I’m taken into the back where I see all of the apprentices working on various task whether its just simple cleaning or forging everyone has their place in the workshop and it’s all running smoothly, I notice the workers with a red hat on tend to look in my direction as we enter the building while everybody else stays focused.

“Back to work everybody this isn’t a zoo, Oh Izotl I swear if my apprentices continue being this way I will learn to make a hammer out of their bones so they can at least be of some use here *sigh*. If you haven't noticed the ones in red are quite new and curious, that's only because it hasn’t been beaten out of them yet!”

At his words some of them wince and quickly get back to work shadowing the ones in black, he leads me through his workshop pointing out the equipment here and how it’s used in the process of making a weapon, I’m obviously fascinated by the whole process but I could never see myself becoming a forge master.

“Okay brat what do you think are the main things you need to become an excellent forge master?”

“ Patience and strength”

Those are the two things that come to mind: strength to work with the materials and the patience to work on a project for days on end, its that side for forging that I could see myself joining for but without any major will it’s just an insult to the craft.

“ Wrong, see your clearly just a brat still naive to the ways of the world”

I stop to look at Dasteal properly since when has he decided to speak to me like that. Looking at Samantha's face I can see she's clearly shocked and I see a little bit of fear there as well. I look at Rafael but he’s still calm, looking at me for any orders.

“What are the ways of the world then?”

“Oh you're not that bad, your siblings reacted much worse than that. Hmm well not that it matters that much, the answer is mana affinity, anybody can make their way into becoming a decent blacksmith but to be a master you need the affinities. When you start working with better material you need to use your mana to better shape the metal, that's the line that separates a good blacksmith from a master, fate is cruel like that”

“ What material do you need to use mana for?”

“Well the main metal is mythril but you also need it when using materials that come from S rank beasts. And that's only for masters, they can’t even touch materials from SS rank beasts, that's only for Grandmasters, and they’re all old arseholes.”

I’m starting to feel like you shouldn’t insult the best blacksmiths in the continent but to each their own, maybe this dwarf feels a bit competitive, but affinity, I won’t be able to see my own until I’m 12 so I have 7 years to wait, looking around the youngest person I see is about 8 and they’re only helping cleaning, in fact now that I look around more there is only about 5 adults here the rest are only teenagers. That Samantha looks barely 20 as well. What sort of sweatshop is he running here?

Perhaps noticing my look he beckons me into his back office leaving his aid outside, arriving in his office I see that it’s tiny with only a little window to watch over his factory. The walls and everything is plain white except for a painting of an imposing mountain that has been painted directly onto the wall itself, the only things in the room were a bookshelf and a clearly expensive desk with rolled up scrolls placed on the side and a gold ink quill resting on the table. Upon further inspection I see a small blue rock is being used as a paper weight for some of his documents but who am I to judge?

“Well I saw you noticed the children in the factory?”

“Yeah there were a lot of kids down there and even the ones that weren't kids we’re not that much older '' Perhaps noticing a tone in my voice he raises an eyebrow a little.

“hehe I forget the difference in maturity for our races they’re all kids in my eyes our mana awakening isn’t until 30, so in my eyes they’re all kids”

“Doesn't that make it worse” clearly this old man is just taking advantage of cheap labour damn bastard I don’t know how father allows this.

“Hmm maybe, but the older ones followed me from Brewrich and the younger ones have nowhere else to go, you see they’re all orphans or just straight up abandoned, sigh I don’t even know which ones worse, I prefer to temper my apprentices from a young age. The ones with nothing else work much better than the rich snobs that try to pay me to teach one of their vassals.”

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood this old man, I mean who am I to judge off face value after all I’m a 29 year old man in a 5 year olds body, I look into his eyes properly for the first time in a while to see his black eyes are practically on fire.

“But you’re different from your siblings, from the rest of them, yes. You're not corrupt, you might not see yourself as the same as those children out there but you don’t see them as lesser, like your siblings did. The work of nobles, that is, to raise yourself and put everybody else down forgetting from which gutter you crawled out of. I like you boy, if you ever feel like you're wasting your time in noble studies come down here and work in this forge. You never know you might even like it.”

After Dastreals speech he reaches into his desk and draws out a dagger, just from looking at it I can clearly see it's not a normal Iron dagger the metal looks too good for that, It might even be steel the blade is simple and the hilt is made with a lovely leather strap on the hilt of the blade there is a little branding of a crescent moon, the symbol of my family.

“Sir I cannot take this it’s worth at least 6 silv-”

“ I know how much it’s worth brat you don’t need to question me about that, take it as a gift for keeping this old man entertained, even if you don’t take me up on my offer just remember what I told you, after all we all become orphans in the end if everything goes right.”

After saying his piece he places the dagger in my hand and shoos me out of his office where I see Samantha standing there looking quite awkward for someone her size. Only after walking right up to her does she react silently and lead us to the exit and with a quiet goodbye we’re back on the streets again.

Walking back to the estate we decided to pop into Bren’s bar for food, since it was still late the bar was full, yet people still made way and I was able to sit at my usual table at the side of the restaurant.

As soon as we sat down Paulissa was straight over to take our order, even though I’ve been getting Rabbit soup everyday for a week I don’t fancy changing, and so with our usual order placed we were left in relative peace.

Well it’s not taken long for little Dara to get over her fear of nobles, I guess her mother wasn’t joking when she had called her a ball of curiosity, Dara unlike her parents was quite slender but still had the orange hair of her mother as well as the blue eyes of her father.

She had taken the opportunity to sit next to Rafael today as I imagine she has a multitude of questions to ask me, afterall the town hasn’t been that quiet since my little adventure.

“Well do I have to ask?”

“sign it’s been a long day I’ve been badgered by everyone since getting back can you not just leave it a day?” Although I say this I can’t say I dislike the fact that she’s treating me normally, I’m getting tired of the stares that I get when I come to this bar.

“hehe for all I know this could be the last time I see you for a while, your father might just ground you for this you know.”

“He won’t after all I’ve awoke my QI core because of this”

It was good coming here just for this reaction, Dara had completely froze and I don’t blame her awakening at 5 was practically unheard of from what Dastreal said, and so we sat in silence as Paulissa brought over our food.

“Oh my what's got her so quiet hmm,”

“Mother Joseph says he awakened his QI core”

I see a look of surprise come over Paulissas face for a brief second, then it quickly leaves, “Well congratulations young master on this achievement It’s not everyday somebody awakens at 5, even in the noble circles, you should be proud.”

“Mom I’ve not even awakened my QI core this isn’t fair”

“Now you take more after me after all, you are only 8 but when you turn 12 I’m sure you’ll have good affinities if you’ve taken after me or your dad.”

“Hmm”

Putting on a fake sulk, Dara continues to brood while her mother says her goodbye. The food is lovely like usual and gives me a sense of home that I can’t get from the food at the mansion. Putting on small talk I tell Dara of my time in the woods and how we we’re only saved by dear old Rafael there.

“Oh Rafael I thought you were just a servant, I didn't know you could fight as well”

To this blunt comment Rafael freezes for a second before speaking up, “But of course I can fight I am an attendant after all not a servant”

“What's the difference?”

“I am more of a teacher and a bodyguard for the young master than a servant. After all a servant can’t go against their master while I can”

“ohhh so you must be quite strong to take out all them goblins that quickly”

I look to Rafael to gauge his response. It's not often I’m able to get a conversation out of him let alone get him to open up but I guess the superior social skills of Dara are winning this time.

“Well I’m not going to say I’m weak because that would be a lie but those ferals do not count for a proper goblin, any of the city’s guards could’ve defeated them if they were there, now young master it’s time to head back your father wants you to head to the church today and we’re drawing short on time”

After saying a quick goodbye to Dara and the owners we quickly left for the church in the noble district as that was the church that healed me earlier today, I noticed Rafael looks a bit distressed for some reason.

“What's wrong Rafael?”

“Young master doesn’t seem to know where to draw lines, you know you and her can never become proper friends right”

“hmm Rafael if i didn’t know any better I would have thought that it was you that had been taking the noble etiquette lessons not me.”

“But youn-”

“Listen Rafael I am the third child I am in not disillusioned as to what my future looks like so if your just trying to crush my hopes while I’m young you don’t need to, anyway I don’t think my Father is so small-minded”

I walk to leave him behind but not before hearing a quiet whisper, “why do you have to be so mature young master”, before he quickly catches up to walk beside me.