episode_0003

“Try what my uncle taught me a little while ago. It’s okay to fail. It’s okay if you end up with a bad work instead of a masterpiece, so just try swinging the hammer once today.”

I slowly nodded to my father’s words and threw the iron piece into the intensely burning flames.

After waiting for a while, he took out the red-hot iron. I could feel the heat just by going near it, and it was very difficult to take it out with tongs. I probably would have dropped it if my dad wasn’t there to help me.

“Your father will help you catch it, so just try hammering it.”

With the help of my father, who held the heated iron block firmly in place with tongs, I began forging.

As I repeatedly lifted the heavy hammer with both hands and struck the piece of iron, a change occurred in the piece of iron. It wasn’t at the same level as when my father did it, but the shape definitely changed, albeit little by little.

“Huh, huh… … ! Father. I think I’m going to fall behind… … !”

“Hahahahaha!”

“No, just don’t laugh… … !”

I thought it would be difficult, but my father was just smiling. He was even so cute that he looked at me and laughed as if I was going to die, but something got me very excited.

But that didn’t stop me from hammering, so I continued hammering, mustering up all my strength.

After hammering until my whole body was drenched in sweat, I ended up with a blade the size of a small pocket knife. Although it didn’t have an edge yet, it was more like a stick in the shape of a sword.

“Um… … .”

My father looked at the piece of iron I had made and nodded quietly.

“Not bad for something I made for the first time.”

“Oh, really? So how much can I sell it for?”

“What is selling?”

My father laughed and shook his head at my words. And then, he folded the piece of iron in half. With bare hands.

“I knocked too much. As I explained at the beginning, the iron became soft due to too much pounding. In severe cases, you can bend it with your hands like this.”

“… … Isn’t that because your father is strong?”

“Well, there might be something like that.”

He showed off his muscular arms, as if he wanted to show off his muscles for no reason. Why are my forearms as big as my waist?

“In fact, forging work is not originally done by one person. It’s a job that needs to be done by at least two people, or more. Because it takes a lot of strength, several people are doing it together. I don’t have enough strength, so I do it alone.”

“… … Then shouldn’t I do it with others?”

“The blacksmith in our family must be able to work alone. Your grandfather was like that, and so was my grandfather.”

So, the idea was for me to develop the strength to do it on my own.

“There is nothing better than actual combat to develop strength. Let’s do forging work once a day from now on! Hahaha!”

I got chills watching my father burst out laughing as if he was shouting, “I’ll give you muscles too!” I sensed that a difficult road lay ahead of me.

And, my intuition was not wrong. Every day, I worked hard at the blacksmith shop, as if taking a bath in sweat.

Of course, the results created in that way all had problems, so they were mixed with scrap metal and returned to molten metal.

“Ugh… … . I’m really dying.”

Early in the morning, after eating a quick meal and going out into the street, I relaxed my aching body by stretching and sighed. Even though I made something every day, it felt like I was only accumulating more fatigue because everything was melting away.

Still, it felt strangely good to think that I didn’t have to hammer today. Although it wasn’t like a holiday where you could just relax, it was still a good thing.

“Huh? Andrew!”

As I was leisurely walking down the street for a long time, a little boy approached me. That little girl was Amy.

“Oh, you’re Amy, right? Long time no see!”

“Andrew, I haven’t seen you much lately. What’s going on?”

“What happened? You say you were captured by your father and learned blacksmithing skills.”

“Already? Well, among my friends these days, there are kids who learn from their parents.”

Amy nodded, thinking of several children in similar situations as me. James, who worked in a leather workshop, was learning how to trim animal skins, and Evan, the son of a woodcutter, was learning how to cut twigs. It wasn’t strange since there were others who were learning their parents’ work before me.

“Amy. Are you learning how to work in a store?”

“No. I won’t run my mom’s store.”

“Huh?”

I tilted my head at the unexpected answer. I wondered what on earth he wanted to do that he didn’t want to take over his parents’ store. It was Amy’s, a very famous restaurant in our town.

“I will become a mercenary! A super cool female mercenary! Maybe I could become a mercenary queen!”

“You want to become a mercenary?”

“Yes!”

Seeing Amy nodding her head vigorously, I also nodded. To be honest, even though Amy was a girl, she was like the leader of our village. He was a child with good strength and good skills. I felt like I could become a knight or something if I learned it properly.

“Well, give it a try. But being a mercenary is going to be quite dangerous, are you ready?”

There were often children who thought mercenaries were something great because of fairy tales. However, in reality, being a mercenary was a very arduous job.

Sometimes they take on jobs that others don’t want to do, and sometimes they take on jobs that involve risk, such as guarding or exterminating monsters. Moreover, when war broke out, mercenaries were the first to be used as meat shields. They said it was an extremely dangerous job.

“I know everything. The reason there aren’t many female mercenaries, and the reason mercenaries aren’t a romantic profession like in fairy tales.”

“Really? Are you still trying to become a mercenary?”

“Yes! I have no desire to live my whole life in this village. I want to look around like a flying bird. A mercenary is perfect for that, right?”

“Well, your choice is important. Still, you need to prepare properly. To be honest, you say you’re the leader, but you know you’re nowhere near the level of mercenaries, right?”

“Don’t worry about that either! You know that my dad is a retired driver, right?”

“Uh. Also, he is using that sword technique to cut onions. Are you still crying while chopping onions these days?”

“… … Yes.”

Amy turned her head as if she was embarrassed and expressed her affirmation. But he shook his head as if that wasn’t what was important right now.

“Anyway, when I told my dad that I was going to become a mercenary, he said he would teach me the skills he knew. They say I have talent!”

Amy’s father was a retired knight. He was a knight who suffered a knee injury while on a mission to exterminate monsters and retired after failing to recover properly. Like you, he was a guy who would say it was raining and his knees would hurt, but that didn’t change the fact that he was a knight.

What this meant was that Amy’s father also knew various technologies. He knew about a variety of sword techniques, starting with the Auror training method, which felt like martial arts, which often comes to mind when thinking of fantasy. Of course, it is not something that can be passed down haphazardly, but it is something that can be passed on to one’s children.

When I thought that Amy would learn Auror martial arts and swordsmanship, I felt jealous for no reason. However, that didn’t mean I had any intention of learning. Because it took a lot of effort to learn that skill. There must be training, such as having to swing the sword hundreds or thousands of times a day.

It was so hard for me just to swing the hammer that I was dying. Learning the sword was a luxury. Besides, blacksmiths make slightly better money than mercenaries.

“Mmm. Well, you’ll do well. Athletic ability is the best.”

When I saw a 9-year-old girl playing with a 12-year-old boy while holding him by the collar, such a story was bound to come out. The way she watched and dodged each and every random punch and countered them was like no other strong female warrior.

“Andrew! I will become the mercenary queen, so you too must become a great blacksmith and make me a great sword! Got it?”

“Suddenly?”

“Just make a promise!”

“Ugh. I got it, I got it.”

I chuckled as I made a promise that I don’t know if I would remember or be able to properly fulfill when I grow up.

“Ah, Andrew. But where were you going?”

“To bring some wood from the mountain in front of the village. My father told me to practice making handles out of wood.”

It’s important to hammer every day, but my body needs rest, and my father told me to come back feeling like I was resting. So, I wanted to go to the mountain and come back very leisurely. You can also build up your physical strength by going up and down the mountain. Of course, it was also to save on materials that had to be sold.

“Would you like to go with me? It’s scary if you go alone.”

I shook my head at Amy’s bold cry, as if to say, “I’m the leader so I’ll protect you.”

“It’s okay. Because it’s not like you have to go far. Don’t you have something to do too?”

“Ah! Dad told me to buy a wooden sword for practice! Sorry, see you later!”

Amy was startled by my words and ran away. I waved at the sight of people waving their hands and headed towards a small mountain near the village. The mountains were not high and there were quite a few fruit-bearing trees, so it was a place that children often visited.

When I arrived at a nearby mountain, I picked a fruit that caught my eye and started walking around while chewing it.

I was planning to go back and find a tree that was reasonably light and sturdy.

“Uhmmm~ What should I take~?”

I wandered around wondering which tree to take. If it was too heavy, it would be difficult to carry, and if it was too light, the wood might be weak, so you had to choose it carefully.

“Hey, kid.”

But while I was looking around the tree, I heard an unfamiliar voice.

When I turned my gaze to where the voice came from, I couldn’t help but be shocked. Because a very suspicious person was standing there looking at me. The entire body was wrapped in a black robe, and not even the hands, let alone the face, could be seen properly.

When Amy says she’ll go with me, I’ll ask her to come with me!

Don’t ignore Amy’s suggestion for no reason!

I suddenly felt very regretful. I never expected to encounter a suspicious person in such a deserted mountain. This never happened when I came with the neighborhood kids!

As I was contemplating whether I should run away right now, the suspicious person slipped his hand out.

“I know it looks suspicious. I am Jainis, a certified warlock. Could you please guide me to a nearby village?”

Since he said he knew he was suspicious, it felt even more suspicious. It was even more suspicious since he called himself a warlock.

The only time I heard stories about warlocks was in fairy tales or stories of mercenaries, and the warlocks in those stories were all evil and cunning.

Because I had such a perception of warlocks, my first thought when I heard that they were warlocks was, ‘He works as a child laborer and eventually gets caught by a warlock and becomes a skeleton soldier.’

I also thought that this might be a plan to use me to infiltrate the village and turn everyone in the village into undead.

‘Fuck… … . Anyway, why do you have to appear in front of me!’

I was so angry at the world, wondering why a warlock had appeared in front of me.

And, at the moment I was spewing out my resentment towards the world, the warlock took off the robe that was covering my entire body.