Chapter 85
- Is it just me, or is something weird here?
- The marketplace refreshed, but there was nothing.
- Is something going on?
ㄴ Is our gallery bro living in the Stone Age?
ㄴ Fuck, someone's been hoarding things for a week now.
Hoarding.
At long last, hoarding had appeared in the marketplace, too.
They had bought up every single item in the food and weapons categories in particular.
I couldn't help but be surprised all over again.
“Huh, it's only showing up now?”
How long had it been since the marketplace first appeared, and hoarding was only showing up now?
More surprising than anything was that this wasn't even a case of scalping, so no reports had been filed.
Besides, the hoarder wasn't alone.
- Fuck, how have they been hoarding this stuff for days?
- They're buying all sorts of weird things;;
- They even bought up all the mint-chocolate shell bread that was listed yesterday.
ㄴ (Elf emote with a blissfully detached expression)
ㄴ What's with hoarding mint chocolate?
ㄴ F
ㄴ uck
ㄴ er
As the amount of points I received increased, the number of items listed in the marketplace had increased tremendously as well.
Buying everything promptly as soon as it was listed was absolutely impossible for one person to do.
“Not even a fairly well-off noble could manage that, could they?”
It was hoarding on a scale that only some organization—or even an entire nation—could attempt.
Thanks to that, the galerians returned to their roots.
[Title: Legendary lol]
(Meme of someone digging up roots on the hill behind their house)
I never thought I'd have to do this shit again, for real.
Thanks, you f~uckers~.
- Lmao, what are you doing in armor?
- Wow, this meme really brings back memories.
ㄴ For real; it really takes me back.
ㄴ I seriously feel like puking lol.
The marketplace had guaranteed at least one meal a day, but hoarding had cut that off.
We had returned to the old days of going out into the mountains and fields to gather wild greens or eating monster meat.
“Hmm, this isn't good.”
I didn't really care whether people hoarded luxury goods or not.
But hoarding food and weapons—the things the galerians' lives depended on—was a serious problem.
Naturally, the galerians began investigating the culprits one by one in an attempt to catch the hoarders...
[Title: What Are the Dwarves Doing Here?]
(Meme of someone investigating something near Elad Forest)
(Meme of dwarf scouts taking a break and eating food from the marketplace)
- Why are the dwarves in Elad?
- Isn't that on opposite ends of the world, just going by the geography?
Before long, they were able to narrow down the suspects.
Dwarves eating marketplace goods that had been hoarded in Elad.
And it wasn't just one or two of them; a group of dozens of dwarves who appeared to be a scouting party had turned up.
- Huh? Come to think of it, I saw them too.
- I think I've seen them inside Elad Forest recently, too...
- That food looks like it came from the hoarded supplies, too.
ㄴ Huh?
ㄴ Wait, no way...
The hoarding of food and weapons.
And the dwarves' scouting of Eladrien.
- What was that phrase? This is totally a war setup!
- Heeek, emergency! Elves, emergennncy!!!
It was obviously a sign of war.
The elves went into a state of collective emergency.
*
The dwarves hated elves very much.
No, they didn't merely hate them—they loathed them.
[Title: Brothers, come vote]
What do you hate more?
1. Monsters
2. Elves
Vote results: Monsters 52%, Elves 48%
[Recommendations3423] [Dislikes2134]
- Wow, they're comparable to monsters?
- Lmao, that's legendary.
- Come to think of it, didn't the dwarves go after the elves when the Great War broke out, too? Lmao
The fact that the vote had come out nearly tied with monsters said it all.
Elves and dwarves were famous mortal enemies.
But they hadn't hated elves that much from the beginning.
They had maintained a fairly amicable relationship at least until their first interspecies exchange.
The dwarves gave them forged weapons and armor, while the elves taught them about Elad's materials and magical knowledge.
- Heh heh, these tall, long-eared friends are pretty clever.
- This might help advance our technology.
ㄴ Ahem, of course it should!
ㄴ We elves are graciously agreeing to exchange with you^^
ㄴ Ugly little dwarves, lol.
ㄴ ??
ㄴ ?
Of course, the elves' social graces had been just as deranged then as they were now.
But at least things hadn't deteriorated to the point of breaking off relations.
The problem came about a month after the exchange began.
[Elf-Dwarf Trade Agreement]
1. The dwarves shall visit Eladrien in person every month to conduct exchanges.
2. If the dwarves wish to exchange with the elves, they must prepare 100 kg of gold and 100 kg of silver each time.
3. The agreement shall be established once the Dwarf King performs a ceremony showing due respect to Her Majesty the Elven Queen.
After a few trades, the elven delegation took the document and went to see the Dwarf King.
“What is this?”
“From now on, the dwarves are requested to visit Eladrien while abiding by the conditions above.”
It was an utterly unfair contract.
The dwarves were more or less left speechless by the delegation's attitude as they held their heads high and brazenly made their demands.
Naturally, the former Dwarf King's judgment came down to one thing.
“Are the elves' necks made of steel or something?”
They put on a guillotine show for the elven delegation.
“Chop off the pointy-eared bastards' heads.”
“Heeeek.”
“Heeek, save the elves who are pretty, beautiful, and have it all!”
The dwarves turned the elven delegation into elf slices on the spot, and that became the spark that set everything off.
The Elf-Dwarf War broke out even before the Great War.
They stopped in the middle of it because the Great War erupted and made it difficult for both sides to survive, but...
Now that the marketplace had appeared, it wouldn't have been strange for them to go to war again.
“This is insane.”
After learning this history, my mind naturally went cold.
War, while the monsters were still alive and well?
That was basically saying they wanted everyone to die.
Fortunately, I knew a dwarf galerian, so I immediately contacted Taldain, the current Dwarf King.
Head Mod*: Fuck, stop this right now!!!
Taldru: Ah, I can't exactly refuse a request to stop.
Taldru: But what am I supposed to stop?
Was he pretending not to know even though he had already figured everything out?
Everyone knew that they had hoarded supplies for war and even dispatched armed dwarf scouts.
I knew that most races hated elves, as if they were the obvious ones to blame whenever something went wrong.
But now was not the time for a war.
Head Mod*: Stop starting a war with the elves!
So I tried to talk them out of it somehow, but...
Taldru: Brother, what are you talking about?
Head Mod*: ?
Taldru: The elves are indeed pointy-eared bastards we'd love to tear apart, but we have no plans for war.
The dwarves had no idea what he was talking about.
In other words, this was merely another Gallery-originated bait topic.
*
The dwarves had recently reduced their Gallery activity.
Naturally, there were no dwarves around to cool down the war bait, and the Gallery was burning hot when—
- War? What is this now?
- If you're not a dwarf, don't drink during the day.
The dwarves who arrived after learning the news belatedly could only look bewildered.
- Don't lie, lol.
ㄴ For real, you think we don't know you're procuring war supplies?
But war was, at its core, a bluff.
The humans, masters of bluffing in particular, didn't believe the dwarves at first.
After all, the dwarves were known for their warlike personalities.
But there was definite proof that the dwarves weren't preparing for war.
- Wouldn't Brother Head Mod close the marketplace if we went to war?
- How do you wage war without alcohol?
ㄴ Huh? That's true.
Dwarves were made up of 70% alcohol.
Their warlike personalities meant they liked fighting, but if they tried to start a war, I would take down the marketplace.
In other words, they had to be prepared to abstain from alcohol if they wanted war.
- I'd rather die than not drink.
- Don't drink alcohol.
ㄴ What is that supposed to mean?
ㄴ I'm telling you not to drink.
ㄴ How do you do that?
Naturally, they weren't even thinking of war.
“Then why did they hoard everything?”
But the question still remained.
Why had they hoarded everything, then?
- Do you think you're the only ones who eat food from the marketplace?
- For real, they're shameless after hoarding everything.
- If you think the dwarves are selfish, upvote lol.
Even putting the most charitable spin on it, this could only look like preparations for war supplies.
However, there was only one answer to that question.
[Title: The Kilgrot Kingdom Mine...jpg]
Author: Taldru
(Meme of a closed mine)
(Meme of countless cracks forming inside the mine)
(Meme of monsters swarming outside the fortress walls)
Then come and hold them off for us.
- Um.
- Good hoarding approved.
- Fuck, does that number even make sense? There are so damn many of them, lol.
- Ah, lol; this can't be helped.
ㄴ (Knight emote clutching its head with both hands)
Monsters had gathered in the Kilgrot Kingdom.
The problem was their numbers.
The dwarves had the technology to wipe out one or two waves.
But because it was a cold, wintry region and the kingdom was located beneath a mountain range, they didn't go out to suppress waves that erupted far away.
The waves that erupted one by one had swelled into a single army.
“But compared to the old reconquest campaign, aren't there actually fewer of them this time?”
Of course, if that were the only problem, it would have been fine.
The dwarves were masters of blocking entrances, having repelled even larger numbers than this.
The problem was that another entrance had appeared inside the mine.
The crisis was that no one knew when the cracks inside the mine would erupt.
They had settled beneath a mountain range with only one entrance for invaders to use, but that had become a disadvantage in reverse.
“So the scouts were looking for a site to build a new kingdom, too.”
The dwarves had ended up unable to leave or enter.
- Taldru) You think we'd have bought up even all the mint-chocolate bread for no reason?
It wasn't the time to worry about likes and dislikes.
Most people who understood the whole story reacted that way, but many others didn't.
[Title: So What Are We Supposed to Do About It? lol]
It's your problem, so why are you telling us to bear the losses??
I seriously don't get it.
Or you should have diligently stored food from the beginning. Why are you taking even the food I was going to eat?
(Farmer frog emote giving the middle finger)
- For real, lol.
- So why should I care?
- I don't care about war or monsters; just give me back my canned tuna, damn it, lol.
In contrast, their attitude was that they were struggling right now, so why should they care about another species' survival?
Of course, the solution was simple.
“I could increase the marketplace's inventory.”
Then I would be the one with the problem.
Even if rice dumplings were a source of experience, I still had to keep a certain percentage of my points on hand.
But if I released any more supplies, the rate at which my points were spent would exceed the rate at which I earned them.
I couldn't solve every problem by increasing the inventory every time something like this happened.
“Hmm... War supplies.”
I needed cheap combat rations that could easily stave off hunger during a war, were convenient to carry, and had a long shelf life.
They also needed to taste reasonably good and, above all, be available for mass distribution.
“Is there anything like that?”
Of course there was.
There was the combat ration I'd bought countless times at the military PX because it was so dirt cheap.
[Barley Hardtack 10kg] - 25p
Considering that each packet was roughly 30g, it was an absurd amount for the price.
It was insanely efficient barley hardtack that effectively cost only 72 won per packet.