Tale Of A Knight

"Oh, I was just, well…" Bakit knew better than to tell Mekros about his missing hand. His right hand, covered in gauntlet and glove, looked just like a normal hand but now it was completely fake.

"An where is your sword? Don"t tell me you lost it? Lad, a sword is knight"s life! If you lose your sword during a battle then you might as well have thrown away your life!"

"Ok, ok, I get it! So, I got carried away and lost my sword, not a big deal!" Bakit countered.

"That kind of att.i.tude will get you killed some day. We will not do any practice today. Prince had asked me to inform him if you showed up. We thought you were dead, considering what happened to the other squires…"

Bakit raised an eyebrow.

"Anyways, I am glad you were not stupid enough to go with them. Turns out there was a supply trip organized by Lord Venlander to go to the city of Ashu, and they coerced squires to go with them under the threat of execution. But they all were attacked by elementals with no survivors…I am really glad you did not go with them, lad. That would have been a tragedy."

Bakit had to restrain himself from saying "But I did go with them" to Mekros, but luckily he managed to only gulp from fear. So it was true, there were no survivors. He managed to live at the cost of a hand. One mistake-now left with a permanent reminder.

"I presume you were visiting brothels, then? No need to be shy about it, but make sure the prince or anyone high above you catches you."

"Say what?" Bakit"s mouth flung open in reflex. Did Mekros just tell him that it was ok to visit those kinds of places as long as none found out? Does that mean Mekros has been doing exactly that?

"I suppose losing your sword is fine compared to losing your life, but next time you lose one you shall pay the price in full yourself. Go to Rolgo and make a request for a new sword!"

"But he did not charge a price last time!" Said Bakit.

"It was only because you advertised his product by wearing it in public! He never does anything unless he gets some kind of a profit from it. Just tell him I will pay the price for the sword later. After this, I will go towards the Prince"s office. No doubt he has some work for me to take care of…"

Bakit was now instructed to go to Rolgo"s shop.

When he entered it, he saw that the interior now was no longer as crammed. Before, all of the things were stacked on top of one another, with little room in between. It was rather obvious to tell that the shop had a very few customers. But now the shop had everything organized by sections, and it seemed like the sales were going rather well.

"Oh! If it isn"t my mascot himself! How have you been doing, Bakit?"

"It has been going rather weirdly to be honest, Mister Rolgo."

They greeted each other and sat down to talk.

* * *

"Yeah, that looks pretty bad~" Rolgo examined Bakit"s stump on his right arm, where a hand was supposed to be. Bakit showed him the injury and explained the circ.u.mstances behind it.

"I also lost the sword you gave me, sorry about that."

"Never mind the sword! I can make you another one any time, but this…this is serious. Does Mekros know about it?"

"No, and I would like to keep it that way." Bakit said in a serious tone.

"Lad, you have come to the right place then. But how exactly did this happen?"

Bakit told him how he was forced to go on a supply trip with knights and that they were attacked by elementals. Rolgo heard him out in complete silence, just nodding and paying attention to every word.

"Elementals, you say? This close? How did they look like?"

"Their bodies were strange; one definitely looked like he was made of rock while the other one was made of shards…"

"Crystal, you mean?" Rolgo inquired.

"Yeah, how do you know?"

"I happened to know quite a lot about elementals. They are very powerful, especially the crystal elementals. Even a grain of crystal can infect anyone, exposure to it through wounds is even worse. Their crystals feed on mana, growing out of any surface it lands in, piercing the body and emerging out of it like a thousand spear sized needles, stopping only when the body is dead. The other elementals are no better. Each one is almost invulnerable while in transformed form. You are lucky to have escaped them, even if you did lose an arm."

"Mekros asked me to tell you to make a new sword, but as you can see a right handed sword will not do. He said he will pay you afterwards." Said Bakit.

"Never mind the payment. Your advertis.e.m.e.nt of my merchandise was the best marketing tactic I have ever come up with. Just this week alone I had more than twenty customers! It seems like the n.o.bles and rich officials are finally starting to notice my unique merchandise, all thanks to you!"

"Right~" Bakit was not sure whether to be offended or pleased. Rolgo pretty much used him to advertise his things to the outside while wearing his mask of calmness.

"Tell you what? How about this? I will make you a sword along with a new hand, but…" he paused. "Frankly, there is a high demand for prosthetic limbs, but I was not interested before, so I lack the necessary experience in making them, so…I might need you to test them."

"That is acceptable." Bakit agreed.

"Speaking of testing, would you like to take an offer of mine to become the alpha tester? You will be testing my brand new products every week to see if they are functional and safe…" he saw Bakit cringe. "Don"t worry! They are not life threatening, I hope~" he said almost in whisper.

Bakit sighed. "Well, you would be doing me a great favor if you can build me a good hand, so accepting your offer is least I can do."

"Splendid, the pleasure is all mine. After you test out the products I will finally be able to put them for sale!"

"It is always about profit for you isn"t it?" Bakit asked.

"Youngling, you always want to make a living from doing what you love, that is the natural way of business."

"And what do you like to do?"

"Building, experimenting, creating, of course!" Rolgo threw up his arms in joy. Seeing an old man similar in age to Mekros acting like a loony child made Bakit"s skin crawl from sheer creepiness. "Will I be like him when I grow older as well? No, no, no! Don"t think about it!"

"Isn"t it kind of you to build me a hand? How is building me a new hand going to help you?"

"It has nothing to do with kindness, lad. It is just me finding a demand and creating a supply to fulfill that demand. You would be compensated of course, for your contribution as the tester of the products. That is the only fair thing to do. You can come by any time and use any of the artifacts in the store, as long as they are seen in use in public, of course." He added. Bakit could only observe that while Rolgo was a calculative businessman, he was also rather kind to those he knew of, even if as acquaintance.

Then, Rolgo opened up a door to his workshop. Bakit followed Rolgo as he entered his workshop.

Bakit could see many sc.r.a.p pieces of metal, wood, ceramics, and G.o.d knows how many tools, a.s.sortments of different materials, melting pot, and blacksmith metal operating place. It was safe to say that the place was frequently used due to the marks made by hammer. There were also many unfinished products there.

Lying near Bakit"s foot was a statue of a beaver. He picked it up. It was size of a hand.

"Hey, Rolgo, what is this?" Bakit asked.

"A failed experiment. Purpose- damage nullification."

"Does it work?" Bakit asked.

"In principle, yes, but in practice on the other hand…" Rolgo proceeded to punch Bakit in the gut.

Funnily enough, Bakit felt nothing. Yet, he was thrown away by at least ten meters until landing near a pile of failed inventions.

"What the h.e.l.l was that!?" Bakit angrily shouted.

"Just a demonstration. It didn"t hurt, did it? The punch that is?" Rolgo said smugly.

"Strangely no, but why did I fly away? It can"t be that you are that strong right?"

"I am hardly strong, young one. That was the effect of the tool you are holding in your hand."

Bakit looked at his left hand, still clutching the beaver statue.

"Instead of nullifying the force that the body takes as damage, the statue converts the force into motion, causing anyone who takes damage to be thrown backwards. That was the flaw with that invention of mine."

"You could have warned me before punching me you know! What if I dropped the statue?"

"I doubt I would have succeeded in harming you, with Mekros"s training regimen, you should be tough enough to withstand one or two punches from an old man like myself. Besides, that was the fastest way to explain it, was it not? You even got to test out your first device!"

"Who was the person testing your devices before me?"

"Why, it was Mekros, of course!"

Bakit now understood why Mekros always spoke of Rolgo with somewhat dreadful undertone. It seems Mekros was Rolgo"s guinea pig for testing his devices before him, so it was natural Mekros would not be fond of remembering testing that madman"s inventions. Rolgo was too carefree and he in a way made Bakit find him a little insane.

Rolgo dug through the piles of his old inventions before digging out a few of them. They looked like arms.

"Well, let"s have you try them on!"

First arm. Made of wood, five fingers, rough, immobile, fragile. Bakit shook his head.

Second arm. Made of metal. Two fingers, magnet on the fingers. Bakit shook his head. The arm looked too much like a claw to use.

Third arm had three fingers, painted metal, with magnetized fingers. It was the last one presented to him, so Bakit had to settle on it as his best option.

"Sorry about this. But for now you will have to wear that until I can make you a better version of the arm." Rolgo said as he strapped the fake hand to Bakit"s right wrist, making it hold tightly. The hand was now pretty much attached to the arm now.

Bakit now examined the fake hand. As much as he would have wanted the fingers did not move.

"None of the fingers is functional; I will one day make a version with movable fingers." Rolgo offered him a glove which Bakit put over his fake hand.

"Please keep this secret from Master Mekros." Bakit asked.

"Your secret is safe with me."

"When can I come by to pick up a new sword?"

"I will have you a hand and a sword a week from now. Of course, don"t forget to come by to test my new inventions."

"Of course, thanks!" Bakit nodded, and before leaving he saw Mekros welding metal into a shape of a hand with loud sounds of a hammer while laughing like a madman.

"I guess I will leave him alone for now." Bakit said with a cringe. Mekros did mention he was maniacally obsessed with inventing, but Bakit never though it was this bad. A laugh that could scare away any witch or warlock sounded out from the building. Bakit couldn"t help but wonder whether that was the reason people used to avoid Rolgo"s shop.