When we arrived at the palace, there were many dwarves that had gathered.
It seemed that news spread fast since the moment that we arrived, many of them turned to look at me with a strange look.
It was as if they wanted to say something, but they were kept back because of the look on my face.
I had a rare serious look as I followed the captain of the guards Vela to a private room.
This wasn't the throne room that we had gone to before, this was the Dwarven King's private room.
The throne room was for welcoming guests in a grand manner while this private study was just for discussing private matters.
But as the king of dwarves, the Dwarven King didn't use this study much in the first place.
If it wasn't for what he had done, he wouldn't have even been here in the first place.
When we came in, he looked at us with a bitter smile on his face as he saw the look on mine. With that bitter smile he gestured with his hand to the seats in front of him and said, "Come, let's sit and talk."
After sitting down, he said with a sigh, "I know what you're going to say."
"Oh really?" I said in a sarcastic voice.
If this was before, it would be unthinkable to talk to the Dwarven King like this. After all, this was a king that ruled over this entire kingdom of dwarves, a king that wasn't inferior to the king of our kingdom.
Normally this kind of tone would have even sparked a war between kingdoms.
But after getting close to the Dwarven King, I felt assured in using this tone.
I even deserved it a bit after what he had put me through.
The Dwarven King just revealed another bitter smile before saying, "It's not like I had a choice. If I didn't do this, you wouldn't have helped."
"And do I have a reason to help?"
The Dwarven King's smile became more bitter after hearing this, but he didn't refute it.
After all, he knew just how big of a favour he was asking in the first place.
So he just said with a sigh, "I know that what I'm asking for is overboard, but could you have remained calm if it was your little sister in this situation?"
He had given up trying to act dumb, he just directly stated what was on his mind.
In a way, this was much more effective than if he told a lie.
With a sigh, I said, "Fine, what's done is done, there's no time to regret it. But you'll have to tell us what you're willing to give us for helping you with this."
The Dwarven King revealed a serious look when he heard this before taking out a few pieces of paper that he placed on the table. He pushed these forward for us to look at and we couldn't help being surprised.
These were the deeds for several mines.
The Dwarven King then said, "These are some of the mines under my name and not the kingdom. I will give you these mines for helping me."
We couldn't help being more surprised because among the deeds, there was even one for a mithril mine.
Mithril mines were fiercely guarded by the dwarves and they would never let such important things out of their hands.
For the Dwarven King to offer something like this…it was clear that he was being sincere.
Since he was being sincere…
I just gave a sigh and said, "Alright, I'll help with this plan of yours." Then under my breath, I added, "Of course, it isn't as if I have a choice on this matter."
The Dwarven King chose to ignore this as he said with a smile, "Thank you."
Then he became serious as he asked, "What is the current situation? I only know that you'll be having a forging duel with Drogath, I haven't learned the details yet."
With a sigh, I told him everything that happened.
By the end of the story, the Dwarven King had a heavy look on his face.
After a pause, he said, "Why did you do such a reckless thing? Betting your life like that, do you really think that he's that weak that you can beat him that easily?"
I was about to say something, but Haley cut in first by saying, "That's right! I've been holding myself back the whole time, but how could you do something like that? Don't you know how dangerous this is!"
It wasn't just her, but also the others that had followed me that said this.
They all disapproved of this gamble that I had made since it was too risky betting my life like this.
Hearing them nag me like this, all I could do was let out a bitter smile.
But there was a part of my heart that felt warm because of their nagging.
After all, they were nagging me because they cared about me.
That was enough to show that they cared.
I calmly listened to all of them and waited for them to finish before saying, "I have a reason for doing this."
All of them revealed surprised and confused looks when they heard this, but they waited for me to explain instead of saying anything else.
I just calmly turned to the Dwarven King and said, "I'm going to destroy him, are you alright with that?"
"Huh?" The Dwarven King was taken aback by how firm and strong my voice was.
It was as if I couldn't already see myself crushing Drogath in this forging duel, though that wasn't too far off from the truth.
There had been things that I had kept hidden that I was going to use now.
There was no chance that Drogath would ever be able to compete unless there was something about him that I didn't know.
The Dwarven King revealed a complicated look after hearing this, but he still gave a nod in the end.
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