Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

If it hadn't been because the Garrison Officer couldn't leave his station for too long, Lieutenant Chellini would have personally carried his gun into the forests of Wolf Town to "eliminate the beast for the people."

Even if he couldn't camp out in Wolf Town, Andre was adamant with Winters, insisting that if there were indeed reliable tracks of the giant beast, he must be notified immediately with a fast horse.

Andre thumped his chest and promised to bring Blackwater Town's best Hunter to reinforce the effort.

Winters knew that Andreya Chellini was just bored stiff;

he also knew that if it weren't for the wolf disaster, his own mental state would probably not be much different from Andre's.

Winters returned to Wolf Town with two heavy muskets and was surprised to discover that having been gone to Blackwater Town for only one day, Wolfton had been thrown into quite a bit of chaos.

Since the word spread that there was a ferocious beast in the woods, the villagers now saw every shadow as the beast.

Within a single day, villagers repeatedly ran to the town hall, swearing that they had spotted the ferocious beast near their villages.

But by the time Mayor Mitchell and his men arrived at the sighting locations, there wasn't a beast in sight, not even a single hair to be found.

When questioning the eyewitnesses again, the villagers' descriptions turned into "seeing a black figure" or "hearing the roars of the beast."

Such incidents happened over and over again, and coincidentally with Garrison Officer Winters gone to Blackwater Town, Mayor Mitchell, an over-fifty-year-old man, was exhausted from the turmoil.

During that period, on one occasion, a villager from the west side of the river was scared silly by what he claimed was a "huge black beastly shadow," and in his panic, he directly lit the signal fire.

By the time old Sergei and the Dusack people rushed to the west side village, they found the villagers acting as if nothing had happened, back to work in the fields, leaving the old man cursing in anger.

Having returned to Wolf Town, Winters and the Hunter Ralph went around to each so-called "beast sighting" location to investigate, but they found absolutely no evidence, no paw prints or fur.

Although the villagers swore they really saw the beast, Winters was eighty percent sure they were just scaring themselves.

On the way back to the town hall, Winters asked the Hunter, "Did you discover anything in the forest during my day trip to Blackwater Town?"

"Sir, in the woods near Protestant Village, I found some trees with peeling bark, and I found dark brown fur on the trees," replied the old Hunter Ralph with restrained demeanor and respectfully, "According to its habits, the beast might be a bear, which likes to scratch its back against trees. But even if it's a bear, it must be a very big one. However, bears usually eat pine nuts and berries; it's not certain they would trouble us."

"Keep observing and be safe. Report to me immediately if anything happens," Winters instructed, then asked the hunter, "How about your son, is he adapting well to living at Mitchell's?"

For safety reasons, the Hunter and his son temporarily moved out of their cabin in the woods. Gerard had invited them to stay at his place, but Ralph firmly refused to live in the guest room like a visitor, instead opting to live with his son among the farmhands at Mitchell's.

"Thank you for your concern, sir," Ralph said with a hint of a smile on his weathered face when his son was mentioned, "Captain Mitchell has always been very kind to me and my son, and I am very grateful."

"Captain Mitchell?" Winters caught a special term of address that only the people of Dusa Village used for Gerard.

Winters raised an eyebrow, somewhat puzzled, and asked the Hunter, "Ralph, are you a Dusan too?"

"I was."

Winters was even more puzzled, "Then why don't you live with the Dusack people?"

After a long silence, the Hunter Ralph replied with difficulty, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't remember why."

Although curious, seeing that the Hunter was reluctant to speak, Winters didn't press the matter further.

...

When Winters returned to the town center, he first visited the blacksmith's shop.

In this era, only cities had professional craftsmen, as full-time artisans could not support themselves in the countryside.

Farmers do not need tailors, bakers, or builders... They sew their own clothes, bake their own bread, and build their own houses.

But not everyone possesses the skill to refine metals, heat up iron ingots, or forge and bend red-hot steel. Moreover, blacksmithing is a capital-intensive industry, requiring not only skill but also a variety of tools.

Therefore, a blacksmith is one of the few professional technicians who can make a living in rural areas. Farmers can do without tailors, bakers, and masons, but they need blacksmiths.

In rural life, the blacksmith plays an important role; you find a blacksmith to make farm tools, repair pots, and even to pull teeth.

Of course, the blacksmith's shop is also an important part of Wolf Town's commercial street—although the town center only consists of two dirt roads laid out in a cross pattern plus a handful of buildings.

The blacksmith of Wolf Town is also a Dusack, who took up his old trade after being settled in Wolfton. Originally, his shop was in Dusa Village, and it took Gerard a great deal of effort to persuade the blacksmith to move his business to town.

The shop was extremely simple, without even a storefront, with the forge and anvil openly facing the street.
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A young man, looking to be in his early twenties, was working shirtless, with his left hand gripping a pair of tongs holding a bright yellow hot iron bar and the right hand wielding a small hammer by the forge.

The young man had an average build, shorter and more slender than Winters. Judging by his physique, he seemed far from the typically burly and strong blacksmith.