The Boss's Laugh and the Worker's Tears
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“Ahaha…… Yes, I’ll be counting on you as well.”
The two clasped hands. Elena wore a bright smile, clearly pleased with the exclusive contract she had secured with the Flower Merchant Group. Richel, by contrast, looked drained and listless.
‘Like brother, like sister.’
Honestly, when Albert had told her to discuss the exclusive contract with Elena, Richel had rejoiced inwardly. As a merchant, it was always better to negotiate with the easier target if you wanted to maximize your gains. Business and personal matters had to be kept separate. However—
“Let’s make the profit split eight to two.”
“Ehh!? Eight to two? Then what would we even have left……?”
“We’re the only territory that can supply Iron Ant byproducts, and we can do it in steady, consistent quantities.”
“W-well, that’s true.”
“I’d say our competitiveness is more than sufficient. We’re the ones taking all the risks, so if you factor in danger pay, eight to two seems fair. You’ll still make a profit.”
“But isn’t this far too disadvantageous for us? There are labor costs and other expenses……”
“We’ll make it an exclusive contract.”
“Exclusive?”
“Yes.”
Richel could hardly believe this was the same Elena she once knew. Her words were precise, her tone commanding, and she deftly manipulated Richel with calculated pressure and restraint.
“We’ll draft an exclusive contract for the Iron Ant byproducts. Even if other buyers approach me, I won’t sell to them. Not even if it’s the Mages’ Guild.”
“Exclusive……”
Richel murmured. She had coveted the exclusive rights to the Iron Ant byproducts, yet she had considered it an excessive greed. Many large merchant groups coveted those materials. Not only that—
‘The Mages’ Guild and the Merchants’ Guild will obviously try to get their hands on them.’
Dealing with them would bring far greater profits than anything the Flower Merchant Group could offer. Yet Elena had boldly declared she would forgo all of that.
“……Why would you go so far?”
“Then let me ask you something.”
“Please do.”
“When our territory was struggling and every merchant group cut ties under pressure from the Carnival family, why did the Flower Merchant Group—why did you, Richel—continue trading with us?”
“That was…… because I owed you a debt, and I wanted to repay it.”
Elena’s face lit up with the warmest smile imaginable, brighter than the morning sun.
“I feel the same. Without the Flower Merchant Group, our territory might have collapsed long ago. The only reason we endured until now is because you helped us.”
Elena had learned from her mother in childhood: “If you receive a kindness, repay it with kindness. If you repay kindness with malice, that karma will surely return to you.”
Accumulate karma, and it will eventually come back to you. Her father had been a perfect example. He had ignored her mother’s nagging about buying too much armor, and as a result, he had spent quite some time sleeping in a separate room.
“I see.”
Richel nodded.
“Very well. If you’re offering eight to two along with exclusive rights, we’ll gladly accept.”
“Then it’s settled. Next……”
“There’s…… more?”
“Oh my, we still haven’t discussed transportation fees……”
“……Transportation fees too?”
“Of course. We should naturally be compensated for bringing the goods from Monster Land to the territory, shouldn’t we?”
Richel was thoroughly fleeced. All she managed to secure was the exclusive contract; everything else had been stripped away. It was practically highway robbery. Like brother, like sister. Blood truly ran true.
“Ah, I’ll handle the dismantling costs cheaper than anywhere else. We have plenty of idle hands in the territory, so if we hire them, it’ll be much easier……”
‘She’s got me completely trapped.’
* * *
They had obtained the Iron Ant shells. All that remained was extracting high-purity iron from them. It was no easy task, however. Melting iron ore to extract iron was simple enough with the right skills and equipment, but extracting iron from Iron Ant shells required a correspondingly advanced technique.
Blacksmith Hunt stood sweating profusely before the furnace, his focus absolute.
“The forge looks better than I expected.”
“Ah, Master Hort fixed it up.”
“Hort did?”
“Yes.”
Hunt gave an awkward laugh. He could still hear the thunderous scolding Hort had delivered upon seeing the neglected forge.
‘You call yourself a blacksmith?! Managing the forge like this?! You don’t deserve to be called a blacksmith! Stick out your hand! Why are you sticking it out?! How dare you talk back?! I’ll smash that useless hand of yours! Hand it over!!’
Hort had been so furious he had genuinely tried to crush Hunt’s hand, only to be stopped by the people around them.
“Ah.”
Hunt sighed.
“I failed again.”
When he opened the furnace, liquid trickled out, but it was riddled with impurities.
Analyzing……
The impurities, including the steel, have not been removed.
Hunt forced an awkward smile, looking troubled.
“I’m sorry…… I wasted something valuable.”
“No, it’s fine. We have plenty of shells, and we can always get more. Try again.”
“Yes.”
Hunt did not give up. Though the furnace’s heat soaked his entire body, he paid it no mind. His concentration was fixed entirely on the furnace, his resolve clear—he would succeed this time. Yet the results refused to follow his determination.
Failure after failure. He tried various methods, changing his approach each time, but the impurities in the steel refused to be removed.
“Tsk.”
Just then, a tongue-click echoed from somewhere.
“That’s not how you do it.”
Unsolicited advice.
“You think the impurities will just remove themselves if you toss it in the furnace?”
“Good grief…… What’s the point of waving it around like that? You think that’ll work?”
“Tsk tsk, the heat isn’t even consistent, and the temperature itself is ridiculously low.”
“Oh dear…… There, like that……”
They kept dropping hints out of sheer frustration, but unfortunately, Hunt failed to catch on. Eventually, the busybody offering advice revealed himself.
“Hey, you worthless human! I told you that’s not how you do it!! How many times do I have to say it?! Me!!”
“M-Master Hort!?”
“Good grief, you’re going to drive me to an early grave with how frustrating you are! You! You’re not a blacksmith, you’re an assassin!”
“An assassin? Me?”
“Yeah, you bastard! You’re trying to give me high blood pressure and kill me! That’s why you’re an assassin!!”
Hort strode into the forge. He shot Albert a sharp glare, then clicked his tongue in displeasure.
“Tch, damn it. I was trying not to get hooked this time……”
“I didn’t have any intention of hooking you, though?”
“You bastard! Do you think I don’t know everything you’ve done until now?!”
“Well, should I not do it then?”
Albert belatedly licked his lips, and Hort narrowed his eyes as if looking at something unpleasant.
“Tsk, a pathetic guy has no choice but to bow his head and come in. Damn it.”
He pushed Hunt aside.
“Do you know why the impurities are coming out mixed in?”
“That…… I don’t know.”
“You still have a long way to go. What we need here is firepower. The Iron Ant shell contains high-purity iron, but it’s mixed with just as many impurities. You have to burn those impurities away in one go with firepower.”
He eyed the old furnace with disdain.
“Tsk, this pathetic furnace won’t withstand high firepower—it’ll explode.”
“Ah, I can fix that.”
Albert stepped outside and shouted.
“Taxi!”
With a flash of light, Gaster appeared in his yellow uniform, red hair gleaming. He looked thoroughly displeased.
“I don’t know what this ‘taxi’ thing is…… but stop calling me that? It feels incredibly unpleasant.”
“Whatever. Put a strengthening spell on this furnace.”
“……I heard another human mage came in. Why not have him do it……”
A dragon had his pride. Using a great dragon’s magic for something as trivial as strengthening a furnace was beneath him. But when Albert quietly clenched his fist—
“……Magic has no rank. That human mage was too injured to work, from what I saw. I’ll do it.”
He folded immediately. Usually, he obeyed after one command, but being a dragon, he always had to resist at least once.
Gaster hurried inside and cast a strengthening spell on the furnace.
“……”
Hort stared at the scene. Gaster frowned.
“What? Why? Did you see something you shouldn’t have? Want me to eat you?”
“Ahem!”
‘That crazy human…… He’s treating a dragon like this? And a red dragon, famous for having the worst temper among them?’
“This should be enough.”
The strengthening spell was complete. Though it looked the same on the outside, the furnace could now withstand far greater firepower thanks to the magic.
“And what else do you need?”
At Albert’s question, Hort answered.
“Powerful firepower.”
“Hey, he says he needs fire.”
“……”
“He’s a red dragon. Fire is his specialty. Hurry up.”
“……Damn it.”
Whoosh. Gaster’s fire mana infused the furnace, and an incomparably greater heat surged forth.
“Kugh!”
The heat was so intense that Hunt felt as though his body was burning. The moisture in his entire body dried up, and the temperature inside the forge shot up in an instant, as if they had stepped into a kiln.
‘Whoa, that’s an incredible amount of firepower……. But……’
Normally, even a blacksmith accustomed to fire would struggle to endure this level of heat. Yet aside from Hunt, the other three stood there completely unfazed, not a single drop of sweat on them.
‘Monsters……’
“This level of firepower should be enough. Put the Iron Ant shell in here.”
Hort tossed the Iron Ant shell into the furnace. The raging flames, hot enough to burn anything, instantly engulfed the shell, and black smoke rose.
“The key is to melt it explosively in one go with intense heat. That firepower burns away the impurities in an instant, and then…… you time it just right……”
Hort narrowed his eyes, gauging the timing. The most important thing was when to open the furnace and extract the iron. Too early, and it wouldn’t work. Too late, and it wouldn’t work either.
“If it’s too fast, the impurities won’t all burn away, so you won’t get high-purity iron. But if it’s too slow……”
“The iron molecules will become a mess and it’ll be useless.”
Hunt spoke with difficulty through the heat, and Hort glanced at him before giving a small, satisfied smile.
“Correct. Your head’s finally working properly.”
“……You’ve been giving advice from the side every single time. It’d be strange if I didn’t remember.”
“That’s what turns into blood and flesh. Where else do you think you’ll hear such a brilliant lecture?”
“Then instead of giving advice from behind, why not teach me directly from the side?”
“I don’t want to!”
Hort was willing to give advice, but had no intention of teaching directly. He seemed determined to remain a busybody until the very end.
“It already feels weird like I’m working more than my salary’s worth these days. And now you want me to teach someone on top of that? No way!”
He was a laborer who only wanted to work exactly as much as he was paid. Honestly, when everyone else was getting 200 gold, he alone was stuck with 44 gold. It was enough to make his blood boil and drive him mad.
‘Damn it, what kind of situation is this, doing this alone? 44 gold—if the others find out I’m working for that little, what would they say?’
“Eing!”
With that, Hort stirred the fire a few times before quickly opening the furnace. A blast of hot air erupted, and then high-purity steel, its impurities burned away by the intense heat, flowed out through the tap hole. Hort quickly shaped it into an iron ingot.
“This is how it should be.”
The purity is quite high.
Analyzing……
It’s steel with a carbon content of 1.1 wt%.
It’s incomparably better than other iron, isn’t it?
The iron extracted from the Iron Ant shell was, just as Richel had said, of exceptional quality. Equipment made from this would be quite usable.
“Good. Let’s keep melting them like this.”
“Th-then I’ll……”
“No need!”
When Hunt tried to step forward, Hort stopped him.
“You weakling. Go drink some well water! How can you call yourself a blacksmith if you can’t even handle this much heat?”
“B-but.”
“Go!!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Hunt staggered out of the forge.
“I’ll melt them until that weakling can do his job.”
“You will?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s quite a lot. Can you handle it alone?”
“No matter how much there is, I’m a dwarf! Nothing is impossible for me! No matter how much there is! I’ll finish by tomorrow!”
“By tomorrow?”
“Yeah!”
“What if you can’t? Even if you’re a dwarf, too much might be impossible.”
Hort frowned at Albert’s oddly provocative words. Touching a blacksmith’s pride was crossing a line, no matter what else.
“Then I’ll take an even smaller salary! If I can’t handle even this much, there’s no need for me to receive more pay!”
Hort struck his chest with a thud, displaying his strong pride in his skills. Then—
“……How many are there……?”
—he turned pale at the sight of the mountain of Iron Ant shells piled before him. And that day, Hort’s salary was reduced from 44 gold to 22 gold.
The worker wept.
“Keh keh keh keh!!!”
The boss laughed happily.
This was the true taste of power.
“Damn it……”
Hort felt strangely lonely today.