Both Runa and Mika stood there staring at the runestone that Ryan had placed on the heavy wooden table of the workshop.

Mika, with her usual alchemist’s curiosity, was the first to take a step forward and pick the object up in her gloved hands.

She turned it slowly under the lamplight, analyzing the crystalline structure and the complex mana lines engraved on its surface.

"There is no doubt, it is a minor communication relic." Mika said, looking up at Runa as if to give her the technical confirmation of her discovery.

"Minor?" Ryan asked, crossing his arms while leaning relaxedly near the workshop door.

"Yes." Runa stepped closer to get a better look at the stone, and Mika handed it to her with the utmost care.

The dwarf raised it to eye level, narrowing her eyes to study the depth of the engravings and the purity of the material used by some human blacksmith from Kalistia.

"Basically, there are two types of them." Runa began to explain, adopting her tone of a master blacksmith.

"This is a minor communication relic. Its core focuses on maintaining a constant but short-range flow of mana, which makes it ideal for prolonged use within the limits of a single city or a large military camp."

She lowered her hand and left the relic on the table.

"And then there is the superior communication relic, whose core is immensely denser." Runa continued.

"That one is used exclusively to communicate over long distances, such as between different kingdoms or borders. Both are ridiculously expensive pieces of magical engineering. In fact, it is illegal to own them. Well, at least common citizens, merchants, and low-rank adventurers are not allowed to carry one under any circumstances."

She made a gesture of disdain with her hands, recalling the strict laws of the human nations.

"It’s not like a normal civilian earns enough gold in their entire miserable life to buy one of these things on the black market, either." Runa added.

"I understand." Ryan said, processing the information and pointing at the relic on the table with a nod of his head.

"Then, getting to the point that interests us, can you replicate these relics? Now that you have the original physical model to study it, it should be much easier, shouldn’t it?"

Runa and Mika exchanged glances for a second. A spark of defiance shone in both of their eyes, and then they looked at Ryan with absolute confidence.

"Of course. Leave it in our hands, Ryan. I will take this piece of junk apart and make an exact copy." Runa said, thumping her chest with pride.

"I will help her stabilize the mana circuits, Your Majesty. I am sure that you will be completely pleased with our work." Mika added with a slight bow.

Ryan brought his fingers to his chin, thinking in silence for a few seconds before giving the definitive order.

Copying the stone was a good step forward, but carrying around a runic brick didn’t fit his combat style, nor the type of intelligence network he planned to set up across the continent.

"Hmm... about that." Ryan interjected, changing his tone to a much more direct one.

"The current shape of the relic is way too cumbersome. If we are going to use them, I need something more... how should I say it, practical."

"Practical, Your Majesty?" Mika asked, tilting her head, somewhat confused by the term. "What exactly do you mean?"

"Yes, I want you to redesign the entire concept." Ryan explained with total naturalness.

"I want you to make the relics function with the exact same power, but in the shape of small earrings."

Ryan touched his earlobe with his index finger, indicating the size and exact location so they could see it clearly.

"They have to be subtle accessories that go completely unnoticed by the public, and keep the receiver directly near the ear at all times."

Ryan continued. "That way, we will always have active communication, keeping our hands free and passing entirely unnoticed; it will feel as if we were using the telepathy that demons share with their dragons."

Mika opened her eyes wide in absolute disbelief at the sheer magnitude of the requested redesign.

"But... Your Majesty... making them so small and compressing the runic core to that level of scale, I don’t think that is possib..."

"Enough, Mika." Runa said abruptly, cutting off the alchemist’s words.

The blacksmith didn’t look frightened by the request; on the contrary, a massive and fierce smile formed upon her face.

"We are going to do it." Runa said with an intense fire burning in her gaze, tightly clenching her right fist in front of her chest.

"This is exactly the kind of absurd challenge I always hoped to have in my own forge."

Mirian, who had been listening to the entire conversation in silence leaning right next to Ryan, let out a light sigh and shook her head.

"You’re always asking for things that border on the impossible, huh." She pronounced with a half smile.

"He is demanding like that all the time." Helen added from behind, peeking over Ryan’s shoulder.

Ryan ignored his heroines’ complaints and stared intently at his artisans.

"I am only asking this because I have immense trust in your abilities." Ryan said, using a sincere and highly persuasive tone.

"I know how incredibly talented both of you are. It would be a complete waste not to take full advantage of those amazing qualities that Runa and Mika possess in this village."

At Ryan’s sudden words of direct praise, both girls, who weren’t used to receiving that kind of recognition in their past lives, blushed slightly, averting their gazes toward the table.

"A-alright. Count on it, Ryan." Runa said roughly, attempting to hide her embarrassment by rubbing her coal-stained nose.

Then Mika intervened quickly to shift the focus of attention.

"Your Majesty, assuming we achieve the earring design, how many relics are you going to want for the first batch?"

Ryan did a quick mental calculation.

’I know it must be complicated to make them from scratch with an experimental design. I don’t want to demand so much work from them all at once that they fail and their morale drops, either. For now, having two would satisfy me... No, if I think about it carefully, I need at least three to cover the most urgent bases.’

"For now, I want three of those relics." Ryan replied.

"Three?" Helen asked with curiosity, taking a step forward. "Ah, I see. One for you, and one for me and Mirian?"

Ryan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye with absolute strangeness, as if the warrior had just uttered pure nonsense.

"Of course not." Ryan rejected instantly. "Giving those communicators to you two wouldn’t be efficient at all."

"Huh? Then who will use them?" Mirian asked, furrowing her brow with a certain amount of intrigue.

"I will use one, obviously." Ryan explained, listing them off on his fingers to make his chain of command clear.

"And the other two will be assigned to Beatrice and to Alicia."

"That’s not fair!" Helen complained out loud, throwing a childish tantrum right in the middle of the workshop.

"It seems Ryan already has his favorites." Mirian added.

"Stop making unnecessary drama." Ryan silenced them coldly.

"Anyway, setting the distribution aside." Ryan concluded, returning his full attention to the artisans. "Runa, Mika. When do you think you can have them ready?"