Leaving Geralt aside for the moment, Lynn brought Thor to the throne hall, surrounded by dwarven guards.
Before Brovar, Lynn woke Thor up.
Once Thor took in his surroundings and realized he had failed, he stopped trying to argue and confessed everything.
Thor had expected to see shock and astonishment on his father's face after confessing all his secrets.
In fact, however, his father remained as cold as ever.
"Thor, you've disappointed me. You've truly disappointed me. Did you think I knew nothing about you and your accomplices? Trying to ally with those Children of Freedom-what have you rebels got in your heads? Paste?"
Disbelief instantly appeared on Thor's face.
Brovar made no effort to hide his disappointment and disgust. "Wipe that look off your face. I may be getting on in years, but I'm not so old that I can't see straight."
Thor sprang to his feet in agitation and roared.
But the two dwarven royal guards standing behind him quickly forced him back onto the ground.
"Then why, Father? Why do you still side with the humans? The humans' persecution of the elves, their persecution of us elder races... why do you still choose to turn a blind eye?"
Compared with the agitated Thor, Brovar was much calmer.
"Watch your words, young man. You have no idea what you're doing."
In the empty throne hall, Thor stared dumbfounded at Brovar's cold expression, as devoid of feeling as stone.
"My foolish child, Mahakam lies in the middle of the continent, surrounded by numerous human nations: the Kingdom of Temeria, the Principality of Ellander, the Kingdom of Redania, the Kingdom of Kaedwen, the Kingdom of Aedirn, the United Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia, the Kingdom of Sodden, the Nilfgaardian Empire, and others."
"Do you know what would happen if we chose to fight alongside those Children of Freedom?"
"If we did that, the kings would send expeditionary armies to attack Mahakam. Or they wouldn't even have to do that. They could simply impose a trade blockade, and we would die in hunger and poverty."
"After all, although Mahakam has plenty of mines, it has too little farmland. It simply can't feed so many people."
"Besides, do you really understand your so-called allies, the elves you call our fellow elder race?"
Brovar paused before continuing.
"In 1240 before the era, the first elves arrived on this continent aboard white ships and settled here. After that, they dominated almost the entire continent and ruled over its lands."
"From the shores of the Endless Ocean in the west to the Blue Mountains in the east, from the Dragon Mountains in the north to the Mahakam Mountains in the south."
"The ruins of elven cities scattered across the world today are evidence of that past glory. Even great human cities such as Vizima and Oxenfurt were built on the ruins of the ancient elves."
"Which raises a question, my foolish child. If the elves came later, how did they acquire such vast lands from the other elder races?"
"Did our dwarven ancestors, the ancestors of the gnomes, and those of the other intelligent races see that the newly arrived elves had nowhere to live and simply give them their own living space for nothing?"
Thor fell silent.
Brovar sighed.
"Although the elves always like to portray themselves as victims of human expansion, do you think they're truly innocent?"
"The foothills of the Blue Mountains and the shores of Loc Muinne are covered in the ruins of ancient lizardman cities."
"And in the caves beneath those ruins, the bones of that intelligent reptilian race still lie scattered."
"They had lived here for many years before the elves arrived. And the bones in those ruins all bear obvious marks left by blades."
"Remember, at that time, the humans-the race the elves regard as the source of all evil, the evil of this world-hadn't even set foot on this land."
"Of course, many elves now defend their ancestors by claiming that when the earliest elves discovered the ancient lizardman cities, only lizardman skeletons and ghosts remained."
"My child, would you believe that? That those lizardmen willingly let their entire race die out to make room for the elves?"
Brovar's words left Thor speechless.
Although dwarves seemed like a race that would "never waste words when fists would do"-and in a sense, that stereotype wasn't wrong-they weren't all a bunch of brutes.
Dwarves who grew up in Mahakam, in particular, received an education even as they learned to wield axes and warhammers.
Of course, Thor knew the history Brovar had recounted.
But like most people who returned everything they had learned to their teachers after entering society-"return what you borrow, and borrowing again is easy"-Thor had long since forgotten it all.
Only when his elderly father brought it up did he remember that there seemed to have been such a thing.
Still unconvinced, however, he argued.
"Father, those things you mentioned... they're all in the past. Perhaps, perhaps you're right about all of it. Perhaps the elves truly were our enemies once. But now a more important enemy has appeared: the humans."
"The past is the past. What matters is the present. The elves are no longer our enemies, but our allies. Our only way forward is to work with the Children of Freedom."
Brovar shook his head.
Looking at this child of his who had gone astray, he finally showed a trace of pity.
"No, you're wrong, you poor child. You've simply let those seemingly lofty ideals of the Children of Freedom go to your head."
"Do you know what you're asking? You're asking countless dwarves to bleed and sacrifice themselves for your madness."
"You haven't even seen that those so-called Children of Freedom are themselves someone else's pawns. 'Drive the humans back into the sea'-does that slogan sound familiar? Do you know who came up with that little rhyme?"
"The Nilfgaardians! The very humans you consider so hateful plotted this conspiracy, inciting those poor elves to join the Children of Freedom and providing them with weapons and support so that Nilfgaard could profit."
"My child, what you believe to be a struggle against oppression and tyranny has been nothing more than part of a greater conspiracy from the very beginning. The Children of Freedom are merely a tool for the south's designs on the north."
"Child, are you sure you want countless dwarven families torn apart because of the south's ambitions?"
By the time the guards led Thor away, he had changed completely.
The fervor, passion, and ideals had vanished from his eyes.
He had seen only how the elves below the mountain struggled to breathe beneath human tyranny, but had failed to see that even the spark of resistance illuminated an even greater darkness.
Brovar's words had shattered all his ambitions and aspirations. He seemed to have aged a great deal all at once.
However, as the guards escorted him past Lynn, he whispered, "I'm sorry." Yet when the witcher turned to look at him, Thor's expression hadn't changed at all, nor was his gaze directed at him.
Perhaps he had simply misheard.