Lahki smiled at his companions’ replies and closed his eyes. Soon, the room was filled with the sound of steady breathing, as all of them joined the rest of the town in its slumber.
The next morning, the trio took the road out of Diento and headed northwest toward Luvierte. Lahki led the way in his horse-drawn cart with the other two following on foot.
Whenever they ran across a beast or monster along the route, Behl would take off to slay it, all too happy to try out his new blade.
Rea was supposed to be providing support magic, but she spent her time complaining about Behl’s enthusiasm instead. Lahki didn’t seem to mind—after all, this was par for the course.
Several other merchants and travelers maintained a steady distance from Lahki and his party. Not only were Behl and Rea both four-star mercenaries, but they were also magic users, so the others were all too happy to let them deal with any threats. This was a pretty common occurrence on their travels.
Four days after leaving Diento, the group finally caught sight of Luvierte in the distance.
From its moat, with water drawn from the Xpitol River, to the five-meter stone wall surrounding the town, Luvierte looked like Diento, but on a smaller scale. It’d been quite a while since Lahki had visited the town.
Behl looked around at the vast fields as he walked, speaking to no one in particular.
“Made it without any problems, and just in time for lunch, too.”
At the east gate, Lahki showed the guard his merchant guild license, identifying him as a seller of metal goods. The group was allowed to pass through.
The back of the cart was only filled with scrap iron, the weapons Lahki had picked up in Diento, and a few other commodities, making for a quick inspection.
Lahki took his cart straight to the blacksmith to have the swords sharpened. Since he’d blown all his money back in Diento, he figured it would be best to look for buyers here in Luvierte while the blades were being sharpened nearby.
Smoke billowed out of the blacksmith’s chimney, and the sound of metal clanging against metal could be heard from within the shop. Lahki left Rea with the cart and went inside, Behl following close behind with the bag of weapons.
Deep inside the blacksmith’s, two men were in the middle of a conversation, yelling to be heard over the noise of pounding hammers. The muscular, white-haired man appeared to be the owner of the shop, while the younger man was dressed in a military uniform commonly worn by knights. His physique put even Behl to shame.
“Ya can’t just come in here and add a weapon to yer order! We’re runnin’ short on materials. And besides, I can’t make tools for the townsfolk if I’m always makin’ yer weapons!”
“Are you mad? How do you think the townsfolk will be able to go on if we don’t have weapons to fight the monsters?! You can’t have forgotten that we slew two giant basilisks mere days ago!”
The argument between the men continued heating up, as if they were competing with the temperature of the forge itself. Unfortunately, the more they debated, the further they seemed from a solution.
Behl’s and Lahki’s eyes went wide at the mention of a giant basilisk. A monster like that could easily wipe an entire town right off the map. The self-proclaimed mercenary Lahki met the other day had mentioned there were monsters in the area, but Lahki never imagined he’d been talking about giant basilisks.
The older man finally took notice of Lahki and Behl and called out to them.
“Whaddya here for? You a customer?”
Lahki had to yell to be heard over the hammering.
“Uh, yes! I’d like you to sharpen these weapons so I can put them up for sale!”
Before the blacksmith had a chance to respond, the knight got a word in first.
“What?! You’re weapon merchants?”
The man crossed the shop with quick strides, striking quite the imposing figure. It was all Lahki could do to nod his head.
“Can you show those weapons to me?”
Lahki didn’t have any good reason to object, so he glanced over toward Behl, who dutifully laid the fourteen swords on the blacksmith’s workbench.
Lahki had given one of the original fifteen to Behl. Behl’s old sword was back in the cart with the other scrap iron. He’d nearly had tears in his eyes, contemplating his beloved sword’s end. But the blade itself wasn’t in a condition befitting a four-star mercenary, so it was the most practical choice. It was actually quite impressive that Behl had made it up to four stars with such a poor blade.
The knight and the blacksmith looked over the swords, drawing each one to check its condition.
“The steel used on these is pretty impressive! About twenty-five sok, I’d guess?”
The blacksmith didn’t immediately acknowledge the knight’s question, instead inspecting the blade in his hand, the sharp look in his eyes making him appear much younger than his years.
“Where did you get this sword? This… Is this a mithril blade? It’s gotta be worth at least five hundred sok…”
The surprise in the blacksmith’s voice was nothing compared to the surprise on Lahki and Behl’s faces. They’d known it was a high-quality sword, but the possibility of it being a mithril blade hadn’t even crossed their minds.
This was hardly the type of weapon an average merchant like Lahki would normally deal in, especially considering he’d bought all fifteen swords for a mere ten sok apiece. He’d never imagined they’d be talking these kinds of prices.
Mithril was said to reduce the power of magic. Putting a thin plate of it on a shield would reflect magical attacks, while forging it into a sword would allow you to cut through even the toughest of monsters with ease. It was incredibly valuable.
However, mithril ore was both relatively rare and incredibly hard to work with. This made it rather difficult to properly price mithril weaponry.
Historically, only elves and dwarves had possessed the skills necessary to work with mithril. By kidnapping these species, however, humans had managed to learn their craft. The human’s actions ultimately led to the dwarves being hunted to extinction on this continent, and the elves fleeing to the forests. Despite having gone to such lengths to acquire these skills, the items humans produced still didn’t hold a candle to the dwarves’ work.
As a merchant, Lahki was pretty good at telling the quality of an item, but this was far beyond his experience.