Ch 3: The Rumors

At the western side of the town inside an old bar, two men sitted at the corner were chatting and drinking. One of them was a muscular bearded man while the other one was wearing an iron plate armour.

"You're treating me right?", Caim asked the knight beside him.

"Heh, still the same as always.", said Cruz.

"Hey, it's different. I have an apprentice to take care of you know! So I have to save money!", Caim said defensively.

"Well I guess your right. So how is he doing?", Cruz was a bit interested in the apprentice his friend took in.

"He's doing great actually. He mastered the basics in just a week and has been helping me forge daggers, swords, and various weapons for the succeeding months. He may become a master blacksmith soon. He's also helping me sell the weapons. My only complaint is that he can't cook!", Caim said frustratingly.

"Well, there's no such thing as the perfect apprentice.", Cruz said as he watched his friend mutter something.

"Enough about that so what did you want to talk to me about?", Caim said dismissively as he grabbed his drink.

"It's about the neighboring kingdom, Galeon. Since a few months ago, we have spotted a few divisions of their knights marching near our border. Just last month, their king, King Frey, requested an alliance with us. In the message they sent, they said that the demons from the north and the orcs from the west have begun attacking them. The elves on the east have always stayed on a neutral side so they won't be expecting any attacks or help from them.", Cruz paused and took a sip from his drink.

"Our king has already decided on helping them and is holding a competition this Saturday to gather all capable warriors and announce his plans of letting them join the army to aid Galeon.", said Cruz.

"And why are you telling me this?", Caim said cautiously as he watched the knight beside him.

"That is because you are one of the few master blacksmiths in the whole continent. You're also my friend. You wouldn't abandon me would you?", Cruz said pleadingly as he looked at the blacksmith.

Sighing, Caim said "Fine. I get it. I'll help so stop looking at me like that!"

"Yes! Also why don't you let your apprentice help you?", Cruz asked Caim.

"Helping you is one thing, but my apprentice going along with me is something I cannot agree. For starters, he's not that strong yet and he may end up getting killed!", said Caim.

"You don't have to worry. He doesn't need to fight and can just help with repairing the weapons. You can also ask him to join the competition to find out whether he is strong enough to go with you.", Cruz suggested to Caim.

"Hmm...I'll think about it", Caim said as they continued drinking in the bar.

It was around noon time when they finally left the bar.

"I have to go back and meet with my apprentice. It's already noon and he should already be waiting for me by now.", Caim said as he started walking toward the southern gate of the city.

"Wait, I'll go with you", Cruz said while running to catch up with with Caim.

Caim couldn't help but sigh. After living in his small house in the forest alone, he had grown fond of the quiet atmosphere there where he could work peacefully without any disturbance. With the oncoming war, he would have to say goodbye to his peaceful life.

'I definitely shouldn't have come!', Caim sighed again.

"Hey, what's wrong?", Cruz asked the blacksmith.

"It's nothing", Caim said. He had no problem with helping his friend and joining the war. Aside from leaving his home, his main problem was that he wouldn't be earning much with the measly pay that they would probably be receiving!

As they walked through the street on the western side of the town, they suddenly saw a young woman appear out of a dark alley. Chasing after her were two large burly men. Seeing the knight, the young woman ran towards him and screamed for help. Behind her, the burly men noticing the knight grabbed the axes from their back and prepared to attack. As they approached, Cruz took out the sword on his waist while Caim took out an iron hammer from his bag.

"You take the one on the right, I'll take care of the one on the left.", Caim said while preparing for his opponent to attack.

"Got it", Cruz also readied himself as they approached.

The one on the left was the first to attack. He swung his axe in a forward slash that created a crack on the street as Caim evaded the attack by sidestepping to the left. He then swung the iron hammer aiming at the right side of his opponent's body. The burly man seeing that he couldnt block it in time with his axe instinctively used his right arm to guard against the attack. However it was futile. The speed of the attack and the weight of the hammer swept the opponent of his feet and crash against the floor. He clutched his right hand as he lay on the floor.

Seeing his companion be taken down so easily, the burly man in front of Cruz made a desperate attack against the knight. Cruz parried the attack easily and slashed the hand of his opponent. In desperation, the burly man attacked again, which Cruz evaded. Even with his heavy armor, Cruz's strength allowed him to move easily. After evading the attack, Cruz sliced off the handle of the axe causing his opponent to fall backwards. With no weapon, the burly man grabbed his accomplice to escape in one of the alleys.

"Thank you, thank you so much for saving me", the young woman cried in relief for it was finally over.

"It's nothing. Are you alright? You're not hurt?", Cruz said softly as he looked at her.

"I'm fine, but a young girl tried to save me. I was only able to escape because of her. Please help her. She was with three of them when I escaped and two of them chased me.", the young woman said while trying to fight back her tears.

"Don't worry, we will help her", Cruz said assuringly to the young woman with a smile.

"Let's go!", Caim said as he started dashing toward the dark alley.

As they headed toward the next alley, they saw the silhouette of three figures. Caim and Cruz readied their weapons and slowly approached the figures. But as they got closer, they saw that they had already been knocked out. A red haired woman was lying on her front. A tall man was sitted leaning against the wall. A burly man lying on his back was holding an axe with one of it's blades sliced through.

"Do you see any signs of the girl?", Caim said as he inspected the three of them and saw that they were indeed only knocked out.

"No, but that sure is one strong girl. Being able to take three people by herself. I would certainly like to meet her. Maybe I'll be able to meet her when she joins the competition.", Cruz said as he continued to observe the surroundings.

"Hmm...I better go. There's not much left we can do here anyway and you're going to stay here to detain them, right?", Caim asked.

"Yes, and if you meet other knights in town, could you tell them to come here?", Cruz said as he started searching for something to tie them with.

"Yeah...", Caim said nonchalantly as he headed towards the southern gate. He was wondering how the girl was able to break the axe.

'To be able to break it, you would need strength, dexterity, and most of all, a stronger weapon!', Caim thought as he got out of the alley and back on the street. Luckily, he spotted four knights walking headed to his direction.

"There's a buch of thieves back there in the dark alley. Sir Knight Cruz is currently handling them and would like your support.", Caim said politely as he stood in front of the knights.

"General Cruz? Here? It's his day off and he usually stays in the castle during this time. Hmm...what you just said is suspicious. Who and what are you planning?", one of the knights asked Caim as he stared at him.

"Wait, t-that's Master Blacksmith Caim. I have seen him fight in one of the competitions a long time ago. He won the competition easily and was already one of the handful master blacksmiths in the continent!", said one of the older looking knights.

"Please forgive me, I didn't know.", the knight earlier apologized to Caim.

"We'll go immediately and support General Cruz", the older looking knight said as he saluted. The four knights then immediately rushed to the dark alley.

'Hmm...So Cruz has already been promoted as a general.', Caim thought as he proceeded to walk back toward the southern gate of the city.

Note: Next chapter will be posted next week. I've been busy with school work, but hopefully I'll be able to finish the volume before the year ends..

Ch 2: The task

"Welcome, customer", Miu, the weapons dealer shop attendant said as she saw the door to the shop opening.

"Oh it's you Surk! It has been a while. Here for the usual?", she asked Surk.

"Yeah...", Surk said as he placed a bundle of the weapons his master forged recently on the counter.

"Hmm... The quality is as great as ever!", Miu said as she inspected the weapons. She took the weapons and started placing them on the shelves.

After awhile, she came back to the counter and gave Surk a small bag of coins.

"Here you go, it's the profit of the weapons that you brought last month. The amount is more than the usual because weapons, armors, and even shields have been selling a lot more lately.", Miu said as she looked at Surk.

"Thanks Miu", Surk said as he stared at the bag of coins on his hand.

"Surk, you seem a bit down.", Surk heard her say this. As he looked up and was about to say that it was nothing, he was shocked to see Miu's face so close to his.

Since the first time he visited the shop, he thought that the dealer would be an old man or woman. He was surprised to find out that the dealer was actually a young beautiful woman just a bit older than he was. At least, that was what he thought since she never told him how old she was.

"D-Don't do that", Surk blushed and turned his head as he realized that he was turning red.

'Hehe, it's so fun teasing him. So cute~', Miu thought as she looked at Surk.

"By the way, are you going to enter the competition that will be held near the castle this Saturday", Miu asked.

"There's a competition?", Surk who had been continuously training on his swordsmanship, was interested on the sudden news.

"Oh I guess you haven't heard since it's just been recently announced. It's a competition being held for all people throughout the kingdom . The winner is given a thousand gold in prize plus the top title of his profession. There is no danger since killing is prohibited. Why don't you try joining?", Miu asked.

"Yes, I'll definitely join. Oh but... Master may think that it is still too early for me.", Surk was getting anxious.

"it's alright. I'm sure Master Caim will let you join if you ask him", Miu said while giving Surk a smile.

"Yeah, I'll do my best and ask master. Thanks again Miu.", Surk said. After waving goodbye, he went outside the shop to buy the supplies he was ordered to find, and look for his master after that.

In the middle of the city where merchants could be seen selling various items, people from different places and of various professions crowded the area. Among them, a person with long hair, a feminine face, a slim body and a sword on their waist was haggling with one of the merchants.

'Finally I have bought all the items that we need for only 12 gold. Miu gave me 31 gold so there's still a lot left. I better find master soon and give it to him.', Surk thought while walking toward the south gate of the city where he was supposed to wait.

While passing through one of the less crowded streets of the city, he saw a woman being dragged by three burly men into one of the dark alleys heading west. A young woman with short hair and a tall man beside her followed them.

Sensing something is wrong, Surk tried to look for help but found that there was only an old woman and two children on the street. Seeing that the woman was being dragged deep further, Surk had no choice but to follow them alone.

In the dark alley, a young woman was vigorously struggling against her captors.

"Let me go. What do you want?", the young woman said to the short red haired woman in front of her.

"Well why don't you start by handing us all of your money and jewelry. Unless if you want something bad to happen to you~", said the red haired woman while grinning.

"Y-You tricked me. You s-said that", the young woman stammers in fear.

"Well it's your fault for getting tricked. So what's it gonna be?", the red haired woman said.

'Good, I caught up with them', Surk thought as he saw them in the alley. He hid himself in a corner and observed the situation.

"I don't have any money with me so let me go!", the young woman screamed.

"Well, that's unfortunate. I guess we'll have to check whether you are telling the truth or not by searching you~", the red haired woman said as she mischievously smiled.

'Tch, I guess I'll have to do it.' Surk thought as he left the items on the corner, drew his sword, and rushed at the back of the red haired woman.

Note: Next chapter will be posted next week. For those who have taken the time to read this, thank you for reading it. I've been busy reading "12 kingdoms" so it may be delayed.

Ch 1: The apprentice

A constant clanging sound could be heard coming from a small house in the edge of a forest. Black smoke was rising coming from it's chimney.

"How is it?", a young man hammering at a mass of glowing red metal using an iron hammer asked.

"Hmm...keep going Surk", a muscular bearded man standing beside him said.

"Yes, Master Caim", Surk said as sweat poured down from his forehead.

"Oh right, tomorrow we are going to town. There's someone I have to meet there so I want to you to take care of buying our supplies while I go meet him.", said Caim as he checked the date of the calendar on the wall.

"Ok, I'll take care of it master", Surk said as he placed the blade of the sword he was forging back in the furnace.

"For now, just finish what you are doing and I'll start preparing dinner. Sigh, why couldn't I get an apprentice who knows how to cook", as Caim finished speaking, he sighed again and headed for the kitchen.

"...", Surk couldn't respond to what his master said since it was true. His cooking was terrible. The first time he made lunch for his master, it left an awful stench in the kitchen for two days. When his master tasted what he cooked, it gave him a stomachache that he had to spend most of the afternoon in the toilet. His master cursed himself for letting him cook and swore to never let his apprentice cook for him ever again. If it weren't for his skills in forging, his master would have certainly picked another apprentice.

After they ate dinner and his master went to his room, Surk went back and continued forging the blade.

"Ah, it's finally finished.", he said as he inspected the blade. The long silver blade was straight and the edges were sharp. It was thick around the middle and seemed to be heavy. As he finished inspecting the blade, he made a wooden hilt for it and made a strap for it on his waist.

"Oh, I almost forgot", Surk took the blade and placed it back on top of the anvil. Black smoke continued to rise from the chimney as the night grew late.

At early dawn, Surk woke up and found that his master was already awake and said,

"We'll be leaving early so get prepared quick"

"Yes master", Surk went back to his room, took a quick shower, and prepared for their journey to town.

The small house was located near the edge of the forest but it would still take around an hour to get to the town, Eril, by foot. As he had been an apprentice to the master blacksmith for over six months by now, he was already familiar with the path as his master frequently ordered him to sell the weapons his master forged to the weapons dealer in town.

When they finally arrived there, Surk saw a man suited in heavy armor walk towards them.

"Hey Caim, it has been a while. How are you doing? And who is this lovely young girl with you? Your daughter?", the young blonde man asked while smiling.

As Surk heard this, a vein throbbed on his forehead figuratively while he glared at the man.

"I see that you're as cheerful as ever, sir knight Cruz. And this lovely young person your referring to is my apprentice. When I first met him, I also thought that I would be getting a female apprentice. Hahaha!", said Caim which only made Surk more angry.

"Him? Oh! I'm sorry about that and what is your name?", Cruz asked.

"Hmph, it's Surk and master, can I go now?", Surk asked as he was still a bit surly about what they said to him.

"Yes, and be sure to get all the supplies that we'll need.", Caim said as he watched his apprentice sulking and walk towards the weapons dealer shop.

"Are you sure he'll be fine alone. There have been more thieves in town lately", asked Cruz.

"Don't worry, he can protect himself. By the way, what did you want to talk to me about?", asked Caim.

"Let's go someplace more private.", Cruz said as they walked deeper in town.

Note: This is my first time writing a story so there may be a lot of mistakes. I'm doing this as a hobby so comments would be appreciated so I can make some changes. I'll be posting the next chapter next week so look forward to it.