Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Delta, Warehouse under Governmental Control---

Rocking his chair back and forth, he stared at the wall of screens with a bored expression. One shouldn't misunderstand, he was glad to have gotten such a calm job with his low level and a common class like Guard. Still, he couldn't help feeling bored sitting in the little observation room all night, staring at the screens.

It wasn't like anyone would really dare to break into this place. Heck, how would anyone even know about this warehouse to begin with? It wasn't like this was some run-down abandoned storage house on the outskirts. How would some random casual thief walk into a subterranean storage complex of the government?

Only insiders would be able to know what was down here and how to get it. On that note, he was glad that he was only stationed in the upper levels. The things on this floor were rather tame, nothing to commit treason for, but who knew what kind of crazy stuff they hid on the lower levels? He was in a position where the chance to have someone make trouble for him was the lowest.

The stuff he was watching out over was only several rooms of boxes with uncommon and rare materials and some armories with uncommon and rare items on display. He also had an eye on the empty workshops a floor above him, but there was nothing worth stealing there during the night.

As he was leaning back on his chair, doing a risky maneuver of balancing on a single chair leg, a sudden eruption shook the complex and he inelegantly fell over, face first on the floor. In a panic, he pulled himself back up to check the cameras to make sure it wasn't on his level.

For a moment his heart raced in his chest, fearing he would actually have to take action, however, nothing on the screens had changed! A tremendous relief washed over him, as he put his chair back up and plopped on it. The adrenaline was still pumping, but he was already starting to relax.

It had been ten minutes and tension had slowly left his body when the door of the security office suddenly sprang open.

"Doe! What are you doing? Why didn't you press the alarm?!" the leader of the security team shouted at him angrily.

The man was in his mid-forties, but his level was already above 80, giving him an overwhelming aura. Doe jumped up from his chair in reaction to the sudden jump-scare.

"S-Security Team leader, what brings you here?" he stammered trying to straighten his sloppy uniform.

"What do you mean?! Someone broke into this floor and you have nothing better to do than sit there and watch? Why didn't you press the alarm?" the man asked incensed.

"Team Leader, what do you mean? Look, nothing happened here. I thought the ruckus was on a different floor?" he tried to explain himself and pointed at the screen, where nothing was wrong.

The team leader squinted at him but gave the camera feet a once over. Shocked, he had to admit that it didn't seem like Doe's fault. At first glance, there seemed nothing wrong with the videos shown. If he didn't know about the massive hole that extended through several walls and ended in one of the laboratories, he wouldn't have suspected anything either.

"Look, the hole is in a place that is hard to see on the screens, but you can see it here. You are telling me you didn't see someone entering and taking the statue of the hero away?" the team leader asked suspicious.

"The statue of-? Oh my god!" the guard only saw it after it was pointed out.

The statue of the hero, who had lost his duel against the mysterious knight of Minas Mar had been stored in one of the labs in his area. It had been stored there to try and dispel the weird transmutation magic the hero had been hit with, unsuccessfully so far.

"Why would anyone steal that statue?" he asked cluelessly.

"That is my question, Doe. Did someone pay you to not raise the alarm?"

"No! No, I swear. When the place shook, I was distracted for a moment, but I didn't see any movement on the screens at any point!" he asserted in a small panic.

"...so you want me to believe someone broke in, took the statue, and was gone before you could see it?" "Y-Yes!"

"We are living in weird times and considering the whole, it had to be someone extremely powerful. I will believe you for now, Doe, but I have an eye on you," he threatened but didn't go any further.

When the security team leader finally left, the guard broke down on his chair.

…

---Minas Mar---

"Oh Lord, I have procured the item you wanted," Wolfram reported to Seth who was testing enchantments on armor pieces.

It had been a day since Seth had given him the task, but he didn't expect the golem to solve it this quickly.

"Nobody saw you, right?" "Yes, I'm sure nobody will know about our involvement."

"So? Where is he?" the blacksmith asked, not seeing the statue anywhere.

"I left the package in one of the basement rooms of the embassy. Id didn't know whether the Lord would have wanted me to bring the thing into Minas Mar." the gray knight reported dutifully.

"Good thinking, I really don't want him down here. Even if he is currently just a statue. Good work, Wolfram, thank you."

"May I return to Legion, my Lord?" "You want to go back in? I thought you would like some fresh air, but if that is your wish." Seth shrugged and opened a gate to Legion's inner world for Wolfram.

"Thank you, Lord."

The golem didn't say anything about wanting fresh air and simply thanked him before walking through the portal. Watching Wolfram leave, Seth brought out his communication orb to call Leana.

"Do you need something?" the princess asked slowly. She sounded tired. It didn't seem like she took his advice to heart.

"It might be a little early, but do you have the evidence? Wolfram already managed to... procure our "friend". "

"Yeah... she sent me a video orb this afternoon. Seems like Cade was already preparing footage to secretly publish the situation across Y-City," the princess answered.

"Hmm, so Cade isn't just waiting either, but didn't we decide against going public?"

The reason was simple. They couldn't trust the court of public opinion. It was much too easy to sway, especially when Delta and Y-City had a lot more power in the propaganda game. The worst-case scenario was not that nobody believed them, but that they would split their own people, too.

"I know, but I can also understand her. She fighting an unwinnable fight alone. I guess she thinks that if she goes public with her info and raises some awareness in Y-City, there will be people willing to help," Leana said with a sigh.

"If this works, she will have a powerful helper at her side. Even if he is annoying."

Seth's plan was to free the hero and pull them on their side. After all, he played a goody-two-shoes and his class grew through heroic acts. What was more heroic than helping suppressed people escape from a dystopian regime?

The blacksmith and the princess were in the basement of the embassy. After looking for a few minutes, they found the metallic hero sitting in the middle of a dark storage room for office supplies.

"How do we speak to him?" Leana asked as if she had only now thought of this problem. After all, all their high-level priests were currently out.

"Don't worry. <Superior Cure>," Seth cast the skill from his Golden Fleece at the head of the hero, Ben Harker. Although Wolfram, as the origin of the power, could have also dispelled it, the blacksmith didn't want to call him back after their previous farewell. It felt awkward to bring him back out just several minutes later, just to do this.

Slowly, under the effect of the skills, Harker's natural skin color came back as his face lost the metallic sheen. Once Seth was done, the light returned to the hero's eyes.

"W-What happened? What did you do to me?!"

Seth stared had his mug for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Leana, I will leave this to you," he said and bailed, leaving the tired princess alone with the tiresome dude.