The next day, Frondier headed straight to Quinie's residence.
Quinie welcomed Frondier warmly. Frondier tilted his head at Quinie's gaze, which had grown warmer than before, but he entered the room.
After listening to Frondier's explanation, Quinie said softly.
“…… You want to improve the necklace.”
Frondier nodded his head.
“I have nothing left to hide from you now, senior.”
Frondier placed the frame he brought onto the table, and on top of the frame, he placed the necklace with the Black Lotus.
After giving it a light tap with force, the black liquid inside was held within the frame.
“Huh. Do you have to tell me that in so much detail?”
“As I said before, I have no more reason or need to hide anything from you.”
Quinie had already seen Frondier use the black liquid numerous times.
She would have already estimated his skills, so he didn't even tell her. Instead, he only mentioned what Quinie already knew.
“Ri, right. No need to hide it. Hmm.”
Quinie turned her gaze elsewhere as if embarrassed.
Frondier tilted his head but first explained the situation.
“I got some information on how to obtain more of this liquid in large amounts. I'm not sure if it's true yet.”
"So you want this necklace to have a much larger capacity than before?"
"This necklace already has an expansion spell fitted to it. Even now, there's still room to spare, but you need a much larger capacity?"
"Yes. I'm afraid it won't be enough."
Frondier nodded in response to Quinie's question.
Of course, I know the necklace has an expansion spell on it. Right now, there's still more than enough room to fit all the Obsidian.
However, there's no way I'm going to fit all the fragments of Helheim into it. Esther didn't call it a 'lake' for nothing, after all.
"Perhaps there is some kind of higher grade artifact, like a necklace with an even larger capacity?"
Frondier asked, trying not to get his hopes up, but Quinie shook her head.
"No, there isn't. This was a custom order."
"......I see. Custom order."
When I initially asked Quinie to do this, it was only our second meeting. There was absolutely no sense of familiarity or trust with Frondier.
Despite that, she had gone ahead and taken a custom order for the item I had requested.
"The information you gave me was worth that much, at least."
Quinie said, reading the look on Frondier's face.
"Thanks to that, I've saved a lot of people. I've stopped them from dying. And I've made a connection with you. On the whole, it's been a very profitable transaction for me."
"You consider me a connection?"
"The best connection I could have made."
Quinie said with a cheerful smile.
Certainly, her attitude towards me has become much friendlier.
'Has my worth just gone up significantly?'
Frondier thought about this for a moment, before asking another question.
"So, is it possible to improve the necklace?"
"Hmm, that's difficult. This is a piece of jewelry, you know. If you try to modify an artifact that's already been completed, you run a high risk of ruining it."
"That's troublesome."
With her arms crossed, Quinie looked down at the necklace. With a small sigh, she said,
"There's no other way. We'll have to make a new one."
"Right. Last time, we just threw money at it and had it custom-made, but this time, we’re going to carefully select people from each field to create something proper. Specialists from each area."
As Frondier shortened his speech, Quinie nodded her head.
She raised one finger.
"First, a Rune technician."
"To engrave a Rune inside the gem, I suppose."
"Yes. In addition to spatial expansion, we’ll make it so that if there’s anything else useful, it can all be engraved."
Then she raised another finger.
"Next, a magical engineering expert."
"To connect it so the Rune functions properly?"
"Smart. Also, it's necessary to prepare for any errors when it reverts back after being broken."
"A security magic specialist."
"I didn’t realize it before, but hearing about it now, the liquid going inside is quite important to you, isn’t it? We need security magic on the necklace itself so that no one else can steal or break it, only you can handle or destroy it."
After listening to Quinie’s explanation, Frondier nodded.
Obsidian is an important item that will continue to be with him in the future. Then, there will certainly be those who gradually come to value Obsidian highly.
It’s important to guard against such people from stealing it.
Frondier thought for a moment.
A Rune technician, a magical engineering expert, a security magic specialist.
"Somehow, I can think of people who fit all those roles."
At Frondier’s subtly expressive words, Quinie gave a bright smile.