Chapter 79 - Crafting

"It's been a while, Mr. Aiden!"

Aiden chuckled as Ganesha took off his top hat in greeting. The man was as smoothly impenetrable as ever...

"It's been a while since you visited a black market, hasn't it? Your last visit to the one in the capital seems to have been quite some time ago."

"..."

Well. Aiden wished the man would stop so casually advertising the fact that he dug into his every move.

"Would you consider it a fan's enthusiasm? A patron's privilege, if you will."

"Stalking is a privilege?"

"It's a fan's enthusiasm. I'd appreciate it if you viewed it favorab—"

"... I don't need your support. I'll just lea—"

"—is the sort of joke I really shouldn't make lightly. Hmm. My apologies."

"..."

Aiden narrowed his eyes at Ganesha's breezy apology. Unfazed, Ganesha linked arms with him and led him along.

"Come now, let's go! I've already found just the place!"

And so Aiden was dragged into the black market, matching Ganesha's pace with a reluctant expression. Traveling with him was, admittedly, a curious experience.

The black market was notorious for demanding ever more security checks and credentials the deeper one ventured. Some even claimed its security was tighter than the imperial palace's.

Yet no one stopped Ganesha anywhere he went. Instead, guard after guard recognized him, recoiled in alarm, and hastily opened the door.

'... He really is a big shot.'

Reflecting on that anew, Aiden entered the building before him with Ganesha as his courteous escort. For a building in such a glittering commercial district, it was suspiciously plain and unadorned. But the moment he stepped inside, the smell of molten iron and gunpowder washed over him.

"Hmm."

Everyone bustling about inside looked disheveled, with deep shadows beneath their eyes. Yet even those accumulated layers of exhaustion failed to dull the intelligence in their faces. Rather, they looked utterly absorbed in work they genuinely loved.

From the outside, it might look like a bunch of work-obsessed eccentrics crammed into a corner of a building, but Aiden had a fair idea of what this place was. This was the goose that laid the golden eggs.

'It does feel a little different from an ordinary smithy, though.'

Unlike a traditional workshop full of blacksmiths earnestly hammering away at iron, this place was closer to a research institute. The atmosphere suggested a focus on theory rather than actually making equipment.

"Allow me to introduce you."

Ganesha strode leisurely deeper into the building.

"This is the 'Workshop.' They recently signed a formal contract with a business I own."

Yes. Aiden knew. He also knew how much the equipment developed here influenced the main story.

In the original game, checking the specifications of equipment with overpowered effects usually revealed that this place had had a hand in it somewhere. Hence the saying, "Turns out it was the Workshop again." Even the insane devices generations ahead of their time, like the hologram Ganesha had shown him recently, must ultimately have come from here.

"Oh, Mr. Ganesha?"

Just then, a man in a white coat spotted them and hurried over. His face was as steeped in exhaustion as everyone else's, but he maintained a slightly neater appearance, suggesting he was someone who dealt with the public.

"Mr. Sier. It's been a while."

"Why, you should have let us know you were coming! Would you like to try on some of the new equipment we're developing?"

The way he beamed and immediately launched into equipment talk marked him as an unmistakable eccentric. Ganesha gave a wry smile and shook his head.

"I'm here on more important business today. Would you care to make an acquaintance?"

Ganesha turned toward me as he spoke.

"This is Mr. Aiden Kellermain, whom I'm sponsoring."

"..."

"He's an important man. I strongly recommend getting to know him."

The moment he heard that, the man called Sier went wide-eyed, and Aiden felt a fierce tightening in his temples. Publicly, the Merchant of Death was famous for being a lone wolf who formed no such relationships with anyone.

And yet, by making such a point of how thoroughly Aiden had won his favor, he was all but telling Sier that, whatever their relationship might be, Aiden was someone of tremendous importance and should be treated accordingly.

"I-I didn't realithe..."

"..."

The man had just bitten his tongue out of nervousness.

"... My apologies for not recognizing you. Please, come inside!"

Sier hurriedly ushered us farther in and led us to something resembling a reception room. His hands visibly trembled as he brought tea, as though he were serving a head of state.

"... You really don't need to be so nervous."

Aiden took the teacup from him before its contents could spill over.

"Relax. Make yourself comfortable. You can drop the disguise while you're at it."

"... Pardon?"

"I'm not prejudiced against demihumans."

"..."

Sier turned an incredulous gaze on Ganesha, who burst out laughing.

"Honestly, I never thought I'd live to meet someone like this! How did you figure that out, too?"

"M-Mr. Ganesha? Did you tell him—"

"Let me make this clear: I never told him."

"Then how...?"

"That's simply how he is, Mr. Sier. You might as well assume he knows anything you're trying to hide."

"..."

"I got quite a taste of it myself not long ago!"

While Sier struggled to make sense of the situation, Aiden lifted his cup and sipped his tea. He couldn't remember ever having a refined hobby like tea appreciation, so he had no idea what he was tasting, but he could tell it was expensive...

"... Ha. Well, this is something."

After considerable deliberation, Sier finally reached up to his ears. By the time he lowered his hands, those seemingly ordinary human ears had become pointed.

Aiden nodded at the sight. An elf. A member of a long-lived race—and a specialist in every sort of delicate work involving supernatural-power processing.

"... There are quite a few Imperials who recoil in disgust at the sight of demihumans."

"People like that barely deserve to be treated as fellow human beings, do they? That was ages ago."

It was well known that the demihumans who once ruled the continent had subjected humans to oppression and tyranny. Every history book attested to it. But that was ancient history, dating back thousands of years. Hating them for it now was anachronistic in the extreme.

"More importantly, I'd like to commission some work."

With that, Aiden took out the blueprints he had prepared.

"This is... an extraordinarily intriguing design."

True to his nature, Sier studied the blueprints intently, not a trace of his earlier bewilderment remaining.

"The concept is clearly defined, but the design itself is—unusual. I'm not sure whether to call it clever or ingenious."

After examining the plans at length, Sier gave a quiet nod.

"Of course, realizing all that potential will require overcoming quite a few obstacles in the actual construction."

"Such as?"

"First, we'll need an exceptionally skilled master craftsman. Ordinary skill won't suffice. They must be able to work flawlessly with materials I've refined through Mana processing..."

"Oh, I can introduce you to someone like that."

Ganesha raised a hand with a smile, and Sier's expression grew stranger still.

"I-If it's someone you're recommending, Mr. Ganesha, could you mean—"

"Uh, is there some problem?"

"... N-No, not at all. It's just that this person belongs to a rather unusual race, even among demihumans."

"...?"

What were they talking about? Aiden had no idea who could make Sier react as though even bringing them up was difficult.

But before he could give it much thought, Sier resumed speaking.

"We'll also need several rare materials of the sort regulated at the national level. Star Iron... I imagine Mr. Ganesha has already procured that for you. But we'll need at least a few more materials of comparable quality—"

Before he could finish, Aiden thumped the sack he'd brought down in front of him. Then he spilled its contents onto the reception-room table. Ectoplasm.

"..."

"..."

Sier silently looked back and forth between it and Aiden.

"... Is this—?"

"Ectoplasm."

"... Really—?"

"It really is ectoplasm."

"..."

Sier buried his face in his hands without a word. He looked on the verge of hyperventilating.

Gathering even a basketful of ectoplasm meant camping out for years at spiritual hotspots across the continent. Now nearly a whole sackful of it lay scattered across the table. Of course it did. Aiden had gone straight into the Reverse Realm and collected it himself.

... For the sake of Sier's health, it was probably best not to mention that gathering it had taken less than a minute.

"... G-Good. We'll still need a few additional materials, though. Just a few substances with special properties to use for finishing—"

Once again, before he could finish, Aiden was tipping a fragment onto the table. The fire elemental's fragment. The core of an immensely powerful elemental, nearly on par with a greater elemental.

"... Is this—"

"Yes. It's exactly what you think it is."

"..."

"Oh, one more thing."

Aiden produced another sack. Out came the core of the wolf-shaped elemental. ... It, too, was immensely powerful, every bit the equal of the fire elemental's fragment.

"What else do you need?"

"..."

Sier turned a vacant gaze toward Ganesha, as though his soul had left his body. His eyes demanded to know where on earth this man had come from, but Ganesha merely shrugged.

"I told you. This is simply how he is."

... Well. Judging by how proudly he said that, perhaps there had been some truth to his earlier claim about being a fan.

"Mr. Aiden."

After silently watching it all and breathing heavily, Sier finally managed to speak.

"Please sign an exclusive contract with our Workshop as well."

"... Pardon?"

"I'd sell my soul to get my hands on even half these materials. We've scrapped dozens of projects before they even began because we lacked the raw materials...!"

"..."

"Please...!"

The anguish in his voice had swept aside every last vestige of wariness or fear toward Aiden, the man backed by Ganesha. It was something like a wail carrying the heart and pent-up sorrow of an engineer denied sufficient time and funding...

"... Uh, sure. Actually, I have some left over besides these. If those will do, I could give you—"

-System Message

▶ Target 'Sier Maxwell's' affection increases.

▶ Skills cannot be copied from this target. As an alternative, you have been granted one 'Workshop Free-Use Pass'!

"..."

Apparently, that pent-up sorrow ran very deep indeed.