The Race Called Dwarves

I had underestimated the race known as dwarves.

It's not that I hadn't met dwarves before. Dwarves, being excellent blacksmiths and craftsmen, would set up forges in any reasonably large town, and in great cities like Anaias, they had established fairly orderly communities.

But the dwarves in their homeland were different.

Dwarves who didn't have to worry about the eyes of other races were like an entirely different species.

First of all, the image of them as stubborn artisans wasn't wrong.

Take weapon shops, for instance.

When it came to talking in the workshop, it was all about iron! Sometimes mithril! And occasionally orichalcum!

But that wasn't all there was to the dwarven race.

When they went home, they were even more extreme. First sake, second sake, skip three and four, and fifth was also sake. They enjoyed their drinks heartily and boisterously, yet the next day they'd be perfectly fine, silently waging war against iron once more.

First, Lulu escaped. Being a delicate elf, she was let off the hook.

Serge was trembling like a nervous virgin, but he was spared since he was a child.

Gig couldn't pass as a child. He was crushed first and laughed at with comments like, "For all that build, he's nothing special."

Carlos? Was that the thing rolled up like garbage in the corner of the bar?

Shizuna was surprisingly good with alcohol, but that was still within the bounds of human common sense. She drowned in the dwarven wives' fruit wines and always ended up vomiting golden matter by the end.

Ria fought.

Only Ria fought.

Let me record here the memories of that fierce battle.

In the large dwarven settlement, where would you go to meet the most important person?

The answer was the largest forge.

Without being guided, she followed the directions she was given and found a large wooden forge.

From inside, the sound of metal being struck rang out incessantly, making it seem impossible to get anyone's attention by calling out normally.

Here, Ria used her unlocked Gift, [Roar].

The wooden building shook. After all, it was loud enough to knock an ordinary person unconscious.

"What's all the racket?"

The old dwarf who came out with an unfazed expression was the Grand Master here.

She handed over the letter she'd been entrusted with from the Ogre King.

Its contents were simple. It said they were going to have a go at Cordova, so please arrange for weapons, and if possible, provide military strength as well.

"Hmph."

The Grand Master exhaled heavily through his nose.

"Fine by me. Cordova's been a thorn in my side for a while now."

He'd also heard that dwarven slaves were being forced to make weapons.

However, the Grand Master continued.

The dwarf settlement was an autonomous organization run by a council of master craftsmen. While he served as a coordinator of sorts, he couldn't make all the decisions by himself.

Indeed, dwarves were also a race unsuited to building organizations.

"So, is that all?"

The Grand Master's gaze kept flickering toward Ria's waist. More accurately, toward the katana at her hip.

"Right, take a look at this. What do you think of it?"

Ria presented her Kotetsu, still in its scabbard, and the Grand Master smoothly drew it.

"A katana, huh…"

With serious eyes, the master gazed at the blade.

It sent shivers down her spine. Those were the eyes of a craftsman.

"This is… quite something. It doesn't seem to have any magic on it, but it could probably cut through mithril easily. But how was it forged…?"

"If you knew the method, Grand Master, could you make something better than this?"

That was a challenge to a dwarf.

Ria had said it offhandedly, but to a dwarf, it was something that would ignite their pride to the fullest.

The feeling of wanting to try was there. But it wasn't his specialty. He had forged countless swords, but never a katana.

He couldn't claim to be able to do something he'd never done, just riding on momentum. That wouldn't be stubbornness—it would be mere bravado.

"I've never forged a katana. But my youngest son is working on them now. Others say it's a waste of time, though…"

"Katanas are the strongest. If dwarven smiths forge them, they'll make the strongest katanas."

"Won't swords do? There are plenty of fine swords."

"Part of it is that I'm accustomed to katanas, but I've never seen a sword better than a katana."

"Oh?"

The Grand Master called over an apprentice and had them bring various materials.

If she was going to say that much, she should satisfy a dwarven weaponsmith's curiosity.

"Can you cut this?"

The cutting tests began.

She easily bisected the thick lumber.

Then she was made to cut lumber wrapped with wet straw and paper.

Iron steel was brought out, but she easily cut through that as well.

"Alright, now for the real test."

A dwarven-forged steel sword was placed on the testing stand before Ria.

"Well? The blade might chip, but…"

"Hah!"

Before the Grand Master could finish speaking, Ria's spirited yell had already broken the sword.

Kotetsu's blade was unmarred.

Every eye in the forge was fixed on the cutting test. Normally the Grand Master would shout at them to get back to work, but even dwarves couldn't look away from this.

Next, a mithril sword was brought out. Its strength was enhanced with magic. Common sense said it couldn't be broken by an iron sword.

But even that, Ria's Kotetsu cut through and broke.

"How is this possible…? Even if it could cut through, you'd think it would bend or chip…"

There was no sign of warping as Kotetsu was returned to its scabbard.

"It's not just ordinary iron, is it? But simply forging it hard would make it chip… I don't understand."

Then the Grand Master brought out an ingot of orichalcum.

Called the metal of the gods, that metal was far more valuable than pure gold.

As expected, she couldn't cut through this. But Kotetsu was neither chipped nor bent.

"I'm going all out. You ready?"

Now that it had come to this, Ria wanted to know the limits of her beloved katana.

No—it should be able to cut through.

Metal imbued with magical power should be cuttable with iron imbued with magical power.

"Hyaaaah!"

Kotetsu, filled with Ria's magical power, met her expectations.

The lump of orichalcum split in two.

The Grand Master raised his hands in defeat. Literally threw his hands up.

"Follow me. My youngest son will probably understand this better."

And so, only Ria was led to a small hut set up in a corner of the settlement.

"Master, the Grand Master is here."

An apprentice called out inside, but there was no response for a while.

The sound of iron being struck continued.

Finally, when a set of work was completed, a still-young yet still stubborn-looking dwarf appeared.

Prompted silently, Ria and the Grand Master entered the workshop. It was small but fully equipped and neatly organized. The back seemed to serve as living quarters.

"Show him your katana."

At the word katana, the master's eyebrow twitched. Ria handed over Kotetsu, still sheathed.

The master smoothly drew it and gazed at the blade.

Meanwhile, Ria was absorbed in examining the forged katanas placed around the workshop.

Not bad. No, quite good actually.

The katana had only been rough-polished, but the forging was considerable. Its form was graceful and powerful.

But it was still crude. Before the issue of technique, there was a lingering softness.

"Hey, you."

The master finally spoke.

"What dwarf forged this? Tell me. Please."

"No, that was forged by a human."

The expressions on the dwarves' faces at that moment were something to behold.

"A-a human… forged this? This? Who the hell…?"

"Unfortunately, they've already passed away, but…"

And then Ria began to tell the story of Nagasone Kotetsu.

Of course, Ria's knowledge was limited. There were many legends as well. With that preface, Ria recounted Kotetsu's life.

How until he turned fifty, he didn't forge katanas but armor.

How he began forging katanas in order to slice through the magnificent armor he himself had created.

How before forging katanas, he first began by carefully examining the iron as material.

How he became the greatest master craftsman in the eastern island nation, caught the eye of the king, and was recognized as the finest swordsmith.

Including the fact that forgeries were already in circulation during his lifetime due to his immense fame, Ria shared everything she knew about Kotetsu.

Before she knew it, the sun had set.

When Ria finished speaking, the father and son dwarves were overcome with emotion, arms folded, gazing up at the ceiling.

"The world is vast."

When the Grand Master murmured this, the master nodded as well.

"What I want is for you to forge a katana that surpasses this one."

"Right now, that's impossible. I can't even begin to compare."

So said the dwarf, a member of a race proud of their smithing, as he bowed his head.

"Please. Tell me anything you know about this katana. Anything at all."

"That's what I was hoping for. I also love katanas, after all."

And so, the battle began.

"First of all, the iron is bad."

Ria declared.

Dwarven iron was pure, made through magic and furnaces. Coal was added to this to make steel, but it was too pure.

They needed additives, Ria said, and the dwarves made strange faces. Remove impurities from iron, add carbon to harden it. That was the normal way to make weapons.

"In extremely tiny amounts, you actually need substances that prevent the iron from chipping and bending."

Research in this area had been conducted in Anaias as well, but the ultimate steel hadn't been completed.

"This is one of them."

What Ria produced was titanium. Not a magical metal.

In her previous life, the manufacturing methods for Japanese katanas had largely been lost as secret techniques.

In fact, there was a theory that katanas made in older eras—from the Heian to Kamakura periods—might have been superior to those made in more recent times.

Supporting evidence for this theory came from an analysis of a tattered katana from that era, discovered in an old temple, which found modern materials in its composition.

This was thought to have possibly been intentionally left in when making the iron, but since the exact iron refinement methods of that time remained unclear, no conclusion had been reached.

At any rate, first, to make iron, they began by building another furnace.

Carlos and Gig were mixed in with the dwarves, helping out.

Collecting the raw material was also a problem. This settlement used high-quality iron ore, but the method Ria knew required iron sand.

There was a place along the river where iron sand could be collected. Also, Serge's magic could pulverize iron ore into fine particles.

Even for Ria, it was a continuous process of trial and error. She had knowledge and had touched on some of it. But she had never been in a position to oversee everything.

The Grand Master supported them with everything he had.

By the time the furnace was completed and the first ironmaking began, every dwarf in the settlement had come to help.

With shouts of encouragement, the bellows were pumped, and three days and three nights of ironmaking began.

They failed many times. Was the iron bad? The earth? The charcoal? Or was there some other cause?

By the time they managed to produce a mere few dozen kilograms of iron they could be satisfied with, a month had passed.

Still, Ria was satisfied. She felt she had witnessed the true potential of the dwarves.

A heavy, rugged lump of iron. When split open, a beautiful white iron gleam could be seen, like the moon.

This was iron. Iron, more precious than gold.

Then they began forging the katana.

The technique itself wasn't that different from her previous life. The problem was skill.

There was no one to serve as the second hammer. Only the master among the dwarves had seriously worked with katanas, and his apprentices were nowhere near ready to be partners in forging this iron.

"Will I do?"

Ria asked while gripping the hammer, but the master only nodded.

And so they forged katanas.

They struck relentlessly. Various methods were used for joining the core iron and the blade iron.

Working in parallel, they forged multiple katanas using different methods.

They prepared many kinds of clay for quenching and many kinds of water.

What water to use? River water or well water? What temperature should the water be?

They failed again and again.

Ria and the master barely slept.

With seemingly limitless stamina, they simply continued forging katanas.

Polishing was mainly the apprentices' job. They weren't seeking a proper polish. Just a rough polish to see the color of the iron.

And another month passed.

There was one katana.

A wide-bodied, shallowly curved blade.

The hamon pattern was a straight line, nothing to boast about in terms of technique.

Ria stared intently at the katana that had just been rough-polished.

As if waiting for her words, the master stood quietly by her side.

"It resembles Kiyomaro."

Ria murmured. The master's gaze asked who Kiyomaro was.

"A swordsmith born in the era after Kotetsu, said to be his equal. The shape is different, of course, but this katana has spirit."

The master nodded. In the corners of his eyes, something faintly glistened.

"Now then, what I actually wanted to ask is something else."

At the celebration for finally producing even one katana that met Ria's standards.

"I want you to forge a katana with this."

What Ria took out was a lump of black metal.

"Is this… metal? I've never seen anything like it. It does seem similar to a dragon's fang, though…"

Even the Grand Master, the most knowledgeable about metals, couldn't identify it. Without making a show of it, Ria told them.

"It's a Divine Dragon's fang. I received it from Dark Dragon Valis."

At those words, the dwarven men froze.

"Please forge a katana with this."

Ria bowed her head.

The answer came back that it would be impossible right away.

No confident voices saying they'd do it rose up either.

But the men's eyes were gleaming with intensity.

Their eyes were saying they wanted to try.

"First, we'd need to build a furnace…"

The Grand Master muttered to himself. He was motivated.

Someone muttered they'd need charcoal from the World Tree.

Another groaned that they'd need to make a hammer first.

They were motivated.

The dwarf settlement was filled with motivation.

"Oh, here's an advance payment."

What Ria produced in heaps were gold bars she'd been making in her spare time.

"You can't eat iron, right?"

Raising their cups, the dwarves roared.

On the morning they left the dwarf settlement.

"Even when I become an adult, I'm absolutely never going to the dwarf settlement."

That was the genuine sentiment of Serge, who had been a liberal arts boy in his previous life.

"Rather, never again…"

On his beloved horse, Carlos groaned as if dying.

Lulu was quietly casting healing magic on him, but in fact, no magic existed that could completely purge alcohol from the system.

"They were good men."

Even Ria was swaying back and forth on Matsukaze's back.

Drinking and making merry with the dwarven men, Ria had been crushed.

Somehow managing to wake before sunrise despite her hangover was thanks to years of habit.

"Still, I'm starting to think it really might be true that dwarves have sake flowing through their veins instead of blood."

"Well, the fact that you could keep up with them until the very end makes you pretty remarkable too."

Lulu quipped. She was the type to get drunk on a single glass of wine.

Ria possessed tremendous status abnormality resistances, but alcohol resistance wasn't among them.

Yes, even dragons get drunk when they drink sake.

Ria's strength with alcohol was purely due to her physical body.

"Still, it took longer than I expected."

Though it was mainly her own fault, Ria murmured carelessly.

To such a Ria, something came flying from the sky.

No, it wasn't a bird. It had wings, but it was a bat.

Hovering in front of Ria's eyes, the bat had a letter tied to its leg.

Since they were using a bat, it was probably a message from Asuka.

The letter contained a short message.

"Cordova soldiers attacking village. Return immediately."

Spurring Matsukaze on, Ria rushed at full speed down the road to the village.