The Devil of the Forge and the Pink-Haired Child
The Integration Elders were, without exception, early risers. No matter how early she woke up, she could never beat the elders who started their day at the crack of dawn. 5:00 AM. Today, Sarne had arrived in front of Doyunes's manor, absolutely certain she would be the first. But looking at the endless line stretching down the street, she collapsed to her knees in utter despair.
But she hadn't given up. Not by a long shot. Her mind raced, and the moment she made a decision, she sprang into action. She headed straight for the secretary's office. There, a horned woman—a demon, a highly uncommon race—was working as a secretary. It wasn't particularly surprising, though she did have a strange habit of gritting her teeth and muttering under her breath.
"To think I was once the kingdom's chief advisor... and now I'm a mere secretary."
Why on earth is a chief advisor working as a secretary? Sarne shook her head. She briefly considered asking Doyunes to replace her, but quickly changed her mind. The demon secretary had processed Sarne's request in the blink of an eye, returning with the exact documents she needed. She might be a bit eccentric, but her efficiency was undeniable. Perhaps Doyunes valued her for that very competence.
Sarne took Doyunes's schedule, immediately pinned it to her wall, and steeled her resolve. There was only one day that offered a sliver of opportunity. In Sarne's eyes, there was exactly one such day. That day was...
"Three days from now... the closing ceremony of the festival...!"
On that day, even the elders had personal schedules, meaning they wouldn't be able to play Baduk with Doyunes. Sarne waited quietly, but meticulously, for her moment. Behind her calm expression, countless calculations and moves were being mapped out. Exercising extreme patience, she refrained from requesting any games and avoided Doyunes's manor entirely. It was a strategy to plant the idea in the elders' minds that 'Sarne is not a competitor.' Soon, the plan bore fruit, and the elders stopped viewing her as a threat.
After days of the elders subtly keeping each other in check, the long-awaited day finally arrived.
"Today is the day...!"
She boarded a carriage at the station and arrived in front of Doyunes's manor. His final schedule of the day was about to end. When she requested entry, the main gate slid open with a heavy rattle. Sighing with relief, she stepped inside and dashed up the stairs toward his office. Now, no one could stop her.
"Doyunes!"
"Oh, Sarne?"
A familiar voice. Who was it? There shouldn't be anyone else here at this hour. Her confusion instantly flared into anger. Who dares try to steal my time with Doyunes! She whipped her head around with a fierce glare.
And there stood the devil herself.
"...S-Sister?"
"How long has it been? Hehe. But what brings you here at this hour? Don't tell me you came to see Lord Doyunes for that as well?"
Even her sister was here. She was already dressed up in a formal gown, though heaven knew when she had arrived. Had the rumors already spread? This threw all of Sarne's calculations out the window. Steeling her heart, Sarne spoke up.
"Wait!! Just a minute, Sister! I have something incredibly important to do right now! Doyunes!"
She called out to Doyunes, her voice laced with desperation, hoping her sincerity would reach him. At that moment, the silent Doyunes finally made his move.
"Sarne? Did you come to help out as well?"
"Huh? Help...? That's... Ah!"
She almost missed the cue. Surely she wasn't the only one who wanted to play Baduk with her fated rival. He must have felt the same way she did.
"Yes! I wanted to help too."
As the festival in Zenith drew to a close, I slowly began preparing for my return. Though, for some reason, Sarne burst through the door right in the middle of it. I was taken aback by her sudden intrusion, but I nodded at her subsequent words. As expected of an Elder, I suppose?
I pulled a small piece of Adamantium, which I had received as a championship prize, from my breast pocket. It shimmered with a violet luster. It was a material known as the hardest metal in the world. Some even called it the "metal of the gods," claiming it split into eight distinct colors depending on how the light hit it. Considering the unique properties inherent only to this metal, calling it divine wasn't much of an exaggeration.
It was one of the kingdom's treasures, put up by the royal family hosting the event to drum up excitement. True to its title as a national treasure, the metal was exceedingly rare—so much so that even Elder Dwarves rarely got to see or touch it.
Normally, I would have had to put in a lot of legwork to get Adamantium refined. After all, its rarity meant there were precious few blacksmiths with the skill to handle it. Fortunately, my timing was perfect. Dwarves were a race renowned for their metalworking, and I had spent the past few days face-to-face with the elders of the Elder Dwarves, chatting with them daily.
Since Sarne seemed busy, I had asked her grandfather to introduce me to a skilled artisan. Her name was... Sarna. As luck would have it, she had been itching to work with Adamantium herself. I had no idea she was Sarne's older sister, though.
Every single dwarf I had met over the last few days shared the surname Aufkus. They were all part of the same clan. So, when I heard the name Aufkus Sarna Kroi, I simply assumed she was a distant relative. I mean, you don't usually hear a name and immediately go, Ah, you must be Sarne's biological sister.
My conversation with her had been smooth sailing. What we both wanted was crystal clear. Fortunately, I could cover the crafting costs with my prize money, and the Adamantium I possessed was more than enough material. Just as everything was wrapping up nicely, Sarne burst into my office, somehow having caught wind of it.
Well, looking at the sheer desperation in her eyes, it was obvious what she wanted. It wasn't a difficult request, and I could easily help her out as a personal favor. Besides, seeing how her relatives always spoke so fondly of her, it was thanks to Sarne that I had received such a warm welcome and been introduced to a master blacksmith in the first place.
"Well then, Sarne."
"Wait... W-Wait a second, Doyunes?!"
"I'll leave the refining of the Adamantium to you and Lady Sarna here."
"Excuse me! I haven't even—"
"Ah, you mean the blueprints? I've already handed them over to Lady Sarna. You can look over them together."
Creeeeak— Thud. The door shut. From beyond the wood, the tender conversation of two sisters drifted through.
"S-Sister? You see, the thing is..."
"Sarne."
"Y-Yes?"
"You know how particular I am when it comes to smithing, right?"
"...Well, yes."
"We're short on time if we want to meet the contract deadline. I'm so glad my adorable little sister volunteered to help me."
"Uh... but, Sister... I haven't actually..."
"Surely you aren't suggesting that smithing is trivial, or that it was merely a passing amusement to escape a moment's boredom... are you, Sarne?"
Gulp. In that instant, Sarne felt the icy breath of death on her neck. Just as Sarne was hailed as a genius of Baduk, her older sister, Sarna, had grown up praised as a prodigy of metalworking. Her pride in her craft was easily equal to Sarne's pride in her board games.
Under normal circumstances, Sarne would have gladly helped. The problem was that Sarna was anything but normal. She was an extreme perfectionist. She wouldn't tolerate even a 0.1-gram margin of error. If even the slightest detail displeased her, forging the metal dozens or hundreds of times over was par for the course. While the final products were undeniably beautiful, Sarne vividly remembered the expressions on the faces of those who had served as her assistants.
On that day in her childhood when she had visited Sarna's workshop with an innocent heart...
"Hic... sob... ugh... sob... sob... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
It wasn't a workshop. It was a living hell.
"Sister."
"Yes, Sarne?"
Drag, drag, drag. Sarne's petite body was already being dragged away.
"I heard you loud and clear. Though, there's really no need for an answer. It's a yes, of course, right?"
"Huh...?"
The piece of paper in Sarne's hand fluttered to the floor.
[18:00] Discussion on Adamantium — Sarna's Workshop
Due to "personal circumstances," Sarne was unable to return to Elium with me. I could have sworn the contract start date was written as a week later... Is this what they call artisan spirit?
Upon arriving back in the Elium Kingdom, I decided to inspect the matters I had only been able to review on paper. Specifically, the integration between the foreign tribes and the kingdom's citizens. It was time to verify if the resettlement of the Baba Tribe, who had crossed over recently, had been completed successfully.
I boarded a carriage and headed toward the newly established village. It was situated not too far from the royal capital. Originally, we had planned to allocate a fertile plain for them, but at the Baba Tribe's vehement insistence, the location had been changed to a mountainous region.
The Urai Mountains. A range notorious for being rugged and steep, and one of the Elium Kingdom's biggest headaches. Every year, monster waves would sweep down from these frost-covered northern peaks. Here, wild beasts like tigers and boars were at the absolute bottom of the food chain, while countless monsters rumored to have crossed over from the Demon Realm in ancient times formed a thriving ecosystem.
Naturally, the administrators had initially opposed the move, arguing that the area was unfit for human habitation. ...But apparently, the more they explained the dangers, the more the tribe had liked it. In the end, unable to break their stubborn resolve, we had permitted them to settle in the Urai Mountains.
As we climbed for a while and reached the entrance of the village, a soft gasp escaped my lips. Severed heads were on display, mounted upon massive trees. None of them were of ordinary size. Judging by the heads alone, the beasts must have been several times larger than their normal counterparts when alive, having grown fat on the rich mana of the mountain range.
As we drew closer to the village, the mounted heads transitioned from wild beasts to monsters. The herb gatherer who was acting as our guide finally let his jaw drop.
"...An Ogre."
The king of the mountains. And judging by its crimson skin, it was a Red Ogre. A monster so fearsome that it required at least ten fully armed knights to subdue. Yet, there it was, its head severed and hanging from a wooden palisade with a distinctly sorrowful expression.
Inside, people were running around and playing. Without exception, both the men and the women were massive. It wasn't just that they were built like bears—though the men certainly fit that description. The women were all easily a head taller than the average citizen of the kingdom, standing some thirty to fifty centimeters taller.
Zzzzt. I felt a gaze so intense it felt like a laser beam boring into me. Turning my head, my eyes landed on a pink-haired child. She had dirt smudged on her cheeks, looking as though she had just paused in the middle of playing.
Just then, a boy shouted toward her.
"Soraka!"
"..."
"Urgh—!"
Frustrated at being ignored, the boy stomped over to her. "Aren't you going to play? It's my turn to be 'it'!"
The moment the boy's hand touched her shoulder, the pink-haired girl quietly turned her head and stared at him. What on earth? The boy's face instantly drained of color, and he spun around and bolted. Judging by his build and appearance, he was significantly larger than the other boys his age, yet he fled in sheer terror.
As I watched this play out in bewilderment, the pink-haired little girl suddenly appeared right in front of me. She looked up at me and spoke.
"Crow."
"...?"
What in the world was she talking about?