It had only been a few minutes since we arrived, yet the entire fort had already descended into complete chaos.
Children scattered across different sections of the hideout while roleplaying whatever they wanted to be that day.
Some stood proudly atop the watchtowers holding wooden sticks like veteran commanders overlooking a battlefield.
Others guarded the gates using scrap shields, wooden swords, and cloth capes that were probably stolen from their homes.
Several children hauled planks, ropes, barrels, and random scraps deeper into the fort while loudly arguing about where everything should go.
There were probably around thirty children inside the fort already, including the ones who came with us. Apparently, several groups regularly used this place long before Dorrim invited me here.
Honestly…
The entire place felt less like a military fortress and more like a pirate crew pretending to be an army.
Chaotic.
Loud.
Barely organized.
But strangely alive.
Dorrim suddenly climbed onto a wooden crate near the center of the fort before raising a stick dramatically like a commander addressing his troops.
“Before we upgrade the fort,” he shouted proudly, “let me inspect every building first!”
Several children immediately cheered.
“Just keep doing what you usually do while I’m gone!”
“And prepare materials if you’re free!”
“…You sound like a guild manager,” one of the older children muttered.
“THAT’S BECAUSE I’M IMPORTANT!”
The fort immediately erupted into laughter again.
Meanwhile, a few children nearby quietly looked toward me curiously.
“Who’s that kid?”
“Oh, that’s Ash.”
“The blacksmith elder’s son?”
“Yeah. Elder Ashtir allowed him to play with us until sundown.”
One of the younger children tilted his head.
“Ashtir… that’s the scary old grandpa right?”
“Yeah.”
“…He threatened to tell my parents last year.”
“He threatened everybody.”
“That’s because you all almost burned down the storage sheds!”
“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!”
“You used lantern oil as catapult ammo!”
“…It worked though.”
Another child suddenly looked toward me with wide eyes.
“Wait… does that mean Ashvir is gonna become an elder too someday?”
The group immediately became quiet for a moment.
Then Dorrim crossed his arms proudly.
“Probably.”
Another child gasped dramatically.
“…Does that mean we should salute him?”
“No.”
“Too late.”
The child immediately stood up straight before awkwardly raising a wooden sword toward me.
“Greetings, future forge lord!”
“…Please don’t call me that.”
The surrounding children burst into laughter once again.
---
I first inspected the outer surroundings of the fort area, starting with the scaffolding built along the cavern walls. At a glance, the entire structure looked messy and uneven, with planks sticking out at awkward angles and ropes tied together without any clear pattern. However, the longer I looked at it, the more I realized the structure itself was actually fairly solid. The balance in some sections was questionable, but the supports underneath were sturdy enough to handle multiple children climbing across them at the same time.
Honestly, for something built by children, it was surprisingly well made.
I looked up toward one of the higher platforms where several kids stood guard with wooden swords resting on their shoulders.
“Hey,” I called out, pointing toward the lower supports, “can you add more braces to the scaffolding?”
The children looked at each other in confusion.
“…Scaffolding?”
“The platform you’re standing on,” I clarified.
“Platform?”
“The wall thing.”
The child standing above immediately straightened his posture proudly.
“Ah! The Wall of Guardians!”
Another child beside him raised his wooden sword dramatically.
“We, the Guardians, defend the walls from intruders!”
“…Right.”
I crouched near one of the support beams and pointed toward the nearby stone wall.
“If we connect the platform to the wall using additional planks, it’ll become much stronger. More people will be able to stand up there safely.”
The children immediately leaned over the edge to look where I was pointing.
“You mean adding wood there?”
“Yeah. Right now, all the weight is focused downward. If you connect the platform to the stone wall beside it, the pressure spreads out better.”
The children stared at me silently for a moment.
“…That sounded smart.”
“I think it was smart too.”
One of the older kids suddenly jumped down from the platform excitedly.
“That means more Guardians can stand on the Wall of Guardians!”
“Exactly.”
The reaction was immediate.
“HEY! BRING MORE PLANKS!”
“WE’RE FORTIFYING THE WALL!”
“MAKE THE GREAT WALL OF GUARDIANS STRONGER!”
Several children immediately ran off carrying random planks, ropes, and tools while shouting dramatically like construction workers preparing for war.
Meanwhile, one of the guards standing above suddenly pointed his wooden sword toward me.
“Only Guardians are allowed on the wall!”
Another child beside him nodded seriously.
“No trespassers allowed!”
“…Understood.”
---
As the so-called Guardians started reinforcing the walls, I continued inspecting the rest of the fort area.
Near the side of the main structure, I noticed a fairly large wooden shack connected to the outer scaffolding. Compared to the chaotic guard towers and uneven walls outside, this section looked strangely organized.
Several sacks were stacked neatly near the entrance while strips of dried meat hung from ropes along the sides of the shack. Nearby baskets were filled with berries, fruits, mushrooms, and vegetables that were probably gathered from the valley gardens and nearby forests.
A few dwarf girls around my age were stationed inside, moving around busily while carrying baskets and wooden bowls like workers inside an actual kitchen.
The moment they noticed me approaching, one of them immediately crossed her arms proudly.
“Welcome to the Cook Hall, kid! What do you want?”
“Cook Hall?” I repeated while looking around curiously. “You cook here?”
“Of course.”
“Then where are the stoves?”
The girls immediately looked at each other before one of them pointed dramatically toward a cloth curtain hanging at the back of the shack.
“Inside the hall.”
“But only cooks are allowed inside,” another girl added seriously.
“You need permission to enter.”
“And you have to be the son or daughter of a diner to become a cook.”
I blinked.
“…A diner?”
“Yeah,” the first girl replied proudly. “The tavern owners.”
“They supply food for the fort sometimes,” another added.
“My mother owns a stew shop near the valley.”
“My uncle runs a roasted meat stall!”
One of the girls puffed her chest proudly.
“My family owns a tavern.”
“That’s why she acts important,” another girl muttered.
“I AM important!”
I glanced toward the curtain again.
“So nobody besides cooks can enter?”
“Exactly.”
“And guards,” another girl added.
“The Guardians protect the Cook Hall from food thieves.”
Almost immediately, shouting echoed from outside.
“GORRIN STOLE BREAD AGAIN!”
“I WAS HUNGRY!”
The girls collectively sighed.
“…See?”
---
The next thing that caught my attention was the largest structure inside the cavern.
The actual fort itself.
Unlike the chaotic scaffolding and smaller wooden shacks surrounding the area, this building looked far more deliberate. A massive wooden double door stood at the front, reinforced with rusted metal strips and thick support beams. Parts of the outer walls were still made from ancient stone while newer wooden sections had been added over time by the children.
Several watchtowers extended from both sides of the structure, connected through elevated walkways leading into the surrounding scaffolding.
From its overall size, the building looked less like a normal fortress and more like an old industrial warehouse.
The lower half clearly belonged to the original structure hidden beneath the mountain, while the upper sections had been converted into living quarters, storage areas, and lookout posts by the children. A second floor made mostly from wood stretched along the upper walls and could be accessed through stairways attached to the outside of the building.
Children constantly moved across the upper platforms carrying planks, ropes, sticks, and random supplies like workers inside an active construction site.
The more I looked at the structure, the more obvious it became.
This place was not originally a fort.
The children had simply discovered some kind of ruined building and slowly transformed it into their own hideout over the years.
Even beneath all the wooden reinforcements and childish decorations, fragments of the original structure were still visible.
Stone support pillars.
Collapsed archways.
Old metal railings buried into the walls.
And unlike the wooden sections added by the children, the original stone foundation still looked absurdly durable despite its age.
As I approached the main entrance, two children standing beside the doors immediately crossed their wooden spears in front of me.
“Halt!”
One of them narrowed his eyes dramatically.
“State your business.”
“I’m here to inspect the building.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Then be gone.”
I stared at them silently for a moment.
Honestly…
Their commitment to roleplaying was impressive.
The guards continued staring at me seriously while trying their best to look intimidating despite being shorter than me.
Then an idea suddenly came to mind.
I straightened my posture slightly before speaking in the deepest voice my eight-year-old body could manage.
“I am an envoy of the King of Kings.”
The children immediately froze.
“If you refuse me entry,” I continued dramatically, “you shall be charged with treason.”
The guards looked at each other nervously.
“…What’s treason?”
“It means you betrayed your king.”
“…That sounds bad.”
“Very bad.”
“And what happens then?”
“You get thrown into prison for the rest of your life.”
The two children immediately panicked.
“…We can’t risk that.”
“Open the gate!”
The giant wooden doors slowly swung open with surprisingly little effort.
Honestly…
That was significantly easier than expected.
---
The massive wooden doors slowly creaked open as the two guards stepped aside dramatically.
“You may enter, royal envoy.”
“Do not betray the kingdom.”
“…I’ll try my best.”
The moment I stepped inside, however, my expectations immediately collapsed.
This was not the interior of a fortress.
It looked more like a church.
Or at least…
Something inspired by one.
The entire room stretched far deeper than I expected, supported by massive stone pillars lining both sides of the hall. Wooden scaffolding and elevated decks had been built along the outer walls, connecting to stairways leading toward the second floor.
At the far end of the structure stood a raised platform with a large wooden throne placed at the center.
Well…
“Throne” might have been generous.
It was clearly made from random planks, barrels, scrap cloth, and parts stolen from broken chairs.
Still, the children treated it with terrifying seriousness.
Long wooden tables filled the area from the entrance up toward the middle section of the hall. Several children sat there eating, drawing maps, carving sticks, or loudly arguing over fort matters like exhausted tavern workers during wartime.
Meanwhile, the center of the room remained completely open.
A wide empty path stretched directly from the entrance all the way toward the throne platform at the far end, almost like the hall had been designed for ceremonies or grand gatherings long before the children converted it into a hideout.
The more I looked around…
The stranger the building felt.
Even beneath all the childish modifications, traces of the original structure still remained.
The ceiling was absurdly high.
The stone pillars were too decorative.
And unlike the rough industrial tunnels outside, the architecture inside this hall felt elegant.
Intentional.
Almost noble.
Children climbed across the scaffolding overhead while others guarded the upper walkways dramatically with wooden weapons.
“I see movement near the eastern deck!”
“That’s just the kitchen team!”
“THEY COULD BE SPIES!”
“You accuse everybody of being spies!”
“That’s because spies are sneaky!”
Meanwhile, several younger children near the tables immediately noticed me entering.
“The envoy is here!”
“The royal inspector!”
“Protect the throne!”
Within seconds, complete chaos erupted inside the hall as children started running in random directions pretending to prepare for an important royal inspection.
Honestly…
I was starting to understand why adults avoided letting children organize themselves.
---
I slowly walked deeper into the hall while quietly observing the interior.
The more I looked around, the more potential I could see in the structure.
Despite all the random additions made by the children, the building itself already had a surprisingly good foundation. The wide central pathway naturally drew attention toward the raised throne at the far end of the room while the scaffolding along the sides created elevated walkways overlooking the hall.
Honestly, with a few adjustments, this place could actually look impressive.
Dorrim quickly noticed me staring around the room.
“What?” he asked proudly. “Cool right?”
“It has potential.”
“…I have no idea what that means.”
I pointed toward the empty spaces along both sides of the hall.
“You should build rooms there.”
The nearby children immediately looked interested.
“Rooms?”
“Yeah. Storage rooms, meeting rooms, sleeping rooms… things like that.”
Dorrim crossed his arms while imagining it.
“Hmmm…”
Another child suddenly gasped.
“We can make officer rooms!”
“And a war room!”
“And secret tunnels!”
“You already have enough secret tunnels.”
“There’s no such thing as enough secret tunnels.”
Honestly, that was concerning.
I slowly walked toward the center pathway before pointing toward the stone floor stretching from the entrance to the throne.
“You should also put something here.”
“Like what?”
“Something soft. Like a long cloth covering the floor.”
The children blinked.
“…Why would we put cloth on the floor?”
“So it looks more important.”
Another child tilted his head.
“You mean like those table covers at taverns?”
“…Kind of.”
“You want us to step on it?”
“It’s for decoration.”
The children stared at me silently for a few moments.
“That sounds rich.”
“Yeah.”
“Only rich people waste cloth on floors.”
“…Fair point.”
Still, several of them slowly looked toward the empty pathway leading to the throne.
“…But it WOULD look cool.”
“We can make a royal path!”
“And only important people can walk there!”
“NO PEASANTS ALLOWED!”
“You are all peasants.”
The children collectively ignored me.
Meanwhile, my eyes slowly shifted toward the throne itself.
Even though the structure was obviously made from random junk and stolen furniture, the placement of it actually worked surprisingly well with the hall.
It just looked empty.
“You should put decorations beside the throne too.”
“Decorations?”
“Like banners?”
“Not just banners.”
I pointed toward the empty spaces beside the raised platform.
“Maybe instruments.”
“Instruments?”
“Drums. Horns. Things that make noise during important moments.”
The children immediately looked amazed.
“…That sounds AWESOME.”
“We can announce the king!”
“And battle alarms!”
“And dramatic entrances!”
One child suddenly grabbed a wooden bucket and started hitting it with a stick.
“BOOM! BOOM! THE KING ARRIVES!”
The entire hall immediately descended into complete chaos once again.
Children started pretending to play imaginary instruments while others dramatically marched through the center pathway toward the throne.
Dorrim climbed onto the throne proudly before raising a wooden sword toward the hall.
“WELCOME TO THE GREAT FORTRESS KINGDOM!”
The children immediately erupted into cheers.
Then Dorrim suddenly pointed his sword upward dramatically.
“METAL VEIL!”
The hall became even louder.
“METAL VEIL!”
“A kingdom where no adults can enter!”
“NO PARENTS ALLOWED!”
“NO BEDTIME!”
“NO HOMEWORK!”
“We don’t even have homework.”
“THEN NO FUTURE HOMEWORK!”
The children erupted into laughter once again while several guards proudly slammed their wooden weapons against the floor like royal soldiers celebrating their kingdom.
Meanwhile, I quietly looked around the massive hall once more.
Metal Veil.
Honestly…
For a group of children building a kingdom inside ancient ruins beneath the mountains…
The name actually sounded strangely fitting.