I was looking forward to seeing my beloved Windemere again. It was an amazing city, what any transmigrator would expect from a fantasy world. The jewel of North Auvanini. The crater where Kel'Caldor destroyed the Royal Castle was a sad sight in the noblest spot of the city but it didn’t tarnish the rest of the metropolis.
People of all kinds walked and mingled freely here. Elves, gnomes, dwarves, humans (mostly descendants of freed slaves), a few goblins, lizardfolk, and orcs, the lamias, the native Eleons and other subtypes of halflings, and sometimes an adventurous fairy looking for trouble. Last but not least, the Kin, of all types and shapes. Wolves and Cats were the most common kinds, followed by fox, mice, ox, rabbit, squirrel, rhino, raccoon, boar, bear, elk, and other minor kinds.
When Lily infected the soldiers of King Rudolph III with were-cat lycanthropy, several of them fled the battle and hid, fearing for their lives. From there, they lived as both humans and beasts, breeding as opportunities arose. Their offspring inherited that trait, and as their curse was incorporated into a new species, they became the were-kin and beast-kin we had. The System eventually recognized the efforts and gifted me the controversial {Matriarch} Perk.
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The carriage rocked along the paved road.
Absorbed in my reminiscence, I didn’t notice when Helger tried to get my attention. He didn’t register as dangerous to me.
“Haru? Are you okay? Sorry, you looked melancholic.”
I shook my head, “No, master. I’m fine. Just remembering some things.”
“I was insensible to your circumstances yesterday. I am sorry. But I was so glad I’d found you alive that I couldn’t hold myself back.”
He sounded sincere. Since Wisteria convinced me to bind my fate to him, I decided to extend an olive branch.
“It is fine, master. You couldn’t possibly know I remembered everything.”
I let the conversation die. I really wasn’t in the mood to open up my heart. Maybe as daily life and hard work healed the wound but not now. Not yet. After another long stretch of road, he talked again.
“May I ask how you got out of that crevice? The dwarves usually discard trash there but when I finally got permission to go down there, the place was as clean as a virgin cave.”
I didn’t meet his eyes. “Maybe if you got down there faster, you’d have found me. I spent a few days down there.”
He shuddered, “What did you eat?”
“Slime. Or whatever I had there with me. I didn’t starve if that’s what you are worried about.”
Helger was a sweetheart. Maybe too sweet for a dwarf as I found myself wishing he had a stronger backbone to keep Fuckgor from fucking up and killing my mother. I tried to be nice to him but found the task too daunting. Another spell of silence shrouded us.
“Are you looking forward to becoming a blacksmith?” He asked with a pep in his voice.
This time I smiled and made eye contact. “Of course! Smithing and magic, I feel the tug to learn more about both!” I ended with a hearty fit of giggles.
That dispelled Fangor’s worries and we started to talk about every dwarf’s passion until we entered the city. Stereotypical? Yes. Did we care? Not a bit.
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Windemere was sometimes called “the country of magical walls”. I plead guilty as charged. The nation had walls all around its borders, the capital had walls, the Dungeon had walls, Duchess Nagini’s enclave had walls, but the walls didn’t have walls. That’d be ridiculous. Most of them had some kind of enchantment, mostly durability, resistance, and to avoid tampering by Earth mages.
We entered through the gates. Creepers grew on the inside walls, making climbing them quite easy. Their roots covered a gutter that ran along the wall, fed by the alleys. Probably a rudimentary way to process wastewater.
Helger asked the coachman to take us around town before going to his smithy. I couldn’t refuse the tour. He showed me the square before the castle, decorated with a big statue of King Locksley in his gothic plate armor. The sculptor took some liberties with the proportions. Locksley wasn’t as broad-shouldered or manly as depicted. I pointed that out to Helger and he laughed.
“Our elders said the same thing but King Eric II demanded we made him manly.”
He showed me the Academy and I noticed it had grown to occupy more blocks around it. I frowned. They shouldn’t gentrify the city and just gobble up prime real estate like that. That’s why I put Nagini’s complex outside the city. I saw a few more recent landmarks and we drove down a new neighborhood. The city grew to swallow the Lamia Knights’ headquarters.
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“That’s the magical lighthouse Duchess Nagini left us. It helped a lot during the last few centuries.”
The Age of Eclipse hadn’t officially ended yet but the sun now shone seven hours a day. It was more than enough to grow some crops without the help of the [Dark Farmers]. The Labyrinth of Trials and all the shenanigans in Pekothas were more successful in harvesting Faith for Galbarar than I thought. I later learned it had to do with the return of Vukdon’s cohort and the divine energy Kel’Caldor kept trapped. The lich wanted to use it for his own divine ascension but he had no idea he missed some key components normally unobtainable by mortals.
After seeing the lamia knights HQ, we went around and back to the old capital as I heard him call that area. Helger’s smithy was in a section of the city squeezed between the expanding Academy and the city walls.
“It looks like the Academy wants to grow until it spills out of the city walls,” I mentioned as we set foot on the street.
“Aye, it’s exactly that, lass. You are quite knowledgeable. Miss Haru, this way. Let me show you your new palace, Your Highness,” Helger bowed. I noticed his grin.
We entered the smithy and I picked the same scent of soot and slag. The front was an adventurer’s shop, with armor, weapons, and shields in armor stands and racks behind the counter. The storefront itself only had a bench on each side and the counter. The setup helped keep thieves away.
“Don’t go giving me some weird title. I really don’t want to be Royalty…” I almost added “again”.
“Actually, you--”
“Don’t tell me anything about the ‘me’ you think you know. That girl died in the chasm,” I turned to face him and warned. “Axejaw disowned his daughter. The fucker even emphasized the word ‘posthumously’.”
“Aye. He disowned your mother,” he left the rest unsaid. I’d be damned if I got roped into dwarven politics. “Come, you must be hungry.”
He cooked his “signature cave stew” as I called it. Dried mushrooms, beef jerky, well water, potatoes, some herbs, a lichen that grows in the dark. It was delicious.
After dinner, he showed me the smithy. It was rather simple and had room for only one smith. He briefly showed me how to operate the bellows, to fuel the forge, warned me to never touch his tools, and finished leading me to the guest room on the second floor. He yawned as he gave me good night.
I, however, didn’t need to sleep for too long but didn’t want to slip out and visit the city. After taking a nap, I laid in bed playing with Nenandil and Pandora until it was time to wake up.
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“Would you help with the shop, Haru?” Ragnar asked during breakfast. “And you can eat some more! I know a lass needs some fat in her to grow the right curves.”
I blamed the zeitgeist. The girls in the orphanage had those long talks about who would get the biggest chest and the widest hips. While the people of Windemere didn’t starve, food wasn’t abundant.
I shook my head. “Forget about it. What you see here is almost as good as it gets. And yes, I can help with the shop. I don’t know the prices, though.”
He thought for a while, then chuckled. “How don’t we play a little game?”
Helger was a merry fellow. It seemed like he carried a heavy burden all this time but now that he found me he felt light like a plume.
“What game?”
“Man the store the whole day. I’ll let you haggle with the customers as you like. You decide the price. When the shop closes, we’ll see how well you did. I’ll take the cost of the items you sold and all the profit is yours to spend. Show me your skills.”
“My skills?” I asked a bit afraid. Only Wisteria knew I already had the System.
“Yes. Then can even turn into proficiencies once you get activated. And I know you’ll need clothes and a lady has her needs. Decorations, dolls, lace, ribbons, and… other things.”
I put on my poker face. “If I can use my skills, this bet is unfair, how about you take twenty percent above cost as your own profit? I can keep the rest.”
He scratched his nose. “Are you thinking you can fleece my customers?”
I leaned forward. “Is it a bad thing?”
He grinned. “Lass, I’ll double down on our bet. I’ll take the cost plus twenty percent, you take the rest. If you make more money than me, you keep it all.”
I extended my hand. “You’re on.”
He shook it hard. Helger’s Strength score was over a hundred.
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The door opened and I put on my business smile. It was an Adventurer party of three, two warriors and an archer. “Welcome to H&H forges. How may I help you today?”
“Where’s master Helger?” Their leader, a rugged level 74 silk-folk [Warrior] asked.
I pointed behind me with a thumb. “Can’t you hear? He’s working. I’m Haru, and I’ll be your gear-up specialist. What can I get you?”
The second warrior, a level 66 half-elf [Fencer], asked, “[Gear-Up Specialist]? Is it your Class?”
“No, not really. It’s just what I do here. I can get you the best upgrades for your Class.”
“Is Helger going to take too long?” the cloth [Warrior] complained.
They didn’t like my avant-garde marketing pitch. Time to change gears.
“Please, cut me some slack,” I bit my lower lip and feigned weakness. “It’s my first day here. I need to impress the master. Tell me, what did you have in mind?”
The [Archer] walked past the front-liners. He was a rabbit-kin with fluffy white feathers. “I want a side weapon. What do you recommend?”
“Yes, sir. First, put your hand on the counter with the palm up.”
I measured his hand and turned to pick a shortsword from the rack. “This here fits your hand perfectly, sir. It has a sharp edge but its strong point is piercing attacks. If you mind the distance, you can try a few swings and stabs.”
He went through a few motions. “Yes, it feels as if it was custom-made.”
I smiled with him, “It comes with a complimentary sheath because you are my first customer, sir.” I put my hand under the counter and picked one from the item box. “Here.”
When it was time to negotiate the price, I used [Diplomat] to negotiate. He bought it for fifty percent more than the System-suggested {Appraise} price but I promised him a free sharpening whenever he wanted to. I engraved an H&H on the hilt and placed a minor enchantment to guarantee authenticity.
His companions bought a shield and a fencing saber. All with the same mark and enchantment.
And that was how I would win our little bet. Between customers, I placed minor enchantments on all the pieces. Endurance bonus, durability, minor Skill boosts. These cheap effects were basically free because I could pay with HP to enchant. But even these minor effects had a huge effect on the prices.
If this was some comedy anime, Helger would come at the end of the shift to an empty shop. That didn’t happen. I didn’t sell half of the shop’s stock but that still impressed Helger. When we split the money, I had double what I needed to win the bet and sweep his share.