Sena
Sena
So the dwarves of this other world were pretty much exactly as I'd imagined.
At most the height of an elementary schooler, with a stocky build and the bushy beard that was practically their trademark.
They looked like they'd been copied straight out of the movie The Lord of the Rings.
Since coming to this other world, this was my first time seeing a non-human race, so the novelty wore off quickly.
I still couldn't quite grasp why this guy was standing in front of me.
"So, the reason you came looking for me is because of the New-Model Golem Prosthesis that appeared in my manga?"
"That's right! Didn't you say in that book that it was a Golem Prosthesis modified using dwarven secret techniques?"
A Golem Prosthesis, out of nowhere.
I never imagined someone would actually believe an excuse I'd tacked on just to make it look cool.
And the fact that the person in question was a dwarf made it even more absurd.
"And that glass coffin from Snow White! What's the principle behind it?"
"Well... about that."
I don't know either. I'm an arts-and-physical-education type, not some science geek.
"I simply drew what I imagined. Those things don't actually exist, as you know."
Clumsily pulling out modern knowledge to explain how it worked would obviously backfire.
Other people go to another world and make soap, make guns, and so on.
But all I know is that such things existed, so if I tried to act knowledgeable, I'd be exposed immediately.
"Don't lie to me! The objects in your manga were all exquisitely detailed, without exception."
Thunk!
Kroon pulled odds and ends out of the bag he was carrying and set them on the reception room table.
"This is?"
"Yes, I made my own version of the New-Model Golem Prosthesis you drew in your manga."
Oh-ho. The workmanship was impressive enough to make me exclaim in admiration.
As someone from a scientifically advanced modern world who had seen all sorts of works and machines in person, I could draw them plausibly, but I never imagined anyone could actually build one.
The New-Model Golem Prosthesis Kroon had produced looked quite convincing on the outside.
'Dwarven skill really is on a level that makes comparing them to human artisans laughable.'
I could understand why, whenever dwarven weapons or armor were released in the Empire, every noble house scrambled desperately to get them.
The artisans of our territory weren't bad either, but if I'd asked them to make a prototype Golem Prosthesis, I couldn't have expected this level of quality.
"You made this just from looking at the drawings in a manga?"
"Hmph! We dwarves could make something like this with our eyes closed."
At my admiration, Kroon's expression quickly turned smug.
But
"Liar. Kroon, didn't you hole up in the smithy for days without coming out to make this?"
"Quiet, Sena! If you say that here..."
While Kroon was flustered by Sena's sudden revelation, I felt even more astonished.
He probably made it alone, and in only a few days?
"There's something I'd like to ask. Why did a dwarf come all the way to the human Empire?"
At my question, Kroon cleared his throat a few times, composed himself, and explained the outline of what had happened.
While mining ore in a mine, he had fled from a monster called a tunnel snake that suddenly appeared, got injured, and lost consciousness.
It was Sena who had saved Kroon. He stayed in human territory while he recovered and had remained there ever since.
"Wait, so you made this in a village smithy?"
"That's right."
This was insane. It was like playing table tennis with a slipper and getting selected for the Olympic national team.
A village smithy was the kind of place that could barely make farming tools. And in a place like that, he made this?
I understood how Liu Bei must have felt when he discovered Zhuge Liang.
If this dwarf named Kroon would work in our territory, that would be true over-technology.
Up until now, there had been many things I'd had to give up on in book and merchandise production because I hit the limits of technology.
If those problems were solved, we could produce products of even higher quality.
"Are you aware that this Golem Prosthesis still isn't completely identical to the one in my book?"
"Well, that's... if only I'd had more materials and tools!"
"That's it! I will provide you with materials, tools, and everything else you need."
"What? Is that true?"
I nodded without hesitation.
The picture-book and manga businesses were already bringing in a fair amount of money. I could easily afford that level of support as the price of gaining a dwarven artisan.
"It's enough if you make the things you want to make, as you do now, while also helping with the things I request and assisting our territory's artisans with their work."
"But..."
Kroon had looked happy at my words. But his expression quickly darkened again.
His gaze was directed at the girl sitting beside him, Sena.
"I'm fine, Kroon! This is a really great opportunity right now."
Even at Sena's words, Kroon's stiff expression showed no sign of softening.
"Is there something troubling you?"
"No! My lord. Please, take Kroon with you and let him do what he wants to his heart's content."
Before Kroon could answer, Sena cut in and begged me to take Kroon with me.
"No. I can't leave."
"Kroon!"
"Sena, if I leave now, what are you going to do?"
"That's..."
Listening to their conversation, there seemed to be some circumstances I didn't know about.
"Sena, could you play with my little sister for a bit?"
"Huh? Me, with the young lady?"
"Yes, I'd appreciate it."
At my words, Sena protested that there was no need to call it a favor, then immediately followed Alain to Ada's room.
"What's going on?"
Finally, once Kroon and I were alone in the reception room, he spoke.
"The trouble started when I made and sold goods at the smithy to raise travel money to come here."
Kroon's story continued as follows.
Walking from the west to here in the south was too far, so Kroon needed money to use a Magic Tower's Teleportation Circle.
The only thing he could do was blacksmithing, so he made and sold goods, and that became a problem.
No matter how shabby the materials and tools he used, the quality was so outstanding it couldn't even be compared to anything made by humans, so word spread quickly through the territory.
Even the local lord took an interest, he said.
Fortunately, it hadn't been revealed that he was a dwarf, but word was spreading that the lord would search for the artisan who made the goods.
If he didn't go back, he was worried that the village blacksmith who had lent him the smithy and Sena's family would face trouble from the lord.
"This might be simpler than I thought."
"What? There's a solution?"
"Is Sena's family by any chance free citizens?"
"Free citizens, you say..."
"I'll have to ask Sena directly about this."
I told a maid outside to call Sena back.
I had barely waited a moment.
From far away came the sound of rapid footsteps.
"No!! Young lady!!!"
"I'm not 'young lady'! Call me Ada Patrasche!"
A familiar voice from outside. A worry I couldn't explain.
I hurriedly opened the reception room door and looked toward where the sound had come from.
And there, I saw one Patrasche running while pulling the cart the artisans had made as a toy for Ada, with Sena riding in it.
***
"I'm sorry, my lord. Please, just spare me."
Sena was crying in front of me, tears streaming down, while Ada's dissatisfied expression, after being made to stop running, formed a stark contrast.
I took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears flowing down Sena's cheeks.
"It's not your fault. How could you stop Ada when she gets stubborn?"
It was obvious that Ada, who was obsessed with Patrasche these days, had put Sena in the cart and gone racing off on her own whim.
Of course, there were many noble families that would punish someone just for making a young lady pull a cart.
But at least in our family, neither my father nor any of the household servants would scold anyone over that.
"Really... is it okay?"
"Of course it is."
Once Sena finally calmed down and stopped crying at my words, I lightly rapped Ada on the head as she stood beside her, looking triumphant as if she had been the one to comfort her.
"Ow! Don't bully Ada!"
Ada clutched her head and pretended it hurt.
I hadn't even hit her hard, but her acting skills seemed to improve by the day.
"Ada, if you keep acting so willfully, Sena will have a hard time. Are you going to keep doing that?"
"No! Ada won't make Sena have a hard time!"
Startled by my words, she ran to Sena and stretched out her arms to pat Sena's back, but unfortunately Sena was taller, so it just looked like flailing.
Seeing that, I couldn't help but let out a wry laugh.
But I had something important to confirm, so I stopped smiling and asked Sena directly.
"Sena, I have something to ask. Is your family made up of free citizens?"
"Yes, my family doesn't tenant-farm on the lord's land. My father does day labor."
That was a relief.
Territory residents were broadly divided into two categories.
Free citizens and tenant farmers directly under the lord.
Tenant farmers included not only those who farmed on the lord's land, but also hunters, woodcutters, and gatherers who worked in the territory.
These territory residents had no freedom of relocation, so they had to be born in the territory and die in the territory.
Free citizens, on the other hand, were divided into those who owned their own land and those like Sena's father who did day labor.
They only paid taxes to the territory and were otherwise free to move wherever they pleased.
"Sena, listen carefully. I want to bring you and your family to our territory. What do you think?"
"Here?"
"Yes. Sena's father will probably work at our book factory, and Kroon will also work in our territory."
"I'd love that! Absolutely!"
At Sena's positive answer, I looked back at Kroon, who had followed me out, and he smiled brightly in response.
"Thank you! We dwarves never forget a kindness!!!"
And so, I happened to recruit a dwarven artisan.