EPILOGUE: THE DWARVES OF EQUALITY

***Kuro, at some part of Cherwoods, near the desert…***

Ah, yes, I forgot one more stuff to say about the fates of some people I know…

Do you remember the Lord Ingwer? Well, the Lord Ingwer of Dorian became a palace advisor to the Lady Hinwe, and he was assigned to oversee the completion of the ‘Grand Canal’. With the border crossing opened once again, the people from other realms resumed trade with the elves, and the construction materials flowed once more. However, while the Grand Canal’s building was uncertain because of few workers, the people of Cherwoods still had to deal with the problem of their crops.

And…aside from the Lord Ingwer, the Elf Saint actually appointed me as her ‘Chief Minister’; a position that was essentially governing the elves ‘in her name’. Meaning, the Lady Hinwe gave me the responsibility for the ‘secular’ aspect of government, while she took the ‘ceremonial’ and ‘religious’ roles.

She pushed the heavy stuff on me…damn it.

But, in any case, I was fine with it. I got capable people under me, anyway, and since the old and ‘traditional’ elvish population was nearly wiped out, they became the minority in their lands. Chersean elves—or those who knew me well—made up the demographics of Cherwoods nowadays, so I was not worried on the hate of a few people.

They still think that I and the Lord Gerard in disguise is one person. That’s on me; it’s my miscalculation, so I should suffer for it.

So, going back to the topic about the failed crops and Cherwoods’ desertification…

“It’s all about the issues of the soil,” Salis showed me the dry earth of Cherwoods, near the regions where the desert advanced. “You told us before that plants take their nutrients from the ground, right? So, we—along with the demons from the Conclave—did researches about it. I could tell, this soil is nearly dead.”

“Anything we can do to reverse this process?”

“We can re-fertilize the soil by dumping organic materials to it,” she proposed. “The demons from the Conclave did that to their lands before, in Cherflammen, when they still lived in the desert similar to this. However, the downside is, this process takes time. And the elves can’t go on for long without food.”

“You’re right…”

‘Kuro!’ it was Gaius.

Yeah?

‘I know how to solve your problem!’

About the soil?

‘Yes, you should get the god-power of the dwarf saint!’

Oh, right!

‘Though, of course, for that you need to cross into the land of the dwarves…which they now call ‘Equality’.’

Yeah, if I remember, Eris did say that the dwarves there are too ‘woke’.

‘Unfortunately, yes. But if you convinced the dwarf saint to hand over her god-power to you—the authority over the lands, your woes in this realm would be solved in a snap of a finger…like that purplish mega-villain from those movies called ‘Infin*ty Wars that I watched lately!’

I’m sure that last reference is unnecessary, but I get what you mean.

“Kuro!” Salis shook me back to reality. “Are you alright? You’ve been silent for a while.”

“Well, I just got an idea,” I told the owl-lady. “What if we go to the land of the dwarves and ask the dwarf saint there for help?”

Salis only gave me a long stare, which became awkward for me. Then, when she noticed that I wanted explanation, the owl-girl said, “Kuro, don’t you know? The dwarf saint has already disappeared because of the dwarves’ not worshipping her.”

Err…is this a case of another Lady Hinwe, only much worse?