Chapter 335 Silvermine Family (8)
Since we didn't expect it, we weren't able to react right away and there was an awkward silence that followed.
But then Haley quickly said, "Sir Ivar, we can't really put you out like that. It wouldn't be right since you are our host."
Though she really wanted to take him up on this offer, Haley had tactfully rejected this offer.
She knew that if she seemed too eager, it wouldn't do her any good. So she kept her voice calm and rejected tactfully.
Ivar was a bit surprised to hear this, but he also had a reason not to back down.
After all, his precious alcohol was on the line here.
So Ivar said with a smile, "It's not a problem at all. I would have to visit these friends anyway, so it's just bringing you along. I'm sure that with me, it will make it easier for you to build relationships."
He had gone beyond just offering help casually, he was even trying to push them into taking his help by telling them how useful his help would be.
But that was his panic since he thought that he might miss his chance to get more alcohol.
Haley was surprised by this, but she said, "Well, if it isn't a problem…then we'll have to trouble Sir Ivar for this matter."
Ivar's eyes lit up when he heard this before he gave a loud laugh.
After laughing for a bit, he said with a wide smile, "It's not a problem, it's not a problem at all."
Then he suddenly said in a sly and tactful manner, "Speaking of which, you'll be bringing some of that alcohol with you as a gift…so I wonder if I can get some of that as a referral fee."
Both me and Haley suddenly revealed faint smiles when we heard this.
So that was what he had been aiming for the entire time.
If he took the initiative to help introduce us to the various important dwarves, we would have to show gratitude in some way. So he was taking the initiative to get what he wanted as a gift of gratitude.
Haley looked at me and I gave a nod.
Then she turned back to Ivar and said, "Since Sir Ivar is so gracious to help us like this, naturally we would have to give a gift of gratitude. I'm sure that we can take a bit of the alcohol we were holding as gifts to give to you."
Ivar's eyes lit up when he heard this before he gave a cough and said, "Well, then let's settle this matter there."
He quickly settled this just in case they were to go back on their word.
He had done it so quickly that they hadn't even been able to discuss how much they would be giving him.
It seemed like dwarves really were crazy about alcohol…
To the side, both Rondo and Nisa looked at Ivar with looks of admiration.
They hadn't thought about getting more alcohol like this even though they had also noticed that there was more.
Only Nori just had a happy smile at the fact that they were getting more alcohol.
She hadn't cared about any of this and was just happily enjoying the alcohol, even though it looked morally wrong…
After dinner was over and dessert came, Ivar finally settled in and talked about real business.
The butler came over with a piece of paper and a pen that he placed in front of Ivar.
After thinking for a bit, Ivar wrote something on that piece of paper and handed it all back to the butler.
The butler brought this piece of paper over for Haley and me.
Haley took it and looked over it before revealing a confused look.
That was because there was only a number that was on the piece of paper and nothing else.
This number didn't make any sense at all since it was just too much for the amount of alcohol that we had. Even if we gave them all of the alcohol that we had left, it wouldn't be enough to cover this number.
So we didn't know what Ivar meant by giving us this number.
After a moment of silence, Haley asked in a confused voice, "This is…?"
Ivar calmly looked over and said, "This is how much mithril I can sell you."
As soon as he said this, we quickly turned back to look carefully at the number.
The others from our group also wanted to look over to see the number, but they couldn't get out of their seats right now without a good reason.
So they could only reach their necks out as far as they could for a peek.
After another moment of silence, Haley couldn't help asking, "What unit is this in?"
Ivar revealed a faint smile as he said, "Of course it's in kilograms. Or are you telling me that you want it in tons?"
Haley revealed a slightly disappointed look when she heard this and Ivar didn't miss it.
With a wider smile, he said, "You actually wanted it in tons? Unfortunately our Dwarven Kingdom doesn't produce that much mithril ore. Mithril isn't as abundant as you think."
Haley gave a nod to show that she understood, but there was still a disappointed look in her eyes.
Even if the dwarves had the ability to find mithril, that didn't mean that there was that much mithril in the world to find. So it made sense that this was in kilograms instead of tons.
But even if it was in kilograms, there was more than enough to make up a few tons, so it wasn't a small amount.
Dialing back her disappointment, Haley said, "Then how much are you selling it for? Or rather, what currency or goods do you want for it?"
She was subtly implying that she would pay alcohol for it, but to our surprise, Ivar actually rejected this by saying, "We'll trade in gold coins, that's the easiest way."
We had really thought that Ivar would want to trade for alcohol, but he explained, "Mithril trade is regulated by the law, so we can't trade as we like. We need to trade in gold coins."
As soon as we heard this, we understood…or rather Haley understood.
Any form of trade that was regulated by the law had some kind of tax associated with it.
Mithril was one of the important resources of the Dwarven Kingdom, so it made sense that they would want to control it.
Alcohol would be easily embezzled or even stolen, which would put Ivar in a hard spot when he needed to pay the tax for selling mithril to the Dwarven King. He would either have to properly guard it, costing him quite a bit of resources or he would have to make up for it if it was stolen.
So gold coins were the easier way to pay even though gold coins had less value in the Dwarven Kingdom.
But then again, gold coins were easier for them.
Haley gave a nod before saying, "That's not a problem, we'll be happy to pay in gold coins."
Ivar gave a nod before turning to Nisa who looked at Haley with a smile.
It seemed that another price negotiation was about to go down.
In that case, we would leave it to them while Ivar and I enjoyed our dessert.
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