The Invincible Blacksmith

Kane completes his training and becomes the new Sword Master. His master tells him to bury that name, live as an ordinary man, and never draw his blade unless there is no other choice. Kane has one thing to do first: return to Arandil and marry the woman his father chose for him before he died.

He arrives to find three beastmen closing in on a young woman. Kane cuts them down in seconds. When King Rodrick and his knights reach the scene, Kane calls himself a simple blacksmith and lets them believe the Sword Master must have intervened. The woman is Princess Grace. The pendant she wears matches the one Kane carries. She is his betrothed.

The reunion turns cold. Grace calls him a ragged low-born who brings nothing but coal and soot. Rodrick dismisses the betrothal as a drunken joke, offers a hundred gold coins, and tells Kane to disappear. Kane refuses the money and produces a written contract—proof that Rodrick once knelt and begged his father for this alliance. Grace dismisses it outright. Prince James, General of Arandil, ranked twentieth among swordsmen and commanding five thousand soldiers, warns that letting a blacksmith skip the Royal Knight trials will turn the entire order into a laughingstock. Rodrick seizes on the suggestion. He offers Kane one path: win the trials today, and the marriage stands.

The trial pits candidates against a captured three-headed hound. The strongest contender takes five minutes and nearly loses an arm. Kane calls the exact time and the injury before either happens, then steps into the pit unarmed. He kills the beast with a single finger. The crowd screams trickery. Guards move to throw him out.

War horns interrupt everything. The beastkin army attacks. Fenris, ranked fifteenth among swordsmen, defeats James. King Rodrick takes the field. Kane observes aloud that Fenris's right leg is wide open, and Grace shouts the instruction to her father. Rodrick strikes the opening and wounds Fenris. Then Fenris's brother Baron appears—ranked twelfth, a fighter Fenris claims was personally trained by the Sword Master. Baron strikes at Rodrick. Grace throws herself forward to protect her father and is seized. Baron vows to make the crown princess a plaything before the world.

Kane steps forward. He calls Grace his fiancée. Fenris mocks the blade he draws as a sewing needle. Baron unleashes his signature Thousand Blade Storm. Every strike misses. Kane answers with one word: predictable.

The blacksmith they mocked is the Sword Master. The oath they tried to erase is binding. And somewhere behind all of this, a murdered father waits for justice.