Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

In the quiet parlor of Lady Navarre, Antonio was lounging on the sofa, comfortably enjoying the paintings on the wall as if he were in his own home.

Winters, on the other hand, maintained an erect posture—eyes on his nose, nose in line with his mouth, mouth following the heart—sitting upright in the chair like a statue.

"Don't be so stiff," Antonio cheerfully passed a small plate of nuts to Winters, "Right now, you look just like an Ascetic Monk, the only thing missing is a flail in your hand to scourge your own back."

"Whose fault is that?" Winters retorted, irritated at the main person responsible acting as if the matter was none of his concern.

Antonio carelessly picked up a fig from the small table and slowly peeled the skin, "Haven't I accompanied you here?"

Why had Winters and Antonio come to the Navarre mansion? The reason was rather convoluted.

Major Moritz only had ten steel awls, which were far from enough. Therefore, Winters sought help from his uncle—Antonio's younger brother, Giovanni Serviati.

The Serviati family's history in Sea Blue City was not long; it was only from Antonio and Giovanni's father, Cavalier, that the Serviati family began to flourish in Sea Blue.

Cavalier, a big-nosed, hot-tempered Venetian, had been forced to leave his family behind due to a vendetta when he was young.

His mother placed two Gold Coins in his hand, kissed his cheeks, and said in tears, "My dear son, do not spend these two Gold Coins. Keep them with you but do not spend them. The red streaks in the coin's design are the blood of Saint Novellata. Carry them with you, and Saint Novellata will bless you. And I shall pray for you at every moment."

His father silently handed him a sharp sword.

And so, with a sword, two Gold Coins, and his mother's blessing, Cavalier came to Sea Blue City from the City of Flowers—alone.

He first pawned the fine sword, then spent the two Gold Coins and lived comfortably for a while. But, within days, once the money was spent, Cavalier's new "friends" in Sea Blue abandoned him at twice the speed they had approached him.

Penniless and desolate, Cavalier lived miserably until a kind-hearted goldsmith took him in as an apprentice. After surviving a tough apprenticeship, he became a full member of the Sea Blue City Guild of Precious Metal Craftsmen.

By the time Cavalier's eldest son, Antonio, was born, he had already made a name for himself as a gold and silversmith in Sea Blue City, owning a rather fine workshop. And he had redeemed the heirloom sword and the two Gold Coins said to be touched by Saint Novellata's blood.

Cavalier Serviati's eldest son, Antonio, passed the entrance exams to the Military Academy, becoming a military officer. His younger son, Giovanni, inherited his father's craft and took over the workshop after Cavalier passed away, becoming a gold and silver craftsman.

If Antonio held a fatherly position in Winters's heart, then Giovanni, though his uncle in name, was actually more like a brother to him.

The progeny of Cavalier was fragile, with five children dying young. It was many years after the birth of the eldest son that a second healthy son grew up. Antonio was fourteen years older than Giovanni, and Giovanni was only nine years older than Winters.

So, compared to his much older brother, the fun-loving Giovanni was much closer to Winters. Most of the major misdeeds Winters committed growing up were led by Giovanni.

If Winters accidentally set the house on fire, he wouldn't tell Antonio or Kosa, but he would tell Giovanni. If Giovanni killed someone, he wouldn't tell his brother either; he would ask Winters to help him move the corpse.

Of the ten steel awls Moritz gave Winters, only five sharp-tipped ones could be used in combat, which was obviously insufficient. Winters wanted someone to make a batch just like the ones the Major had provided.
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As the job was metalwork-related, Winters immediately thought of his uncle Giovanni. Even though Giovanni was a precious metals craftsman, Winters believed that he must also know some highly skilled blacksmiths.

Apart from forging a batch of awls, Winters had another objective: to create a sheath for Elizabeth's dagger.

The dagger, which Elizabeth had pestered from Winters, had initially been returned to Sofia, but somehow, Elizabeth persuaded Sofia to gift the dagger back to her.

The leather sheath Elizabeth had made was hardly usable, quickly becoming full of holes from the dagger's pokes. Thus, Winters had another mission, to ask Giovanni to fashion a silver sheath for Elizabeth. Of course, the sheath would only be silver on the outside, lined with softwood padding inside to prevent the dagger's blade from becoming dull.

Winters had thought making a few hundred identical steel awls would not be difficult, but it was only after speaking with actual blacksmiths that he understood the complexity involved.

To maintain consistency in shape and weight purely by handcraft was challenging. The steel awls made by Major Moritz were cylindrical, and hand-forging could not craft cylinders. They had to forge prisms and then painstakingly file down the edges before smoothing them out. And it would be even more time-consuming and labor-intensive to work with steel.

Meanwhile, ensuring each awl had the same weight would multiply the difficulty of production.

Using Giovanni's most precise scale, designed for weighing Gold, even that could not detect any weight difference between the ten steel awls Moritz had given to Winters.