18 9

It didn’t look like they were digging graves or pits to throw refuse in. Were they digging wells? No, the holes were too wide for that to be it. They were reinforcing the sides with wood, however. Tunnels, huh? Were they making underground passages? Whatever it was, they were building something. It was a major construction project.
Haruhiro spotted some guns too. It wasn’t just Wabo or the gumow rangers who had them. While Takasagi wasn’t carrying one—they were probably hard to use with just one arm—there were more than
ten orcs and undead with guns carried on straps over their shoulders. There might have been dozens of them. Maybe fewer than a hundred, but still, Forgan seemed to be in possession of dozens of guns.
Haruhiro headed back to his comrades. When he talked about the construction going on, Itsukushima seemed to figure something out.
“Oh, I get it. Gnoll tunnels, huh?”
There was a diminutive race in the Tenryu Mountains south of Alterna known as the gnomes.
Gnomes were natural miners, no less talented than the dwarves. Some said they were more talented with their hands, able to invent and manufacture all kinds of mechanical contraptions. The problem was that they were extremely xenophobic. They didn’t negotiate or trade with other races unless there was a major benefit to them in doing so. Long ago, when the Kingdom of Arabakia had escaped to the south of the Tenryu Mountains, they’d had the gnomes dig a massive tunnel called the Earth Dragon’s Aorta. It was said that the price they’d paid for it amounted to more than half the royal treasury.
Gnolls were apparently close relatives of those gnomes.
However, unlike the creative and inventive gnomes, always dedicated to their craft, gnolls were primarily thieves. They made nothing for themselves, instead stealing it all from others. These parasitic gnolls were eventually expelled thanks to the ingenuity of their gnomish host society. After that, the gnolls chose new hosts to parasitize in the Kurogane Mountain Range—the dwarves.
The gnolls dug tunnels throughout the whole mountain range, infiltrating the Ironblood Kingdom through them to steal everything from clothing to weapons, to food, to alcohol, and even dwarven babies sometimes. After the war with the No-Life King and the Alliance of Kings came to a close, the dwarves’ greatest foes were these determined parasites, eating away at the Ironblood Kingdom. For better or for worse, the dwarves had no shortage of enemies to keep fighting.
According to one estimate, the total area of the tunnels the gnolls had dug far exceeded that of all the mine tunnels that made up the Ironblood Kingdom. What’s more, the gnoll tunnels weren’t limited to the Kurogane Mountain Range, but extended out into the Iroto River Basin.
“When gnolls dig holes into the Ironblood Kingdom, the dwarves try to close them up, of course. But where there’s one gnoll hole, you have to assume there’s a dozen. It’s difficult to block all of them.”
“So the enemy is attacking the Ironblood Kingdom through these gnollish tunnels, then,” Setora stated plainly.
Kuzaku seemed mystified by all the new information being thrown at him. “Isn’t this...kinda crazy? I mean, I know you’re always this way, but I’m amazed you can stay so calm, Setora-san.”
“What point would there be in us losing our heads?”
“Okay, that’s fair. But I don’t think it’s a matter of whether there’s a point or not. It’s more, I dunno, a matter of how you feel.”
“And is there a point to those feelings?”
“When I’m already cornered, you just keep pushing, huh? It’s not going to get you anything, going after me like that. Maybe you’ll make me cry, but that’s it...”
“I see. There’s no point in doing that. Enough of this, then.”
“Hearing you say that makes me feel a little lonely, though.”
“But hold on!” Ranta said, sniffling a lot, something Haruhiro had noticed he tended to do when he was about to say something decent. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of strategy you could come up with unless you had someone familiar with what the situation on the inside is like, right?”
“True...” Itsukushima said, pausing to think on that point. Deputy Neal let out a short laugh. “So there is a traitor, after all.” They had no answer to that.
The next day when dawn broke, the delegation went to work, finally moving into a position where they could check the situation at the five forts. Haruhiro, Itsukushima, and Neal split up to go scouting, and it appeared that two of the five forts had been occupied by the Southern Expedition. The Southern Expedition troops guarding those two forts didn’t all have guns, but about one in ten did.
“It’s looking like we should go in through the Walter Gate,”
Itsukushima decided. “If we try to go to the Great Ironfist Gate, we’ll have to pass by Fort Warhammer and Fort Gun, which have fallen to the enemy. We don’t want them spotting us.”
“Sounds fine to me.” Neal agreed. Since he was the chief delegate, at least in an acting capacity, he made the decision to head for the Walter Gate.



12. Like No Other
It took another two days to reach the Walter Gate. Along the way, the delegation spotted well-ordered enemy units marching through the forest. Half were orcs, half undead, and there were maybe a thousand of them altogether. Most of the orcs had bleached their body hair white, and wielded one-handed swords with jagged, sawlike blades. Judging from their distinctive appearance, these were probably the orcs that had been encamped at Mount Grief. They were trying to join up with the main Southern Expedition force besieging the Ironblood Kingdom.
The Walter Gate was halfway up the western slopes of the Kurogane Mountain Range. The way to the gate went through a canyon, up a valley, and between the gaps in broken hunks of rock. Itsukushima and Yume found footprints made by something that wasn’t fourlegged and took note of them, but a thief like Haruhiro wouldn’t have noticed. Without someone to lead him here, he wouldn’t even have been able to wander into this place by accident.
The entrance to the Walter Gate was indistinguishable from a natural cave. However, Haruhiro and Neal were able to spot the multiple watch stations in the area around the entrance. There were little rock huts in all directions with the bearded faces of dwarves peering out of them—some of them with guns held at the ready.
A dwarf came out of one of the huts carrying a gun. The greatsword that was hanging diagonally over his back was more impressive for its girth than its length. He had a face that kinda looked like it had been twisted by anger and hatred—an evil countenance, the mask of a villain. He was a pretty scary-looking dwarf.
Ranta’s hand twitched toward the hilt of his katana. Haruhiro gulped too. He could understand how the dread knight felt.
“Whoa! Scary...” Kuzaku murmured, which was a questionable choice. Haruhiro nudged him in the side with his elbow. “Oops, sorry.”
“Really now...” Setora looked at Kuzaku coldly.
“Willich.”
When Itsukushima called out to him, the sinister-looking dwarf raised his right fist.
“Itsukushima. Glad you’re back,” he replied with a voice that was as grim as his face.
“Looks like you’re in trouble.”
“We sure are.”
After that short reply, the dwarf, who was apparently called Willich, started walking toward the cave-like entrance to the Walter Gate. Did he want them to follow him?
Itsukushima patted Poochie on the head.
“You wait here, boy.”
Poochie looked up at Itsukushima, blinking as if to say, Got it. He rubbed up against Yume a bit, then quickly darted off down the slope.
“See ya later, Poochie,” Yume called after him, causing Poochie to stop and give a short bark in response. He didn’t turn back after that.
The group followed Willich. Around fifty meters inside the limestone cave there was an iron gate with a number of dwarves stationed at it. Willich gestured at the guards to let the group through, and it took all those burly dwarves working together to pull the gate open. It was more than half a meter thick.
Beyond the iron gate, things changed completely. There was a flat stone-tiled floor. The walls and ceiling had been neatly carved too, and reinforced with iron. There was even lighting—lanterns embedded in the wall that seemed to rely on something other than fire to provide illumination. How did they work? Haruhiro wondered about it, but didn’t feel at liberty to ask. Their guide, Willich, didn’t say a word, so the group followed him in silence.
“Heh... Hic... Heck... Achoo...!” Unable to bear the silence any longer, Ranta let out a strange sneeze. It got no response from Willich.
“Hey, hey,” Yume said, hopping up and down as she stepped forward to walk beside Willich.
Ranta tried to stop her with a “Hey,” but it was too late.
“Are you and Master friends, Willup?”
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, your name wasn’t Willup, huh?”
“It’s Willich, Yume...”
Even with Itsukushima kindly providing her with the right name, though, things didn’t work out.
“Mew. Oh, that’s right. It’s Willie. Sorry ’bout that. Yume’s always gettin’ stuff wrong.”
“I’m not really Itsukushima’s friend... More of a friend of a friend.”
“Ohhh. That right? Well, a friend of a friend’s a friend, y’know. Yume thinks you oughta be friends too.”
“I don’t follow, but fine, we’re friends, then.”
“Oh, you are? Well then, since Yume’s Master’s apprentice, and
Master’s like Yume’s dad, that makes you like Yume’s uncle, huh, Willie?”
“However you like it...”
“Okay, you’re Yume’s uncle now. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you...”
“Fistbump!” Yume declared, thrusting out her fist. Willich lightly knocked his fist against hers.
“Wow...” Merry murmured. Haruhiro knew how she felt. He’d just been thinking the same thing.
“I know, right? Yume’s got some freaky mad skills at communicating...” Kuzaku said, but his choice of words was pretty weird itself.
The tunnel bent in places, going through iron doors and up and down stairs as it continued for a long way.
Suddenly, Itsukushima asked Willich, “Have you ever been to the hethrang dens?”
“No,” Willich responded immediately, spitting the word out with distaste. “Don’t even say that name. They’re filthy.”
“So there are hethrang dens. They do exist, huh?”
When Itsukushima pushed him on the issue, Willich let out a powerful snort. It probably meant something like, You’re being annoying, drop it.
Yume leaned close to Itsukushima and whispered, “What’re hefferuns, Master?”
“I only know a little, myself. The dwarves don’t like to talk about them,” Itsukushima said, avoiding explaining further. “And it’s hethrang, not hefferung.”
“Nuh? Well, what’re hethrangs, then?”
“Later,” Itsukushima said with a sheepish smile before ending the conversation.
The fourth iron door brought them into what appeared to be a warehouse. It was packed full of red armor and helmets with silver trim, shields, and weapons like halberds, axes, spears, and swords. Some of them were on display in glass cases. There were even machines with lots of complex parts. The lamps hanging from the ceiling, casting a faint light across the room, seemed pretty intricate in design.
“The Walter Gate connects to the private residence of the eminent
House of Bratsod,” Itsukushima explained in place of the taciturn
Willich. “The current minister of the left, Axbeld, is of the House of Bratsod. I hear their house has been around for five or six centuries, since before the Ironblood Kingdom was founded.”
Willich snorted again, earning a shrug and a smile from Itsukushima. It seemed the dwarf was not fond of the House of Bratsod.
Willich knocked on the door leading out of the warehouse and a dwarf wearing red armor and a helmet opened it. The residence of the House of Bratsod was spacious, and there were more dwarves in red armor standing around the place. They all even had red beards, though it took a moment for Haruhiro to notice that. It looked like they had dyed them.
Exiting the private residence, they came out onto a street lined with blacksmiths’ workshops. It was really loud and super hot. Dwarves with hammers in hand, clanging away. Shouting back and forth. The smell of sweat steaming on hot iron was mixed with the scent of the alcohol the smiths sometimes knocked back. It filled the place with a stench that was like nothing else.
Willich stopped in front of one workshop. A dwarf with flowing orange hair, his long beard cast over his shoulder as he hammered, caught Haruhiro’s eye. Dwarves were, as a general rule, shorter than humans, but this dwarf was a marvelous mass of muscle that was incredible to behold.
“Gottheld!” Itsukushima called out to him, and the muscular dwarf stopped hammering. He turned his eyes—which were green, surprisingly—toward the hunter.
“Itsukushima?”
The dwarf, whose name was presumably Gottheld, set his hammer gently down on the floor before walking over. As might be expected, he wasn’t even as tall as Yume. Even so, he gave Haruhiro the impression that he was a big guy.
He’s probably stubborn, thought Haruhiro. Strong-willed, but forbearing. He’s got that in common with Itsukushima.
Gottheld grabbed Itsukushima’s arm with a hand that looked as hard as metal and smiled. “Glad you made it back,” he said before glancing at Yume. His eyes had a fatherly affection in them. “And this must be your darling apprentice. You were able to meet up with her, huh? I’m happy for you.”
“Yeah...” Itsukushima said with an embarrassed smile. “The force that retook Alterna was the Frontier Army, made up primarily of reinforcements from the mainland. I’ve returned bearing a letter from their commander.”
“Did you come in through the Walter Gate?”
“Yeah. Going through the Great Ironfist Gate seemed impossible.”
“You’ll be seeing the king, then.”
“That’s the plan.”
“I’ll go with you. Hold on a moment.”
Gottheld headed back into his workshop. He was wearing work clothes, so maybe he meant to get changed.
“This workshop...” Ranta said, looking around. “Does he make guns here, maybe?”
“That’s right,” Itsukushima said with a nod. “My friend Gottheld is the best gunsmith in the Ironblood Kingdom. The concept of a gun had been around for a while, but there’s no question that he was the one to make them practical. Thanks to that, they call him the father of firearms.”
When Gottheld returned neatly dressed, Willich took off somewhere, probably figuring his job was done. The delegation then headed to the Iron Palace with Gottheld.
Along the way, Itsukushima asked Gottheld about the hethrangs that he’d mentioned before. “Willich wouldn’t hear me out, but could you tell me about the hethrangs?”
After a moment, Gottheld scowled and asked, “Why do you want to know?” Was it that sore a subject?
“There’s something that concerns me,” Itsukushima said, his expression grim. “There was a group I didn’t recognize among the enemy.”
“You’re not suggesting they were hethrangs, are you?”
“Dunno. All I know is that the Ironblood Kingdom has people who the rumors say are descended from orcs, and you use them for heavy labor like digging mines and mining ore.”
“The hell?” Ranta turned bright red with anger. “I know humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs can have kids together. Most orcs call those kids gumows, and won’t even treat them as their own kind. Are you telling me dwarves do the same shit?”
“Hey...” Itsukushima was about to warn Ranta to tone it down.
However, Gottheld said, “It’s fine,” turning toward Ranta to give him a firm nod. “You’ve got it right. For a long time now, we’ve kept the hethrangs shut up in their dens in the mining and refining district where we treat them like slaves. Hethrangs aren’t seen as dwarves.
We give them the bare necessities, not letting them really live, but not killing them either—no, we do work them to death. We don’t just treat them like slaves. They are slaves. If you go to the most dangerous reaches of the mine tunnels, all you’ll find are hethrangs, or their corpses. This is something every dwarf who isn’t a child knows. But we don’t talk about the hethrangs. Because we all know. They are the shame of dwarvenkind.”
“They bring shame on you?!” Ranta ground his teeth loudly, glaring at Gottheld. “You oughta be ashamed of yourselves. If you know what you’re doing is shitty, then set them free and let them live normal lives. Have some goddamn decency!”
“Ranta-kun, you’re getting too worked up about this...” Kuzaku said hesitantly. Ranta wasted no time rounding on him.
“You shut up, moron! I’m getting worked up because this shit pisses me off. What’s wrong with that?!”
“Hethrangs...” Haruhiro murmured, thinking of the man he’d seen, Wabo. “Do they have yellowish-brown skin and disproportionately big upper bodies?”
Gottheld’s eyes widened. After a moment’s pause he said, “I’m told some hethrangs try to escape. We execute all the ones we catch. Are there some who got away? I couldn’t tell you. Honestly...I’ve never wanted to find out. But...”
“It wouldn’t be surprising if there were,” Setora said in her usual disinterested tone. “I think we can more or less see what’s going on now. The hethrangs have been oppressed by the dwarves, forced to do heavy labor. Some escaped, and are now collaborating with the Southern Expedition...”
Maybe the hethrangs had used the gnoll tunnels in their escape. If so, they might use them to get into the Ironblood Kingdom too. “Heh. What goes around comes around,” Ranta said with obvious contempt. Then, sighing, he shook his head. “If we weren’t here ourselves, I’d just say the dwarves are getting what’s coming to them, and that’d be the end of it.”
“Let’s hurry,” Itsukushima said, pushing Gottheld’s back to urge him onward.
Soon the group came to a major road ten meters across with a downward slope, with a ceiling ten meters high. There were stalls on either side of it, and dwarves going about their business. There were some rather petite human women around too—or so Haruhiro thought, but it turned out they weren’t human at all. When Gottheld explained they were all dwarf women, Kuzaku was shocked.
“Huh?! Are all dwarf women little girls?!”
It surprised Haruhiro too, but he liked to think he had better manners than Kuzaku. “They can’t all be little girls, that’d be crazy. And you’re being kinda rude...”
“Oh! Yeah, I guess I was, huh? Urgh. Still, it’s pretty shocking. I mean, look how different they are from the men.”
“Did you think dwarf women had beards too?” Ranta asked, his tone mocking.
“Well...I considered the possibility. My image of dwarves was that they’re hairy, beardy, and drink a lot.” Gottheld gave that a strained smile.
“If you limit it to just dwarf men, you’re not far off the mark.”
The massive black door that towered over them at the end of the road was the entrance to the Iron Palace. It was called the Great Iron King Gate. There was a group of black-bearded dwarves standing on a sort of battlement above the gate. It wasn’t just their beards that were black. Their armor and shields had been stained black too. The black-bearded dwarves all carried halberds.
“The royal guard,” Itsukushima explained. “They’re dwarf traditionalists. As you can see, the elites who guard the Iron Palace don’t carry guns. They’re not fans of Gottheld, and they hate outsiders to boot. I don’t expect them to openly do anything to us, but stay alert.”
Gottheld asked to enter, and the black-bearded dwarves silently opened the Great Iron King Gate. There was no word of acknowledgment from them, not even so much as a nod, but Gottheld didn’t seem to mind. He probably got treated like this all the time.
They didn’t call it the Iron Palace for nothing. There were steel plates covering the floors, walls, and ceilings—all of them polished to a mirror-like finish.
“It’s shiny-shiny, huh?” Yume said as she looked at the floor. “If this were a skirt, people might see Yume’s panties.”
“Good point...” Merry quickly brought a hand down to her hemline in front.
“Oh...?” Kuzaku tried to look directly under Merry, but Haruhiro whacked him on the back of the head.
“Don’t do that.”
“Ow! Sorry, couldn’t help myself...”
“It’s not as though you lose anything from him seeing them,” Setora said, impassive.
“Huh? So you don’t mind if I look, then?” Kuzaku asked, earning him a faint smile from Setora.
“If you want to look, look. It costs me nothing. I simply find it unpleasant.”
Deputy Neal, who had been looking at Setora’s feet, subtly turned his head to face forward. Who knew what she’d do to him later if he upset her? She was probably saying anyone who was prepared to find out was welcome to.
After walking down the steel hallways a while, a group of blackbearded dwarves approached them from the other direction. The lead dwarf was so tall he didn’t look like a dwarf at all. He might not have been as tall as Kuzaku, but he was probably taller than Haruhiro.
Gottheld, who was leading the way, came to a stop.
“Why, if it isn’t Sir Rowen, captain of the royal guard.”
The tall dwarf he’d referred to as Rowen didn’t open his mouth until he was standing right in front of Gottheld. “Master Gunsmith. What business have you here in the Iron Palace?”
“Itsukushima made it back from Alterna.”
Gottheld had no choice but to look up at Rowen. The height difference made it unavoidable, but if there were a little more distance between them he wouldn’t have had to turn his face up quite so much. Basically, Rowen was forcing him to look up. What an ass.
“I’ve come to request an audience. Could you see us in?”
“You would ask me to guide you?”
“I believe I just did, yes.”
“You bring in this gaggle of humans I’ve never seen before, and expect to be brought before the royal personage.”
“Gaggle of humans, he says,” Ranta muttered, clicking his tongue with distaste. Haruhiro lightly elbowed Deputy Neal in the side.
“You should introduce yourself.”
Neal scowled, but reluctantly stepped forward.
“Uh, I’m, er, I mean, I am Neal, an envoy...is that the word? Yeah, an envoy sent by His Excellency Jin Mogis, Commander of the Frontier Army.”
“The Frontier Army, you say?”
The captain of the royal guard glared at Neal, making him back away half a step.
“Th-That’s what I said, yeah?”
“Do you mean you are an envoy from Margrave Garlan Vedoy? Who is Jin Mogis?”
“Uh, no, the Margrave died, er, I mean, passed away, and our reinforcements from the mainland of the Kingdom of Arabakia retook Alterna. General Jin Mogis was the leader of those reinforcements, and has now become the new commander of the Frontier Army.” Neal puffed his chest up as if to say, Aw, yeah. Did you see that? I said it good and proper. Though maybe he was just trying to puff himself up so he didn’t give in to the pressure he was feeling from Rowen.
“And you brought this envoy of theirs all this way, Sir Itsukushima.” Rowen glanced at Itsukushima, then laughed. “I am sure it was not easy. But who can say if this representative of the reinforcements, or the Frontier Army, or whatever they call themselves, is of any value to us...”
Itsukushima gazed up at the ceiling, a look of exhaustion on his face. He’d probably been harassed by this captain of the royal guard many times before, and was thinking, Not this again.
Ranta was looking at Haruhiro, mouthing something.
“Do we kill him?”
That’s what it looked like.
“You’re an idiot...” Haruhiro mouthed back at him.
“I get it,” Gottheld said with a shrug. “I’d hate to trouble our commander of the royal guard. I’ll ask the minister of the left to see us in instead.”
Anger flashed in Rowen’s eyes. It seemed he was pretty emotional.
“We of the royal guard are the ones charged with protecting the Iron Palace and the iron king. Would you dare slight me, their captain?!”
The dwarf could be decently scary when he got angry. He hadn’t just reached for the greatsword on his back, he was full-on gripping the handle, and gave off the impression that if he drew it this wouldn’t end with just threats. Maybe it was an act. But he could have also been serious. Which was it? Honestly, Haruhiro couldn’t decide one way or the other.
At some point, Neal had hid himself behind Haruhiro and the others. Screw you, man. Haruhiro wanted to shout at him, but had no time to curse out the useless deputy. I’d really like to end this peacefully. But how do I do it?
“Would you give it a rest?” Merry’s tone was so cold it could freeze eardrums. “Your enemies are at the gates. Is this the time for infighting? Enough already.”
He’d forgotten. Merry wasn’t just kind, pretty, serious, and the most considerate of her comrades out of any of them. She was also awfully scary when she got mad. And she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind when she wanted to.
Rowen’s black beard was shaking. Was he thinking about what he’d like to do to this uppity human wench? He seemed so surprised he didn’t know how to react.
“Meow!” Yume suddenly jumped up.
“You’re a cat now?!” Ranta quipped.
“Mweh? Nfuh!” Yume cocked her head to the side, making more weird noises, then finally approached Rowen and started pounding on his armor.
“We’re in a hurry, okay? The enemy’s got hetsuns with ’em. They’re gonna go round-n-round the tunnels, and then maybe they’ll be comin’ out in the Hotblood Kingdom.”
“She’s gotten a lot of things wrong there...” Setora said with a sigh. “There are people in the Ironblood Kingdom called hethrangs, yes? It seems they’ve turned against you. A unit of enemies carrying guns they stole from you may be planning to attack through the gnoll tunnels. That is the information we want to pass along to the iron king. I would think it should be a pressing issue for you.”
“Hethrangs, you say? Through the gnoll tunnels...”
Rowen growled like a beast. While the dwarf was arrogant and prone to fits, he also seemed to have considerable confidence in his strength. He was quick on the uptake too. Despite having been so blatantly hostile before, he buried the hatchet in a second, and even smiled slightly as he nodded.
“That would indeed seem to be a pressing issue. Sir Envoy, I will see you and your entourage in to meet the iron king. Follow me.”
Once he had taken on the task, the black-bearded captain of the royal guard moved things along quickly. He sent his subordinates to go contact the appropriate people and had the delegation wait in another room for about five minutes. Rowen then led them through the steel halls himself, where they boarded an impressive elevator that was majestic to the point it seemed pretentious.
“This elevator, which will take us to the audience chamber, was designed by the great inventor Duregge for the iron king of the time, and is powered using a mechanism known as a steam engine,” Rowen explained eloquently despite no one asking. He was like an entirely different person from before. It was kinda creepy.
“Our Ironblood Kingdom has had many successive generations of wise and brave kings, but the current iron king is a great ruler of a kind rarely seen. Sir Envoy, you can expect your words to be received kindly. However, as a retainer, I ask you not indulge in my liege’s benevolence overmuch. Under normal circumstances, none but those who have sworn loyalty to the royal personage would be allowed in the audience chamber.”
That said, the way he spoke suggested any politeness was only superficial, and he held nothing but contempt for them.
The elevator finally came to a stop. Stepping out of it, they emerged into a spacious hall. This was only the antechamber. The blackbearded dwarves of the royal guard were protecting a set of steel doors. They weren’t large compared to the size of the hall, and were lacking in ostentation, even feeling a little rough and boorish.
Rowen nodded at the black-bearded dwarves and they opened the way. The double sliding doors parted smoothly.
The steel audience chamber was rather long. The far side was raised a number of steps, and there was a blind concealing part of the platform at the top.
The audience chamber wasn’t lined only by black-bearded dwarves. There was also a red-bearded dwarf in red armor, as well as two elves. One looked to be a middle-aged man, but it was hard to tell an elf’s real age. As for the other elf, Haruhiro wasn’t even sure what gender they were. The elf’s features were so perfectly symmetrical that, while he could tell they were beautiful, the elf didn’t even feel like a living creature anymore.
“That’s the elven elder, the honorable Harumerial Fearnotu, and the head of the Seven Sword House of Mercurian, the honorable Eltalihi Mercurian,” Itsukushima explained quietly. The middle-aged elf was probably Mercurian, while the elf of unclear gender was the elder.
“Sir Red Beard,” Gottheld said, nodding to a red-bearded dwarf.
“He’s Axbeld, the minister of the left,” Itsukushima said, glancing at
Rowen before adding, “The captain of the royal guard’s competitor.”

Chapter end