"Sir, it's done." Keira turned, holding the enchanted breastplate with both hands, and extended it to Karl.
The corners of her mouth involuntarily lifted, and a barely noticeable smile appeared in her eyes, awaiting approval.
See, Keira Metz is not just a pretty face playing at politics and charm.
She had worked hard and accumulated solid experience in studying and practicing traditional enchantments.
As far as she knew, Karl's study time at Ban Ard Academy was less than half a year.
Later, it seemed that for various reasons, his systematic academic education was interrupted, and he began to travel.
Even if he was exceptionally gifted and possessed astonishing combat power, when it came to enchanting—a craft requiring extensive knowledge, experience, and precise work—
in the short term, Karl definitely had shortcomings, but at least in terms of skill and stability, she considered herself quite capable.
Karl took the breastplate, his hand feeling its slight weight. He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the orange runes.
However, it was better not to look at it; upon closer inspection, compared to his own enchanting, the problems with Keira's work were as obvious to him as ink spots on a clean sheet of paper.
First, the rune carving, under his clairvoyance, infinitely magnified the details of these grooves.
The lines were indeed continuous, but far from "smooth," with pauses of varying depths at the cutting points.
The middle of long lines created fine, wavy variations due to insufficient wrist stability, with burrs at the turns instead of sharp edges...
Next was the mana infusion. The magic Keira filled was generally stable.
But in his perception, the flow of magic within the runes was not stable enough.
There were extremely fine, cyclic fluctuations, like undercurrents beneath a calm lake, difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
This fluctuation might be acceptable during ordinary attacks, but under strong, high-frequency impacts,
the probability of it causing resonant disruption in the magical circuits of the runes is very small, leading to...
Karl pursed his lips, and a slightly inappropriate but fitting word came to mind: "infantry self-destruction."
Keira saw Karl holding the breastplate, silent for a long time, just calmly looking, his brows almost slightly furrowed.
The small sense of pride and expectation in her heart began to cool, replaced by doubt and anxiety.
What happened? Could something have gone wrong? She had checked – the runic circuits were intact, and the magic activation was in order.
Karl finally looked up and glanced at Keira, whose expression next to him had shifted from expectation to anxiety.
His face showed almost no expression—neither praise nor reproach—and he spoke slowly: "Regarding the carving, the order of the runic lines needs improvement. Look here."
He tapped the middle of the breastplate with his fingertip—a certain long line.
"Uneven cutting force causes uneven depth at the bottom of the groove, affecting the optimal efficiency of the magical flow."
"And at this turning point, the knife work was not decisive enough, leaving a slight metal burr."
"This could become a point of stress concentration under strong deformation of the armor, increasing the risk of rune damage."
He pointed out every detail he noticed—from the smoothness of the carving to the fluidity of the lines and then the cleanliness of the joints...
Karl pointed out increasingly specific issues, even related ones, many of which Keira herself had never noticed.
More precisely, with her sensory abilities, when she couldn't notice any microscopic flaws, the slight smile on Keira's face completely disappeared.
She pursed her lips, her chest rising and falling slightly, her cheeks slightly flushed from focused listening and inner turmoil.
She had indeed put in a lot of effort, never lazy or formal.
She believed this enchanting was definitely a good piece of work, based on her previous skills.
But why, in Karl's opinion, had it become a problematic byproduct?
A mixture of grievance, defiance, and the anger of rejection quietly grew in her heart.
When Karl mentioned the third issue about the uniformity of the mana infusion, Keira finally couldn't hold back.
She looked up, stared directly at Karl, and her voice carried restrained grievance as she interrupted him: "Lord Karl!"
Karl paused his explanation and looked at Keira. What's wrong? Is she still upset?
Keira took a deep breath, trying to speak respectfully, but her doubt was already evident.
"Forgive my bluntness, but most of the issues you pointed out are..."
"In my opinion, more like consciously nitpicking about 'ideal details' that don't matter or don't affect the actual protection at all."
"Yes, perhaps someone can be so skilled as to carve a complete set of complex runes without stopping, and I admit you can do it. But..."
She paused, her voice rising slightly, stubbornly defending her skills: "Is there anyone who can keep their hands completely steady?"
"You can even perfectly control the waves at the bottom of the trench that are invisible to the naked eye?"
"This is no longer a skill, this is... a standard that simply cannot exist in reality."
"My enchanting may not be perfect, but it is absolutely effective and reliable!"
"It has reached a level of safe use, even better than the enchanted armor on the market at Aretuza!"
After she finished speaking, her chest rose and fell slightly as she awaited Karl's answer, her gaze burning with both challenge and a determination to risk everything.
She considered her doubts reasonable, and Karl's standards too unrealistic.
Karl looked at her, his face still expressionless, the corners of his mouth lifting almost imperceptibly, showing a hint of helplessness.
He admitted that using his inhuman senses and control to demand from Keira did feel like "dimension reduction bullying."
However, he had only wanted to point out areas for improvement, not to criticize Keira for her shortcomings.
But Keira's confidence, like "absolutely no one can do this," actually made him feel a little... amused.
"Oh?" Karl replied quietly, neither agreeing nor denying. He silently turned around, his figure flickered, and returned to his previous workbench.
He picked up another breastplate – a sample he had previously enchanted.
Then he returned to Keira, took a magnifying glass from the tool rack, and also handed it to her.
"Since you don't accept the issues I pointed out, and consider them excessive 'perfectionism,'"
"then the simplest way is to compare them yourself."
Keira was stunned, looking at the breastplate and magnifying glass enchanted by Karl that he had handed her.
The resentment and stubbornness in her heart were like a bucket of ice water poured over her, instantly cooling most of it.
Oh no! She had been impulsive! How could she forget? The man before her simply could not be judged by common sense.
He could fight the Spitfire Demon face-to-face with his physical body and even claimed to be a demigod. What she couldn't do didn't mean he couldn't either.