Chapter 45 Guilds

Twenty-nine years ago, an ordinary day in spring.

A tired young man entered a nameless settlement in the Newly Reclaimed Land.

The young man was tall and thin, with a sallow complexion, dressed in old clothes sewn from burlap sacks.

He wore no shoes, but that was no problem. The soles of his feet had developed thick calluses, so that even sharp stones did not cause him pain.

Two pairs of pincers and a hammer were his only possessions, now slung in a knapsack across his shoulder.

Along the way, the young man made his living by using these few tools to repair things in exchange for food and lodging.

Though he could twist steel with his arms and shape metal, he was not yet a blacksmith, for he had not completed his apprenticeship.

And because he disagreed with extending the period of his apprenticeship, he had fallen out with his master and feared he would never become a licensed smith.