episode_0010

Heading toward the village, I moved at a slightly slower pace than usual. Although it was possible to run several times faster, it was clear that if you ran like that, you wouldn’t have any waist left.

I was comfortable because my grandmother’s skeleton horse was superior to the skeleton horse I made, but the skeleton horse I made did not reach that level yet. It was clear that if I ran at the speed of my grandmother’s skeleton horse, I would not have any of my waist left.

Still, it was at the level where an ordinary horse could run at full speed, so it could be said to be fast in its own way.

However, I don’t know if it was because of that, but Paris was entangled.

“Stop! This is our thieves… … !”

“A group of thieves?”

“Run away!”

A group of thieves who appeared in front of me were so scared when they saw the skeleton horse that they ran away. Although we had to slow down for a moment, there were no major problems, so we quickly headed to the village.

After running hard for a few days, the village’s wooden fence began to come into view. I was so happy to see this that I increased my speed a little faster.

Dang-dang-dang- As I approached, the wooden fence rang a bell. It was the sound of an enemy attack, and it seemed like there was a new member of the security force from another area. It was already well known in the village that I had become a warlock. There were no guards who rang a bell to signal an enemy attack when a person riding a skeleton horse approached.

“Andrew!”

“Brother!”

As I approached the wooden fence and slowed down slightly, my brother at the entrance to the village waved at me. Next to my brother was a security guard I had never seen before. It looked like he was covering his head, as if he had been hit.

“Andrew, it’s been a while since you’ve been here?”

“Uh, I have some work to do. So now I’m back in town.”

“You came back? Are you saying you’re settling down again?”

“Yes.”

“Your parents will be happy. Hurry up and go in.”

“Thank you. See you later!”

I left behind my older brother, who welcomed me as always, and went straight into the village. Since the skeletal horse was reduced to the size of a finger, there was no commotion as it entered.

“Ah! Andrew! Go to the store next to Amy’s parents!”

“Amy? I got it first!”

As I was walking into the village with light steps, I waved my hand when my brother shouted. I wondered why I was talking about Amy, who suddenly became a mercenary and left the village, but I moved toward the blacksmith shop with the intention of seeing my parents first.

But as I entered the village and started walking slowly, I felt something strangely different. When I looked closely to see why, I noticed that not only was the village a little bigger than before, but there were also many buildings that I had never seen before. It felt like it was a little closer to the city, at the border between the village and the city.

I used to visit often, but I stopped visiting for a while after my grandmother passed away, so a lot of things had changed in that time. However, as I went a little further into the village, familiar scenery unfolded, so it was not difficult to find my way.

“… … Huh?”

However, there were major changes inside the village as well. And, among them, there was one biggest change. That is, my uncle’s blacksmith shop, which always had a hot fire going out, was turning cold. Even though the door was closed, dust had accumulated near the entrance.

I tried to rush home to see if there was any problem.

“Ah… … . I told you to go next to Amy’s store.”

The moment I was about to run home first, I remembered the story my soldier brother told me at the entrance to the village. They told me to go next to Amy’s store.

With the thought that he must have said that because there was something, I moved straight towards that place. I arrived at the place my brother told me about, exchanging greetings with friends and people who knew me.

[Brie Confectionery]

And, there I was able to find a bakery that I had never seen before.

“… … Bree?”

I couldn’t help but be filled with wonder at the sight of such a bakery. The word Bree was because it was my mother’s name.

My older brother told me to go here, and after looking at the bakery named after my mother, I thought about it for a moment and then approached it.

“Mom? Father?”

Unlike in the previous life, glass was not widely available, so about half of the walls of the bakery were open like swing doors. They told us to go through there and see things like bread and snacks inside.

But what I saw was the familiar faces of my parents. I could see my mother smiling brightly and my father kneading flour while still showing off his huge muscles.

“Son!”

And, just as I discovered my mother and father, my parents also discovered me. Mom immediately ran over and hugged me.

Of course, because I had grown up a lot compared to before, it felt like I was hugging my mom rather than my mom hugging me.

Anyway, my uncle came up behind me and quietly hugged me. Thanks to this, I had no choice but to be covered in the flour that was on my father.

“Andrew, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been here.”

“Oh, I have some work to do… … .”

I informed my parents that my grandmother had passed away and that I would be settling back in the village.

My parents patted me on the news that my grandmother had passed away and welcomed me back to the village to settle down. I think it was because I spent most of my childhood away from my parents.

And, after finishing my story, I asked what I was most curious about. It was about the blacksmith shop and this bakery.

“But what is this place? Why is the blacksmith shop closed?”

“Ha… … . That’s it.”

In response to my question, my father sighed slightly and began to explain what happened.

“The lord said he was growing the village, and he received several outsiders. And, among them was a blacksmith. At first, I thought it was good for the village people since you couldn’t follow in my footsteps. But that was a mistake.”

My father sighed and shook his head.

“At first, that person did business for much less than the money we received from our blacksmith shop. Since I also have to make a living, I tried to compete, but it was no use. If I continued like this, I was going to starve like your mother. So, I closed the blacksmith shop and opened a bakery, which is what your mother does best.”

“… … That blacksmith, what is the price now?”

“Hu… … . I was getting paid about twice what I used to get. The villagers have no choice but to use the man’s blacksmith shop.”

In short, they took control of the market by selling iron products at low prices through dumping, and then began making profit.

Hearing that sound brought back memories from my past life, memories of a group led by capital taking advantage of small business owners’ positions.

“What about the village chief? Are you just watching?”

“The village chief said there was nothing he could do. That person has the lord’s son as his partner.”

It was a villain that combined power.

“But I think I will do that now. Since you can’t succeed me anyway, there needs to be a blacksmith shop for the villagers.”

I couldn’t say anything when my father said that he would rather give up than take a risk.

It was obvious, but I couldn’t just say it; all kinds of thoughts were floating around in my head.

Should I just throw a curse? I even thought about it. However, it was obvious that if he did that, his certificate as a certified warlock would be ruined, and he would later be rounded up as evil and subjugated. The curse left traces easier than expected.

In the end, various thoughts came to mind, but none of them were particularly good.

“Son, go home first. Mom and Dad will just clean up here and go home.”

“Then let’s do it together.”

Shaking off the random thoughts that came to mind, I helped my mom and dad close the bakery business. Not because it was my son, but because I was objectively a mother who made delicious bread, so there wasn’t much to organize. Most of them had already been sold out, so there wasn’t much on the shelves.

I decided to eat the rest for dinner, and after carefully locking the door, I left the store and returned home.

“Oh, are you using the skeleton I gave you well?”

“My son gave it to me, and of course he’s using it well! Do you know how comfortable mom is thanks to my son?”

When I got home, the first thing I saw was a small goblin skeleton sweeping the floor. It was one of the skeletons I had made, and I gave it to my mother as it had relatively weak bones and could only be used for housework.

My mother was using it very well, even naming it Bone Stone. Skeletons, which did not require water, food, or rest, were perfect for housework.

The skeleton was one that could do the most difficult parts of the housework, such as squatting or bending, without any problems. Thanks to this, my mom praised me with a smile every time she saw me, saying that my back and knees had improved a lot.

However, when I saw Bonedol doing such housework, an idea suddenly occurred to me.

Since I was a skeleton who could easily do housework, I thought I would also be good at blacksmith work. Instead of using a mop or broom, all you had to do was have the child hold tongs and a hammer and pound the heated metal.

I immediately went to see my uncle and asked if I could use the blacksmith shop.

“Blacksmith? It’s possible, but… … .”

My father said that he was making the iron products for the bakery himself to save money, and that there was no problem with using a blacksmith shop. There was a problem that it took a while to bring the fire back to life because the fire was out.

Anyway, when I heard that it was possible to use the blacksmith shop, I headed straight to the blacksmith shop. No, I was trying to head towards it.

“Andrew, where are you going? I have to eat dinner.”

Because of the look in my mother’s eyes that said she would never allow me to skip meals, going to the blacksmith shop was postponed until the next day.

Still, I could say that I was satisfied because it was the first time in a long time that I was able to eat the food my mom made.

After spending the day talking about various things with my parents, I headed to the blacksmith shop around lunchtime. In the morning, my father helped my mother make bread at the bakery.

“Andrew, do you really think you can do blacksmith work with a skeleton?”

“I’m not sure either, so I’ll give it a try.”

With the help of my father, I quickly started a fire. A flame with tremendous heat burned fiercely. The fire was so intense that you could feel the heat just by looking at it.

While looking at the flames, he took out a piece of bone from his pocket and summoned the skeleton. With just a flick of a finger, it instantly turned into a goblin skeleton that was slightly taller than my waist. It was a skeleton that had been strengthened in various ways and could be used for combat.

The combat skeleton seemed unaffected by the flames, which were enough to make you sweat just by being nearby. The bones, which had been strengthened several times, did not seem to be damaged in the slightest by such flames.

I made him put his hand into the flames to see if he would be safe even in the intense flames.

“Oh, this doesn’t work.”

I tried it just in case, but it seemed impossible to go into the flames. The ashen bones heated up to red and were about to melt, so I quickly removed them and used black magic to restore them to their original state.