By Zephyria 
I was momentarily speechless at the sight of the group of dwarves jumping and shouting loudly at my feet. It was such an unexpected encounter. I stared down at them for a while before speaking first.
“That inexplicable attack… could it be.”
“Yeah. I think it’s these guys.”
Ardian quietly agreed with my words and released the dwarf he was holding. The dwarves watched as their comrade was released and cheered, delighted by the reunion. Then, they all prostrated themselves towards us and shouted.
“You have shown mercy to us who tried to steal your food-ra! Thank you, unknown Midgard humans-ra!”
“By the way, you kept up with our speed-ra?!”
“Yeah, yeah! Amazing humans-ra!”
“That’s right-ra! We were so surprised-ra!”
They were tiny, but their voices were really loud. Perhaps it had become a habit to speak loudly because of their small size, but they kept talking loudly.
“I have something to ask.”
I crouched down, intending to ask them a few questions. First, I needed to know what they were and why they had attacked us.
Just then, Sword, who had been standing and watching, clicked his teeth. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he was smiling. At that, the dwarves were very surprised and made a fuss.
“Kyaaaaak! A human made of bones is moving-ra!”
“It’s a monster-ra!”
“It’s a moving monster skeleton-ra!”
It was about to burst my eardrums.
Sword poked the dwarves with his finger bones as if trying to tease them on purpose, and the screams of terror were even louder than before. It was too noisy and chaotic to have a conversation.
“Sword, go into the shadows for a while-ra.”
At my command, Sword immediately stopped playing around, bowed politely, and disappeared as if being sucked into the shadows.
“S, scary humans-ra….”
“They use terrible tricks to control skeletons-ra!”
“Stop making a fuss and answer my questions.”
Instantly, the dwarves widened their eyes and turned to look at me all at once. Their every action was so synchronized that it was amazing.
“…What are you?”
Perhaps they had finally calmed down, as the dwarves, wearing determined expressions, all knelt on one knee. Among them, the one who seemed to be the leader spoke on behalf of the group.
“We are the Dvergr-ra. We are distantly related to the dwarves, but our ancestors adapted to the environment of the new land and are very different from the dwarves-ra. That’s why the humans of Midgard seem to call us a new race-ra.”
So, they were related to the dwarves.
“What is Midgard?”
“Why, it’s the land where you live-ra! We call the land where humans of awkward size, neither giants nor dwarves, live Midgard-ra. Ah! My name is Myrkr-ra. I am the representative of our Dvergr tribe-ra.”
“I see. Then, why did you attack us?”
Suddenly, the dwarves looked dejected.
The leader dwarf, who introduced himself as Myrkr, continued.
“We have adapted to the harshness of this land, so we have bodies that can go without eating for several years-ra. But we are not immortal, so we can’t not eat at all, and we haven’t eaten anything for three years now-ra. Some of our comrades are already collapsing-ra… So we tried to steal the food of the Midgard travelers we saw after a long time-ra.”
They hadn’t eaten anything for three years….
I heard that around that time, the hunters who were last investigating this special management zone had temporarily stopped coming because of an unknown attack.
It was definitely not a coincidence.
It was clear that these guys were the ones who had troubled the hunters.
“But it can’t be helped-ra. You are stronger than us, but you didn’t attack us and even released our comrade-ra! We won’t fight you anymore either-ra. We’ll wait for the next opportunity that comes someday-ra!”
Myrkr clenched his fist, and the dwarves kneeling in a row behind him nodded. I had been silent, thinking for a moment as I listened to their words, but then I pointed behind me with my finger.
“Did you guys create this illusion too?”
“That’s right-ra. We can create illusions when our horns shine-ra. We can also get rid of them-ra. Most humans who come here are looking for water, so if we show them a cool oasis illusion, they are completely fooled and come closer-ra.”
As he said that, he put his hand on his horn, and a faint light appeared, and the oasis illusion began to disappear. As the illusion disappeared, the barren landscape reappeared. I unfolded my crouching posture and stood up. Ardian approached me and asked in a small voice.
“What are you going to do?”
“…You had emergency rations in your Hyperspace pocket, right.”
As I said that and held out my hand, Ardian, who understood perfectly, took out the emergency rations and handed them to me. It was bread wrapped in cloth. It was a normal-sized loaf of bread that would be gone in a few bites, but it would be a considerable amount of food for these very small beings.
“Wow….”
The dwarves who smelled the savory bread were drooling. Their eyes, shining with greed, were very blatant. I shook the bread gently and opened my mouth.
“I will give this to you.”
As I handed the bread forward, the eyes of the dwarves who saw the bread up close shone like stars in the night sky.
“But you have to help us a little.”
The dwarves answered all together as if they had been waiting for it.
“Of course-ra! Boss, we will be loyal for life-ra!”
They had been completely won over with just one loaf of bread.
I watched the dwarves, who were surrounding the bread that was so big compared to their size and cheering, for a moment before continuing.
“I want to investigate this place. I’d like you to guide me.”
“Good-ra! Then let’s go to ‘Yokoko’ first-ra!”
“Yokoko?”
“Yeah! It’s what we call our center-ra.”
Then, Myrkr jumped up and landed on my shoulder, pointing to the forest that had appeared after the illusion disappeared.
“If you go into that forest, you’ll be there-ra! I’ll explain everything in detail after we enter the territory of our Dvergr tribe-ra. It’s dangerous here because other races might target us-ra.”
At my feet, the other dwarves were carrying the bread on their heads and moving in unison. After exchanging glances with Ardian, I also followed the dwarves who were guiding us and walked into the forest.
“Going-ra, going-ra, going-ra!”
“Lararinuweiorarari!”
“Going to find food-ra!”
“Lararinuweiorarari!”
How long had we walked, listening to the strange work songs of those dwarves? Just past the entrance to the forest, I felt a distinctly different atmosphere. Just a moment ago, it was full of hot and dry air, but this forest was full of cool and humid air, in contrast.
Could the climate change so drastically?
Perhaps the barren land outside this forest was artificially changed by the Fiends’ essence, and originally, it was a place with the same climate as this forest.
“We call this jungle the Great Nature, Yokoko-ra. Yokoko is divided into five areas, and the area where our Dvergr tribe lives is located in the east-ra. The closest place to the forest entrance is also the eastern land where we live-ra. Ah, we’ve arrived-ra!”
Just then, Myrkr pointed straight ahead, so I turned to look. As we emerged from the dense forest, a space that looked like an open field appeared, and there were small, toy-like houses gathered in a dense cluster. It seemed to be the homes of the Dvergr tribe, gathered like a village.
“We brought food-ra!”
Myrkr, who shouted loudly, got off my shoulder again. Hearing the news, other dwarves who came out of their houses flocked to the bread. Most of the little ones, who were a little smaller than the adult Dvergr, were afraid of us, but some were curious.
Considering that there were more people than I thought, I handed over another loaf of bread. The excited Dvergr were busily moving to hold a party, and Myrkr, who had set up a separate place for us, continued the explanation he had been giving earlier.
“I will explain again for the Midgard travelers who are new to Yokoko-ra. As I said before, Yokoko is divided into five areas-ra. The eastern area is the territory of the Dvergr tribe, and the western and southern areas are the territory of the Great Plants, and the northern area is the territory of the Great Animals-ra. Among these, our eastern area is the largest-ra.”
Then Myrkr raised his index finger.
“But there is a place that is even bigger than our eastern area-ra. It is the central area of Yokoko, surrounded by the eastern, western, southern, and northern areas-ra. No one approaches it rashly-ra.”
“Why?”
“Because the most dangerous snake in Yokoko, ‘Ofnir,’ lives there-ra. Boss, you said you wanted to investigate this place, right-ra? You can look around other places, but it’s best not to approach that place if possible-ra.”