"Don't start crying just yet, Alice."
Seeing that she was on the verge of tears of joy, Greg interrupted her gathering emotional outburst at just the right moment.
"There's an even bigger surprise coming."
He took a small cloth pouch from inside his clothes, then, under Alice's curious gaze, drew out a strand of thread that shimmered with a pale golden sheen beneath the dim lamplight.
The thread was as fine as a hair, yet it had a metallic luster, with a soft halo of light playing across it.
It looked light and fragile, but when Greg gave it a hard tug, it didn't budge, displaying an astonishing toughness completely at odds with its appearance.
"What's this...?" Alice's eyes instantly lit up.
As a researcher, she had an instinctive sensitivity to and curiosity about new materials.
"Golden glow spider silk."
Greg held the thread out to her.
"It's an extremely precious material I discovered. It's far tougher than steel, yet weighs less than a tenth as much as steel wire of the same thickness. And most importantly-"
He paused, watching Alice's eyes gradually widen, then said slowly, "It has exceptional affinity for and conductivity of magic power. In other words, it's also an ideal material for making high-grade magic devices."
Alice carefully accepted the strand of golden glow spider silk, gently rubbing its surface with her fingertips.
Her breathing quickened, and her icy violet eyes shone with the feverish excitement of a researcher who had discovered a treasure.
"Th-this material... I've never seen anything like it before..."
Her voice trembled with excitement.
"Its structure, its sheen, its texture... this is definitely an entirely new, undocumented material!"
"Exactly."
Greg took a folded blueprint from inside his clothes and spread it out on the laboratory bench.
Pointing to the core component on