Chapter 54 – Gnome
Gnomes were small humanoid creatures.
In fact, they seemed to have some blood relations with the green-skinned goblins.
However, unlike goblins, gnomes possessed a complete social system—until humans migrated to the Southeastern Plains.
As one of the aborigines of the Southeastern Plains, the gnomes initially didn’t welcome the arrival of humans. They had even joined the aboriginal coalition to fight the humans. However, tempered by countless wars, the humans’ armies had swiftly defeated the aboriginal coalition’s scattered armies.
Subsequently, most of the gnomes became slaves to humans. Only during the era of great development did a small portion of these slaves receive their freedom. After the Human Kingdoms Council enacted a series of policies to encourage wilderness development, these freed gnomes even became a part of human society.
Around that time, the humans also removed the gnomes from the list of hunting targets, sparing them the shame of being lumped with the weak goblins.
Sasangsang was a descendent of a gnome who had gained citizenship in the era of great development. Moreover, he had become a traveling merchant selling a variety of local specialties. Hence, he lived a more affluent life than most other civilian-level gnomes, which was evident from the fat covering his body.
Originally, the business trip this time was like any other before the spring harvest arrived. He was simply transporting some spices from the Yonia Region to Horador City for delivery to foreign merchants in exchange for a pile of gold coins. However, he never imagined that an accident would occur just as his caravan was about to reach Horador City.
A band of gnoll cavalry had actually attacked his caravan. To make matters worse, the mercenaries he hired were caught off guard and quickly stabbed to death by the gnolls’ spears or had their throats torn by the wargs the gnolls rode.
Fortunately, Sasangsang had quickly hidden inside a custom-made layered crate and successfully avoided discovery.
Oh, Root of the World Tree! (Gnome version for “Oh, heavens!”) Unlike human bandits, gnolls didn’t look at the long term. They wouldn’t back off after receiving a small bribe or a portion of his cargo. Not to mention, compared to coins, gnolls cared more about food. If they discovered him, his 200-plus kilogram body would end up becoming gnoll food.
After thinking up to this point, Sasangsang was overcome by sorrow. Had he known something like this would happen, he would’ve holed up at home until summer arrived before doing business.
“Why would Sasangsang encounter such a situation!” As the fat gnome wailed, the layers of fat on his body trembled. “Mother in heaven, Sasangsang will be dying here. I’ll be with you soon!”
Sasangsang’s loud wailing agitated Zwei. Frowning, he barked, “Hey, gnome, if you don’t want to die here, then stop your crying immediately.”
Gnomes originally had their own language, but after having assimilated into human society for so many years, all gnomes could understand Hyumen. Moreover, many gnomes with citizenship were also proficient in speaking the human language.
Naturally, Sasangsang was proficient in the language as well. Only, due to his shock, he ended up stammering his words, and even his accent resembled the traditional gnome language.
However, after hearing Zwei’s words, Sasangsang first stopped his reflexive wailing, afraid that the other party would kill him out of annoyance. Then, he grew confused. Since when did gnolls learn how to speak Hyumen? Hence, he looked up at Zwei while quivering in fear.
Zwei nodded in satisfaction when he saw Sasangsang stop crying. It seems I still have some deterrence.
“Gnome, what happened here?”
After discovering that the person before him wasn’t a ruthless gnoll, Sasangsang breathed out a sigh of relief. In reply to Zwei’s question, he stammered, “That, that, Lord Magician… I… This humble one is Sasangsang Togetoge, a traveling merchant of Noeg. I belong to the Roman Wind Chimes Chamber of Commerce, and the scope of my business is…”
“Get to the point!” Zwei couldn’t help getting frustrated when the other party actually started introducing his merchandise. Is this fat gnome trying to sell his nonsensical products to a magician?
Sasangsang’s fat body quivered in response to Zwei’s unhappy tone. Hurriedly, he summarized the speech he thought up into one sentence, saying, “This humble one’s caravan was attacked by gnolls!”
“Gnolls? Impossible,” Old John said as he raised his eyebrows skeptically. “This is near the Noeg Region’s capital, Horador City. Are you saying those border tourists came all the way here to conduct banditry? Do you take the empire’s border guards for fools? Even the orcs entering an alliance with the humans would be a more believable story than this!”
“But it’s the truth!” Sasangsang might not dare talk back to Zwei, who was dressed like a magician, but this did not prevent him from arguing with Old John, who was clad in cheap burlap. “Sasangsang personally saw those vulgar bastards! They rode on wargs as they attacked Sasangsang’s caravan!”
Zwei did not participate in the dispute between Sasangsang and Old John. Instead, he opened the Magic Academy System and turned to the Achievement panel.
He felt that if the gnome wasn’t lying about the gnolls, then a corresponding quest should appear in the Achievement panel. However, of the three quest windows on the panel, only two of them were filled, and both were quests he had previously seen. As for the last dialog box, it remained blank.
Could the gnome be lying? Zwei wondered. A thought occurred to him; then, he flipped to the Magic Academy System’s first panel, which recorded his ongoing quests.
Similar to before, the quests Taking Shape and Girl’s Home were listed on the panel. However, an additional side note appeared under the Girl’s Home quest.
[Gnolls in the Noeg Region: Some gnolls have used a special method to sneak past the border guards and enter the Noeg Region. Please investigate the purpose of their visit or defeat at least half of the gnolls.]
Sure enough, this quest was part of the quest to send Tio home. Based on this situation, he could infer that Tio and her guards hadn’t met with the gnolls’ ambush by accident, but by design instead.
This also meant that the gnome should be telling the truth. And the reason why not a single corpse remained was most likely that the mastermind of this incident did not wish others to find out the cause of the caravan members’ deaths. Hence, the attackers disposed of all the corpses. Moreover, since the gnolls were riding on wargs, they naturally wouldn’t leave behind any footprints.
As for why the gnome managed to escape death, the smell of the spices covering his body had prevented the sensitive gnolls and wargs from noticing him.
After sorting out his thoughts, Zwei couldn’t help but sigh.
“…I keep feeling that I’ve been dragged into something very troublesome.”