Chapter 354 Trading with the dwarves (3)
But after the captain of the guard put the cups on the table, the Dwarven King grabbed one of them before anyone could react.
He said with a smile on his face, "Of course, I won't participate, so one of these cups will be mine."
All of the dwarves look at the Dwarven King like they thought that he was shameless, but not a single one of them stopped him.
They gave him this respect at the very least that they didn't try to take the cup away from him.
Or it was that they didn't want to waste the energy fighting him for this.
Instead, they looked at each other with competitive looks before bringing a hand up above the table.
They all glared at each other before raising their hands.
Then they said, "Rock, paper, scissors."
They moved their hands up and down before finally releasing either rock, paper, or scissors.
Even though they acted so seriously, they were using rock, paper, scissors to decide this…
It seemed a bit too serious for just rock, paper, scissors. It was almost as if they were deciding which one of them would be dying…
But for the ones that did lose, they acted like they did die.
After all, they would be missing out on this delicious wine which was like a death sentence for them.
At the very least, they didn't complain about the results of the game.
It took a few minutes, but they were finally able to decide who would be partaking in the alcohol.
The ones that had cups in their hands revealed triumphant looks while the ones that didn't have cups in their hands looked like they had just lost everything.
Haley saw that they had all settled down, so she brought the bottle forward to pour for them.
But before she could, she was stopped by the dwarves with the cups.
They had her put the bottle on the table before they all carefully poured out the alcohol inside into their cups. With how careful they were, they were able to make sure that each cup had just the same amount of alcohol in it.
It was surprising when these cups were lined up since the fill line was perfectly the same.
This was the skill that they had as dwarven craftsmen, their fingers didn't tremble even in the slightest when pouring the alcohol, allowing for such perfect distribution.
Once the cups had been filled, the ones that had cups brought the cups up in front of them and took a deep sniff of the alcohol.
Then instead of chugging it like one might think, they took a small sip of the alcohol.
This was completely different from when we gave Ivar and his family a taste test.
But that situation was also different since there were far less of them and there had been more alcohol available then.
After taking a few sips, the dwarves that had cups lowered their heads.
The other dwarves looked concerned seeing this, but they didn't have time to overthink it.
The dwarves with cups suddenly looked up and said, "Good! Good wine!"
All of the other dwarves were surprised to hear this, but then they revealed even more regretful looks.
After all, they knew what qualified as good wine to these compatriots of theirs and since they were saying it with such force, it was clear that this was very good alcohol.
They looked like they had missed the opportunity of a lifetime.
Haley just revealed a faint smile before reaching into her bag to pull out another bottle.
There were only a few dwarves that noticed this at first, but then they immediately turned to look at her when they realized that the scent of alcohol in the air became stronger.
Their eyes immediately fell onto the bottle in her hand.
One dwarf pointed at it and slowly asked, "Is…Is that…?"
Haley gave a nod in response.
She had wanted to use this second bottle to make a bigger impression, but she had been scared to bring it out since she had thought that it would make the dwarves angry that she had hid it.
But seeing the looks on their faces, she knew that this was the right time.
As she had expected, the dwarves immediately revealed happy smiles and snatched the cups from the hands of their compatriots before taking the bottle from Haley.
The dwarves just happily enjoyed their alcohol without caring about Haley at all.
All of them had looks of enjoyment on their faces as they drank.
But those looks quickly disappeared when they realized that there was no more alcohol left.
There were only two bottles and there were a bunch of dwarves here that could drink, so naturally the two bottles didn't last long. It was just enough for each dwarf to get a single cup before running out.
Once they had finished off the two bottles, they immediately turned to Haley as if wondering if there was more.
But this time, Haley didn't take anything else out.
This was all that she had brought since there was strict security and there was the amount that she had used to bribe the guards.
After they had finished drinking, Haley said, "I'm sure that you can all tell that this is fine wine that we've brought with us."
The dwarves easily nodded in agreement to this as a trace of reminiscence appeared on their faces.
Haley was very satisfied seeing this as she knew that her plan had worked.
So she said, "Now, let's talk about the price of this alcohol. We can bring more, but I want to know what you are willing to pay for it."
The Dwarven King just calmly said, "What do you want?"
This time, Haley couldn't remain calm as she revealed a surprised look.
She looked at the Dwarven King and was surprised to find that he was being serious.
For a merchant like her who was used to dealing with people that used sly tricks, it caught her off guard when someone was being direct with her like this.
But she was a professional merchant, so she recovered quickly before saying, "Well…"
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