Chapter 67: Airael’s Favor
“Dad, why did you agree to this? The blacksmith shop is already swamped with work, and now we have even more on our plate, and we have to help them first!”
After Wol and the others left, Alice complained to her father with a frown.
Listening to his daughter’s complaints, Anas sighed, “Alice, we owe this to Baron Powell. He took us in when we had nowhere to go, giving us a home. Moreover, these weapons and armor are in this state because they’ve been protecting this small town, our home!”
After saying this, Anas started to get busy.
Fixing all these weapons and armor wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.
It could just be a coincidence, but the first item Anas grabbed was Axi’s long sword.
This sword had only recently been repaired by Anas and was now back in his hands.
Anas had a strong recollection of this finely crafted sword. As soon as he picked it up, he recognized it immediately.
Axi’s image popped into his mind right after.
Thinking of Axi, Anas frowned slightly.
Just as Alice calmed her dissatisfaction, she noticed her father staring blankly at the sword, prompting her to walk over and ask, “Dad, what are you thinking? It’s just a decent long sword; is it really worth you daydreaming like this?!”
“It’s not the sword that’s making me daydream, but its owner!”
Hearing her father say this, Alice started carefully examining the sword.
In her memory, she couldn’t quite recall this sword’s presence.
She had seen countless long swords belonging to Baron Powell and the knights, and though they all looked similar, there were many subtle differences, like the inscriptions on them.
Everyone had different requirements for such things.
But this long sword didn’t leave a strong impression on Alice.
“Whose sword is this?”
Upon hearing his daughter’s question, Anas replied, “Do you remember those two strangers Wol brought over a few days ago?”
Suddenly enlightened, Alice responded, “Oh, it belongs to that guy!”
She had some memory of Axi.
After all, he was quite the rare good-looking guy.
Thinking of that, Alice frowned and asked her father, “Dad, was there something off about that guy?”
Anas began to reflect on the few encounters he had with Axi.
While Axi made a decent impression on him, what stuck most in his mind was the sword behind him.
As a blacksmith, or should he say a swordsmith, he just had a feeling—there was definitely something wrong with that sword.
After thinking a lot, Anas hurriedly decided to stop.
“Dad?”
Noticing her father’s mood shift, Alice couldn’t help but worry and called out.
“I’m fine! Alice, let’s just get to work. No need to dwell on unnecessary things. The sooner we fix these weapons, the sooner Baron Powell and the others can use them to protect the town!”
“Okay!”
Though Alice was still a bit unwilling, she had no choice but to agree to her father’s request.
With the father-daughter duo working together, the blacksmith shop became a hive of activity.
The small town was gearing up for a new round of preparations for battle, and outside the town, the atmosphere was incredibly tense.
The orcs had just suffered a defeat and were feeling quite low.
On top of that, they had received news that reinforcements from the southern humans were on their way and would soon arrive to drive them out.
They had to evacuate and return all the plundered supplies before the human reinforcements showed up.
It could be said that Sko gathering five hundred orcs to attack the small town was a huge risk.
If they won, great; but if they lost, they would suffer heavy losses.
These five hundred orcs could be more effectively used either in plundering or transporting goods back, instead of attacking the small town.
But today, under Sko’s command, they ended up with nothing.
They came back empty-handed and lost quite a few men in the process.
At that moment, Sko was in a truly foul mood, his anger boiling.
This was his first battle since taking office, and yet it had turned out so unexpectedly.
Sko really wished he could gather another force to attack the small town, but his reason told him that was no longer possible.
Time would not allow him to do so.
If he did, even if he managed to take the small town, the Beast King would devour him in his fury over the loss of resources.
In an unnamed valley.
As Sko returned with his remnants to the temporary base, the orc wolf cavalry who had gone out to raid began to arrive one by one at this hideout.
They would soon transport the last batch of supplies back to their orc kingdom.
At the same time, scouts from the northern kingdom spread further and finally arrived near this valley.
It took a lot of effort for them to locate the orc wolf cavalry’s base in the northern kingdom, and they finally succeeded.
On the northern highway, the kingdom’s army was on the march.
In their line of sight stood a small town.
This was the very town where Airael and Axi currently resided, which was Baron Powell’s territory.
Baron Powell welcomed the reinforcements warmly.
That very evening, he held a small banquet to entertain the high-ranking officials and key figures of the army.
Axi and Airael were also invited.
Though Airael agreed to come, she showed up wearing her oversized cloak.
Thanks to the cloak’s magical effect, which lessened her presence, she became the least noticeable person in the room, despite her being the center of attention.
Even so, someone still caught sight of her.
Like Axi.
If it weren’t for the inability to refuse, Axi wouldn’t want to attend such a banquet.
Despite the free, high-quality food and drinks, he was quite irked by the continuing offers from those highborn folk.
One had to admit, their perseverance was commendable.
Some had already been turned down before, yet they still kept throwing olive branches at him.
Naturally, Axi, with his own thoughts, unhesitatingly refused once again.
By chance, he noticed Airael hiding in a corner.
He quickly made his way past those people to join Airael.
He realized that while Airael could be a bit annoying, spending time with her was far preferable to mingling with those nobility.
As the saying goes: “No comparison, no harm.”
After the comparison, he found out just how good Airael actually was.
