All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 235: What Metal Remembers

The first forge bracket reached the mine road before sunset, where workers bolted it across a timber brace that had shifted twice that week.

Hajin returned after Marrick closed the wage line, finding the eastern worksite cleared except for Ferra and one covered lantern beside the anvil.

The repaired bellows sat idle while charcoal settled inside the furnace, leaving the ceramic basin warm beneath its new clamps.

Ferra had placed the apex core inside a shallow iron cradle, with four tools arranged near it and a local steel billet waiting on the anvil.

"You sent the workers home," Hajin said, stopping outside the marked heat line.

"The test may break the basin," she said, checking the cradle with one finger, "so I kept the people who cannot survive it away."

Marrick emerged from behind a stack of empty charcoal baskets with a ledger pressed against his coat.

"She kept me," he said, looking at the core, "though I explained that the forge inventory can be recorded tomorrow."

"You refused to leave the ledger," Ferra said, picking up a narrow chisel, "so stand behind the barrier and stop breathing over my tools."

Hajin summoned one Ring around his right wrist, spreading Aegis between the test area and the stacked fuel.

The barrier curved around Ferra without covering the furnace mouth, giving her room to move while containing anything thrown toward Marrick.

"Tell me before you need more," Hajin said.

"Hold that shape and keep your mana away from the metal," she replied, setting the chisel against a dark ridge on the core, "I need containment, not help."

Her first strike produced a copper spark without marking the surface, while the second knocked a grain-sized fragment into the cradle.

Purple lines spread across the iron beneath it, stopping only after Ferra trapped the fragment under the flat end of her hammer.

"That is all you are using?" Hajin asked.

"That amount can still split the billet," she said, lifting the fragment with iron tongs, "and if it fails, the rest stays inside the crate."

Ferra fed two charcoal baskets into the furnace, then repaired the pressure by moving both bellows handles herself.

The steel billet entered the center of the fire while she released a thin stream of copper flame along its upper face.

Hajin felt the test through their bond as the billet heated, each weak point reaching Ferra as a brief pressure behind his ribs.

The steel became orange before she removed it, placed the fragment against its center and folded the billet with one hammer strike.

Purple light ran through the seam, forcing Ferra to strike again before the fragment could push back toward the surface.

"Pressure is climbing beneath the fold," Hajin said, tightening Aegis around the anvil.

"Keep it around us," she said, raising the hammer, "but do not put your mana into the billet."

He watched the seam widen during her third strike, then pushed a narrow thread of golden mana toward the fracture out of habit.

Ferra stopped the hammer above the anvil and said, "Pull it back."

"The seam is opening," he said, keeping the thread near the steel.

"Your mana will close it before I see why it opened," she replied, lowering the hammer without striking, "so pull it back or end the test."

Hajin withdrew the thread, leaving only the barrier around the work area while the crack spread across the billet.

Ferra struck beside the seam instead of over it, exposing a web of purple lines running through the local steel.

The billet split along those lines, sending one half into Aegis while the other stayed beneath her hammer.

Marrick ducked behind his ledger before realizing the broken metal had stopped several feet from him.

"Weapon test failed," he said, peering around the barrier, "should I record the billet as destroyed?"

"Not yet," Ferra said, lowering the hammer as the purple lines faded, "bring the small scale from the tool shelf."

Marrick found the balance scale, then carried it around the safe path Hajin had left beside Aegis.

Ferra placed both halves onto its tray and scraped dark residue from the fracture with her chisel.

"The core did not mix with the steel," Hajin said, studying the clean outer surface against the corrupted interior.

"It mixed, then rebuilt the same channels it carried before," she replied, tapping the purple web, "the fragment keeps its corruption pattern after melting."

"Can you remove the pattern?" he asked.

"Not with this furnace or this steel," Ferra said, weighing the darker half, "but the failed alloy held its shape longer than the unaltered billet."

She returned both pieces to the furnace at lower heat, then flattened them into two narrow plates without folding the metal again.

The purple lines remained trapped near the center, though neither plate fractured when Ferra bent one across the anvil edge.

Hajin released the outer curve of Aegis, keeping one layer between Marrick and the cooling plates.

"It cannot take an edge," he said.

"Then we use it for heat-resistant fittings," Ferra replied, handing him the bent plate with her tongs, "put it where heat keeps breaking ordinary iron."

The plate carried warmth through his glove, but the corrupted channel stayed fixed beneath its surface instead of spreading toward his hand.

Marrick opened a clean page and asked, "Where do we need it first?"

"Bellows collars," Hajin said, looking at the repaired pipe joint, "then locking plates for the furnace clamps if the first set holds."

Ferra nodded before cutting the second plate into four strips sized to wrap around the failed joint.

"I can make eight collars from one billet," she said, checking the first strip against the pipe, "but every batch needs a fragment this small and the core must stay outside the furnace."

"How much charcoal?" Marrick asked.

"Six baskets per billet until the draft improves," she replied, tightening the strip around the joint, "and no worker handles the residue without iron tools."

Marrick wrote the restrictions before calculating the remaining fuel, his lips moving as the numbers crossed the page.

"Four billets before we cut into tomorrow’s nail production," he said, turning the ledger toward Hajin, "which gives us thirty-two collars if none fail."

"Make two billets," Hajin said, letting the Ring fade from his wrist, "then use the remaining charcoal for the mine-road order."

Ferra looked at him before asking, "You do not want another weapon test?"

"Not until we have steel that can survive the first one," he said, setting the plate beside her tools, "you told me what the material can do, so we use that."

Warmth crossed the cold bond inside his core, remaining after the furnace settled and the last purple trace disappeared from the anvil.

[ Ferra Compatibility: 69% → 70% ]

Ferra watched his eyes shift toward the unseen screen, then handed Marrick the first finished collar.

"Record it as usable," she said, returning the apex fragment to its cradle, "we learned how much of the core this steel can hold."