The Alchemist Duke
After leaving the Arkemen branch of the Adventurer Guild, I headed straight for the inn. The request I’d received from the guildmaster was straightforward enough. It was a job to storm the main headquarters of Arkemen in the capital and give them a little ‘education.’ More precisely, the task was to capture the head of Arkemen’s capital branch—the one they called the Alchemy Duke.
‘What kind of name is the Alchemy Duke? Are their leaders all named after alchemy ranks? Is the boss the Alchemy King or maybe the Alchemy Emperor?’ The naming sense was baffling, but whatever. My goal was simple: either take the Alchemy Duke alive or bring back his head. Compared to searching for a kidnapped noble lady, this was far easier.
‘And best of all, the pay is excellent.’
I could feel the reassuring weight of the heavy coin pouch inside my armor. The Alchemy Guild must be rolling in money; the commission fee was substantial. Nearly a hundred gold coins. For me, that was a solid profit.
‘On top of that, I might even get my hands on some Mandium. According to Aurelia’s information, those Arkemen bastards have been claiming they can create Mandium lately. It’s probably ninety-nine percent bullshit, but they might actually have some on hand. You need a sample to make a convincing lie, right? The chance to get free Mandium was too good to pass up. I couldn’t possibly refuse the request.’
Jingle. Jingle—
“Anyone here?”
Before I knew it, I had reached my destination. The sound of hammering rang out.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Along with the intense heat came the rhythmic pounding of metal. The place I was looking for was Torgin Blacksmith. It was also the shop I always visited after finishing a request. The craftsmanship was excellent, and more importantly…
“Welcome! …Oh? It’s you, Mr. Berk!”
“Good to see you. I need some maintenance done.”
Yes. This was exactly it.
The petite woman who came trotting over, her generous chest bouncing with every step. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I came here just to see her. Small stature paired with an disproportionately enormous bust. It was the classic trait of a female dwarf.
‘Male dwarves and female dwarves really are completely different.’
Male dwarves were the short, muscular, bearded uncles everyone knew. On the other hand, the female dwarves of this world looked like slightly younger human women. The only real differences were their fiery personalities and ridiculous strength.
“Mr. Berk? Why are you staring like that?”
“…My bad. It’s nothing. Here’s the greatsword.”
“Okay!”
Grab!
She took the massive blade—which was nearly as tall as an adult man—with both hands and didn’t even flinch. She might look like a young girl on the outside, but her strength was no joke. Anyway, there weren’t many dwarf-run forges around here, so this place was precious to me.
“You’ve been surviving with a sword that’s barely even a sword. Impressive.”
“Torgin.”
The hairy dwarf approached me. For the record, he was the father of the female dwarf from earlier.
“The edge is pretty messed up. Same as last time—two days enough?”
“No, I need it done by tomorrow. I’m heading out right away.”
“Tomorrow? Hmm…”
“I’ll pay double the usual rate.”
“Deal. For that price… Looks like something urgent came up?”
“They want me to wipe out Arkemen.”
“Arkemen?”
Torgin scratched at his thick beard.
“Toren, weren’t those rotten bastards who came by yesterday calling themselves Arkemen?”
“Ah! That’s right, Dad. I think that’s what they said.”
Toren answered her father’s question. That was the name of the woman who had greeted me earlier. Wait, Arkemen had come here?
“You met with Arkemen?”
“Yeah. They showed up demanding I sell them iron.”
“Iron…?”
Torgin’s expression darkened.
“They said it was for a greater cause, so I should sell it cheap… Does it make any sense for people to come to a blacksmith shop begging for iron?”
“That does sound strange.”
“I’ve had terrible luck since morning. Felt like someone dumped a whole bucket of cold water on me.”
“……”
“If I could, I’d have poured molten iron right over their heads.”
It seemed they really were running rampant these days. If they were bold enough to pull that kind of nonsense at a blacksmith shop, they definitely needed to be eradicated as soon as possible.
“Don’t worry. I’ll round them all up and throw them in a cell soon enough.”
“Oh ho. So that’s the request you took.”
“I plan to clean them out shortly.”
“As expected… Berk oppa, you’re so cool!”
Toren, who had been listening from the side, gave me a big thumbs-up.
“Now that I think about it, I heard you rescued a noble lady this time too? It’s just like a romance novel, isn’t it?”
“The rumor already spread that far?”
“Of course! Heimach isn’t that big, you know.”
Toren’s eyes sparkled. Was this a green light? She stepped closer and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“If I ever get in danger, will you come save me t— Kyaa!”
Smack!
Toren was slapped on the back by her father.
“Stop bothering Berk and get back to work, you brat.”
“Hng… Dad, you’re so mean!”
“Mean? Berk, stop indulging her nonsense and be on your way.”
“Yes, sir.”
Torgin’s glare was fierce. No father could calmly watch his daughter fawn over some outsider. I decided to take the hint and leave. Having this kind of popularity really was a problem sometimes.
…Not that I could do anything about it with this body anyway. It was honestly quite depressing.
“I’ll have the maintenance done by tomorrow afternoon. No need for armor repairs?”
“I’ll handle the armor myself.”
“Alright, off you go.”
I left the greatsword with Torgin and stepped out of the forge. There was no point leaving my armor. I couldn’t take it off in the first place, and it repaired itself naturally over time.
“Goodbye!”
“Yeah.”
Jingle. Jingle—
As I left the blacksmith shop, I mulled over Toren’s words. Saving a noble lady from bandits really did sound like something out of a romance novel… She wasn’t wrong.
‘I wonder what the young lady is doing right now.’
For a brief moment I wondered if she might be thinking about me, but I quickly shook my head with a small laugh and brushed the thought aside. We’d only met once. There was no way.
‘Besides, we barely even talked.’
All we’d done was exchange a few words while resting by the campfire before she fell asleep. After that we rode back, got into a chase… A noble lady’s days were probably packed. She wouldn’t have time to spare thinking about someone like me.
‘Sigh… What am I even hoping for? Let’s just head back.’
Worrying about whether the young lady missed me or not was nothing but pointless delusion.
“Haa… I miss the Black Death God so much…”
Layla gazed out the window with a dreamy expression. This was the noble district of the capital, Heimach, an area restricted to the aristocracy. Among the mansions here, she lived in a rather large two-story residence.
Her mind was completely filled with thoughts of the Black Death God. It was only natural. That had been the most thrilling experience of her entire life.
‘Black Death God… I can still see him clearly in front of me.’
The scene replayed in her head for the umpteenth time. The Black Death God standing firm against dozens of armed bandits without retreating an inch. Instead, he had pointed his greatsword at them with an imposing, arrogant stance. Having witnessed the entire spectacle with her own eyes, she was now suffering from a serious illness.
A terrible case of first-love syndrome.
How could she not fall for a man who was strong enough to save her life and was even kind on top of that?
Wait. Kind?
“Hiiiieeeek!!”
Stretch!
Suddenly she let out a scream and yanked on both her cheeks.
‘You idiot…! How could you dirty the knight’s armor like that!’
Thinking back on it now, she had clearly lost her mind. She had used his lap as a pillow while claiming she needed a high pillow, and the next morning she had left his armor covered in drool.
“What do I do… What do I do, what do I do!”
Her flushed cheeks burned hotter. What if he thought she was a filthy young lady? …Or maybe she could approach him by offering to pay for armor cleaning?
“What’s all this commotion, Layla?”
“Ah… Sister!”
The woman who opened the door and entered looked similar to Layla. However, her ears were more pointed and her chest was even more voluptuous. Her name was Evangeline Schwartz, Layla’s older sister.
“Are you sick? Why are you suddenly screaming like that?”
“It’s nothing, sister… I just felt a little stuffy.”
Evangeline approached and examined Layla’s condition.
“What’s going on? Tell your big sister. Hm?”
“…Actually.”
Layla poured out her shy inner feelings. The mysterious adventurer known as the Black Death God who had saved her. He looked cold but was kind, and overwhelmingly strong. She had fallen for him completely.
“Oh dear. Layla… you.”
“I-I know! He’s a commoner adventurer and I’m a noble, so…”
“Right. I’m sorry to say this, but if Father hears about it, he won’t let it slide.”
“……”
Layla’s expression darkened rapidly. Just as her sister Evangeline said, their father was an extreme realist. It was obvious he would consider even dating a male adventurer as having ‘no utility’ and shut it down immediately.
“Then… should I just give up?”
“Well… you know, when you’re young, these things happen. There’s even an old imperial saying that first loves never come true, right?”
“Did you go through it too, sister?”
“…Huh?”
Evangeline was momentarily speechless at Layla’s question.
“O-Of course I did…!”
“Really?”
“Y-Yeah… sure.”
Evangeline barely managed to answer while staring off into the distance.
…I’m sorry, Layla. Your sister just lied to you.
Evangeline was already twenty-two years old. It wouldn’t have been strange if she had been engaged or even married by now. However, thanks to inheriting a strong elven bloodline, she possessed exceptional talent for magic. She had used that to delay both engagement and marriage by proving her ‘utility’ to their father. It had been a hard-won victory.
But the price was her youth. To be exact… she had zero experience with men. From childhood until now, she had only ever studied magic with her tutors. Everything she knew about men came from books.
…She had plenty of time to read, so she was quite well-versed in the romance novels circulating in the market.
“So I really have to give up…?”
“No, Layla. Don’t worry. Your big sister will take care of it.”
Grab!
Evangeline seized Layla’s shoulders. She could never allow her beloved little sister to walk the same painful path she had.
“First, let’s invite him to a social gathering! We’ll dress you up beautifully and show him a whole new side of you!”
Even if her knowledge of romance was limited entirely to novels!