Emperor of Steel

Luke and Philip headed north along with the fairies leaving behind their wagon and the carriage.

Erwin led the group to a remote mountain road.

The more distance they passed, the narrower the path was getting. After a long time, a road crossing at a cliff had appeared.

“Is this really the right way?” Asked Philip. He then shouted, “Ah!”

“Sir Philip, be careful. It is the end if we made even the slightest mistake.”

Luke advised and held onto Philip, who had almost slipped.

Two hours later, the group found a village in the base surrounded by rocky mountains.

“Is that the fairy village?”

“Yes, it is called the Zenith village.”

Zenith village, where around 50 families lived, wasn’t much different from any mountain where villages of humans were located.

The only unusual thing was the different plants and flowers that they were growing, and the majority of inhabitants there were fairies.

“This is a bit disappointing. I thought that they would be hidden in some mysterious enchantment,” said Philip.

“You have read way too many fairy tales.”

At the words of Philip, Erwin shot back at him.

However, there was a small tinge of sadness in her eyes.

A long time ago, the lives of fairies were just like in fairy tales, which would talk about elves and the magic they possessed.

The village, protected by spirits, was beautiful and lively with smiles everywhere.

However, the elves lost a lot of their power when they lost contact with the Spirit World, which led to the decline of the fairies.

It wasn’t unreasonable for Sylvia and the other radicals to search for the Earth’s Tears all over the world.

The elves and other races of fairies were about to go extinct like the ancient dragons.

“But they farm.”

Philip looked at the clear fields around the village with a shocked face.

“Then where do you think the fairies eat?” Asked Erwin.

“I heard that they find stuff from forests and some mushrooms.”

At the words of Philip, not just Erwin but the other fairies too put up disgusted faces toward him.

Before they could say something hurtful to Philip, Luke intervened.

“Sir Philip, the fairies were the ones who have delivered the skills of agriculture to humans.”

“Uh, is that true, Lord?”

“Yep, all the seeds or crops and vegetables grown by the humans such as the wheat and barley were all improvised on what Elves have got from nature.”

It was after Luke had become a warlock that he had learned of the truth behind history.

In order to gain strength to fight his enemies, he traveled to some ancient places and ruins discovering their texts.

And those texts of ancient times didn’t just record the beginning of agriculture but also the truth of the ancient civilization.

‘If all of those came out, the history of the continent will flip over.’ Luke thought.

The Mado Empire, Abaron, lead the loss of the ancient civilization.

The lord of the Empire, who ruled the entire continent and protected its people against the powerful dragons, weren’t humans but fairies.

Thousands of years ago, humans were nothing more than some primitive barbarians who lived in the empire. Far from farming, they didn’t even know how to hunt or domesticate livestock.

They had no metals, so they used weapons or tools made of stone.

They were nothing but a lucky race to have survived against beasts and monsters.

The fairies were the ones who handed them civilization.

And it wasn’t out of good intention either, but rather it was because humans were docile and smarter than the orcs, goblins and the kobolds.

‘In other words, they were domesticating wild humans and making them into their livestock.’

At that time, Abaron was in need of a lot of labor, so they enslaved the humans.

And in that process, the humans began to learn agriculture from the elves, metallurgy from the dwarves, magic from the fairies, and martial arts from the Suin.

Receiving the knowledge and the culture from the fairies, humans have blossomed and became a threat to the fairies.

In that process, the mixed offsprings of dragons and fairies with humans began to come out as powerful living beings. Under their initiative the ‘Slavery Rebellion’ broke out and Abaron was destroyed and the civilization developed by the ancient fairies had collapsed.

And now, the relationship between the humans and the fairies had been completely reversed.

The truth had been forgotten even among the fairies, and the only ones who knew it, such as Erenes, didn’t speak about it.

It was because the truth could have caused either conflict or sorrow.

‘The past isn’t a good enough reason to punish the fairies of the present. It isn’t right for humans to enslave or discriminate against them because of what they did in the past.’

The fairies weren’t always living in the mountains of the forests.

It was because they had been pushed by the humans, they had to give up their golden lands and hide like that.

“Stop, who are you?” Asked someone.

The guards at the entrance of Zenith village shouted, pointing their spears in the direction of the visitors.

They were a very aggressive race, which could be compared to the Dark Elves. They were the Lycans who were referred to as Werewolves.

“I am Erwin Lesa, who came a few days ago. I saved the kidnapped ones.”

“Ah, it is Miss Erwin,” said one of the guards.

When they realized that the person was an acquaintance, the Lycans took down their spears.

However, as they saw Luke and Philip, they got terrified.

“Hu-humans?!”

“It is alright. These were the ones who had saved my kind.”

At the answer of Erwin, the Lycan went back a few steps.

Even after taking a step back, they were so wary of the humans that they didn’t look away from Philip.

In the meantime, the elves, who have been saved from the traders in the past, shed tears upon being reunited with their loved ones.

“Mom!”

“Oh oh, Colona!”

Luke looked in that direction.

The residents of Zenith village seemed rather distressed than celebrate the reunion with their families.

Philip feeling something was off, asked,

“Why are they all so stiff?”

“It sure is a delight to get back the ones who have been kidnapped by the slave traders, but the village cannot care for the ones who have lost their homes or families,” said Erwin.

According to her explanation, the Zenith village was built on rocks, and its land was barren.

Which meant that it would be hard to have a good harvest even if there was always rain to water their crop.

“In the recent times, they have reached their limit. They used crop rotation and fertilization. However, nothing seems to work.”

“I see, so the fields can’t be properly tended,” said Philip.

Philip thought that the fairies didn’t know how to farm properly.

“Can’t it be resolved by magic? There was a story once that magic could increase the yield.”

“That was because of the intellectual person who used magic. But that can’t help in such a village, at least not in this barren state.”

However, as they had no other safe place, the fairies wouldn’t even think of abandoning the village.

They all probably thought that it was better to starve to death than to live miserably in the hands of humans.

‘It isn’t like there is no way to solve this problem. If my intuition is right…’ Erwin thought.

She looked over at Luke.

Unlike the other place, the grasses and the color of the life around his feet were very vivid.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the changes that were happening around him could be related to the energy she had felt a while back.

Erwin decided to talk and approach Luke.

“I have a favor to ask you.”

“Favor?”

“For starters, move from this spot.”