Chapter 267
Chapter Title: Posteritas
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267
*Clang—! Clang—!*
The sound of a hammer striking red-hot metal echoed through the air.
The little giant.
Dweno was pouring his soul into the hammer.
He looked more serious than ever before.
*Fwhoosh—!*
A brilliant yellow flame erupted from Dweno’s hand.
A flame that could almost be mistaken for gold.
“Sharp enough to slice through black flames.”
Dweno muttered.
*Clang! Clang!*
“Hard enough not to yield to black flames.”
Dweno, who usually praised beauty, always made his weapons as beautiful as possible.
But this time, he paid no mind to the sword's appearance.
He didn’t carve beautiful patterns onto the blade.
The blade didn’t emit a radiant light.
He imbued the sword with only one thing.
The hope that its wielder would not fall to the flames of calamity.
*Fwoosh—!*
The brilliant yellow flame, Dweno’s signature, shone brightly.
To Kyle, who watched from the side, the light looked just like gold.
Soon, the flames subsided.
Dweno reached out.
The sword was still glowing red-hot, but Dweno didn’t mind.
As a dwarf beloved by fire, he had a strong resistance to heat.
*Grasp—!*
Holding the sword with its blade pointed down, Dweno offered it to Kyle.
“Take it.”
At his words, Kyle hesitated.
Dweno, with his resistance to heat, might not be affected by the scorching sword, but Kyle was different.
After a moment’s hesitation, Kyle reached out his hand.
*Grasp—*
A searing heat flared in his palm.
*FWOOOSH—!*
But it was only for a moment.
The heat soon turned into a gentle warmth.
The red-hot sword quickly cooled to a transparent silver.
A crude longsword, hard to believe it was made by Dweno.
But the sword was perfect.
The moment he gripped it, it felt like an extension of his body.
*Vmmm—!*
The sword let out a hum.
It was reacting to Kyle’s touch.
“This is a sword I forged with you as my inspiration.”
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t get any inspiration from me?”
Dweno, who worshipped beauty, drew inspiration from all beautiful things.
He drew the most inspiration from Lisinas and Luna.
Though not as much as those two, he also found inspiration in Ar-on.
But he had said he’d never once been inspired by Kyle.
“I did. I thought I couldn’t find any inspiration in you.”
Dweno let out a low chuckle.
“It was because you seemed to have no dreams.”
The beauty Dweno spoke of wasn't merely about outward appearance.
He was a dwarf who believed the process of a person pursuing a dream and achieving their goals was the ultimate form of beauty.
Lisinas held the grand aspiration of saving the world.
Luna had the goal of creating a world in full bloom with flowers.
Ar-on dreamed of a world where the many children of the world would not be unhappy.
Dweno, too, had a dream of leaving behind beautiful works of art.
But Kyle had nothing.
“To my eyes, your inner self looked like nothing but burnt ashes.”
“That’s not an inaccurate assessment.”
Kyle chuckled.
When he heard Lisinas’s plan to subjugate Erebos.
Luna treated Lisinas like a madman but never mocked his aspiration.
Ar-on was terrified, but he soon showed Lisinas his faith and trust.
Dweno found it absurd but still lent his strength to that grand ambition.
But Kyle was different.
He had scoffed when Lisinas first came to him, and he continued to mock his dream right up until the moment they began their journey together.
Now, he understood why he had acted that way.
*‘Because I have no dream.’*
He had lived day by day, struggling just to get by.
The title he earned for it was the Surviving Hero.
The cursed hero whose every comrade died.
A person whose purpose was simply to live day by day, with no ideals or goals to pursue.
That was who he was, Kyle thought.
“To be honest, I really hated that about you.”
Dweno smiled bitterly.
“Perhaps that’s why I looked away from you. I convinced myself there was nothing beautiful about you and ignored it.”
“That’s a bit harsh.”
“Yes. It was a pathetic and ugly thing to do.”
Dweno looked down at his own hands.
“Your grayness… it reminded me of my past self.”
“Your past self?”
“Yes.”
Dweno clenched his fist.
“People call me the man beloved by fire. But to me, this ability was a curse.”
After awakening his ability as a child.
Dweno said he burned everything he touched.
Everything around Dweno was laid to waste.
“It was a misfortune for a dwarf. My flames melted even the anvil and hammer.”
A monster of fire who spewed flames that even the Great Fire Spirit and the Phoenix feared.
The cursed dwarf who turned everything to ash.
“If everything around you was being destroyed, how did you end up as a crazy dwarf who’s obsessed with anything beautiful?”
“I’d appreciate it if you left out the ‘crazy dwarf’ part.”
“Be grateful I’m not calling you a perverted dwarf like Luna does.”
Dweno looked at Kyle with dissatisfaction and said.
“One day, I saw her. A beautiful elven woman.”
“Is that why you’re so obsessed with having that Luna girl be your model? Because she reminds you of an elf you saw long ago?”
“Don’t compare her to Luna. That would be an insult to her.”
For once, Dweno’s expression was serious.
The real reason Dweno often asked Luna to be his model was simple.
As long as she kept her mouth shut, she was the very picture of a beautiful elf.
“She was a painter. An artist who captured the world’s beautiful landscapes in her paintings.”
“Sounds like she was a famous painter?”
“No, she was just a wandering painter. A woman who left her own kind because she was sick of elven society.”
Dweno smiled faintly.
“But the paintings she created were truly beautiful.”
That, he said, was the moment Dweno became captivated by beauty.
“I strove to control my power so as not to harm beautiful things. And I succeeded.”
Dweno looked down at his own hand.
“I despise the me from the days when I couldn’t control my power. I looked away from you because of my own ugly heart trying to look away from my past.”
Dweno looked at Kyle.
“It’s only recently that I’ve started to look at you properly as a person.”
“And? How is it? Did you see some kind of dream that could be an inspiration?”
“No, you’re still covered in gray. But I saw something I hadn’t seen before.”
“What’s that?”
“That even though you have nothing, you never stop moving forward.”
Dweno’s eyes curved gently.
“And I realized the reason for it is us.”
The Kyle reflected in Dweno’s eyes was a man who carried none of his own burdens.
But he silently shouldered the burdens of his comrades.
“Once I realized that, I understood. That you, too, possess a beauty that cannot be replaced by anyone else.”
Dweno grinned.
“The reason Lisinas chose you, the reason Luna relies on you the most, the reason Ar-on wanted to be like you. Even the reason that I, who never forges weapons for those I dislike, made one for you.”
Dweno stared intently at Kyle’s face.
“It must be because this aesthetician’s body instinctively saw through to your beauty.”
Dweno preened.
“Therefore, that sword is my greatest masterpiece.”
Kyle looked at the sword in his hand with slightly surprised eyes.
Dweno doesn't call the weapons he forges ‘works of art.’
That's because Dweno doesn't particularly enjoy making weapons.
And yet, he called this simple, crude longsword a masterpiece.
“That sword is just like you. It contains no mana whatsoever. To anyone else, it’s just a hard, sharp iron rod.”
For a sword made by Dweno, it was far too plain.
Dweno likes all things flashy.
“But… the moment you hold it, that sword can become anything.”
It can be a powerful weapon, or a mighty magic staff.
It can even be a catalyst for summoning familiars.
“It is the one and only sword in this world… made solely for an All-Class.”
Kyle looked down at the sword.
He could feel the sword responding to his abilities.
“What’s the sword’s name?”
“Posteritas.”
At Leo’s question, Dweno smiled meaningfully.
“It means ‘future.’”
***
“So this was Sir Kyle’s sword.”
Mel exclaimed in admiration at Leo’s murmur.
“How do people of later generations evaluate this sword?”
“The dwarves speculate that it might be a failed work left behind by Sir Dweno.”
Dweno’s weapons, without exception, possess a beauty so great they could be called works of art.
Moreover, they have maintained their form even after thousands of years.
Of course, the weapons used during the final expedition, considered Dweno’s greatest masterpieces, have mostly been lost.
Even those that remain are on the verge of breaking from fierce battles, barely maintaining their shape.
But this sword was just a crude longsword, and no power could be felt from it.
On top of that, its shape was no longer properly intact.
With no known history about the sword, the dwarves considered it a failure made by Dweno.
“To think it was the sword you used, Sir Leo.”
As Mel expressed her admiration, Leo said calmly.
“This was also the last sword Dweno ever made.”
“What?”
*‘In the battle after this sword was completed… Dweno lost his life.’*
Leo’s eyes darkened.
*‘Go forward, Kyle. For those who will follow… pave the way. That sword is for that purpose.’*
Even as his lower body burned away and his life faded, Dweno had said so with eyes that blazed like fire.
And inheriting that will.
This sword succeeded in opening the path to the future.
“To think it was Sir Dweno’s final weapon…”
Mel was amazed to learn this new fact.
Mel, whose eyes were sparkling like a young girl listening to an old tale, suddenly realized something.
“Wait a moment. Does that mean…”
“Yes.”
Leo reached for the sword.
*Vmmm—!*
It was so damaged it could hardly be called a sword anymore, but it answered its master’s call, breaking a 5,000-year silence.
“This is the sword that subjugated Erebos.”
*Fwoosh—! Thud—!*
The sword hanging on the wall flew into Leo’s hand.
As if pleased to be held in its master’s hand for the first time in millennia.
The sword continued to resonate.
At the same time…
*Vmmm—! Vmmm—!*
The legacy of Dweno, stored in the armory, began to react.
Mel looked around the armory with a startled expression.
*Fwoosh—!*
A yellow flame erupted from Leo’s hand.
It was Dweno’s flame, awakened by Pivua’s divine power dwelling in the Folium.
All the weapons here were born from within this flame.
*‘Dweno never called the weapons he made works of art.’*
Leo looked around at Dweno’s legacy.
*‘But that doesn’t mean he didn’t pour his affection into them.’*
Dweno put his heart into making weapons, too.
The reason Dweno was called the Divine Blacksmith.
It was because his weapons possessed a will of their own.
Not a will created by magic engineering, like an Ego Sword.
A will that purely resided within the weapon.
It was as if that will was crying out for something.
*‘These weapons have probably been on display like this for thousands of years at most, or hundreds at least.’*
From the dwarves’ perspective, they were a legacy left by the great Divine Blacksmith, so they would have wanted to preserve them carefully.
But would these weapons want to rust away like this?
*Fwoosh—*
The weapons spat out brilliant yellow flames.
And for a moment, they returned to their radiant forms from a bygone era.
Mel’s jaw dropped at the sight.
“I see.”
Seeing this, Leo nodded.
Once, Luna had asked why he didn’t call the weapons he made works of art.
To that, Dweno had replied.
*‘The essence of a weapon is, in the end, to be a tool for fighting.’*
Dweno would say like a mantra as he hammered a weapon.
*‘They are objects meant to fight on the battlefield. That’s why I can’t call them works of art.’*
Dweno smiled bitterly.
*‘These children… are fated to one day disappear on the battlefield. Perhaps that is the greatest happiness for them.’*
“So you’re saying… you can still fight?”