33.When Logic Breaks Down
Concentration, determination, stubbornness, and a bit of madness. According to my family, these are the must-have traits for anyone who wants to become a magic item craftsman.
Although the amount of magic power that one possesses is an important factor when engraving a spell on an object, if you do not have sufficient concentration and determination, you can never create a high-quality magic item.
In contrast, even if you have little magic power, as long as you know how to manage it correctly and have the concentration necessary, you can create a high-quality magic item.
People said first magic item craftsman to have been a groundbreaking genius, and people called him ‘the Golden Craftsman’. He not only did he design the complex processes required to engrave magic spells and magic runes onto objects, but his early creations were so fantastic that no one has matched them after hundreds of years. His creations are called ‘Golden Magic Items’ because of its high perfection and efficiency, both in the consumption of magic power and in the effects it generates.
Unfortunately, time and wars that knockdown kingdoms and cause the birth of new kingdoms generate unforgiving flames that reach everything, including priceless treasures such as the Golden Magic Items. There are said to be only three treasures in the world.
For centuries craftsmen have tried to achieve the so-called golden perfection, but no one has.
I, Lynette Lilstar, having been born into a family of magical item craftsmen with a history of several previous generations, my destiny had been decided from the beginning, however, it is not as if I hated this destiny, I really love creating magical items.
From the first time I saw my parents create a magic item, I fell completely in love with these objects.
Creating a magic item involves engraving the spell or magic runes written on a magic scroll onto the chosen object, while these two ingredients are linked to a magic core. In some ways it is like trying to create a living being, the object being the body, the spell its soul, and the magic core its heart.
However, there is no simplicity in this process.
While the engraving process is carrying out, the craftsman performs calculations that require the use of complex formulas so advanced that it does not have any use in other professions.
The weight of the object and its volume besides the density of the material from which it is made, the number of characters that make up the spell to be engraved, the amount of magic power that exists within the magic core, all this must be calculated with great precision for try to reach the dreamy golden balance, and it should be noted during the process, constant adjustments must be made. Some aspects to take into account in the calculations and that non-versed people would consider absurd are; the ambient temperature influences the volume of the object, and as the process progresses, the temperature of the object itself increases, the same goes for the humidity in the air in the environment in which craftsman work, the humidity adheres to materials in different ways and increase the weight of objects in such small numbers that anyone could consider a joke.
Taking into account all the work and effort involved in creating a magic item, it should be easy to understand why the perfect magic item does not exist. It is impossible not to make mistakes in the complex calculations, and it is these errors that determine the durability and efficiency of a magic item, and therefore it’s quality.
The different uses that exist for magic power involve decades of study, training, or require talent from birth. Magical items challenge all of this. An ordinary person wielding a magic sword could defeat a monster that previously defeated a martial artist, and all that person required was basic fencing training and cover the cost of the magic sword.
Of course, there are tricky gaps to break even for magic items. A user of runic magic or thaumaturgy could easily defeat a hundred men wielding magic weapons, but this would not be the fault of the magic weapons or their users, but the lack of skill of the craftsman who created those weapons.
A low-quality magic item has a short useful life and its magic power consumption is deficient, consuming more magic power than it would need to operate.
Unfortunately, the creation processes, the ingredients, and the effort that goes into making a high-quality magic item make these types of items unaffordable for the vast majority of people. It really can’t be helped. Besides the effort of craftsmen, the scribes spend too much time making complex magic scrolls, and high-quality magic cores are difficult to get.
The great variety of advantages and disadvantages that magic items possess, besides the complexity and difficulty in its creation, all this made me fall in love with the creation of magic items.
Since I was little, I ignored any other topic and focused on creating magical items, and by the time I realized it, people already described me as a genius among craftsmen. At first, this filled me with pride, but I soon realized that I was far from deserving of being called that way.
My magical items were only slightly better than my father’s, and if something like this warranted my being called a genius, then what should that person who created the complex processes that allow a spell to be engraved on an object be called? The god of magic items?
No, the called ‘golden craftsman’ was not even an elf, he was a flesh and blood human like me, someone who should not be out of reach of a beautiful and talented woman like me.
Could someone as talented as me overcome that person’s ingenuity?
I lodged these thoughts in my mind and for some time I put aside the creation of magical items to focus on study and research.
In order for my talent as a craftswoman not to pale in front of my beauty, I had to leave my mark in the world of magic item craftsmen.
First, I tried to improve the processes used to create the magic items, but this was impossible for me, I mean, in the processes bequeathed by that person there are formulas so complex that no one has ever understood, how could I improve something that I don’t fully understand?
My next approach was the simplification, reducing complexity in the magic item creation processes. Of course, my problem in this approach was the same. How can I simplify something that I cannot fully understand?
Far from allowing myself to accept defeat, I continued researching and soon found an approach that the ‘golden craftsman’ never tried, the magic puppets.
Magical puppets are practically inanimate objects that are provided with life, or at least this is what the books I found in my family’s library describe.
A magical item capable of moving by itself!
I am sure I was not the first craftsman to come up with this idea, however, there are no records in my family’s workshop about it, and according to my father, there are no records of such creations in the archives at the Great Library in Agni either.
However, in Agni, there are no records on the methods of creating the puppets either.
Agni is the oldest human city, a magnificent city that does not belong to any kingdom, the capital of knowledge, and the headquarters of great organizations such as the wealthy Trade Association, the powerful Mercenary Guild, the Great Workshop of Craftsmen, and the Great Library. Some scholars believe that Agni is older than the three elves cities.
That in such a place there were no records of what had awakened my interest was devastating. Still, I tried developing my method of creating puppets, but without success.
After a great number of bitter failures, I gave up. It was an impossible dream.
My disappointment led me to abandon the creation of magical items for trade, and I looked for other entertainment methods to pass the time.
The gossip of love affairs between nobles was interesting to me, and I soon heard them from my servants. The more I heard about noblewomen cheating on their husbands or characters as important as the king trying to woo simple maids, the more I became interested in a subject I never thought about, the love.
Supposedly all those people caused all kinds of scandals pushed by love, a feeling that makes lose your head and goes against the principles that were instilled in you by your family. Something like this turned out to be interesting for me.
When my father found out about my recent interest in love, he quickly organized several meetings for marriage for me. I don’t reject my father’s intentions; I wanted to experience that feeling that could lead to moral ruin even to a noble.
The number of men interested in marrying me was exhausting and absurd.
One after another, week after week, the candidates came to steal my heart, but their methods were lax and stupid!
What kind of idiot would try to brag about his great fortune to someone who can stack one gold coin on another with just a little of its own effort, like me? Well, several of the candidates tried something as stupid as this.
Ahhh… it was just exhausting and annoying.
Others tried to appeal to their high social positions, and the titles and lands that they would inherit from their parents, but once again, are they idiots? You with all your pompous titles and lands are here in front of me striving to the limit to seduce me! So what is more valuable? My beauty and my talent!
Idiots, they are all incompetent idiots!
Don’t come in front of me to beg for my attention!
What all you must do is steal my breath, shake my mind, and made you become so indispensable to my eyes that your absence tear to me!
I put all my expectations in a famous candidate who is admired by all the women in the capital, and who is said that even the queen has tried to take him to her rooms behind back the king, Daviel Eis Muspell, the second son of Duke Kain Eis Muspell.
That at least in appearance, Daviel Eis Muspell was just as the rumors described him, a good-looking young man. However, that was it.
Daviel did not brag about his lineage or his fortune, nor did he attempt to tell absurd stories about his bravery. No, he didn’t do any of that, he just sat there smiling, waiting for me to make him fall in love.
Are you kidding me?
His appearance was good, but that was all. His mind was emptier than the head of a slime!
A beautiful jewel must be placed on a precious metal to enhance its beauty. But this man is not for me. Not up to the standards of this beautiful and talented craftswoman!
I forgot about love and then something else attracted my attention. During a battle on the border with Sadora, a female knight defeated many enemies on her own and led Varest’s troops to victory. The admiration of the people caused them to call her by the Varest’s Valkyrie.
A woman described as beautiful, brave, and strong enough to defeat large numbers of enemies during a chaotic battle. If my search for love has been a resounding failure, then I will look for something simpler, the friendship. Only someone like this Valkyrie is worthy of being friends with this talented and beautiful craftswoman!
The friendship is described in many books as an invaluable treasure, friends support each other, protect each other, share bitterness and happiness, and even engage in healthy rivalries.
I wanted to experience something like that, but who could be at my height to understand me and become my rival? Without a doubt, the Valkyrie was my best option.
While waiting for information from my father about the Valkyrie, another rumor reached the capital, a talented blacksmith woman capable of creating magnificent mytril weapons.
Heavens must try to tell me something!
A talented craftswoman, a talented blacksmith, and a woman worthy of being be called Valkyrie. Such people must establish deep friendship and rivalry!
Elena Izana and Bela, the names came to the capital brought by the rumors, and it was pleasant to hear that both women were already friends. It is necessary for me to be a by side of those two women to accomplish what destiny has dictated!
As soon as I got the information, secretly prepare the essentials, and leave the capital to meet these talented women. They will surely understand my loneliness and understand how difficult it is to be someone talented!
After a long and awkward journey, I finally reached Izana.
She was much more beautiful than the rumors said.
Her slim and gallant figure emanated an aura of bravery, strength, and rectitude. For an instant, I thought there was actually a divine being in front of me. Her violet eyes were spellbinding and her voice was like the legendary song of the nymphs.
I lost my breath at the sight of her, my mind was shaken by just one of her gazes, and my eyes became reluctant to stop observing her figure, Elena Izana, the Valkyrie.
If this woman were a man, then I... for a second such thought brought me to the brink of losing my mind.
Her overwhelming beauty must have been a hard slap for me, however, I did not mind competing with her, my heart accepted without a problem that Elena Izana was much more beautiful than me, and yet she was not just beauty.
This person was supposed to be flattered and grateful for my proposal, I belong to the Lilstar family and my talent as a craftswoman is superior to my father’s talent, yet she didn’t show much interest in my words. Who in the world can hear about a mytril magic sword and not lose its breath? She did not even blink, as if I offered her a simple branch of an old tree.
The roles were quickly reversed, the beautiful and talented craftswoman always proud and unrivaled, she was now desperately trying to be accepted by this woman who seemed a transcendental and imperturbable being who was surrounded by mysteries.
That night I could not get that woman out of my mind, I wanted to know more about her, about what she liked, about what she disliked. I wanted to check if she really was human and not a true Valkyrie; I wanted to touch her, to check if she was not a mere illusion.
The next morning, she appeared in the dining room wearing a light purple dress. She destroyed the mental calm that I had regained after a night of rest.
If Elena Izana was a beautiful and valiant goddess of battle the day before, she was now the radiant goddess of beauty, a genuine transcendental being who seemed to have descended from heaven.
The dress exposed the skin on her shoulders and her slender neck, and it is fitting snugly around her waist, giving her chest more volume. Every slight movement of her body was spellbinding, and her porcelain skin was far more enticing than the mytril. Her chest was less voluminous than mine, but yet my hands trembled to want to check the size difference by touch. Check the size of breasts is something natural between friends, right? For a moment this doubt led me to imagine the reverse scenario, Elena checking the size of my breasts, her delicate hands wrapped in that porcelain skin enviously squeezing my breasts.
Although I was sitting, I felt my legs tremble slightly, and a warm sensation flooded my belly. For a moment I thought I felt a little damp in my underwear, but it was just my imagination, right?
「Miss Lynette, if you don’t mind, I would like to continue our talk about your intentions to settle in Izana, but I would prefer if we did it in private, just the two of us」
「A-all right, I have no problem with that」
「M-miss…」
Feeling strange for wanting to know more about another woman, I ignored Olga’s protest and accepted without hesitation to meet Elena alone to discuss my stay in Izana.
Elena’s chosen place seemed to be surrounded by spells that ensured total privacy, and to further stir my already wobbly heart, Elena sat next to me. I just forgot about the complexity issue in the sorcery that protected the room.
After leaning towards me, Elena asked me to ignore the formalities, I practically accepted by inertia. My eyes and my mind were too busy admiring closely the skin of Elena’s shoulders and neck, and the tempting valley that showed her cleavage.
My fascination turned into surprise once she hugged me, and I could feel the heat of her body and her smell.
「Elena-sama?」
In a slip caused by surprise, I forgot our previous agreement to leave formalities behind. Elena’s response came in the form of a kiss on my cheeks.
「Only Elena, do you remember?」
I could feel my face flush completely, and for a moment I thought I felt a bit of moisture in my underwear.
「You are cute when you blush」
I felt my heart try to escape from my chest when hearing those words.
「N-no way, Elena-sama is much more beautiful...」
She blocked my words by placing her finger on my lips.
「Only Elena, do you remember?」
My gaze stayed fixed on that finger that ended up reaching Elena’s lips. My heart was at the limit, my face was surely full red and the feeling of humidity in my underwear was no longer just a guess. What is happening to me?
「But I really think Lynette is exquisite. If I were a man, I would lock you in this room and keep you here forever just for me」
I had no mental space to worry about my underwear. Elena brought her face close to me with a bewitching gaze and spoke those words that completely shook my soul.
If Elena-sama were a man, I really wouldn’t care if it happened… Logic failed in my mind. For a moment I felt that I wouldn’t mind if she did that right now. Imagine being imprisoned in this room and being at Elena’s mercy, with her hands exploring every corner of my skin, with her lips continually kissing my face and her bewitching gaze completely violating my body, and all this happened every time she wanted to. Think about such a scenario caused the humidity in my underwear to increase.
「So Lynette, why don’t we start our friendly chat?」
Suddenly she left behind her bewitching attitude and it surprised me to feel dejected.
I must have paused briefly to put my thoughts in order.
「A-as I said, I can be very helpful for you, Elena」
「I totally agree on that, with your help, the power of my soldiers will explode. However, I don’t know if I can really trust you, Lynette」
「How can I get you to trust me?」
「Why don’t you start by telling me what you want from me? So far you’ve only talked to me about what you offer me, but what about what you want in return? 」
What do I want to get for everything I offer? Although the answer should be the same as I had already planned, her friendship, my heart fluttered begging for something else that I could not understand.
「Elena, to answer your question, could you tell me about your plans?」
If what I offer is not enough, then I just have to hear about what she wants. Despite my mental turmoil, my father’s business teachings were ingrained enough in my mind to allow me to think this way. I don’t realize that I had become a desperate buyer rather than be the seller who coolly maintains control of the deal.
「I have no problem. What I plan is simple, I will make Izana a home for myself and my important people, and I will accumulate enough power to destroy anyone who tries to harm me or my important people」
「Your important people?」
It was a strange response, but I don’t have time to think about it, Elena once again sat next to me and the agitation returned to my heart.
「That’s right, all the people who live here with me are important people to me, that’s why I need to know what you are looking for Lynette, only that way I will determine if you can become an important person for me or not」
「A-an important person to Elena?」
The very idea of I become an important person for her sparked happiness I had never experienced before, neither when I successfully creating a high-quality magic item. My feelings were strange, what was happening to me?
「That’s right, once you become an important person to me, I will make sure you have a happy and safe life」
She brought her face closer to me and my breathing stopped when I saw her take one of my pigtails to bring it to her lips.
My hair was touching her lips! I felt the logic of the world break apart in my mind.
「So, what are you saying, do you want to become an important person to me?」
「E-Elena-sama ...」
Once again I repeated the same slip and the punishment was the same. She kissed my cheeks, but this time I felt not only happiness but also dissatisfaction. When I questioned myself about this feeling, I felt my lips throb and only this caused my face to redden completely and my heart went crazy.
「You true are beautiful Lynette, in the capital, there must be hundreds of men crazy for taking you as a wife, have you already given your heart to any of them? If so, you could bring him to live in Izana with you」
「N-no way, there is no such person...!」
My heart's powerful beat and a sense of urgency overwhelmed me. For some strange reason, I didn’t want Elena to think there was a special person for me. However, this topic quickly reversed in my mind, and my heart hurt. Did she have a man to love?
「That’s how it is? Well, let’s forget about that and let’s get back to the topic. Are you interested in becoming an important person for me? 」
「Y-yeah!」
I am completely amazed by the quick response that emerged from my lips.
「Why don’t you tell me about what you came to find in Izana?」
After asking me this question, Elena turned away from me again.
She continually drifted away and closer to me, further stirring my already crazed heart and my chaotic thoughts, and causing logic to lose weight and my body to react strangely.
「I-It really isn’t that important, I just wanted to meet you and Bela, become your friend and talk. B-because of my position, I have never had a true friend, so I thought what you two being even more famous than me... the three of us could become friends, t-that was my intention before, but...」
Every kiss I received from her on my cheeks stole a bit of my sanity. Soon an unnatural thought took shape in my chaotic mind, I wished that those pink lips did not seek my cheeks and instead advanced towards my lips.
「What do you want now then, Lynette?」
As I tried to understand my own thoughts, Elena once again sat next to me.
Strangely, my earlier unease returned to suffocate me and press my heart.
「E-Elena, w-what about you? You are even more beautiful than me. There must be many men... 」
She again prevented me from completing my words by pressing her finger to my lips.
「I’m not interested in men」
Hear her response to my distressing doubt caused my heart to skip a beat that completely shook my logic. Her answer felt deeply me relieved and happy.
「What about you, Lynette? What do you want now?」
Elena brought her finger from my lips to her lips, and my gaze could not escape such a vision. Wasn’t something like that what some people called an indirect kiss? My face flushed once more.
「What’s wrong Lynette, can’t you tell me what you want?」
Elena moved closer to me and I felt dizzy.
「E-Elena-sama, I...」
「You called me that way again, you really are a bad girl, I will have to punish you」
She stole my lips and the chaos in my mind was forced to coincide with the turmoil in my heart to shape an answer. What I wanted is to belong to this person, I wanted her to continue making fun of me with her flirtatious attitude; I wanted her lips to never move away from me and that her existence stole everything from me; I wanted her to continue punishing me.
She released my lips, and I felt suffocating loneliness flooding my heart.
「So Lynette, do you want to become an important person to me?」
All I could do was nod silently as I tried to calm my agitation.
「In that case, what do you want now?」
「I-I, I want you, E-Elena-sama!」
The answer escaped from my lips by itself.
I felt immense happiness and logic lost any relevance to me.
「Good girl」
I expressing my desire and she responded to my desire by stealing my lips until my breath stop. Her hands swept over my body caressing my skin tried to subdue me, I didn’t resist, there was no way I could resist, my body wanted it, I wanted to be subdued by Elena and my belly responded by soaking my underwear more.
Elena-sama, I belong to you completely...