Chapter 163
Chapter 163
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 163
A long trench had been gouged at the dwarves' feet with a deafening crash. It was large enough to bury all four dwarves with room to spare.
No one spoke. The dwarves were stunned speechless by the result of a single axe-blow. Buru's fury lashed out at them.
"I done dug your graves for you, so get your sorry hides in 'em!"
"Why such wrath...?"
They had no idea what was happening. Pressed down by Buru's killing intent, they barely forced the words out, but his bloodlust did not subside.
"You still don't get it? These miserable bastards—if they meant to come, they should've come quiet. What's the idea, the whole pack of you swarming in? That head on your shoulders just for show? Get out! Right now! Before I bury you here or rip your heads off and stuff 'em!"
With that final outburst, Buru turned and stormed off, still fuming. The dwarves could not collect themselves as they watched his back. Then another voice cut in behind them.
"You a pack of fools? No matter how careful you are, with thousands moving, you think humans wouldn't notice? Even begging them to take us in wouldn't be enough, and you called it a trade with His Majesty? You think we're pushovers? If I'd been there, I'd have put an arrow square in every forehead! Just let trouble break out. I'll kill every last one of you. Not a single one left alive!"
Eulji Uru's ice-cold voice followed Buru's and hammered them all over again. When they saw Uru run after Buru, they finally grasped their mistake.
"Surely the humans... wouldn't come here...."
One of the great chieftains spoke, his voice trembling. But Hakun Stone dropped his head and muttered in a voice of utter despair.
"We, who know human greed better than anyone, have made a grave mistake."
"Then what of our tribe's fate...?"
Staring into the lightless sky, the Lord felt endless hopelessness.
"Great Chieftains, summon the tribal chieftains. Now. At once."
"Understood."
They had no time, either. Once this night passed, their fate was exile. Hakun Stone's shoulders were growing heavier.
* * *
The people watching Gauri soldiers move about busily had unease written on their faces.
Seven years of peace.
For those from South Roselin or the northerners, it had been even shorter, but the time they had lived under the shield of Gauri was peace itself.
Especially the people of Gauri: those who had fled monsters and kingdoms with death at their heels; those dragged along amid the devastation of war; those who had come seeking refuge from persecution.
They knew the desperation for peace and freedom, and they knew full well how much their nation was doing for them now. So when they suddenly saw soldiers moving, the unease only deepened.
"What's going on...?"
An old man's voice, laced with worry. Around him, villagers had stopped work and were watching with anxious eyes.
"They say it's nothing much."
The answer that suddenly reached their ears made them prick up. Everyone turned at once toward the speaker. Perhaps because every eye had fallen on him, the young man scratched his head and smiled, a bit awkward.
A middle-aged woman asked him.
"You know what's happening?"
The great hall fell silent.
Viol Hakun Stone, who had been lying prostrate, was utterly stunned. He had only now realized his blunder: he had regarded the man before him, Go Jin-cheon, as just another human chieftain.
Hakun looked at the frozen great chieftains and tribal chieftains.
'Has dwarven pride changed this much?'
They were no different from humans.
Worrying only for their own safety, prized for their peerless craft and dragged off as slaves, somewhere along the way they had learned to survive by their skills alone—turning a blind eye to the danger of another race.
It was shameful.
They had come to resemble the very humans they so reviled for their greed. In truth, long ago, there had been a time when they got along well with humans.
The dwarves' tribulation began the moment they stood by and watched the ancient people fall. Back then, only the Titan Clan had taken the side of the ancients. But that clan had disappeared, and without its shield, the rest were merely craftsmen with skilled hands.
After the ancients had disappeared, humans treated them well. But as the continental wars dragged on and left nations impoverished, humans chose an easier path.
Slavery.
Exploitation.
Regret welled in Hakun Stone's eyes. His gaze fell on the man standing there, his anger still visible.
Hakun asked.
"What do we appear to be in your eyes?"
"Fools."
Hakun Stone's head dipped as if in acknowledgment.
"Setting that aside, what do you see?"
"Old creatures with good strength."
A quiet smile began to spread at the corner of Hakun Stone's mouth.
"Nothing more?"
"Nothing."
Only then did Hakun Stone understand. The man before him did not see them as dwarves. He saw them simply as living beings. In his eyes, humans and dwarves looked the same.
Hakun Stone turned to the great chieftains and tribal chieftains as though he had reached a decision. They, too, had felt the same thing from the exchange between Go Jin-cheon and Hakun Stone.
"Will you follow my judgment?"
"We shall follow the Lord's will."
The Lord was the wisest among them. When they bowed their heads and declared they would follow his will, Hakun Stone smiled with satisfaction. Then he looked to Jin-cheon for the final gamble.
"Your Majesty."
"You still have words left?"
Jin-cheon's eyes, as if he had suppressed his anger during their exchange, were now like calm waves. Hakun Stone's mouth opened slightly, then hesitated. Then, as though he had steeled himself, his lips parted.
"Please accept our tribe as people of Gauri."
The great chieftains and tribal chieftains stared wide-eyed at the Lord's back. But one by one, they knelt and bowed their heads.
"......."
Silence filled the great hall.
Jin-cheon looked over them slowly, then began to speak.
"You have made two mistakes."
His voice was flat and dry, devoid of any emotion.
"First, you took actions that could have endangered the people of Gauri."
"I acknowledge it."
Hakun Stone answered.
"Second, you tried to buy your freedom."
Hakun Stone and the other dwarves raised their heads.
"The people of Gauri know a simple way to win freedom. They fight for it. They defend it with battle. See that you learn that, from now on."
Leaving those words behind, Jin-cheon vanished from before them. And a new people had settled.
* * *
After the dwarves withdrew, Go Jin-cheon and Dae Mu-deok spread out a map and were exchanging opinions.
"This section is progressing slowly, you say?"
"That is correct, Your Majesty."
At Mu-deok's report, Jin-cheon nodded and pressed a finger to one spot on the map.
"Leave them to the mine development since they'll handle that. We can put them to work at the mountain-fortress construction site here, and the fortress worksite over there."
"Indeed. Judging by the ability Hwain Stone and the other two dwarves showed when they previously joined the construction, they will certainly be a great help."
"As soon as their living quarters are assigned, throw every last one of them into the construction work. They must first receive punishment for their wrongdoing."
"Understood."
Inside the private chamber, secret discussions between Jin-cheon and Mu-deok continued.
* * *
A soldier yanked the leather rope taut in his hand, and a roar shook the mountain range.
Mwoooooo!
A cry full of pain.
The minotaur bellowed at the ache shooting through the nose-ring driven into its snout. It moved its massive legs and lumbered forward. The boulder hitched behind it scraped along the ground as it shifted.
Craaack!
A whip split the air and smacked against a blue-gray back, raising a sharp sound.
"Squee-squeak!"
"Get moving!"
Crack! Crack!
Orcs scurried, feet thudding, as the wagon rolled along. Heaped high upon it were rocks and chunks of stone.
"......."
This was the scene unfolding before the eyes of the Dwarf Lord Viol Hakun Stone and the dwarves.
A fortress-construction site where walls were rising unlike anything they had ever seen. In Hakun Stone's mind, Jin-cheon's voice echoed again.
'I give you a chance to wash away your sins. You will now bear the shield of Gauri!'
'The chance His Majesty the Yeolje has granted—I shall see it through and repay him without fail!'
'I trust you!'
The exchange from two days past.
But now, the emotion of that day—when he had been trusted without condition—crumbled to dust. Hakun Stone felt the sweat running down his spine and sensed, with a deep certainty, that his own decision had set something terribly wrong into motion.
They were standing now before the mountain-fortress construction site.
"What're you doin'! Get movin', quick!"
"Y-yes!"
"Let's go!"
The supervisor of the dwarves as they scattered hastily toward the work was none other than the Titan clansman, Eulji Buru.
A dark cloud was gathering over the dwarves' future.