“Bladdarg! Lashrunda boyo!”

An ear-throbbing sound echoed inside this stone room as metal struck metal. In the next moment, a heavy-sounding thud replaced it, accompanied by loud groaning and pleading, only for it to be muffled up by another loud metallic bang.

Inside this room, only two dwarves were around. Nobody else could hear or see the altercation happening… outside of a single eavesdropper. Hiding inside a small shadow created by the light of a manatech lamp, the shadow beast stared at what was happening. He did nothing else, as that was his orders from his master. Although he had learned morals, he did not think it was necessary to intervene… no matter what was to become of it.

“‘Fels-guk pal drahi tazong gazon oyti?’ Bladdarg! Bladdarg! BLADDARG!” The elder-looking dwarf with a single large eye kept kicking the younger man on the floor, targeting his head, stomach, and even his groin. His armor brimmed with mana and runes, strengthening his attacks against the young man in a blacksmith’s garb.

The young man, persisting through the pain, grabbed the man’s sabatons, pushing it back for him to speak, “Valto! Grak! Ugrrruk! Valto, plearsik, meshto! Grruk!”

Unfortunately, the older dwarf didn’t let up, rambling with a reddened face similar to the wild fire of a forge, and most likely insulting and demeaning the young man. Sadly, the beast couldn’t understand what they were saying. He had not learned the dwarven tongue. Still, he knew who the people in front of him were, as he had been observing them the moment they left the Obsidian Orchestra of his beautiful master.

Rajah really doesn’t like that old man. Maybe I should attack? Hestia’s virigress kit wondered what they should do in this situation, feeling slightly uncomfortable as Maagneil kept kicking his second son, Darlion. The old man’s unhinged voice and the constant failed pleas and grunts from the young man made this stalker of the Belzac forest feel like he had to do something.

However, once again, he followed the teachings of his mother. Although he had evolved, he was still a virigress, an ambush hunter. The shadows attached to his body were his only defense, so he decided to stay low; quiet as the dead.

After however so long, Maagneil finally stopped, watching his youngest son lying on the ground in his own pool of spit, tears, and blood. Without a beard, it was easy to see his broken teeth, large purple bulges covering up his eyes, and bloody, dislocated nose.

“Zuekluk.” He spat on his unconscious son before turning around, walking towards a door. “Broggart… jou shatala finidi.”

“Broggart, you wouldn’t have failed,” a rather tragic mumble of this crazed man. His first son had died, his beloved first son, but he still could not find the affection in his heart he needed to show his younger one. Darlion only seeked his father’s approval, the attention he was due during all those years of simply being his older brother’s shadow—an afterthought, even to his parents. Whether that made both pitiable was reserved for the future to decide.

Maagneil opened the door.

Move.

And so, Rajah accompanied him, instead of his son. Left forgotten and broken on the floor, even by the intruder.

***

“Ahhhhhhhh, my beloved carriage. Ahahaha! I have come back for you, my little one!” Watching Grimnir hug the walls of our carriage was a pretty surreal thing to see, but then again, when it came to his creations and craft, he could be as eccentric as any other dwarf.

Then again, not like I couldn’t sympathize with him. How long had it been since I touched the hardy wooden walls of our carriage, the one we had started out with since Grimnir joined us? Well, I guess nearly two months, but it seems that being stuck inside this hold after being confiscated by the Luedbrumdar clan had a pretty drastic impact on its appearance.

There was some mold here and there, and I could even see some fungus growing on the wheels. Not to mention the shoddy treatment it received from its captureres. The Luedbrumdar clan did not treat our baby well at all, to the point you could see points of impact from axes and hammers.This wasn’t even mentioning the inside!

“Tasianna?” I snapped my head as I spotted her exiting the carriage with Haruka. “Please, tell me they didn’t ruin the RV too much.”

Sadly, both girls shook their heads, prompting me to clench my fist up. I wanted to punch that bastard Maagneil’s face so much, but I kept my cool, asking the two what the damages were.

“… The garden is completely ruined.” Was all Tasianna said before sighing, looking crestfallen. The garden was Tasianna’s baby, after all; her most important location inside our RV and subspace, where she could grow her tea leaves, produce, and alchemical ingredients.

Haruka patted her back, before producing a sheet of parchment. “I’ve documented all the damages. We can sue the Luedbrumdar clan to repay everything, not to mention compensation for the stuff they took from us.”

“Haaaa, well, let’s hope Queen Tragaya can uncover everything to turn this case in our favor. At the very least, there are some reparations I can force through since Kargryx is allied with the dwarves. One of the moments when this princess stuff isn’t just a drag.”

A day had passed since the Obsidian Trap had gone off, successfully humiliating Maagneil for what he had done to Aurora in addition to showing off Grimnir’s skills. Naturally, watching him being chosen the winner by Ankoran King Fugnarus caused him to jump up the popularity poll for the Artorian, Estralian, and Yeosian blacksmiths and craftsmen. Some even were gutsy enough to ask him to become his apprentice after watching Ellaine and Daichi work. Naturally, they were rejected.

Furthermore, King Drangleic even wanted to commission some equipment from Grimnir, and since I owed him a debt for even bringing the Ankoran King and Queen here, we couldn’t really reject him. Indeed, the fact Grimnir’s reputation increased was actually a great boon I hadn’t thought about when I proposed this plan. Grimnir could make money through crafting requests… although, that would still put us at odds with the blacksmith’s guild, since Bleidla took his [Blacksmith’s Eyes] away.

In any case, after everything was done, instead of going to confront Maagneil, we instead took this time to finally take a break. Dude, eight days of preparations for all of this was tough work. No time to rest, so much paperwork and marketing, not to mention all the training. Preparing for a concert was always tough, but since this also involved Grimnir’s problem, there were even more things I had to account for. For example, my big fat debt and bankruptcy.

Meaning, my role as Aurora’s leader wasn’t finished yet. I still needed to plan out how to earn more money soon. The debt had no time limit, but if I had more favors to ask in the future, I better start cleaning my current ones up. Well, R.I.P. my training. I still needed to finish my new custom spells and finally get through the next stage of my [Battle Frenzy]. The moderate stage was so close.

“Hey, Grimnir, you don’t mind me finessing money from your clan, right?”

Grimnir, while not stopping hugging his RV, answered, “Not one bit, lass. Father’s been dead for a while. Mother lives with her maiden clan. Siblings been working freelance in other holds, so they won’t care. Take as much as you want, ahaha!”

His father is dead? Oh… probably shouldn’t have said that, but what’s done is done. Isn’t bothering him, so let’s just drop it.

In any case, where were we? Outside the main building of the Luedbrumdar clan, evidently as I could see numerous Luedbrumdar members glaring at us, instead of the few guards Queen Tragaya brought with her. Yup, we weren’t using the city guards for this, as we couldn’t trust them.

We were here to get back what was ours and to make sure the clan lived up to their end of the bargain—giving us Broggart’s tools and key. It was just strange how we got here in the first place. Not Grimnir’s party’s whole ordeal, but what happened after Grimnir won.

I wanted to use yesterday night to rest from the competition and my performance, plus I was thinking of opening Saori’s portal up and going to visit her. I couldn’t believe it when Yorshka and Priscilla told me she and Asaka came to update us on their end. Even more crazy was the fact Saori, the madwoman, had infiltrated and attacked the grimgarian army’s base. Didn’t she need help? She didn’t even try to ask for assistance when she came over, she was more worried about updating us, at least according to the mother and daughter duo.

Considering we had nothing to do right now, helping her wouldn’t really be a bother. We still had over a month left until the summit, after all. Then again… I really didn’t know how to deal with the situation. I wanted them to stop working with the demonkins, so a peaceful option would be nice, but if they couldn’t be reasoned with, then another massacre with [Dragon Fire]? After experiencing Mother’s memories and launching that [Dragon Fire] on the grimgarian’s navy, the idea of war just felt… bad. Well, not to mention, the entirety of the Elyonda siege.

Feels like I’m worrying about everything at this point.

Just when I was contemplating on this matter, trapped in what I should be doing, Rajah appeared, bringing news of what happened as he spied on Maagneil and Darlion. What I heard was pretty shocking, to the point I had to go and inform the Ankoran King. Once morning came, we met with him and told him everything.

And so, while waiting, we decided to reclaim our RV wagon, and this was the result.

[“Master.”]

I turned around as I heard that voice, watching my shadow slowly grow larger and bulkier. A horse-sized tiger revealed himself, before shaking off black goo from his fur, revealing white glowing stripes. As the goo landed on the ground, it slowly returned to Rajah, only this time, they attached themselves on his black legs and tail.

Curiously, the goo hardened up and began exuding some sorta black mist, forming sharp razors and claws as weapons. My virigress began to stretch and yawn, revealing a set of disturbingly green-glowing teeth and fangs, probably laced with the usual virigress venom. To finish off his new appearance, Rajah now had two clear white eyes with the ability to light up like his fur. He was like a lamp now!

[“They are done,”] he told me.

I nodded in response and turned to the others, letting them know it was time to collect our prize. While Tasianna and Haruka would stay back to check on the RV, Grimnir, Rajah, and I went ahead. As the most influential clan in this hold, outside of the royal family, this place was huge like a traditional Japanese-styled mansion with the ponds, garden, bridges, and multiple wings and buildings attached to create this, rather, nice scenery despite it being underground. A bit nostalgic even, as it reminded me of my Japanese grandparent’s place.

Almost as if he had lived here for most of his life, Grimnir led me through the place with little problem, not even relying on the guards or servants to help him. In fact, I could hear some mumbles about “Master Grimnir is back…” or “Does Master Grimnir have a right to inherit the position now?” Of course, some were insults, which I just ignored. Did they think I couldn’t hear them?

We eventually ended up in front of the stone door in the furthest left of the place. Although it was decorated like a Japanese place, the building was still very dwarven in style with their stone buildings. This door, in particular, was quite interesting, as it had multiple holes and things removed from it. Sitting before it were broken metal planks and pieces of junk I didn’t care to closely inspect.

“Who would think he would hide everything here.” Grimnir shook his head in exasperation, speaking of Maagneil. “He didn’t put anything in the main storage room, but in Broggi’s room? Hmm… sometimes I wonder if sending his body back home was the right decision.”

“I think it was,” I reassured him. “Sure, Broggi’s dairy didn’t show him in the best light, but you loved him as a cousin, right? People deserve to go home… and his family, especially, deserved to know their relative perished. Just because Maagneil turned mad doesn’t mean it's your fault.”

“Hmph. I wish I had your optimism, lass.” Grimnir sighed before moving into the room.

The room was mostly empty outside of your usual bedroom furniture like a bed, cupboard, and so on. However, there, in one of the corners of the room, a part of the floor was taken out, revealing a red button. Two of Queen Tragaya’s handmaiden, kimono-wearing women with face masks, noticed us and bowed, before pressing the button to reveal a trap door opening underneath the floor next to it.

Another of Broggart’s hidden paths, similar to the one in the dungeon we found. Since it was too small for him, Rajah reentered my shadow as Grimnir and I walked down the stairs, where we met the rest of the students waiting behind a noisy door. I could hear some deep sounding man trying to get somebody to talk, making it sound like an interrogation.

“Has he not said anything yet?” I asked them, to which Nishio shook his head.

Although still looking a bit under the weather from the injuries he gained during his long-stay in the Luedbrumdar’s prison, Mister Glasses couldn’t stop himself from getting back into action. “Darlion won’t even say anything, despite looking worse than when they pummeled Nishio and me.”

I clicked my tongue, finding this beyond irritating. “Are you kidding? His father knocked him unconscious! Leaving him in his own puddle of blood, spit, and piss! He still won’t say anything?! How can you he still think to defend his fucking bastard of a father even now?!”

What Rajah told us wasn’t just this hidden place but also the fact Maagneil had escaped. It was to be expected, considering Queen Tragaya was inspecting the hold king. According to them, they had every entrance and exit out of this place guarded, to the point they even stationed some people inside the mansion.

They had even followed and accompanied Maagneil and his son until they went into Broggart’s room. Due to the mana barrier surrounding the ground, it was very hard to break or dig through it, outside of disabling the barrier itself or creating enough damage to break it, which would have been loud enough to key everyone in on the escape if he had done any of these things. They even had blueprints of the place, making sure Maagneil and Darlion couldn’t escape if justice awaited them.

The thing was, Broggart’s trap door was not only well hidden, but never reported. According to documents, Maagneil knew about it, but chose to not inform the hold king, as he knew this was a crime. Breaking the barrier could land his prized son into trouble, which was why this place was kept out of everybody’s attention. The Queen thought she had everything covered… outside of the fact Broggart was Broggart.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Rajah didn’t know about this either when he trailed Maagneil. I mean, I didn’t even consider that could happen, so I didn’t give him such an order. Just a reminder that Rajah was still a cub; a child, essentially. He watched Maagneil escape but when he tried to follow him, a door slammed shut, preventing his pursuit, forcing him to report everything to me. Which led to our current situation.

“Dammit! The Queen should have just arrested him there on the spot! This wouldn’t have happened if she had just acted instead of waiting for him!” I complained, feeling so irritated we let him flee like this.

“Oi, not like you had never made a mistake before, huh?” Grimnir rebuked me.

“Oh, shut it …” I shook my head, reminded of how I let Hamil, one of the perpetrators of the Griffonpeak attack, as well as Vifi’Yok escape. Two major enemies I could have stopped there if I had just ignored my sentimental side.

“Also, it wasn’t like they had any evidence when Grimnir won,” Tamae supported Grimnir. “The fact they had guards stationed around was all the Queen could legally do. Each hold ruled themselves, while the Ankoran King ruled over the capital and the hold kings and queens.”

The Ankoran King and Queen were respected figures inside dwarven culture, but an age old law prevented them from actually interfering with a hold’s belongings and people unless the hold’s ruler allowed it or was decommissioned. Essentially, they had no jurisdiction here and trying to do anything of that sort was considered tyranny and a crime, even if justified. Why? ‘Cause each hold feared a power-hungry ruler stomping down on their traditions and lives.

Not like I couldn’t understand it; in fact, it sounded pretty fair. However, in a situation like this, when the hold king was uncooperative, the Queen had to accuse the king for wrongdoing first. Complicated bureaucratic stuff even happened in Peolynca. Crazy, honestly.

I could complain as much as I wanted, but unless I actually wanted to get into trouble by arresting Maagneil myself, my hands were tied. Kargryx might be an ally, but it didn’t mean I had enough influence to do something. If I caused trouble, I wouldn’t have my dragon father’s support, I understood that without anybody explaining it. After all, Kargryx had a strong isolationist mindset.

Too bad I’m trying to be a good girl…

As I was sighing in displeasure, Daichi suddenly walked up. “Hestia-san, I know it’s crap, but if I have to remind you, I am technically also a criminal right now. That burning beards stuff was actually a crime, and not something the Luedbrumdar tried to use to find a leeway over Master Grimnir.”

“He’s right, lass,” Grimnir chimed in, stroking his orange beard. “Our crust’lock is part of a dwarf’s honor. You burn it or break it, a clan is in their fight to bring you to court, or, in some holds, allowed to attack you for it. If you argue my uncle should have been arrested, then the lad shouldn’t be with us right now either. He would be behind bars.”

“Argh! Come on, he attacked me! He had his soldiers attack me. Not only me, but all of you! There had to be something we could have done…”

“No.” However, my anger suddenly subsided when I heard that voice. I turned around, watching a kimono-wearing inko with a fur cape walk up to us.

It was Ankoran Queen Tragaya.

“U-uhm, good morning, High Queen Tragaya. Hmm, right! May your wellspring of life be ever filled with joy on this fine WaterDay,” I greeted her, even invoking the religious greeting for the day. Once I curtsied, she did the same.

“Yes, a fine day, my dear. No earthquakes, magma plumes, no disasters. Wonderful.” Once the small talk was over, she then turned my attention back to what she just said. “Back to the topic, no, you couldn’t.”

Hearing her drop her formalness, I did the same. “Why? You can’t say his subordinates didn’t attack me. What about the Edgesworn? Ellaine told me you managed to investigate a lot during the four days you were here.”

“Y-yeah, about that, Hestia…” Sadly, the way Ellaine responded to me made a chill run down my spine. “Maagneil placed the blame on the individual captains and leaders. He never once took any responsibility for anything. I just found that out today, sorry.”

Tragaya nodded. “To explain, the Edgesworns and the guards were the only ones directly responsible for your friends’ kidnapping and torture. It was clear as a diamond, but as distorted as an opal. They are admitted to be at fault, and now that I have successfully confiscated the hold king’s influence and privileges, I can now punish them.”

“What about when he attacked me himself? When he led a squad to fight me?” I mentioned what had happened after I stormed the Edgesworns’ base.

“You were trespassing and attacking a building in his district. As clan leader, he had all the right to do so. My dear princess, words matter, and he never once said to kill you himself. Politically, you have nothing to say here. Legally, even worse, you are technically a criminal in the eyes of Gazahan-Orn. Vigilantism is not legal.”

I kept silent, flabbergasted this was how it was going. I thought she was on my side here, however, all I could hear was accusations and, worse, rigid rule-keeping.

“I understand you are a dragon princess, but Kargryx rarely ever uses their political influence on anything. The last time they did was to look out for your missing egg, my dear lost princess. Do not think we Ankoran dwarves are weak and pitiful, so much you can strut in with your status to force your orders and wishes upon us!” Her brown eyes began to glow blue as her gentle voice turned oppressive.

“…” Now, I wasn’t just flabbergasted. I didn’t know what to say at all at this point, a fact everybody around me was sharing. This short woman was baring her fangs, and they weren’t blunt.

As I was starting to believe I had to hit back harder, just to make sure she wasn’t threatening me here, she shook her head. The blue light in her eyes dimmed. “… But, the thing is, my husband doesn’t want to be on your bad side, young princess. He has taken… a liking to you. A wisewoman I may be, but his queen, also. Secondly, politically, we do need to be allies for the upcoming summit. The lectures were harsh, I apologize. But we dwarves do not like others forcing their opinions on us.”

Her eyes then wandered left, looking over towards Grimnir, before she looked back at me again. “As I now hold the power over Gazahan-Orn, I will drop any charges against you and your friends. You were, in my humble opinion, completely justified. However, there is the matter with Mister Daichi …”

I looked over to him as he took a deep breath. He took a step forward. “I’ll take responsibility. I shouldn’t… have let my emotions run hot like that. I shouldn’t have used magic to attack him and burn his beard. That’s three charges, right?”

She nodded. “We will handle that later. Princ—Ahem, Hestia-oujo-sama. I know my lack of action angered you. But it isn’t like I had much power, myself. So are our traditions, so are our laws. Being flexible means breaking them, and that endangers my husband’s position as Ankoran King. He can be voted out by the other hold kings due to my actions. He might not care… but I am his wife, so I do care.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded back, accepting the fact I was politically and legally powerless in this place.

She smiled. “Now, I have preoccupied you far enough now. You probably want to see everything and collect what is due. Before that, though, I must inform you about the people who we had arrested.”

She first looked at Grimnir. “The Luedbrumdar clan are required to pay reparations for all the reputational and political damages they did in Ankor-Nazta’s name. They will mostly lose everything.”

She then turned to me. “Anybody not responsible won’t be punished, however, we have clear culprits here. The leader of the Edgesworns and a few captains and grunts, the captain of the guard and those who participated in the kidnappings, some Luedbrumdar’s who supported Maagneil’s plans, as well as the hold king and queen.”

“What will you do with them?” Tatsuya asked.

“The majority—execution.” I stiffened up a bit when I heard that. “The former two groups are obvious; conspiracy against a foreign allied imperial, detainment of her retainers, assault on mentioned imperial. The mentioned Luedbrumdar members and the hold king will be executed, for illegal contraband smuggling, conspiracy against the merchant and blacksmith guilds, and also profiting from Maagneil’s schemes. The hold queen—admittedly, she was my friend—will only be exiled. Surprisingly, she didn’t know anything about the contraband, but she did help her husband conspire against you. As a wisewoman, she broke her oath and duty. Strangely… I do not know if I should be happy she is alive or sad she must be exiled.”

“Complicated, huh?” I interjected, causing her to nod a bit crestfallen.

“Now, to my point, would you like to execute them yourself?”

At this point, my eyes widened like a goldfish, unable to answer the Queen immediately. Seeing me like this, the Queen nodded and explained, “The Rule of Vengeance. You have the right to personally execute a criminal, if they did you wrong. Reason? For experience. To settle the grudge. To find some catharsis. Now, your answer. This also applies to your friends, but not to Grimnir as he is an exile, and Daichi, since we still need to judge him.”

“… Weren’t some of the people we fought not very strong, Hestia-san?” Tatsuya suddenly mentioned, causing him to be wacked by Kyouya.

“Dude!”

“H-hey! I know!” Tatsuya cried back while massaging his head. “I was just saying! Some of them were rank Bs, and weren’t the people Hestia-san personally fought over 100 or something? That’s a lot of experience! We could really use some levels.”

“It feels wrong,” Tamae interjected, looking troubled.

Kohaku nodded. “Seconded. Killing somebody already feels bad, but execution? Their eyes, cries, anything else would make it feel even worse.”

“It would leave a bad taste, yeah,” Kazumi argued with her friend, but didn’t look too sincere.

“… Tatsuya isn’t wrong.” On the other hand, Nishio looked at it with a bleak outlook. “I couldn’t defend any of you. None of us could defend ourselves. What use is all this coddling and nice doing, when we can’t even survive without Hestia-san? We need levels.”

Nishio, you’re just gonna make Tamae sadder with that …

“Artorias has that law, too. However, it rarely applies to nobles, that was why none of us were offered it after the Firwood and Griffonpeak problems,” Ellaine gave her insight into it. “I am, personally, impartial to it. I believe a true knight shouldn’t execute others, that is the job of the executioner. Still, consider how the Edgesworn commanders were strong, not to mention the Luedbrumdar samurais.”

Instead of killing him, Ellaine did hand in that Charlesylt when he turned out to be a demonkin conspirator. She could have killed him right then and there, but instead chose the more noble direction and had him interrogated for information to incriminate the Cardinal of Artorias’s Church of Aurena.

The executioners must be at a very high level …

Haruka would definitely decline, but I wasn’t sure about Tasianna. Maybe she would choose that option. What about Grimnir? Or Daichi?

Grimnir shrugged. “I would call dibs on the hold king and Maagneil’s loyalist. Bad blood, but I can’t.”

While Daichi just let out a sigh. “I don’t really care, Hestia-san. I don’t know. After participating in that competition, I don’t really feel that angry anymore. Just happy.”

So, what should I do?

… After thinking about it, I didn’t know what was the correct answer here. However, if I was on the fence about it, maybe it would be better to leave it to the rest of the party.

“I decline my right,” I answered before turning around to the students and Ellaine. “Not like I would have a problem with it. I killed enough people already, so whatever. However, I do agree with Tatsuya and Nishio here. They would be worth the levels, so, I’ll give you guys the choice. Me killing them wouldn’t benefit me as much, what would benefit me would be Aurora becoming stronger. So I can leave my back to you guys. We are a team, right?”

“Hestia-san…” All of the students just looked at me in surprise, almost as if they couldn’t believe what I said.

Tamae was the first to say anything. “Right… we should talk about this seriously. Our morals haven’t gotten us very far, right?”

“… Yes, let’s do that,” Nishio agreed.

Despite the lacking responses, the Queen smiled. “Take some time, but don’t dally, dears. I know this world is different from Earth. The Great Goddess had spoken much about her home, so we wisewomen know a certain extent about it. If you have your answers, speak with us in the capital. Due process has to happen there, anyways.”

As she was about to leave, I had asked her about Darlion, but she told me he didn’t commit any crimes. In fact, Maagneil had left his son in the dark so much, he barely knew anything. He didn’t know his father’s businesses, he didn’t know where his father escaped to, he didn’t know anything. For the heir, Darlion had been left far too much in the dark.

This, alongside the beating he got from his father, just drove the point further how much of an asshole Maagneil was. Deluded and crazy; what a terrible combination. The situation was so weird, I didn’t want to believe Darlion didn’t know anything. I mean, with the way Maagneil treated his own son, shouldn’t Darlion shout? Complain? Scream? However, he did nothing of the sort.

“Hestia-san, just leave it.” But before I could let it out again, Daichi stopped me. “It isn’t our problem. Sometimes, kids just don’t want to betray their parents… no matter what. You know, they just want some love. Attention.”

I sensed he knew more about it, but decided to not prod further. I couldn’t deal with every problem. As such, we moved into the room where we found Darlion. There, behind the stains of blood, a single door was left open, and when we moved through it, we saw how it led into an underground cavern-like labyrinth.

The artificers on site told us how baffled they were about the door, mentioning how it would have taken them a whole day to figure out if they hadn’t noticed it was made with Broggart’s techniques. After some reverse engineering, they managed to open it. However, after that, they couldn’t tell where Maagneil fled to.

The guards there told us they wouldn’t pursue him, since they didn’t have a map of the place. Even the dwarves were scared of venturing somewhere without a clear goal, given the mana levels underground. If they wanted to continue, they needed an expedition team kitted for it. It will be done in the future.

So, we left it to them and decided to gather the stuff Maagneil had stored here—Broggart’s tools. Unexpectedly, all of it was stored inside what looked like his workshop. Interestingly, a lot of it was machinery, which Grimnir told me was to make crafting easier and quicker.

“For example, this machine here is for smelting ores quickly and easily.” Grimnir patted something like a furnace, pointing at two cabinets on the back of the thing. It didn’t look shoddy or homemade. “A normal smithy has a large one, but Broggi made a smaller one for his personal use. Supposedly faster and more efficient. It can extract the minerals better, separating it from the rocks and impurities.”

I shrugged. It wasn’t like I fully understood his excitement… or Ellaine’s and Daichi’s.

“Master! Look, your cousin’s artificer tools! By the Goddess, look at this wand.”

“Master! His hammers and other stuff are here! We also got some blueprints on stuff he couldn’t make.”

“Pack it all in, you two! Gahahaha, it’s time to expedite the process! No more hand smithing everything, we’re gonna push Aurora’s smithy into the next age!”

“Oooooh!” Both apprentices cheered.

As long as they were happy.

Still, some of those blueprints did state how to make the material Grimnir used on Ellaine’s new armor. He told me we needed to visit a mine to gather the objects we needed, since we were now bankrupt. With the new machine and tools, he told me the idea of making armor for my dragon form wasn’t far off.

He repeated this statement again once we also retrieved his tools and stuff, the ones he had in his old workshop before his exile. They were all stored inside the smithy of the Luedbrumdar’s industrial area. As you might expect, the people there weren’t too thrilled, but who cared? It wasn’t like it was theirs to begin with.

Once we had gathered everything and placed them inside my [Storage Magic], we left to pick up the RV. On the way, Grimnir asked Rajah if Maagneil had taken anything, to which he confirmed it was something that looked like an ID. He couldn’t [Identify] it in time, as he placed it in his pocket.

[“It was a bit smaller than an ID, but it has the same shape! Yup!”] Rajah answered.

“Nothing we can do. As long as it isn’t something that Broggi needed me to get.” Grimnir then pulled out a key. “All we needed was this.”

After we had stored everything in the subspace, including the RV, everybody then followed Grimnir back to the mine and into the safehouse left behind by Broggi. Once there again, we went to the center, where a key-like hole could be seen. Grimnir then placed the key into the hole, unlocking whatever was locked by it.

Suddenly, the mechanical gears in the place began to rattle faster, clanking and danking as more mana streamed into the center. Since we didn’t know what was going on, we all ran away to the entrance, where we saw the ground literally opening up. The stone floor broke open, prompting Grimnir to question how this was possible.

I had to concur, since this was a dungeon, not an ordinary mine. A dungeon master had to have known what happened here and allowed Broggart to do this. When I told him we should ask the dungeon master about this, he told me we probably couldn’t, as the previous dungeon master had died after Grimnir had been exiled. The current one couldn’t know. Meaning, all we could do was walk down.

As if we were walking down some ancient dwarven ruins in a video game, the stairs revealed by the moving platform led us deeper and deeper. Manatech lamps lit up, shining our path forward blue. Once at the bottom, most of us couldn’t believe we ventured down like this, but instantly raised our guards when we saw two statues guarding a small gate.

Using [Mana Eyes], I confirmed they weren’t golems or anything, so we passed them, opening the shut gate. What was there, however, was far less impressive than the trip down.

“It’s an altar,” Tasianna stated, pointing at the statue of a woman.

On the other hand, Kohaku scowled. “No… It’s a creep’s cave…”

She pointed at the many small figurine-like statues of a dwarven woman, looking similar to the larger one. Grimnir shook his head when he took a closer look, mentioning the portrayals of Chihiro, the Revolution Queen.

Dressed in a kimono with small tools on one hand, and a round orb in the other, Chihiro instantly came off as this technical Goddess. A craftswoman. However, not only did she have a kimono to represent her Japanese heritage, but she also had a sheathed katana attached to her sash—the obi. To finish off the outfit was the emblem of a dwarven mask, which looked quite familiar to the ones on the Ankoran King’s and Queen’s clothes.

At this point, it was clear this was Broggart’s hidden altar for Chihiro, but the question was, why hide this? Not to mention, behind a pretty elaborate contraption he probably needed years to finish. The answer to this question was stored inside a chest placed in front of the statue.

When we opened it, we found a single piece of manatech plus some sheets of paper underneath it. Strangely, this object wasn’t just something we could just ignore. In fact, while Tasianna, Ellaine, and Grimnir didn’t think too much about it, we Earthlings could only widen our eyes. The object had a small rectangle body with a lens attached to the front, while there was a small hole just large enough for an eye to look through. In addition, there was something like a card attached to the side like a gun’s magazine.

Yup, it was—

“A video recorder!” The students and I shouted in unison.