Then he said with a bitter smile, "It seemed that you held back in our duel."
There was a bit of a blaming tone to his voice, but it was more teasing than it was angry.
I just smiled back at him without saying anything.
There was no need for words, the look on my face made it clear what I was trying to convey.
The Dwarven King also didn't push this since he knew that everyone had to hide some of their cards. This was just the natural order of things when one was in a foreign land.
Only by keeping cards hidden would one be able to remain safe.
He didn't hold it against Zwein since he knew that he would do the same.
Instead of continuing this discussion, I suddenly asked, "What happened between the three of you that this happened?"
If Elsa was here, I definitely wouldn't have asked this question.
But since she wasn't, I couldn't help being curious about this.
After all, the Dwarven King clearly seemed unwilling to act personally to handle Drogath. That was why he had gone in such a big circle to take care of him.
However, Drogath was a big enough problem that the Dwarven King didn't mind the fact that I had bet his hammer in this forging duel.
This meant that it was quite serious…
Just what had happened that he was so unwilling to act directly?
The Dwarven King didn't respond after hearing this.
Instead, he gave a long sigh before looking down with dull eyes, as if he was looking into the past.
After a long silence, he finally said, "It's a long and complicated story, if you're willing to listen."
We didn't say anything, but I gave a nod in response to this.
After he saw this, the Dwarven King also peeked over at Haley.
It was almost as if…he was asking if there was any alcohol for him.
This was a hard story for him, so he wanted to have a drink while he told this story.
But since we had just come from shopping, it wasn't as if we had anything like that with us.
So he could only give a disappointed sigh before he started telling his story.
It wasn't that uncommon of a story and it almost could be considered cliche.
The three of them were childhood friends who grew up together, but at the same time, Drogath and the Dwarven King Thorin had been rivals at one point. They had competed with each other in technique and that was what had pushed them to their current level.
The Dwarven King was the one that came out on top, but Drogath never minded this and just did all he could to improve his technique.
Elsa, who had always been with them had seen this and she was filled with admiration for him because of it.
That was what had brought the two of them together in the end.
The Dwarven King was happy to see his best friend and rival end up with his little sister since he could see the attraction between the two of them. Especially since his little sister was teased because her figure…was different from the other dwarves.
So seeing him protect her made him feel that he could entrust her to him.
That was until Drogath had suddenly changed.
"What made him change?" I couldn't help asking in a very curious voice.
The story that I listened to made Drogath sound like a completely different person from the one that I had met.
How could a person change this much?
The Dwarven King shook his head to show that he didn't know before saying, "It was a sudden change that happened a few years back. He had just taken a trip to the south when he suddenly came back with all these new ideas."
He couldn't help giving a sigh before continuing, "When he preached these ideas, he started gathering a following. They were naturally willing to follow him because he had the forging skills to make them follow him. They thought that he would be the one that would take the throne and change the country into the one that they dreamed of, a country just for dwarves that completely isolated itself from the humans. But I know that such a dream is impossible since there are just too many humans to begin with. If we really did such a thing, it wouldn't take long for the humans to find a way to destroy us."
With another sigh, the Dwarven King said, "I know that the way forward is co-existence, but they just won't listen."
It was clear that he had his fair share of troubles, but there was something that I couldn't help finding strange.
"He never challenged you for the throne?"
In dwarven society, the throne wasn't a hereditary thing.
The throne was for the most skilled craftsman in the kingdom that wanted the throne.
So only those that had the skills would be able to take the throne in the first place.
If there was anyone that wanted the throne, they were free to challenge the current Dwarven King to a forging duel for it.
This was the right that every dwarf had, but of course there were limits.
One challenge per dwarf in their lifetime, that was the limit.
If one failed, there was no second time.
That was to make sure that dwarves didn't keep challenging the Dwarven King for his throne since that would just hurt the Dwarven Kingdom.
The Dwarven King shook his head as he said, "I don't know if it's because he's not confident in his skill or if it's out of respect for me, but he has never challenged me. But that is a problem in itself since that just causes the anti dwarf faction to grow…"
With another sigh, the Dwarven King said, "I really don't know what to do about them."
But then he looked at me with a worried look and said, "I can't say anything about his personality, but I can guarantee that his skills are comparable to mine. If you really want to crush him, you'll have to take out something very shocking."
I just revealed a faint smile and said, "That's not a problem. I have my ways."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢