SWNOVELXO Chapter 23: Analysis
“…Yes, you’ve really done a great job. It’s like new, just as I received it from my foster father.”
“Whew, from what I hear, your foster father must be quite the eccentric. Adopting an amputee orphan, an elf no less, as a foster daughter when he is just a dwarf. Giving such a child a new arm and a monstrous bow to boot. I’ve lived a long life, but I’ve never heard of such a dwarf.”
Yuna was checking her arm’s condition by repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fist.
Judging by the faint smile on her face, it seems the maintenance was successful this time. That’s a relief. She seemed quite dissatisfied last time.
“My father was indeed quite unique. He was an authority on clockwork toys and loved adventurers. Whenever he saw them, he would invite them in, listen to their stories of the world, and give them free equipment.”
While Yuna was lost in her past memories, Akash and Altera were in complete chaos.
Grabbing each other by the collar and shaking, or pushing each other against the wall as if they were about to grind each other into it. Yet, Akash’s laughter showed no signs of stopping.
“Hic… Hic… Hey, I’m sorry. The laughter… Choke… Ah, it won’t stop… Pfft, hahahahaha!! Worm wyrm… Earthwormr… Hahahaha, ahah!”
The only reason Altera wasn’t killing Akash seemed to be that they were comrades, judging by the murderous aura she was emitting.
“…This bastard, I can’t take it anymore.”
Just before Altera threw him to the ground, I had to use the slave imprint to forcibly stop his laughter. I had to do it, or he might have actually died.
“By the authority of the master, I command you. Please stop laughing, Akash! Goodness. What’s so funny that you’re giggling like that?! Altera is really angry!”
The tattoo on his neck glowed brightly, and Akash’s laughter, which had been like a seizure, finally stopped.
“…Whew. Uh. Yeah… Worm wyrm, Earthworm. I can use this for a long time. Tell her I said thanks. I laughed my ass off because of her.”
His laughter finally subsided. Altera, seeing that he had stopped laughing, let him go, almost throwing him.
…If I relayed that message, it was clear that I wouldn’t die, but I would definitely get a good beating, so I didn’t bother.
“Why is it… so unpleasant when that guy says it.”
“P-please don’t think too badly of him. Akash is… well. He risks his life for trashy puns. Sorry. I can’t do anything about that. Can’t you just bear with it…?”
Altera tilted her head back, let out a long sigh, and agreed to put up with his trashy puns on one condition.
“Tell him that if he says ‘worm wyrm’ again, I’ll bury him alive that day.”
“…Um. Akash. She says she’ll bury you alive if you say ‘worm wyrm’.”
Then he said, ‘So Earthworm is okay then?’ No, that’s… Ah, forget it. He can deal with the consequences himself.
Come to think of it, one of the reasons we came here was that ingot. As Yuna and the Forge Master finished their conversation, I approached them with the key pretending to be an ingot.
“Thank you for helping my companion, Forge Master. I have one more request. Do you… know what this is?”
The Forge Master, complaining about being exploited for labor, examined the ingot carefully and asked what kind of metal it was. I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know either…
I pricked my fingertip with a small dagger and smeared blood on the key. The Forge Master was startled by the strange act, but soon, like us, he shut his mouth at the scene that followed.
Perhaps because I applied less blood than last time, it didn’t stay open as long as before. But it was enough for the Forge Master to figure out what was going on.
“…All, Stre… Wha, what is that? How, how can something I’ve never seen before come to mind?”
“What…? Did something come to mind? Please tell me anything.”
“No… It’s. Something does come to mind… but it’s like it’s constantly being cut off… Ah, yes. It’s like looking at a torn blueprint. I know it’s used somewhere, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”
He was clearly confused. I was confused too. Not only did he say something incomprehensible, but how could something he’s never seen before suddenly come to mind?
Even when I asked Akash, I didn’t get a clear answer. He just said that since it’s a dwarven artifact, something might happen if we took it to the dwarves.
“…Didn’t you just say that the dwarves of today are different from the dwarves of old?”
“They’re still dwarves. And the ancient dwarves were incredibly wicked. They even made laws to make others pay the price for using their warlock magic. I’m using that to my advantage, though. Hmm… Those vicious guys… Fragmentarily coming to mind… What should I do…”
Akash tapped his head with his hand, trying to recall something. Well, it wouldn’t be a problem if we couldn’t get help from the dwarves.
If we follow the direction the artifact is pointing, we should come across the ruins. If we don’t… well, that would be unfortunate. But the things that happened along the way won’t become nothing. That’s the real treasure… I guess I can’t say that.
I didn’t think it would be easy, but I didn’t expect it to be this difficult from the start.
Wanting to clear my head a bit, I looked at Altera, and she was remaking the cloak that had been torn in the previous fight.
As if she had done it many times before, she poked something into a long piece of cloth and brought it to the fur around her neck, and in an instant, another cloak was made.
I wish she would wear some clothes. Every time I look at her, I don’t know where to put my eyes. Her body, of course, and her face… it’s a bit overwhelming.
Altera doesn’t seem to mind at all, but she is beautiful. Her appearance played a part in my decision to include her in the party.
“…What are you looking at.”
“No… Um. Uh. It’s a sensitive issue, but I think we need to talk about the money you have… It’s not about using it all as shared property, but… yeah. Just 5 gold…?”
“Oh. Is it about money? Humans. Here, 5 gold coins.”
She coolly shared a large sum of 5 gold. It might be pocket change to her… but still. It’s not an amount that can be given away so easily.
…Or, she has no sense of money. I’ll find out which one it is as we travel together.
“Wait… Hey. Yuna. Gather all the dwarves here. Something came to mind.”
“What is it, are you going to bother them again? We’ve already imposed on them enough. So I can’t be more rude!”
“It’s not like that. Those guys will probably welcome it. Come on, hurry. The dwarven ruins are waiting.”
Yuna, not quite believing his words, moved slowly, but she gathered all the dwarves in front of the forge.
“Ah, and. Have Altera smear blood on that key. I’ll tell you the reason later.”
Since Akash rarely had such a serious expression, I decided to trust him for now and asked Altera if she could shed a few drops of blood on this key.
– – – – –
I knew what happened when blood was shed, but I questioned whether it had to be me who shed it.
I asked if it wouldn’t be better for that mage to do it like before, but Myungho just smiled awkwardly and asked me to do it.
“…Well. Fine. It’s not like I’ll die from shedding a few drops.”
II sharpened my claws, pricked my palm, and held my hand over the ingot.
Drip, drip. A few drops fell, and the key greedily swallowed my blood, opening wider than ever before, revealing a landscape of the universe before my eyes.
When the mage did it, only the upper part opened, but why did it float up and open the lower part when I did it…?
Besides that, the shitheads’ condition was strange. As if they were collectively hypnotized, the shitheads were babbling nonsense, and I couldn’t see any reason in their eyes.
Yes. It was as if they weren’t speaking on their own volition, but… reciting something someone wrote down a long time ago. It was such an unpleasant and creepy sight.
“Hey, Hero! You can understand what they’re saying now, right?!”
“All, Stre. Kaiem… I still don’t know what it means… Huh. Uh, I hear it, I hear it! The location of the vault… East 52… North 23…? The reference point is… the tower…? What does that mean?”
“Tower, northeast, vault… Okay! We’ve got everything we need, I think I know roughly where it is!”
What’s going on? Like Yuna, who was staring blankly, I also watched the scene in front of me in a daze.
It’s pretty. Akash was busy taking notes, and Myungho was busy talking, so they probably didn’t see it. The key, which had been open for a long time, suddenly returned to its original form without any warning.
Myungho picked up the key that had fallen to the ground. Then he tried to wake up the dwarves by shaking them.
His efforts were in vain, as they didn’t wake up at all.
“Forge Master…? Everyone? Wake up! Everyone?! Akash, what happened?!”
“I had a hunch, but… it’s soul engraving. It’s a magic close to a curse that directly engraves something into the soul. Those damn dwarves, they wanted to leave their mark even by leaving a curse on their own souls. Don’t worry. They’ll wake up soon.”
“So these people are… okay?”
“If by ‘okay’ you mean they’ll be in the same state as when we met them, then yes. But it’ll probably take more than 5 hours for them to wake up. Let’s go, we have no more business here and we’ve found our destination.”
Akash walked towards the entrance we came in, saying something. Neither Myungho nor Yuna looked satisfied, but they followed him as he moved.
…Those shitheads, they are alive, right? I put my hand to the breathing holes of the mask, and they were at least breathing. Well, they’ll probably live.
Leaving the dwarves behind, I joined the procession heading to the surface.
Myungho was asking Akash something earnestly.
“…So, you’re going back to Goldsmett?”
“No. Why would I go there? I need to go in the opposite direction. To Enshullos.”