The weapons I forge are absolutely flawless.

She hadn't seen Venere for at least a week since that night.

If it weren't for the fact that Wiener would ask her with her student card every night what materials she had received, she would have thought that Wiener had left the college again.

However, Jessica came over the day before yesterday to say hello to Anna, saying that she was going out on a mission.

Judging from the amount of supplies she purchased before leaving, she might not be able to return for a month or two.

“Vina is too ashamed to show his face,” Felix said without hiding it.

To help Lisette better consolidate her strength, the price Venere paid was undeniably heavy. Even with the recovery ability of a Herald user, she was still beaten until she looked like a fathead fish.

However, there were some positive effects; at least after seeing Venus transformed into Anna, Lisette no longer reacted excessively.

"Too ashamed to show your face?" Anna asked, puzzled.

With a skin as thick as Vena's, is there anything that could make him feel embarrassed?

“Hmm,” Felix nodded, then looked at Anna expectantly as if he had remembered something, “By the way, could I see Senbonzakura?”

"It's okay, that's fine."

Anna pondered for a moment, then took the Senbonzakura from her ring, but suddenly withdrew it as she handed it to Felix.

"But you have to tell me what happened. And why did you suddenly want to see Senbonzakura?"

“It’s all the same thing!” Felix was instantly relieved.

He thought Anna was going to make some special demands.

“When Viner reported to his master last week, he gave a detailed account of how he saved the damsel in distress.”

How detailed?

Anna suddenly became curious about how Venere talked about himself.

“Very expressive,” Felix replied, then seemed to feel his answer wasn’t complete enough, “to play it repeatedly on the projector.”

"Stop for a moment."

Now it was Anna's turn to feel embarrassed.

A teacher for a day is a teacher for life.

Viner could have glossed over the story, but he made a point of recounting this experience in detail to Tilisa, which Anna saw as no different from announcing it to an elder.

She had never been this embarrassed, not even when introducing Venus to her father.

After preparing herself mentally, Anna continued, "So what does this have to do with Viner being too ashamed to go out?"

"Because Lisette was also there."

The answer is obvious.

"So Lisette is angry?"

Anna never expected Vina to be so bold.

To openly announce that he's doing the splits in front of his girlfriend—that's just too much—too exciting!

"He wasn't just angry, he was practically drowning in vinegar."

"And then?"

To get Felix to continue, Anna deliberately slipped the Senbonzakura (a type of cherry blossom) into Felix's hand.

"And then I forgave him."

Anna: "?"

She wanted Felix to speak faster, but was it really necessary to jump straight to the ending?

Having just acquired a new toy, Felix clearly lost interest in continuing the story. Taking advantage of Anna's brief moment of distraction, he had already taken Senbonzakura out to test his sword.

"This...sigh." Anna didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

She was naturally very happy to learn about the efforts that Wiener had made behind the scenes through this channel.

But this abrupt and incomplete narrative is truly laughable.

She could only start doing the math.

Literally, it means settling accounts.

The ore purchased by Wiener must be calculated at market price and reported to the Black Eagles Class for settlement.

If the report isn't submitted by the time the holiday starts, it will be another mess next year.

The clothes and decorations that Felix chose would be calculated at 80% of the cost price, as Anna had promised Felix.

I just hope that Felix will have a great time and remember to come back and finish the story.

Just as Anna finished settling the accounts, Felix returned from outside, his face visibly dejected.

The images are all deceptive; Senbonzakura can't transform into wings of light, let alone fly.

This result made the Demon Blade Thousand Blades, who had been nagged about for a week, feel triumphant.

In fact, not only him, but even Viner himself couldn't replicate it, unless Anna paid for the enormous magic energy consumption for him.

"Hmm, I still can't conjure those wings of light... Thank you."

Although somewhat disappointed, Felix politely returned the sword.

"hehe."

Anna's lips curled slightly, clearly recalling something.

She possesses a special image-recording magic device that captured the incredibly romantic sword strike she witnessed, and she must review it every night before falling asleep.

How many credits are there in total?

Felix noticed that Anna had taken advantage of his absence to pack up all the things she had chosen.

"That's 150 in total... I'll just take 100 from you."

In a great mood, Anna rounded down Felix's score to zero.

Felix took out his student card and handed it to Anna to pay the bill.

“But you really should thank Vena,” Felix suddenly said. “Vena made a huge sacrifice to get Lisette to accept you.”

"Are you serious?"

Anna, who was about to make the payment, stopped what she was doing.

He must have put in a lot of effort to get Lisette to tolerate his interference.

"Of course it's true!"

If that weren't the case, someone would be more than just a fathead fish.

Chapter 453 Edelweiss

"Bang bang——"

The door to the Black Eagles' presiding officer's office was being knocked on rhythmically.

"Please come in."

Sunlight streamed through the blinds, falling on Adele's silver hair and softening her serious expression.

She frowned slightly, seemingly preoccupied with the documents in front of her.

The door was slowly pushed open, and Schuster stepped into the office. He quickly stepped forward and reported, "Your Highness, the Valentin Chamber of Commerce has sent over a bill, which states that it is for Vina's expenses this month."

Upon hearing the name, Adele visibly paused.

She stopped writing with her quill pen, looked up at Schuster, and a hint of curiosity flashed in her purple eyes.

"Just tell me how much he spent."

Edel had long ago promised Viner that all the forging material expenses during his time at the academy would be covered by the Black Eagles Class.

But Wiener seemed unwilling to be indebted and rarely exercised this right.

Last month, I only used a little over 600 credits, which is close to the stipend enjoyed by ordinary members of the Black Eagles class.

Schuster opened the bill, his gaze lingering briefly on the numbers before he announced, "Seventeen hundred credits."

It seems almost three times the price, but when you think about the cost of a master-level blacksmith, it doesn't seem expensive at all.

"Is that all?" Adeline was slightly disappointed.

A branch of study with this level of funding wouldn't even be worthy of her desk if it weren't for the fact that it carries the name of Wiener.

Even the budget she just signed was in units of tens of thousands.

This promise was essentially just another way of saying it, to get Wiener to accept his investment.

Edel wished he would spend more money on her, ideally becoming his sugar daddy to the point of being inseparable from the Empire.

“Vina bought some rare materials, not a large quantity, so the cost wasn’t high.” Schuster continued flipping through the list, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat strange. “Hmm?”

"Is there a problem?" Edel noticed Schuster's unusual behavior.

"Uh, some clothes were mixed into this bill."

This was naturally Anna's doing; she waived Felix's bill and then immediately put it on the Black Eagles' bill.

"There are only so many credits in total, what's wrong with having more clothes?" Adele clearly didn't care much. "It's almost the New Year, it's normal to have a few more clothes."

"Since Vena likes it, write down the style and design of the clothes, and order a few more sets to send to him."

“...But a lot of these are women’s clothing,” Schuster hesitated, “and some of them are rather unladylike.”

Adele silently accepted the bill, her slender fingers gliding lightly across the pages until she found what Schuster had mentioned.

Although she didn't care about the credits, she felt a little uncomfortable when she thought about how Venere was using Black Eagles' class funds to buy clothes for other girls.

Schuster noticed Edel's confusion and gently reminded her, "Your Highness, the more skilled the craftsman, the more likely they are to have some special habits and hobbies."

"This will become their source of inspiration and a way for them to relieve stress."

"It's probably no exception that Wiener has reached such a level at such a young age."

Where there are cross-dressing alchemists, there will naturally be cross-dressing blacksmiths.

As long as the work is good enough, no one will care how it was made.

Hearing Schuster's words, Edel's worries seemed to be relieved a little.

"You mean, these things are really all necessities for Wiener's forging?"

Of course, there is another explanation: Anna added these clothes on her own initiative.

The idea had barely crossed Adele's mind when she quickly rejected it.

That's Miss Anna. Even a transaction involving tens of thousands of credits wouldn't sway her, so how could she possibly resort to fraud for a mere few hundred credits?

“Very likely,” Schuster nodded firmly. “After all, none of us witnessed Vener's forging process firsthand. If he did indeed have some special rituals that could enhance the quality of his work, it wouldn't be surprising.”

Edel closed her eyes, trying to visualize the scene: Venus bathing and changing, getting herself into peak condition. Then, before the forge, she ritually donned those clothes.

“He really…sacrificed so much.” Adele’s voice was full of emotion.

She felt that she could no longer simply appreciate the works of master craftsmen as she used to.

Only respect.

“The fact that Wiener is willing to reveal such a private matter to us shows that he has a great deal of trust in us,” Schuster advised in a low voice.

"Perhaps we can take this opportunity to get closer to him."

“You’re right,” Adele’s expression hardened, and the bill in her hand suddenly burst into flames, turning to ashes that fell onto the table. “This matter must be kept strictly confidential; no third person is allowed to know.”

“As for this expense,” Adele continued, “it will be deducted from my personal account.”

Schuster stood up and bowed slightly. "Yes, Your Excellency."

-----------------

After learning about Vina's planned itinerary, Tissa decided to give the three of them an early vacation.

"Isn't this against the rules?" Wiener asked doubtfully.