I finished my smithing for the day and was cleaning up the forge. Lidy, who was out in the fields, came to hand me a letter.
“It’s from Camilo,” she said.
I opened it up and read it aloud. “‘There’s something I’d like to tell you. You can fulfill your order, so pay me a visit.’”
It was short and simple. Judging from these words, it seemed he’d made some progress on those fakes.
“That’s all it says. Let’s head out tomorrow,” I decided.
Everyone in my family agreed.
We made preparations as we always did, then we rolled through the forest, onto the road, and into the city. Winter was still in full swing, and we reached Camilo’s store in no time. The apprentice greeted us brightly despite the cold, and my daughters were overjoyed to reunite with their friend. I stepped inside the meeting room and waited for Camilo. A short while later, he and the head clerk opened the door—the usual pair. The head clerk had something in his hand—it was covered in fabric.
“First, let’s talk business,” Camilo said. “You brought the usual wares to me, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. We’ve brought enough to make up for the time we took off.”
I’d indeed brought more than usual, but the items were completely the same. Maybe I should’ve brought some unusual items, but that would have to wait for future orders.
“Right. Then this is next,” Camilo said.
The head clerk brought out a medium-sized item wrapped in cloth and placed it on the table. When I undid the cloth, there was a small knife—or perhaps a tiny shortsword—inside.
“Is this Karen’s?” I asked.
Camilo gave a grave nod. I gently took the blade and inspected it carefully. The steel glimmered under the light of the room. This was proof that it had been polished very carefully, since there weren’t any spells to add a spark of electricity to metal. It must’ve taken quite a bit of time and effort. I placed the blade under the light and slowly turned it around, but the light never bent or wavered, proof that the steel was perfectly even.
I placed my thumb along the blade and checked its sharpness, but I didn’t have any complaints. Of course, Karen wasn’t able to add much magical energy into the weapon, but in terms of quality, this was very, very good. Rike restlessly sat beside me, eager to get her hands on the blade. I soon passed it on to her.
“Take a look,” I said.
“Okay!” Rike said as she took the steel carefully.
She scrutinized every inch of the shortsword and analyzed every bit of detail. For now, I wanted her to reach a decision without being affected by my words. Rike followed the same process I did as she inspected the weapon, and the rest of our family simply gazed on with great interest. Finally, she placed it back onto the fabric and gave a small sigh. I think I gulped nervously in anticipation of her conclusion.
“This is a very good blade,” she said with a smile.
Karen and our family—or just me, really—hadn’t left on the best terms, but we didn’t hate her or anything. In fact, Rike was probably happy to see an acquaintance make a blade of such high quality, and I was of the same mindset.
“Agreed,” I said. “I think she’s got the basics down well, and in general, it’s a fine weapon. I can probably give two or three pointers, though.”
For example, the balance was just slightly off, and there was a part of the blade that wasn’t completely even. I only caught these with my cheats, and for normal use, there would be no issues at all. Rike seemed to agree with my take, and we told Camilo to convey our thoughts to Karen.
“You can have her make her final decision,” I said.
Would she want to officially join us, or would she try a little bit more in the capital? I could easily tell her that her skills were good enough, but I wanted to know what her thoughts and plans were.
“Got it,” Camilo said. He gave us a big nod, then looked up. “And this is where I want to get to the meat of this conversation.”
Here it comes. This is probably the most important topic we’ll discuss today. With nervous anticipation, I sank into my seat and adjusted my posture.
“It’s about that fake knife.”
Everyone had expected him to bring up this topic, but we still gulped nervously. I gave a little sigh and let out the breath that I’d been holding.
“What did you find?” I asked.
Camilo sighed and showed the slightest bit of hesitation. I felt like his reactions were different from other merchants, and this was precisely why I trusted him so much.
“I haven’t figured everything out yet,” Camilo started. “But I’ve found its origin. It comes from a blacksmith who serves a noble in the duke’s faction. It’s not difficult to get your hands on one of your knives, so I think it was easy enough for them to copy the shape.”
“I’m surprised you tracked down the origin,” I said.
“They hid it well, but I’m a merchant. Like hell they can hide anything from me! Well, that’s what I’d like to proclaim, but it looks to me like they expected to get caught doing this.”
“A person pretty low on the ladder did it, huh?” Anne asked.
Camilo took a sip of his tea and chuckled. “As astute as always. You’re spot-on. He’s a baron who’s rarely in the capital. Even if I ask Miss Diana about him, I doubt you’d recall his face. He’s that forgettable.”
When Camilo named the noble, Diana shook her head.
“I don’t recall a person like that,” she said.
“I expected as much,” Camilo replied. “His house doesn’t stand out in any way, and I don’t fault you for not knowing him.”
“Hmm...” Anne said as she placed a finger on her chin. “Sounds easy enough to trace back until this point, but beyond that is the issue, I presume?”
“Precisely.” Camilo nodded. “Frankly, there’s no way that this man could’ve acted alone and circulated the fakes.”
“I mean, he’s not even memorable enough for Diana to recall him,” I added.
Camilo nodded. Within the kingdom, the capital was where many gathered—a place where political power and influence formed a tangled web. How could a practically nameless noble, who wielded almost no power, circulate fake knives? That was certainly a difficult prospect. Even if he suddenly felt like selling knives in the capital, he didn’t have a monopoly on the market. Other sellers, such as Camilo, the margrave, or Count Eimoor, would need to provide some sort of backing so that the seller could find a trustworthy route. The baron likely couldn’t have sold these knives without some sort of support too. If he could weasel his way into the capital’s market, he could probably make do, but the wall to get inside was impossibly tall.
“Naturally, it’s not difficult to put two and two together and assume the duke’s backing,” Camilo said.
I put my hand to my chin in thought. “The duke, huh?”
He nodded. “He’s at the top more than likely. But I doubt he’d do something so simple as lending a hand just because the baron is in his faction. That would make him far too easy to track down.”
“Fair enough.”
“At the very least, he’d likely feign ignorance or claim that he’d assumed that the baron was selling something else. And that would end my line of questioning.”
If the duke was somehow caught lending a hand to provide forgeries, that would be a huge blunder. Even if he was allowed to keep his title and influence as a duke, he’d be heavily restricted in the future. Even a dense guy like me could understand why a noble would want to desperately avoid that route, and the duke was the head of his faction precisely because he was cunning enough to never make such mistakes.
“Then will he cut off the baron as a sacrifice and end this ordeal?” I asked.
If the fake knives could be stopped, our most pressing concern would be resolved. Our opponent might try another method in the future, but we could buy some time for now. We’re still currently taking some damage to our reputation, so we’d better clean up that mess first, I think. But Camilo’s response surprised me.
“Sure, we can end it with that, but we won’t be dealing any sort of blow to them,” he said.
“Then what do you want to do?” I asked.
He grinned menacingly. I’ve got a bad feeling about this...
“You see, an emissary from the empire is set to visit the kingdom soon,” he started.
I heard a clatter and turned to see Anne rising from her seat. She turned red as she promptly sat back down.
“Ahem,” Camilo said. “Anyways, it’s a bit belated, but since the fuss about a revolution has died down, they’ll be here under the guise of confirmation. They want to see if they’ve caused any trouble to our nation.”
“I see,” I replied.
“We’ll be providing this emissary with a souvenir from the kingdom. The margrave managed to get his wish through and arranged it for us.” Camilo paused for a moment, looking just a bit awkward. “And he wants to provide a knife with a cat pommel made of something other than plain materials.”
“Huh?”
Camilo was certainly referring to a Forge Eizo knife, but I couldn’t understand. Why does the margrave want to provide the empire’s emissary with our blade?
“The emissary will be making a long trip all the way to our kingdom,” Camilo said. “Since your blades have been gaining traction with the populace, the margrave wants to send one as a gift...but he wants it made using special materials.”
“But aren’t our knives circulated in the empire too?” I asked. In fact, the emperor himself had aided us by securing a route for our wares.
“Yeah, but I’ve got all that in mind. The kingdom would like to proudly boast by providing something spectacular made in our nation.”
Camilo winked, a look that was quite unfitting for a geezer. I said nothing more and waited for him to continue.
“And we’ll have the emissary spread the word,” he said. “‘This is the weapon that’s been quite popular in the empire as of late. It’s very difficult to obtain, but I went to the kingdom and managed to get my hands on one.’ That’s what they’ll say.”
“‘Ah? My, oh my, this looks like a fake to me,’” Anne joined in, acting the part.