After exchanging greetings with Colbert and the others, Queen Orfalve turned to Fran once again.
「Hmmm……Sniff sniff.」
She was moving her nose. D-Do we smell bad? No, no, we bathe every day, and clean our equipment too. We should be fine.
But upon seeing Orfalve’s change in attitude, even the dwarves behind her started fidgeting for some reason.
Until then, they had been standing still behind the queen without changing their expression in the slightest, as if they were statues…… Now they are breathing heavily, glancing sideways at Orfalve and Fran.
「What’s wrong?」
「Fran. You have liquor…… and one of superb quality!」
She exclaimed with a gleam in her eye. No doubt she meant the old elvish wine.
But how could she tell?
「How did you know?」
「Fuahaha! You can’t fool my nose!」
A-Are you saying you detected the slightest trace of liquor on Fran?
「You mean this?」
「WHHAAAT!」
Orfalve let out a terrible scream as soon as she saw the bottle that Fran had casually taken out.
Her expression of astonishment made it look like her previous dignified mannerisms had all been a lie. She was staring at the bottle Fran was holding and trembling. There was nothing regal about it.
「T-That is…… A-An elvish wine made from the fruit of the holy tree…… And quite well aged, is it not?」
She could tell just by looking at it.
「It’s 300 years old.」
Hearing Fran’s words, all the dwarves around us gulped. It wasn’t just Olfalve and her escort.
Before we knew it, the soldiers were all looking at her from a distance. The eyes of every single dwarf were focused on that bottle.
Fran lightly moved the bottle from side to side, and their gazes moved in unison. It’s a strange sight, but it’s also a bit amusing to see them all in sync like that.
「B-By the way…… do you have any plans to sell that bottle? I can offer you 3 million gold. What do you say?」
That’s a ton of money, but I suppose it’s worth that much to a dwarf.
「I would love to offer more, but……」
What, more……? Even if it’s old and rare, it can’t be worth more than 3 million, right?
But Orfalve’s face was serious. The other dwarves did not seem surprised to hear the 3 million offer either. Rather, they thought it was only natural.
「Due to the laws of my nation, I am limited to 3 million.」
「What do you mean?」
「For dwarves, liquors are the water of life. Naturally we want to drink the best we can afford.」
「Nn.」
「Of course, as the ruler I would have a lot of money to spend……」
Dwarves are said to have less desire for goods and money than other races.
That’s more because they are workaholics than due to a lack of greed. All they want is a satisfying job and a good drink afterwards.
It is not uncommon for a craftsman to spend all the money he earns at work on booze. And if he wants good booze, he has to pay for it.
And for a drink so rare and well-aged, there is no upper limit to the price.
Therefore, it is said that there was a dwarf king in ancient times who bought so many rare liquors, that he not only emptied his treasury but also ran up a huge national debt.
That was when they made a national law to set a maximum amount of money that could be spent on drink in a year, as well as the maximum that could be offered for a single bottle.
You’d have to be a dwarf to understand why they just limited it instead of prohibiting it altogether.
But still, 3 million? That’s a lot of money, but it seems a shame to sell it so easily, considering that it’s such an expensive wine.
Selling it was not a problem. This wine was given to us as a reward, so the ownership is ours.
We were told to give it to the guildmaster of Gordicia to earn his favor, but Diaz didn’t say we had to deliver it to him. That was just a suggestion for how to use the wine.
I guess we could sell it here to Orfalve for 3 million……
（What should we do?）
『Hmm, we’re not short on cash at the moment, and it would be hard to get a wine this rare again.』
（So we shouldn’t sell it?）
But it is a whole 3 million. Considering it’s a bottle of wine we got for free, that’s a good deal. Or rather, we’re profiting way too much.
While we were discussing, Orfalve put her nose close to the bottle and started sniffing it.
「Ah, my skill is tingling. The smell of this mellow, beautiful wine…… I simply can’t get enough of it.」
「Skill?」
「I have an Extra Skill called the Favor of the Drink God. It is the perfect skill for us dwarves to be able to recognize good drink, and even smell anyone related to good drink!」
I thought it sounded a bit disappointing to be an Extra Skill, but I guess the dwarves didn’t think that at all.
In fact, she was quite proud of it. For someone who loves to drink, it may be the best skill they can get.
「Is that the super powerful skill?」
「Hmm? Oh, I see what you mean. The Favor of the Drink God offers no combat abilities. It does have a storage that doubles the aging of liquors, the ability to increase the quality of the liquors you pour, the ability to recognize any liquors you taste, and it even comes with an appraisal that works only on drink. It’s a skill for drink lovers through and through.」
F-Favor of the Drink God, huh. Must be an ability the Drink God created for alcohol lovers. Drinking doesn’t make you stronger or anything, it just allows you to enjoy your drink to the fullest.
「You may be referring to my other Extra Skill.」
「What kind of skill?」
「About that, can you give me a little something in exchange? You understand, right?」
「……If I give you this drink, will you tell me?」
No, no! You should be negotiating with her to sell the wine along with the information about her skills!
「I cannot take it for free!」
「Okay, I’ll sell you this, but you have to tell me about your skill.」
「Then I accept!」
Thank goodness Orfalve is an upright dwarf.
While we were discussing with Orfalve about how to handle the wine, a dwarven soldier came up to us.
「My queen, a horde of antidemons is approaching.」
「Hmm… I see. Well then, we will continue our conversation later. Now that we have the chance, I should show you my skill in battle.」
「We’ll do our best too.」
「Fuhahaha! Very well! Show me what you can do!」
「Nn!」
While I was a little nervous at first, I think we can get along quite nicely with the dwarves
