Once he had memorized the sequence, he rearranged it according to the score, with Kanae helping him.
When he pressed the final note, the box clicked.
A narrow gap opened without a sound.
Kanae couldn't help smiling. "That's fascinating."
Tetsu no Sosuke sighed. "Whoever made this box was incredible."
Making a box like this took far more than an understanding of music.
From the outside, the box showed no seams. Its maker's command of precision had reached the absolute limit.
The mechanism inside had to be extraordinarily exact, able to distinguish the faintest changes in sound and open the box the moment it heard the correct sequence.
That touched on even deeper mysteries of the Mechanism Arts.
How could someone build such a mechanism inside a box with so little room?
Tetsu no Sosuke knew a thing or two about the Mechanism Arts himself, but he could only admit defeat.
When he came back to himself, he found Kanae and Yuichiro watching him, both plainly eager to see what was inside.
Tetsu no Sosuke chuckled. "You can just open it yourselves."
"We were waiting for you," Kanae said.
Tetsu no Sosuke nodded and gently opened the box.
There wasn't much room inside. Evidently, the mechanism took up most of it.
At the very center was a space about three inches long, where half a blade lay quietly.
The anticipation on all three faces turned to confusion.
"Just... this?" Yuichiro could hardly accept it. He and his teacher had gone through so much trouble and suffered so much, only to end up with... half a blade?
Kanae said nothing. She looked at Tetsu no Sosuke.
Tetsu no Sosuke gripped the spine of the blade and examined it closely.
The blade hadn't been broken. Only this much had been forged from the