A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translated by Sylph
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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* * *
“Wow! It’s a really huge building!”
On the fourth day since leaving Pearl City.
Tie pulled the head she had been sticking out the carriage window back inside.
“Grandpa! There are so many really huge buildings over there!”
Nordix let out a hearty laugh.
Just as Tie said, they were by now approaching Populosa Weapons District.
“But why is black smoke coming out?”
At Tie’s next question, she gave a calm smile.
“It is because Populosa Weapons District has an enormous blast furnace called the ‘Primordial Furnace.'”
“Blast furna……?”
“Blast furnace, brat. Say it with me. Blast. Fur. Nace.”
“Blast! Fur! Nace!”
Veil clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
Tie, having turned sulky, made her lips into an oo shape.
“……Tie can pronounce things well once I turn five.”
To tease a child over pronunciation, Veil was truly mean.
“But what does a blast furna do?”
Anyway, Tie turned her head back toward Nordix.
Unlike Veil, Nordix did not correct Tie’s pronunciation.
Instead, he began explaining gently.
“Put simply, you can say it is a place where weapons are made.”
“Weapons?”
“Yes. Basto’s war hammer was also made at one of the foundries of that furnace.”
Tie’s lips fell open.
Basto’s war hammer was a really amazing and cool hammer.
Twice Tie’s height in length, with a very heavy and solid head.
But recently its durability had dropped, so he could no longer use it.
“If you take the hammer to the blast furna, can it get fixed?”
“Yes.”
The one who answered was Basto, who was gazing at the weapons district visible through the heat haze with one arm hanging out the carriage.
“But I am not thinking of dragging things out that long. If we’re fast, once maintenance is done, we may even leave again tonight.”
“I see……”
They had run for a full four days just to come to the weapons district.
To think they might have to leave tonight right away somehow felt disappointing.
But Basto continued speaking soon after.
“The reason I want to leave early is the Factory Manager. Nothing good comes from becoming too deeply entangled with him.”
Tie’s eyes widened.
“So if you happen to meet the Factory Manager, it would be better not to look at him, not to speak to him, and not even to make eye contact. If possible, don’t even go near her, Tie.”
Without realizing it, Tie’s eyes grew round.
Until now, he had never once seen Basto dislike or avoid someone for no reason.
“The Factory Manager……?”
The name was cute, so why did he hate him?
But Tie soon learned why.
* * *
“What? Two months?!”
Weapons District, visitor lodging.
At Basto’s words after coming back from the foundry, Veil jumped up.
Basto let out a sigh.
“Yes. Apparently something offended the Factory Manager’s temper again……”
“I can’t wait. Absolutely can’t. We’re already pressed for time trying to find the brat’s dad, and you’re saying we have to stay stuck here for two months?”
Basto shook his head.
“I know too. Two months is impossible. So I told him we couldn’t wait that long, and that he should return the war hammer instead. But……”
Nordix clicked his tongue as though he knew exactly how it would be.
“He said he couldn’t stand to see a weapon he made being repaired by some low-quality other blacksmith, and took it away.”
“Took what away?”
“……My weapon. He took away my war hammer.”
“What?!”
Silence fell over the lodging.
Tie watched the members hard with eyes asking for an explanation, curious about what on earth had happened.
Sensing her gaze, Enzo came over to Tie.
“The Factory Manager of Weapons District is someone even the Emperor cannot do anything about.”
Tie’s lips parted.
If the Emperor was a king?
Was a person called the Factory Manager really that amazing?
“The Factory Manager is the chief overseer of this weapons district. He is also the head of all the blacksmiths who work here. How should I put it, he is someone with a very firm world of his own, so everyone finds him difficult to deal with. And when he behaves unreasonably like this, it isn’t easy to stop him either.”
In Tie’s mind, an image of the Factory Manager formed.
A giant figure standing before a blazing furnace.
Fearsome eyebrows and a rough expression……
“Sc-scary.”
Enzo nodded.
“He certainly is scary.”
“Around tomorrow, I shall try meeting the Factory Manager once.”
At that moment, Nordix stepped in.
“You could say that I am at least acquainted with him. For today, what say we first look around the armory hall?”
Enzo’s complexion brightened.
“That sounds good! I had been looking for a sword I could handle from now on anyway.”
Then she turned to Tie.
“Commander, Weapons District is largely divided into two sections. The smelting section where the Primordial Furnace is located, and the exhibition section where the armory hall is located.”
Tie nodded hard.
The smelting section had a furnace, so it must be where they made and repaired weapons……
“The exhibition section is where completed weapons are displayed and sold. Right over there.”
Enzo pointed toward the window.
The huge building visible outside made Tie’s eyes widen.
“That is the armory hall itself. It is a place through which every weapon in the empire, no, on the continent, passes at least once. Populosa Weapons District is that vast a place.”
Only then did Tie feel she understood why the head of the weapons district was called the ‘Factory Manager.’
Populosa Weapons District really was like one enormous factory in itself.
The barbed-wire fencing installed in several layers all the way around the district.
Even the sand and iron pieces rolling around on the ground.
“Would the little commander also like to look around the armory hall?”
“Yes!”
Tie nodded quickly.
Everyone else was going to look at weapons, so Tie alone could not very well stay shut up in the lodging.
“The brat is going too?”
But Veil seemed dissatisfied somehow.
“Why don’t you just stay here at the lodging with me? It’s not like there’s any weapon you need to buy anyway.”
Feeling desperate, Tie pattered over to Veil.
“No, Tie has a weapon to buy too!”
“What.”
“So th-that is……!”
But no matter how hard she wracked her brain, she could not think of what weapon she should buy.
And for good reason, because saying she had a weapon to buy was a lie she had made up because she wanted to look around the armory hall.
“Tie is…… u-umm……!”
“Let’s just all go together.”
At that moment, Basto stepped in like a savior.
Tie looked at Basto with a brightened face.
“In case I cannot get the war hammer back, I should look for a new weapon. Also, Veil, your swords’ edges have dulled badly. Wouldn’t it be better to buy new ones while we’re at it?”
Veil furrowed his brow.
It seemed he could not think of anything to say in rebuttal because Basto’s words made sense.
Basto then looked at Nordix.
“Wouldn’t it be better if Old Man Nordix also carried at least one self-defense weapon.”
Until now, Nordix’s luggage had been nothing but a personal water bottle, a few simple medicines, and one telescope.
Because in the first place he was not a combatant.
But given the nature of mercenaries, even members who were not combatants ought to carry at least one weapon.
“And lastly, Tie too.”
Tie himself widened her eyes when even her name came out of Basto’s mouth.
“In case something happens, it would be better to see whether there is a weapon you can handle easily too.”
“Have you lost your mind? What kind of weapon does the brat need? If she messes around trying to use it and gets hurt……”
“Something like a small poison dart bomb that fires paralytic poison as long as you throw it at the target.”
Tie’s mouth fell open.
“P-p-poison dart bomb……!”
But despite that frightening name, everyone else stayed quiet.
Before long, breaking the silence, Veil muttered,
“That’s good, actually.”
Tie jumped and looked at Veil.
Veil was stroking his chin as he repeated himself.
“The more I hear it, the more it makes sense. Four is about the age when you’d start trying something like a poison dart bomb.”