Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 8
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 8
Sssst-
The silent staring contest didn’t last long.
When Lion raised a hand and gave a small wave, the hidden children came rushing out in a pitter-patter.
“Mister, what’s your name? I’m Golden Branch.”
“And I’m Jade Leaf!”
The brother and sister each announced their names and grinned.
“Did you fix the spirit, mister?”
“Are you a doctor?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Are you a pharmacist, then?”
“Not a pharmacist either.”
“Then what are you?”
“An aspiring jobless bum.”
Giggles burst out. The two laughed at the same time and launched another question.
Well, they were at that age full of questions.
Lion actually found it comfortable, but Mudu’s wife, who’d been listening, was horrified and pulled the children away from him.
“Oh, kids! Go play somewhere else! You’re startling the young master!”
“I guess his name really is Young Master!”
“Young Master!”
“You can call me Lion.”
“But Young Master looks cooler, though.”
“So we’ll just keep calling you Young Master!”
“Haha, all right.”
It had been so long since I’d seen children that I couldn’t even remember, so it was a little awkward, but the feeling wasn’t bad.
This leisurely moment.
Inside that modest house, with the breeze whispering through and sunlight spilling in gently, my heart naturally grew calm.
And honestly, the two pint-sized chatterboxes were pretty cute, too.
“Goodness. Go out and play, now. And no running around the house!”
Even with their mother scolding them, Jade Leaf, her hair tied in pigtails, stuck stubbornly to Lion’s side.
“Thank you! Dad was really, really happy.”
“He was just smiling and even gave us airplane rides!”
Millionth Mudu was apparently more of a family man than I’d thought.
I’d assumed he’d be the same at home, with how he was always barking orders in the smithy.
Then again, that must be why the kids were growing up so bright.
Lion looked at them and suddenly thought of his younger brother.
Lion Asteri’s biological younger brother, that is.
Rickshel Asteri.
‘From what I remember, he was pretty prickly.’
He was a kid who was the spitting image of Petrick. Expressionless, cold, obsessed with results.
‘And most of all, I didn’t think he liked me very much.’
Well, neither of us was a little kid anymore, so as long as I didn’t run into him, it would be fine.
While Lion was lost in thought for a moment, Mudu’s wife finally shooed the two children outside.
So, the kids…
Smack!
…plastered themselves to the window this time and watched from outside.
Their chubby cheeks and noses pressed white marks onto the glass.
“Oh, dear… I’m so sorry, Young Master. The children are just so energetic… Ah, my name is Leah.”
Leah placed a mushroom soup and boiled potatoes in front of Lion and apologized with an embarrassed look.
“Truly, how can we ever repay this kindness…”
“It’s fine. You gave me a place to rest. That’s enough.”
Besides, Millionth Mudu was going to repay it himself anyway.
Lion answered offhandedly and took a sip of the soup.
It didn’t have a single speck of pepper, but the flavor was quite decent.
“Good heavens, how can you be so warm-hearted…”
Though it seemed Leah didn’t know the truth.
“Oh, you’re up?”
Around the time when he’d nearly finished the soup and potatoes, the door flew open and Millionth Mudu came in.
“Tch, so frail, and yet you push yourself…”
“He says you pushed yourself.”
“Pushed myself?”
Golden Branch and Jade Leaf were dangling from Mudu’s sides. His face was smudged with soot, so he must have stopped by the smithy on the way.
“Ahem. Anyway, you’re awake, you’ve eaten—then let’s head out. I’ve got everything ready.”
When they arrived at the smithy,
Lion understood what Mudu meant by “ready.”
Unlike yesterday, the smithy was completely empty. And a stall he hadn’t seen before had appeared.
The sign said: Reserved for Lion Asteri.
“This is?”
“I told you. Your commissions always come first. When both of us are busy, write your order down there and I’ll make it and deliver it. Well, that’s not the important part. Come further in.”
Past the personal stall, at the back of the smithy, lay stacks of already-refined iron.
“Looking at your stamina, trying to start from the smelting would make you sick, so I prepared the materials.”
Lion picked up one of the piled iron ingots and examined it from different angles.
[Dwarf-Descendant-Forged Iron]
- Iron ore directly melted and refined into iron that is handy to work with.
- Sturdy and robust.
- Makes an impeccable base material.
[Usage - Smithing]
[☞Click to view recipes.]
Mudu had really set all of this up himself.
‘He’s teaching me in earnest, huh.’
As if he’d read Lion’s expression, Mudu folded his arms and glared with his fierce eyes.
“What, don’t tell me you were planning to just imitate me once and call it done?”
You’re learning from none other than me, Millionth Mudu, you know!
That meaning came through strongly.
Well, honestly speaking, I hadn’t expected him to teach me this much.
‘Because like the guy said, it’s an artisan’s skill.’
To be honest, if Lion were in Mudu’s place, he probably wouldn’t want to share it.
‘It’s not like I seemed likely to take up smithing anyway.’
Wasn’t I a grandson of House Asteri?
I could get by perfectly well without a smithing skill, and Lion thought he hadn’t shown all that much passion.
Yet Mudu apparently intended to teach him the craft in earnest.
Well, I might as well gratefully accept, then.
“Not a chance. I’d be happy if you taught me fast.”
“That’s right. That’s the spirit!”
Whatever you do, give it your all!
Mudu thoroughly approved of Lion’s attitude.
At first, he’d thought some oddball was loitering around, but after seeing with his own two eyes that the man could see spirits and even restore one’s vitality, he couldn’t just write him off based on the rumors.
“Now, let me show you a demonstration first.”
Mudu immediately shoved the iron under the blazing flames.
“The iron’s temperature is critical. It can’t just turn red-hot. But if you melt it too much, it’ll become nothing but molten metal.”
Unlike yesterday, the fire roared now with its original full force.
The iron soon glowed red, then shifted into yellow. Right before it would turn white-hot,
Mudu pulled the iron out with tongs, brought it to the anvil, and struck it at a steady pace.
Clang! Clang!
In only a few hammer blows, the iron bar was transforming into the shape of a hand hoe.
“Here, controlling your strength is important. The part that will be the blade must be thin. The rest must be sturdy, so it stays thick.”
Once a rough shape was formed, he refined the hoe’s outline in finer detail and sharpened the blade on a whetstone.
Finally, fitting the handle onto the hoe…
“There. Pretty easy, right?”
An ordinary person, of course, would ask how on earth that was easy.
Mudu had anticipated that exact reaction and added:
“Hahaha! Indeed. This is no easy thing. But don’t worry. Because I, Millionth Mudu, will help you…”
“All this iron—is it fine if I use it?”
Lion’s reply was a little different.
“Huh? Well, yes. I prepared it so you could practice.”
“Really? Got it.”
Got what?
Before Mudu could ask back, Lion immediately poured the iron into the forge fire.
And then… Clang! Clang!
He started crafting
without a pause.
Naturally, most of the iron failed to even take shape, either crumpling into a lump or cooling tepid before it flattened.
Every single one was a failure.
But even so, Lion didn’t stop.
Even when his hand gripping the tongs trembled violently, even when he failed to absorb the recoil and dropped the hammer, he kept on striking.
“Er…”
Clang!
“The help I’d give…”
Clang!
“…doesn’t seem needed. You crazy bastard.”
Mudu gaped. The concentration was truly staggering.
Of course, at the very beginning he’d thought it was just haphazard pounding, but before long Lion gained the knack and was visibly improving.
What’s more, strangely, he seemed to be enjoying the work.
‘Well, I’ll be.’
To Mudu’s eyes, the sight felt rather reckless and romantic.
“So young. Youth.”
Isn’t it the wellspring of what lets you do anything?
Sometimes you’re a little reckless, sometimes you roll in the mud, but you can get right back up.
That, exactly…
‘Well, now, I’m learning something myself here.’
Mudu didn’t stop Lion. Instead, he stepped back and assisted.
When the forge ran low on iron, he added more. He cleared away the ruined scraps.
And after a considerable stretch of time…
“…!”
At some point, Lion’s movements changed.
He dropped the hammer at a steady speed, and the hand holding the tongs no longer wavered.
And his strength control, too…
Mudu’s fierce eyes flew open as if they’d pop out.
And then,
a smile began to trace across Lion’s lips.
‘Finally!’
The smithing work had been no joke.
[Incomplete Hand Hoe - Irreparable]
- Goodness, to use this again, you’d have to melt it back down in the fire.
He hadn’t even finished a single proper product yet, but he kept failing midway through the process.
[Incomplete Hand Hoe - 15%]
- Whether this will actually become a hand hoe remains uncertain.
Even so, Lion didn’t stop.
Because he knew.
That if he kept repeating this, eventually one would succeed.
[Incomplete Hand Hoe - 40%]
- An as yet incomplete hand hoe. If completed, it will be passably usable.
Yes. Like right now.
Lion clenched the hammer tight again with his quivering hand and brought it down.
The physical pain still persisted.
But Lion never lost his sense of lightness.
Every time the white-hot iron met the hammer, sparks flew and the scorching heat seared his skin.
Before one set of sparks could fade, new fragments scattered from the friction, and cooled iron filings trickled down.
[Incomplete Hand Hoe - 52%]
- An as yet incomplete hand hoe. If completed, it will be passably usable.
Countless failures and a very few successful pieces slowly accumulated.
Around the time when Lion’s grip slipped and the hammer finally dropped.
[★ Incomplete Hand Hoe - 50%]
- It looks like a fairly decent hand hoe will come out.
At last, a hand hoe he liked came out.
And at the same moment.
[You did not yield despite countless failures, and a new talent awakens!]
[New Talent: Blacksmith]
[Blacksmithing Proficiency has reached Apprentice Lv.1.]
He’d finally acquired the Blacksmith talent.
“That—that one! Try finishing it with that!”
Even Mudu, who’d been watching from the side, had noticed it was different from an ordinary hoe and yelled out.
Lion also immediately proceeded to the remaining steps.
Maybe because he’d gained the Blacksmith talent, the work that followed flowed naturally.
He worked the whetstone, then fitted the handle on.
[★ Asteri-Made Hand Hoe - 100%]
- The masterwork of a novice blacksmith.
- Increases gathering speed.
- Increases the chance of obtaining higher-grade herbs when gathering.
- Imbued with the energy of a fire spirit.
“Done! You crazy bastard! Not bad at all! You’ve got real talent!”
“Does it look decent?”
Mudu jumped up and down on his short legs, shouting.
“Decent isn’t the word! It’s a better piece than something made by most run-of-the-mill blacksmiths!”
The fire certainly played its part, but this was the domain of talent!
“Yeah?”
“Yes! Which means you’re allowed to be even happier…”
“Then teach me how to make a sickle.”
At Lion’s statement, even Mudu could only gape.
How in the world did strength like that come from a body that looked ready to collapse just from standing!
“Hahaha! Your grit is insane! All right. Good—you odd… no, you crazy bastard! I’ll teach you everything!”
Laughing loudly, Mudu made sickles together with Lion deep into the night.
And the following morning, at dawn.
“Thanks a lot, Mudu.”
“Don’t mention it.”
A peculiar friendship had formed, and Lion and Mudu exchanged a light handshake.
Now that the hoe and sickle were made, it was time to head back to the mountain.
‘For Grandfather’s affection!’
…Of course, Lion still hadn’t figured out the truth.