**Kuro**
“What is the meaning of this?” Maddie’s raging voice echoed throughout the hallways of her pace at the Holy Patial Gardens. News about the dwarven attack inside my residence reached her even before I arrived, almost a week after that incident. Well, I quite expected that reaction from her; what I was surprised by was the reaction of the emperor of Chersea. He sent an ambassador to the Maverny pace a few days ago, expressing his indignation at the brazen attempt on my life. According to his delegation, it vioted ancient treaties between humans, beastfolk, elves, and dwarves.
“Well, I guess it was only a small group among dwarves,” I told my fiancée. If I remember right, there were dwarves who traveled to Chersea and paid respects to Maddie. They knew me, having seen me repeatedly by her side in some of those visits, and no tension was involved. “In any case, I can’t get anything from those we’ve taken prisoners,” I added. “I thought we could at least interrogate them or peek into their minds for clues about the masterminds. But yes, when we woke up after the long sleep, the dwarves were all dead…poisoned, if I’m to put it into proper terms.”
“Poisoned?” the Human Saint rose from her throne. “Someone among your household is a traitor then!”
“I don’t think that’s the case, Your Holiness,” I could only force a weak smile to diffuse the mounting tension. “Those dwarves have this…” Fishing in my pockets, I showed her a small gss vial with clear liquid inside.
“What’s this?” Maddie carefully held the tiny item. Nevertheless, she didn’t let that distract her from reading my mind. “What do you mean by ‘cyanide capsule’?”
“A suicide device,” I pointed out. “Basically, spies and other covert agents use that to kill themselves once captured, so they won’t divulge any crucial information should the torture went past their tolerance. We found that in one of the prisoner corpses, suggesting it was an extra. So, I think they have other friends who infiltrated Chersea.”
“I-I see…” Looking at the vial with utter disdain, Maddie gave it back to me. “First time I heard of such things,” she quipped, never hiding her disgust. “I mean, I’ve read and known cases where spies and assassins killing themselves when their missions failed. But preparing to take your life even before you set out…that’s fanatical. Still, it got me thinking. You know how that thing is used, yet the dwarves of Equality have it. Kuro, don’t you think that…”
“Yes, Your Holiness,” I nodded. “We have the same thoughts; this must’ve come from my world, or at least, the idea. Still, I’m more puzzled as to how the dwarves knew about this. I mean, poisons are always avaible, and I’m not sure if this water inside is really cyanide.”
“What makes you sure of that theory?”
“Can dwarves use magic here?”
“A little, yes. I mean, not that proficient like humans, and even more so compared to humans and elves, but they can somehow use magic.”
“Then, can they use magic that can harm others?”
“Basic offensive magic, yes.”
“Then why don’t they kill themselves using that, instead of relying on things like this? If you say they can cast basic offensive magic, they can burn themselves to ashes.”
“That’d be a painful, slow death.”
“Of course, that’s why this capsule was invented,” I countered. “Still, what I want to point out is, it’s not the nature of dwarves to kill themselves with cyanides capsules. Even in the history books, we can read that they will prefer to die in battle or end up a prisoner, rather than die in captivity.”
“Hmm…you got a point. Now that you mentioned that, dwarves are proud of their warlike ancestors and history. It’s unusual for them to be like that,” the Human Saint paused for a bit, deep in thought. “Aside from the Lady Cassandra, you’re the only otherworlder in this realm. Or is it possible that the former god, Gaius, is mounting another conspiracy to return? Remember those times he’s supplying the demon enemies of the Usarveds and your conspirators with weapons from your world?”
“No, I assure you, the former god has no involvement in this.”
“What makes you so sure about that?”
“Trust me,” I winked at her. “I’ve talked to Gaius more often now than before; and he gave me lots of helpful advice that led to our situation now. You know how the Lady Hinwe changed her heart before? He’s the one who did that.”
Maddie remained skeptical, though she kept her silence.
Not wishing for her to insist on Gaius’ untrustworthiness, I changed the topic. “Any case, I have to uncover this issue. I mean, I have to find the identity of the mastermind behind the attack against me. And why.”
“What a coincidence,” Maddie puffed her chest. “I believe we got the same goals, Kuro. I’ll send the order to prepare the padins, and the emperor has already pledged three legions for a punitive expedition to Equality.”
“Wait, I know you guys are mad,” I quickly patted her head to calm her down. "But rest easy, midy. We don’t need to go to war just because of this.”
“Those dwarves need to be reminded of their limits,” she countered. “Last time we had contact with their leaders was during the previous human saint’s funeral. Then, they suddenly decided to show up with guns bzing and attempts to kill you, my loved one? This is preposterous!”
“Ah, let me talk to them first. Let’s go through the ‘diplomatic course’ before punishing them.”
“Kuro…” Maddie shook her head while heaving a sigh. “I really admire how you can remain so calm, despite people running after your neck.”
“I’ve been through worst, and is used to it. And I don’t want to undo everything we’ve achieved so far in the fight against the Seductress.”
“You’re right,” I could tell that the Human Saint had finally relented in her rage. “But you have banished her to that dead world already, yes?”
“Thing is, she’s still there in Cherfmmen, waiting for her chance to return. I won’t wait for that to happen, so I’m going proactive to end her threat once and for all.”
“This is why Seirna’s so adamant in sending you to find the dwarf saint, right? To get her god-powers and become god, like Gaius before you.”
I could only answer her with a smile before expining, “I don’t pn on keeping that power forever. You know me; I never shied away from responsibilities, but I’d avoid it if I could help it. As I told Seirna before, Godhood is one big pain in the ass.”
Maddie’s eyes widened in shock when she heard that, but she burst out ughing like the Overseer Saint before her. “O-Oi, His Heavenly Majesty the High King might hear you!”
“Ah, I’m sure He understands my sentiments,” I chuckled. “That’s why I’m born a human. If I was meant for godhood, then I’ll be immortal even then. But no. I may have ambitions, but godhood isn’t one of those.”
The Human Saint pyfully pinched my cheeks. “Alright, mister! You win,” she decred. “I shall stand down, but remain on alert. Still, I want to ensure your safety, so I’ll have a talk to the Lady Seirna concerning your journey to Equality.”
“She already promised to join me,” I admitted. “Her Holiness the Overseer Saint had already forgotten what the Lady Helgath looked like, so as an ‘insurance’, I asked her help before.”
“I see you got it all covered, huh?”
“So my wives won’t worry.”
Maddie heaved another sigh, then pulled me close before kissing my forehead. “Can Lily come with you as my insurance, then?”
“She’s your servant, though.”
“I can take care of myself. And you know this pce; I have thousands of servants. However, Lily is my most trusted aside from you, and her skills in combat would be useful should you run into trouble.”
“Well, alright,” I grinned. “If Lily’s okay with joining me.”
----------
Of course, with the hurdle of getting Maddie’s permission to cross into Equality finally cleared, the next task was to gather more information about what I was involved with. So, for that, I turned to the only dwarf—of half of it—I knew in all of Chersea.
“Kuro!” the stadtholder of the League of the Valley Cities, Prince Giuseppe Uhrian, greeted me when I appeared at the doorways leading to his court. “I heard what happened at your pace! Is it really dwarves who attacked you?”
“Yes…” Honestly, it was awkward to tell that story to the prince, given that he was a dwarf and a close friend of mine as well. But, as I needed something from him, I had no choice but to let him know what transpired in that incident.
The dwarf prince listened as I recalled to him the events that nearly got me killed. Aside from occasional nods and head shakes, the halfling stadtholder said nothing. Then, when I ended my story…
“Kuro, my d…”
“Your Highness…?”
“By any chance,” I could see the uncomfortable expression written across his face. “Are those dwarves that attacked you got the…err…those little gss vials? Have you checked the corpses?”
“Ah!” I shivered as I showed the prince the item he asked about. The moment the dwarf prince had it in his hands…
“Laddie, if I may advise you on something,” he uttered while examining the ‘gss pill,’ “I would say that you should move away from your estate. Go hide for now if you can!”
I was surprised by his reaction. “Eh?” I blurted out. “Why? They’ll return to finish the job?”
The dwarf prince nodded. “You see,” the stadtholder raised it before my eyes. “This is a poison pill. We dwarves use it to avoid divulging information if our enemies capture us.”
“Huh? Sounds like your people is always at war.”
“They are,” he replied. “Well, not that war you experienced here, but a different kind of war. If I may say, it can get bloody, but most of the time, the only thing that gets ‘killed’ are our pockets.” The dwarf prince then followed that morbid statement with a ugh.
“Wait…when you say the dwarves are ‘killing’ the pockets of their enemies, then are you talking about ‘economic warfare’ here?”
“Is that how you phrase it? Basically, dwarves are organized into guilds—just like how you humans are divided into several kingdoms, and each one specializes in something. Like one guild would be in-charge of making paper, another, gss bottles. Of course, during our long history, it’s already a given that these guilds would grow rger than when they first started. And with that, come the disparity. One guild would be richer than the other, so it’s possible for them to swallow the smaller guilds, and gain those guilds’ expertise and people. Now, imagine several ‘big’ guilds devouring every bit of the weaker ones, what do you think will happen?”
“They’ll compete against the other.”
“Spot on, ddie.”
“So, you’re telling me that these poison pills are for the guild agents?”
“Agents, spies…whatever you call them. We dwarves can get exceedingly greedy, after all.”
“Wow…”
“But what sets apart this specific gss poison is that the color of the liquid is clear.”
“Meaning?”
“You’ve been marked for death…” Prince Uhrian took a pause and a deep breath before he revealed, “…by no other than the Church of the Golden Hammer.”
----------
“The…what?” Aside from that weird for a church, what the prince said didn’t sound nice. And I couldn’t believe I made another enemy simply by breathing!
“Calm down, ddie,” Prince Uhrian then produced a smoking pipe and had it lit. “I’ll expin to you what’s the church all about. But first, let me show you something for it to be clearer.”
Together with one of his servants, the dwarf prince then led me to his study. I thought we would stop there, for I also would like to ask about some of the books I saw on his shelves that interest me. If I remember the st time I visited here, I never saw those books…until now. However, His Highness’ servant approached one of the miniature statutes on the dwarf prince’s oak table and turned its head.
“!!!” Much to my surprise, the tabletop moved away from its lower parts, revealing a set of stairs that led below the stadtholder’s castle.
But the surprises didn’t end there, and I’m not prepared. The hidden passageway is just the tip of the iceberg.
“What…the hell is this?” were the first words I said the moment I saw the contents of the hidden room at the end of the passageway. As I was never familiar with the deepest parts of the stadtholder’s residence, I also had no idea what part of the castle I was in.
“I’m sure you are familiar with these, d,” the prince took one of the old items from the dust-covered pile and gave it to me.
“Is this still okay?” I still couldn’t believe what I had in my hands; if I could describe it, I would immediately say it was a ‘computer tablet.’ The screen was still in good condition, though I don’t think I could open it since if there was this amount of dust, this device could have been lying here for quite a long time, and the battery must’ve been drained to the ‘st juice.’
“As far as I know, it’s still working. Though, judging from its condition, it’s completely out of energy,” he expined.
“It is…do you still have its charger?” I looked around to find something simir, at least to my sight. But my attention was further distracted by the bigger item in the middle of the room. “Your…Highness…is this what I think it is?” I took hold of the handle bars, and tried to move it, just to expose the two wheels below. “This is a motorcycle, right? I can recognize the engine and the exhaust!”
“Is that what you call the iron kobo in your world?” Prince Uhrian chuckled.
“Iron kobo, huh?”
“Well, dwarves ride to battle or transport goods with mountain goats,” he pointed out. “And that thing is made of iron, or at least, part of it because we have that alloy called ‘steel.’ But dwarves find it me to call it ‘steel kobo,’ so it has become the ‘iron kobo.'”
“Wow…” while definitely an otherworldly technology, I could tell that this is an indigenous design. I mean, I owned a motorcycle before since my country’s roads were too narrow, and my workpce was far from where I live. So, I used that to commute. However, the designs for this motorcycle—especially the golden trims and other little details—were certainly of dwarven construction. (I’ve seen samples of their exquisite goods before…so I know one when I see one.)
When my feelings settled, I asked the prince, “What’s going on, Your Highness? Why do you have these things?”
“Kuro my d,” the dwarf prince lowered his voice. “Swear to me that what you witnessed here will never come out of this dungeon.”
“You know me, milord. You already brought me to this pce after all.”
The Prince Uhrian and his human servant exchanged amused looks, then chuckled. Then, the stadtholder followed with another expnation, “Kuro, you and the Lady Cassandra David are not the only otherworldly visitors in this world and the others. There’s another one…and he was called ‘The Golden Hammer.'”
----------
The idea of having not two, but three, people from other worlds in this pce surprised me, though not as severe as the dwarf prince hoped, I suppose. He paused for a moment, staring at me, perhaps expecting extreme reactions. However, as I’d been dealing with otherworldly horrors and weird events, I was already used to it. I could even retort that it’s not three people, but four, actually. If we’re going to include Gaius, we all were ‘guests’ from another world.
Nevertheless, the dwarf prince isn’t done with his story…
“Eons ago,” he puffed a smoke before continuing, “though not past the time of the great Lady Cassandra David, the heavens above the realm of the dwarves cracked open and bestowed to them a human with great intellect and ideas.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I won’t mince my words; to put it short, that human was from another world, as witnessed by my great uncle, the Mar Charles Hughes. He was there when they helped him, and that human gave them headaches at first because they don’t know how to communicate with him.”
That’s a given, considering that otherworlder was transported there. I only got by the nguage barrier when I was first summoned because Natasha’s magic circle was coded with a ‘nguage-transting spell.’ When that magic was broken, I studied the Chersean tongue to talk.
“The human’s wisdom enabled the dwarves to make enormous leaps in technology. See, if I may be honest, these things you’ve ‘inventing’ and ‘introducing’ to Chersea, Cherwind, Cherwoods, and the Demon Republic are all known to me. The new concepts you did show to us are your government ideas, and the military tactics and strategies.”
“If so, then the dwarves’ society is technologically-advanced, even way back the previous human saint’s time!”
“Yes,” the dwarf prince puffed another smoke, this time forming ‘Os’ while he exhaled what he breathed. “It’s just that,” he paused for a bit, looked around, and told me to come even closer as he lowered his voice to a whisper. “We dwarves—even halflings like me—are bound by oath not to reveal the truth about our advanced technology.”
“Err…let me guess, Your Highness,” I had difficulty in letting those words out. “This oath you’ve been telling me, this is connected to the Church of the Golden Hammer?”
The stadtholder nodded.
“And…” I slowly began to connect the dots, those things I learned, experienced and knew before. “…I introduced these things that dwarf church has been trying to hide! No wonder they’d send assassins after my ass!”
“I’m gd you’re always quick to catch on, ddie,” Prince Uhrian ughed.
“However, I still have questions.”
“Speak.”
“If that church wants every dwarf—pure or halfling—to hide these technologies, why do you have these with you? Isn’t hiding these, here in this nd full of humans, an enormous risk?”
“I smuggled them out of Equality,” was the dwarf prince’s curt reply.
“What for? Aren’t you attracting assassins from that church as well?”
“They won’t dare.”
“How can you be so sure?”
The Prince Uhrian, seeing the confusion on my face, grinned. Then, he extinguished his smoke pipe and sat on the motorcycle. “I suppose they can’t suspect the very son of the Golden Hammer undermining the church he founded?” the dwarf prince chuckled, amused at himself for catching me off-guard. “Let me introduce myself to you again, Lord Kuro of Maverny. I am Prince Giuseppe Uhrian, stadtholder of the League of the Valley Cities of Chersea, and the only son of my father, the Great Golden Hammer, the human who brought forth the nd we now call Equality!”
----------
***Equality, the realm of the dwarves…***
Nestled at the gentle slopes of a mountain called ‘Montserrant,’ the dwarves’ guild of Cole commanded the nearby mountain peaks it considered its territory since it expanded several eras ago. Connected by several hanging bridges that led to the underground caverns of the mountains, its members were mostly miners tasked with exploiting the rich mineral veins of the area. However, a considerable popution of cooks, clerks, and transport officials was also in charge of keeping the guild connected to the rest of Equality and making their city livable.
While the dwarven guilds usually kept to themselves, they still had to trade goods with the others to keep their economies up and running.
And, just like the other ‘guild-centered’ settlements across the nd, Montserrant was topped with an ‘airship’ tower, serving as the sole artery of the dwarf guild of Cole to sell and import goods. Airships were Equality's primary mode of transportation, though they had machines that could run pnes. The only problem was the ck of space for proper airstrips from where such vehicles could nd and take off; thus, zeppelins were made to adapt to the geographical challenges.
“Airship coming in!”
The arm informing everyone that an incoming zeppelin was arriving echoed throughout the mountain peaks under Montserrant. As it was a common occurrence to every dwarf living in Equality, it caused no excitement to the workers in the mines…save for the highest officials running the Cole Miner’s Guild. Once they received the message, they hurried towards the airship tower, with some of them still trying to wear their ‘official’ uniforms properly.
A golden zeppelin appeared through the cloud cover on the mountain's approach. The symbols embzoned on the sides of the ship told everyone that it was the personal airship of the Bishop of Montserrant—the church official in charge of the faithful in the area, as well as in collecting the guild taxes. As it docked the tower, the guild officials quickly positioned themselves at the foot of the stairs where the bishop would descend.
“His Eminence the Bishop of Montserrant has arrived!” shouted the herald. As if on cue, the doors of the airship cabin opened, and two acolytes alighted first, where they unfurled the church official’s banner. Then, once they were ready, the bishop himself finally stepped outside the dirigible. The guild officials knelt in reverence to their esteemed visitors.
The Bishop of Montserrant was a stocky dwarf with a full brown beard that reached down his belly. His beard was protected by a cuirass of gold and steel. His acolytes, following him behind, carried his symbol of authority—an oak war hammer encrusted with precious stones.
“We’ve been waiting for your arrival, Holy One,” greeted one of the guild officials. “Please let us entertain you with our finest ale and food.”
“There’s no need for that,” the bishop replied, looking around as if searching for something…or someone. “I won’t be long; where’s your Chief Executive Officer?”
The guild officials exchanged nervous stares before another one of them stepped forward. “Your Eminence,” he began, “if you are looking for our CEO, then she’s not here.”
“Is your boss somepce else?”
The guild officials shook their heads and added, “We mean, she’s down in the mines now, Holy One!”
“This is utmost disrespect!” the bishop blurted out, stomping his foot in rage. “How dare your CEO spit on the name of the Great Golden Hammer!”
“Correction, Holy One, I never meant offense to the Great Golden Hammer!”
“!!!” Everyone’s eyes fell on another dwarf approaching the crowd from the mines’ elevator. The ragged, muddy clothes she wore hid the prestigious office she held, and it was further obscured by the dirty face of a typical miner. Nevertheless, as they were all familiar with one another, she didn’t have to introduce herself; her voice was enough to identify her as the Chief Executive Officer of the Cole Miner’s Guild…
“So, you finally decide to show your contempt to this Holy Office by meeting me in that condition, Pau Cole!” the bishop quipped.
“Once again, I mean no disrespect, Your Eminence,” was Pau’s nonchant reply, dusting her hands and fixing her hair for a bit before reaching out to the shocked church official. She eventually withdrew her handshake when she noticed the bishop wouldn’t touch her. “It’s just that I show my devotion to the Great Golden Hammer by going overboard with our taxes.”
The church official attempted to come back from the obvious contempt for him, so he asked, “Well, if you cim that you broke protocol to show your devotion to our Golden Father, you must’ve the means to back it up!” He turned to a nearby acolyte and the tter brought out a tablet computer. The bishop then opened a file and showed it to the Cole Miner’s Guild CEO. “Your taxes are due, Cole,” he grinned. “If what you say is true, and your intentions are pure, then you wouldn’t have difficulty if our holy office would ask for double of what you should give. Of course, tithes and offerings are excluded; you still have to provide those.”
The other guild officials peeked on the screen of the tablet computer that was given to their CEO. Of course, with the exorbitant figures that were required of them, they were not pleased at all. But then, Pau ordered one of them, “Make sure our most holy bishop will receive these amounts he showed us. And of course, we of the Cole Miner’s Guild will never let our visitor go empty-handed. His Eminence will also have his own offerings from us, aside from the tithes and offerings we’ll give to the Great Father.”
The guild official went pale the moment he was handed his task. However, Pau was resolute. After all, she knew that the days of this church official and his cohorts were numbered; Prince Giuseppe Uhrian in Chersea promised them a ‘savior,’ after all.
