The words spoken by the Sage before his departure had left a profound impression on Maxwell, and this dedicated Earl, who guarded the frontier, resolved to shift his attention towards their neighboring countries.
Due to limited transportation and poor information flow, Maxwell hadn’t paid much attention to the steam technology mastered by the Dwarves before he was reminded; after all, he was human, and from a human perspective, Dwarves were inherently a race fond of tinkering with machinery, and whatever novelties they ca up with were not worthy of much attention.
Moreover, although there had been frictions between Golan Kingdom and Kaelonde, the two had always had envoys and stable trade. Golan exported textiles, grain, timber, and other human-world goods to the Dwarves, who in return brought their ores, machinery, and steel to Golan, maintaining peace between the two nations for a full century—with almost everyone believing that this peace would continue indefinitely.
For this reason, even the battle-hardened Maxwell had let down his guard towards Kaelonde.
But the Sage’s words could not be taken lightly, and after so reflection, Maxwell sent so trusted guards to conduct a two-month reconnaissance in Kaelonde.
The Earl dispatched six of his personal guards across the border to Kaelonde. One of them died en route due to an accident, two surveyed Kaelonde’s borders, and the remaining three, disguised as rchants, infiltrated deep into the Dwarves’ Royal City. Two months later, they brought back news that utterly shocked Maxwell.
"Steam Trains? Steam Hydraulic Forging Machines? And ships with stoves? What are all these?!"
Initially, upon hearing about steam machinery, Maxwell felt only surprise and no sense of danger—for he had never seen a steam engine, nor had he lived in Kaelonde. However, a report from a guard who had investigated the border showed that the output of coal from Kaelonde’s coal mines had significantly increased.
Yes, Maxwell didn’t understand steam engines, but he knew the importance of coal. Having been on battlefields, he was well aware of how much weaponry could be forged from a ton of good coal. The news from his guards revealed that the Dwarves had begun undergoing revolutionary changes, with enormous machines appearing that were gradually replacing the work of Dwarf Craftsn.
Maxwell felt deeply troubled by this, although he believed that it was unlikely for the Dwarves to wage war on Golan, the possibility wasn’t non-existent. Even if Kaelonde’s Dwarves did not invade the Helong Mountain Range, who would want a powerful neighbor erging near their kingdom?
The Earl diligently penned a serious letter to the Royal City and convened the nobility and landlords of his domain’s capital to discuss counterasures.
However, things often go contrary to one’s wishes. Maxwell’s letter to the Royal City seed to disappear into a void, and the King did not even reply personally. It was three months later that he received an indifferent response penned by the Minister of Seal. anwhile, the nobility landlords in his territory showed little interest in strengthening border defenses and training militia—in their view, peace had been maintained for so long between the two countries that any military actions would not only waste resources but might also provoke Kaelonde and affect their trade relations. Even with Maxwell’s strong demands, these nobility landlords were only superficially compliant.
"Lord Earl, these worries are unnecessary. We believe that the best way to maintain peace is to pray to the patron god of rchants to ensure smooth trade."
At the eting, a Baron politely expressed this opinion.
This greatly angered Maxwell, yet he found it difficult to lash out. He understood that for the nobility landlords accustod to peace, his concerns seed superfluous. To them, this veteran general was overly alarmist, not befitting an Earl but rather resembling a crude man keen on war.
The indifference of royalty and the opposition from the nobility landlords were distressing enough for Maxwell, but what he found even harder to accept were complaints from his wife and children.
"Look how many Minstrels you sent away last month? Nearly half! All to save money for recruiting soldiers!
Do you know how boring it is for without those Poets, especially the one from Farus who sang such captivating and lodious stories about the Goddess of Dawn, and you chased him away before he even finished. Now I’m stuck here panicking, practically growing mold!"
His wife’s reproaches were more annoying than mosquito bites. No matter how often Maxwell reiterated the importance of saving money to maintain military readiness, she persisted. Ultimately, in front of their children, she even started accusing his mistress, which undoubtedly infuriated Maxwell to the utmost.
At last, Maxwell, who was over fifty years old, had a fierce argunt with his wife, who was in her thirties. In his frustration, the old Earl smashed his wife’s favorite vase, and the next day, she packed her bags, took their few underage children, and returned to her ancestral estate.
That year, Maxwell faced more setbacks than he had in the previous decade combined, and the distressed Earl sought solace either by praying to gods such as Scatty or by seeking comfort from a lover.
"You are too outdated, too obsolete... Gods, especially the patron of rchants, Rowley, how could they just watch a war happen here?"
Maxwell’s lover did not understand him either,
"You are nearly sixty now, you should settle down."
Being near sixty was old enough for a human, and perhaps in a few years, Maxwell would pass away and go to the Netherworld to face judgnt.
"I cannot sit idly by as Golan faces peril, doing so would make a reckless Earl and betray the forr King."
Maxwell said softly,
"Speaking of which, do you know the origin of the na ’Golan’?"
His lover responded slowly:
"Golan, it ans ’Divine Given Glory’, doesn’t it?"
Maxwell scoffed,
"I used to think that too when I was young, until my grandfather told it was all bullshit."
His lover, twenty-six years his junior, looked at him curiously before saying:
"That’s truly surprising, so what is the truth?"
Maxwell lowered his voice:
"In the na of the Goddess of Winter, I tell you, the Kingdom of Golan... was originally a tribe a long ti ago, known as the Hoanaa Tribe. Later, that tribe was conquered by a great nation because the tribe constantly rebelled. The conquerors called it Golan, aning ’the slave that brings peril to the kingdom’.
Later, that great nation fought with another great nation that worshiped Scatty, the forr was conquered by the latter, who also at the sa ti liberated our ancestors. Our ancestors founded a nation subsequently, and by that ti, ’Hoanaa’ was no longer used, replaced by the widely recognized ’Golan’."
"So... the aning of Golan is not so divine glory; that is a later interpretation. It actually ans ’slave, the slave that brings peril to the kingdom’."
Reviews
All reviews (0)