All traces of anger within you have subsided. And what remains is nostalgia so strong, that you can't help but gaze wistfully at the man before you.

"Darius is that you?" the memories come flooding back. "That is you right..?"

The hooded figure donning the same white featureless mask as the man you met decades ago swiftly uncovers his face, revealing an entirely different person. One that wears curly blonde hair and an unflatteringly thin mustache.

He pulls back his hood and raises his hands in submission. "I am not this Darius you speak of. Perhaps you mistake me for another member of our order. My name is Silvain, and I am here on official business."

Silvain

Human [♂]

Level: 32

HP: 23500/23500

"Official business huh?"

You do recall Darius telling you about his job as a scholar and a government official.

"So," you approach him, "you're a scholar?"

"A scholar? Heavens no," he shakes his head. "I'm a diplomat, sent here by the King himself."

"From the Capital?"

"Yes. If you know that much, then you must also know that my order strives for harmony."

"And how does raining arrows down on my home reflect this harmony?"

"That's..." he casts his eyes down to his feet. "We're desperate at this point. I'm desperate."

This sounds eerily similar to the Elderwood Village's problem. You can at least feel for them on that basis alone.

"So, what's the crisis you're facing?" you inquire, glancing at the dwarves behind the man.

"It's... complicated," he sighs. "Shall we discuss it over at my tent? Thankfully, it wasn't caught in the blast of your high-level spell."

"Um... sure... Sorry about that."

"Oh no, we were the aggressors! You were within your right!"

"Ah... I guess so..."

"By the way, would you mind removing your foot off my companion, Golimar? He's actually the champion of the Stoneweaver Dwarves. I'd look bad if he were injured under my command."

"U-uh... yeah. I almost forgot he was there."

"You are quite the specimen aren't you," he nervously chuckles.

Silvain orders the dwarven soldiers to clean up your mess and carry the unconscious Golimar back to his fortunately-untouched tent on the other side of the camp. It is also here that you talk in detail about the issues plaguing the Stoneweaver Dwarves.

Silvain's tent is larger than the rest, and it sits atop a hill in the middle of the camp. A sizable wooden balcony has been constructed here, and it holds two shoddy wooden chairs and a table that overlooks the entire glade.

"Basically," the man invites you to sit, "the volcano that acts as the dwarves' home is dying. Their infrastructure relies on the heat generated by the mountain, and so to them, this is a matter of life and death."

You gasp in shock. "There's a volcano nearby?!"

"Wait, that's what surprises you?!"

An awkward lull fills the air, and you stare at one another.

"Yes," the man says with a defeated tone. "There is a volcano nearby. In fact, if you look out right now, you'll see it: Blackskull Mountain."

You do so and see a large dark mountain that eclipses every peak you've ever seen. "Holy crap, I never noticed it!"

"Yeah well, putting that aside, this volcano will soon be reduced to an oversized rock if nothing is done about it."

"How is any of this tied to the farm?"

The man takes a map from inside his tent and sets it on the creaky table beside you. "We have reason to believe that patch of land you're defending sits above an active volcano."

"What?!" you rise from your seat and run your eyes over the geographical display. "Seriously?!"

"I intended to scare off the elven soldiers with that hail of arrows. That way, the dwarves could take over the land and dig up this buried mountain. They weren't supposed to fire their arrows so close to the sentries... alas my dwarvish isn't the best. There was probably something lost in translation, and the arrows ended up hitting a couple of people. I immediately had them retreat to prevent further casualties."

"So it was a miscommunication..."

As you are a wielder of the Universal Tongue talent, you often forget that separate languages exist. Thus you hearken back to a time before you came to inherit the power, and you come to remember the struggles in communication between differing tongues.

But is that a valid excuse for such a fatal blunder?

"You're planning on moving the dwarves to the buries volcano then?" you assume.

"Of course not, that'd be ridiculous! A Stoneweaver Dwarf without Blackskull Mountain is like... a sandwich without the bread! Cheese without crackers! Soup without a bowl! Moving doesn't solve anything, it merely sweeps the problem under the rug!"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But then what do you want with the volcano below my home? How does it relate to Blackskull Mountain?"

"Well," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a drawing of a glowing red orb, "there's a high chance that your underground volcano hosts an incredibly rare Fire Crystal."

"Fire Crystal?"

"I plan on extracting this Fire Crystal from that volcano and installing it inside Blackskull Mountain. You don't really need an active volcano right?"

"You're not wrong... it would definitely eliminate the risk of having a sinkhole swallow the farm up..."

Some parts of Silvain's explanation make sense to you. But the holes in his story become wholly apparent when you think back to what the elven soldiers had to endure.

"You already have this all figured out," you stroke your chin, "so why didn't you approach the elves diplomatically first? You are a diplomat, correct?"

"About that," he scratches his chin. "Previous missions conducted in the Elderwood region have always ended in failure. There is no negotiating with the Wood Elves. Their distrust of outsiders is too great. I opted for the realistic option, given the urgency of the ordeal."

"That's not true—!"

In that instant, you are reminded of the Elderwood Village's initial treatment of you. Their attitude towards outsiders was only overturned after you defeated an Elder in combat. Thus, there may have been a truth to Silvain's reasoning.

"T-that's... mostly not true..." your eyes trail off.

"Mm. That's not convincing one bit."

"B-but, things there have changed now! The elves accepted an outsider like me into their community! They should be willing to listen to you with me as a go-between!"

"Eh? But aren't you an elf, like them?"

"N-no! I'm a different kind of elf... I think... In any case, I can have them hear you out if you'd like."

"Can you now? Are they willing to talk after what I had the dwarves attack them?"

"It's because you made the dwarves attack them, they'd be willing to talk. They'll want reparations you know?"

"A-ah... true. And in the process, I can negotiate for partial ownership of the land... Not a bad plan."

The man rolls up his map and smiles at you.

"I'll have a word with the Dwarven King about this," he dons his white mask and holds out his open palm. "He'll have to send a delegation from his court should negotiations proceed."

"Alright, got it" you rise and shake his hand. "Come to the land in question tomorrow and wait by the gates in the northern wall. We'll be waiting for you there."

"Okey-dokey. Oh, and uh, don't mention the part where you defeat Golimar. There'll be a load of problems if the dwarves realize their most powerful warrior is outranked by the opposite party..."

"Ahaha... I'll keep that in mind..."

And without consulting the Elders, you have Silvain, human diplomat to the dwarves, agree to your request for dialogue between the Stoneweaver Dwarves and the Elderwood Elves.

When you return to the village and tell everyone about your plan, they naturally sit you down and give you an earful.

And you learn never again to take matters into your own hands.