Chapter 62 - Unicorn Pendant
The heat was intense, so the air cooling fan in the workshop had been running since morning.
After gathering the raincoat fabrics and sending it off to Lucia via a courier carriage, the workshop had become wide and empty.
While cleaning, Dahlia reflected on the events from yesterday.
As she was leaving the guild, Ivano had asked her if he could work at the Rossetti Company.
Although the company was called a "company," in reality, it was just Dahlia running it alone, and she knew nothing about business.
She had been feeling anxious about needing to study for her role as the head of the company, so his offer had been a great relief.
It was due to Volf's recommendation and Ivano's strong desire that she had agreed to it.
She had asked him three times whether he was sure about quitting the Merchant Guild, wondering if he would regret it.
They had also discussed the lack of a guaranteed salary, but Ivano had insisted that the profits from the socks and insoles would be sufficient. He had offered that, if she was worried, he wouldn’t take a salary until they were making a profit.
She had explained that this wouldn't be possible, so they had agreed on a salary equivalent to what he earned at the guild, with additional payment to be discussed if they made more profit.
After Ivano resigned from the guild, they had agreed to remove him as a guarantor for the Rossetti Company and to make him a member of the company.
Although she appreciated the offer, Dahlia still had some concerns.
First, she worried if she might cause trouble for the Merchant Guild, especially for Gabriella.
She also wondered when Ivano and Volf had become so close.
They must have gotten along well since they could joke around and even talk about stuff like that.
However, she couldn’t understand the criteria that men had for things like "chest," "hips," or "legs." Not that it was something Dahlia needed to understand.
As she passed by the mirror in the workshop, she briefly glanced at her own hips.
It was perfectly average—she didn’t find it particularly attractive.
Come to think of it, in her past life, she remembered there had been exercises for enhancing the hips, but she wondered if there were any beauty books on that topic at the bookstores in this world.
"What am I even thinking about...?"
She was probably just tired from the Merchant Guild's meeting yesterday.
Shaking her head, she continued with her cleaning.
While tidying up the shelves, she noticed the box with the unicorn horn that Ireneo had given her.
It was a slender horn, but it was long enough. It might be a good idea to cut a small piece off and check its material.
When she opened the magic-sealing box, a distinct magical energy spilled out.
Inside was a pure white horn tinged with a bit of gold. Upon closer inspection, she saw a slight spiral to it.
Volf had said that the unicorn he had seen also had a horn that was lightly golden, so this was probably the standard color.
The monster encyclopedia had only mentioned that unicorns were "mostly white," so she wouldn’t have known for sure without seeing it herself.
The horn might not have been taken too long ago.
Just holding it made a certain magical energy spill out. The gentle, moving magic felt warm and ticklish against her fingertips.
Its texture was similar to ivory from her past life, but it was heavier and denser.
She carefully fixed it with cloth, and at the base, it was about 2.5 cm in diameter. She cut it to a thickness of about 8 mm. It was quite hard to cut, even with a magical tool saw.
She had heard that it had effects like "complete detoxification, water purification, and pain reduction," but she wondered what the effects would be with this size.
It would be difficult to test the effects, but it was certainly interesting.
The piece she had cut off appeared white from afar, but when she changed its angle, it sparkled gold in certain spots.
She thought it might make a nice accessory, and while thinking this, she tidied up and polished the surface.
Because it was such a beautiful material, she became engrossed and lightly carved a simple rose pattern on the surface.
It turned out quite well, so she added some three-dimensional effects to the rose and engraved more intricate details, working tirelessly to shape it into a pendant top, losing track of time.
When she finally looked up from her work, feeling thirsty, she realized the sun was already directly overhead.
For the finishing touch, she tried to channel magic from her fingertips to enhance its durability with "hardness enhancement". However, the magic was immediately repelled.
She remembered the time when she had dealt with the artificial magic sword and, instead of just applying magic directly, tried to envelop the object with the magic. Even so, the magic dispersed.
If "hardness enhancement" didn’t work, she thought she might as well try "weight reduction," but that was also repelled.
"Hmmm..."
There were two possible explanations.
The first was that the unicorn's magic power was too strong, and Dahlia was unable to enchant magic to it herself.
The second was that unicorns had a property that "cut magic" to some extent, making it difficult to enchant magic on them.
To test the first possibility, she would need to ask a mage with strong magic to help.
As for the second, since the magical tool saw could cut through the material, it seemed unlikely that the horn completely repelled magic.
She thought about dismantling a dagger and seeing if she could enchant magic using the unicorn horn as material, but whether it would cut magic would remain uncertain until she tried.
For this, she felt it would be best to wait until Volf was around to test it, so she decided not to try today.
Placing the unicorn horn pendant on the table, Dahlia stretched her body. She had been in the same position for a while, and her shoulders were stiff and sore.
Thinking back, the horn of a female unicorn was said to be "a material that reduces pain = helpful for shoulder aches."
She threaded a leather cord through the pendant and hung it around her neck, allowing the back of the pendant to rest against her chest.
She had been somewhat skeptical, but the weight on her shoulders had noticeably lessened. The pain and tension weren’t entirely gone, likely due to the size or the material, but the relief was enough to be useful.
With this, long hours of work would probably be much easier.
If she used the unicorn horn as a material for magic enchantment, she wondered how much magic would be required—it was then that she recalled the material that had drained the most magic from her in the past, and her brow furrowed.
The fang of a sköll.
Like the unicorn, it was dazzlingly white and glittered with a golden shine, making it incredibly beautiful.
A sköll was a beast-like monster with pitch-black fur and eyes of gold or silver.
It was said to run through the sky, eating other monsters such as cockatrices, unicorns, and pegasi.
Dahlia's father had received the fangs from a customer related to a large water heater order.
At that time, she had been given two small pieces as leftovers.
"Don’t use them immediately; they’re troublesome materials. Maybe after five or ten years, you will be able to use them."
However, she had been a curious academy student at the time.
Late one night in her room, she had secretly tried using them but had nearly passed out from the magic being drained before she could let go of it, throwing up terribly afterward.
The magic absorption from the sköll’s fang had been overwhelming.
Once she started enchanting magic to them, she couldn’t stop. It felt as though her magic was being forcibly pulled away.
The sensation of her magic being consumed, slowly and relentlessly, had made her feel a much deeper fear than the one she had felt with the fairy crystals.
Incidentally, her father had successfully enchanted the "wind magic effect to prevent overheating" on the large water heater without any issues.
Four years had passed since then.
Though it was still a year shy of five, her magic capacity had likely increased, and she hoped that her skills as a magical toolmaker had improved as well. Of course, she still couldn’t match her father’s skill.
"I think I left that fragment in a drawer in my room..."
She hadn’t wanted her father to know, so she had hidden it in the drawer of her desk and left it there.
If it was the failed fragment, there might still be a bit of magic in it. Perhaps she could add more magic and try enchanting it to the toughest bracelet she had.
It was possible that the magic enchantment had already failed, and the material was now wasted.
It was a failure from the start. Even if trying again failed, she could accept it.
The tower was empty, with only Dahlia there. If she collapsed, no one would be around to help.
But, on the other hand, if she collapsed, no one would be worried about her either.
If her magic ran out, she would just fall unconscious.
It wouldn’t be a problem—well, maybe just a small one, but overall, she should be fine.
In her past life, there had been the saying "Strike while the iron is hot."
In this life, the saying went, "When the thought strikes, look to the shadows."
It meant that when you have an idea, you should first consider the ground beneath your feet and give careful consideration to your thoughts before acting—a saying Dahlia didn’t particularly like.
"If I try just before I go to bed, it should be fine..."
The challenger's muttering was heard only by the materials in the workshop.
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