“…”
“…”
“…”
At the same time, the other three people in the Sacred Chamber all turned their gazes to Histori’s face.
“…W-Why are you looking at me?”
Histori silently scratched the tip of her nose—
“If you’re afraid of being exposed, why not just amp up the effects so that no one can see anything clearly? That way, you’ll have the finished product, save face, and send the outsiders away. As long as you don’t say anything, who would know whether that weapon was forged on the spot or beforehand?”
“…”
Baron and Yorike exchanged glances for a few seconds, while Amir, sitting to the side, tilted her head slightly and cast a strange look at Histori.
Then, after much mental preparation, the young forging genius Yorike opened his mouth first—
“B-But, this is clearly fraud! If the God of Forging finds out, He will surely punish us. From then on, impurities will remain in the materials every time we forge, and the billets will break during every smelting!”
“Eh…”
Although Histori wanted to retort…
‘If your God of Forging were really that effective, wouldn’t He have fixed your Sacred Artifact long ago?’
…she thought about it and gave up on the idea.
The failure of the Anvil of Thunder was theoretically only the dwarves’ own affair.
She had already done them a favor by offering advice.
There was no way she was going to go further and persuade them not to be so stubborn.
She had never intended to play the part of a goody-two-shoes.
Just as Histori shrugged and was about to give up, a loud voice suddenly came from behind her.
clap
“Idiot! Moron! A grown man like you can’t get over such a trivial matter?”
The Chieftain Baron, who had been carrying on as if honor was more important than life itself, now seemed as if a mysterious force had opened his meridians.
He suddenly stood up from the ground, slapped his thigh, and looked at Histori with grateful eyes—
“If you ask me, the God of Forging wouldn’t blame us for such a small matter. Rather, the words this young lady just spoke are a divine revelation He personally bestowed upon us!”
“…Huh?”
“You see, this young lady, driven by her father’s desire for the forging path, went to great lengths to seek the Hero’s help and came to our forging city of Vulcania. Although I was initially confused and accidentally drove them out of the Great Forging Assembly, the gods still guided them to us! And they have spoken the solution to us!”
Baron piously pressed his palms together and bowed twice toward the Sacred Artifact in the center of the Sacred Chamber—
“God of Forging above! So this was the way to solve it! I have fully understood Your will!”
“Hey, I came up with that myself. What does it have to do with your God of Forging?”
Histori made a weak retort, but the two dwarf zealots in front of her ignored her words entirely, simply pressing their hands together and bowing to the artifact again and again.
“…Sigh.”
Amir, who had been watching the show for a while, silently sighed, then stood up from her chair and shook her head at the two dwarves—
“Don’t celebrate too early. Even if her method can help you get by for now, what about afterwards?”
“As long as your Sacred Artifact remains unrepaired, you dwarves won’t be able to forge the next weapon imbued with divine power. When the United Kingdom and other nations exhaust your stockpile, how will you deal with it then?”
“…”
Chieftain Baron silently rubbed his beard, then shuffled over to the anvil.
He extended his rough hand and stroked the dim, lusterless Anvil of Thunder a few times—
“The Anvil of Thunder is broken. Naturally, we will do everything we can to repair it. But if the gods’ will is for us to no longer rely on the Sacred Artifact’s power, but to forge divine weapons with our own hands, then I will respect that will.”
“However, this has come too suddenly. Even if I am mentally prepared, the dwarf race is not ready to lose the Sacred Artifact. To them, the Anvil of Thunder is the initial and greatest motivation for them to take up the forging path. If I reveal this now, most dwarves will only fall into chaos.”
At this moment, although the Chieftain’s back looked a bit limping, it was also so majestic—
“So, I will shoulder this responsibility. I will slowly shift their focus away from the Sacred Artifact, until the dwarf race can stand on this continent even without it.”
“Until then, even if I have to steal or cheat, I will maintain the lie that the Sacred Artifact still exists.”
“Chieftain Baron…”
“Yorike…”
“Waaah, waaah, waaah…”
Watching the two dwarves—master and apprentice—getting emotional and crying in each other’s arms, Amir helplessly furrowed her brow, then casually picked up the hammer they had tossed aside.
“How you solve this is up to you. But before you go stealing or cheating, let me give it a try.”
“…You?”
Baron was taken aback, then reached out, instinctively trying to stop Amir from approaching the Sacred Artifact—
“Lady Hero, what are you doing? I already told you, the Anvil of Thunder currently has no divine power at all. It’s just a block of iron with a facade…”
“I know. But since you’ve already consulted all the masters of the dwarf race and nothing worked, what’s the harm in letting an amateur like me give it a try?”
“…That is true, but forging and fighting are two different things!”
Although Baron was quite reluctant, given the fighting prowess Amir had just displayed, he didn’t dare to step forward to stop her.
He just muttered a couple of lines—
“Lady Hero, although your strength is indeed considerable, the Anvil of Thunder has never required brute force. It requires the forging technique that we dwarves have honed through thousands of hammer strikes! Since ancient times, only the greatest forgers could awaken the power of the Anvil of Thunder. Any other rash user will be repelled by the lightning!”
Facing Chieftain Baron’s warning, Amir didn’t even raise an eyelid.
She simply walked straight to the anvil.
It was a black metal anvil with an extremely ancient and even crude appearance.
Just by looking at it, it was hard to believe it held any divine power.
“…”
Amir lightly tossed the hammer in her hand, awkwardly moved the mithril ore that Baron had set aside to the center of the Anvil of Thunder, and then made a couple of practice swings.
“…No, Lady Hero.”
Baron, who had intended to keep quiet, couldn’t help but make a sarcastic remark when he saw Amir’s stance—
“Your posture is way too amateurish. And who uses both hands on the hammer when forging? Use your other hand to pick up a tool and hold the ore in place! Otherwise, when you bring that hammer down, the ore will just fly off the anvil—”
crackle—
However, the moment the hammer in Amir’s hand made contact with the mithril ore on the Anvil of Thunder, a faint crackling sound suddenly echoed in the chamber.
Then, a thin blue arc of electricity danced faintly across the surface of the Anvil of Thunder.
“…!?”