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Affections Across War (Grinberet X Asphodel Terrarium)

She blushed as he kissed her hand. She appreciates the gesture. When he asked what she were doing in the library, she pouted. "I was asking you that question. I'm always here, reading. I love it. There's a whole new world in stories that these books contain. Well you, I've never seen you before in any of the time I spent here. Are you new here?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
 
"Well this is my first time in a library," Jakiro said.
He is very interested in the young fairy and wants to know her more.
"Different than you, I don't like reading. Let's get a hell out of here," he said as he gently grab her hand and goes out of the library.
He reclaim his axe from the librarrian and together they left the library.
"Look at the mess you made you fucking dwarf," said a librarian from afar.

Jakiro stomach growl loud, signalling he is hungry.
"Oh my..." he said embarrassingly.
 
He still didn't answer her question. Something tells Lou that he was forced to go to the library but didn't bring it up any further as he grabbed her and led her outside.

As she heard his stomach growled, she could not help but gave a soft chuckle. "Let's get something to eat." she said as she led him to the food establishments.

She began thinking about the rumours among elves and fairies that dwarves were uncultured. Jakiro seem to be... as evident in the library incident, yet she could not help but notice that he was gentle inside.
 
"I want meat and beer," Jakiro requested.
"I hope this cursed city have something good to offer."
Jakiro followed Lou's lead in finding a food establishment. He wonder what kind of food he will be served. In the meantime, she looks very beautiful even from behind and sideways. He often become hypnotized by her.
 
Lou led Jakiro to the stall where they sell meat and beer. She gave one silver coin for the food which the seller had given Jakiro. Lou had went to the fruit stall and bought some fruits and nuts for herself. She was happy with them. She led Jakiro to a table where the both of them sat.
 
They find themselves a table and sat down on a chair. Jakiro started to eat greedily. He looks on what Lou is eating, "How can you eat those stuff?," he said with his mouth still full of meat. She seem to be eating in her own pace. As soon as they done eating he let out a loud burp.
"Ahh what a time to be alive," he said while stretching.
 
Lou frowned at the comment of Jakiro regarding her lunch, and furthermore when he gave a loud burp. She however, remained silent about the matter.

"So wht were you researching about to force you to go to library?" she asked him."Maybe I can help."
 
After Jakiro heard the question he answered spontaneously, "Oh I was trying to learn about the history of dwarf and fairy stuff and..." he said but stopped half way.
Suddenly he seems to be calm and his eyes show some reflection. He did not say a word for while as he was deep in thought. Then he hold her hand and go outside to find a bit of privacy.
"I didn't came here to find history. I came here for you Lady Lou. You are the most amazing and beautiful creature I have ever seen. You inspire me. You made me gain new insight and wisdom. You make my mind go crazy oh the irony," he confesses as he pat her head and touches her soft cheek and chin.
"I want to be by your side my dear. Would you give this foolish man a chance?" he added.
 
Lou could do nothing but blushed at his comment. Then when he asked her... Her mind raced. She knew how dwarves and fairies do not go along well with each other. She replied hesitantly, "Well... I don't know. Our races are known to be in comflict dating back ten thousand years ago." she began. She shook her head. "I am sorry, but I don't think it's going to work out."
 
Jakiro can't help but notices that Lou's word is contradicting her body language. Maybe it was rushed. He will not give up on her but not only because he craves her, but because he know that she does not refuse him.
"War and conflict is something terrible. Dwarves may not be the most cultured clan, but war is still bad. It's a loss for both sides," he started to lecture.
"I can't believe myself why I said that. It's like someone guides me into thinking this way," he said pouring his feelings to her.

Jakiro take out his necklace which contain his silver amulet. Then he puts the necklace around her neck and stroked her hair.
"You look good in it. Your beauty hypnotizes me. This amulet was used to glow when fairy is nearby. But I modified it so that it will glow when dwarf is near. You can even see that it is glowing right now since I'm right here," he laughed a bit.
"I want you to have it my dear. I want you to be safe from danger."
 
Lou was surprised by Jakiro's gift. She looked at it happily. She thanked him and gave him a hug. "It's beautiful. Thank you so much!"

She went to the nearest river and looked at her reflection, admiring the necklace. She preened herself and arranged her wings. Fairy vanity never truly fades, does it?
 
Jakiro pat her head as she hugs him. He was happy to see her appreciating his gift. He sat not far from her at the river as he observe for quite awhile until he walk slowly and approach her.
"I want to end the war my dear," he said with determination.
"I want to end the war so we can live happily. I went to the library to read books about history from other point of view. But sincerely, I really did came here to see you, and it was destined."
"Don't you think war is terrible and it should end?"
 
She had her hands akimbo. "Oh, so that's why you were in the library. I knew it's unusual for you to be there." She frowned at his comment about the war. She shook her head. "I suppose you do not know the origin of the war then." She looked at him with a questioning look.
 
Jakiro denied the fact that he does not know the origin of the war. But what he know is probably biased, and the version from the fairy would be as biased as well.
"No offense my lady, but there are three sides to a story. Both our sides, and the actual truth. I did expect to find truth in the library. What I probably would find are just another biased story. What I'm looking for are just leads, and make critical judgement and further investigation," he explained.

Jakiro reminisces on how he matured so much, only because of this small beautiful fairy. Things that drive a man to his destiny works in very mysterious way, and can be very amazing.
"What do you say my dear? You're the only fairy that are opened up to me, and you can be my perfect side kick," he requested.
 
"What do you plan to do to stop the war?" she asked curiously. She began to tell the story of the origin of the conflict between dwarf and fairies. "Ten thousand years before, the dwarves and fairies lived together. They were in fact allies, similar with how elves and fairies are still friends up to now. The conflict began when the dwarves had disregarded an agreement with the fairy queen then, Willow. The queen had forgiven the dwarves with the transgression because it was only a small one and no harm was done." Lou had paused to see of Jakiro was listening. "However, as a precaution, she divided the fairy kingdom with areas that are off-limits to the dwarves. They are still welcome to a huge portion of the kingdom. They were still free to mingle with fairies. I'm not sure if the dwarves take this the negative way, because one night, it was reported that the dwarves had raided the palace and a precious orb was stolen. The palace was part of the restricted area for the dwarves. The orb has magical and mysterious properties that its lost was huge for the kingdom. Queen Willow had banished the dwarves completely from the kingdom and they were to be treated as enemies and intruders until that orb was returned."

Lou looked at Jakiro and continued, "I want the conflict to stop, but the orb has been lost for millennia; there is no chance that we can recover it when many have tried and only faced failure."
 
Jakiro can't help but the fairy's version were biased. Dwarf have a very strong principle that you can only earn by working hard. Yes, dwarf are at times rough and uncultured at times and prideful but they have a strong sense of honor. Dwarves will never accept gifts that he does not earn and let alone steal. The word stealing is almost not in their dictionary. He suspect someone must've stole it and the dwarves had been made a scapegoat.
"If it's the orb you are looking for then you won't find it in Maldhur. Maybe we can find this orb together and this will clear things up," he suggested.
"And the reason the fairy probably had failed to find it is because they probably search it at the wrong place," he added.

Jakiro pats her head and adds "If you represent a fairy, then fairy are indeed a good creature, and the dwarf are honorable. We must get to the bottom of this," he said with his eyes full of determination.
"I'm going back to the library and I hope you are with me on this mission," he ask the fairy.
 
Lou followed Jakiro; she was curious as to what the dwarves version of the story is. "That put things in perspective," she said. "But what is your version, the dwarves version, of the history of conflict? If the orb is not in Maldhur, then who could stole it?" Her head was swimming with all sorts of questions.
 
"That's exactly what we're going to find out. Who stole the orb," Jakiro said.
"As for dwarf version, fairy and dwarves were once allies even in military. The dwarves were overwhelmed by an army of undead and the fairy promised reinforcement. The reinforcement from the fairy did arrive but seeing the huge force of the undead, the fairy decide not to help as they think there is no hope for victory. The dwarves were abandoned and they were forced to leave their capital city of Hamka and retreat to Maldhur," Jakiro narrated.

Jakiro make some small conclusion that maybe it was not cowardice that made the fairy retreated, but they were commanded by their leader after hearing that the dwarve have stolen their orb. This orb is the key to any peace between dwarf and fairy. They re-enter the library after a few bickering with librarians because of previous incidents.
"The year now is 3015. The war started at 2001. I want to find books that contain historical documents of what happen between 2000-2010," he said asking Lady Lou.
 
Lou nodded at Jakiro regarding the dwarves version, although she never heard of it. She did read up about it though the details in the books wasn't very clear. There were differences on the account of the books. There was an army of undead that attacked the dwarves but it didn't say about the city of Hamka. She simply assumed that Maldhur was always been the dwarves capital, and that somehow they managed to repel the undead forces.

She followed him to the history section. She looked up at the card catalog and searched for fairy wars as well as dwarves war. She looked at the number and put the cards on the table. "D2001.B209 and F2001.C9000" she declared, reading the cards. Two books flew from the shelves all the way to the table. "D2009.A001 and F2009.D790" she said and the corresponding books glowed and flew to the table. She looked at Jakiro. "Here are the books you're looking for. They are about the war written by a dwarf and the others written by a fairy."
 
While the book flew towards the table, another book seem to be sticky and followed it. The other book seem to fly towards Lady Lou's head and it could possibly injure her. Jakiro protective instinct made him notice and he quickly grab onto her and evade the flying book. There are in an awkward position afterward.
"I'm sorry my lady," he said.
It looks like he is hugging her and for him, he honestly felt her warmth and would want to get even closer to her.
 
Lou did not see the flying book that was heading her way.
The next thing she saw was Jakiro grabbing her. She did not know the reason behind such behaviour. She felt his warmth as he hugged her. She pushed him aside before standing up. She frowned at him before giving him the bunch of books.
 
Jakiro showed her the book that was flying her way and that the book was not the one she had asked for.
"This place is old. The fact this book was sticking to it shows it is rarely being read," he said.
He checked the book he received. They are all written in human language in which he could not read.
"I need your help a bit. I can not read these books. I don't want you to read everything in it. I just want to know is there any organization or company being founded immediately after the war was declared," he requested.
 
Lou frowned at the book Jakiro showed her. "Sometime they do that," she told him. "Books that seldom get read but are relevant to the topic being searched for comes along."

She scanned the pages of the book and declared, "There was a bank founded immediately after the war, Gringotts. It was founded by a goblin. And there's an organisation founded at around that time as well, Society of Goblins."
 
Jakiro is in deep thoughts after the revelations about Gringotts by Lady Lou. Goblins are merchants and making money is their specialty. Their principles and philosophy may have problems with the dwarves as they think by you can only earn by working hard while goblins earn by exploiting situations, whether legitimate or illegitimately. Goblins may have been the culprits for all these years but he tried not to jump to conclusion just yet.

"I will go to Gringotts and investigate. This journey won't be safe and many the unexpected will arise which can even be bloody. But I am determined to find the truth behind all these years of sufferings. Lady Lou, though I plead that you come with me, but you must understand the danger ahead and you might need to make a lot of sacrifices. If you with me, ride with me on my ram," he said, giving Lady Lou an ultimatum.

Jakiro felt very nervous. He really want her to join in, but only with her own free will and that she understand the risk.
 
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