Chapter 759

Chapter 759

Let’s Try That Too. (3)

When I asked for Gramdyr, the dwarf’s face turned pale.

It wasn’t just the dwarf who had been mocking me earlier. The other dwarves who had been collecting money and helping out were the same.

The dwarf stammered, his face completely white.

"Y-you can have it. But wouldn’t 100 gold be better than that pile of scrap?"

"I want that sword."

"It’s no good. It’s complete junk. I feel guilty giving it to you."

"It’s fine. Just give it to me quickly."

"L-let’s not do this. I’ll give you 200 gold, so why don’t you just walk away? I’m not feeling well right now."

I chuckled and reached out my hand.

"No, I’ll take the sword."

Snap!

The thread of mana I unleashed snatched Gramdyr.

I turned the sword around in my hand and smiled with satisfaction.

"I really like it. This is exactly the sword I wanted."

I grabbed the scabbard nearby, slid the sword in, and strapped it to my waist.

Clack!

I fastened the scabbard to my belt as if it were already my own.

Seeing this, the dwarf screamed and charged at me.

"G-give it back! Give me my sword!"

"Hey, what’s the matter? This is my sword now. There are plenty of witnesses. Everyone here saw it."

"500 gold! I’ll give you 500 gold!"

"I said no."

"I’ll give you 1,000 gold! I don’t have enough on hand right now, but this is a promise from me, the great dwarf Torvalt! I will definitely get you the money!"

"No need to push yourself."

I shook my head. I already had plenty of money. And I had the ability to earn more whenever I needed to.

After all, I owned shares in the gold mine of Larks’ territory. To me, 1,000 gold was a trivial amount.

But this sword was different. It was something I couldn’t obtain even if I offered tens of thousands of gold.

The onlookers began to sense that something was off.

"What is it? Wasn’t it just a pile of scrap?"

"It’s not an artifact. There’s no magical treatment on it at all."

"Then why is he begging like that?"

Everyone was watching Torvalt’s behavior. No matter how they looked at it, this wasn’t how a proud dwarf would act.

A dwarf who had been so composed until now was desperately flustered over a single sword.

It was so strange, but without knowing the reason, everyone felt frustrated.

Finally, someone stepped forward and asked.

"What is that sword, anyway?"

"T-that’s… I can’t say! Anyway, it’s important to me! It’s a sword with a story!"

"Then you shouldn’t have put it up for auction in the first place! You could have just put the money in!"

Torvalt was left speechless by those words.

In truth, it was all the result of his arrogance.

He had thought no one would be able to solve the problem. He looked down on humans, believing they wouldn’t even recognize the sword’s value.

Though he couldn’t explain the full circumstances to others, he also felt a certain thrilling sense of depravity at putting such an important sword up for auction.

But then some strange fellow appeared, forcibly solved the problem, and took the sword. He couldn’t let it end like this.

"Anyway, no! Absolutely not!"

Torvalt threw himself to the ground and grabbed the hem of my pants.

But that didn’t work on me. I lightly shook him off and said,

"A promise is a promise. You can’t just break it."

"Uuuugh… Just how! Just how did you do it! Why didn’t it explode!"

"Because I’m healthy."

"Aaaaagh! Don’t spout nonsense!"

I chuckled as I watched the frenzied Torvalt.

It wasn’t anything special. I simply inserted threads of mana into the sword before the explosion could trigger, cutting off the circuit.

Hundreds of threads wrapped around the circuits, preventing the explosion and breaking everything. There was no way it could explode.

It was a technique only I could perform, and Torvalt couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.

As I was about to leave, Torvalt suddenly came to his senses.

That sword was truly important. He couldn’t let it be taken.

If he could turn back time, he would never have arrogantly put the sword up for auction.

Frantically blocking my path, he shouted,

"Wait! Let’s do it again!"

"What?"

Torvalt hastily scribbled something on a sheet of paper.

This time, he created an extremely difficult problem, using all of the dwarves’ knowledge, making sure it was something that could never be solved by brute force.

It was a problem that required an extraordinary level of engineering knowledge to solve.

Handing me the paper with a confident shout, Torvalt declared,

"Let’s make another bet! If you solve this problem, I’ll give you an additional 1,000 gold! But if you fail, return the sword to me!"

"Hmm…"

The onlookers watched with intrigued expressions.

It was a problem meticulously crafted by a dwarf. No ordinary person would ever be able to solve it.

Everyone was curious to see how I would handle this problem.

Torvalt also wore a confident expression.

‘This time, even that ridiculous method won’t work! Collapse and wail before the brilliant wall of knowledge built by the great dwarf!’

In the heavy tension, I slowly examined the paper.

Then I suddenly tossed it behind me and said,

"I won’t do it."

"...What?"

"I said I’m not doing it."

"Why?"

"It’s too hard. I don’t even understand what it means."

"..."

Torvalt stared blankly.

I looked at him with a face that seemed to ask, So what?

"Just because you say we should bet again, I have to? I can just say no."

The onlookers let out exclamations and nodded.

He wasn’t wrong. If you don’t want to gamble, you can just refuse.

Torvalt, who hadn’t considered that possibility, was deeply shocked.

"You, you have to! Why won’t you? I’m offering 1,000 more gold! Don’t you have any pride?"

"Why would my pride be hurt? I already won."

"Uuugh! You! Do you even know who I am!"

"No. And I don’t want to know."

"..."

A complete defeat. Not even a war of words could save him.

Thud!

Torvalt collapsed to his knees with a vacant expression. The shock was so great that drool was dripping from his mouth.

I waved the sword and spoke to my companions.

"Let’s go. We should wash up and get some rest."

Leaving the stunned Torvalt behind, I walked away. As I departed, the crowd burst into cheers.

"Yeah! Well done!"

"Serves that arrogant dwarf right!"

"That guy’s really something!"

For them, seeing the arrogant dwarf get humbled was immensely satisfying.

As we moved along, I kept looking at the sword in my hand with great satisfaction. The others watched me curiously.

They had never seen me show such desire for any object before.

Julien asked with a curious look,

"Why did you choose the sword over money? Is it really that good?"

"Oh, this is truly an incredible sword. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better one in my life."

"Really? It just looks like a regular sword to me."

"This is meteoric iron."

At those words, my companions were startled.

What is meteoric iron? It’s the purest form of iron, extracted only from meteorites.

Its quality far surpasses any iron found in this world. For that reason, it was often called the sacred iron, only allowed for those chosen by the heavens.

Though the quality varied slightly from meteorite to meteorite, the absolute quantity was so limited that minor differences didn’t matter.

If a dwarf had smelted and forged it, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a legendary sword.

Kyle asked in disbelief,

"But there’s rust all over it. I heard meteoric iron doesn’t rust or corrode?"

"Meteoric iron doesn’t mean it can’t rust at all… but at least this rust on it is definitely fake."

"Fake?"

"Yeah. I don’t know why they did it, but it seems like the dwarves were playing some kind of trick."

"Then how did you recognize it, Ghislain?"

"A long time ago… a friend of mine used a sword similar to this one."

I glanced at Julien and smiled.

In my previous life, Julien, who had led the United Human Army, used a sword much like this.

I didn’t know if it was a treasure of the Turian royal family or if he had obtained it elsewhere. The Julien of the future was always a man of few words.

But I remembered very well how remarkable that sword was. Even someone like me, who rarely felt desire for objects, had wanted it.

Looking around at everyone, I spoke.

"I’ll show you the sword’s true form."

"True form?"

"Yes. Watch carefully."

Shiiing.

I drew the sword and infused it with mana.

Wuuuuuung...

With a resonant sound, the rust clinging to the blade crumbled away and fell.

What appeared beneath it was a metal so black that even light seemed hesitant to approach.

Gramdyr’s blade was dark and smooth, but faint patterns undulated on its surface like ripples, alive and flowing.

It looked as if stars were drifting through space, a mysterious, otherworldly sight.

Even with just a hint of mana, these patterns emerged. At the same time, the entire blade began to hum softly, emitting a low vibration that spread out.

Everyone watching instinctively held their breath.

"W-what the…"

"Does it make sense for it to change like that?"

"Is there some kind of magic on it?"

It was completely different from when it held no mana.

Just looking at the sword gave the illusion that centuries of time were breathing within it.

Light refracted and scattered the moment it touched the blade. It didn’t look like metal, it seemed like a shard broken off from the cosmos itself.

While in that state, I lightly swung through the air.

Fwaak!

An eerie energy twisted the space so intensely that everyone flinched.

A wind that seemed to graze the skin, a pressure that pierced into one’s very core.

Though I had merely swung into empty air once, everyone felt as if they had been struck themselves. It was as if the boundary between reality and unreality wavered.

Of course, this wasn’t the sword’s power. Rather, the sword was perfectly manifesting my overwhelming strength.

Saaah...

As I withdrew my mana, the sword returned to its original form. To an unknowing eye, it looked so ordinary that no one would even glance at it.

I shook the sword lightly and smiled.

"How is it? Impressive, right?"

"Wow…"

Everyone stood there, mouths agape, unable to regain their composure. The brief glimpse of the sword I had shown was that beautiful and extraordinary.

I continued explaining.

"Of course, simply pouring mana into it doesn’t make it like this. You have to become one with the sword and be able to control its flow."

Because I could wield the Power of Will, I could even awaken the will of a tool. More precisely, the tool resonated with my will and shared the same intent.

But the others, who had not reached that level, couldn’t understand my explanation at all.

Osval scratched his head and asked,

"What do you mean? So, if someone else uses it, it won’t work like how you showed? It’s just a sword, how can it be different?"

I handed the sword to Osval and said,

"Try putting in mana."

Osval grinned and poured in a large amount of mana.

The sword seemed to resonate faintly again, but it didn’t display the mysterious appearance it had shown earlier.

At best, it simply heightened its sharpness as a mana infused sword would.

"Uh… What’s this? It’s no different from an ordinary sword?"

Disappointed, Osval asked, and I shrugged.

"Because you didn’t become one with the sword."

"Come on, I’m a person. How can I become one with a sword? What am I, a chimera? Should I cut off my arm and attach the sword to it?"

"..."

At his very blunt and logical question, I was momentarily at a loss for words.

The others didn’t understand my explanation either.

I tried to add more explanation but shook my head. This was a realm that one had to experience and realize for oneself.

Receiving the sword back, I looked at Julien and asked,

"Should I give this to you?"

"…To me?"

"Yeah. I ‘reeeeally’ want this sword, but if you want it, I’ll give it to you."

"…No."

Julien shook his head. As a swordsman, it wasn’t that he didn’t desire the sword.

But when he thought about it, I had always given and given to them. He didn’t want to take the first object I had ever truly desired.

And besides, I was the only one who could fully awaken the power of that sword.

I asked again to make sure.

"Are you sure you want me to keep it?"

"Yes, that’s how it should be."

"Hmm."

If Julien had wanted it, I would’ve given it to him, even if a bit reluctantly. Though it would be convenient for me to use it, I had reached a realm where I wasn’t bound by tools anyway.

Still, I understood Julien’s feelings in declining the sword. I gladly accepted that sentiment.

When I glanced around, Kyle was staring at the sword with gleaming eyes, drooling.

I said to Kyle,

"Hey, wipe your drool…"

"I’ll take it!"

"..."

"Give it to me!"

"..."

He was so blatant that I had to give him a clear answer.

"I’ll keep it for now."

"Tch."

Kyle pouted his lips.

It wasn’t just Kyle. Lionel was also eyeing the sword with burning desire in his eyes.

The mercenaries were in a similar state. If it hadn’t been me, they might have rushed in to snatch it away.

If they hadn’t seen the sword’s true form, it would have been one thing. But after witnessing it once, the desire to possess it was overwhelming.

Clicking my tongue, I shook my head.

"This is why treasures always cause fights."

Julien was truly remarkable for refusing even when offered such a treasure. He was indeed worthy of being called the Hero of the future.

I stored Gramdyr in subspace. I planned to keep it there for now and only take it out when necessary.

And not solely because of my companions.

‘They’re not going to give up so easily.’

Torvalt and his friends, who had lost the sword, were now lurking around, keeping their eyes on me.

I secured a large and luxurious lodging for now. Since this was a bustling merchant city, there were plenty of accommodations available.

The members rested, while only the core group and I washed up, changed clothes, and headed out to meet the city’s mayor.

Meeting the mayor wasn’t difficult. We no longer looked like beggars, and we had identification proving our affiliation with the Papacy.

The city mayor greeted us with proper etiquette. Though this was an unofficial visit, we were still envoys from the Holy Empire, so his conduct was expected.

After the warm greetings and introductions, the mayor cautiously asked,

"What brings officials from the Papacy of the Holy Empire to this place?"

Without beating around the bush, I answered directly.

"Gather some troops for me. Not only from this city, but contact the lords of the nearby territories as well."

"…"

Even at my abrupt request, the mayor maintained his smiling face. His cheek twitched slightly, but the smile remained.

However, his gaze toward me cooled sharply, as if he were looking at a madman.

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