The Shitty Elf and the Shitty Dwarf (6)

"Wha—wha—why is Eisa-sama working the counter at a dwarf's shop?!"

Several days after the dwarf smith finally relented and accepted me as his apprentice, an elven woman named Airena, apparently worried about me, came to visit the shop.

And these were the first words she said upon seeing me sitting behind the counter, minding the shop while leisurely playing with a wire puzzle.

By the way, the dwarf smith—or rather, my Shitty Dwarf master—had made this wire puzzle for me when I asked him to.

A wire puzzle cannot work unless its parts are shaped with precision, so my Shitty Dwarf master, who completed one with such ease, was genuinely incredible.

He was not merely good enough to look up to as a master; there could be no one better.

However, when it came to what to call him, since he called me a Shitty Elf, I had absolutely no intention of giving up calling him a Shitty Dwarf.

In any case, once I learned smithing, I planned to mass-produce difficult wire puzzles and spread irritation throughout this world.

"Why? He said he'd teach me smithing if I did the grunt work, and apparently I'd get paid too?"

Of course, even working a full day wouldn't cover the cost of my current inn, so once Airena stopped treating me, I'd have to find somewhere else to live.

That said, no other inn was likely to have food as delicious as this one, so I'd either have to rent a place and cook for myself or find a good restaurant.

As I clicked and fiddled with the wire puzzle, the two metal rings slipped apart at just the right angle.

Yes, wire puzzles were irritating toys, but this was the moment that made them so satisfying.

Pleased by that sensation, I picked up the next wire puzzle.

"That's not the issue! Don't you know that if the smell of iron clings to your body, the trees will become frightened and the spirits will hate you?! Even you, Eisa-sama, would be in trouble if the spirits abandoned you!"

The din of Airena's voice made my Shitty Dwarf master, who had been hammering iron in the back, poke his head out. Surprisingly, he didn't complain at all.

If anything, his expression seemed to say, Ah, so this is what a normal elf is like.

For some reason, he also seemed a little sympathetic toward Airena.

Anyway, setting aside my Shitty Dwarf master, I should clear up Airena's misunderstanding.

Whatever else might be true of me, I genuinely regarded the spirits as close friends.

That was precisely why I couldn't simply leave her misunderstanding alone.

"Yeah, I know, but that's probably mistaken. Spirits won't hate me just because I smell like metal. Ah, but the taste of food does change ever so slightly, so I have the wind spirits dispel the smell every day."

To begin with, I didn't want other people thinking I had body odor, and ever since coming to this town, I'd taken a bath every day. I was fairly sensitive about that sort of thing.

If someone told me I smelled or had body odor, my feelings would be hurt like anyone else's.

As for the spirits, I had already confirmed that they didn't particularly dislike metal.

There was a fire spirit inside the forge's furnace, and whenever I went outside, the wind spirits continued to cling to me as usual.

I suspect the story that spirits hate metal came from cases where they were angered by environmental pollution caused by mining toxins.

Perhaps some elves who learned of that assumed that spirits hated metal unconditionally and spread the story around.

"And if trees are afraid of metal, shouldn't adventurers be forbidden from entering the Pulha Great Forest? Sure, trees don't like being chopped with axes either, but they're not so weak that they need to be treated so sensitively."

If trees were afraid of metal, then that too would presumably be because of pollution caused by mining toxins.

So while I wouldn't say every part of it was a lie, it wasn't a reason for me to quit working here.

"If we put a potted plant here, I bet it would happily talk with me too. In fact, Master Shitty Dwarf, this shop is lacking greenery, so can I put a potted plant here?"

Having thought of that, I turned around and asked him, but my Shitty Dwarf master merely snorted and disappeared into the back.

That gesture probably meant that I could do whatever I wanted.

When I turned my gaze back, Airena was staring blankly.

Apparently, she couldn't immediately believe what I had just said and was struggling against her own common sense.

Still, that was understandable.

Because Airena, being an elf, apparently couldn't see spirits as clearly or hear the voices of trees as distinctly as I, a High Elf, could.

Thus, the knowledge handed down by her elders was the truth to her, and she had probably never thought to question it.

Unlike elves, High Elves could clearly see the forms of spirits and hear the voices of trees distinctly, but every one of them was a shut-in with no interest in the outside world, and none would teach what they had learned to anyone but another High Elf.

So even if a mistaken understanding spread among the elves, they had no reason to go out of their way to correct it.

"So, if you're interested, I can teach you all sorts of things, but I'm minding the shop, so since you're here, you should buy something. I recommend the kukri knife on that shelf. Isn't it amazing? I'd be sad if someone bought it and I couldn't look at it anymore, but I recommend it."

For example, apparently some elves claimed that fire ate wind, and believed that fire spirits were dangerous beings that devoured wind spirits.

Of course, as should be obvious, that wasn't true.

If anything, fire spirits and wind spirits were capable of working together.

In the first place, although wind spirits dwelled in the wind, they were bodiless, immortal beings, so even if the wind was swallowed by fire, it wouldn't affect them in the slightest.

Moreover, fire fed on oxygen, while wind merely carried it.

And powerful fires sometimes created wind.

That was why fire and wind could work together.

However, when fire and wind worked together, the destruction they caused was tremendous.

...And so on.

This might be dangerous knowledge to spread too widely, but Airena was kind enough, so I figured it was probably fine.

"Um, this knife? Wow, it's big. ...It really is an amazing piece. But it was made by a dwarf, right? If you sell it to me, won't Eisa-sama get scolded?"

Airena examined the kukri knife I had recommended and swallowed hard.

Yes, it was a very fine thing.

I didn't know whether I'd be scolded, and even if I was, I didn't really care.

My Shitty Dwarf master had said when he first met me that he had nothing to sell to Shitty Elves, but I felt good whenever a product sold, because it increased the shop's sales.

When we closed the shop, tallying the money was more enjoyable when sales were high, even if it wasn't my money.

Besides, if Airena bought that kukri, I could probably ask her to let me see it from time to time.

"If you'll take good care of it, I'm sure it's fine. Though if you neglect its maintenance, he'll probably get incredibly angry. More importantly, Airena, bring your two companions too. This shop is advertised as the best smithy in town, but its sales definitely aren't number one, are they?"

Indeed, when I first came to this shop, my Shitty Dwarf master had taken quite a while to come out to the storefront, showing that this place prioritized smithing over business.

My Shitty Dwarf master's skill must certainly be the best in town.

But as long as I worked here, I wanted it to become the smithy with the highest sales in town too.

However, I didn't want increased sales to reduce the time I spent learning smithing, so once sales went up, I'd have him hire more people.

Then my Shitty Dwarf master could hole up in the forge, and I'd be happy to make more acquaintances, so it would truly be a win-win.

Thus, as a first step, I decided to make Airena and her companions, the White Lake party reputed to be the town's top adventurers, our customers.

After all, those other two had probably refrained from coming here out of consideration for Airena until now.

If this became the smithy used by the town's top adventurers, surely the many adventurers following in their footsteps would become interested and come take a look.

"You can see things that are invisible to me, can't you? ...No, perhaps it's that you can see things I never tried to see. I understand. Shopkeeper, please sell me this knife. ...I will take good care of it."

I smiled back at Airena as she said that.

Then I helped her choose the belt for hanging the sheath that held the kukri, and relayed every last detail of the maintenance instructions I had been told to give customers.

Since my Shitty Dwarf master, who was secretly peeking out from the back of the forge, said nothing, both my choice of belt and my explanation of how to maintain the knife must have been fine.

Of course, this did not resolve the hostility between elves and dwarves even a little.

But a quality weapon had made its way into the hands of a skilled adventurer.

I thought that alone was more than enough reason to be happy.