Chapter 442: Mavis’s Workshop

It was a proper blacksmith’s workshop, that much was immediately clear.

A small furnace smoldered against one wall, embers glowing with barely contained heat, ready to be stoked into a roaring blaze at a moment’s notice.

On another side, there were multiple strange parts and metalworking materials, scattered around like spare components of some grand project.

Diagrams and illustrations covered another wall, some showing apparatuses Luca recognized and others he couldn’t begin to identify.

Swords, dozens of them hung from the walls in various states of completion. Some were clearly finished pieces, polished and gleaming. Others were rough and unfinished, waiting for their final touches. Barrels filled with what looked like old or damaged blades sat in corners, and shields and saddles were stacked against the far wall.

Multiple tables were scattered throughout the room, cluttered with hammers, knives, tools of every shape and size.

It was...organized chaos.

That was the only way to describe it. Everything seemed random, chaotic, without any sense of order.

But Luca could tell that Mavis knew exactly where everything was. If he were to rearrange anything—to, she would probably break his legs.

This was her world. And it made perfect sense to her.

Mavis trotted beside him, her voice bright with excitement as she pointed out various items.

"This is where I do most of my work." She explained, gesturing broadly. "The furnace over there—I keep it burning constantly. It takes forever to get it up to temperature if it goes out, so I just maintain it."

She pointed to the swords.

"Those are all my works. I repair every blade in the village, and I forge new ones when needed. Without me, the entire Galloping Brigade would be swordless knights."

She puffed out her chest. "You’re welcome!"

She moved to a bookshelf near the furnace.

"I had to move this away from the heat. One of the books caught fire once. Nearly burned down the whole workshop." She coughed awkwardly. "I put it out quickly, of course. But it was a close call."

She gestured to the diagrams on the wall.

"This is where I make my initial sketches. Even a genius like me can’t just create something from nothing—I need dozens of plans before I move to the final stage. Especially with metal. It’s a pain to work with, and I can’t afford to make mistakes."

Luca examined the diagrams and was impressed.

The measurements were precise, the notes were thorough, the timetables were meticulously planned. Mavis was clearly a meticulous worker.

She pulled him toward a corner filled with broken devices and failed experiments.

"This is where everything goes when I mess up." Mavis said, kicking the pile lightly. "A wrong sword, a machine that doesn’t work, a device that does the opposite of what I want. It all comes here."

She shrugged.

"Then I throw it back in the furnace and melt it down and use it for something else. Metal is expensive, Dummy Hero. I’m not going to throw it away because it doesn’t work yet. It just becomes something else."

"Nothing gets wasted."

"Nothing gets wasted." She nodded firmly. "Besides, honestly? Melting it down is the best part! The way it goes from hard and stubborn into something that can be shaped by a breath."

She looked at the furnace almost fondly. "There’s nothing else like it."

Then she pointed out her tools, and this was where Mavis truly lit up—because she proceeded to name each one, one after the other, with the particular reverence of a person talking about old friends.

"Tongs. Cross-peen hammer. Ball-peen. Flatter. Swage block over there—that’s the one with the different grooves carved into it, for shaping curves."

"That’s a fuller, that’s a hot-cut, that’s a chisel not for wood—don’t ever use it on wood, it ruins the temper."

She pointed up.

"That rack’s the punches. Center punch, slot punch, drift."

Across the way:

"Files—fine, medium, coarse—you can never have too many files, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Over there’s the anvil, obviously. And that shelf is all the measuring tools, and if you touch any of them after you’ve been holding anything that might have dust on it I’ll hit you with something."

She spoke with the passion of a true craftsman, and Luca listened intently, not just watching the objects she presented but also watching her.

Her face was animated, her eyes bright, her small body practically vibrating with enthusiasm.

It was obvious she had wanted to share this with someone for a long time.

And it was also obvious that she had never had the chance.

Sigrid didn’t appreciate her work. The rest of the village wasn’t any better.

They were fighters, not builders, and when they brought her their swords they did not want to hear about alloys or leverage or gear ratios, they wanted to know how much harder it would cut.

But now, finally, she had found someone who could keep up with her.

Someone who asked questions. Someone who understood. Someone who was on the same wavelength.

A kindred spirit and she was overwhelmed with an urge to show off.

But then Luca asked about something outside.

"The water wheel—what’s it actually for? You said it wasn’t electricity."

"Oh! Let me show you!"

Mavis grabbed his hand, not even noticing how close she was getting to him and pulled him toward a strange device near the furnace.

The device resembled a primitive hydraulic press. It had a strong iron base at the bottom with clamps for holding materials, and a large hammer-like tool positioned above, ready to descend.

Mavis didn’t explain. She simply demonstrated.

She flicked a switch and pulled a lever. The sound of gears turning and wheels spinning echoed through the workshop.

Then the hammer rose, higher and higher...

...before slamming down onto the base with tremendous force!

BANG!

It rose again and—

BANG!

It went up and down like a hammer. And while that happened, Mavis quickly grabbed a piece of metal from the fire using tongs and gloves and placed it on the base.

BANG!

The hammer descended again, striking the metal precisely. She adjusted the platform’s angle with practiced skill, and the hammer struck again, and again, each blow shaping the metal into a proper blade.

Luca watched in fascination.

She used a smaller hammer for fine adjustments, but the majority of the work was done by the machine. When she was finished, she pulled it out of the water trough and presented it to Luca with a flourish.

"A blade! Well, the beginning of one, anyway. What do you think?"

Luca stared at the device, then at her in genuine awe.

"You...built a power hammer. A hydro-powered hammer."

"A power hammer?" Mavis frowned before letting out a cheeky smile. "I don’t call it that, but that’s actually a good name. I’ll use that from now on!"

She then gestured at the machine with obvious pride and began to explain.

"You see, centaurs are naturally strong, much stronger than humans. Normally, a centaur blacksmith can wield a hammer without any trouble. But I..."

She gestured at her small frame.

"I’m not as strong as I should be. And most of blacksmithing is just hitting metal as hard as you can, over and over again."

Luca nodded. That made sense. He had wondered how someone so small could forge armor and weapons.

She pointed at the water wheel outside.

"So I used the water’s energy to power this device. The wheel spins, the gears turn, the hammer lifts and falls. I can adjust the weight of the impact, the speed of the strikes—everything. I control it all!"

She looked at him hesitantly.

"Your world has something like this, doesn’t it?"

Luca nodded.

Mavis’s face fell. "I knew it. I’m behind even in this—"

"But." Luca interrupted. "My world invented it much, much later. We had centuries of technological development to build on. You created this in a world that barely understands the basics of mechanical engineering."

He smiled warmly. "That’s far more impressive if you were to ask me."

Mavis’s tail started wagging, while her plump chest puffed out.

"Of course!" She declared. "I am Mavis, the great genius inventor! Something like this is nothing for me!"

She was practically glowing with happiness!

Finally someone was appreciating her properly. Someone who understood her work, who asked intelligent questions, who didn’t just ask "how will this make my sword sharper?"

She then glanced at Luca, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"You know...I bet I could defeat you with this machine. It can smash iron into flat pieces."

She was joking, obviously. The idea of actually using it on a person was absurd.

But Luca simply said: "I doubt that."

Before she could react, he placed his hand directly under the hammer.

And turned the switch!

"NO!" Mavis shrieked, lunging for the controls. "Dummy hero, NO!"

She hit the emergency stop, pulled the failsafe, did everything she could—

But the hammer had already reached its peak.

And it fell.

BANG!

Mavis’s heart stopped.

She had crushed his hand. She had destroyed the Hero’s hand with her own machine!

He would never forgive her. The village would never forgive her. Her sister would never forgive her.

She would be remembered not as a genius, but as the idiot who murdered the man who had saved them all—

The hammer rose.

And...Luca’s hand was still there. Intact. Unmarked.

He flexed his fingers casually, as though he had just caught a ball, not withstood the full force of an industrial hammer.

"See?" He said casually. "A machine like this won’t do anything to me. Not even a scratch."

Mavis stared at him, her jaw hanging open.

"Dummy Hero, you...you..."

She had known he was powerful. She had seen him fight, had watched him defeat her sister and the entire brigade without breaking a sweat. But this...

This was different.

This was proof that without the divine restrictions, he was essentially indestructible. Nothing she could build, nothing she could do, could harm him.

The only reason anyone had been able to fight him at all was because of the rules imposed upon him.

Luca grinned.

"Want me to put my head under there too?"

"NO! DUMMY HERO, NO!"

Before he could move, Mavis grabbed his arm and yanked him away before glaring at him while looking genuinely frightened.

But not for the reason he thought.

"If you hit your head too much, you’ll lose your intelligence! You’ll become just like the rest of them—a dummy centaur!"

"I’m pretty sure I’d survive—"

"That’s not the point!"

She shook her head vigorously.

"You...You just can’t, alright? You can’t just do things like that. I mean, I can’t lose you. I just found someone who actually understands, who asks the right questions and doesn’t tell me to shut up and which is not something I am used to, and I am not going to lose that because you got curious!"

But the moment she said those words, she realised how strange they sounded. Especially with Luca looking at her with a knowing gaze.

"...I mean." She said quickly, releasing his arm and smoothing her apron and recovering her dignity with both hands. "Obviously not like that! I just mean you’re on the same wavelength as me, which is rare. Don’t get a big head about it!"

"I won’t."

"You’d better not."

"I’ll try."

"Dummy Hero." She turned on her heel or heels and marched across the workshop. "Come on. There’s something else I want to show you."

She led him to the far side of the workshop.

This corner was different. Neater. Cleaner. Everything here was finished—not scraps, not projects, but completed work, arranged with real care on solid tables and open shelves.

There were low chests with brass fittings. Hooded lamps in strange shapes. A rod of unusual design. A small brass instrument that looked like it might have been a clock.

"These are all the inventions I’ve made over the years. Every single one."

She looked at him with a mixture of pride and nervousness.

"So...what do you think?"