"To think that I would end up helping you with this kind of stuff,

" Markus muttered, shaking his head. Yet, even though they were both already late for the meeting, he didn't utter a word of protest. What's more, looking for any signs of hints of annoyance or hurry on his face would be completely futile.

"I would never,

" Layn replied, keeping his eyes on the crucible in his hands. Even though he worked on the same thing for nearly the entire day, right now, he wasn't making stuff that had to be perfectly usable. Contrary to that, this was the first time for him to actually care about how the end result would look like.

"Still, you are of great help,

" Layn said with no hesitation before biting his lips a little.

"Thanks,

" he added after a short moment of silence.

"Not a problem,

" Markus replied, raising another crucible with special stone tongs. Inside, the few gold coins that Markus had already melted down into a uniform liquid, ready to be turned into the bracelet that Layn envisioned.

"To be honest, this is kind of atonement for me. I couldn't help you when you fell into the clutches of that whore, so at least I'm happy I can help you now,

" Markus said, lowering his eyes and biting his lip.

"Huh?

" Layn shrugged in surprise.

"It was never your fault, to begin with, though?

" he said, leaning his head over his arm with a confused expression on his face.

"It was my bad for acting like a naive and love-starved kid. There is no need for you to feel guilty about it whatsoever,

" Layn claimed, speaking in a lecturing voice as if he was talking with some kid.

"Weren't we friends?

" Markus asked while carefully pouring the molten gold to the crucible filled with stonedust.

"Even if I was half the world away when it happened, I still feel responsible for leaving you when you needed an honest friend the most,

" he said. Then, as the mixture in Layn's container reached the marker set on the inside, he pulled the crucible up and placed it back on the stove.

"Seriously, don't beat yourself over it.

" Layn smiled gently. 'While I never found fault with him over that, it's still nice to hear it,' he thought as he grabbed a tiny paddle and used it to stir the mixture.

"Can you get me the form?

" Layn asked.

Even though they just had a heart-to-heart conversation, the priority here was obvious. Given how rare any kind of metal was in the camp, neither of them could afford to focus on anything else but their current job.

"Still, it's lovely to see you go for such an extra effort with Irea,

" Markus said, putting a small smile on his lips. For him, the job was over. Outside for being there for Layn in case the archmage needed some assistance, he was now free to sit back and rest easy.

"If you don't mind asking, when are you going to propose?

"

"I don't mind the question at all,

" Layn smiled lightly as he continued to stir the mixture up. Even though it would make no difference in terms of looks, the better the stonedust would be mixed into the metal fluid, the greater its mana-absorbing effects would be. 'There are no shortcuts in love,' Layn thought, patiently moving the tiny paddle around.

"But that doesn't mean I have the answer to give,

" Layn finally replied, shaking his head.

"What do you mean by that?

" Markus asked, turning his puzzled face to the side.

"Man, just look at our schedules,

" Layn shook his head.

"We can hardly do anything that's not insanely important. Even getting this bracelet done forced us to ignore today's council...

" Layn turned silent only to pull his tiny paddle out of the crucible. Without any additional heating, the gold inside was quickly cooling down, making it harder and harder to stir the mixture up. And unless Layn was willing to do the entire thing all over again, he had to prevent the paddle from ending up as a part of the mixture.

"Speaking of which, do you really think its necessary to have those meetings on a daily basis?

" Markus asked, stretching his legs in one of the few areas where there was actually free space.

"While we have a lot more manpower now, it doesn't mean we can progress daily so much that we would need to let everyone catch up on it,

" he said, bringing up some valid reasons against the daily council.

"We need to make sure that we are always on the same page,

" Layn replied, shaking his head. He then reached out and took the form that his friend passed to him.

"If we have six people looking at every tiny detail of our progress, we might be able to spot problems and opportunities a single person would miss. What's more, having someone outside the problem look at it could offer us some fresh perspective on it,

" Layn explained his idea as he started to magically heat up his crucible again.

"Well, that makes sense,

" Markus agreed, watching how his friends slowly angled his container, allowing the thick mass of gold and stonedust to flow down the carved opening in the stone.

"Ah, changing the topic to the bracelet, are you just going to smoothen it out once it solidifies?

" the former saint asked with curiosity.

"Do I look like someone who takes shortcuts?

" Layn asked as a small smile formed on his lips.

"It's not going to be that simple. While I might not be some kind of a skilled craftsman,

" Layn said as he placed the emptied-out crucible away and picked up a small knife,

"I still think that with this, I will be able to carve some nice stuff on it.

"

From the first look, Layn's knife didn't look like anything serious. More than a knife, it appeared like a blade used by the surgeons back in the future to make the tissue damage as tiny as possible. Yet, as the archmage held it between his fingers, the tiny blade of the knife suddenly started to blur, as if it was vibrating at an astonishing rate.

"With this, I will be able to cold-carve it,

" Layn said before revealing a huge smile on his lips.

"And let's not forget that if I achieve what I want here, we might be able to modify all our weapons to work like that as well!

"