An Old Country Bumpkin Grills Meat

“Hey, Baldel. Sorry to intrude.”

“Hey, Sensei. Welcome in.”

The day after I went to the Mage Academy with Fissel,

I stopped by Baldel’s smithy after finishing my morning training to pick up the sword I’d left with him.

“That sword’s all sharpened up. Just give me a minute.”

“Sure. Sorry to trouble you.”

Baldel quickly guessed what I was there for, then disappeared behind the counter after saying that much.

While he went to fetch my sword, I looked over the wall lined with high-quality weapons, though the shop was rather cramped.

After visiting a few times, I’d come to realize that Baldel’s smithy wasn’t exactly booming, to put it simply.

The shop wasn’t very big, and it didn’t have an especially wide selection, either...