The next day, right as Yuusuke was about to leave the room to work, he stumbled upon Violet, who was dragging Sun along with her.

“Oi Yuusuke, are you heading into the city now?” (Violet)
“Mmm, well yeah.” (Yuusuke)

“Good morning, Yuusuke san.” (Sun)
“Good morning, Sun. You are already being dragged around in the morning, eh?” (Yuusuke)

Having exchanged his greetings with the girls, Yuusuke teased the two girls – Violet, having her [flying plate] attached to a string over her head, and Sun, who’s following the princess from behind. Violet was wearing her usual scarlet dress, while Sun was wearing the same white dress she wore the other time she was at the palace.

Violet was not only bringing Sun around because they were friends, but because it also helped her ward off the other fiancé candidates that would swarm her, since Hivodir was out on a mission and Yuusuke had to leave the palace at the same time as well.

“I was thinking of having Sun show off her bow handling skills to me now.” (Violet)
“But remember that I am not so skilled as to show off before other people…” (Sun)

Having heard about it from the other members of the darkness G.o.d corps, Violet wanted to see the buffs that Sun’s bow had bestowed on its users. She wanted to confirm the difference of how the accuracy would increase when compared to shooting from an ordinary bow, as Violet herself was somewhat used to handling a bow.
Thus, while on their way to the knights training grounds, they stopped by Yuusuke’s room to finish a certain business.

“That is alright, however can you use such a bow?” (Yuusuke)
“No way, I would like to have easy to move in clothes that I can change into.” (Violet)
“That’s why we have come to show you our clothing designs,” said Violet as she raised her small chest. Next to her, Sun, who was still not used to the clothes, openly displayed her much more p.r.o.nounced chest, was trying to casually cover it up from Yuusuke.

“Then, the main question is whether you will need extra material, like when you talked about the construction of the Gearhawk fortress—“ (Violet) (T.N. did anyone tell her about the equipping part. Part of me hopes, not. Part of me knows that manga is censored.)

There were shops selling high quality thread and cloth in the middle cla.s.s district, but Yuusuke would have to go and choose materials for customization purposes himself, while presenting the palace with a purchase list.

“The user of the product can purchase materials as well, but it is best for the craftsman himself to procure the needed supplies, right?” (Violet)
“That’s right. In my case, I will not know the quality of the material without touching it first.” (Yuusuke)

It was especially true in Yuusuke’s case. Even if there was no information about the material, after touching it he could ascertain whether it was good or bad in his customization menu.

His customization power’s true strength was modifying objects that were already created, therefore it was difficult to perform a process like purifying iron from a certain amount of iron ore.

“I’m off to the main office, bye.” (Yuusuke)
“I expect you to create the modified vehicle you promised me, before tomorrow.” (Violet)
“Good bye, Yuusuke san.” (Sun)

Arriving at the middle cla.s.s district, Yuusuke immediately started searching for a supply shop belonging to an earth arts user. Compared to the commoner district, the road here was somewhat narrow, but the walls were decorated with various ornaments and the buildings were noticeable bigger.
The amount of pa.s.ser-by’s was also noticeable smaller and Yuusuke sometimes pa.s.sed a guard while on his patrol duty. The atmosphere around here was similar to a high cla.s.s residential area.

“So it’s here, eh?” (Yuusuke)

Pa.s.sing some buildings resembling shops, Yuusuke arrived at a relatively small material store. While gems and blocks of gla.s.s were aligned as sample materials in front of other stores, this one presented itself with lumps of iron blocks before its door. After touching it and inspecting the parameters in the customization menu, Yuusuke ascertained that the quality of iron was pretty good.

“h.e.l.lo —“ (Yuusuke)

Opening the store door, he heard a familiar chime of a bell that was common in the coffee shops in his world that informed a shopkeeper about a new customer.

“Yeah, yeah welcome to — Ah!!” (Shopkeeper)
“If it isn’t Sorzak san?” (Yuusuke)

The owner of the shop was Sorzak, a self-proclaimed researcher they met during the ghost incident.
Since the underground pa.s.sage was closed, Sorzak gradually lost his spirit and returned to his original occupation of being a shopkeeper. It seemed he had used his remaining funds to buy iron ore, purified it, and started selling it, focusing his business towards blacksmiths.

“Weren’t you an accessories craftsman (jeweler?)” (Yuusuke)
“Ah, this was originally my business. I started crafting accessories when the tower craze had started. However, recently the amount of craftsmen increased even more and as it was not as profitable as it was before, I have returned to purifying iron which yields a more stable profit.” (Sorzak)
“Hmm, so you are a pretty capable earth arts user then, Sorzak san?” (Yuusuke)
“Although there are probably better craftsmen than me, I will not lose to anyone in Sanc Adiet when it comes to spirit.” (Sorzak)

As he said this, the atmosphere about him was not akin to that of a merchant, bragging or bluffing about his feats, but more like one close to that of Zeshald’s, of a man confident in his ability. Yuusuke thought for a bit and, when an idea came to his mind, he turned to return to the palace for the time being.

“I’ll come back later.” (Yuusuke)
“Alright. Come back any time since I don’t have anything else to do these days.” (Sorzak)

As he returned to the palace, Yuusuke went to the training grounds and approached Sun and Violet, who were holding an archery contest. The girls seemed to be on break now and have changed the corps uniforms to some simpler clothes. The girls were sitting at the table, facing each other, and enjoying a cup of tea. (TN: corps uniforms? Do want to see, manga please OO)

“Oh, Yuusuke san?” (Sun)
“Hm? What is it Yuusuke? You are back rather early.” (Violet)

“Ehmm, you see, the reason —“ (Yuusuke)

Yuusuke told Violet that he returned to consult her about hiring an exceptional earth arts user capable of purifying iron ore, producing high quality iron. As he was talking to the princess, Yuusuke spontaneously mentioned hiring Sorzak as his subordinate in the evil G.o.d corps.

“Eh, is it alright?” (Yuusuke)
“It depends on whether the person himself will be willing to join, but you are captain of the darkness G.o.d corps, one of the cornerstones of the palace’s military.” (Violet)

These elite corps were currently comprised of only five people from the knight corps. “You can’t expect to carry on like that,” continued Violet.

“You would learn of it sooner or later so let me tell you one thing, there are a lot of excellent soldiers who want to become members of the evil G.o.d corps.” (Violet)

It seemed that there were cases of knights from other palace corps submitting requests to be transferred to the evil G.o.d corps. Fire G.o.d’s corps, water G.o.d’s corps, earth G.o.d’s corps, wind G.o.d’s corps, a soldier could not be a member of every force simultaneously, so there were many transfer requests coming in from all over the place.

“Well, every last one of them is after the equipment that you provide your subordinates with.” (Violet)
“Oh, so that’s why!” (Yuusuke)

Focusing on this reason, Violet decided that it would be best to leave the search of new members to Yuusuke himself which would authorize him to invite any person that he judged suitable to join his corps. During this conversation, Sun took a quick glance at Yuusuke and quickly turned her eyes away before anyone could notice it.

Afterwards, Yuusuke returned to Sorzak’s place once again, briefly explaining him the situation, and asked whether Sorzak would agree to become an earth arts user under the banner of the evil G.o.d corps.

“How to say it, me as a member of the palace knights?!” (Sorzak)
“Even more so, you will be recognized as an elite divine arts user.” (Yuusuke)

Sorzak, who was a simple divine arts user, upon joining the evil G.o.d corps, would be promoted from a simple engineer to an elite soldier and would have to partic.i.p.ate in military operations.

“No problem! No problem! To be invited to join the elite corps, even more so the rumored evil G.o.d corps. How lucky of me!” (Sorzak)
“I-is that so? … Then, please sign this contract.” (Yuusuke)

Beaming with joy, Sorzak placed his signature. With this, Yuusuke secured a person that would add a lot of utility to the evil G.o.d corps. (TN morelike to his customization)

Gazzetta’s mountains were dotted with countless villages that had their own soldier training grounds. In one of such villages, leaders of the white sword cavalry were discussing the latest information that had arrived from their capital.

“Is it Fonclanc’s conspiracy?” (WSC commander A)
“It’s highly probable.” (WSC officer A)
“It’s unlikely that the king is involved,” Shinha shook his head at his officer’s remarks.

The contact with the group of soldiers that was sent to investigate the disturbances within Fonclanc was lost one day after their departure. The returning survivor reported that they were attacked by someone wearing Fonclanc forces’ uniforms, as they were travelling through Blue Garden’s territory.
Only one person has managed to return alive, carrying severe wounds that seemed to have been inflicted by a highly skilled fire arts user. As soon as he finished reporting the situation, the survivor lost his consciousness and was turned over to the water arts users.

His aides were questioning whether it was a conspiracy of Fonclanc to impersonate the Gazzetta army to kill off artless people, reducing the number of potential sources of disturbance as well as reducing the flow of people who were relocating to Gazzetta after being swayed by their envoys.
However, Shinha highly doubted such theory. He felt the character of king Esvobus when he had traveled to Fonclanc to investigate the evil G.o.d. Even more so, he ordered that the old man was to return home after the Blue Garden incident instead of requesting advantageous rights or any other type of reward. Such a man could not think of using the strategy that Shinha’s close aides were speaking of.

“We need more accurate information.” (Shinha)
“But Your Majesty, the majority of the spies are directed towards the occupation of Nossentes. “(WSC commander)

As the intelligence corps were preoccupied with the infiltration of Nossentes, redirecting them was impossible. However the situation was serious.

“We can’t leave this situation as it is… Commander, take control of the entire army for a while.” (Shinha)
“Your Majesty, you can’t possibly…” (WSC commander A)

Shinha unfastened his white swords cavalry’s armor as he cast his eyes onto the sky towards the direction of Fonclanc. He fastened his silver greatsword to his back and saddled his horse.

“I will be gone for a while.” (Shinha)

Once again he had become an artless traveler and left his aides, frozen in confusion, behind as he rode off on the road towards Fonclanc. (Lunate: On the highway to h.e.l.l. TL: Oh you don’t know on point you are here, do you?