Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 227
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 227
Though Fingertips had been clearly flustered by her own words, Lion came the rest of the way into the smithy and looked over the gem.
As all the muttering outside had claimed, the crystal didn’t have so much as a scratch.
‘The dwarves would’ve been stuck.’
If you asked whether he hadn’t seen this coming, that wasn’t true.
Ever since the alchemy cauldron got damaged he’d had a feeling it wouldn’t be easy.
That was exactly why he’d handed it over to the dwarves in the first place.
Weren’t they the people in this village with the deepest knowledge of gems?
If they couldn’t get it done, it meant there was no ordinary way to work the gem.
And Lion’s prediction had been borne out.
They hadn’t succeeded.
But thanks to that, he did have a lead.
“Even if it’s only a guess, in the current situation it’ll be a great help. Tell me.”
At Lion’s words, Fingertips nodded and spoke.
“It’s actually a fairy tale every dwarf knows. ‘The Things the Ancient Dwarf King Made’—something like that…”
The story itself was exactly the sort of fairy tale designed so that even a child could grasp the greatness of the Dwarf King.
The Dwarf King could knock together anything, but a few materials in particular gave him trouble.
Being hot-tempered, the Dwarf King stubbornly tried to handle them alone at first and failed, and later, with someone’s help or advice, overcame the difficulties together.
This gem was the same.
-The hardest, most brilliant gem in the world turned up its nose at the Dwarf King’s touch!
-Hmph! I don’t like a short, hot-tempered dwarf like you!
-Wounded by the gem’s words, the dwarf ran crying into the forest.
-And that was when he met them.
-The most beautiful and noble being in the world, the Spirit who could command all the elements!
“A Spirit?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Fingertips went on reciting the next part of the story at length.
To summarize from here, the Dwarf King succeeded in working that gem with the comfort and help of that ‘Spirit who could command all the elements.’
That was said to be why dwarves had for generations considered elements imbued with spirit power the finest materials of all.
Just as Mudu had now settled his smithy in a forge inhabited by a fire spirit.
“…Oh.”
Except, well.
That spirit.
Didn’t it look awfully familiar?
Lion turned his head and looked at the little bird perched on his shoulder.
Flinch.
Nature visibly twitched and averted its eyes.
While everyone else was listening to Fingertips’s story, Lion asked in a voice so low it might as well have been ventriloquism.
“You had a past like that?”
“Peep.”
Nature, which had been avoiding his gaze, eventually let out a deep sigh and stared into midair with a wistful expression.
It looked like a face that said, “In my younger days, I had my moments too.”
It also looked a little embarrassed that its past was being aired through someone else’s mouth.
Somehow its yellow, chubby cheeks seemed to have taken on a pink flush.
“So… if this gem truly is the gem from that story, I suspect it may be beyond our present abilities.”
That was a remarkably dispassionate conclusion for dwarves who would pound away a hundred times or a thousand times until they succeeded, but it was understandable.
The first reason was obvious without being spoken.
The spirit.
Typically, modern dwarves could sense a spirit’s presence but could not communicate with one.
Most likely, the fairy tale told the story that way to emphasize the extraordinary power of the ‘Dwarf King’ himself.
And the second reason.
“Because in the end, that was a story about the Dwarf King.”
The Dwarf King was a being whom all dwarves revered, but they considered him essentially a figure of legend.
No matter how much dwarves loved a challenge, none of them would stake everything on an unrealistic one.
They had plenty of other work to do besides.
As Lion studied the dwarves looking at one another as if asking, “Then isn’t this impossible?”, his gaze finally came to rest on Fingertips, who had brought the matter up.
‘She’s the most disappointed of all.’
Fingertips, the very person who had given him this information, was the one who could least conceal her disappointment.
She’d said she no longer produced her own pieces these days, but she was still a dwarf.
Coming back to the tools of gem-working after so long, and a gem the likes of which she’d never seen in her life, would have been perfectly suited to stoke her dormant passion.
Mudu, who had been listening, also seemed inwardly regretful; he let out a sigh to himself.
‘I wanted to watch my mother hold a gem again. A shame.’
When Mudu was young, his mother hadn’t yet let go of lapidary work.
So every time he got back late after crafting competitions with his little sister or with the village kids his age who were there now, he would find his mother grinding a gem.
It was an unusual sort of memory, but for a dwarf, for Mudu, it was a warm fragment of the past.
Still, no matter how he felt, he couldn’t very well cling to someone and demand they do an impossible job.
Most importantly, the gem’s owner seemed to have accepted it.
“Is that so? Truly a shame.”
Lion made a deliberate show of disappointment even as he recovered the crystal.
The dwarves who made their living working gems also looked regretful, but they didn’t stop him.
How could you work a gem that wouldn’t even take a scratch?
Especially not in your own workshop, but in Asteri Territory.
“Um, if you ever come to Bydantis Territory, would it be all right if we challenged it once more?”
“Quite right. By then, we’ll have honed our skills somehow. Techniques have improved a great deal in our time, haven’t they?”
“Very well. If the opportunity arises, I’ll stop by again.”
They were trying to console themselves with the words “I’ll stop by someday.”
But Lion didn’t stop there.
“By the way, this gem-working business. Could I try my hand at it as well? I’ve suddenly become interested.”
“Pardon?”
“Were you interested in this sort of thing?”
“Just became interested. Is there a dwarf who could show me the ropes of gem-working?”
At those words, the dwarves looked at one another, then wrapped their short arms around one another’s shoulders and put their foreheads together.
Whisper-whisper.
“Right. Come to think of it, you were peculiar last time we met, too.”
“Hmm, in that case…”
“Besides, you said he’s Mudu’s friend.”
Then they lifted their heads for a moment and glanced—once at Lion, once at Fingertips—before pressing their foreheads together again.
They were so vigorous about it that the sound of their butting heads could have cracked a watermelon, but dwarves that they were, none of them were fazed.
Before long, one of the dwarves who’d finished the emergency conference cleared his throat and answered.
“Ahem, when it comes to teaching a novice, our Fingertips is just the one.”
“Yes. Exactly right. We all learned from Fingertips.”
“Now, now. Fingertips, quickly, do instruct the young master.”
“No, no. We should be clearing out, that’s the right thing!”
“Right you are! Let’s head to the tavern.”
“Mudu. We’re counting on you to tidy up!”
“Ah, yeah…”
As though they’d planned it, the dwarves each tossed out a single remark in stilted tones and swiftly left the smithy on their short legs.
Silence descended in an instant on what had been a bustling smithy.
“Ohohoho… what in the world has gotten into those fellows…”
Mudu’s mother seemed quite taken aback by the situation; she smiled awkwardly, her face reddening, and jabbed Mudu in the stomach with her elbow.
“Kurgh.”
Mudu, clutching his stomach from the sudden blow, seemed to catch on at last and quickly opened his mouth.
“Ah, yeah. When it comes to dwarves, there’s no one like my mother. I vouch for her.”
“Oh, is that so? If those are the words of my ‘friend’ Mudu here, it must be true.”
Lion looked at Fingertips, casually stressing the word “friend.”
“In that case, would you teach me a thing or two?”
“Oh my, my. Why such formality all of a sudden?”
“Even the briefest instruction makes you a teacher, hahaha. And you are the mother of Mudu, the finest blacksmith in our territory.”
As with all mothers everywhere, praise for her child made her melt.
Unable to hide her laughter, Fingertips let out an “Ohohoho,” then put on an apron hanging in the smithy.
It was plainly one of Mudu’s apron series, and the cleanliness of it suggested Mudu had somehow managed to get things done before his parents came charging in.
“I’ll just do a little preparation and call you. Talk comfortably with Mudu in the meantime.”
With that, she headed off in another direction for a moment to get various things ready.
The moment his mother was out of sight, Mudu scrambled right up onto a stool in the smithy and met Lion’s eyes at eye level.
“You crazy bastard!”
“Hm?”
“Damn it, thank you!”
“…”
He’d gone so far as to climb onto a stool, and it turned out he was saying thank you.
“I didn’t do anything to be thanked for.”
“Hmph! Don’t bother pretending. I know everything.”
Know what?
“You—you can already work this crystal, can’t you!”
In case his mother might hear, Mudu whispered, lowering his voice as much as he could.
“So isn’t this you, trying to boost my spirits and my mother’s?”
Lion, who had been straining to catch a voice so faint it was barely more than escaping air, burst out laughing.
“No?”
“N-no?”
“That’s right. Half right, half wrong. I still don’t know how.”
“But you can do it?”
“Yes. But it’s also true that I need the help of a skilled gem-cutter.”
“…Hrrgh. Even for me, this time I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
If he could do it, why was he saying he couldn’t?
It was completely beyond him, but either way, this crazy bastard’s words had never been wrong yet.
And one thing was certain.
“Anyway, you’re saying you truly need my mother’s help?”
“That’s right. I would very much like her to give me a solid grounding in the basics.”
This was sincere, without a single falsehood.
Lion had figured out how to handle this crystal.
At the very least, this one attempt would be a perfect success.
Because he intended to use an item he’d seen in the Shilling Shop.
“Ohohoho, you’ve waited a long time, haven’t you? Shall we begin the lesson?”
“Yes. I will do my absolute best to learn.”
“What a spirited young friend. Now, now, let’s start you off with the correct stance.”
Fingertips did her utmost to teach Lion the fundamentals of gem cutting and polishing.
And Lion…
“…Oh my, my?”
…followed the lesson with an astonishing level of focus.
Enough to surprise even Fingertips, who had raised many dwarf students.
Before long, polished gems were piling up beside Lion, and Fingertips’s own passion began blazing all the way up to the top of her head.
“Good heavens. I’ve never had a student follow along this well!”
She’d met a student who made teaching a joy!
“This step is a little more difficult. Shall we try it together?”
“Yes!”
“Ohohoho!”
“Hahaha!”
Watching the two of them, Mudu shook his head.
Because he felt he now understood how he and this crazy fellow must look to other people.
“Tch.”
Still, it didn’t feel bad at all.
It had been a very long time since he’d seen his mother’s face so bright.
“Ahem.”
Mudu roughly scrubbed his face with the back of his hand for no reason.
Maybe because he’d seen his mother look so bright for the first time in a while, the tears kept welling up in his eyes—no, his nose kept running.
With those sniffles as the background music, Lion steadily continued honing his fundamentals.