Ch.917Iron Dialogue

The return of the dragon was a catastrophic emergency for all beings on earth.

Haschal was not the only one preoccupied with devising countermeasures.

“A dragon…? As if pointy-ears and rats weren’t enough, now a dragon has appeared?”

“Ancestors save us. I feel like my beard is going to fall out!”

In the large mining region of the southwestern continent.

The Republic of Himmel, a nation of dwarves who had built and prospered in cities within basins, gorges, and underground between towering mountain ranges, hastily convened their parliament to discuss alternatives.

In the rapidly changing world situation, amidst intensifying chaos and threats, they needed to determine the best course of action to take.

There were three topics to discuss.

Reclaiming their ancestors’ treasures that had become strongholds for monster hordes, and constructing a solid barrier fortress along the border with Alvheim.

Finally, there was the matter of technical cooperation with the Empire.

“What nonsense about shaving beards! Are you suggesting we become the humans’ dogs? Do you know what consequences that would bring!”

“Times have changed! Can’t you see that?”

“What’s changed is your mind! How much gold have you stuffed your face with to spout such shameless nonsense!”

The final agenda item provoked serious opposition and great controversy.

For dwarves, technical cooperation with the Empire could be seen as a mercenary act of national betrayal, selling even their nation’s fundamental principles for money.

—-

The national policy of dwarves was to maintain racial autonomy through military superiority achieved by monopolizing engineering technology.

Their logic was that if they couldn’t produce superhumans due to inherent limitations, they could mass-produce weapons with power comparable to superhumans to counter other races.

…In other words, once they lost their technological edge, nothing would remain.

If both dwarves and non-dwarves wielded the same weapons in battle, dwarves would inevitably be at an overwhelming disadvantage.

Unlike other races, dwarves could not naturally produce transcendent warriors, and their population was extremely small.

Though their numbers had increased somewhat now, hundreds of years ago extinction was a serious concern.

The Empire’s founder, Carlos the Great, had collapsed entire mountain ranges containing their underground cities, crushing every inhabitant, down to the last child.

City-scale massacres carried out too simply, too instantly.

Having lost most of their population, the dwarves were forced to surrender despite still having armies and weapons.

If they had continued fighting humans, all dwarves except those on the front lines would have been completely annihilated.

What meaning would having an army have in such a situation?

Once all women and children were wiped out, the remaining men would face extinction unless they developed a way to produce children among themselves.

Anyway, because of this history, today’s dwarves were even more obsessed with technological monopoly than before.

If their numbers were few, shouldn’t they at least have superior quality?

The population, drastically reduced by those losses, had not properly recovered even now, eight hundred years later.

Compared to any race—even fewer than the werebeasts driven beyond the Sky Mountains—technological superiority was the dwarves’ only lifeline for ensuring survival and autonomy.

If they lost their technological edge, they would lose the power to compete with other races and decline, possibly even falling to slavery like ancient humans in the worst case.

For this reason, the Red Copper clan’s assertion that they should expand technological exchange with the Empire sounded to other clans like the treasonous ravings of traitors trying to sell their own kind for Imperial money.

Of course, the Red Copper clan, accused of being traitors, had grounds to refute such dishonor.

“Look at humans today. They fire cannons without gunpowder and fly through the sky with crude engines enhanced by magical engineering. What new inventions will come next?”

The justification that the concept of “technological monopoly,” which dwarves had maintained like a creed, was already an outdated idea lagging behind reality.

As the Red Copper clan’s representative argued, humans were already creating similar weapons with slightly different principles.

Thanks to the rune magic system acquired from Dane ruins and the blood and tears of research genius Floheta.

The dwarves could not prevent this.

The magical engineering weapons created by humans were similar in performance to dwarf weapons, but based on fundamentally different technology in their operating principles.

“Though they’re still in the pilot stage now, once they begin mass production in earnest, our technological edge will collapse like beer foam. Don’t you agree?”

Dwarves still maintained performance superiority for now, but no one could dare predict how long that advantage would last.

Even if performance lagged somewhat, getting hit meant death all the same.

“Humanity’s greatest strength—their immense numbers resulting in capital power and production capacity—will crush us like ants.”

What meaning would it have if a dwarf anti-air cannon was ten times more powerful than a mana cannon?

While dwarves produced and deployed one anti-air cannon, the Empire would have manufactured fifty mana cannons.

“That’s why we must take the Empire’s hand. While our technology still holds value, we should sell it at the highest price and secure our safety in return.”

Therefore, the Red Copper clan’s representative insisted they should firmly grasp the Empire’s hand at this opportunity.

It wouldn’t take long for the Empire, having acquired artillery as a military branch, to achieve all conditions necessary for firepower warfare.

It sounded reasonable. The argument was persuasive, and the stated justification was flawless.

Though he conveniently omitted the fundamental reason the Empire could complete mana cannons in such a short time—thanks to the blueprints provided by Asha, a member of his own clan.

“What nonsense! How can we trust humans? Can’t you see we’ll have our technology stolen and be reduced to slaves?”

Despite the Red Copper clan representative’s persuasion, nearly half the representatives expressed anger and opposition to the idea.

Violating traditions passed down for ages was, to them, a disgrace and indecency incomparable to anything else.

“If you’re so displeased, stick stubbornly to your principles. We will join hands with the Empire alongside clans who agree with our vision.”

Perhaps believing it impossible to convince them, the Red Copper clan’s representative shook his head with a sneer instead of offering further persuasion.

“What did you say?!”

“Those who provide full cooperation versus those who show distrust and remain uncooperative. I wonder which side will become slaves in a decade or two—an interesting wager, isn’t it?”

A blatant mockery suggesting they still didn’t understand reality. A gaze full of contempt and disdain.

“I’ll bet on your children becoming slaves… Oh, I forgot you don’t have any. Congratulations. You win this bet.”

“You bald-bearded bastard!”

The opposition representative who became the target of that gaze leaped up from his seat and swung his axe.

Unable to contain his anger any longer, he decided to correct the other’s mindset through action rather than words.

“I’ll split your head open to bring you to your senses!”

Devising a truly dwarf-like treatment method on the spot—splitting the skull in half to extract the rotten brain.

“An axe? You draw an axe? Huh.”

The Red Copper clan’s representative didn’t remain idle either.

“Fine, I’ll pound your stone-hard head until it turns soft!”

He drew a rocket-propelled hammer and leaped up, bringing it down with thunderous force toward the representative swinging an axe at him.

KWAAANG!

With a deafening sound, the round table in the meeting room split. The two dwarves engaged in a fierce battle, swinging hammer and axe like a storm while roaring with beard-trembling fury.

Documents on the round table were torn to shreds by the air pressure, and metal and rock fragments sprayed up like raindrops.

“Hey! Calm down, Representative Silverhand! You too, Representative Redcopper!”

“Use words! Words!”

Representatives shocked by the sudden outbreak of violence urgently tried to stop the two dwarves, but…

“The time for words is already past!”

One of the pro-Empire representatives pulled out a shotgun from his breast and pulled the trigger toward the opposition.

“Right! I can’t stand this anymore! You traitors!”

A representative opposing the Red Copper clan’s opinion blocked the shotgun blast with a shield and spewed fierce flames from the flamethrower attached to his prosthetic hand.

“My beard! My beeeard! You madman, setting fires? You’ve completely lost your mind!”

“Those who shoot guns have no right to talk! Let’s settle this today!”

Other representatives caught in the attack also drew weapons and began launching murderous attacks at each other.

Bullets, flames, blades, and blunt weapons swept in all directions like a raging blizzard.

“Stop! What outrage is this in our sacred parliament!”

The meeting had descended into chaos in an instant.

“Outrage? Didn’t that bastard start the outrage first!”

“Your mouth is the outrage!”

With those trying to stop the fight becoming the minority opinion, the battle between the two factions of representatives only ended after several representatives lay dead.

It was the moment when the division of Himmel, the Republic of Dwarves, began.