CHAPTER FOUR- AN UNEXPECTEDLY HUGE SALE

The chapter begins with Luke inside the newly opened shop, it’s not been long since the shop was
opened but Luke already gets a lot of business, he has also gotten used to dealing with
customers.”Excuse me..” one of the customers beckons to Luke, “do you happen to have a sword for one
florin?” giving the customer one of his best smile, Luke replied warmly “One florin is more than enough
for one of our regular iron swords.” “Oh really” said the customer in relief, “Thank God!”. As Luke was
rounding up his transactions with the customer, Sylvia stepped into the shop, a warm smile on her face
“Busy has usual” she called out to Luke “Hey Sylvia,” Luke replied “whats that” he said as gesturing
towards the bottle of wine in Sylvia hands, beaming as she handed over the bottle to Luke “A present
from Matilda!, she said everyone is overjoyed because they’ve grown more powerful.. Thanks to the
materials they’ve harvested from that dragon corpse.” “oh, so that’s what it’s for.” Luke said as he
twirled the bottle around, nodding she confirmed, “yep!” it’s part of a thank you, part belated shop-
warming gift.” Sylvia eyes moved toward the swords hanging on the wall, her face lit up with
intrest.”Have you sold any of your featured replicas yet?” Luke sighted and replied “Nope, none so far.”
“They’re not exactly priced to sell quickly. For now, they’re just decorations” he admitted, knowing the
high price point made them less accessible to most customers. Nodding in agreement “One guilder,
hmm... I suppose most people couldn’t pay that much.” “ But these are only replicas, right,?” Sylvia
continued, “I bet you could charge even more for the actual sword” “oh, for sure” he confirmed casually
“I could probably charge several sovereigns for it” he mused aloud. Sylvia standing nearby, gasped in
suprise. “S-sovereigns?Multiple!” Still in awe “That as much as ordinary folks earn in a year!” she said
still trying to wrap her head around how much it would cost. Luke sighed. “Well I can’t make another
sword like that one easily.” His mind raced back to the cavernous landscape of the dungeon he’d have to
go back to the thousand-year passage to get more optimal material, not to talk of the fact that he couldn’t
get in without an advanced- level adventurer leading the party. It was pretty impossible. Turning back
towards the displayed replicas, “ I also don’t intend to sell it just now anyway.” Sylvia appeared
thoughtful, feeling the weight of the situation. “ That’s too bad. It seems like a bit of a waste.” She said.”
Well it’s not like there are adventurers with that kind of cash too drop on a sword” Luke said.

Almost immediately the door flung open ushering in two men, one of the men pushes the door further, as
the other one strides in, hands casually by his side and with a calm demeanor. Now inside both men
approach the counter where Luke and Sylvia are, the man who had pushed the door open was the one
who first spoke up, having a very serious expression, he asked Luke “Scuse us. You’re the owner here?
His companion, the more cheerful of the two smiles warmly and immediately adds “Would this be the
establishment with the famous Dragon-Slayer sword?” Luke hesistates, replying nervously “Uh...yes, it
is, but-“ The blonde and more cheerful one immediately cuts him off, still grinning, “if you have the
sword, i’d very much like to purchase it,”Luke smiles as he points to the replicas hung on the wall “ we
do have a few similar blades in stock over here.” The blonde man’s expression grows more intense, his
smile shifting slightly to the display hung on the wall as he says “Those are just poor quality replicas,
correct?” His eyes still focused on Luke “I want to buy the original sword” he says firmly. Realizing the
situation, Luke, clearly flustered, explains, “Ah...well, I’m afraid I haven;t put the original up for sale.
His hand trembles slightly as a bead of sweat drops from his forehead. On hearing this, the blonde man
chuckles “Ah, so you want to keep it as a souvenir” he says “However” he continues “I have reason for
wanting that blade” His face still calm but now looking serious, he adds with a confident the look”Show
him the money.” Immediately his taller companion, calm and composed says “As you wish” and begins
to reach into his cloak. Luke watches as the taller man reaches into his coat and retrieves a stack of gold
coins, placing them on the counter with a loud KA-SHINK. The coins clink together as they form a neat
pile, catching Luke’s attention. His eyes widen as he realizes what is in front of him-Five Gold
Sovereigns.

The room falls silent with the other customers muttering in disbelief. luke and Sylvia looks at the stack
nervously, unsure of how to react. Mistaking Luke’s hesitation for refusal the blonde man once again
raises his hand, signalling confidently with a grin,”oh, is that not enough?” he beckons towards his
companion who once again pulls out another stack, still composed he pushes another five sovereign
towards Luke with a clunk, confidently asking “Then how about this”. In no time the transaction was
complete and both men left the shop slamming the door behind them, Luke and Sylvia could not believe
their eyes with Sylvia exclaiming that she had never seen so much money and even recounting them in
disbelief, “Thats ten sovereign Luke” she exclaimed “weren’t those guys adventurers” she asked
curiously, uanable to understand how adventurers could have so much money. Luke then tells her that he
doubts they were adventurers because no adventurer would be able to shell out so much money,he then
suggests that they might have been knights or noble envoys and at the least the blond one seemed to be a
real connoisseur. As they both still ponder about what might have brought those kind of persons to green
hollow, a familiar voice calls out from behind “Hello! It’s been a while” Sakura called as she she entered
into the shop, “Sakura!!” both Luke and Sylvia exclaimed in unison as Sylvia ran to hold Sakura hand
excitedly telling her how she had missed her and she was getting so tired of waiting, Sakura then
apologized to Sylvia for taking so long, Luke walks over to them and ask Sakura if she brought the
materials she had went home for. “Yep!” replied Sakura adding that she wanted to show Luke so she had
come straight to the shop. “Good timing” says Luke “I’m about to break for lunch” he then asks Sakura
if he could take a look once they’ve eaten to which Sakura says yes and tells him she’d appreciate that.

During break the three of them eats together with Sakura commending Sylvia that her cooking was the
best she had tasted ever. The three of them tries to catch up during break, Sakura tells Luke that she is
astounded by the way the shop is , and that she can see that he is also getting a lot of customers. Luke
beaming with pride tells her that he is and that he is even been patronized by persons who are not
adventurers, “Luke’s been hired to restore some of the buildings in towns” Sylvia chirps in excitedly
confirming Luke’s claim. “wow, thats amazing!” Sylvia says, genuinely impressed at how far they’ve all
come. “I expectedly nothing less from Luke-Dono!” she adds a look of amazement spread across her
face. She tells Luke that from the look of things he is most likely to earn his start up fee in no time, to
which Luke replied that he has already earned most of that already. He then proceeds to explain to a very
surprised Sakura how he sold the sword she used to defeat the dragon for ten sovereign, they all spend
some time pondering over the sale especially as to who the strangers could have been, finally, Luke says
“well, we may only guess, but we can;t know the truth” turning to Sakura “Now let’s talk about your
blade Sakura, he tells her”.

Immediately Sakura produces a diamond shape looking shiny object, placing it on the table,”this is the
material I want to use to make my katana, we call it Hihi’Irokane” she says. Luke and Sylvia are both
mezemerized by the diamond shaped object, with Luke confessing that he has never heard of it “ It looks
like a gemstone but its metal isn;t it” Sylvia pointed out her focus still fixed on the Hihi’Irokane. Sakura
then proceeds to tell them that one of the goals of her journey has being to find someone to forge a katana
out of the metal as even back in her hometown and the entire east, the knowledge is lost and hence no
new armor or tools can be forged from the Hihi’Irokane. “Are you sure you want to entrust something so
valuable to me? It’s such a precious metal” Luke asks her not believing Sakura would trust him so much
to which she replied “There’s no one I’d rather trust it to Luke-Dono” .

With a determined look, Luke accepts to take the metal from Sakura but informs her that building a
sword out of it would be complex; hence it would take a little while. Sakura is curious as to why it was
complex to which Luke explains that the only skill he has is [repair} strictly speaking and so he can’t just
make a sword out of the metal immediately. “so then..You can’t create a blade from the metal alone.”
Sakura asks, a look of disappointment already crossing her face. “Well, it’s not impossible strictly
speaking” Luke replies, his eyebrows creased together indicating he was deep in thought. He then explain
to Sakura that if he [recompose] half the ore bit by bit into an existing katana until it learns the shape,
then he can[decompose]the katana and the rest of the ore, then [recompose it all again} “ if i do that, then
I can make you a hundred percent pure Hihi’Irokane blade” he finally ends his explanations. “ you can?”
Sakura gasped in excitement, “well, the theory is sound. I have never actually tried it” Luke replied her.

Immediately Sakura hands over her katana to Luke and asks him to first make her a fifty percent Hihi-
Irokane blade then afterwards remake it into one hundred percent, Luke is surprised at how much trust
she has in him and promise not to fall short of her expectations, spreading his hands over the katana Luke
immediately commence a fifty-fifty split of the katana and the original Hihi-Irokane, the combination of
the Katana and the metal immediately lightens the color making it shiny and pink as a cherry bossom,
both Sakura and Sylvia stares in amazement as Luke continues the combination.” This is amazing!”
Sakura gasped as she watched the Katana give out a soft pink glow, once the fifty-fifty combination is
done, Sakura asks Luke if she could take the sword outside, He tells her she can but insist that she watch
out for other customers.

Sakura then goes outside to test the sword making use of a low- level fire skill to ignite the sword, items
made from hihi-irokane are capable of conducting fire and in a matter of seconds Sakura Katana is
ablaze, she then asks Luke if they could test it on something and which Luke gives her Chunk of wood,
however telling her to watch out for the shop window, before he could complete his sentence. Sakura
Flaming sword slashes through the chunk of wood with so much power, leaving all of them staring in
amazement at the amount of power the sword could generate despite it being ignited by just a low-level
flame. They are all impressed, and Luke cannot believes he is capable of creating something so powerful,
An excited Sakura is so impressed and appreciates Luke telling Luke to make her a short sword as well
next time so she can dual weild it with her katana. Luke cannot help but think of the fact that he never
thought he had have friends who would appreciate his skills like this and reminisces on how a short while
ago he was just an E-ranking adventurer who never thought he would ever be able to make something
like this. He promises Sakura to make her sword for her excitedly and happy with how things have turned
out.

Shortly after, Luke closes up the shop as he is done for the day, and bid his customers farewell. He sets
out on his way back home but later decided to head back to the shop and see if he could make more
weapons since he was still burning wth o much creative energy, he remembers that Sakura asked for a
short sword and decides to try making it now so as to suprise Sakura with it. Suddenly his thought is
abrubted by the sound of clanking metals, he turns around to see what was the cause and his greeted by
two heavily amored knights “Might we have a moment of your time” one of the Knights says, confused
Luke replies”Huh....?”