Chapter 162
Chapter 162
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 162
A moment later, four dwarves strode in with proud, unyielding steps.
Go Jin-cheon sat sprawled upon the Throne of Yeolje, his chin propped on one hand — a posture that meant his mood was scraping rock bottom.
"I am Lord Viol Hakun Stone."
"I am Great Chieftain Bera Den Stone."
"I am Great Chieftain Bera Dien Stone."
"I am Great Chieftain Bera Deuga Stone."
And with that, the lord and the great chieftains poured fuel on the fire. They introduced themselves as a form of greeting while standing rigid, without so much as lowering their heads.
The armed men behind Jin-cheon did not so much as twitch at the sight.
'Hmm.'
The dwarf lord Viol Hakun Stone swallowed a groan inwardly. Normally, such behavior was meant as a deliberate provocation, banking on the subordinates to erupt in anger — but the fact that there was no reaction whatsoever baffled him.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Jin-cheon's lips parted and a single word shot out.
"What do you want?"
"Hrrm."
Sounds of discomfort escaped the great chieftains standing behind the lord. But that was all. Had they not been the ones to commit the rudeness first?
The lord, Hakun Stone, opened his mouth.
"We have come to share life on one side of the Reganza Mountains."
"So?"
The conversation did not flow easily.
When Jin-cheon countered blankly, the great chieftains' faces kept reddening, and the lord, as if resolved to become more cautious, held his silence for a moment before carefully speaking again, unlike before.
"We are willing to provide your nation of Gauri with a certain quantity of weapons. With that, we would repay you who settled this land before us."
In short, he was saying: we will make you armaments, so keep your noses out of whatever we do here — whether we starve or feast.
That was the judgment of the dwarf leaders. Every dwarf they had brought with them was, for all practical purposes, a warrior collective superior to human soldiers. Besides the two thousand who had entered the city, roughly four thousand more stood ready in reserve.
They saw no reason a fledgling state would deliberately clash with them and court its own losses, and they figured voluntarily supplying weapons would suffice. Then he continued.
"Gauri may possess outstanding artisans, but we are many. It is hardly a disadvantageous bargain."
But Jin-cheon's answer to Lord Hakun Stone, who had delivered his words so evenly, was shorter than anything said up to that point.
"Leave."
In that instant, it was the dwarves who fell into consternation. They stared at Jin-cheon in disbelief, and then Great Chieftain Bera Den Stone asked him,
"......What do you mean?"
"Something wrong with your translation item? I said leave."
What kind of negotiation was this?
There had to be some push and pull, give and take. But Jin-cheon lacked such common sense. To the dwarves, who could not find words to continue, Jin-cheon added one more remark.
"Losing deal, winning deal — I refuse. Rest today, and by tomorrow, every last one of you will clear out of here."
Leaving only those words behind, Jin-cheon rose and walked out. The negotiations, cut brutally short, were already broken.
* * *
Dwarf Lord Viol Hakun Stone emerged wearing a look of pure stupefaction. He had no time to collect himself amid the commotion of his own clansmen and an all-too-familiar roar.
"Grooooaaaar!"
A howl.
They had spent their lives roaming only the deepest forests where monsters ceaselessly appeared, so they knew at once what that roar signified.
"Minotaur!"
A startled Hakun Stone shouted and began running toward the source, the great chieftains right behind him. At that, Hwain Stone and the two other dwarves following behind tried to call out and stop them, but they were already too far away.
"What now?"
"Who knows."
"We'll have to try persuading them."
As Hwain Stone stared blankly in the direction they had run and spoke, Mawin Stone and Galling Stone each added a word in turn, one after another.
That evening, the dwarf lord and the great chieftains, their minds utterly dazed, listened to the words of Hwain Stone, Mawin Stone, and Galling Stone.
The first thing they had seen when they rushed after the minotaur's cry was the creature's horns being sawed off. But it did not end there.
The sight of the Gauri people handling that minotaur left them even more dumbfounded. They were handling it as if it were livestock....... At the spectacle, the dwarves shuddered.
Hwain Stone, who had followed belatedly, took the speechless lord and great chieftains on a tour of Gauri (of sorts), and the scenes they witnessed had kept them in that dazed state ever since.
They were at a loss for words at the sight of monsters they themselves had fought desperately being handled like cattle.
The first news of these people had reached them five years ago. They had heard word intermittently since, but that had been simple matters — mountain-range explorations and brief notes about Gauri — and none of these facts had been included. No, even if they had heard these facts, they would not have believed them.
"Hah...... I led our entire clan here in desperation, and to think it has come to this."
The lord's lament followed. They had been that desperate, and they had taken things too lightly. Then a voice from one of the great chieftains offered the one saving grace.
"It is fortunate they bear no hostility. For now, we must leave this place and quietly establish a nest somewhere we will not clash with them."
"Yes, we must."
"Lord......."
At that moment, Galling Stone quietly spoke up. At his manner, one of the great chieftains asked with a puzzled look,
"Speak."
The eyes of the lord and the great chieftains turned to Galling Stone. He lowered his head and spoke feebly.
"You will have to leave the Reganza Mountains."
"What do you mean by that!"
At Galling Stone's single sentence, a great chieftain's roar erupted. But the Stone Trio merely kept their heads bowed.
* * *
"What of the matter I had you investigate?"
Gye Ung-sam, prostrate before Yeon Hwi-garam, let out a small sigh and began to answer his question.
"There is no movement yet, but as expected, they have left many traces. No matter how careful they were, how could thousands passing through leave no mark? If we found the traces, then those called dwarf hunters will surely have found them as well."
"As I thought."
At Ung-sam's report, Hwi-garam wore the look of a man who had expected as much. This was why Go Jin-cheon had summarily driven the dwarves out without preamble or follow-up.
Five years ago, the Dragon Fear had shaken the continent. The sight of a dragon flying through the sky had even been witnessed by the people of the Haian Kingdom, which bordered the Reganza Mountains.
Dragons remained the stuff of legend, but conversely, their existence had rekindled wariness toward the Reganza Mountains. And so, at the time, the dragon's emergence had instead served as a shield that allowed Gauri to develop and remain secure.
The various nations were informed of this and grew cautious, but human forgetfulness causes even such facts to fade from memory.
A thought that anyone has entertained at least once.
'Surely not?'
This phrase "surely not" is used in many ways.
The gambler chasing a windfall, thinking maybe just this once — or the thief dreaming of a perfect crime, telling himself surely I won't be the one who gets caught.
From small matters to great, "surely not" collapses before human greed. This was what worried Hwi-garam and Jin-cheon. And they knew full well that the same principle applied to themselves.
'Surely no one would enter such a perilous place?'
If he indulged such a thought, Jin-cheon too would be committing a grave error from his position of responsibility over a nation. That was why he had sent soldiers to confirm. And the confirmation showed that traces remained — more than enough to make dwarf hunters think, surely not and perhaps.
"First, conceal the traces as much as possible, and for the time being, drive monsters toward the routes they used to pass through. Convey orders equivalent to a national state of emergency to the two Eulji Taedaesajas."
"As commanded!"
Hwi-garam issued the order resolutely, then walked with a heavy heart to meet Jin-cheon, while Ung-sam rushed out to deliver the command to Eulji Uru and Eulji Buru.
The dwarf lord Viol Hakun Stone and the remaining great chieftains walked away with devastated expressions.
Having heard the reasons they must leave the Reganza Mountains from the Stone Trio, they had no alternative.
There were several reasons. The first was the monster colonies. The Reganza Mountains, already infamous for their ferocious monsters, had grown even more dangerous. After Gauri had established itself, the monsters defeated in territorial struggles had formed natural walls along Gauri's outer perimeter.
The dwarves had entered by following paths the Gauri people had concealed, but beyond those paths lay nothing but a sea of monsters.
The second problem was the dragons.
The vivid testimony of the Stone Trio, who remembered the events of five years ago, struck them with even greater despair. They themselves had heard of the dragon's appearance, of course. But Gauri's continued existence meant they had escaped the dragon's wrath. The dwarves had thought that meant they would be safe as well — yet the Stone Trio's account said otherwise.
The dragon had granted its acknowledgment. That was why Gauri remained. Many other stories passed between them, but that alone was enough to plunge the dwarves into despair.
Lastly, all the accounts of the entity called Go Jin-cheon and Gauri's military might left them with a vague conviction that force would avail them nothing. To put it bluntly, this was a man who, if you came at him strong, would crush you even harder.
Archery surpassing that of elves, master-level existences said to be perfecters of the sword, and countless other warriors of ability...... and the presence of an Archwizard, among other things....... They keenly felt the disparity in power. And so, as a final resort, they were now walking to throw themselves upon the mercy of the Titan Clan — Eulji Uru and Buru.
When they arrived before the great manor where Eulji Uru and Buru resided and stated their business, one of the soldiers guarding the entrance nodded, told them to wait, and ran inside.
"Does something seem off to you, my lord?"
"Hm."
One of the great chieftains surveyed the surroundings and quietly spoke to Hakun Stone.
Something was definitely off. Compared to when they had come calling that morning, a tension had begun to hang in the air. This place, which had seemed entirely peaceful even as they made their way here, had suddenly filled with soldiers moving to and fro.
One of the great chieftains' faces shifted color, turning ashen pale, and he spat out,
"Could it be......."
"It is not that. If it were, they would not move troops so conspicuously."
Having seen right through the great chieftain's worry, Hakun Stone calmed his unease. The great chieftain's fear was that the Gauri army might be mobilizing to seize them.
Just then, a furious bellow erupted from within.
"You sons of bitches, where do you think you are, coming here!"
At that voice, thick with killing intent, the dwarves — lord included — could not help but tremble. Soon, the owner of the voice appeared, his face flushed red. A massive great axe was slung across his back. It was Eulji Buru.
"O Titan Clan, calm your wrath."
As the lord and great chieftains flusteredly bowed their heads, Buru took a translation item from a soldier, slipped it onto his finger, and spoke.
"What'd you just say?"
"Your wrath......."
The great chieftain behind bent his waist once more and began to speak, but his voice did not continue for long.
Fwooosh!
An immense pressure of wind.
The great axe hanging at Buru's back carved through the air and slammed down into the ground.
BOOM!
"Hurk!"
"Gah!"
Not only the dwarves but even the surrounding soldiers were so startled they could not find words.