185 Braedyn's Past

His mother dying wish had been for Braedyn to leave their small village once his contract was up. She had made Braedyn promise to never become a farmer like his father. She had seen how the hard work had slowly killed her husband over the years, and she did not want her son to lead the same life. It was just after Braedyn promised that she left this world, peacefully, content to know that her children were safe.

The next day Braedyn returned to the blacksmith smithy after burying his mother. In the years that followed Braedyn tried to keep in contact with his sisters, but his sisters' husbands quickly made it known that Braedyn wasn't welcome. His size and demeanor made them uncomfortable. Braedyn had a handful of nieces and nephews, whom he had only seen at a distance when his sisters had visited the village.

Braedyn didn't blame his sisters, as he could see how much it pained them that they were banned from interacting with him. His sisters dared not disobey their husbands' orders as they would be punished, they could even be kicked out their husbands' family for violating their husbands' rules, and if that happened, they would end up on the streets since Braedyn was in no condition to support them.

Besides the pain of being separated from his siblings, Braedyn enjoyed working in the smithy. He loved working with metals and forging items. His enormous physical strength made his job easy. The blacksmith initially wasn't a cruel master. Although Braedyn soon realized he had sold himself too cheap, but at least the blacksmith taught him everything he knew, and Braedyn had a warm bed to sleep in and enough food to eat.

It was only during the last year of his ten year contract that Braedy n's situation took a turn for the worse. The blacksmith had been trying to get Braedyn to sign a lifetime contract, but Braedyn had refused. The blacksmith's only son, who worked in the smithy as well, was useless, and the blacksmith had been worried about how his son was going to cope with running the smithy once he retired.

It was then that the blacksmith had come up with a plan to get Braedyn to sign a lifetime contract with his family, in essence, the lifetime contract would have made Braedyn a slave. Thankfully Braedy n's bronze ranking affording him some protection and he couldn't be forced in slavery, but he could willingly sign over his life to serve a family for the rest of his life.

Once Braedyn had refused the old blacksmith, the blacksmith had gone out of his way to make Braedy n's life miserable. He had done everything in his power for force Braedyn to sign that lifetime contract. The blacksmith had reduced Braedy n's food, took away his room, and made Braedyn sleep outside.

He had worked Braedyn from before sunrise to long after sunset. Braedyn had endured numerous whippings and beatings. Each mistreatment had only made Braedyn more determined to leave. Ironically it was work that saved him. A couple of months before his contract was set to expire, the blacksmith was given a large order from a noble lord to fashion over a hundred swords. That size order was unheard of in such a small smithy.

The noble had been passing through the village when he had visited the blacksmith's smithy out of boredom. He had immediately been drawn to one of the swords on display. It had been fashioned by Braedyn the year before. Impressed with the high-quality workmanship, the noble had immediately placed an order with the blacksmith.

After writing up and signing a contract, the nobleman then paid over a hefty deposit. After accepting the bag filled with gold pieces, the noble had warned the blacksmith that all his new swords had better be of the same quality or else he would ensure that the blacksmith would regret it. Frightened, the old man quickly assured the nobleman not to worry that all the swords he had ordered would be of the same high-quality as the sword he had been drawn too. The blacksmith had then quickly realized that he needed Braedyn assistance to complete the lucrative order he had received.

At that time, Braedyn had been lying in the lean-to he had erected outside, recovering from his latest whipping, when the blacksmith had paid him a visit, demanding that he return to work. Seeing the large man, who by this time has just skin and bones burning up with fever, the blacksmith had sent his son to buy a basic healing potion.

Still not giving up on his plans to make Braedyn a slave he had tempted Braedyn with a healing potion, cajoling him that Braedyn just had to sign the contract had be would be healed. While Braedyn was burning up with a fever, he still refused to sign the contract. By this time, Braedyn had determined that he would rather die than spend one extra day working for this cruel man.

The old blacksmith had stormed away after ordering Braedyn to be in the smithy within an hour. The old blacksmith had been sure if he pushed Braedyn just a little bit harder, Braedyn iron will would crumble, and he would sign the lifetime contract. The old blacksmith had been filled with glee thinking that not only would he have a talented blacksmith enslaved to his family, but once word got out about the noble's order, the orders from other noble families would pour in.

Braedyn had somehow found the strength to drag his body into the smithy, but while trying to lift up a basket full of ores he had torn the scabbed over whip marks on his back, as his back started bleeding again, the blood loss, combined with his starved and feverish body had been too much, and Braedyn had collapsed.

Thinking that Braedyn was acting the old blacksmith and his son and kicked and beaten Braedyn trying to get him to stand up. Finally, they realized that Braedyn was really sick. It was only after the old blacksmith wife had tended to Braedyn that they understood the multiple whippings had become infected and Braedyn was dying.

The old blacksmith was terrified that if Braedyn died, he would be unable to complete the noble's order. Petrified about the repercussions he and his family would face, the old blacksmith had no choice but to pour the healing potion down Braedy n's throat.

Braedyn had been astounded when he woke up the next day, his body healed. Braedyn had quickly realized that something was up. There was no way that the old man would have treated him. If there was something that Braedyn had learned over the past couple of years, was that the old blacksmith never spent a copper if he didn't have too.

The old blacksmith still didn't give up trying to make Braedyn a slave, that morning he tried to blackmail Braedyn into signing the lifetime contract, insisting that Braedyn pay him for saving his life. When the old blacksmith had tried to force Braedyn to sign the contract, Braedyn refused, insisting that it was the old man own actions to force the healing potion on him and that he would rather have died.

Even when the old man had threatened to call the magistrate and have Braedyn arrested, Braedyn had refused to back down, he had called the old man's bluff and told him to call the magistrate. At that time, Braedyn had thought the old man was just trying to use the 'life-saving grace' as an excuse to get him to sign the lifetime contract.

When the old man stopped insisting and ordered Braedyn to return to work, Braedyn had been sure he was right. It was only when he returned to the smithy and was told to forge a hundred swords that he realized that the old blacksmith needed him fit and healthy to complete the work. Braedyn was not stupid; he quickly figured out that this order was a life-saving grace for him. As long as he was busy forging these swords, he was safe.

Braedyn decided to stretch out the length of time it would take him to craft the swords, he was determined to only complete the final sword on his last day. Each time the old blacksmith would try to force Braedyn to hurry up, Braedyn would brush him off, telling the old blacksmith that if he worked any faster, he would not be responsible for any weaknesses in the swords. This quickly shut the old blacksmith up.

While the old blacksmith had no choice but to threat Braedyn slightly better, he still hadn't given up on getting Braedyn signature on his lifetime contract. The old blacksmith had already come up with a scheme to have Braedyn found guilty of theft, he was just waiting for the last sword to be handed over before he would carry out his plan. He was sure that given a choice between a lifetime in a dungeon or signing his slave contract, Braedyn would choose to sign his life away.

Unfortunately, for the old blacksmith, Braedyn had already figured out how important this order was, especially when he found out just who the client was. The noble lord was notorious for his revenge on merchants who tried to cheat him. Most merchants were too scared to deal with the noble family, Braedyn had been surprised that the old blacksmith dared to sign the contract with the noble.

Braedyn kept to his plan and only completed the last sword on the last day of his ten-year contract. Walking up to the old blacksmith he handed over the final sword, as the old man took possession of the sword Braedyn immediately turned around and walking out of the smithy while the old blacksmith was busy examining the final sword. Braedyn had already left the building by the time the old blacksmith looked up.

Furious, the old blacksmith chased after Braedyn. How was he going to frame Braedyn if the young man wasn't there? Catching up to Braedyn in the street, the old man had tried to convince Braedyn to return to the smithy. Braedyn flatly refused. When the old blacksmith tried to cajole him into returning for his stuff, Braedyn suspected the old man was up to something.

With his deep voice, his loudly announced that he would never step a foot in old man's smithy ever again. He informed everyone around about his whippings, beatings, and starvation, as well as the old blacksmith's attempts to make Braedyn a slave. Braedyn loud voice had attracted many curious onlookers. Seeing the contempt on their faces, the old blacksmith realized his plan to frame Braedyn wouldn't succeed. Especially since Braedyn had declared loudly, he wanted nothing from the old man's house.

Defeated the old blacksmith returned to his smithy, not knowing that Braedyn had already carried out his revenge. Braedyn's blacksmithing skills had surpassed the old man's year before. In the beginning, the old man had been quite friendly with Braedyn and had allowed him to experiment in his free time.

During those years, Braedyn had learned a lot about metals, and one thing he had found out by accident was how to forge metal with a small fatal fault. Half the swords Braedyn had forged had that fault. Initially, those swords will stand up inspection, but after receiving a couple of hard blows, those swords would shatter. Braedyn was counting on the noble to become furious once those swords shattered and come after the old blacksmith.

Since Braedyn had left the old blacksmith without even a copper to his name, he had to take odd jobs around the village to earn some coppers. Once he had enough to purchase necessary traveling supplies, he prepared to leave the village and seek his fortune elsewhere. It would have taken him months to save up enough, but his sisters having heard about his ordeal snuck him some gold to help him out.

The day Braedyn left, he heard from the guards at the gate that the old blacksmith had been caught by a noble sneaking out of town. Smirking Braedyn bid the guards goodbye while humming a tune, he was convinced that no one would ever see that old blacksmith again. The noble was notorious for his vicious methods.

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