1.
What I felt after seeing the enchantment machine was, how should I put it…
To make an analogy…
It was like realizing that the claw machine right in front of you didn’t actually have any gripping strength.
When it clamps down with a click, the claw automatically lets go, you know.
The kind of situation where you can’t win anything unless it fits perfectly into the claw.
But there was something I was curious about here.
Henrik definitely couldn’t enchant, though?
I recalled what had happened at the shop where I bought the Enchant Hammer.
There had been an Enchant Hammer and powder there too.
But Henrik had shaken his head, saying it was impossible. It had looked as though he couldn’t even begin the enchantment.
Of course, I had swung the hammer right there, and awakened to a sensation I hadn’t felt in a while.
This was based on fact, but I was confident Henrik could do anything better than that machine.
Then this was a device unique to the Dwarf Company.
Which meant that, when making the enchantment machine, they’d inherited some know-how that allowed enchantments to begin.
What could it be?
"…"
While I was pondering that,
"We will begin the enhancement from +1 to +2."
the next enhancement began.
How much time had passed?
As I barely forced myself to watch a scene that was painful to witness with my eyes open,
I eventually reached a conclusion.
Beep—
Whirr…
When the dwarf pressed the button, the machine whirred, powder was sprinkled, and the enchantment began.
A circle formed over the equipment, and after a while…
Tap tap tap tap.
The hammer struck.
Goddammit.
So that button must be something that granted the qualification, then.
Wasn’t enchanting supposed to be something only dwarves with the talent of an enchanter could do?
It was the moment I became intensely curious about the machine’s origin and workings.
And so, before I knew it…
Rrrrrr… clang!
Along with a brisk, wonderfully satisfying sound.
─────────────────
[Enhancement Successful]
─────────────────
[Blue Silver Bracelet] [★★★☆☆]
[+9 → +10]
─────────────────
Up to +10, we had somehow made it through by repeating successes and failures.
"… Starting at +10, there is a chance of destruction."
The dwarf spoke while watching Dolores’s reaction, but…
"…?"
A chance of destruction?
I wondered if that could already happen this early, but honestly, if they hammered it like this, I wouldn’t have had anything to say even if it could be destroyed from +0.
Since I knew little about the Enchant Room, I had left most decisions to Dolores.
"Please continue."
"Yes."
When Dolores answered, the dwarf pressed the button again.
Beep beep.
Originally, with one-star junk equipment, a chance of destruction appeared if you made a mistake from +16 onward.
There was no destruction chance before then.
And for four-star unique equipment… it had been pretty harsh, but the destruction chance had still only begun at +14.
Yet a three-star piece of equipment had a destruction chance starting at +10?
I checked whether that was true.
─────────────────
[Hammering Total]
[Marvelous] [0]
[Excellent] [0]
[Average] [0]
[Poor] [1]
[Terrible] [81]
─────────────────
[Success Rate: 20%]
[Destruction Rate: 5%]
[Failure Rate: 75%]
─────────────────
[Attempting…]
─────────────────
It had belatedly landed one hit in a circle that was about to vanish, giving it one Poor…
Fuck.
There really was a destruction chance?
Then it happened.
Rrrrrr, clang!
Crash!
"… Huh?"
Before my eyes, our poor Blue Silver Bracelet was smashed to pieces.
On a single attempt, it hit the bottom five percent.
"… I-it has been destroyed."
The dwarf watched Dolores’s reaction.
"Please do the next piece of equipment."
But for some reason, Dolores had been in a bad mood ever since earlier.
I clasped her hand in both of mine and gently kneaded it as I watched her reaction.
Her expression relaxed a little.
Seeing that she seemed to feel better, I sat pressed right up against her side.
Anyway.
Now for the real game.
I had confirmed the enchantment machine’s shitty system, so that was enough.
─────────────────
[Magic Grimoire]
[★★★☆☆]
[Enhancement Level: +18]
─────────────────
It was time to enhance this one.
The dwarf carefully placed the grimoire inside the glass enclosure.
Beep.
As he pressed the button, the shit powder was sprinkled.
Sssrrr…
The recommended amount of powder to go from +19 to +20 was around 3 grams.
It wasn’t much different for +18 to +19.
[3g]
Exactly 3 grams were sprinkled.
I had never tried going from +18 to +19 on three-star equipment, so I didn’t know the exact details.
What would happen here?
Tap tap tap tap tap!
─────────────────
[Hammering Total]
[Marvelous] [0]
[Excellent] [0]
[Average] [2]
[Poor] [11]
[Terrible] [135]
─────────────────
[Final Success Rate: 14%]
[Destruction Rate: 16%]
[Failure Rate: 70%]
─────────────────
[Attempting…]
─────────────────
Crazy.
Those were insane odds.
Just as I clicked my tongue at how brutal they were,
Rrrrrr… clang!
─────────────────
[Enhancement Successful]
─────────────────
[Magic Grimoire] [★★★☆☆]
[+18 → +19]
─────────────────
"Uh…?"
"Oh my."
"Huh…"
Me, Dolores, and the dwarf.
All three of us were stunned.
And before us stood a piece of equipment enhanced to +19.
This really hadn’t been part of the plan.
So I vigorously kneaded Dolores’s hand.
"… Let’s go to +20 too."
She seemed to understand what I meant.
"… Y-you mean +20?"
"Yes."
"W-well…"
"Is something wrong?"
The dwarf before us seemed to consider something.
"… Yes."
Finally, he lowered his head.
Beep.
He pressed the button.
And as always,
the powder fell.
Sssrrr…
But the moment all the powder had fallen,
─────────────────
[Warning! The amount is below the recommended enchantment powder quantity.]
[+19 → +20]
[Recommended Powder: 3g or more] [Current: 1.1g]
─────────────────
What?
No way.
The amount being sprinkled had clearly looked the same…
─────────────────
[Stardust Powder] [1.9g]
[Enchant Powder] [1.1g]
─────────────────
Fuck?
Stardust Powder. What was Stardust Powder?
I remembered seeing it in the textbook.
Its grains were fine and glittering, so at a glance it was indistinguishable from enchantment powder.
The problem was its properties. The moment it was exposed to room temperature, it naturally melted and scattered away.
You could think of it as having almost the same properties as snow.
Which meant that was…
not shit powder—Enchant Powder.
[Warning!]
Naturally, the odds could only go down.
Clench…
Without realizing it, I clenched my fist.
I understood this right, didn’t I?
They had rigged the powder?
I no longer wanted to watch the hammering, not even as a joke.
So I watched the result with a hollow expression.
─────────────────
[Success Rate: 2%]
[Destruction Rate: 29%]
[Failure Rate: 69%]
─────────────────
[Attempting…]
─────────────────
Rrrrr, clang!
[Enhancement Failed.]
Fortunately, the equipment was not destroyed.
I squeezed Dolores’s hand tightly.
It was our agreed signal. Let’s stop.
"We’ll stop here."
"… Yes."
The dwarf did not try to solicit us any further.
He immediately took out the Magic Grimoire and handed it to Dolores.
"… Congratulations on reaching +19."
"Yes."
I looked at the dwarf in a suit, whose expression was bitter.
Then, suddenly,
I remembered the passage printed at the very beginning of the first textbook for Heirs of Fire when I had read it.
It had left such an impression on me that I reread it several times.
It was also why I had put so much thought into forging even a single hammer.
A passage I had come to memorize.
『Even should the sky collapse and the earth split apart.』
『Sun Dwarves must never speak falsehood before forged equipment.』
『This is the Sun Dwarves’…』
"… Pride."
I muttered quietly and turned away.
Only then did I realize.
It seemed I would have to bring Harngar some bad news.
The Sun Dwarves have abandoned their pride.
That was my conclusion.
2.
The moment she left the Dwarf Company’s room,
Dolores headed straight away from the Company.
If you rode a carriage out from the Company for a while, you would come to the village where the Sun Dwarves lived.
The Sun Dwarf village.
I had only ever seen the Empire’s streets and…
Ariel Plaza, which had a permanent population of three hundred thousand.
"…"
It could only be described as quite shabby.
The first thing I noticed was that there was no sound of hammers striking.
Despite it being a village of Sun Dwarves.
The carriage stopped, and I stepped down.
We had gotten off in front of the one relatively well-maintained, modern-looking building.
"It’s lodging exclusively for climbers."
"Ah."
That was kind of sad.
The finest building in the dwarf village… was for climbers, not the dwarves themselves.
"Let’s go in."
Before entering the Tower,
she had told me about the Dwarf Company’s surveillance.
That we had to assume they were watching and listening everywhere, and that we would need to wait before we could talk.
This seemed to be the place Dolores considered suitable for that conversation.
Creak…
The moment we opened the door and entered,
Spring!
the employee sitting at the counter shot to his feet.
"D-Dolores!"
Without any delay, he hurriedly offered us a key and bowed his head.
I obediently held her hand and followed Mama.
The interior was larger and nicer than it had appeared from outside.
We passed through an antique corridor and entered a room.
"… Wow."
Honestly, it was a room not all that different from the one I normally stayed in.
Even down to there being only one bed.
Damn it.
"Now we can speak freely."
Clap clap.
When she clapped twice,
Hummm…
a blue glow shone from around Dolores’s heart,
then soon covered the entire room. Like a mosquito net had been draped over it.
She must have activated some sort of magical device.
In truth, there was a lot I wanted to talk about right now.
First, Gaia.
Second, the crazy bastards at the Dwarf Company rigging things.
Compared to the latter topic, the former didn’t carry nearly as much weight, so it was probably right to start with Gaia.
"Why did Gaia come to me?"
"…"
The moment I asked the question, Dolores
Swoosh.
came up behind me and wrapped me in an embrace.
"D-Dolores?"
"You should call me Mama."
"…?"
Then she slowly headed to the bed and lay down just like that.
Dolores lightly smoothed out my bangs and smiled softly.
"Mm, you’re asking why Gaia went to Lionel?"
"… Yes."
"…"
Dolores reached her hand into the empty air.
Hummm…
A subspace opened in midair, and a white flower appeared in her hand.
It was the flower Gaia had given me.
"This is a lily of the valley."
"Ah…"
"Do you know the meaning of the lily of the valley, Lionel?"
Unfortunately, I knew absolutely nothing about the language of flowers.
"… I don’t."
"Happiness found again."
Stroke…
Dolores said that as she stroked my forehead.
"It seems Gaia… chose Lionel."
"… Happiness found again."
I repeated the flower’s meaning to myself.
Then—
"… Lionel is happiness found again for me too."
"Gasp."
"It seems Gaia thought the same thing."
"That’s amazing."
"… It is."
Squeeze…
"Oof."
Dolores hugged me.
"It truly is amazing."
For a while, I had no choice but to bury my face in her embrace.
Fortunately, I could still breathe through the usual gap that was always there.
After a while, she finally released me.
"Whew…"
Now.
It was time to say it.
I sat up and met her eyes.
With the most serious expression I had made so far.
For the second time, following the time we made a frostless spring, with the most serious expression on my face.
"Dolores."
"Mm."
"The Dwarf Company is scamming people."
"… What?"
Dolores tilted her head.
The machine that merely pretended to hammer.
And, most decisively… the rigged amount of powder.
Feeling like a secret royal inspector, I told her every detail.
"… For these reasons, the Sun Dwarves have been continually rigging their enchantments and have abandoned their pri—"
Before I could even finish speaking,
Spring!
"W-where are you going?"
Mama abruptly rose from her seat.
She smiled gently.
"We need to get our money back."
She was about to leave.
"Wait, wait, wait!!"
What I had overlooked was that she too was a whale of a climber who had spent a vast amount of money at the Dwarf Company.
Grab!
"…"
I barely managed to grab her around the waist.
For the moment, I succeeded in calming her down.
3.
Elliott sat in his office, fiddling with his watch as he waited for someone.
The Dwarf Company’s current reserves of magic crystals were plentiful.
But at the rate they were dwindling, they would surely be exhausted before long.
They had been reducing consumption by adjusting the amount of powder now and then, but…
Tap tap.
His fingertips tapped the rim of his watch.
At present, they had only one magic crystal mine: the Velua vein.
"… Damn it."
There was still quite some time left before the Kargon mine he had ruined could be restored.
That was why he had sent an envoy to the Imperial Family.
There were three objectives.
Move up the contract date.
Increase the target mining amount immediately.
And—
The Imperial Family’s warehouse had to have a stockpile, since they had been paid one percent every year.
He wanted to purchase the magic crystals sitting idle inside it.
"…"
He had to bring back something.
If even one of the three worked out, they could last a full six months.
They had maintained friendly relations with the Imperial Family, so surely at least one would be possible.
And today was
the day that envoy was returning.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
Elliott had one rule whenever he received reports.
He wanted the conclusion first.
State the conclusion, then follow it with the reasons.
However,
"… I will report now."
the envoy’s expression was grim.
"All three were rejected."
"…"
Elliott…
was put in a difficult position by getting the conclusion first.
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