He gently withdrew the arm tucked beneath her neck, tucked the blanket snugly around her, then slipped out of bed naked. Finding his sleeping robe, he draped it over himself and went to the window to look down. Sure enough, it was the cook's son sawing away at some wood. The fellow was certainly diligent — getting up at the crack of dawn to do carpentry work. Not bad at all.
The excitement of having seized control of the family the night before, combined with all the anxiety over inheriting his title and the family's territories, had been thoroughly vented upon the little maidservant Enilena. Lorist now felt refreshed and thoroughly content.
He quietly washed his face with the cold water stored in the basin of the washroom, wiped his body down, straightened his clothes, and headed downstairs, planning to grab his sword for morning practice.
But when he reached the sitting room below, Lorist was dumbfounded: Where was my sword? Where had his swords gone?
Lorist discovered that the two sabers he had placed on the weapon rack in the sitting room after returning last night had vanished without a trace. Only the fief-bestowed sword — the one symbolizing the family head's authority — remained. Now that was strange. Who had taken his two sabers?
Lorist went to the guest room at the end of the hallway and knocked on the door. Sedkemport opened it with a yawn. The previous night, the three chief stewards had invited him out and spent half the evening plying him with wine. Knowing he was the new family head's confidant, they had naturally done their utmost to flatter him. Sedkemport had shared a few of Lorist's preferences, and the evening had been a merry affair for both host and guests alike. As a result, he had risen late that morning.
When he learned that Lorist's sabers had gone missing, the remnants of Sedkemport's drinking spell evaporated instantly, and he scrambled to help search for them.
Lorist asked, "Where's Patte?"
Sedkemport replied, "He left first thing this morning. After you announced he'd be responsible for assembling the new family guard, he got up very early..."
Patte probably wouldn't take my sabers. He has his own sword, why would he need mine? Lorist pondered, and just then he heard the sound of sawing wood again...
Right, I should go ask the man who's sawing. Lorist and Sedkemport went out to the yard. Sedkemport asked, "Edvok, who came by our house this morning?"
The wood-sawing Edvok took quite a while to stop his work: "The Eldest Miss came..."
Basha? What did she want? Lorist asked urgently, "Did you see her take anything?"
Edvok nodded: "She took your swords. Both of them. I recognized your scabbards..."
Why would the Eldest Miss take my swords? Lorist was completely baffled, when Edvok spoke again: "The Eldest Miss has been wanting to forge herself a handy weapon for a long time, but she lacks good materials, and there aren't any good swords in the house either. I think she took your two swords to go see Old Blacksmith Arba..."
Lorist punched the wall, his anger truly reaching a peak. What was the meaning of this? The Eldest Miss was actually going to take the new Family Head's sabers to smelt into her own weapon? Did she have any respect for him at all? He had been tolerating her because in Little Lorist's memories she was the eldest sister, but that didn't mean he, the transmigrator who had taken over Little Lorist's body, was afraid of her. If he let this slide, would anyone still take this new Family Head seriously?
"Take me to Old Blacksmith Arba," Lorist said coldly to Sedkemport.
Lorist knew just how many precious materials and at what great cost his two sabers had been forged. For instance, the incisors of those gold-devouring mice—one small silver coin was offered per tooth, and Lorist had purchased nearly a thousand of them. It had cost almost ten gold forties. Melting those nearly one thousand gold-devouring mouse incisors into the swords was what made them so hard and resilient. Even without channeling any inner energy into them, they were strong enough to resist sword qi. His companions all knew that while his two sabers looked unremarkable, the cost to make them was no less than that of many famous divine or sharp blades.
Back when Lorist had just adapted to life after transmigrating, he had been thoroughly confused by this world's unique combat energy tiers. By conventional logic, the ranking should have gone gold, silver, copper, and iron — so why did this world order combat energy from bronze, black iron, silver, to gold? Shouldn't black iron be the lowest tier?
It wasn't until Lorist began the knight training professional course at
It was also during the knight training course that Lorist learned the full history. When the mages first created combat energy, they discovered a problem: combat energy practitioners were fine during the first two stages, but by the third stage they became heavily dependent on their weapons. And at the time, the mages found that weapons made of ordinary metal couldn't channel combat energy properly — after just a few uses they would quickly crack and shatter.
The mages identified three types of metal that could channel combat energy. The first was bronze, but unfortunately the blade aura formed by channeling combat energy through bronze was scattered and chaotic, unable to hold its form. The metals that formed far better blade aura were mithril and adamantine. However, mithril and adamantine were precious magical materials the mages themselves were desperately short of for their own experiments — how could they possibly spare them to forge weapons for combat energy practitioners?
Through repeated experimentation, the mages ultimately discovered that combining tungsten ore with a special grade of iron could produce a metal capable of stably channeling combat energy. The mages named this black metal "black iron," placing it above bronze, and designated the first four stages of combat energy as bronze, black iron, mithril, and adamantine. As the era of magical civilization faded, mithril and adamantine became the stuff of legend, and later generations substituted silver and gold for those two tiers.
Though the age of magical civilization had faded into legend, records of combat energy were preserved. Blacksmiths all knew to add tungsten ore so that combat energy could be channeled into weapons. And as more and more metals capable of bearing combat energy were discovered, modern weapon forging was evolving toward ever-greater diversity. Crafting a satisfactory weapon was no longer as simple as merely adding tungsten ore the way it had been in the beginning.
Sometimes, when Lorist thought about the family territory he had inherited, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sorrow. Though the land was vast, it had no resource deposits — in over two hundred years, only a single copper mine had been discovered in the Morgan Hills. Still, Lorist felt
The Eldest Miss certainly had a good eye — she had immediately taken a liking to Lorist's two swords. But taking them without permission, doing as she pleased — this had crossed one of Lorist's deepest boundaries. Especially since this was only the second day since he had assumed the position of
Sedkemport led Lorist to the northwestern corner of the estate castle, where the family's blacksmith shop was located. An elderly man with graying hair was examining two of Lorist's swords in his hands, shaking his head repeatedly. Clearly, this old blacksmith named Arba had sharper judgment than the Eldest Miss — he understood that with the crude forge in his humble smithy, melting down these two swords would be far from easy. The Eldest Miss, standing before him, grew visibly more dejected with each shake of the old blacksmith's head.
Lorist said nothing. With a dark expression he strode forward and snatched both swords from the old blacksmith's hands. Old Blacksmith Arba, recognizing the new Family Head, hastily lowered his head in greeting. The Eldest Miss, on the other hand, glared and snapped angrily, "What's the big idea? A black iron-tier like you using such fine swords is nothing but a waste of good materials! Hand them over to me right now so I can forge a proper weapon — at least then they can be used to defend the family."
Lorist stared coldly at this self-important woman, his heart filled with exasperation. "For the sake of my deceased elder brother, I can overlook this rudeness of yours, Eldest Miss Bai Sha. Furthermore, as long as the men of the Norton Family still draw breath, it is not your place to defend this family. Kindly remember that."
"What did you say? How dare a black iron-tier trash like you speak to me like that? Hand over the swords. And when I came to see you this morning, it was to have you turn over the newly formed family guard to me. Pat just recently advanced to silver-tier — what right does he have to lead the guard?" The Eldest Miss jabbed her finger at Lorist as she issued her commands, the very picture of insolence.
"Get lost and stop polluting my eyes!" Lorist suppressed the fury building within him.
"Oh, so you think becoming Family Head means you can do whatever you please? It seems I need to teach this black iron trash a lesson before you understand just how formidable I am. I'll make sure you remember this." The Eldest Miss was beyond furious. She drew her sword in one swift motion.
Sedkemport hurried forward to intervene. "Eldest Miss, please don't — His Lordship is —"
A sharp crack rang out. The Eldest Miss had slapped Sedkemport across the face. "Get out of my sight! This doesn't concern you!"
Even when striking a dog, one should at least consider its master's face. Knowing full well that Sedkemport was Lorist's own attendant, Bai Sha had shown no regard whatsoever and struck him without hesitation — it was clear she had grown far too accustomed to throwing her weight around within the Norton Family. Lorist was genuinely enraged now. If he didn't teach this red-haired she-devil a harsh lesson, she would never learn her place. A mere two-star silver-tier dared to act this brazenly in front of him…
Although the blacksmith shop sat in the northwestern corner of the estate castle, the argument between Lorist and the Eldest Miss had drawn considerable attention. Servants and retainers gathered round, some openly and others lurking in the shadows. Lorist understood that if he failed to decisively put this Eldest Miss in her place today, his authority as the new Family Head would plummet before long…
Lorist slowly drew his sword. "Come, then. Survive three exchanges under my hand, and from now on you'll be the boss of this castle."
"Three exchanges? You certainly talk big. Watch how I teach you a lesson…" The Eldest Miss sneered contemptuously. The blade of her longsword blazed with light as she charged straight at him…
With a sharp clang, the Eldest Miss's longsword snapped in two on contact, and Lorist's blade came to rest against her neck.
"You—you're only any good because of your sword!" The Eldest Miss couldn't believe what had just happened. She stood stunned for a long while before finally finding an excuse.
"Fine then, I won't use a sword. Come again." Lorist drew his blade back and sheathed it, tossed both swords to Sedkempu to hold, then found himself a meter-long wooden stick to use in place of a sword.
The Eldest Miss rushed into the blacksmith shop, rummaged around for a good while, and emerged with a two-handed greatsword. Its blade blazed with light as she swung it straight down at Lorist's head…
*Whoosh!* The wooden stick and the greatsword met in midair. The greatsword shuddered and flew off a considerable distance, while Lorist's stick came to rest against the Eldest Miss's throat.
Then the Eldest Miss charged into the blacksmith shop once more, grabbed a spear, and thrust it straight at Lorist…
Lorist swayed aside and the spear stabbed at empty air. His stick knocked against it, and the Eldest Miss's spear clattered to the ground. But she picked up an axe…
Lorist grew impatient. He dodged the axe aimed at his head, swept the stick past the Eldest Miss's chin, then spun it around and cracked it against the back of her neck. The red-haired demoness stood swaying with the axe raised overhead, unable to control the woozy dizziness overtaking her, and toppled straight toward the ground…
When the Eldest Miss came to, she found herself propped up in a corner. Old Blacksmith Alba, still hard at work, said: "Eldest Miss, even though I'm just a useless
Having taught the Eldest Miss a proper lesson, Lorist headed back with Sedkempu. Just around the bend, Steward Kerdan appeared at the roadside ahead and bowed with the utmost respect: "My lord, shall we set off for North Wilds Town now?"
……