Chapter 49
1.
He barged into my workshopㅡ though I had no idea how he had even gotten in.
No, Yuna said she couldn't lock onto the coordinates, so did I come here?
The man who had shouted at me, presumably one of our dwarf ancestors.
Besides.
[Encounter with the Master Craftsman (賢匠)]
Since he was that famous Master Craftsman.
I couldn't help feeling nervous, but.
The answer to the question he had just asked was….
‘What are you doing!’
What was I doing? I made a nameplate and hung it up.
And I was about to make underwear. Pretty and comfortable ones.
I was able to make that clear to myself.
I may still be somewhat removed from blacksmithing, and I'm sorry, but all of this will become the foundation.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
We stared each other down like that for several dozen seconds.
Was that some kind of encounter line just now?
Was I supposed to answer?
He looked me up and down without receiving an answer.
My forearms, legs, shoulders, and so on.
“Huh….”
Then he let out a long breath.
He looked around the workshop before approaching the pitiful, shoddy anvil made by humans.
Every time he moved, something like sparks flickered and billowed from his body.
Perhaps I should call it a sensation like an afterimage.
He definitely didn't seem like an ordinary person.
- Clang, clang.
He tapped it a couple of times with his finger and.
“Hoo….”
He let out a sigh.
- Thoom….
This time, it was the crude, shoddy forge made by humans.
“Hoo….”
Another sigh.
“Hoooo……”
Every item he sighed over had been made by humans.
I know, man. I'll replace them, okay?
If there was one thing that offered some consolation.
- Tap, tap.
- Creak.
- Whoosh.
After examining the top-grade crucible furnace I had made myself for a long time.
“…Hmm.”
He nodded while stroking his beard, seemingly satisfied.
This doesn't feel bad.
Does this mean I passed, in a way?
It's on a completely different level from human-made things.
In the end, he approached me and slowly opened his mouth.
Even up close, he was still about the same height as me.
“How long has it been?”
His voice was low and resonant.
“After overcoming a trial said to be more difficult than a camel passing through the eye of a needle and becoming an apprentice Heir of Fire.”
He took another step toward me.
“After passing through an even narrower gate and becoming a full-fledged blacksmith.”
Another step.
When his face finally came right up to mine.
“And among them, someone who built his own furnace with his own hands and hung his own emblem before it has appeared.”
“……”
Strictly speaking, a camel had never passed through the eye of a needle.
It was just that my younger sister, Kim Yuna, had been a needle's eye larger than a camel.
“I can't even tell how many years it's been. But.”
“……”
He narrowed his eyes.
“…Could you perhaps, Heir, be a half-dwarf?”
“Ah.”
Now that he mentioned it.
From a dwarf's perspective, it must have felt as though the art style had suddenly changed.
It was understandable that he might think I was a half-breed between a dwarf and a human. Even before the Tower opened, humans had lived inside the Tower as a race.
What should I call this?
“…Well, half-dwarves may have been looked down on in the past, but I'm not the type to care about things like that.”
“Ahaha… Thank you.”
I glossed over it appropriately.
“So, what year is it according to the Solar Calendar?”
I felt I would need Yuna's help with this.
[It's currently the Solar Calendar… 1231.]
“It's 1231.”
“……What?”
Upon hearing the year, he opened his eyes wide with an expression suggesting that he had misheard something.
“What…? 1231… What do you mean…?”
He wiped his face with his palm.
“…Is that really true?”
“Yes.”
“……”
After remaining like that for a long while.
He went over to the crucible furnace, leaned against it, and muttered something.
“Ninety-one years have passed… Then does that mean no Heir who built a workshop has appeared all this time?”
He was muttering very quietly, but.
I could hear every word.
“…Ah.”
As though he had remembered something, he came back to me.
He studied my eyes closely before adding.
“How many Heirs of Fire were there after that little brat Ricardo?”
This wasn't within the scope of my knowledge, either.
[Ricardo is currently the head of the Sun Dwarves, and the Heir of Fire after him was….]
[You, Oppa.]
“There hasn't been one.”
“……”
“I'm the only one.”
“……”
After hearing me, he said nothing.
He slowly turned and walked toward the wall, placed one hand against it, lowered his head, and came to a stop.
“……”
His back was broad.
How much time passed while he remained lost in thought?
He turned back again.
“What on earth happened after I died…?”
Only then did I begin explaining based on what Yuna had told me.
The Sun Dwarves gradually declined.
Then the Tower opened, humans entered, and goods were sold even without anyone going through the trial to become an Heir of Fire.
Humans bought them even when the equipment was mediocre and the enchantments were only of a mediocre level.
So nobody tried to overcome the trial.
With no one overcoming it, the line of Heirs ended, and with the Heirs gone, the divine tools disappeared.
As the divine tools disappeared and the race declined, the gods stopped visiting as well.
And so, with the gods gone, the Sun Dwarves fell into poverty.
In the end, the Heir of Fire no longer existed.
“……”
With each word he heard, his face grew more and more rigid.
I could see his eyes sinking lower with every sentence that piled onto the last.
I didn't have the heart to mention the Dwarf Company.
That would have been the truly painful part.
Even if there was still a chance to rise again after the gods had left.
Accepting outside capital and founding a company that drove a wedge in so deep that recovery became impossible was another matter entirely.
“Would you give me a moment to think?”
“Yes.”
He went to a corner of the workshop, sank down, and placed a hand against his forehead.
It must have been a tremendous shock.
According to what he had said, he seemed to have already died.
And the news brought by the first Heir he had met in ninety years after his death was that his race was perishing.
And as I watched him like that.
“…Whew.”
I took a moment to steady my breathing.
To be honest, I had already finished calculating the possibilities.
If I played along as a half-dwarf here, I would gain several techniques.
Whatever they were, I would gain something from this.
It wasn't as though I had lied.
He was the one who asked, and I had only smiled, so technically speaking, I hadn't done anything.
But then.
- Clop.
He came back. His eyes were a little redder than before.
“You're back.”
That wasn't quite right, was it?
“I'll be honest with you.”
“……”
“I'm human.”
“……”
“I somehow became an Heir of Fire and a full-fledged blacksmith, but I am definitely a human who lives outside the Tower. This place is outside the Tower as well.”
Then I lowered my head.
“I'm sorry for deceiving you.”
“……”
There was no answer.
With my head bowed, I couldn't see his expression.
I suppose it was bewildering to see a human sitting in the position of a dwarf's Heir.
- Clop.
The footsteps drew closer.
Then, suddenly.
- Pat.
A large hand seized both my shoulders.
I raised my head, and.
The words that followed were.
“That's not it.”
“……?”
It was a little different from what I had expected.
“What does your being human have to do with being an Heir of Fire?”
“…Pardon?”
His eyes blazed fiercely.
“You built a furnace on bare ground, engraved an emblem, and came all the way here alone.”
“……”
- Squeeze.
The hands gripping my shoulders tightened.
“In a place without a single ember, where no one remained, you kindled a fire with your own hands and received the Sun's recognition.”
“……”
“If you hadn't received the Sun's recognition, you could never have come here. Then what meaning could human and dwarf bloodlines possibly have?”
He looked me straight in the eye.
“An Heir of Fire is not born. An Heir of Fire is forged.”
“……”
“Therefore, I ask you, Heir.”
- Squeeze.
“If you are not an Heir of Fire, then what are you?”
My words caught in my throat.
Why was this man so skilled at persuasion?
I had felt a little choked up just now. I had truly worked hard, after all.
As I stood there unable to say anything.
He slowly spread his hands apart from my shoulders.
- Knead, knead.
He massaged both my arms.
“……”
“……”
Excuse me.
“How old are you?”
“…Thirteen.”
- Flinch.
His hands stopped.
“……Hoo, I simply can't believe it. How long have you been a blacksmith? Do you eat your meals properly?”
“About five months, I think. As for meals… I do skip them occasionally.”
“Incredible, beyond words. To have reached even the Sun Workshop in such a short time… However, you must make sure to eat. You're still growing.”
The hands that had been massaging me slowly fell away.
Then he stepped back and looked around the workshop once.
“Originally, this space is where one encounters the previous Master Craftsman. When an Heir opens their first workshop with their own hands, the one who came before visits them once.”
“I see.”
“Thus, you may ask your ancestor for wisdom.”
- Flick.
He held up three fingers.
“Precisely this many.”
“……Three things.”
Three was a fairly good condition.
Until now, I had had no one to ask about metallurgy or blacksmithing.
The manual only covered the basics, and no matter how smart Yuna was, she couldn't know everything an Heir of Fire might know.
So whenever I got stuck, I simply tried tackling the problem, and if that didn't work… then it just didn't work.
Three questions wasn't bad.
But then.
“However.”
The dwarf in front of me suddenly folded all his fingers.
He wore a bitter expression.
“This time, however, I will tell you everything I can.”
“……Is that all right?”
“The original reason for limiting it to three was that my ancestors, myself included, had traditionally imposed certain restrictions of our own.”
Ah, so it was something inherited because those above had done it.
A military-style tradition.
“Unfortunately.”
He opened his eyes wide and looked at me.
“This is hardly the time to worry about tradition and face.”
“……”
Suddenly curious, I opened my mouth.
“Earlier, when you said, ‘What on earth are you doingggg!’ Was that also a tradition you followed upon meeting someone?”
“…It was.”
No wonder. How else would he have known what I was doing?
I had been so shocked earlier that I couldn't even speak.
“So, Heir.”
“……”
“Let me ask again.”
“……”
He slowly walked toward the selection platform.
“What were you doing?”
The moment he finished speaking, before I could even answer.
- Vwoooong….
Light poured over the selection platform, and something began taking shape piece by piece.
“…Huh?”
The light surrounding the formed shape faded.
The first thing that caught my eye was.
- Plop.
The first one.
My very first work, that thing I had made from hide that hadn't even been tanned yet.
Oil-covered gloves.
No? A leather pouch that could hardly even be called gloves.
A dark chapter I never wanted anyone to see.
It was known as Eric, Give Me Eric.
“No!!!”
I shouted in embarrassment and ran toward it.