162 – The Artisan’s Promise – 1

“Is that really so? Of course, it is a pleasure that the Hero of Gratia will solve Uralta’s problem—but can you really guarantee that Glittertoss stealing away the offering won’t become an issue?”

Around the time the discussion was roughly settled with Gi-jun stepping forward himself—one dwarf raised the issue again.

The other dwarves were also nodding in agreement, but to Gi-jun, who already grasped the cause of the situation, it was simply laughable.

“Wasn’t the punishment for Glittertoss already concluded fifty years ago in the first place? I already said I would solve this matter, so why are you trying to make an issue out of Glittertoss again?”

“Because there is still an unresolved issue remaining! That very offering!”

The dwarf raised his voice.

“In the end, Glittertoss did not return the offering. If we do not perform the ritual with it again, even if we calm the eruption this time, the same thing will repeat sooner or later!”

“That’s right, even if that guy is a hero or whatever, he doesn’t know this city or the volcano better than we do. Catching those blood-sucking mosquito bastards is completely different from this matter. What if he fails!”

“Lord Ptah’s wrath will become even fiercer!”

“Hmm, but even the Elder accepted it.”

“Perhaps this matter really has nothing to do with the ritual.”

“It takes more than two weeks just to prepare for the ritual. If the volcanic activity gets progressively worse until then, the city might be covered in volcanic ash by the time we perform the ritual.”

“He’s a hero, can’t we trust him with it? He didn’t just catch mosquitoes, he even caught a dragon, a dragon!”

Opinions were divided sharply between the dwarves influenced by Gi-jun’s charisma and the dwarves resisting it.

Just the fact that they could resist Gi-jun’s charm, which was reaching the very end of the Legendary grade, showed how much this city, Uralta, and the city’s guardian deity, Ptah, meant to the dwarves.

“I simply couldn’t offer that as a sacrifice.”

Then, at the words Glittertoss suddenly spat out, the commotion miraculously died down.

At the faces of the dwarves turning toward Glittertoss all at once, Gi-jun even felt horror for a moment.

He thought.

The reason the dwarves had dragged Glittertoss into this even though he said he would solve the problem was—perhaps, just perhaps.

“Then where is that sword now?”

“Bring it here!”

Could it be that these bastards were just obsessed with the sword that was scheduled to be offered as a sacrifice from the very beginning!

Beside Gi-jun, who was shuddering at the realization of the truth, Glittertoss spoke up once more.

“I don’t have it right now. It left.”

“Nonsense!”

“We know you treasure your father’s keepsake, but you betrayed us! You betrayed your living kin just to protect the feelings of the deceased Glitterfinger!”

Sure enough, the dwarves unleashed a torrent of abuse at the statement that Glittertoss did not have the sword either.

But Glittertoss gave a hollow laugh and said,

“It’s not nonsense. It really left. That sword—gained a sense of self.”

“What?”

“It became a Tsukumogami, I tell you.”

The hall fell into silence once again.

Gi-jun had also fought a Tsukumogami not long ago.

He remembered it as a potion bottle mutated by acquiring a soul, possessing the monstrous ability to continuously spray toxic fluid.

“Its sense of self had just sprouted, so it looked exactly like a sword, but I knew because it spoke to me the day before the ritual. I couldn’t sacrifice something that thought and spoke just like a human. That is why I stole away the offering. Well, now that you know the reason, are you satisfied?”

“A Tsukumogami…”

“How could this be.”

“Yes, we left that sword alone for too long. I suppose a sword must be held and swung after all…”

If they sacrificed a sword with a sense of self, how would that be any different from a living sacrifice?

As Gi-jun inwardly applauded the secret history from fifty years ago that kept piling twist upon twist, Eun-shin cautiously asked from behind.

“How is that different from an Ego Sword, Hyung?”

“Tsukumogami can even grow as big as humans.”

“You don’t know, Hyung. Ego Swords can become human too.”

“Then let’s just call that a Tsukumogami too.”

The two reached an amicable agreement after their silly conversation.

Glittertoss, who fortunately did not hear their conversation, maintained an infinitely grave expression—and declared in a firm voice to the dwarves who were sighing or shaking their heads.

“In any case, that fellow left on his own, so give up on it. If Jun cannot resolve this situation, then I will truly throw my own body into the crater.”

After all the discussions were finished, they left the dwarven hall.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and demanded of Gi-jun.

—Contractor, what happened to the Overman’s will? To tell a lie like that without even changing your expression.

“The Overman I strive to be is someone who can protect myself and my companions under any circumstances at any time. I simply refrained from saying things that might cause misunderstandings to prevent my companions from getting caught up in unnecessary trouble. I’m sure Teacher Nietzsche would approve, too.”

Gi-jun, who had rattled off his excuse like flowing water, turned to Glittertoss, whom he had successfully brought out safely from the hall filled with dwarves, and spoke.

“Anyway, you don’t need to worry about being offered as a living sacrifice, Glittertoss. I have an idea about the volcano’s rampage.”

“Haha, I knew our VVIP would handle it somehow.”

When it came to the thickness of his skin, Glittertoss seemed by no means inferior to Gi-jun.

However, Tilla approached Glittertoss, who was laughing and speaking so shamelessly, and abruptly yanked his beard.

“Ugh!”

“To make things difficult by suddenly throwing a problem at us that we could have discussed beforehand. If you weren’t the artisan who crafted that shield for Jun, I would have burned you to ash without a second thought!”

“I didn’t know either! Who could have known that the volcano would be running wild like this when I returned to my hometown!”

True enough.

Glittertoss had been banished from Uralta fifty years ago for stealing away the offering for the ritual.

In other words, the case had been closed without him receiving any further punishment.

And now that fifty years had passed, he had returned thinking that the others’ anger had died down, only to be struck by this sudden bolt from the blue, so he had some right to feel aggrieved.

Of course, Tilla did not care.

“Even so, the fact that you dragged Jun into your problem with the dwarves on your own doesn’t change. If Jun gets into danger or ends up disgraced because of this, know that I’ll burn off every single strand of this precious beard of yours…!”

“Danger aside, I’ll take all the disgrace, so do not worry and please let go of my beard first, my beard.”

At the sight of Tilla’s eyes flashing dangerously with heat, Glittertoss was finally reduced to begging for her mercy in polite speech.

Sighing at the shabby appearance of Glittertoss, who had been an infinitely famous and proud artisan back in Turis, Unika asked him.

“Just as a reference, what was your original plan? I doubt you simply intended to return to Uralta.”

“That… let’s talk about it once we go to my house first.”

It was no lie that Glittertoss had originally lived in Uralta.

His workshop was located in a commercial district quite close to the central road; the surroundings were messy as if someone had attempted to break in, but it appeared they ultimately failed to enter.

“Hmph, they probably loitered around thinking there might be something left to scavenge, but that’s not a barrier hyena-like bastards can open.”

“What’s this, Glittertoss? Did you get caught before you even had a chance to step into your house?”

“Exactly. They must have heard rumors of my return to Uralta. Well, I was dragged to the royal palace not long ago, so it must have been easy to trace my whereabouts.”

As Glittertoss approached the entrance of the workshop and busied his hands, it opened, and a scorching heat blasted out from within.

A small flame was burning in the furnace situated in the center of the workshop—if what Glittertoss said earlier was true, this would be his first time returning to this workshop in fifty years.

If the fire had kept burning all this time, that furnace was no ordinary object either.

“It’s the furnace of my father, Glitterfinger. That sword which became a Tsukumogami was crafted here too.”

Glittertoss, who murmured while looking at the furnace with a somewhat nostalgic expression, soon raised his head, surveyed the group, and spoke.

“It’s too hot to talk in here. Let’s all head further inside first.”

Guiding the party past the furnace and into a room separated from the workshop, Glittertoss finally began his story in earnest.

“There is an extremely dangerous dungeon in this volcano. Sleeping inside is Orichalcum, a mineral so absurdly rare that it is called the divine ore… I wondered if our VVIP might be able to retrieve Orichalcum from that dungeon. I thought if I offered to forge a new sword with it to perform the ritual, even those senile old fogeys would accept it.”

“Orichalcum?”

Lora, who had been quietly listening from the back all this time, widened her eyes in surprise at the mention of Orichalcum.

“I have heard that the sacred relic symbolizing the Order of Light was made of Orichalcum. It is a magic metal referred to as divine metal, said to be even rarer than mithril.”

“Is Orichalcum really in that dungeon? No matter how dangerous the dungeon is, if it were certain that Orichalcum was there, there’s no way they would have left it alone all this time.”

“The material used to forge the sword that became a Tsukumogami was none other than Orichalcum. Does that answer your question?”

“You were monopolizing the information, you greedy dwarf.”

Tilla, who no longer viewed Glittertoss in a favorable light, shot back without filtering her thoughts.

Although displeased, he nodded.

“My father was a superb artisan, but also a formidable warrior. At the time, he was the only one who could explore that dungeon, and he was the only one who actually retrieved Orichalcum and returned. However, because he suffered a major wound in the process… he needed recuperation, but he foolishly bustled about saying he had to forge the sword, only to pass away the moment it was completed.”

“And the other dwarves insisted on using that sword as the offering for the ritual?”

“Well, if you had to choose the most perfect sword in Uralta, there was indeed nothing else but that. But it’s ridiculous. My father always believed that good weapons should be held by strong warriors, and since I also inherited my father’s will, I wanted to find someone who could wield that sword properly. But because those damn bastards got in the way, I couldn’t sell the sword and had to keep it locked away to the very end.”

“Was it jealousy?”

“They probably wanted to analyze it. Greedy dwarf bastards.”

This time, it was not Tilla, but Glittertoss who spoke.

“When they suggested using the sword as an offering, I suspected them. I was certain that someone would swap the sword out.”

“And then you found out that the sword had gained a sense of self.”

“It was the moment I became certain that Lord Ptah existed. I decided I absolutely could not leave it to their whims—and stole the sword away.”

“What happened after that?”

“I told you, it left. There is only one reason it became a Tsukumogami: because no one would use it. Perhaps by now, it is wandering the continent, searching for someone fit to be its master.”

“It really is an Ego Sword.”

Eun-shin nodded as if he had expected it.

Meanwhile, Gi-jun narrowed his eyes and pointed out the flaw in his words.

“The reason the dwarves coveted the sword was because it was made of Orichalcum. But in that situation, wouldn’t they think it’s strange if you presented another sword made of Orichalcum?”

“I thought I would gloss over that part by borrowing the hero’s reputation… W-What are you looking at me like that for! Since the shield I crafted for you was helpful, can’t the VVIP be my shield just this once!”

Not only Tilla but also the other party members began to glare at Glittertoss.

Since nothing would change even if they kept having a staring contest—Gi-jun lightly tapped the table and declared.

“Now that we know the circumstances, let’s prepare to climb the volcano. We will hunt the Divine Beast there. Ah, and Glittertoss—the reward this time is the information on the dungeon with the Orichalcum.”

“A Divine Beast? Hey, wait.”

“Now, let’s start preparing!”