Ainz stood up and left, accompanied by his subordinates.
•
Even after the King of Darkness left the meeting room, silence reigned. Finally, someone let out a deep sigh, and the tense atmosphere softened.
“Wh-what is that guy?”
“He’s a complete monster. Commander, what’s this about a ‘terrifying’ monster? Are you sure you didn’t mean ‘utterly bloodcurdling’?”
“I nearly pissed myself!”
The dwarves began shouting at once. All the thoughts they had just barely been holding in flooded out.
“What should we do? He’s clearly evil. If even one of the things he said was true, I’d be surprised.”
“Anyone giving off such an evil aura can’t be good. There’s no telling how many he’s killed up until now!”
“Right. With that horrifying face, I can easily picture him saying something like, ‘Only the heavens know how many lives I’ve taken.’”
“He must be stockpiling weapons for an invasion. For his army of darkness.”
“And the worst part is how everything he says makes sense and is so easy to understand. I’m sure when you sell your soul, the devil behaves exactly the same way. In other words, I bet he’s trying to catch us in a bad deal and reap all the benefits himself.”
“In which case it makes sense that he would go out of his way to ask us nicely. Maybe it’s fine to take him up on his offer, then.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because we can coexist. It would mean that as long as the King of Darkness wants ore, we’ll be under his protection. Think of it like this: The King of Darkness is a very hungry, very thirsty mercenary.”
As the conversation shifted from how dangerous a deal would be to how they would actually be safe as long as they were valuable, one dwarf raised a cold voice.
“You mean you’re willing to serve that undead?”
It was the chief of the smith shops, who had been consistently negative. Everyone else turned to him.
“It’s not about liking it or not. Our country is in crisis. If we don’t at least do something about the kuagoa, we’ll be destroyed.”
“…And we can’t handle the kuagoa on our own.”
“Then, what about asking the empire for help? Wouldn’t it be safer to work with a country we already have a long history with? We don’t know anything about the Nation of Darkness!”
“I doubt we could beat the kuagoa even with the empire’s cooperation. They’re a tough opponent for anyone fighting with weapons. And in the first place, humans can’t see in the dark, so they’re not well suited for combat underground. If we could lure the kuagoa to the surface, it’d be a different story, but we don’t have a way to do that.”
“Then our only choice is the Nation of Darkness. First, let’s ask for help. We can consider trade once we’ve seen the place.”
“That would be the safest option, but isn’t the whole deal that we start diplomatic relations and trade in exchange for driving off the kuagoa? If we refuse to trade, we’d have to pay an appropriate amount in compensation… I don’t even want to think about how much it would cost to save an entire country.”
The dwarves wore solemn expressions.
“Is accepting his proposal the only way to save our country? I guess all we can do is devote ourselves to one day becoming independent from the King of Darkness, probably several decades in the future.”
Everyone was agreeing except the chief of caves and mines, who muttered, “If we adopt undead miners, we’ll be even more dependent on him in a few decades,” but no one showed any interest in his concern. That was because someone else said something that grabbed all their ears.
There was a loud pound on the table.
“You’re forgetting one very important thing. We can’t force members of our own race to be slaves! I’m firmly against this.”
“Slaves?”
“The rune crafters!”
“Didn’t the King of Darkness tell us they wouldn’t be slaves?”
“Are you serious?! You actually believe him?!”
“Nnngh…” The other dwarf hung his head.
“See? You can’t even say for certain.”
Even if the King of Darkness was telling the truth, it was a hard idea to swallow for anyone who knew the basic fact that undead detested the living.
“They’re not just hostages?”
“I don’t think so. They wouldn’t have to be rune crafters if that was the case. He would have asked for our families.”
“…Do we have any treasures that might change his mind?”
“No. Although, if he takes back the capital and the royal coffers are still intact, we could give him the contents.”
“Nah, he won’t agree to that. We’re getting his help to take back the capital. Would you feel like you got a good deal if as payment for capturing a city, you were told to just take the items out of the treasury?”
“…Honestly, I think we should accept his proposal.”
The chief of the smith shops shot a sharp look at the chief of the merchant council.
“But slaves!”
“You’re just convincing yourself of that! The King of Darkness said they wouldn’t be enslaved. We can send someone in the future to ascertain the truth of it. And in the first place…this is an awful thing to say, but…rune crafting is a technology of the past. Considering they’re about to disappear, I don’t think it really matters if that’s what we hand over. Aren’t we getting a good deal, actually? If that’s the fee?”
“We’ll lose one of our technologies completely!”
“But this is probably the time to sell!”
“I’m against it!” the chief of the smith shops shouted, sending spittle flying.
“Is that conclusion based on logic? It doesn’t seem like it to me.”
“I can’t understand why you all trust the King of Darkness so much!”
At that point, the supreme commander chimed in coolly. Having fought directly with the kuagoa, he was the one who best understood the position the city was in. Which was why, though he had been taking a back seat despite feeling all this talk was worthless, he couldn’t stand by any longer. “It’s less that we trust him and more that without his help, this city is already lost. I can only see your attitude as throwing away the one lifeline we have.”
“Why, you little—”
“I’m the one responsible for the military! And I’m saying that there’s no way to protect this city without accepting His Majesty the King of Darkness’s help! Do you mean to destroy this place?! If not, then what’s your plan to repel the kuagoa without him, you old fart?!”
“Ha! You’ve been calling that monster ‘His Majesty’ this whole time. Are you sure you haven’t committed treason?!” The chief of the smith shops stood and grabbed the supreme commander by his lapels as he laid out his accusation.
“What’s that, old fart? You wanna go? I’m pretty sure it’s only natural to show some respect to someone so unbelievably powerful! I can’t believe you guys! We’re talking about someone who could easily destroy this country on a whim! If I’m a traitor to our country, then you’re putting its people’s very lives in danger!” When the supreme commander grabbed the smith shops chief’s lapels as well, their foreheads bumped against each other.
“Hey now! It’s fine to disagree, but let’s not start a fight!”
The other dwarves stood up in a hurry and pulled the two apart.
But they glared at each other and seemed ready to grapple again.
“Let’s take a vote for now. If you’re still dissatisfied, we can talk more about it later. That’s healthier than a brawl, right?”
“So what are we voting on, then?”
“First, assuming we accept the King of Darkness’s assistance, who agrees with sending the rune crafters? Put your hands up.”
Everyone but the chief of the smith shops raised their hands.
“Hmm. On to the nex
t item, then. Should we begin diplomatic and trade relations with the Nation of Darkness? Raise a hand if you agree.”
The results were the same as the first vote.
“I see. That’s the end of the debate regarding…His Majesty the King of Darkness. Sorry, Commander, but will you call him in?”
2
Ainz and his party were once again called into the regency council’s conference room. When he went inside, there was one disgruntled-looking dwarf, but the others seemed friendly. The supreme commander appeared relieved.
Apparently, things have gone according to my demands, thought Ainz with an internal smile.
“My apologies for having you come again, Your Majesty. We’ve discussed your offer, and we’ve decided that we’d like to accept. First, we wish to take advantage of your kindness and garrison your soldiers here. Then we’ll establish a diplomatic relationship and begin trade. But we think the decisions on what particular items and the deal’s exact structure should be made in a separate meeting.”
“That makes sense. For now I’ll lend you enough soldiers to retake the fort immediately and keep the kuagoa at bay. As for diplomatic relations and the rest, I’ll send for someone to handle that at a later date. We can hash those out then.”
Ainz sighed internally.
He didn’t know anything about that kind of stuff, so he needed to leave it up to Albedo. He was relieved they didn’t press him to settle it all now.
“And regarding sending the rune crafters to your nation in exchange for you retaking our capital city, we accept. But in order to make sure they’re being treated properly, we’d like to send an inspection party to the Nation of Darkness in the future. Can Your Majesty agree to that?”
“Of course. I promise the Nation of Darkness will grant access to your inspection party.”
The dwarves were visibly relieved.
Did they want to observe the factory work? They probably wanted to make sure labor regulations were being adhered to. It’s normal to be incapable of complying with all the regulations, but I swore I wouldn’t produce people like HeroHero. I’ll establish rules that will wow even the dwarves when they come to visit and have the rune crafters doing all sorts of things, including developing their technology.
Ainz nodded at the concerned dwarves.
But wow, I really owe it to the kuagoa. The whole reason we’re in this situation in the first place is that they captured the fort. If this invasion hadn’t taken place at exactly the right time, things never would’ve gone this well, and I’m sure it would have taken a whole bunch of time and money to invite the rune crafters. I feel kinda bad exterminating the kuagoa…
Wasn’t kindness supposed to be repaid with kindness?
“When do you think you will be able to carry out the operation to take back the capital?”
“Hmm… I intend to act immediately.”
It was highly unlikely that the kuagoa who killed the death knights was a player, but he couldn’t say for sure that there were no links. He needed to find out right away.
“Thank you. Fehu Berkana returning to the dwarven fold is truly a dream come true. I’m sure the people will be glad to have Your Majesty’s assistance, too. They’ll probably be willing to tolerate things that otherwise might have been difficult for them to swallow.”
Does that mean if I can’t retake the capital, diplomacy will be tricky? I didn’t really think I was asking so much, but I guess that was only my personal feeling on the matter?
“Understood. Then, let’s get ready.” Ainz nodded and then remembered something. “Oh, I did have a question. Do you mind?”
“Wh-what is it, Your Majesty?” a dwarf asked timidly.
The frightened attitude was bewildering to Ainz. He was fairly sure he hadn’t done anything to scare them, but now he had to wonder. Somewhat anxious, he asked for a favor. “I want to give a present to a lizardman, so I’d like to ask you to use your superior dwarven crafting methods to create some fitting armor.”
Someone behind him gasped.
“Oh right. Zenbel.” Ainz turned around to speak to the shocked lizardman. “It’s for Zaryusu. To celebrate the birth of his baby.”
The reason he brought this up, naturally, was to keep Zaryusu alive. He needed him to father a great many rare lizardman children. It was only natural to give such a man fine armor.
The dwarves all looked at the chief of the smith shops.
With his arms crossed and his lips twisted into a frown as he stared at Ainz, he didn’t seem very keen.
“Well? Will you make the armor for me?”
When Ainz asked again, the other dwarves pressed the chief of the smith shops, and he nodded, though he didn’t seem happy about it.
“What size? We can cover the cost.”
“Magic armor adjusts automatically. Is it possible to enchant it like that here?”
“I don’t know about magic. That’s under the chief of the great earth shrine’s jurisdiction.”
“Lower-tier magic is doable. But is that all right with you, Your Majesty? I’m sure you can get more powerful enchantments in your realm.”
Truth be told, there weren’t really any good magic artisans in the Nation of Darkness. Magic artisans were casters with a specific set of skills who belonged to the Wizards Guild, but at present the Wizards Guild in the Nation of Darkness was as good as disbanded.
Aside from that, there was the option of enchanting it in Nazarick, but that would require Yggdrasil data crystals. Since he couldn’t acquire any more of them in this world, he wanted to conserve his supply as much as possible. At present, no members of Nazarick possessed the skills to enchant items the way they did in this world.
In other words, it was virtually impossible to enchant things in the Nation of Darkness. But that didn’t mean Ainz had to come out and say so.
“In that case, we’ll just fortify them even more. The main thing is that I want armor made in this city. It can serve as advertising for dwarven gear, too.”
“Oh-ho.” The chief of the smith shops smiled slightly. “I’m sure we can have it done within a week.”
“Is that so? Glad to hear it. All right, I’ll take the capital by then. Well, I might finish early and just enjoy myself around town.”
“Hmph. Then, I’ll make it faster.”
He didn’t mean that it would be unfortunate to make Ainz wait. More likely, he meant he wanted Ainz out of the city, so he would get it over with as soon as possible.
Why does he dislike me so much? I’m basically a hero to this country! Not to mention the soon-to-be liberator of its occupied capital. I’m fairly certain I haven’t done anything to earn so much hate… Is he just one of those stubborn types?
“Regarding payment—”
“Like I said, not necessary.”
“For the production costs this time, I’ll accept your offer. I mean in terms of sample merchandise. Can you tell me what you can do and what price you can do it for?”
“…Setting prices isn’t part of my job. Hey, merchant council chief. I’ll leave the pricing up to you.”
“…In which case, the price depends first on the type of metal you use…”
“I see.” Ainz took care in phrasing his next question so as not to reveal his true feelings. “What’s the name of the most valuable metal this city has?”
If something like types of prismatic ore were mentioned, there was a possibility he would have to scrap all their negotiations thus far and conquer the dwarves by force.
But that worry turned out to be unnecessary.
The metal the dwarf mentioned was adamantite.
“Adamantite, huh? There’s nothing harder? Or even if it’s not quite as hard but is some rare metal that can only be mined in these mountains or something, that would be of interest, too.”
The dwarf said he didn’t know of anything.
It was possible they were keeping it secret and simply not answering honestly. Which meant they would never answer a straigh
t question. However, if he used Charm or some other mind manipulation power, the dwarf would retain the memory of Ainz’s manipulation, so he couldn’t do that unless he killed him afterward. Unfortunately, it seemed he wouldn’t be able to acquire any more information at the moment. Gondo had said he didn’t know of anything, either, so all Ainz could do was hope the older rune crafters had an idea.
Ainz hid his disappointment and grasped the ingot he had kept under his robe for this occasion.
“Then, allow me to offer this metal. You can let me know how much it will cost to process it.”
What he produced was a level-45 metal. It wasn’t all that strong, but it was far harder than adamantite.
With armor made of this, Zaryusu’s defense would increase dramatically and he would be protected from almost any opponent this world had to offer.
“What is this?”
The puzzlement on the smith shops chief’s face when he picked up the ingot convinced Ainz that they weren’t able to mine metal like it in this area.
“Disap…” Ainz nearly slipped up and said disappointing out loud but managed to trail off instead. This armor was going to be a gift for Zaryusu; he didn’t feel like it would be very nice to whine in front of the artisan who would create it. “It’s a fairly decent metal. I’m pretty sure I have a weapon made with it. Excuse me for a moment.”
Ainz stood, left the room, and opened his inventory. After digging around a bit, he took out an oddly shaped dagger—often in Yggdrasil one would come across items that weren’t for practical use but for fashion. Then he returned to the meeting room.
At the sight of Ainz entering with a dagger, the dwarves all started to get up; he slid it across the table, and luckily it stopped in front of the chief of the smith shops.
Instead of picking it up, the dwarf just stared at it in fear. There must have been something bothering him about it.
“This is made of the same metal. It’s a dagger, and what I want you to make is armor, so I’m not sure how useful a reference it will be, but… Do you think you can do it?”
For some reason, the chief of the smith shops blushed. “I’ll do it!”
The Dwarven Crafter Page 19