Swordsmaster Fox-girl

-”Potions! Cheap potions here!”

-”Armor for sale! Weapons for sale!”

Just like the previous area, this place was full of market stands, though, these ones sold armors, weapons, and potions.

Also, there was another key difference…

-”What the fuck are you doing in my turf?”

-”Fuck off!”

-”You bastard!”

Despite being polite to customers, almost everyone acted like thugs toward each other. I couldn’t even count how many fists fights I’d seen in the past ten minutes. 

As I was watching a nearby fight with interest, a vial full of acid was thrown; not toward me, of course. Its target was a man running a stall, who dodged it and began cursing out the one who threw the vial.

However, since it missed its target, the vial came hurling toward me instead. As I was just about to use Avaron to slash it, Ria grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back.

Seeing the vial crashing into the ground and melting the pavement, Ria gulped and muttered,

“This is why I don’t want to come here…”

Then, she let me sit on her arm and used her remaining arm to cover me protectively from the direction of any fights we came across.

“Young miss, do you absolutely have to be here?”

“Mhm.”

“C-Can I at least know what you want to do here?”

“...Clang.”

“...?”

“Kwang…”

“A-Ah, I see!”

“Yes…clang.”

That was all I could say. I couldn’t just tell her that I knew that a good Blacksmith was here after all. That would be beyond suspicious.

Speaking of Ria, despite the various “near-death” experience I had after I came here, she wasn’t getting up in the Alchemists face and scolding them like what I’d came to expect of her. Instead, she seemed a little…scared.

‘That’s understandable. Even the Alchemist of the Hero party almost melted my face off when I accidentally interrupted his experiment…’

They were truly a weird bunch. If Blacksmiths were like turtles that were overly protective of their crafts, Alchemists were Dragons that would turn anyone that dared to disturb them and their hoard (crafts) into ashes.

That aside, I could tell that we were getting closer and closer to the source of the clear banging sound. And, as soon as we turned the corner, I could see it.

“Ria, go there.” I pulled Ria’s cheek and pointed at a smithy.

“Tyzre smithy… young miss, what business do you have here?”

“...Am I not allowed to enter?”

“No, it’s just that…” She gestured at the smithy as a whole.

To be honest, I could see what she was saying. The smithy was beyond dilapidated. Its wooden walls were rotten, and I could see some pieces of roof falling down to the street.

However, I still wasn’t wrong. The sound definitely came from inside this shabby-looking smithy. 

This wasn’t anything concrete but…an experience I had with the Hero’s party convinced me that a good Blacksmith was here.

It was back when I first joined the party. At that time, the Hero’s trusty sword broke, so we had to roam the City of Blacksmiths to find someone who could repair it.

However, the Hero ignored all the luxurious and fancy smithy. Instead, he only visited the worst-looking ones. During that search, he found Druv chugging alcohol inside his forge, wasting away his talent.

To be honest, I didn’t believe in Druv’s talent at first, but after several weeks, I had to acknowledge his natural talent and love for smithing.

I could vividly remember myself being surprised that such a talent was in such a terrible place—

-”...I still can’t believe someone like Druvleyn was inside that shithole.” 

—And the entirety of the Hero’s party, including Ihwa, laughing with each other as if this was a common occurrence.

‘Well, I’ll trust them. Maybe it is a common occurrence.’

And with that thought, I asked Ria to put me down. Then, I entered the smithy.

I twisted the door knob and tried to open the door. It opened…but at the cost of the door being severed from its hinges and falling to the ground.

‘...I hope the Blacksmith don’t resent me over this.’

As I made my way deeper into the smithy, I was stopped by a sturdy metal door. I could feel heat seeping from behind the door as I placed my hand on it.

‘Behind this must be the forge.’

I tried to open the door. However, my pitiful strength stats of [6] didn’t help at all.

“Young miss, let me help.”

With Ria also pushing the door with me, it finally opened. The first thing I felt was a rush of hot air brushing over my face. Then, my eyes were blinded by the sheer brightness of the forge.

It took me a few seconds to adjust my eyes to the brightness. And when I did, I pulled Ria inside with me and closed the door.

As the door was closed shut, I finally laid eyes on the Blacksmith that produced such a clear sound.

Black hair, heavy muscles, and a short yet stout build; that was the Blacksmith that I saw.

At a glance, he seemed like a Dwarf. However, upon closer inspection, I could see two small horns protruding out of his head, basically telling me that he was—

‘A-A Demon?’

“A Demon?”

Coincidentally, Ria voiced my surprise. Then, as if remembering something, she patted my head in an attempt to calm me down.

“Young miss, I know you’ve learned that Demons are vile creatures from the storybooks you read, but after the Demon king’s defeat, they are considered by the Conclave of Empathy as citizens of Astoria, just like you and me.”

I nodded. Even without Ria telling me, I could guess that Demons were accepted by society now. 

‘But to think that the Vetrix Empire allows them to work and stay on their land…it seems like times have really changed.’ 

The reason why Demons were accepted so fast was probably because the Demon king—the one who controlled the entirety of the Demon race with his innate abilities—was mostly responsible for the deaths and destructions that Demons caused.

‘He basically enslaved his entire race and made them wage wars against their will…’

{Sound like a certain someone, huh?}

‘That’s different. You’re the one who turned yourself into my Gift because you were desperate to live. I’m the one who’s stuck with you.’

{Heh, is that how you talk back to your savior, huh, Mr. I-almost-got-killed-by-a-Goblin?}

‘...I’m not talking to you anymore.’

Ignoring Avaron, I turned my attention back to the Demon. I noticed that the forge he was using wasn’t normal in the very least, as instead of fire, he was using a…very peculiar piece of equipment.

In front of him were five holes; and poking out each one of those holes were heads of lizard-like creatures. 

‘They look like the creatures I saw in the Lizard hole…’

As he stepped his foot on one of the pedals in front of him, the corresponding head opened its mouth, and bright hot flames came out of it. Then, the Demon used the flames to smelt the metals in front of him.

“Young miss, would you like me to call him for you?”

“...No need. I’ll wait until he’s done.”

I knew better than to disturb a Blacksmith when he was forging.

“Young miss, Madam gave you two whole days to explore the city. Are you sure you want to waste a day waiting here?”

“...My decision is final.”

“As you wish, young miss.”

“Thank you.”

I then grabbed two stools—one for me, and one for Ria—and sat on one.

Resting my cheeks on my fists, which were supported by my thighs, I pursed my lips in boredom and waited.

CLANG—!

And waited,

KWANG—!

and waited,

CLANG—!

and waited…

.

.

.

.

“Huff, finally, it’s don— Who are you?!”

A loud voice suddenly woke me up from my sleep.

My body jolted in surprise as I darted my eyes around frantically. Eventually, my gaze settled on the Demon who was staring at me with a forging hammer in his hand, ready to strike at any moment.

I glanced to my side. There, I could see Ria also looking around with confusion. It seemed that she’d fell asleep like me as well.

“I mean no harm,” I said as I slowly drifted my eyes away from Ria and back on the Demon again.

He lowered his eyes. “Then why are you sleeping in my forge? Are you some kind of homeless bums?”

“How dare you insult the young mis—”

“Ria, stop,” I cut Ria off before she could lower the Demon’s opinion of us even more. 

Then, I stood up and gave him a bow.

“I’m here as a customer.”

The Demon lowered his hammer. Though, vigilance still hadn’t left his eyes.

Seeing this, I tried to appeal to him as a child.

“Come on, why are you looking like you’re going to beat a five-year-old child up?”

“...You don’t talk like a child.”

“Pretty please~?”

“Hah,” the Demon exhaled through his nose, laughing. “I’ll treat you like an adult. You seem perfectly capable of higher thoughts.”

Slinging his hammer on his shoulder, he asked,

“Then why didn’t you call out for me?”

“...Isn’t it common courtesy to not interrupt Blacksmiths when they’re forging?”

“Hah!” The Demon laughed as if what I said was the funniest joke ever. “Where did you even hear that from? If it was ten years ago, yes, you’re right. But nowadays, Blacksmiths like I have to place customer satisfaction as a priority. Can’t make any money if I made everyone wait like you did after all.”

“But…you didn’t even react when we talked loudly in here.”

“Do you not see what that is?” He pointed to the wall behind me.

I looked behind me, only to find a big red button with a line of text saying, “Press this if you’re a customer,” below it. Curious, I pressed it.

It was the worst fucking mistake I’d made.

As soon as I pressed the button, several horns emerged from the walls and were blown at the same time, making a deafening sound.

In fact, if I hadn’t turned the sound dampener to its max setting, I was sure that I’d have gone deaf.

Even after five minutes, I could still hear ringing in my ears.

‘That was very fucking stupid of me. What did I even expect?’

After recovering from…that, I asked Ria,

“Why didn’t you tell me about the button?”

After all, from her seat, she could clearly see the big, red, and glowing button.

“Sorry young miss, you said that you’d wait, so I didn’t dare to tell you about it.” Ria bowed apologetically.

‘Wow, just…wow.’

{You wasted a whole five hours for nothing…why am I not even surprised?}

‘Shut up.’

But aside from that, there was still something very concerning. Did the Blacksmiths of this age throw away all of their pride? Interrupting a Blacksmith’s work was still considered the ultimate blasphemy just ten years ago…

‘First comes business. I’ll deal with this later.’

Tidying my hair, which was turned messy by the sheer volume of sound the horns released, I cleared my throat.

“Ehem, I’ll introduce myself again. My name is not important, but I’m here as a customer.”

“Okay.” The Demon threw his hammer to the floor and crossed his arms. “How much money do you have?”

‘...What happened to “customer satisfaction”?’

Reining my anger in, I continued,

“I can pay Five Golds and ninety Silvers up front, and you’ll receive up to four Platinums in total depending on the quality of your product.”

Instantly, the Demon’s eyes lit up with greed.

“It’s a deal! Now then, what would you like for me to make?”

In response, I ushered Ria out of the room.

“But, young miss…”

“Ria, I can handle myself. Besides, him sure he knows better than to harm someone with as much money as me.”

“That’s right, Ms. Maid.” The Demon nodded. “I can tell that you’re from a wealthy merchant family at worst, and a noble House at best. I don’t want my head to be severed from my neck any time soon, so rest assured.”

After some more convincing, Ria finally left the room. 

As the metal door closed shut again, I took Avaron out from my bag.

“I want you to make a scabbard for this.”

“For…the stick?” 

The Demon looked hurt. He must’ve thought that I was insulting him by telling him to make a scabbard for a mere stick. Though, he didn’t dare to voice his thoughts.

‘He can’t even tell what Avaron is. Wow.’

{For one, I agree with you. Even if I’m in this unruly form, to not be able to recognize the great me…are you sure he’s a good Blacksmith?}

‘The sounds don’t lie.’

Sighing, I stabbed Avaron into the ground.

“For this.”

Then, Avaron transformed back into her previous form right in front of the Demon. Golden hilt, slick metal blade, and a somewhat divine aura.

Only now did the Demon’s eyes lit up with excitement. 

“Oho, a fine weapon indeed. [Inspect].”

I watched as his face turned from surprise—

“M-Mythic-ranked weapon?!”

—to admiration—

“I-It absorbs Mana!?”

—and eventually, to recognition and fear.

“Its name is A-Avaron?”