A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

“Grimnir Luedbrumdar …” The dwarven man placed his hammer into his burnt smith’s apron and walked closer to us, waving the brown earth gasses out of his face, allowing us to see his figure properly.

Two ram horns decorated his head, a fact I already knew as Grimnir described the god as a Taz dwarf. However, unlike Grimnir’s normal spiral horns, this new Taz looked like his horns were made from molten rocks with magma dripping from them, landing onto his metal sabatons.

The dwarf had blindingly yellow hair that stretched down to his hips, held together by a single hairband. His beard shared the same color, but was cut short, looking similar to a month old beard. None of that crust’lock—the petrified rock hair dwarves were so proud about—could be seen on him, nor the rock hide dwarves had on their ears.

As the man came even closer, I also noticed his eyes were glowing yellow, showing white cracks in his irises. His arms were similarly unnatural, looking like they were made from rock just like the Earth Elemental Emperor's. Once he cracked them, they lit up on fire, causing the rock to soften up and turn into literal magma.

The God of Blacksmithing and Searing Volcanoes, indeed. This is Bleidla, huh?

“Urgh …” Both Grimnir and Tasianna groaned as they stood before us, holding onto their chest in pain.

[“Dragon lass.”] I heard the god speak to me, shaking my mind with the echo of his deep bass voice. [“I shall speak telepathically to you to prevent their souls from collapsing. You need only to translate.”]

[“You can use [Telepathy]?”] I asked in surprise. He was a dwarf, he shouldn’t be able to do so.

He scoffed, shaking his head as if he was annoyed at my question. [“I am a god.”]

That was all he needed to tell me before I remembered he probably wasn’t limited by the body of a dwarf, right now. Whether [Telepathy] or through the System messages, he could have spoken to me either way and it wouldn’t be too weird. Well, I still would have loved a proper answer, but if he didn’t want to reply I shouldn’t pry.

Instead, I nodded and explained the situation to Grimnir and Tasianna.

“… I couldn’t understand God Bleidla’s speech in any case. How pleasant for you to act as my translator now, Lady Hestia,” Tasianna responded with a smile, reminding me how she had to live translate everything back when I still hadn’t mastered Common. It sure was a reversal of our situation.

Grimnir, though, only stared at the dwarven god, sizing him up before he lowered his head. “He said my name, correct? I only recognized the ‘Grim’ part.”

As Aurena and Crustacia mentioned, my [Hestia’s Retainer] title was protecting both of them from the divine aura, yet it was clear that some interference was probably stopping them from fully understanding him. This must be how a normal person—No, a normal person wouldn’t be here. This was how a normal blessed probably experienced talking to a god.

“Oh right, where is Ellaine?” Tasianna asked, which I was about to answer but Bleidla just had to interrupt me.

[“Enough wasting time.”]

Sheesh! Thunderous … The tone reminded me a bit of my Papa and how he used to shout at me.

[“Your friends do not have the time to stay here. Every second here, their souls continue to accrue damage. Let us make haste.”] He took a step forward and opened up his palm, revealing a piece of green ore, unaffected by the flames on his arms. [“Repeat this to them. The fairy only has a limited time due to her lack of piety to me, so she should leave now. Grimnir, too, has the same problem. He cannot become my blessed. You, though, are different, dragon.”]

He nudged his hand away from Grimnir, directing the green ore to me, offering it to me.

[“You can become a blessed of the Pantheon of Earth. Your connection to the earth, to the searing volcanoes and magma landscape that I rule over, is strong enough to bypass the piety needed, and I am willing to allow you to usurp the blessing for power if you spread my word.”]

“Wha—!” I gasped. “Hold on, that wasn—”

[“Translate what I said to them, first.”]

You old—Grah!

Okay, correction, this guy sounded nothing like my Papa! Old, stubborn assshole with how he spoke to me, ordering me around just ‘cause he was a god! Sure, I understood his position, but I met Aurena, Crustacia, and Yeostar, gods who were courteous to me while we spoke. I could give two fucks for this guy at this point, even if he tried to exude his aura at me. He could try to learn to be nice!

Disregarding my general impression of him right now, I still did what he wanted me to do as it was the right thing to do. I explained what he told me to my friends, causing Tasianna to smile wryly as she admitted she wasn’t feeling too good.

“I apologize for wasting your time, Tasianna …” I told her, feeling dejected that my plan didn’t work. Even with my title’s protection, inviting people to my meeting with the gods wouldn’t work.

“I am all right, Lady Hestia. It is still an honor to be able to meet a subordinate god in person. I shall rendezvous with Ellaine.” Tasianna bowed before her soul vanished before me.

I turned to Grimnir, awaiting him to also go, but instead of following Tasianna, he just shook his head and turned to Bleidla. “You reject me once again, I see. First you take away my ‘eyes,’ now you cannot even give me an ounce of your attention? I trained my craft to bring honor to the blacksmith guild and to YOU! All those years I spent working for you, and the first thing you do is to cast me aside after I made my mistake. I let my greed get to me, I understand that, but I worked to overcome them … but you never deemed me worthy of those ‘eyes,’ again.”

[Blacksmith’s Eyes]—a blacksmith’s most priceless skill as it allowed them to inspect their creations and see the attack and defensive powers they gave their wielders. My [Mana Eyes] somehow obtained that ability in the past, for no apparent reason to me, and I have been using them on Grimnir’s behalf whenever he needed to inspect something. He was usually skilled enough to guess the stats correctly, but he still needed confirmation from me.

The origin of that skill was none other than Bleidla himself. As Rudigan explained, the ability to give members of the blacksmith guild the skill was similar to how Yeostar handled—Ahem, used to handle the training of his Champions of Yeostar to assure they were the “strongest blessed of the Pantheon of Light.” These two examples were the few times gods could directly interact with mortals instead of acting like guides, but to balance it out, there was a cost.

Yeostar could only have one blessed at any time, and to become one, one must perform a ritual using the blood from one of his descendants. If the royal family of Yeos, or its branch family, were to go extinct, the existence of the Champion of Yeostar would end permanently. What was Bleidla’s restriction?

[“Leave, Grimnir. Your soul cannot handle my presence any longer,”] Bleidla replied, which I immediately relayed to Grimnir. This discussion between these two was a long time coming, and I wouldn’t interrupt it now that Grimnir had made his decision.

“NO! Not before you answer my question. Bleidla! You think I would let this chance of a lifetime go? I can ‘speak’ with the god I had blamed for all my mistakes, grievances, and bad luck! You were my boogeyman, and I will. Speak. My. Mind!” Grimnir took a step forward, staring into the aloof god’s cracked eyes. “All this time, I always had to ask myself why you forbade the usage of Goddess Chihiro’s technology? Her blueprints and genius! Because of your persistence to keep them taboo, all of them are gone now! You are keeping—Urrgh!”

“Grimnir!” I called out as I saw his soul suddenly quivering, sending small waves around itself as if it was made out of water. He fell onto his knees, panting as he held his chest.

[“… This is the normal interaction between a mortal’s soul and a god’s divine aura. You have been spoiled by Goddess Aurena’s actions, to the point you bring mortals to this realm? For a test? Something you could have figured out by simply using your rational thinking?”] Bleidla chastised me in a scornful tone. [“Asking a god to make someone a blessed? What nonsense this wish is, dragon. A blessed is an extension of a god’s authority and ideals, one chosen by them because they fit their principles and can spread their faith the best! I don’t care what Rudigan told you, this dwarf is an embarrassment to all the smiths who toil—”]

“SHUT IT!” Grimnir shouted, standing up despite his soul being in agony. I hadn’t relayed any of the information to him yet, but despite that, his timing was impeccable. “I don’t know what you are saying to her, but I can feel how the lass is processing your words, Bleidla. ‘The most involved god,’ that is the title so many people gave you, as no smith could ever work without your blessing. Those you abandoned or deemed unworthy are left to be ridiculed by others, unable to join the guild because of you. Even if they can forge, a smith without [Blacksmith’s Eyes] is nothing more than a zuekluk when it concerns the blacksmith’s guild.”

I winced, remembering how I first met Grimnir. The local blacksmith guild ridiculed him, calling him a failure of a smith due to lacking [Blacksmith’s Eyes], while the man himself was still grieving after the death of his cousin. All he could do was blame Bleidla for everything, in fact, one upping the blacksmith god for abandoning him was the entire reason why Grimnir even joined us in the first place.

He wanted my knowledge to inspire him to create more equipment. His current armor, his blasthammer, and even the armor he made for me were all “modern” ideas. Every time he would create something good, he would shout to the skies, “See this, Bleidla!” He was obsessed and driven by anger.

It had died down after he returned to Ankor-Nazta and made peace with his cousin’s death. Now, though, that rage was showing once again. It didn’t help that he wanted to sorely know how the Prince of Greed even turned his cousin’s body into a fake that was able to imitate Broggart’s skills and memories.

“Tell me! Were you dissatisfied with what I did, or are you so petty that you hold my mistake as the defining trait about me? I’ve always been told you respect the beauty of fine craftwork, so tell me, all that equipment I made that I dedicated to Crustacia, were you ever envious that you lost my dedication?” His voice broke, sounding almost as if he was pleading for an answer, as if he was seeking the approval of a parent. “… But if you don’t care, then so be it. However, I will not leave yet. I will obtain a blessing. I will become a blessed as the reward for the lass’s Quest! I will obtain a new power to reach the person who defiled my cousin’s corpse; I will get my answer from that damn Prince of Greed!”

Grimnir’s powerful declaration left me speechless, reinforcing his conviction to me in this quest to confront the demonkin prince. Unlike Saori and Ellaine, I hadn’t been able to witness Grimnir’s confrontation with the corpse of Broggart nor his words to Maagneil. I had missed them … but hearing it now made my chest feel … floaty. No, it felt like something was rising inside my soul, making me want to see his path to the end.

However, once he was done speaking, Grimnir's soul fell to the ground. I wanted to help him up, but once again, my hands went through him. Exhausting with loud moans to signal his pain, he laid down. The quivering of his soul escalated, looking like it would splinter apart like a tidal wave of water, splashing with such an intensity his silhouette was slowly disappearing.

I wanted to help him continue speaking his mind, but he had reached his limit already. He couldn’t stay here any longer.

“Grimnir, please, you need to leave!” I pleaded, but Grimnir would only shake his head, but was unable to articulate a single word. “I am the one who asked you to come here as I wanted to grant you the power necessary for our road ahead, but if your soul is in danger, then stop! It failed, all right! Even with [Hestia’s Retainer], it still was a pipedream of mine!”

“Arrgh!” Grimnir’s soul convulsed before he pushed himself back up, again. “Shut it, lass! I’m not done yet! I got more words than I can spit out, I can—”

But before he could continue, Grimnir suddenly froze, as in, his soul completely stopped doing anything—speaking, moving, convulsing, it looked like time stopped for him. Fortunately, my confusion was quickly lifted when Bleidla came over and bent his knees. He looked at me and tapped his head.

I nodded.

[“I am sending you back to the mortal realm. The process is just slowed down to the point that your consciousness is still with us. Listen and remember these words I am telling to you Grimnir: I have never felt envious,”] he stated. [“Never, for I never had to. Even in the depths of your rage, your craft became better and better. Anger and happiness are two sides of a coin; both emotions express passion. Even if you never dedicated your craft to me, you always thought of me. You, Grimnir, have never forgotten your faith to me.”]

Bleidla sighed. [“But you lost it when you made your peace with me, accepting Broggart’s legacy and love for you. From then, I felt your faith in me was lacking, as it is impossible to feel anger if one is dispassionate about something. Ironically, your wrath made you closer to me, even if you never meant it. To make more powerful and ingenious equipment to embarrass me? Nothing could be farther from the truth, for you made me respect you even more than before as a fellow smith.”]

He stood up, opening his palm to reveal the green ore, before crushing it and putting the dust in his apron pocket. He then pulled out his hammer, showing off his simple iron hammer, contrasting the godly appearance Bleidla possessed. There were no engravings, runes, or even a special handle—it was simply made from brown leather.

[“I have always strived to progress the art of blacksmithing, to keep our traditions alive.”] He tightened his grip on his beloved tool. [“You never needed my [Blacksmith’s Eyes]. A master has no need for it, for he can assess his creations through experience alone.”]

“But I’ve been helping him,” I objected, but the god only shook his head.

[“Pride cometh before the fall; he threw his away and pledged himself to you in servitude. I watched over his work and how he trained his apprentices. I was always there, Grimnir, looking. Even if you despised me, I could never stop myself from watching … You have the heart of a smith, and the mind necessary to continue and evolve the craft even after your failure. You learned from your mistake, you learned that what you did was a mistake to the laws of society but not towards the friendship and passion you shared with Broggart.”] He pointed his hammer at Grimnir. [“That is why your rage for your cousin overpowered your hatred for me. You stopped blaming me—and yourself—for what happened.”]

Grimnir … I stared at my dwarven friend after I told him all of that. I couldn’t hear his reaction as his mouth did not move, making me curious what he was thinking.

“… Then why wouldn’t you accept him?” I responded on Grimnir’s behalf. “If you are telling him his faith in you had weakened because of what he experienced upon his return to home, then why are you telling me to accept your blessing? It doesn’t make sense.”

[“Because even if I made him my blessed, he wouldn’t be able to gain anything from it,”] Bleidla voiced out with closed eyes. [“This is my deal with Goddess Crustacia. In exchange for my ability to grant so many [Blacksmith’s Eyes], all my blessed will receive blessings that aren’t even worthy to be called unique skills. In fact, most of the time, I can only give them a normal skill. That is why I currently have no blessed. That is why I haven’t made one in so long, as my Goddess wishes for strong blessed instead of numerous weaklings like improperly forged, mass produced blades for levies made by apprentices who only took up the hammer a week ago.”]

What an example …

He then held his hammer closer to his chest, stroking it. [“But … there is power in simplicity. For that, I will not make Grimnir my blessed, for he doesn’t need my teachings to become better. He has you, his apprentices, and friends for that. His rage for the demonkin prince will fuel him now.”]

“Then why me?”

[“Because this was Goddess Crustacia’s blessing,”] he answered, taking out the dust from that green ore. [“You needed one reward, for that was the deal of the Quest, dragon lass. If Grimnir accepted my rejection, I would have given you the ore to make you a blessed of the Earth Mother … Yet, Grimnir didn’t. Would you accept the reward after his passionate speech? One coming from his heart?”]

“… No, I wouldn’t. It would have felt like a cop out … in fact, I would have just gone back to Crustacia. If you won’t accept him, then I will make her do it. I felt it in the manner she spoke to me—she wanted in. A golden age? Well, what would sound better than, ‘A blessed of Goddess Crustacia assisted the newest Idol of Goddess Aurena with ending the Human-Demonkin war?’”

He giggled. [“Hehe, you noticed her hunger for power, right?”]

Why would she summon Chihiro into this world to bring about that golden age she loved so much in the first place? It was too obvious she was a goddess obsessed with the popularity of her religion.

[“… Mhrmpf.”] Bleidla growled as Grimnir’s soul slowly dissipated from view, just like Tasianna’s. [“He should be all right. Might need some sleep.”]

I let out a sigh of relief. Grimnir didn’t get his chance for catharsis, but I hoped what Bleidla told him helped him somewhat. Seeing as this was the end of the discussion, I was about to leave, but the blacksmith god stopped me, telling me to come over to his anvil. There, he took up his hammer and pulled the green dust from before, spraying it over the anvil before he began to bang on it.

“I have a request.” With Grimnir and Tasianna gone, there was no need for him to speak to me with [Telepathy]. “If you ever meet Danterno, I wish for you to help him.”

I grimaced, holding myself back from saying anything as whatever would come out of my mouth would just be rude. Hearing my silence, he sighed through his nose, prompting me to eke out, “Why?”

“Because Danterno is not somebody evil, he is just an incompetent god who doesn’t know how to rule over his religion. He had a vision for it, but he hadn’t properly taught it to his followers. Trust me, I originally joined him because of his false promises.”

Bleidla began as a god of the Pantheon of Fire due to the fact blacksmithing was so reliant on heat to create. Unlike his fellow dwarven gods, he didn’t follow Crustacia, as he chose the god who would be able to benefit his abilities the best … Nonetheless, he still ended up as a god of the Pantheon of Earth. He abandoned Shiterno for Crustacia.

Considering how important blacksmithing was for the creation of equipment and so many manatech, Danterno really lost his best bread winner. All that faith to fuel his power was lost by Bleidla defecting.

“I think you might agree with this, but when it comes to granting power, I personally believe Danterno is probably one of the most creative gods. Despite the results of the power injection, [White Flames] and [Corrosive Fire] have proven to be invaluable to you, no?”

I stayed silent under the constant banging of his hammer. I stared at his anvil as his every strike would cause sparks to fly out where the green ore dust was.

It was true what he said, but I didn’t want to praise Shiterno. That “result” of causing me to go berserk still scared my mind, as I knew if Master Kushlek’zar and the saurians hadn't been around to stop me, I could have killed Saori and Tasianna without ever noticing it. It was all ‘cause he had to rip away the skills I had painstakingly trained up to mold them into unwanted, albeit more powerful, skills.

Seeing me like this, Bleidla nodded. “He did the same to me. This body of mine was his gift to me, and it is the only thing I still appreciate about him. Danterno, as a god, knows what is best to give to his blessed and followers, what can strengthen them without breaking balance. As Goddess Plesia’s brother, he too understands the value of balance, maybe even more than her in some aspects.”

Losing my established skills I was already used to in exchange for skills with far more potential, which also influenced my Job choices and skill growth. Not to mention, [White Flames] even gave me the choice to evolve into a [Young Sunfang Dragon]. The balance was probably the fact I had to commit to my two new unique skills to make them powerful, as I had to make custom spells to benefit from them properly.

Bleidla agreed with this assessment of mine, as Shiterno believed in applying oneself. He didn’t want to give free unique skills that made you more powerful, he wanted to give his blessed more tools in their toolkit, which could snowball into extremely potent spells and abilities.

“‘Fire consumes fire,’ is the motto of the church of Danterno and the Pantheon of Fire. Unlike his more ardent followers, it doesn’t mean to snuff things out to become stronger, or to allow a fire to grow into magnificence, it is about rebirth and the cleansing of the ‘scum.’ From the ashes, growth can happen. Gone is the festering old, for the betterment of the future and the shining new … The rest of his idiots only think of the ash part, not the rest.”

“… Now you sound pretty passionate about something,” I brought up. “You’re talking about the new and old, and I get the feeling you agree with that ideology. Why then, though. Why did you ban people from going into Goddess Chihiro’s workshop? Why did you take away Grimnir’s ‘eyes?’”

Bleidla’s right arm froze, stopping his hammering. It limply fell down, hanging and swinging there as he raised his head and let out a loud sigh. An awkward silence filled the divine realm as all I could hear was the sizzling of the magma rivers. When the heat was starting to get annoying to me, the god raised his arm and struck the anvil with all his might, shaking the entire realm and my soul as well.

Yeowch! I groaned.

“I! Did! Not! Mean! THAT!” With every word he landed another hit, ending it all by dropping his hammer on the ground. He scratched his forehead, shook his head, before picking his tool back up and wiping the magma on it away. “… This is the issue with having no blessed. Trying to speak with the most pious member of my church is an issue for all of us, and that one mistake at the wrong time caused all of this.”

“… Could you elaborate on that?” I urged him as he wasn’t continuing.

“Haa.” He scratched his head, even massaging his temples before he was willing to speak. “When the blacksmith guild was talking about allowing people to inspect Chihiro’s workshop, I sent a message to the leader of my church back then. ‘I declare the creation of Chihiro’s modern guns taboo,’ as I feared the creation of weapons similar to the warhammer mana cannon we reverse engineered from the demons. You should know. It’s just an oversized gun.”

“And the notification got reduced due to the strain on a mortal’s soul, right?”

He nodded. “I reduced my message to, ‘Modern. Guns. Taboo.’ but I overestimated the faith of the leader, and the message was reduced to ‘Taboo.’ Taboo … and from there, the misunderstanding happened. I tried to correct it, as I do respect Chihiro—I enjoy talking to her a lot—but when I sent the second message, the leader fell ill due to his soul fracturing. He recovered, but … I’ve been afraid of hurting others, so I accepted my mistake. My pride got in my way to ask the other gods for help, and … That’s what happened.”

Similar to Kramps, Bleidla seemed to have had a communication failure. The limitations of a god speaking with a mortal, and Bleidla’s lack of blessed made it even harder for him to convey his mind.

“Want me to clear things up for you?” I offered, but Bleidla shook his head.

“It’s too late. My church and the church of Chihiro are feuding due to this failure and over 200 years have gone by for everything to stick. Trying to—”

“You won’t change anything if you keep staying silent. This is why language was invented, so we don’t have to ook ook ah ah everything.” I interrupted him before he made the same mistake like so many others. “Just because it’s only a feud now, doesn’t mean it can’t turn into something worse in the future. You talk so much about getting rid of the festering old, but you can’t accept an option to get rid of it? It’s hypocritical and, you know what, I won’t let you make that decision for me. You’re allowed to not accept Grimnir as your blessed because of your pride, but you are a god. You guide. The moment you gave me this information, I became the one to decide what to do with it.”

He looked at me before shaking his head, mumbling, “Now I understand why you want to help the humans and demonkins make peace.”

I scoffed, crossing my arms. “It’s better than having the two of them fight each other to extinction.”

Bleidla let out a wild bellow, slapping his round belly twice he returned to hammering the green ore dust. He was smiling all the way, seeming far less imposing than when he spoke to Grimnir. Once he was done with his task, he placed the dust into a bag he had, holding it up for me to look at the green glowing pouch.

“You declined the bigger and better reward for the Divine Quest, but you still deserve something. I will add this to your Event Quest rewards, so accept this then.”

“What is it?”

“A little something that will help you out with the monster room catalyst you earned.”

Oooh! I wanted to grab the pouch right now, but my hands once again went through it. It was weird that I could sit on chairs in the divine realm, but grabbing things was just impossible.

“I could have probably upgraded your [Mana Eyes]’s [Blacksmith’s Eyes], but I won’t. You aren’t a blacksmith, hahaha!” He told me, earning me a chuckle too as I could understand the reasoning. “… Do consider helping Danterno, Hestia.”

“Haaaa … maybe when I’m in a better mood. Goodbye, God Bleidla. Enjoy the show after I’m done.”

I closed my eyes after I saw him nod to me, waiting for the burning heat around me to dissipate and to be replaced by a cool, icy wind. Noise entered my ears when I opened my eyes, confirming I was back in my body. I snapped my head towards the noise, noticing Ellaine and Rajah’s head looking out of a shadow hugging an unconscious Grimnir, worry filling their faces.

“He just fell over for no reason,” Rudigan frantically told me. “How long did he stay up there? Is his soul okay?”

Rudigan as a blessed knew exactly what the problem was, which I confirmed after I told everybody what happened. Ellaine’s horror-filled eyes mellowed out, sighing deeply as she patted her master’s back, feeling a bit annoyed that she was that worried due to his stubbornness.

“… It was a long time coming, I guess.” In the end, though, a smile formed on her face. “For the both of us.”

I nodded, expecting Klea’Hatma—Ahem, Klea, to react to it, but she didn’t. Instead, I looked at Grimnir to make sure he was actually okay, to which Tasianna explained she had healed his body and inspected his Profile. I trusted her and had Rajah carry him as we departed from Chihiro’s workshop.

Once we were back up, I confronted Manethala on what I had learned about Crustacia, mentioning how Chihiro could look through the video recorder. When he heard this, the giant drake stood still, causing me to smirk as I entered my subspace, taking the recorder out to film him.

[“W-wait, hold on, hold on! I look terrible, don’t show her—”]

“Too late.” I teased him, smiling smugly as I had already pressed the recording button. “Come on, say something. Miss Dravlia will be seeing this, or do you call her Chihiro in person?”

[“How am I supposed to speak like this!”] he stated, bringing up a good point as it wasn’t possible to listen onto our telepathic link.

So, instead, I spoke for him, “He said he misses you, Chihiro-san!”

[“WHELPLING!”] he shouted but I just boarded Rajah and sprinted away with everybody … until I remembered the only way back up was through the elevator only he could control.

“Oh oh …”

[“Whelp. Ling.”]

Suffice to say, being a naughty girl did not end so well for me.

Forgetting the massive lecture that old drake gave me—which I was thankful for that he didn’t get too drastic with it—I left the dungeon and returned to the inn my party reserved in the inner part of Inkoran-Tazul—the authentic Japanese inn with the hotspring! We left Grimnir inside the subspace while I gave everybody a breakdown of what happened.

Unfortunately, some days had passed due to Grimnir’s injured soul. He needed four days to wake up, feeling groggy and as if he had amnesia. Our entire party went into panic, but we quickly confirmed it was just partial and temporary. After some ale, the stubborn man remembered what had happened with Bleidla.

As he recovered, I also told him that when he was out, I paid the blacksmith’s and the railroad guild a visit to announce what Bleidla told me. Using my authority—which was calling upon the Ankoran King for a favor—I brought both groups into a room and told them everything.

It got a bit heated even if they believed I could speak with the gods, similar to Chihiro, since the blacksmith’s guild tried to argue that what I heard must be wrong. Thankfully, using the details I heard from Bleidla on how this misunderstanding happened, I did eventually persuade the blacksmith’s guild, to the point I guided them into Manethala’s dungeon and had them take a peek at Chihiro’s workshop.

“Haha, you did good, lass,” Grimnir praised me. “… I bet Broggart would be happy to hear that. Goddess Chihiro’s grave is in the hold where she was born, but I presume she must be happy to have a new one in the very workshop she lived and worked in.”

I nodded. “The blacksmith’s and the railroad guild told me they wanted another meeting with me, this time with Ellaine, Daichi, and you accompanying me. They want to talk about the blasthammer and the gun.”

“They aren’t against the gun blueprints?” he asked, since Bleidla admitted to not liking the gun.

I tilted my head, making a face as his assumption was only half-right. “They are willing to mend their relationship with the church of Chihiro, but, goodness gracious, those old men were stubborn! Ahem, they are still against it, but I told them to at least inspect it first instead of making an unbiased opinion on things. I think having them help us will help our endeavors against the Prince of Envy.”

“Good, your call.” Grimnir then turned silent, staring into the air before he grimaced. “Well, with that out of the way, you want to know what I got into?”

I shrugged and nodded.

“I … somehow became a blessed for Goddess Chihiro.”

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