#023. The City of Knights (2)
Some damp and gloomy place in Roun.
Underground, devoid of even a speck of light.
A woman with a robe pulled over her head sat atop a blood-red magic circle.
As purple light flickered from her hand, flames blazed up in the center of the magic circle.
The woman spoke toward it.
“It’s been a while.”
[Adrian is dead.]
A blunt and bizarre voice flowed from within the flames.
“Oh my, to think he couldn’t even keep that little javelin. As expected, it was a mistake to leave it wholly to a human. You must be quite heartbroken.”
[It is done. A javelin is nothing more than prey that can be devoured at any time. More importantly, are matters in Roun nearing completion?]
“Yes, how could there be a problem when I am here. Rather than that….”
As the woman slightly raised her arm, the sound of a person’s presence came from the darkness across from her.
“Come here.”
*Clomp, clomp.*
A man with his hood pulled over his head walked out and knelt down beside the woman.
“This is the new believer I told you about before. He is also one who will ascend to the throne next.”
[Raise your head.]
The man slowly raised his head.
[Your vigor is good. I have great expectations for you. If you bring this matter to a satisfactory close, I shall make good use of you in the newly established Empire of Blood.]
At those words, the man prostrated himself flat and answered.
“It is an honor, Emissary of Blood.”
***
“Are you really not going to tell me?”
Hanna asked Virgil, who was walking ahead.
“If you make an Awakening Pill, I’ll tell you.”
“But that’s the hardest one in intermediate herbology….”
“I know.”
“Wow….”
Hanna made a motion of raising her fist toward the back of Virgil’s head.
Mouthing, *Ugh, so annoying.*
“Whew… By the way, where are we going?”
“To buy clothes.”
At Virgil’s answer, Hanna stopped walking.
The corners of her eyes trembled slightly and turned red.
“C-clothes, right? You just said clothes? Ones you wear? Not the lacquer they put in samgyetang, right?”
“That’s right.”
Hanna raised both hands high to the sky and shouted hooray.
Then she ran to Virgil and linked her arm with his.
“Right? I don’t have to wear this anymore, right? Did I tell you I smell like crap in this?”
“Let go.”
“Why~”
“You stink.”
“Ah….”
After that, the two walked in silence, and before they knew it, they arrived in front of a fabric store.
Virgil took a silver coin pouch from his belt and gave it to Hanna.
“Buy underwear, an inner garment, and a simple robe. You don’t need anything that raises stats, so look only at price and convenience. Understa—”
“Yesss.”
Hanna didn’t even listen to the end of Virgil’s words and hurried inside the fabric store.
Virgil frowned and continued speaking.
“I have business to attend to, so wait here.”
She might not have heard, but he didn’t particularly care.
She wasn’t a child; what could happen?
He turned and headed toward his destination.
The place Virgil arrived at was the commercial district where blacksmiths gathered.
As expected of the City of Knights, blacksmithing was highly developed, and accordingly, many customers came.
Moreover, these days being the coronation period, it was packed to the brim with knights and mercenaries eyeing discounts.
Virgil cut through the crowd, turned this way and that, and entered an alley.
Unlike the outside, it was quiet and sparse.
Going even deeper into that sparsely populated alley, he stopped in front of a certain shop.
As he was about to open the door and enter, sounds of a scuffle came from inside, and a man who looked like a mercenary flung the door open and came out.
“Damn it! The senile old man has lost his mind! Selling that at that price? Kack! Ptui! … Ugh, bad luck.”
*Thud.*
He collided shoulders with Virgil.
“Which bastard?!”
Their eyes met.
Virgil’s towering frame and cold gaze.
A massive greatsword that seemed to drag on the ground and a beast-faced helmet hanging from its hilt.
The mercenary who saw him gulped and lowered his eyes.
“I-I’m sorry. It was dark….”
“Get lost.”
As the man hurriedly moved out of the way, Virgil looked at the shop’s signboard.
‘Old Man Jyang’s Happy Workshop.’
“I came to the right place.”
This was originally a place one was introduced to while clearing a sub-quest, a workshop where a blacksmith of outstanding skill but eccentric temperament lived in seclusion.
*Knock, knock.*
As Virgil knocked, a hoarse old man’s voice came from inside.
—Come in.
When he opened the door, the interior was filled with tobacco smoke.
Virgil waved his hand about nonchalantly.
The dispersing smoke and brightening field of vision.
Around were strewn weapons and armor, and between them was an old man of small stature.
His hair and beard, braided long, were very impressive.
“What are you looking at?”
“Your beard is truly splendid.”
“…Really?”
At Virgil’s answer, the old man smiled briefly before baring his teeth again.
“What is that hanging on your back? Do you call that a weapon and carry it around?”
“It is a sword. Shall I show you?”
“Why would I look at that!”
“Very well.”
“But why do you speak in such a manner? Don’t you feel awkward?”
“Hm….”
For a moment.
“Forget it. Do what you came for.”
Despite the old man’s continued rudeness, Virgil smiled blandly and looked around the workshop.
There were many items, but they were all inferior goods.
Virgil picked up a worn sword and asked.
“How much is this?”
“That? Thirty silver coins.”
Thirty was equivalent to two months’ living expenses for an average family of four.
It was a seriously expensive price, but Virgil spoke nonchalantly.
“I shall take this.”
“Yeah, now get lo—… what?”
“I said I will buy this.”
At Virgil’s words, the old man was silent for a moment.
“Do you know what that is, spending such a large sum?”
“It appears to be a work of the dwarves of Aria.”
At his words, the old man silently puffed on his cigarette repeatedly.
“…Did you come knowing?”
“What do you mean?”
“My identity.”
“Not at all. I knew from looking at the item.”
The wrinkles on the old man’s forehead deepened further.
“You are no ordinary fellow.”
“The same goes for you.”
The old man’s true identity was that of the dwarf race, come down from the Aria Mountains.
They possessed outstanding dexterity since long ago and had crafted items and built structures all across the world.
But after the war with the demons a hundred years ago, they returned to the Aria Mountains, and one could barely meet them unless they went to Hairandeul.
“Are you saying you realized that just by looking at the item?”
“Is the item not good?”
“Madman. It’s been a while since an interesting one came.”
In truth, it was only because Virgil had the information that he knew; unless one used a status window, they would never have noticed.
The old man, who had no way of knowing that, formed a smile of interest.
He fumbled under the counter and pulled something.
At that, the rear storage cabinet rotated half a turn, revealing a door.
“Follow me this way.”
Virgil followed the old man through the door.
The inside had a similar structure to the outside, but the atmosphere was completely different.
Not only was it perfectly clean, but unlike the chilly outside, heat permeated the air.
The cause was the furnace whose fire never went out.
Moreover, every item strewn about exuded luxury, and one could even feel that they held tremendous value.
“How is it? Feeling weak in the knees?”
*I came to the right place.*
This was the workshop of Jyang Dalgolri, one of Roun’s hidden places.
To enter here legitimately, one had to get on Old Man Jyang’s good side, and the steps were very tricky.
The first was knocking before entering.
The second was complimenting his beard.
The third was expressing intent to buy without batting an eye at the item’s price.
If one did so, Old Man Jyang would reveal that he was a dwarf and lead them to the secret workshop.
If one missed even one of those three and entered here, he would rip them off.
“So, what did you come wanting?”
“I….”
Old Man Jyang blocked Virgil’s words with his short, stubby hand.
“Obvious. You came for the armor.”
“Correct.”
“First, take off yours.”
Virgil took off his dented armor and handed it to Old Man Jyang.
“Hoo… It’s not ordinary iron. Black iron… not Cloud Iron either…. Ah! Yes, it’s mixed with a bit of Adamantium. Both you who wore this and the one who dented it are impressive.”
“Hm….”
*Adamantium.*
It was one of the three metals known as the divine metals, and extremely precious.
It was the heaviest of metals, but boasted tremendous strength to match.
In that instant, Virgil thought of Matereu, who had effortlessly crumpled this armor.
As expected, a monster is a monster.
“Give me that too.”
The old man pointed at the helmet hanging from the greatsword’s hilt.
“Here.”
“Hoo… This one has high purity. Just who made it to achieve this degree of strength while keeping the weight in check?”
Old Man Jyang continued marveling as he looked at the helmet.
Virgil nodded and thought, *So that’s why it never scratched.*
Old Man Jyang, who had been examining the helmet this way and that, handed it back and said.
“First, to repair your armor, I’ll have to melt some parts and forge them anew. But this Adamantium heats up quickly yet has an excessively high melting point. To melt this, Roun won’t do, and even Hairandeul wouldn’t work… If we must go somewhere, it would have to be Paberian, but last I heard, the lord there put down his hammer and extinguished the forge fires.”
The old man took out a fresh cigarette and placed it in his mouth.
“Hm… Since it’s come to this, let me make you a proposal.”
“Speak.”
“Sell me the rest of the armor, excluding the helmet. Then I shall give you new armor, as well as money.”
At his proposal, Virgil fell into thought for a moment.
The armor he had worn without even knowing its true nature was better than expected.
Wearing it as is was uncomfortable due to the dented parts, and it didn’t look good either.
To repair it, he didn’t even know where to go right now.
Now there was no choice but to sell it, but…
He was worried whether this old man would pay him a proper price.
“Are you worried I’ll rip you off?”
“I won’t lie.”
“Keke, I suppose so. I understand. Then look at my work first and let us talk.”
The old man went to a corner and gruntingly carried over something wrapped in fine cloth.
When the tightly tied knot was undone, the cloth flowed down smoothly.
“Well, how is it? It seems like it would suit you.”
The packaged armor was likewise a dull color.
If the previous one had felt like full plate worn by knights, this was light armor that mercenaries or warriors might wear.
It was designed to cover the whole body but was thin, with many places in between to tie or hang things.
“This is made of high-purity black iron. It’s no Adamantium, but it has formidable strength. Furthermore….”
“Give it to me.”
“Huh? Truly?”
“Indeed.”
“Hoo, you acted like you’d be picky, but you’re a refreshingly decisive one.”
“Before that, let me ask one thing.”
“What?”
“Who was the one you originally made this for?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Here. And here. This place too.”
Virgil pointed at several parts of the armor.
First he pointed at the small insignia carved on the chest, then at the parts where belts and bandoliers could be easily slung.
“In my opinion, this seems to have been made for a demon hunter from the very beginning.”
“Huh… I was wondering when I saw the helmet, but don’t tell me you’re a demon hunter?”
“Occasionally.”
“Occasionally? Keke, are you impersonating those madmen? Do that, and before long you’ll get shot in the head.”
“I do not mind. At any rate, I will not ask about this armor’s story, so show me items that can be used with it as well.”
“Fine, you crook. Wait.”
The old man went somewhere and returned with belts, bandoliers, and several daggers.
“With this armor, daggers can be hidden in inconspicuous spots. This is on the house.”
“My thanks.”
“Need nothing else? The sun god has yet to enter my conscience.”
At the old man’s words, Virgil fell into thought briefly and said.
“Then, on the day of the coronation in a few days, grant me one request.”
In truth, the armor was an excuse.
This was Virgil’s true purpose in seeking out Old Man Jyang.
***
Virgil left the smithy district and headed for the fabric store alley to meet Hanna.
On the way, he felt gazes different from before.
Stares brazen or furtive.
Curiosity or interest, rather than fear.
Virgil stopped walking and looked at a mirror hanging on the wall.
“Hm.”
Black iron armor designed to show muscle definition.
A luxurious luster flowed over it, and elegant patterns were engraved on each part.
Before, he had felt like a black knight of uncertain allegiance, but now he looked like a veteran mercenary, or a high-ranking demon hunter.
The hefty greatsword on his back and the long Makum cloak also suited his current outfit better.
“Not bad.”
A nod of satisfaction.
Since he usually paid considerable attention to his appearance, he was pleased with his current attire.
Before long, he arrived at the fabric store where he had parted with Hanna.
Virgil took out the women’s leather gloves he had bought in passing.
Perhaps she would be sulking, saying he was too late.
Forcing his expression to avoid a frown, he entered the fabric store.
Inside the fabric store, the proprietress was making a rabbit mask from scrap cloth.
It was a gift for her daughter, and her face was full of smiles.
“Welco… me.”
The proprietress dropped the mask and stared blankly at Virgil for a moment.
“I am looking for a person.”
“…Yes? Ah, please speak.”
“Have you seen among your customers a woman who wore a rather shabby robe? She is quite the beauty.”
“Um… Ah, yes. She left quite a while ago. She asked me to tell anyone looking for her that she’d wait at the inn first.”
“Very well.”
He exited the fabric store.
To think Hanna had made a plan of her own.
“Admirable.”
As Virgil was about to move on like so, his sharp ears caught snippets of nearby residents’ voices.
“Oh my, really?”
“I’m telling you. Just now, soldiers dragged a witch past right in front of here!”
“Dear me… No matter how frenzied the witch hunts have become because of the coronation, I hope they aren’t catching innocent people….”
“That’s what I’m saying. Pretty is a sin, pretty….”
“Ah, right. Did you see the woman who came out of Sena’s Fabric Store earlier?”
“I saw her, I saw her! Hoo… I’ve never seen such a beautiful woman in all my life.”
“I know, my husband stared blankly at her, so I grabbed him by the hair. Why do you ask?”
“Tsk tsk, that woman was the one I saw getting dragged away earlier. The Black Lion Knight Order caught her….”
Virgil’s brow furrowed as he eavesdropped on the conversation.
As he clenched his fist, the newly purchased gauntlet let out a soft cry.
“Damn it….”
Hanna had been taken.