Magros Wrestling

“Woody-sama, a word of warning.”

“What is it?”

“Dwarves are absurdly meatheaded, and they absolutely love alcohol. So please do not refuse either a test of strength or a drinking contest.”

“What kind of advice is that!?”

It might have been a mistake for someone as weak as me and so bad with alcohol to come here.

That was the sort of thought that crossed my mind when I saw how thoroughly built the three dwarves who appeared were.

They were probably about up to the bottom of my neck in height.

They were not tall, but they made up for it with incredible muscle.

Their rock-hard biceps were so massive that I could tell even from this distance.

They really were short and stout, but… the muscle mass in their arms and legs was incredible.

When people said someone was finely honed, maybe they meant a condition like theirs.

They were dressed in the extremely wild combination of being bare-chested with suspenders, and they had heavy-looking hammers slung over their shoulders.

“Hm? Who are you lot?”

One of the dwarves who had appeared, the one standing in the middle, stepped forward.

Apparently he was the leader, and his muscular development stood out even among them.

He swept his bulging eyes over us, then fixed his gaze on someone farther in the back.

“Oh, is that not Miria! How does the sword feel in your hands!?”

“Vis-dono, it has been a long time. It is still helping me greatly with its incredible sharpness. I do maintain it carefully, but I still cannot completely erase the wear… if possible, I would like you to take a look at it later.”

“Of course. The swords I create are no different from my own children. Ahh, but this ‘Aomaru’ was quite the troublesome one to make. To begin with, preparing high-purity tamahagane took an outrageous amount of time, and then I had to waste quite a number of them searching for materials with high compatibility. And to add to that, getting the layering right during forging was no easy task either…”

The dwarf leader called Vis started talking in a furious rush.

He seemed to have completely entered his own world, and his tone burned with passion, while at times he even flashed a creepy little grin and went “weheheh” in delight.

A real craftsman…!

His eyes were a little too intense, but being able to become this absorbed in something had to be a rare talent in itself.

I decided to listen with all my might, desperately working my brain so I could break down and understand even a little of what he was saying.

“So first you crush these scales of the dragon mantis shrimp and throw them into the furnace…”

“I see, I see!”

“It is not as though more forging is always better. To achieve both toughness and hardness, you need ingenuity that establishes an extremely precise balance…”

“I see, I see!”

“—and that is why it took an outrageous amount of time and labor to create this ‘Aomaru’!”

“So that was how it was. That is amazing!”

“Oh ho, you are a lad who understands.”

Vis-san pounded my shoulder again and again.

His hand was incredibly large.

And unbelievably hard.

Looking closely, I could see calluses like sword calluses here and there across his palm.

They were the hands of a man who had kept swinging a hammer.

Their shape might have been unsightly at a glance, but to me they looked very beautiful.

As I listened to him so earnestly, before I knew it I had become a fan of Vis-san.

(I absolutely have to get him to come to my domain.)

That was how strongly I found myself liking him.

“So then, what did you lads come here for?”

“Yes, well, actually…”

I revealed my true identity.

When Vis-san and the others learned that I was the lord of Wenti, they naturally showed some caution, but as I passionately described the plan I had in mind, that wariness faded away.

The splendor of the city of Guinea, where Wheel-san, a Divine Rat, could freely produce ore at will.

And in addition, the existence of the blast furnace that I intended to open up for the dwarves.

And so that they would not struggle for food, my offer of high wages and food support in the form of fruit, wheat, and the like.

Since food production posed no problem, I intended to take care not only of the dwarf craftsmen, but also of their wives and children all together.

Hearing that, Vis-san and the other dwarves groaned.

“Can such an ideal environment truly exist…?”

“Perhaps he is trying to deceive us…”

“Vis-dono, allow me to deny that. In truth, we dark elves are already in Woody-sama’s care.”

While still strangely keeping quiet about the fact that elves were already in the city of Guinea, Miria-san and the others told them about their present circumstances.

After hearing her sincere account, they seemed to understand that it was not a lie.

“I see… certainly, there is no doubt that we would be able to smith in a better environment than this one.”

“Yes! Of course! In that case, let us get started at once—”

“However, we of the Magros clan are not so cheap that we would nod along so easily. We have decided that only those who possess the valor to stand shoulder to shoulder with us may hold equal talks with us.”

“Ohh! So then, here is what we shall do…”

“Let us have ourselves some Magros Wrestling!”

—What was that supposed to be, that weird competition!?

Wait, surely not… I was the one who had to do that!?