Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The Blacksmith and the Affectionate Master-Disciple Bond (1)

I did not sleep properly that day, but Sierra seemed to recover a little more vitality afterward.

[ Are you certain there is a blacksmith who knows how to make cursed blades in such an ordinary village? ]

Sierra, circling around me, spoke.

“For someone living in an ordinary village, even approaching him is difficult... but I prepared, so I have to try.”

I said this while tapping my heavy backpack.

We had come to a village near the academy to meet the blacksmith to whom I would entrust the creation of the cursed blade.

After getting off the carriage and entering the village, I moved my steps toward where the blacksmith should be.

Perhaps because it was deep night in a small village, people were not actively walking around the streets.

[ I wonder what sort of fellow the blacksmith who will make the cursed blade is... A dwarf? No, a dwarf would not be living in a place like this. ]

Sierra poured out questions, curious about the blacksmith’s identity.

“I don’t know his appearance either. But once you meet him, you’ll be able to notice immediately.”

I answered her questions with a smile. At my answer, Sierra tilted her head, still unable to grasp it.

As I walked along the village road, I saw one house somewhat set apart. For a house in a small village, it was a fairly large mansion.

“This must be it.”

I stopped before the mansion and said that.

The moment I approached the mansion to knock on its door, I felt something sweep over my body.

[ It seems a barrier has been laid. ]

“It is probably a light barrier meant to check who enters. He dislikes being disturbed.”

Standing before the mansion’s door, I knocked politely.

—Knock, knock.

“...”

Even after I knocked, I could not feel any presence from inside the mansion.

“He should not have gone out...”

Since he was living while hiding his identity, I did need to be careful in my approach, but I had one gift that could suppress this rudeness.

—Creak.

The moment I placed my hand on the door, thinking of knocking once more, the door opened.

“What business brings you here? If you came looking for the village chief, then you came to the right place...”

The man who opened the door and introduced himself as the village chief had a clean impression and looked young for a blacksmith who would make a cursed blade.

His particularly bright blond hair stood out.

He was indeed the blacksmith I was looking for.

Though perhaps I should say he had a side job.

[ At a glance, he is nothing more than an ordinary human. Is he truly a blacksmith? ]

Sierra beside me tossed out a question that would not be answered.

But I saw clearly that the young chief’s gaze turned slightly toward Sierra, who was floating in the air.

“Well... I don’t quite know what name I should call you by. Should I call you Chief... or should I call you ‘Lord Daidros’? Did I find the right person?”

When I brought up the name Daidros, the chief’s eyes grew extremely serious.

Daidros was his name as a cursed blade blacksmith.

“...First, let us speak inside. Come in.”

The young chief’s tone and impression suddenly changed completely.

Soon, he threw the door open and invited us into his mansion.

The inside of the mansion I entered after him was extremely luxurious.

Everything decorating the mansion looked expensive, without exception.

The artworks visible here and there fully revealed his disposition.

Sierra also flew around the mansion here and there, surprised by a luxury unsuitable for the chief of a village.

Following him inside, we entered a spacious room with sofas arranged around a table.

The young chief plopped down onto one of the sofas there.

Then he tapped the sofa beside him, inviting me to sit.

“I thought I might be rude coming so late at night... Thank you for letting me in.”

I sat on the sofa accordingly and said this to him.

“Putting aside the fact that a blind man came all the way here, if you are emitting such powerful demonic energy, the reason you came is obvious.”

The young chief glanced at me once, then poured the liquor on the table into a glass. Though he did not show it openly, he seemed somewhat displeased.

Seeing him like that, I took a bottle of liquor from my backpack.

I had taken out an item that would help improve our relationship.

“Judging by the smell of alcohol in the air... I happen to have something to give you, but perhaps you do not need it?”

His gaze fixed on the liquor bottle I had taken out.

“Wait... Hand me that bottle.”

I obediently passed the bottle to him.

After taking the bottle, he slowly read the label and then asked me.

“Where... did you get this?”

The liquor he held was an item written in the game as “very old liquor.”

Generally, wine becomes more flavorful and valuable the longer it is aged, but this liquor was closer to cheap distilled liquor. Because of that, even in the game, it was not treated as an item of great value.

However, this liquor was an item that raised the affection of the man before me, Daidros.

Because it was a liquor he had drunk in the past, and one now discontinued and difficult to find. It could be seen as liquor filled with his nostalgia.

“On the way here, I helped an old man cleaning out his storage. He gave this to me as thanks. I don’t drink, so...”

The game did not have such a difficult structure.

If there was a specific person, events where one obtained items related to that person on the way happened quite often.

“On the way to the village... Hahaha! They say it is darkest under the lamp... To think it had been so close... This liquor contains many memories... Whether you intended it or not, it is an item with deep meaning to me.”

Looking at the bottle in his hand with distant eyes, he stroked the label with his finger.

Judging by his reaction, it seemed I would be able to see the effect I intended.

[ This man... Compared to his young face, I can feel that the years he has lived have not been easy. ]

Sierra seemed to have somewhat grasped his identity.

“Daidros... It has become quite an unfamiliar name now. I am not curious how you found me... At the very least, you must have come knowing who I am.”

I nodded to him.

Daidros.

He was a dragon who had lived on this land for hundreds of years.

At present, he was in a human form through “polymorph.”

Dragons in fantasy were commonly said to have their personalities or traits change depending on the color of their scales.

However, even in the game, there had never been a scene where he transformed into a dragon, so there was no precise information.

But judging by his blond hair in human form, he was inferred to be a “gold dragon.”

In any case, he was currently enjoying his “amusement” to the fullest as a dragon.

The chief of a small village.

For a modern human, would it feel similar to playing a village management game?

“...You wish to make a cursed blade, correct?”

Daidros, placing the liquor bottle on the table with a satisfied curl of his mouth, went straight to the point.

One might ask what kind of blacksmith a dragon could be, but he used “dragon breath,” heat intense enough to melt vampiric iron, to create cursed blades.

The reason he, a dragon, made cursed blades for mere humans was also a kind of amusement.

This was only the case when it came to cursed blades that had not gone through a proper seal, but if one could not handle a cursed blade properly, the user would be swallowed by the ghost.

Because the sight of such foolish humans being devoured by ghosts was entertaining amusement to him, he would make cursed blades.

On top of that, he was so full of an artist’s disposition that he had even prepared a workshop, and he treated cursed blades as his splendid works of art.

I only hoped his unique artistic sensibility would not be applied too harshly to me.

“Are you confident you will not be swallowed by the power of the cursed blade...?...My apologies. It has been a long time since I spoke as a blacksmith, so my tone is going back and forth.”

Daidros held his head and shook it. It seemed to be the influence of having spent long years transforming into all sorts of different humans.

“It is all right. Then perhaps conversation as the village chief would be more comfortable?”

“Yes, that would be good... So, have you prepared all the materials?”

His voice and tone changing in an instant were somewhat difficult to adjust to, but what did it matter as long as he made the cursed blade well?

Judging by his proactive attitude, the item I had prepared seemed to have had no small effect.

For Daidros, who wanted the materials, I was about to unpack my backpack.

Then he blocked my arm and said.

“Hmm... This place is not ideal. Let us go underground.”

After saying that, he picked up one of the nearby candlesticks and guided the way.

Following him, I passed through a secret passage and began descending a dark stairway.

The round stairway guided us deep underground.

“You walk quite well despite how inconvenient it must be. I once saw someone like you before.”

Daidros, descending the stairs slowly while relying on the candlestick, said this.

“Someone like me?”

“That man also had his eyes covered with bandages, like you. He walked well... and fought well. Well, he was a martial artist... so he would be different from you, who handle a sword.”

Daidros stopped while descending the stairs, glanced at me, and said that.

“He was someone from hundreds of years ago, so my memories are hazy, but I still remember him chattering about ‘sound waves’ and ‘resonance.’ In any case, do you possess a similar kind of technique?”

“Ahaha... I also have something called ‘perception’... It is probably a similar feeling.”

In hundreds of years, it would not be strange for such a person to exist at least once.

If anything, to Daidros, my existence might not look very strange.

“The funniest thing was that the name of the ultimate technique that man had honed his entire life was ‘Dragon’s Wrath.’ Without even knowing that a real dragon was right before his eyes...”

Daidros swallowed a laugh that had slipped out, ended the small talk, and opened the door at the end of the stairs.

[...He was a dragon? ]

Only then, after hearing the conversation between me and Daidros, did Sierra guess his identity.

“Welcome to the ‘Workshop of Breath.’”

In time with his introduction, I entered the room, and sights unfolded that were hard to believe existed underground.

It looked like a professional workshop.

Though I did not know their names, it was filled with tools that seemed likely to be found in a forge from the game.

When I had first set foot in this Workshop of Breath in the game, it had not felt very real, but after directly descending the long staircase, it felt more mystical.

“I had some trouble connecting it to a chimney... and you may not feel it well, but I pride myself on it being quite a splendid place.”

Daidros stood at the center of the workshop and raised both arms, making a show of himself.

Judging by the mansion’s interior and his current gesture, he seemed to have a personality that liked showing off.

“Let us see the materials.”

I opened my backpack for Daidros, who approached me with great strides, and showed him the materials.

“Hmm, this vampiric iron is of quite good quality... Let’s see... These petals... yes, they should be of great help in blocking demonic energy.”

Daidros inspected the materials I had prepared here and there.

“The other things are enough. But since earlier, I can see a lump of demonic energy gathered and flying around... Where is the ‘object’?”

He was referring to the object containing the soul’s memories, the most important part of a cursed blade.

Judging by his reaction at the door as well, even if he could not see Sierra’s whole form, it seemed he could see her as something like gathered demonic energy.

I took Sierra’s pendant from inside my clothes and handed it to him.

“It is emitting this much demonic energy, and you have been carrying it inside your clothes until now...?”

Daidros’s face stiffened seriously after he accepted the pendant, and he asked me that.

“...Is there some problem?”

“With this level of demonic energy... it would not be strange for your health to suffer. But judging from your reaction, there has been nothing like that at all.”

“...”

In the game, the player had an extradimensional storage space called the inventory... so perhaps nothing had been said, but judging by his words, this current situation did seem unusual.

[...To treat me like some mere curse or monster! I would never harm my disciple. ]

Sierra needlessly pointed her finger at Daidros, who could not hear her voice, threw a tantrum, and then slipped into the pendant.

“Can you perhaps converse with souls...?”

Daidros, who had been watching me closely since earlier, said this to me in a meaningful tone, as if it were a very serious matter.

Was he able to notice because he had handled cursed blades for so long?

The moment I heard his question, I was colored by bewilderment.

“...A little...?”