Danjon ni Deai wo Motomeru no ha Machigatteiru Darou ka - Familia Chronicle - Volume 2 - Chapter 3.2

2
There was nothing they wanted. 
The brothers were all individually skilled enough that they could make a huge variety of things with their capable hands, and they used the excuse of being prums to give up on most things. 
The four Gulliver brothers were born in an industrial city. Their parents died early, but with what knowledge the four of them could muster, it was possible, albeit difficult, to make a living. 
Their faces were identical, and their personalities…well, they were pretty much the same, too. The eldest had it slightly worse perhaps, but it was not like they did not get along with each other. 
In order to make a living, the Gulliver brothers naturally became craftsmen. They were always covered in soot, wearing aprons and thick gloves. When they walked home after going shopping at the end of the day, the four of them often looked up at the evening sky muddied by the black smoke rising from all the workshops’ smokestacks large and small and thought, That looks disgusting. 
Having become craftsmen, the four brothers were able to make most anything a client might order if they worked together—beautiful bracelets, splendid earrings, and even tasteful gold- and silverwork, too. They never realized it themselves, but they had started to become known as the greatest craftsman in the city, the phantom master craftsman Gulliver, as if they were all just one person. 
There was a reason they were called “phantom,” though. Some crazy human or goddess or—anyway, someone with their own dangerous ideas tried to kidnap Alfrik because he had a cute face or something, so after that they did their best not to go walking around outside. After all, if someone tried to kidnap Alfrik, then that meant the other brothers who all looked exactly the same might be targets, too. They started holing up in a workshop carved out of a cliff that was little more than just a cave. Even if they were prums, they still did not want to have anything stolen from them. 
Their workshop in the cliff was always dim. Without their naturally good vision as prums, they would not have been able to live there at all. 
However, the four brothers always knew what the others were thinking. When they called out to each other, it was mostly just grunts like “Hey” or “Uh” and the responses that came back were just as short, “Yeah” or “Sure” and the like. Nothing that could really be called a conversation. Horrifyingly (amazingly?), there were times where they would go a whole day without saying anything because of their mutual understanding. 
They just quietly went about their lives, filling the orders that came from the dwarf master who was their intermediary. But of course, the better the craftsman, the farther the craftsman’s name would spread. The name Gulliver started to make waves even in the surrounding cities. So if you take a long enough view of it, they had actually been the masters of their fate. 
“Were you the ones who made this necklace?” 
One day, a goddess visited their workshop carved into the cliff. She had happened across one of the master craftsman Gulliver’s works by chance, taken an interest in its gorgeous handiwork, and tracked down the place where the phantom brothers lived. 
The four brothers froze. They had literally never laid eyes on such a beautiful being before in their lives, but it was as much because she had appeared at their dirty workshop and home. They awkwardly prepared tea for the goddess, and the goddess giggled as she watched them stiffly move around the workshop. 
While the four brothers sat in their chairs, engrossed by her beauty, the goddess explained why she was there. 
She talked about how she had a residence in the Labyrinth City, but from time to time, she would leave the city and go out in search of encounters—it was not until later that they learned that what she was looking for from those encounters was talented people the likes of which could not be found in Orario, in order to find souls suitable to be her Einherjar. And this time, she had happened to come across one of the Gulliver brothers’ works during her journey and had taken an interest in its creator because of its wonderful construction. To have such an appraisal from such a beautiful goddess was an honor, of course, but they were caught between confusion and a desire to dance for joy. And if one of them lost his head, the other three would, too. The goddess’s eyes narrowed as she smiled at the sight of the amusing brothers’ telepathic link working even in times like that. As if she were embracing the radiance of their souls. 
“Do you not have any interest in the world outside?” 
The four brothers glanced at one another before responding to the goddess’s question. 
“We do. And we’ve thought before that we would like to go on a trip outside.” 
“But we’re just prums and not yet master craftsmen, either.” 
“If we just up and left, we could never make it up to our master, who has always found jobs for us.” 
“And our dwarf master would surely never give us permission to leave.” 
The dwarf master who had walled them off was not a very good person. Recognizing their talent, he kept them hidden away and treated them unfairly because they were prums. Unfortunately, perhaps because of their own low evaluation of themselves as prums, the Gulliver brothers did not realize just how small their world was and how unfairly they were being treated. 
After they finished, a smile slowly spread across the goddess’s face. 
“I would like a necklace made by you. Could you please do that for me?” 
They leaped to their feet, readily accepting her request. When asked how long they would need, they responded, filled with determination. Five days, they said. No we’ll get it done in four! 
After she left the workshop, the brothers held hands and danced a little rondo. 
Someone wanted us specifically! 
She thought so highly of our skill! 
Not just anyone! A goddess as beautiful as that! 

Who knew such a wonderful thing could happen! 
The prums were not greedy. In fact, they were utterly unselfish. They were so pure that the goddess’s praise alone satisfied them so much they might have died. That was why they did not realize that they were always being exploited by such a greedy person. 
Left to themselves, they might have never stopped dancing, but once the eldest brother spoke up, they immediately started work on the necklace. They used the precious gold that they had been holding on to for a special item for the casting, and they concentrated and poured their all into a delicate design. Sure they were creating their ultimate masterpiece, they decided to name it Bringar. 
Four days later. 
They were in high spirits, but the one to visit their workshop was not the goddess but their dwarven master. 
“You guys are free to go now.” 
Huh? Doubt was visible on their faces as a lecherous grin spread across the dwarf’s face. 
“That goddess offered me a better deal than keeping you. Four nights’ worth, one for each of ya. Ha-ha-ha! I could die a happy dwarf now.” 
The goddess had approached the dwarf for negotiations. She had wanted them to be released. And what the rapacious dwarf had wanted in return was not money or prestige but the goddess herself. 
At that time, the Gulliver brothers, all four of them, felt a knot forming in their stomachs. Their minds went blank as a single desire consumed them. Without exchanging any words or signaling anything to each other, they dragged the dwarf into their lair with perfect coordination and butchered him. 
Four murderous impulses combined into one in order to erase the wretched scum that had defiled that beautiful goddess. 
They raised a fearsome roar from their tiny bodies as they stabbed the dwarf, who should have been stronger than them, over and over and continued to pummel him with hammers and other smithing tools, paying no heed to the dwarf’s pained cries as they allowed their rage to take control of them. 
The prums certainly were unselfish. However, they were by no means harmless. Their small bodies bore a potential befitting brave warriors that only the goddess had noticed. 
“Quit it, Alfrik!” 
“How much more broken can he get?!” 
“Even we’re getting grossed out!” 
“Shut up, idiots! I’ll never forgive this scummy piece of shit! I’m gonna murder him! This isn’t over until there’s nothing left of him! Not even his soul! He still hasn’t suffered nearly enough yet for what he did!” 
“““S-sorry!””” 
And in the midst of that fray, the rage of the eldest brother, Alfrik, was beyond control. They had always been together, but his younger brothers had never known just how intense his wrath could be until that day. He just kept tenaciously hacking away at the body of their master, who had long since succumbed to his horrific wounds. From that day on, the younger brothers swore to never truly enrage their older brother, who was normally left holding the short straw. 
“You killed him?” 
After it was all over and their fury had passed, the goddess appeared at their workshop, and seeing the walls of the cavern stained crimson red, she looked sad. 
“Spending a night with a boring man is a cheap price to pay to get my hands on you.” 
And then, as the brothers hung their heads, the goddess smiled. 
“Because what I really wanted…was you.” 
The brothers wept. They bawled shamefully, like children. It was something they had never felt since they had lost their parents: the love of another. The goddess’s love was equal for the four of them and was such that she had not hesitated at offering herself in order to have them. 
The Gulliver brothers swore allegiance to her. In order to repay the goddess’s divine will that had spent four nights with that rotten filth for their sakes, they became her followers. 
There was nothing that they desired. 
But that day, a lust for her favor was born. 
The prums who had been so unselfish became covetous, wishing for one single thing: 
That one love, and nothing else.