Chapter 53: Next time, go sit at the kids’ table
Peiya stood there, completely stunned. She never expected such an answer.
In her eighteen years of life, she had gone through too many changes and betrayals.
What you thought was someone caring about you was often just a careless promise they made out of boredom.
And when you brought it up later…
They would mock you for being too childish and tell you to face reality.
Her background wasn’t great. No money, no connections.
So at first, Peiya thought that when she helped Elise before, Elise just wanted to repay the favor quickly.
Also, she had always treated Elise as a normal friend and never crossed any boundaries.
But now… why did she suddenly feel something different in her heart?
Thinking back to what was just said, Peiya felt her ears burning. She couldn’t help but turn her head away.
“One second earlier? Are you treating me like a kid?”
“I’m serious. If you don’t believe me, tell me when you started caring about me. Then I’ll compare and see if I was one second earlier.”
?
Peiya slowly showed a confused expression.
Wait… was Elise really trying to trick her like a child?
This was clearly a trap question!
“I don’t remember. Let’s just say I lost. I’ve rested enough. How about you? Let’s continue testing the other parts.”
Peiya avoided the question, worried that Elise would ask something even more embarrassing next.
Elise smiled lightly. “I was fine from the start. What do you want to test next?”
“Stability and accuracy.”
Peiya led Elise and continued with a few more tests. Compared to before, things went much more smoothly.
After mentally preparing herself earlier, no matter how outstanding Elise’s performance was, Peiya was no longer surprised.
Instead, she started carefully observing Elise’s sword movements and thinking about what kind of fighting style suited her best.
After Elise knocked down all the wooden dummies, Peiya clapped her hands to stop her.
“That’s enough. But something feels strange. Your swordsmanship is clearly very good. But at the end of each move, your motion feels a bit stiff, and your aim keeps drifting. Is it because you can’t control your strength well? That shouldn’t happen to someone at your level.”
Elise sheathed her sword and walked over. “I think it’s related to my sword, Frostheart.”
“Frostheart?”
“Yes, that’s the name of my sword. It was damaged during my last fight with the Frosted Demon Eagle. I asked the kingdom’s craftsmen to repair it, but the result wasn’t very good. The material used to make Frostheart is very special. I don’t dare to do major repairs for now, so I’ve just been making do with it.”
“Can I take a look?”
Peiya asked to examine Frostheart. Back when she was in her old team, she had learned some basic weapon repair skills.
Anna’s weapon back then was also very rare, so Peiya had gained some experience handling special materials.
“Sure, but don’t push yourself.”
Elise handed the sword to her.
Holding the still-warm scabbard, Peiya drew the blade. The sharp edge made her sigh in admiration.
From its color and craftsmanship, it was clearly a rare and excellent weapon.
“Is there a workshop nearby? I can’t tell much just by looking.”
“Yes, I’ll take you there.”
Peiya stood up and followed Elise to a blacksmith’s workshop. There were many tools there, and Peiya quickly found the ones she was familiar with.
She began a basic inspection of Frostheart. The process wasn’t too complicated.
First, she checked the whole blade for visible damage.
Then she took a notebook and wrote down the measurements of the blade.
After that, she compared the data to the expected values.
When everything was done, Peiya walked out from behind the water basin. The temperature around her suddenly dropped a few degrees. She coughed lightly and breathed out a small cloud of white mist.
“The damage to the blade is quite serious. But I’ll try to fix it. There’s still hope.”
Elise’s pupils shook slightly. “Really? Wait… you’re not going to push yourself again, are you?”
“Fixing a sword isn’t that tiring.”
Peiya said it casually, then went back into the blacksmith workshop. This kind of place suited her much better.
Being here felt almost like going home.
Sometimes, when she felt too much mental pressure, Peiya would hide in workshops like this to escape her worries.
The hammer in her hand moved like a pencil, carving and shaping the blade again and again.
Over the next few days, Peiya didn’t go back to the library. She stayed in the workshop, thinking about how to repair Frostheart.
During this time, she asked Elise to come several times. Her goal was to observe Elise’s sword movements and figure out how the damage most likely happened.
Other than that, she just kept working. Hammering, adjusting, and refining.
The material of Frostheart was very special. Peiya had only read about it in books before.
It was said to come from high snowy mountains, shaped over time by constant exposure to ice elements, causing a change inside the material.
Because of this, it had a strong natural affinity with ice magic. It was like a naturally formed, perfect forging material.
When dealing with such special materials, Peiya was extremely careful.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead and realized that directly repairing the blade was almost impossible.
But at the same time, she noticed something else, the shape of the sword didn’t quite match Elise’s usual fighting style.
There was still a lot of room for improvement.
After figuring this out, the rest became easier.
She started to reshape the patterns on the blade, then looked through old books to find engraving patterns that worked better with ice magic.
Since she already had the patterns, she suddenly had a bold idea.
The principle of magic scrolls is to carve magic circuits onto special materials to store part of a spell’s power.
The better the material, the closer the stored magic is to the original.
So if Frostheart had such strong compatibility with ice magic, why not try carving magic circuits directly onto it?
This was something Peiya had figured out herself before. After her magic gained precise targeting ability, she found she could do things that normally shouldn’t be possible.
For example, manually creating magic circuits.
Peiya picked up Frostheart and used her own magic as a medium, beginning to carve onto the blade.
She followed descriptions from a “Magic Handbook,” choosing a pattern closest to ancient ice magic.
While trying to stay true to the original magic, she also added some circuits she had developed herself to help handle extra magic power.
When she finally finished, Peiya tried to pour her magic into the sword.
She raised her hand and pushed all the buff magic she usually gave to her teammates into Frostheart at once.
As the magic flowed in, the once lifeless sword suddenly burst out with a brilliant light.
A beam shot up to the ceiling, lighting up the entire room.
Elise, who had been drinking tea and watching from afar, was completely shocked.
Feeling the sudden surge of powerful energy, she quickly rushed over.
She looked around anxiously, and finally saw Peiya sitting on the ground, holding Frostheart.
“Peiya, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Peiya stood up.
She handed the repaired Frostheart back to Elise.
“Try it. It should be fixed now. I’m not sure how it feels, though.”
Fixed?
Elise found it hard to believe. Even the kingdom’s famous weapon craftsmen had struggled with this problem, yet Peiya was saying it was already repaired.
For a moment, Elise didn’t know what to say.
Just this afternoon, Peiya had said she might not be very useful.
This is what you call “not useful”?
She really got fooled by her.
Still, to be safe, Elise decided to check the sword first.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Peiya, it was just that Frostheart was very difficult to repair. Even if it wasn’t fully fixed, she wouldn’t blame her.
However, the moment Elise drew the sword, she froze.
Why did it feel like Frostheart was even stronger than before?
And that wasn’t all.
What shocked Elise even more was that the sword somehow felt… unwilling to follow her anymore?