(Nov 9)

Today, I went to the blacksmith forge to meet Mona as instructed in the letter that was sent to me.

It was a relatively big stone building that stood among many other stores and craftsman shops.

As I entered the building, I was met with a wave of hot air.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

At the far end of the forgery, someone was hammering away at a weapon on top of an anvil.

I looked around as I walked forward, examining all the items displayed on the walls.

To my surprise, most of the weapons and gear were A ranked with a few B ranked.

All the equipment were very high quality.

“You’re here.”

The person who had been hammering a weapon, lifted their safety goggles and looked over at me.

This was when I realized that the person was actually Mona.

I did find out Mona was a blacksmith a while back, so I guess this wasn’t too surprising that she was working on another weapon.

Mona, who was covered in sweat, took over her gloves and apron, tossed aside her hammer and started wiping her face with a towel nearby.

She was wearing a crop top exposing her well toned abs and muscles, and I must say, she is good looking (although I’m not sure how safe it is to wear a crop top while forging weapons).

With her muscular tomboyish figure, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people, both male and female, would want to date her.

Of course, my wife is still the most beautiful ever (objectively, not an opinion), but that doesn’t mean I can’t tell if other people looked attractive.

And Mona is, indeed, very hot…

…get it? Because she’s good looking and she’s a blacksmith so she’s near fire… ok, that wasn’t even a good dad joke. I’ll stop. (People once told me that once I became a father, dad jokes would come naturally but my pun skills still suck)

Anyways, back to the point.

“So, what’d you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

Even though I didn’t know what she called me here for, I did have my guesses.

“Why did you fight Briggs?”

Mona asked me bluntly, straight to the point.

“Briggs asked me for a duel, and I had no reason to decline.”

“Hm. So, how was he? What do you think about him?”

“Well, he’s strong that’s for sure.”

“And dangerous.” Mona added sharply.

I didn’t know how to respond to that so I let her continue.

“You’ve fought him, you should know. He’s powerful, uncontrollably so and he’s dangerous. Briggs also told you, didn’t he? About his full berserk form? You can probably already guess, but he’s unstoppable in that form making him one of the biggest threats.”

“Oh, yeah? Okay. Assuming what you’re saying is all true, why are you telling this to me?”

I was being very cautious.

I’ve heard many stories of siblings killing each other to steal the throne and I didn’t know if this was one of those situations or not.

I still wasn’t sure what their relationship was so I was careful with my words.

Mona paused for a moment to think about her response.

“I’d like to make a deal with you. An agreement of sorts.”

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously, “a deal?”

Mona nodded before elaborating.

“Don’t worry, I understand you’re Brigg’s friend and I’m not asking you to betray him or anything so stop looking at me like I am. What I want is for you to keep an eye on him. Stop him from doing anything stupid… like from needlessly going into berserk form and dueling random people.”

Well, if that’s all she wants me to do, that isn’t so bad.

But there were still some questions that had to be answered before I accepted.

“Why me though? Anyone can keep an eye on Briggs, why don’t you do it?”

“You won’t be able to stop him if he goes full berserk, but you did manage to bring him back from the limits of his normal berserk, something that even A rankers struggle to do when teaming up. Not to mention you did it alone. There are many strong A rankers, but you’re the one most suited to handle Briggs.

Like William is considered a powerful wizard, one who can dominate the battlefield, but in a one-on-one battle against Briggs, there’s little he can do. You on the other hand, are fast, adaptive, can use magic and strength together and is the perfect counter to Brigg’s berserk.”

Ah, so it comes back to class advantages once again.

And my fighting style just happened to be suitable against Brigg’s beast like nature.

“If anything did happen, you would be the perfect man to restrain him, and you are his friend too so you can always stay close to him without making him suspicious. Then you can report back to me what you’ve noticed or if anything happened.” Mona explained.

This didn’t sound so bad, and I couldn’t think of any reasons why I should refuse so I just agreed.

Briggs was my friend, and even if Mona didn’t ask, I would stop him before he would do any harm anyways.

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on Briggs. You said this was a deal, right? Do I get anything in return?”

“What do you want? I am royalty, I can offer many things, a noble title, money, status, promotions, weapons or artifacts I have plenty. What do you want?”

Mona was indeed the daughter of a king, so she would likely have many things to offer but I wasn’t really feeling good about any of this stuff.

I don’t need anymore money, I have more then I can spend from what William pays me. Of course, I won’t refuse free money, but I don’t really need it. It would be a waste to ask for money when I could ask for something else.

I already have a good weapon, so I don’t another one of those.

Promotions also suck because the workload will increase more than the paycheck will.

And I don’t want a noble title or anything either since I don’t want to get involved in the political mess.

I’m not very ambitious, and I’m content with living a simple life, so none of these riches really attracted me.

So what did I want in return…. Hmmmm…

After a bit of thinking, my answer was: “I want a favour.”

“A favour?”

Mona seemed surprised by my answer. I could’ve asked for anything, but I asked for a favour.

“What kind of favour are you thinking of?” She asked skeptically.

“None right now. But I want to reserve this favour for the future in case something happens.”

“Hmmm… alright. As long as the favour isn’t unreasonable, I don’t see why not.”

With that, we shook hands in agreement.

And although the official business was concluded, I had a few questions I wanted to ask her.

“This might be personal, but can I ask a question? What’s with up with you and Briggs?”

Mona didn’t answer at first, so I thought she was going to be like Briggs and refuse to answer but then she did answer.

“Believe it or not, we used to be really close.”

I raised an eyebrow again, this time out of curiosity, listening close to her.

“Briggs used to be very gentle, and this might come as surprise, but he was actually quite weak as a kid. Then something happened… and it… it changed him… we grew distant, and everything changed.”

“Briggs also mentioned that something happened as well. What is this something, what happened?” I asked slowly, trying not to cross any personal boundaries.

She once again stayed silent for a bit, probably to try to find the right words to say.

“We used to have a third brother… and let’s just say that on the same day that he left this world, was the same day that Briggs has gone full berserk…”

Well, that took a dark turn.

Even though Mona didn’t explicitly say it, it was clear that she was trying to hint at the fact that Briggs had killed their brother.

Mona didn’t tell me why it happened, and I didn’t ask any further.

Obviously, I was curious to know what happened, but I felt like that was something too personal for her to be telling me.

I don’t even know why she even told me all this, was she trying to win my trust? Because if she was, she’s doing a good job of it.

After that shocking reveal, we both stayed silent for a bit.

“Despite what I say, I don’t hate Briggs. He’s my brother. I just can’t afford to allow him to become ruler of this kingdom because of how dangerous he is now.”

While I don’t agree with everything Mona says, I understand why she thinks this way.

I do agree Brigg’s powers can be dangerous at times, but I think Briggs is smart enough to know when and when not to use it. Mona on the other hand, may believe Briggs is completely dangerous due to her past experience with him and I don’t blame her for thinking that way.

“Like I said earlier, I don’t expect you to betray him or anything, I just want a deal and for you to not be against me. And I apologize if I’ve been rude to you before, it’s just that… when I see you, it reminds me of Briggs for some reason.”

Up until now, Mona did act quite coldly towards me but I paid it no mind.

What stands out from what she said is that I reminded her of Briggs.

In what way am I similar to Briggs?

I’m not as big or muscular as Briggs, our fighting style is quite different and our personality is nothing alike.

So why did I remind her of Briggs?

“Honestly, I don’t know why you remind me of Briggs either. Maybe you remind me of how Briggs used to be…? I’m not sure. There’s just… something about you… that just gives me a bad feeling, the same feeling I feel when I see Briggs. Word of advice Anthony, make to sure to keep what you value close and protect it well… I’d hate to see you end up like Briggs.”

I nodded.

I wasn’t sure why she was suddenly giving me this advice, but I intended on protecting my family from the very beginning.

“And one last thing that might help you do what you need to do: your sword." Mona said as she pointed at the sword on my waist, which she had made herself.

I unsheathed it, and Mona took it from my hands.

She lifted it into the air with one hand, showing off it’s full splendor and beauty. I had looked at the sword before, but I was only now recognizing its intricate details.

Suddenly, the engraved patterns and runes along the sword started to glow as magic flowed from the sword.

“I heard you fought The Grinch and tossed aside the sword. As a master blacksmith, I’m sort of offended. This is not an ordinary sharp sword. It’s worthy of being called an artifact. It’s been enchanted with several magical effects. I won’t tell you what the effects are, so you’ll have to test it and discover it yourself.”

Mona told me as she handed the sword back to me.

The magic glow dispersed as I pushed the blade back into its sheath.

“That’s all I wanted to talk about. You can go home now... I truly hope the best for you.”

With that farewell, I left.

That was a very strange interaction with Mona, but it was also the first time I’ve gotten a glimpse into what she’s thinking.

She’s not as cold as she looks and acts.

She seems to have good intentions, and yet she seems to think Briggs is dangerous.

Things have once again, gotten a lot more complicate with Briggs and Mona. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a drama novel or something.

I’m not sure if I will ever get to know more about them. Only the future will tell.

Anyways, it’s like midnight right now as I’m writing this, and my wife is complaining to get to bed early so I think I’m done for the day.