WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 036

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The Princess's Commission

* * *

Sibling relationships.

Honestly, I'm an only child, so I wouldn't really know.

But I figure there are good ones and bad ones.

Even family is still a relationship between people, after all.

So.

"...There's no rule that every pair of siblings has to get along as well as the Prince and Princess, is there? Some just don't get along. That happens."

"Ah..."

"It seems to be the same with the two gods. Their compatibility must not be a good match."

The moment I brought up the word "compatibility,"

the Princess's expression shifted, turning faintly meaningful. Richard's face flinched too, just for an instant.

Didn't seem like a good sign, but-

I asked the thing I'd been curious about the whole time.

As carefully as I could.

"If it wouldn't be rude, may I ask you one thing?"

"You want to ask who gave it to him as a gift?"

"...That's the gist of it, yes."

The Princess looked at me for a moment, then,

"It was His Majesty the Emperor."

she answered evenly.

Oh, fuck. There's nothing I can say to that.

Right. Even the Emperor couldn't have known it would turn out like this.

A good grade, a good script, and on top of all that, an item engraved with the name of the god who governs medicine and sorcery.

Based on all that, he'd given it to his two sickly children as a gift.

"May this blessing be eternal..." Something like that, probably.

I couldn't say anything, so I just nodded.

At that, the Princess turned her gaze aside.

"What do you think, Richard?"

"...There was no magical trickery involved."

"Not that."

"....."

Richard stayed quiet for a moment, but soon answered softly.

"...Of everyone who's ever talked about this so-called compatibility, con- no, everyone who has,"

- Slide.

his gaze slid down to me.

"...you're the only one who's ever actually offered any grounds for it."

...Ah, right.

I remembered belatedly.

In this world, compatibility theory was superstition.

Baseless nonsense that only wandering appraisers and con artists ever spouted.

Let alone that people of imperial blood would ever believe such a thing.

That was probably why her expression had changed like that the moment I brought up the word "compatibility."

But what now.

I had no choice but to keep sounding like a con artist from here on out.

"I'll speak to His Majesty about this myself, so Richard, don't say a word of it to him."

"...As you wish."

The Princess pressed the point on him again and again, then turned to look at me.

"I'd like to ask a few more things I'm curious about. Is that all right?"

"Of course."

At that, Richard fetched a chair from somewhere and set it down behind the Princess.

Naturally, there was no chair for me. He'd brought only the Princess's.

It was a little absurd, for a moment,

but it hardly mattered, since this way our eyes ended up more or less level with the Princess's anyway.

Because I was short.

I geared up my positive thinking and got ready to answer the Princess's questions.

"...Richard."

The Princess called his name with an exasperated look, and Richard's eyes turned toward me, but-

"I'm fine. This is comfortable enough."

I waved him off before he could do anything about it.

There wasn't much reason to make the man go fetch another chair,

and maybe because I'd been through grad school, I didn't much feel like being catered to besides.

Chasing after the treatment is exactly what makes you a con artist.

No loss there. Proper treatment naturally follows once the results are good.

"...So, in the end, the problem is,"

the Princess said, carefully broaching it.

"this, the Moonlight Essence?"

"Yes."

"Then the Sun Rising is..."

"The one having its essence stolen by that necklace."

I pointed at the pendant, its essence sucked dry.

"If anything, the Sun Rising is a flat-out good piece. Even if its essence runs dry, it refills itself by soaking up sunlight."

"...I see."

The Princess drew a breath, then asked carefully.

"So in my current situation, I can't wear the Moonlight Essence, but the Sun Rising is a piece I'm fine to keep wearing."

"Yes."

It was better if the Moonlight Essence was never worn again. Keeping it as a display piece was probably the best that could be done.

"Then... if it were to be worn, would the two need to be kept apart?"

"In theory, yes."

But this was where the real problem started.

This was the first time in my life I'd ever seen a special set effect.

"Though exactly how much distance would be needed, I'm not sure myself."

It didn't seem like the kind of thing you could measure out with a ruler, click, click, and the line probably wasn't drawn that cleanly to begin with.

It might even be the kind that, once activated, wouldn't stop until the wearer was dead.

"The one sure method would be for neither of you to wear either piece at all, but-"

I looked down at the two pendants on the table.

"That would be a shame for the Sun Rising."

That was my honest feeling.

At my current skill, making a 4-star piece of gear was probably out of reach.

And it wasn't as if something on par with the Sun Rising was easy to find anywhere in the Tower, or the world.

It seemed worth saving at least one of them.

'...If the two can't be kept apart,'

then maybe I just had to make sure nothing happened even while they were together.

What if I cut off the interference itself, the set effect itself?

Something to keep the two gods' powers from interfering with each other.

'What's the counter to siblings?'

...Isn't it a mother?

My mind started turning, all at once.

Right now it was just a feeling, but I had a hunch that thinking it through a little further would land on something good.

I took a moment to organize my thoughts, then lifted my head again.

"Your Highness, allow me to introduce myself again. I made Duchess Dolores's gloves, and her sheer warming stock-"

"Stock?"

- Flinch.

"...footwraps. I'm the blacksmith who made them, Lionel."

"You made the Duchess's gear?"

"Yes. You're welcome to confirm it directly."

"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't believe you, I'd just like a quick confirm-"

The Princess turned to look beside her at once.

"...Richard."

"Yes."

With that short reply,

- Pop.

Richard vanished from view.

Wha- what was that just now?

He'd disappeared in an instant, right in front of me. I'd momentarily forgotten this was a fantasy world.

...Well, the faster the confirmation, the better.

It wasn't anything to be offended by. From the imperial family's position, this kind of check was only natural.

If she'd just taken my word for it outright, that would've been the stranger thing.

While Richard was gone,

I quietly studied her face.

Even after looking her over for several minutes straight,

honestly, there wasn't much I could find worth touching up.

She was good-looking to begin with, so it didn't seem like adding anything would improve it much.

Then, when I shifted my gaze just slightly...

"....."

there was a spot that caught my eye.

"Your Highness."

"Yes?"

"Your ears look a little bare."

"...My ears?"

The Princess touched her earlobe without meaning to.

"If you're all right with it."

I said, smiling faintly, and went on.

"I'd like to make a pair of earrings with my own hands, ones that will make your ears shine even more."

"...I appreciate the offer, but-"

"If I may be so bold,"

I'd proven myself enough, both in process and in result.

Respecting someone who's proven themselves holds true in any world.

"This problem, to begin with, was the kind of thing you couldn't even touch without first finding the cause. Considering that, I doubt there's anyone else who could solve it besides me."

Someone else, solve this?

Could they, really?

"Weren't they people who didn't even know what the problem was, to begin with?"

Baseless overconfidence is poison, but confidence backed by clear grounds inspires trust.

- Tap.

I tapped the Moonlight Essence on the table.

- Vrrrmm.

Such a temper on this thing, honestly.

Whether it understood it was being talked about or not, it vibrated indignantly.

"I'm going to make this little guy..."

I said, smiling as I looked at the necklace.

"...into an absolute fool."

- Vrrrrmm.

It shook hard enough to rattle the whole table.

"Will you put your trust in me?"

Or,

you could trust someone else, the kind who never even noticed you were both slowly dying.

You've got nothing to lose by trying, right?

- Sssh...

A cold wind passed between the Princess and me.

Just as the shadow of hesitation deepened on her face,

- Whoosh.

with a light breeze,

Richard was already back at her side.

"...Richard?"

"...By Your Highness's command, I've brought word from Duchess Dolores."

He gave a brief bow, then recited it flatly.

"『Everything that child has said is true. As for the gloves and footwraps as well, from design to completion, he handled the entire process himself.』"

"『The gear the child made has brought a visible improvement to the illness I've long suffered from.』"

Dolores's message.

"『So, provided just these two things are respected, that child's autonomy, and that child returning home,』"

"『...Dolores will refuse nothing.』"

Silence settled over the terrace.

They'd have only asked for a simple confirmation, and here she'd given testimony brimming with this much trust.

And right then,

Richard pulled out the hand he'd been hiding behind his back the whole time.

"So, according to the message..."

- Clack.

he silently slid a chair in beneath me.

He'd brought me a chair to sit in.

"It's all true."

Richard said nothing more than that,

and simply returned to his place, standing quietly with the same blank expression as ever.

I let out a short laugh and sat down in the chair.

- Slide.

Our eye level had changed once more.

Only then did the Princess across from me look me straight in the eye.

She stayed quiet for a while, watching me, then straightened her posture and drew her back up.

"...Sir Lionel."

"...Yes."

Her form of address had changed.

"As a Princess of the Empire,"

our eyes met through hair scattering in the night wind.

"I make this a formal request to you."

"....."

"Please, so that the feeling His Majesty gave my brother and me doesn't fade..."

The Princess drew a small breath, then made her request in a careful voice.

"Please let us go on keeping these necklaces."

"...Of course."

There was no con artist in this room now.

Truthfully, there never had been one, not from the start.

My first commission. Through this commission,

I resolved to save the Prince and the Princess.

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