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THE Magic Item Design Awards was a competition held once a year by the Artificers Guild. It was divided into several different categories, such as vehicles, household items, commercial items, decorative items, and so on. The best entries were awarded gold, silver, or honorable mention.
It had a long history and was widely recognized. If an artificer won gold, it was like having a “gold badge”—a symbol of their excellence as an artificer.
Gordon leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “I know you once received an honorable mention. That’s a good award, but it comes with a sort of implication that the winner is a young person with good potential. Thinking of your future, I think it’d be best if you took gold soon.”
“Gold?”
“Yes. And they don’t give gold out every year. It’s not easy to get, and you might have to enter several times.”
Olivia nodded. Ah. It sounds hard…but it could be a good opportunity.
At the moment, she was completely immersed in her work with large-scale magic items, partly because she was assisting the other artificers. She did sketch out designs in her sketchbooks, but she’d taken a step away from magic jewelry. Olivia still loved magic jewelry and wanted to focus entirely on crafting some for the first time in a long time.
On top of that, she had another reason for wanting to take on the competition.
Catherine stole my last award when I won an honorable mention.
She gritted her teeth upon remembering how Henry and her adoptive family treated her like she’d stolen the designs she’d made herself. It obviously wasn’t true. She had won that award for magic jewelry—there was no arguing with that—but that accomplishment had soured somewhat, like it’d been sullied somehow, and it bothered her this entire time.
I’m sure I’ll feel better if I can win a new award.
Gordon saw her expression and smiled. “It looks like you’ve made your decision,” he observed as he slid the paper on the desk to her. “These are the requirements for pieces submitted to the women’s magic jewelry competition.”
Olivia took the paper, feeling nervous.
Women’s Jewelry Entry Guidelines
Submissions: A piece of magic jewelry for women
Judgment Criteria: Function as a magic item, design
Last Year’s Winners
Gold: Anti-poison brooch
Silver: Not awarded
Honorable Mentions: Anti-paralysis brooch, Anti-eye fatigue pendant
Olivia was surprised as she looked at the submissions that won last year’s competition. They were so normal.
“I was sure it’d be something outrageous like a flamethrower necklace, but they’re so average,” she remarked, and Gordon chuckled.
“There’s no point in a magic item that can’t actually be used. I guess they’re looking less for outrageous and more for practical.” He then bent over and opened the safe under his desk to pull out a new-looking golden key. “This is the key for the cabinets in the last workroom on the second floor. You can use any of the materials in there—and don’t be stingy.”
“I won’t.”
“Also, make sure you have a clear picture of what you’re making in advance. You’ll find yourself in trouble down the line if it’s too vague.”
Olivia took the key and bowed with gratitude. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”
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THAT night, in her softly lit room with stars visible through the window, Olivia rummaged through her wardrobe in her usual blue shawl and white pajamas.
“There it is! That’s where I shoved it.”
She pulled out a wooden box small enough to fit in her palm, wrapped in a white handkerchief. Olivia placed the box on the table and let out a slow breath before sitting down and gently opening it.
I’m sorry for shutting you away for so long.
Inside the box was a pair of gold earrings, each about half the size of her pinky nail. This was the piece she’d submitted that won her the honorable mention at the competition when she was twelve.
She always carried it around with her in her bag until she came to the capital. Remembering what happened in Daregas caused her so much pain that she shoved it somewhere out of sight.
Her finger gently traced the earrings.
It was so long ago…
She thought back to the making of these earrings.
It was nearly seven years ago. Olivia had been minding the shop on her own, and an older lady she knew came in. She was wearing magic earrings, and young Olivia noticed the right one had a prominent nick on it.
“How’d your earring get damaged?” she asked.
“Well, my hearing is worse in the right, so I need to be careful when I’m putting them in. But as I’ve been getting older, my eyesight has gotten worse. The color of the magic stones looks the same to me, so I marked one to feel which is which.”
The lady then hid her right ear and apologetically added how bad she felt about damaging such a lovely pair of earrings Olivia’s father had worked so hard on.
That made Olivia wish the lady could smile happily because she was wearing a piece of magic jewelry.
There’s got to be something I can do…
And then the light bulb lit.
If the right and left earrings are different shapes, she’ll be able to tell them apart!
Olivia smiled as she remembered her younger self. She’d taken the lady’s earrings and worked the right one into a star shape and the left one into a crescent moon. Olivia still remembered the joyful expression on the woman’s face when she picked the earrings up.
I was so happy. I’d never made another person that happy before.
After that, Olivia’s mother, who was a seamstress, taught Olivia how to sketch her designs and improve them.
Magic jewelry had initially spread through the noble class until the more well-off commoners began to wear it in recent years. Design was easily influenced by what was popular amongst the nobles. At the time, it was common for nobles to show off their wealth through the size and quality of the magic stones.
This meant that most magic jewelry designs focused on making the stone as prominent as possible, resulting in simple offerings such as a modest setting or attached to a chain.
Olivia reviewed those designs and actively worked to incorporate motifs popular among women to create things like butterfly-shaped brooches and star-shaped earrings. Her creations were viewed as something fresh and cute, to the point that clients came from afar just to buy her jewelry.
Olivia doubled down on her research to live up to her clients’ expectations of her. It was all to put smiles on their faces. She kept on thinking about how she wanted to be an artificer like her father—someone who made people smile—and she sometimes found her own path toward that.
Olivia looked down and gently stroked the golden earrings as they glittered in the lamplight. “I think I have to go with the concept, ‘magic jewelry that puts a smile on women’s faces,’ don’t I?”
It was where she started, and it was who she was. It was completely natural that she would focus on that as her concept. But still, “women” was a broad category. After much thought, she settled on a more focused idea.
Let’s go with “the working woman.”
There were a lot of women busy at work in the capital. Olivia wanted to develop something that would make them happy.
“The problem is how do I make women like that smile?”
Olivia yawned as she thought long and hard, then glanced at the clock on a shelf. It was nearly midnight.
“Well, let’s think more about it tomorrow.”
She took off her shawl and hung it on the back of the chair, switched off the magic lamp, then slid into bed as the white moonlight slipped in through the crack in the curtains.
“I can’t wait,” she murmured as she slipped into a deep sleep.