Chapter 403: The First Grimoire of the World (P-1)

Runa and Mika took a step forward onto the cold flagstones of the courtyard, and their huge smiles of professional pride were not long in coming.

Neither of them cared in the slightest about the freezing wind blowing from the northern trench or the trail of dust still floating on the horizon after the mountain’s disappearance. Their gaze was fixed on Ryan, with that spark of enthusiasm typical of two artisans who had spent entire nights locked away among furnaces and alchemy tables until they hit the nail on the head.

Runa was the first to open her mouth, planting her feet firmly and resting a soot-stained fist on her hip.

"That’s right, brat, we’ve finally created a working prototype of your grimoire," Runa said with total confidence, puffing out her chest.

By Ryan’s side, Alicia’s brow furrowed instantly. The lack of protocol in front of the ruler of Kowarre struck her immediately, especially after she had tried so hard that very morning to bring order among the maids and the heroines.

"Hey!" Alicia grumbled, taking half a step toward the blacksmith with a stern expression. "I truly appreciate that you work so hard in the forge for the good of the territory, but you shouldn’t speak so casually to His Majesty."

Runa blinked for a second upon seeing Alicia’s unfriendly face and then let out a dry laugh, scratching the back of her neck with her gloved hand without losing her good humor.

"Ha, ha, sorry, sorry. It slipped out again."

Beside her, Mika let out a soft sigh, shaking her head slightly as she adjusted the collar of her tunic.

"Don’t be upset with her, Miss Alicia; even I have told her dozens of times while we were working downstairs," Mika added with a tone of polite resignation.

Ryan calmly raised a hand to cut off the scolding before Alicia could insist any further.

"Calm down, both of you," Ryan replied, soothing them with a relaxed voice. "After all, I was the one who told her to act straightforwardly like that when I brought her with me to these lands."

Alicia closed her mouth and nodded out of respect for her lord’s decision, although she kept her arms crossed.

The reality was that, although Ryan had given Runa the direct order to maintain that informality with him from the beginning to save unnecessary flattery in the workshop, Runa herself didn’t do it out of a lack of loyalty. Sometimes, when there were more subordinates around, the dwarf tried not to abuse that trust by calling him Majesty like the rest; but other times, especially when she was excited about a newly finished piece, she simply couldn’t contain her blunt words and that direct character that ran through the blood of the dwarven race.

Ryan didn’t pay the slightest attention to that apparent lack of discipline. At least she, due to her talent at the forge and her frankness to work without hidden agendas, had more than earned that permission.

Next to Alicia, Iris had been following the exchange in silence, but the keyword the blacksmith had dropped immediately caught her attention.

"A grimoire?" Iris asked, somewhat confused, tilting her head slightly as she looked at the hands of the two newcomers.

For combatants accustomed to conventional weapons or single-use scrolls, talking about crafting a grimoire from scratch sounded like a project taken from another era.

"Yes, exactly that," Mika replied with a serene smile.

The elven alchemist reached under the fold of her cloak and pulled out the object to show it to everyone present.

At first glance, the specimen commanded respect even while closed. The outer cover was made of dark, extremely dense wood, resistant to the touch and with rough bark that seemed to have absorbed centuries of ambient mana without rotting. At the exact center of the front cover rested a large, faceted gem, set with millimeter precision into the grimoire’s frame.

Runa’s blacksmithing design didn’t end there. Right above the large central gem, aligned in a clean curve over the wood, were three small gems embedded in dark metal settings.

And at the bottom of the main gem rested another three small gems, forming a symmetrical balance of six satellites around the core.

Mika held the spine with one hand and, with the fingertips of the other, lifted the heavy wooden cover to open it in front of Ryan’s eyes.

The interior was even more striking than the shell. The pages were not made of paper or cured animal leather; they had that unmistakable, elastic texture typical of processed mana tree leaves. They were thin sheets, almost translucent under the cold morning light, with a damp, gelatinous sheen in their fibers that made them look like sea jellyfish pressed between the wood.

Ryan took half a step forward and looked inside with complete attention, counting the thickness of the spine with his eyes.

Six pages in total. One for each minor stone on the cover.

’I didn’t think they would have a finished prototype so soon,’ Ryan reflected silently, going over the logistical timelines he kept in his head.

As far as he knew from the latest reports, the bulk of the elven workers were still over in Ignis carefully extracting the raw materials from the ancient mana trees, and both those elves and the beastmen contingent were still working under the direct care and surveillance of Beatrice and Karol. The main shipment of supplies hadn’t even reached the gates of Kowarre yet.

If Runa and Mika had managed to assemble a complete specimen so quickly, it meant they had some reserve stashed away from before. A minimal amount, probably hidden among the personal artifacts and rare reagents Mika had brought with her when she moved to the workshop, barely enough to create a test version.

Regardless, the origin of the material wasn’t something that mattered much at that moment; the crucial thing was that the object existed.

Ryan reached out and took the prototype of the grimoire in his hands.

It felt solid and well-balanced. He ran his thumb along the translucent edge of the first page, feeling how the plant fiber reacted slightly to the heat of his skin, even though there wasn’t a single rune or letter written on the entire surface.

"The pages are blank," Ryan pointed out, looking up at the alchemist. "How is this supposed to work?"