The way Rojan saw it, unlike “sharp” weapons, hammers were reliable and efficient against unarmored and heavily armored foes alike. Besides, the weapon was very simple. There was no need for intricate techniques; simply smash the hammer as hard as you can against your opponent’s skull, and that was that.
In the aftermath of the earlier battle, Commander Moon’s forces had confiscated the weapons of the city’s defenders, and piled them into disorganized lumps of metal. It was precisely among these hills of metal that Rojan was poking around for his next weapon.
“Sword... sabre... mace… spear… another spear... man, why don’t more people fight with hammers? I get spears, but why are there freaking sabres here? Who the hell actually brings a sabre to a fight?”
Despite his grumbling, each time Rojan found a weapon he liked, he grabbed it before continuing his search for a hammer.
“Oh?”
After half an hour of searching, Rojan finally pulled a blacksmith’s hammer out of the third hill of weapons he’d combed through.
Lifting the head of the hammer to his face, he sniffed it, then tapped it a few times with his index finger.
“High carbon, quality steel. Hm…”
Pleased with the make of the hammerhead, he shifted his attention to the handle. The heaviness of the handle was promising, but he couldn’t recognize what type of wood it was.
Shrugging, Rojan descended from the hill of weapons and walked his way over to another hill of metal - this one, was made up of various pieces of armor. After pulling a few random pieces of armor out of the pile, he went to town on them with the hammer.
A few minutes later, a slightly disheveled Rojan emerged from a ring of of scrap metal with his new hammer, a smile on his face. The hammer’s handle had performed well during his testing, and the errand had been successfully completed.
…
The morning after, Rojan stood facing Commander Moon at the southern gate.
“We replaced your carriage with one we confi- er, were gifted from a noble, I’m sure you’re okay with that?”
Rojan strolled around the carriage, then opened the front and took a peek inside.
The carriage did look a lot comfier than his old one… but they hadn’t replaced his horse. Oh well.
“Yeah, this’ll do. Where’s the food I asked for, though?”
Commander Moon motioned to two soldiers standing by his side. “Bring it over.”
“Yes, sir!”
A minute later, the two soldiers returned to the scene with bags of food in hand, and threw the bags into the carriage.
“Well, there’s your food. If you don’t mind my asking, where are you headed?”
“Home.”
With that, Rojan hopped into his carriage, and directed his horse south-east. “Don’t forget to station that battalion near my home - if I don’t see it there in two months, I’ll come for your head. Oh yeah, also, be wary of the winter months!”
“Huh?” Commander Moon chased after the departing carriage. “What the hell do you mean by that!”
“I can’t hear you!”
Commander Moon had half a mind to call for his cavalry to chase down Rojan, but then recalled the hammer Rojan had carried with him into the carriage.
“Ahem… well I guess I’ll just have to be wary of the winter months, haha…”
…
As his carriage headed in the direction of home, Rojan couldn’t help but reminisce. How long had it been since he’d last seen his parents? How many years? Two...no, three? His mother would be fifty-nine this year, his father, sixty-one.
He anxiously tapped the handle of his new hammer. Even by his most optimistic estimates, it would take twenty years for the unification of the Blair Continent. Would his parents see that day?
Rojan sighed. It wasn’t as if he could even ensure that he would be able to see that day, either. Well, there was no use thinking about it too much, After all, there was a long road ahead, so he might as well take a nap.
It was in this manner that Rojan slowly made his way from the northern border of the Tero Kingdom, to the southeastern village he’d once called home.
…
A few weeks later, Rojan had nearly reached his hometown, Daer Village, when a few unwelcome souls placed themselves between his carriage and his goal.
“Hey, in the carriage, bring out your valuables, and we might not kill you, haha!”
Inside the carriage, Rojan simple yawned, grabbed his hammer, and slowly climbed out of the carriage. Truthfully, he’d been expecting this scenario to come by far sooner than it had. After all, Osen had appropriated the carriage from a noble family - just the carriage itself was worth hundreds of gold coins, and quite literally, quite a few bars of gold had been used in decorating the vehicle.
Such a carriage, without a security escort. Even those with kind hearts would be tempted, nevermind those who regularly crossed the figurative line.
Hopping off of the carriage, Rojan looked around the carriage, then at the person closest to him. All in all, he saw about twenty bandits. A few of them, at the front of their encirclement, wore a few pieces of shoddy armor, but the rest were unarmored. Their weapons, ranged from longswords, to shoddy farm shovels.
Taking this information in, Rojan walked toward one of the bandits, until they were but six feet apart.
“You the leader?”
“That’s right, and if you know what’s good for you, turn your ass right back around and give us your valuables.”
“Ah? Sorry, I don’t swing that way… but just so you know, I accept who you are, I think it’s great that people are -”
“Cut the crap! Hmph, I gave you a chance but you’d rather blabber your way to death. Brothers, kill him!”
“Go go go!”
“Hm.” Rojan stepped forward, rushing toward the bandit leader with his hammer by his side.
The bandit leader stepped back, buying himself some distance, and tried to parry with his sword.
“You’re not bad, but you picked the wrong fight.” Rojan hadn’t stopped six feet from the bandit leader for nothing - it was the maximum distance he could instantly cover with a single step, and despite the bandit leader’s quick reaction, he was still well within the reach of Rojan’s hammer.
Despite his attempt to parry, Rojan’s hammer shattered his blade, and shortly thereafter smashed his head into pulp.
Turning around, Rojan made short work of the rest of the bandits. In less than a minute, the twenty bandits laid unmoving on the road.
“Yeesh, the bunch of you couldn’t even get me warmed up.” Rojan used the tunic of one of the bandits to wipe the blood off of his hammer, then moved their bodies to the side of the road, where they wouldn’t block traffic.
He took another look up and down the road, then looked to the sky. “Well, at least I’m almost home.”