As he walked into the shop, he remembered the sword Gallion had forged for him. The sword was named Graham, and it was the best sword Zeke could ever have asked for. It was potent enough to replace the use of aura with ether.
Now that Zeke had arrived at the blacksmith's shop, he was disappointed to find the man wallowing in a drunken state. Gallion was shocked when he saw a teenager entering his forge, and he urged Zeke to leave, saying the place was not meant for children.
Zeke was shocked to see Gallion like this, because he had never known him to be temperamental. It told Zeke that there were things that had happened before he ever met him. Zeke decided to do things his own way by grabbing a bucket of water and pouring it over Gallion to get him out of the sorry state he was sitting in.
Once Gallion was in a clear state of mind, Zeke walked up to him and asked him why he had declined his offer of a job. Gallion was a little confused about what was going on, until he noticed the insignia on Zeke's glove, which clearly showed that he was a Draegar. He immediately bowed his head, apologising to Zeke for being such a rude man.
Gallion then revealed that he was not taking orders at the moment, because he could not even make what he wanted for himself, so he did not see how he could make what others wanted. That was when it dawned on Zeke that even Gallion had once gone through depression. Zeke remembered the time when he had first met Gallion. He had already been the greatest blacksmith on the continent by then, and he had never told Zeke what kind of life he had led before that.
Zeke worked out that Gallion had obviously not wanted to share his past because of how embarrassing it was. However, Zeke did not think he could wait around for Gallion to come around on his own. Just then, Zeke told Gallion that he would like to see some of these works he was calling failures. Gallion led Zeke to the back of the forge, where a number of swords were lying around.
Zeke commended him, telling him that the swords looked good. Zeke picked one of them up, and Gallion urged him to be careful, saying that the swords might be failures, but they were still sharp. Zeke examined most of the swords and realised that calling them failures was not right at all, because they were of a similar quality to what Gallion had been making when he was named the best blacksmith on the continent.
However, Zeke went ahead and used his draconian skill, the dragon eyes, to test the sword, and that was when he saw where the problem lay. Zeke then asked Gallion whether there was a problem with his forge, and the question shocked Gallion. He was forced to ask Zeke how he knew, but Zeke cut him off, reminding him that he had just asked him a question.
Zeke said that he could see Gallion was mixing several metals together to create a lighter and more exquisite material, but that it was suffering in durability. Zeke said this was happening because impurities remained even after the heat treatment process. Gallion was totally blown away by the fact that Zeke had recognised his smelting method and even analysed the major flaw in the process and its cause.
That was when it dawned on Gallion that he might have just met the right person. Gallion then took Zeke into his inner chambers to show him a design. Zeke was blown away to see such an exquisite design, one which Gallion had only revealed to him years later in his past life, because it was the blueprint of a magic forge. Gallion said that he had nothing to hide from Zeke, because Zeke was the one who had just saved him.
Zeke was blown away, and he assured Gallion that with such a forge, his smelting method would work without a single hitch. Zeke then asked Gallion why he was not building the forge, since he had the whole blueprint in his hands. Gallion said that the most important part of it all, the mana energy law blueprint, was still missing, and that the money the magic tower was asking for it came to ten thousand gold.
Zeke heard this and almost passed out, because the monthly expenses of a normal family of four came to ten gold, and this was a thousand times as much. Zeke finally realised that it had taken Gallion ten years to gather the money needed for the forge. Gallion admitted that the sum was crazy, but he let Zeke know that if he ever helped him make the forge work, then since he was a Draegar, he would create anything he wanted for him, without money or conditions attached, for as long as he lived.
The offer sounded tempting to Zeke, but the whole thing seemed impossible for him, because even as a pureblood he could not possibly receive support of ten thousand gold. At the same time, Zeke did not think he could give up on Graham, the sword of radiance. Zeke started racking his brain over what to do, and suddenly it dawned on him that Gallion's only issue was the mana energy law.
Zeke immediately accepted the request to help Gallion, and he took the blueprint with him. Zeke told Gallion that he had a mage he could ask a favour of, and that when he had an answer, he would come back and tell him. Zeke was about to turn back to tell him to stop drinking, only to find Gallion on the ground, bawling and thanking him for saving him.
Upon arriving back at the academy, Zeke started making his way to Finan's office. On his way, he wondered why the mage tower was demanding such a high commission fee from Gallion, when the structure itself appeared to be simple. Zeke was still thinking about this when he suddenly noticed something strange in an alley close by.