"Marquis, have military measures always been within your considerations?" Helson Viscount asked sadly.
Back at Fireplace Fortress, he had been enthusiastically telling Balash that he had come in the name of peace, yet in the blink of an eye, his liege lord was plotting to seize the dwarves' territory.
Helson certainly didn't believe the dwarves would willingly hand over the homeland where they had lived for generations.
"We should fully consider every possibility!" Paul did not deny it.
Helson fell silent for a moment before finally letting out a sigh.
"If you truly intend to do this," he began slowly, a trace of helplessness in his voice, "then I suggest starting with their mountain constructions."
He paused, his gaze turning toward the candlelit wall, as though recalling the underground world beneath Fireplace Fortress.
"On their own territory, the dwarves' greatest advantage isn't their weapons or combat techniques, but the crisscrossing tunnels and fortresses hidden deep within the mountains."
He continued, his tone gradually growing more solemn. "Their tunnels aren't merely passageways; they're also the core of their defenses. Some extend all the way from the foot of a mountain to its summit, while others connect multiple halls and mines. They're intricate, like a spiderweb. As for those fortresses, they're built within the mountains themselves—easy to defend and difficult to attack, nearly indestructible."
He paused, as if preparing himself for what he was about to say. "Yet these very constructions have also become their weakness."
Everyone listened intently.
"When I was at Fireplace Fortress," Helson continued, "I heard the locals proudly explain more than once that these tunnels and fortresses had been excavated, expanded, and reinforced by dwarves generation after generation, beginning with their ancestors. Some passages were even more than three thousand years old."
He raised his head and looked