I made up magic and taught a world-destroying witch?

The shop was a mess. In the middle, a mechanical device was placed on a large wooden table. Several local merchants and members of the Dwarf Merchant Guild were divided into two groups around the wooden table.

A young man in a gray apron standing next to a local businessman said:

"Your Dwarf Merchant Guild always boasted that this low-magic axle could drive a small mechanical forging hammer in a magic decay environment, right?"

Another person chimed in:

"They said they could make the forging hammer work continuously for half a day without needing a stabilizing magic furnace."

"And what happened? It broke the day before the presentation."

"The outdoor exhibition area at the Municipal Square is almost ready, and everyone is waiting."

"And they blame us for the poor installation."

The faces of the people from the Dwarf Merchant Guild turned even uglier. The man wearing goggles gritted his teeth and said:

"The device itself is not faulty. It's because you didn't calibrate the magic buffer plate according to the steps during the initial trial installation, which caused the secondary wheel axle to be misaligned under pressure."

"Nonsense!" the bearded merchant slammed his fist on the table.

  

"That thing was unstable when it arrived! Where's your craftsman in charge of testing it? Get him out here and talk to us! He's dead after this happened, and now you're blaming us for everything?"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the people from the Dwarf Merchant Guild changed.

The man in goggles said curtly, "Mr. Buck is only temporarily out of contact."

"Can't get in touch for now?" the bearded merchant scoffed.

"The day before the exhibition, the person in charge of debugging couldn't be contacted, and the equipment broke down. Your Dwarf Merchant Guild really knows how to pick your timing."

"That's why we went to Taylor's blacksmith shop for temporary repairs."

The man in goggles, suppressing his anger, said:

"Miss Penny said that Taylor's Blacksmith Shop is one of the few blacksmith shops that can handle both magical scrap and traditional forging structures at the same time."

The Chamber of Commerce is willing to pay a substantial repair fee, provided Mr. Taylor can restore the equipment to basic operation before tomorrow's exhibition.

"A large sum?"

The bearded merchant sneered, "Is it about money now? How many people will be coming to watch outside the Ministry of Works Square tomorrow?"

Several guilds in the city have also sent invitations. If your chamber of commerce can't use the axles by tomorrow, who will buy my batch of matching forging hammers?

The man in the goggles looked even darker.

Joseph stood at the door and had roughly understood what he had heard.

It seems the Dwarf Merchant Guild brought a low-magic axle to power a small mechanical forging hammer, which they planned to display outside the Ministry of Works Square. The local merchants were likely either buying it as part of a forging hammer set or looking to sell something else.

The day before the demonstration, the device broke down, and the person in charge of debugging it went missing. Now both sides are blaming each other, and in the end, they carried the device to the entrance of Taylor's blacksmith shop.

Joseph suddenly felt that this sounded familiar, like when a supplier said that a customer did not configure the environment according to the instructions, the customer said that the supplier's delivered documentation was written like a prehistoric mural, the project manager asked where the developer was, and the developer said that he had resigned yesterday.

Different worlds, but the same suffering.

"Where is Mr. Taylor?" the bearded merchant shouted, looking around. "Doesn't this shop have a sign that says 'Taylor Blacksmith's Shop'? Where is he?"

The young apprentices in the shop looked at each other, and one of them, a short one, timidly said:

"My master is in the capital. The valve of an old magic furnace cracked. Someone came to ask him to go there yesterday. He might not be back until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" The bearded merchant nearly twisted his beard in anger. "The demonstration is tomorrow!"

The short apprentice shrank back, too afraid to reply, after being yelled at.

The man in goggles also looked unwell, but he was clearly more anxious than the bearded businessman, so he could only bite the bullet and say:

"We can try disassembling and inspecting it first. We just need to confirm whether the connection between the secondary wheel axle, the buffer plate, and the low-magic crystal core is completely broken."

"Try it?" The young man in the gray apron chuckled immediately.

"This is a low-magic axle from the Dwarf Merchant Guild, not for fixing a student's broken broom."

Several local blacksmiths who had gathered around after hearing the argument also started laughing.

"Taylor's branch has only been open for a few days. The stove probably hasn't even been heated up yet."

"If the Dwarf Merchant Guild's things are repaired to an even worse state, Gray Iron Alley will be quite a scene in the future."

"But the Taylor family has always been daring, am I right?"

Mia frowned as soon as she entered the room. The young blacksmith saw her too, and his smile widened.

"Hey, isn't this Mia Taylor?"

All eyes immediately turned to him.

Joseph, standing behind Mia, also turned to look at the young man.

The man was probably in his early twenties, with thick arms. His apron was covered in iron filings and charcoal ash, suggesting he was either an apprentice at a nearby blacksmith shop or a young blacksmith already capable of working independently.

He saw Joseph standing behind Mia and paused for a moment, probably because Joseph's attire didn't seem like that of a local from Grey Iron Alley. But he quickly turned his attention back to Mia.

For him, who this young man was could wait; mocking Mia was more important.

"I heard you went to the Royal Academy?" He glanced at the door casually. "What, you got sent back again?"

Mia's face gradually darkened as she held Chaohua in her arms.

"Karl, shut up."

"Did I say something wrong?" The young man named Carl spread his hands innocently and said, "Who doesn't know that fiery daughter of the Taylor family? She was expelled from the academy after only a few days."

Oh dear, I thought the Royal Academy was so powerful, but it turns out they're afraid of being set on fire by you.

Someone nearby chuckled softly. Karl seemed encouraged and deliberately glanced at the people from the Dwarf Merchant Guild.

"Even his daughter was sent back from the academy, how dare he touch the Dwarf Merchant Guild's stuff?"

"Isn't the Dwarf Merchant Guild giving the Taylor family way too much credit?"

Mia's face gradually turned red.

She can tolerate people saying she's angry, and she can tolerate people saying she dropped out of school, because it's all true.

Although it sounds awful, she had heard it many times before, and after hearing it so many times, it seemed to become just so-so.

But she couldn't stand people saying in front of so many people that her father's shop wasn't qualified to repair things. Her family's hammers had never stolen materials, nor had they sold broken things as good ones.

When she was a child, she sat by the furnace and watched her father straighten a crooked piece of iron with his hammer. Her arms went numb from watching, but she never saw her father slack off on a single piece of work.

What makes Karl say that?

"I wasn't sent back to the academy!" Mia shouted.

"Then what are you doing here?"

Joseph immediately sensed something was wrong.

He was about to speak, trying to gloss over the matter by saying he was just passing by, hoping to avoid having his name mentioned at the scene of the dispute, but before he could say anything, Mia spoke first.

"I'm Mr. Grantham's student now! Today I'm doing an off-campus training with him, not being expelled!"

Joseph: "..."

What kind of off-campus training is this? It's like fate randomly handing out a troublesome gift package.

"Mr. Grantham?"

Carl paused for a moment. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

Mia continued:

"Mr. Joseph Grantham, a professor at the Royal Academy, a certified Archmage of the Magical Association, and also the head of the New Magic Revival Project!"

The shop suddenly fell silent. The man with goggles looked up first, the bearded merchant paused for a moment, and several local blacksmiths slowly turned to look at the young man standing at the door.