"Grandpa would shame me for these swords…" Vivi said. She examined yesterday's work with mixed feelings. Mostly disappointment.

The first sword she managed to piece together was a single-runed steel longsword with strength runes on the hilt. The veins inside were simple with spike-like branches. The easiest and most basic branches that could be shaped—the types of branches Vivi crafted when she was nine years old. The sword wasn't pretty, but it was operational.

Selling something so poor hurt, but the sword was technically still an inside-carved runesword. Vivi had spent resources crafting it. For her business to stay alive, she needed to sell it for a profit. Thus, the sword was placed on display at the very bottom of her display rack as the cheapest sword her store had to sell.

The second sword was slightly better. It was still a single-runed steel sword, but the veins started to have more complex and efficient shapes. Vivi decided to make this one a swiftness sword in case someone wanted a lighter sword. She would have been ashamed to show the sword to Grandpa, but she accepted it with the excuse that she was still derusting.

Her third sword finally started to look like something she could consider selling as a bottom tier product. It was a two-runed red hardsteel shortsword with swiftness and sharpness runes. Minor mistakes still filled the veins due to Vivi's own errors. But the sword worked, and it did have two runes.

By the fourth sword, Vivi was so tired and disappointed that she had the urge to head to sleep, having already spent over twenty hours working, pushing through tiredness with ether. But of course, she had decided to finish her goal, to craft four swords for the store to open the next day.

The last sword was another two-runed messy greatsword with a Hank's pattern and a sloppily shaped second set of veins. Vivi was reluctant to spend resources to even finish it, but Lucius insisted that it would be sold, so Vivi forged it with a cheap steel ingot before finally heading to sleep.

"You have to remember that our competition is selling outside-carved junk," Lucius said. "These might not be good by your Grandpa's standards. But they're for sure better than whatever your average runesmithing store is pumping out. And we're a lot faster than traditional runesmiths as well."

"Yeah…" Vivi said. "But these won't beat the Vanhammers' Mauve Crown. Grandpa would never lose to any outside-carver."

"We have plenty of time to derust," Lucius said. "Once these swords sell, we can start buying better metals."

Vivi sighed. There was still so much work to do. Grandpa had been attempting six-runed swords. Vivi had to somehow catch up. Without his guidance, and without anyone to watch over her progress.

The door chime clinked, bringing Vivi out of her daydreams. She'd forgotten the smithy was technically open now. She jumped to her feet and headed over to greet whoever her first customers were.

Two men entered. Vivi recognized them from next door. She'd seen the two smoking pipes at the tavern's terrace. They'd often called out to her as she passed on the streets. Vivi had smiled at them awkwardly, but she hadn't yet talked to them.

Their boots were muddy. They stepped into the store as if they owned the place. The first tall man wore an amused grin and said, "So she built a goddamned runesmithing store. In the Lowmoor district. That's a new one. Fancy place."

The second man was shorter with a plump stomach. He moved to Vivi's sword display rack straight away, picking up the red hardsteel sword at the top of the display rack. He took a sloppy test swing. "How much for this one?"

"Uh, I'll sell that for five thousand ether," Vivi said. That was the price she and Lucius agreed on. Lucius wanted to sell it for more, but Vivi refused to ask for more than that for something so flawed. The sword only cost a little over two hundred ether in materials.

The plump man blinked at her, hearing the price. Then he laughed. "Five thousand ether? For a base sword without veins?"

"It's inside-carved, sir," Vivi said. And you have no idea how to swing a sword.

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"Isn't that like a myth?" the tall man asked. "Inside-carving?"

"If you two aren't buying anything, you're free to leave," Vivi said. "I have a lot of work to do."

"Now, now, don't be like that," the plump man said. He pulled out a pipe and began filling it with some powder. It smelled strongly of chemicals. "We're practically neighbors. We're here to congratulate a pretty lady on opening a business. Ain't that right, Wan?"

"Please don't smoke that indoors," Vivi said.

The man didn't listen. He pulled out a match from his pockets and lit it up. "You'd sell a lot more swords if you wore that dress of yours. Not that anyone in the Lowmoor district has any money for runeswords. Whatever your plan was, I'd say this was a questionable location to open a store like this."

"Sir," Vivi said. She grabbed the burning match from the man's hand and extinguished the flame under her grip. She frowned at him. "This place is a smithy. I didn't build it just for your amusement. Please behave yourself."

"Huh?" the tall man behind Vivi asked. He was also loading a pipe and approaching her. He grabbed her from the shoulder. "A lady like yourself isn't—"

Vivi pushed out her full aura, filling the room with misty ether. Her eyes glowed.

The tall man fell on his back, pipe dropping off of his hands. He stared up at Vivi in horror for a second before scrambling to his feet. He tsked, picked up his pipe, tried to scrape the fallen powder, only smudging more of it on the carpet, then they walked out of the door.

Vivi slowly let her aura calm down. She took deep breaths.

She picked up her broom and began cleaning the dirt, mud and weird powder from the men's pipes.

"Well…" Lucius said. "Interesting first customers. Every city has their idiots, I guess."

"Such a pain…" Vivi said. "They'll probably spread rumors now."

"I doubt the word of two junkies will make much of an impression," Lucius said. "We might need some outside advertising. I doubt anyone rich will randomly stumble by our store without already knowing our names."

"Yes," Vivi said. "I need to get to work. But if we keep our doors open, I might get distracted in the middle of a job. Running this place alone will be difficult."

"You're not alone," Lucius said. "I can easily handle thieves and customers. I am one of the best sales geniuses you will meet." He took a proud pose and grinned.

"You would need to reveal yourself," Vivi said.

"We're not in Zand anymore," Lucius said. "There's no reason to hide me anymore. It'll be useful for sales if I'm allowed to move freely. I can sell swords to customers and deter thieves while you work in peace. I should be able to add ether to the roots while working with customers."

"That… is actually a decent idea," Vivi said.

Lucius grinned proudly. "From now on, what if I greet customers? You can keep practicing, and I'll make sure our swords get sold."

"Yes…" Vivi said. "Let's do that. Just don't stab anyone please. Deter thieves peacefully."

"Of course, of course," Lucius said. "Let's get to work."

***

As the hours passed, Vivi's touch for runesmithing slowly returned. Vein-shaping, her looping technique, branch efficiency, symmetry—they all began sounding like familiar terms again.

She didn't try to craft three-runed swords yet. Instead, she shaped plant roots, performing rudimentary exercises. Vine roots were ideal for practicing. They were cheap to buy and initiate. Practicing with them was practically free. Additionally, they were agile and unpredictable to control. Performing vein-shaping techniques on plant roots was impossibly difficult, which made them great to practice on.

After a few hours, Vivi managed to shape straight stalks and decent branches with the vine roots. She even tried to shape loops with the vines. She had a success rate of one in three attempts, which wasn't good, but Vivi felt herself quickly improving.

Lucius, on the shop's side, wasn't nearly as excited. The door chime had clinked a few times in the last hours. Both times, it was immediately clear that the customers had not come in to buy runeswords. The store received more junkies, a few suspicious hooded men. The only non-problematic customer was a housewife coming in to check out the store due to the pretty paintings on the walls.

"Vivi, this isn't working…" Lucius said.

"You seem to be doing well," Vivi said. "Nothing has been stolen. You've deterred thieves well."

"Stores aren't just about deterring thieves, Vivi," Lucius said. "We haven't sold a single sword."

Vivi stretched. She'd been practicing with vine roots for several hours now. Her fingers were getting tired. She was confident she could craft a top-notch two-runed sword tomorrow.

"We don't have any good swords anyway," Vivi said. "I'm more concerned about when the first rotten tomatoes will be thrown at our walls. Those were quite common back in Fellwater."

Lucius's eyes opened wide. "We won't have to protect the outer walls as well, will we?"

Vivi shrugged. "Tomatoes aren't too bad. They won't bother me while I work."

"Vivi…" Lucius said with a concerned expression.

The door chime clinked again. Lucius went into stance, as if expecting to fight off another invader.

The customer opened the door. A bulky demon with a rough face entered. He lowered his head and tilted his body sideways to fit through the door. The huge demon wore a vest fit for battle with scars on his face. A scabbard was strapped to his belt, and the hilt of a sword poked out, lined with unprotected runes. Slash-marks crossed a few of the runes, making them inoperational. The runesword looked to be broken.

"The Lost Raindrop…?" the demon said with an amused smile. "A runesmithing store? In the Lowmoor district?"

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