"It... hardly even looks like stone anymore."
Tetsu no Sosuke pursed his lips and sent Yuichiro, who had been watching the whole time, to the storeroom for a blade he had forged.
Yuichiro went at once and returned a moment later with a blade.
Yuichiro had made these blades for practice. Weapons like them no longer sold in this day and age, so they had been left in storage.
Give them a few decades, or perhaps a century, and they might sell as collectibles and benefit his descendants.
Tetsu no Sosuke drew the blade and looked from the stone in his hand to the steel. First, he laid the blade on the workbench.
Then he heated the stone again.
After repeated hammering, the Flame Stone could withstand intense heat. It took quite a while to turn completely red.
Tetsu no Sosuke took it out, set it against the flat of the blade, steadied it, and brought the Forging Hammer down.
Clang!
The instant his Forging Hammer struck, flames burst out from beneath it.
Yuichiro had been craning his neck to watch. Caught off guard, he got his hair set alight.
He stared in shock. "Master, it's on fire!"
Tetsu no Sosuke had taken the brunt of it. How could he not know?
Fortunately, the flames vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving him largely unharmed.
But the prompt that appeared was disheartening.
[Inlay failed!]
Not only was the Flame Stone ruined, but the blade was too.
Tetsu no Sosuke mourned the Flame Stone, though at least he had used one of the lowest grade.
Yuichiro mourned the blade he had forged. It had only been for practice, but he had made it with his own hands. Seeing it ruined still hurt.
Tetsu no Sosuke soon shook off his