I smile warmly as I watch them panic. They're loud, energetic, and a bit dramatic, which is strikingly dissimilar to Lina, and they kind of remind me of my extended family back on Earth.

"They make me a bit embarrassed," Lina confesses through [Bind].

"Parents can be like that," I gently reply and pat her head.

Omume gently lays his stunned wife on his lap while Fuda uses some scrap piece of paper to fan her. She takes a few moments to become responsive again, then she closes her eyes and sighs tiredly.

"Royalty…" She mumbles weakly, sounding a bit fearful.

Yunia nods sternly, her blue, sharp eyes staring at Omume, who still seems to have his wits about him. "This is an important matter. Now that we're not only Lords, but also 'royals,' everyone around us will be subject to increased scrutiny, including your family," she states, making Omume apprehensive.

I lower my head for a brief moment and speak for all of us, "This is why we must apologize. You won't be able to continue with your current way of life because of us."

"M-my Lo'rd…!" Omume reflexively exclaims and reaches towards me, asking for me to stop my genuflection. "You don't have to apologize. We're just humble commone'rs, so we'll fulfill whateve'r you need of us."

I just raise my head with a wry smile. Though Toulin might not have heard this properly, they seem more concerned with showing us the appropriate deference than about how their futures might have been significantly changed by this.

Toulin groans as she sits up, then she slaps Fuda's hand to have him stop fanning her. "Royalty…" She repeats again, this time with a more pensive tone, then her eyes wander over to the absolutely silent Azador and the Lordsguard standing behind us. "This means we'll requi're p'rotection?"

And Azador immediately replies matter-of-factly, "More than just what this town's Lord can provide. An immediate transfer to Hombombein's Nobles' Quarters is advised."

The trio opens their eyes wide in surprise and let their mouths hang open.

Then Lina delivers our main proposal on a golden platter, "But what we really want is for you to come with us. We'll be founding a clan, and we need loyal and competent people to build a solid foundation."

Toulin's mouth flaps repeatedly before she finally finds the words to exclaim, "Lina! We're just commone'r enchante'rs! How do you expect us to manage a clan?!"

"Hold on, you won't be growing a castle on your own, you'll just be responsible for the enchanting-related branch," I appease them, then I blink in surprise as I realize that Yunia's elven expression accidentally came out of my mouth.

Omume's face becomes stern as he starts to think seriously about it. "And you believe that we can offe'r enough to be wo'rthy of being acchepted into you'r clan?" He cautiously asks.

"Currently, no, but we have the resources to train your family and allow your talents to bloom," Yunia answers without mercy.

The trio becomes a bit meek, and Lina shoots an annoyed look at Yunia, who coughs awkwardly and looks away, but she doesn't apologize.

Ciel smiles apologetically and forces the conversation to move on, "We have a good amount of Chimeric enchanters working for us, so they can teach you a lot, but we have no dwarven community living in Escanso, though there are a few Halflings around…"

Omume snorts and shakes his head as he mumbles, "Pff… the g'rass munche'rs have mo're in common with the elves than with us…"

"If Lina could adapt to life in the High Fo'rest, sho will we," Toulin boldly states and gives a confident nod towards Lina.

"Most of the duties will end up falling on you, Fuda," Lina points out, and the boy's excitement instantly dries up.

"Oh…" He mumbles and gives a glance to his father. "I was shupposhed to inhe'rit the shop one day, sho… things just got mo're 'she'rious,' I guess." And he shrugs.

"He'll g'row into the poshition, I'm shu're," Omume assures us, a bit nervous about his son's aloofness.

"Even if he doesn't, the Gilbik family will always have a place in the clan," Alissa now assures them, and they seem to appreciate it, though Fuda blushes in embarrassment.

Though they seem to have agreed to it, I don't want to rush things, so I point out, "There's no need to make your decision now, but I'll write a letter to the Lord to give you protection in the meanwhile."

I pull out a piece of paper and a magic pen, but then I remember that my calligraphy sucks, so I give it to Alissa with an apologetic smile.

As she writes, Omume looks with melancholy at his shop, observing all the intricate carvings in the gray and light green stone. Judging by the amount of detail that you can see in this shop, I believe this was a multi-generational household, so they'll be abandoning their ancestral home if they come with us.

"'G'row roots to give you stability, but cut them away when it's time to g'row fu'rthe'r,'" Toulin sagely quotes the Goddess of Growth as she glances at her husband.

"There will be no other dwarves nearby for you to relate to, and you'll be living above-ground," Ciel kindly warns them.

"Sheems like the ai'r would be better than he're. At least you can stay outshide without getting dust eve'rywhere on you'r body," Fuda jokingly comments.

"C'rooked shilver ca'rvings," Omume mumbles and snorts.

Alissa finishes writing the letter and folds it into the shape of a flat flower, which amuses me with its cuteness, then she stamps it with our seal, its first official use, and it conjures a small amount of wax to keep the letter from accidentally unfolding.

She hands it to Azador, who wordlessly takes it with a bow and leaves with one of the guards.

Now that that serious matter has been solved, how about some fun?

I grin mischievously and suggest, "Since you'll be the first dwarves living up in the treetops, how about you also become some of the first flying dwarves like Lina?"

Toulin raises an eyebrow while Fuda suddenly becomes excited, but Omume fearfully mumbles, "You mean tha-…?"

"Come outside," I interrupt him and get up.

Toulin chuckles nervously while the girls seem amused with my eccentricity. What can I say? I just love airships.

We exit the shop, and the guards outside don't even flinch. They're really well-trained.

The water elemental-wife has actually made a difference since the moment I leave its influence, my nose complains about the dry air. Alissa notices it the most, so she just decides to stand beside water-Roxanne.

I crouch and touch the road, then our cargo ship appears with a *poof*, and I quickly back away before it can crush me. Pulling out huge things is always a bit dangerous.

"WOAH!" Fuda exclaims out loud while his parents are speechless, again.

I turn around and grin proudly. "I'm kind of a Space mage," I smugly announce, then I jump, using my tail to propel my ascent, and use [Telekinesis] to maneuver up onto the deck.

"How about a joyride?!" I happily shout.

"A what?!" Omume shouts back. The system didn't translate that word well.

"A scenic ride," Alissa adeptly translates for me.

The trio accepts, though Fuda is the only one of them that doesn't seem afraid, and we get everyone up onto the deck with the golems' [Telekinesis].

Omume doesn't even need to be told to secure himself with a rope as it's the first thing he does when he lands, and Toulin follows suit a moment later. Fuda is surprisingly adventurous, while Omume seems to fear heights enough for all of them.

I summon another water elemental to moisturize the air, and we leave one unfortunate guard outside the shop to let Azador know if he comes back, then we lift off.

 

The Atskild mountain range has nothing on Mountainhome, a gigantic, snow-peaked mountain range that's even wider than the Shore of Leaves. There's nothing on the surface since Hombombein is actually deep inside the mountain, but the endless slope towards the center of the mountain range definitely triggers my megalophobia.

We could go to Hombombein on this ship in just half a day, and then come back, but I don't want to go too far. The airspace here isn't secure, so we'd definitely have to fight something along the way.

After the golems take over control of the ship, I jump down onto the deck and pull out the bottle of Cinco Flores. "Would yo-…"

"Who's piloting the ship?!" Omume suddenly exclaims, his face warped in a fearful frown.

"The golems. They're pretty good," I assure him with a wry smile. "Anyway, would you care for some elven drink? This one is very special."

"Oh, no, he's become an Eia-alcoholic," Roxanne teases me, and I stick out my tongue at her.

This is the only way that I can taste coffee, and the flavor of chocolate in the drink is also pretty good, so I'm addicted more to these flavors than to the Eia itself.

I uncork it, and the sickeningly sweet smell of Eia pours out.

"Shome f'ruity, magical d'rink?" Toulin curiously asks as Fuda shivers at the strength of the smell.

"It doesn't taste fruity, even if it smells like it," I assure her, then I start pouring a sliver of Eia in the glasses Alissa offers to me.

Omume frowns when he receives his few drops of Eia. "That's it? Boy, I'm almost offended," he jokes as he observes the magical ambrosia.

"This is liquid magic, so it bypasses even my resistances," Hana confesses, and that makes them wary. They should know how dragonkin are just as heavy drinkers as dwarves.

"Don't swallow it immediately, let the flavors caress your tongue until it starts to feel numb," Yunia warns them.

We gather in a circle and do a brother's pledge, clinking our glasses against each other's, and it makes Omume quite smug that we know of this dwarven tradition, then we go bottoms up.

We don't give it to the guard women, but I want to give them a shot once they're off-duty. Alissa and Hana both agree that giving little perks to the men and women who so diligently follow us will help a lot in deepening their loyalty. And besides, since they're Companions, they might be down for some "intimate" fun once they've loosened up.

We lean on the railing and enjoy the view as we savor the Eia on our tongues. My "third eye" opens, but there's barely any Life around for me to see, so I just ignore it.

Fuda watches as the town becomes smaller and smaller. It's really hard to distinguish the entrances to the underground houses from the rest of the mountain, so the only landmarks visible from this high above are the town wall and the hole to the undertown, but those quickly become too small to be noticeable.

I suddenly realize that the town guards might have a problem with someone leaving on a ship without going through customs.

Oops.

It seems that it's frighteningly easy to lose the common sense that commoners have and become an eccentric noble.

Omume's tension fades as the Eia makes him relax, but he's still wary and tightly grips the railing whenever the ship shakes even a little.

"For a dwarf, you're surprisingly fine with flying," Hana comments to Fuda.

"The idea of a dwa'rf flying a'round is funny, but it isn't scary to me. Living in the cheiling of an unde'rtown sheems more dange'rous," he casually replies, then he turns his eyes towards the quickly approaching snowy peaks. "Can we land on the snow?"

"Sure," I casually reply.

 

As we ascend, the air starts to get cold, so I summon a fire elemental-wife to keep us warm. Omume observes it curiously, noticing how her fire feet don't leave a mark on the wooden deck, but then he suddenly jerks his head away as he realizes that fire-Hana is half-naked.

He awkwardly coughs and tries to deflect, "Theshe shummons of you'rs a're really usheful, huh?"

"It's my specialty," I proudly reply. "And it's surprising how few people can actually use [Summon Elemental], seeing how useful it is."

He nods. "It's really ha'rd to learn. I t'ried."

"You were a mage?" Lina confusedly asks, sounding rather skeptical.

Omume purses his lips, slightly offended. "Hey! I have a lot of mana, I could've become one if I wanted to!"

"Imagine you'r fathe'r fighting in the Townsgua'rd," Toulin teasingly ponders as she glances at Fuda, then they both snicker.

"Lina became a wa'rrior!" Omume annoyedly exclaims and points at my little girl. "If she inhe'rited you'r beauty, then maybe she inhe'rited my mind!"

Toulin goes easier on the teasing due to the compliment, but she and Fuda still continue with it with barely contained grins.

Feeling like saving her father, Lina suddenly grabs his hand and confesses, "Thank you for your inheritance, Dad. You helped me become what I am today."

We gush at this cute moment, but I know that deep inside, Lina will never actually specify what exactly it was that she inherited from her father.

 

A few minutes later, we reach snow, so I tell the golems to land. Only Hana and Yunia had ever played in the snow before, while Alissa and Ciel had only seen it once when they were traveling, so everyone else in our group excitedly spends their first few moments on it just getting used to the feeling of crunching snow.

As a Canadian immigrant, of course, I have to give them their baptism of the north.

I pick up a bunch of snow and compact it with my hands, turning it into a nice, tough ball before throwing it as I shout, "SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

Alissa is so entranced by the snow that she doesn't even notice my mischief, and the large snowball hits her right in the face.

Oh, fuck!

Her revenge makes me wish that I was a little more gentle with how I initiated this.

 

I crawl along the shallow trenches as a bombardment rains all around me, and I pray that I don't get hit by a lucky bomb.

I do my best to reach Lina as she builds a protective barrier that she can hide behind as she launches her own attacks, but then I see a large bomb being lobbed from the Orange Separatists' trenches, and my heart sinks as I realize the arc that it'll take through the air.

"LINAAAAA…!" I shout desperately, and the world suddenly moves in slow-motion.

She raises her cute little head towards me, her gloomy eyes spelling confusion since she doesn't understand the reason for my cry.

"ABOVE YOU!" I shout once again to warn her, but it's too late, the bomb is just too fast.

It reaches her beautiful, gentle face just as she looks up, and her whole head is absolutely covered in snow.

"NOOOO…!" I cry in despair and rush towards her, ignoring the ordinance falling all around me.

I grab her little body before she falls into the snow and hold it close to me. Her delicate, angelic hands fall lifelessly beside her body, and I choke on my tears.

That's when I notice Fuda just ahead of me, currently crawling along another shallow trench, likely on his way back to report on the success of his raid.

The only reason the distinguished Gilbik family ever joined this bloodbath was because of my marriage with Lina, but now that she's gone, they have zero reason to shed even more blood in this conflict, and so, Fuda immediately turns around and runs off without saying a single word to me.

I hold her lifeless body in my arms as I tune out reality, the sounds of ordinance impacts becoming faint in my ears, then I notice that they've actually stopped, and I peek up from behind the barrier to check on the no-man's land.

I see the outlines of enemy soldiers boldly rushing up the slope to finish me off.

"So it has come to this, huh," I mumble with a self-deprecating smile.

Outgunned, outnumbered, and with no allies left to back me up anymore, my time has finally come, but I only have myself to blame.

I gently lay Lina's body down on the snow, then I grab a handful of white death with each hand and compact it to make a nice and firm snow bomb.

"BUT I WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" I scream in anger and leap over the barrier.

 

I take two of them out with me before I'm finally hit, and my exhausted, wounded body collapses on the soft snow, sinking down halfway into it. Unfortunately, this is as much of a grave as I'm going to get.

I cough and struggle to breathe as I wait for the Separatists to get here, and they take so long that I feel like shouting out for them to just come and finish me off, but they soon leave the safety of their barriers as I hear the sound of boots crunching into the snow.

Two women come into my view, the first is a red-haired mercenary that I don't recognize, and the second is the Orange Fox Demon, the traitorous woman. Her stunningly beautiful face sends me into a rage, and it almost gives me enough energy to rise up again, almost.

"Any last words," she smugly asks, her vixen-like voice giving me shivers of pleasure.

I return the smug smile and give the thumbs up, but not to her. "Suck my thick, draconic cock," I reply with barely contained excitement.

From deep inside the clouds, Aoi releases our trump card, the Mother Of All Snowballs.

When the two warriors finally notice the shadow falling on them from above, it's already too late for them. Their horrified faces are the last thing I see before the snow covers me and my vision darkens.

The Ryder Civil War has come to an end, and the victors are the Gilbiks, the only survivors of this massacre.

 

I brush off the snow from my clothes as I laugh my ass off. "I can't believe… this worked… I got… everyone…" Then I drop onto the snow and hold my belly as I wheeze. "Fuck…! That was perfect!"

Aoi lands beside me and shrinks down to small-Aoi, then she laughs alongside me in her chipmunk voice.

Alissa sits up and grumbles incoherent insults in rage. "I didn't even get my revenge!" She exclaims and starts to brush herself off, too.

I stop laughing and pounce on her, then I pull her into my embrace. "How about, in lieu of 'revenge,' I 'make it up to' you, instead?" Then I look around to see the "dead" girls coming back to life. "Make it up to everyone," I hurriedly add.

The Gilbiks cautiously peek their heads up from behind their barriers.

"A're we really the last ones alive?" Omume asks confusedly.

"Yes, you are, congratulations," Jarn answers from behind them in a rather flat tone. The golems were the "referees" for this war.

"Well, good job us, I guess." He chuckles and shrugs.

Hana plants her hands on her waist and narrows her eyes. "Do you guys have [Throw]? You're all suspiciously good at throwing snowballs," she presses them, her yellow eyes demanding an answer.

"[Spirit of Gaia] gives us bette'r coo'rdination, I guess," Fuda smugly answers, and Hana clicks her tongue.

After playing around some more, we decide to fly back down to the town for lunch.

 

A buff dwarf arrives at the shop, warily approaching the elemental-wife and the guard waiting out in front of it.

"The shop is closed," the guard sternly states, glaring at the dwarf with the typical elven snobbish air.

"Uh…" The man mumbles as he's drawn into the deep blue eyes of the female guard. Not even dwarves are immune to the elven charm. "I came to pick up my a'rmo'r."

"The shop is closed…" The guard repeats, slightly annoyed.

"Ah, right…!" Then he notices the elemental-wife and gives her an odd glance. "When a're they coming back?"

The guard rolls her eyes, then she looks up to the mountain and manages to spot us. "Soon…"

 

After we land, Omume tries to play it all off as if there's nothing exceptional going on, and Toulin keeps the customer busy with some small talk just to avoid having to explain our presence.

I store the ship, and a few town guards arrive to investigate the airship sighting. They definitely aren't happy about us skipping customs, but they quickly calm down once they realize that we're high nobility. The composition of our group and the polished, shining wooden armor we're all wearing tell them quite clearly that it'd be far more trouble than it's worth to try to force us to go through customs.

Azador gets back just before lunchtime since he knows how much we value a good meal, and we all set off together for the Nobles' Quarters in search of a good restaurant.