Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 40
Don’t like the Stew they give you by default? Use your Wages to buy something else to eat.
Want a drink? Use your Wages to have one.
Want to marry? Use your Wages to do it.
Nearly everything was possible.
Kazel had been sold to this Pioneer Settlement, and in the month since, he’d come to understand that fact.
So naturally, one thought had surfaced.
‘……Do I need to be free?’
What would he do if he were free? Where would he go? How would he live?
When he’d been a free man.
Kazel had a family.
A father. A mother. Two younger sisters.
They were a poor farming household, working a small plot of land, but he had a family.
That year, drought came. No rain fell.
The fields withered. There was nothing to eat.
His father died first. Starvation.
His mother came next. She gave what little food remained to her children and starved.
His two younger sisters. They died while Kazel was away from the village, searching for food.
When he returned, they were already cold.
Alone, Kazel drifted into the city.
With nothing to eat, he stole. He was caught stealing bread from the Market.
That was how he became a Slave.
And after being sold from place to place,
he came here.
……
Tears streamed down Kazel’s cheeks. His hand trembled as he held the bowl of Stew.
Stew with meat in it. If he could have fed this to his family.
The thought passed through him. But they were already gone.
Kazel wiped his eyes with his sleeve and ate the Stew.
One spoonful. Another spoonful. He left nothing, finishing every bit.
After the meal, he returned to his quarters.
My room. Though it hardly deserved the name, it was small, but there was a bed.
A mattress made of straw.
A single blanket spread over it. Kazel lay down on the bed.
‘……So soft.’
When was the last time he’d lain on a bed this comfortable?
No—had he ever lain on a bed like this at all?
During his time as a farmer, he’d slept on straw spread on the floor. Under other masters, it was bare ground.
Kazel pulled the blanket up, covering himself to his chin.
Belly full.
Body clean.
Bed warm.
This much was enough.
Kazel closed his eyes and prayed.
To what god, he didn’t know.
But simply.
That this life would continue.
That he could eat Stew tomorrow too.
That he could wash in warm water tomorrow too.
That he could sleep in this bed tomorrow too.
With nothing but those wishes,
Kazel fell asleep.
* * *
“Whoa. That’s impressive.”
Tei stood atop the stone building at the center of the village and gazed down at the surroundings, marveling.
It had now been three months since he arrived at the Pioneer Settlement.
In that time, the Pioneer Settlement had changed dramatically, and he was witnessing those changes with his own eyes.
“Knowledge Injection, is it? Seems genuinely remarkable.”
“It is the secret to how the higher nobility have maintained their status for so long.”
The girl Rant answered from beside Tei.
“Knowledge Injection—I’ve only heard rumors about it. What exactly is it?”
“It’s a dark art of the spirit that forcibly implants knowledge into the mind—knowledge that an ordinary human would need at least ten years of unbroken study to acquire. If you pour it in all at once, it damages the psyche, so we inject it bit by bit, in fragments. And I received the entirety of my house’s knowledge.”
“So you lost an internal power struggle within the family and were sold into slavery. That’s the story.”
“It’s the traditional way of doing things. Besides… this Curse is one that cannot be undone.”
“In other words. No way to clean up neatly afterward. That’s what you’re saying? If so, that could become a problem, couldn’t it?”
At Tei’s words, emotion flickered across the girl’s previously expressionless face.
A small smile appeared.
That smile carried satisfaction with Tei’s words and manner.
But Tei was gazing down at the settlement below, so he did not see that expression.
Neither did the dialog box hovering at Tei’s shoulder.
“What problem are you thinking of, Master?”
“That you’re alive when you should be dead. Your relatives would find that quite unpleasant.”
“But my clan is forbidden from acting directly, you see.”
The girl spoke thus, yet watched Tei’s back with an expression full of expectation.
Her remarks were, in essence, an attempt to test him.
“But someone loyal to you could act instead, couldn’t they? I remember what you said before, but still. Creating an opening is something I could manage easily enough.”
—If a Blood Relative kills another Blood Relative, they are cursed. The crucial condition is that you must never harbor the intention to kill. You cannot order a subordinate to do it, nor can a vassal kill of their own will.
Certainly.
The girl Rant had said as much.
But the world abounds with exceptions.
Tei himself was one.
Being born with memories from a past life was one thing.
But he had no idea why the Hunter abilities from that past life had also been revived.
In the first place, the Hunter System itself was nothing but mystery.
Even in his past life, no one had ever discovered who granted the Hunter System.
And the girl, unaware of such circumstances, wore an expression of deep satisfaction.
Her master was far more capable than she had expected.
“What do you intend to do, then?”
“For now, I have time. In the meantime, I’ll simply build my own power. Besides, your Blood Relatives are probably nobility of some other nation, not the Balantma Empire.”
This world did not contain only the Balantma Empire.
It was a nation great and mighty enough to bear the title of empire, but there were other countries as well.
And Tei’s conjecture had reason behind it.
He reckoned that if those people were so concerned about the Curse between Blood Relatives, they would never leave Rant within their own nation.
Upon hearing such reasoning, Rant nodded her head.
“You are quite right. My family seat is indeed in another country. Quite far away, at that.”
“In other words. Your survival might never be discovered at all, for the rest of your life. Or it might be. The important thing is that it will take considerable time. So then, it’s not really a major problem.”
“You’re confident, aren’t you. Even if my Blood Relatives were to search for me, you believe there would be no issue. That’s what you think, Master.”
“That’s right. So.”
Tei turned his head.
“There’s no need for you to test me with such peculiar remarks, little one.”
Tei’s gaze pierced straight through into Rant’s eyes.
The girl’s lips curved in a smile.
“My apologies, Master.”
“Well, it’s fine. Impertinent, perhaps, but I’ll let it slide. In any case, you’ve set things in order quite well in this short span of time.”
Tei turned his head again and gazed down upon the land below.
The Pioneer Settlement had stabilized remarkably.
“Then. Continue to work diligently from here on.”
“Yes, Master.”
* * *
Pioneer Settlement.
The settlement, still nameless, had indeed grown stable.
The tavern had opened its doors.
A tavern of this era was simultaneously a restaurant and a bar.
Naturally, it was also a space where travelers could lodge.
But for now, it functioned primarily only as a bar and eatery.
Because the settlement was filled with nothing but Slaves, and they all slept in the communal dormitories.
Yet.
The place saw throngs of customers every single day.
Why?
Because the Slaves came with their wages in hand to buy food and drink.
Even in the days before slavery, meat dishes and alcohol were luxuries hard to come by—yet here they could indulge freely, and so the slaves found themselves treating the inn like a second home.
That freedom was possible precisely because they were slaves.
They had lodging, so housing was settled. Clothing too—their master Tei provided it.
Meals came twice daily.
Generous portions of Stew thick with meat and vegetables, paired with a hunk of bread.
The only drawback was that the menu never changed.
But the meals were hearty and nutritionally complete.
In other words: the slaves’ basic needs—food, clothing, shelter—were all provided, leaving them nothing to spend money on.
True, their Wages were pittance compared to free laborers.
Yet with no expenses for food, clothing, or housing, every coin they earned could be spent on personal pleasures.
The inn’s business thrived as a result.
Not just the inn either—the general goods shop prospered as well.
It sold Dried Fruit, Jerky, and liquor, all of which proved wildly popular among the slaves.
While the inn stocked only Beer, the general shop carried a variety of spirits.
Of course, the shop didn’t sell only those items.
It stocked weapons and armor too, as well as Medicinal Herbs and Potions.
These were meant for the mercenaries who would eventually pass through once the village opened fully to the outside world.
Or rather.
They also kept goods suited to the Silver Shield Guild mercenaries currently garrisoned in the settlement.
Those goods sold steadily as well.
And every system underlying all this prosperity was Rant’s creation.
She had purchased four former bureaucrat slaves—most of them broken by corruption scandals that landed them in bondage—and built this framework from their expertise.
Tei could have constructed something similar if he’d wanted.
But it would have been tedious, grueling work.
Besides.
He would have needed to oversee and manage it all personally.
But look!
Had not this girl Rant accomplished the feat with remarkable ease?
She’d already begun laying plans for administrative departments that would eventually transform the settlement into a proper fief.
Once the population grew, such structures would become necessary anyway.
All the while, monsters continued to assault the Pioneer Settlement.
All of them fell.
And the regular merchants sent by the Silver Shield Guild purchased their remains at fair prices.
The settlement had begun a true Positive Cycle.
The Dark Mage is Too Good at Blacksmithing
Author |
Automaton G
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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