Chapter 273: What is a “Zuekluk?”

“Waaaaaaa, I’m done. Speaking with people is more stressful than Kramps’ training. I crave sweets. Gib me candy!” I declared before falling face-first on the sofa inside our RV’s communal room.

“Please enjoy, Lady Hestia. Some small confections we made under Tasianna’s and Lady Tamae’s instructions. The breading encases a concentrated jelly of fragassa. It might be a bit too sweet, so please be careful.”

I moved my head up before taking a heart-shaped cookie from Svena’s tray. Putting it into my mouth, I crunched on it and enjoyed the extreme sweetness I needed to refuel my fatigued brain. Giving her a thumbs up, I planted my face back on the sofa.

“Lady Hestia, you really shouldn’t lie on the sofa like that. It is unladylike,” I heard Josine’s voice ring in my ear, followed by Svena’s.

“It’s okay, Josine. You’ve seen the line of representatives Lady Hestia had to meet. I believe if this were to happen to Lady Ellaine, you would let your mistress act up a bit, correct?”

“I don’t act like a lady when I’m not in public anyways,” I retorted.

But Svena didn’t take that too lightly. “Please, don’t talk with your mouth full, Lady Hestia. We will be the ones to clean it up later.”

Urk…

Anyways, stress was stress, and the life of a princess was not the least bit chill. Accepting my position as a dragon princess and also the fact I announced it all at the Griffonpeak battle, made it easy for my reputation to spread.

According to the rumors, while Saori was known by people as a wolfkin adventurer with black lightning instead of a garm, people knew me more as a champion of Aurena and a dragon. And that was very relevant in Ullistar when those merchants approached me, and now its head reared itself again with the people of Gleisvale.

Like Mother mentioned, nobles and guilds had gossipers and spies in this city. The moment we entered the city, no, the moment we entered the country even, people knew we were coming. There were the border guards, the valley guides, the city entrance soldiers, and not to mention the various merchants and towns we met on the way to Estralia’s capital. Any one of them could have sent a pigeon over, or even all of them.

Regardless, that wasn’t the point. What was important was the fact the merchants and senators of this city wanted to meet with me. Some had small-time business ventures they wanted to discuss with me, mostly to advertise their products, while others clearly had ulterior motives. Politics and grandiose goals, or something. It was a headache.

But deal with them I did. Our main objectives for Estralia concerned Tasianna’s and Shaturein’s business, while Amelia’s expansion of the Sarlenzia company was a side quest. However, from a political point of view, our overarching goal should be to befriend Estralia and get its president to support Artorias and possibly dissuade a war between Artorias and the countries in this part of Altrust.

Estralia, or to be specific, Gleisvale held the position of the most important trading hub of the mid-western part of Altrust. They had access to dwarven craftsmanship, a train station which the dwarves used to trade with the Empire and the Beastman Alliance, and a river that spread throughout the land and into the Empire. Gleisvale was also strategically located in an area where sieging it was hard for any invaders.

Earning their trust and making them favor Artorias over the other countries would be important for the latter’s safety. I had to speak with them eventually, so seeing some of the senators wanting to speak with me expedited stuff. Too bad the president hadn’t sent a representative, but I remembered Duke Fillion saying he was a puppet leader or something.

Nevertheless, without Saori, Ellaine, or Nishio around to help me out with the political stuff, I wouldn’t dare do it on my own. I wasn’t that knowledgeable about it. I knew I should study more, but it just didn’t interest me.

As such, I used the mightiest tool in my arsenal for this moment — delaying it. Rescheduling it. Whatever you wanted to call it. All that was important was that I accepted their business cards and letters and told them I will reschedule with them when I could. With anticipating smiles, they left the inn, but it left me completely overwhelmed.

[“Master did well. Good good.”] Rajah patted me on the head with his paws, all while I could hear some boing-boing sound moving around on the sofa. My guess? It was Shoyi, our cleaning slime.

“Thanks, Rajah. Thanks, Shoyi.” I stroked the two little guys. One was furry and fluffy while the other was smooth and wobbly. They were super cute now, but the moment they grew up and evolved, that would change. “Ooooh, I love you two, so much!”

I couldn’t stop myself from hugging them.

“Ahem.” Somebody coughed to draw my attention. “Lass, I know you were busy and probably want to get some recreation time, but could you stop and tell me why exactly you called me into the living room? I was planning on working.”

I turned my head around. Aside from our maids Svena and Josine, and Rajah and Shoyi, the other people in the communal room were the members of the Misfits, minus Haruka, Mother, and lastly, Grimnir. While Mother looked at me cheerfully as if I was a cute cat, the latter half were waiting for me to begin.

I let out a loud sigh and sat up properly on the sofa. “Alright. So, Grimnir, the reason why I asked you to come is that I want to know what’s up.” Grimnir frowned as I continued. “I know the whole thing with ‘zuekluks’ and how dishonored dwarves were considered pariahs, but today was too extreme. I expected something like those blacksmiths we met in Cedaraille, and I also expected you to fight back. What happened?”

“Mhmm…” Grimnir grumbled. “This doesn’t concer—”

“No, wrong, Grimnir.” I shook my finger. “This does concern me. It concerned me the moment you got belittled, insulted, and got things thrown at you. You know me. I don’t really take the whole master-retainer stuff seriously, so I won't treat you as such. I consider you my friend, Grimnir, but I also recognize that outside of when you swore your loyalty to me, we haven’t spoken much about your past. I honestly don’t know you as much as I want to.”

All I knew was that Grimnir had studied some gun blueprints with his cousin Broggi, ones that were made by the Revolution Queen, Chihiro, but were never finished. Unfortunately, Bleidla, the blacksmith god, despised the idea of guns Chihiro had planned, and banned their creation after her death and apotheosis.

Once they were found out, they were exiled and dishonored, losing their crust’locks in the process. They then traveled on the roads in the old version of the RV and managed to combine a gun with a warhammer, creating the blasthammer in the process. The skills of a master blacksmith and runesmith together with that of an artificer.

However, while traveling, his cousin died somehow, but he never specified how and why. All I knew was that Grimnir blamed Bleidla for it. That he cursed him and his cousin. And now, Grimnir’s goal was to create weapons grand and powerful enough to anger the blacksmith god. His drive was to spite Bleidla.

“You managed to recreate your blasthammer with Ellaine’s help, even improving on it. I’m really glad for you and thankful that you're also taking Daichi under your tutorship. You might speak brashly in this rough tone, but I know you have a caring and soft side underneath that tough skin. And that is why I want to help you. Seeing you today really hurt me, Grimnir.”

Tatsuya nodded to my assertion. “I just joined, so I can’t really say too much, but I do agree with Hestia-san. You seem so meek today for some reason. Most of the time, you would shout at us for not taking care of our weapons and equipment well enough. My first impression of you wasn’t the best, but, you still repaired them so well, I thought you just reforged them.”

“You show your care for others by making weapons and equipment,” Kyouya added. “This armor was given to me by the church, so I know very well how it feels to wear it. You made it better. You made it easier for me to move in and fight. I only asked you to repair it, but Mister Grimnir, you went well beyond that.”

“Daichi is an ass and a bootlicker,” Tatsuya continued, earning him a “fuck you” from Daichi. “But the both of us still tried to help you today. I would kinda like to know why you didn’t want us to defend you. You even left the train station without defending yourself.”

“There was nothing to defend myself for,” Grimnir answered, but continued his silence afterwards.

I frowned. “Please, tell us why. You’re usually not too assertive when it comes to speaking out your own thoughts or our goals. You add onto ours. You aren’t even interested in speaking about yourself even now, and while I can understand that, I don’t think it is healthy. Please, let us help you, Grimnir.”

“… My life isn’t worth talking about. Everything important, I already said. My value to Aurora has always been my skills, lass. I understand you care for me, but I do not feel comfortable talking about it.”

But Grimnir just wouldn’t give in. It made Tatsuya and me sigh, and I was considering if pushing him further was good or not.

But that was not a worry for one of us.

“Master taz, the fact your exile is causing trouble for my daughter and her friends was evident today.” It was Mother. “You may say your value comes from your skills alone, but you are also a provider of knowledge and guidance. In other words, you are an adult. Hestia has already spoken to you about visiting the Ankor-Nazta. Will you allow them to stay ignorant throughout their visit and watch you suffer from your past actions?”

“Jeez, you people…” Asaka blurted out after Mother was done speaking. “Could you not try to urge him to speak about something he doesn’t want to? Some people just don’t want to talk about their misery. Is that so hard to understand?”

“But you all indeed faced troubles today because of his status,” Mother replied, looking slightly confused as to why Asaka seemed irritated.

However, Asaka retorted without caring that she was arguing with an ice dragon able to call in the next ice age. “That is ‘cause we made him come with us to the damn train station. We didn’t need Grimnir to lead us there, we could have just asked some guide or something, or just followed his directions. But we had to bring him with us and that caused us all some trouble. Yeah, it’s all Grimnir’s fault. Fun fact, it wasn’t, and we shouldn’t have reopened old wounds.”

Her words stung. It was true. I was the one who asked Grimnir to lead us to the train station despite how reluctant he looked. Sure, he didn’t decline the favor, but it was inconsiderate of me to do so without considering his opinion.

“And that is why he should—” But before Mother and Asaka got into a fight, Grimnir stopped her with his booming voice.

“I got it! I understand. Bladdarg. By Crustacia, if you all want to know it this badly, then just shut up and listen to me. I have no plans of repeating this again.” Grimnir massaged his temples, looking like he would develop a headache soon. It seemed we pushed him too far.

“Essentially, ‘zuekluks’ aren’t just dwarves who were dishonored, but also criminals.”

I narrowed my eyes and frowned.

“Originally, the word was given to soldiers or guards who failed their masters, and it was taken up by these tazongs as a sign of their failure. Honor is important to my race. These warriors and soldiers took up their failure like a medal and went on a journey to redeem themselves, whether it was to fight for our gods or to bring glory back to their clan’s name by felling powerful beasts,” Grimnir explained. “Tazongs aren’t as prone to fall into temptation and perform crimes, since honor is worth more than gold to every single one of us. ‘Fels-guk pal drahi tazong gazon oyti.’ ‘Gold flows in the bonds of dwarves,’ in Common.”

Grimnir paused, taking a deep breath. “But, this was all before the arrival of the Origin Gods and the demons. The moment tazongs began to abandon honor for our desires, was the moment a demon appeared before us. Sloth, pride, and greed. Those were the sins we were the most susceptible to.”

Once again, the demons reared their heads. Like the original sin, their problematic influence spreads throughout the world.

“At that point, the word ‘zuekluk’ was mostly attributed to tazongs who let their desires control them, to the point they dishonor their clan and friends. We tazongs are quite religious, like most Peolyncians really, so we honor our gods quite zealously. So when I disrespected Bleidla as a member of the blacksmith guild, I shamed my whole clan.”

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The dwarves’ piety to their gods was a byproduct of their time under the earth primarch, their creator and god. Grimnir told us when Goddess Crustacia usurped their control over the earth element, the dwarves were naturally apprehensive of her, until she displayed her power by repairing a section of the Ankoran mountain ranges.

There were two mountain ranges included in the Ankoran mountain ranges — Tazlok to the left and Inkong to the right. Gleisvale was located in the Inkong mountain ranges. And there was a gap between these two which allowed people to pass through it to Loatyx. However, it only became passable after Crustacia terraformed it before the dwarves’ eyes.

Once a rocky landscape filled with ground too hard to farm on, the ground today was bountiful and perfect for farming. Once filled with dangers and a large hole where dwarves would find their doom while mining, was now an easily traversable path along the mountain’s edge. In addition, Crustacia created a location perfect for the defense of a dwarven hold. This was where the dwarven capital was relocated and named Inkoran-Tazul, after the gap between the two mountain ranges.

With the addition of the Divine System allowing the dwarves access to powerful skills and abilities, faith in Crustacia grew until a proper religion was established. There were some issues, since it still didn’t allow the dwarves to cast magic nor was Crustacia willing to rid the dwarves of “The Curse of Earth,” but the complaints didn’t last too long.

And once Crustacia’s pantheon was filled with dwarven subordinate gods, the faith in her religion grew stronger and stronger. That was why Bleidla defecting from Shiterno and joining Crustacia was an important event to the dwarves. Blacksmithing was part of dwarven culture.

Since Bleidla issued a command to not create the guns Chihiro had planned, the dwarves accepted it since Chihiro never finished her blueprints nor did she retort back. To the dwarves, Grimnir and his cousin broke a divine taboo. They let their greed to create overtake them, and ended up antagonizing the blacksmith guild.

However, since their clan, the “Luedbrumdar,” was primarily a mining and smithing hold, this also meant it brought great dishonor to them. Dwarves who only focused on their own needs, instead of the collective’s, were considered dishonorable. They were stripped of their rock hair and were then exiled. In addition, Bleidla took away their [Blacksmith’s Eye] skill to further drive the point home.

“The way I was treated today would be the same way a criminal is treated everywhere else. That is why I didn’t resist. I do not regret what I did, but I do understand that I was greedy for something new to create. I wanted to make something phenomenal and new. Dwarven society is very conservative when it comes to new inventions, despite always innovating and creating something new. Such a contradiction.”

“Hold on,” Tatsuya raised his hand. “If the dwarves have such a history with the seven demons, why aren’t you constantly arguing with Klea’Hatma? Hestia-san, did it happen in the beginning?”

I shrugged. “Not more than the rest of us, really. Now that I think about it, you also don’t seem too bothered by the demonkins, Grimnir. The dwarves in general. After what you told me, I thought they would wage a war against them, supporting the Empire.”

“As if.” Grimnir waved his hand in dismissal. “Firstly, I’m not the sort of person to direct his own faults on others. Bleidla is a special case, but I don’t harbor much ill-will to that demon outside of contempt for her flirtatious habit of speaking. My sins are my own. Zuekluk’s meaning might have changed cuz of them, but I am the one who committed the wrong.”

It was a very adult way of looking at things.

“And, secondly, the demonkins are an ocean and continent away from us. We tazongs aren’t fond of the ocean and are more used to defensive tactics. Still, if you brought a demonkin over to them, a tazong will likely treat them the same as they did me today. I guess, you could say that is a good argument for the dwarves to join up with Artorias, lass.”

That was good to hear. King Drangleic did mention the thing with demonkins attacking his capital in his letter to the northern races, but I wasn’t aware dwarves didn’t like demonkins.

“The gun blueprint was stored in a preservation room meant to store all of Goddess Chihiro’s blueprints and notes. For future knowledge, you see. Also, since they belonged to our Revolution Queen, destroying any of her items was a crime. Even if Bleidla ordered so, those loyal to Goddess Chihiro would contest that demand. Since Broggi and I entered this room without permission, we technically are criminals.”

Oh… Damn.

While it was interesting to hear that there was a room where all the notes of the Revolution Queen were stored, the story I got it from wasn’t as happy. I couldn’t help but look at Grimnir with pitiful eyes, which only earned me a scolding.

“Ark. Lass! Don’t give me those eyes!” He was irritated. “This is why I didn’t want to speak about this bladdarg! I knew the lot of you would look at me like that. Yes, all of you are working with a criminal right now. Nothing will happen with you outside of interacting with me and the consequences it brings since my punishment was exile.”

“Shisho! There must be something we can do for you!” Daichi pleaded. “You only wanted to create something new! That isn’t worth being treated like scum. I mean, how can you allow that to happen? If people treat you like trash, you should do your best to give them a reason not to!”

“Gahaha!” But Daichi’s attempt to motivate him was only treated like a joke. “As if that would work for this situation, lad. Dwarves can forgive, but they do not forget. Honor is everything to us. Hence, what you said is futile. I will not allow humans and beastmen to disrespect me, but I will for my brethren. I broke their rules. I deserve this punishment. All I can do now is continue down this path I chose and create the weapons, armor, and manatech I always wanted to make. To innovate and stick it up Bleidla’s bladdarg for what he did to Broggi. He didn't deserve a dishonorable death like I do…”

Grimnir stood up from where he sat. He had spoken his piece.

“I’m going back to the smithy, lass. There is a lot I still need to do for my armor. I owe you my life. I will not dishonor myself again by failing the mistress I swore my loyalty to. I would rather die. And so, I need armor and weapons to protect you for our future battles.” He turned around and waved his hand. “Lad, come! We will meet them later at lunch.”

Once Grimnir left the room through a door, Daichi stood up and turned to me. He was frowning, looking sad at the situation at hand.

“Hestia-sama… There has to be something we can do for him, right?”

Daichi’s expression reminded me of when we had a one-on-one talk together where he told me the reason why he became a sycophant. He didn’t tell me if he faced any problems himself, but he did make an impression on me of why he needed to butter up people — he just wanted to stay safe.

It made me wonder if he saw himself in Grimnir or if this was just a matter of master-apprentice loyalty. Regardless, once Ellaine hears about this, I presume she will ask me the same thing Daichi just said.

“… I’ll try.” I nodded, earning Daichi’s gratitude.

At the end of the day, Grimnir was my friend. I had a responsibility to help him. I wondered what I could do, but maybe it was something I needed to sleep on.

Still, with the discussion over, the rest of us went to deal with our own business. I mostly spent time with Mother, training to control my scales and learning how to control heat. This lasted until Ellaine, Amelia, Haruka, and the twins returned home, looking slightly disappointed.

I asked them what happened and Amelia answered me with a deep sigh. “Lady Hestia, we managed to rent out a plot of land for the company’s building, but it seemed like they weren’t as thrilled about our pastry and confections as we expected. Even after I mentioned they were made using yeast.”

Ellaine continued, “Supposedly, Gleisvale already had a confectionery in the city, serving pastries made with yeast. So, we visited the location and confirmed the rumors. Here.” Ellaine took out a thin sheet of leaves. When she revealed what was wrapped inside it, I saw a soft-looking bread with some cream on it. “They were made with elven yeast.”

I picked it up and took a bite, immediately opening my eyes when it tasted exactly like milk bread. The only difference was how fruity it tasted.

“Elven yeast is fruitier than our yeast. I presume they are made in a similar manner like when you tested out yeast made from fraggasa?” Ellaine proposed. “When we asked the clerk where he got the yeast, he wouldn’t tell. Elves shouldn’t be trading with humans, so this either came from the dwarves or…”

“The black market,” Haruka answered for Ellaine.

The most popular products of the Sarlenzia company currently were the pastry and confectionery recipes I gave to Amelia. They were the reason why the Sarlenzia company was growing, and while they could still stay above the green with their usual import and export of goods from the Greenveil duchy, they needed our products to expand at the rate they wanted to.

“Their source is far more expensive than ours. We can produce more yeast and turn it into bread and sweets that they can afford, but what we lack is brand and country loyalty,” Haruka pointed out. “People like rooting for their home country. We can rival and eventually triumph over them since we can sell our products at a less premium price, but if our competition uses propaganda and some, uhm, ‘donations’ correctly, our chances of winning this might dwindle to zero.”

“So, giving the people quality and affordable products isn’t enough to be successful here?” Asaka summed it up. This city was ruled by money, not good products.

I told the five of how I had to meet up with a bunch of representatives today, amongst them a few senators and merchants. While Amelia and Ellaine were excited about this revelation, I had an entirely different idea.

“No, no, I just told you guys that to get you up to speed. What I want to propose is…” I turned my head around, looking Kyouya right in his eyes. Looking at his smirk, it seemed he read my mind. “It’s time to show you guys what an idol can do during a promotion event!”

What could an idol do well? Well, sing and dance, but an idol was also a celebrity. A tool to promote and advertise your product if the price was right. With a pretty face and the ability to lure in people, I was planning to use that aspect of myself to help us garner some traction.

I told the three of them of my plan and that we will have to rope in Nishio and Kazumi for more help on the advertising part. I will help them get more attention, but they had to make sure it became a success. Most likely, we will be using Tamae’s ability here. We couldn’t just survive with our old products in this city, we needed more! We needed something to distinguish ourselves other than just a “cheaper” choice. We had to be better than our rival!

It was time to plan things out, so we would probably have to call The Magical Biscuits into the RV for a discussion. Still, while we did that, I began to wonder what Saori, Tasianna, and Gael were doing. They hadn’t gotten back home yet. I was starting to worry for them…

Yeah, as if! They wouldn’t get into trouble.

“Welp, Saori. Tasianna. We got ourselves in trouble.”

“Could you not say that as if this was a normal occurrence? We aren’t looking for trouble!” Tasianna retorted, but it couldn’t be helped that Gael’s words were correct.

“Alright! Alright! You three twinks really think you can walk into our territory and get out of it without a lesson?! We know y’all are from Shatu! Better confess or our boss will get you to speak!”

We were surrounded in an alleyway by a gang of thugs. The only way to escape? Through the skies.

… Haaaaa, why do I always choose the harder tasks? Hestia must be having fun at the train station right now.

Black lightning crackled around my arms. One way or another, we will get out of this scuffle.

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