Elves and Dwarves (1)

Creation—the time when the world began.

No one knows whether the Creator brought this world into being or came to a world that already existed.

That is because there were no other observers, and only the Creator knows.

In any case, the Creator made the spirits to smoothly circulate the overwhelmingly powerful force filling that world and prepare its environment.

Once the environment was more or less in place, the Creator made the True Elves, beings who could communicate with the spirits, so the spirits could work according to circumstances.

Delighted by the sight of the small True Elves wandering across the land, the Creator next made much larger True Giants and settled them above the clouds.

To connect the two, the Creator made immortal birds that traveled between earth and sky.

As guardians to protect the world, the Creator made the True Dragons.

At that point, the Creator was satisfied with creation.

Nothing else seemed necessary, and the Creator wanted nothing more.

Therefore, believing that the world no longer needed the Creator for its further development, the Creator finally made the gods—the ones who would develop the world and inherit the work of creation—then went to sleep.

The gods first made elves based on the True Elves, then dwarves as beings of the opposite nature. After that, they made humans, who were weaker than the preceding two races but distinguished by versatility, diversity, potential for development, and capacity for expansion, and finally made beastfolk by blending in beast traits to compensate for human weakness.

Unlike the Creator, the gods were many, and each created the races it favored.

Halflings who ran across the grasslands, Winged Folk with wings on their backs who flew through the sky, merfolk who lived beneath the sea, and many other races.

Yet because the gods were many, disagreements arose as the world developed, and conflict began.

One god desired gradual change, another demanded rapid change, and yet another hated change altogether.

Some gods loved the races they had created and tried to make the world even slightly more favorable to them, while other gods objected to that.

The conflicts born from those disagreements were truly fierce; because the gods had never fought one another before, they did not know how to restrain themselves.

Not only the fierce gods but even those who disliked conflict were all drawn into it.

Yet some time after the fighting began, the gods realized something.

Their struggle, waged by beings of immense power, was dragging their children into it and gravely wounding the world.

In fact, some races were said to have gone extinct or suffered drastic declines in number because of the conflict.

The collision of their powers also caused magic to arise in the world, and monsters appeared as well.

If the conflict continued to grow, it might eventually bring them into conflict with the True Dragons, the guardians of the world.

So the gods joined forces, built a new realm—the realm of the gods—and moved there, making a pact that forbade them from interfering recklessly in this world.

It is said that the gods now have almost no direct involvement in this world.

Even so, miracles that seem impossible to explain as anything other than a god's intervention still occur in this world from time to time.

Though it is a tale from the distant past and its truth cannot be confirmed, this is a rather rough summary of the mythology widely known in the world today.

There are plenty of other, more detailed stories, but they vary from region to region, so I'll leave them aside for now.

So, in fact, one might consider elves closer in origin to dwarves than to High Elves like me, but if I said that aloud, the elves would probably get very angry.

Still, many people believe that the ancient races, including the High Elves, exist only in fairy tales and are not real.

Now, after returning from the Fodor Empire, I was to be officially granted citizenship by the dwarven nation because of what had happened this time.

Not just me—Win as well.

Although I had been treated almost like family for quite some time, I had still been a guest in name only; now, Win and I had officially been recognized as family.

In the Fodor Empire, I had acted almost entirely for my own convenience, but if what I had done also benefited the dwarven nation, I was sincerely glad.

Azvardo and his family, Grander and everyone in the trade caravan, the other smiths I had met, the tavern's owner and staff, and even nearby dwarves whom I knew only by name all turned out to celebrate us.

Everyone was overjoyed, and it turned into a tremendous festival.

Apparently, no other race had ever been formally recognized as citizens in this dwarven nation, so this was quite an achievement.

Of course, this probably also involved a great deal of political theater: the current king of the dwarves had recognized Azvardo as his successor, and was therefore extending special consideration to Azvardo's apprentices, Win and me.

But whatever the current king's intentions, the fact that Win and I had gained citizenship at this stage held enormous significance.

Because once Azvardo became king of the dwarven nation, if he then tried to recognize Win and me as citizens, some people might interpret it as favoritism toward his own apprentices.

But because we gained citizenship now, it meant that the current king had backed exchange with another race and encouraged a new direction.

In other words, the trade between the elven forest and the dwarven nation that I had considered a pipe dream until recently could now be seriously explored.

Of course, interaction between different races was not necessarily a good thing.

It would require a great deal of effort, cause problems, and, depending on the circumstances, might even deepen the rift between the races.

Even so, I thought it would surely be more fun if the two races interacted.

It would be wrong to call this fortunate, but as relations between the Fodor Empire and the dwarven nation deteriorated, trade—including weapons exports and alcohol imports—would decline sharply.

Naturally, trade with the Kingdom of Rudoria would increase to make up for that loss, but there absolutely had to be room for fruit wine from the elven forest to enter the market, whether consumed as is or used as a base for distilled spirits.

The elves could trade fruit, or alcohol made by processing it, while the dwarves could trade weapons and tools made from monster fangs and claws.

Whether to involve humans in the middle of that trade was a bit of a dilemma.

Having a third race—humans—serve as a buffer would make things proceed more smoothly than direct trade between elves and dwarves.

But dwarves aside, elves had little sense of the value of goods, especially money; if greedy humans became involved, the elves could be exploited.

And if the resentment caused by that exploitation were then directed at the dwarves by those greedy humans... that would become a real headache.

I had sent Airena a letter explaining my situation and thoughts, but at some point, I should talk to her in person.

This was probably a selfish wish on my part, but I thought Airena would likely understand and cooperate.