“Wh-Wh-What are you doing manning a shop for a dwarf, Lord Acer?!”
A couple days after I had bullied the dwarven blacksmith into making me his apprentice, Airena came by to check up on me. That was the first thing she said after seeing me sitting at the front counter, playing with a ring puzzle.
This puzzle in particular was one that the blacksmith, or rather Master Damned Dwarf, made at my request. Ring puzzles like these needed to be made with utmost precision, so the fact he was able to put one together so easily demonstrated his incredible skill in craftsmanship. Never mind if he was good enough to be a teacher, I doubted I’d be able to find someone better.
As far as why I called him Master Damned Dwarf: as long as he referred to me as “that damned elf,” I had no intention of referring to him in any other way.
In the meantime, I looked forward to mass-producing these ring puzzles and spreading their frustration throughout the world once I had mastered the art of blacksmithing.
“He said if I worked for him, he’d teach me. And he’s paying me too, so why not?”
But even a full day’s pay wasn’t enough to afford a night at the inn I was currently staying at, so I’d need to find another place to live before Airena’s generosity came to an end. I couldn’t imagine anywhere else having food as good, though, so once I had my own place I’d have to either start cooking for myself or find a nice restaurant.
The rings in my hand clattered together as I toyed with them, and as I found just the right angle, they smoothly slid apart. Yes, these ring puzzles were an endless source of frustration, but the satisfaction of that moment was unmatched. My mood having been brightened by this success, I turned to the next one.
“That is not the issue! You must know that the scent of iron on your body will frighten the trees and earn the enmity of the spirits! What will you do if the spirits abandon you?!” Airena’s angry tirade was enough to make Master Damned Dwarf step away from his work and peek into the storefront. Surprisingly, he didn’t have anything to say. Instead, he just nodded to himself, realizing that she was an ordinary elf. It almost seemed like he sympathized with her for a moment, for some reason.
Aside from him, I had Airena’s misconceptions to deal with. Despite being strange for an elf, I was still a close friend of the spirits, so I couldn’t let her misunderstanding go.
“Yeah, I’m aware, but I think you’re wrong about that. The spirits don’t mind if someone smells like metal. Oh, it does make food taste a little different though, so I have the wind spirits erase the smell from me every day.”
I didn’t really want my body odor to be noticeable to others, so I’d made sure to bathe every day since arriving in the city. Maybe I was a bit delicate like that, but I was sure anyone would get hurt if told they smelled. And besides, I had already confirmed with the spirits that they didn’t mind the metals. There were spirits of fire in the forge itself, and the wind spirits continued to hover around me as soon as I stepped outside. My guess was that the story of spirits hating metal came from their anger toward pollution caused by mining. The elves who noticed that probably assumed the spirits hated metal in general, and so the story spread.
“As for the trees, if they were really afraid of metal, adventurers wouldn’t be allowed into the Great Pulha Woodlands, would they? Sure, they’d be scared of things like axes cutting them down, but they aren’t so weak and sensitive that you need to worry about the smell of metal.”
If the trees were concerned about metal in general, it would probably be from the pollution caused by mining as well. What she said wasn’t completely wrong, but it wasn’t really a reason for me to give up my job.
“I bet if we put a potted plant in here, it would still get along fine with me. Hey, Master Damned Dwarf! This shop needs more green in it. Do you mind if I get a potted plant?” I turned to ask as soon as the thought occurred to me, but the dwarf just gave a snort and returned to his work. I was pretty sure that was his way of saying “do whatever you want.”
When I looked back to Airena, she was staring at me in shock. She was having trouble digesting what I had said, my claims warring against common sense in her head. But that was to be expected. It seemed ordinary elves like her couldn’t see the spirits or speak with the trees as easily as a high elf like myself could. The words passed down by the elders were the source of her truth, and she had probably never had a reason to doubt them before.
Unlike the other elves, high elves tended to shut themselves away deep in the forest, holding no interest in the outside world. They didn’t have much desire or opportunity to share their knowledge of the spirits with others. Even if the other elves started spreading mistaken information, they wouldn’t feel obligated to correct them.
“Anyway, if you’re interested I can teach you more, but right now I’m at work, so I’d appreciate it if you bought something. I recommend that kukri over there. Don’t you think it’s incredible? I’d be pretty sad if it disappeared from the shop, but that’s my recommendation if you want something.”
For example, some elves believed that fire fed on wind, so naturally fire spirits would eat wind spirits and be a danger to them. It may sound obvious, but that wasn’t really true. In reality, wind and fire spirits often worked together. While wind spirits did inhabit the wind, the spirits themselves were immaterial and indestructible. Even if the wind were consumed by fire, it wouldn’t bother the spirits in the least.
In addition to that, fire really just consumed the oxygen in the air, which the wind brought to it. Powerful fires also gave birth to strong winds. In that way, fire and wind spirits worked together. And when they did, the resulting damage could be terrifying. That kind of knowledge may have been dangerous to spread around, but Airena seemed like a kind enough person that I wasn’t worried about telling her anything.
“This knife, you mean? Wow, it is quite large. And very masterfully crafted as well. But this was made by the dwarf, correct? Would he not be upset if you were to sell it to me?” Airena gulped as she inspected the kukri I had recommended to her.
Yes, it was really a fantastic piece. I didn’t know if he’d get angry or not, but I didn’t really care either. Master Damned Dwarf had said he had nothing to sell to any damned elves when we first met, but a sale was still a sale, so I was sure he wouldn’t be too upset. And even if it wasn’t my money, seeing more in the store’s wallet at the end of the day was part of the fun. Besides, if Airena bought the kukri, I might be able to convince her to show it to me once in a while.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine as long as you treat it carefully. But if you don’t take care of it properly, he’ll get really mad. On another note, you should really bring your two friends here. You said this is the best blacksmith in the city, but it seems he’s not all that popular, is he?”
Ever since I had started working here, Master Damned Dwarf had rarely come out of the forge. He clearly put more effort into forge work than sales. There was no doubt he was the most skilled blacksmith in the city, but if I was going to work here, I wanted it to be the most popular one in town as well. Being busier would leave less time for me to learn, but if we were successful enough, we could hire more people. The damned dwarf would get to spend more time in his forge, and I’d get to make more friends. It was a total win-win.
To that end, I wanted to bring Airena’s White Lake group in as regular customers, since they were apparently the best adventurers in town. I’m sure they hadn’t come here before out of consideration for Airena herself. But if the best adventurers in the city took a liking to a particular blacksmith, many who followed in their footsteps would take an interest in it as well.
“You can see things I cannot, I suppose. No, perhaps rather than ‘cannot,’ I should say ‘would not.’ Very well. Clerk, please sell me this knife. I will treat it with great care.”
I returned Airena’s smile with one of my own. After that, we picked a sheath and belt to match the knife, and I gave her instructions on how to care for the blade, word for word from what I was taught. Master Damned Dwarf looked out at us from the forge every once in a while, but he didn’t say anything, so our choice of accessories and my explanation must have been good enough.
There was no way something as simple as this would dispel even a little of the enmity between the elves and the dwarves, but a fantastic weapon had passed into the hands of a skilled adventurer. That alone was enough for me to celebrate.