Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 4

That annoying little tin soldier and its owner were as oblivious to the awkward atmosphere as each other. No matter how grimly the handsome Duke remained silent throughout the journey, the two treated the winter travel as if it were a picnic in early spring.

If it weren’t for the horses pulling the cart, ‘Araceae’ and ‘Midnight’, who only obeyed Dwight’s orders, they probably would have wanted to stop and rest in the cold woods—the rabbit even brought a melodica!

“Don’t be so tense,” Charlie said. “We’ll arrive before dark.”

“It seems that the famous astrologer is still your neighbor,” Dwight said grimly.

“Not really,” Charlie replied, taking out a beautiful glass jar from his suitcase, filled with vibrant red jam.

“I just know a shortcut,” he said while deftly spreading the jam on white bread with elegant strokes. “He lives in the Greenwoods.”

Dwight raised his eyebrows, surprised that the other was so nonchalant about disclosing the astrologer’s hideout.

Charlie seemed to know what he was thinking and winked at him. “No one but me can easily reach Kurt there, even if the address is down to his porch steps.”

Dwight stared at him unapologetically.

He noticed that, although Charlie had a rabbit’s head, the rest of him was unexpectedly pleasing to the eye. Despite often speaking in a way that made one want to lock him in a dungeon, his manners were quite proper. His shoulders were straight, and his posture was upright. His legs were sufficiently long, and he looked every inch the gentleman when he neatly tucked his shirt and donned his coat.

Just a bit thin.

Dwight, often praised for being “as slender as an angel”, thought without effort.

“Why?” His mood improved slightly. He had a rare moment of appreciation for the smug rabbit sitting across from him.

“Because he lives in the Greenwoods,” Charlie said cheerfully.

“So what?” Dwight asked casually, then realized.

The Greenwoods.

It was just a nickname; in fact, that vast forest had no official name because even elves dared not enter.

People often got lost on the edges of the forest, leaving their bones there forever. No one knew the way in, or perhaps it didn’t exist at all.

At least for the past hundred years, ten miles around the Greenwoods had been uninhabited.

Astrologer Kurt lives there?

For the first time, a look of confusion appeared on the young Duke’s face. “How did he get in?”

Charlie put the last bite of bread in his mouth. “I took him in.”

Dwight straightened slightly.

“Now you will take me in. The secret will soon be no secret.”

“Right, ‘I’ll take you’ in.” The shopkeeper shrugged easily.

“Many people want to know the astrologer’s whereabouts,” Dwight hinted.

“But none have succeeded,” Charlie said. “Kurt doesn’t stay in one place for long, and I happen to know he’s packing his bags. We might still catch him before he leaves.”

As if responding to his words, the carriage began to slow down.

“Charlie! Charlie!” The little tin soldier stood on the seat cushion. “The woods ahead are too dense!”

The Duke’s luxurious carriage was no match for the thorns.

“It’s okay.” Charlie snapped his suitcase shut. “Next, we walk.”

He agilely jumped from the carriage and turned to offer a hand.

Dwight gave him a cold look and tapped his cane on the door frame.

With a clicking sound, a footstool unfolded automatically.

Charlie: “……”

Utterly extravagant.

The carriage had only made it to the edge of the Greenwoods. They were still a distance from the sea of trees. High rocks crowded together, forming a natural barrier covered in greasy moss and winter snow—unless one had wings, they couldn’t even dream of climbing over.

Dwight wrapped his fur cloak tighter, his huge hat nearly covering his eyes, with only his slightly red, upturned nose visible under the shadow of his light golden hair and eyelashes.

Charlie wore no cloak but a dashing long coat, his high boots creaking sourly in the snow.

The tin soldier followed in Charlie’s footsteps, occasionally looking back at him.

Dwight looked down at him haughtily, remaining silent.

“Charlie!” The tin soldier’s voice was a bit muffled in the snow. “My joints are going to freeze!”

“Wait a bit. I’m sure those guys left some oil down there,” the shopkeeper said soothingly.

“If you plan to walk around these stone forests,” Dwight said, his breath forming a white cloud, “you’d better clarify that sooner.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Charlie stopped.

He stood before a tall stone, thinly covered with snow.

Dwight stopped and watched the rabbit bend down, searching for something. After a while, the ground beneath him trembled slightly, accompanied by dull clanging sounds.

When the trembling completely stopped, the boulder clumsily shifted aside, revealing a hole from which warm steam eagerly escaped.

Charlie turned to Dwight and gestured for him to enter.

The tin soldier had already jumped in.

“What is this place?” Dwight asked, removing his cloak hat as he walked down the stone steps, surveying the clearly man-made space.

“An abandoned dwarven mine,” Charlie replied, his voice sounding somewhat muffled underground.

The tin soldier’s hat seemed to have been transformed into a lantern, walking ahead in small steps, lighting their path just enough.

“This mine is large; it has been mined for at least two hundred years,” Charlie said. “At its peak, a third of the empire’s gems came from here.”

Dwight could tell, even without him saying so. Dwarves weren’t tall, and ordinary mines would never have this spacious scale.

“The temperature is off,” Dwight noted. “What’s below?”

The cave was indeed warmer than above ground, but the temperature here was unusually comfortable.

Charlie seemed surprised.

The Duke, who was reputed to always stay within the walls of Brandenburg, was surprisingly perceptive.

“Ground fire,” Charlie explained without evasion. “This was originally just a mine. The deeper you go, the richer the deposits, and they even uncovered ground fire here. Two hundred years ago, several dwarf clans gathered here: the Fugmiller dwarfs mined in the east, the Hedomar dwarfs smelted in the west, and the Mayking dwarfs transported the wealth far and wide.”

These diligent dwarfs, like a tireless swarm of ants, spent centuries building this vast underground world with its complex interlocking mine shafts, public halls built upon the caves, and smelting plants. Dwight even spotted a rundown stone bar at a distant intersection.

The wind blowing from beneath the earth carried a warm breath, mingling with the rugged laughter of dwarfs from a century ago, the lively sounds of melodicas, and the ceaseless hammering which seemed to still linger in the wind, but soon vanished without a trace.

“Dwarfs wouldn’t easily abandon their wealth,” Dwight suddenly said. “What happened?”

The scale of the mine was unexpectedly large, but he estimated the depth and felt that the mine’s potential value was far from fully realized.

Walking behind him, Charlie paused momentarily before hastening his steps without being noticed by those ahead.

“They went too far,” Charlie said nonchalantly. “After the shallow surface gems were exhausted, they expanded the mine deeper where the wealth was greater, but the price paid was also higher. The ‘Queen of Fire’ was the last gem they brought out of the mine.”

Dwight’s eyes flickered.

There were no nobles that weren’t unaware of the ‘Queen of Fire’, the largest and most beautifully shaped ruby in existence, which ninety years ago had been set in the famously beautiful Queen Natty’s crown but was soon lost along with the crown itself. Dwight had only seen that legendary gem in portraits of Queen Natty.

Before that, it was precisely during the second boom period of luxury jewelry trading following the Age of Navigation that many historically famous, stunningly beautiful jewels emerged.

“After the ‘Queen of Fire’, the dwarfs closed this mine,” Charlie whispered. “The entrance and the maps were treated as the highest secret. But there were always stubborn dwarfs who couldn’t resist the temptation and sneaked in alone, never to return. The dwarfs believed this was nature’s punishment for two hundred years of mining, so they simply moved away and never came back.”

“What happened before the ‘Queen of Fire’?” Dwight asked.

Something extremely threatening must have occurred to stop them from reaching for such immense wealth.

“No one knows,” Charlie said. “According to the dwarfs, the treasures deep in the mine belong to the Greenwoods. If anyone dares to take even a single gem, they will become lost in this vast mine until they turn to bones.”

Dwight slightly turned his head, glancing at the rabbit shopkeeper behind him.

Lost…

Indeed, the various vast underground spaces and mine shafts interlocking here resembled a massive labyrinth.

Seeing that the young Duke wasn’t deceived, Charlie shrugged. “The dwarfs’ legends are more of a reminder than a scare. The shallow layers of the mine have been exhausted, but I think just passing through shouldn’t pose a problem.”

“Exiting here leads to the Greenwoods,” Dwight stated affirmatively.

“Uh-huh.”

“How did you discover the dwarfs’ entrance?”

“Trade secret, no disclosures.”

At this point, Dwight’s view of Charlie finally shifted.

If initially he thought Charlie was just a rambling, nonsense-spouting rabbit, now, this rabbit had finally shown him a hint of something interesting.

…But still highly suspicious.

The reserved Duke didn’t continue to inquire; he noticed that the noisy tin soldier seemed incapable of multitasking. Once it took on the role of a streetlight, its mouth didn’t open again.

Thus, the group silently traversed the gloomy mine shafts. When his pocket watch had gone just over a full rotation, the tin soldier finally stopped.

Charlie stepped forward, fiddling with something behind Dwight’s back, and the light on the tin soldier’s head went out.

It came alive again.

“Charlie! We’ve arrived!”

Charlie reassuringly patted the tin soldier, bent down, and pulled open what looked like an extremely heavy door—it seemed that no one had moved it in a hundred years, and rust impaired its operation, so Charlie only managed to half-open it before it got stuck.

Dwight stooped and walked out.

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