Chapter 82
The competition where Azvaldo submitted the mithril sword he had completed naturally ended with him taking first place.
Well, since Azvaldo's smithing skill had been superior from the outset, it was already clear that he would surpass Lajudorl if he could work mithril just as well.
Thus, after that single competition, Azvaldo was almost certain to claim the throne.
However, we weren't satisfied with that result. To convince all the dwarves—or perhaps to overwhelm them by displaying our skill—we went all out in the competitions that followed.
We competed with steel rather than mithril to silence the dwarves of the anti-magic faction. At other times, I prepared the spell formula while Azvaldo wielded his hammer, and together we forged a magic sword to compete in Lajudorl's specialty.
We showed the dwarves throughout the country just how much we could accomplish by working together.
Of course, no matter how overwhelmingly Azvaldo and I outperformed everyone else, the idea of elves and dwarves joining hands remained a fantasy.
But I thought it could at least be a small first step toward improving relations between us, however slightly.
After all, Win and I had now been accepted into this dwarven country, and once Azvaldo became king, we would be able to take more concrete steps.
For example, elves could export fruit from the forests to humans, and the humans could turn it into liquor and export it to the dwarves.
The elves of the forest did not work with iron, but the dwarves excelled at processing monster claws and fangs, so they could use them to make knives and decorative items.
If elves were shown excellent goods, surely they wouldn't reject them.
Neither dwarves nor elves actually wanted to change, but I'd enjoy it more if they did.
Azvaldo would surely enjoy that as well.
More than anything, Win was a half-elf, and he would probably find it much easier to live in a world where different races interacted.
As we spent our days that way, time flew by, and five years had already passed since we came to the dwarven country.
Win was growing steadily, and when he stood among the dwarves, he no longer looked particularly small.
As his body grew, so did his skill with the sword. ...Recently, in our wooden-sword bouts, he had even begun beating me once out of every ten matches.
Unlike me, Win had a strong competitive spirit; he was driven to grow stronger and win, so his progress was dazzling to watch.
Perhaps attending the dwarven school had sparked his interest in smithing, because, to my surprise, Win asked Azvaldo to take him on as an apprentice.
Apparently, Azvaldo asked Win why he didn't learn from me.
"Even if I learned from Eisa, I couldn't catch up to him or beat him. That's why I want to learn smithing from Uncle Azvaldo... please."
That was how he answered, apparently.
I didn't really understand why Win wanted to match me—or beat me.
But Azvaldo seemed to understand that feeling, and he accepted Win as his apprentice.
So Win and I became fellow apprentices... Ah, no. I suppose we'd been fellow apprentices ever since he started learning the sword.
In that case, I suppose it was fine.
Little by little, Win began to have more time to himself, and he spent considerably less time with me than before. But that was probably the right kind of growth.
Naturally, I felt lonely about it, but at the same time, watching him strive with all his might to grow brought me a sense of reassurance and joy.
It wasn't as though he disliked me; I knew he liked me.
That was simply the stage he was at now.
Just as if it had been waiting for that moment, ominous news arrived.
The news came from dwarves who had gone north to trade. They reported it to Azvaldo, and he passed it on to me.
"Eisa, it looks like the Fodor Empire is preparing to invade the Rudoria Kingdom."
That was what he told me.
I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
The mountain road connecting the Fodor Empire and the Rudoria Kingdom had remained closed ever since I sealed it.
Fearing that the same thing might happen again, no one had tried to reopen the place I had sealed, nor clear even a detour around it.
Though hardy dwarves could cross the mountains, there was no way humans—especially an army hauling heavy equipment and provisions—could pass through.
"...Wasn't this some kind of mistake?"
Naturally, I couldn't help asking that.
Azvaldo looked a little troubled at my words, then nodded.
"Weapons and provisions are being brought into forts abandoned when the road was closed, as well as towns in the southern Empire. There are only two countries south of that nation: the Rudoria Kingdom and the dwarven country."
The prices of weapons and food within the Empire had risen, and new soldiers were being recruited and trained.
It was unquestionably preparation for war, yet there was no sign of a major battle about to break out between the Empire and its neighboring countries.
If that was the case... had the Empire obtained some way to cross the mountains with an army?
It was hard to imagine, but, in the first place, the mountain road should never have been able to be closed at all.
Therefore, every possibility had to be considered.
For example, what if a High Elf other than me had ventured into human lands?
Or what if, after hearing that the blockade on the Rudoria Kingdom's side had been the work of elves, the Fodor Empire had prepared an elf?
If they dispatched an army and ordinary elves failed to break a seal made by a High Elf, they might even be saddled with the blame.
I had heard that there were few elves in the cold northern lands, but it wasn't as though there were none.
It was a remote possibility, but I couldn't say it was absolutely impossible.
If the Empire really did possess a means of crossing the mountains, the Rudoria Kingdom, believing the northern road to be blocked, would be caught off guard.
That was not an outcome I welcomed.
Because Kaeha and her family lived in the Rudoria Kingdom.
If the Rudoria Kingdom suffered a surprise attack, and the Fodor Empire secured the northern region and established a bridgehead there, a long war would follow.
Naturally, Kaeha and her family's lives would no longer be what they had been.
But Kaeha's final moments should be peaceful ones beside me. They must never be disrupted or threatened by something like a war.
"Are you going?"
Azvaldo asked, sounding somewhat worried.
I nodded in response.
As long as there was even a possibility, I had to investigate.
I made up my mind to enter the lands of the Fodor Empire.
The matter of Azvaldo becoming the next king had already been settled.
Thus, I could safely leave the country now.
"...I see. Leave Win to me. He's my apprentice too, after all."
I nodded once more at Azvaldo's words.
There was no way I could take Win to a place where great danger was looming.
"I plan to be back within a year."
I wasn't happy about it.
Whether it meant being separated from Win for a year or approaching a place where war seemed imminent.
But precisely because Win mattered so much to me, I had to protect the safety of Kaeha's dojo, where the people he presumably also considered family lived.
No matter how much I hated war, it would never simply keep its distance.
If I wished for peace, if I wished for the peace of the people I cared about, what I needed was not prayer but action.
I finished my preparations that very day and joined a trade caravan newly dispatched north, leaving behind the dwarven country I had grown so familiar with.