Ch.152Dwarf (4)

Around the time when Lord Camille de Alzar gained his regenerative ability in a dream.

Magni Brunz, the dwarf who had joined the village as a dependent, was actually at a loss about this unfamiliar experience he was facing for the first time in his life.

Partly because he had spent 45 years living in the shadow of his father, a Rune Lord candidate and current Lord, but Magni also found this situation—where he wasn’t being forced to do anything specific—incredibly awkward.

While a guest temporarily stays relying unilaterally on the host’s goodwill, a dependent goes a step further, residing in a status between outsider and family member.

The concept of a dependent is to stay at the owner’s residence in exchange for status and accommodation, while appropriately helping out as needed based on one’s own judgment.

And it was precisely at this “appropriately helping out” part that Magni Brunz completely froze.

Of course, Magni wasn’t entirely ignorant of the ways of the world—in just five years he would be considered an adult by dwarf standards—and he had various experiences working in the city at his father’s recommendation.

He had worked as a miner in underground mines, managed mushroom farms (one of the dwarves’ staple foods), and even spent about six months as a temporary apprentice under a brewer.

He had even experienced a year of preliminary service in the dwarf army, serving as a scout. He was by no means ignorant of the world, but rather, it was precisely because of these experiences that Magni Brunz didn’t know what to do.

There was a vast difference between choosing from given options while under his father’s subtle protection in the familiar society created by his own race, and having to build those options from scratch by himself.

Magni Brunz had finally obtained the very freedom that some might desperately desire, yet for him, this freedom was nothing but a burden.

That’s why, after wasting several days just fishing, he finally discovered, quite by chance, one of the things he could do in this village.

“….Good heavens.”

“What’s wrong?”

“This… this piece of junk is what they call a cart…?”

He was looking at a handcart that, by dwarf standards, was of such poor quality it was barely better than the trash carts used by elderly waste collectors.

In truth, this handcart had been made by Lord Camille de Alzar using his “Goblin Craftsmanship” trait, and could actually be considered excellent in both quality and construction.

It had been designed with a simple structure so anyone could easily make it, while modularization and standardization allowed for quick repairs if damaged.

It might have seemed like the best possible handcart that villagers could realistically make and use, but to Magni Brunz—indeed, to any dwarf—it was absolutely not.

In short, this handcart had plenty of room for improvement.

“Uh, um…? What are you doing?”

“Move aside! Did you really think you could use such a thing safely?!”

Though his words sounded like those of a thug, Magni Brunz practically seized the cart and modified its structure on the spot….

“It’s become lighter…!”

“Hmph! You were so focused on productivity that the functionality was a mess! That thing would injure you if it tipped over!”

Despite Magni Brunz’s irritated complaints and grumbling in typical dwarf fashion, the handcart he had improved was undeniably better in every way than before.

He had simply improved the structure without compromising productivity, while reducing the weight burden so it could carry more cargo without issues.

The structural changes even included safety features to prevent injury if the cart tipped over—truly a testament to dwarven engineering.

“Oh my, thank you…!”

“…It’s nothing.”

After demonstrating the improved cart design, when the elderly human—older even by dwarf standards—bowed his head in gratitude, Magni felt embarrassed and responded gruffly, while feeling something stir in his heart.

Most people would call this feeling pride.

※ ※ ※

After that day’s experience, Magni watched as one by one, the village’s handcarts were modified to match his improved design.

At first, he simply felt joy at seeing people happy with something he had created, but as time passed, seeing his improved handcarts used throughout the entire village became a very novel experience for him.

Moreover, despite the considerable number of pack horses in this frontier village, handcarts were still used more frequently than wagons for moving smaller loads.

As a result, the changes to the village brought about by these improved handcarts became quite noticeable, and witnessing this with his own eyes made Magni’s heart sparkle with excitement.

For someone who had lived his entire life without any great purpose or meaning, a dwarf who had never once been praised for his abilities because he was surrounded by dwarves several times more capable than himself, seeing something change and improve through his own hands was transformative.

Even an ordinary human would naturally feel confidence and similar emotions in such a situation, but for someone who had lived his entire life being compared to his “great” father, this was like a drug.

This first-ever recognition of his abilities after a lifetime of being disregarded fulfilled his rock-bottom self-esteem, and this fulfilled self-esteem gave Magni enough courage to act on his own….

After spending a full day carefully examining every corner of the village that he had previously just glanced at, Magni finally realized what only he could do in this village.

The village landscape that he had previously dismissed was actually full of things that were not just in need of improvement, but desperately so.

In other words, this dwarf wanted to become an isekai knowledge cheat.

…Written like that, it might sound rather pathetic, but what differentiated Magni Brunz from those isekai high school students was that he actually possessed a variety of practical, real-world knowledge.

He had broad engineering knowledge thanks to his dwarven racial bonus, plus a wide range of shallow but broad knowledge gained through various experiences.

Of course, this alone would hardly compare to the skills of proper dwarves found in any decent city, but then again, this village wasn’t even close to being such a city, was it?

Although several special circumstances had converged, at its core this was still a frontier village, which meant that even Magni’s somewhat clumsy knowledge and experience were received as extremely valuable.

As a result, once Magni began actively working as a dependent who “knew what to do,” the somewhat awkward village began to change one piece at a time under his touch.

More stable four-wheeled carts and wagons; the introduction of simple metallurgy and construction techniques that could be used even in a rural village like this; the creation of tools like cranes; improvements to the structure of watchtowers and walls.

Even craftsmen who might normally react irritably to outsiders interfering were captivated by these things they had never encountered before, and it seemed no one would stand in Magni’s way.

After building up several successful experiences and gaining firm confidence in his abilities, Magni now reached out to challenge a large-scale project.

Specifically, to professionalize the quarry and open-pit salt mine that had until now been operated in a haphazard manner.

In the northeastern forest, now under the control of the “Master of the Small Forest” chimera, there was a small quarry and salt mine, but until now, the operation of these two had been truly improvised.

Whenever the village storehouse ran low on stone or salt, they would send a few laborers on duty to “collect” what had fallen to the ground, then load it onto a wagon and send it to the village.

Of course, when there was nothing left on the ground after collection, a mid-level warrior with some spare time would go with a hammer and chisel to produce some “fragments.”

With resources already stretched thin, they had been collecting stone and salt using this crude method, but how could a dwarf who lived underground possibly look favorably upon something so embarrassing to even call mining?

“Th-this…!!”

Magni Brunz, who nearly collapsed while grabbing the back of his neck in shock, suppressed the vile old-timer stirring in his heart and was in the midst of various operations to transform this “collection” activity into proper mining.

First, fencing off the quarry area and creating a proper environment. Second, building a workers’ rest area and stone storage facility nearby. He even taught techniques to the village’s only stonemason to standardize stone processing.

Additionally, noticing that the cliff above the open-pit salt mine was on the verge of collapse, he undertook a major project to cut away the cliff and create a shelter that could serve as a fortress in emergencies.

He even devised techniques to cut stone into bricks of uniform size, which meant the lone stonemason no longer had to spend all day just cutting stone bricks.

After showcasing his isekai (technically correct) cheat technology (dwarven technology is cheat-level) rampage (he did go wild), he was now planning to do something about the wretched grain porridge they called beer, but…

“…Magni Brunz.”

“What is it, Lord Alzar?”

“Regarding alcoholic beverages… they are deeply connected to tax issues. So please discuss this with me in advance.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The moment tax-related talk emerged, Magni understood all too easily.

After all, alcohol tax was a serious matter.