After we left Keyha, our next destination was a mountain. On the way, I gave Sword a sermon.

Youre pretty flirty, arent you!? Be careful so that your Ryoku doesnt get fed up with you, okay?

Eh!? Wait a sec there! I aint unfaithful or nythin. Ryoku is Ryoku, and Bronko is Bronko.

He started to make excuses, but just that alone was already proof of his guilty conscience.

At the point of you not mentioning Char, which should be added in this line-up, its been pretty much set that youre cheating, you know?

Thats right~!

As soon as a new child showed up, you only concerned yourself with them~!

We swooped down on him. Sword quickly started to fidget, apparently aware of his own wrongdoings.

Im tellin you your misunderstandin. I make proper distinctions, kay?

All three of us scrutinized him with intense stares.

Stop, dont torture me! Seriously, Bronko is a vehicle! Char is a vehicle too! Or rather a lodge! And the Ryokus are party members! Partners!

That seemed to cheer up the Ryokus.

Yaaay!

Partner, partner

They were dancing around. How lovely!

Oh noes, my nose is going to bleed.

Indra, seriouslyyour a pervert, arent you? Sword told me while rolling his eyes.

Now then, Ive heard our current destination is a mine town called Thobe. We were going there for recruitment as Sword seemed to think we should look for someone, who could build a distillation apparatus, and invite them to our mansion in Ys.

Since theyre from a different race, I thought we might give it a try since weve got nothin to lose nyway.

Eh? Huh? Did he say race? Does that possibly mean

I immediately knew the answer when we reached the guard station at the gate.

Ooohhh! A must-have for any fantasy world!

Its the appearance of earth fairies, or better known as dwarves!!!!

Indeed! The one looking like a guy, who stood at the gates station, was still taller than me, but he was overall short and stout, had a dense beard, and a very rough face. Thats a dwarven official! Definitely!

As soon as the dwarven official saw meno, thats wrongas soon as he saw Bronko, he froze. And then ran over.

Holy shit!? This ismarvelous!!!

He praised Bronko.

Hmm, I see, you got good eyes!

No, wait a sec. How about letting us in? Sword retorted just as the official started to get all excited.

Yes, Sir! Excuse us! Please, come this way.

We held up our adventurer cards above a magic stone.

Adventurers? Not crafters?

Mr. Official is puzzledor rather, unhappyno, something else? His face looks like the closest emotion might be disapproval.

We build things, but we mainly focus on adventuring. Were versatile, so we havent settled on a single way of life. Were living freely in a way that cant be summed up with some preset mold. In short, were whats called adventurers.

Thatsforgive me then. Please have a safe journey, said the official and let us through.

Sword silently shrugged his shoulders, but I commented, Of course the path we tread can be nothing other than a good journey. Farewell.

I agreed calmly and stepped through the gate.

Well, I guess he let us pass without makin too much of a fuss.

Huh?

Sword started to explain, Its a town where blacksmiths gather. Humans live here as well, but dwarves are the majority. And almost all of em have somethin to do with smithin. Ah, artisans n masons are round as well, though. Thats why your Bronko drew his attention, you see?

Why only Bronko? I made the Ryokus as well. Theyre slightly like bugs, though.

Because of that, everything unrelated to smithing is bein looked down on. That official back then was part of a shift system at the gate. Otherwise, no one would do that job.

Whoa, they sure are thorough in their fixation on smithing. It totally feels like this town is a gathering of stubborn folks.

Me having deliberately shown them Bronko followed the intent to tout its awesomeness to those folks. Well, I expected that he might believe we bought it elsewhere nyway, but your explanation was effective, I spose, Sword said with a laugh. Even in this city, you wont easily find someone with skills as high as yours among its highly prideful residents. In the first place, I doubt they can come up with the idea to make somethin like this.

WellIm ripping it off from my otherworld knowledge, however. But, all things considered, the people of this world are inflexible, arent they? Its a world allowing you to do anything with magic, so they should build a lot more stuff of different sorts. The people of this world, who always use the same methods they thought up once, dont even venture into new things despite the job of adventurer existing.

Hmm, I folded my arms. If its like this, itll be extremely difficult to find someone we could take back to our base. They might display their respect towards the things I built, but a flexible mind is necessary when it comes to us having them build what we want. If they got lots of pride, itd result in us breaking it.

If their pride is high, its fine for it to stay like this, I think. Im not into expressly incurring the resentment of unrelated peopleerr, fairies.

I aint gonna stop you if your gonna break their pride, you know?

Its not necessary for us to expressly anger them. Even high pride is worthy of my respect if it represents zeal towards creating things.

Sword looked like he hadnt expected me to say this at all.

Im a craftswoman as well. Thats why Im proud of the things I made myself!

Ah, thats what you mean. He apparently came to terms with it. In that case, it should be okay. But, this town is that kind of town, so you might dislike it, kay?

I think that cant be helped since I dont feel like incurring their resentment. Its an attitude I can understand. They must consider the things they made themselves as outstanding, and I can fully understand their wish for others to use those items with love and care.

Sword caressed my head.

Well, no helpin it then. Lets go take a look from the start?

Yeah, I agreed and started to walk.