Chapter 91 Demonstration

An hour after dawn, the festivities began. The official part of the meeting was scheduled to start in a couple hours and Azi had already finished his checks and preparations with enough time to look around. He was walking around the temporary stalls with Rulu as she had come to help out with the event's preparations.

She was working over a large pot of what looked like chicken soup when Azi was wandering around as she was helping to feed the workers a hot meal during their breaks. Azi offered to help but was prompted by the staff to take Rulu out for a break as they argued that children like them should make sure to have some fun during the festivities.

Azi was thankful for the staff's words and used the moment to his advantage so he took Rulu with him before she could correct the staff about his age.

"Why did you not tell them about your age?" Asked Rulu, a bit confused by why Azi was not irked by the misunderstanding.

"It's a pain to always explain it but I just wanted to avoid an inconvenient situation from arising." Azi then grinned to himself. "And, I can tease them about this in the future. It makes for some good harmless fun."

Azi added a bit of a laugh to his words which made Rulu smile wryly as she remembered how he would occasionally tease her sister Shizu whenever he got that grin. This made her recall that she needed to inform him about Shizu.

As Azi bought a few skewers of what looked like teriyaki chicken, Rulu told him that Shizu was feeling better after drinking a stamina potion and that she would be attending his demonstrations.

"I see. I hope she gets a break though. She sounded stressed this morning and yesterday night." Handing a chicken skewer to Rulu as he spoke, Azi added. "Let's be sure to help her decompress after work."

"Decompress?" Asked a slightly confused Rulu.

"Oh that means to relax and unwind from a hard day of work. I think it was a term from where I am from."

"What an odd word. But I think I have heard of it before."

"Where?"

"In the capital of Yamato, the academy has a library of ancient texts that have numerous words and letters not fully translated or deciphered. I found a sample text in Kujyuri's royal library."

"I see, maybe I … should… take a…. Look?"

Azi's words trailed off as he saw a figure in all black clothing with a strange white mask on its face. It had a line on the lower part of the mask that was curved upward in a smile. The figure emanated an aura of exuberance and joy as it went from shop to shop buying food.

"Azi?"

It would spook the stall's staff as it seemed that they only noticed the figure when it got very close and handed them a piece of paper. The stall's staff would then hand the figure a bag of food and the figure would promptly leave. What really got his attention was how it seemed as if the figure was teleporting through the crowd.

"Azi?"

The figure went unnoticed as it only seemed as if it was only noticed when it prompted the person it wanted to talk to. What was also surprising was how fast the figure would finish its food, he never saw the figure take off its mask but noticed the crumpled bags that peeked out from the waist bag at its hip.

"Azi!"

Snapping back to attention, Azi looked to his left and saw a pouting Rulu.

"Sorry, something caught my eye."

"*Sigh* I'm not surprised, your mind seems to drift off into space whenever you are not working or training or spending time with sister Shizu."

Azi blushed a bit and retorted.

"Not true, I ummm well. Sometimes I do but um don't. Ugh nevermind."

Sighing Azi slumped his shoulders in defeat like a pouting child.

This made Rulu laugh a bit as the sight contrasted with her mental image of him. Rulu was somewhat skeptical of Azi and somewhat feared him as she had never met a foreigner like him. His ferocious attitude when training or working added to her fear as it seemed as if he was a scary kind of person.

The only times her fear's were alleviated were when he was with Shizu as it seemed like Azi was more child-like and teasing whenever he was with her.

Seeing him slump at her words made her feel proud but also giddy as she wondered why she feared such a child-like person. It was made only funnier as she knew that Azi was in fact 27 years old which added to how amusing their exchange was.

In a childish pout, Azi rebuked Rulu. "Stop laughing, it's not my fault. There are just some interesting things that catch my attention. Are you listening? Rulu!? Come on! Stop laughing! RULU!"

Rulu continued to laugh which caught the attention of the other festival goers. This prompted Rulu to feel the numerous stares she was getting which made her stop laughing as she froze like a deer in the view of head lights.

This made Rulu blush, which prompted Azi to laugh as he teased Rulu for her shyness. Rulu started to softly jab at Azi's side but it was ineffective due to how Rulu lacked any real strength.

Their roles now reversed, the two continued to banter as they walked around the festival grounds as they bought items and goods from stalls. Eventually, they separated at the outdoor forge as the blacksmith's demonstrations were starting.

"Do your best. I'm rooting for you." Said an encouraging Rulu.

"Thanks, but be sure to take a break from work. You have people that worry for you so make sure to take care of yourself whenever you help others."

Rulu nodded in understanding and after saying her final remarks that she would do her best, she left to help out in the outdoor kitchen.

Azi smiled as he looked at Rulu's departing back. He had a lot of fun today and felt refreshed. He wondered if he ever enjoyed a festival like this before but his recollection stopped when he heard someone speak out behind him.

"Oi brat, hurry up and get ready. You may be going last but you better not slack off with your work."

Azi turned to meet the owner of the voice and saw a bearded old man who looked like a bear if he had fur on his entire body. The beard made him look imposing and his large muscles made him seem like a hardened man of war.

Azi let out a sigh as he knew this old man. If his recent memory serves him right, the man's name was Edgar.

The old man clicked his tongue in annoyance as Azi was taking a while to think to himself. So, not wanting to further involve himself with the upstart, Edgar promptly left. His son, noticing that his father was leaving, ran up to him while directing a jeering look at Azi as he passed by

Azi sighed in his mind and thought to himself that his issues with the blacksmiths ran deep. Touching the left side of his tool belt which was on the opposite side of his forging hammer, Azi began to channel a bit of magic energy into what he was touching. The left side of his belt glowed a bit but went relatively unnoticed as the glow was faint.

Sensing that all was in order, he grinned to himself in assurance of his work. He then thought to himself, IT'S SHOWTIME.

*****

Shizu, who was arriving at the festivities a bit late as she had to deal with the last minute changes in guard reassignments to allow for proper protection for the festivities.

Already, Shizu had to deal with a few complaints that the guards encountered throughout the festival. Such as the sighting of a mysterious black figure that was haunting and spooking the festival staff.

She dismissed the allegation of a ghost as she had bigger fish to fry since Jerome dumped on the work for the festival on her and continued to more pressing matters. After finishing the reassignment, she rushed over and was able to make it to the blacksmithing demonstration.

Luckily Azi was going last so she was able to make it in time.

"Shizu over here!"

Turning her head, she saw Kajima, Elder Sung, Saki, and Yashimu sitting towards the front of the large wooden bleachers that were erected around the outdoor forge.

Her brother Yashimu was waving his hand over to her and offered the open seat next to him which she promptly accepted.

"Sister, you made it in time. Azi is up next so you don't have to worry."

Sighing in relief she then asked Yashimu to make doubly sure of one of her other concerns.

"Is Rulu safe? Why is she not with you?"

"Not to worry sister, our 4 younger brothers are guarding her. Nosuri and Ougi are patrolling the festivities as impromptu festival guards so they will act as a second layer of protection. How about the issue with Jerome?"

"No movement on his part, he seems to only want to turn a profit from this event."

"I see, but we should keep our guard up. It's not a coincidence that he pushed for this when Azi was just getting started with his workshop. The recent letter from Ozen supports this but there is a part of what was written that worries me."

Shizu nodded in agreement instead of speaking as the speaker of the event had begun to introduce the last demonstrator which got the group's attention.

"Now to introduce our last demonstrator. We have an up and coming blacksmith. Azi!"

From behind the stone wall of the outdoor forge came Azi. Followed by Ben and Bail who were called out by the speaker as he introduced them as his assistance during this event.

From the crowd, a few jeers and clicking tongues could be heard as these were the apprentices of the disgruntled blacksmiths. They too, looked down on Azi and felt justified by their biased opinion due to how frail and weak he looked.

This made Yashimu worry that Shizu was going to cause a scene as she got emotional at times like this, but to his relief she was only grinning as she mouthed the words. 'Do your best.'

The announcer then stated. "For Azi's demonstration, he will be explaining how to perform his creation method of blood steel. So for now, I give the stage to Azi."

"Thank you. Ben, Bail please bring out the crates."

Ben and Bail then moved around the forge and brought numerous wooden crates out. They laid them at the front of the outdoor forge for the audience to view. In them were ores, bags of crushed monster parts, and a variety of Azi's personal blacksmithing tools.

Azi had opted to use his own tools instead of the provided tools in the outdoor forge. While the variety of sized forging tools were well made and usable, Azi detected an abnormality in the metal. They were attempts at making blood steel tools by the old blacksmiths but they were subpar at best.

Azi deduced that they were likely going to use these subpar tools to humiliate him and thought that he could not spot the difference. Unfortunately for the blacksmiths, they grimaced when Azi had Ben and Bail bring out a box of his own tools.

It seemed that their plot was foiled quickly and Azi used the surprise to his advantage.

After heating to forge up with his own magic which got a few impressive ohs and ahs from the audience, Azi asked Ben and Bail to stand back as he made his way to the front of the forge.

"The process for creating blood steel is the combination of 4 materials. Iron ore, nickel ore, gengiri carapaces, and beowolf claws. I will now show you the proper process of making this new metal and demonstrating its properties."

Sharpening his focus, his face turned serious as he began to channel magic tethers from his arms. The tethers split into numerous other lines of magic that began to grab and move material and tools around.

The blacksmiths and their apprentices were surprised by the number of tools Azi had pulled out from the wooden crate as the number was more than what one blacksmith needed.

Additionally, the crowd was spooked by the sudden appearance of his magical tethers but it subsided as they saw that he was only using them to work the forge.

The apprentice blacksmiths all glared at Azi as they thought he was mocking them by showing off his own tools but that soon changed as Azi began to show his proficient style of work and keen focus as he cast the molten metal into ingot.

Their then eyes turned to saucers as Azi simultaneously worked on forming the casted blood steel ingots into proper shapes while also creating a new batch of blood steel.

Numerous tethers held hammers and tongs and shaped the hot metal ingot into shape, while others grabbed bags of ores and other materials that were then promptly mixed together and put into the furnace.

Azi turned over and hourglass to keep track of the time for heating and tempering the metal/

While the apprentices were stunned, they were not alone as everyone knew little of thaumaturge but they knew that the ability to do numerous tasks at once was a skill that was hard to learn. They marveled at the mental acuity of the young boy as even though he was working so many tasks at once, he was somehow still explaining his process as he worked.

He stated his findings of the magic conductivity of the metal and its properties that made it similar to refined steel. He left no secret to himself and shared his knowledge willingly as everyone's attention was now solely on him.

After an hour, Azi created a total of 15 blood steel ingots which was three times as fast as usual due to how large the forge was. After the ingots were cooled he, Ben, and Bail passed them to the audience and a few to the older blacksmiths at the back of the forge.

"As you inspect them, please watch as I demonstrate a piece of equipment made from this new metal. This will best show how you can use this metal and will display what it can do."

Donning the pair of new gauntlets he took from one of the displayed crates, Azi moved to the front of the forge. There was a small clearing that separated the audience and the forge since working in the forge is still dangerous as the sparks and heat from the forge would make normal people feel uncomfortable or could cause harm to those that are inexperienced.

Azi gauntlets were of a black and red color on the outside but under it was a layer of black leather made from beowolves. The gauntlets ran down from his fingertips and to the middle of his forearm. On each of his knuckles were white scaled kengiri pieces that had a rune adorning each of them.

Behind his knuckles where the flat of his fist was, is a small square indentation. Using one hand, Azi unfastened a black metallic square piece from his toolbelt. Showing it to the crowd he said that it was a piece of magically infused blood steel. The black metal pulsed with a faint red light from the red lines of magic channels in the metal.

He then placed it into the gaunlet's indentation which caused red, white, and blue lines of magic to glow as they spread from the blood steel to the white pieces on his gauntlet's knuckles.

Azi let out a sigh of relief as he was glad that all the runes were working as intended. The integrity of the kengiri carapaces pieces were holding for now but only his next few actions would tell if his equipment did as intended.

Doing the same with the other gauntlet, Azi warned everyone that he was going to perform a spell and they should brace themselves.

Balling his gauntleted hands into fists Azi brought them up to pound his two fists together.

*Boom Crash Boom*

The audience was startled by the sudden sound that they cried out in fear as they closed their eyes instinctively, but when they opened them they saw that Azi was not the source of that startling noise.