32 Blacksmoke City

Chapter 32 Blacksmoke City

Author: M_W Cancer

Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral

Everyone immediately became shocked while looking at the scene in front of them. The Bandit Mages with arrows in their heads were alright, but those cut in half and badly mutilated bodies were making them feel nauseous.

Even some soldiers of the Sword and Magic, and those mercenaries, can't help but let out vomit. Through their years of fighting, it was their first time seeing bodies that looked like they were minced into pieces. It was just too horrifying to look at.

Dandelion and Hannah, who were both Mages and had seen many people being killed in front of them throughout the years they were completing missions, could also not handle the scene as they vomited to the side, too.

However, unlike the others, Cassandra didn't mind such a scene as she hurriedly ran towards Leo.

"Are you alright? Do you have any wounds? Any bleeding?" Cassandra started asking in concern. She was worried about Leo's life.

Leo could only laugh at her reaction. His face lightened up as he thought of an idea.

"It hurts over here!" Leo smiled while he pointed toward his chest.

"Where?" Cassandra hurriedly went closer to check the wound Leo was pointing out, but she was immediately pulled into his embrace, which then made her instantly realize that nothing was actually wrong with his body, and he just wanted to fool around with her. She turned red after getting embraced by him. Though, she didn't genuinely mind it.

"Oh, the lovebirds don't even mind flirting with each other despite having a nausea-inducing scene behind them?" Claude said in a joking manner. He wasn't joking, he really couldn't believe the two didn't care about such a disgusting scene, he was even personally feeling a little bit of nausea about it.

Leo let go of his embrace as he turned serious toward Claude. He had long been expecting that they would ask him questions about what had happened here.

"By the way, what happened here?" Claude stated his purpose as soon as he noticed Leo's change in his expression.

"I killed them all," Leo said seemingly nonchalant, looking as if the killing wasn't an enormous deal for him at all.

"I know you have killed those with arrows in their heads, but who killed those badly mutilated bodies?" Claude asked solemnly. He could see Leo's bow in his hand and some missing arrows in his arrow bag. But what he was curious about wasn't that, but those badly mutilated bodies.

In his opinion, it was like a huge Magical Beast had suddenly swiped its claws, causing their bodies to be cleaved into pieces. But, they didn't see any of such beasts around, at all. And even if the Magical Beast had only attacked at the time the smokescreen had appeared, they would have still been able to catch a glimpse of its shadow when leaving the place. Curiously, there were no shadows at all either.

Moreover, if a Magical Beast indeed exists, why would Leo still be alive while the others were all dead? Therefore, the clues were all obviously pointing towards him.

"I don't know. The moment that the smoke dispersed, those bodies were already like that." Leo said before he walked back to the wagon.

Claude just shook his head and didn't keep asking anymore as he noticed Leo wasn't planning to explain anything to him. He thought in his mind, "Everyone has a trump card that they don't want others to know."

The way Leo was behaving only made him more curious about what the former had used to kill all of those Bandit Mages. He desired to know what kind of weapon or maybe Magical Beast it was.

"Maybe he's a summoner, right...?" Claude thought in his mind.

.....

Finally, the merchant caravan arrived at Blacksmoke City. Everyone's mood immediately lightened up as soon as they entered the city.

Blacksmoke City was a city known for its weaponry. They supply the majority of the weapons throughout the entire Silver Kingdom. Their blacksmiths in Blacksmoke City were also known for being able to craft powerful weapons capable of blasting an entire city to ruins.

Leo and the others had already been to this city, hence they weren't the least bit surprised at how the city looked.

Contrary to them, it was Cassandra's first time visiting the Blacksmoke city.

Cassandra was shocked to see for the first time what an industrial city looked like.

There were a lot of metal pipes around the Blacksmoke City.

A chimney-like tall object was constantly puffing smoke up.

The smell of charcoal covered the place.

Lastly, the constant banging of metal hitting against metal could be heard throughout the whole city.

"The Blacksmoke City is indeed marvelous, however, it's not as beautiful as the other cities of Silver Kingdom." Leo suddenly said as he pointed towards a seemingly out-of-place park.

"Parks like that in the other city can be found anywhere. Trees and flowers surrounded every corner, and birds and other docile animals could be seen in the surroundings. But, in Blacksmoke City, such a scene is the rarest of its kind. Adding to the very fact too, that the city is in the middle of the desert, hence green land such as that park over there is the rarest sight for all of its citizens to see."

"Moreover, the people living in this city are like machines. They repeat the same action over and over again, tirelessly, relentlessly, and constantly. Their routines are basically sleep-eat-work-eat-w­ork-eat-sleep, and nothing more. Their life is the most boring of all the cities within the Silver Kingdom. So, don't be fooled by its marvelous look, this sort of city is like a prison for criminals, and not a living place for the ordinary people." Leo said in pity for the people living in the Blacksmoke city.

Cassandra became more shocked at Leo's description of the Blacksmoke City. It was really out of her imagination that such a marvelous city was just a facade to hide the prison-like life of its citizens. She started feeling pity towards its citizens.

"It's not as dark you describe it to be..." Claude suddenly interrupted while approaching them.

"The Blacksmoke City might be working like machines. However, the hope that they give to the entire Silver Kingdom can't be measured by any other city, either. Without the Blacksmoke City or these kinds of industrial cities, the Silver Kingdom would have long fallen to the hands of other Foreign races. No matter how prison-like their life is, without them, ordinary people won't be able to live a life of freedom!" Claude said, describing to Leo and Cassandra the silver lining of the Blacksmoke City.

Leo nodded his head at Claude's description of the Blacksmoke City. He also agreed with the latter's claim. If ever an industrial city like Blacksmoke City ceased to exist in the future, Human Kingdoms and Empires would also fall along with them.

Without the sacrifice of these kinds of people, Human Kingdoms and Empires will not be able to have a seemingly endless supply of weapons in their arsenal. Aside from Mages, it was also these ordinary people who worked in a similar industry that allowed the Humans to keep on existing and surviving in the Celestial World. 

It was through the cooperation of everyone in the Human Race that they were able to continue to prosper and survive to this very day.

"Yes, what Claude had said is indeed right! Without an industrial city, ordinary people will never be able to live in freedom!"

"By the way, I'm here to remind you that we will be departing tomorrow. So, you are free to do anything you want. Just return to the branch of Sword and Magic in this city when you're finished." Claude said before quickly bidding farewell to Leo and Cassandra.