Chapter 149 – Bear-san Goes To The Capital’s Smithy
The next morning, we ate breakfast and bade farewell to Shia, who was going to the academy, and Eleanora-san, who was going to work at the castle.
「Fina-chan, come again, okay?」
「You two can always come to play, okay? There are some places at the castle I didn’t get to show to Fina, so I will make sure to take you there without anyone bothering us next time, okay?」
Fina answered with a troubled expression.
The King must have really done some bad things to her, huh. Poor thing...
If I ever took Fina to the castle again, I had to protect her.
Shia and Eleanora-san were about to leave, so we departed too.
We weren’t headed to Crimonia, though, but to Gazar-san’s smithy.
「Big Sis Yuna, we’re not going back?」
Fina asked me when she noticed we weren’t headed towards the Bear House.
「I plan on making use of Gold-san’s letter before going back, so we’re headed to Gazar-san’s smithy.」
Well, I could have went back without going there, but I had something to ask him and give him a souvenir. Also, I wanted to have a few mithril knives made.
Fina held my Bear Hand as we walked. I had left her at the mansion for a while, so she might have been lonely. I should let her do what she wanted. Also, it wasn’t like I had a reason to shake her off.
We arrived at Gazar-san’s smithy, still hand in hand.
「Excuse me. Gazar-san, are you here?」
I called out when we entered the shop, and he came out from the back.
「What... I was thinking who it was, but it was you, the one wearing those strange clothes.」
「Why have you come so early in the morning?」
「To tell you that the mine has been cleared, I guess? It won’t take long for the ores to start coming again.」
「You aren’t telling me that you were the one who took care of it?」
I then gave him a brief report of what had happened.
「I see, thank you for telling me. A Mithril Golem, though? I don’t believe it...」
「Well, I defeated it and took its mithril, so could I ask you to make a mithril knife for me?」
「You could just ask Gold to do it, right?」
「I plan on asking him too. Making mithril weapons takes time, right?」
「You’re right, processing mithril is difficult and is not done overnight.」
「I want to have four knives made, so I planned on asking Gold-san and you to make two each.」
「I understand your reasoning, but you live at Crimonia, right? If you don’t plan on coming back here anytime soon, it might be easier to just ask Gold to make all of them.」
「It’s fine since I have a way of coming here quickly.」
「If you will really be coming back here to receive them, it is fine by me.」
「Thank you. I will take out the Mithril Golem now, okay?」
I took out the crumbled Mithril Golem from the Bear Box, and it just barely fit into the shop.
「So, this is the Mithril Golem, huh...」
Gazar-san approached the golem and examined it with a serious face, paying close attention to where the cuts were.
「What’s with this fake?」
I tilted my head when I heard his unexpected words.
「That’s right. It is a Mithril Golem but at the same time it isn’t one.」
I didn’t understand what he was saying at all.
「Here and also here. You can see that the color is different below the surface, right?」
He said while pointing at the cuts with his thick finger. He was right, the color behind the cuts was indeed different.
「The interior is iron. Only the exterior is mithril.」
「Yep. You can ask Gold when you return to Crimonia if you don’t believe me.」
I didn’t really think that he was lying, but it was still hard to believe that the interior was iron.
Well, it made sense for him to call it a fake if that was the case.
「There is still mithril on it, right?」
「I would say that it’s only one fourth of it, maybe one third at best.」
God had been really stingy, giving me a fake Mithril Golem. If mithril only covered the surface, didn’t it function just as a coating? If it had been gold coated then it would have been a Gold Golem?
I felt as if I had been scammed.
「It’s still enough to make a few knives, right?」
They were my main goal, after all.
「Yeah, if all you want is knives, it’s enough for a number of them.」
Whew. If he had said that it wasn’t enough, I would have had to buy them.
「If I remember correctly, you wanted a dismantling knife, right?」
「That’s right, but might I ask you to make me two fighting knives? This request made me want a mithril weapon.」
I had started to want them when I had seen how Senya-san fought.
I wouldn’t mind a long sword, but they didn’t seem easy to use while I could use knives for other things as well.
「What about the dismantling knife?」
「I will ask Gold-san to make two of them for me.」
It was better to ask Gold-san to make the dismantling knives since he would also be the one maintaining them.
「Okay, then. You’re asking for two knives; is it one for you and one for the missy next to you?」
「No, I will use them both, so one right-handed and one left-handed knife if possible.」
「You will dual wield them, huh.」
「Well, that’s fine by me. You want two knives, so I will make two knives. Show me your hands.」
I showed him my Bear Hands.
「You... Are you kidding me? I asked you to show me your hands because I need to know their size, so I can make knives that fit them.」
「I will hold the knives with my gloves on, though...」
I made the Bear Hand’s mouth open and close.
「Just remove these strange gloves and show me your hands for now!」
Since he persisted, I removed my gloves and showed him my hands.
Gazar-san touched the palm of my hands, which made me a bit ticklish.
「They are really soft too. You really fight with these hands?」
「I mostly use magic, but yeah.」
「It’s okay then, but you will have to train, or you will get blisters on your hands. Well, I got your hand sizes now, so put your gloves back on now.」
I put my gloves back on, and Gazar-san held my hands again.
「Nice fabric you’re using, huh.」
「You can tell just from touching it?」
「Pretty much, yeah. Okay, I have a feel of what your hands are like, now. Do you need the knives made quickly?」
「Not really, you can take your time. How long does it normally take?」
「It takes time to process mithril, so about 10 days.」
「So, which mithril type do you want? From what you told me, the magic one would be the best for you, but...」
I tilted my head, hearing those words for the first time.
「You’re asking for a mithril weapon without even knowing about its types?」
I couldn’t help not knowing about it. After all, mithril weapons had no types in the game.
Gazar-san proceeded to explain.
「If I just rely on the pure mithril ore, I can draw out its sharpness. Such weapons are generally used by those who can’t use magic. If I add a magic potion to the mithril ore, I can make a magic type mithril weapon. Wielders can then use magic to reinforce the mithril. Its sharpness is lower without magic, but with it, it can be stronger than a regular mithril weapon.」
「Doesn’t everyone possess a certain amount of magic power?」
Anyone was able to light a light magic stone and make water from a water magic stone.
「If a person doesn’t have the magic power of a mage, they aren’t strong enough to reinforce mithril with magic power.」
So, people without enough magic power couldn’t use them, huh.
「I somewhat get it, but which one is better in the end?」
「That depends on the user. Pure mithril weapons are generally stronger than magic ones, but with enough magic, magic mithril weapons triumph over the pure mithril weapons.」
「Can you make it a bit easier for me to understand, please?」
「Magic users use magic type. Others use pure type.」
He said as if giving up on me.
Well, he did make it easy to understand, so I didn’t mind.
「Please make the magic type mithril knives, then.」
Gazar-san let out a sigh as if the explanation had left him tired.
「I will take enough mithril to make two knives, then.」
Gazar-san took a part of the Mithril Golem. It should have been heavy, but he lifted it easily.
As expected from a dwarf, huh?
「If I will have some leftover, I will give it back to you when you come to get the knives. Is that okay?」
「Yes, fine by me. So, how much do I have to pay?」
「Hmm. You brought the mithril, so this much should be fine.」
I didn’t know the market prices, but Gazar-san didn’t seem like a person who would trick people, so I accepted his offer.
「You can pay when I give you the knives.」
「Oh right, this isn’t meant to act as my payment, but do you want this?」
I put the rest of the Mithril Golem back inside the Bear Box then brought out an Iron Golem.
I brought it out still standing up, the way I had defeated it.
Gazar-san yelled out in surprise.
Well, it made sense for him to be surprised when seeing a standing, undamaged Iron Golem.
「It’s an Iron Golem. I thought it might look good inside your shop. Maybe you could even put it in front of your door?」
「The clients would stop coming if I did that!」
「I thought it would be a great idea, though... It could be a great advertisement if you gave it a sword and a shield and put it at the front...」
「Is it supposed to be a gatekeeper!?」
I still believed that an Iron Golem would go well with a smithy, though...
「I can’t accept something this big for free anyway.」
「I don’t really need payment. I have a lot of them, after all.」
The Iron Golems were not of much use to me anyway, so I had no problem with giving one or two away.
「A lot of them... You... Who are you, really? In his letter, Gold wrote that even with your appearance, you’re an excellent adventurer, and that he wanted me to help you, but...」
「I’m technically a rank C adventurer.」
「Rank C... I guess it makes sense if that’s the case?」
Gazar-san looked at my Bear Suit with a complicated expression.
「It doesn’t really matter. I will take this Iron Golem as a payment for the mithril knives. I will add one maintenance free of charge, too.」
「I will pay for it properly.」
「You don’t need to. If this Iron Golem becomes a hindrance, I will just have to dispose of it.」
「Do with it as you please. I will leave it in the corner, okay?」
I dragged the Iron Golem to a corner of the shop using my Bear Hand.
「It won’t be a hindrance here, right?」
I turned around and was met by Fina and Gazar-san looking at me with their eyes wide open.
「You... You really are strong even with those soft hands of yours.」
Ah, they were shocked because I moved the Iron Golem, huh.
A frail maiden normally wouldn’t be able to move Iron Golems around, right?
「Oh right, Gazar-san, I wanted you to take a look at something. Would you mind?」
I changed the subject to dodge the issue.
I took the Bearmonite out of the Bear Box and handed it to Gazar-san.
「Do you know what this ore is?」
Gazar-san started to examine it closely.
I made sure to hide its name, in case he didn’t recognize it and I also didn’t want people to think I was the one that gave it this name.
After examining the ore from every angle, Gazar-san tilted his head.
「I have never seen this one. Where did you find it?」
For a dwarf like Gazar-san to not know of it, what was this Bearmonite, really?
「It was where the Mithril Golem stood guard.」
「I know that it’s not a normal ore, but no more. My master might know it, though...」
「Gazar-san’s master?」
「Yes. He is in the dwarf country at the moment, so I can’t show it to him, though.」
「The dwarf country!? There was something like that!?」
「Why are you asking me something so obvious? Well, it’s a small country, smaller than the capital.」
Wow, a dwarf country... Which fantasy story was it from!?
Anyway, if there really was one, I wanted to visit it either way.
「Is its location a secret?」
「Not really, anyone can enter it, but it is a bit far away from here.」
「Could you tell me where it is?」
「You want to go there?」
I could visit the dwarf country. If I asked Senya-san, would she tell me where the elf country was?
This wasn’t a game, but a real world, which made me want to see them even more.
「If you really want to go, I can write you an introduction letter for my master.」
「Really!? That would be great!」
「I will give it to you when the knives are ready, then.」
Information on the dwarf country... Obtained!