I immediately thought about the funds we had. It was a bit tough with our large family, but we could last for a year or two if we really scrimped. Even if the worst came to pass, we’d have enough time to rebuild ourselves. I didn’t want to protect sales if it meant making many new enemies. First and foremost, my days of normalcy with my family (Krul, Lucy, and Hayate included) were the most important. Probably the only other thing I wanted to protect was the quality of my products. My personal popularity aside (it’s not what I was looking for anyway), any item forged in this cabin and circulated to the populace had to be quality. As an artisan, I feared the day that someone would see my wares as useless items that weren’t worth their time or money. I had come to this world and had only been a blacksmith for less than a year, but that fear still gripped my heart.
And the knives were made not only by me, but by Samya and Rike as well. I was enraged to find that these fakes might sully the reputation and quality of the items that they made. Camilo’s letters had assured me that such a thing hadn’t happened...yet.
Before I could ask, Diana had already brought out paper and a writing tool.
“It is a fake,” I wrote loudly and proudly onto the paper. I rolled up the paper and placed it in the tube around Arashi’s leg.
“I’m counting you,” I said as I patted her head.
“Kree!”
With a short cry, Arashi flew out and cut through the evening sky. In a flash, she was out of sight. We watched her leave for a while as she carried a part of Forge Eizo’s future on her leg.
“Are you okay?” Diana asked after Arashi was gone.
I noticed that everyone was gazing at me worriedly.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I’m a little shocked, but making a fuss right now won’t do anything for us.”
Judging from the looks on the ladies’ faces, my smile wasn’t convincing. I was always awkward when it came to smiling, but they could probably read my mind right now. In this forest, there were only so many methods I could use to find out the truth of the matter. Whereas in the age of the internet where I could do my research and send out some emails, such convenient technology hadn’t been invented in this world just yet. There was nothing I could do. At most, I could ask Hayate to send Camilo a letter, but that was all.
It would do me no good to panic or become depressed right now. Being hasty only cornered me; I had to remain calm. It was one of the few useful skills that I’d gained at my previous job (though the company had been totally abusive). I kept telling myself that, but my heart clearly felt different.
“Y’know, I’d considered the possibility that a fake would appear one day.” I looked up. Stars had begun to twinkle in the sky that Arashi was currently flying under. “I’d like to know its origin, of course, but above all, I want to know the creator’s motives.”
“Motives...” Helen muttered.
I nodded. “There must be a reason for making these fakes. And that reason might not be viewed kindly by us.”
“Like maybe they just wanted to make a quick coin?” Samya asked.
I gave a wry chuckle. “Yeah. That might actually make me face them head-on.”
Her reason was the easiest to understand and the most likely. The other blacksmith and I were in the same industry (though the quality of our wares differed), and we were fighting for our slices of the same pie. Forge Eizo products were of such better quality than the knife I’d gotten in the mail, so it would be easier for them to make coin a different way: I could make knives of a lower quality than even my entry-level products—perhaps I could call them mass-production quality—and sell them to Camilo. Then Camilo could sell these knives to the fakers, and the fakers would still be able to resell them for a profit. That’s just how good Forge Eizo products are...
Making these mass-production knives would increase our workload, but if we simply needed to be fast with no care about quality, I could have Anne, who didn’t help much until now, jump in. And if dignity or obligation didn’t matter, I could even ask Karen in the capital to forge some blades for us and act like an OEM—an original equipment manufacturer.
If I’m gonna use the last option, I’d probably check up on her quality and make her my apprentice. It’d be quicker, but my actions would be a bit too calculating. If profits were the sole motive, I would’ve arranged for us to profit together and settled this matter entirely. Big whoop if that happened. And...
“I wouldn’t mind helping them out if they had a very good reason,” I said. “Even if that reason is just turning a profit. That’d be nice.”
I might’ve sounded a bit condescending, but honestly, if there was a peaceful resolution, I’d have no complaints. That was what my brain was pushing for, though I didn’t know what my heart would say to that.
“Am I being naive?” I asked.
“Oh, definitely,” Anne said firmly. In contrast to her relaxed exterior, she had a cold side, and she would never forgive a business rival. But she let out a huge sigh. “It’s par for the course for you, though, I think.”
“Yeah,” Diana agreed. Samya and Rike were nodding along too.
“And I bet if anyone begged you for help, you’d help them,” Samya added.
Everyone nodded firmly. I felt like even my daughters were in agreement.
“Since there’s nothing we can do for now, why not prepare ourselves for tomorrow?” I suggested.
Everyone thought that was a good idea, and I once again turned up to the sky. On this cold evening, the moon shone down on us, and I prayed that things wouldn’t go in an odd direction. I prayed to the Goddess of the Moon from the bottom of my heart, and she blessed our land with her gentle moonlight.