Chapter 35 – It Was All a Comedy.

Dwarves were one of the few races that maintained a fairly friendly relationship with humans, even among other subhumans with minimal interaction.

For humans, dwarf products are expensive, and for dwarves, humans were good customers who patronized their products, so it was only natural.

“Dwarf. That’s a derogatory term for a short person, right?”

“Excuse me! Even though we are small, we are completely different from humans?!”

The dwarf, who did not know her name, seemed frustrated by Tiaran’s words and shouted, pounding her chest with her hand. Before I knew it, they were fighting with each other. The reason is.

“What’s the difference? No matter how much I look at it, I can’t see any difference from humans?”

“You’re short! You’re tall!”

It was because Tiaran had such thoughts about dwarves.

“There are a lot of short people! Are you going to belittle those people?!”

Who would have thought that there would be someone who would even deny the existence of a race called dwarf?

“What…”

Even Lucia, who is listening, has nothing to say. How would a dwarf feel when the very existence of his race was denied to his face?

My mouth is wide open because I can’t even think of closing it, and my eyes are wide open and even twitch at times. The facial expression that seemed to embody the emotion of astonishment explained her emotions.

“Anyway, kid. Stop imitating adults and go away.”

Huh, huh, as Tia Ran waved her hand, her face became more and more distorted and turned bright red as if she was about to explode, and she shouted, pointing at him.

“You bastard! Have you said everything!? I will put my honor on the line to prove that dwarves exist!”

“No, do you really want to insult short people that much?”

“So it’s different!!!”

Seeing the two people busy arguing, Lucia spoke, covering her face with both hands.

“It’s all good. I’m telling you to go somewhere else for now and talk.”

That’s because everyone passing by was looking in amazement at them raising their voices in the middle of the street.

“Ha, I have no choice. I will do whatever it takes to prove to this guy that dwarves exist! Follow me!”

For that reason, they were invited to the house of a dwarf they had never seen before.

“Why?”

“I don’t know either.”

Asta, who had been watching them so far, muttered blankly, but even Lucia had no way of knowing.

“My name is Krusha, 22 years old! I’m a dwarf who was just about to open a blacksmith shop here.”

Maybe it’s because she said that there are no dwarves in Tia Ran, but she emphasizes it clearly. Her bright red hair that reached below her hips, green eyes, and sharp eyes were impressive. Although she looked like a girl, she was a dwarf, so contrary to appearances, she was the same age as them.

“Asta, a silver-level adventurer.”

“I am Lucia. I am also an adventurer.”

As they introduce themselves while looking at their thoughts, Krusha’s eyes are focused on one place.

“I am Tiaran.”

“What is Tia? What is it? Are you an idiot?”

Krusha, who heard his name, looked at him in disbelief. It would be easy to misunderstand. Just like the word ‘Tia’, the word ‘~ran’ is also a word that elves often used to create names.

It’s similar to how humans usually add ‘~ah’ or ‘~eu’ to their names, and dwarves usually add ‘~ya’ to their names. He had a name that combined both.

“I am human. That’s because my parents who raised me were elves.”

“What? Those picky ears raised a child from another race, that is, a human?”

As Tiaran took off her helmet and spoke, showing her face, Crusha looked even more surprised.

‘It’s strange when I think about it.’

Although elves or fairies are generally beta-friendly toward other races, they tend to dislike humans and dwarves, who often burn forests, even more.

“Then I understand. If I learned it wrong from a devil…”

Knowing that, Krusha softened her expression and seemed to understand.

“Huh? Are you trying to make someone’s parents racist? They never told you about dwarves in the first place. There’s no way they’d teach you something that doesn’t exist, right?”

The face that was trying to soften at Tiaran’s story also became rigid. She shouted again with a distorted expression.

“You are more vicious than this little devil! No matter how much you are a devil, there is no one who even denies our existence!”

“You say something that doesn’t exist doesn’t exist! If you ask me, why don’t you prove it?”

Even the mood that was about to get better got worse due to Tiaran’s words, and Lucia got a headache and touched her forehead as they started to fight.

‘I knew you were a unique person! I knew it!’

I never thought it would be like this.

“Okay! I’ll prove it! If I prove it to you, I’ll have to make all of your equipment! I’ll have to sell it no matter how expensive it is!”

“Oh! Instead, if you lose, from now on your name will be ‘Pudgybo’! Even when engraving the name of the person who made the weapon or equipment, you will have to engrave ‘Pudgybo’!”

As the argument between the two became even more intense, Lucia decided to just stay quiet with Asta.

“Then tell me. What is the difference between dwarves and humans?”

It started with Tia Ran asking her question.

“Ha! Of course, it’s metallurgy! We Dwarves are famous for our excellent metallurgy!”

As mentioned earlier, metallurgy was the specialty of the dwarves. What’s worse, there was a joke that even when a war broke out between humans, the one with more dwarf equipment would win.

Among the many characteristics of dwarves, just by looking at the talk about metallurgy, you could see how proud the dwarves were of their iron handling skills.

“I have an objection!”

“What?!”

“Then I ask you! If metallurgy is so advanced, why do some of the legendary weapons not have a special advantage compared to human weapons?”

“Well, that is!”

I didn’t know you would immediately refute that.

“Now that I think about it, most of the holy swords of the past were swords made by humans.”

As Asta says as if he has realized it, most of the sacred swords that have been passed down in legend until now are said to have been made by humans who received the blessing of the goddess, except for vague stories such as that they were given directly by the goddess.

“… I think Targon’s Sword Eater was also said to be a sword made by humans.”

Lucia also glanced at the Sword Eater on Tiaran’s waist and spoke about an idea. According to history, a sword made by an unknown blacksmith was forged with countless blood on the battlefield and became a magic sword by swallowing their grudges.

“I have an objection here too! There are plenty of other examples in history of famous swords said to have been made by dwarves with their names engraved on them?!”

“Yes, many of the warriors carried dwarven weapons.”

This time, Asta defended Krusha’s arrogance again.

“Tsk tsk! In the first place, you can’t say that the fact that the number of famous swords is similar is a characteristic of the Dwarf race, right?”

“It’s definitely ambiguous to say it’s something only that race can do.”

Lucia thought about it carefully and found Tiaran’s words convincing and agreed. In particular, the kingdom they live in as a neighbor was famous for its mastery of iron, even though it was a human country.

“Pfft! Then what about the mining industry? Are you humans as good at mining iron as we are?”

“A lot of short people are already doing that work! If you go to a mining town, there are tons of people like that!”

“What are you talking about?! Those people must be dwarves!”

“You guys just dig up ore and sell it to others?!”

In the end, it was difficult to say that being good at handling iron was a characteristic unique to dwarves.

“Ugh!! Aren’t all humans born small?!”

“If small people marry, the probability of a small person being born naturally increases! If you have been together for hundreds of years, of course only small people will be born!”

Ironically, the more Lucia listened to their conversation, the more she felt persuaded by Tiaran’s words.

“Dwarf, after listening closely, there’s nothing special, right?”

“How can that be?!”

Asta must have been the same, because he said something like that. If you think about it, they’re good-natured dwarves, but other than being shorter, they’re no different from humans, right?

“Alcohol! How about alcohol?! Don’t you humans start drinking alcohol in the morning too?!”

“Don’t look down on liquor! Have you ever heard of hangover alcohol? The neighboring country drinks alcohol over 50 degrees from the morning as a hangover drink!”

As Tiaran said, the empire had many people like that, so it had a strange nickname, the country of statesmen.

“Now are there any more excuses left to explain the race called dwarves?”

“…”

Krusha opened her mouth as if trying to say something, but no words came out. That’s because everything that was known to be a dwarf’s characteristic had already been refuted to the point that humans could do it too.

“This clearly concludes that dwarves are a race that does not exist! From now on, your name will be pudgy…!”

“No! It’s still far away! It’s far away!”

As Tiaran spoke confidently, Krusha seemed to be unable to overcome her anger and slammed her desk, interrupting her and shouting.

“Then why don’t you provide some more evidence?”

Nevertheless, as Tiaran looked down at her arrogantly with her arms folded, Krusha let out a rasping breath and opened her mouth.

“Okay, okay. I’ll prove it. But please postpone the discussion until tomorrow. I need a break.”

“If you’re thinking of running away…”

“Don’t worry, there’s no need to run away! You guys! Sleep at my house today!”

So they stayed at Krusha’s house for a night.

“Lucia, do I not understand this situation?”

“… There’s nothing strange about Asta, so don’t worry.”

Lucia and Asta still couldn’t catch up with this situation.