Chapter 026: The Dwarf’s Job

Everyone talking to him was exhausting so Shiu sat on the bed and called Feles. Feles purred like a spoiled child on top of the bed and approached him.

Shiu also was curious about Agricola’s name. Agricola meant ‘farmer’ so he thought it was strange to name a farmer ‘farmer’. It was in the ancient language, but the meaning was still understood today. Shiu only had experience with naming his cat type beast mount so he couldn’t really say he knew about common naming conventions with people.

The conversation had ended for now because he wanted to eat his breakfast.

Shiu insisted that he should go to the dining hall but everyone wanted to take care of him. Laetitia bought food from his favourite bakery, so Shiu ate while sitting on his bed.

“It is certainly weird for a farmer to be named farmer ~.”

“His occupation indicated that he was a blacksmith, didn’t it?”

“It had a question mark.”

“The hell’s that?” Gradius returned unhappily. Certainly it was weird, it was the first time that Shiu had seen something like that so he had no explanation. Even so, Gradius was chewing and biting something that looked like hard French bread as if he was eating meat. If he kept quiet he would look like a friendly young man, but the way he ate was like a hearty bandit.

“But well, if he’s a farmer then we should go to the west district. That’s the agricultural land, if he’s living here then he should be there.”

That’s right, if he’s living here then he should be there. Shiu agreed and nodded in his head. Just to be sure, he took out his intracerebral map. He had managed to mark the dwarf before fainting the other day. Agricola seemed to be walking towards the direction of the plantation.

“Farmer, huh…… What the hell would become of my sword?”

“Well, we’d figure that out with a discussion, wouldn’t we? Let’s go greet him first.”

Gradius seemed pitiful when they heard how hopeless he sounded. He loved his sword from the bottom of his heart. He even gave his sword a name. Shiu ended up laughing when he first heard this. There were, of course, things called “inscriptions” on swords but it still was interesting. Gradius, however, didn’t care since there were others who also named things.

“Tony is pitiful.”

“Stop it, Gradius. At least call your sword Tonitrus.”

“Isn’t it fine to call it Tony?”

“Even a famous sword would sound idiotic if you called it that. Stop it, please.”

“Isn’t it fine if it’s not in front of people?”

“It’s not!”

It’ll make me stupid, Kiahi badmouthed. Laetitia seemed like she didn’t care either way. She shrugged her shoulders and fell silent. Kirch tried to calm the two down with a smile on his face, “Now, now,” he probably didn’t care either way. His eyes betrayed his true feelings though.

 

 

Shiu was dismissed after he found the name and job of the person they were searching for.

Because Kiahi had taken him home, Emina was worried and said, “You’re definitely sleeping the whole day today!” He wasn’t even tired but he was stuck in bed.

He didn’t like lying in bed all day because it reminded him of his previous life, but he was reaping what he had sowed.

Emina wasn’t watching him anymore so he could get off the bed a little and play with Feles.

“Myu, myuu.”

Recently, he could understand Feles’ feelings and he was greatly looking forward to when Feles became an adult because he would probably be able to understand his intent too. He was free so he played with Feles and read a book about beast mounts in his record storage.

The things he learnt from the book were a disappointment. It seemed that the only rare beasts that were able to talk, were sacred beasts. Other rare beasts, depending on their type, could only 「communicate their intent」. Some of them also became something like sages when they lived long enough.

Shiu glanced sideways at Feles, he was running around in circles chasing his tail.

“Myu, myu, myuu!”

He had a hunch that it would be impossible for Feles’ to become a sage.

Well, everyone becomes an adult once enough years pass….probably. Shiu thought so.

 

Among rare beasts, cat-type beast mounts didn’t have a long lifespan. Still, he could live long enough to be with Shiu throughout his entire adventuring career. I wonder if he would be a good conversation partner when we both get older. He had such hopes.

Hence, it might be good for him to read a lot of things out loud.

When he thought about it, Feles’ was like his child. You could say that he was Shiu’s only family.

Even if Shiu read him a picture book now, he probably wouldn’t understand since he was a baby. However, he might notice, 「Ah, this means that, 」when he grows up.

As if he’d thought of a good idea, Shiu took out paper and tried to draw a picture book.

He tried, but ended up giving up because Feles got in his way every time he tried to draw.

Shiu also, apparently, didn’t have the creativity to create stories. He tried to look for something in his record storage, but if he thought about it carefully, those were shown inside of his mind so he would need to transcribe them.

“…… Let’s ask Kirch next time.”

Shiu was envious of copy magic for the first time in his life.

 

 

 

Laetitia came to his house 2 days later.

Interestingly, Emina was behaving suspiciously.

First she ran excitingly, “An extremely beautiful girl has come!” After that she said, “I forgot to show them around,” and returned to the store in a hurry. She left Shiu dumbfounded.

In addition, she had made tea, but it was unusual for her to place the cups on the table with clanging sounds. Then she kept fidgeting and came back into the room. Oh my, I forgot the snacks, it was as if she was trying to get in their way.

She even dragged along a shocked Stan. Emina was acting really strange.

He heard later that old man Stan seemed to know Laetitia’s true identity. Old man Stan, who tended the store with Emina, muttered, “Oh? Elves are rare.” Emina idolised elves and was excited.

 

Speaking of Laetitia’s business, of course, it was about the dwarf.

“We found him.”

“That’s good.”

But, you know, she sighed.

“He insisted that he was a farmer and he wouldn’t forge anything.”

“…… Well, how could I say this?”

“Also Gradius is crying and being annoying.”

I wonder if that young man would cry. He tried to imagine it but couldn’t. Shiu shook his head, Laetitia’s probably exaggerating.

“He’s pretty stubborn. He keeps saying things like, 『I’m a farmer, so I’ll be a farmer』. I don’t get it.”

“You told him 『You’re loved by the God of Blacksmith』, didn’t you?”

“When we asked the nearby dwarves, they said that he was once a blacksmith. But not in Loire. It seems like he’s relying on his relatives here. The reason was that he really wanted to try farming.”

His relatives also didn’t know what to do with him and were troubled.

They also owned blacksmiths and craft shops. That was probably why it was a disappointment. He had received a gift called, 『God of Blacksmith, Primus’ Blessing』which could also be said to be his family’s honour; however he insisted on becoming a farmer.

He suddenly thought of a question and asked Laetitia, “Can dwarves not become farmers?”

She had a serious look on her face, Ah, and pondered with her mouth still opened.

“…… Now that you mention it, that’s right. It’s not like they can’t become farmers.”

“If the person wishes for it then it’s fine, right?”

“It’s not like they have to follow their gift.”

However, the problem was, “Gradius is being noisy, you know.”

They came to Loire to fix Gradius’ sword.

“Is it that difficult to repair it?”

“There are people who can repair it, but there’s something peculiar about it.”

“Peculiar?”

“A part of the sword uses scarletite, and as its name suggests, 《Thunder》can pass through the sword. That’s why he wanted to get it fixed perfectly by asking the 『God of Blacksmith』.”

Gradius is from a poor, large military noble family and he’s gluttonous on top of that, so how’d he get such an amazing sword? Wild ideas started spinning through Shiu’s head ――.

“Your thoughts are showing on your face, Shiu.”

“Cause, you know.”

“If Gradius kept quiet then he would certainly be a knight-like swordsman. It’s not strange even if he has a famous sword.” Laetitia shrugged and informed Shiu.

“When he was in the army, I heard that he was abandoned by the other soldiers when he was injured. He became alone and wandered around the mountains until he found a hermitage. The old swordsman who lived there liked the way Gradius ate and took him in as a pupil. And when the old swordsman was on the verge of death, he said ‘I’ll give this to you,’ and passed Tonitrus, the sword, to him.”

“…… Unexpectedly, there are a lot of kind people in this world. The geezer also took me in.”

He ended up remembering his foster father, Vasta. He had taken the newborn Shiu in and raised him. He had done so without receiving anything in return.

“Yup. Well it’s common for people to retire to the mountains. They’re already old and they have no children. So they take in people they find and make them their successors, right?”

Laetitia wasn’t lost in sentiments like Shiu was, she was a realist.

Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam

Previous |Table of ContentsNext