Dragon Killer
Yumina — if you looked only at her face, she had a rather cute, adorable look. She must have been doted on by plenty of people growing up.
Sure, if it were just her face, possibility or impossibility aside, I'd be the one on my knees begging her to date me…
That… no way.
Arms so swollen with muscle they looked ready to crush any ore, a chest larger than any woman I'd ever seen, and thighs so thick I half-suspected they matched her waist in girth.
Frankly, she looked stronger than me. Which meant she was someone I couldn't handle.
"Um… well, I'm sorry. I don't really feel like dating right now."
"That's a shame. But if you change your mind, just say the word anytime. I like you a whoooole lot."
"Y-yes…"
In the end, I abandoned the grand goal I'd set when I left the village. So this is what overwhelming terror feels like.
With my head bowed, I peered at Yumir through the gap under her arm. Catching my look, Yumir cleared his throat with a deliberate ahem and stepped closer.
"Ahem— Yumina. Stop pestering the customer."
"Come on, Dad. Guys love it when a girl talks to them. Especially a beauty like me."
"Hey now— this is a sacred workshop. Meaning no nonsense in here."
When Yumir fixed her with a sharp look, Yumina flinched slightly and nodded.
"Help me move the materials. There's a lot of them."
"…Yes, Father."
Yumina slumped into the subspace looking dejected. Then, as if her earlier gloom had been a complete lie, her eyes lit up as she started examining the materials.
"Ah, Dad. These are…"
"You understand this is no time to be fretting over romance, right?"
"Y-yes… I was blind…!"
The two of them furiously went in and out of the subspace, hauling out every last scrap of the corpse without leaving a single bit behind.
Watching them, I let out a breath of relief and looked at Yumina. What if I'd been going around openly declaring that I wanted a girlfriend?
She would have believed the rumor and never given up on me, and if that had happened…
That was a close call…
I vowed to hide that fact for the rest of my life. What had already been found out couldn't be helped, but from now on, I wouldn't let anyone else catch on.
Absolutely.
Once the two powerhouse dwarves started moving materials, that mountain of dragon corpse was hauled out in no time at all.
After moving the corpse into the warehouse, Yumir took a precise inventory of the amount.
"All of it together would be hundreds of tons, but… we don't deal in meat on our end, so excluding that and just adding the weight of the bones and hide, it'd be roughly twenty tons."
"Is that enough for making a weapon?"
"Hard to say. Never done it before, so I don't know which bones would be most effective. Rather than forging from bone alone, it might end up as an alloy dusted with bone powder… but that's not the important part."
Yumir pointed at the corpse and asked.
"Where's the heart?"
"Someone wanted it, so I sold it."
"I see. Hmm… so that text was true."
"What text?"
"There's a saying that a dragon's absurd powers come from its heart. Here, take a look."
Yumir suddenly pulled out a hammer and chisel, set the chisel against a bone, and brought the hammer down hard. After several strikes, scratches began to appear on the dragon bone.
After swinging the hammer for a long while and working up a heavy sweat, Yumir pointed at the scratches he'd made.
"Even just a dragon's hide and scales are an invincible shield that can stop gunpowder cannons, siege catapults, and any magic you throw at them. And yet bone that's far tougher than those gets scratched after a few hammer blows? Does that make any sense to you?"
"Uh… you're right. That is pretty weird."
"Could it have been a defective dragon that was weak from the start? Or can you give me a hint about how you took it down?"
"I just cut it down with a sword."
"Cut it?"
"Like this."
I picked up the chisel I'd set on the floor and held it lightly. The tip was sharp enough to use as a blade.
Yumir watched me suddenly grab the chisel, wondering what on earth I was doing — but after I gave it a light downward stroke and he saw what happened, all he could do was blink.
"Wh-what—?"
"I just cut it and it worked."
The dragon bone that Yumir had spent ages hammering just to leave a few scratches had been cleanly sliced in half with a single stroke.
He couldn't claim it was a trick or that the weapon was special. Yumir had seen with his own eyes that I'd used nothing but a chisel — not even a sword, just something with a sharp tip.
What had just happened before his eyes defied all common sense.
"W-what in the world…"
"Ah— it's definitely softer than when it was alive. The feel through the hand is a bit choppy?"
"Y-you. How did you just do that?"
"Huh? Didn't you see? I just swung and cut…"
The ultimate of a swordsman who cuts through everything he touches. My own secret technique, forged by refining the concept of cutting to its absolute limit.
If asked about the principle behind it, I couldn't confidently explain — but of one thing I was certain. There was nothing I couldn't cut.
Roughly grasping what I meant, Yumir realized I was a being who couldn't be measured by common sense.
"You're no ordinary person, are you?"
"Ah, you noticed? Heh heh— I am a Sword Saint, after all."
"…Sword Saint?"
"Here, I've even got a certificate."
Yumir was about to retort that a title like Sword Saint didn't come with certificates — then he saw the plaque I pulled out and went stiff.
It was a rank plaque stamped with the royal crest. Proof of my status and standing. Whether or not he understood the details, the royal crest alone proved this person's status was no ordinary matter.
Yumir mentally reviewed whether he'd done anything wrong to me.
"Ahem— I see. So you were the Sword Saint. Then I'll believe the corpse was intact."
"Yes. As long as you believe me, that's fine."
"However, if the material's performance dropped after death, it won't match what it had in life… will that be all right?"
"What will?"
"With this alone, you won't get a weapon at the level you're hoping for."
Dragon bone is excellent material, true. But at the same time, it may not produce power equal to what the dragon displayed in life.
Now that it was clear the dragon's tremendous might and toughness had come solely from the magical energy flowing from its heart, whatever I hoped for, the weapon would inevitably fall short.
I didn't particularly mind.
"It's fine. As long as it turns out better than what I'm using now."
"What you're using now? Can you show me for a moment?"
Yumir's gaze naturally shifted to my waist, where a single sword hung.
It looked like an ordinary longsword on the surface, but given that a master of this caliber was using it, he figured there had to be something special about it.
I casually drew the sword and handed it to Yumir, who immediately scowled.
"This is… garbage, to put it kindly."
"…It was pretty expensive, though."
"How much?"
"…I paid two hundred elso for it."
"Cheap junk. Listen carefully. Even the cheapest blade on this street costs over ten thousand elso."
"Insane."
"In my case, I've taken over a million elso before."
"Whoa… so that means a sword ten thousand times stronger than this one?"
"…Being ten thousand times more expensive doesn't make it ten thousand times sharper."
"Then why bother using something ten thousand times more expensive?"
"Because even if it's not ten thousand times, it can be a hundred times better."
Momentarily thrown by the childlike, pure question, Yumir explained why the masterwork blades he forged were so expensive.
And after that, he also pointed out just how much garbage my current sword was.
"The balance is a mess, the length and grip are generic… I won't say much since it's cheap junk, but it's not something a master like you should be using."
"If you keep raising my expectations like that, you're going to be in trouble."
"Feel free to expect great things. I can confidently say there's no one on this street who forges swords better than me."
With that, Yumir fetched a long measuring stick from somewhere.
"Your armor looks a bit worn too. Do you need some?"
"You make armor here too?"
"Armor is my daughter's specialty, though."
"Dad— did you call me?"
Speak of the devil — Yumina, who'd gone to fetch tools needed for weapon-making, poked her head in as if wondering what was going on.
Seeing his daughter return, Yumir ordered her to make my armor.
"Armor order. He wants it made from dragon hide."
"D-dragon hide!? Haa— haah— C-customer. Is that for real? I-I can work with that however I want…!?"
"Y-yes…"
"Awesome. Dad, so what should we make first? Armor first, right?"
"Hey now, you brat. Dad's sword comes first."
"Ehehe— fine. But first I'll take measurements. Customer. Arms out, please. Yes, yes. I won't eat you~."
"Y-yes."
Arms spread wide, I gulped as Yumina pressed the measuring tape across my chest as if she were about to embrace me.
Yumina kept smiling as if she found me adorable and began taking my measurements.
"Customer, how old are you?"
"Fifteen. But why the age…"
"Well, if you're still growing, the clothes have to be made to account for that. It'd be nice if magic worked on dragon hide, but— even without the heart, dragon hide and scales are the very symbol of anti-magic."
"Ah, that— there are texts saying dragons can freely reshape their bodies with magic, so size adjustment might be possible."
"Still, just in case, I'll make it a bit big~ Got any design preferences?"
"Just make it cool…"
"Custom-made. Understood, customer!"
Watching the two of them declare they'd pour their lives, souls, and pride into making the armor and weapon — I felt a glimpse of the madness that craftsmen carry.
Indeed, a gleam of madness shone in both their eyes. I wondered if these two might be insane.
These people look dangerous…
I'd been thinking they looked like people who belonged in prison, but watching them dive into their work, I realized that thought had been terribly rude.
"We'll need to start with the frame. Just cutting it will take forever."
"It's already cut, isn't it?"
"Right. First, at what temperature it melts…"
"If we mix it with an alloy…"
The two of them immersed themselves in the work like devout priests. Watching them, I waited in silence for the job to finish.
A month passed.
At last, the sword and armor were complete.
I looked at the sword and armor laid before me and let out a soft gasp of admiration.
"Wooow…"
"For the sword, forging from bone alone was difficult, so I mixed in a bit of mineral."
"It's plenty amazing."
Looking at the pattern on the blade, drawn as if a dragon had opened its jaws, I couldn't stop marveling.
"Dragon Killer. That's the name I gave it."
A cool name — thinking that, I gripped the sword.
At the same moment, a dragon began to roar inside my mind.
—KRAAAAAAANG—!
A tingling dragon's roar.
A sword with a dragon's soul etched into it.
The moment I gripped the blade, a certain enlightenment began to fill my mind.
"—Just a second, I'm going to try swinging it."
"You can do it here, but…"
"It's too cramped."
Stepping straight outside the workshop, I gripped the sword and communed with the dragon within. Seeing the dragon thrash madly as if desperate to get out of the blade, I spoke to it.
You want out?
I'll help you. The next moment, I swung the sword toward the sky.
—KRWARARARA!
A dragon erupted from the tip of the blade and ascended.
I watched the dragon soar freely beyond the sky and smiled with satisfaction.
—Grrrrn—.
The sword that had once unleashed itself began to hum as if satisfied. Having released the dragon, I sheathed the blade.