Chapter 103: Vol 7 – Chapter 2 – The Mines Of Moria? Not! (Part 1)

“Tek here, I remember getting surprised when I read a light novel--which had Dwarven females as cute Lolis. I was so used to the Dwarven females basically being the same as male dwarves, but without the beards. I wonder if I can have a cute Loli Dwarf join us too.”

In a lot of stories, Dwarves live in caves or underground. But, according to All Map Exploration, about half of them live normally in a fortress. The other half, however, live in caves next to and under the city.

The Dwarven self-governing dominion isn’t really that wide. It’s a valley which is around 2 kilometers wide, and 20 kilometers long--massive mountains are on each side, and the river runs near the city itself.

Inside this valley, there is a large city called Bollhart, and two small villages.

Bollhart has a population of 30,000 people: 20,000 Dwarves with levels averaging between 5 and 6; 4,000 Ratmen; 2,000 Rabbitmen; 2,000 Humans; 1,000 Weaselmen; the last 1,000 are various other Demi-Humans.

There are no Elves.

I wonder if it’s like the stories--the Dwarves and Elves don’t get along well.

From what I can see from Occupations and Skills, there are a lot of Weaselman and Human merchants.

There are about 10 people with levels higher that 40 among the Dwarves. The highest-leveled one is a Dwarf called Dohar. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the Dwarf that made Toruma’s dagger--he is level 51.

There are also a lot of veterans.

No Demons work behind the scenes here. Strangely though, there are no transported or reincarnated people. It looks like this should be a peaceful sightseeing tour.

And…I just jinxed it. Dammit!

There are fields around the city, but the ones who’re tending them are not Dwarves, but Ratmen, Rabbitmen, and other various races of Beastmen--however, none of them are slaves.

Today, I am sitting on the driver’s seat next to Lulu, who’s driving.

She drives us to join the large queue to enter Bollhart City, she stops the wagon at the end of the queue to wait for our turn. Seeing that we would be stopped for a while, she happily leans against me--she very rarely shows signs of affection in public, but she looks a little tired, even though I taught Arisa to help her drive.

“I think we’re the 20^th in line? That’s quite a few” Arisa says, leaning over the barrier separating the driver’s seat and the wagon bed.

Arisa had been in the back with Pochi and Tama, working on their literacy. Liza, Nana, and Mia are now sitting on their horses next to us. Liza looks prepared to fight if needed, Nana looks entertained as she plays with the horse’s ears and mane--Mia, however, looks bored.

“Pochi, Tama, Pay attention to the back, making sure that no thieves approach.” Liza gave directions to Pochi and Tama, who were currently leaning out of the wagon.

 

“Aye.”

“Roger.”

 

“Master, Weaselmen seem to be common, moving along the line--please be careful…They’re very tricky people.” Liza has a worried look in her eyes as she looks at the merchants and back at me.

“I understand, thank you, Liza.”

The Weaselmen are one of the tribes that either destroyed, or helped lead to the destruction of, Liza’s village.

***

In the end, it only takes us ten minutes to get inside.

For some reason, the Dwarven soldiers give us preferential treatment after seeing Liza’s armour--her’s and Nana’s are some of my best work actually.

It looks that nobles get prioritized--even though I’m just of the lowest-ranking honourary noble, it still applies. When we go to enter through the gate, as soon as I show my ID, they allow the rest to pass without asking for ID. The guards only took a trivial look in the wagon and didn’t investigate or ask for any tax for entering the city.

Uhh, if it’s like this--nobles will likely be unscrupulous, smuggling things in and out of the city.

The Dwarves are rather small, at around 4ft tall, wide and stout, with massive beards. They all had dark, or dirt coloured eyes--without any sclera. The females, however, were Lolis with fluffy hair. They had small breasts, but their bodies seemed to naturally be slim and lithe. The adult women looked like they were around 13, the children were almost half the size of the male children, as small as 2 feet, or smaller in some cases.

“Loli Dwarves!!” Arisa spoke in a strangely excited tone from behind me.

I looked up and met her eyes, she had a strange, almost hungry look. Maybe Arisa was a Loli appreciator? A lot of female Otaku that I know were Loli appreciators, finding them incredibly adorable…I will ask her later.

Nana also muttered, “So cute.” In an entranced tone as she watched a Dwarven woman, and her daughter--the daughter was young and around 2 feet tall.

***

“Nice to meet you, Chevalier Felspar. Thank you for delivering Viscount Rottol’s letter--is that courageous woman in good health?”

“Yes, she has recovered and has taken command. You could just call me Tek if it’s fine with you.”

You are reading story Death March — Fixed at novel35.com

I’m having a chat with the mayor of Bollhart, who’s name is Driar.

Liza and the others are relaxing in another room, but Arisa is here with me. I took her along both because she asked me to, and because she asked.

Arisa spoke very politely, far from how she normally did, “Driar, as it is written in the letter, we’d like permission to send exchange students from Muno territory here to learn smithing.”

It’s strange hearing her subdued and polite tone.

“Hmm, well, I was taken care of by Viscount Rottol when I was studying in the Royal Capital. I can accept, if it’s just a few exchange students.” Driar answered Arisa, he was currently opening the letter.

The Lord of this Dominion isn’t Driar, but his father, Dohar. I wonder if it’s okay for him to agree without Dohar’s knowledge or consent.

“It’s alright, my father has entrusted the city to me unless it’s a serious matter.”

Oh?

It seems that the doubt appeared on my face.

“According to the letter, you are doing blacksmithing--would you like to see our workshop, if that interests you?” Driar said to me.

“By all means!”

Of course I want to see workshops belonging to the species of the greatest smiths.

***

“This is the greatest blast furnace in this city.” Driar explains in his deep, booming voice--yep, for such small statures, these people are like foghorns.

The blast furnace was a building that is 20 meters tall.

There’s also a window, which is used to place more coal into the fires below the furnace. Half-naked Dwarves and Beastmen are throwing coal into it, their skin is blackened.

I can only see white smoke emerging from the chimney on top. I wonder how they are purifying the usual dark smoke that burning coal usually produces…well, my guess would be Magic--in a fantasy-like world, if you don’t know why something happens, it is usually Magic.

“This is a wonderful facility.” My words are flattery or anything, this facility’s scale is impressive, and it looks really wonderful.

The only people here are: Me, Nana, Driar, and a Dwarven woman with crimson hair, who is dressed in a manner similar to a secretary. The woman is called Jojori, and she is Driar’s daughter.

Nana wanted to come with me so she could ‘observe the small organism’.

Arisa and the other went out into the city, to look around after receiving the letter that Driar wrote to reply to Nina--they’re looking for a merchant who’s going to Muno City to deliver the letter.

We are observing the workings from a place that is similar to VIP seating, a distance away from the furnace. It’s quite hot here, but is seems that there is some form of Insulation Magic, since the outside is even hotter.

Nana is sitting next to me, watching Jojori with fascinated eyes. She suddenly reaches over and grips my hand, and looks at me with imploring eyes, “If I can’t have a young organism, can we get a small organism?”

“We won’t be kidnapping any Dwarves…” I roll my eyes at you.

“Master, I implore you to reconsider.” Her eyes widen, getting slightly teary.

“No kidnapping.” I reach over and stroked her hair with one hand, which she seems to accept--she goes back to looking at Jojori.

Jojori, on the other hand, listened to our conversation with a slightly worried look, and partially hid behind her father.

Driar shakes his head with an amused grin, before explaining that about 30% of the iron ingots used in the Shiga Kingdom are made here.

Next, we visited the Conversion and Pressure Facilities successively.

The Dwarves don’t have any heavy machinery. Instead there is a species called Lilliputian Giants--who are actually a little smaller than normal adult males, but larger than the females--who carry around ores, finished iron plates, and steel materials.

“Are the facilities related to Mithril located in the caves under the city?”

“Y-You know your stuff. Did Viscount Rottol tell you?”

“No, I heard it from a merchant acquaintance, he also said that the Mithril products from this town are some of the best.”

“Is that so? I’d love to show you, but we need permission from my father.” Driar folded his short arms, a frown on his face.

From behind her father and seemingly unable to see Driar’s grimace, she gives a suggestion, “Father if that’s the case--shouldn’t you try to ask grandfather?”

You can find story with these keywords: Death March — Fixed, Read Death March — Fixed, Death March — Fixed novel, Death March — Fixed book, Death March — Fixed story, Death March — Fixed full, Death March — Fixed Latest Chapter