Chapter 101
The dwarf old man Hetos’s face puffed up like an angry toad.
Dwarves.
They were a race of dwarven fairies blessed by the earth, with their entire species possessing an innate talent for metallurgy and blacksmithing.
Additionally, as a racial characteristic, each dwarf had a subspace world called a “workshop” from the moment they were born.
The workshop and the dwarf were one and the same.
This place was Hetos’s workshop.
Dwarves could choose who could enter their workshop and set conditions for entry.
The condition to enter Hetos’s workshop was to be the owner of a platinum plaque proving one’s status as an S-rank mercenary.
He was a quirky old man who only made weapons for mercenaries he acknowledged for their skills.
“Get lost!”
Hetos immediately swung his hammer in the air to threaten Aden and attempted to drive him away.
He was a several-hundred-year-old dwarf who was quite temperamental and seemed to be in a bad mood now.
He scanned Aden from head to toe again.
Then, as if he found it absurd, he clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“Well, your build is quite decent, but there’s no weapon I can make for a brat like you who still has wet behind the ears. Oh my, the world these days is truly going to the dogs. To think even a young kid like you would be given an S-rank mercenary plaque. The world is really going mad! When I was young….”
With his crude swearing and nagging, he was no different from a twisted old man in the neighborhood.
However, his blacksmithing skills were exceptional.
‘The sword I used to kill the Underlord was also crafted by this guy.’
From the moment he crafted a sword with dragon scales, and from the moment that sword was used to defeat the Underlord, the pinnacle of all Talos, no one could doubt he was the best blacksmith.
Meanwhile, Curse felt a strange emotion when he faced the dwarf.
-……So this is the dwarf who made the sword that pierced my heart like a skewer?
Who wouldn’t feel strange seeing the person who made the weapon that killed them?
Though the real question was whether they could come back to life after dying.
Aden let Hetos’s nagging and swearing pass by as he spoke.
“I came to commission the crafting of weapons, Hetos.”
“Hey! Are your ears blocked? Just get out……!”
“Now, now. Let’s drink this and talk.”
Aden took out a bottle of alcohol from his subspace pouch.
The moment Hetos saw the sophisticated design and label of the bottle, his expression changed dramatically.
His throat trembled as he opened his mouth.
“That, that’s not……?”
Seeing his reaction, Aden smiled inwardly.
Hetos was the same as ever.
Aden had known Hetos for a long time and was well aware of this old dwarf’s weakness.
“As you guessed. It’s the finest white wine from the Kingdom of Drathia, ‘Tears of the White Dragon.’”
Hetos had always been a drinker.
He couldn’t live without alcohol and was very particular about its quality.
And ‘Tears of the White Dragon’ was the finest wine, highly prized even by the royal family. How could he just pass it by?
Gulp.
The sound of him swallowing his saliva was audible to Aden.
With this, the tables had turned.
Hetos, who had been so irritable, now fell silent.
Soon, he looked at Aden with an awkward smile.
“Ahem, young man, let’s have a chat. You know……over a drink or two…….”
* * *
Shortly after.
“Ahh! Yes, this is the taste! Hahaha!”
Hetos, drinking the expensive ‘Tears of the White Dragon’ straight from the bottle, looked delighted.
“Humans may not know much else, but they sure know how to make excellent alcohol! Hahaha!”
His wrinkled, flushed face looked like an old tomato.
“This is the first time in 20 years since that scoundrel Balkan gave me such fine liquor.”
Aden felt a bit strange hearing his mentor’s name after a long time.
He actually knew why Hetos had been acting so prickly.
‘It must be because Master Balkan went missing.’
The Mercenary King Balkan had disappeared around this time.
Even in his past life, Aden had searched everywhere to find his master’s whereabouts but to no avail.
Hetos had been quite close to successive Mercenary Kings.
Especially with his master, the current Mercenary King Balkan, whom he had known since Balkan was the squire of the previous Mercenary King.
That’s why he must have felt deeply attached to him and harbored bitter feelings about his disappearance.
‘Especially in a world where I, as the apprentice of the Mercenary King, no longer exist.’
The sense of loneliness must have doubled.
Aden had known Hetos since he was a child, kidnapped and trained by his master.
As much as he was close to his master, Aden also frequently visited this workshop, and Hetos was like a cranky neighborhood grandpa to him.
– Tsk tsk. Poor kid, to get involved with that kind of person.
– Hey, don’t touch that thing!
– You broke the sword again? Damn it! Stop breaking them already!
There was no denying the bitterness in knowing those memories were now mere illusions.
– I only turned back time. It was beyond my control that your existence got erased.
‘Enough. I’m not going to argue about it now.’
Maybe sensing Aden’s mood, Curse made an excuse uncharacteristically.
Seeing that Hetos seemed to have calmed down a bit, Aden spoke to him.
“Hetos, let’s stop drinking and get to the commission, shall we?”
“Ah, yes. Ahem, you said you came to commission some weapons? What do you want? A sword? A shield?”
His previously grumpy demeanor had completely vanished.
Bribery worked everywhere, indeed.
“I’ll take out the materials first.”
Aden began taking out the materials he had collected from his subspace pouch one by one.
Phoenix feathers.
Leonberger leather.
Silk woven by the Fairy Tribe.
Basilisk scales and fangs, etc.
As each rare material, which would make anyone gasp, appeared one after another, Hetos’s expression turned incredulous, and when Aden finally took out the stellanium ingots, Hetos’s eyes trembled, and his jaw dropped as if it might fall off.
“St-stellanum! And so much of it! Young man, who exactly are you?”
“Is that really important right now? Rather, can you make armor and a dagger from these?”
“…….”
Hetos, who seemed to have sobered up, stroked his beard thoughtfully as he examined the materials.
‘I thought he was just a brat…….’
His physique was quite impressive, but he was young, and his fair appearance suggested he had never gone through any hardships.
He must be of noble status somewhere.
That’s why Hetos thought of him as a greenhorn and ignored him.
But seeing the materials Aden brought out changed his mind.
“Young man, what’s your name?”
“Aden Remes.”
“Aden Remes……. Got it, I’ll remember it.”
These were materials that couldn’t be obtained easily, no matter how much money one spent.
Changing his mind, he began to see things he hadn’t noticed before.
‘Strange.’
Aden’s eyes, unlike his handsome appearance, held a deep and sinister determination.
Hetos didn’t dislike those with such eyes.
‘And for some reason, he feels more familiar the more I look at him.’
This was due to the increased affinity from the Blessing of the Phoenix and the Blessing of the Fairy Tree, but he couldn’t have known that.
“Armor and a dagger…….”
“Yes.”
“Wait for four days.”
Hetos declared.
“It’ll take three days for the armor, and one day for the dagger.”
If any other blacksmith had heard this, they would have gasped.
Renowned master craftsmen often spent months perfecting a piece of equipment.
But just three days?
Using the power of the spirits to quickly forge weapons without damaging the materials.
That was the craftsmanship of the dwarves.
“Here, take this. The key to my workshop.”
He handed Aden a unique golden key.
The key to Hetos’s workshop.
Using this, Aden could enter this space where Hetos resided at any time.
“Come back in four days, and I’ll make you the finest armor ever.”
Hetos grinned, feeling a long-forgotten surge of excitement.
* * *
After a comfortable night at Niketa’s mansion, the group left the gate city and headed for Fayras, the northernmost city of Syres.
It was where the Sacred Fire Order’s northern main temple was located and the venue for the Syres Martial Arts Tournament scheduled in a week.
As they crossed the empire’s border and traveled north, the weather grew colder.
Had it not been for the magic-enchanted carriage with warming spells, they would have shivered even inside, wearing thick fur clothes.
They finally reached the northern main temple of the Sacred Fire Order in Syres.
“What on earth……?”
But upon arrival, Aden and his party were left speechless with their mouths agape.
The first thing that caught their eyes as they reached the temple was a banner hanging in front of it.
“★Congratulations – Welcome to Saintess Elise!-★”
All the priests and monks in the temple came out and shouted in unison.
“Welcome to Syres, Saintess!”
They enthusiastically welcomed Aden and his party, or more precisely, Elise alone.
Usually, when people think of a temple, three words come to mind.
Solemnity, serenity, sanctity.
But none of these
words matched the current scene at the northern main temple of the Sacred Fire Order.
“We’ve been eagerly awaiting your arrival!”
“It’s the Saintess! The real Saintess!”
The members of the order, who had received official notice from the headquarters about the Saintess’s visit, rushed out to welcome her.
Elise, holding the puppy-like Choco in one hand, smiled brightly and waved with the other.
“Hello, everyone! I’m Elise! Please take care of me!”
Then she bowed her head, and cheers erupted from everywhere.
“Ooooh!”
“How can she be so cute!”
“Saintess, please look at me too!”
“Oh, I’ve lived for this moment. Thank you, Lord of the Sacred Fire!”
Some priests clutched their chests and staggered, while others shed tears of joy at Elise’s smile.
Soon, a female follower of the Sacred Fire Order approached Elise with a shy demeanor.
“Uh, um, these are freshly baked cookies. I hope you’ll accept them…….”
“Cookies!”
Elise’s eyes sparkled, and her face lit up at the sight of the cookies.
“Thank you! I’ll enjoy them!”
“She accepted them!”
“Ah, that’s not fair!”
“I should have prepared a snack too!”
“Elise, over here! I also prepared cookies!”
“I have candy here too!”
“Me too, me too!”
Those who hadn’t prepared snacks blamed themselves, while those who did surrounded Elise, piling so many gifts on her that it was hard for her to hold them.
Her popularity was explosive.
Cassie, with a languid expression, took the pipe out of her mouth and marveled.
“Wow, the little saintess sure is popular?”
The escort knight Lowe, looking dazed, asked Aden.
“Lord Aden, I’ve lived only in the territory, so I don’t know much, but are temples always like this?”
I don’t know. Don’t ask me.
Do you think I’d know?
I want to ask the same thing right now.
Aden felt the same way.
Meanwhile, Inquisitor Bally of the Sacred Fire Order was smiling contentedly as if this were only natural.
“Of course, our brothers in the main order should show this much sincerity.”
“……Is that normal?”
At that moment, a voice came from another direction.
“Nice to meet you. I am the High Priest Barkus here.”
Seeing High Priest Barkus, Curse asked Aden.
– Can bandits become high priests here……?
‘Don’t talk nonsense.’
It was indeed a reasonable misunderstanding.
After all, Barkus’s appearance was anything but ordinary.
He was over 190 cm tall, with dark skin, and beneath it, bulging pectoral muscles peeked through, showcasing a rugged, muscular build.
With a long beard and a scar running down his right eye, he looked more like a bandit chief who had killed a priest and stolen his robes.
However, Aden didn’t find it strange.
‘Well, this is Syres.’
Syres was a harsh land where only the strong survived.
This applied not only to knights but to everyone living there.
Barkus’s bandit-like appearance was a testament to the hardships he had endured living in this land.
“Aden Remes, High Priest Barkus.”
“Lord Remes, I’ve heard much about you. It’s an honor to meet the benefactor of our order.”
“Never mind that. Isn’t the welcome a bit too extravagant?”
Every single person seemed like an ‘Elise enthusiast,’ but Aden felt it was a bit too much.
To put it nicely, they were devoted fools. To be blunt, they were fanatics.
Barkus smiled bitterly at Aden’s words.
His fierce eyes, which looked like those of a bandit, were tinged with both sadness and joy.
“Everyone is just happy. A saint has been born again in our order.”
Ten years ago, they thought they had lost the Holy Mark forever in a bloody massacre.
When the line of those who bore the Holy Mark was cut off, no one could predict when another child with the mark would be born.
It could take decades, centuries, or it might never happen again.
It was all up to the will of the god they served.
In that long wait, they deeply realized how precious the saints were.
Thus, after a decade of darkness, the reappearance of Saintess Elise among them was…….
“Saint Elise’s existence is a miracle to us. She is almost everything to our order. Just her presence alone is deserving of our love.”
At Barkus’s words, Aden silently turned to look at Elise and the Sacred Fire Order’s followers again.
– Waaah!
“Oooh! The Saintess’s puppy has grown bigger!”
“A divine beast! As expected of Saint Elise. Even the animals she carries are special!”
As Choco, who was suffocating under the pile of gifts, reverted to his giant form, the followers cheered…….
“Choco, I’m rich with snacks now! Hehe.”
Elise, riding on his back, buried in the pile of snacks, smiled brightly as if she had the world in her hands.
The temple people rejoiced at the sight of Elise.
In response, Aden could only nod quietly.
“Yes, you’re right.”
Elise, that girl deserved it.