“Leon, what took you so long? Had something to do with that guy? How come you know him? He’s from another dojo.”
Seeing Josh and I come back together while chatting in such a friendly manner, Alice stared at me confused while I simply sighed and waved my hand indifferently, not wishing to explain too much,
“He’s someone to whom I made a dagger for, and now wants me to repair it as he broke it. He tried to negotiate the price just now, nothing serious.”
“Hmph, I wish you’d stop doing such things for immature delinquents like these. You never know when you might get bitten back for that.”
She glanced sharply at Josh and this made him feel a shudder down his back, feeling a bit awkward while wondering what kind of lie I came up with.
“Sure, sure.”
I chuckled and gently patted Alice’s head, returning to chat with the others while just drinking my water, Josh and I keeping our distance.
After a bit, Ana’s boyfriend also appeared and he sat down right beside her, now chatting together with us in an open and friendly manner. After we made acquaintances, Ana told him about my work and his reaction was rather pleasing, his large eyes making me crack a smile,
“Blacksmith? For real?! That’s so cool! Wait, will you be at the medieval festival that’s in two days?”
“Eh? You know of that festival?”
“Of course I know! I’ll participate myself.”
His name was John and he seemed to be a lively individual, opposite to Ana who was more of a calm and composed one. His build was that of a large individual and, although his muscles weren’t that visible, one could tell that only power was hiding behind his soft appearance. Although he wasn’t the handsome type, something still made people be attracted to him, his charisma being unnaturally high.
“Have you participated in such festivals before?”
“Nope, but my father’s friends told me about it and so I decided to go after making a command for some armor. The end-product was so epic, just look at this!”
“Hm?… Wait a sec…”
He then showed me a picture of the product and saw that the armor was exactly what my uncle and I worked on day and night for two whole months.
“Woah! Oy Jo, it looks lit!”
“H-how much did it cost tho?”
“Around 2.3k euros.”
“Holy! Dude, are you rich?”
“Ahaha~! Not me, but my dad. He wanted to buy it for me.”
“Buu~ you’re so lucky!”
The boys and girls around gathered to see the armor and chatted lively while I looked frozen at the armor. Seeing my expression, John started to feel like frowning and asked,
“W-what happened? Is something wrong with it?”
“Something wrong? There’s nothing wrong. My uncle and I made it after all.”
““What?!””
Everyone exclaimed baffled then John’s eyes opened wide while pointing at me completely shaken,
“D-don’t tell me… Are you young Goibniu and your uncle is Hephaestus?!”
“For real? That title again?”
I asked with a tired expression and John suddenly became ecstatic, patting my shoulder in a friendly manner with a wide grin on his face. The others looked more confused and even felt like chuckling after hearing the names,
“Come on, after seeing the pictures of the two of you, who would dare think otherwise?! Everyone could tell your skills just from the pictures alone!”
“Oh? What pictures?”
“W-wait, you don’t need to-“
Alice and I had a bad feeling about it and wanted to stop him, but it was too late. He immediately entered the website [Crafting Corner] from his phone and showed to everyone two pictures, one of them being that epic one of myself as I was working, while the other one was almost rivaling it, of my own uncle, working intensely at a chest-plate while sweat fell down his whole body, his tied hair coming undone, the fire making his body shiny and glossy, while his bulging muscles flexed just as he was about to hammer the chest-plate. On his face a similar excited and wild smile, his eyes focused and reflecting the fire from the furnace while shining from between his hairs.
“Why are we the only retarded ones…?”
I expected for the other blacksmiths to have similar crazy pictures, but while theirs were just as artistically made, the blacksmiths were fully clothed or at least wearing protective gears, no crazy smile or burning fire covering them, only a focused frown, a friendly smile to the camera, or them simply doing their work like normal.
The girls continued to gaze at our pictures, some now blushing for a bit, while the guys remained baffled and even felt jealous at how awesome the pictures were made. John on the other hand patted my shoulder in a friendly manner once again, talking proudly,
“Yeah~ when we looked around to see who could build my armor, your pictures instantly attracted our attention, making us press on you two the moment we laid our eyes on your crazy faces. After we saw the high ranking and the type of crafts you created, we instantly decided to contact your uncle. As for the sword, I already got one from my father as he is rather passionate about them. A Teutonic one of dunno what century.”
“… You mean this one?”
I scrolled up to my ratings then he saw a comment with a 5/5 stars and a picture of the sword I made.
“Y-yes! This one! Huh? You made that as well?!”
“What a small world, eh?”
I grinned amusedly as I crossed my arms. While the others went back to their seats, Mira, Marina, and Alice looked again at the armors and asked more about the event, John answering each question,
“It’s a free entry and there will be more stalls where you will be able to watch different kinds of medieval moments. How the bards sang, how the dancing was taking place, how a tavern was like, how a blacksmith works, how a craftsman works, some cooking, and so on and so forth. At the end of all that, there will be the medieval war where everyone who has adequate armor of a Western medieval thematic will be separated into two groups and be commanded by a commander, normally someone with higher experience in such events. It’s expected for the armors to be part of different eras, but nothing we can do about that I guess.”
John explained knowledgeably after hearing from his father’s friends, but then I also added a few things I heard from my uncle,
“Something like that. Basically, there will be two groups that will knock heads until one camp remains. The battle will be brutal, if you touch the ground with anything else other than your legs you’re disqualified and are required to leave or lay down dead, depending on the rules. If you’re injured then, welp, sucks for you. I suggest not going for those who can’t handle too much violence.”
“Is it that bad?”
Marina and Ana asked curiously and John smiled wryly as he wasn’t that sure himself. I then showed them some videos of Medieval MA fights and they all remained baffled.
Grown and large men in full body armor crashing like trucks with halberds, swords, and shields in hands, trying to strike each other down to the ground. Some scenes were showing quick moves of men sneaking behind other warriors and throwing them on the ground, then there were scenes where men who didn’t want to fall, held themselves onto the fences while resisting swords and halberds striking at the back of their heads, only to fall down after being struck unconscious. More were even those who drop-kicked others in a sacrificial attempt to take out the best of the enemy team.
“… Is this even called a competition fight? Isn’t it just armored people beating down each other? How is this permitted?!”
“I know, right? Isn’t it cool? You don’t have to worry about your own strength as you can use your full power without worrying of severely injuring the other.”
Marina turned pale after seeing how armored men were slashing each other with blunt swords, using them like bats, then she covered her mouth after seeing shields bashed in the face with the edges used as extended fists. She completely closed her eyes when she saw a guy that was almost downed, suddenly get kicked in the face and struck at the back by an axe, falling down completely knocked out as if executed. Meanwhile I grinned widely as I couldn’t wait to go there and have my fun. Although hammering the metal helps me take off some steam pretty nicely, nothing compares with a real fight against someone who retaliates as well.
This was going against my own idea of evading fights, but being just a festival, I thought maybe I could make an exception. I mean, come on, I’m also a man, how can I not want to go head-first into battle? Some primal instincts must be satisfied as well.
Alice and Ana sighed at my comment, while Mira and Marina felt like distancing themselves from me for a bit. John also scratched his cheek, not so eager to go anymore. I looked at him then patted his shoulder with a grin of my own,
“As long as we have each other’s back, all is gonna be fine. Trust me, wait until you get to bash some helmets without the worry of smashing heads, you’ll get into it the next moment.”
He felt a bit threatened by my sadistic smile while I simply couldn’t wait to get back home then go to the festival. Josh also tried to hold in a laugh as he thought that maybe Sabin would need to update my data.
.
After we returned back to the competition and the awards were shared between the champions, Alice got her silver medal while I decided to return back home as I still had some work to do. The one guy from Alice’s dojo who couldn’t handle me was happy to hear that I was leaving sooner, while the guys from Sylvia’s dojo were now rather depressed as they waited for their turn, their hands being bandaged and in difficulty to fight. The only eager one was Josh from Ana’s team, who was warming up before his match was starting, a confident smile visible on his face.
After I said I’ll go back home as I had the train at night, to my surprise Alice decided to come with me.
“You’re aware that it will take more time to get back home by train than with your dojo’s bus, right?”
“I know, but I’ll be with you, so I don’t mind. Besides, I’ll get home a day sooner.”
After saying this, I had nothing for a comeback and simply agreed. On the train I still asked her once again,
“Let me ask again. Are you sure you want to come to that festival?”
“Why do you keep asking me that?”
She turned at me confused and I scratched my cheek troubled,
“Look… I want to go there to let off some steam and… I… don’t really want you to see me when I, ahem, when I just let go of all reason…”
“I’m your girlfriend after all, why would you want to hide any of your faces from me?”
“A better question would be: Who in their right minds would want to show their loved ones their monstrous face? That’s more accurate, don’t you think?”
“Oh come on, I doubt it would be that bad.”
“And I’m telling you…”
I sighed troubled and she then came closer to my face, her blue sparkling eyes gazing deeply into mine,
“Sabin, will you behave violently all the time after the festival?”
“Hell no. It’s just a thing once a blue moon I get to do that. It’s not like I’ll do it all the time.”
“Then everything is fine. We’re humans, and I learned from my father that men especially have a primal instinct for violence. Don’t try to suppress yourself.”
“Alice that’s… a type of violence that turned many men into monsters. How can you tell me not to suppress it?”
“In that case try to control it, Leon. Don’t subdue or erase it, because you’ll erase a part of yourself. But try to control it, and once you can control the monster, you’ll become someone greater than you could ever think of.”
Her words reverberated within me and made for my hair to raise, feeling like I seriously needed to hear this. Although I subconsciously already knew this, I felt like I seriously needed to hear it from someone else. My whole body warmed and I smiled calmly, looking at her bright face and asking unsure,
“Where did you hear this from?”
“Do I need to take from someone else to say something smart?”
“Do I feel Deja Vu right now?”
“You told me this back when we barely knew each other, forgot?”
She snuggled closer and rested her head on my shoulder while I also leaned closer, feeling weirdly more confident and calm, no longer worried about what will happen during or after the festival.
On our way back after chatting for a bit more, Alice fell asleep on my shoulder then, after we arrived I walked her back home while I went to my uncle’s place. To my surprise, I found my uncle while lustering some old pieces of armor, sparks flying everywhere while his grin showed maniacally through his long hair.
“Yo, brat! Came back already? Come, help me prepare the equipment and let’s gear up. I’m eager to test everything out.”
“…”
I looked around and saw more pieces of armor together with the inner jacket used to attach the armor on, and with other such pieces of inner parts, making for my blood to boil.
“Alright then, let’s work it out.”
I grinned widely and got right down to work, feeling excited for tomorrow.
The armor was old and rusty, and anyone could tell that it has gone through many battles as there were many dents and scratches. However, there was no hole or crack, showing the mighty craftsmanship of the armor. I took a polisher as well and sparks started to fly, taking all that rust off. Afterward, I grabbed a hammer and repaired the dents, restoring the armor to its initial form.
“Hm? So this armor is that of a crusader?”
I took the helmet and saw how the face’s form was that of a cross, typical to the crusader’s army, while the back of the chest plate had a huge red cross on a white background.
“Haha~! That’s gonna be your armor, so better restore it properly.”
“Oh~? And what will you be wearing?”
“This beauty.”
He then showed me a European closed helmet with face-bars that’s able to push up and down like a trap, depending on the need. It had a sturdy form so the trap of the face’s protection won’t fall off even after a few hits.
“Fancy stuff you got there.”
“I’m more curious if it still has what it takes to participate in the festival.”
“So that’s why you want to test-fight with me.”
“Indeed.”
I grinned amused then continued on working. We barely finished at midnight so we just went to sleep right after.
