Black Iron's Glory

It has been three days since he left and he looked around and saw nothing on the whitened fields of snow.

Claude sighed and kicked his leg on the ground to make a small hole in the snow. He considered it for a moment before deciding to head back. He shouldn’t have come to Kemda Swamp. He thought that it would be easy for him to catch a few niros crocodiles at this time, but he didn’t expect that the animals would hide inside the swamp during such cold weather.

He should check out more on their behavior. He didn’t know whether they were merely hiding or hibernating. He spent so much time going to Kemda Swamp with the intent of hunting a few niros crocodiles for money only to not spot a single one during his three days of loitering there.

He patted Jemmy on the back and the black horse rubbed its long snout on Claude’s leather hat a few times to show intimacy.

“Alright, let’s go back. You must have it tough for running so far.” Claude climbed onto the sled and turned the horse around before commanding the horse to run for town.

The cold from the air pierced into his bones. Fortunately, the sky was rather bright and it wasn’t snowing. From time to time, direct sunlight hit the ground. It was the middle of the 2nd month and the snow in the wilds would start to melt in another ten days or so. The wilds would be muddied by then and the snow would melt into countless small streams. That, however, also marked the coming of spring and the return of the countless plants in full force. Soon, the wilds would be covered in a new coat of green.

Though, it wouldn’t do good to hunt during spring. The animals that weathered through winter had lost the lush in their furs. They starved until their bones were visible through their skin and they wouldn’t sell for much either. That was the reason spring wasn’t the ideal time to hunt. Instead, hunting during autumn and right before winter was preferable, as all the animals fattened themselves up before the coming of the cold to the point that their hides almost seemed glossy. The prey hunted during that time would surely fetch a great price.

Claude fet that he was rather pitiful. Even though he was a transmigrator, he had to rely on hunting to earn money for his alchemical experiments. Was there a more pathetic transmigrator than him? It’s too bad that he didn’t have a choice. He had found himself in a world where magic was taboo, after all, which necessitated him to keep his training of his supposed edge over others a secret.

The sorry state of the family was a whole nother thing. After his father returned home, he began to call the shots again. Even though he lost his official position at the town hall, he still seemed busy as usual. Claude did, however, feel that his father had changed considerably. Not only did he talk far less, he also smoked nonstop, always hiding himself behind a veil of smoke.

His mother had finally recovered and tended to the chores and also took care of Bloweyk and the snowhound. Angelina started to attend first year in middle school and spent each of her days there happily. Arbeit on the other hand returned to his old habits, eating and sleeping at home and treating the house like a free hotel. It seemed that he had continued his work at Sir Fux’s side as his secretary and would sweet talk his parents to make them happy whenever he was home.

Claude resumed his work at the wood and would visit home once every other day. There were many times he wanted to discuss the amount of money he spent on the house after his father’s arrest, but he wasn’t able to bring it up every time. He had a feeling that if he tried to claim that debt from them, he would be no different from scum like Arbeit. Since they were his family, he ought to let that money go. If he didn’t have enough, he could just come up with other ways to get some.

However, he didn’t think the following two weeks of hunting would net him no worthwhile prey at all. The largest one he got was an old and limp wolf whose fur was so damaged that it couldn’t sell for much. He only got one thale out of it from the open market.

Welikro on the other hand came to the wood once. He accompanied his father, Kubrik, to go to Egret to hunt and brought Claude a goat thigh. After eating his fill in the hut, Welikro heard about Claude’s hunting exploits and laughed. He told Claude that the best prey to hunt during that season were the wild beasts and deer herds deep within the mountains. He wouldn’t get any prey in the vicinity of the town unless he was really lucky.

He did sternly warn Claude to never head into the deep mountains alone, though. The threat of the wild beasts themselves wasn’t the crux of it. What was most dangerous was the unfamiliarity with the terrain. It would be easy to get lost in the woods, especially when the coat of snow obscured almost everything. There would be no way to tell what was under the snow and falling through a pit would only lead to freezing to death. Nobody would hear his cries no matter how loud.

Welikro’s sensible advice caused Claude to abandon the notion of going deep into the mountains to hunt. It was true that he wouldn’t have to worry about wild beasts, but he would indeed have trouble dealing with the aforementioned scenario. He didn’t want to take that risk.

But when he heard that his father used a sled to go through Kemda Swamp all the way to Egret, that was when he was reminded of the niros crocodiles. Given that the whole swamp had been covered with thick snow and frozen hard, he could use a sled to traverse it however he pleased. So, he decided that he might as well check the swamp out to see if he can make a killing by spotting those crocodiles.

But his idealistic plan would turn out to be a waste. He loitered around the swamp with Jemmy for three days and didn’t even see a single one. The creatures were probably hibernating too, so he had no choice but to return empty handed.

When he didn’t have an alchemical formation array, he wanted so badly to make one. And now that it was finally finished, he realized that he couldn’t afford the expensive experimental materials. So, his formation array would be gathering dust. How long had it been since he last conducted an experiment? It has been at least a month. Had it not been his father’s predicament which caused him to spend all the money he had, he would’ve probably finished his experiments on making a flintlock rifle.

He had eleven shaliuns remaining. It seemed that he had to exchange one for some magical materials. But if he wanted to do so, he had to go to Hurian’s shop for that. Claude wasn’t willing to do business with the sly old man and he felt somewhat unsettled in having to do so. Perhaps it was because he was doomed so badly by the old man during his purchase there. Claude had subconsciously included Hurian in his list of sneaky merchants and no longer wished to have anything to do with him.

He could perhaps set his sights on Blacksnake. After so many days, they should already have their gambling den back up and running. Claude seriously considered that course of action. Currently, the town was still under martial law and the keepers from the prefectural capital were still there. Though Whitestag’s garrison had been formed, they were still being trained within the military encampment and the keepers would only leave until they had some measure of combat capability.

In other words, most of the men from Blacksnake picked by Bidlir to join the fourth band should still be within the encampment. Each band had around 50 men and they were the core force of Blacksnake. Now would be the time when Blacksnake’s guard was at its weakest. Even if Claude ran into a similar situation from before, he would be more than capable of giving them another harsh lesson and a good robbing before leaving the den.

With his plan coming together, Claude began to feel rather excited. Now, all he had to do was to arrange a plan to go into town and leave it without anyone noticing. He just had to pick the right time to strike. Claude decided to leave from the wood. Given that snow walls had been erected around town, only the main entrance was manned. If he didn’t enter town, then there was no chance he would be suspected. The keepers could speak on his behalf and prove that he didn’t leave the wood and enter town.

The weather during the night was good. There was a saying that went, ‘kill when the night is dark, burn when the wind is strong’. That night was indeed suited for robbery. The stars were dim and the skies were dark. It was hard to see into the distance. Claude once more donned his gray-black robe and sneaked out of his hut before going downhill from the wood.

There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground, but it was mostly frozen. No footprints would be left on it. All he had to do was to be careful not to slip when he walked. The entrance to the street was not far away from the foot of the hill. There were a bunch of fires there, but not a single guard could be seen standing there. Perhaps they had cooped up indoors to warm themselves up.

Claude shook his head. Someone in a bright place would find it hard to see what was happening in the dark. It was common sense. They wouldn’t be able to see outside the town with all those fires burning brightly, so what use would there be for a watch? They would only discover an enemy attack when they were at their doorstep and it would be too late by then.

However, Claude still carefully used the trees along the street as cover. He made sure not to enter the line of vision of any guards that could be standing at the town entrance and instead made his way to the embankment of the lake that next to the rows of buildings. There was a steep slope of around seven meters there, which Claude used Featherfall to overcome and quietly land on the embankment.

After half an hour of walking, he made his way to the the slope near the embankment. He chose that spot to enter the town from, mainly because it was less crowded, with less buildings around. During warmer times, some people would fish there. But given that it was almost ten at night, the weather was too cold for anyone to be wandering around.

Claude took out a roll of fishing line from his backpack and tied one end to a tree on the slope and the other on a plump bob which he tossed down the slope. He could use Featherfall to go down, but he would need some support to go up the slope. Using a climbing rope would be ideal, but it would seem quite obvious to see one hanging from the slope. A fishing line on the other hand was far harder to spot. Claude only had to cast Featherfall to negate the weight of his body and climb up the slope easily with the fishing line.

After he floated his way down the slope, Claude chose to approach the public docks near the embankment and use the forest route he was familiar with to enter the alley. He was going to head to the secret passage of the den, but he wasn’t sure whether it was still there.

Another half an hour later, Claude found himself standing outside the run-down hut from before. He tried hard to listen and didn’t hear any sound from within. He went to the entrance and found that a crude and large iron lock locked the old, wooden door shut.

He looked behind him through the alley and saw no movement, so he cast Magus’ Hands and Fine Control to morph the hand into a needle. He then put the needle into the keyhole and widened it to fit the shape of the hole. Some adjustments later, he turned it and the lock clicked open.

He sped into the old hut and shut the door tight and tried to find the exit of the path from memory. There was another door within the hut with a similar heavy lock. He gave it a push and found that it was also latched from the inside.

But it would prove to be no obstacle. A single Magic Missile was enough to make a finger-sized hole. He then used Magic Missile and stretched it into the hole and easily undid the latch to open the door.

He entered the passage and closed the door and latch behind him. Then, he held a Luminous Pearl in his hand and made his way deeper into the passage. Not long after, he arrived at the little room beneath the bed. Claude extinguished the pearl in his hand, climbed up the wooden ladder against the wall and tried to listen for any movement above.

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