Chapter 99: Latte is horse...(7) "What is this? Do they sell things other than bunsik?"
"That looks like a forge. Maybe I should get repairs too—wait, a forge? Here?"
In the middle of the brush, dwarves—another race—suddenly appeared and boldly set up a forge on the spot.
The mercenaries and soldiers could not close their gaping mouths.
"But, hmm… well, that seems plausible."
"Yeah. Let's just watch while eating choco X pie."
But the shock only lasted a moment.
They accepted it as something that could happen.
Compared to a dragon's sudden appearance, a dwarf showing up in front of humans for the first time in centuries and instantly building a forge was nothing.
At Jinseo's recommendation, they took white milk packs—since choco X pie could stick in your throat—along with their choco X pies, and started gathering around the forge one by one.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
To humans, a dwarf was only about the height of a child.
And yet the sound of them bringing down a huge hammer on an anvil with overwhelming force echoed all around.
"Looks like they're way stronger than they seem."
"Look at those arms swinging the hammer. That muscle's solid. But why is he dressed like a mage? Are dwarf mages all muscular too?"
They watched the red-hot sword closely, expecting that a different race's hammering might be something special even if it was "just hammering."
But the one who had handed over the sword—Malcolm—could not hide his anxiety.
He had heard Jinseo say their skill was certain, but the way they handled the blade was so rough it barely looked like "repair" at all.
"Don't worry so much. I finished without mistakes. Here—take it."
Geshtain returned the repaired sword to Malcolm, sliding it back into its scabbard.
"Oh..."
The sound was different when he drew it out, and an exclamation escaped Malcolm.
"It's definitely cleaner than before, and all those nicks and scratches are completely gone."
He rotated the sword in his right hand, smiling in satisfaction.
"Huh… this part is..."
He noticed a thin layer of metal—one he had never seen before—covering part of the blade, and looked down at Geshtain.
"Ah, right. I forgot to tell you beforehand. I had some leftover adatyum, so I used a bit to reinforce the sword."
"What? Adatyum? You just said you used adatyum?"
"That's right. I'd heard adatyum is rare around here, but judging by your reaction, I guess it really is."
At the single word "adatyum," the eyes of everyone gathered around the forge widened.
Their belief that nothing could shock them more than a dragon sighting did not last long.
"But that's strange. I heard you'd definitely like it if I did this. You don't like it? Hmph. I'll change it back, so hand it over again."
"N-No! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Malcolm hurriedly slid the sword back into its scabbard and fumbled for his coin pouch.
But Geshtain and the other dwarves waved him off.
"We did it because we wanted to. There's no reason to take money."
"But you used adatyum. I can't accept repairs for free."
"We've got metals we mined from that vein Lady Charlotte told us about, so adatyum is fine to give away."
"We can use what we got for free from you however we like, but shouldn't we also give back just as much here? You know what I mean, right?"
Geshtain had not forgotten the condition Charlotte set while giving so much.
"And besides, it's common to us, but if we charged market price here, wouldn't that amount be laughably short?"
"Even so, I have to show sincerity. If it's not enough, I'll make up the difference later—"
"That's enough. Then it's basically forcing payment. Later, just treat us to a big round of bunsik."
"Ah… to think I'm holding a weapon with adatyum in it..."
Malcolm drew the sword again and stared at it in rapture.
The others could not take their eyes off it either, regretting they were not the lucky one.
Once the dwarves lost interest in Malcolm's weapon—the one they had worked on—they started eyeing other equipment.
"Hmm. That spear of yours doesn't look like it's in good shape."
"Don't just eat choco X pie. Pay attention to the armor you're wearing too. No matter how old it is, repairs have to be on time. Hand it over."
"Let's see… if we repair it with other metals mixed in besides adatyum, it'll last longer..."
Starting with Malcolm's sword, the number of weapons and gear "chosen" by the dwarves increased one by one.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The hammering started again, and people even began bringing perfectly fine weapons and equipment.
But since the choice was entirely the dwarves', most of those who brought gear ended up sitting around the forge, waiting endlessly for their turn to come.
"Drink this while you work."
With most of the choco X pies sold, Jinseo had some breathing room and handed out sports drinks to the dwarves who were hammering away.
"My throat was just getting dry. I'll drink this."
Geshtain wiped sweat from his brow and chugged the sports drink.
"I didn't know you were also skilled at smithing."
"Skilled? Hardly. I became a mage because I have no talent for this kind of work."
"But the mercenaries who got repairs were all praising you."
"If I couldn't even do this much, I'd have to stop calling myself a dwarf."
"You have to at least do this much. If you can't, you have to quit running a bunsik shop."
Jinseo remembered his father's habitual line—his father, who was skilled not only at bunsik but at plenty of other cooking too.
"It feels good to sweat after hammering for the first time in a while, but I don't know when this will end."
Geshtain wiped his face with the towel Jinseo brought and looked over the soldiers waiting.
"Since it's come to this, how about setting up a forge after we return to Falstead Castle? Everyone's going to want the dwarves' skills."
"Should we? I didn't notice when we were playing soccer nonstop, but everyone's been complaining their bodies feel restless. I'm looking forward to seeing how well dwarf craftsmanship does on the Francia Continent."
Geshtain picked up the hammer he had left upside down on the anvil.
And behind him, Charlotte quietly appeared.
"This takes me back."
With her arms crossed, Charlotte looked down at the dwarves sweating at the forge.
"Even when different races gathered together, forge work was always the dwarves' job."
She closed her eyes gently, recalling one scene after another from the past left behind as gray memories.
Dwarves, elves, centaurs, vampires, and more—multiple races traveling together, not just humans—was a sight that felt all too familiar to her.
"I've read in books that, long ago, different races mingled together on the same continent. Was that really true?"
At Geshtain's question, Charlotte, still lost in remembrance, nodded.
"Even by my standards, it was a long time ago. I don't remember why everyone scattered to different continents, but I can guess a part of it."
She looked straight at Jinseo—who was about her height—then looked down at Geshtain, who was much shorter.
"You're different."
"Ah."
"Just that alone is enough reason to hate each other. Though sometimes, being different is also a reason to like each other..."
As she recalled a past where different races who had once laughed together suddenly fell into conflict and separated, Charlotte opened her eyes and came out of it.
"But it looks like everyone's done buying."
The food truck, which had been crowded, was now as quiet as if nothing had happened.
At the counter seats, Fedora and Oswald were each enjoying their favorite bunsik—tteokbokki and ramen—but everyone else had eaten so many choco X pies that they had no room left to order more bunsik.
There was no bottomless eater like Kraide, and it also mattered that most people had already spent nearly all their money on portable food.
"Look at them. They're full and bored, and they're not hiding it at all. Boss, how about playing a movie for them?"
"Waaaa!"
Everyone's attention locked onto the massive battle scene on the big TV.
Jinseo, after agonizing over what to play, chose a war film that had never been shown in this otherworld before.
Even though they had come all this way, quite a few people were disappointed about not fighting a single battle.
Especially among the mercenaries.
Charlotte recommended a war film, saying, "Then you can just watch people beat each other up in your place, right?"
But modern or early-modern movies with firearms offered little immersion for soldiers and mercenaries here, so the film they screened was about ancient warfare.
A war film drawn from an ancient Greek epic—two sides fighting under the blessings of gods.
"Wow, their weapons and gear are more outdated than ours, but they fight really well."
"Do knights in that world not use aura? That's inefficient."
"But even fighting without aura is kind of thrilling in its own way."
As time passed and hunger returned, mercenaries and soldiers watched the movie while eating handheld bunsik and drinking beverages.
Of course, right after the screening started, the same barrage of questions that had come when Jinseo first played movies and dramas erupted again.
But unlike before, the mercenaries and soldiers quickly immersed themselves in watching.
The reason was simple.
They had already lived through far more shocking events than any "movie" could provide.
And Charlotte snapping, "I get it, so shut up and watch," helped too.
"Interesting. Gods on that continent seem to interfere with human affairs a lot."
Watching a movie entertains your eyes and ears, but your mouth gets bored.
Charlotte gnawed on short X ri—processed food made only from squid legs—something Jinseo recommended.
"But 'that person' never directly intervenes in human affairs like that. Unless it's through an agent."
Charlotte had maintained the closest relationship with "that person" for a very long time.
So her perspective on the movie could not match the humans' or dwarves'.
"But for 'gods,' the things they do are kind of… something."
By now, Charlotte was the only one talking, while everyone else quietly watched, still listening to her.
"That scene reminds me of something from two thousand years ago. Back then, another dragon and I woke from a long sleep almost at the same time..."
Her talk drifted away from the movie, turning into endless personal stories.
Even after the movie ended and the end credits rolled on the TV, her story kept going.
"In the end, that bastard and I never settled it, and we went back to our own lairs and fell asleep again. Fighting him was unbearable at the time, but looking back, I think he didn't have anything else to do."
"Do you miss the old days?"
Jinseo brought more short X ri—warmed briefly in the microwave—and handed it to Charlotte.
"I miss it, and I don't. But somehow I kept talking only about myself. Boss, I want to hear about your past. Is that okay?"
"My story? It'll just be boring."
Compared to the turbulent life of a fantasy world, Jinseo's life—born and raised in modern Korea—was ordinary through and through.
It had its twists, but to someone living in the magical world of the Francia Continent, he figured it would be nothing.
"I heard you used to be a soldier. What are soldiers like in Korea?"
"Won't you get sick of army stories?"
"I've never experienced the army, so anything you say will be fresh. And everyone here is a soldier anyway, right? They'll be curious what soldiers are like on another continent."
"I'm curious too. A soldier who's also a cook… I can't really imagine it."
"I can't imagine your life more, Geshtain—being both a blacksmith and a mage."
"Anyway, tell us. I barely know anything about Korea besides bunsik."
"Haha… all right."
In the end, Jinseo could not resist everyone egging him on, and he started telling what people called "army stories."
"Most Korean men go to the army starting at age twenty..."
He began from the day he received his draft notice and went to boot camp.
At first, everyone found it strange but fascinating—his military life, inevitably alien compared to the Francia Continent.
But once the story reached the middle, everyone's expressions turned bad.
"Wait, they pay a salary where you can only buy that much choco X pie?"
"That's not training—that's torture. It's nothing like what I saw in dramas... I've been fooled!"
"Hmph. The army is the same everywhere. No—this is worse."
"That Ministry of National Defense is outrageous!"
Contrary to Jinseo's intent, a flood of harsh criticism toward the Ministry of National Defense poured out.
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