Happy wife, Happy life
Ambrosa Family Mansion.
Lower Dungeon.
Room Fifteen.
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"What. Are. You. HIDING."
Screams echo out across the halls of the Dungeons below the Ambrosia family mansion.
A particularly dreary room is the source of these bone-chilling cries. The stone room has no windows and is only lit by the feeble flicker of lanterns coming from a hallway door.
Its walls are covered in scratch marks and broken fingernails, and it reeks with the result of an overfilled bucket of feces and urine, undercut by the sharp stench of blood.
Duchess Amborsa slams a large man's head into one of the hard walls and forces his jaw around a jagged edge, her slender frame exhibiting power only possible through intense training of internal mana.
"You were on duty that night, captain. It simply isn't possible for someone to have broken into my room without inside help," the duchess says in a calm voice.
The guard captain muffles out a response, his mouth still forced into the sharp stone, "I didn't help anyone in!"
The screaming resumes as the duchess mercilessly drives her foot into the back of the guard's head. The large man's upper row of teeth is cracked, and his mouth is dripping blood.
The duchess bends down and lifts the man up by his hair, bringing their faces inches apart.
Her wavy dark red hair falls in curtains over her shoulder, and her long eyelashes flutter like little butterfly wings upon her white skin.
A few words leave the duchess's cherry-red painted lips, "I hope that new daughter of yours is doing well, captain. She could run into some trouble if you don't answer my question."
"Who. Is. He?"
"I don't know," The man rasps out through his bleeding mouth.
"Shame," The duchess sighs and carelessly tosses the large man into the cell, slamming a thick, iron door behind her.
The man bangs on the iron door and the duchess walks away.
The clicks of her red heels echo in the dungeons, occasionally stopping to step around piles of vomit or prisoners' outstretched arms.
"Kill his daughter, give the widow a fifty rupees," She says to a figure hidden in the shadows behind her.
Back in her room, the duchess looks out her window, which is now barred in diamond steel. Running a long, red fingernail over her lips, she thinks back to that night.
"It would have been a marvelous dream," she mutters to herself.
"But my political leverage is now gone. The men I was leading on with the promise of marriage will all be angered with that letter arrives at Hyrule castle, and news gets out. The handsome thief left no clue as to his true identity."
"Perhaps I will have to turn to the Yiga."
Her long nails rap against the fine red wood of her desk.
"No, the Amborsa family will never stoop that low. I just have to kill that thief. I can't survive without the help of those men with the local Gerudo factions breathing down my neck. They hate Hylian royalty, even if I am half Gerudo."
The Duchess reaches out and rings a bell on her desk.
In seconds, three figures appear in a pool of shadows next to the duchess. The doors to the room remain closed during their arrival.
Without looking up, the duchess slides a piece of paper to the ground. The paper has a drawing of a man with long hair, the only feature that Duchess Amborsa remembers of the thief.
"Post this bounty. A thousand rupees for Zorro, the sixth sage."
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Arjon POV
"OW!"
I hit my hand with my hammer, ruining the tenth attempt at the cords for the upgraded Throngler.
The idea for this new design is that The Throngler will become five magnetized, razor-sharp wires that I will be able to use to detach and reattach to my gauntlet and bind my opponents in place, then blast them with my gun.
But making five wires that are small, sharp, and sturdy has proved to be a challenge, and I was forced to abandon my hand-molding technique in favor of a hammer with a solid diamond head.
I am using my favorite crafting material to make the wires: High Carbon Steel, which is strong, flexible if used right, and durable!
I gather some mild steel, coal, and tongs and begin melting my metal together to create this wondrous material.
First, I place the pieces of mild steel into my forge, then add coal to raise its temperature even higher.
Keeping an eye on the molten metal, I see that the steel reaches temperatures above 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit in the forge and has started taking on a reddish hue due to oxidation from the oxygen in the air reacting with its surface.
This indicates that I have achieved a successful melt, and I quickly form the metal into ingots.
With the new batch of high-carbon Steel ingots ready, I begin my eleventh attempt at making the wires.
I hammer out five long steel pieces, using the little fire mana I am able to control with the mana block to keep the material hot.
Taking out Samantha, the only blade strong enough to easily gut this steel, I begin cutting the strips into tiny wires.
Next, I weave the wires together, using an item that I forgot about in my departure from the sealed canyon: the paraglider blueprint I got from Rhoam!
Not only does this blueprint show how to make paragliders, it includes an incredibly durable weaving pattern.
The heat of the forge drenches me in sweat, but I reach the end of the process, beating the ends of the wires to keep them together. I'm finally done.
With the wires cooled, I attach magnetized pieces to their ends, which I pair with other magnets inside my gauntlet and a bit of water mana to create a mechanism that lets me detach and pull back these razor-sharp wires into the gauntlet.
Dropping my heavy hammer and holding shaking hands to the air, I shout, "THE THRONGLER IS REBORN!"
After a good rest, I turn my attention to boom boom sticks.
Retiring my revolver to a case on the wall, I construct two new firearms, which is much easier than making the upgraded Throngler.
It's just piecing together some tubes, handles, and little bits, which is time-consuming but not hard.
After another day's work, I crafted two sawed-off shotguns.
Looking at my new weapons, I decide they need one last touch and put a layer of gold plating on their barrels.
"Now, what to name these..."