Chapter 40
1.
The bell ringing like mad.
- Ding… ding….
“A spirit…?”
Ruby tilted her head and looked at the bell.
Well, Ruby.
It’s probably several ranks higher than a spirit, though.
“I, I’m going to bed.”
“Okay. Sleep well.”
Ruby fled with trembling eyes like that.
She’ll probably sleep in Mama Doloris’s arms tonight.
She really is still a child. It seems the bell was a little scary for Ruby.
Anyway, the bell was still ringing like mad.
It was starting to hurt my ears.
I got up and walked toward the bell.
You’re only supposed to ring a bell once, aren’t you?
You have rather poor manners.
The fact that I could receive a god’s call even outside the Tower could be considered good news.
Maybe it was because I could use the Inner Tower community.
Solau contacted me yesterday after I touched her pendant.
Though it only happened once.
Just as I was about to touch the bell.
- Fwoosh.
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[The Divine Bell has received a response.]
[A divine oracle has arrived.]
─────────────────
“……”
A window appeared before my eyes.
A divine oracle had arrived.
Though I wasn’t sure it could really be called an oracle.
Wasn’t this more like a production-support request sent to the Heir of Fire?
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[Divine Oracle]
[Pamola, Empress of Storms ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『I-I-I’m first! I’m first, right?』
『So the rumors were true? The Heir of Fire has returned? I’m sorry, Dwarf, for not treating you properly until now!』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 1/ 3]
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Rumors?
Had word spread that the Heir of Fire had returned?
[You know, the one engraved in the sky.]
Ah.
I had heard it was engraved on the floor where the Sun Dwarves lived.
It seemed that it had drawn the gods’ attention as well.
The gods were quick on their feet, considering how little time had passed since I rang the bell.
“You can’t reply, though.”
According to the professor, it was a one-way communication device.
Before I could even react to anything.
- Fwoosh.
- Fwoosh.
More windows began appearing.
─────────────────
[Divine Oracle]
[Pamola, Empress of Storms ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『Damn it! It’s been so long that I don’t remember how to do this! Blacksmith! What I want is—』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 0/ 3]
─────────────────
Lady Pamola, your remaining divine oracles are at 0.
You can’t say anything else, can you?
As if to prove it, no further messages came from Pamola.
It seemed she had burned through her count without even beginning her request.
- Fwoosh!
- Fwoosh!
No sooner had that exchange ended than more windows filled my view.
A request? That was fine, but rather than accept a request and make something for someone else, I…
‘Gaia.’
I had to make her divine artifact.
Or, well, Kaelu, the father of the siblings, might not be a bad choice either.
But Gaia came first.
The principle behind making divine artifacts was simple.
According to the professor….
You envision a god and create the divine artifact that god desires. If you take it to the temple and offer it, an identical item is created in the divine realm.
Apparently, that was reflected in their rank, and they yearned for such items for various other reasons as well.
In other words, if I made a divine artifact here and offered it at a temple, it would be a custom-made delivery of exactly the item the gods needed.
I would pray at the temple and receive equipment containing the blessings that god could bestow.
It was mutually beneficial… except it absolutely wasn’t.
As I skimmed through the textbook again, I looked once more at the warning beneath it.
『Bear this in mind, Heir. Forging a divine artifact is by no means something to be taken lightly, for the labor is truly immense; therefore, you, a Certified Blacksmith, are limited to one per year.』
Making a divine artifact required a truly enormous amount of effort, so the limit was one per year.
That surprised me a little.
In other words, I had to accept a commission that would keep my business occupied for the next year.
This was not something to stamp my seal on just anywhere.
─────────────────
[Divine Oracle]
[Belu, God of Fate ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『You shall accept my request as your highest priority. I ask this of you.』
『I shall not apologize for having paid little attention to the dwarves until now.』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 1/ 3]
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[Divine Oracle]
[Sideru, God of Steel ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『……Fifty years. I waited a full fifty years.』
『Though I have paid little attention to the Sun Dwarf race in recent times.』
『That you have returned is truly…』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 0 / 3]
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[Divine Oracle]
[Lustia, Goddess of Lust ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『Oh my. Don’t worry, child.』
『You are only Certified for now, after all. I shall raise you carefully, carefully, until you become an Elite and the greatest artisan.』
『I’ll make you very happy…… Will you come to my temple?』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 0 / 3]
─────────────────
Wow, that was really a lot.
The messages before my eyes kept scrolling upward without stopping.
The amusing thing was that, perhaps because they were all gods, they were quite confident.
Among them, the gods whose names alone seemed to indicate a higher rank were more assertive, while those presumed to be lower-ranking were more cautious.
Besides.
“But why are they all apologizing to the dwarves?”
Each message included something about how they hadn’t paid enough attention until now.
Maybe adding an apology was using up their allotted divine oracles.
Enough.
Forget the other gods.
If they hadn’t cared until now, they shouldn’t come looking for scraps just because the situation had changed.
“G, G, G……”
Where was Gaia?
As I endlessly scrolled down the divine-oracle DM window.
At the very bottom, one caught my eye.
─────────────────
[Divine Oracle]
[Gaia, Goddess of Earth ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『It has truly been a long time since there was a Heir of Fire. Solau will be happy.』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 2 / 3]
─────────────────
“Huh!?”
Here it was. My business for the next year.
It had been buried beneath a mountain of orders.
She was the only one who hadn’t apologized to the Sun Dwarves.
If I was going to stamp my seal on a contract, I should do it with a major corporation.
Judging only from the message, one might wonder if this was really a commission.
There was no request for me to make anything, nor any promise of what I would receive. It was simply a message saying it had been a long time.
However, beneath it was.
[Accept]
Beneath the message was an option labeled Accept.
“There’s no reason not to.”
I accepted the commission.
- Click.
The moment I accepted it.
- Crumble.
The bell standing on the ground shattered and crumbled.
“Fuck…?”
It broke apart completely, as though saying it had done all it could.
I had worked so hard to make it….
─────────────────
[You have accepted the Earth Goddess’s request.]
[The medium has been exhausted, and your connection with the god has been established directly.]
[The remaining divine-oracle limit has increased to 5.]
[You may have 3 conversations to confirm the commission.]
─────────────────
The medium had been exhausted.
It wasn’t reusable….
But my disappointment lasted only a moment before joy quickly took its place.
Didn’t this mean I had finally established a connection with Gaia?
“Nice.”
Just as I was happily curling my fist.
The window appeared once more.
─────────────────
[Divine Oracle]
[Gaia, Goddess of Earth ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]
『I never imagined that, though countless children must have petitioned you, you would choose this mother.』
『The Celestial Realm is truly in an uproar.』
『They say you are the future and hope of the dwarf children….』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 4 / 8]
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The gods who had competed for their place and clamored earlier felt different from her in every way.
Even though I had only read her words, they gave me a very gentle feeling.
I was just a human, not the future and hope of dwarf children, though.
This wasn’t the time to space out.
I had three chances to have a conversation related to the commission.
It seemed to work along lines similar to a DM.
When I sent a message, it seemed to reach her.
I immediately opened the DM window and prepared to type a message.
“Sss.”
Carefully.
How should I put this?
She probably didn’t know I was a child yet.
“Yuna, I’m going to say it roughly, so… um, you can translate it appropriately, right?”
The beneficial function of an AI little sister.
“Please revise what I’m saying now to suit formal speech.”
[Yep, can do.]
- Tap tap tap.
“I want to make earrings, and I want to imbue them with Lady Gaia’s divinity. Please allow me.”
Yuna began translating the words I had chosen.
『I wish to craft earrings containing the spirit and will of the Great Earth Mother. With reverence and respect, I wish to offer them to Mother.』
Wow, how did she translate it like that?
My insincere words had been transformed into formal language.
After a short while.
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『I never imagined that the Heir of Fire would take an interest in this old mother.』
『Though there is another child who governs fire, you went out of your way to seek the earth. How could I not be grateful? It is truly an exceptional and astonishing thing.』
『This land, too, had been feeling terribly lonely.』
『Thank you, child. Truly, thank you. So please, take good care of me.』
[Remaining Divine Oracles : 0 / 8]
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“…What’s with the long-ass letter?”
Gaia’s remaining divine oracles disappeared along with that lengthy letter of thanks.
Did that mean she didn’t need materials or anything?
It took me quite a while to read it, and the conclusion was….
“Thank you for making it…?”
In the end, that long letter had only one thing to say.
Thank you, so please take good care of me.
“Good grief.”
Was choosing Gaia really that unusual?
I didn’t know enough about the gods’ culture to say for sure.
“I’ll make it first.”
I stood up, carrying the remains of the shattered bell.
A divine accessory.
Something that would be responsible for my business for the next year.
I looked up at the late-night sky.
The full moon was shining down on me.
“It’s because of you, after all.”
Somehow, it didn’t look entirely beautiful anymore.
2.
Most of the Tower’s floors belonging to each race have at least one temple.
The Sun Dwarves were no exception. There was also a temple on the 89th floor.
However, even if their temple was enormous… it was old.
It was closer to a traditional temple that was barely kept in repair.
It was also a place the gods rarely visited.
But it had not always been that way.
The Sun Dwarves’ temple had once been a place countless gods competed to visit.
However, after the Heir of Fire disappeared.
When the gods realized that they could no longer obtain what they desired here.
…One by one, they stopped coming.
- Fsssh.
While other temples were always bustling with prayers and crowds, the 89th floor continued to gather dust.
At least, until yesterday.
“……”
The old dwarf priest of the 89th-floor temple could not believe his eyes.
The brazier that announced divine oracles was spewing fire like mad.
- Roar!!
- Roar!
The fire from the temple’s brazier soon became sheets of red paper, words appearing on them.
- Rustle.
One sheet.
- Rustle, rustle.
Two sheets, then three.
And soon, the words caught the priest’s eye.
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[Ignia, Goddess of Fire]
『How can the child of fire… the Heir of Fire, come to rest in the embrace of the earth?』
『Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the Sun Dwarves. Why would the Heir of Fire!』
─────────────────
“…Lady Ignia….”
The priest swallowed dryly.
The Goddess of Fire was the most widely worshiped deity among the Sun Dwarf race.
But in recent times….
- Rustle.
The red paper showed no sign of stopping.
『How could I not have waited for this child?』
『Yet, as soon as the child opened their eyes, they cast aside their mother and sought the embrace of the earth.』
『……I am hurt. Truly hurt.』
The priest could not bring himself to continue reading aloud.
Then.
- Boom!
The temple’s enormous doors opened.
A man walked inside.
“I hear something very interesting happened last night.”
“……Lord Ricardo.”
The old priest hurriedly bowed his head.
Grand Chieftain Ricardo said nothing. He simply scanned the red papers pouring down over the brazier.
Countless gods were clamoring.
‘Why did you not choose me?’
And.
‘Forgive me for neglecting the Sun Dwarves in recent times.’
The corner of Ricardo’s mouth twisted.
‘…Too late.’
Far too late.
“Isn’t it laughable?”
Ricardo spoke in a low voice.
“When the gods stop coming to a temple, certain things follow.”
“Crops in the fields fail to ripen, and blessings of various kinds disappear.”
“In short, the race gradually withers.”
“A race that loses its abundance can only slowly wither. Its resources dry up, its supplies run out, and…”
“And to that starving, impoverished race,”
“who was it that came?”
“…Back then, who was it that reached out to us?”
Ricardo’s eyes narrowed.
“Was it the gods? Or.”
- Swoosh….
“Was it the Company?”
The old priest could not bring himself to answer.
The answer had already been decided.
Selling off the future of their race to mere outside merchants.
The reason most dwarves could not help being tempted by it was.
They had simply been too impoverished.
If the Tower had not opened, the Sun Dwarves would probably have gone extinct.
“And now you come crawling back.”
Ricardo looked toward the brazier.
The red papers were still pouring out, even now.
『……I am hurt. Truly hurt.』
That was the divine oracle delivered by Ignia, Goddess of Fire.
She was supposed to care for the Sun Dwarves.
Even though she had the greatest number of believers, when the race began to wither, she had turned her back and pretended not to notice.
“…And now you’re hurt?”
The man chuckled quietly.
“What a truly godlike thing to do.”
Ricardo’s gaze turned toward the countless papers above the brazier.
The god chosen by the new Heir of Fire was not the god of fire, but Gaia, the Earth Mother.
A god who had shown mercy to every race in the Tower without discrimination.
And one of the few gods who had never withdrawn her hand even from the Sun Dwarves, whom everyone else had abandoned.
“It was no coincidence.”
Chills began to run over Ricardo’s body.
If he was the Heir of Fire, he naturally should have sought the Goddess of Fire.
But the future of the race had chosen Gaia.
‘So he knows.’
Who had truly stood on the side of the race, and who had abandoned it.
That Heir had already understood everything.
“……”
After remaining silent for a long while, Ricardo spoke.
“Offer the prayer.”
The only reply a temple could send to a god.
Convey the race’s position to all the gods.
“For the Heir’s will is the will of the dwarves.”
The temple on the 89th floor had originally been dedicated primarily to the Goddess of Fire.
There was no hesitation in the Grand Chieftain’s voice.
“If the Heir has chosen the earth, then we too shall make room for the earth.”
Ricardo walked toward one corner of the temple.
A small statue of Gaia stood quietly in the corner.
“…If that is the Heir’s will, so be it.”
Ricardo slowly bowed his head before it.