My quiet blacksmith life.., p.1
My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World: Volume 6, page 1
Prologue: Over in the Empire
Within the heart of the empire’s palace was a room, one lacking a throne but with lavish furnishings nevertheless. This was one of the emperor’s several parlors.
At the moment, the room’s master—the emperor—was wearing a smile that evoked in his daughter, the seventh imperial princess, a sense of foreboding.
“Did Your Majesty say the Black Forest?” the princess asked, her tone dubious.
“Indeed,” the emperor replied blithely. “A most interesting man, no?”
In response to her father’s cheery delivery of an outrageous statement, she could only muster a feeble, “I see.”
The Black Forest was an expansive forest covering a significant portion of the kingdom’s territory. Within its bounds, violent wolves, bears, and tigers were known to roam, and even the herbivorous deer were said to be a threat. A single mistake in that place could lead to death, and a normal person would beat a hasty retreat before they managed to spend even one full day beneath the canopy.
Supposedly, a run-of-the-mill blacksmith lived and plied his trade from within that infamous forest. That was the news the emperor had just relayed to her. To take his words for anything but a joke required substantial effort.
“So? Do you have business with this eccentric you speak of?” she asked.
“In a sense. You recall the outcries for revolution a while ago?”
“Yes. Everything is being tidied up neatly.”
“Actually, because of a...blunder, we detained a certain mercenary...” the emperor said with a dry chuckle. “However, she was quickly rescued, and by none other than the blacksmith.”
“That’s...”
At the time, every city had been thrown into a state of chaos. The cleanup was proceeding, but it couldn’t be denied that there was still unresolved commotion. It would take some time before all was well again.
The princess had a difficult time believing that a common blacksmith could carry out a rescue mission in the midst of such turmoil. Had the information come from anyone other than the emperor, she would have laughed it off.
And although her father was fond of jokes, the princess well knew that he seldom jested in moments like these.
Looking at her father’s amused visage, she was struck again by a bad premonition.
“Won’t you go and have a look?” the emperor asked. “I’d like for you to invite him here.”
“Do you not intend to eliminate the mercenary and blacksmith both?”
Regardless of whether it had been the empire’s mistake or not, the two had gleaned a portion of the nation’s secrets. The fact that they lived in the depths of the Black Forest, territory where most dared not enter, meant that they were skilled. Thus, these were not people the empire could afford to overlook.
“We stand to lose more than we gain by employing such a tactic,” replied the emperor.
“I could concede that in the case of the mercenary...but the blacksmith too? He is no more than an average tradesman, no?”
“On paper, yes.” Her father brought a hand to his furrowed brow. “Considering the circumstances, I have, of course, probed into his background. But nothing much has turned up, except for one piece of information: his works are high quality.”
“Perhaps he is nothing more than a skilled craftsman,” she suggested.
“I’ve entertained the possibility,” he replied, raising an eyebrow. “But the number of unknowns is exceptionally high.”
“Do you mean to suggest that...information has been purposefully concealed?”
“That’s my hypothesis. Aren’t you curious about this man who the kingdom has gone through such great lengths to hide?” Her father’s lips split into a grin.
The princess sighed deeply. “I suppose.” And with a second great sigh, she conceded. “I will prepare. Please let me know if there is anything else you should like me to do before I depart, father.”
He nodded, calm and collected. “I leave it in your hands.”
Without another word, she curtsied and took her leave. The room which had borne witness to the father and daughter’s discussion sank into silence.
Chapter 1: Ordinary Days in the Black Forest
“We really went through a lot...” I mused to myself, recalling the adventure my family and I had just returned from.
It had all started when Samya remembered seeing a rare type of stone in the Black Forest. We’d decided to venture into the unknown, camping along the way, and coincidentally, we had encountered a fellow mercenary of Helen’s named Flore. The climax of our journey? A showdown with a dragon! Overall, we were only gone a handful of days, but they had been packed with adventure.
The day after we got home was perfectly ordinary. I woke up and went to the lake to bathe Krul, our drake, and Lucy, a wolf pup (and a magical beast) who we’d taken in after she’d lost her mother. I also wanted to freshen myself up.
During the last several days, Krul had picked up dirt and dust from our extended travels, so she enjoyed her rinsing more than usual.
After I wiped down Lucy, she shook her body to dry off, sending water flying everywhere, but that was par for course for our little girl.
I refilled our water jugs at the lake, and Krul and I split the load on our way back to the cabin. Home again, I commenced breakfast prep while the others in the family got ready for the day.
My family now had quite a few members: Samya, a beastfolk I’d saved from the brink of death; Rike, a dwarven blacksmith who was also my apprentice; Diana, the young lady of the Eimoor comital family who’d come to live with us after I’d helped resolve a family conflict; and Lidy, an elf who’d first hired me to repair an heirloom sword and who I’d reunited with on a military expedition to exterminate a monster nest.
The fifth and final member—not including me, Lucy, or Krul—was Helen. She had commissioned a pair of custom model swords from me. Later on, I’d helped extract her from the empire when she’d gotten wrapped up in a revolutionary crisis.
The others were all women, so even though they had no work that took them outside in the mornings, they still needed more time than me to get ready. In the meantime, I made soup and baked flatbread.
The time we’d gone to visit Sandro at his restaurant, The Gold-Tusked Boar, he’d served us an unending course of delicious dishes, despite the fact that the eatery had been packed with other customers. The gap between his skills and mine was vast, but such was the prowess of a pro. I may have been granted production-related cheat abilities when I first came to this world, but they only put me a touch above the average tradesman.
These cheats, however, meant I was still more skilled than most, and those skills no doubt enriched our everyday lives. I had no intention of using my cheats to get rich—the most important thing to me was that the six of us lived in harmony.
And so, after we finished breakfast, we moved to the forge to begin smithing. I heated the firebed and furnace, then we divvied up the tasks and got to work.
Our present assignment was to forge a total of fifty hoes, with a daily quota of ten. We already had eleven complete—they’d been forged before we’d embarked on our treasure hunt. Assuming we met our target today too, we would have around thirty left to make, which we could finish in three days. At that pace, we’d be able to make our deadline with ease.
The problem...came after that.
No, I wasn’t worried about making our quotas, but rather, about the fast-approaching rainy season. The heavens had done their best to hold back the storms until this point, but they would soon hit their limit.
Samya had even said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it started to rain tomorrow.” That was how close the rains were.
We were running out of time. We had to prepare.
Forge Eizo always made large deliveries to our merchant partner, Camilo, but I hoped to push back our next drop-off date by two or three weeks. We could spend the extra time preparing for the rainy season, as well as crafting a shared trinket for the family. That was, of course, depending on how much inventory Camilo had left.
Regardless, we first had to finish up our current order.
The sound of hammering reverberated through the workshop. Rike and Helen sang as they worked (Helen was a good singer), and thanks to their enthusiasm, four days flew by fast, our tasks proceeding like clockwork.
In the end, we made fifty-six hoes—more than our target. Camilo would have no complaints.
The night we hit our quota, we celebrated with a toast, a humble reward for our hard work. Afterward, we stayed around the dinner table to discuss our upcoming plans.
“I’m in favor of staying in,” Samya said regarding the upcoming rains. “We beastfolk bed down in our dens for the season.”
“Makes sense,” Diana concurred.
No one else seemed to have any objections either, but I spoke up with my concerns. “The thought of holing ourselves up in the house...is a little depressing.”
We were blacksmiths by trade, which meant that our work was conducted entirely indoors. The trip to the lake for water and our nightly spars were the only times we got to breathe fresh air. Getting rid of those moments completely would certainly deal a blow to our mental health.
“If only we had a place that would provide cover and allow us to enjoy the outside air,” I said.
“Like a covered terrace, right?” Rike suggested. “It would b
lock the rain but let the breeze through.”
“Good idea.”
I looked around to gauge everyone else’s reactions; no one seemed opposed.
That settles it. We’re building a terrace.
“Any other must-haves before we cloister ourselves in...?” I asked the group.
Lidy replied, “We’ll need to go hunting and stock up on meat,” and Helen’s stance was, “I only came to live here recently, so I’m gonna leave the decisions up to you all.”
I nodded. Well, that should just about round off the to-do list.
“To sum it up, we should hunt whatever we need as soon as we can. When the rains start, we’ll avoid leaving the house as much as possible and do what we can indoors,” I concluded. “Sounds about right?”
The biggest problem I could foresee was Krul...but she might figure it out for herself when I took her to retrieve water, clever girl that she was.
“All right then, let’s give it our all tomorrow,” I said, bringing our day to a close.
We were going to be heading to Camilo’s the following day, another step in our familiar routine. After finishing my preparations, I turned in to rest and relax.
The next morning, we completed our daily chores and then worked together to load the large number of hoes onto the cart.
Krul watched us work—I thought I could see a spark of anticipation burning in her eyes. She was always particularly enthusiastic when it came to pulling a heavy load or going a long distance, and once we arrived at our destination, we always made sure to shower her with praises for her extra effort.
Once we stacked up all fifty-some-odd hoes, I hitched Krul to the cart, and we all piled in.
When Diana went to pick Lucy up and help her onto the cart, Lucy leaned into a deep crouch. Our little wolf was staring intently at the platform.
Is she challenging herself to jump in? She looks kind of like a cat right now...
With a sudden burst of energy, Lucy sprang into the air.
Well, what do you know!
But...I had celebrated too early. Lucy fell short of her target by about ten centimeters and landed back on the ground with a thump. Behaving like nothing had happened, she padded over to Diana as if to say, “Mama, pick me up!”
Well, she’ll make the mark sooner or later.
Diana lifted Lucy and climbed onto the cart. Her eyes were twinkling with excitement, but since she had her hands full, my shoulder made it out safe.
Today, the air in the Black Forest hung damp and heavy, as if to proclaim that the rainy season was near. Had I been initially dumped into the forest by the Watchdog during this season, I would’ve had a very different first impression; straight away, it would’ve been obvious why the forest was rumored to be a terrifying place.
Samya’s nose twitched as she sniffed the air. When I asked her about it, she answered, “It’s hard to pick out different scents when it’s so humid.” I assumed it was because the moisture enhanced each individual smell, or perhaps because the trees were giving off more phytoncides.
With Samya working at a disadvantage, our defenses were slightly weaker. Even so, Helen was accompanying us, so I doubted we’d run into any trouble.
The family stayed cautious as we weaved our way through the forest. Once, through the gaps between trees, I caught a glimpse of tree deer far away. Since I was able to see it despite the distance, it had to be big.
Lucy watched the deer as well, her tail lashing back and forth. Maybe she had sensed its gaze.
Even though her tail was wagging, she didn’t bark. Had she realized that barking would be a pointless endeavor? If so, she would be quite the superstar. I rewarded her with a pat on the head, and her tail went wild.
After observing the tree deer for a moment, Samya muttered, “They’ve begun their gorge...”
“Oh?” I asked.
“If we want one, we’ll have to hunt this week,” Samya explained. “They’ll retreat to their dens before long to wait out the rain.”
Tree deer went into seclusion during the rainy season too. Their hides offered protection to be sure, but the rains likely sapped their strength, making them vulnerable to the bears and wolves that were sure to come sniffing around.
To frame it another way—bear encounters would be more common during the season.
“I’m counting on you for the hunt,” I told Samya. “We do need meat, but watch out for bears.”
“But of course,” she replied, her head held high.
Of all the animals we were most likely to run into, the bears that lived here posed the biggest threat. Samya had almost lost her life to one once.
I peeked over at Diana, Lidy, and Helen, who all nodded back. We were a strong party; we knew how to watch our backs.
Luckily, nothing unusual happened in the forest. We left the trees for the road. From there, the city was only a short ride away.
Above us, the clouds hung heavy. The sky didn’t look like it was going to pour any second now, but neither was there a single ray of sunshine. This kind of scenery screamed that it was the perfect opportunity for misfortune to strike.
When the city became visible, I let out a laugh. “With this weather, it looks as if the entire city is wrapped up in some horrible conspiracy. Almost like a page taken straight out of an illustrated novel.”
A rumble of thunder would complete the staging for the suspense story.
“It’s because the weather isn’t in the least bit refreshing,” Diana said. As a member of a noble house, she had experienced scenes of tension and drama in real life.
Rike and Lidy chuckled, but Samya and Helen looked like they had no idea what we were talking about.
They might not have read such stories very often. Maybe I’ll ask Camilo for some books next time...
Once in the city, we took the roads we always did. Lidy had attracted a lot of attention in the capital because she was an elf, but people here paid her little mind. If anything, Lucy, who was peering out from the cart, was the star of the show. Even the stern bear of a stall keeper who had a perpetual scowl on his face waved to Lucy when he thought no one was looking.
Cuteness is justice, after all. Liking cute things wasn’t a crime.
As Lucy single-handedly (single-pawedly) spread her love through the streets, we made our way to Camilo’s shop.
When we arrived at the store, we rode around to the storehouse and got off the cart. I unhitched Krul, and Lucy leaped off by herself. Even though the platform was fairly high (high enough that she couldn’t jump in, at least), she stuck the landing with no trouble.
Diana had been prepared to help Lucy down, and she watched the pup now with a complex expression somewhere between lonely and delighted.
Maybe magical beasts mature faster than their counterparts.
In the back garden, we left Krul and Lucy to the care of the shop apprentice. Lucy’s tail was wagging as usual, full of anticipation for the play session. Krul, on the other hand, lay down in the shade of a tree, from where she could watch over Lucy. She had become quite the responsible big sister.
With our hearts warmed by the scene, we went upstairs to the conference room. Camilo came in soon after. There was no way he wasn’t busy, but he was diligent as always.
“How’s everything?” I asked in greeting.
“Business as usual,” he replied. “I’ve finally eked out a corner for myself in the republic’s markets.”
“That’s good news. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” He rubbed at his mustache. Is he embarrassed?
The fact that he’d been able to continuously grow his business was nothing short of amazing.
“Anyway, I’ll be counting on your hard work from here on out too,” he continued. “Can you handle it?” His attitude had flipped on his head, and he was observing my reaction with a faint air of meekness.
“At our currently agreed upon quantities, I can keep the deliveries coming for as long as you want them. If anything, you’re doing me a favor.”
“That’s good to hear,” Camilo said, and we traded smiles.
Regardless of how exceptional the weapons we forged were, there was always a finite limit to demand. To put it in extreme terms, if every citizen in the kingdom owned one knife each, we would no longer be able to sell our knives here. Realistically speaking, that would never happen, but demand was bound to decrease, at least gradually. The products we sold were consumable goods, but they were hardly going to break in a month or two.
