Chapter 46: Mahakam Will Provide
Let us leave Geralt for now. Lynn, with the dwarven guards and Thor in hand, arrived at the throne room.
In front of Brouver, Lynn woke up Thor.
Thor realized the surroundings clearly and knew that he had failed. He didn't try to make any more excuses and confessed everything.
To Thor's surprise, after he had exposed all his secrets, he was anticipating shock and astonishment on his father's face.
However, in place of that, his father still had that uncaring expression.
"Thor, I'm disappointed. I'm very disappointed in you. What do you imagine I don't know about you and your fellow conspirators? Trying to form an alliance with those Children of Freedom, what's in your heads, you rebels? Paste?"
Thor's face showed a disbelieving expression right away.
Brouver didn't hide his disgust and disappointment: "Put away that look of yours. I'm old, but I'm not blind yet."
Thor eagerly leapt up and roared.
But was immediately pushed back down to the ground by the two dwarven royal guards behind him.
"In that case! Father, why are you still taking the side of humans? Persecution of elves by humans, persecution of our ancient races. why do you still want to turn a blind eye! "
Unlike the excited Thor, Brouver was much calmer.
"Watch your mouth, young man. You don't know what you are doing at all."
In the empty throne room, Thor looked at Brouver's cold face, as expressionless as a rock.
"My unknowing child, Mahakam is in the center of the continent, surrounded by many human kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Temeria, the Principality of Erland, the Kingdom of Redania, the Kingdom of Kaedwen, the Kingdom of Aedirn, the United Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia, the Kingdom of Sodden, and the Nilfgaardian Empire."
"Do you know what will be our fate if we choose to fight together with those Children of Freedom?"
"After we do that, the kings will either send an expeditionary force to invade Mahakam, or they can choose not to. As long as they impose a trade embargo on us, we will die of starvation and destitution."
"After all, although Mahakam is abundant with mines, there is still too little arable land. It can't support so many people."
"What's more, do you really know your so-called allies, the elves who are also the ancient races in your mouth?"
Brouver paused before continuing.
"In 1240 BC, the earliest elves arrived at this continent by white ships and settled down. Since then, they have taken up almost the entire continent and dominated the world."
"From the Endless Ocean's shores in the west to the Blue Mountains in the east, from the Dragon Mountains in the north to the Mahakam Mountains in the south."
"The ruins of those elven cities across the world are evidence of this great show in the past. Great human cities like Vizima and Oxenfurt were built on top of ancient elves."
"So here comes the question, my innocent kid, if elves are latecomers, how did they gain so much territory from other ancient races?"
"Did our dwarven ancestors, the ancestors of gnomes, and the ancestors of other intelligent races cede their living space to them for free because they saw that the elves had just arrived and had no place to live?"
"Although elves always try to portray themselves as victims of human expansion, do you think they are innocent?"
"The slopes of the Blue Mountains and the beaches of Loc Muinne are strewn with the ruins of the ancient lizardman cities."
"And beneath the ruins, in the caverns, there still are scattered remnants of this intelligent reptilian race."
"They dwelled here many years before elves arrived. The skeletons in the ruins evidently show signs of swords."
"You see, at that time, human beings, the species which the elves regard as the source of evil and the evil of this world, had not yet set foot on this continent."
"True, most elves today try to defend their ancestors—when the earliest elves discovered the ancient lizardman cities, there were only lizardman ghosts and skeletons left behind."
"My child, if it were you, would you believe so? Those lizardmen voluntarily wiped out their entire species to make way for the elves?"
Thor was silenced by Brouver.
Whereas dwarves were a race that "never shut up if they could fight"—although in a sense, this stereotype was not wrong—dwarves were not all brutish.
Especially dwarves who grew up in Mahakam, in learning to swing axes and war hammers, learned cultural education as well.
Thor certainly knew the history Brouver recited.
It was just that, like with most people who return the knowledge they learned from their tutors to their tutors when they enter society, Thor had forgotten about it a long time ago.
It was not until his aging father mentioned it that he remembered that there seemed to be such a thing.
But he still argued unconvinced.
"Father, what you mentioned. all took place in the past. Maybe, maybe you are right, maybe elves indeed were our enemies. But now there is a more important enemy, that is, humans."
"The past has gone, what matters is the present. Now elves are no longer our enemies, but our friends. We can only unite with the Children of Freedom to have a future."
Brouver shook his head.
Looking at his misguided son, he finally showed a spark of sympathy.
"No, you are mistaken, miserable child. You are just blinded by the seemingly noble ideals of those Children of Freedom."
"Do you know what you're asking for? You are asking for thousands of dwarves to bleed and die for your foolishness."
"You did not even realize that those false Children of Freedom are pawns in someone else's game. 'Drive humans back into the sea,' does this slogan sound familiar? Do you know who invented this slogan?"
"It's the Nilfgaardians! It's those abominable humans in your eyes who hatched this scheme, instigated those wretched elves to assume the Children of Freedom's banner, and provided them with weapons and assistance so that the Nilfgaardians would profit from it."
"My child, the struggle against oppression and tyranny that you thought was nothing more than part of a greater conspiracy from beginning to end. The Children of Freedom are nothing more than pawns for the south to plot against the north."
"Child, do you want dozens of dwarven families to be torn apart by the ambitions of the south?"
When Thor was struck down by the guards, something changed in him.
Fanaticism, passion, and ideals left his eyes.
He only saw how the elves at the foot of the mountain were being choked by human oppression, but not that even the spark of resistance was a greater evil.
All his ideals and ambitions were shattered by Brouver's words. He seemed to have aged a lot overnight.
However, as he was taken by the guards to Lynn, he whispered "sorry." Yet when the Witcher turned around to look at him, Thor's expression didn't change one bit, and he didn't even look at him.
Perhaps he just misheard.
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