Immortal's Ascending Path-37
Episode-37. Successor from the Mountain Pass.
"Isn't it around here?"
Fritz asked.
Roberta hummed in agreement beside the boy. The two were sitting on horseback, looking at a statue to their right. It was a statue of Nenus, the god of the sea.
A river flowed directly behind the statue. It was a tributary of a river that originated in a southern country, swollen from the heavy rain. It had been raining steadily for four days, with no sign of stopping.
"Surely it was said to be near the statue of Nenus…?"
Muttering to himself, Fritz looked around.
The two of them, along with Ulrich, were trying to cross the river. Their destination was on the other side. Icelandburg, where the Osnover royal wedding was to be held, was only a few days away across the river.
However, there was no bridge to be seen. They had been told in the previous village they visited, "Go straight up along the river. Then you will see the statue of Nenus, and there will be a bridge nearby." They added that it was a stone bridge that would not be affected even if the summer rain swelled the river.
"We should go a little further. I can't see anything because of the rain!"
All that could be seen was the river, which seemed ready to overflow. The raindrops hit their faces, making it difficult to open their eyes properly. Their voices were almost drowned out by the sound of the rain and the river unless they spoke with force.
"Fritz! Be careful!"
In an instant, Roberta shouted. At the same time, the river water surged like a wave and struck Fritz, who was riding his horse along the river.
"Don't get too close to the river!"
The startled horse was about to cause a commotion, but the boy skillfully calmed it down and kept his distance from the river.
"Wow, even if there was a bridge… could we cross it?"
"I'd have to see it, but I heard it was fine."
Roberta looked at Ulrich on her left.
"Ulrich, do you see anything?"
He swept his soaked bangs back and examined the river.
"Over there."
"Yes?"
"There's someone."
The two followed his gaze. A small human figure could be seen in the distance. It looked small because it was far away, but even considering the distance, it was a small person.
"It's a dwarf? The kind with a lot of beard."
As they rode closer and the figure became clearer, Fritz said in an intrigued tone.
"Are they trying to cross the river?"
Roberta's eyes also showed interest.
It was the first time she had seen a dwarf in Osnover. It wasn't her first time ever. Before being appointed as Head Priest in Ditmarsken, she had seen various races, including dwarves. Among them were nobles of the Empire and monks belonging to the Pantheon.
Generally, it was harder to see other races the closer one got to the Arctic. The closer one got to the Antarctic, the higher the proportion of other races. The reason was simple. It was a region where the influence of the old Empire was weak.
This was because the second human empire, the Istrian Dynasty, had hunted other races. They pushed for a strong assimilation policy, and those who refused were hunted, forcing all non-human races to relocate.
Almost two millennia had passed, and the dynasty had changed, but the influence of that time remained deeply ingrained.
"I didn't expect to see a dwarf again."
"Again? Have you seen a dwarf before?"
"Yes. I saw one when I was in Ditmarsken."
A dwarf in Ditmarsken?
"A dwarf came to see Ulrich."
Roberta glanced at Ulrich and asked Fritz.
"What for?"
"I don't really know. I only ran into him a few times when I visited the lord's residence. And he stayed for a few days and left, and when he left, the lord was away for a few days with him."
The boy revealed that it was six years ago.
'Six years ago was around the end of the Osnover civil war.'
The civil war had nothing to do with dwarves. She guessed that he had visited the lord for some other reason. And the guess suddenly brought up the story of Count Willem Meyer.
Count Willem had said that a fairy named Yudebora had come to see Ulrich to meet an old acquaintance before the end of her life.
'Was it for a similar reason then?'
Or, like Duke Bailen and his party from the Carbonihar Kingdom, he might have come for a request. She wondered what name Ulrich had used to greet his guest at that time, along with the reason.
"······."
There was no time to ask.
While she was lost in thought, the horse she was riding continued forward and got closer to the dwarf. The dwarf, unfazed by the humans approaching in the rain, was panting as he looked at the river.
"Damn it… how did they manage the maintenance for the bridge to collapse?"
As befitting the race of dwarves, he was a short man. He was not even as tall as the boy Fritz's chest. However, his physique was sturdy. He was wearing a short-sleeved top, and the circumference of his arms was comparable to Roberta's thigh.
Not all dwarves grew beards, but he had a thick beard. Only his forehead, eyes, and nose revealed skin that was red from the sun, and he grew a thick brown beard from below his cheekbones to around his collarbone.
His age was impossible to guess. That was the case with other races. Dwarves had a similar appearance to humans, but thanks to the beard, he looked over forty by human standards.
"Excuse me. Descendant of Keme."
When Roberta greeted him, the dwarf turned his head sharply and looked up at her. There were no further words, but it meant, "What?" He seemed annoyed at not being able to cross the river and getting rained on.
"May I ask what happened?"
"Can't you see!"
He burst out in anger.
"The bridge collapsed!"
The dwarf's thick finger pointed to the side.
As he said, the bridge that was not visible from afar could be seen. The remains of the collapsed bridge peeked out and submerged repeatedly in the violently flowing river.
A stone bridge swept away and collapsed in the river? Roberta narrowed her eyes. The dwarf read the "How?" in her gaze and raised his voice again.
"I don't know! You guys made it. If we had made it, it wouldn't have collapsed so shabbily. You should hang the necks of those who build structures that can't even last a thousand years!"
Even though the rain that soaked his body would have taken away his body heat, the dwarf's face was flushed red.
"He seems very angry. We should be careful."
Fritz whispered to Roberta.
She agreed inwardly. There were many branches of dwarves, but among them, the dwarves with abundant beards were famous for their rough temperaments. Each one was skilled enough to be called a craftsman, but they were equally stubborn and opinionated, so they had a lot to say.
If a bad impression was made, it lasted a lifetime. They were a race that did not forget what they received and gave, as if the words mercy and forgiveness did not exist.
'There's a reason why they say to avoid them if they seem upset at the first meeting.'
She exchanged glances with the boy in silence.
"I came all the way here, only to get soaked in the rain and have to go back."
The dwarf's grumbling voice was not drowned out by the surrounding noise.
Roberta looked at the river. The width was not so wide that the land on the other side could be seen even in the thick rain. It was close enough to touch if you fell, but with the bridge collapsed, there was no way to cross.
The currents looked terrifying on the surface, and there would be unseen whirlpools churning inside. It would be better to fight monsters in the sand.
'I'll have to detour.'
She clicked her tongue inwardly.
There was another way to get to Icelandburg. She had heard of other routes just in case. However, it took a long detour, so it took that much longer. Also, they had to endure camping in the heavy rain.
When she conveyed her opinion to Ulrich, he nodded in agreement.
"Hey, short-eared people."
As the three were about to leave, the dwarf called out to them.
"Yes?"
Fritz replied.
"Where is your destination?"
"We are going to Icelandburg."
"Icelandburg?"
The dwarf's face, filled with annoyance, quickly brightened.
"That's good! Then please guide me. I'm also going there, but I don't know the way around here, so I've been wandering for a while."
At the sudden request, Fritz hesitated and looked at Ulrich. He quietly looked down at the small man before opening his mouth.
"What is your name, person from the mountain pass?"
The dwarf flinched.
"······Do you know me?"
"You are wearing a crest. I cannot not know."
"Ah," the dwarf exclaimed, bowing his head and looking at his right chest. There was a silver ornament attached. It was a figure of a mountain goat standing with its front paws raised high, and it was the size of a fist.
"That's right. No, but no human has recognized me until now, how did you know? Did someone teach you, or have you seen our people?"
"I have seen them."
"A long time ago," Ulrich added.
"That's rare. I thought I was the only one who had come this far recently. The Ice Peninsula, that terrible place, is too close."
And Roberta and Fritz reacted to that word. When was "a long time ago" for the person named Ulrich? Roberta guessed it was a long time ago that Fritz didn't know.
Fritz had said that he had seen a dwarf before. If the dwarf he saw then came from a place called the mountain pass, his reaction should have been different.
"What is your name?"
"I am Armin. My surname is Ditmarsken."
The dwarf twitched his eyebrows.
"Ditmarsken? From the Ice Peninsula that I just mentioned?"
"Yes. It was once a part of it."
Ulrich explained that the Duke of Ditmarsken was his adoptive father. Roberta felt strange at the sight of him introducing himself as his adopted son, but the dwarf didn't notice at all.
Following that, when Roberta and Fritz revealed their identities, the dwarf stroked his wet beard and introduced himself.
"I am Toruhel Alladelione of the Peyra Mountain Pass."
Ulrich murmured the surname Alladelione as if recalling it.
"It's quite timely to be a coincidence. Meeting a guest in front of a collapsed bridge, and that guest is the son of the Duke of Ditmarsken. You must be attending the wedding?"
Ulrich smiled brightly, befitting his young appearance.
"Yes. I will be going in place of the Duke."
"I am too. I am also on my way to attend the wedding."
"You are attending the royal wedding, Toruhel?"
He asked as if it was unexpected.
"Is it strange? That a dwarf has come all the way here for just a wedding?"
"It would be a lie to say no. Peyra and Osnover are too distant. There is no reason to be interested even if there was something more than a wedding."
"Well, that's right," Toruhel said, nodding his head.
"To tell you the truth, it's because of the crown."
The crown?
Roberta, who was listening to the story from the side, inadvertently let out a word.
"My brothers and I made the crown."
In the noise created by the heavy rain and the strong currents, Roberta clearly caught the word crown. She knew. The crown that the dwarf was talking about was the crown that Ulrich had received.
That night, after receiving a banquet from Count Meyer, Roberta shared a story with Ulrich against the backdrop of the night view on the castle walls. What did he say then?
The Pantheon had handed him the crown that ended the Osnover civil war, the crown was made by a dwarf, it was modeled after the crown worn by the emperor, he said.
The Pantheon made and offered him the emperor's crown in order to overthrow the Third Empire and establish the Fourth Empire. Toruhel was the one who made that crown.
"But I heard there was a problem. So I came to check."
Roberta glanced at Ulrich.
'If it's the crown….'