A great city stretching along the coast appeared beyond the hill. The port city of Baelrund.
In the harbor built along the long shoreline, large ships were coming and going, loading and unloading cargo, while at the docks on the opposite side, it looked as though they were unloading seafood caught since dawn.
For the past few days, the weather had been overcast, with snow falling day and night, but the moment we drew near the city, the sky cleared. The blue sky, which I hadn’t seen in days, was welcome—but if it was going to clear up like this anyway, it would have been nice if it had stayed clear for a few more days.
The one fortunate thing was that, perhaps because of the piled-up snow, there was no line of people trying to enter the city.
When it’s cold, there are few things as tedious and unpleasant as waiting in front of the gate and even ending up camping there.
Passing through the city gate was simple. All we needed was a pass issued by the church, and a small bribe.
A pass guaranteed by the church meant it was guaranteed by a chief god who actually existed, so most cities allowed passage with it. The problem was that it cost quite a bit.
As for the small bribe, that meant asking them to be a little sloppy with the baggage inspection and to turn a blind eye to bringing in weapons.
I didn’t particularly want to admit it, but at times like this, my childlike appearance was rather helpful. It made the gatekeeper lower his guard unconsciously.
If either Kasian or I had looked like burly, bearded men covered in muscle, we probably would have had to pay several times the bribe.
Once we passed through the gate and entered the city, a lively, noisy scene unfolded, in stark contrast to the cold weather.
People bustled about here and there, steam rose from the occasional street stall, and from the smithy near the gate came the sound of hammers striking, as if infusing even this winter with heat.
In particular, the merchants’ calls from the market spread out across the gate plaza overlapped with one another, creating a great commotion.
“Wow, there’s so much stuff.”
“It’s the biggest city in this area.”
We had a lot to restock, so we found an inn in an alley near the main street, unpacked our things, and then came out to the market. Perhaps because it was a port city, the market was noticeably larger than those in other cities.
Cloth shops, general stores, food shops, and even stalls selling seafood whose names I didn’t know lined every alley in all sorts of varieties, and if you looked closely, there were all kinds of strange and interesting things.
First, I bought a decent leather coat. It was a bit expensive, but Kasian’s coat was all worn out, probably because he had tumbled around on mountain paths several times, so it couldn’t be helped.
Next was preserved food. When the weather was warm, we could hunt wild animals and roast them, so it didn’t matter, but in winter, that wasn’t possible. We had to prepare plenty of preserved food.
Kasian grimaced at the jerky that wouldn’t go down easily no matter how much he chewed it with his teeth, but there was no helping it.
Besides that, we bought medicinal herbs, leather waterskins, and various other odds and ends. Though I couldn’t say our travel funds were abundant, we still had enough, so we could buy what we needed.
And a market wasn’t just a place for buying and selling goods; it was also a place to gather information. We could hear all sorts of stories from the people passing by and from the merchants.
News that the lord would soon hold a wedding with his new wife, that a war had broken out in some country to the south, and that bandits were running rampant somewhere else.
Most information tended to be useless, but news of bandits or wars was quite important when planning a route. It might be different if I were alone, but right now I had one brat in tow.
“What fruit is this?”
When I looked at the stall Kasian had stopped and pointed at, I saw several red fruits piled up, each small enough to barely hold in one hand and covered in smooth skin.
“They’re Glond. They have quite a few seeds, but they’re tasty. Want to try one?”
At my words, the middle-aged woman tending the stall nodded along vigorously.
“Oh my, the little miss knows her stuff. How about it, why don’t you buy a few? Three for 1 krit.”
“Wow, she says we can get three for just 1 krit! Master, let’s buy a few!”
After thinking for a very brief moment, I decided to buy them, since we did need something sweet anyway. Besides, 1 krit wasn’t exactly a burdensome price.
I took two half-copper coin pieces from my leather pouch and received three Glond. I gave one to Kasian and put the other two into my backpack.
And just as I was about to tuck the coin pouch back into my clothes—
A scruffy-looking child ran out from the corner of an alley, bumped into me, and quickly fled. He looked two or three years younger than Kasian, and though he looked like he had grown up without enough to eat, his movements were swift enough that catching him seemed difficult.
Well, there was no need to chase after and catch him anyway.
“Why, that little vagrant! Are you all right?”
I showed the worried fruit-seller the coin pouch that had not been stolen. The moment the child reached out, I had knocked his hand away with the hand holding the pouch.
“Phew, that’s a relief. You children be careful. Lately, there have been more and more vagrant children pickpocketing like that…”
Hmm, pickpocketing.
To be honest, it brings back more good memories than bad ones.
Leaving behind the fruit-seller, who called out, “Take care on your way!” we started walking again. This time, we headed out of the market and toward a more secluded area.
“Huh? The center of the market is that way. Where are we going?”
“Where else? We need to deal with your broken staff.”
◇
We left the market street completely and walked for quite a while toward the outskirts of the city. The closer we got to the slums, the more the lively sounds faded, and the atmosphere, if I had to describe it, began to grow a little gloomy.
The alleys narrowed, the walls of the buildings grew increasingly worn, and the road turned to mud mixed with dirt and snow. It was different from the market we had just been in. There had been old buildings there too, but here, there was almost none of the liveliness the market had possessed.
On people’s faces, I sensed fatigue rather than hope, and the very energy of the place seemed closer to lethargy.
We hadn’t gone completely into the slums yet, but since Kasian had rarely had reason to come to places like this, he looked around as if everything was unfamiliar.
“There’s a smithy in a place like this?”
“Probably.”
“What do you mean, probably?”
“It was here the last time I came.”
About a hundred years ago, that is.
Still, considering who the smithy owner was, I thought there was a high chance he would still be here.
Back then, I don’t think this place had been quite so close to a slum, but I suppose once time passes, everything changes from how you remember it.
Following my memories, I turned this way and that through several narrow alleys, and before long, an old signboard with its design half-peeled away came into view.
Compared to my memory of when it had been a new sign, I wondered for a moment if the building had been abandoned, but the faint sound of hammering and the distinctive heat coming from inside told me it was still in business.
“This is it. It really is still here.”
When I pushed open the old door, it creaked even louder than I had expected. Judging by the scratches on it, it seemed the door hadn’t been replaced since the last time I saw it.
As we stepped inside, the heat of the furnace rushed over us all at once. It was a completely different world from the cold outside.
Perhaps because of the sudden chill from outside, the large man who had been hammering heated metal beside the furnace lifted his head and looked our way.
A middle-aged man with a sturdy build packed with muscle from head to toe, and a thick, bushy beard.
He was Kunrot, a blacksmith of the mountain spirit race whom I had known for quite some time.
He stared at me blankly, then after a moment, widened his eyes as if he had seen someone impossible to see and slowly opened his mouth.
“…My friend?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“No, how many years has it been! You said you’d visit again soon! I thought you had died somewhere!”
“It’s only been about a hundred years.”
“Only? It has been a full 107 years, 107! If I wait for you two more times, I’ll be meeting you as a ghost!”
Kunrot burst into hearty laughter, took off his gloves, and held out his hand. I clasped that rough hand in return.
When I had seen him before, his hair and beard had been entirely black, but now that white had begun to mix in here and there, I could tell he had aged.
“But who’s the little one you brought with you?”
Kunrot pointed at Kasian, who was looking around from behind me.
“My disciple.”
“Disciple? What happened to the one you brought before?”
“He got old and died. Like you said, that was 107 years ago.”
“Mm… That is unfortunate.”
Kunrot nodded awkwardly for a moment, then waved his hand as if changing the subject.
“Well, have a seat there for now. I’ll bring out some tea.”
While Kunrot took a kettle from the shelf and brewed tea, I had Kasian take the broken staff out of the backpack.
“Master, who is that man?”
“A friend, more or less.”
“But you said you met him a hundred years ago. Has he lived that long?”
“Well, that’s because he’s of the mountain spirit race. In more commonly used terms…”
Since it could be considered racially rude, I glanced over at Kunrot. Kunrot, setting three teacups on the table, said,
“Dwarf.”
“Is it all right for you to call yourself that?”
“Well, humans have been calling us that for ages. It’s nothing new.”
Saying that, Kunrot lifted his teacup. I followed suit and took a sip.
A distinctive aroma of grass that had probably come from the southern part of the continent. Slightly bitter, but blended with the fragrance, it wasn’t unpleasant. This was…
“What the, why is this good?”
“My friend, what kind of thing is that to say?”
“Last time, you brewed muddy water.”
“Do you think I do nothing but swing a hammer…? So, you came because of that stick broken in two, I see.”
Kunrot took one half of the broken staff in each hand, fitted them together, and examined them. He seemed to look closely, then twitched his eyebrows a few times before blurting out,
“My friend, why have you brought me such cheap junk…”
Cheap junk? I’d still used it for three years. I’d prefer if he called it good value for money.
Though it was true I’d chosen it because I was short on money.
“So it’s not really worth fixing after all?”
“Since it has come to this, I’ll make one fitted to that little one’s mana. It may fall short compared to the work of a specialist craftsman, but I can make one that will serve without any deficiency. What do you say?”
He said so modestly that it would fall short compared to a specialist craftsman, but Kunrot, who had done nothing but hammer metal for around 150 years, would make something overwhelmingly better than human craftsmen. The craftsmen Kunrot referred to were likely craftsmen of the same mountain spirit race.
But if there was one major problem—
“I don’t have money.”
I placed my coin pouch, my entire fortune at the moment, on the table. The jingling sound was fairly weighty, but what was inside didn’t shine much.
A few silver coins, but mostly copper. Coins used in the northern and southern parts of the continent were mixed together, but regardless of that, it was hard to call it a large sum.
“No, what is this now? Were you not tremendously wealthy?”
“Money is something that can be there one moment and gone the next.”
At my words, Kunrot stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, then spoke again as if something had occurred to him.
“Well, in that case. I don’t need money. Just do me one favor.”
“A favor? It can’t be too dangerous.”
I pointed at Kasian sitting beside me. I felt Kasian flinch slightly, but ignored it.
“If it looks dangerous, can you not leave the little one behind and go alone? And with you there, it probably won’t be that dangerous.”
Kunrot took a sip of tea, then began to explain.
“Recently, children have been disappearing around here. More than ten children have vanished in the last three months alone. They were cute little ones who often came by the smithy to play and beg for bread. There are all kinds of rumors, but no one knows where the missing children are going.”
“That’s something the guards should handle.”
“That is true, but as you know, those in power dislike involving themselves with the slums. And that is not all. I did a bit of investigating on my own, and it seems…”
Kunrot drained the last mouthful of tea, then continued.
“A black mage is involved.”
“Good. I’ll go beat him to death right now.”