60 Herza City
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Ares decided to use his holiday to go find weapons for himself. His swords didn't seem to be able to manage the full power of his mana and thinking about using holy power in the future, those swords most probably shattered when he coated them with holy power.
[Welcome to Herza City and thank you for using our Raijin Express Train service. May our passengers always have the most pleasant journey]
A monotone female voice reverberated after the train stopped at its destination.
Ares and his entourage arrived in Herza City's main train station and it wasn't crowded with people since it was already midnight.
Since the city was located near the border, the security was strict and all the passengers had to go through an inspection at the immigration checkpoints after arriving.
"Young master Ares Targael is this all your entourage," a huge man around his 40s asked while looking at Ares's group.
"Yes"
At the immigration checkpoints, the Dark Guards who always remained hidden have to show themselves because it's the rule. No one could use any of their abilities, spells or artifacts to hide from the immigration officers.
Currently there were four of them following Ares along with the Moran twins.
The officer looked at the red-haired youth in front of him who was waiting to pass through the immigration checkpoint.
"What is your purpose for coming to this city," the officer asked after confirming the identification documents and giving them back to Ares's butler.
"I want to find weapons" Ares answered truthfully.
"Oh is that so. Then you may pass. May you get your dream weapon here," the officer said politely, allowing them to pass the checkpoint.
"So much hustle," Ares muttered when they arrived inside their hotel room.
The four Dark Guards had long gone hiding again and he shared a suite with Vincent while Vanya was in another room.
"Unfortunately we can't teleport here," Vincent said.
There was indeed a teleportation portal in Herza City but only adults could use it and Ares is just 16 years old, not yet an adult.
It irritated him that his age was the problem. He was already 40 years old before he died but in this world he couldn't even use teleportation because he was underage.
"It was said such a rule was made by the Herzen's family patriarch in order to avoid child trafficking coming into the territory," Vincent explained.
Even if Ares could use the teleportation portal, he had to do more paperwork to confirm his identity and reasons for coming. It would also take time to be confirmed thus taking the train was easier.
Being a city located near the border, there were a lot of crimes happening here especially child trafficking and slave trade.
Vulcan banned both activities and if you're convicted with those two crimes, prepare to spend the rest of your life in prison or even face the death penalty.
"Young master, the mage in the city would catch anyone who illegally teleported here. They have special devices to detect such people," Vincent reminded.
Even though the Targael was a prestigious noble family, Ares still would be punished since Herzen was on the same level as Targael in terms of nobility hierarchy. They were one of the empire's founding families.
The punishment for illegal teleportation is the perpetrator's mana would be restricted for half a year using a mana restriction bracelet. It means that an individual couldn't use his mana during that period.
Such an act would cause some mana points inside the body to be damaged after a long period of being restricted.
It's like if you try to put a block inside your blood vein. It would become swollen and then burst since the blood couldn't flow properly.
A Targael that has a huge amount of mana would experience the worst if their mana was restricted thus Vincent was worried.
"Ok I won't do it," Ares said and no one knew whether he was being truthful or not.
Ares himself knew about all the rules of Herza City thus Vincent's worries were unfounded.
The next morning they went to the city to look around the weapon shops that filled most of the area.
"It's indeed befitting its name as the Weapon Haven of Vulcan," Vincent said to Ares who was still looking around.
However, contrary to his expectation, his young master just continued looking around like normal tourists and bought some street food in the meantime. He didn't look interested in any of the weapon shops.
"Young master, shouldn't we at least go inside one of the shops first?" Vincent asked, seeing his young master seemingly wasting his time.
"Not interested. Nothing catches my attention," Ares answered.
Currently, he was squatting on the ground, listening to the nonsense things said by a male storyteller that looked like a beggar in front of him. It sounded nonsense but the stories the man told sounded similar to the fairy tales or folktales he had heard in his previous world.
"So that's it?" Ares asked despite knowing that was indeed how the story ended.
"What do you think is the message from this story?" The story teller asked.
His story is about a young man, a golden bird, a golden horse and a princess. The story was similar to the fairytales Ares have heard in his previous life called *'The Golden Bird1 https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_golden_bird '
During his stay in the orphanage during his childhood in his previous world, he also had been asked a similar question and the childish him at the time answered, "You can't be too kind because not every kindness will be awarded."
The main character in that story, the youngest son, is too kind and even helped his brothers when they were almost decapitated. It backfired on him when that same brothers tried to kill him and stole his achievements.
However, after becoming an adult, Ares realized one thing from the story.
"It shows the true nature of humans," he said.
"Oho, this is the first time someone gave a correct answer with only one sentence," the story teller seemed elated.
True nature of humans shown by the main character in the story is the hope humans always had, the hope to live a nice, happy life and to be recognized for his hard work.
Other than that it also portrayed humans' other side that is full of desires, greed and selfishness.
"So what do I get for giving a correct answer?" Ares asked shamelessly.
"Err, young master...." Vincent never thought his young master would try to get something from a middle-age man that looked like a beggar.
"Hoho never thought a young noble lad would try to get something from me. Alright then, ask me anything you want to know," the story teller didn't seem to mind Ares's antics at all.
"I want to know where the best blacksmith in this area is," Ares asked.
"Ho, what an unexpected question. There's dozens of smithy around here but you don't seem interested in them even a bit. Ok then I will tell you but it's up to you to believe it or not," the storyteller proceeded on giving Ares an instruction on how to find the best blacksmith that could peak his interest.
Vanya remained quiet as usual while Vincent couldn't help but feel skeptical.
"May we meet again, young master. It's fun interacting with you," the storyteller grinned at Ares, showing his uneven yellow teeth.
Ares glanced at him before walking away.
'Didn't expect that I would meet the wandering sage here' Ares thought.
Wandering sage was only described as a man, wandering from one place to another. Telling stories to people. The stories usually sounded childish or nonsense but the message inside the story wasn't. Those who could answer the sage's question could ask about anything from him.
It was said that the sage knew everything about the world but Ares wasn't interested to ask a heavy, difficult question thus he just asked about the thing he wanted to know at the moment.
At first he wasn't sure if the storyteller was the sage but if what he told him about the best blacksmith is true, he was most probably the wandering sage.
It was said that, once you meet a wandering sage, there is a possibility to meet him again.
"Young master, why didn't you ask about something else?" Vincent asked.
"Because there's too many things I wanted to know so I asked something I can immediately search and reach."
Two of the Dark Guards were currently searching for the blacksmith to confirm the authenticity of the story teller's words leaving Ares with the twins and the other Dark Guards.
**************
Walking through the desolate and dusty alley located at the hidden area near the slump, they soon reached in front of a rundown smithy.
It has no sign board or any sign indicating it was a shop or a smithy. The door and window also closed but Ares could feel the warm air emanating from inside the shop.
"We already checked that this place is occupied by a half human half giant blacksmith who moved to this place more than 20 years ago," Ron reported.
"Alright let's go in," Ares said while tidying up his hood. He didn't think this kind of smithy even cared about hierarchy or nobility.
However it's better to not reveal one's self-identity in this kind of shady place.
Vincent pushed open the wooden door and let Ares enter after Vanya. The three of them surrounded Ares from three directions in order to avoid a sudden ambush while the other three Dark Guards were hiding because it wouldn't hurt to always be prepared.
A bell sound echoed once the door was pushed open.
"What do you want?" A huge man with clumpy black hair that was tied messily into a tall ponytail asked.
He didn't even glance at them and continued smacking a hot reddish steel in front of him with a huge hammer.
The man hunched a little bit but it could be seen that he was tall, around 3 meters tall. He was said to be half-giant and half-dwarf thus his height wasn't that surprising.
Most giants were around six or seven meters tall.
The interior of the place has a really high ceiling that even a dragon might fit inside but the door only appears to be around 8 meters tall, thus even the tallest giants could enter.
"I wanted to find weapons," Ares answered calmly.
"Do you want to commission me to make you custom made weapons or do you want to take those junks over there," he said before he stopped what he was doing and finally looked at his customer properly.
"Sir, can we really buy those?" Ares suddenly asked, pointing towards the pile of weapons scattered at the corner of the shop.
"I can give them to you guys for free if you want," this time everyone could see his sweaty face seemingly irritated looking at them but his voice still remained polite.
Vincent and Vanya seemed disatissfied but they just remained silent and let Ares decide.
"Those junks seemed comparable to the weapons sold in the other shops we saw before we came here," Ares muttered.
However it wasn't discreet thus everyone inside the shop could hear what he said including the blacksmith.
"Hey, don't compare me with those trash. Be grateful I didn't drive you out from my shop," the blacksmith sounds offended for some reason.
"Oh so then can I still buy those?" Ares seemingly didn't care.
"You seemed like a noble. What is a noble doing here?" The blacksmith asked.
"To buy weapons" Ares answered the obvious.
"......"
"I have money"
"It's not about money,"
"Is it because you don't like the nobles?"
The blacksmith looked stunned hearing Ares's words but he didn't say anything.
If it was another noble, they might already feel pissed off the first time they saw the blacksmith's lack of respect but Ares didn't care about such things like respect or etiquette.
"I just want to buy weapons for practice. Your weapons looked nicer than all those I've seen since I came here. Tell me what you want to let me buy those weapons."
"Will you even give me what I want? What if I wanted to have a competition with you?"
"Sir, do you want to fight with me?" Ares still remained calm since he knew the Dark Guards could paralyzed the blacksmith on the spot.
"We won't be fighting physically if that is what you're worried,"
"Sure"
"Master, shouldn't you ask first what kind of competition he is talking about?" Vincent retorted slightly, seeing his reckless young master.
"Because it sounds fun."
"Tchh you're quite cheeky aren't you? Your servants must have suffered a lot taking care of you," the blacksmith commented.
Ares continued staring at him as if waiting for him to start their competition.
From the moment he could see the blacksmith's face clearly, he already saw the lightning shaped scar on his left eyebrow. That was the famous signature of one of the characters inside the novel.
The Devil Blacksmith.
The blacksmith that was dedicated to the Demon King and high ranking commanders of the Demon Army.
It was described that he has a lightning scar shaped on one of his eyebrows and his leg was crippled. He was also described to have a *peg leg2 It is specifically used to refer to simple, wooden models such as this one. The limb consists of a simple wooden peg or post attached to another piece of wood that is shaped to support the knee. A wooden piece at the top of the artificial limb extended up next to the thigh, and a strap could be pulled around the thigh for support and to keep the artificial limb in place. on his crippled leg making him look more unruly and conspicuous.
Ares wasn't sure when was the first time the Devil Blacksmith was first mentioned in the novel but he was famous for creating a Demon Sword named Nabassu for the Demon King.
But why is someone who should be making a sword for the Demon King being here in Vulcan Empire that would first collapse when the Demon army started to rise? Shouldn't he be at the Demonic Realm by now?
"It seems you're confident but what can you give me if you lose?" The blacksmith asked.
"Do you want a new hammer?" Ares asked.
"Tskk do you think I used a normal hammer? The one I'm using is a Unique Grade artifact, not your usual hammer."
"So is the Hammer of Hephaistos enough for you?" Ares asked as if it was nothing much even though Vincent who stood beside him was already bewildered.
The blacksmith was also stunned looking at the weird noble in front of him, talking to him without any regards.
At first, he thought the bodyguards surrounding his shop might have forced him to submit to their master's demand but the more he talked, the more curious he felt about the noble in front of him.
"Hey do you even know where that thing is?" The blacksmith asked.
"No but I can try to find it," Ares answered honestly.
"Wait master, that thing is a Divine Artifact. You should know that much right?" Vincent looked at Ares as if assessing the sanity of his young master.
Hearing Ares's words, both the Moran twins glanced at each other. They couldn't help but feel worried about their young master who had become more unpredictable and reckless.
Divine artifact is not something you could find just because you have money and connection. Even a Demon King couldn't possibly find a Divine artifact.
Ares knew why they were worried but he wasn't since he knew that hammer was used by the Devil Blacksmith inside the novel. So that means it could be found but it was unknown how he got that hammer in the first place.
"I know. So when will we start?" Ares asked without a slightest worry.
'Even if I lose and can't find the Divine Hammer, I could offer something else like the expensive black mithril or a pink diamond.' Ares thought while the others were already sweating watching Ares acting like a foolish young master.
"Sigh, whatever. Just follow me," the blacksmith seemed to resign while talking with the noble in front of him.
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