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Chapter 5.4

Author: Nitramy
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-09-19 20:52:52

Legacy 5.4

***

The past two days left me in a bone-weary exhaustion that paid little heed whether I held my eyes open or not. Two days of being the focal point of other people’s attention tends to do that to you: all that applause can leave your ears ringing even after they’re done praising you.

Friday night, I was invited to our principal’s place for the school to recognize my victory. Day after that was the formal celebration of my seventeenth birthday.

Don’t get me wrong, though: neither of them turned out bad. But true to form, they were the kinds of polite excess small towns do when the lines between personal achievement and civic recognition cross.

However, under the toasts, party food, and singing – oh, there is always singing – I was still left unsettled.

It started Friday night. Adrenaline aftershock, that was what Dr. Harry called it: the body refilling its reserves after being exhausted causes a rebound to occur. The parties didn’t help; being recognized school-wide despite
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  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 5.4

    Legacy 5.4***The past two days left me in a bone-weary exhaustion that paid little heed whether I held my eyes open or not. Two days of being the focal point of other people’s attention tends to do that to you: all that applause can leave your ears ringing even after they’re done praising you.Friday night, I was invited to our principal’s place for the school to recognize my victory. Day after that was the formal celebration of my seventeenth birthday.Don’t get me wrong, though: neither of them turned out bad. But true to form, they were the kinds of polite excess small towns do when the lines between personal achievement and civic recognition cross.However, under the toasts, party food, and singing – oh, there is always singing – I was still left unsettled.It started Friday night. Adrenaline aftershock, that was what Dr. Harry called it: the body refilling its reserves after being exhausted causes a rebound to occur. The parties didn’t help; being recognized school-wide despite

  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 5.3

    Legacy 5.3***School always felt like a pressure cooker in bright colors, manufactured smiles, memorized phrases, and the constant gnaw of alienation in the chest.“Well, look who it is: the man of the hour!”I thought I was able to make a covert entrance to our classroom.Since this was the only public high school in town, year 12 had a lot of sections: Jaric and I happened to be part of the designated “jock section”, aka Principality. Nine sections, and our school principal had to have the sense of humor to name us after tiers in the angelic hierarchy.Didn’t care much about it back then, what with Grandfather already making plans for his demise even when he was still of sound mind and body.Still don’t care about it now.I mean, I could wrangle a transfer to the higher sections, but I didn’t care enough to do that – I was a good enough student anyway to have grades that would allow me to walk into any university, even with my athletic commitments.Grandfather was thorough like tha

  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 5.2

    Legacy 1.2***I don’t know why this victory left me empty.Maybe it’s because I finally cashed the check my grandfather and Jaric asked me to.Or because whatever it was that caused me to literally smack the darkness out of North Point’s Severino Palparan had run out, leaving me standing there looking like the conquering hero, when a slight breeze could push me over.When my teammates and coaches rush the stage in embracing me in my triumph, that’s when I let go of the pretense: my arms finally start shaking, and my vision starts to sway.“You stuck it, Max!”“Knew you had it in you!”“Way to knock that sumbitch out!”As my coaches lift me into the air, I can’t help but laugh as I hear Jaric swearing.Meanwhile, Miss Salve’s dabbing at the corner of her eyes, and I caught a bit of Dr. Harry looking calculating before he continues in the celebration of my victory.Some distance away, my opponent looks just as relieved as I am… or is it him looking a bit lost, like everything that had

  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 5.1

    Legacy 5.1***The whistle blows the point in my face like the bang of a starter pistol.One moment my left stick is a thing I own; the next it’s a wooden comet skittering across the floor and out of reach. The slap of rattan on varnish echoes, and for an instant the gym is nothing but a gap where my balance used to be. I stoop for the stick like a man trying to pick up a dropped promise, and the world says: nope, you don’t get that one back.I hear someone shout “Two-hand it!” from the sidelines. It’s not encouragement, it’s description.I plant my feet and squat like I mean it. Thank God for small mercies. The right-hand stick is all I’ve got left: they may measure the same, but they feel different.It’s no problem, really: I was born left-handed and was trained to be ambidextrous by my grandfather; it was tradition back then, but he sold it to me by saying being able to write with both hands at the same time makes for really efficient schoolwork (and a nice party trick, too).For s

  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 4.6

    Perception 4.5***There were pictures of him, during his wedding to Grandmother.Which was why I was able to recognize him, even in a dream.This wasn’t the slow, dignified old man who had kept the town’s patrimony like a locked drawer in his voice, but quick-wristed and bright-eyed, with all the charisma of a hero straight out of legend.I know this, because he showed flashes of his legend even as he trained me into the ground to succeed him.For what purpose, I did not know.I saw him at the workshop, brushing his fingers against his tool boxes, plastic containers for screws, wrought-iron monsters that served as clamps, tables, assemblies… and the metal that he worked on after he had forged it in the furnace some distance away.They say that he closed down the furnace for good the day after I was born.He wore a cornflower blue shirt with the sleeves rolled to the shoulders, as was his wont when he was working with his hands, muscled arms rippling with strength even as he delicatel

  • The Ironsmith's Mandate   Chapter 4.5

    Perception 4.5***Contrary to popular belief, the fighter’s high doesn’t go away quickly.It leaves in waves, like you’re standing in knee-deep water on the beach and before you know it, you’re up to your neck in seawater thanks to the undertow.I was already in the waiting room with Dr. Harry running some after-match checks on me, and after handing me a bottle of water to chug, told me that they’d be at the second semifinal.After I gave a nod and left, it was like getting pulled into deeper water as the adrenaline rush rapidly wore off my system. As it did, I took notice of the gym’s waiting room.It smelled like clean work and honest fatigue: the sort of odor that tells a town you’ve earned your living in it.This wasn’t just the sweat of prize fighters: these were points, bragging rights, accomplishment. The row of white monobloc chairs lined up silently spoke of not just holding people: they held decisions, motivation, even power.The towel draped on my shoulders felt like a win

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