Chapter 28
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Everyday Life (3)༻
Ferghus the Weapon Breaker.
He was one of the representative blacksmith NPCs of Merkarva City, and was the owner of a smithy who crafted weapons.
By the way, Weapon Breaker was the title he was given because the weapons crafted by him were so strong that they could easily crush other weapons.
However, he was notorious in the game for something else.
『Oopsies! My hands slipped!』
He was a literal weapon breaker - a blacksmith who broke weapons.
It was a very paradoxical phrase, but back in the game, there was always the chance to fail whenever repairing and crafting weapons (except for some weapons).
Even when all the necessary materials were in place, he would waste all those materials or break the weapon when repairing one with a low durability.
That was in spite of the success chance being higher than 90%.
His insanely high chance of failure and his infamous line, ‘Oopsies! My hands slipped!’ made him so notorious among the player base that they used to search ‘How to kill Ferghus’.
Along with his increasing popularity, the publishing company updated a DLC which added a new quest line for Ferghus.
“Hmm hmm. Beard is the dream~, dream~, dream~ of men~.”
A man with a face that seemingly proved the adversities of his life, a black and not-so-long beard and an impressive tanned skin hummed in a low and thick voice.
“Hello.”
I greeted the middle-aged man after walking across the scorching smithy.
“Mhmm, Mr. Korin. Is this really the place Senior Marie told you about?”
“It is. Apparently it’s the best smithy in Merkarva City.”
Alicia followed from behind and glanced around in curiosity. She appeared to be quite unfamiliar with shabby places like this due to being used to the specialized smithies in her dojo.
“You said you’re looking for a place to repair your weapon right? Do you not know how to sharpen your own blade?”
“T, the blacksmiths of my family had been taking care of everything…”
“You’re quite the sheltered lady aren’t you.”
“Ugh…”
She appeared frustrated for being unable to refute my words.
“Welcome to my workshop.”
Ferghus solemnly greeted us with an intentionally stern voice.
“We’re here to repair her weapon.”
“H, here you go.”
“Haht!”
Ferghus widened his eyes into circles after seeing the weapon in her hands.
The blade gave off a chilly glare while the handle had a perfect grip.
He must be thinking that it was a good weapon despite looking average.
The demon-slaying sword appeared just like a normal single-edged sword on the outside. It showed its true form only when the user was able to reach the ‘Domain’, and that was why it was normal for Ferghus to mistake Alicia’s sword as a normal yet decent sword.
“Is it for a repair?”
“Yes. I didn’t have time to take care of it these days.”
“Hmm. That’ll be 30 silver coins.”
“Kuhk…”
After receiving the payment from Alicia, Ferghus placed the demon-slaying sword on top of the anvil and raised his heavy iron hammer.
Veins protruded out of his thick and muscular arms that had been tempered throughout his 30 years of working as a blacksmith… His eyes glistened in gold and sunlight gathered at the end of his hammer when…
“Oopsies!! My hands slippedddd!!!!!!!”
- Kachang!!
The hammer that Ferghus swung with the force of a mountain destroyed Alicia’s beautiful single-edged sword in one strike.
“GYAAAAAAAAAKKK?!”
Alicia let out a bizarre scream.
“Hohoh. Today’s not a good day, it seems. This wasn’t my intention but I ended up failing the repair. My apologies.”
Ferghus scratched his head with an awkward look on his face. It was very rare for weapons to break in the hammering process but it did happen sometimes.
“Can you… repair the sword?”
“Not if it’s in shatters like this.”
“E, even with glue?”
“What do you think?”
“How can you say that after breaking my sword! Y, you have to take responsibility!”
She raised a reasonable complaint but Ferghus scratched his ear while pointing at the wall with his other hand.
『Will not take responsibility for weapons broken mid-repair』
“Ah…”
“Well, things like this just happen at times. I will refund the repair cost for you.”
“Gihyaaaaa…”
Alicia shrieked while pulling her hair out. She looked pitiful trying to bring the shattered pieces back together with her lips mumbling like a goldfish. Her hard work was obviously in vain.
It was possible for weapons to break during the repairing process, but the important thing here was that Ferghus had broken the ‘hidden piece’ - demon-slaying sword.
“Oi. Ferghus.”
“Hmm? What a rude bloke. Do I know you?”
I quietly picked up a knife that was rolling around the smithy.
“How dare you play tricks from the get go!”
“Hueeek!”
- Kwajik!
“Mr. Korin!?”
The knife in my hand dug right in between the gaps of Ferghus’s fingers. His face turned pale upon seeing how close he was to losing his fingers.
“I bet all my money and my hand that there’s a sword underneath that anvil. What are you gonna bet?”
“W, what are you doing…!”
“Buddy, this is why you’re losing money.”
“Ehhng?”
Ignoring Alicia, I kicked Ferghus’s anvil to the side and sitting there was the demon-slaying sword in a perfect shape.
“W, what is going on?”
“It’s an optical illusion spell. This guy is an unregistered mage. Low Grade, but still.”
That’s right.
After the update, Ferghus the Weapon Breaker, who was the Number 1 most detested character in the game due to all the complaints of the gamers, obtained a quest line and a backstory.
『The Truth behind the Weapon Breaker』
It was a quest where the player started to doubt the fact that only the good weapons were being destroyed during Ferghus’s repair and started diving into the truth of the matter.
After several investigations, the player receives clues from a book called ‘How to fail at repairs and still earn money’, marches into Ferghus’s secret storeroom and finds enough evidence to sue him.
That allowed the world to discover the horrendous fact that upon coming across a well-made weapon, Ferghus would pretend to break the weapon using illusionary spells while hiding the real weapon underneath for himself.
That was only the beginning, and would mark the start of a quest chain that allowed the player to sue the evil deeds of all the blacksmiths across the continent including Ladybug Kiri* and Hollgrehenn the Broken*.
Right - unless they were scamming us like that, there was no way these freaking blacksmiths could break so many of those damn weapons!
Only then would everything make sense.
“Alicia!”
“Yes?!”
“Bring me a hammer.”
“What?”
“Uhak?”
“The only ones who can scam are those who are prepared to lose their hands. Do you not know that?”
“Aigo! Please don’t kill me! Please spare my life!”
“Huhihihi. After you, it’ll be Kiri.”
“P, please show me mercy! Please forgive me just once!”
- Kuaaaaaahkkk!
****
“Uahh… I thought you were really going to break his hand.”
“Of course not… I’m not that crazy.”
That crazy Park did break his hands but… well, actually, that wouldn’t have been so bad either. Anyway, Ferghus’s fate had been decided already. Even without me, he would naturally be expelled from the scenario when the time comes.
“How did you know that Mr. Ferghus was a mage and that he used an illusion spell?”
I couldn’t tell her that it was from the DLC of a game so I made up a random answer. It was actually not that hard to find something odd about this incident.
“The demon-slaying sword was made with the Unbreakable Stone, right? I figured the blade might go blunt but the center wouldn’t break.
“Ah…”
In this era, it was rare to craft magic weapons with one material.
Even back on Earth, we did not use pure iron to make weapons and usually used alloys. Even steel was an alloy made with the combination of iron and carbon, instead of being pure iron.
In this world, swords were made by mixing iron with magic stones. The one that was used in the demon-slaying sword was the Unbreakable Stone, which was classified as a Unique Grade item.
It was literally unbreakable, and was a legendary material that was said to be only bendable with the addition of fire mages heating up a concentrated furnace and blacksmiths wearing heat-proof clothing.
How would such a weapon break from one hammer strike of a blacksmith? That was simply impossible.
“But considering how you were threatening him about crushing his arm, it ended rather peacefully right?”
“C’mon… I’m not a violent person, okay.”
“...”
Alicia sent me a skeptical gaze in response to my words. If it was someone else instead of me, things would’ve looked a lot rougher for Ferghus.
“So is he doing the blueprint and weapon crafting for free?”
“It’s not for ‘free’. I told him to charge the Academy, didn’t I?”
“Ah~”
I told him to request the necessary materials from the Academy and made him give me all the money that would be given as a payment. The entire payment of 30 gold coins would go through him into my hands.
“Isn’t this… embezzlement?”
“We need some bribes to keep the game going, don’t we?”
“That’s true too.”
Alicia was quite similar to me in this regard. Actually, we made him craft Alicia’s ornaments and necessary tools for free while we were at it, so she wasn’t losing anything either.
Even though she was a pure girl, she wasn’t a naive person who would forgive a person for trying to scam her without getting any reimbursement.
“Mr. Korin. It’s about time we go on patrol.”
“I know. It's 2 o’clock, right?”
It was a short mission that gave 20 silver coins, and I chose the same time and date as her on purpose.
I wasn’t 100% sure, but if I remembered correctly, today was probably the day.
****
Alicia was very content with the patrol missions she could get from the mission board. All she had to do was go around the predetermined routes around the city to check if there were any problems.
A guardian personally going on patrol was enough to give peace of mind to the citizens and she could just kill any demonic beasts along the road.
The ones near the city were mostly just Grade 4 and Grade 5. There was a verrryyy~ rare chance of coming across a medium-ranked demonic beast but that was as unlikely as being hit by a lightning on a sunny day.
In other words, it was little-to-no work with decent returns. Alicia liked how burdenless it was, and more than anything…
“Miss Knight! We are done with things on our end.”
“That is amazing, Ms. Knight! There were 10 demonic beasts but they were gone in the blink of an eye!”
“Hmm hmm~”
Her ears were fixed on the compliments of the patrolling officers around her. Demonic beasts that they would have had to risk their lives for were being killed with ease so it was natural for them to show admiration and praise.
‘Huhihi…! Everyone in the household said I was bad, but I don’t think I’m that bad!’
As an illegitimate child that was hidden in the shadows cast by the brilliant light of her older sister, Alicia had been constantly disregarded at home but here, she was a genius and a hero. It felt amazing to receive praises from other people.
“Alicia. There was an owlbear on your end, right?”
“I took care of it with ease!”
Alicia replied while kicking on the owlbear that was lying down under her feet.
“Leader~. Please take out the leather and claws later when you have time!”
“Of course Miss!”
“That was remarkable!”
“It’s nothing~. It wasn’t much.”
“Ohh. So even an owlbear is nothing much to you. As expected of a swordsman from the renowned Arden household!”
Alicia enjoyed the looks of admiration and praise that she wasn’t able to get at home.
『Tch tch. You’re still at the entry level of that skill, huh. Your sister mastered it when she was your age.』
『Our Arden household finally has a successor for the Sword Emperor! Miss Lunia Arden is by far the greatest genius of the contemporary times』
『Compared to her, her sister is…』
『Shh. She’s an illegitimate child. She’s humble from birth.』
The fact that she was a Grade 2 Knight despite being 17 years old proved her talent, but she had always been living under the comparative gazes of the surroundings.
Geniuses were always kept in check by greater geniuses. Alicia’s older sister, Lunia Arden, was like the perfect personification of a swordsman, and Alicia had never been the target of attention due to being hidden in her shadows.
“Nice. It’s about time for our job to end. At this rate…”
Today would be another peaceful day with nothing much happening, unless something was to happen all of a sudden.
- Shiiiieee~
- Booom!
That was when a flare gun was shot from the woods. It wasn’t loud nor visible to the naked eye but its special design that allowed only the unique goggles of the security guards to spot it meant that everyone present was able to see it.
“Aht! That’s a signal from the other group! A nest of a demonic beast above Grade 2!”
“Ah…”
If there was nothing going on, the patrol mission could end without the guardians defeating a single demonic beast but in emergency situations like this, they were obligated to participate in the fight.
“We have the granddaughter of the Sword Emperor on our side!”
“A nest of a Grade 2 demonic beast is nothing!”
“Wait…”
“Hoh. This is perfect.”
Korin’s quiet mutter at the end was too soft to reach the ears of the dejected Alicia.
****
The Grade 2 demonic beast’s nest that the other patrol group discovered was a den of wolves with a beowulf in the lead.
‘I can easily deal with a beowulf by myself!’
That was what Alicia thought, but her inexperienced judgment resulted in a critical outcome.
- Grrrh…
A beastly howl echoed from the top of the head of the large horse. The four thick and long legs of the horse left behind heavy thuds but its stomach was rotten like a drowned animal so much so that it looked like it would tear open at any given moment.
Sitting on the horse was a headless human carrying a spear.
The humanoid monster without a head was so thin that its flesh was almost touching its bones. The strange-looking horseman urged the horse and marched towards Alicia while slashing at the air with its long thick nails.
- Tap! Tap!
As if it had become one with the wind, the demonic beast raced across the ground with soft steps unlike before.
‘It’s coming!’
It flailed during its march that made it look more like a mollusk than a vertebrate. It couldn’t even fight against the gust created by its own march as it wobbled its way towards her.
❰First Sword Style of Arden. Domain Severance❱
The unpolished battojutsu, which was still the strongest move Alicia could pull off, was swung at the approaching demonic beast.
- Huiik!
However, the beast’s movements were far beyond her level of imagination. Like a giant squid, it suddenly blasted its body forward and dodged her attack before trying to wrap itself around her body like a snake.
“Kuhuk…!?”
It was both fast and experienced.
It was at least a Grade 1 demonic beast! She got caught off guard because it was immediately after she dealt with the beowulf, and it wasn’t her fault in her opinion, because no-one would have expected such a monster to be in the forest!
“M, Mr. Korin! Please help! Require assistance!”
Alicia asked for help as soon as she started being pushed back by a little. She was a normal girl who was very distant from the pride of a knight… in a lot of ways.
“K, Knight Korin is currently in the middle of fighting other demonic beasts!”
But what she heard in response was not Korin’s voice but the voice of the security guards who were fighting against other demonic beasts.
“Kiiiiiik…!”
In that desperate situation, as the monster’s nails approached her neck and Alicia closed her eyes shut…
- Kajik!
Something splattered with a thud. A hot stream of blood flowed down her cheeks.
“U, uhh?”
- Kieeeeeh…!
A resentful voice tickled her ears. Alicia reopened her eyes and saw a gleaming blade that was right next to her face.
“This sword…”
Her gaze traveled up the blade and looked at the beholder.
The swordsman with long and jet-black hair had the same cold and intellectual look on her face as always.
“As weak, lazy and cocky as ever.”
Lunia Arden.
She was the oldest daughter of the renowned Arden family, and was the most likely candidate to become the next successor.
The contemporary Sword Master who was believed to be the second coming of the Sword Emperor.
“S, sister.”
She was Lunia Arden; Alicia’s older sister.
Translator’s Note:
Ferghus from Mabinogi
Lady Kiri from Dungeon and Fighter
Hollgrehenn from Ragnarok
Those three are the infamous gear upgraders of the three famous RPG games of Korea, which are of course famous for RNG upgrade systems.