In the forgery.

 

“Are you not angry?” Sarey asked Allan who seemed the same as usual.

 

“No. There is no point in that. He did not mean it negatively, I hope...” He said, a little unsure.

 

“You should be more understanding about yourself! Even using a real sword is dangerous.”

 

“I think you are mistaken, Sarey.” Allan turned around and faced her with the blade in hand.

 

“This is something important to me too, as well as the key in many paths and ways. Do you think immortals don't use weapons? Do you think energy is omnipotent? Do you think a man can live with the body only? I figured that using less is not always enough. But more is sometimes less and vice versa.”

 

“I know that... Wait until you are comfortable with your life on the line. I bet it is not the right time to do something like this. Think of the immortal stuff, when you are ready.”

 

“I felt the fear of life... more than I am willing to admit,” Allan expressed his emotion with unusual tones.

 

Sarey stared at him with mixed emotions. She knew the grand scheme of things was out of her reach. There aren't many paths for her if any. She always worries about things she needs to and cares less about unimportant stuff. That could be called normal behavior, but her worries went beyond her emotions. Since the worry about Allan begins, she felt it even more.

 

But there were no regrets in her mind. She should become more accustomed to this.

 

“Fine, you madman. I guess you are right. I am doing things to extremes, as my father does as well. What is wrong with that? I hope you will get beaten up like yesterday. Don't come to me for treatment afterward.” She left towards the room with the horse. She slowly brushed its fur to calm herself down.

 

Allan felt hesitant from her uproar. He was gradually getting to understand that there was no easy way in life. Yet, he had to be glad for his life. It was all thanks to Sarey and Zigmund. He would not be mad at either of them. Anger or anything was out of the question. That was his promise and he would go by this decision.

 

Allan decided to leave things be. Bothering them was not something he wanted.

 

There were more things to feel than in his past. Although Clayton's shop was not always calm, he liked it very much. His current situation would be hardly called something normal, and he knew it very well.

 

“I believe there will come a day where I will be more at peace with this situation. I hope at least.” Allan sighed and took his new blade towards the work table.

 

He felt the blade once more. Although he was confident in his abilities as a blacksmith, he was not in his ideal state of mind and body. For him to accomplish this blade was wonderful news.

 

“There was also a possibility that Zigmund did not use all of his strength. I am not sure how powerful he is, but that force sent me flying quite a long distance. His physique is strong beyond normal mortal for sure.” He wondered as he cleaned his blade. There was some small chopped part of the edge, but that was fixed within a few strokes with a whetstone.

 

“It is a good blade. It has some surprising toughness. I guess I used the best technique for this sort of blade. Next time, there will be something new. Maybe a short sword or knife for Sarey.” Allan was indecisive, but at the end of the day, he went with what he wanted. It was time to give something to Sarey in return.

 

That would come later tomorrow since Zigmund kept waiting for Allan outside.

 

Calming himself down, he rested for a few moments and took his wooden stuff with him outside. There was an open walkthrough within the stable towards the outside door, so he walked through without bumping into anything.

 

Sarey couldn't be bothered to check them this time. Seeing Allan leaving, she pouted and played the huffy persona.

 

“Finally ready, boy?” Zigmund's voice spread into the distant Allan as he appeared outside.

 

“There are some things I want to try with you, mister Zigmund. Is it fine if I try some moves on you?”

 

“With that wooden pole? I guess so.” Zigmund got up from his position and walked in front of Allan, who kept a relaxed posture with his pole. It was around 1 and a half meters tall, while still smaller than Allan's height.

 

“I've been thinking a lot about the words you said previously. It is longer than that, but these are problems which are unique to my case.”

 

“Talking is usually useless, real practice is the best way to solve issues with uncertain skills,” Zigmund replied without listening to his problem.

 

“I was doing some visualization in my head. Real attacking against a real opponent is completely different. Since I am blind, how could I deflect, attack, and understand the position of my opponent?”

 

“Voice, movement, wind, and clatter of weapons. If you can defend, make sure you have certain openings which could be used against you. In that case, you would know where to attack.” Zigmund said after understanding the wording of his issue.

 

“Use myself against my enemy? This is very complicated.”

 

“Of course, do you see a lot of blind people who have decent lives? It is a miserable way to go by with their lives.”

 

Allan fell silent upon hearing his harsh words. He was careful, but there was more reason to be worried than anything else. Slight misstep and you are gone. Life is a marvelous thing, that could be very easily broken apart.

 

“Alright, if it's fine with you, I will check some movement techniques with my shaft against you. You will defend instead of attacking.” Allan said as he pointed his shaft onwards while grabbing his pole with both hands, and resting the further end around his hips.

 

“Go for it.” Zigmund stood there wide open.

 

Allan pounced forward with his right leg. He used a very low stance where the tip of the shaft was kept with his body. There were a few openings, but he was mistaken about this. He used a terrible technique of attacking, and Zigmund saw that straight on with his eyes.

 

Zigmund, who used the wooden sword, deflected Allan's move with a flick of his sword.

 

Allan swept his shaft across the air towards Zigmund as his attack was a failure. He used the force of the deflection to move the other side of the pole by twisting his whole body.

 

Zigmund remained in his steady defense and similarly pointed his wooden sword as Allan did when he attacked him not so long ago. Crossed arms, with lower posture and sword in hand. He forces the attack to land on the resilient defense of the wooden sword that is reinforced by his whole body.

 

Allan used the same move as Zigmund did to him with his real sword.

 

A déjà vu kind of situation happened, but the results were not so much similar.

 

 

Allan's wooden shaft left his hands as he stumbled backward.

 

“Decent failure. It seems the backlash from this sort of weapon is rather big.” He calmly assumed. Failure was the main thing he wanted from this experiment. There was no success with no failure.

 

“Is it your first time using a shaft?” Zigmund asked with some concern. He took the blunt force without any step backward.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Hmph! No wonder. You seem like a complete amateur. I had plenty of experience with people who used these kinds of weapons. They had sturdy bodies beyond normal means, as well as both arms, which needed to move in a much more profound way than using normal weapons. There is also something else. Shafts are an excellent tool against the opponent who wields swords,” Zigmund said with his deep experiences.

 

“I know that. It mainly depends on their quality and materials. Metals could strengthen their body and their force can break through enemy defenses. Although, the quality of the wood plays the most important part. Flexibility and toughness are all important.” Allan answers in understanding.

 

“So you know at least this much. Continue.” Zigmund pulled himself up and stood firmly like an unmoving mountain. He was kind of curious to see what Allan was up to.

 

Allan did not wait any longer. He pounced at him after retrieving his shaft, which was very close to him. He moved directly as before. Striking him with the tip of the shaft or swinging widely around. He wanted to experience the feeling of striking somebody for a longer period of time. He needs to know where to strike and not, so this could be an excellent choice.

 

He kept his distance from the continuous strikes and thrusts. He made sure to follow with many first-time feelings about using the shaft, which he felt is an excellent choice for a blind person. Feeling the flow of Zigmund's movements through his hearing and feelings. It was hard, very hard.

 

After almost half an hour, Allan stopped. He gained a lot this time around. Zigmund's patience surprised him.

 

“Thank you,” Allan said, being already out of breath.

 

“You kept going much longer than I thought. Pretty good attacks too, but if I was to attack or move, that would be a drastically different situation”

 

“I know, there will be plenty of time to try it too,” Allan agrees.

 

“Heheheh. I hope so. Do you want to continue?” Zigmund said with amusement.

 

“Of course, this is a spar, after all. You are no fighting figurine, mister Zigmund.”

 

“Alright, I won't be gentle.”

 

Both of them pounced at each other. The winner was already decided, but Allan would not back down even after being a loser from the beginning.

---

 

Meanwhile, inside the forgery.

 

Sarey was silently going through the things in the storage. Writing everything down from Allan's wishes, and being done with brushing the horse. She still had not finished with everything that should be kept in the new forge. Especially the whole ordeal of making sure everything is available for a blind person to grab. That in itself wasted a lot of time.

 

“Bunch of lunatics... I can hear them from outside.” She complained after hearing the start of the real sparring.

 

After some time, the sounds slowly declined.

 

The door inside opened and Allan's haggard appearance walked towards the worktable he have for himself. He had his shaft with drastic damage as the support. He sat with some difficulties on the chair, while the shaft, cracked further apart from the damages.

 

“You alright?” Sarey unwillingly muttered after watching him walk around her questionable stare.

 

“Never felt better.” He nonchalantly spoke.

 

Sarey fell silent. She did not want to admit her thoughts. Being angry or upset for longer would only make her more upset. It was a never-ending cycle that she was unwilling to continue.

 

With some change of expression and sigh, she got up and walked towards Allan.

 

“You are bruised quite heavily. Let me wash you first before the treatment.”

 

“I thought you didn't want to.”

 

“Shut up before I change my mind.” She barked at him and begin to check his wounds with a piece of wet cloth she made from the bottle of drinking water aside.

 

“Did you enjoy this more than the last time?” She asked as she cleaned the bruises.

 

“Yes, I think what you did was a brilliant idea.”

 

“Hmph! I did not want to beat you up personally. You better be glad about my father. He could be rough, but his teachings are something I know as well.”

 

“I am. I guess. I will be much stronger with his help. It will take months before I will get accustomed to all this fighting.”

 

“More like years... I assume 36 still did not tell us everything.” Sarey argued while voicing one of her concerns.

 

“I will ask him tomorrow. How about that?”

 

“Are you sure Allan?”

 

“Yes, I suppose it is time to be completely honest with each other,” Allan said with determination.

 

“Fine. Tomorrow then. Let me get you cleaned up in our bathroom. You are all dirty.”

 

“Well, excuse me. I can still clean myself.” Allan tried to excuse himself, but alas... too bad.

 

“I will stab you not so gently if you argue about this constantly.” Sarey countered right back at him.

 

Allan left speechless with her outside and walked to the backyard door. Allan was talking back, for his own good.

 

Sarey noticed sitting Zigmund by a tree outside who had a small dark wound around his eye.

 

He did not expect them to get here so fast.

 

“Well father, do you want to get treated as well? I am no doctor, but another person is something I can manage”

 

“No need.” He spoke with his same rough voice. Bothered and a little embarrassed.

 

Sarey wasn't that kind of person to laugh at her own family. She reached for the handle and pulled Allan inside, without him, questioning her conversation with her father.

 

“You hit him?” She said with a small smile on her face.

 

“Yes, it took me so many tries. I may have some talent with the shaft, but it doesn't feel that comfortable after the whole day of experimenting.”

 

“Still impressive. Now, undress.” Sarey casually said as they reached the bathroom not so far from the kitchen. Right beside the living room, and the hallway to the kitchen.