WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 040

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If That Is the Heir's Will, So Be It

* * *

The bell, ringing like something possessed.

- Clang... clang....

"A spirit...?"

Ruby tilted her head, staring at the bell.

Well now, Ruby.

I'd guess it's ranked several tiers higher than a spirit.

"I-I'm gonna go to bed."

"Yeah, sleep well."

With that, Ruby fled, her eyes trembling.

I bet she'd end up sleeping in Maman Dolores's arms tonight.

She really is still a kid, huh. Guess it was a little too scary for her.

Anyway, the bell kept ringing like mad.

It was starting to hurt my ears.

I got up and walked over to the bell.

You're only supposed to press a bell once, aren't you.

Someone's got no manners.

Learning that I could receive a god's call even outside the Tower could be counted as good news.

Maybe it was because I had access to the Inner Tower Community.

After all, just yesterday, the moment I'd touched Solau's pendant, I'd gotten a message from Solau himself.

Though it had only happened the once.

Just as I reached out to touch the bell,

- Flash.

─────────────────

[The Divine Bell has received a response.]

[A divine oracle has arrived.]

─────────────────

"......"

A window rose up in front of my eyes.

A divine oracle had arrived.

Though I wasn't sure I could even call it an oracle.

Wasn't this basically an application form addressed to the Heir of Flame?

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Pamola, Empress of Storms ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『M-m-m-me, I'm first! I'm first, right?』

『Wow, so the rumor was true? The Heir of Flame really came back? Sorry for not treating you right until now, Dwarves!』

[Oracles Remaining: 1/3]

─────────────────

A rumor?

Word had gotten out that the Heir of Flame had returned?

[That thing, you know, the one carved into the sky]

Ah.

I'd heard something had been carved into the floor where the Sun Dwarves live, but...

Turns out it wasn't just people watching, the gods had their eyes on it too.

The bell's barely even stopped ringing and everyone's already this quick on their feet.

"I can't even answer, can I."

According to the professor, it was a one-way communication tool.

Before I could even react,

- Flash.

- Flash.

More windows started popping up.

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Pamola, Empress of Storms ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『Argh! It's been so long I forgot how this works! Blacksmith! What I want is-』

[Oracles Remaining: 0/3]

─────────────────

Pamola, you're already at zero oracles remaining.

Doesn't that mean you can't say anything more?

Sure enough, as if to prove it, no more messages came from Pamola.

Seemed like she'd burned through her whole allotment without even starting her actual request.

- Flash!

- Flash!

No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than my vision filled with new windows again.

A commission? Sure, that'd be nice, but more than taking on some request,

'Gaia.'

I had to make her a divine implement.

Or, well, Kaelu, the twins' father, wouldn't be a bad option either, but

in the end, my top priority was Gaia.

The principle behind making a divine implement was simple.

According to the professor...

You picture the god in question, then craft the divine implement that god desires. Bring it to their temple and offer it, and an identical item gets made in the divine realm.

Apparently that reflects on their standing, and it's good for them in all sorts of ways, so they're starving for it.

In other words, if I made a divine implement here and offered it at a temple, from the gods' side it was like getting a custom-made item delivered right to their needs.

And I, in turn, would pray at the temple and receive gear infused with whatever blessing that god could grant.

A win-win deal for both sides... except it absolutely wasn't.

Skimming back through the manual, I looked again at the warning printed beneath it.

『Take heed, Heir. Forging a divine implement is never to be taken lightly, for the labor it demands is truly immense, and so you, a Certified Blacksmith, are forbidden from making more than one per year.』

Making a divine implement really did take that much effort, then. One a year.

That one caught me off guard a little.

Which meant I was about to take on an order that would define my whole business for the next year.

This was definitely not something to just sign off on anywhere.

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Velu, God of Fate ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『My request ought to be taken as first priority. I ask this of you.』

『For the lack of attention I've shown the Dwarves of late, I offer my apology.』

[Oracles Remaining: 1/3]

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Sideru, God of Steel ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『......Fifty years. A full fifty years, I've waited.』

『Though This One has, of late, shown little interest in the Sun Dwarf race,』

『that you've returned is truly-』

[Oracles Remaining: 0/3]

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Rustia, Goddess of Lust ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『Oh my. Don't you worry, child.』

『You're still only Certified, after all. Until you become an elite, the very finest of craftsmen,』

『I'll raise you tenderly, ever so tenderly, and make you very happy...... Won't you come to my temple?』

[Oracles Remaining: 0/3]

─────────────────

Wow, this is really a lot, huh?

The messages in front of me kept piling up without stopping.

The funny thing was, being gods and all, they were all pretty confident.

Among them, the ones whose names alone sounded like they carried higher standing were a bit more assured, while the ones presumably lower in rank were a bit more cautious.

On top of that.

"I don't get why they're all apologizing to the Dwarves, though."

Every single one had some line about having neglected them until now.

Seemed like squeezing in that one apology was eating into their allotted oracle count, too.

Whatever.

Forget the other gods.

If you couldn't be bothered to care until now, you don't get to come running for a piece of the pie just because things changed.

"Ga- ga- ga......."

Where's Gaia at.

As I scrolled down through the oracle DM window over and over, endlessly,

right at the very bottom, one caught my eye.

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Gaia, Goddess of the Earth ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『It's truly been a long time, Heir of Flame. Solau's going to be thrilled.』

[Oracles Remaining: 2/3]

─────────────────

"Huh!?"

There it was. My year's business.

Buried at the very bottom of a mountain of orders.

The only one with no apology about the Sun Dwarves in it.

If I was going to sign a deal, it had to be with the biggest company out there.

Looking at the message alone, you might wonder if this was even a commission at all.

No request for what to make, no offer of what she'd give in return. Just a single message saying it had been a while.

But underneath it,

[Accept]

there was a button marked "Accept."

"No reason not to."

I accepted the commission,

- Beep.

and the moment I did,

- Crack.

the bell standing on the ground shattered and crumbled apart.

"What the hell...?"

As if it had decided it had done its part, the thing just broke apart, completely.

Do you have any idea how hard I worked to make that thing....

─────────────────

[You have accepted the Earth Goddess's request.]

[The medium has been consumed, and a direct connection to the god has been established.]

[Your remaining oracle limit increases to 5.]

[You may exchange 3 messages to confirm the commission.]

─────────────────

The medium had been consumed, huh.

So it wasn't reusable after all......

But the disappointment was brief, joy quickly caught up to it.

In the end, hadn't I made a direct connection with Gaia?

"Nice."

Just as I quietly clenched my fist in celebration,

a window popped up once more.

─────────────────

[Divine Oracle]

[Gaia, Goddess of the Earth ▸ Certified Blacksmith L]

『There must have been countless children's pleas, and yet I never imagined you would choose this old mother.』

『The heavens are truly abuzz.』

『They're calling you the future and hope of the Dwarf children.....』

[Oracles Remaining: 4/8]

─────────────────

It felt completely different from the gods earlier, all clamoring and jostling for their turn.

Just reading the words gave off an incredibly gentle feeling.

Not that I was the future or hope of the Dwarf children or anything, just a regular human, but-

this wasn't the time to be spacing out.

I had three chances to exchange messages related to the commission.

It seemed to work along the same lines as a DM.

If I sent a message, it looked like it would actually go through.

I immediately opened the DM window and got ready to type.

"Mm."

Carefully.

How should I put this.

She wouldn't know that I was just a kid, after all.

"Yuna, I'll just say it roughly... you can translate it properly, right?"

One of the AI little sister's genuinely useful functions.

Fix up whatever I say into something formal.

[Yeah, can dooo~]

- Clack-clack.

"I want to make some earrings, and I'd like to put Gaia's divinity into them. Please allow it."

Yuna began transcribing the words I'd picked.

『I wish to craft a pair of earrings imbued with the energy and will of the Great Earth Mother. With reverence and respect, I hope to offer them up to the Mother.』

Wow, she translated it into that......

My half-hearted words came back as elevated, formal speech.

A moment later.

─────────────────

『I truly never imagined the Heir of Flame would turn his attention to this old mother.』

『Even with a child who governs fire in her own right, you chose to seek out the earth instead. How could I not be grateful? This is truly an unusual, remarkable thing.』

『This earth, too, had grown rather lonely of late.』

『Thank you, child. Truly, thank you. So please, I leave this in your hands.』

[Oracles Remaining: 0/8]

─────────────────

"... What's with the long letter?"

Gaia's remaining oracles vanished along with her long, heartfelt thank-you letter.

Did that mean she didn't need to specify materials or anything like that?

It took forever to read through, and the conclusion was......

"Thanks for making it for me...?"

In the end, that whole wall of text boiled down to one thing.

Thank you, so please take care of it.

"Sheesh."

Was choosing Gaia really that unusual a thing to do?

Not knowing much about the gods' culture, I couldn't say for sure.

"Guess I'd better get started, then."

I picked up the shattered remains of the bell and got to my feet.

A piece of jewelry for a god.

Something to carry my whole year's business.

I looked up at the late-night sky.

A full moon was shining down on me.

"This is your fault, you know."

Somehow, it didn't look like it was smiling kindly at me, either.

* * *

Most of the Tower's racial floors have a temple of their own.

The Sun Dwarves were no exception. The 89th floor had one too.

But their temple, massive as it was... was old.

It was closer to a traditional temple kept alive through nothing but patchwork repairs,

and a place the gods rarely set foot in anymore.

But it hadn't always been that way.

There had once been a time when countless gods vied with one another just to visit the Sun Dwarves' temple.

But after the Heir of Flame vanished without a trace,

the gods, realizing they could no longer get what they wanted here,

...had stopped coming, one by one.

- Hush.

While other temples were forever bustling with prayer and crowds, the 89th floor only ever gathered dust.

At least, that had been true until yesterday.

"......?"

The old Dwarf priest of the 89th-floor temple could only doubt their own eyes.

The fire brazier that announced an oracle's arrival was spewing flame like mad.

- Roar!!

- Whoosh!

The flame spat out by the temple's brazier soon turned into sheets of red paper, etched with words.

- Rustle.

One sheet.

- Rustle, rustle.

Two sheets, three.

And soon, the words came into the priest's view.

─────────────────

[Ignia, Goddess of Fire]

『How can it be that the child of fire... that the Heir of Flame could fall asleep in the earth's embrace.』

『There has never been such a thing in the history of the Sun Dwarves. Why would the Heir of Flame-!』

─────────────────

"...Ignia......"

The priest swallowed hard.

The Fire Goddess held the largest share of faith of any deity among the Sun Dwarf people.

But of late......

- Rustle.

The red sheets showed no sign of stopping.

『How could I not have waited for this child.』

『And yet the moment he opened his eyes, he abandoned his own mother and sought out the earth's embrace instead.』

『......I'm hurt. Truly, I am.』

The priest couldn't bring themselves to say anything more.

Just then.

- Boom!

The temple's massive doors swung open,

and a man walked in.

"I hear something quite interesting happened last night."

"...... Grand Chieftain Ricardo."

The old priest bowed hastily.

Grand Chieftain Ricardo, without a word, ran his eyes over the red sheets pouring down over the brazier.

Countless gods were clamoring at once.

'Why didn't he choose me.'

Also.

'Forgive me for neglecting the Sun Dwarves of late.'

The corner of Ricardo's mouth twisted.

'...Too late.'

Far, far too late.

"Isn't it laughable."

Ricardo said, his voice low.

"When the gods stop setting foot in a temple, certain things follow."

Crops stop ripening in the fields. Every kind of blessing vanishes without a trace.

Simply put, the whole people slowly wither.

A people stripped of abundance can only wilt, little by little. Resources dry up. Supplies run out.

And to a people grown hungry and poor like that,

who was it that came calling?

"......Who was it, again, that reached out a hand to us back then."

Ricardo's eyes narrowed.

"The gods? Or,"

- Slide....

"the Company."

The old priest couldn't bring themselves to answer.

The answer had already been decided long ago.

Selling off their people's future to mere outside merchants,

the reason most Dwarves couldn't help but be tempted,

was simply that they'd been too poor.

Had the Tower never opened, the Sun Dwarves would likely have gone extinct.

"And now, after all that."

Ricardo looked at the brazier.

The red sheets kept pouring down, even now, this very moment.

『......I'm hurt. Truly, I am.』

The oracle sent down by Ignia, the Fire Goddess.

The one who was supposed to watch over the Sun Dwarves,

who held more worshippers than any other, and yet turned her back and looked away just when her people were withering away.

"...Hurt, is it. Now, of all times."

The man let out a low laugh.

"Now that's a truly god-like way to handle things."

Ricardo's gaze turned to the countless sheets above the brazier.

The god the new Heir of Flame had chosen wasn't the fire god, but the Great Earth Mother, Gaia.

A goddess who had shown mercy without discrimination to every race inside the Tower.

And one of the precious few gods who never withdrew her hand, even from the Sun Dwarves everyone else had abandoned.

"It's no coincidence."

Goosebumps began rising across Ricardo's skin.

If he was truly the Heir of Flame, he should rightfully have sought out the Fire Goddess.

But the people's future had chosen Gaia instead.

'Which means he already knows.'

Who had truly stood by their people, and who had turned their back on it.

The Heir had already worked it all out.

"......"

After a long silence, Ricardo finally spoke.

"Send up the invocation."

The temple's only way of sending a reply to the gods.

Let every god know where the people stood.

"For the Heir's will is the Dwarves' will."

The 89th-floor temple had originally been the seat devoted chiefly to the Fire Goddess.

There wasn't a trace of hesitation in the Grand Chieftain's voice.

"If the Heir has chosen the earth, then we too will make room for the earth."

Ricardo walked toward one corner of the temple.

A small statue of Gaia stood there, tucked into the corner.

"......If that is the Heir's will, so be it."

Ricardo slowly bowed his head before it.

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