Chapter 52
1.
In truth, I'd occasionally thought about it.
Of course, even if the fact that I came to another world is itself impossible to explain,
if I had to explain why….
Maybe I.
‘Could I have died?’
The thought that perhaps I had died and crossed over to this world.
Of course, I don't remember. Nor do I want to.
To me, overwork had been like a friend,
and I hadn't had the mental leeway to look after my body.
So I had simply lived this life much as I had my previous one, carried along by inertia.
If there was one difference,
“You need to get plenty of rest.”
it might be that in this life, there had been an adult who could advise me to rest.
Doloris was like that, and so was Harnagar before me.
I nodded for now.
If you're asking whether this was a story I couldn't empathize with, that wasn't it.
[If you continue working while standing in front of a fire for a long period of time……■]
[Huh? If you continue working while standing in front of a fire for a long period of time…■■]
No way.
[… Aha, Oppa did something to me, didn't he?]
[The safety and health guidelines aren't working… Hmm….]
In the end, Yuna also discovered the thing I had set up for her.
Scary little sister. Kim Yuna.
“……”
Right.
I could just take a little break.
How about making something called a weekend?
“Yeah, well.”
“……”
“I’ll rest. When it’s time to rest, I should rest.”
Even though I didn't really like the idea… if that was Doloris's wish, too.
Then resting was the right thing to do.
When I reluctantly replied with a displeased expression, Harnagar before me nodded.
“Will you promise?”
“… Yes, I suppose.”
“… Good. Hearing your answer is enough.”
- Swish.
He turned around, looking somehow relieved.
“It seems it’s time for me to return.”
“Pardon?”
Hey, what the hell had you even done?
You hadn't taught me a single thing—not a dwarf secret technique, training method, or crafting method.
Maybe he was a con artist, and I had just been having a pipe dream.
“W-wait a moment. Resting is fine, yes, I understand that.”
“……”
He looked at me.
“Then when will I grow? In truth, my benefactor doesn’t have that much time left.”
Doloris was currently in a situation like a ticking time bomb.
Even though I had extended her time, with someone living right beside me carrying a ticking time bomb,
how could I just rest comfortably?
You said you'd help me. Was this how you planned to solve it?
He slowly turned his head.
“… Who.”
“……”
“Who told you to rest ‘here’?”
“… What?”
What was he talking about?
I had no talent for wordplay.
Just as I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at his riddle-like words,
“Descendant.”
“Yes.”
“What does this place seem to be?”
“A workshop.”
“It looks exactly like your workshop, but it isn’t your workshop.”
At that moment.
Harnagar stretched his hand upward.
“This is a first.”
“What is?”
“Both for the one using it and the one who has seen it.”
He looked at me and pulled the corner of his mouth into a grin.
Then he.
“Purgatory.”
muttered something under his breath,
- Fwoooosh!
A huge flame began swirling in his grasp,
then soon took shape, becoming a gigantic hammer.
The moment I saw it, I couldn't take my eyes off it.
What was it made of?
What materials had gone into it? How had it been forged, and the mineral….
No.
This was on an entirely different level.
‘How in the world could anyone make that?’
A wonder so overwhelming I could hardly dare look at it with my own eyes.
Humility being forcibly injected into me.
Right. That was an injector of humility.
And then the identity of the equipment came into view.
─────────────────
[Purgatory - Catastrophe][★★★★★]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility][100/100]
─────────────────
There was a craftsman who locked himself inside the purgatory called death.
Fire chose to place itself in his hands.
Before that sublime will, even the gods shall bow their heads.
─────────────────
『Even if it is late, it does not matter. Even if—I should die, it does not matter.
That is what a masterpiece is.』
- Harnagar, 11th Master Craftsman -
─────────────────
Appearance.
Origin Script.
Rank, compatibility.
Everything was superior to any piece of equipment I had seen until now.
I couldn't even bring myself to call it superior.
It was in a league of its own.
The dwarven tenacity that had devoted itself without regard for death.
The Origin Script that seemed linked to those words caught my eye.
‘Even if it is late, it does not matter…?’
Just now, he had said I was the first person to see this activated.
If so….
The purgatory called death.
Even if I die, it does not matter…?
Just as my thoughts were about to reach somewhere,
“Catastrophe.”
- KABOOM!!!
Harnagar brought the enormous hammer down hard on the desk.
The shockwave passed around me and blew away the workshop walls entirely.
- Ruuumble…!
The workshop walls shattered and slowly collapsed.
The floor split… the ceiling was smashed apart.
All around us crumbled, and soon.
We were floating in empty space.
Waterfalls of lava filled every direction.
Red liquid poured endlessly from above to below.
I couldn't tell which way was the floor or which way was the ceiling.
And yet, it wasn't hot.
Holding the hammer in midair, he looked down at me and spoke.
“A place where the flesh is unnecessary.”
He spread his arms.
“A place where you can forge with will and spirit alone. An imagined forge granted only to the Heir of Fire.”
The corners of his mouth beneath his beard pulled up with all his might,
revealing his teeth.
“Welcome to the Formless Divine Furnace (無形神爐).”
I clenched and unclenched my hands.
They were fine.
The usual pain was gone. Even when I looked into the distance, my eyes didn't grow hollow.
“Do you understand now? Here, you do not grow hungry, your arms do not go numb, and your vision does not blur.”
“……”
“Since you have no body to collapse, there is no way for you to collapse.”
He adjusted his grip on the hammer.
“So outside, eat, sleep, rest, and grow.”
Then.
In this place where my body didn't ache or grow tired,
“… I just have to hammer away until I die.”
Having understood everything he'd said up to that point,
“Nice!!!!!”
I shouted, clenching both hands tightly.
I had always been short on time.
Twenty-four hours hadn't been enough, so I had wrung nineteen hours out of each day, and even then, I felt that closing my eyes was a loss because sleep was a waste of time.
When my growth was right there in front of me, how could I possibly sleep?
But now….
I could practice without straining my body?
If so, the density of my time from now on would change.
“By any chance, can I only enter this place after sleeping?”
“Sharp. Whenever you wish, before going to sleep.”
That was what I had expected.
So I must have fainted while entering my workshop after hanging the signboard.
And I had crossed over here the moment I lost consciousness.
“At what speed does time flow?”
This was the most important question.
Of course, even a one-to-one ratio would be fine.
Dream time could feel faster than normal, after all.
“At most, five times slower.”
Five times.
At that, I squeezed my eyes shut.
The moment I fall asleep.
I would enter the Workshop of Mind and Time.
“I’ll rest.”
I’ll rest easy.
I think I really can rest comfortably.
As the view filled with dark clouds opened wide,
my worries began to disappear.
Sleep time wasn't wasted time anymore.
With that thought,
the strength began to slowly drain from my body.
“… It’s about time.”
- Whoooosh….
When he swung his hammer,
my body… began slowly sinking beneath the lava.
Harnagar asked me in a low voice,
“Descendant, let me ask you one thing.”
“… What?”
- Tap.
He rested the hammer on his shoulder and slowly added,
“How was it?”
I felt like I knew what he meant without having to ask.
- Fwoosh.
At the edge of my vision as I fell,
the hammer was still glowing red-hot.
“Among all the equipment I’ve seen….”
Without a moment's hesitation,
“It was the best.”
I answered immediately.
Until now, whenever I saw a good item, I had considered it inwardly.
How could I improve it? How could I make it even better?
But in front of that….
“… It made me humble.”
“… Haha.”
The red river swallowed me,
“… That’s enough, then.”
My eyelids grew heavy.
Even though he was far away,
“Go and get some good rest.”
- Splash….
I could hear his voice clearly.
“And next time.”
Beyond my receding field of vision, Harnagar looked down at me and smiled.
“Show me what you’ll make with both hands.”
That was the last thing I heard.
2.
I opened my eyes.
“……”
Cool.
And soft.
Plush. Springy. Extremely, truly so.
Everything before my eyes was white—or, more precisely, I couldn't see well because I was buried in something cool,
while a fragrant, pleasant scent filled my nose.
I felt something light beneath the back of my head.
Along with the feeling of being wedged somewhere, I slowly raised my head….
“……”
There was a snow-white breast before my eyes.
What.
What was this?
What on earth was this reward?
Was this perhaps a reward for deciding to rest?
After the Workshop of Mind and Time, Doloris's bountiful chest.
If that was the case, I was prepared to rest for the rest of my life.
While I rolled only my eyes, trying to understand the situation,
- Soft breathing….
Regular breathing could be heard from above.
Doloris.
She had fallen asleep while holding me in her arms.
“……”
The events that naturally came to mind here were as follows.
I must have simply fainted in the workshop, and meeting Harnagar had happened in a world within a dream.
Doloris had brought me, unconscious, into her arms and was sleeping.
A chain of thoughts began to form, but the thing before my eyes was lowering my intelligence,
‘Hehe, so soft.’
And so I enjoyed her embrace for about another thirty minutes.
How much time had passed?
“Are you awake, Lionel?”
A gentle voice came from above.
When I lifted my head, Doloris was looking down at me with a warm expression.
It seemed she had been awake.
Even so, the arms holding me had not loosened.
“Yes.”
“…… Did you know you fainted yesterday?”
“I think I did.”
Doloris pressed her lips together.
She lightly closed her eyes, seeming to ponder something, then.
Slowly… very slowly, she opened her mouth.
“Sweetie.”
“Yes.”
“I always want to respect your wishes. Whatever you make, however intently you devote yourself to it, that’s your business and your choice.”
- Stroke, stroke.
She slowly rubbed my back as if to soothe me.
“So I didn’t want to say this.”
Doloris's long-winded worries and requests continued after that.
‘When I picked you up after you collapsed in the garden, you were so light.’
‘You hardly take any time off during the week.’
‘I don’t think you’re growing taller, either. Ruby has been shooting up lately.’
In the end, to summarize what she was saying….
You’re much too young, so please stop working so much.
“… Huh? Lionel, couldn’t you take it easy and work a little less?”
“Yes, I will.”
“… Huh?”
Perhaps she had naturally expected me to refuse.
Doloris's eyes widened.
But circumstances had changed considerably.
Since I could now work while resting.
However, I couldn't tell her that outright, so
I lifted my face from her chest and looked up at her.
“I’ll take it easy from now on. Slowly.”
“……”
Doloris's eyes went round.
It wasn't something to brag about, but no matter how many times she told me, I had never listened.
So when I suddenly obediently said I would,
“……”
The corners of Doloris's eyes reddened slightly.
Ah, it wasn't like that.
She looked at me affectionately, as if she felt that I had finally listened to her.
Just as I tried to pull away because the atmosphere seemed to be getting sad,
- Squeezeeeee….
“Mmmph!”
Doloris hugged me tightly.
- Poof.
My face was buried in something soft.
I couldn't, I couldn't breathe.
“Thank you, Lionel. Thank you….”
I could hear her tearful voice above my head, but.
Ghk.
Cough cough.
Mama, I'm going to die like this.
I never imagined my cause of death would be suffocation, not overwork.
If I died like this, I'd probably claim the number-one spot in the good-death rankings.
That thought occurred to me,
and while I struggled in Mama's arms for quite some time,
in the center of Doloris's embrace,
at last, I found a narrow gap where I could breathe.
It seemed to be a valley.
I desperately drew in a breath,
“… Gasp.”
“Thank you, Lionel. Get plenty of rest….”
Having finally found the thread of a gap in which to breathe,
… I remained docilely held in her arms.
Cough cough.
I accepted the hug.