WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 047

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May You Live Ten Thousand Years~

* * *

Once you turn at least eighteen,

they say an invitation comes down from the Tower to anyone who's qualified.

It's a sign that you're allowed to start climbing the Tower now,

and a sign that you've come of age too, but...

'Not that I care.'

Seriously, breaking a sweat, working my body like crazy, huh?

I have zero intention of climbing that hard.

I'm incredibly weak, remember, I'm from modern-day Earth.

So what's my actual direction here?

Simple.

Making sure the people around me who are climbing the Tower get to climb it smoothly, without a hitch.

Take, for example, Maman right in front of me, nibbling cake with her eyes wide open.

Or Ruby, off reading a book back at the Duchy's estate right now.

I'm not an idiot.

If I can do it, not enchanting their gear just doesn't make sense.

...Well, honestly, even if I never climb the Tower myself,

I do think I'll need to make it up to the dwarves' floor eventually.

Apparently if you hold hands with someone who's already climbed that far, you can enter the residential districts too.

Anyway, that's a story for later. Bottom line, I...

"You'll need to climb the Tower again."

"The Tower..."

When you've got a lot on your mind, you're supposed to eat something sweet.

I fed Dolores another bite of sweet cake.

- Nom.

"Do you think I could really climb the Tower again...?"

She said it while nibbling on her cake.

"Of course."

"......"

"Your body's going to heal."

I'll make sure of it.

- Slide.

One more bite.

"And your gear's going to get better too."

That's on me too.

Oh, wait, hold on.

There's an important point here.

"Maman, is all the gear you currently own... Unique Equipment?"

That would be even better.

Because I'd found out that enchanting Unique Equipment unlocks something called a Potential Ability.

I really couldn't figure out why people wouldn't touch this honey pot, but I guess it's because the odds of destroying the gear are so high, so, fair enough.

Just then.

- Flinch.

"Mm, y-yes, that's right."

Dolores's body gave a small, telltale tremor.

"All of it? Head to thigh, legs, all the way down to your toes?"

"From head to... thigh... yes, all of it, basically."

"...This might be a forward thing to ask, but."

"Mm...?"

I asked carefully.

What had actually surprised me more, digging into this recently, was

gear was gear, sure, but the piece of equipment that stayed against the wearer's body longest, the one most effective at actually changing their constitution, was

underwear.

After all, Dolores didn't wear her gear every single moment.

But she'd be wearing underwear the whole time, no exceptions.

For men, that's your undershirt and boxers.

For women, it's... well, you know, those kinds of things.

The most basic layer of clothing there is, and yet it's the hardest thing to actually get your hands on.

Makes sense, though. What boss out there is going to drop underwear as loot?

Blacksmiths avoid making it too, the exact kind of passive-use gear people put on the moment they get it and never take off.

Would an Heir of Flame make underwear? No, no way, of course not.

Their pride wouldn't survive it.

I make it, of course.

I've got no pride left to wound.

So.

"Is your underwear Unique Equipment too, by any chance...?"

- Clatter.

The fork dropped onto her plate.

"...N-no... that... I haven't managed to get one yet..."

"Okay."

See, even Dolores, a High Ranker, can't easily get her hands on this kind of gear.

Maybe I really should start my own underwear brand someday.

Squee!

She doesn't have one yet, even better.

Then I'll just make it for her.

"I'll make your underwear for you, better than Spring Without Frost."

I leaned forward.

"Completely, totally, absolutely better."

"Mm, th-thank you..."

"And I'll enchant everything else of yours too."

Squeeee!!

The urge to rush straight back to the Duchy right now was mountain-high.

Build the furnace facility.

Grind the mana stones into white powder.

Snort it up through the nose, no wait, feed it into the gear.

[......]

That means I'd get to hammer away at it like crazy, wouldn't I?

Even better, the higher the star rank and the more it's Unique Equipment, the harder it gets, so it's bound to be fun.

My body swayed with excitement, unprompted.

But unlike me, who was gradually getting more and more pumped,

Dolores started avoiding my eyes.

"E-enchanting my Unique Equipment, you mean...?"

"Of course."

Where else would I do it.

Dolores shut her eyes tight for a moment, seeming to mull something over.

After about five seconds of deliberation, she finally spoke.

"Mm, it's fine, Lionel. You can enchant any of my other Unique Equipment, no problem."

"Sounds good."

"The top... the bottoms... the auxiliary magic tool... the epaulet... the cloak... all of it's fine..."

Dolores started counting them off carefully, one finger at a time.

She looked like someone bracing herself to let something go.

"Good."

"But, Lionel..."

- Tap, tap.

Dolores tapped her own stockings.

Her expression was on the verge of tears.

What she'd tapped was the stockings.

Spring Without Frost.

My masterpiece.

"...Are you planning to enchant this one too, by any chance...?"

"Of course. That one's first in line."

"No... this one's no good, this one's absolutely not..."

"Why not."

What do you mean, no good.

Dolores suddenly wrapped her arms around her legs, on the verge of tears, but

"It's Unique Equipment, so... if it breaks..."

"......Me? Break it?"

[Calm dooooown!!!]

[Big brother, think about how the common sense of this world works!]

For a second I thought she was doubting my skill,

but thinking it over, in this world, enchanting is

a gamble, works out great if it succeeds and destroys the gear if it fails.

That's just common sense in this world.

Sure, for me a hammer strike just sticks, but this was precious gear she'd spent all this time gathering.

Thinking it over again, it was actually pretty remarkable that she'd even agreed to let me touch the rest of her gear.

In that sense, it also meant she treasured my stockings more than any of that other gear, which was its own kind of touching.

The real me focused on smiling and putting her at ease.

"Then I'll start with the rest first."

"...Okay."

"Once you've seen me enchant a few... you can decide for yourself, Dolores."

Whether to trust me with it or not.

I've got confidence, after all.

One look would be enough to convince her.

"All right, then, let's do that."

Only then did the hands gripping her legs finally loosen.

I kept my eyes on Dolores's legs for a good while longer, and then

"Oh, right."

picked up the fork and added,

"About the underwear."

"...Hm?"

"I'll be making that for you soon."

"Uh. Uh-huh..."

Dolores opened her mouth without quite meaning to,

and I

pushed a piece of cake topped with a plump cherry into it.

- Crunch.

"Mm..."

The cherry, the tastiest part of the cake, went to her,

and Dolores crunched down on the cherry I'd handed her, cheeks flushing.

* * *

We stayed on for two more days, thinking things over a little further.

During that time, I went looking for a furnace worth dismantling first.

Poking around the blacksmith shops inside the Empire, which had by now turned into tourist attractions.

Bottom line, though...

"There's nothing worth stripping out of these."

On the surface, they looked convincing enough.

Large in scale, sturdy brickwork, well maintained too.

But once I actually took a closer look,

there were screwed-up patches everywhere you looked.

Even the bellows angle was all over the place...

Human stubbornness, I guess you'd call it. Things that needed a smarter fix just got slapped together instead, the seams mashed flat because they had to get it built.

Anyway, this is the problem with humans.

What's needed here is the wisdom of dwarven craftsmanship.

So tearing this apart and hauling it off somewhere else would be pointless,

and it wouldn't satisfy me either.

I figured it'd be better to just take the materials and construction costs and build it myself.

So I got my hands on a few very old blueprints,

and figured I could build off those, adding dwarven techniques on top.

That settled the furnace.

The most important thing left.

'So what exactly do I ask the Emperor for?'

A title was a hassle, the Princess didn't interest me, and the imperial treasury... didn't really tempt me right now either.

In the end, I sat down to brainstorm with Yuna.

"What in the world should I ask for? Yunaaaa!"

[Sighs]

[Let's start by looking at the historical records]

As we dug through the historical records,

"Huh...?"

I realized something.

Wait, couldn't I just... do this instead?

Yuna's confirmation on the idea,

[Seems fine to me?]

and Dolores's confirmation...

"It seems worth trying."

were both good.

So in the end, with my new request in hand,

I decided to head back to the imperial palace.

And so, two days later, the audience chamber opened once again,

and the Emperor stepped down from his throne to stand before me, just like last time.

"Well then."

"......"

"What is it you want?"

I lifted my head.

I took a steadying breath, then chose my words carefully.

"The Belua Mountains..."

"......"

"Please have them incorporated into House Dolores's territory."

Not a long-term lease.

Just give me the whole mountain outright.

The Belua Mountains sit quite far from the imperial palace.

...If anything,

the Duchy's estate is a lot closer.

And though the Belua range is sizable,

mana stones actually make up 98 percent of the ore that can be mined and put to any real use there.

There's almost no practical value beyond that.

And unlike a normal mine, which needs a mining town attached to it,

the mana-stone content there is so high there's barely any soil to speak of, so nothing can be farmed, no trees grow, and as a result no one can even live there.

Land with no taxes to collect and no people to govern.

Less a territory, really, and more just a big rock.

And in fact, the historical records clearly stated

that those precedents came with an actual territory attached, not just a title,

so there's no way that territory was some barren rock pile no one could live on. It would've been proper land, growing crops, collecting taxes.

Which meant the only real value in the Belua Mountains was "mana stones," full stop.

Worthless, from the imperial family's point of view, but...

to me, that looked like gold.

Or like something spilling out white powder...

[No it's not!]

In the end, this request was worth less than what the historical precedents offered,

but 'she's the Duchess of Dolores.'

It would genuinely strengthen House Dolores, no question there,

so what mattered was how the Emperor would take it.

That was my conclusion, and I quietly lowered my head.

And the Emperor,

"Now I finally get to save a bit of face."

Save face.

The reaction wasn't bad.

A different response from two days ago, when he'd seemed disappointed.

"Raise your head."

I slowly raised my head,

and the Emperor stood with his arms crossed, looking down at me.

"I said before,"

"Yes."

"that I wouldn't put a price on it."

"You did."

The Emperor nodded.

"Then so be it."

"......I'm sorry, come again?"

The habits of my other world slipped out of me before I even noticed.

"I said, so be it."

And that was it.

No negotiation, no discussion with his ministers, just, that cool about it?

As expected of the Emperor~~! Incredible~~!

Monarchy's the best!!

None of that nonsense like counter-signatures or ministerial deliberation happened at all.

So this is why people do monarchy.

"That said, as I mentioned before, the mining rights to that mountain remain in effect until the end of this year."

Of course, naturally.

Can't be helped.

"Yes, that's entirely reasonable, Your Majesty."

"Good."

The Emperor nodded, and for just a brief moment, looked down at me.

"Therefore."

"......"

"Once this year ends, that mountain will belong entirely to House Dolores."

I counted the days in my head,

and realized there really wasn't much time left.

"Congratulations, Grand Duchess Dolores."

"Not at all. It's thanks to Your Majesty's boundless generosity."

Maman, who'd stood without a word all this while, bowed her head.

"Heh heh."

The Emperor let out a short laugh.

"But you know, it's odd, somehow Artisan Lionel's cunning seems to have deepened quite a bit in just two days..."

The Emperor turned to look at Maman.

He wore a smile.

"I don't suppose you had a hand in it, did you?"

Dolores answered that question with a smile of her own.

"He's always been a clever child, so I didn't need to put any ideas in his head."

For a second I got nervous, but thankfully it seemed to just be a joke.

"True enough. If you'd actually gotten involved, he'd have pulled out every pillar in the palace and then some."

Dolores kept her head bowed and smiled elegantly.

The conversation moved on to the rest of the reward.

And with that, the matter of the furnace was wrapped up too.

Once I explained there was nothing worth salvaging,

he agreed it'd be better to just build one from scratch,

and it was settled that he'd cover the materials and construction costs.

Once everything was settled...

"Well then, I believe the payment's been made in full,"

the Emperor said, and I pulled out the box I'd tucked away inside my coat.

The Cradle of the Earth.

"What do you say, Artisan Lionel."

Seeing me hold up the box, he

"Will you give it to her yourself?"

gave a subtle glance.

"I will."

I stepped toward the person standing off to the back.

The Princess, Yustia.

A month and a half ago, she'd looked like someone who could barely stand on her own.

There was real color and fullness back in her cheeks now.

She looked healthier, in every way that mattered.

As I approached, she couldn't quite meet my eyes.

- Rustle.

She just fussed with the hem of her skirt instead.

'Am I allowed to kneel?'

[Yeah, go ahead and kneel]

Got it.

Well then...

I dropped to one knee in front of her.

I heard a sharp intake of breath from above.

- Click.

I opened the box and held it up for her,

the light of the audience chamber pouring in, the Green Jade quietly drinking it in.

"...I hope it suits you."

I said it with a smile,

and I meant every word.

I'd made it with her face in mind, after all.

Yustia went quiet for a long moment, and then

- Slide.

she carefully picked up the earrings...

and slowly put them on, one, then the other.

The moment the earrings settled against her earlobes...

a faint green light spread quietly through her whole body, I could see it happen.

It suits her.

My plain, honest opinion.

"...Sir Lionel, allow me to thank you again, formally this time."

Yustia had been calling me Sir Lionel since last time.

Her expression was full to bursting with emotion as

"...For saving..."

"......"

"...my brother and me."

Her voice grew a little wet.

"...Thank you."

she offered me her gratitude.

I raised my head as I accepted her thanks.

She let a little tear slip, and then, maybe to change the mood,

asked again, her voice bright and lively once more.

"So, what do you think? How do I look?"

"They really suit you."

I said it plainly, exactly what I thought,

"...And?"

and the Princess wiped away her tears and asked again, her face full of expectation.

And?

As I was racking my brain over what else to say,

the most fitting blessing for a frail princess came to mind.

The most delightful four-character idiom from my own world.

"...I wish you ten thousand years of health and long life."

I gave what I thought was the most fitting answer,

and Yustia's eyes went wide for a moment...

"...Pfft."

She wiped away the last of her tears completely,

"...I'll try to!"

and burst out laughing, hand over her mouth.

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