Reincarnate as Prince: Change Magical World with Industry

44 Stories

They all moved to the great hall and gathered themselves on the large table. The council was seated on one side while the dwarven party on the other. They served them bowls of stew and mugs of ale.

Janus was curious as to how they met with the dwarven Elder, so they filled him in as they ate.

Yvaine and the council made their way to New Galedon as soon as they heard the news. In the middle of their journey, they passed by the Elder and her assistants.

The Elder had forbidden Oggie and his plan but she had her suspicions when the seven of them failed to report to their daily duties. After a few hours of them not showing up she went outside with her assistants to try and stop them, only to realize that they were too late.

This band of seven called themselves Golden Ram, they were the only surface hunters and gatherers in the dwarven tribe of Ramstead.

The tribe was in a crisis of food lately. There was an attack from the surface that breached their gates. A werebear somehow came inside their fortress on a mad rampage. Killing around thirty of their citizens. They were forced to trap the beast by collapsing rocks on one of the chambers to seal it off underground. This in turn closed off one of their precious farms as well as their food storage facility. Their plan had an unintended effect, which opened their storage chambers to sulfuric gas. This led to the spoiling of their wine and all their foodstocks with them.

They had been rationing their food ever since. Some of their surface level hunters were killed off during the attack, leaving only the Golden Rams as survivors as they were all outside during the onslaught.

Autumn was coming, and their supply was getting low. The settlements that they traded their ironwares with were days away on foot. This heavily stressed out the dwarves. Oggie saw an opportunity and he took it.

"You could have sent out an emissary or a diplomat. I'm sure we could have arranged something if we spoke." Said Janus.

The Elder nodded. "That would have been the better option, but that is only apparent in hindsight. I must apologize to you for the behavior of these men and women. They were driven by desperation and hunger. Us dwarves are a hardy race, but take away our food and wine and we tend to do stupid things like run into pitfalls and attack whole villages even when outnumbered a hundred to one." The Elder said, much to the amusement of the council. The Golden Rams however kept their heads low and stared at their empty bowls.

"Alas, it took us too long to decide." The elder continued. "We were apprehensive when Oggie reported to us that you were enslaving goblins"

"We are not slaves!" interrupted Kazzuk.

"Indeed my friend you are not, but that was the information sent to us by our scout. A food and wine depraved scout."

Oggie mumbled under his breath.

"Although I cannot fault him much for that assumption. Seeing a band of goblins and humans working together in mutual cooperation is not a common thing."

"Aye! Princey is one of a kind human. He is good to us that he might as well be goblin too!" Kazzuk said, which flustered Janus.

"Indeed you are right goblin Chief, a curious relationship indeed. We mulled it over with the council and told Oggie to not do anything while we deliberated. And while we discussed over and over again we could not come to a conclusion, such as the problem of an old and weary council. We couldn't risk dealing with a tribe of humans much larger than ours, especially if they appeared to us as slavers upon first look. Yes, Chief Kazzuk I heard it the first time.  Yes. You are not slaves."

The Elder continued talking, sharing tales of their history and origins. Janus was glued to every word. He could see that the council was just as mesmerized too. Yvaine shed a tear whenever she spoke of the perils they experienced living under the mountains. Master Ringo, the wisest of their council seemed to be just as entranced as everybody else.

It turns out that the Dwarves in this world had a history with slavery. The Orcish Empire in the far north enslaved the vast majority of them up to this day. This was something Janus had never head before, but he had no reason to doubt anything that the Elder said.

The current citizens of Ramstead came from a long line of slaves who accompanied an Orc Warband in a campaign against the Empire of Mydir. Janus suddenly saw flashbacks of his brothers whenever that name was mentioned. The Orcs carried with them around a hundred slaves to work on crafting and maintaining their weapons and armors as well as building siege engines and ammunition. They served as miners, engineers, servants, and assets to sell.

On one eve of battle. Elder Nanafell's ancestor Ramguar Nanafell, who worked as a servant caught a bit of crucial information. The camps that they were serving in was about to be attacked from all sides. He heard that the orcs were outnumbered five to one and that Mydir had developed heavy artillery that would crush their walls and open up their defenses. The orcs were not fazed by this at all, and they decided to fight it out despite the overwhelming odds.

Ramguar knew the orcs had no chance, so he planned a way for them to escape. The orcs held a mining operation in one of the camps which were supervised by overseers. Guards were minimal that night as they were being conscripted for battle. Ramguar staged a mutiny and killed all of the orcs in the mines. They sealed every entrance and kept stores of food and drink in their burrows to wait out the battle.

The orcs never went to get them, they never had the chance. The Mydir force advanced that very morning and they were obliterated. Their camps were destroyed and each orc was killed to the last one, while the dwarves were all huddled up underground in relative freedom.

They emerged months after but cannot stay on such a hostile landscape. They started on a grueling trek at the mountain ranges until they happened upon Brimstone. Their route was simple. Avoid any large settlement as much as possible and live quietly and peacefully. Whenever they saw a mass of orcs or humans or even elves, they dug further underground or moved in the opposite direction.

This led them to the fortress that they built under the Brimstone volcano, with an entrance that is as easily sealed and hidden as Ramguar had once made. A two hundred years later and their population flourished. But living in this area was not without its dangers. There was the constant danger of the volcano erupting, which they managed to survive fifty years ago with careful planning and machinery (when Janus asked, the Elder would not say how). Creatures would come out of the Forest of Mist in a rampage and would attack without warning to devastating effect. Something that they experienced first hand. Janus and the council looked severely alarmed.

In return, Janus and the council also talked about their own story. They spoke of times spent in the old manor. Where they farmed in such an effective way that they were forcibly taxed by the throne and the church. (It was a good thing Father Galvan wasn't here) Yvaine talked about her experiences in Mydir. How cold-blooded and vicious the war was between them and the orcs. The goblins chipped in as well, telling tales of how they too were slaves under the nobility and lived underground as refugees for years until they found the Prince on that one fateful day (Kazzuk didn't use the word 'kidnapped').

That very same day after exchanging food and stories, they made peace. Janus was excited to have another ally on board. They discussed terms of trade between the two settlements.

Ramstead was just a day away from New Gracewood, they made plans in exchanging iron ore for stocks of food. Janus also offered them to teach them agricultural practices in exchange for a constant supply of iron to which they obliged.

They made an official treaty of trade, uniting the village Wayward Home and Ramstead. Trading away their food should prove to be crucial for them at this stage, as they were in dire need of iron ore.

The goblin mines that they had weren't as established yet, while the dwarves already refined the ore into iron bars. In fact, the Elder had brought with her a chest full of bars as a peace offering.

Janus asked Elder Nanafell a few more questions before they bid farewell.

"You spoke about other settlements in the area? The ones you used to trade your crafts for. Can you show them where we are?"

"Why certainly. There are a few tribes scattered around the area. I can send messages to them if you wish. I'll assign this to Oggie, in exchange for his punishment of thirty lashings."

Oggie was taken aback but nodded after a few seconds. The Elder addressed the remaining members of the Golden Ram.

"All seven of you will reach out to the other settlements. Tell them of the presence of this village and inform them that these are good folk. When they see my official seal they'll believe it to be true." The Elder said.

"Will you not want to assimilate with us? Together we can build a town stronger than if we are apart. As you can see, the goblins are doing so well with us."

"I'm afraid I cannot permit that at the moment. Us dwarves are naturally reclusive folk. I am not averse to the idea, but I imagine a few of the elders would be against it. Trade would be sufficient for us I suppose. For now."

The Elder and her band bowed before them and took their leave.