It's only a short wait until the seventh bell rings, and it's time. Eryk tells a passing servant to spread the word that he's about to begin the party's opening toast, and she heads off to do that, while we stop at the refreshments table, and he picks up a very fancy looking glass. He takes a few sips of the unfamiliar reddish drink, as we move toward the back of the room, aiming for the wall right between the doors into the dining room and the parlor. It should be the best place for people to hear him, even if they can't all cram into the foyer itself.

It's clear that word of the toast has spread as we slowly push our way through the crowd, people are already starting to look our way, even more than before, and people are starting to pack in even more tightly, filling the foyer until they're all shoulder to shoulder. Why did Eryk insist we do this here instead of at Kathy's house...?

I gripe about that silently while we're reaching our destination. Just as we do, Irene practically appears out of nowhere, directly next to us, and I twitch a little, startled. It's only when I look past her that I spot the small sliding door. It's hard to tell at this angle, but I think it leads into a narrow passage, tucked into the very corner of the room, leading toward the back of the house. There's a servant passage there? Irene hefts a couple wooden boxes, sliding them into place on the floor against the wall.

Irene lifts me up onto one of the boxes. It's big, about as tall as I am. That's just enough that I can see over the shorter people in the crowd. And so they can see me. Eryk steps up onto a significantly shorter box, but that still puts his head above mine. With all eyes on us, Eryk repeatedly taps a small knife lightly against his glass. It releases a high ringing sound as all the voices quiet. He gazes over the people, and so do I.

I'm hiding all of my nervousness, using the handful of familiar faces to calm myself, tell myself we're not alone. These people have no idea what's coming. We're the ones in control here.

"Thank you all for coming to my Independence Day party!" Eryk speaks extra loud, practically shouting for the people in other rooms to hear, either peeking through the open doorways or out of sight entirely because his house really is too small for this. "Now, I wanted to begin things with a round of thanks for everyone who helped bring this together."

He waves a hand out in one particular direction, drawing eyes that way. "First, a big thanks to Lola's Fashion and Garments, and Holly Tailoring for their wonderful work on a number of the outfits today, including Aria's herself." I blink a little, not expecting him to bring that up all of a sudden. Then I notice over where he waved, a number of women are clustered together, Jannette and Linda included. Some of them speak or curtsy to the people around them as there's a short round of applause. "If you like what you see, be sure to pay them a visit."

Oh, now I get it, that's why they came. Big parties like this are a way to show off their work and get new customers... It's a business partnership. I wonder if they pay him, or lower the price on the clothes in exchange...?

But we're quickly moving on from that, so I drop the thought. Eryk thanks the band for supplying the music, though sadly, I could hardly hear it over the people most of the time. Then everyone for showing up, and finally, he gives a brief thanks to the gods, then the king. There's an immediate cry of, "Hail the King!" from everyone present, which leaves me a little stunned. I didn't know anyone really cared that much about King Estal.

Once we're past all of that, and everyone quiets down again, Eryk addresses the big question. "So, I'm sure you all want to know why I'm holding such a big party today. The answer, is that I have a few big announcements to make. So first, let's talk about Aria. I'm sure you've all heard the wild rumors, so I want to set the record straight."

Everyone is leaning in closer, drawn right along with his words. Eryk's hand lands on my head, which helps steady me in the face of so many staring adults. "The first thing I'll say is that Aria is older than you think. And smarter." There are a lot of questioning sounds, and I can feel the eyes tracing over my dress again, apparently the kind of thing child my age wears, not something for a four year old. "Aria?"

For once I don't feel quite so bad saying this. "It's nice to meet you all." I dip into my best high class curtsy atop the box. "I'm Aria, I am seven years old." Then I smile, showing my teeth like I've seen Eryk do, and giving all the jerks who have been looking down on me my best piercing, gaze, showing the intelligence I hid until now so they can't miss it.

I see their faces twisting when they realize. When they figure out that I've been leading them by the nose. The way they're offended, or off-balance, or both. Exactly where Eryk wants them for the next part.

"Yes, now as for who she is..." He takes a deep breath, and it seems like the crowd can't decide whether they should be looking at me or him. "Aria is an orphan working as a third party contractor at my company." There's a pause, then the whole house goes wild. I can't make out a single thing anyone's saying, it all just collides into a wall of noise. Even without my normal amount of water mana, I have to cover my ears against the shouting voices.

It takes quite a while before everyone quiets down enough for him to go on, but now there are tons of angry and accusatory gazes directed his way. Of course, that just makes Eryk grin like mad. Which... probably makes the people glaring at him even more angry. "Yes, you heard that right, and it will all make sense later. But for now, I should also say that I would adopt Aria, if I could. However, she is currently in the care of Elector Karl Liffan," he throws extra emphasis on the noble's name, and a good deal of the crowd visibly flinches at it. "-Who will not let her go due to a specific interest in her."

That's vague enough to suck everyone in. And like Eryk mentioned earlier when he went over the whole plan, it both gives them a reason to believe I'm not just some dirty peasant, and not to mess with me, to avoid standing in the way of a noble's interests.

"Elector Liffan has plans for me," I follow up, mimicking Eryk to drive the point home. If Karl Liffan is going to make my life harder, I may as well use him as a shield for it. And it's not even like I'm lying, if anyone tried something, he probably would go after them, with the amount of money he stands to make...

While the crowd remains obviously agitated after mention of a noble, they quiet enough for Eryk to get to the big reveal.

"As for why I have a seven year old working for me, she is an unparalleled savant. Over the last few months together, we have developed a new metal refining technique." As soon as he says that, a few eyes are starting to widen among the crowd, some people clearly have a guess where he's going. At the same time, he reaches inside his suit jacket and takes out a small, half-size ingot to raise and show the surrounding crowd.

It's the bronzy colored metal, the same kind as the Eschallian sword, which we'd call Cupo Type 80. "This is just one of our new creations. At least a few of you should recognize it."

"That's!-" one nearby man in the crowd gasps before he silences himself again.

"Yes, this is the same type of metal produced in Eschalle for their weapons. Since we don't know the proper name, we've decided to call it bronze," he uses the name we came up with together in his office, based on its unique, shiny bronze coloring. Of course we don't know how many other star metals will end up with that same color yet, we'll have to deal with that later.

While they're all still too stunned, before what I'm sure will be full of lots of shouting adults again, Eryk speeds right on. "However, that's just the beginning. Our new manufacturing method has opened the door to a whole range of new products. We're calling them star metals." He barely makes it to the end before the screaming starts. I can't even tell what everyone is saying, especially when I have to cover my ears against the noise again. I press closer to Eryk's side and the wall behind me as the packed crowd starts jostling around, everyone way too close together with all this commotion.

Thankfully, it isn't too long before the crowd quiets enough for one of the shouting men to be heard over them. I can't hear the actual question before I uncover my ears, but Eryk's answer is, "The method of production is a trade secret," with a wicked grin.

"Hah?!" the man exclaims. I think he's a blacksmith from one of the competing blacksmith companies. "You can't just hide information like that! What about the war effort?" He waves a hand up at the big Melphiran banner overhead as he speaks. What's he talking about? Most of the fighting is done by rail units now, isn't it? Well, I heard that the regular army does still do something, but I'm not really clear on the details...

Eryk however, just shrugs, with his same grin. "I can't explain something I don't know." There's a small lull of quiet when he says that, and I can see them all putting it together. If Eryk doesn't know how it works, then that must mean...

All the eyes turn to me. I hold my ground, turning on my biggest grin, trying to mimic Eryk the best I can. Don't let them see how nervous I am. "Yes," Eryk confirms the unasked question. "Aria holds a crucial piece of the process, but I certainly can't pressure her into giving it up," his tone practically joking, "not with Elector Karl Liffan standing over her," he throws that out again to warn off anyone getting any funny ideas.

We know it's a risk. According to Eryk, the chances of one of his competitors trying to kidnap me despite my noble protection are a lot higher than I expected, but he knows what I'm capable of. An ordinary human can't even touch me. Honestly, I'm a lot more worried about John, we could be putting him in danger since he thinks he's supposed to protect me. Still, it's not like we have much of a choice, what else could he say to refuse telling anyone, even the nobility? They can't pressure him into doing something he can't do.

I mean, it's an outright lie, ever since I taught him to use magic and showed him how to magnetize metals, but they don't know that.

"You expect us to believe a little orphan girl holds the key to such an important discovery?" It's Terrance, the head of Surefired Metals, that pushes through the crowd to challenge Eryk's claim. "You're just using her as an excuse, it's not even a clever ploy," he practically complains. "And for all we know, you didn't even make that yourself! You could have melted down a weapon captured from Eschalle." I'm not surprised he doesn't believe Eryk, that's why I'm glad he's always so prepared.

"Oh? Then how about this?" he draws out another small sample and tosses it to Terrance. It's slow enough that the older man catches it without much trouble, immediately gaping down at the metal in his hands. At a glance, the dull gray color tells me it's our new lightweight metal. "We're calling that one linite. Structurally, it's nothing special, but as you can tell, it's light. Lighter than titanium." Terrance can't even respond, the old man just stares at the metal in his hands.

It isn't long before numerous men close in, more of Eryk's competitors pushing through the crowd, asking to see the metal for themselves, and they start passing it around to feel the extremely light weight. Eryk goes on to explain a little more, how it's similar to iron in strength, despite its weight. Soon enough, it's passed through enough hands to disprove Terrance's claim that Eryk was just lying about our work.

"Fine," the man himself scoffs as he crosses his hands over his chest. Then I notice that the sample has already disappeared into the crowd. How are we supposed to get that back? "But I still don't believe you about the girl. It's just a convenient excuse. There's no way you would leave such a weak spot in your plans. What if something happens to the girl?"

"I'm just working with what I have," Eryk shrugs dramatically, "besides, like I said-" and suddenly shows another vicious grin with all his teeth, "-she is very well looked after." The warning in his voice knocks the surrounding men off balance a little. They don't look too pleased, but can't say anything. It's not like they can threaten me directly, in front of all these people.

With the hardest part out of the way, Eryk calls on Ebbin to help explain the in-depth details of the few metals we've discovered that Eryk intends to sell. Even with what I know about metals, I don't understand much of it. Lots of big words I haven't learned yet, mostly. The other blacksmiths who actually do understand all the details listen closely. I'm just glad they aren't paying so much attention to me for now. Once he's done, Eryk announces that we still have work to do, and to expect our first star metals to hit the market in a few months, probably next spring, since winter is fast approaching.

"We're deep in research and development right now," Eryk says, "so you can safely expect we'll have a wider range of products come spring, and our selection will only expand from there." Then he grins, with a long pause for effect. "According to Aria's initial estimates, there may be up to one million, one hundred seventy nine thousand, six hundred thirty star metals. Give or take."

Of course, he doesn't mention that we can't make all of those. I did the math for all seventeen different base metals, assuming about nine mixtures for each. That's at ten percent intervals in the mixes. If I'd done five percent intervals, it would have been way higher, but Eryk still doesn't have a good way to make better measurements, and realistically, we'd only actually sell the best mix of any given type. For copper and tin, there are only three - bronze, linite, and Pocu Type 90, the high tin sample with an extremely low melting point.

So really, the number of actual products are going to be vastly lower than that number. A more realistic (but less impressive) estimate of end results with what we can make now would be in the eight to twelve thousand range. That's still a ridiculous amount of work to make and test them all. Thankfully since we're starting with pairs of metals we can actually combine, there are only forty five different combinations, meaning maybe ninety to one hundred eighty total products that could come out of their mixtures. I wonder how many of those will actually be done by the time Eryk starts selling them?

While the surrounding competitors are still too shocked by the ridiculous claim to respond, Eryk chuckles. "Don't worry, we'll be testing our research results to ensure we're offering the best products in our shop. But of course we'll be open to specific requests as well. I know some of you already have an inkling of our process, even if that won't be enough to replicate it."

Having finished explaining most of that, there's a small lull, and Eryk encourages everyone to enjoy the rest of the party, before we step down from our boxes. Well, Eryk has to pick me up since my box is taller than I am, but I make it back to the ground safely. However, that just means the adults all tower over me now, and I feel a cold sweat slowly breaking over me as we start to mingle back into the crowd.

I stick as close as I can to Eryk's side to keep from being crushed by the huge adults all around me, but it isn't long before we are called to stop by a number of his competitors. His main competitors, as it turns out, from the other refineries. It's hard to hear them over the almost frantic buzz of the surrounding crowd, but it really helps that it's the loud and energetic Mallory.

"To think you had such a trick up your sleeve, never saw that coming!" he practically shouts.

"I still don't believe that girl is as special as you claim," Terrance from earlier speaks up from his side. At first all Eryk can do is shrug it off. If he doesn't want to believe, that's on him. "I did hear some rumors about her," he suddenly adds on, and everyone perks up. "Is it true that she can tell ores apart by touch alone?"

"And where, may I ask, did you hear that?" Eryk shoots back without a hint of hesitation, which draws a scowl from Terrance before he catches himself.

"Oh, you know, I have my sources around the guild." He plays it off so badly, even I know that no one believes a word of it.

Eryk decides to step up to the challenge anyway. "Believe it or not, yes. She's that good. How about we show you? I have some ore around here to use." Wait, what?! He wants me to do that here?!

"Oh no, you sly fox," Terrance shakes his head. "How do we know you haven't coached her? She must have every one of them memorized." He raises a brow, forcing Eryk to shrug.

"I've brought some ore samples," Arnold from Avery Refining suddenly volunteers, looking much more enthusiastic than earlier. That brings big grins to the faces of the other men. "We could use use those."

Obviously, they think they have him, so when Eryk responds, "Sure, no problem," they're immediately taken aback.

"W-wait, but- but-" I sputter. But I can't tell them apart by touch! Not without using mana, and some of them have clearly visible effects when I do! All the men look down at me, and I anxiously pull on Eryk's sleeve so he'll kneel and I can whisper in his ear. "I can't do this in front of them, what about tin and illium?"

With a whisper in return, Eryk says, "The point is that we can't see it." Oh... right. That soothes my panicked thoughts while the men briefly discuss how to do this, and we all make our way into the dining room, where there's just a little bit more space to move. A servant arrives holding a small box with a lid, while someone from Arnold's company brings out a slightly larger box containing a number of different ores.

With a light clap and a confident smile, Eryk proposes, "Let's get started."