Chapter 521: Digital Media Guild.
“Hesti-chan!”
When Mom said “come,” she really just meant that I should switch which subspace room my [Room] portal would connect to, while she followed along through the doorways inside. I didn’t really “come” in the literal sense due to Eltharion’s rules banning me from my own subspace.
As such, I could feel the wafting heat from when it exited the subspace, caressing my face and hair, making me conscious of how much longer it had become. The sound of metal being forged into shape was accompanied by the sizzling noise of artificers performing their craft, all while the background was being filled with the clanking music of an active blacksmith workshop’s towering machinery and blazing flames, feasting on the life-giving charcoal.
However, this was a dwarven workshop, and that meant that, along with the smoke and iron-tasting air, the overwhelming scent of alcohol was present, a constant struggle for me to endure. Especially since, with runesmithing, dwarven liquor was also part of the creation process, so evaporated ale and mead stunk up the place to the point I jerked my head back, away from the stench escaping the portal.
It’s worse than usual! I noticed. Our party’s blacksmith, Grimnir, had always been pretty mindful of the amount of alcohol he used within the subspace, so this was a serious sensory overload for me.
So, the question was laid bare. Why? What was different from usual?
Well, similar to the smell, the chattering argument between multiple dwarves might be a hint to our workshop’s current state. Might …
Regardless of that very peculiar fact, considering how Grimnir usually worked, what also surprised me was the fact two new, but familiar, faces were here as well. A boy and a girl—well, a man and a woman, at this point—along with Ellaine instantly noticed me as Mom entered the smithy, waving at me as they rushed over.
It had been over a year since I met the students, and similar to how my appearance had changed during my hibernation, so did theirs. Well, it seemed I would start out easy, as the first two of Saori’s students I would meet again after our battle in Aureolis were Haruka and Daichi. Two of Aurora’s artisans, and also the two people I wanted to meet the most amongst them … Due to the whole recorder thing, of course.