50 – #050 Special Action (1)
There was no loud music or joyful laughter, but the sight of endless lines of people chatting was reminiscent of a festival or feast.
All of the people lined up in a row were dressed in distinctive clothing, some wearing neat suits as if they were at an important occasion, while others were wearing armor that showed signs of age.
As we were admiring how skillful it was that these various people gathered from the morning wind, Vivian tilted her head as if wondering.
“… What?”
“Why is that?”
“Today, strangely, a lot of people gathered…. Because the old man is good at it, he has a lot of customers, but it wasn’t like this…. Is there another line?”
I stood because there was a plausible line, but maybe I was standing in a different line.
“Then I will go and see you for a while.”
After asking Vivian for a seat and walking out of line for a while, I saw a high-rise building with a nameplate that read, “Billy’s Blacksmith’s Shop.”
However, in a building with many chimneys, there was no sound of tapping iron or heat, which should be heard in a blacksmith’s shop.
With a blacksmith that big, there must be other blacksmiths, so why can’t I hear that?
Even if the blacksmith, Billy, who just returned, said that, shouldn’t the other blacksmiths be doing their own thing?
When I went back to my original seat and told Vivian about it, she also tilted her head like before, perhaps feeling something strange about her.
“Can’t you hear the sound? Even without that inspiration, requests come in, so there’s no way….”
“What how… Shall we keep waiting?”
“Once, then. If you wait, you’ll know what’s going on.”
As time went on, the line got shorter and shorter, and by the time the sun rose, we were finally able to get inside.
There were many employees in black suits at the blacksmith shop, but not a single employee looked like a blacksmith.
After a while after going inside, an employee came with something like a notebook and pen and said to us.
“Welcome. You can write your guestbook here. And the money for condolences is—”
“Hey, wait… what? What gold Condolence money?”
I was also surprised by the words that I couldn’t bear to ignore.
“Yes? That, that… Since it’s a funeral, condolence money….”
Upon hearing that it was a funeral, Vivian ignored the staff and ran towards the direction the guests had gone up earlier.
I followed suit, and soon came face to face with the dead old man’s corpse with a comfortable expression as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
“Hey, inspiration?!”
A young man who looked like him was standing beside the old man with his hands folded under his stomach and his eyes closed, welcoming the mourners.
When he saw Vivian, he looked like he was about to cry.
“Nu, sister!!”
“Hey!! Hey, how did this happen? Why did the old man die?!”
“He fell off his horse after getting off his horse….”
After hearing that, I took a closer look at the old man’s corpse.
‘It wasn’t a festival, it was a funeral.’
… The blacksmith died before he could even entrust the request. What now?
*****
The procession of condolences continued until dawn, and seeing the number of mourners coming in and out until the threshold was worn down, one could guess what kind of person Billy was during his lifetime.
It was almost morning when the mourners stopped coming, and only then did we talk to Dor, the grandson of Billy the blacksmith.
“Did you not see the letter I sent you?”
“You know I don’t check mail often. Even the sky is indifferent, why do all these unlucky things happen?”
“That’s right. Grandpa should be a little more careful… But the person next to you….”
“Oh, don’t you know? This sister brought in a disciple some time ago. Say hello to each other.”
Saying that, when Vivian saw me, I got up from my seat and bowed my head.
“This is John Doe, currently attending the Academy.”
“Ah, yes… I am Dor, the chief blacksmith of this blacksmith.”
Dor, bowing after me, held out his hand, and I took it.
Dor’s hands were covered with burnt blisters and calluses. Although his appearance was clumsy, his hands were the hands of a great craftsman.
“I’ve never seen my sister hire a disciple before, but she seems to be quite talented!”
“I just got lucky.”
“Luckily… That’s all babbling. I was lucky enough to catch a black dog alone….”
“Huh, a black dog?! You mean that black dog?!”
I didn’t know, but could it be that the black dog is some kind of legendary beast?
Yes, I was scared at first too, but now I felt a severe sense of alienation from making such a fuss with a monster that I only recognized as a big mutt.
“Yes, this time I was going to commission you to make armor out of the black dog. I am so sorry that this happened.
“Well, then how about commissioning me?! I’m not to the point of being called the best on the continent like my grandfather, but I have the confidence to be called the best in the academy!!”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
“Yes?!”
Perhaps I hadn’t expected that he would reply so quickly, Dor opened his eyes wide and looked at me in disbelief.
“Would you really mind if I just entrusted you with such a precious material?!”
The black dog’s material was precious to Dor, but to me it was just a lump of luggage occupying the inventory.
Besides, if you wanted to get it, you could easily get it without Vivian’s help, so there was nothing to waste.
It’s just that I didn’t have the confidence to distinguish between a skilled and trustworthy blacksmith, so I couldn’t entrust it.
“There are a lot of them, so don’t feel pressured and test anything you want to try. I’ll give you about 10 servings, so if you have any left over, you can keep it.”
“Hey, ten… No, how many did you catch? .”
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“Did you catch a hundred at that time? You said you gave it to the professors? How long do you have left?”
“I didn’t count closely, but I think there were about forty left. If it’s not enough, we’ll bring you more, so you don’t have to worry. And this….”
I paused for a moment, then pulled out a platinum plaque from my inventory and brought it out to Dor.
“Please use this for the cost of materials. The production cost of the armor will be separate later….”
“This is enough! If you take a platinum plaque and charge separately, you are no different from a con artist!!”
“Okay. So, let’s stop talking about cost here, and I want to talk about armor….”
After consulting about armor for a while, we left the smithy after a considerable amount of time had passed, but when we looked at the sky, the sky was already bright.
“I stayed all day…. If you’re tired, would you like to take a break from the academy? Oh, today is the day to introduce special activities, so should we go?”
“Special activity?”
When an unfamiliar word came out and tilted her head, Vivian yawned and began to explain.
“Short to special activities. It’s like a kind of gathering that happens after the schedule is over or once a week, but there are activities just for socializing like tea parties, and there are activities related to combat like the swordsmanship research club.”
Each activity is accompanied by a lead professor, and in addition to the existing activities, students can apply for new activities.
“Then, does Professor Vivian have any activities?”
“No. Why are you bothering me like that? I’m telling you in advance, that shorty b*tch isn’t there, so just do what you want to do. You probably have at least one hobby.”
“There is no such thing.”
Since I was a child, I had been under my father’s supervision every single moment to defeat the Demon God, so I didn’t really have anything to call it a hobby.
To put it bluntly, is it just about practicing spearmanship? Since I’ve been doing it since I was young, some of it has become a half-habit, but I feel comfortable when I hold the spear.
“Is it okay not to attend meetings if there is no particular activity that appeals to you?”
“Do nothing?”
Even if you join a social gathering, you won’t fit in, and even if you join a swordsmanship research club, you won’t make much progress.
“I wonder if there is something that appeals to me today, but right now I have no idea.”
“If that’s what you think, then what? But don’t you have any hobbies?”
“Does such a professor have any hobbies?”
“Me? Do you really want to travel? Traveling to the East was also a half hobby.”
Vivian put on a wet expression for a while, as if recalling her travel days, but after a while, she caressed one corner of her eye and frowned at her.
She probably recalled her memory of losing one of her eyes to her father. If she had been beaten by that human, she would have done the same to me.
‘By the way….’
If you’ve been to the East, wouldn’t you have known about the evil to some extent?
I don’t know how powerful the evil spirits are in the East, but if they were enough to summon the demon king as a sacrifice, it wouldn’t be strange if it entered the ears of a traveler.
“… Professor, do you know the evil spirit?”
When he asked without much expectation, such as “If it doesn’t work, don’t do it,” Vivian nodded and said.
“I know you know that much detail, but I know the outline. But why?”
“That… My father once told me a fairy tale related to death. It was so long ago that I can’t remember….”
“Yes… ?”
Vivian noticed something suspicious, but soon opened her mouth as if it was okay.
“To put it simply, it’s like an Asian version of the demon king. Even though they are demon kings, unlike the demon kings who were combed from the hands of demon gods, the evil spirits are descendants of the old kings who have now perished.”
It was quite a long time ago that the death penalty was sealed, and since there was no particular investigation, the information about Vivian was only fragmentary.
Hagiya It was strange to know the details of the stories I heard while passing by on my travels.
“It is said that the evil spirits who fell at the hands of the heroes of the time were exiled to the west. There’s no way they’ll cross the continent and come here, so this has nothing to do with us.”
“… ….”
I didn’t make it this far, but someone is trying to resurrect it here.
The plague….