3 bar menu

85. 23, 000

「meat…」

She is eating well. Eating heartily.

The amount of meat that shouldn’t fit into this small body somehow ended up fitting.

「Koe-san, just grill all the meat here.」

「Yes, master.」

「Skill Lender-san, the atmosphere surrounding you has changed a bit?」

「Grilling and eating meat together like this will surely liven up anyone’s mood. But this is delicious!」

「The taste of lard is different from that of mountain beasts, master.」

The quality of meat in this town seems to be quite good. Both the bird and wild animal meat were fresh and had the perfect amount of fat. Such items were available at very low prices, so I bought as much as I could. However, the piled up juicy meat dripping kept disappearing quickly.

Above all, there was a fierce competition to get the perfectly grilled meat.

「Ah, Koe-san, that’s Geli’s.」

「…?」

「You ate it without hesitation.」

「You did not write your name on it…」

Sometimes I think that the people from our village have a different personality when it comes to food.

Anyway, after things had calmed down after the endless cutting, grilling, and eating, I decided to ask for more details from the dwarf girl.

「First of all, let me introduce myself again. I’m Marge. Marge Siu. I’m the king of the werewolves. Think of Koe-san here as my secretary.」

「Shizuku here is the daughter of the werewolves’ former chief, Asagi.」

「This is Angelina. She’s an alchemist. And this house belongs to her.」

「Koe-sama, Shizuku-sama, Geli-sama… Koe-sama, Shizuku-sama, Geli-sama… Koe-sama, Shizuku-sama, Geli-sama…」

While reflecting on each name, the girl bowed her head. Bowing while making a greeting was the same as that of werewolves. Is it behavioral remains of the bygone forest era?

「My name is Azura. I will be in your care.」

Her chestnut-colored curly hair was a common characteristic of dwarves, but her jade-colored eyes are said to be somewhat rare. Her eyes looked at each of us in turn.

「Thank you for treating me so well. Truly, truly.」

「Y-You have a different atmosphere. It’s a little different from the dwarves I’ve heard about.」

「So, Azura, why were you captured by the Knights Order? How do you know about the werewolf village?」

「I would like to explain in order.」

「Sure, that’s fine.」

Our purpose for coming to this city was to rescue Azura. To free the dwarf girl who somehow knew about the werewolf village and to investigate it.

What and how much does she know? How does she know? I have to ascertain those.

「To start with, there are approximately 23,000 dwarves living in this city. And about 10% of them–」

「Wait.」

「I shall wait.」

「Did you say 23,000 dwarves?」

「That’s the total number from the underground iron mines, coal mines in the west, and other large and small mines.」

That’s a lot. Far more than I expected. Even Shizuku was left speechless.

「Shizuku-chan, how many people are there in the Wolf’s Hidden Village?」

「47, no, a child was born recently, so 48…」

「Roughly 480 times more.」

「You are fast in calculations.」

「B-But it sounds like there are more dwarves than when they lived in the forest?」

The point Shizuku raised was not incomprehensible, but the rise in number is not so much that it is unnatural.

「Shizuku, the werewolf tribe originally lived mainly by hunting, right? It’s difficult for such a tribe to increase in number.」

I once read that agricultural tribes that cultivate the fields tend to increase in number more easily than hunting tribes that make a living by hunting. This is not because agriculture provides a more stable source of food.

The reason why agricultural tribes increase in number is because it is more advantageous.

The larger the family, the more land they can cultivate and make their own. You can become richer and stronger. Because the same thing was being considered at the level of a village, country, and continent, the result is that today’s world is dominated by agricultural tribes.

「Dwarves are a race which primarily dig mines and sell iron. It’s similar to farming in that the more mines you expand, the richer you become. As long as the ore veins are large, it wouldn’t be strange for the population to increase. But still 23,000 people, huh.」

「As we traded with humans and our wealth increased, the population also increased.」

「Then why don’t you fight back?」

Shizuku asked directly, looking vexed.

The reason why werewolves continued to hide in the village was because there were few. Three generations endured in that small village, believing that if they were attacked, their bloodline would die out.

At the very least, if there were around 20,000 werewolves, such a scenario wouldn’t happen.

「Why are the dwarves, who ran rampant in the forest, letting themselves be used by the knights?」

「There is a knight named Kirmiji.」

「…That guy?」

「That human is truly troublesome.」

Kirmiji, the commander of the Red Dragon Knights Order. A handsome man with a suggestion based unique skill. An influential man in this city who steals the egos of dwarves and forces them to live like humans, and uses them as pawns by planting the suggestion of fear in their minds. It seems that those are the shackles that bind the dwarves.

I was thinking that Azura would probably ask us to defeat him, but the conversation suddenly took off in an unexpected direction.

「There is a dungeon below the mines. It is probably a Super S-class difficulty dungeon, called the “Golden Land of Red Luxury.” We have to erase it before that human finds out.」

My mind couldn’t help but get stuck on those unfamiliar words.

「A super S-class dungeon, huh. I suppose that’s why you were headed for the werewolf village.」

「We once lived together with the werewolves in the forest. The elders told me to ask for their help if they were still alive, so I crawled out of the mines. And now the 23 000 of us are under Marge-sama’s care.」