The spear she had passed to me was an interesting artifact, nothing more than a simple ruin at the first glance. Its wooden handle was broken halfway, turning the long weapon into something below two feet in length, the cracks of its head filled with rust even after all the dirt was cleaned carefully. The delicate decorations that were supposed to cover both the handle and head were ruined during the time it had spent underground, dust and dirt seeped deep into its texture so deep that it was impossible to clean it without ruining what was left of it.

Altogether, it was an easy tool to dismiss for anyone without magical sensitivity.

It wasn’t that the enchantments that were embedded on the nature of the spear were in any better condition than its outward appearance. The magical matrix that was supposed to be in one cohesive structure on the core to power its magical functions had fragmented into many smaller pieces, yet, it was as beautiful as a shattered diamond shining under the sunlight, creating rainbows.

The individual pieces of enchantments weren’t as fiddly as I first imagined. Oeyne could easily etch something more complicated, for example, but the sheer number of different parts and how they layered over each other was the real challenge. It was like a mathematical problem that only used first and second-order equations rather than more difficult equations, but with thousands of them at the same time.

And even from the aged fragments, I could see that the spear was created by multiple people, likely through a complicated ritual. Another interesting detail about its creation.

Ultimately, as I examined it, likening it to a diamond made sense. Like a diamond, the function of the main enchantment was deceptively simple despite its impressive potential. I couldn’t exactly identify what it was supposed to store. I had my suspicions, of course, but nothing I could conclusively prove before working on it with Oeyne.

Their desire to use Oeyne to repair it became clear, however. Clearly, the enchantments were not added later to the spear, but forged into its core during the crafting process, a trick that Oeyne was famous for. Interestingly, its nature reminded me of the designs we had created for my weapons —but much more matured than our quick drafts— which were designed for durability and maximum capacity over simple surface enchantments.

“How is it?” Delia asked, pulling me out of my musings. Luckily, the personality I was selling to her was a genius yet socially inept expert, making my focused examination an acceptable part of my disguise. “Do you think you can repair it?”

“Oh, definitely, but it’ll take a lot of time,” I said even as I summoned a piece of paper. “The first problem is the alignment of the fragments…” I started, quickly bursting into a complicated babble of magical terms that I deliberately made even more impenetrable by referring to a bunch of complicated magical theories and other stuff.

“Wow, really,” she exclaimed, looking appropriately fascinated at my explanation, even as she slid closer, brushing her leg against mine. “You’re such a genius? Can you repair it singlehandedly?” she asked.

“P-probably,” I suddenly stammered evasively. “It’s a bit tricky to handle the more menial parts,” I clarified hurriedly. “I’m more involved in the magical aspects and the conceptual design. The actual forging is a more pedestrian part of it, not really my area of interest,” I quickly added. That babble was not pointless. I was essentially telling her that I was overly proud of my own work despite my limited forging skills, and I was feeling self-conscious about that part, using bluster to suppress that sense of inferiority.

Essentially, I was selling the idea that my pride was another great lever to be used to manipulate me against both the headmistress and Oeyne, along with my lust.

“You’re amazing,” Delia said passionately, losing no time before grabbing the exact point of weakness I had presented to her. “I don’t know how many experts we have talked about it, and you’re the only one that could understand its nature in such detail in such a short time,” she said, giving me a pointless compliment. Because I was absolutely sure that she lacked the capability to understand even a tenth of my explanation even if I hadn’t been trying to make it intentionally impenetrable.

“It’s my honor to serve the royal family,” I said, pushing my chest proudly.

“So, how much time do you need to finish repairing the spear.”

“A few days, a week at most,” I started, and her eyes shone with shocked excitement. She suppressed that quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid my notice. “That should be enough to finish the preliminary analysis phase, so that I could start designing the repair procedure. Optimistically, we should be able to start reforging the spear in less than a month.”

“A month,” she murmured, unable to hide the panic in her eyes. I was happy to take a note of it, because it meant that they actually needed the spear for something, and they needed that relatively urgently.

“Yes, a month, unless there’s something unexpected of course,” I added, with a matter-of-fact tone that was very natural.

“Isn’t there a way to quicken the process, maybe using the research we previously conducted on the spear,” she questioned.

This time, I didn’t need to fake the derisive snort I let out. “Yeah, I read those notes, they are not worthy to be used as kindling. I don’t know who was responsible for those, but I would be surprised if they can actually enchant something more complicated than a light crystal.” Not that I needed to work much to break their confidence to their own experts, after all, if they had any hope of actually repairing the spear with their own skill, they wouldn’t have bothered to arrange it with Oeyne in such a complicated manner.

“Is there really no way to make it shorter?” she murmured, her eyes widened in a way that enhanced her vulnerability, her lower lip trembling just the correct amount, creating a paradoxical combination of pitiful and sexy, enough to make a lesser man fall in love at that instant.

“Well, maybe…” I murmured, as I tried to decide the best way to leverage their need.

“Really?” she said enthusiastically as she grabbed my arm, pulling it enough to accidentally push it to her modest bosom. “As you said, you’re a true genius,” she said, essentially forcing myself to back my earlier statement to impress her.

“Yeah, but it’s tough to work, I need to cancel or delay a few more projects, not to mention I need to build a dedicated room to study it, which will be really expensive. Also, I need to keep the spear in my possession for the next weeks. Then, maybe I could do that.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t give the spear, not when there’s a war going on,” she quickly refuted, which was something I expected. “Who knows when a breach might occur.”

“You’re correct, but I need almost unlimited access to it to handle that any quicker,” I answered with a helpless expression, waiting for her to offer what I wanted in the first place.

“How about building the laboratory in our residence,” she offered, unaware that was what I wanted in the first place.

“That might work,” I murmured reluctantly. “But it’ll be really expensive if you want quick results, more than I could afford my own.”

“How much?” she asked hesitantly, smart enough not to sign to an open check.

“Well…” I murmured as I pulled another piece of paper and drafted a few quick plans, each with a list of materials underneath. “Essentially, we have multiple options, each with its own cost structure,” I said as I quickly explained to her, while her eyes widened as she processed the small fortune that was required for even the worst room I designed.

“Are you sure all of those is necessary,” she said.

“The most critical part of it is to isolate the resonance of the different fragments so that we can avoid a cascading overload…” I started, drowning any possible argument she could put in another pointlessly complicated theory debate. And, the best part, since she was faking her own capabilities in order to sell the idea that she was more capable than she seemed, she couldn’t just admit that she didn’t understand even a bit.

“I need to discuss that with the princess,” she murmured. “But is this the cheapest possible,” she said, pointing at the least complicated part of it.

“Well, not necessarily, but there are other drawbacks to building something cheaper, like the need to add too many wards, which would have the risk of interference with the protective wards,” I said, and seeing her panic, I quickly followed. “Nothing catastrophic, but it might slightly impair the detection capabilities,” I added.

Actually, the analysis phase before the repair wasn’t that long, nor it required a dedicated magical laboratory to successfully achieve. But since I wanted to have an excuse to visit the temporary royal quarters limitlessly, it was an excellent excuse.

The type of laboratory they would ultimately choose didn’t matter to me even a bit. All I needed was an excuse to establish a set of independent wards in their quarters, which could be used in a variety of ways depending on what I discovered about the objective of the princess, from infiltration to sabotage — even assassination if necessary.

“I see,” Delia murmured as she examined the paper I had filled with the schematics. “It’s not something I can decide on my own, I need to talk with the princess,” she said as she stood up.

“Aren’t you going to wait Oeyne,” I said, deliberately adding a tone of distaste as I pronounced Oeyne’s name, like I resented the necessity of her help in the first place. The existence of such easy leverage put a huge smile on Delia’s lips.

“I appreciate the help. I’m sure the princess would appreciate your help as well. How about if you host a private lunch tomorrow in our quarter, after we finish moving in,” she added.

“It would be my pleasure,” I said as I smiled excessively, following her to the door. I opened the door, only to see a pair of bodyguards on the far end of the corridor, waiting for her to reappear. They were clearly paying proper attention to the security of the spear.

I watched her walk toward the end of the corridor with an excessive sway of her hips, closing the door only when they disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Then, I dispelled the silencing wards that were blocking Oeyne’s voice, only to hear her helpless moans, suppressed by her ballgag.

I started walking toward the forge with a purpose. After that tease Delia, I was in the mood for a proper embrace…

—————

Level: 30 Experience: 447193

/ 465000

Strength: 41 Charisma: 53

Precision: 35 Perception: 37

Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40

Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370

/ 5370 Mana: 6600

/ 6600

SKILLS

Master Melee 100

/100

Master Tantric 100

/100

Master Biomancy 100

/100

Master Elemental 100

/100

Master Arcana 100

/100

Master Subterfuge 100

/100

Expert Speech 75

/75

Advanced Craft 50

/50

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1

/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

Cornelia – Level 21

/25

Helga – Level 17

/21