Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

When we came out of the 10km tunnel, our eyes were filled with the scenery of Gnomstoll Kingdom’s peculiar landscape.

Gnomstoll Kingdom had many mines, and there were also open-pit mines that could be strip mined. Villages formed around the mines, and towns formed around the mines with larger reserves.

Additionally, the piles of coal that had been mined also became part of the unique landscape of Gnomstoll Kingdom.

In this world, coal isn’t used much as fuel. Rural villages and towns use firewood as fuel, but while there were some individuals in larger towns that use firewood to cook food,

The only people to use coal for supplementary fuel and iron manufacturing were the Dwarves. As proof, other countries do not know the recipe for making coke (carbon fuel). Charcoal is used for smithing. Though dwarves also use charcoal for it, only few use it as magic furnaces were more widely used.

「As degenerate as we Dwarves are, we are still Faeriekin. We have more magic power than humans. It’s only natural magic furnaces popularized.」

「Even I who have little magic power have more than human blacksmiths.」

I heard about the fuel situation of Gnomstoll Kingdom from Golan-san and Doganbo-san. Especially how the magic furnaces they used for smithing were essential for smelting magic metals. so perhaps it was only natural that magic furnaces were commonplace. On the other hand, because there were few magic furnaces in human countries, they must have had to rely on magic metal armaments from Gnomstoll Kingdom. The exceptions were alchemists like Takumi, but alchemists themselves were rare beings.

「Will we go straight to the royal capital too?」

「You have to escort Margrave Arenberg’s bunch and us old men there.」

「Takumi. It’s Gnomstoll Kingdom, be it the capital or a regional city, they’re no different.」

It’s our honeymoon, so I want to go see a lot of things, but it seems we have to go the royal capital first. Doganbo-san was acrimonious towards his motherland, perhaps because he was quickly bored and left early on.

「Kuku, is it strange that Doganbo is hard on his motherland, Takumi?」

「Uhh, well, a bit.」

According to Golan-san, Gnomstoll Kingdom was a country of craftsmen such as blacksmiths, artisans, magic device makers, and carpenters. An apprentice system was established where one must polish their craft by watching and stealing the skills of their masters and seniors.

「But you see, Gnomstoll nowadays has been overly particular about seniority……」

「Ahh……」

I pretty much understood. And what Golan-san said was exactly as I had imagined.

It seems Doganbo-san was also in the top workshop headed by God Craft Golan-san. And to learn even a bit of Golan-san’s craft, a lot of people swung their hammers day after day. Among them, although the amount of magic power he had was smaller, Doganbo-san who was still young had an incredible eye for blacksmithing techniques. Golan-san eyed Doganbo-san and drove his skills into him.

「Golan-aniki at that time was relentless.」

「I was cheeky.」

Doganbo-san said so nostalgically, his eyes looking into the distance.

「In short, he fought with those stuck up seniors that had no skills yet brag. I also felt bad as the person in charge.」

「What, I was still just a brat. Golan-aniki wasn’t at fault. Aniki who was in charge of the top workshop probably couldn’t afford to care for a young guy like me.」

Growing tired of the harassment that had gotten too severe, the young Doganbo-san thought that the national policy was to be reluctant to accept new technology and ideologies, and so he would like the freedom to swing his arm in the outside world, then he fled the country.

「Well, I have no parents or siblings. If I had to say, then Golan-aniki is like my older brother. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to leave the country.」

Gnomstoll Kingdom had a long history, but it is a dwarven country, and it was always in pursuit of new things and technology. And in the last 100 years, instead of the pursuit of technological innovation, the course shifted into pursuing more efficient ways of creating masses of armaments to be sold to foreign countries. And because of this as well, he migrated Valkyra Kingdom where Dwarves live the most freely even in the continent, and to the adventurers city of Volton at the border.

「Hmmm, you’ve been through a lot.」

「Ah well. The minute there’s history, it’s also got a lot of troublesome fetters.」

「When I think about it, the Sanctuary is heaven, isn’t it, Golan-aniki?」

「That’s right, Doganbo. More than anything, the alcohol tastes delicious.」

「Of course, of course!」

In the end, they arrived at alcohol.

It felt like I wasted my time listening to them seriously.

In an idyllic setting, the carriage continued on its way through as we saw the smoke billowing from the smokestacks characteristic to this country, and just around the corner was the royal capital of Gnomstoll Kingdom.

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