30 Years after Reincarnation, it turns out to be a Romance Fantasy Novel

The feeling of unease came the moment he examined the cross-section of the bronze statue.

…There are no signs of melting?

Bronze, after all, was a metal.
To shape it, one would first need to melt it at extremely high temperatures.
Yet, there were no visible traces of that process here.

Instead, what he saw was—

…It was carved?

It looked as though it had been sculpted with a chisel.

No… it wasn’t done with a chisel.

Then what was used?

…A thin blade?

The cross-section of the bronze statue bore faint, telltale marks.

And Ihan recognized those marks.
They were unmistakably the kind of scars left by a rapier or another similarly thin, piercing sword.

How could he be so sure?

Because I’ve seen people get sliced like that before.

During his time as a mercenary, he had encountered victims who had their flesh cut in just such a manner.
He had also personally been on the receiving end of such an attack.

(Though, in the end, the bastard who did it had died by his hand.)

Regardless, Ihan’s experience and knowledge made it easy for him to deduce that the statue had been sculpted entirely with a rapier.

And the moment he was certain—

This is monstrous.

It was only natural for him to be filled with awe.

I suppose if I applied enough grip strength, I could condense metal and forcibly shape it, or maybe I could use sword energy to carve it out.

That much was conceivable.

But that would only be a brute-force solution.
It would never produce something as natural and flawless as this.

This wasn’t done with sword energy. It was just… cut.

As if slicing through tofu.
Or molding clay.

This wasn’t just an absurd display of skill.
This was the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

“……”

Clink.

Ihan placed his hand on his sword.