Chapter 45
1.
I quietly swallowed a breath.
It had definitely worked.
Both Doloris and the Imperial Princess had their eyes soften the moment they saw them.
And then.
A faint sound came from the direction of the throne.
The Emperor had lifted his back from the chair and leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the earrings.
Then he shook his head slowly without saying a word.
A smile spread across his lips.
I carried the case I had shown the Imperial Princess exactly as it was and headed toward the table where the appraisers sat.
The old man wearing a monocle made room for me.
“Over here….”
As soon as I set down the case, the elders all leaned forward.
From here on, it was out of my hands.
For a while, everyone simply stared at the earrings.
“…Heh.”
“…Well, this is something….”
Then, one by one, they took out their tools.
Some used magnifying glasses, others lenses, each analyzing the earrings with their own equipment.
Only the sound of someone muttering echoed through the audience chamber.
“The level of craftsmanship….”
“Heh, truly….”
“The thickness is perfectly uniform. How can this possibly…?”
“Even pouring it into a mold would make this difficult….”
More and more unfamiliar objects began to fill the table.
Then.
“…Look at the backs of the gemstones.”
“The backs…?”
“I said turn them over.”
- Click.
Someone carefully flipped the earrings over.
“This is insane….”
An old man accidentally blurted it out in a heated voice, then hurriedly covered his mouth and looked around.
It was understandable. I hadn't expected them to recognize this.
The backs of the gemstones contained the elves' secret technique.
“…This makes no sense. The touch of human hands…?”
“Is the appraisal report ready?”
“Be quiet. Let me look a little longer.”
Just as they were gazing at them leisurely.
“Excuse me, but.”
The Imperial Princess suddenly approached and spoke.
“When will this be finished?”
“It is almost done, Your Highness the Imperial Princess.”
“…Yes.”
Even after hearing the answer, the Imperial Princess did not leave.
She took one step back, then returned again.
As someone placed a huge machine on the table.
It's bigger than I expected.
Its exterior was made of metal, with something like a gear attached to its side, and a narrow slit at the top through which paper protruded.
So that's what an appraisal machine looks like.
The monocled old man stood before it and spoke.
“This appraisal device is the Empire's finest appraisal instrument. It prints the equipment's name, grade, and Origin Script.”
I flinched for an instant at the mention of the Origin Script.
It would be fine.
I raised my head.
“In addition, we will compile the appraisers' written opinions and provide a comprehensive evaluation based on their average.”
- Tap, tap, tap.
The appraisal machine with the earrings placed on top began to operate with a noise.
The appraisers each wrote something down and handed it to the old man.
How much time had passed?
Just as I felt the Imperial Princess's impatient footsteps grow a little more pronounced.
- Whiiir….
The appraisal machine printed the report.
The old man flinched when he saw the report that came out.
You read it, didn't you.
The old man couldn't take his eyes off the paper for a while, then pushed it into another machine beside him.
- Rattle, rattle.
Paper spilled out in a long stream.
It looked like a copier.
The copies were then distributed among the people.
One sheet of the appraisal report reached my hands as well.
─────────────────
[Cradle of Earth][★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Divine Artifact]
─────────────────
I chose the soil and laid its sprout within.
Throughout the making, these hands thought of only one person.
Silent when trampled, opening its embrace when dug intoㅡ
An ode to that warm, cozy earth.
─────────────────
『I’ll make it so you won’t even remember those other shoddy accessories.』
- Certified Blacksmith L -
─────────────────
Okay.
A three-star unique equipment.
Nothing had been distorted or anything.
The problem was….
『I’ll make it so you won’t even remember those other shoddy accessories.』
Obviously, this.
Considering who had gifted the shoddy accessories the Imperial Princess had worn before.
Just as cold sweat began to trickle down my back.
“Hahahahaha!”
Laughter erupted from the direction of the throne.
It was the Emperor.
He was laughing completely openly.
I turned my head with a bewildered expression.
The Imperial Prince, who had put on considerably more weight than before, was also looking at the paper while trying to hold back his laughter.
Finally.
I turned my head toward the Imperial Princess.
- Flutter….
She tightly gripped the appraisal report in one hand, biting her lips together.
With her other hand, she was fanning her face.
Her face was red. I had never seen it this flushed and full of life.
Just as I began to feel that the atmosphere was taking a strange turn.
“Yes, yes….”
The Emperor swallowed his laughter and wiped the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand.
“An accessory made solely for my daughter, Yustia.”
I wanted to correct him.
That it was meant for Gaia.
The Emperor composed his expression again and shifted his gaze toward the appraisers.
“So.”
He asked in a voice that had risen in pitch.
“What is your assessment?”
The old man looked down at the paper in his hand.
The evaluations written by the other appraisers earlier seemed to be listed across that paper.
“…If I may be so bold.”
He looked as though he intended to read out the entries one by one.
“First, I shall report on the craftsmanship.”
“Speak.”
“The technique involves drawing white iron into threads and intertwining them, yet the thickness of the lines remains perfectly consistent from beginning to end.”
The old man's voice trembled slightly.
“I have devoted forty years to this work, but… never once have I seen a three-star piece of equipment with such exquisite precision.”
“……”
“Next are the gemstones.”
- Rustle.
The old man turned over a sheet of paper.
“The outer surface has been smoothed and left plain, but all the facets that create its radiance are contained on the back.”
His explanation continued.
The gemstones, the craftsmanship, the construction, and so on.
It felt as though every field I had considered and thought through was being reevaluated by someone else's eyes.
It wasn't unpleasant.
Someone was interpreting and analyzing my details.
Perhaps this was what it meant for one's efforts to bear fruit.
Their conclusion was simple.
The old man folded the paper in his hand and bowed at the waist.
“I shall summarize our findings.”
The audience chamber fell silent.
“The fingertips that made this can hardly be called human, and craftsmanship from a pinnacle I have never dared witness has been incorporated.”
“A mere three stars cannot contain these earrings.”
“And the divine energy within them is an amount we dare not attempt to measure.”
“Therefore, the conclusion we reached is….”
The old man raised his head.
“It is a divine artifact whose depth is in no way inferior to that of a five-star accessory.”
As soon as his evaluation ended, Ricardo entered carrying something.
Two saplings.
Each was planted in a pot, with flower buds forming at the ends of their branches.
I had asked him to prepare them before I entered.
The appraisal machine of this pathetic era couldn't clearly verify the abilities.
I would have to show them with these.
What was more trustworthy than words from someone else's mouth was.
‘What you see with your own eyes.’
The most certain proof was always something else.
I walked over to them.
I took the two accessories from my clothes and laid them out side by side beside the pots.
One was the Moonlight Essence necklace.
The other was the Sun Rising pendant.
I could feel everyone's eyes on me.
Meeting those gazes.
I picked up the Sun Rising pendant.
“This is what Your Highness the Imperial Princess used to wear.”
- Ching, ching.
I wrapped the necklace around one of the pots.
Then.
As though it had been waiting for this alone.
- Ssshhh….
The leaves began to wither one by one.
The green spread into brown.
The flower bud lost its strength and drooped its head.
“Huuuh….”
“How could something like that happen….”
Ten seconds? Fifteen at most, if it took a little longer.
In that time, one of the saplings died.
The Emperor's expression was colored with bitterness.
He had once again seen with his own eyes that the accessory he had gifted had stolen away its vitality.
I removed the pendant.
Then I stood before the sapling beside it.
I briefly placed the Cradle of Earth on top of the Sun Rising pendant.
‘Set blessing target.’
This seemed like it should work. Setting the target didn't seem particularly difficult.
- Vwoom.
As expected, a brief resonance answered.
This time, I hung the Cradle of Earth on the sapling first.
And then.
I wrapped the Sun Rising pendant around it.
How much time had passed?
Enough time had already gone by for it to have withered and died.
Soon.
- Ssss….
The tightly closed flower bud.
- Tap….
- Tap….
Began to unfold, one layer after another.
This time, it had changed from something that stole vitality.
Into something that bestowed vitality.
The most intuitive change, the absolute opposite.
A clear difference anyone could recognize.
“……”
“……”
The gazes of everyone present focused on this place.
Now I could explain it in words.
I removed my hand from the pot and stepped back.
“The Cradle of Earth protects a target designated by its wearer. It also breathes vitality into the wearer.”
I pointed once at the fully opened flower.
“As you can see, it cuts off the interference of the Moonlight Essence necklace and allows the Sun Rising pendant to fulfill its purpose.”
I looked first at the Imperial Princess, then at the Imperial Prince.
“Therefore, these earrings are for Your Highness the Imperial Princess.”
“……”
“And the Sun Rising pendant is for Your Highness the Imperial Prince.”
“……”
And finally.
The last thing remaining on the table.
The Moonlight Essence necklace.
- Rattle, rattle….
Strangely enough, perhaps realizing its own predicament.
The necklace was trembling.
It's a rather ambiguous situation.
I couldn't exactly suggest destroying it.
It was a goddess's accessory, after all.
Well, it was pretty, at least….
I quickly gathered my thoughts and opened my mouth.
“…This necklace.”
“……”
“It might be best simply to put it on display.”
Even after I finished speaking, no sound came for a while.
Soon.
Someone rose from the direction of the throne.
It was the Emperor.
- Clop.
He began descending the stairs.
A faint smile hung around his lips.
My back straightened before I knew it.
- Swish, swish.
Around the middle of the stairs, the Emperor lightly raised one hand and waved.
At that single gesture.
The appraisers all bowed and began to withdraw.
Servants, knights, and appraisers went outside.
Everyone except the imperial family, Ricardo, and Doloris left the room.
- Boom.
The door closed.
Six people remained in the spacious audience chamber.
The Emperor, the Imperial Princess, the Imperial Prince, Ricardo.
Me and Doloris.
The Emperor, having descended the stairs, stood before me.
Up close, he seemed even larger.
Looking down at me, he slowly opened his mouth.
“……Was the Three-Lion Emblem not enough?”
I stopped moving for a moment.
I tried to understand what he meant.
Was he testing me, or was he genuinely curious?
[It was more than enough.]
“It was more than enough for me, Your Majesty.”
“……”
The Emperor looked down at me with a smile.
Then.
“It seems insufficient from my perspective.”
He took another step toward me.
“To have made something like this….”
“……”
“I don't know what I should give you this time.”
Only then did I understand his true intention.
The breath I had been holding escaped in a sudden puff.
‘…He's praising me….’
He was simply saying it because he was pleased.
I took a short breath and raised my head.
“I do not know what to do with myself after hearing you say that.”
“……When I deal with you, it doesn't feel as though I'm dealing with a child.”
That was a compliment, right?
The Emperor folded his arms.
The smile still lingered around his lips.
“What do you need?”
“……”
“This is something the Empire could not accomplish by any means for over ten years. I summoned physicians and brought you everything said to be beyond price.”
He continued speaking calmly.
“Yet instead of improving, I nearly ended up taking my own children's lives with my own hands.”
“……”
“Therefore, I have no intention of discussing the price. That would become a negotiation, and the moment it became a negotiation, I would become a father who put a price on his children's lives.”
He closed his eyes for a moment.
He seemed to be considering something.
Then the Emperor raised his right hand and placed it over his chest.
“Therefore, I declare this here.”
“……”
“Theodore.”
- Flinch.
At those words.
The Imperial Princess, the Imperial Prince, and Doloris all trembled.
[That's the Emperor's… name….]
Along with Yuna's report.
“In the name of the Emperor of the Empire, with my name upon it….”
He smiled faintly and met my eyes.
“Whatever you ask for, I will grant.”
My throat went completely dry.
I wasn't stupid enough not to understand what his words meant.
A blank check.
Here, asking for something small like an ultra-high-temperature smelting furnace made no sense.
When he had put his own name on it—more than that, the Emperor's name—asking for a minor reward would actually be rude.
In that case.
The thing I had been thinking about all along.
The matter I had discussed with Doloris.
Something even greater than that.
“……I shall make my request.”
“Speak.”
“The mining rights to the magicite in the Bellua Mountains, which are managed and controlled by the Imperial Family….”
I raised my head and met his eyes.
“I would like the magicite mining rights to the Bellua Mountains.”
The air in the room froze.
Magicite.
The mineral used as the raw material for Enchant Powder.
『The Heir of Fire must properly regulate the quantity and quality of Enchant Dust.』
As the Heir of Fire, I had a duty to manage it.
And also.
I intended to raise all of Doloris's equipment to the highest level at which I could work on it.
For that, I wanted the key raw material of Enchant Powder.
Scavenging it from the market would never be enough.
So I had to secure the source.
There were two major sources in particular.
One was the Empire's Bellua Mountains.
The other was the Kargon Mountains on the Tower's eighty-ninth floor.
The inside of the Tower was beyond my control.
So naturally, my goal was the magicite mining rights to the Bellua Mountains.
Mining there was currently, as expected.
Entrusted to the Dwarf Company under a contract with its headquarters.
However.
This was where things became important.
“As I understand it, the contract ends at the end of every year.”
I raised my head.
“Therefore, I humbly ask.”
“……”
“I would like the Doloris Ducal House to purchase those mining rights.”
The Imperial Family never contracted out the mining rights for more than a year at a time.
Even if the contract continued consecutively, it was merely a new contract being signed.
So my original plan had been.
‘Please give me priority to contract next year's magicite mining rights.’
That was what I had intended to say.
However.
The truth was, one or two years would be meaningless.
Above all.
With a short contract, I would have to compete all over again each time.
I had no idea what schemes the Company might use in the meantime, and there was no guarantee His Majesty would still be here when the time came.
Now, when he was holding out a blank check before me.
‘Because this is something I can only say now.’
I took one breath.
So the words that came out of my mouth could not help but differ from what I had practiced.
“Would you grant me a long-term contract?”
The first step of the Heir of Fire.
The Dwarf Company, one of the key sources of the Enchant Powder at the heart of the enchantment business.
I intended to.
Take it away.