeling a strange feeling.
It wasn't that he didn't think this blade was good, he just felt that this blade seemed very sturdy…
Much more sturdy than any blade that he had seen before.
I ignored this and just put the blade into the water to cool it.
Once it was cooled, I took out the lacquer and started applying it onto the blunt edge of the sword before heating it up to let it fuse with the sword.
When that was all done, all that was left was to polish the sword's edge and I left that to Bruno since that was something he was familiar with.
With that, our sword was done.
At the same time, Rondo had finished his sword.
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