After leaving the blacksmith, we set out to the capital to look for a mithril knife. Well, even though I said set out, it only took us a few minutes, thanks to the Bear Transfer Gate.
I had actually gone to the capital just a few days prior to this; I had gone to see Princess Flora since I finally got some rice to spare.
I made a lot of bite-sized onigiri that would suit the taste of a child and brought them to her.
Like usual, Eleanora-san and the king managed to sniff out my presence and came to eat them, too.
Well, Princess Flora was still a child and couldn’t eat a lot of onigiri even though I made them small, so it was okay for them to have some as well.
Although it hadn’t been long since I was last at the capital, it was different for Fina.
「It’s the capital!」
Fina said happily as we left the Bear House.
「It’s really a strange feeling, somehow. I can’t believe that we were in Crimonia just a moment ago.」
「It’s been a while since you last came to the capital, so is there something you want to see? We could pass by if you want.」
There was no reason to hurry, so I asked her if she wanted to go anywhere in particular, but she shook her head.
「Just walking around is fun enough.」
She was right, simply walking around aimlessly was a way to have fun.
Doing some sightseeing might also be good, so we decided to have fun on our way to the smithy. I soon realized something important, though. I had no idea where the smithy was.
I had asked Nert-san where it was, but she didn’t know.
Since I didn’t know where it was, I brought out the Bear Map, which showed me the whole capital in detail.
Yep, I had no idea where it was.
The capital seemed just like Tokyo’s metropolitan area on the map; it was impossible to find a specific shop in this mess.
Well, it might be possible if there was some sort of search function, but sadly there was nothing like that, so I had no chance finding it using just my eyes.
Well, it was a smithy, so the Commerce Guild should be able to tell me where it was.
We headed to the Commerce Guild, which meant we had to go to the main avenue: a really large avenue where carriages were always coming and going. There were other ways to get to the guild, but that would mean taking a detour, so we resigned ourselves and walked onto the main avenue.
Even for a main avenue, there was a lot of pedestrian traffic here, and a lot of people around also meant a lot of people looking and talking about me: something I was used to by now.
Hey, mother over there, please tell your child that it’s not nice to point at people with his finger.
Hey, the person over there, stop being so astonished just by seeing someone, please…
You there, weren’t you taught that you shouldn’t laugh at other people?
Also, the person on the other side, the suit isn’t on sale, so even if you go to a tailor, they won’t sell it to you. So don’t go to a clothing shop, please…
The person next to the one from before, don’t order one for yourself, too, please…
Yes, I’m a Bear…
Yes, it’s embarrassing. I’m used to it now, though.
You think it’s cute? Thank you very much.
You want to hug me? Please refrain from doing so.
You’re going to tell someone else that I’m here? Please don’t.
‘I will stand guard, so go,’ you say… I’m not an animal, you know! Do you plan on capturing me?
Yeah, I’m the rumored Bear.
You want to touch me? That’s strictly prohibited.
I rebuked everything that was happening around me in my head, and as I continued to do so like some sort of idiot, we reached the front door of the Commerce Guild.
As expected from the Commerce Guild of the capital, it was an immense building, and there were a lot of people going about.
There were also a lot of people at the Commerce Guild of Crimonia, but it was still incomparable to the amount of people here.
With this many people around, even more people were staring at me, but there was no way that I wouldn’t enter after coming this far.
I took Fina’s hand, and was about to enter the guild, when a voice called out from behind.
「Yuna-san!」
I turned around, wondering who was it, and was met by Shia, who seemed to be out of breath.
「Shia? Why are you here?」
「I should be the one saying that!」
She was right; it was weirder for me to be here than her.
She was still catching her breath. Was it because she had been running? Her hair did look a bit ruffled, and she was trying to put it back in place. It was before lunchtime, so shouldn’t she still be at school?
「What about school, Shia?」
「It’s a holiday today.」
「Why are you in your uniform, then?」
「Ah, I was on my way to the Adventurer’s Guild, you see.」
「………?」
I didn’t understand her. What did her being in her uniform have to do with going to the Adventurer’s Guild?
When I asked her about it,
「This uniform and mantle are made from a special material, so their defence is rather high,」
was how she answered.
Oh right, I might have heard of something like that during the guard mission. So, she was going to the Adventurer’s Guild in her uniform because it had such an effect, huh.
Why was she on her way to the Adventurer’s Guild, though?
「So, why are you here, Yuna-san? Oh, and Fina is here as well, I see.」
Fina bowed and greeted her a bit nervously.
Even though they were getting along just fine last time, they were still a noble and a commoner, huh.
「There should be a dwarf named Gazar running a smithy here at the capital, but I don’t know where it is, so I came to the Commerce Guild to ask.」
「A smithy, you say? Gazar……」
Shia started thinking about it while tapping her forehead then clapped her hands loudly.
「Ah, I know about it and can show you the way. Why a smithy, though?」
「You know that Fina can dismantle things, right?」
Shia nodded.
「I asked her to dismantle the Black Tiger I had killed on the guard mission, but we learned that it was impossible to dismantle it without a mithril knife. We’re here since we couldn’t get the knife at Crimonia.」
「So you came to the capital simply to get a knife!?」
Well, she didn’t know about the Bear Transfer Gate, so no wonder she would be surprised.
「Well, yeah. I had some time to spare.」
「Even if you have time, is it really normal for you to come all the way to the capital just for a knife?」
「So, you said you know where the smithy is? If you do, I would like you to tell me since I really don’t want to enter this place.」
I looked at the entrance of the Commerce Guild which was packed with people entering and leaving.
Every time someone passed through the entrance, they always turned their heads to look my way.
I really wanted to get away from here as soon as possible.
「I will show you the way, then.」
「You sure? You’re on your way to the Adventurer’s Guild, right?」
I said even though I had no idea why Shia would go there.
It would really save me if she showed me the way, though.
「I have some time left, so it’s okay.」
Taking advantage of Shia’s kindness, we departed towards Gazar’s smithy.
Crimonia was quite big, but the capital was so much bigger that they couldn’t even be compared to each other.
「So, you came all the way to the capital, taking Fina along, only for a knife?」
「If I’m buying a knife, I want it to fit Fina’s hand well, after all. If I brought it on my own, and it was too big for her, she would have a hard time using it.」
「I can use big knives, too, you know.」
「That’s no good. If you were to hurt yourself with a knife that was too big for you, I would be the one to blame.」
People would confront me for making a 10-year-old girl use a knife… Wait, we weren’t in Japan. This was a different world where there were 10-year-old children who were required to use a knife.
Also, Fina had done her best dismantling many things to obtain the techniques she had now, so I didn’t want to take away her job. If Fina later decided that she didn’t want to dismantle anymore, I would have to deal with that then.
We passed by a stall on the way to the smithy, so I decided to buy some food, like I normally did when passing a stall, and ate it while walking.
「We’re here.」
Thanks to Shia, we arrived at the smithy, which seemed to be on the edge of some sort of industrial zone.
Well, if they were striking iron every day in the middle of residential area, they would trouble other people, right?
As we were walking down a gloomy street, we noticed a short dwarf sitting on a chair.
「Ehm, excuse me.」
「What is it?」
「Are you Gazar-san?」
「That’s right, but who are you, wearing such crazy clothes?」
This was the first time someone had called my clothes outright crazy.
「Please don’t worry about my clothes. Could you have a look at this?」
I gave him the letter I had received from Nert-san.
「What is this?」
「Nert-san from Crimonia gave it to me? Or more exactly, it’s from Gold-san, I think?」
Nert-san had went to wake up her husband and had made him write it, right?
Gazar-san read through the letter after I mentioned the couple.
「I understand your problem, but there’s nothing I can do to help you. We are short on ores even here at the capital. The closest mine stopped supplying the ores, so we have to get them from elsewhere, but even then, not much of those ores get to me. I would love to make something specifically for you since it’s on Gold’s request, but it’s impossible right now.」
I knew it, they were short on ores at the capital, too.
「So, why is there a shortage in the first place? I heard that they aren’t able to mine it anymore, but…」
「It seems that a golem came out of a cave and made it impossible for them to mine the ore.」
Golem, an inanimate creature. A monster made from earth, stone, or even sometimes iron, mithril, and other ores.
「And how is the subjugation getting along?」
「I don’t know. I heard that some adventurers went to subjugate it, but since we still aren’t getting the ores, it seems that they didn’t kill it yet.」
Well, that made sense. There was no way the guild wouldn’t do anything.
If a monster appeared at the mine, there was sure to be a subjugation request.
「Now that I think about it, Mother mentioned something about this. She said that the subjugation started to go bad and that we might have to send in the knights.」
「The adventurers who were sent weren’t able to defeat it?」
「I don’t know the details, sorry.」
「I don’t know, either. If you want to know more, go to the Adventurer’s Guild. This isn’t an intelligence bureau, you know…」
He was right, but did that mean that I had to go to the Adventurer’s Guild now?
I had the feeling that they were handing off their problems to me…
「We’re going to the same place now, huh.」
Shia said.
Oh right, Shia had told me something about being on the way to the Adventurer’s Guild.
Hmm, what should I do? I wanted the mithril knife, not the information about the mine.
「Hmm, I know it’s strange for me to ask you this since you are a smith yourself, but does any other smithy have mithril?」
「You might be able to find one, but I don’t think they would sell mithril to a stranger.」
I couldn’t get it at Crimonia, and I couldn’t get it at the capital.
Now that it had come to this, I had no other choice but to go to the mine, and that meant I would have to go to the Adventurer’s Guild first.
I thanked Gazar-san and left his shop.
Since staying here wouldn’t help me at all, I headed to the Adventurer’s Guild.
Also, if I didn’t say hello to Sanya-san while I was at the capital, I had a feeling that she would end up being angry at me.
Author’s note:
I’m planning on posting a side story for the next update and then return to the original story before maybe doing some more.