WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 75
──────
As Time Passes
* * *
Time passed, and winter arrived. Dwarf Company's situation had grown even worse.
"......."
It wasn't a cash-flow problem, exactly, funds hadn't dried up or anything, but the problem, as always, was mana stones.
As more time passed, the supply of mana stones barely, barely held together.
There was no stockpile left; whatever came out of the ground each day had to be ground into powder immediately, the same day.
Most of the supply came from mining in the Belua Mountains, and by rights, that output should have been increased far, far more than it had been.
But the imperial family had drawn a hard line, not just on additional mining, but even on discussing a contract extension ahead of time.
And today was the day the formal recontract negotiation, promised from the very start, was finally set to take place.
The format was an auction.
Even though no one else ever bothered to show up, the imperial family insisted on keeping this format every single time.
"...I can't say I understand the insistence."
Elliot straightened his tie in front of the mirror.
It was an auction with no competitors anyway, normally sending a single staffer would have been more than enough, but not this time.
He'd have to go in person. Production output was on the line, and he needed to explain the situation and get approval for additional mining besides.
His pride hardly mattered next to that.
"I suppose I'll have to suck up to them properly this time."
Keeping the imperial family happy wasn't hard, not really.
If this contract fell through, Elliot would have to report back to headquarters that he'd failed to secure the mana stone supply.
And headquarters wasn't the kind of place that patiently dug through every detail of why a result hadn't been delivered, less so if even a hint of Elliot's own mistake had crept into the process.
Before long, the carriage rolled to a stop at the auction hall set up on the palace grounds.
After the guard checked his invitation, Elliot was led inside, same as always, or so he thought.
"Elliot."
One of the palace attendants, who'd been waiting for him, stepped in his way.
"Today's Belua Mountains contract matter will be handled inside the palace, not at the auction hall."
"Inside the palace?"
"Yes. The imperial family has something they wish to explain to you directly. I'll show you to the parlor."
'Guess the last rejection weighed on them after all.'
Given how coldly they'd turned Dwarf Company away, they'd probably kept it on their conscience, in their own way.
Insisting on explaining things in person was, in itself, unusual treatment.
Maybe the talk of additional mining would go more smoothly than he'd expected, too.
Elliot walked toward the palace parlor with his shoulders a little straighter.
But inside the parlor, once the door opened....
"Ha ha ha."
"Ho ho...."
there sat two guests he hadn't expected at all.
Normally, the Emperor never got personally involved in auctions like this, at most he'd receive a written report afterward on the final contract terms.
And yet the Emperor was here. That much alone, he could have accepted, but....
'...The Grand Duchess?'
Having Grand Duchess Dolores here was nothing, absolutely nothing like what he'd expected, a development he hadn't anticipated at all.
Before Elliot could even begin to think it through,
"Ah, you're here."
the Emperor turned his head, as if only just noticing him.
Elliot was a citizen of the Empire before he was an employee of the company, so he bowed his head at once.
"I greet His Imperial Majesty. And to Her Excellency the Grand Duchess as well, allow me to offer my greet-"
"That's enough. This won't take long, so let's get straight to the point."
...No one told him to sit.
The Emperor and Dolores were seated on the sofa,
and Elliot found himself standing before them to receive whatever they had to say, an arrangement that felt deeply, deeply unsettling.
"The Belua Mountains have been incorporated into House Dolores's territory."
"...I beg your pardon?"
For a moment, Elliot genuinely had no idea what expression to make.
"Exactly what I said."
- Pat, pat.
The Emperor tapped the documents laid out on the table.
"All the procedures are complete. The contract you hold with Dwarf Company will remain valid for whatever term is left on it. Which means, from now on, there's no need to discuss mining rights with the imperial family at all."
"Y-Your Majesty, forgive my impertinence, but how did this situation come about-"
It was far too sudden.
Deals and developments like this normally reached his ears somehow, if only as a rumor.
But this had been so completely unforeseen that Elliot had no way to respond to it at all.
"I see no reason to explain that much to you."
The Emperor rose from his seat with a faint smile.
Trauma. This was trauma. Elliot's whole body went rigid.
Memories started surfacing of what the imperial family had been like, back before he'd belonged to the company.
This was simply what the imperial family was. A power for whom conversation and negotiation meant nothing at all.
The Emperor stopped in front of Elliot and gave his shoulder a light pat.
- Thump, thump.
"I'm merely informing you that the mountains have a new owner."
Things had simply gone too smoothly up until now.
"...Didn't it strike you as strange, how easy it's all been up to now? The only reason the imperial family accommodated the company was because there was no competition. That's all it ever was."
Maybe that was exactly why Elliot, without even realizing it, had started acting as though he were the imperial family's equal at the negotiating table.
The Emperor didn't wait for an answer, and walked right past him.
Even so, there was still a way.
If the owner had changed, then all that was left was to petition the new owner for mining rights instead.
Mana stones were, fundamentally, a mineral no one outside enchanting actually needed. Even a duchy would have no use for them beyond this, that much was certain, so he'd move quickly and request mining rights-
If he simply offered the duchy a higher price, he figured it wouldn't be difficult.
"Your Excellency-!"
"You have about a month left."
Elliot's words cut off.
"Wrap everything up and be out of the mountains by then."
"W-wait, please, just a moment, we'd like to discuss a contract extension-"
"Not interested. Not in the slightest."
Dolores set down her teacup and rose to her feet.
"Your Excellency!"
"...Your voice."
- Flinch.
Don't raise it. That was probably what she meant.
Dolores looked at Elliot with cold eyes, then, without even answering, clicked her tongue and walked out of the parlor.
He couldn't bring himself to stop her.
Dolores was never, under any circumstances, the kind of noble who softened her stance out of consideration.
What could Elliot possibly have done, here, of all places?
His opponents were the imperial family and a duchy, both at once....
"........."
The moment two powers this size had joined hands and struck a deal behind closed doors, the outcome had already been decided.
"...What in the world."
There was nothing the company could do.
News like a bolt out of a clear blue sky.
Overnight, Dwarf Company had lost its supply of mana stones.
* * *
Winter had come.
My first winter since arriving in this world.
"...Not as cold as I expected."
Compared to the world I used to live in, I guess it wasn't bad.
Of course, this wasn't the north, apparently, so the feel of it was a little different.
I sipped hot chocolate in the workshop and pulled up the community forum.
For the record, Ruby had made it for me. Lately she'd been sneaking into the kitchen more and more.
A fair amount had happened in the meantime.
The Belua Mountains had been incorporated into House Dolores's territory, and preparations for actual mining were currently underway.
And as a result, Dwarf Company was....
[Dwarf Company's Enchant Rooms switch to alternate-day operation]
[Dwarf Company's Enchant Rooms scaled back to twice-weekly operation]
With no mana stones left....
they were diligently marching themselves straight into the fucking ground.
['We apologize for the disruption this causes our climbers. We will mobilize every available means to restore the Kargon vein.']
"What bullshit."
If they hadn't wanted disruptions in the first place, maybe they shouldn't have rigged the odds to begin with.
Then Kargon's sacred peak wouldn't have gotten blown apart either, would it?
Ah.
Wait, was that because of my enchanted gear going off?
Yeah, I don't feel bad about that at all.
There was also a full-scale investigation into Dwarf Company's odds underway, and the most effective way to punish this kind of probability manipulation is to build up big data.
Gathering records and beating them down with statistics was, in the end, the surest method.
Dolores had superior connections to begin with, and apparently she'd been gathering big data on enhancement records through a number of different channels.
Honestly, once you've rigged the odds once, doing it a second time is never that hard.
And they'd even done it to Maman, of all people, unless they had the guts of a lunatic, they had to have tampered with pretty much every ordinary climber too....
In the end, restoring the vein wasn't even their real problem, the moment the manipulation scandal surfaced, that would become the far bigger issue.
It was already bad enough now, but later would be worse still.
Of course, restoring the vein wouldn't be easy either, given it was volcanic terrain.
"Do your best restoring it~"
I smiled and picked up my hammer.
- Flash, flash.
Just then, something flashed over and over outside the window.
"Ha, I keep telling her to go easy on the Flash."
Dolores, practicing her Flash.
She seemed to have gotten hooked on it lately, practicing constantly.
Something about it being a skill that would change the whole paradigm of combat.
I'd never actually fought in my life, so I just nodded along like, sure, I guess so.
For the record, apparently the frequency of Dolores's cheek kisses had gone up by about 2.4 times since I made that for her....
This was data-based statistics Yuna herself had rigorously measured.
Honestly, though, I'd have to redo those shoes at some point, broken as the Potential Ability was....
strictly speaking, the Compatibility Rating still wasn't high enough, which meant side effects could crop up.
Compatibility came first, in the end.
She'd mentioned her feet had been aching a little lately, so I'd already flagged it for replacement, low priority or not.
And before I knew it....
In a week, Dolores would begin climbing the Tower again.
Apparently, climbing the Tower was sometimes done as a team, sometimes solo.
From what I understood, the trials on the upper floors were adjusted depending on party size.
Team play was the recommended route, of course.
"She doesn't seem to have any plans to put a team together right away, though."
There was too big a floor gap between her and her old teammates by now, and she clearly wasn't keen on joining some other team either.
But when I looked into it, Isabella... turned out to be no ordinary person, huh?
An absolute top-of-the-top High Ranker.
She was miserably bad at chess, but apparently a genius with magic.
No idea why she hadn't reached out again since the underwear incident, though....
Anyway, the preparations for Dolores's return to the Tower were coming along steadily.
And beneath my hammer....
─────────────────
[the Knot of Silence][★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][- / 80]
─────────────────
[Enhancement Level][+20]
─────────────────
lay the climbing-comeback gift I'd prepared for her.
Dolores was genuinely gorgeous, but her hair ties were kind of lackluster.
She even seemed to have bought a ton of identical-looking ones and just rotated through them.
Not that I minded long hair myself, but....
So I just braided one myself, out of gemstone thread.
Think of it as a kind of accessory.
This time, I just pushed the enchant all the way and gave it to her.
"Heh heh."
So, so, what would the Potential Ability turn out to be?
I'd deliberately only picked the +5 Potential Ability and hadn't even peeked at +20 yet.
At the time, there had been two options.
─────────────────
【Potential Ability】
[+5 - Choose a Path]
[Order]
Even amid violent movement, the hair stays perfectly in place.
[Release]
Slip the hair tie off and onto your wrist, and your hair falls loose into the most alluring shape for its wearer.
The faint scent held in the hair spreads softly outward.
─────────────────
So, which would I choose?
If Dolores had been some housewife who never climbed the Tower, I'd have shut up and picked the latter without a second thought.
Unfortunately, this hair tie also had to double as combat gear, so I couldn't pick the option that basically abandoned a hair tie's actual function.
With tears in my eyes, I went with Order.
In the end,
─────────────────
【Potential Ability】
[+5 - Order]
[Even amid violent movement, the hair stays perfectly in place.]
[+10 - Luster]
[Keeps the hair and scalp healthy.]
[If the maker personally ties the wearer's hair, it remembers his touch and warmth.]
[+15 - Clarity][Cooldown: 5 minutes]
[Releasing the hair tie clears away harmful effects.]
[+20 - Release][Cooldown: 1 hour]
[Activates when the maker personally unties the hair tie.]
[The wearer's hair falls loose into the shape the maker prefers, and the scent grows stronger.]
[Most fatigue fades away.]
─────────────────
"......?"
Okay. Okay, I get it.
This +15 one seems busted, for starters.
It reminded me of a game, an item called Mercury.
Anything that clears harmful effects is always broken as hell.
But if +15's already this busted, why did +20 suddenly loop back around to Release?
...I guess it's fine, since it gets rid of most fatigue?
The part where I have to untie it myself was a little concerning, but well, for now....
And so the finished hair tie.
─────────────────
[the Knot of Silence][★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment][Compatibility Rating][- / 80]
─────────────────
[A hair tie braided from many strands of finely-drawn gemstone thread.]
[Adjusts its tension to match the wearer's hair density and scalp condition.]
─────────────────
『Hehe, I want to be the only one who gets to see her hair long.』
- Skilled Blacksmith L -
─────────────────
『How about you tie it up during the day, and you untie it at night?』
- an unnamed god -
─────────────────
No idea who that god even was, but....
Hm....
Well... the +15 Potential Ability's great, at least, so....
The Origin Script was a little embarrassing, sure, but it wasn't like she'd take a hair tie in to get appraised.
The performance is great, isn't it? This'll do....
Just then.
- Knock, knock.
"How does she always know~"
Now that it was almost time to climb again, Dolores had developed an uncanny nose for sniffing out new gear.
"Lionel, what are you up to?"
She smiled and stepped into the workshop,
"Would you come sit over here?"
Dolores didn't even ask why, just scurried over and sat down in the chair.
"It's a comeback gift."
When I showed her the pretty gray hair tie, Dolores's eyes went wide.
"I need to tie it on you myself, is that all right?"
"O-of course...."
- Slip....
I gathered up her loose, flowing hair with both hands... and carefully tied it, following Yuna's guidance.
Every time my fingertips brushed her neck, Dolores's shoulders flinched.
The +10 Potential Ability, Luster.
[If the maker personally ties the wearer's hair, it remembers his touch and warmth.]
I'd smoothly imprinted my own touch onto Dolores.
"Good luck with the climb."
- Tap, tap.
I tapped her shoulder to signal I was done.
And so time... flowed on a little further.
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