The next morning, the first thing that I did was go and find the Dwarven King to tell him about our plans to leave.
But to my surprise, I found that he was also looking for me for something.
So the two of us gathered in the same room as before.
This was the royal study that the Dwarven King almost never used.
It was just the two of us in this room without anyone else to distract us.
After sitting down, neither of us said a thing as we just sat there in silence looking at each other.
Finally, the Dwarven King broke the silence by saying, "So, you're planning on leaving?"
The moment that I heard this, I couldn't help revealing a surprised look.
I never would have thought that this was the first thing that the Dwarven King would say to me. After all, I never thought that he would have known about this since this was something that we had just decided on last night.
For him to know about this so soon…could it be that he had been watching me?
No, it didn't seem like something that he would do.
The Dwarven King revealed a smile when he saw the way that I looked at him and he said, "Do you really think that I would do something like that? It's just a good guess."
I gave a slow nod of agreement before saying, "You really are good at guessing."
But then I also slowly said, "So you're alright with it?"
The Dwarven King looked at me with that same smile before saying, "So I'm supposed to be not alright with it? I'm supposed to use my authority to keep you here?"
I shook my head and said, "No, it's not that. It's just that…"
My voice trailed off as I didn't know how to explain myself.
After all, a single wrong word might cause an international problem.
I had no choice but to be careful.
But before I could answer, the Dwarven King just said, "There's no point in keeping you here, we've already learned more than we can digest at this point. It's better to take things slowly instead of being greedy. Plus, it's not as if you wouldn't come back to our kingdom ever again now that we have a trade deal. You'll have to come back eventually and we'll have our chance to trap you then."
I couldn't help being surprised by how open minded the Dwarven King was.
Was it because he was a dwarf and that was just how he was?
No, it wasn't that alone.
It was because he was the ruler of this country that he was like this.
He was thinking about the long term future for his country, so he knew what he needed to do and not be greedy.
I couldn't help feeling like I had underestimated the Dwarven King a bit because of the way he normally acted around me.
In the end, this was a great person who was in charge of a country.
He was not someone that could be looked down on that easily.
I gave an appreciative nod and said, "Thank you for understanding."
The Dwarven King waved his hand before saying, "It's just the way that it is, there's nothing to thank. There's no need to act so politely between us."
I hesitated for a moment before giving a nod.
The Dwarven King didn't waste any time in moving on to the next topic, "I've already prepared a farewell banquet for you tonight. You'll at least stay for that, right?"
I couldn't help being surprised by how fast the Dwarven King moved. At the same time, I couldn't help being in admiration of how determined the Dwarven King was.
If his guess had been wrong and we weren't leaving, then that would have made him look like quite the fool.
But even then, he still went with his gut and prepared this banquet.
Was this the courage that one needed as a ruler?
What Zwein would never know was that the Dwarven King had a completely different idea for this banquet.
He had been preparing this banquet for a different reason, but since he found out that his guests were leaving…then it would serve multiple purposes.
…
That night, we arrived at the banquet that the Dwarven King was holding.
When we arrived, it was just like the banquet that he had held when we had first arrived. The only difference this time was that there wasn't anyone here to cause trouble.
This time, the Dwarven King had made sure that no one uninvited would be able to sneak in, so there was quite the lively mood to this party.
That was until they found out that we were leaving.
It turned out that the Dwarven King had hidden the purpose of this banquet until the banquet itself.
The ones that came to this banquet were all the important dwarves of the kingdom, which included the judges that had taken part in the forging duel before.
When they found out that I was leaving, they all had devastated looks.
But the Dwarven King just said, "Since they came as guests, it's only natural that they would leave in time. This is just how things work."
When they saw that the Dwarven King wouldn't help them, they could only look at me pleadingly as if they were asking me to stay.
But I just ignored them all and continued saying goodbye to the people that I had met.
They had no choice but to give up…or at least that was what it seemed.
My one worry was that they would chase after me and come to our human kingdom, but I had to trust the Dwarven King to stop them for me.
Halfway through the banquet, the Dwarven King suddenly got everyone's attention by shouting, "Listen up!"
This was very different from the human country where someone would use more subtle methods to get attention, but it wasn't bad either.
The Dwarven King went up to the stage that had been prepared, almost as if he was about to announce something.
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