49 Identity Discovered

Over the next few weeks, we worked every night to make weapons and runes for everyone. For Bekhi, I made an ice hammer that should freeze and shatter opponents at the same time unless they had enough magic resistance. For Gerde, I made her an axe with the Rune of Might, basically tripling her combat abilities. For Miyata, I gave her a few dozen arrowheads with a variety of effects, but most of them were just variations of going 'boom' with different levels of destruction. For Tatsuki, I gave him a sword with the Rune of Cleaving, but since he was still clumsy with his sword, I also gave him gauntlets with the Rune of Adamant so that he could do the judo he excelled at on the goblins without dying.

"This is amazing!" Tatsuki said as he struck the various poses of judo while equipped with his new armor. He was also wearing retailored dwarven clothes, since his school uniform had been unsalvageable. "It's heavier than I'm used to, but at the same time I feel invincible while wearing it. Hey, Miyata, can I test this on you? I want to see how it works."

"Sure." Miyata instantly had an arrow in her hands. "Only if I can test my arrows on you." Seeing me reach out to grab the arrow from her, I didn't want to blow up our host's house, she bounced back. "Don't worry, Kvalinn. This isn't one of the boom boom ones that you warned me not to use except on the battlefield. This one is the Rune of Accuracy."

"... Fine. Be sure to toss it gently though." I warned her. "And don't put too much magic into it."

"Yay! Ok, Tatsuki, stand over there and try to block this." Tatsuki grinned, and assumed a judo stance as Miyata treated the arrow like a big dart.

"Papa, this seems like a bad idea." Gerde had her shield ready, and was slightly behind me in case my rune exploded. She had more than enough experience with my experimental runes to know to keep a shield ready when I was testing one.

"There's no danger, lass." Elder Thrikrondromm put his hand on her shield to lower it. "The Rune of Accuracy increases the chances that the weapon will hit, and the Rune of Adamant makes the wielder nearly impervious to damage. Both of them are high level runes, but they are also recorded in the Book of Runes, and are not your father's 'experimental' runes."

Gerde nodded in understanding and lowered her shield, but she didn't loosen her grip on it. She'd been told by me that a rune was safe before it exploded often enough that she was distrustful of runes until they were proven safe. My father had the same reaction, gripping a shield that I had added the runes of strength and reflection to.

"Alright, here I go!" Miyata said, she then flung the arrow like she was throwing a dart at a dartboard.

The arrow flew straight and true towards Tatsuki's heart, with a small shockwave emitting from how fast it went. Way beyond what it was supposed to do. Tatsuki, though, didn't flinch like everyone else did. He tanked the arrow with a grin, and it bounced off his crossed gauntlets with a blunted tip.

"That was awesome!" Miyata said while jumping up and down in excitement. "Let's do another one!"

This time I stopped her before she could reach for another arrow. "Enough, you can test the rest of your arrows on the goblins. I'll have to remake that arrow, since it's so badly blunted, and I don't want to remake any more."

"Awww." Miyata whined as I took the arrow away from her and put it in its quiver. "But I wanted to try firing at him with my bow."

"Save it for the goblins, Bultun." Elder Thrikrondromm tried for the umpteenth time to get her under control with a glare, but once again, Miyata was completely unfazed.

"My name is Miyata, not Bultun. Whatever that means. But fine. I'll save these for the goblins." She grumbled a bit, and she looked at the quiver as if it were an unopened Christmas present.

"This sword is pretty neat too." Tatsuki said as he tried to swing his sword around. "But I kinda wish it was a katana. I'm a bit more familiar with them."

"Never say that again!" Elder Thrikrondromm boomed in a stern voice. "Katana's are seen as a cursed weapon since it was the weapon used by the first demon lord. If you ever wield one, the entire world will see you as the next demon lord, and will cast you out, or try to kill you before you can evolve into a demon lord."

Elder Thrikrondromm's lecture continued for a few more minutes, ensuring that his lesson was firmly embedded in the Japanese kids' minds. I made a mental note to never make a katana, even though that had been on my bucket list since reincarnating into the job of a weaponsmith.

"What is a katana anyway? Is it an impact weapon like a hammer? Or is it a sword of some kind? " My father asked, as a lifelong devotee to his work of crafting weapons, was curious about a weapon that he had never made before.

"It is a long curved sword, with a single edge blade, and a squared handle." The answer didn't come from anyone in the rune forge, but from Elder Hunmarum, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. He looked to be absolutely furious, every hair on his white beard was bristling in rage. "Elder Thrikrondromm. You may be my former master, but how dare you allow cursed otherworlders into my rune forge!"

Summoned heroes, in the dwarf world, were seen as worse than a dragon at a festival. The first demon lord had been a summoned hero, and even though he had fought against the elves for the first few years he had lived in this world, he had evolved, or devolved, into a demon lord. After becoming a demon lord, he had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of men, elves, and especially dwarves, and the dwarves do not forget.

"Elder Hunmarum, I was hoping you wouldn't find out until after the humans arrived to take the two of them away." Elder Thrikrondromm grumbled. "I understand your anger, my former apprentice, but I only brought them here so that I could keep them within ax's reach in case they went out of control."

"But why are they here at all?" Elder Hunmarum roared out. "They should not have even been let into the mountains! Much less into my sacred rune forge!" Then, the worst possible thing that could have happened, happened. He noticed Delimira's ears poking through her hair, her sweatband had slipped down slightly, allowing just the tips of her ears to show. "An elf! A damned elf!"

Without hesitation, Elder Hunmarum grabbed a hammer off the wall and rushed to kill her. I managed to block him with my own hammer, and surprisingly, Tatsuki was also able to block the hammer with his gauntlets.

"Out of the way, young dwarf, that's a damned elf you're protecting!"

"I know." I replied. "She's my apprentice in weapon crafting, and she's under my protection."

My answer caused the Elder's brows to furrow in confusion and fury. He took a step back to sort his thoughts. "She's… Your apprentice? If you are joking, Kvalinn, then it is a very poor joke. Now stand aside, so that this damned elf's head can be separated from her grudge bearing body." He then made another attempt to attack Delimira, which she blocked this time.

"Honored Elder." She spoke in Imperial, since she didn't speak Dwarven. "I don't know what you're saying, or if you understand me, but I have renounced the actions of my ancestors. You can attempt to strike out your grudges against them, I have nothing to do with them."

"What's the damned elf saying?" Elder Hunmarum shouted as he tried a few more swings with his impromptu weapon. "Elder Thrikrondromm! Help me take down this damned elf, and I'll forgive you for letting humans into my rune forge!"

Elder Thrikrondromm was watching the fight between his apprentice and mine while stroking his beard. Delimira was fighting with all the expertise that comes from long training sessions with Bekhi and Gerde, while Elder Hunmarum was swinging with all the finesse of a smith hammering a piece of iron. The only reason why the Elder was still in the fight, was because Delimira was fighting defensively.

"No." Elder Thrikrondromm's voice was quiet, but it still managed to be heard rumbling through the rune forge.

"No?" Elder Hunmarum paused in his attacks on Delimira. "No! Don't tell me you knew she was an elf when you allowed her into these mountains? Tell me you did not break one of the most ancient of our laws, and leave one of our most ancient grudges unanswered!"

"I did not leave the grudge unanswered." Elder Thrikrondromm said in the same grumbling tone he would use on a petulant student. "I simply left it until later."

"Later? There can be no 'later' when it comes to striking out the grudges of our ancestors! You should know that better than any dwarf. Or have you forgotten the pain and suffering your family endured at the hands of the damned elves, and their cursed magic?"

A look of pain flashed across Elder Thrikrondromm's face for a moment, but he furrowed his brows and seemed to stuff down the memories into the dark places of his mind. "I have not forgotten." He growled. "The fevered and hungry wails of my children and kin still ring in my ears every night, and my hatred of the elven race remains unabated, despite the centuries it has been since one crossed my path. But this one," He pointed toward Delimira dramatically. "This one has abandoned her kin, country, and traditions, all for the love of dwarven metal. I do not trust her, or even like her, but I cannot help but admire her dedication to her craft. Over the past few weeks, I have watched her work with my apprentice to make the weapons for the coming fight, and while she may have the instincts of a dwarf in working the steel, the fire in her burns as strongly as that of your rune forge. So for now, I will delay striking out my grudge against her kind against her."

Elder Hunmarum stood there in shock, sputtering swear words that would have gotten a hard R rating, if not an NC-17, if it had been in a movie. He eventually collected himself enough that he could swear coherently. "Damn you, Thrikrondromm! You've grown soft. You are no longer an Elder, but a toothless troll. Only able to wait helplessly for death, and the scorn from the ancestors when you arrive in their halls will be immeasurable. I vow on the fires of my forge, I will see you expelled from the Rune Smith's Guild for this offense!"

"You can do whatever you wish but mind your words, my former apprentice. When this fight is over, I intend to teach Kvalinn briefly, and then retreat from the world. The Mortal Realm is about to go through chaos and upheaval that will make the first demon lord look like a lover's quarrel, and I do not intend to be anywhere near the surface for it."

It can't be that bad. It's just a few dozen Japanese kids that got summoned to this world. Each with different celestial blessings and they all came from a troubled school… Ok, I amend my earlier statement, it could be that bad.

Elder Hunmarum seemed to be making the same mental calculations I had. Looking at the two summoned heroes as if suspecting them of being about to turn into demon lords on the spot, before glaring at Delimira as if she was the source of the chaos.

"No, I don't believe it will be these youths." Elder Thrikrondromm said in the tone of a teacher whose student is on the right track, but slightly off. "The empire summoned, in addition to these two otherworlders, at least forty others, that are now scattered throughout the world."

"Ancestor's beard!" Elder Hunmarum swore. "What madness possessed those fugacious humans to do something so irresponsible!"

"I suspect they attempted to merely try summoning one, like they have done before, but the gods must have decided to play a cruel trick on our world, and sent many more than usual."

"Um, Kvalinn." Tatsuki spoke up. He was still on guard in case Elder Hunmarum attacked either him or Delimira again, since his translation device didn't translate from Dwarven to Japanese. "What's going on? Is Mr. Hunmarum going to try to hit us with that hammer again?"

"An excellent question." Elder Thrikrondromm said after translating for Elder Hunmarum. "Are you going to continue your fruitless attempts to kill the elf and humans? Or will you do as I am, and put off the grudge until the green scum are sent back to their caves?"

This question caused the belligerent Elder to growl deeply, as he glared daggers at the two humans, and radiated pure bile and hatred towards Delimira. But, he eventually came to a decision.

"Out." He said, putting his hammer down, and intentionally turning his back from us. "Get out. I will not attempt to kill you today, but I refuse to have a damned elf, ill omened otherworlders, and those that shelter them in my house. The human armies arrived yesterday, go stay with them. May the ancestors watch us fight with pride."

"Very well. Everyone, pack up. We're leaving to fight with the humans." Elder Thrikrondromm herded everyone out of the rune forge, staying behind for a few minutes to privately speak with his former student while we packed.

"Kvalinn, will I be in trouble when we go back?" Miyata asked as she was helped into her leather armor. "I mean, I did kinda run away from them to come with you."

"Just stick with us and we'll take care of you." I answered. "The emperor needs your abilities too much to punish you now. After the battle, if we survive, he'll probably give you a slap on the wrist."

"Can I fight with the yankees? I'll be brave this time! No matter how many goblins attack."

Before I could answer, Tatsuki spoke up. "You call yourselves yankees? That's your adventuring party name?"

"We're Yankees!" Gerde chirped with a tired smile. She had worked hard over the past couple weeks, and the shouting and tense conversation in the rune forge had been the straw that broke the camel's back in her mental fortitude.

"I came across the word in an ancient tome." I said in a bluff, I didn't want to tell him that I was a reincarnation now. Maybe later. "According to the texts, it was a word that means bravery in some lost language."

"Huh, in my language, Yankee means something completely different." Tatsuki then explained that in Japanese, the word yankee roughly translates to petty rebel, or something close to that.

"Enough chatter." Elder Thrikrondromm interrupted the conversation on language differences, and gathered our attention. "If you are packed, we have a sword to deliver to the emperor. The goblins are just a day or two away, and we need rest before the battle, so we need to hurry to the human camp." He then led the way to the front door of the house, passing by Elder Hunmarum.

"Thrikrondromm. Whether the ancestors welcome you to their halls is no concern of mine, my halls forever remain closed to you." He then resolutely turned his back to Elder Thrikrondromm. This was pretty much the dwarven way of telling someone to take a long walk off a short pier and to never speak to them again. Cutting all ties, favors, and relationships with the other person. The ultimate F U that a dwarf could give another dwarf.

This clearly hurt Elder Thrikrondromm, after all, Elder Hunmarum had been his apprentice for decades, and a letter correspondent for centuries after that. But he took it with a nod, and exited the house and quickly paced towards where the humans had set up camp. I couldn't be sure, but he seemed to be walking suspiciously fast, as if he was making sure that no one could spot any tears forming in his eyes.