17-3 Those Who Are Warriors

The mining nation of Eldoa.

It was a terribly troublesome country.

In a word, it was the sort of country that did not listen to what people said.

Or perhaps it could be called the sort of country that had never been listening to people in the first place.

The reason could be summed up in a single phrase: the residents of that country were dwarves.

Calling them artisan-like might sound nice, but that was all there was to it.

Basically, they said that everything other than blacksmithing did not matter.

Not everyone living in that country was a dwarf, though.

Otherwise, the functions of the state would be paralyzed.

What made things even more troublesome was that the Kingdom of Eldoa, the mining nation where these dwarves lived, was located right in the center of the continent and bordered every country.

It could also be called the only landlocked country on the Ross Continent.

For that reason, it could not show special convenience to a single country.

Or rather, even before that, those people did not hear a single thing anyone said, so although many countries wanted the dwarves to grant them favors, they simply could not get those favors granted at all.

To them, the most important thing was the work of blacksmithing, and the most meaningful thing was alcohol.

There was not even one tiny picogram or one ppm of any other value system.

In a sense, everything about them was simple, but precisely because of that, they were difficult opponents on a level where petty tricks would not work.

For a genuine prince with a noble bearing, they were an extremely eccentric group that would be rather hard to deal with.

But it had to be done.

And the result was a splendid crushing defeat.

It was not even worth discussing.

It ended in complete annihilation.

Despite Prince Michael requesting an audience with the dwarf king, he was first taken straight to a forge.

There stood a bearded giant of a man, over two meters tall, bare-chested and swinging a great hammer.

Incidentally, he was also broad sideways, with his center of gravity intensely settled in his lower body, and possessed an exceptionally robust physique extremely suited to blacksmithing.

That very person was Great King Hannibal, the leader of this Kingdom of Eldoa.

Even Michael of the Gale could not help being overwhelmed by the presence of this muscle-bound great king.

A powerful body, muscles of steel.

He was nothing like the general image of dwarves as short, squat little people.

In any case, he was a giant.

Yes, all the dwarves of this country were warriors.

And they possessed overwhelming strength.

Moreover, even so, they also had abundant mana for use in blacksmithing.

They were originally a spirit race descended from spirits, so like elves and beastfolk, their roots were completely different from humans.

They were people who armored themselves in the magical arms and armor they had forged themselves and boasted that war was nothing more than a test cut for their weapons.

But I think even the king should at least do his job properly.

Every dwarf had the air of a magic warrior rather than a magic swordsman, and naturally, none of them listened to what people said.

When one visited, the first thing they said was, “Drink.”

And the other party was made up only of people with steel—no, magic-metallic—livers.

That said, if one did not drink, diplomacy with Eldoa could not begin.

For that reason, it was the number one most-hated country from the perspective of diplomats.

In that state, with his words barely heard at all, Prince Michael was groaning from a severe hangover when Alphonse came to visit.

He had come to receive additional information.

“Huh? That’s rare. What happened? Your Highness Michael, I never thought I’d be blessed with the sight of you like this in the middle of the day.”

My eyes widened.

“Ah, please listen to me. Those people really are…”

After hearing the story, I burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha. That’s something I’d like to see at least once. Dwarves who let everything go in one ear and out the other, huh?”

“In that case, please go in my place. I’ll write you a letter of authorization.”

“Well, sure, I don’t mind.”

I laughed as though I found it very amusing.

Then I asked with a mischievous smile.

“What are the victory conditions?”

“You win if, when war breaks out, you obtain permission for reinforcements from Silas to pass through by the shortest route. Of course, secretly from the Empire. As for compensation to the Kingdom of Eldoa… whew. I’ll leave that to you. Please do not attach any overly unreasonable conditions.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t burden the Kingdom. I’ll limit it to what I can hand over from my own possessions. I’m only accepting because it sounds interesting. Well, just think of it as something that may not work. Most of my own preparations are finished. Now I just have to wait until the astronauts are ready.”

“Astro?”

“No, that’s my own business. Still, giant muscular dwarves, huh? Looks like I’ll be able to get some laughs again~”

On an internet message board, that is.

Dwarves, huh?

That is worth challenging.

The finest alcohol I had brought from Japan.

How would these rare heavy drinkers evaluate them?

After all, alcohol had been the final emotional support for me back when I had been crouching in despair while still alive, so I had never been stingy with it.

There were numerous high-grade whisky base spirits I had created by breaking down commercial blended products, as well as liquors made by re-blending them.

I even had some that I had further processed with skills inside my inventory.

I had tried doing the same with sake and wine after breaking them down.

Any impurities had been completely removed.

I even had vodka and aquavit, a liquor made from potatoes.

I had also used the special function of my item box to turn precious aged awamori into hundred-year and two-hundred-year masterpieces.

Those were pretty amazing.

Furthermore, using internet information as a base, I had even made an imitation material version of that strongest fire liquor, with an extremely high alcohol content close to pure alcohol.

Would those people dislike sweet cocktails?

Man, I’m already looking forward to drinking with the dwarves so much I can hardly stand it.

Because I was looking forward to it so much, His Highness Michael seemed to become strangely anxious instead.

How rude.

After showering him with a large amount of healing magic, I teleported to the town of Elmia, which already had a teleportation point and was located on the southern side of the Albatross Kingdom in the direction of Eldoa.

I visited the church for the first time in a while and gave them new sweets and the like as gifts.

At the entrance, I received a tremendous welcome from the children.

“Uncle, it’s been so long!”

“Yeah, have you all been well?”

“Where are the souvenirs~?”

“I’ve got lots of them.”

“Hello, Father. I have some business in this direction.”

“I see. Well, I am glad to see you looking well.”

I was very happy that everyone remembered me.

Also, I handed the priest a large amount of clothing and various other things.

I also gave him fabric scraps for repairs.

In this world, especially at orphanages in the frontier, children’s clothes would quickly become covered in patches if left alone.

It was nothing like a Japanese child welfare facility.

“No, I’m always sorry for this.”

“Not at all. Now I’m running an orphanage myself, so I understand your feelings much better.”

“Hahaha, that must be a constant struggle.”

“Well, yes~”

Though the hardest part is “defending against enemies.”

After enjoying snack time noisily together with the children, I headed toward the border with Eldoa by flight.

After swiftly crossing the border on our side through the prestige of my cloak, I fell silent without thinking.

“…”

Huh? There was no one from Eldoa’s border guard.

There was something that looked like a guard station, though.

No, surely not.

When I peeked into the back of the border guard station, I heard a large number of hammering sounds ringing out.

Th-this was bad.

It was even worse than I had expected.

It was true that everyone in that country was a warrior, so even if a few strange people entered the country, they could deal with it somehow, but that was not the reason for this.

It sounded interesting, so I had accepted casually without thinking, but maybe this had been a bit of a mistake.