Raesh went back to the inn to spend the night, and the owner was all too happy to accommodate them. The little girl kept bugging Mannat all through the night. They left the town in the early morning the next day.

Back on the road, Mannat sat in the cart with his back against the wall. He solemnly watched the great grey wall retreating behind them, growing smaller with every second as the forest swallowed it. He had the clean slate on his lap and new chalk in his hand, but his mind was lost in thoughts. He felt an urge to get back as soon as he could and get the job. He didn’t want to prove anything to anyone. The others and their thoughts had nothing to do with him. However, he couldn’t bear his father’s silence. Mannat needed his support. He didn’t have the strength to make it out alone.

“Are you still thinking about it?” Suddenly Raesh’s rumbling voice fell on Mannat’s ears and pulled his mind back to reality.

“Yes,” Mannat quietly replied.

Silence befell them before Raesh spoke again, softly this time with a heavy drawl. “Are you disappointed I didn’t refute the lording?”

Mannat’s answered him with silence.

There was a sigh and Raesh continued slowly. “To tell you the truth, I don’t believe the Witch. I think she’s evil and malicious. I know you don’t think so, but the truth is that everything that has happened to us can be traced back to her. Even though she told us from the beginning what would happen if we chose to receive her help and didn’t hide anything. It was not much of a choice anyway. She knew your mother would agree anyways. I have my grievances with her, but don’t let me discourage you from doing what you think is right.”

He paused as the wind picked up speed and threw dirt at them. The wind passed soon, but not without covering them in its grainy disposition.

“Your mother and I knew our lives would forever change when we eloped, but we didn’t let the fear stop up from being together. The world was against us and wanted us separate, but we chose our own path and our own destination. Every day that we spent together was a hundred times more beautiful than any life we could have spent separately.” He paused to let a carriage pass before continuing.

“What I’m trying to say is, every time someone has tried to go on a different way the others have tried to stop them. I don’t know what you see when you open your eyes in the morning, but know that I believe in you. Because I believe in you, I don’t need to believe in the Witch and the world. My only worry is that you will not believe in yourself. And there is no hope if that happens. Just remember, whatever happens, I’m proud to be your father.”

“Father?”

“Yes,” Raesh asked.

Mannat took a deep breath and let it pass through him before exhaling it out. “Thank you,” He said.

“You’re welcome.” Raesh grinned. “Say, a village is coming up in half an hour. Would you like to grab breakfast? We left in such a hurry and now my stomach is upset with me.”

Mannat didn’t say anything, but his stomach let out a long growl at the thought of breakfast and answered Raesh. The tone was set for their return journey. They carried iron ingots for the next month’s consignment from the town. Most importantly, they didn’t leave anything back there.

They took enough stops in between the journey to rest Bhadur that it was close to evening by the time they returned to the village. Mannat brushed Bhadur’s coat, feed, and watered him, before tying him in the stable and leaving for the smithy. His father was already busy in the workshop by the time he returned.

Raesh planned to relax and get the villager’s needs fitted first. Now that his ability to ‘replicate’ objects was level three, his life was much-much easier than before. He could work longer since he no longer needed to concentrate as much, and still be faster and efficient.

The news of their return spread through the village like a wildfire. People came to see for themselves in the name of getting something repaired, a few simply ignored them, while two sighed in relief, one girl buried her head in the pillow and shed tears of joy.

Back in the smithy, Mannat wore his gear, his boots, gloves, and apron, and worked on the knife that he was making for his mother. It was far from completion. In the last two weeks, he had only managed to polish its blade. He still needed to create its handle and sharpen the blade.

He didn’t think there was anything wrong with doing the job slowly. He had been meticulous and extra careful with it. He was still careful while working on the knife, but his thoughts had changed. He could see things that he didn’t at first.

He had been delaying the job. After all, he didn’t believe in himself, because he was afraid to fail his mother, worrying his effort would be for nothing.

The trip to the town had opened his mind and showed him the truth. He had been looking too far ahead. There was no need to fear the result when he hadn’t even gotten through the process yet.

The knife was barely as long as his hand. He finished polishing it to mirror finish in one swoop then went to help his father improve his skill ‘replicate’.

Since ‘replicate’ was the last skill of the master tier blacksmith job, completing it would make Raesh eligible for job evolution. He would then only have to meet the attribute requirement to become a specialist. There were only a handful of specialists in the whole empire, one of whom was Mannat’s grandfather.

After helping his father for a while, Mannat's mind had refreshed and he went back to work on the knife. This time he was going to work on the handle. He chose tusks of the boar that had died to his father’s hands as the handle material. They had removed the tusks before handling the boar to Gande for butchering.

This was an expensive material. The tusk would have easily cost him a silver coin in the market. This was the reason why men liked hunting so much. An animal's whole body was a treasure. There were buyers for everything.

Mannat decided to keep it simple. He was planning to saw the tusk in half, chisel a pocket for the tang and sandwich them together with pins and resin. However, one-half of the tusks cracked while he was hand drilling a hole in it. That was a silver coin down the drain. Thankfully, he had another tusk. He was extra careful this time around. Once he had drilled the two holes, he chiseled out the pocket for the tang and ground the tusk to a roughly rounded shape on the wheel before gluing the three pieces together.

It was going to take three hours for the glue to harden and Mannat decided to stay for the night. Anyways, Mana sense was a skill that he could practice anywhere. The tree was just an easier target to sense.

There was only his father in the smithy, so Raesh unknowingly became Mannat’s practice dummy. Perhaps, it was because they were related by blood or there was something magical going on, Mannat sensed something from him. He could feel his father looking at him. It was the extent of the phenomenon, but it was something. The sensation was smaller than a tingle in the back of his neck. He could read neither his father’s emotions nor thoughts like the Witch, but it was a start. He had not even sensed a leaf of the tree, and being able to sense something was huge progress. This showed his effort was not in vain.

His father extinguished the fire and retired for the day in the evening. Raesh asked Mannat if he was coming, but the boy had plans.

“I’ll be back later,” Mannat, answered.

Raesh didn’t think much of it. The boy was finally planning to finish his knife; he would be foolish to stop him. “The keys are hanging on the pillar. Don’t forget to lock the front door when you leave the shop.”

Raesh left, and Mannat lost his target to practice mana sense. He dropped sensing mana and checked on the knife. The handle was starting to come together, but the resin hadn’t hardened yet. He picked a hand vice from the storeroom, transferred the knife to it, and started sharpening its blade.

He spent an hour working on the blade. By the time he was finished, the knife was sharp and the resin had hardened. The knife finally had a handle -- though it still needed to be ground into shape and polished. It was an hour of work at most if he was fast. He didn’t get into it right away, but put the knife in its case and left it on the anvil.

He left the smithy, locked the front door, and went to the butchery. It was getting late. The sun had gone into hiding for the day, and the sky was quickly growing dark.

The doorbell rang when he entered the shop. He saw Gande at the counter. She hugged him and lifted him into the air, before dropping him down to the ground.

“Looking for Pandit?” She asked.

Mannat nodded, nervous and excited, but the woman rained on his parade.

“He’s not here,” She told him. “He’s not at home either. Can you tell me where he goes every night?”

Mannat thought back to a few days ago when he had seen Soman. She had told him they were together. He didn’t think it was something he should be the one telling the woman. So he quietly shook his head and denied knowing anything about it. Gande wasn’t convinced. She wanted to shake the truth out of him, but he told her he had some work in the smithy and quickly left the shop.

He was looking for Pandit for a favor. The knife was not the only thing he had been delaying. There was also a girl waiting for his answer. He was hoping to get the boy to bring her to the pond. She had called him there the last time, and Pandit had delivered the message. Mannat believed his friend could find a way to get her out there. Unfortunately, Pandit was missing in action. Left with no choice, Mannat returned to the smithy to finish the knife.

He left the butchery absent-minded, but his focus snapped back into place when he saw someone standing in front of the closed door. He thought it was a customer and drew closer, but his feet halted a few feet from the shadowy figure upon seeing long black hair flowing behind her back in the wind.

The person was none other than Sharmilla.