Chapter 38

Knick and Hammer came in chatting about armor as they often did these days. “Sure,” said Hammer, continuing whatever conversation they’d been having. “But even with the plate armor pieces completed I’ll need a proper helmet before we’re really done, and of course we still need to get leather straps attached to them so that I can wear it all. We can leave the leather work to Nameless or a local leather worker, but I want to consider some different designs before I start up on the helmet since it will be a bit trickier than the flatter pieces I’ve been doing thus far. We may as well start on the scales at this point, and get you and Nameless geared up while I think about it.” Hammer turned to me where I was sitting at the table in the dining room just outside the kitchen while I waited for Ara to finish dinner. “Hey, Nameless, do you think you could come up with a good full helmet design for me?”

I put my hand to my chin and rested my elbow on the table, the arm of the robe falling down and leaving my forearm bare. “Hmm,” I gave it some serious thought as they came in and took a seat at the table. “Are you planning to do most of your fighting from horseback or on your own two feet?” I finally asked after considering his question for a moment.

Hammer seemed a bit surprised by the question. “Does it make a difference?” he asked, uncertain.

I nodded. “I think it would, yeah. If you’re on a horse you’re pretty much constantly moving towards the enemy and spears would be the biggest threat, especially from other enemies on horseback. You’d probably want a small horizontal slit to see through with some protruding protection coming out from your face so you could defend your eyes by tilting your head up and letting a weapon slide past it. If you’re fighting on the ground, I’d think that visibility would be more important, and you’d want a wider field of view. Don’t get me wrong, this is just me thinking out loud, but yeah if you’re going to be on your feet I’d want you to be able to see better.”

“Um, on my feet then, I think? I never even considered fighting from horseback really,” said Hammer.

I nodded, “Well, it’s worth consideration.” I turned to Knick. “Can you imagine Hammer covered in full plate on an armored rock horse plowing through rank after rank of men as he cuts them down on each side with his sword?” Knick’s eyes widened as he pictured it. “But, ok then, I think I can draw up some options for you for ground fighting. Give me a few days though, I want to give it some thought. From what you were saying before though, you were going to get started on the scales next? As far as that goes I’d prefer not to involve any locals with the final construction of the scale mail, it’s fine to get their help with the straps for the plate though. That said, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have them bonding the leather pieces to the front side of the steel pieces given how time consuming that will probably be, but they don’t need to know what it’s for. The knowledge of the construction of a new type of armor has value in and of itself. No reason to give it away for free even if some folks may figure it out for themselves.”

Ara picked that moment to come out carrying a large pot of venison stew. Damn, she really is looking beautiful these days. She had used a good portion of the gold I’d given her, beyond the fifty she was saving for her taxes, to purchase cloth to make herself new clothing, and she looked rather fetching in her newest yellow dress with its clean white apron, her preferred colors. She set the stew in the center of the table, ladled out a bowl for each of us, and then quickly grabbed a loaf of bread she’d baked earlier today and set it on a plate next to the pot. She smiled at me as she sat down and motioned with her head towards Hammer and Knick.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh, yeah,” I said remembering that I needed to clue the guys in on the day’s events. “Had a bit of a day myself. Got attacked by some bears in the forest this morning, so I’ve got hundreds of pounds of bear meat outside that I’m going to sell most of tomorrow. Also got three bear skins out of the deal. I was planning to sell those, but if we’re moving onto the scales already I’ll have two of them tanned into leather we can use for that instead. It should be pretty tough, so I think it’ll make for decent armor. Oh, the local tax collector stopped by earlier to try and strong arm Ara into paying her taxes early for some reason. I declared my nobility to run him off, so I don’t think he’ll be a problem going forward. Also, I took Ara on as my first attendant, so she’ll be traveling with us when we leave for The Mountain come spring, I think.” I looked at Ara and she nodded happily. “Ara, since you’re not going to need the place to live in, you might want to think about selling your smithy. I have no idea what the place is worth, but I bet you could get a hell of a price for it. That said, if you have some sentimental connection to the place and can’t bear to part with it, that's fine too.” I looked at her questioningly.

Her eyes widened. “Sell the smithy? I never really thought about it. I’ve always lived here, but I suppose you’re right.” Her face took on a serious expression, and gave me a firm nod. “I’m with you from here on out, my lord. Please arrange the sale of the smithy for me if you would. After all,” the smile came back to her face. “Being an attendant isn’t too much different from being a wife. What’s mine is yours to do with as you please, my lord.”

“Wait,” said Hammer. “You’re a NOBLE now?! When did that happen? I mean I know you have that Traveler magic that lets you speak any language, and you picked up that healing magic your father gifted you back in Springfields, but don’t you have to be able to use magic externally in order to be considered a mage? All your magic is internal! You didn’t just trick the taxman did you? You could be executed for pretending to be a noble when you’re not, Nameless.”

Ara held up her finger, “Do you remember when I cut myself at lunch, Hammer? Nameless healed it for me. So he’s obviously a noble then isn’t he?” She cocked her head to the side with a smile as Hammer stared at her finger in disbelief.

“You killed three bears?” asked Knick, simply, ignoring the whole nobility issue. “Cool, how’d you do that?”

I laughed as I launched into a spirited explanation about how the mother had charged at me as soon as I got to the woods and culminated with the dual attack of her cubs. I used my spoon to mime my various attacks.

“You got lucky then,” said Knick. “If your axe or sword had slipped off their skulls you woulda got mauled bad before you could slit their throat with your knife.”

“Right?” I laughed. “I’m a little impressed with myself, but, yeah, I definitely got lucky. Especially using my axe one handed in my off hand, but you know what I say about luck, right guys?”

They looked at each other and chuckled. ““Luck counts,”” they said in unison.