(Kimura's flashback)

About a year ago, this old hut you see was very lively, you would see a long queue of adventurers wanting to buy and order their weapons from here. Some waited for days just to get their weapon upgraded. Well for me, business was good and i was gaining a name for the best blacksmith in all of Oshiro kingdom. In a few days, i was going to be awarded with the title of ‘National Blacksmith’ by the king but it all went down the drain when he brought his sword.

One day just when the business was okay and I was busy returning the upgraded weapons to their owners, a man wearing a black mask came in through that door and showed me a broken sword. This sword was nothing like the swords I have ever seen. It had these strange steel that made it heavy but easier to cut through any objects. It was dark purple in color and had a golden hilt to its end. It was truly remarkable to find such a sword in Oshiro. But it was broken from its tip to the bracket in half. It was quite a pain to see such a beautiful sword injured.

He said that this sword was given to his father by his grandfather and later after his death, it was given to him.

That man was really weird too. He was tall and had a deep voice enough to sound manly. He never let go of his mask so I could never see his face.

After taking his sword in my hand, i was feeling doubtful if I would be able to fix it. This sword was every different than any other. It not only looked unique but it was unique.

I asked him to come after a month after accepting the fix request, even though i wasn’t sure, no blacksmith would leave a sword in pain for long.

I tried everything I could to fix it. I even tried the third tier steel to fix it together but every time I had to heat it up and cool it down, it broke. Just at that time, I had heard about the fourth tier steel that was new among all the blacksmiths.

This steel had purely the components of dark magic, something that normal blacksmiths would have only dream about.

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I wanted to try this new steel but since it was new and not everyone new the what this steel was, it was hard to find. But I managed to get my hand on these for a good price.

After getting this steel, i worked day and night on the sword. This new steel was easy to handle to get in shape and would easily blend with other steel.

In a month, the sword was made and it looked good as new. The dark purple blended quite well with the new black steel. We blacksmiths called it black steel after it’s color.

That man came to take his sword after a month. He was still wearing the mask. He looked like he was in a hurry, he came, paid for the sword and left without testing it even though I warned him to do so.

Later a month, we heard rumors about a new beast called Kuddle that lived behind the dark forest in a rocky mountain and a lot of adventurers were killed in the hunting. That week, there was one survivor in that hunting party.

He was crying as he was brought to our medic. He had these eyes that was scared as hell, he looked like he had no soul and he was shouting and screaming in pain.

We went to see this young man after he was being taken under the care of the medic. He was murmuring about a dark colored dog and how it was going to kill him and then he sees me and starting getting out of control.

“You killed us! If only you took your job seriously!”

I was confused and so were the villagers. The villagers tried to calm him down and send me outside the medic. In a while, one of the villagers comes outside and punches me on the face.

I was pushed back because i was still scared and confused after what I heard and now it was this.

The man, before dying said that the purple sword that I fixed killed them. The sword broke and they were defenseless. The man, the owner of the sword was their leader and the only one strong enough to kill it.

I couldn’t believe what I heard and I was blamed for not fixing the sword with care. Later, they brought the sword to the village and that made an evidence for my carelessness. I had nothing to do but to accept the guilt.

But one thing I was sure of seeing the sword was that it wasn’t the same sword. I tried to explain it to the court but due to the lack of information on this new steel, my plead was canceled. I wasn’t punished but this incident changed my life for forever.

Adventurers started to boycott my workshop and I went out of business. It was a good thing that i stored enough gold before going out of business.

And now you see why my workshop looks like an old shabby hut. The pain of losing respect is undefinable.

There are very little people who trust my work and come here once or twice a month.