The party had lasted until the first lights of the morning, with every single noble getting completely hammered with the magically reinforced wine that was served without a stop.
Of course, not one to miss an opportunity, I used that Charisma trick to sell the idea of expanding Silver Spires by allowing peasants to attend. Of course, some believed that it would help them profit by getting more mages, while others believed that such a trick would support their houses. Some even believed it was an attack against their political opponents.
Ultimately, their reasons didn’t matter. The important thing was, they were quite a bit convinced by the genius idea of the prince — who finally declared his plan toward the end of the night, when he was utterly drunk — much to the consternation of his steward.
However, I didn’t care about that as I once again entered the cart they assigned to me, and started traveling back to the capital. After an evening of dealing with an annoying number of nobles, I wanted to do something actually productive.
Like starting to forge the weapons I ‘promised’ to the fourth prince. Hopefully, by pushing servants as well, I would be able to hasten their distribution. Oeyne should be able to discover that if she was free. If she was not … well, that was something for the future.
For the moment, that was the best I could do before I could establish a proper spy organization. Which was simply impossible to do quickly. Maybe, as I ‘proved’ myself to the prince, I would be able to get in contact with the royal spies, giving me a chance to subvert their organization.
Too bad I was simply too busy to poke around them.
As the carriage moved, my mind was already on how to forge those weapons … when I felt a movement outside. The assigned bodyguards were moving … six of them suddenly burst into action, and killed the other two.
I used my magic to observe their performance, trying to see if they could actually threaten me.
The answer was … they could not.
Still, I gathered some mana from the Aether dimension and created an invisible ward underneath the carriage that was ready to explode outward just in case.
At the same time, I pulled out my hammer and kicked the door open. “What’s going on, you cowards,” I shouted, but seeing I was facing six, I stayed tense and defensive.
“No need to panic, Grandmaster,” one of my supposed bodyguards said with a large, threatening smile. “We’re just going to have a nice talk and nothing more.”
“Interesting way of inviting me for a talk,” I said, doing my best to look panicked and intimidated by the sudden reversal. Though, I was more interested in the implications of the sudden attack … the residence of the fourth prince must be filled with an incredible amount of spies for six of my eight assigned bodyguards to work for his enemies.
Likely his brothers.
Of course, even as I faked a scared look, I made sure not to make it too exaggerated. After all, I was supposed to be a high-level warrior who climbed without any help, even with my blacksmith skills dragging me down.
I couldn’t just act as a coward … luckily, they didn’t seem to be expecting that. “First of all, Grandmaster, let me apologize for the inconvenience,” he had said as he passed a pouch to me. Curious, I opened it, only to find some very precious crafting material.
If their magical signature was accurate, they belonged to Class Twenty-Five beasts.
“Certainly enough to justify some discomfort,” I said as I leaned back slightly, making a show of being impressed. With my magical prowess, finding and hunting such beasts wasn’t a trouble, but for a mere Grandmaster blacksmith, it was an incredible gift. “Now, tell me what you want.”
“Your reputation for directness is not unfounded, Grandmaster,” he said with a chuckle. I shrugged.
“I’m too busy with my business already without all this pointless royal politics, especially between different princes,” I said, the slight tightening in his eyes confirming that my guess was accurate.
They were working for one of the other princes.
“And, how happy are you to gain the support of the fourth prince,” he asked.
“Support, what support?” I said with a chuckle, dismissive. “I have dealt with enough nobles to know that he wouldn’t care about me the slightest if he didn’t need me.”
“And, what does he need you for,” the spy tested me, but I just raised my eyebrow in amusement. “We’ll make sure to suitably reward you, of course.”
“And, treating me as an idiot is not a good start,” I said. “You should be already aware of what he asked me for. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have revealed yourself in that way.”
The spy was surprised at my bluntness. “You’re more aware of the political landscape than you show,” the spy suggested.
“No, it’s just not as complicated as you all seem to. That bunch of useless nobles is no different than a bunch of blacksmiths that received their business from their fathers, trying to jockey around,” I explained, deliberately giving a cynical yet accurate analysis.
Ironically, I couldn’t just brainwash a spy … well, I could, but it wouldn’t be effective. Their handler would easily notice the sudden discrepancy in their behavior. Unlike them, a Prince had the right to be stupid and willful, allowing such behavior to slip under notice — especially since the plans were halfway reasonable.
Instead, I needed to show myself as a capable partner.
It worked, as the spy activated a silencing ward around us, even keeping the others silent. “And, are you willing to help the prince repair that mysterious weapon,” the spy asked me directly.
“Fuck no,” I answered, and the spy looked surprised.
“That’s a more dedicated response than I had been expecting,” the spy said.
“Do I look like a moron? He’s asking my help to repair some kind of mysterious weapon that he believes to be completely secret. Unless the royal family suddenly lost all of their resources, there should be some blacksmiths at least half as good as me,” I explained, not neglecting to brag about my abilities.
It was not a bad idea to give the impression that I could be easily manipulated by my professional pride.
“But you still accepted,” he countered.
“Well, it’s because he’s using tens of thousands of weapons from me to be distributed all along the Empire, and the more he distributes it, the harder it would be for me to just disappear. Once it’s finally time to repair, I’m just going to reject the offer,” I explained, giving him my ‘plan’.
Naturally, I didn’t need to see his mocking smirk to know it was a stupid idea. If a prince was angered personally, no amount of reputation would save an ordinary blacksmith from death … either officially, or through assassination.
“And what if we give you a different offer,” the spy suggested. “A better one.”
“Naturally, I will be interested,” I said. “Naturally, the price has to match the job.”
“We want you to take the job to repair the weapon, but instead steal it for us. Don’t worry, we’ll send reinforcements to make sure you can get away safely.”
“Interesting offer, but I need to make sure you can’t simply get rid of me. First, I want whoever supporting you to order even more weapons from me, and distribute them all around the Empire, and each weapon has to carry my mark.”
“Acceptable,” the spy said. “But the fourth prince will not be delayed for long.”
For a moment, I thought about talking about the plan to expand Silver Spires and how the other princes should steal his thunder … but after some consideration, I decided against it. It was not something a blacksmith should be caring for. “That’s your job as a spy,” I said. “I’ll do my job, and you do yours. Just be aware that, I won’t accept repairing that weapon unless my reputation is spread across the Empire.”
“You drive a hard bargain,” the spy countered, acting like I had received a big concession from them.
In actuality, I did not. After all, distributing thousands of high-quality weapons to their key supporters in a visible manner was not exactly something harmful.
“I’m guessing that’s all. I’ll be waiting for your order from official channels. And, don’t forget to supply me with enough materials as well, as the guild is already being annoying.”
The spy just chuckled as he pulled back, and the carriage started moving once more. They still had to explain the death of the two bodyguards, but it was their problem. I said nothing else as they escorted me back to my base.
The moment I arrived, I gathered all my newly hired apprentices and started forging, making a show of rapidly finishing a huge number of short swords with the help of my new apprentices. At the huge forge I had built, twenty forging apprentices were responsible for continuously melting the metal, while on the other side, thirty of them were responsible for putting the finishing touches.
And, in the middle, I was able to quickly forge every piece of hot metal they had prepared into short swords, each slam of my hammer infusing the monster parts into metal in a very specific way — and at the same time, hiding the short yet intense burst of mana I infused.
At the same time, I was planning exactly how to spread the gossip about the fourth prince’s genius idea of turning Silver Spire into a school for peasants and expanding it significantly. Naturally, disguised as spies of various forces.
Hopefully, the combination would be enough to make contact.
All that remained was to show patience.
—
{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45
Precision: 45 Perception: 45
Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 45 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 60 Wisdom: 45}
{Purified Divine Spark: 33280}
{Pseudo-HP: 15000 Mana: 20000}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge}
