Chapter 194 – 9. Hormia’s Dictator, Countess’s Insidious Task
“It’s really not too late to prepare, right?”
I nodded to the man handing over the oath with a confused expression, and answered by crossing out the list.
“I am sure. I prepared it from last night, so it should arrive soon.”
“… Yes, the old man said so, so I’ll leave it to you. Go back carefully.”
After going to the old man’s forge on the first day, they started accepting pledges on the second day. Whether he looked at me favorably or if he passed on my story to the blacksmiths he knew, when talking about contracts with other blacksmiths, the story was easily communicated.
Before I knew it, there were only two left. Even if things worked out too well, things worked out too well. Excited, I bowed to the man who greeted me and moved to the address of the next person on the list.
“Is this right?”
Unlike the blacksmiths I’ve visited so far, the blacksmith’s located on the outskirts, and it’s also hard to find because it’s deep in an alley, right? I wanted to, but when I entered the alley, I saw another smithy, and it seemed that I had come to the right place.
“… “
Yeah, it doesn’t make sense if it’s solved that easily. I looked around the smithy without a single ember. There was no warmth in the cold irons, the thrown hammers, and the simple smelting furnaces that were brought in from Krafton and had one at each smithy.
“Where have you been… “
There were no signs or signs on the doors. The smithy itself was cold and devoid of warmth, as if the person had just disappeared.
“Whoa-“
Inside the smithy, what appeared to be the blacksmith’s personal tools were scattered on the floor. I don’t know if it’s just that, but the drawers and boxes were completely smashed and fragments were scattered around.
Concluding that it was impossible to find any traces of the blacksmith here, I got out of the forge and poked my head into a nearby open blacksmith shop.
“Are you there?”
Sew – Contrary to the blacksmiths on the list, this blacksmith’s embers were just covering the blacksmith’s because the embers didn’t burn. No, it just caught fire. Dry firewood and boxes were ignited, and in the center, a man was stomping his feet and pounding the embers with something like a blanket.
“Sa, save me-!!!”
It seemed that the fire had just started, but the blacksmith couldn’t put out the fire properly. I was taken aback and called Undine with my eyes closed.
[Um- Um- Um-?]
Undine, who had something in her mouth and glowing eyes, stared at me asking what was going on. Judging by the crumbs smeared on his lips, he must have been eating a snack.
“Can you turn off the light?”
[Cellar-]
Purreung- The dew, the size of millet, gradually grew in size and lengthened. The stream of water, whipped like a whip, extinguished the embers and flames at once, and even made the blacksmith standing in the center look like a rat soaked in water.
“Thank you, go back and play.”
Gulp-
[Pheu- This is really delicious- I’ll hide one so come and eat it-!]
Undine, who had swallowed the cookies piled up in her mouth, patted her cute belly and disappeared. I approached the man who stood still with trembling hands, wiped off the moisture with the blanket in his hand and asked how he was doing.
“Are you okay?”
“Thank you, thank you – if it wasn’t for you, I would be dead!!!”
Tuwook- The man’s knees fell to the floor as if his strength had gone. The man who collapsed on the blackened floor gasped for breath as if it was hard, but she barely managed to breathe out and slowly lifted her head.
“Whoa- thank you, but what happened to our forge… ?”
“I went to find the owner of the blacksmith at this address on the other side, but no one was there.”
“Ah… If it’s a new address, it’s Roxy. If it’s Roxy, you won’t be able to see her for a while.”
Roxy? Wrinkling my nose at the woman’s name, I kept asking him.
“What’s going on? Either dead or injured.”
“If it’s something like that, there’s no need to be noisy, Roxy isn’t at the forge for one reason, she has a fiery personality, so when something happens, she closes the forge and drinks. Famous.”
“Oh, is that so? If so, when do you usually come back to the forge?”
The man scratched his chin at my question and smiled strangely, raising three fingers.
“Three days?”
If it’s three days, there are still two days left. Then, should I meet the next person in the meantime? As she thought, the man shook her head.
“It will take three months. I’m really mad this time… “
“How do you know?”
At my question, haha-the man with a cheeky smile said, scratching her head.
“The sound of the fight was so loud that it reverberated through the alley. Furthermore, it seems that this time, she and her husband fought so hard that they even found out about the divorce.”
“… Where is he now?”
As she scratched her head at the increasingly complicated situation and asked a question, the sueuk-man pointed outside the smithy.
“If you go out there, you will see a narrow alley. If you go all the way into it, you’ll find a bar with a sign with a hammer on an anvil, and Roxy should be there.”
“Thank you.”
“No, I am more grateful. Please go in carefully.”
She sighed and left her forge, leaving her man clutching at her mop. As I said while sighing in the scorching sunlight, I entered a narrow alleyway and wondered what kind of woman she would be drinking in broad daylight.
“I’m not doing business right now, so please leave.”
As I stepped into the store, a cold voice kicked me out. Swoop- I removed one foot from her step and quietly asked a question to the young lady wearing her apron and wearing her white hood, revealing her forehead.
“I have a question for you, but can I go in?”
When I took her foot off with a friendly smile, the lady who looked me up and down while stroking my long, orange hair, sighed and asked me to come in.
“You look like a maid, but where is the shopkeeper? I have a question… “
“Yes? Hoho- Oh, the owner is here.”
I knew it. Inwardly, I called out for joy and teased her tongue as I looked at the owner, who had noticeably brighter than the first time.
“Oh really? Haha, since it’s a bar, I thought there would be a rambunctious man, but there was a pretty lady, so I wondered if I was in the wrong place.”
“Cha-am, you say so openly… Just come in Please sit here.”
The owner, who unbuttoned her tok-button, smiled strangely and stroked her lips. She was very young for a bar owner. She looked pretty in her late twenties, and when the buttons were undone, her cleavage was fairly full, and her buttocks covered in a green skirt looked full.
“So what question? Oh, there’s someone up there, but don’t worry too much about it.”
The owner, leaning on the mungle-bar, bowed down with her strange smile. He patted the chair next to him with a provocative smile as he held out his hand while stroking the suk-ba.
“This is going to be a pretty long question, so sit down and have a nice conversation.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s young, he’s so bold… ♥”
Tuk-tuk- The index and middle fingers stealthily approached me in a steady rhythm. Just before the crocodile-like fingers landed on the back of my hand, a shout and the sound of breaking were heard from upstairs.
“Miria Unnihii-!”
“Haa, this bitch sucks again.”
The shopkeeper, no Miria, sighed, striding upstairs with her fingers that stopped her took. Soon there was a scolding sound followed by a slap-slap, and a little later it was Miria coming down waving her blushing palm.
“I’m sorry, my brother upstairs keeps making a fuss.”
“It’s nothing else, because I came looking for someone named Roxy. You said you’d be at this bar, do you know where it is?”
“Ah, were you Roxy’s guest? What is it- Then you should have said it earlier, I thought it was a big deal again.”
Tup- Miria, placing her hand over the back of mine, looked at me with her deep eyes. When I glanced at her finger, there was no ring, and looking at her lewd expression, it seemed that she had been starving for a long time. I whispered softly into her ear.
“It’s urgent. Can you tell me where you are?”
As if putting a stamp, she lightly pressed down on the back of Miria’s hand with her fingertips. Haa, she let out a sticky sigh and nodded, pointing her head upstairs.
“Did you hear that? It’s Roxy who’s drinking too much up there. Go up.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you… ♥”
Miria, who looked at me with a curious expression on her granddaughter-stairs, licked the blanket with the tip of her tongue. Seeing her flirting, she wanted to take a bite, but I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I shrugged her shoulders, pulled her off her feet, and said later–and climbed all of her steps.
“Paha- who are you-?”
Bang-When I came upstairs, Roxy, who was drinking beer while sitting on a creaky chair shaking her waist, put down her beer glass and alerted me. I was drunk, but my eyes were alive, so I raised my hands and showed no intention of harming them, and pulled out a chair across from them and sat down.
“My name is Cassano. I came here for a contract.”
“Gyaaaaa…?”
Roxy, who listened to me with her elbows on the table, nodded his head with an expression of disapproval at the word contract, and then her elbow slipped off the table.
“Geuk-“
If you’re going to get drunk, you’ll be fine. I sighed at the sight of him drunkenly and gulping down a beer glass in his hand. I took out the pledge from my bosom and held it out.
“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the contract with the Countess.”
“…Ah- that’s it…”
Tung- Roxy lowered both hands under the table, looked at me with cloudy eyes, and slammed her head on the table. What he said was spectacle itself.
“I can’t. Even if I kill you, I can’t. Just kill me.”
What should I do with this human? I dealt with her five blacksmiths, but I hurriedly knocked on her tongue-table, bewildered as they were the first type of person I’d seen.
“Tell me why it can’t be done. No, I have to do it unconditionally before that. Isn’t that a contract?”
“Reason woo woo-“
Tung-!
It was quite loud this time. Roxy, who had her head on the table, no longer raised her head.