I might've taught them stuff... oh well!

Karina-chan here! I got permission to tour the smithy, and I'm checking it out right now!

They're shoving rods with metal ingots attached and black fuel into a big stone furnace that's blazing away, then hammering at the metal once it's heated from red to white-hot!

 

 

Hmm, this is so blacksmith-like!

By the way, this forging is for making an iron kitchen knife. The one doing the forging is the dwarf from earlier (15 years old). He's apparently helping out so he can eventually succeed his father.

Naturally, the master's work isn't something they'd easily show… no wait, it looks like there's just no work worthy of the master right now.

"Still, to think someone would enjoy watching smithing. There really are strange humans out there."

"Nah, it's fun, you know? Like, watching things get made. Seeing raw materials turn into products is kind of mysterious, almost like magic."

"Oh, you get it, sis! That's exactly it, smithing turns rocks just lying around into swords, you know? It's amazing!"

The dwarf is in a good mood. We get along pretty well.

Also, this "sis" isn't like "young lady"; it literally means big sister. I'm older than him. Appearance-wise.

"Oh, I know. Hey, could you make instruments and stuff? With smithing?"

"Instruments? That'd be woodworking's job, wouldn't it? At most you'd make some parts out of metal… ah, but if woodworking can do it, then making the whole thing out of metal isn't impossible, I guess? Might be more of a craftsman's job though."

"Back where I'm from, there's something called brass instruments, and those are metal instruments. Like flutes and such."

"Oh. Metal flutes. I've heard of those!"

Huh, they exist here. Metal flutes. Well, like trumpets and such.

"Master, flutes don't work for bards."

"Oh right, you did mention that. Then how about metal… percussion? A glockenspiel or something? You line up small plates and hit them. The sound changes based on the size of the plate, so you use that to create a scale."

"Metal plates? I could make something like that without even using the furnace. Like this?"

The dwarf sliced through an iron ingot with a hand-chop.

What the? Wow. Not quite a mirror finish, but it turned into a thin plate with a perfectly flat cross-section. That's almost like spatial magic.

"Is that the [Blacksmithing] skill?"

"Yeah. Only works on ingots I made myself though. Once you get to my Pops' level, you can make bigger iron plates and such, but from what you're describing, this size should be fine, right? Good practice."

And like slicing sashimi, the dwarf started lining up iron plates on the floor.

Hmm, then I'll use my woodworking skills too. I cut some wood I had in storage, fitted in tenon joints, and made a simple bridge-like base for the glockenspiel using string. The plates just sit on top. That's the main body done.

Then I attached a small wooden ball to a stick, completing the mallet. When I hit a randomly placed plate with the mallet, it made a clear "kiiing" sound.

"Whoa! That's amazing, it becomes an instrument just like that!"

"M-Master, Master! Can I try playing it!?"

"Oh, sure. But we'll need to adjust the scale. I don't really know how, though."

"Just need to change the sizes, right? Leave it to me."

"Oh, if possible, it'd be better to punch holes for the string so they stay in place."

"Holes, huh, hmm, small holes… yeah, I can do it! Let's go!"

Getting excited, Aishia and the dwarf started adjusting the glockenspiel's scale.

They're just shaving down the plates to adjust the length, so I'll leave them to it for a bit. Aishia's ear seems to be accurately distinguishing the notes. No tuner needed… Huh, so this world uses do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do too. I wonder if that was also imported, like the bathhouse.

So I went over to Dea-kun, who I'd been kind of neglecting.

"Phew, things are getting pretty lively. Sorry for leaving you out, Dea-kun."

"No, no. I'm just glad you're having fun, Onee-san."

Dea-kun smiled. Cute. I wanna suck on those ears.

"Onee-san, you can even make instruments."

"That one is honestly just hitting plates, anything works. If you can hit it, it'll pretty much make a sound. The hard part is the fine-tuning."

There's a lot more work needed to make the sound resonate properly, and it's really just toy-level. But well, it's good enough as an instrument.

"I see… Onee-san, if we combined it with a magic tool that rotates, couldn't we make the magic tool play it automatically?"

"Oho. So you want to make a music box? Nice thinking, Dea-kun. I love that kind of thing. I'll teach you all about the music boxes I know of."

Dea-kun seems to have gotten an interesting idea too, so I'll teach him about music boxes.

Paper music boxes are pretty cool, right? How do those work again, do they catch on the holes? Wouldn't the paper tear? It's kind of mysterious.

"… Come to think of it, there's also something called punch cards… where predetermined behaviors are triggered by the holes."

"Ooh, that sounds interesting… please tell me more, Onee-san!"

Ah, whoops. I might've taught Dea-kun some unnecessary knowledge… oh well! He looks like he's having fun!