His Father Was Really Short

Logically speaking, this small village with fewer than a thousand inhabitants shouldn't be very large.

Moreover, Hai Na's house is not located on the edge of the village, but in the very center of the village, in the best location.

Iver and the others followed Hai Na, and it didn't feel like they had gone very far... but when they arrived at Hai Na's house, they looked up and found that the moon was already high in the night sky.

—Before they knew it, it was already late at night! Iver and Sherlock exchanged a glance, then looked at Lily, who also looked surprised, and confirmed to each other that the timeline here was in disarray.

However, all they can currently confirm is that this chaos is inevitable, but they cannot analyze the specific patterns within it—the only thing they can be certain of is that Hai Na, as a local, is completely unaware of anything unusual, while they, as outsiders, can all sense it...

As they approached, light emanated from Hai Na's blacksmith shop. The shop was brightly lit, but no conversation could be heard from outside.

"Mom, I'm home."

Hai Na pushed open the tightly closed door of the blacksmith's shop. Her voice sounded somewhat tired, not as excited as when she had just returned home.

The lights were on outside, but no one was there. Only some forged weapons hung haphazardly on the wall, while large quantities of pliers, kitchen knives, iron hooks, shovels, saws, sickle heads, and other tools, along with fragments of iron from these tools, were scattered haphazardly on tables or racks like harvested wheat.

Some of them were already rusty, but instead of removing them, they were left there with the other tools.

Pieces of pig iron were piled haphazardly in the corner, while cast iron ingots were neatly stacked in a pyramid shape on the ground in another corner.

Hai Na led them past the front desk, preparing to head towards the back room.

But as soon as Sherlock entered, he sensed something was wrong.

Why is it so cold in this room? He then looked around and stared in surprise.

—Why is your furnace indoors?

This left Sherlock stunned for a moment, unable to understand why for a long time.

Therefore, when passing by the furnace and the smelting furnace, Sherlock even reached out to test the temperature inside.

It's ice-cold.

Not only was there no fuel added at all, but even the ashes had been specially cleared out— Sherlock touched it with his hand, but surprisingly, he didn't feel much ash.

Sherlock raised an eyebrow and secretly made a note of it.

Nowadays, there are hardly any blacksmiths left on Glass Island; blast furnaces and steam hammers have taken over their work. Not only are they more efficient, but the ironware produced is also of better and more consistent quality.

The blacksmiths who are still active today are the extraordinary craftsmen who can forge Extraordinary Weapon, and the rural blacksmiths who make cheap farm tools for farmers.

The rarer the profession, the more it piqued Sherlock's interest. He had specifically studied this area.

—It's one thing to heat a furnace, but can a furnace be turned off?

These craftsmen are not blacksmiths in the traditional sense, but rather "blacksmiths," Extraordinary Profession from the Dedication Path. They can summon the Fire Essence that accompany them—extraordinary creatures raised by the Flame Angel of the Dedication Path.

These Fire Essence, possessing the intelligence of children, can help them with extraordinary crafting—melting materials that are difficult to melt, or adding mystical materials that cannot be incorporated into the blank through conventional forging techniques.

Even if you become a blacksmith like that, you still can't get the corresponding recipe. A blacksmith without a recipe is useless.

Therefore, the profession of "blacksmith" and its upgraded version "magician" are usually passed down through a single lineage—while the magician who forges elven short swords in Avalon is an elf from the Theocracy, and his disciples for generations are all native Avalon.

This was one of the aids sent by the Theocracy when Avalon was founded.

However, even if Sherlock doesn't understand blacksmithing... he does understand logic.

He sensed something was wrong from a logical standpoint—

Since there is pig iron in this room, it means that the blacksmith here is not using finished cast iron bought from the city, but rather pig iron smelted from iron ore. In other words, this furnace is not just for show, but is actually in use.

However, a furnace needs a sufficiently high temperature to produce high-quality iron.

This civilian furnace is not the kind of blast furnace found in factories, and these ordinary blacksmiths are not superhumans—they cannot summon Fire Essence. Therefore, in order to raise the temperature of the furnace to the point where it can produce iron of the required hardness, a long period of preheating is required, and the temperature is gradually increased through heat accumulation.

This requires consuming a lot of fuel—in other words, a lot of money.

Once the stove goes out, it requires a long preheating process to get it back to a usable temperature. This consumes a lot of money and time.

Therefore, the forges inside the blacksmith's shop, as well as the furnaces outside, are generally kept burning. So as soon as you enter, you can immediately feel the intense heat.

That's why the furnace had to be placed outdoors—because the temperature of the furnace was too high, and placing it indoors would not only cause severe discomfort but also pose a fire hazard.

Upon seeing this, a thought immediately popped into Sherlock's mind—

Hai Na's father... is a superhuman? Only a superhuman capable of summoning fire spirits wouldn't need such a crude method of warming up...

But this puzzled Sherlock.

—Your family has Inheritors blacksmithing, so why did you travel all the way to Avalon to learn it?

Wouldn't your family's magician's recipe be more valuable to inherit?

and...

Does Hai Na have the adaptability for Dedication Path? I don't see it. Or is she not her parents' biological child?

Sherlock was filled with doubt.

As soon as Hai Na entered the inner room, the middle-aged man's rude scolding voice immediately came. "Your mother told you to go and greet the guests, why are you out playing until night and still not back! Don't you know what's going on in the village after dark?!"

Hai Na pouted, looking a little aggrieved, and leaned against the wall near the door without saying a word.

She was also very upset, but couldn't refute it—because, in retrospect, she did feel she had done something wrong. But she also felt somewhat confused...because she genuinely didn't know what she had done to cause this outcome.

Following Hai Na, Iver also came in.

This was the first time Iver had met Hai Na's parents.

But after just one meeting, Iver was immediately surprised.

Iver's words came to an abrupt halt. "Hello, Uncle..."

... So short.

Lily was also taken aback for a moment, and Sherlock couldn't help but exclaim "Huh?"

—Because Hai Na's father was a dwarf! He had gray, marble-like skin, a pure white beard, and curly hair. He had a large nose, large ears, and small eyes. He was currently sitting on that beautiful, deep red sofa, his legs swinging back and forth like a mischievous child.

... This is exactly the standard dwarf.

This was also the first time Iver had ever seen dwarves in person.

The only incongruity lies in the extremely hostile relationship between elves and dwarves. Elves generally avoid dwarf-dominated nations, and conversely, dwarves are rarely seen in elf-dominated nations.

Avalon is clearly the latter— the Avalon, who have benefited too much, are overly attentive, even more so than the Elves themselves.

The elves merely despised and were hostile towards the dwarves, but the Avalon went a step further—they expelled all the dwarves from the country as a gesture of goodwill towards the Theocracy.

Anyway, there weren't many dwarves in Avalon to begin with, so this pose is totally worth it.

Currently, a large number of dwarves are gathered in the Eternal Frost Empire north of Avalon. Eagle Cape Village is located in the northwest corner of Avalon, so it's indeed possible that dwarves might sneak over there...

This also explains why Hai Na, despite having the "blacksmith" heritage, still chose the official path of the extraordinary.

Because the Old Blacksmith who could pass on his legacy to Hai Na wasn't a legitimate blacksmith from the Theocracy at all. He was an unlicensed, and most likely illegal, superhuman—not only was the legacy he possessed illegal, but he himself was illegal! —That is, Hai Na's father! I had insomnia, got up in the middle of the night to finish a chapter, and then got sleepy...I'll post it now!

I'll write Chapter Two after I wake up from my afternoon nap.