Chapter 44: Bernard the Blacksmith (Thanks for the first tip)

"Nothing, I just came to see you today. In a few days, I may need to come to your place to forge some long swords. Can you forge them?" Gervis has been planning to recruit soldiers these days. Recruiting soldiers is convenient, but he currently has no food. However, sword equipment requires some time to make, so he wants to prepare the weapons and then recruit people directly.

Gervis was actually worried that his territory was so remote. What if the only blacksmith shop could only forge farm tools and not weapons and armor? He would need to go to other nobles' territories to forge or buy them, which would take a long time.

Making farm tools does not require any skills, and basically every trained blacksmith can make one. However, it is different with a longsword. The sword has a long and thin blade, and requires hardness and toughness, which tests the blacksmith's control over the material ratio and quenching.

If the wrong materials are used, the strength of the weapon cannot be guaranteed. If the quenching is not well controlled, and the sword body only has hardness but no toughness, it will be like glass and will immediately break into pieces when it hits any hard object.

"My noble lord, it's no problem to make long swords, but the price is a bit expensive. I wonder how many you plan to make?" When the middle-aged blacksmith heard that Gervis was going to make long swords, he was full of confidence and did not hesitate when answering Gervis's question.

"Oh? Can you really forge it?" Gervis was a little surprised. Blacksmiths who can make weapons such as long swords are very popular wherever they are. The middle-aged blacksmith in front of him is full of confidence, as if he can really forge a long sword, and it seems that his skills are very good.

"How come such a skilled person would come to such a remote place?"

This thought flashed through Gervis' mind. You know, Gervis's territory is basically full of serfs, and there are only more than 2,000 of them. I'm afraid that not many farmers would come to the blacksmith shop to make iron tools throughout the year.

But the middle-aged blacksmith acted so calm and confident that Gervis was a little confused, so he continued: "You should know who I am, right?"

The reason why Gervis asked this was very clear. He was worried that the blacksmith in front of him didn't know his identity and wanted to fool him.

"In reply to the noble lord, if I am not mistaken, you should be the new lord of this territory, Baron Gervis." The middle-aged blacksmith did not develop any other emotions because of Gervis's suspicion, and there was still a faint smile on his face.

"It seems that you are really capable! May I know your name?" Seeing his calm look, Gervis also laughed. It seems that the blacksmith in front of him has some skills, otherwise, if he knew his identity and dared to lie to him, he would definitely be an old man who hanged himself because he thought his life was too long.

"Bernard Hammer, this is my son Alec, respected Lord Gervis, you can just call me Bernard!" Bernard said his name and pointed to the boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old next to him. Probably because of years of blacksmithing, the boy was very burly, but the expression he showed at this moment was not as calm and composed as Bernard.

When Gervis looked at him, the boy's face was obviously stiff. Although he was smiling, his eyes revealed nervousness.

"Iron Hammer?" Gervis felt that he could not see through this blacksmith. The surname Iron Hammer sounded vulgar, but this surname had a glorious past and was of great origin. History books recorded that the king of the former kingdom had personally bestowed the surname Iron Hammer on an excellent blacksmith, who was the only person to become a nobleman as a blacksmith.

At that time, except for the nobleman and his family who were personally given the surname by the king, if anyone else used this surname, it might bring disaster upon themselves. However, now, the kingdom has disappeared, and it is not known whether Bernard is a descendant of that family, or whether he got this surname just to make money more easily over the years.

Gervis looked up and carefully examined Bernard for a moment, and found that he could not see any clues, so he did not investigate further. After all, he was just a blacksmith. As long as he had good skills and was not a bad person, Gervis would not care even if he was a wanted criminal.

"Since you are so confident, I decided to make twenty long swords at one time, and twenty wooden and iron-clad round shields." Gervis no longer hesitated.

As to whether Bernard was a liar or not, Gervais felt that it was more likely that he was not a liar. Just based on the calmness shown by Bernard, Gervais felt that this man was extraordinary.

Of course, there is no need to worry if Gervis guessed wrong. The monk may escape but the temple cannot. This blacksmith shop alone is worth much more than twenty swords.

"Thank you for your trust, Lord Gervis. I wonder if the iron for forging was provided by you or from the blacksmith shop?"

Iron is also very valuable in this world. Some serfs do not have enough money to make iron tools for farming, so they go to the river and use magnetic stones to absorb the iron sand on the riverbed. Although the process is slow, if they persist, they will always accumulate it, and then they only need to pay a small amount of wages to make farm tools.

Gervis currently has no iron materials, so he plans to ask Bernard to provide them directly. Anyway, he got 5 gold coins for free yesterday, so Gervis feels that he can be generous for once.

However, in order to avoid being slaughtered like a pig by Bernard, Gervis still needs to determine the price first.

“I don’t know how the price is calculated if I provide the iron material or not?”

"If you provide the iron material, a long sword will cost one silver coin, and a round shield will cost 20 copper coins. If you don't provide the iron material, a long sword will cost 2 silver coins and 80 copper coins, and a round shield will cost 40 copper coins." Bernard quoted the price without hesitation.

"Lord Gervis, this price is because you are ordering 20 at a time, so it is already a discounted price and it cannot be lowered any further."

After hearing the quotation, Gervis nodded. This price was indeed quite favorable. If there were no special requirements for the longswords in this world, the general specifications of standard longswords were two-handed swords with a length of 130CM and a blade width of 6CM. They all used cross guards and weighed about 2.8 kilograms.

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The price of making such a long sword is generally 3 silver coins, and the price will increase depending on the situation. For example, a famous blacksmith with good craftsmanship will add more money.

The price of less than 3 silver coins showed that Bernard did not have Zagvis. On the contrary, because of the large quantity, each one gave Zagvis a discount of 20 copper coins.

The same goes for the round shield. The market price is generally 50 copper coins, and there is a discount of 10 copper coins.

"Okay, since you are so generous, I will prepay you 30 silver coins now. After you have made it and I have inspected it, I will give you the remaining money. What do you think, Bernard?" Seeing that Bernard was so straightforward, Gervis saved the trouble of bargaining and simply made the decision today.

(End of this chapter)