Races: Online (VR Smartphone App)

Owen Liddell was content to stick in the sidelines, and yet it seemed like Elliot's words suddenly lit a flame in him. "Where did they take him?"

"I don't know—"

"Did grandfather know of this?" Owen asked aloud. He shook his head and made his way to the door. "I need you to find Han and get him safe, or tell my grandfather to retract whatever order he's made about capturing Han, he's not a bad guy."

"Huh?" The young Mage stared at him confused.

Even Owen Liddell still wasn't sure as there were matters that still didn't add up—like the three attacking Gloria City, but whatever the case, he needed to find Han. "You know what, forget it, kid. I bet you need to attend your lessons… Lavelda's classes, if I recall?"

"Yes."

"Well, just make sure that she's there." Owen darted away. Even if he found himself living in Kraelonia for a good chunk of his life—it was still going to be a little difficult to find the young man by himself. 

—-

"Oh god, everyone's out to find me." Han groaned and rested back against an unobtrusive wall at the Academy. He wasn't sure if the Guardsman was still tailing him, but he considered that his life was already ruined for good.

He paused.

Han looked at his hands and stared at it carefully. He flexed his fingers reflexively and thought that they belonged to him—and of course they did. "But I can just logout and hope the situation resolves itself… or I return back here tortured or in prison."

It was terribly easy for Han Jing to immerse himself in this scenario and lose himself here.

Especially when the encounters with Tierra, Bleu and Lucia in the city were because of him. "It's all my fault," he said. Well, not exactly. Han didn't expect them to stroll up into Gloria without knocking and started killing people left and right.

But a part of him felt responsible for their actions.

It couldn't be helped, but he should have done something more. 

"Ugh, I can logout and yet…" He stood up and started walking around some more. "I can return to my room, grab something—well, did I even leave anything there? I can just escape or something… but that makes me more suspicious." 

Han walked through a wall, felt the temperature around him take an immediate rise—he dove down and missed the metal horseshoe that bounced against the walls. 

"What are you doing here, punk? No disturbances are allowed here." A muscular woman tore off her goggles and gave Han a glare. Her cropped hair was silvery white and yet it was slicked in oil and sweat. 

"Uhh…" Han raised his hands and watched the heated hammer in her hand. "I walked in here by mistake. I wasn't looking where I was going and didn't know how I ended up here. If I could get some help? Instructions? A map?"

Her dark eyes fell on him and she didn't look pleased. "Oi, your blabbering doesn't do me any good—get out of here. You're clogging my forge with your presence."

Han winced at her words, but he didn't exactly step back. Instead he kept his eyes on her weapon. Well, a blacksmithing tool. "Rude, much? I just got here by accident, Miss."

"Some of us were born as an accident—so what about that?" She sniggered and gave him a nasty look. "Walk yourself out of here. Can't you see that I'm busy? The temperature in this room changes with the addition of another person, your breathing is going to mess everything up."

That was the strangest thing he heard. "Er, you're a little finicky aren't you?"

"And you can keep your little comments to yourself, boy." The woman pulled her goggles back on and turned around back to the furnace. She dropped the heated hammer in one of the pails and then grabbed a large tong-like tool.

She picked up and picked up a gleaming metal bar and rested it on an anvil, the flat surface heating up. The woman snagged a smaller hammer from her belt loop and started whacking the metal with surprisingly concentrated focus—she even stopped haranguing Han to leave.

He wasn't sure how many minutes or even if an hour or so had passed when she was done. There was a rhythmic way to how she struck the metal and changed it into a smoother piece, fashioning it underneath her tool.

The woman didn't even let a single drop of her sweat mix in with the metallurgy.

… Maybe Han stared far more than he should. He cleared his throat and watched the woman look up to him and frown. "You're still here."

"I never left."

"Yeah, I can see that," The woman said and then narrowed her eyes on him. "What are you doing here? Are you trying to skip classes or what? You think that I'm not going to report you to any professors?"

Han hesitated at those words. "Well…"

"You're right. I can't be bothered to do that." The woman snickered. She returned to her smithworking and didn't seem to care that Han was here—now that Han managed to stay for a bit of time, she looked at him as if he was some tool just hanging in the corner of the wall.

"Really? Thanks." Han grinned and decided to stick around. He wiped some sweat off his brow and then looked back at the horseshoe she threw earlier. It was still on the ground, so Han moved towards it and picked it up. "So you make stuff for animals? Hooves and all?"

"You got some sort of problem with that?" The Blacksmith looked up at him. "Were you expecting grand armors, swords and weapons? Special knives, daggers, morning stars and glaives?"

Han stared at the U-shape of the horseshoe and nodded. "Kinda, but doing stuff like this isn't so bad. I mean this is probably steady work and income—you buy a sword once and it can last for a long time, but horseshoes need to be replaced every now and then?"

"Six weeks."

"Huh?"

The woman grunted and kept her eyes on her work. "Most people who have horses have their horseshoes replaced every six weeks or so. Earlier if the hooves grow faster or there's some crack in the hoof." 

"Woah, I didn't know that." Han rubbed his chin and nodded slowly. "That's some horse lady expert."

"If you ever meet a Centaur, I won't be surprised if she or he kicks you into next week." She never removed her eyes on the metal as she spoke. Each swing of her hammer rang its own tune. "But you're right about stability. Stables tend to order in bulk since Gloria City is where many travellers pass through to different locations in Yegarian. There tends to be a lot of demand."

"I see…" Han nodded. While he didn't exactly know why a Student who probably spent twenty gold, more or less, did stuff like this. He found it all interesting and asked some questions. "So do you just make horse shoes? Or do you stuff like nails and other small stuff too?"

Although the woman didn't seem to like his presence at first, she answered all of his questions. That was how Owen Liddell would find Han located in the forge and conversing with the girl.