Tears streamed from my eyes as I read about the romance of Romera and Julian. Many of the books here glorified angels and all the bullshit that entailed, and this wasn't an exception, but I couldn't deny that it was very well-made. I could enjoy things, even if I found the message to my own views, and the books published in the empire were no exception. Love and sacrifice was a universal theme, and having made the ultimate sacrifice once myself, I had gained a whole new perspective on it. Few people could experience that sort of growth.
I closed the book and blew my nose. The sound nearly echoed in the very silent building we were in. Paintings and sculptures of the biblical angels loomed over me from the ceiling, as if judging, but thankfully I cared not for their opinion. I was currently at the big library in the nicer part of town with my friends. My parents had passes to come here of course, and they were able to share it with me.
“I want a forge,” Moonwash spoke. Her voice was even, but the noise was enough to startle us in the quiet halls of the library.
“What?” I asked dumbly, which was a rarity because I knew I always sounded so intelligent.
“I don’t have one!” Angerly sniffed, still crying from her own children’s book. We didn’t have a printing press or anything, but the arts were taken seriously, especially in more influential circles, so the local library of most towns had a lot of things.
I was reminded once more that despite her towering over us, Angerly was the same age as me.
“Oh. That’s too bad,” Moonwash said, giving no indication of how her statement was not really addressed to Angerly.
She likely meant to talk to me, or even Granuel, so we could ask our parents for her. Luine and Salaire were of course also ludicrously wealthy, but they also had a lot more expenses than anyone, given that they had a lot more mouths to feed, and they were trying not to show too much favoritism.
“If only I could do a business…!” Granuel lamented, looking away from the book he was reading. It was about mercantile and economy stuff, and I was glad he hadn’t given up on his dreams. If he’d allow it, then I was fine with just putting my name on shit, and he could run everything. Then again, I wasn’t going to be a human forever, and who knew how the empire would treat demons…
“You can,” Therick told him, putting down his book about different schools of swordplay. “I can put my name on it, but effectively it’s yours.”
Seemed like he had the same idea as me. That was good.
“But then it wouldn’t really be my own!”
“I get that… but it’s the same arrangement between Haell and your parents, right?”
“I know that!”
“Right, so… it’s not ideal, but maybe it’s not the worst? If it works, right?”
“It is the worst though! Why can’t I start my own business!? Why can you!? It’s not fair…”
Therick sighed. “Yeah… You’re right… Sorry. I was just trying to help.”
“AH! No. That’s not what I meant…”
“SSSSHHHHH!!!” A librarian suddenly hissed at us in passing. She was a giant human woman, wearing a rome-ish office librarian attire.
We quieted down after that, and she left.
I spoke in a whisper, “Moonwash. You meant to ask me earlier if I could ask my parents for a forge, right?”
“Yes. I also wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas.”
“Oh. Well, I just have an even better idea. I think at best I could get my parents to ask someone that could then give you access to their forge… or there is another option, which I think could allow me to get you a full forge and any other facilities you need.”
Her head snapped towards me, eyes watching my own like an owl. I instinctively gulped. “What is it?”
“A pact.” I collected myself and faced her properly. “Between us. I think you’re very talented, and I’ll come up with ways for you to explore most things. Now, just limited to favors from my parents. But in the future, I’ll be strong enough to shatter the very heavens.”
“I see.” She paused for a moment, eyes still boring into me. I knew that she was just thinking, but it was still a tad intimidating. Wait. Why am I being intimidated by a literal child? That’s embarrassing.
“Okay,” Moonwash finally said, extending a hand out for me to shake. I grabbed it hard, and completed the gesture.
Thus a new pact was born and made.
~~~
I told my parents about the pact I made, and though a bit skeptical, they agreed to have a forge made. Moonwash’s request actually came at the perfect time because I was just about ready to graduate from my training gear. I needed some real steel or better, and Moonwash was more than willing to make me the things I needed.
Not that my parents couldn’t just procure them for me. There were plenty of shops, and even craftsmen that would be willing to make something custom. But I really liked the idea of having my own smith and maker friend that could outfit me for my adventures. It’s a classic. And I wanted it enough to potentially delay my descent into demonhood.
I also considered it to be a very important preparation for the future. I couldn’t just do everything myself, I needed true friends I could trust; a party even, at least for a while.
I and all my friends built not just a forge, but essentially a homebase for the five of us. None of us knew what we were doing, of course, except for Moonwash who had actually read pretty much all of the publically available books that were related to the topic. She also had access to the big library from Luine and Salaire. Something they did regularly allow the kids to use.
We tried to do it by ourselves, hauling wood and relying on earth magic to build much of the structure. Granuel was great at it, and only Therick was completely incapable of using the element among our group. Basements were dug using the magic, supports were placed, pillars were raised, and then I and Therick climbed up to put up the wooden beams and roof above. Getting a foundry built was harder because we might have forgotten that in the initial plans, so we had to smash a hole through the ceiling in order to make a proper chimney. Granuel volunteered to shoot big rocks at it until a wide enough hole was made, and none of us had any complaints about it being a bad idea. The boy at this point could lift rocks halfway to becoming a boulder, but he couldn’t actually toss them that far. There was only so much distance the mana could carry a rock until it dropped on its own, and thus the ceiling wasn’t actually reachable. All we did was ruin the floor we made, but strangely no one was upset. We laughed at the little ineffective detour, and then I and Therick just smashed holes into the roof with hammers.
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Maybe we should’ve used saws. But we were children! So it’s forgivable.
Mom, Dad, and the rest of the Piss Hunters helped towards the end of the project just so it didn’t look too amateurish, though none of them were really builders either. They did have some experience due to making Mom’s illegally large basement, and other probably equally illegal things.
The rooftops were nailed tighter to be sure they didn’t pull on our heads. The foundation and the walls were packed harder by earth magic and added onto where necessary, preventing a collapse. I noticed that they made the place a lot more defensible too, but I didn’t comment on it. The forge was widened, the crude hole we made for the ceiling patched up, and the chimney was straightened a bit more to ensure it could do its job the best it could.
The building was finally finished after a couple months of work, and it was… functional, if a bit lopsided. Some of the bricks used were uneven, with several parts sticking out. Walls curved and looked subtly different based on who had worked on it the most, creating weirdly shaped rooms. There were way too many beams holding up the ceiling, and not in an ordered way.
A client might be unhappy with the result, but I certainly was not. None of us were, even Moonwash approved of the imperfections.
It was a home for all five of us.
~~~
I stared at the somewhat dull and crinkled steel sword in front of me. The greatsword was surely ineffective, but it had the proper weight and general shape to it, therefore more than enough for my purposes. It had taken a few weeks for Moonwash to get this far, for it was a new kind of creation that she was making. The girl might seem like a genius, and she definitely was, but she couldn’t actually just create masterpieces on the first try. A lot of the things I’d seen her do were things she had built upon mountains of study and iterations, a lot of them resulting in ‘failed products.’
It was the first time I’d seen her learning process in full, and it was… very familiar, actually. She basically began to live in that house we built, forging for hours on end, taking up the majority of the day, and even forgetting to eat and drink. Moonwash heated the ingots, hammered them in the anvil, and then quenched them with the proper oil. She did that over and over again refining her technique and accounting for flaws in the methodology with every try. It reminded me of myself, swinging my sword countless times, just to perfect a single stroke, of a single stance.
I felt just a little bit more kinship with the girl.
After a few moments more spent admiring the fruits of Moonwash’s labor, I raised the sword high, and then swung it down. The blade whistled through the air with a weight unlike that of common wood. It was a departure from what had become familiar, and I found my slash slightly off mark.
I noted the difference, before repeating the same motion again, only shifting the amount of force I gave ever so slightly. It still wasn’t perfect, the new weight wasn’t etched into my instincts yet, and thus I repeated the same action again and again. I did this for every stance and every maneuver, letting the hours turn to days, and the days into weeks. I didn’t just relearn what I already knew, but I came up with new moves to compensate for and even take advantage of the added weight.
Moonwash also began to learn some amateur leatherworking. Luine hired someone to hold lessons in the orphanage, but it was clearly meant for my friend, although a lot of the other kids would also benefit.
Moonwash finished my armor after a month or so more, a plated leather set that left the inner part of my arms, and the back of my legs exposed to take better advantage of a human’s build. The back of my torso was also open in parts, to allow in air, and expose the rejuvenating sweat that I shed.
The armor was another thing I had to learn how to use, and it was far less simple than the adjustments I had to make for the sword. It was an entirely new piece of gear that I had no experience with, and Dad and the rest of the Piss Hunters had to teach me how to properly use it. From how to deflect blows, to how to best compensate for the weight and even use it to my advantage.
My armor clearly had more gaps than what I imagined, intrinsically making maneuverability better than it would otherwise be, but the leather and the plates still restricted my movements compared to only wearing thin fabrics. That was another thing I had to train with, how to best move with those added restrictions, and familiarizing myself with the added rigidity to my movements.
Time passed once more. Enough sweat poured out of me to fill a bucket many times over, which was disgusting to think about, but the hard work also made me proud. The effort was fiendishly difficult and grueling, but I met it with the enthusiasm of a proper demon. My friends cheered me on, spurred forward to make larger strides in their combat skills as well. Angerly swung her mace with force far greater than what I could accomplish due to her Mutations being further evolved than mine from birth. She destroyed our wooden dummies over and over until Moonwash decided to make some out of steel, but those too still had to be repaired every so often. Angerly actually got a steel weapon from Moonwash before I did because hers was far simpler to make. The ogre girl also managed to go out hunting with Luine before I could, and Mom and Dad did not listen to my pleas to let me do it too.
“It’s okay Haell! I’m sure you’ll get there!” Angerly encouraged.
I just stuck my tongue out at her and dashed around in my armor under the harsh glare of the summer sun.
Both Moonwash and Granuel learned how to use a shield, because they were both spellcasters and needed a way to at least keep themselves safe from the back. Moonwash was not very passionate about fighting, but she recognized the importance and the extra leveling speed it could potentially give was very tempting for the girl.
“I want to gain more levels. Take me with you when you hunt.”
“Sure. Glad to have you!”
Granuel on the other hand did enjoy casting spells and flinging rocks, but it wasn’t really what he had in mind for the future.
“I’ll get so strong they’ll have to let me make business!!!”
I chuckled. That was both how it worked, and how it didn’t. But if he meant to also tear it all down, then I had an ally in my little friend.
“Sure! Power is great. There is freedom in strength. Remember that, Granuel.”
That was the truth of both this world and my previous one. True freedom came only from either extreme power, or extreme luck. Extreme power should be obvious, it would allow one the freedom to act as they pleased. Extreme luck on the other hand meant that someone managed to act with freedom, because they were lucky enough to not be trampled by the powers of the world.
Only one of those methods was reliable in any way.
Therick joined me for training plenty of times, being taught by my father as well. He had gotten a steel sword, but hadn’t tried out armor yet. We did much of the same things, and the boy was dedicated, but not nearly as much as me, taking more breaks and rest days despite the human body allowing for a fair bit more exertion than how much he pushed it.
Then again, other than Moonwash, there wasn’t really anyone that came close, within my friend group or without. We were actual literal children so that made total sense. Hell, even adults wouldn’t apply themselves this hard, including myself from my past life.
I guess I’ve already been changed by this world without ever realizing it.
Once I’d gotten enough proficiency in using my heavier attire and weapon came the spars. One of the first things I learned was how to spar without debilitatingly injuring our opponent, but I didn't fight any of my friends, because it could be very dangerous if we didn’t know what we were doing. Instead, my spars were against the Piss Hunters and I predictably lost. No matter which Piss Hunter I challenged, I was always on the back foot.
I swore that they just wanted to bully poor little old me. Hell, Salaire didn’t even know her way around the sword at all, her body was more built for strength, not speed. But she still beat me handily everytime because her slow movements for a level 40 was like supersonic to me!
I swore vengeance and threw myself at them with the fury of a thousand angry chipmunks. I kept on coming at them and losing, over and over, no matter how much I was left to taste the dirt afterward. It was all so I could be the one making them taste dirt in the future.
I love you of course, Mom, Dad, and everyone else too. But I will have my revenge! Dirt to mouth. DIRT TO MOUTH. DIRT. TO. ALL. THE. MOUTHS!
RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!
My battlecry was cute and squeaky.
[Human Flesh, Human Bones, and Enduring Musculature have reached Level 6!}