Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 60

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 60
It was darkness.
A basement room without windows.
A single candle flickered atop a table, and beyond it sat a figure with a hood pulled deep over their head.
Tay took a seat across from them.
‘Well… the atmosphere’s certainly dramatic.’
Tay thought as much to himself.
Even the Information Guild’s name had a certain romantic flair to it, and their methods matched.
“You may simply call me the Shadow.”
“Thorough.”
They had concealed everything—name, face, even gender.
All that showed beneath the hood was the line of a jaw.
Tay had to admire the theatrical touch—very much in keeping with the Information Guild.
Yes. This was how a fantasy world should be.
Romance intact.
“What is it you wish to know?”
“Are there any semi-nobles in dire straits here in Harundel? Better yet, those without current employment.”
“How many do you require?”
“All of them in Harundel.”
The Shadow fell silent for a moment. The answer “all of them” had clearly caught them off guard.
“Understood. The cost is one thousand Goldmanta Gold Coins.”
“Quite steep.”
One thousand coins—the sum a modest merchant house might earn in a month.
But for Tay, it was no great loss.
‘If I’m buying quality information for this amount, it’s a bargain.’
“I’ll take it.”
“My thanks. You will receive it here before sunset tomorrow.”
Tay placed the coins on the table and rose from his seat.
The Shadow examined the coins, then bowed their head in acknowledgment.
Tay left the room, and the door closed behind him.
The Shadow stared at the closed door for a moment, then turned and entered the passageway leading deeper inside.
Through a narrow corridor lay a small chamber in the depths below. At its center rested a Crystal Sphere.
The Shadow placed a hand upon the sphere and spoke.
“This is the 182nd Shadow reporting. The Bone Baron has requested a list of semi-nobles in financial distress.”
A voice echoed from within the Crystal Sphere.
—Understood.
That was all.
The light within the sphere dimmed.
The 182nd Shadow withdrew their hand and settled into a chair.
‘Most likely.’
The Shadow mused.
The Bone Baron was seeking retainers, no doubt.
By requesting the complete list of semi-nobles in dire straits, he clearly intended to select those suited to his purposes.
‘It would be ideal if we could place one of our own.’
To embed an Information Guild member in the Bone Baron’s service would be invaluable—planting an ear beside a rapidly rising lord.
But such matters lay in the realm of chance.
There was no way to know whom the Bone Baron would choose from the list, nor whether any of the semi-nobles who fell under his selection had connections to the Information Guild.
Dozens upon dozens of names would appear on that list; the Guild could hardly buy them all.
The 182nd Shadow pulled off their hood and exhaled slowly.
* * *
The following evening.
Tay received the list as promised.
Three parchment scrolls. Quite substantial in bulk.
He carried them back to his suite at the upscale inn.
The Gold-rank suite at Baek-eun Street’s finest establishment.
It was a spacious, luxurious space with three separate chambers and a reception hall.
Tapestries hung along the walls, and the floor was laid with thick woolen carpet.
Tay unrolled the scrolls across the reception hall’s table and began to read.
And the moment he did, he clicked his tongue.
“Every conceivable rogue under the sun. Lant, look at this.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lant came over and peered at the parchment scroll.
A former treasurer who’d squandered his fortune at the gambling tables and skimmed funds from the domain’s coffers before being driven out—he’d managed not to end up sold into slavery or dead, which was fortunate enough.
The third son of a semi-noble house who’d failed at business with the money his family gave him for independence and now drowns in debt.
A semi-noble, the illegitimate son of a knight, expelled from his house after an affair came to light.
And the list continued on, each entry a sordid tale much like the last.
Lant’s eyes widened.
“Good heavens, what a collection……”
“Is this your first time seeing something like this?”
“Yes. The knowledge and information I’ve been exposed to never included anything like this.”
Lant’s education had been that of a high-ranking noble house.
He was well-versed in the structure and etiquette of noble society, in administration and management—but he’d never encountered the lives of the desperate and downtrodden.
Dialogue, perched on Tay’s shoulder, peered at the parchment and let out a tittering laugh.
“This fellow was stripped clean by his concubine, wasn’t he? Master, it seems he encountered a woman more devilish than any demon!”
When Tay glanced over, Dialogue’s form glimmered as he pointed to the next entry.
“This one burned down his own laboratory during a magical experiment and became a pauper! Remarkable! Splendid! He possesses quite extraordinary talent for destruction!”
Lant half-nodded in tired agreement and turned the parchment to the next page.
Tay’s gaze shifted toward the shadow.
“Ars. What do you make of this?”
Ars popped out of the shadow with a bounce and hopped onto Tay’s shoulder.
After skimming the parchment, he shrugged.
“From a demon’s perspective, these are common enough humans. People like this are always trying to summon demons, willing to sell their very souls.”
“Fair point. They’re complete wrecks.”
Tay’s eyes returned to the parchment.
“I need to pick someone useful from all this, but finding ones who aren’t Information Guild informants is proving to be work in itself.”
Finding a decent person was this difficult?
People were everything, or so they said.
That’s what Tay was thinking to himself.
This was the list provided by Harundel’s foremost Information Guild.
There was no guarantee that none of these people had ties to the Information Guild—in fact, it would be stranger if none of them did.
“Why not purchase a slave of semi-noble origin instead?”
Ars suggested.
“A slave would be far less likely to betray you. And there’s no chance of them being an Information Guild informant.”
“But that would seriously hamper efficiency……”
There was a vast difference in work quality between willing loyalty and forced obedience.
Tay had already learned this through the slaves under Lant’s command.
Among them, only one had been a trained administrator.
Tay was making do with slaves who could merely read and write.
Lant could at least breathe easier for having that one slave administrator, but even he didn’t work with much enthusiasm, or so Tay had heard.
Despite being told he’d be freed from slavery eventually, he still dragged his feet.
Perhaps, having once been semi-noble, he couldn’t stomach becoming a commoner.
“Hmm. Maybe that’s the way to go after all.”
Tay crossed his arms and gazed up at the ceiling.
He was considering whether to simply throw more bodies at the problem if efficiency suffered.
“Hmmm……”
It wasn’t easy either way. Both options carried their own risks.
And besides.
Not having a single semi-noble in his employ was itself something of a problem.
“Let me make contact with a few of them first. Once I meet them face to face, I’ll know.”
Tay rolled up the parchment and set it on the table.
“Rest today. We’ll start moving tomorrow.”
* * *
“If you lend me the money, I swear I’ll make your domain the finest domain in all the land! I’ll earn it back, I will—I swear it!”
The former treasurer who’d lost his fortune at gambling was gripping the table edge, delivering an impassioned plea.
Earn it back, he said.
At gambling.
“This is giving me a headache……”
Tay pressed his fingers to his temples.
They’d met this man in a shabby tavern in Harundel.
He was the first person on the list, and the moment they’d met, he’d been begging for investment, and now he was talking about repaying it through gambling.
A financial administrator, you say?
A man who embezzled funds and threw them away at gambling tables—and they call him a financial administrator.
Tay found himself genuinely curious what a Lord could have been thinking when he hired such a man.
Tay rose quietly from his seat.
“I hope things work out for you.”
“What? Then the investment—!”
“Goodbye.”
Tay left the tavern.
First candidate. Rejected.
The second was a knight’s son cast out for adultery.
“Adultery? It was love! I’ve only pursued true love!”
Tay studied him in silence.
Despite being cast out by his family, the man claimed he was currently seeing three women at once.
Expelled for infidelity, yet juggling three lovers.
“Quite the man.”
“Thank you, sir!”
That wasn’t meant as praise.
Second candidate. Rejected.
The third was the third son of a semi-noble house ruined by failed business ventures.
“Lord, I know of an excellent investment opportunity!”
He’d squandered the money his family gave him for independence on one business failure, yet here he was, eager to try again.
His eyes still gleamed with enthusiasm—he had ambition, certainly. But if ambition alone could sustain a business, the world would know no ruin.
“We’ll discuss it another time.”
There would be no other time.
Third candidate. Rejected.
The fourth was worse.
“Tell me, haven’t you been curious about methods for mass-producing serfs?”
Tay blinked.
This man was a former administrator stripped of his position for embezzlement.
Yet the moment they met, he launched into explaining methods for mass-producing serfs.
Listening closely, Tay realized the scheme involved usury—trapping commoners in debt, then reducing them to servitude.
‘So this is how he committed his embezzlement.’
A profoundly wicked man.
He had ability, Tay would grant him that, but hiring such a man as a retainer would spark a rebellion in the Domain within a month.
How was this man even still alive, still walking around? The thought was astonishing.
Was he perhaps a blood relative of some noble house, not merely an administrator?
Either way, the fourth candidate was also rejected.
Beyond these four, Tay met with several others.
Every single one was unbalanced. Well, if they’d been normal, they wouldn’t have fallen to semi-noble status in the first place. It was inevitable.
‘A veritable paradise of madmen.’
Tay sighed inwardly.
They said that hiring the right person made all the difference, but finding good people was proving impossibly difficult.
It had been this way in his past life and remained so in this one.
Though in his previous life, talented people had been abundant—nothing like this.
He was beginning to think he should give up and, as Ars had suggested, purchase a slave of semi-noble birth instead.
And then.
At last, he met Jin Guk.
The Black Mage Makes Being a Blacksmith Far Too Easy
Author
Automaton G
Publisher
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editorial Director
Editorial Department
Published by
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
Address
7F, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
UCI
G720:N+A063-20260511100
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
(주) Samyang C&C — The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Dream Books.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————