Chapter 73 - Chapter 11: Sword Duke #4
"It is obvious, but they are a blacksmith. 9th Prince, how much do you know about Amita?”
The sword duke asked, stroking his beard. Fortunately, the question seemed to source from pure curiosity, rather than any doubts. It made sense to In-gong.
He had said Amita’s first and last name. He had been so excited that he made a small mistake.
Instead of revealing his agitation, In-gong’s face showed only excitement.
"I heard a story related to them when I was a child. The legend of the blacksmith who handles the last spark of fire. I didn’t think they were a person who actually existed.”
Amita was sometimes a man and sometimes a woman. Due to the freely changing gender and age, there was a story that Amita was a clan or group who shared a name, not an individual.
In-gong also didn’t know the identity of Amita. There had been a theory among Knight Saga fanatics that Amita was a polymorph dragon, but that was just a guess.
'Maybe they are like Green Wind.’
Anyway, it was clear that Amita was the best blacksmith in the Demon World that dealt with the last flame.
The last flame meant the first fire that had appeared when the world was created. Despite being the first flame, it was called the last flame due to a prophecy.
The world would be destroyed when the last flame went out.
The first and last flame...
An existence that started and ended with the world.
The last flame was a myth. Therefore, all weapons made with the last flame retained its own divinity despite not being blessed with the sacred symbol of a god.
Meeting Amita in Knight Saga literally depended on luck. The place and time where Amita emerged was completely random.
Despite clearing Knight Saga 10 times, In-gong had only managed to meet Amita three times.
Amita was a person who was difficult to meet.
The meeting itself was good since they were called the Demon World’s best blacksmith.
In-gong didn’t explain all of this. After briefly mentioning the last flame, he finished by saying that Amita was a legendary blacksmith who could handle the last flame.
'This is information from Knight Saga’s manual.'
The sword duke nodded slowly at In-gong’s words.
"Prince is correct. Amita is the blacksmith who deals with the last flame. They aren’t a legend or superstition but a real person.”
The sword duke looked at Felicia and explained the last flame in more detail. In-gong already knew all of this.
The explanation was of great interest to Felicia since she was a capable ruins explorer. However, it wasn’t the last flame or Amita that she was interested in.
“Shutra, where did you hear this story? Isn’t the library still not available to you?”
Even Felicia was hearing about the story of the last flame for the first time. So, where had In-gong heard about the legend?
In-gong had also known about the Thunder Light Anvil, so he must have a lot of archaeology knowledge.
In-gong laughed awkwardly and said,
"Uh... It is just a story I heard as a child.”
His voice was awkward because it was an improvised excuse, but Felicia accepted it.
"Ah, 5th Queen... Sorry, Shutra.”
Felicia’s brow furrowed as she made a really sorry expression.
The 5th Queen Semita Ignus...
The only one among the demon king’s queens who had died and who was Shutra’s mother.
In-gong quickly scratched his head.
“No, it is okay. It is all in the past.”
Felicia’s misunderstanding made it easy to pass over the issue, but he still didn’t feel comfortable.
Carack saw In-gong’s expression and returned to the topic.
"Umm, so the person called Amita is the best blacksmith in the Demon World and is Sword Duke’s friend.”
"It is really great.”
Karma, who had been keeping her mouth shut, cried out in a lively voice. It was a type of courage to try and change the atmosphere.
Thanks to his two faithful subordinates, In-gong could laugh and agree with Karma’s words.
The legendary swordsman was friends with the best blacksmith of the Demon World. Indeed, legends played with other legends.
The sword duke patted Karma’s head and lifted the sword hanging from his waist.
"That person is the one who made this sword. They also made the demon king’s sword.”
The outward appearance of the sword duke’s sword was very plain. There were no patterns or decorations on the sheath and only a red cord was wrapped around the handle of the sword.
However, no one here could think of the sword duke’s sword as ordinary. It had been made by the best blacksmith in the Demon World.
Moreover, the sword duke said that the demon king’s sword had also been made by the same person.
The demon king’s sword. Despite all the weapons that could be obtained travelling around the Demon World, it was the best sword with the highest damage.
Additionally, In-gong knew of one more of Amita’s works.
The strongest weapon in Knight Saga, even surpassing the demon king’s sword...
The Warrior’s Sword.
It was one of the elder dragons, Guardian Queian, who had prepared the materials for the sword and imbued it with all types of powerful magic, but Amita had been the one who made the sword.
In-gong’s chest started throbbing. So, the meeting with Amita was very anticipated.
Felicia, Carack and Karma also contained their excitement as they swallowed their saliva. They were confident of Amita’s abilities after hearing that they had made the demon king’s sword.
"They like to be cooped up in isolation. They also don’t like meeting people, but if you give my name, Amita will meet you once. Whether or not they will take the job depends on Prince’s and Princess’ capabilities.”
The sword duke grinned and stepped back. It meant that he wouldn’t really meddle in this matter.
They could travel to meet the best blacksmith in the Demon World only to be turned away.
However, Felicia just smiled peacefully.
"Well, Shutra will manage to pull it off somehow. I’ll just sneak in with him.”
"Right, if it is Prince, then he can somehow do it.”
‘I think so as well, Master.’
"I believe in His Highness.”
Carack, Green Wind and Karma agreed in turn.
There was no basis for this belief, but the faces of the four people were filed with faith. In fact, In-gong wasn’t much different from the four.
‘It will work out somehow.’
Because he was the protagonist.
He joked inwardly. Looking back on what had happened so far, there had been many unexpected incidents. He wasn’t thinking of just leaving after meeting Amita.
There was no need to panic so early.
‘If it was impossible from the beginning, the sword duke wouldn’t have mentioned it.'
Moreover, it had only been three times, but Amita had made something for In-gong in Knight Saga. He knew roughly what to do to convince Amita to take the job.
The sword duke laughed in amazement at Felicia’s, Carack’s and Karma’s infinite trust in In-gong and said,
"I’ll let you know where that person has been lately. You should go as soon as possible since you never know when Amita may move to another place.”
It made a lot of sense. In Knight Saga, Amita never stayed long in one place and roamed the world.
"But don't worry too much. They should be staying in this place for another half a year.”
In-gong sighed in relief at the sword duke’s further explanation. On the other hand, Felicia was still worried and stepped closer to the sword duke.
"Sword Duke, will we be able to meet Amita on the way back to the Demon King’s Palace?”
"Don’t you think you should report back first?”
“Hehehe.”
Felicia laughed awkwardly. It was too far from Felicia’s usual self that she looked awkward.
'But she is still cute.’
In-gong sneaked a peek at the sword duke. The sword duke burst into laughter after seeing Felicia’s actions.
"That's good. I can’t help but listen since you are so different from your normal self.”
Felicia’s face reddened. The sword duke patted Felicia’s head once before turning his attention to In-gong.
"If you go back this time, you’ll probably get more attention than before. So, it is better to meet Amita before returning.”
It was the reason for Felicia’s uncharacteristic actions.
"I will create a proper mission to investigate the ruins. You will join in order to support me. It might sound strange but you will help the sword duke.”
The series of events at Thunderdoom Fortress weren’t light. In-gong and Felicia didn’t need to report directly when they returned to the Demon King’s Palace, so the palace couldn’t say otherwise if they went off on another mission.
However, it was a different story if they were going with the sword duke. In-gong and Felicia’s new mission was likely to look like a secret mission.
There was also the organization aiming for Zephyr. If it hadn’t been for the sword duke, the party might have been annihilated.
However, there was no way they could hide in the Demon King’s Palace.
Moreover, this was the Demon World. These type of threats weren’t unheard of. In the first place, the children of the demon king were given missions.
In-gong stared at the sword duke once again. Not only had he saved their lives from the man with the spear, he had also handed In-gong a new S rank technique. That alone made him thankful, but he was now giving him the location of Amita. In-gong was sincerely grateful to the sword duke.
“Thank you, Sword Duke.”
"Prince has caught my interest. It isn’t common, so I am doing some unusual things.”
The sword duke seemed like a friendly neighbourhood grandfather, but that wasn’t the case for everyone.
In the past, the man called the sword duke hadn’t been kind at all.
"Anyhow, it seems like we have talked about everything necessary. You look tired, so why don’t we take a break? Have a bath and a meal.”
Felicia and Karma’s eyes lit up at the sword duke’s proposal. Compared to a meal, the two of them wanted to take a bath.
They had the control room, so it wouldn’t be difficult to find a place to rest.
Moreover, Delia had been left in the control room. She was a good example of an aide, so she had likely secured such places already.
"I will take care of disassembling the body of the black dragon. Don’t worry about it.”
The sword duke winked as he pointed his sword to the black dragon. In-gong and Felicia nodded.
“I understand. I will do as you say.”
They were curious about the process of disassembling the dragon, but they were exhausted.
The group left the sword duke and rushed to the control room.
&
In-gong woke up a staggering 14 hours later.
After the bath and a good night’s sleep, Felicia was dressed in the typical outfit of a dark elf.
“The fortress attack is virtually over.”
The control room was in their hands, so they didn’t have to worry about any more traps. The dungeon guardians were also under In-gong’s control and were no longer enemies.
The sword duke appeared with a relaxed face and led the party to the disassembled dragon. The leather, bones, teeth and feet were divided exactly into three parts.
In-gong placed his share, as well as Felicia’s, into the inventory and got to work. It was always fun collecting loot.
Thanks to his foresight in informing the sword duke, there was no need to hide his inventory. Daphne was asked to wait in the control room as In-gong literally starting removing things from Thunderdoom Fortress.
Felicia started discouraging In-gong from where she was watching.
"I don’t know the limit of your inventory magic, but... we should leave a moderate amount behind. Otherwise, the palace will have some doubts.”
Under Felicia’s advice, In-gong decided to keep it to an appropriate amount.
He didn’t touch the armour that the dead dwarves were wearing or anything below a certain level in the warehouses.
The concept for this work was ‘concession.’
The treasures in the treasure halls weren’t shrunk as each person only took one box.
In-gong also gave Green Wind a box as she directed him to the things that she wanted.
Most of the treasures were gold coins engraved with the hammer and lighting that was the symbol of the Dwarf Kingdom.
After many hours passed...
The party returned for Daphne in the control room and finally went to the records room.
It contained numerous records of the Dwarf Kingdom, so Carack looked like a husband dragged by his wife to the department store.
However, Felicia and Delia were different. They started looking at the various records with greedy eyes that were exactly the same as when they had encountered the Thunder Light Anvil.
Karma also enjoyed the records, but her expression soon became the same as Carack. It was because all the records were in dwarven language.
In-gong stepped forward. Bookshelves and shelves filled the large room, so the records would take days to go through.
Among them, something drew in In-gong’s eye.
There was no special reason. He just felt something.
It was at one end of the room, in a place so old that the record was stored as a slab, not a book.
In-gong pulled at one of the stacks. It had protection and weight reduction magic on it, so the slab was very light despite being 50cm in length and width.
A picture was drawn on the slab.
It was a picture in which two different groups were symmetrical to each other.
There were six dragons located on the right side. Four people were located on the left.
Despite it being a slab, the engraved picture was very elaborate. In-gong instantly recognized two of the six dragons.
The Great Enkidu and Watcher Ainkel. They were the six elder dragons.
In-gong swallowed his saliva inadvertently. He also found a familiar face in the group that was opposite the elder dragons.
The golden-crowned female with white hair...
She stood at the forefront of the people.