Chapter 516 – 516. The Cave Dwarf (5)
When Eun-hyeon entered the wooden house built on top of a tree, Lily, who was sitting on the sofa, raised her body and opened the door to greet Eun-hyeon.
“Welcome.”
Eun-hyeon put on a bewildered expression at Lily’s action of immediately coming out to the front door and holding her upper body tightly in her arms.
Unlike on the bed, she is not the usual Lily who is always thrifty as a maid.
It’s very direct when it comes to expressing affection.
“What happened?”
“… I heard about the master’s past from Regina.”
“…”
In an instant, Eun-hyeon’s upper body, which was being held in Lily’s embrace, hardened.
Regina, thinking that she had done something uncharacteristically useless, Eun-hyeon smiled bitterly at her and hugged Lily.
“I, too, will work hard. Illyana-sama and Eleanor-sama, no less than Erin… So that I can be by your side.”
Lily, who was determined to make her own determination, tightly hugged Eun-hyeon by the waist as if to express her feelings.
“I will not leave you alone, Master.”
“… Thank you.”
Feeling Lily’s concern for her, Eunhyeon felt a little bit happy.
◆ ◆ ◆
The next morning.
After spending the night with Lily, Eun-hyeon hurried on her journey right away.
“… Okay.”
Right before departure, the two stopped by at the house where Derkin and Alice were staying.
Derkin nodded his head with a firm face after hearing about the future schedule and plans after conveying the story of meeting the dwarves and seeking cooperation.
“I’ll leave it up to you and your wife to decide what to do next.”
When he returned to the forest of elves after finishing his business with the dwarves, it was not yet decided whether he would follow Eun-hyeon to return to the Duchy of Armitas.
Regina’s permission was obtained, but the place where this couple and her daughter should be is here, the home of the elves, not the Duchy of Armitas.
“No. We have already made the decision to follow Eunhyeon.”
Looking at Derkin and Alice, who announced their intention to follow her without hesitation, Eun-hyeon put on a look of surprise.
Deciding not to settle back here is not a matter that can be decided so easily and simply.
Even if she announced her intention to follow, she thought it would take time.
“… It’s fast.”
“Actually… The Queen has also asked me for a favor.”
“Regina?”
“If I could interact with humans again… At that time, he said he wanted to be entrusted with mediating between humans and elves. So… He told me to go outside and experience the world.”
Regina’s intention to cut off contact with the outside world and break the long-held rules of the elves, who had lived a closed life in the forest for hundreds of years, had already guessed.
Above all, it was her request from Eun-hyeon herself that triggered it.
“Regina… You were prepared to reveal the elf race itself.”
“You’re right.”
Like Derkin now, he noticed that he was planning to reveal the existence of the elf itself to the outside world, rather than appearing outside in a close-to-human form by transforming his appearance using magic called Polymorph.
“If that’s the case, the role of mediating between the two races is… I’m sure I’m the right person.”
Although he is an elf, he takes a human woman as his wife and experiences the outside world along with Eun-hyeon, so in this sense, Derkin is the best.
“Furthermore… She already seems to be quite enjoying her life outside.”
After living in the Duchy of Armitas for a while, Derkin seemed very proud of the fact that Eris was growing into a more active child.
Of course, it bothered her that Elvin was among the people Eris liked, but she didn’t want to stop her daughter’s will.
For the sake of the elf, for the sake of her family, and for various reasons, Derkin accepted Regina’s will and decided to follow her grace.
“So, if you finish your business and come back to the forest, I will follow you.”
“… Okay. Thank you for making that decision.”
After Eunhyeon finished talking like that, she left the house of Derkin and Alice.
“Let’s go. Lily.”
“Yes.”
Lily, who was waiting outside the house for Eun-hyeon to come out, immediately walked down the street and followed Eun-hyeon out of the forest.
She summoned Retona and started driving. She sat in the passenger seat next to Eun-hyeon and asked Eun-hyeon.
“What kind of race is the Dwarf?”
“Generally, they are about the height of a 12-13-year-old child, and have excellent muscular strength and stamina, so they are a species that specializes in using force overall.”
“The height of a child… ? But are you saying that you specialize in the use of power?”
Lily put on a puzzled look as she couldn’t picture her well in her head.
The image she had of her child did not mesh with the image of heavy lifting or forceful labor.
She may be more like that because she has been taking care of young children while running an orphanage.
“For example, that is what they say, but in reality they are not children. They’re short, but they’re mostly muscular men with bushy beards.”
“Is that so…”
Eun-hyeon tried her best to create an imaginary image of the dwarf race in her head by combining all the features listed, but it was not easy for her to create, so her thoughts went the other way.
“Still, to think that the elves, who disappeared from the continent and existed only in legends, are the only ones continuing their exchanges… Are the two races very close?”
“No. At all.”
“… Yes?”
Lily opened her eyes wide at Eunhyun’s stern reply and asked again.
Eunhyun smiled and briefly explained the story of the two races in the past.
“There were really a lot of conflicts in the past. Elves and dwarves have very different eating habits and cultures, from the way they build their settlements.”
Elves do not damage the original natural site itself, and live on it by cultivating it.
All of the earth, grass, and trees that formed the forest were grown by consuming the magic of the World Tree, and damaging it is like damaging a part of the World Tree, and it is tantamount to insulting the World Tree that the elves hold dear.
On the other hand, in the case of Dwarves, it could be said to be the exact opposite.
Dwarves who cut down trees and dig tunnels deep into the earth to build living spaces and civilizations have a tendency to consume and utilize all available resources.
“The way the two races treat nature is completely opposite. Elves view nature as something to be protected, and dwarves treat nature as a treasure trove full of usable resources.”
The goal of emotions that we had been thinking of looking at each other inevitably deepened as time went on, and it was only a matter of time before it spread into a fight.
“One day, an emergency order was called in the elven forest.”
The cause was that the Dwarves, who had been continuously digging deep in the ground, came into the Elves’ home without realizing it, and touched the roots of the World Tree that was deeply embedded.
It wasn’t intentional, but from the point of view of the elves, it was like an invasion threatening the world tree that was sending out a danger signal.
“Then… How did the two races come to continue to interact as they do now?”
“I stepped in and intervened, and as a result, a pact was concluded between the elves and the dwarves.”
It was not until a few years had passed since Eunhyeon and Sylvia entered the elven forest and settled down.
The content of the agreement was that the dwarves would make a home outside the realm of the World Tree, and that they would definitely set each other’s territory and not invade it.
Furthermore, exchanges continued, with the elves providing some of the food, such as fruit from trees and animal meat, and the dwarves exchanging weapons made with the collected resources.
I couldn’t help but laugh when I recalled the time when we explained and understood each other’s civilizations, values and behaviors, and intervened in a cold sweat to prevent an armed conflict.
At that time, she was able to mediate because Eunhyeon, who was a human at the time, was quite trustworthy among the elves.
Otherwise, a non-stop war might have started against the dwarves who touched the World Tree until one race was exterminated.
“And after that, the war between the Dark Elves and demons began.”
Originally, the fighting method of the Elves was based on Spiritual Art, in which they summoned the spirits contracted with them through the medium of magic within their bodies.
However, after making contact with the dwarves and signing an agreement, he created a self-defense force called the Elven Guard to protect the forest by teaching the elves the usefulness of weapons and skills.
If it were the elves who only depended on spirit magic, it might have led to greater damage in the fight between the dark elves and demons.
“Regina’s mother, the previous Elf Queen at the time, had no choice but to admit it. The weapons and technology produced by the dwarves made a great contribution to leading the struggle to victory.”
So the Elf Queen at the time had to accept the dwarves’ culture and way of thinking, which was different from the Elves, and she pursued her policy so that she could interact more with them ever since.
“After I left the forest of elves, the next destination I headed to was the village of the dwarves, where I continued to interact with the elves.”
“Master… Did you learn blacksmithing skills from those dwarves?”
“That’s right. At that time, she learned metallurgy from a dwarf chief who led a certain tribe in the village at the time.”
While driving, Eun-hyeon kept an eye on the road ahead and recalled the face of the dwarf who taught her metallurgy in her mind.
‘Did it go well?’
Whether the dwarf who taught her blacksmith skills, including metallurgy, enjoyed her natural life and went up comfortably, Eun-hyeon does not know.
I just hope it was.
Recognizing his expression, Lily gave a small smile.
“Were you a good person?”
“He was an infinitely good person in the mindset of handling a hammer and in that field.”
However, if he were asked in another part whether Oran, who taught him metallurgy, was a good dwarf, he could answer that Eunhyeon was not.
He was a Dwarf who was more thirsty and desperate than anyone else to improve his skills as a blacksmith, but other than that, it was hard to say anything.
“He didn’t hesitate to say, ‘Why can’t I do this?’, ‘How on earth do you use your hands?
“That… You don’t think you’re a nice person?”
Lily frowned at the harsh beating, mixed with contempt.
It was hard to believe that the person who used harsh words that could not be spoken of was the one who passed on blacksmithing skills to Eunhyeon.
“I told you. He said he couldn’t say he was good at anything other than handling the hammer. He was a self-righteous, wild, self-absorbed dwarf, but he was a person who reached the pinnacle of technology incomparable to anyone else.”
A first-class blacksmith.
However, in other areas, it was Oran who had a tendency to be biased to one side.
“Please… Did you have to learn skills from someone like that?”
If not, why did he have to learn his craft under a rough man with all kinds of insults and slander?
This was the part Lily couldn’t understand.
“I don’t know either. Why did Oran insist on teaching me metallurgy?”
“Yes? That… ?”
“I didn’t say I wanted to go to Oran and learn metallurgy. Oran chose me. Oran is… Even after I left the dwarf village, he never told me why he insisted on teaching me metallurgy.”
On the day of leaving the dwarf village where Oran lived, Eun-hyun said goodbye to Oran.
-Live well. If that’s enough, I won’t go hungry anywhere.
Grabbing the steering wheel with one hand, Eunhyeon pulled out an object from his chest.
“That… Something?”
Lily carefully observed the round silver metal in Eunhyun’s hand.
It was a unique object with a hammer pattern engraved in the center of the silver metal that shined brightly by reflecting sunlight.
“On the day of departure, Oran handed it to me as he said goodbye. Saying that if she finds the tribe again, she will show me this gold plaque.”
