THe name unconsciously spills from my mouth as his face comes to mind. I never expected that name to come out of Jay’s mouth…
”What, you know him? But that was back in my father’s time. To humans, that must have been a long time ago, right?” (Jay)
He says that since dwarves have a long lifespan. Dwarves live twice as long as humans.
”Yeah, I know him, but only in the sense of a family name. I don’t know the person himself.” (Wirk) [TL: nvm, guess there aren’t time paradoxes or the likes…] ”Oh, I see. Right, humans also have great names, huh.” (Jay)
The “great names” Jay mentioned is the family name that I spoke about. From the way he speaks, it seems that dwarves don’t have such a custom. Although there are also humans, such as commoners, who don’t have surnames. I was the same, but when I was recognised as a magic architect, my master, Arc, gave me his surname, Lufta. It’s a family name that has been passed down since the founders, but I don’t use it often because I still think it’s too much for me.
”What happened between Wirk and that Dowal?” (Eph)
”Unii!” ”Hm? Why’s Uni getting mad?” (Eph)
Eph seemed interested in the situation. On the other hand, the moment he heard Dowal’s name, Uni got upset. His expression also somehow became sort of angry.
”There, there, nanoja” (Bamboo Princess) ”Unii~♪”
But when the Bamboo Princess picked Uni up and stroked him, his mood immediately improved. He’s really easy to understand. But it doesn’t suit Uni to be in a bad mood, so it’s fine.
”But what did Uni get angry about?” (Eph) ”Because Dowal is one of the people who worked together to get me exiled. Uni knows what happened to me when I left the country, so I think he’s angry because he remembered.” (Wirk)
Even under normal circumstances, Uni didn’t like Dowal. I didn’t like him either, so our feelings are similar.
”Exiled? What the h**l does that mean? Aren’t you a magic architect? Back then, we were told we should work hard like tools for the magic architects.” (Jay)
The dwarves probably can’t understand why they would go to the trouble of expressly exiling the magic architects that took care of them.
”I don’t know why either. But the current generation didn’t get on well with Dowal. That guy was always nagging me to lower the quality of the product, in order to reduce the cost so that it would be more profitable, and he even went so far as to meddle with the materials.” (Wirk)
When I think back, he said quite a fair bit to me.
”He even insisted that we export our magic architect crafts to other countries, even though we don’t have enough engineers.” (Wirk)
Making things like a magic car based on the magic construction vehicle. Despite saying that it couldn’t be done, they kept steadily exiling the skilled craftsmen. The reason was that he said they were egoist and wouldn’t listen, but the better the craftsman is, the more egoistic they’ll be. If they keep taking unreasonable demands one-sidedly, they’ll snap. If they weren’t exiled, they would have quit sooner or later. Every time they came to apologise to me saying that they were sorry something like this had happened, I felt bad. That’s why, even after I was exiled, I picked out kind places and recommended them to the craftsmen I’d heard about from my master, so that they don’t lose their livelihood. [TL: did my best translating this one, but it’s confusing]
”He told me various absurd things, and I rejected all of them, but then he got angry and cut my budget , and eventually accused me of inflating the budget and embezzlement, and treated me like a criminal.” (Wirk)
And then due to that, they exiled me, who was vital to the country, which is such a funny story that I can’t help but laugh.
”In other words, that Dowal is the kind of guy to exile anyone who is inconvenient for him.” (Jay) ”Right. And I should also mention that he’d do anything he can think of in order to benefit. And for that reason, I should say he’d do anything…” (Wirk) ”Hm? Wait. Could that possibly mean that the cheating against my grandfather was…” (Eph)
Eph muttered, folding her arms, as she seemed to have realised something.
”… you mean that maybe it was something Dowal set up of his own accord?” (Jay)
Then Jay asked me that. Yes, I’m also thinking that that’s possible.
”In the end, it’s just a guess. I wasn’t directly at the actual place. But from what I’ve heard from my master, I don’t think the founders would have done something so cowardly.” (Wirk)
I could simply be seeing him favourably because he’s a magic craftsman like me, after all.
”… that’s right. And so that’s why they did that back then—” (Jay) ”That?” (WirK) ”Ah. When we decided to leave, we met with the magic architect once again. When my father told him we were going to leave the country, he quickly approved and said we’d better do it soon.” (Jay) ”Had better do it soon, huh…” (Wirk)
It seems cold at first glance, but I’m starting to see some of the back-and-forth exchange.
”When my father told him they didn’t plan to work as tools, he told us to immediately get out, or so I thought, but maybe he was worried about us?” (Jay) ”It could be, if the Dowal at that time was planning to use the dwarves as tools. I don’t think that Dowal, who had planned that far ahead, would easily allow the dwarves to leave for the island.” (Wirk)
Depending on the situation, he may have even put a slave collar on them to prevent them from escaping. It’s possible that the founder, who had sensed this, judged that it would be better for the dwarves to leave, rather than staying in the country.
”… in that case, there’s something I want you to take a look at for a bit. Is that fine?” (Jay)
As I was going around with my thoughts, Jay called out to me. Something you want me to look at?
[TL: A new name, but for an old character (plus a surname for the MC). The surname is probably a pun set up so that MC’s name reads “Love to work”. No clue what his master’s name is supposed to be. I assume it’s a pun on “arch”, but the spelling is weird in that case, plus the surname doesn’t work out for it. On a separate note, I’ve realised this chapter that our author does indeed know the difference between an architect and an engineer, so to those who have been thinking “shouldn’t it be magic engineer instead?”, I say that it’s most likely that the author intentionally mismatched the job name. Wouldn’t surprise me, what with all the puns in their naming-sense.]