Chapter 1-17 (1/2)

Blacksmith Volume 1 chapter 17

*Vaine’s POV*

Every morning at 5:00 AM, my body wakes up naturally.

This is a habit I’ve developed ever since I was a kid, so I could get up and finish my morning run.

After a light jog around campus, I headed towards the cafeteria.

My plate was filled to the brim with food.

The mess hall lady is really nice.

I would’ve just called out ‘Seconds please’ with a smile, and taken a large amount of rice if I wanted more though.

I learnt how to eat in moderation at home.

Mother always had to cook enough for father, myself, and my two younger brothers all by herself.

Anyways the school food really exceeded my expectations for what I thought it’d be like.

Its delicious, but I still think I’ll miss mother’s home cooking in about a month or so.

Although I already thought I was an adult mentally, I guess I needed to be away from home to realize this childish side to myself, huh?

I guess this means father sent me here because he thought that it would be a good experience for me, even if was only a little bit.

When I left the house, my father and my brothers sent me off themselves without showing too much concern.

I was only going to be gone for about three years, I didn’t want anything like a grand departure anyways, so that was fine.

Though mother was filled with tears in her eyes when she saw me off.

She also gave me a gift, saying that I should use it so I wouldn’t embarrass myself when I tried to make new friends

And without even saying ‘thank you’ one month ago, I left my house.

In retrospect, I’m feeling a little regret over that.

I think that if it was the me of now I could’ve said my thanks to her.

Since before I never even considered such things necessary.

Though now I can think clearly.

I guess this is what people would call a ‘growth in character’.

I don’t know if my mother’s gift had any effect, but I was still able to make a friend.

Honestly I didn’t think I’d be able to make a friend this quickly.

With that said, I think he’s the kind of guy that you could remain friends with for life.

If I could find at least one thing to cherish over my three years away, everything would be worth it.

Those were my thoughts as I traveled to the school.

However, my thoughts have changed a bit from then.

I want to find something I can devote my life to at this school.

Yes, I want that, but in addition to that I also want to enjoy my school life as much as I can, just because I can.

My friend’s name is Kururi.

At first I thought his figure tempering a sword was a little scary, but he actually turned out to be quite gentle.

I felt a lot of new feelings when I was with him.

When he finished eating the sheep with me, he even shed tears of happiness, though he didn’t eat as greedily as my brothers did as we grew up together.

I think it’s good to have a big appetite.

I often find him reading books.

If one were to judge him on first impressions, they would just think that he was the son of some unreliable nobles, but those rumours and reality are quite different.

His hands are similar to mine, in how they’re covered in calluses that could’ve only been developed by swinging a sword everyday.

Both his upper and lower body are well developed, while he also seems quite proficient with magic.

You know, sometimes I see the First Prince Arc around the school, and just by looking at him, I can feel that if we ever fought while holding nothing back, I would definitely lose.

I get the same feeling from Kururi whenever I see him.

He would be a formidable opponent if we ever had to fight.

Harbouring feelings like that towards friends might be rude, but I think he’ll forgive me for just this much.

I still haven’t met with the resident of apartment 1-3, but that’s okay.

I think that being able to meet with Kururi and my other friends was lucky enough.

‘The seasoning they used for today’s meal is a bit dark.’

I thought about such things as ate I breakfast.

The food Mom always cooked at home had a lighter taste, so I always ate my fill.

Oops, I’m reminding myself of her again, I’m going to get homesick at this rate.

Anyways, there’s another friend who I used to get a bad feeling from when I saw him.

He’s a friend who goes to Kururi’s apartment every day.

He suddenly asked if he could become Kururi’s apprentice, and I couldn’t help but be wary of a guy who suddenly draws near someone just because they said they ‘want to get stronger’.

He’s short, his body’s slim, and he has a high pitched voice.

With an appearance that could be easily compared to a woman, he suddenly blurted out that he wanted to be as strong as Kururi and asked to be his apprentice.

He gave off a bad first impression, so I didn’t want to get too close to him, the fact that he looks like he’s capable of magic is really bothersome.

But after a while, weirdly enough, when I got a good look at him his face reminded me of my mother’s.

My younger brothers took after my mom too, so it almost felt like one of my brothers came here to commute with me.

Unfortunately, because of him I’m often reminded of my mother.

After I finished my meal one of the mess hall ladies suddenly asked:

“Did you have a good meal?”

‘Of course’, isn’t the best answer here.

I’m thankful, but I’m not very good at speaking with people like them.

Once I left the mess hall the sun had already started to rise.

Just a couple more days until the entrance ceremony.

So like usual, let’s go to Kururi’s apartment today as well.

“Morning Vaine, wow you’re up early.”

On my way to apartment 1-1, I met with Kururi outside.

“It’s not that strange, I’m always awake at this time.”

“Well~ There’s a reason why I’m up. You see, I smithed an amazing sword last night! It’s probably my best work yet!”

His face looked really fatigued.

But more powerful than that was his excitement that seemed just to ooze out of him.

It was obvious just from the tone of his voice.

“You going somewhere?”

“Ah yeah, I’m going to go and test the new sword.”

The sword Kururi was holding was certainly a treasure.

I’m not really that interested in swords themselves, but I couldn’t help but get fascinated by its beauty.

I was even a bit jealous of him.

“Are you going to hunt demons?”

“Yup, to the west there are a few small monsters lurking about and since there’s no real risk there, it’s the perfect place to try this out.”

His face became brighter yet again.

He must really want to test it.

“Do you want to come Vaine?”

“No, I have my own training schedule to stick to.”

“Is that so… Sorry if it sounded like I was pressing you into it.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

After we finished our conversation, Kururi left with a little quickness to his steps.

I ended up in front of his apartment ten minutes later than usual.

I guess I’ll just sit in front of the door and wait for now.

“Did he forget his house key?”

My eyes were closed, so I didn’t even notice him until I heard his voice.

He was walking over here at a steady pace.

“You’re wrong, but now that you’re here let’s go start our training.”

“Ah, understood.”

Crossy tried opening the door to Kururi’s apartment.

“Oops, looks like Kururi-dono isn’t here yet, does this mean you were waiting for him outside?”