Unrest in the Land of the Dwarves – Part 01

While the Four Eastern Stars grumbled about the humidity in the forest, snow was falling over the imperial capital of G. Quinbrand in the far northeastern Quinbrand Empire. Clouds dimmed the city, and the light from the windows alone wasn’t enough to read by. As such, even during the day, the chandelier in the luxurious room was on, powered by sorcery that consumed a considerable amount of elemental magic stones.

The room’s occupant paid no mind to such expenses. He never had. He was a Man Gnome, a long-lived, short-statured race. Though he looked young, he was actually over seventy years old.

As Emperor Kagurai G. Quinbrand flipped through a stack of documents, an attendant entered to announce a visitor: an elderly Man Gnome accompanied by four bodyguards. Unlike Kagurai, this Man Gnome was genuinely old, likely nearing or exceeding two hundred years of age.

Kagurai caught the brief flicker of disapproval the elder cast toward the chandelier.

“Seventh Elder, does the mana consumption bother you?”

Man Gnomes loathed wasting magical energy, believing it disrupted the natural balance of the world.

“No. There’s an old saying: When in a village, follow its customs. I won’t waste breath on trivialities.”

“That’s good to hear. Please, sit. What brings you here today?”

Kagurai sat on the couch across from the elder. Once the elder lowered himself into a seat, his four bodyguards, known as the Distant Girdle in Man Gnome society, lined up behind him.

Bringing Distant Girdle into the heart of the imperial palace, huh?

Among Man Gnomes, the Distant Girdle were warriors, spies, and scholars, the only ones authorized to leave their village to study and observe the world outside. The elder likely hadn’t left the village in over a century, so he brought them for protection and knowledge.

However, this was the capital of the Quinbrand Empire, right at the heart of the imperial palace, and further still, the Emperor’s private chambers. Bringing along guards was utterly absurd.

“I’ve come to discuss a pressing matter,” the elder began. “Kagurai, how well are you managing this country’s nobles?”

Kagurai’s brow twitched ever so slightly. “I believe I have reported this to the elders before. The Quinbrand Empire remains firm and stable.”

“Stable, you say? It doesn’t seem that way to me.” The elder glanced at one of the Distant Girdle before continuing. “This morning, after breakfast, a noble paid me a visit. They inquired about my relationship to you. Their insolence was so appalling I had them removed.”

“I see.”

Officially, the elder was said to be a distant relative of Kagurai—a plausible cover, given that both were Man Gnomes. But the empire’s nobles knew very little of the Man Gnomes beyond the fact that their emperors had been one and that they lived within the imperial palace. While imperial affairs were kept confidential, leaks inevitably occurred, especially since most staff were human. Rumors of an unfamiliar Man Gnome wandering with bodyguards were bound to spread.

The nobles were aware, to some extent, of the existence of the Man Gnome village, though they did not know its exact location. Obsessed with power, they sought to find it so they could have leverage over the Emperor.

You’re no different, Kagurai thought, staring at the Man Gnome. An elder from a small village, and the lowest rank among the seven. Decades of scheming for power, and now he’s here, abandoning his collapsing village to chase his ambitions.

The Man Gnome village was the only place on the whole continent that studied and utilized Soul energy. The Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas, on the other hand, led the continent in the study and application of sorcery. Kagurai had joined forces with this elder to secure both the village and the labyrinth, even sparing Soaarunay Saak’s life in the process.

Despite being younger than the Seventh Elder, Kagurai had interacted with far more races and navigated the treacherous world of noble society. As such, he saw the elder’s complaints about insolent nobles as nothing but insignificant.

“My apologies for their disrespect,” Kagurai said. “If you have a name, I will ensure this does not happen again.”

“I have your word, then.”

Even the elder’s bodyguards carried themselves with an air of superiority, acting as if Kagurai were beneath them. While he did govern the Quinbrand Empire as the Man Gnome village’s puppet…

That is no longer the case.

The village had since fallen, and the Seventh Elder showed no sign of returning there. In other words, they had no choice but to rely on Kagurai now. It was laughable how they still held to their old hierarchies.

“Anyway, I’m here for a different matter,” the Seventh Elder said. “I wanted to visit the Man Gnome village, but the Black Wedge Gate isn’t working.”

“What?”

“There might be a problem with the tally. Could you lend me yours?”

“Very well.”

Kagurai rose from his seat and retrieved a tally from his desk. Only a handful remained capable of activating the Black Wedge Gate, but he had one in his possession.

“Here.”

He handed the piece of wood to one of the Distant Girdle members, who frowned slightly.

“You just keep it there? Don’t you think that’s careless?”

Oh, now you want to lecture me about safeguarding valuables? Kagurai almost laughed at the remark.

“I’m the Emperor. No one dares touch what I command to remain untouched.”

“I-I see… then that’s fine,” the man stammered, flinching under Kagurai’s sharp glare. He awkwardly left the room, likely heading to test the gate himself.

So, the Black Wedge Gate isn’t working.

Kagurai doubted the tally would resolve the issue. The gate had functioned flawlessly throughout the Man Gnomes’ long history. Tallies had never failed before. There had to be a deeper cause.

“This is troubling,” Kagurai said as he returned to his seat. “The Black Wedge Gate being out of order is a significant issue.”

The Seventh Elder nodded gravely. “Indeed. All our equipment and research materials related to Soul energy are in the village. Now that the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas has been dealt with, I had hoped to begin retrieving them.”

“From a village filled with corpses, you mean?”

“Don’t put it that way. It was the Grand Elder herself who chose destruction.”

The Grand Elder had made the decision to deploy the Starwhite Wedge, a devastating weapon, against the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas, knowing it might require sacrificing the lives of their own people.

The head of the research facility responsible for managing the weapon had vastly underestimated how much Soul energy it required, a critical detail recorded in documents only the Grand Elder could access. The Seventh Elder had stumbled upon this knowledge by chance, during a secret visit to the Grand Elder’s quarters. Refusing to die alongside the labyrinth, he fled the village.

I can’t believe he’s pinning all the blame on the Grand Elder.

Kagurai, who had spent more time outside the village, had long seen it as a cage rather than a home. As the ruler of a nation of over ten million, he no longer found himself moved by small sacrifices.

“Do you have any idea why the Black Wedge Gate stopped working?” Kagurai asked.

“Perhaps the depletion of Soul energy, or some disruption in its flow,” the elder replied thoughtfully.

“Hmm. But wasn’t the village situated where Soul energy naturally accumulated?”

The Black Wedge Gate, powered by Soul energy, could only be installed in locations where such energy gathered and stagnated, much like how highways connected large cities. The Man Gnome village, with its massive reserves of Soul energy, was an ideal site for the gate.

“If the gate can’t be activated, the only alternative is to travel on foot.”

“Leave that to us,” the elder interjected. “I will assign two Distant Girdle members to the task. There’s little else we can do right now anyway. Wouldn’t you agree, Kagurai?”

Kagurai nodded. What he wanted from the Seventh Elder was expertise in harnessing Soul energy, not interference in Quinbrand’s politics.

“Kagurai,” the elder pressed. “What’s your next move?”

Ah, so this is the real reason for the visit, Kagurai realized.

The Seventh Elder had forsaken his fellow Man Gnomes to align with Kagurai. While the Emperor couldn’t fully discern the elder’s true motives, one thing was clear: he rejected the ways of the Man Gnome village.

The elder had reached out to Kagurai soon after learning of the suicidal strategy devised by the Grand Elder. Through a trusted Distant Girdle, he requested Kagurai’s guidance the moment he left the village.

The Seventh Elder’s proposed to rule over the continent by harnessing both Soul energy and sorcery, treating them not as opposing but as complementary forces, and Kagurai decided to go along with it.

Kagurai couldn’t comprehend the Man Gnome village’s principles, its reverence for Soul energy or its vehement rejection of magic as though it were poison.

He had been taught about the balance between Soul and magical energy, but they had used magic and sorcery without any issues—or even the faintest hint of trouble—so far. To him, their claims about this supposed balance of the world were too abstract to hold weight.

Adding to his skepticism was the Man Gnomes’ superficial grasp of Soul energy. They couldn’t even replicate inventions powered by it, including the Black Wedge Gate and the tallies.

For Kagurai, efficiently leveraging both Soul energy and magic to unify the continent seemed the most rational path forward.