“Damn.”
I rushed into the smithy. Acrid smoke filled the interior.
‘There is no one alive, and that is……!’
I saw a corpse with its head smashed in. It did not seem to have died in the fire.
‘A man.’
He was not one of the blacksmiths who had been here. Judging from his clothing, he did not seem to work as a blacksmith either.
‘A mercenary. Judging by the wound, he was smashed with a hammer…….’
The wound had been made by a small one-handed hammer, the kind the red-haired blacksmith would have used.
When I looked around, I saw a bloodied hammer on the floor. Traces of a fight.
After grasping the situation inside, I went back outside the smithy. I came face-to-face with Melinda.
“M-my daughter…….”
“She is not inside! She has been kidnapped! First, the fire—”
Just as we went outside, the guards arrived with perfect timing.
“Move! Get out of the way!”
Guards carrying water buckets poured in one after another. They were frantically trying to put out the fire.
This was an alley lined with wooden buildings. They could not leave it alone, since the blaze would spread from shop to shop.
This place would be controlled, and looters would not be able to carry off everything inside at will. It was a silver lining in the misfortune.
“M-my daughter…… My daughter. Where did she go……?”
Melinda looked at me with vacant eyes.
“She was kidnapped. There was an assignment we nearly accepted, and it seems likely that it was related to this.”
According to Dana’s description, it was an assignment to teach a nasty blacksmith woman a lesson.
There was an extremely high chance that the targets of that assignment had been Melinda and her daughter.
“Then…….”
“I do not know the details, but it is likely that they were also behind the ingots disappearing along the way.”
It had been strange from the beginning. The story that goblins had stolen the ingots was not reasonable.
“They probably fabricated the evidence.”
If mercenaries attacked a merchant, killed him without leaving survivors, then scattered a few goblin corpses captured elsewhere, it would not be very difficult.
If the guards examined the merchant’s corpse carefully, they might realize the wounds could not have been made by goblins.
But if they hastily concluded, ‘There are goblin corpses? Then it was a goblin attack!’ it would not be strange to name a nearby goblin den as the culprit.
“I am sorry.”
“Y-young mercenary. No, Mercenary Sir…….”
Melinda’s small hand gripped my leg tightly and would not let go. A dwarf’s grip was strong.
“Please save my daughter. She is my only daughter…….”
Her breath trembled.
“I…… I truly have nothing left now. If I live like this, I cannot remain sane, and even if I die, I cannot die peacefully. My ancestors will not accept me…….”
She was sobbing. Shaking. Despairing.
“If I had not followed a mercenary sir to do something so useless…… If I had not run away then…… If I had not drunk myself stupid because I was ashamed of it, my daughter. My daughter…… I could have protected her.”
Certainly, our journey had taken longer than necessary. If Melinda had not been soaked in a hangover this morning, we might have returned a little sooner.
“It appears that a considerable number of mercenaries attacked this place. Even if you had been with her, you would have died with her if you had been ambushed.”
No one wore armor while doing ordinary work. Melinda might have fought bravely enough, but an armored dwarf warrior and an unarmed dwarf warrior were fundamentally different.
But my words did not seem to reach the eyes of the despairing Melinda.
“I will give you everything. I have nothing left anyway. I will give you all the remaining property in the smithy, and if that is not enough, I will sell myself…….”
It was certainly sad. I had fought alongside Melinda, and I had become attached, even briefly, to that red-haired blacksmith.
But I was the captain of a mercenary company. I needed to assess the situation coldly.
I had to take everything I could get.
“Realistically, that will not work.”
“I-I will become a slave! Do you not know how much a dwarf blacksmith slave can sell for?”
“I do.”
In this region, slave trading was prohibited in principle. But ‘criminals clearly found guilty’ and ‘people who chose to become slaves wholly of their own will’ could become slaves.
And because such slaves were scarce, they sold for high prices. A few healthy, able-bodied adult slaves were enough to buy a fairly decent suit of armor.
If I could obtain a legal dwarf slave, its value could only be enormous.
Their shelf life, their lifespan, was much longer than a human’s. There was also much they could do, and the premium of being a rare dwarf slave would be added as well.
That was enough value to make taking a little risk worthwhile. Considered coldly, it would still have been profitable even if all three of the mercenaries we rescued while saving the spider, aside from Anna, had died.
But I had no intention of being satisfied with that.
“It is not that the compensation is insufficient. If I can receive only the remaining goods in the smithy, that will be enough. You do not need to sell yourself as a slave.”
“Then, then why…….”
“We lack fighting strength. We cannot fight recklessly when the enemy’s scale and ability are unknown.”
“Then the guards, the guards……”
“It would be good if we could have their help, but they will not be willing to fight immediately. They will not use force until the investigation is complete and the culprit is certain.”
“Then, what on earth do you need—”
I dropped to one knee, met Melinda’s gaze, and grasped her shoulders.
“I need a dwarf warrior to hold the mercenary company’s front line.”
“What?”
“A small, strong, steadfast warrior. I need a dwarf warrior wearing dwarf-made armor containing dwarf-made metal.”
Melinda’s eyes shook violently.
“Me?”
“Yes. I need you, Melinda of the Lava Beard. If you do not intend to fight alongside me, I will not accept your assignment either.”
Her body trembled. She shook like a reed.
“I am weak. I am cowardly. I ran away in every important battle…….”
“I am the captain of this mercenary company. I did not ask for your opinion.”
I knew. She had experienced defeat again and again. Melinda’s confidence must have been driven into the ground and horribly soiled.
“I will not be useful…….”
“I have judged that I need the warrior Melinda. I do not need your information or judgment.”
I was looking not at Melinda’s past, but at her specs. At the strength and ability she possessed now.
The value of a jewel did not disappear because it was covered in mud. There was no reason for me to undervalue her because her past was shameful.
“You have one decision to make. Will you come with me, or will you give up?”
Melinda bit her lip tightly. She picked up the axe and shield she had dropped on the ground.
“I will do it.”
“Good. Then let us leave at once.”
I pulled my helmet down to hide my expression and gave a blood-tinged smile.
‘Good. I succeeded.’
Melinda was an addict. A dwarf who had become addicted to adventure. She was not someone who could be satisfied with a safe, comfortable life.
But the events she had experienced on this journey must have been shocking enough to break that obstinacy.
It would not benefit me to let her change. My mercenary company needed a dwarf warrior.
I had to make this dwarf warrior addicted to the battlefield.
By handing her the sweet addictive substance of victory.
***
The young blacksmith was arguing fiercely with the mercenary.
“What is the point of bringing only one person? And such a useless one at that!”
“What do you mean, what is the point? Was not the condition you set from the start ‘kidnap the blacksmith’?”
“This is not the dwarf blacksmith but a human blacksmith! Melinda’s daughter! Of course, it would have been better if you had kidnapped or killed her too, but Melinda is what matters!”
“You should have stated the terms of the deal more clearly.”
The mercenary looked at the blacksmith coldly. The blacksmith wiped away his sweat and sighed.
‘Damn it…… I spent a mountain of money, and they cannot even handle a simple job properly? Worthless bastards!’
He had intended to settle in Luminac. He was confident in his skill and had merchants connected to him.
He had believed that he could easily drive out the blacksmith in that village with his own ability.
But Luminac’s blacksmith was a dwarf. The young blacksmith was ultimately human, and he could not overcome a dwarf’s years of experience, skill, and blessing.
When the new smithy, which had received generous investment, was in danger of collapsing, he decided to give up his conscience instead of the smithy.
He took the ingots headed for the dwarf blacksmith’s smithy. He thought that would be enough, but they continued doing business without being shaken in the slightest.
In the end, the young blacksmith chose his final method. He illegally hired mercenaries to physically destroy the smithy outright.
But the dwarf had not died. As a capable dwarf blacksmith, she would be able to find a new smithy in no time.
Then the young blacksmith would have merely wasted his money. The mercenaries had no intention of accepting that fact.
“In any case, you must pay the reward. If you want to kill or capture the dwarf blacksmith, you must pay extra.”
The bald mercenary with a wound on his forehead looked at the blacksmith coldly.
They were frustrated beyond measure as well. They had committed kidnapping and arson in the middle of the village, so the guards would come knocking within days.
The young blacksmith, who had not carried out the crime himself, might somehow escape the investigation. But the mercenaries who had carried it out would have no choice but to die or become slaves the moment they were caught.
“Hey, there must be money you looted, right? Is that not enough?”
“Loot is separate. Is this your first time dealing with mercenaries? You are suggesting that we pay ourselves with the money we personally gathered by looting the burning smithy? Then there would have been no need to accept your assignment in the first place.”
“Gah, urgh…… But I do not have the money to commission you again, ahhh. No. That bitch is not even a blacksmith in the first place! She is a blacksmith’s apprentice! The blacksmith’s daughter!”
The mercenary narrowed his eyes.
“When we asked her directly, that girl said she was the blacksmith of that smithy. She was making weapons when we entered as well.”
“An apprentice can make weapons alone too—”
“If you chatter once more, I will demand blood money.”
“Blood money?”
“That blacksmith killed two of our members. Be thankful that we have not demanded an additional fee.”
“What is there to brag about in mercenaries being killed by a blacksmith bitch……!”
They spoke far more than necessary. And their voices were excessively loud.
So loud that they failed to notice a warrior in metal armor approaching the door.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
With a tremendous shout, the door flew away.
With a body and mind that felt immensely heavy, the dwarf warrior smashed through the door head-on.
“Give me my daughter, you bastards!!!”
Melinda stood at the vanguard.
The shame and fear created by defeat could not overcome her desire and obstinacy not to lose her daughter.
Her mind and reason continued to whisper curses such as, ‘You cannot do it. You will fail anyway.’ But in the end, Melinda was a dwarf.
A race with greed stronger than reason. A race with an obstinacy deeper and heavier than anyone’s.
A dwarf warrior. Melinda had reached the enemy’s stronghold.