I had never liked melodrama, even as a child. I hated being overcome by emotion.
Especially when it was the melodrama of people who were not even of my race.
And….
Right now, I was watching a reunion between separated dwarven family members.
Inside the Workshop Association at Oxhorn Pass.
The elderly man’s beard was wet.
It was impossible to distinguish the blood from the tears.
“Boldun… it has been a long time….”
“Brother, what in the world happened?”
“I-I… did something terrible… to our village….”
“What… do you mean? Please tell me slowly.”
His shoulders gradually slumped.
Only the lantern light flickered dimly.
He spoke in a fading voice.
“I do not know where to begin… After leaving the village… I devoted myself entirely to rune engraving.”
“…Did you return to the Ancestral Mountain?”
The sacred land of the dwarves.
Other races called it the ‘Northern Mountains,’ but the dwarves alone called it the ‘Ancestral Mountain.’
“No… I simply set up a small workshop in a nearby cave….”
“Then why did you leave in the first place…? No, why have you only returned now?”
“…I heard something in a tavern recently. They said the furnace at Oxhorn Pass had been lit again… and that the village was… doing well without rune engravings.”
Silence flowed for a moment before he continued.
“So I came. I wanted to…… see it for myself. Even though I knew I had been wrong.”
“Whew…….”
Association Head Boldun let out a deep sigh.
“Brother, stop clinging to your pride and stay in the village now.”
“……No. There is no way the association members will accept me.”
“That cannot be true. How many disciples were raised under your hands?”
“I caused far too much harm…….”
His voice grew smaller and smaller.
The excessive number of imps.
The furnace temperature that had refused to rise.
I thought I knew who the culprit was.
“You keep saying that you caused harm…. What exactly do you mean?”
“……I placed Flame Stones near the furnace. I wanted to lure the imps there.”
“The imps…? Why would you do that?!”
Boldun’s voice rose.
“I only intended to bring the furnace to a halt for a short while. I thought that if the association faltered, I could prove that I had been right. But….”
“Do you mean the imps suddenly multiplied?”
“You know about that?! How…?”
“Whew. I heard that the imps increased after the Lycanthrope died.”
His brother raised his head blankly.
His eyes trembled, and his legs shook faintly.
“I-I truly did not know… I never thought it would go this far….”
“That is enough. I do not want to hear any more, Brother.”
“I-I….”
He could not continue.
Between his choking breaths, sobs filled with guilt burst out.
“……I suppose I could not admit that I had actually been driven out.”
None of us spoke for a while.
The association head removed his monocle and placed it in his palm. After a moment, the rigid line of his mouth softened.
“Whew…… We can discuss the details later. In any case, this concerns our village. Then why did you attack these two?”
“I intended to return and check on the Flame Stones after a few days… but I was anxious, so I came back tonight. When I arrived, the area around the furnace was covered in imp corpses.”
He looked back and forth between Garen and me.
“There were strangers among them. They stood beside the furnace with weapons in their hands. I… thought they had come to destroy it.”
“Wait. Did you not just say you were trying to stop the furnace?”
“Even so, I never intended to destroy it completely. I could not simply let men like them smash it to pieces….”
The more I listened, the more obvious it became that this had been one enormous misunderstanding.
Unable to endure the tearful reunion any longer, I spoke.
“That is truly a tragic story. However, we were protecting the furnace. The imps were already dead.”
“You were standing before the furnace fire…….”
“It is winter, is it not? We were warming ourselves by the fire.”
“Ah….”
The association head’s brother smiled weakly.
“So that was all it was….”
Just then, the sound of someone blowing his nose came from behind us.
HOOONK! HOOOOONK!
It was Garen, who had remained silent until now.
Damn it. His eyes looked slightly red too….
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat to change the mood.
I was a merchant, first and foremost.
The story was tragic, but that did not change the fact that we had been attacked.
So I demanded proper compensation.
“More importantly, you attacked us, and the pauldron I bought yesterday—the Impact Brace—was shattered.”
“That is correct, Merchant Company Head! A wound remains on my shoulder as well.”
Garen pointed to the wound on his shoulder.
It did not actually look very large, but still.
“Even if you are the association head’s family, proper compensation is required.”
The association head’s brother slowly stood and bowed deeply at the waist.
“My name is Grudun…… I sincerely apologize for what happened earlier.”
He caught his breath, then raised his head and asked,
“Was this man’s equipment made in this village?”
“Yes. It was even made of silversteel.”
“Silversteel…… You used a decent material.”
I barely swallowed the words, ‘So how are you going to compensate us?’
“When do you intend to leave this village?”
“We’ll be departing in three days.”
“Then I will make you something better. I will finish it within three days.”
Garen and I left the association and emptied several bottles of wine.
“SNORRRR… HACK, HACK. SNORRRR.”
I remembered entering the room, but I had no idea which of us started snoring first.
***
CHIRP, CHIRP!
Birdsong drifted in through the gap in the window.
“Ah, what… time is it?”
My body felt as heavy as lead.
Was it because I had used too much mana?
My body had changed for some unknown reason, but….
Neither the amount of mana I possessed nor my body’s ability to handle it had fully recovered.
“Mr. Garen, wake up. We need to visit the Chief Engineer today.”
“Ha ha! Is it morning already, Merchant Company Head?”
We gathered the cherrywood boards and headed to the workshop.
The Chief Engineer had told me last time.
If I brought him proper wood, he would make me ‘proper carts.’
“Are you here? It’s Mikael!”
“Yes, I already heard that you brought wine.”
“Ah, you knew?”
“Then why did you spend so much time running around instead of coming straight here?”
A trace of hurt showed on the Chief Engineer’s face.
‘I was busy too, old man….’
I had sold the wine, visited the arms shop, inspected the furnace, toured the workshop district, and even beaten the imps to death.
I truly had not had a moment to breathe.
“…Instead, I brought this much cherrywood lumber.”
“Fine. What do you intend to make with it?”
“Three carts. And one vehicle that can serve as both a cart and a carriage.”
“What will you be transporting?”
“Marine Steel. I’ll mostly be carrying heavy cargo in the future as well.”
“Understood. Come back in two days.”
“……?”
Was placing an order really this simple?
“Is that all? Do I not need to tell you anything else?”
“Stop fussing and use whatever I make.”
“Yes…….”
He was the Chief Engineer of this village, after all.
I decided to trust him.
***
Time at Oxhorn Pass passed faster than I had expected.
First, I completed the Marine Steel contract.
Twenty-five stone each from the Eisen and Bromir Workshops.
One gold coin and thirty silver coins per stone.
The association head said he had worked quite hard to negotiate it down that far.
I also received a gift from Grudun.
A rune-engraved pauldron. He gave it to me for free as an apology for attacking us first.
Then we took delivery of three carts and one hybrid carriage.
The Chief Engineer explained them with immense pride.
There were steel springs attached to the axles, and he had installed brakes as well. Apparently, they would not roll backward even on a hill….
Honestly, I did not understand half of what he said.
Still, as long as they rolled, that was enough.
The total price was ten gold coins.
He said he had given me a discount because I had supplied the cherrywood lumber myself.
And—
On the day we left Oxhorn Pass.
Association Head Boldun, the Chief Engineer, the gatekeeper, and several villagers stood along the road.
“Mikael, when are you coming again?”
“I heard Heindel is only a day away on horseback.”
“Bring any spare wine you have.”
They all wore the same gruff expressions. Their speech remained rough, but this was their way of seeing us off.
Finally, Boldun’s older brother, Grudun, approached me.
“Thanks to you… I was able to return to this village.”
“It was nothing. This is your home, after all.”
“When you return… I will carve a rune inscription for you, even if I have to make the time.”
“Ha ha, I’ll remember that.”
I was leaving, yet for some reason, I could not stop smiling.
“I’ll be back before winter is over. And I’ll bring plenty of wine!”
“Ha ha! Much obliged. Let us meet again!”
Garen and I waved as we left Oxhorn Pass.
RRRRRUMBLE— BOOM!
The sound of the stone wall closing behind us echoed deeply.
***
CLOP-CLOP, CLOP-CLOP.
The horses’ hooves rang out cheerfully.
The carts no longer creaked.
A single massive mountain range cut across the southern continent, which was otherwise composed entirely of plains.
Only one ridge across that mountain range was traversable.
We crossed Oxhorn Pass and followed that route, slowly making our way southeast.
“Right, Mr. Garen.”
“Yes, Merchant Company Head!”
“What does the rune Grudun gave you do?”
“Ah, that? I’m not entirely sure myself, but he said it disperses and absorbs impacts.”
“Ah… so it prevents the equipment from breaking.”
Even the same impact struck far harder when concentrated over a small area. Spread across a wider surface, however, the force dissipated and weakened.
“That is a useful function.”
“Ha ha! It will be much easier to protect you now, Merchant Company Head!”
I smiled and nodded.
Then I took a piece of parchment from my bag and recorded the results of our dealings at Oxhorn Pass.
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
✓ Current Assets(Cash)
⤷ 17 Gold Coins / 14 Silver Coins
✓ Transportation
⤷ 6 Horses, Everblack
⤷ 3 Carts, 1 Carriage
✓ Cargo
⤷ 50 Stone of Marine Steel
✓ Ownership Rights
⤷ Exclusive Purchasing and Sales Rights for Wine, 1 Blank Letter of Credit(Arise)
∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿
‘I acquired the Marine Steel more cheaply than expected. I did not even need to use the letter of credit.’
Even after thinking it over, I could not find any particular problems.
…Ah, the steel springs the Chief Engineer had mentioned.
They certainly were remarkable.
There was almost no jolting even when the carts rolled over a stone road.
Now that I had driven one myself, I could understand that this was what technology meant.
‘Come to think of it, noblemen in my previous life used to pour gold coins into their carriages….’
They would boast about how smoothly their carriages ran.
How their bodies did not sway even on winding roads.
How their wine did not spill even while the carriage was moving—
In my previous life, I had wondered whether that was really something worth boasting about.
Now… I thought I understood a little.
CLOP-CLOP, CLOP-CLOP.
While I fell silent to examine the ledger, Garen spoke first.
“Merchant Company Head!”
“Yes?”
“Do you know anyone in Port Marina?!”
……Was he bored?
“No, I don’t.”
“Y-you truly do not?”
“No.”
“Then are you simply going there to sell it?!”
“That’s right.”
“Ha ha ha! I see…!”
Even Garen, of all people, looked shocked by my plan, which was practically no plan at all.
Hmm. I took back my question about whether he was bored.
When I thought about it, his question was perfectly reasonable.
Oxhorn Pass was only two days away, so I could visit even without an established buyer. Port Marina, however, was more than a month away.
And someone I knew….
There was no one I knew, but there was someone I needed to get to know.
Meeting her was another reason for this journey.
“Ha ha… Still, I have a plan.”
“Of course you do! I put my trust in you, Merchant Company Head! Ha ha ha.”
Promotion to small merchant company status was important, but there was an even more important reason I was heading to Port Marina.
The Empire would begin the Unification War around the end of this winter.
“Merchant Company Head! It truly must be winter!”
“Why?”
“Even though we’re heading south, the weather is quite chilly!”
The Empire’s first target was the Southern Kingdom.
However, to advance, it had to pass through our destination—Port Marina.
That was why, in my previous life, it had been the first city-state to fall.
“…….”
Could I, a boy who would soon turn seventeen, prevent that war?
Probably not.
But I could not simply stand by and watch a strategic point in the southern continent collapse.
If that was all I intended to do, I might as well have croaked before the Demon King that day.
In any case, I intended to do everything I could.
Just then, something settled on top of my head.
FLUTTER, FLUTTER—
“Ah…… It’s snowing already.”
Memories of shoveling every dawn during my military days slowly crept back.
When I instinctively frowned, Garen laughed and asked,
“Merchant Company Head, do you dislike snow?”
“Of course.”
“Ha ha! Most people are happy to see the first snow.”
“I’m not. Camping is out of the question now. Let’s enter a nearby village.”
It was only sleet, but even that was enough to tell me that winter had begun.
I pulled hard on the reins.
The war would begin soon.