Pride of the Dwarves

Dwarves were a stubborn race.

That was also to say that their dispositions were stubborn of course, but they were also stubborn in the results of their work.

Consequently, they wouldn't undertake work that they themselves couldn't comprehend, but even so it would take time to complete even if they accepted it.

A report came from those dwarves. It said: "Furnace done, round up a mountain of mages and bring them here."

In other words, it meant that magic would be used together with them forging the katana, but it wasn't like they could simply just go out and gather mages.

Currently, Ogress was polishing its golem soldier plan that had played a leading role in the former Manesh. Mages were necessary for that, but—

"Oh my, shall we go?"

—Guinevere herself was the one to propose it.

The steps they needed to take right now, although it's magic, were more about the practical implementation of it than the theoretical side. Since Guinevere was going, that meant that a substantial part of the court would be going to the dwarven village as well.

However, the dwarves weren't concerned with things like kings and queens coming to their village.

"And so, Carla absolutely can't drink alcohol."

They had to take precautions in advance. It wasn't like dwarves were irrational, they probably wouldn't make a pregnant woman drink alcohol.

Together with Shizuna, Carla rode on a specially made suspended carriage.

Since Guinevere was riding on it as well, it was quite like a gathering of VIPs.

"So, what are you two hiding?"

Guinevere suddenly asked them a question. She turned her Dragon Eyes to Shizuna.

"Eh, I-I'm not hiding anything."

"There is something, but I can't say it now."

Unlike Shizuna, Carla, her long-time acquaintance, answered her.

"Oh my? Does this secret have something to do with Ria by some chance?"

"It is related to Ria, so I will talk about it after talking with her."

"Hmm? Well, so long as it doesn't break our friendship."

It sounded insincere, but Guinevere felt lonely.

In particular, not getting between friends was an emotion burden for her. It was a childhood trauma.

Defended by golem soldiers, the group faced the dwarven village. Just then, Irina joined them.

It appeared that Maal sent them a letter by blasting it down the road with Irina in her orichalcum armor on Rudolph's back.

"Onee-chan!"

With a bang, Irina embraced Ria while holding onto the letter from Maal.

"… What!?"

Seeing the letter's contents, Ria clenched her fist.

"Irina, is this true?"

"Yeah~"

In the letter, it said that Maal was getting married.

The groom was her childhood friend who had participated in the recent war.

"Uuu~aaah~"

On Matsukaze's back, Ria suffered.

She'd somehow wound up becoming a queen, so she wasn't able to easily participate in her friend's wedding.

"Fio~, prepare a present to give her. Food would be great if possible, I'll write a letter."

It felt like her friends were all getting hooked up. Gig was also about to be the marriageable age for an ogre here soon…

"Ah~, maybe I should have a proper wedding with Carla…"

If she didn't properly explain the Dragon's Bloodline, Carla's child would end up being treated as illegitimate.

Even if it was something that should be a happy thing, her troubles just kept on increasing.

 

*

 

The night on the day after they reached the dwarven village, the four were finally able to have their meeting.

Ria, Carla, Shizuna, as well as the dragon, Irina.

There, Carla quickly explained that she had sprouted the manly feature and mated with Shizuna.

(Hmm.)

Ria thought about it. Assuming that Shizuna was pregnant, that wasn't the problem. If it was Carla's child, she'd love it as though it were her own.

The problem was why she wasn't able to do it herself when they had done it.

Seeing Ria lost in thought, Shizuna felt uneasy. Simply put, she'd cheated on her.

However, Ria didn't care about that.

"Carla and Shizuna's child is the same as mine. Don't worry. However…"

Ria's expression changed and she scowled at Carla.

"The next time this happens, I'll be watching. Rather, I'll be joining you."

"Understood."

"Understood what!?"

Shizuna's shout echoed through the night.

"Rather, how about we do it now?"

"I don't mind, but…"

"She's pregnant! Don't strain her body!"

As something rare, Shizuna's opinion was actually accepted.

 

*

 

Since they'd let the dwarven village know they were coming this time, the head foreman as well as the foreman actually came out to greet Ria and her group.

The head foreman looked at Carla and spoke.

"You're a beauty for a human. Whose bride are you?"

"Mine."

The head foreman shifted his attention to Ria, who'd responded immediately.

"… Humans have marriages between women?"

"No, I'm a special case. By the way, I have another bride, and a fiance."

"I see."

The dwarf quickly let go of the topic and consented.

"Well, it's fine. Now come and take a look, what do you think of this fellow?"

As for what the head foreman took Ria to, it was a semi-spherical furnace in the center of the village.

"… That's… amazingly big."

Let alone weapons, it looked huge enough to produce a giant ship's deck.

"Umu, we needed a furnace like this to process the dragon fang. Moreover, it's not just a furnace."

The dwarves had started researching something related to a furnace that could be called a godly furnace.

It started out normally at first, they made a furnace from heat-resistant bricks, but it wasn't able to perfectly resist heat.

A temperature of that level wasn't able to process the dragon fang.

So next, they tried a mithril furnace. Since mithril could be given magic enhancements, it could withstand even higher temperatures.

But even so, it had its limits. The mana wasn't able to hold out as they turned up the heat to process the dragon fang.

So they were left with two choices: orichalcum and hihiirokane.

Orichalcum was a ridiculously strong metal in addition to being good against heat. Hihiirokane wasn't too strong, but it was the best material for endowing with magic.

But even so, they weren't enough against the heat needed to process the god dragon's fang.

And so the dwarves took out their last resort. First off, they made a made a building of heat resistant bricks outside with a large scaffolding frame. Coating the inside of that with orichalcum, followed by hihiirokane, they made areas that could produce heat directly in the furnace.

For fuel, they used charcoal from the world tree. They lacked enough with just that to be the fuel, so they planned to supplement it with magic.

"Raising the temperature inside the furnace without raising the temperature of the furnace itself. It's difficult."

Such a feat could be done with hihiirokane.

"However, that requires a lot of mages…"

And thus they needed Manesh's mages to be mobilized.

"Looks like it'll be pretty hard…"

Ria said it like it was someone else's problem, but it was to make her weapon from the god dragon's fang. As a godslaying weapon, it could be called a sacred treasure.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that all of the dwarves in the neighboring areas had gathered in order to make it. Moreover, they had only built the furnace needed to make the weapon.

"Well then, let's go~"

"Ka~y"

The ones to put the fire into the furnace were Guinevere and Irina. The charcoal made from the world tree ignited splendidly, easily causing the furnace's temperature to exceed several thousand degrees.

However, even that still wasn't enough.

"It's my turn now."

Carla began chanting. Simultaneously, countless mages began chanting cooling magic.

"Thermonuclear Darkness Exploding Hell."

A flame of darkness filled the furnace."

Ria put the fang into it with her bare hands.

The heat gradually tenderized the fang's form. When she took it out, the fang was shaped into a katana with a mallet.

It was a specially made mallet using a mixture of putting orichalcum into adamantium. Once it hit the fang several times, it lost its shape.

"Next!"

"Yes!"

Sweat couldn't even drip down her face as it evaporated as it appeared. If she were to breathe wrong here, her lungs would be burnt and she might die.

It was a scene similar to being a single step away from hell.

By the end of the day, just by turning the fang into a metallic form, all of the mallets had broken.

The entire following day was spent on fixing them.

And so once again, they forged the fang, stretching, lengthening it, and folding it.

A mysterious material was inside the fang, causing sparks to scatter about.

The people being Ria's yes-men were dwarven master artisans. Among them was the foreman.

If one were to speak about katanas in the area, then that would be the leading expert.

Although this katana was in the shape of a katana, it couldn't be called a truly forged katana, as it had neither a core metal nor edge metal and was simply a fang folded into the shape of a katana.

Even its handle and guard were all made from the single fang. Magic was used for their formation.

Then, Carla and Guinevere gave the blade that was in the form of a katana the various bestowals that were in their knowledge.

Normal weapons would only be able to hold as much as two or three bestowals, but this katana sucked in mana infinitely.

"Let's leave around twenty percent open. We'll have Serge add space-time magic when he comes back."

"Yeah~. But even I had to say that we made a nonsensical weapon. Ria, can you even use this?"

Even Guinevere's mana would run out after swinging it several times.

Ria's mana was ridiculously huge, huge to the point she couldn't use it all, so it was a suitable weapon for her.

Now that they'd arrived to the final phase, it was the dwarves' turn.

It was time to sharpen the blade.

Even without a true sharpening, it would be a weapon that could kill countless enemies with a single swing, but katanas just had to be sharpened.

They used a philosopher's stone made from a dragon's liver to sharpen it. It was something that was usually stored away for safekeeping, so many dwarves came to see it actually be used.

More than a month passed since it had first entered the furnace's flame.

Finally, the single katana was completed.

It had a normal form, two shaku three sun five bu (around seventy-one centimeters) long with a three bu three rin (around a single centimeter) curve, it had ripples shining beautifully down the wide tempering line of the blade.

Its color was as though darkness itself was shining, the color of Ria's hair.

"Beautiful…"

Ria gazed at the katana, enraptured by it.

From her birth all the way until now, she didn't think something could be so perfect…

"You should give it a name…"

In this world, famous weapons had names given to them. Most were given names when they're made with references to their origin, but many kinds would be given afterwards as well.

"Wouldn't Black Dragon Katana Valis be suitable?"

When the head foreman said that, many of the dwarves nodded in agreement. Certainly, most people would agree with using Valis's name.

However, Ria had long since thought of a name.

"This katana is named Godly Katana Gallach."

Gallach.

This was the name of the sole katana producer in the village, the foreman's name.

Staggering, the foreman—Gallach, stepped forward. Tired from sharpening the blade day in and day out, his face was so tired that it almost couldn't be thought of as looking like a dwarf's.

"T-to use my name…"

"Nagasone Kotetsu is a smith's name as well. If you weren't here, I wouldn't have been able to make this katana. That's why, Gallach…"

Saying that, Ria held the jet black katana over her head.

"I will use the name of the person who put the most effort into making this katana! I name this katana Godslaying Gallach!"

The dwarves were a stubborn race. That was well known.

However, what wasn't so famous was how much stock they put into emotion.

For the strongest weapon born from the god dragon's fang to receive a dwarf's name… The meaning of that was understood by every dwarf.

Like a wave expanding outwards, everything grew loud.

Their cheers of joy were like an explosion.

The dwarf foremen clapped Gallach's back.

Together with the katana, his legend was born.

 

*

 

"Well, you did a good thing."

The feast continued for three days and nights. Finally liberated from it, Ria and her group returned to the road leading to Manesh.

Gallah was not on Ria's waist as she sat on Matsukaze's back. It was too powerful, it couldn't be used normally at all.

As for what were on Ria's waist, there were Nagasone Kotetsu and two short swords made by Ballach.

Guinevere had called out to Ria from inside the carriage.

"Don't say that, I would've just named it Valis if it didn't turn out right."

Seeing that Fio and Shizuna didn't quite understand what Ria meant, Guinevere explained to them.

"In other words, Ria gained all of the dwarves' support just by naming a single katana with one of their names."

Dwarves were obstinate.

As well as simple.

Once they decided on something, they wouldn't bend. Once they decide to do something for someone, they would never betray them.

By using the as of yet still unknown foreman's name on a weapon whose name would leave its mark on history, Ria moved each and every dwarf profoundly.

Almost all of the nearby skilled dwarf artisans were in that place. She had obtained all of their support with a single naming.

"So there was a motive like that…"

Shizuna seemed to be a little disappointed, but in contrast Fio just felt admiration.

"But I absolutely won't betray them either. Shizuna, don't worry about things like that, it's bad for women who are carrying."

Yeah.

As expected, Shizuna had become pregnant after all.

Her morning sickness was awful, so they sometimes had to stop the wagon for her to vomit on the roadside.

Carla mysteriously hadn't been showing any of the symptoms of early pregnancy, but that might just have been because of her constitution.

"Thanks to that, we were able to receive the dwarves' full cooperation towards creation of the golem forces though."

Guinevere was satisfied with that.

In truth, Ogress had all kinds of people other than humans affiliated with it, including demi-humans, ogres that took pride in their strength, beastkin, and dwarves.

They'd have a considerable united front, even when it comes to fighting against the demon king's army in the approaching Millennium.

"It's so nice, Onee-chan. I want a special sword too."

Irina said that, but her orichalcum sword was already special enough.

Everyone thought that, yet no one actually retorted back to her about it.

"Well, couldn't you call yours Valis? Valis actually made it after all."

"Hmmm."

Irina, not quite agreeing to that, clapped her hands.

"Then… Rudolph!"

"Wau!?"

The one most surprised about that was Rudolph.

"You're always helping me, so I thought it'd be a cool name!"

"No, that'd get confusing, wouldn't it be better not doing that?"

It might've been in their imagination, but Rudolph's face also looked like it didn't want that.

"Well, I'll name it Onee-chan then!"

(Wouldn't it be alright to just call it Excalibur already?)

Ria thought that, but then just came up with a name.

A golden orichalcum sword. Although the large sword Irina used held tremendous destructive power, it was a little hard to handle.

"How about Orfèvre?"

"Hmm? What's that mean?"

"In the language of another world, it means goldsmith."

"Heeh… Un, I like it."

Like that, the Holy Sword Orfèvre was born.

By the way, the katana that Ria named Gallach was called another name by the dwarves later on.

That was: [Pride of the Dwarves].