“Everyone ready?” said Amelia

“Ready!” shouted the children. She oured the murky liquid into the pot.

The children peered into the pot, excitement shone brightly in their eyes. The fire crackled under the stove. The charred wood fragrance floated through the air. I could hear trumpets and wind instruments playing in the distance.

“Now with a little bit of …” said Amelia her voice trailing off. The pot glowed slightly the liquid fizzled and steamed as it moved unnaturally in the pot. The texture of it transformed from a watery substance to a thick and viscous liquid.

My stomach did churn a little knowing that the gelatinous mass was made from animal bones and animal skin. While I already knew that gelatin was made from those animal parts I was still a bit grossed out seeing the gelatin extracted from the bones. The children had collected the bones from the butcher and brought it back when they arrived.

We were making some sort of candy for the flower festival. Amelia had explained something before about the festival’s ties to the first heroes but I didn’t pay enough attention when she was talking about it.

Edith placed another pot to the side of the main one. It was filled with a red liquid. The fruity aromas wafting from it made my mouth water. With a flick of her wrist Amelia sent the thick liquid into the second pot.

The candy preparation had started of as bones after which the gelatinous substance was extracted. Afterwards it was cooled down and then mixed in with sweetened fruit juice. It was then poured and left to cool. These were a key snack made for the flower festival.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help,” said Edith. “Doing this ourselves would have taken so much more work, bless your heart.”

Amelia beamed. “The pleasure is all mine, it’s times like these that I get the most joy out of using magic,” she replied.

The hot liquid was then poured into moulds of objects Most of them looked to be weapons. There was a spear, a sword, a shield a bow and arrow made as one image as well as some sort of stick with a ball on one end. My best guess is that it's a staff.

After the candy had been set to cool we sat down in the dining area, Edith poured us a cup of tea.

“Hey Amelia what do these shapes mean?” I asked.

“They represent the first heroes who appeared after the Demon King’s Reign.”

I nodded, Of course, how hadn’t I seen it! The knowledge I had gotten when I was summoned provided enough information for me to figure it out.

“That makes sense,” I said. “The candies represented the heroe’s weapons. The bow and arrow represent Deram the wise, the spear is Saphira the fierce, the shield represents Goram the strong, the staff represents Ignius the brave. The sword represents Lingon the knight who was also the leader of the heroes. “

“That’s about right,” said Amelia. “Although no institute will admit it not much is known about the heroes. It was about a thousand years ago that they lived. Few records of their existence remains. “

I gazed into the distance. A thousand years ago. I wonder what life was like back then? It must have been an entirely different world. There was one thing that I didn’t understand though.

“Why does Ariadne celebrate the first heroes as well, aren't they part of the holy empire?” I asked.

She shook her head fervently. “While their is a lot of religious beliefs tied to the heroes it is a fact that they existed and defeated the demon lord. That fact is acknolwedge by every major nation which is why they are celebrated for saving the world.”

“I see, I did feel that something was off about my knowledge,” I commented. It seems that The Holy Empire has fed me wrong information. I wonder what other parts of history they had twisted to suit their own needs.

“Still…” said Amelia, “ The first heroes being only part of the holy empire isn’t taught outside of there. Did you receive your schooling there?”

Crap, I think I gave away a little too much!

“Well, not exactly, I uh read it in a book somewhere,” I said meekly.

“Is that so … “she said.

I don’t think she was buying my excuse, even I felt that it wasn’t very convincing.

“Well!” she said perking up, “It’s not like it’s any of my business.”

She took a sip of her tea.

“Where’s Wulf by the Way?” I asked her.

“He’s probably with the blacksmith, he’s probably giving them a hard time, he’s very meticulous when it comes to his tools,” She said.

I stood up.

“Well, I should probably get going,” I said.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Are you sure, you can stay for longer if you want?” said Edith peeking her head out from the kitchen.

“I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

With those final words I took my leave and headed back to my room. It’s not that I didn’t want ot stay for longer but I couldn’t help but feel that I was intruding if I stayed for much longer. I feel that I wouldn’t live up to their expectations, I might ruin the atmosphere by being there.

I went back to Hydrangea, briefly said hello to the innkeeper when I arrived and headed to an early sleep.

I slept in the next morning. I lay in bed groggily after waking up, I didn’t move a single centimeter. I yawned lazily. On Mornings like this it felt like I was back in my own world. Like a saturday morning or a summer day, were everything outside of the present felt so far away. Birdsong flitted through the air. I heard a knock on the door to my room.

“Coming!” I shouted. I got out of bed and hurriedly dressed myself.

I opened the door wide, while still patting down my hair. “It was the innkeeper.

“Hello Miranda,” I said greeting her.

“Sir, you have a guest,” she said. “I must say …” said Miranda with a slight smile, “ I never took you for a ladies man.”

I looked at her confused. Ladies man, what could she possibly be talking about?

I walked downstairs. I wonder who the guest could be? Sitting at one of the tables was a familiar blonde-haired girl. Amelia was busy digging into a stew and by the looks of it she was enjoying it massively.

“Hello,” I said.

Amelia took another bite of the stew, she closed her eyes dreamily, savouring every bite.

“Excuse me …” I said.

Amelia snapped out of her food trance.

“Oh, my bad!” said Amelia. “I didn’t see you there, This food is to die for!”

I sat down next to her.

“So what did you want?”

I winced internally. I didn’t mean to sound so annoyed.

“I was going to see the blacksmith … to see how the repairs were coming along,” She said in between bites. “You should come.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” I said. It’s not like I really had plans for the day. In the back of my mind I knew that I couldn’t keep on wandering aimlessly through the world.

Her bowl was almost done now. She scooped up the remaining meat and vegetable chunks into one last spoonful and stuffed it into her mouth.

Amelia thanked Miranda for the food before leaving.

“You should have told me about this place,” said Amelia. “ I can’t believe I didn’t know about this place!”

She reached into her pockets.

“You want one?” I looked at her hand. She was holding a small jelly sword in the palm of her hand. I took it gingerly.

I took a bite of it. An explosion of flavour burst in my mouth as soon as my teeth pierced the skin. It had a sweet fruity taste, i tasted strawberry, watermelon and hints of orange as well.

“It’s good isn’t it!” said Amelia at the sight of my face.

I nodded fervently. “I didn’t expect it to be this good!”

Amelia laughed. “Not bad for being made of pig skin.”

“Hmmm?” I said while still chewing.

“It was written all over your face,” she explained. “You looked like you were gonna gag when we were extracting the jelly from the cartilage, bones and skin.”

I blushed. “I was trying to hide that.”

She laughed again in response.

I spotted a sign hanging on the side of one of the many buildings. It had the rough shape of an anvil carved into it. While The building was too high for me to see the chimney dark smoke wafted out from the top of it.

“Is that the place?” i asked.

“Yup,” Amelia nodded.

I could hear the sounds of metal against metal. It was the unmistakable sound of a forge.

We walked in. Several Dwarfs were hammering away at bright yellow pieces of molten iron. They were stout and barrel-chested as they had been in the rebellion’s blacksmith and each of their fces were covered in a thick beard. A giant pair of billows pumped air into the burning hot furnace at the back. It sounded like the panting of a great beast. Despite the dangerous working conditions, All of their upper-bodies were bare, spare the occasional one wearing heavy leather gloves or apron.

A particularly hairy and muscular dwarf approached us.

“You must be with Wulf, I’ve been expecting you,” he said in a grouff voice.”You can call me Jarn.”

We nodded in unison.

“Follow me to the back,” said Jarn.

We followed him. I narrowly avoided crashing into a pair of red-hot tongs I apologised to the annoyed dwarf before going past.

The back of the shop had some tables. A large bronze hammer was on a pedestal nailed to the wall.

Wulf was standing there scribbling on papers.

“There’s some bad news,” said Wulf. “Repairs were supposed to take a week but it might be delayed even longer,” He said, he looked at Jarn for confirmation. Jarn nodded. “That’s right. Our iron supply has been running low, there aren’t any iron mines near Ariadne, we import iron and our talented artisans and blacksmiths forge it into valuable items. Our delivery has been cut in half, the shipment that was supposed to arrive hasn’t come yet.” He continued.

“We believe that the appearance of the scarlet dragon has halted the delivery men in that area. At this rate it will take up too a month, for your machine to be fixed.”

“If you had the metal, could you fix it on time?” asked Amelia.

“We could,” said Jarn scratching his beard, “ unfortunately we cannot spare any metal from other projects.”

“I know!” Exclaimed Amelia.

“Wulf, wasn’t there a quest put out for ruby rock lizards!” she exclaimed. “We could get the iron from them, the rock lizards gain their distinct color from iron that has oxidised on their scaly backs!”

“That could work,” said Wulf quizzically.

“My, that’s very impressive,” said Jarn. “We dwarves know all about metals but even to us not many know that, you must have had a truly exceptional education.”

“He,he,” laughed Amelia. “I just like reading,” she said sheepishly.

I was surprised too. I hadn’t heard anyone use such scientific words since coming to this world.

Amelia straightened herself.

“Okay then, next stop the adventurers guild!”