WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Blacksmith the Rankers Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 94
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The Maple Tree's Flower Language
* * *
I'd said I'd get various advice from Gaia about the earth, but....
"I've always liked doing things on my own."
I doubt I'd pester her for answers at random moments.
More like, I'd try as far as I could on my own and only ask when I really got stuck.
Turns out the contact room itself stays open, like a DM window, whenever I bring up the Tower system.
"...Let's just get started."
Creak.
Once I'd decided to do something,
"No time to hesitate!!!!"
I opened the storeroom door and headed for the pouch of ore Yeomhwa had given me as thanks.
"Let's get these sorted, shall we~"
I opened the Sun Dwarves' manual and sorted the ores in the pouch one by one.
There were basically several ways to classify ore, but this was the method I liked to use.
Melting point and hardness, in other words, sorting by the temperature it melted at and how tough it was.
The Sun Dwarves' manual itself said to just classify however was easiest for you, anyway.
There were plenty of ways to measure hardness, but this was the only simple one I could actually do.
Tap... Roll, roll....
It's called the rebound value, dropping a small weight onto the ore and measuring how far it bounces back up.
Also called the rebound hardness test. The harder it is, the more it bounces.
"You're an A."
That was how I sorted the best bouncers into A, B, C, D by range, but, why was I even bothering to sort this in the first place?
『The energy of the earth is hard. For that reason, it does not settle easily into ore of high hardness.』
That line was straight from the Heir of Flame manual.
One of the vanishingly few lessons on earth energy I could find, even after scouring the whole thing.
The Sun Dwarves really, truly hated the energy of the earth.
In short, earth mana was hard, so the material meant to absorb it needed to be soft, the opposite, less rigid.
"Hm."
Made sense.
With that, I finished sorting everything from A to D.
"This is great."
Maybe because all the ore had been mined inside the Tower, but there weren't many types I'd actually seen with my own eyes before...
Luckily, a fair number of them were ones the manual had covered at least once.
It spared me the trouble of having to test and analyze each one from scratch, I guess you could say.
At this rate, I could probably start thinking about combinations already...
Knock, knock.
"Hm?"
Someone had knocked on the workshop door, but really, there was only one person who ever knocked on that door.
Maman.
"Coming!"
Pitter-patter....
I dashed to the door and threw it open.
"What is it-"
I had no choice but to stop mid-sentence.
Because the person who'd knocked wasn't Dolores.
A woman in sunglasses that suited her bright red hair perfectly.
"Yeomhwa...?"
"Yep, heyyy?"
Yeomhwa waved her hand lightly.
It wasn't like she was a stranger, but this was the first time anyone other than Dolores had actually stood at the workshop door, so my body froze up.
I was told not to follow strangers.
"...Lionel."
"Yes."
Yeomhwa slipped something behind her back and pointed toward the inside of the workshop.
"Can I come in?"
Honestly, someone like Yeomhwa wasn't really a stranger.
"Yep."
I opened the door wide for her.
With permission granted, Yeomhwa crept carefully into the workshop,
though I wasn't sure "crept" and "carefully" were even allowed to coexist, she really did tiptoe her way in,
glancing all around at everything.
"Wooow..."
Yeomhwa's eyes sparkled as she watched the crucible furnace's soft, steady flame.
"So this is what it looks like. Nice and toasty...?"
"Probably because it's a place that works with fire."
I supposed the compatibility made sense, seeing as she was a daughter of fire in her own way. Yeomhwa sat by the forge for a while, staring blankly into the flames, then crouched down and murmured quietly.
"By the way, Lionel."
"Yes."
"I heard you talked with Ignia?"
Hm, guess she'd just come from the temple.
"Yeah, until just a moment ago."
"I was gonna keep everything about you a secret, so I played dumb at first...? But turns out she already knew. So I got totally scolded, sniff."
Yeomhwa's shoulders drooped.
"Whoa. You got scolded?"
"Yeah... got scolded for trying to keep it from her too, waaah..."
"Aw."
Sounded like she'd taken a hit from Ignia for trying to keep her word to me.
Kind of grateful for that, honestly.
"Still... here."
"?"
Slide.
Yeomhwa turned her head and held out a hand toward me.
Her fist stayed tightly closed.
"What is it?"
"It's a gift from Ignia to the Heir of Flame."
"...... Ha."
So this got out too.
Now Yeomhwa knew I was an Heir of Flame.
Whether out of consideration or not, Yeomhwa didn't bring it up at all, just smiled softly.
She came across as such a tomboy, bouncy and wild, but she was surprisingly considerate underneath it.
"I like gifts."
I could never resist a gift.
"Ta-da."
Yeomhwa opened her palm, and a bright red gem came into view.
It looked about the size that would fit in a closed fist.
Something inside it stirred and swayed.
"...Is that a gem?"
The moment I thought that, something appeared before my eyes.
─────────────────
[The Flame That Never Dies][★★★★★]
[Mythic Material]
─────────────────
A spark of fire torn directly from the Fire Goddess's own authority.
This flame will not go out naturally, under any circumstance.
─────────────────
『Even on the day every fire in the world goes dark, your forge alone will still burn.』
- Ignia, Goddess of Fire -
─────────────────
"......."
I rubbed my eyes.
Looked again, rubbed them again.
Felt like my eyes might roll back in my head.
Was this actually real?
Still, the five stars didn't disappear, and neither did the "Mythic Material" label.
Maybe because it was mythic material, even the description spoke in formal, respectful language.
On the surface it looked like the same family as the ignition stones I always used to light fires.
But honestly, comparing the two felt disrespectful.
No, actually, comparing them was thrilling. Fuck.
For a blacksmith, the hardest, most grueling part of the job was, at its core, keeping the fire's temperature steady, holding onto it without fail.
It was exactly why I could never leave the workshop for long, why I kept the crucible furnace steadily lit; letting it go out would be a real problem.
Reheating something that had gone completely cold was pure hell.
And now, a treasure like this...
Tremble.
My hands were shaking.
"Wow, look at that."
"What...?"
"She said your eyes would roll back... I mean, that you'd love it."
"I love it so much."
"Take it!"
Yeomhwa held out the Flame That Never Dies.
I cupped both hands underneath, just in case it slipped, and took the gem.
Slip.
Right then, Yeomhwa's fingers brushed lightly across the back of my hand. I thought it was an accident, but the way she smiled and stared straight at me made it clear it hadn't been.
"...Lionel, I don't think you're a baby after all."
"I hear that a lot."
"Especially from Dolores?"
"How'd you know."
It was something Maman said often, all right.
Yeomhwa gazed at the calluses set into my hands for a moment...
Ruffle, ruffle.
"Whatever you do, have fun with it, Lionel."
"...Yes."
She ruffled my hair and smiled.
It was a strange thing to hear from an adult, somehow.
"Have fun with it," huh...
It didn't sound bad at all.
"I'll get going now."
"Thank you... for bringing the gift."
Yeomhwa was halfway to standing when she huffed out a small laugh.
Slip....
At a flick of her hand, a flower bloomed out of thin air, and she pushed it right up to my face.
Tap.
She tapped the rose lightly, then broke into a bright smile.
"Not as much as I am."
Peck.
A warm pair of lips touched my cheek, then pulled away.
"Mon fiancé?"
"...... What did you just say?"
"It's a dialect from where I used to live."
Unusual dialect.
Creak.
Yeomhwa left, and the workshop returned to just me and the forge.
Since she was a Ranker after all, and might still be able to hear from a distance, I asked quietly.
"What did she just say?"
[Want the details?]
"Yeah."
[Mon fiancé.]
[It means "my fiancé."]
[It's French... I guess here it counts as a dialect?]
"......."
The secondary weapon's name was Fiancée too, and well... I was still a kid, so...
Seemed like she just enjoyed teasing me.
Anyway... more than that, let's think about the flame Yeomhwa brought.
Slide.
I pulled my goggles down and set Ignia's flame into the crucible furnace.
The moment the red gem sank in among the coals, the flame that had been stirring inside swallowed it whole.
"Whoa..."
But the awe didn't last long.
"Whiri."
"Yes!"
"Could you blow a slow breath for me?"
Whooosh....!
The flame fed on the wind Whiri breathed in and filled the inside of the furnace.
Whooosh!!
"...There we go. You can rest now, Whiri."
"Okay!"
Whiri drifted away from the forge and settled on my shoulder.
Five hours passed like that, and even after every last piece of charcoal had burned white and crumbled to ash...
the flame Ignia had passed down... never went out.
* * *
Wriggle, wriggle.
On the table, the seaweed strip Camilla had given out wriggled about.
- Mon fiancé?
Outside the window, in Lionel's workshop with its window thrown wide open, Yeomhwa was whispering something to him.
The workshop's window had, from the very start, been positioned to be visible directly from Dolores's office window.
Tap... tap....
Dolores listened to every last sound, lightly tapping her fingers on the desk.
With this, Yeomhwa had become the second outsider ever to set foot in Lionel's new workshop.
Every step, every gesture, had been careful, respectful of him.
And on top of that, she'd given him a gift good enough to change his expression on the spot, so, she supposed she ought to be grateful.
Peck.
"...... Hmm."
Even this shouldn't be a real problem.
Yeomhwa had always been the physically affectionate type, though of course, in all these years, Dolores had never once seen her kiss anyone.
It was all part of him changing, growing. Part of Lionel's world widening, too.
Locking him in her own arms wouldn't change anything.
There was a good chance Ignia would end up with the next divine implement too, given a gift like that, the boy's heart couldn't help but move.
Normally, she'd have dashed straight out to set Yeomhwa straight, but fussing over every little thing could just as easily sour how he felt about her.
Hadn't Mother said as much, just today? That the little one might not always put her first.
Tap, tap.
The fingers tapping the desk went still.
"Ah."
There'd been no real need to bring that up again.
She shook her head and got to work on the pile of duchy business waiting for her.
Working through it one item at a time, the hour had slipped past midnight before she knew it, but the forge's fire hadn't gone out.
"...Tonight too, huh."
Was Lionel pulling another all-nighter?
She wanted to tell him to go to bed.
But wouldn't he hate having his work interrupted?
Suddenly, taking care of Lionel had gotten so much harder.
But then.
A glance through the window showed no sign of Lionel anywhere in the workshop.
Bolt upright!
Startled, she'd just shot to her feet when-
Knock, knock....
someone knocked on her office door.
"Are you asleep, Dolores?"
"Haah..."
The tension drained out of her shoulders.
"Not at all."
Dolores hurried to open the office door, without... well... bothering to fix her nightgown, which had slipped down and gone half-askew.
Creak.
Lionel stood at the door.
But...
For a split second his eyes flicked toward the gap in her nightgown at her chest... before darting hastily back up to her face.
The tips of his ears reddened slightly.
Dolores watched his reaction at her leisure.
"What is it, Lionel?"
"It's nothing much."
Lionel opened his mouth slowly, desperately fixing his eyes on hers.
"I'm going to start crafting tomorrow."
"Oh, I see."
"I think it's going to be a divine implement."
"A divine implement..."
Probably one for Ignia.
It'd be rude not to give something back after receiving a gift from a god, after all.
"I see."
Dolores answered as evenly as she could manage, same as always.
Though something in her had gone a little damp, still.
"So, Dolores, maybe..."
"Hm?"
"Could I have your emblem?"
"...My emblem?"
That was the last thing she'd expected to hear.
Lionel looked at Dolores, standing there with her mouth hanging open dumbly, and laughed softly before speaking.
"I told you...!"
"...... Told me what?"
Slide.
The moment Lionel cupped a hand to his mouth, Dolores automatically bent down and leaned her ear in.
A learned habit by now.
"The next piece of gear is you, Dolores!"
Dolores stayed bent at the waist, just blinking.
"To be precise, it's a divine implement meant for Gaia, but it's also going to be your emblem, Dolores."
Lionel, Dolores's child, grinned, looking terribly proud of himself.
"I've already talked it over with Gaia too."
V-sign.
He even flashed a cute little peace sign.
A sudden, dark little urge welled up in her, to grab that small body tight and tickle at the gap between his index and middle fingers.
What kind of face would he make? Would he feel betrayed by her?
She had thoughts like this sometimes, ones she couldn't quite explain. And lately, they'd only been getting worse.
...Anyway, that meant Lionel had chosen Mother again, this time too.
"...I see."
The dampness in Dolores slowly gave way to something fresh and green again.
Slide.
Dolores snapped her spine straight and, just like that, swept Lionel up...
Whirl.
into a princess carry.
"Whoa."
While Lionel turned his head, looking dazed, Dolores opened her pocket space, drew out the silver emblem she'd always worn, and carefully set it into his arms.
"Here, use it however you like."
"Yep."
"And."
Peck.
Dolores's lips brushed lightly against the tip of his small nose, then pulled away.
She kept herself carefully on guard against letting it linger even a moment longer.
"Thank you for choosing me again."
Beam.
Dolores smiled, bright and wide.
Thud... thud....
Through the press of their bodies, she could hear Lionel's heart pounding.
Dolores knew it for certain now.
About the nature of the feeling she'd been carrying, she named it "jealousy."
And this childish feeling, of all things, she intended to hide desperately from every last soul in the world.
Well, at least for the next few years.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Great Rainforest.
"The Grand Chieftain, seriously...!"
Pashiel, First Tree Warden to Erien, Grand Chieftain of the Elves, muttered in a sulky voice.
It had already been a year since they'd set out for the deepest heart of the Great Rainforest on Erien's orders...
and before they knew it, they were closing in on the sacred ground where the World Tree grew.
For reference, "Tree Warden" might sound pretty, but in practice it basically just meant Slave Number One, personal property of the Grand Chieftain.
'Go, Pashiel!'
"......."
Just thinking about the day they'd been ordered out on this errand still made their brow throb.
Might as well have told them to go die, honestly.
"Sending me here, alone, of all places..."
The Elves were required, at fixed intervals, to hold a rite for the World Tree without fail.
The rite itself wasn't especially difficult, the problem was that they had no jewelry left to use for it.
Only the Elves' finest jewelers, the Children of the Forest, could craft ornaments sturdy enough to receive the World Tree's power without shattering.
...And somehow, only two Children of the Forest remained.
Normally, even if they refused, someone would've forced the work on them regardless, but by now these weren't Children of the Forest so much as venerable Elders of the Forest, set on living out their remaining years in peace no matter how much anyone threatened them... so threats didn't work either, and the situation had already become a fire under their feet.
Four years left, at most?
If they couldn't find a Child of the Forest within that window, the rite would lapse, and the Elves would fall to ruin.
So why was Pashiel heading for the deepest heart of the forest right now?
Truth was, the Elves, hand in hand with the Sun Dwarves, were steadily marching down the road to complete ruin...
And yet lately, Erien had been strangely, suspiciously relaxed.
'No need to worry! A new Child of the Forest has probably appeared.'
They'd doubted their own ears.
'Wait, seriously?'
'Whether it's really true is exactly what you're going to go find out, isn't it?'
Whenever a new Child of the Forest appeared, a sapling belonging to that person was bound to sprout somewhere in the deepest heart of the Great Rainforest.
The Elves called it a lifebond tree, a tree born the same day as the Child of the Forest, growing up alongside them.
That was why they'd come here now, to find it.
When they'd set out, they'd figured it would still be nothing more than a tiny sprout, so simply confirming it existed at all would already be meaningful enough.
Rustle....
Before they knew it, the towering World Tree stood right before their eyes.
Bow....
"First Tree Warden Pashiel, greeting the World Tree."
Pashiel bowed their head, paying proper respect, greeting the World Tree.
Then carefully stepped further inside.
Countless lifebond trees grew around the World Tree, each one belonging to a past generation's Child of the Forest.
Every one of them a different kind of tree.
Pashiel wandered among them, searching for a still-young sapling.
A very long while passed, but...
"I can't find it..."
A newly sprouted sapling was nowhere to be found.
"......."
Honestly, they'd come all this way griping and cursing the whole time, but as a Tree Warden who genuinely cared about their people's future, they'd desperately hoped the sprout would be real...
No matter how hard they searched, nothing turned up.
Pashiel had just slumped down onto the ground, looking gloomy, when-
"...... Hm?"
One particular branch of the World Tree, hanging unusually low, all the way down to the ground, caught their eye.
Even though it was an impossibly slender branch, it was packed dense with leaves.
"............."
Pashiel got up carefully and slowly walked toward it.
"World Tree...?"
Rustle....
As if answering the question, the World Tree slowly lifted the branch.
The densely overlapping leaves parted to either side, revealing something that had been hidden within.
Right beside one of the World Tree's thick roots, in a sheltered spot.
"......."
A stiff, healthy-looking tree was growing there.
"A maple tree..."
The Elves lived close to nature and knew nearly every plant there was, so they could tell at a glance.
A cute little tree, only knee-high, but more than they'd expected...
"Already this big...?"
Only a single year had passed?
The stretch of its stem was bursting with too much life to pass for a mere young sapling.
The growth rate alone was astonishing, but more important than that...
It was true.
It was really, actually true.
A new Child of the Forest really had appeared.
And just then.
Thump.
The World Tree's massive arm pushed against Pashiel's shoulder.
"...... Huh?"
It didn't hurt, exactly.
But the intent seemed to come through straight into their mind.
Something like.
'That's as far as you go.'
It felt like being told not to come any closer.
"W-wait just a moment, World Tree... I need a picture for the report..."
Slip.
A branch coiled around their waist.
"Just one shot!!"
Drag, drag, drag....
Pashiel was dragged bodily by the World Tree's branch, hauled straight out of the deepest heart of the forest.
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