Bladesmith's Enchanted Weapons: Volume 1 (eBook)

Kazuma Ogiwara (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-3182-2 (ISBN)

Infos

The katana smith Lutz has just forged his magnum opus, a katana so bewitchingly beautiful that it's dangerous even to look at. Unfortunately, as an unlicensed smith, he has no way to sell it. But when his only real business partner, Claudia, is captured by crooked knights, Lutz knows exactly what to do with his perfect blade.
On the other side of the city walls, Gerhard, an old enchanter, is facing a horrendous slump. Though he's confident in his abilities, he can't create a true work of art without a proper canvas, and he longs for nothing more than a unique sword to serve as his muse. This time for sure, he will create an enchanted sword that will wipe that damn disinterested look off of the so-called hero's face.
This is a tale of the gloriously deranged few who have given their lives and souls to crafting enchanted swords. When they come together, will they bring forth a golden age or the collapse of society itself? To those maniacs, it doesn't matter either way.

Textauszug

Chapter 1: Sharp Enough to Split the Soul

There was no greater sin than to take another human life. Then how? How could a tool created to kill people be so magnificently beautiful?

The blacksmith, Lutz, stared in fascination at the katana he had just polished. He inspected the blade’s hamon, the pattern along the cutting edge that formed during the hardening process. It flowed almost like water—a shimmering river of platinum that ran along the length of the katana. Lutz simply couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

“It’s beautiful...”

It wasn’t a very elegant description, but he couldn’t think of any other way to say it. Trying to express the wonder of art through words was an exercise in futility, anyway.

He couldn’t believe that he had taken raw materials and forged them into such an incredible thing. Still staring at the blade, he could nearly convince himself that the God of blacksmithing must have taken him over, though he knew the thought was ridiculous.

How long had he been there admiring it? All notion of time, hunger—even sleep—seemed to slip from his mind. While he was caught in this reverie, hours passed.

“Waah!” Lutz suddenly cried out, averting his gaze from the katana. He arched his back with such momentum that he fell off the stool he was sitting on and hit his head, but he didn’t allow a single scratch on the katana. The pride of a blacksmith was not to be underestimated.

Wait—what was I about to do?

He thought hard, rubbing his muddled head.

That was right, he had brought the katana so close to his face that it was about to cut into his eyeball. If it had taken him even one more second to return to his senses, he surely would have lost an eye. While the reaction was a bit delayed, Lutz felt fear enveloping him. His breathing grew erratic, and he wrapped the katana in a random piece of cloth, as he had yet to make a saya for it.

“That—that was insane...”

Lutz crossed his arms in thought and stared at the katana through the thin cloth veil. He was continuously assaulted by the strong urge to remove the cloth and stare directly at the blade.

He had truly forged an incredible katana. The problem now was what to do with it.

He could sell it. That was the most obvious option as a blacksmith, but he didn’t have any established relationship with any sellers who were used to handling something of that quality. He could always just bring it into a shop and ask if they were interested in purchasing it, but Lutz wasn’t a member of the Blacksmiths Guild. If an unlicensed blacksmith were to turn up with something of that much value, worst-case scenario, he could be reported to the authorities, imprisoned, and have all of his property and assets seized—katana and all. It wouldn’t even be unusual for someone to do so for the sole purpose of seizing his katana.

If he couldn’t sell it, perhaps he could go over the Guild’s head and gift it as an offering to someone in a position of power. It was possible that he would be able to serve as the personal blacksmith to a wealthy noble family in return. However, he didn’t exactly have any connections to nobility to make that possible either.

From most people’s perspective, Lutz was nothing but a shady guy living outside the city walls in a run-down hut, making weapons all day. He was a criminal who just hadn’t committed any crimes yet. At least for some phony politicians, that was more than enough reason to lock him up. It didn’t make one difference what Lutz thought about the matter either.

Crafting a piece that he was proud of and selling it—even something as commonplace as that was a challenge for him. In his frustration, he let out a deep sigh.

They say that a bit of happiness escapes you with every sigh, but that wasn’t a problem for Lutz. You couldn’t lose what you didn’t have.

Perhaps he could just keep the katana and use it for himself. That didn’t sound so bad, but it wasn’t like he was an adventurer or mercenary. When he left home, he made a habit of carrying a weapon to deter bandits, but carrying around a katana so incredible it could be considered a national treasure was a bit overkill. In fact, it would probably have the opposite effect and draw their attention.

For now, it was probably best to stow it away in his workshop cabinet and live on, forgetting this day had ever happened. At that moment, there wasn’t anything else to do. But was he really okay with that? Would anything change if that was all he did with it? He had forged the perfect katana—the culmination of his skills and techniques. Was this not his chance to turn his life around? Could he really afford to turn his back on such an opportunity? Even though his meager existence was something he could do little about, he didn’t want to have to lie to himself, to disrespect the skills he had built up over the course of his life.

I just don’t know... What should I do?

The question rang through his head as he stared at the impossibly beautiful katana through the cloth, almost as if asking it for an answer. Of course, no such answer came.

“Well, good day there, Lutzy!”

The loud voice of a certain woman broke the silence.

“Have you ever heard of knocking?” Lutz turned around in surprise.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Were you in the middle of...polishing your spear or something?”

This coarse and crude woman was Claudia, one of Lutz’s few trading partners. At least from his perspective, she was a merchant out to make a profit by buying cheap goods off of a sketchy blacksmith and selling them at a high profit margin.

Despite that, she possessed a beauty that was like braided sunlight. She had perfectly fair skin and was plump in all the right places too. With lips as red as roses and breasts so voluptuous it seemed they might burst, she was an enchanting beauty.

For Lutz, all of this came second to her ass. The size, roundness, and smoothness all came together into a fantastic work of art. Of course, he could never say it to her face.

“Jokes aside, even if I did knock on the dilapidated door of a place as noisy as this workshop, it’s not like you would have heard me anyway.”

Not only was she unapologetic, but she snuck a jab in there too. Lutz thought it best to give it up as a bad job.

“If you came here for the pieces you ordered, they’re all finished.” He pointed to some wooden boxes in the corner of the room.

Claudia reached into one of the boxes and pulled out an axe that was buried in straw for protection. Each box held five axes and there were four of them stacked together, making twenty axes total.

She held one of them in her hands and gave it a swing.

It was important to check the feel of the grip and the balance of the axe as a whole. The weight balance of inferior axes could be so bad they tended to slip out of one’s hands. The grip would also wear out quickly, making it even more labor-intensive to use.

Claudia gave a satisfied nod. “Not bad at all. Quite wonderful, actually. The lumberjacks are going to be very pleased when they get their hands on these. Right, go ahead and load these into the carriage.”

Lutz groaned. “Would you hire some help already?”

“I don’t think the lonely blacksmith over here has any right to criticize me on that front.”

She got him there. He glanced quickly at the katana before getting up from his stool.

Claudia didn’t miss this gesture, following Lutz’s gaze toward the long cloth-covered object. “Hmm... Lutzy, is this a new piece of yours?”

“It’s not for sale.”

“For sale, not for sale—that’s something that only gets decided once a merchant and a blacksmith begin negotiations.”

Lutz didn’t even have time to stop her before she pulled off the dirty old cloth, grabbed the katana by the nakago—the unsharpened part where the grip would be placed—and stared at it intently.

If she had directly touched the blade itself, she might leave sweat, oil, and fingerprints on it, which wouldn’t be good. If she had done anything so impermissible, Lutz was prepared to kick her out, literally—right in the back. At this point, though, he didn’t really have much choice but to show it to her. He was looking to get someone else’s opinion on it, anyway.

Claudia was frozen in place, gazing at the katana. All emotion left her face, as though she’d been transformed into some wax figure, her vision solidly fixed on the blade.

Lutz was convinced that it wasn’t just him; that katana had a terrifying ability to infatuate people, to charm them.

There was a suspicious, dangerous glint in Claudia’s eyes. Almost as if being pulled in, she brought the katana closer and closer to her face.

“Okay, you’re done.”

“Ngaa!”

Lutz pulled at her collar from behind, which seemingly choked her for a moment, but at least it brought her back to her senses.

Claudia spun around and gave him a grudging glare. “Hey, that’s dangerous! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you trying to give yourself a snake tongue?”

“Hmm?” Claudia resembled a cat that forgot to put its tongue back in its mouth. “Wait......

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.7.2025
• Reihe/Serie: The Bladesmith's Enchanted Weapons
• Illustrationen: Kazuma Ogiwara
• Übersetzer: Kazuma Ogiwara
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Blacksmithing • Crafts • Katana • Magic • male protagonist • multiple PoV • swords
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-3182-7 / 1718331827
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-3182-2 / 9781718331822