Chapter 11 - A Stroll In the City

The capital of Allard was called Longart, it was localized at the beginning of the plateau in which the castle was localized, the city had high and thick walls... the city was full of houses, everywhere crumpled together without much order and now and then one could see some plazas which held merchant stalls, the bigger plaza were localized at the center, very near the Drinking Bear Tavern, one could call it the true merchant district since there were localized big establishments for the Blacksmiths, armorers and weapons shops.

Riou and Maximilian were strolling through the streets towards the merchant district as they just had left the Drinking Bear tavern...

- "I should get a sword don't you think Max?" - Asked Riou looking at the shops at the distance...

- "Why do you need a sword for? Doing what you do... I don't see a reason to carry one..." - Spoke the curious Mage...

- "Thats precisely it... People will tolerate a lot more a good swordsman than a magic user... and there is another reason..." said Riou

- "And what would that be?" - Intrigued the Mage questioned.

- "I always wanted one for myself!" - Said the boy with gleaming eyes rushing towards the weapon merchant...

- "Hey now, and how will you be able to pay for it?" Shouted Max already expecting what was to come...

- "You are a frigging Magus, you probably are filthy rich, don't be a miser now... come on"

Defeated Max followed him inside the weapon shop.

The weapon shop had many weapons on display, huge halberds to tiny daggers, bows to crossbows... Many were very colorful and detailed, which stroke Riou as a bad sign, to him the weapons there seemed like ornaments and not real weapons... but he browsed nonetheless...

- "What do you think young man, this is one of my finest pieces... this longsword is detailed with golden hilt and an iron so strong it could dent the very walls of the city without getting a scratch...

- "Iron? you mean its made of pure iron?" Asked Riou very suspicious...

- "But yes! The purest Iron there is!" Answered proudly the merchant...

- "So all your weapons are made of Iron? Just Iron..." Riou asked again to confirm

- "Yes? Of course some may have copper here and there for coloring red the blade, the hilt is also made of other materials..." Said the merchant not understanding what was the issue there...

- "Max, is this common in this lands?" He asked the mage for his input as well..

- "Yes Riou, usually this is what weapons are made of" Answered the Mage intrigued as well...

- "Thank you then, that would be all..." Smiling and leaving the shop..., Max quick interjected once they left

- "I don't understand, I thought you wanted a sword..."

- "Yes, and thats what we are gonna get... You folk were so focused on magic that forgot how to improve the metalworking, and it seems to be completely left aside" Said him going towards a big house, that had a sign that seemed like a hammer and an anvil

- "You mean you know how to do a better weapon than those on the shop?" Asked Max following the boy...

- "Yeah, I want at least steel grade weapons... Strong and malleable..." Said Riou

- "That seems the sword of legends, it used to say that heroes used a live metal to forge their swords, that could strike through and bend as needed and would never break,..." Spoke Max imagining how could that be possible, but at this rate he knew better than doubt or discredit Riou...

Seems like this was the biggest Blacksmiths in town, and he was in high demand, lots of tools and armors and weapons around the shop, deep inside the House he could see the forge, it was way too open and big, and couldn't possible generate enough heat to do what he wanted...

- "Hello there!" He said to the working blacksmith... - "By any chance, this is the best forge you have?" Straight to business.

The blacksmith was hammering what seemed to be a horseshoe in the anvil and stopped the hammer mid air when he heard that question...

- "What are you saying boy? Is my forge not good enough for you?" Said angrily the big black bearded man, his beard reached easily the end of his round and protuberant belly, and his long messy hair, he was almost as big as Syldis.

- "You see, I need a very specific job done... weapons to be more precise..." said Riou not impressed at all by the man aggressive tone..

- "Sorry boy, but I'm busy enough already..." Said the man getting back to hammering the horseshoe...

- "So are you the best weapon-smith in town right? I mean, the very best?" - Questioned once more Riou

- "Boy... you are this close to get a hammer to the head..." Said the angry man showing him his hammer, - "I'm the best Blacksmith of this city, I only make the finest weapons... and I'm only allowed to produce weapons for the army, so go now boy, I'm losing heat here" said the man getting back to hammering the Horseshoe...

The boy looked with a devil smile on his face looking to Max and turned to the Blacksmith once more - "To think a renown blacksmith as yourself would deny the, Great Magus, the DRAGON KILLER -" said him emphasizing the dragon killer part, the man dropped his hammer when he realized who were the old man beside the boy - "and after all the distance he traveled, SPECIFICALLY searching for THIS very blacksmith... what a shame, but if you can't... you can't... we shall leave you alone then..." Said the mischievous Riou turning and already walking away...

- "Wait!!!" Shouted the man quickly approaching Maximilian - "It's an honor to meet the great Magus! But is it really you?" Said the now joyous big blacksmith... all the angry attitude was gone.

Maximilian was a hermit, few people actually knew his face... but everyone have heard of his feats.

- "Oh my, of course its him, and we will prove! Bring us as many Iron ingots as you have to spare, some raw coal and the biggest crucible you have..." said the the boy smiling to the Magus that could only think what a trickster the boy was...

The blacksmith promptly brought everything... Riou prepared the coal, smashing them into dust, and set many ingots inside the crucible with a small amount of that coal dust for... and put them into the forge... he looked towards Maximilian and said - "Heat it up, oh great Magus!" smiling ear to ear

Maximilian stepped forward looking Riou with an unwilling face, but nonetheless he complied... The Magus held his hand towards the flame and crucible and muttered some unknown words, Riou knew it was elven tongue, but his necklace was not tuned for it so he could not understand a word.

Soon what seemed to be a blowtorch flame irradiated from the Mage hands and quickly the ingots became red...

Riou noticed that it would take a lot of time to get to enough heat for all those Iron ingots...

- "Hey now Dragon Killer, put more effort to it, use the new way we talked about that other day..." - Said Riou trying to get Max to use his ways of magic to produce more heat and melt the iron quicker...

- "Blacksmith, bring us something that can remove the impurities that will float from the crucible...

The blacksmith promptly went to check... and as soon as he was not looking, Riou stepped up and pointed a finger to the crucible, and a bright clear blue flame could faintly be seen reaching the ingots that started to melt instantly by its contact... quickly all iron had melted and was emitting a yellowish almost white color...

Maximilian was still not able to use Magic Riou tried to teach him, it needed more time and study to understand all the concepts behind it.

Riou stepped back and signaled the Max to keep going... the Blacksmith came back with a long metal with a metal cup on the tip, Riou used to remove the impurities that were floating in the Crucible... The Blacksmith was astonished by the speed that the ingots melt, and not only by that, but also by the bright color coming from the melted ingots, he never seen anything like it...

They ended up producing a few ingots from that crucible...

- "Now my good blacksmith... I want you to follow some directions..." - Said Riou to the blacksmith, starting to explain the process he wanted to use to manufacture the swords he wanted... he explained the metal folding process, and the need to remove slag from the block when if it formed to remove impurities, he also explained the importance to get the metal heated enough and be thrown into water once the sword is done, and to keep the Blacksmith true to the recipe, he explained it was to better canalize magic through the weapon, and should be done that way otherwise he would know and not pay.

Riou made way more ingots than needed, because the blacksmith would need to train with it before production a real sword...

So Riou draw him what he had in mind... he asked a few things to be made... a Dagger, single edged and slight curved, with a thicker than normal blade that ended up in a thiner yet strong point, especially designed for puncturing and slashing, it had almost the size of a short sword...

A a pair of short sword, also single edged intended for dual wielding, its main purpose was to slash and deflect multiple enemies, so for a lighter build the design remembered the elven models that frequently appeared in the games and movies. He also wanted a double edged longsword, heavier than normal with a stronger core and reinforced handle, designed to withstand and provide heavy blows... Also he asked for a saber, a thin and light sword for precision strikes and puncturing wounds... he thought about the weapon the woman from his duel was using, he wanted one to test as well...

The Blacksmith was clearly over his level, but Riou explained this was no ordinary metal, that the magic of the Magus mana was now infused with the ingots which would need that manufacturing process, and they purposely made enough so could work with it to get used to the metal...

They arranged a couple of weeks time so the blacksmith could train and produce the weapons...

Once they leaved the shop and started to walk through the streets, the sun was setting in the horizon, and was already dark, it was time to get back to the castle... but before that Max had to ask - "What was that all about? I heard all the gibberish part, now you explain me the real reason..."

- "Very well... you see" - and the boy gave a lecture about steel and his properties

- "Amazing, and are you not afraid the Blacksmith could employ what he learned to mass produce it?" Asked Max again

- "Actually not much, it will take him a long while to be able to reproduce the carbon inducing technique on the metal without a better forge..." Said Riou non nonchalantly

The number of people outside had greatly diminished, as the sun was completely gone now, the city was ready for the night...

After a few turns, Riou could only see suspicious individuals on the streets... with darker and battered clothes... some of them also had knifes hanging from their belts, intentionally being shown....

- "So this is how the night time is... the city is not crime free as it seemed during the day..." Commented the boy looking at the suspicious figures on some alleys..

- "Unfortunately they were always there, the difference is that there is not enough people on the streets for them to mingle... no city is truly safe in this lands, only some are more than others..."

- "I see... thats unfortunate..." Said Riou noticing a group moving quickly through an alley, on the other side of the street, quickly going out of sight into the corner, seemed like Riou could expect company soon...

Riou and Max were talking about the economy and the issues that caused banditry to happen on a country for a while now... they were walking toward the location of the carriages, when suddenly they were approached and surrounded by 5 thugs, seems that a boy and an old man in the streets are too good of a prey for the thugs to pass on.

- "What ya doing strolling at this time? Are you lost? We can help you get back on your way, just hand over all the coins you have" - Said what seemed to be the leader of the band, he had rotten teeth and an unhealthy appearance overall, he was covered in dirt and reeked of filth, his black thin hair was scarce in his head, and his eyes did not followed each other pattern very well. Certainly was not the most bright of bandits..

Riou looked at Max - "Should I, or do you want to?" he politely offered the thugs to the mage who just shake his head and signaled for him to proceed... Riou stretched his neck and right arm while walked forward... he was smiling while moving toward the thug leader.... there were 5 of them, and they all looked very similar, and he noticed all of them had a leather strap around the left arm... probably to be recognized as a part of a gang of some sort...

The Thugs did not know how to react at first, since it was too unexpected... to see the boy calmly smiling coming in their direction... but it didn't take long for the leader to step up and face the boy... he pulled a long knife from the belt and took poise... the boy kept advancing unaffected by the thug knife...

When he reached strike distance, the thug swung open his arm holding his knife tightly aiming to slash the boy chest, the boy just casually went straight for knife with his left hand, fearless he grabbed the knife cutting edge with his bare hands, and in a swift movement removed it from the thugs hand... The thugs could not understand what was going on, the leader even stepped away to regain balance, and saw, unbelieving, the knife now on the boys hand... not a drop of blood from it... and the boy was casually looking at the knife as if estimating its worth of a lower grade, he was still holding the very shard blade with bare hands... The calm boy then looked back to the thugs, and smiled devilishly while carefully putting his thumb on the razor sharp edge without breaking eye contact with the thugs, doing it in a slow movement as if showing it to the thugs... they all flinched when his thumb pressed against the edge a little harder, but no blood was coming out, they could clearly see the thumb pressuring it at the edge. And they could see he was applying more and more strength to it, the thugs began to step away from the boy...

And when the blade suddenly and completely broke off... that was the moment they all began to run, they were intimidated by the boy craziness, they didn't know magic could do that sort of thing, so they thought the boy was crazy strong and fled... not before the leader of the thugs turn back to have one last look to the smiling boy who was waving at them fleeing. They quickly vanished in the dark alleys.

Maximilian laughed - "You are a scary young boy... they will have nightmares about you now"

- "Maybe this way they think twice before attacking someone..." Said the serious boy looking into the alley they just ran...

- "Indeed, but lets get going, we have to get back to the castle... the feast should start soon..." Answered Maximilian

- "What this feast is all about? What they are celebrating?" - Questioned the boy while they were walking again

- "Well, today was the fourteenth or fifteenth suitor to challenge the princess, if he won it would be a matrimony feast, if she won then it will be a winners feast as she won another one... either way there will be food and drinks" Explained Maximilian...

Riou put the puzzle together, perhaps he is talking about the duel in the arena... he needed more information - "What do you mean about challenging a princess? what's with that?"

- "Well, the queen was a princess of the north kingdom, that makes the princess a woman of the north as well, and tradition demands that only a man that can win against his bride in a fair duel should have the right to betroth her. The girl trained the sword since she could hold it... and also went to the Mage academy for a couple of years, she is very skilled in both arts, and no one was able to match her in a one on one duel so far... And so you see, the nobles keep challenging her for that reason...to enter the royal family and perhaps strengthen their position" Explained the mage

- "I see... she was a princess, sister of that prince.... ohh I get it now, thats why the prince forced it... and the reason why she didn't want to fight but at the same time couldn't deny the challenge..." said him reminiscing the duel... and suddenly realizing "I really dodged a bullet with that one... things would have gotten pretty complicated if I had won" he thought to himself.

-"Have you seen the duel by chance then? I was searching for some old documents on the kings library and lost track of time, but I heard she easily won against two challengers this time..."

- "Yeah, you could say I have watched the duels..."said Riou with a wry smile...

They were already returning to the castle to participate the feast as the king invited.