Harbingers of Change

The Dwargon emissaries had arrived at the capital of Tempest. Momonga sat on the throne with his two advisors, each standing beside him. Pero was sitting on a smaller throne of his own a bit to the side from Momonga's central one.

The Overlord glanced over to Albedo.

'Looks like she is not opposing Pero's presence that much. I guess it is a step in the right direction.' Ever since their talk, the Guardian Overseer was less wary and hostile toward his two friends. Of course, what happened at the end of their talk was never addressed, and he still had no idea why he felt her kiss on his cheek as if the flesh and skin was still there instead of just clean, white bone.

His best guess was that it had something to do with Albedo's skills, and that she may have activated one accidentally. The most likely candidate was her |Seducer skill|.

'I should investigate that skill. Maybe there is a way to gain a temporary body, or at least mimic some of its properties. To drink a cup of that delicious smelling coffee they leave on my table each morning, or get a taste of proper food. Maybe even…' he glanced over at the perfect woman that stood beside him. 'That is how Pero would think. She is the daughter of a friend, and now she is my responsibility. But he left her without even saying goodbye, that… No, it was just a game back then. I can't blame Tabula for getting bored with a game.'

To distract himself from the current train of thought, Momonga glanced around the throne room. The aesthetics of the hall certainly were improved when he wasn't looking. The central part of the stone floor was covered with a long, red carpet, just like one in the Nazarick itself.

Between the columns stood statues of his friends. Many of Nazarick's denizens had requested the |Creation| skill and apparently used it to make the statues and other pieces of art depicting their creators. As a consequence of that, the citizens of Tempest had emulated this behavior, and a disturbing amount of statues depicting him were being built all over the hegemony.

Once the delegation arrived, his gaze immediately fell on the central figure. Among the dark-skinned and bearded dwarves was a rather pale-skinned human.

'Hmm, a strange tactic to use a human as an envoy of a dwarven kingdom.' Momonga mused.

The human kneeled with an elegantly natural motion with Albedo announcing. "The delegation from the Armed Nation of Dwargon."

"I am the Supreme Overlord of the Tempest Hegemony, Momonga Tempest. I welcome you to my home."

"I, Count Aester Laurent, thank you for the warm welcome and on behalf of the King of Armed Nation of Dwargon, Gazel Dwargo, express the hope for a mutually beneficial cooperation between our nations." the pale-skinned human said.

One of the dwarves held out a golden staff with both hands while kneeling. Albedo approached him and took the gift out of his hands, returning to Momonga's side and handing him the gift. The Overlord inspected the weapon with interest.

Of course, it was subpar compared to the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, but it was a work of art nonetheless. By the weight alone, it was easy to assume that the staff was made almost entirely out of solid gold. With what he now knew about the weapon crafting in this world, it was an easy guess to make that the decorative weapon had a magisteel core, as it gave off a sense of a defensive enchant on it.

'An interesting choice. Gazel must have found out from his voice about my preferred weapon and gifted one that would suit me. I probably should give one back. He had the title of sword saint, so maybe I could provide one of the relic class swords from my inventory as a gift? Would that be good enough? I hope it is, I can't just give away legendary or divine class items. Eh, I'll figure it out later.'

"Send King Gazel my thanks." Momonga said, holding the weapon in his hand. "For now, please enjoy our hospitality, and my good friend Lord Peroroncino will discuss the trade deal once your delegation has rested after the long road.

With Pero being in charge of finances, the talks about the trade deal fell into his field of expertise.

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"As you see, the area between Dwargon and Tempest is not safe enough to travel without an armed escort and would cause the prices on both sides to increase." Aester said, pointing at an uncontested area between the two nations.

Pero was using a small conference room in the Tempest castle for the talks, since he didn't have a designated office of his own there yet. Bringing guests inside Nazarick was out of the question, and he wasn't too picky about the location anyway.

The walls were painted in a light yellow color and the furniture was made of the finest wood Tempest could offer. The goblins under the tutelage of the dwarves had made leaps in skill and made furniture fit for the castle.

"Does any nation have a claim on these territories?" Pero asked.

"No, the entire forest of Jura is considered the Storm Dragon's domain by all surrounding nations. The kobold clans posed no particular problem and would not want to cause a problem for traveling merchants, but to traverse the sprite-dominated territories was a challenge. The vicious creatures are very territorial and aggressive."

"Hmm, since Tempest operates under the Storm Dragon's blessing, I think we can sort out these territories and ensure the safety of merchants. Would Dwargon agree to share the border with Tempest?" Pero asked while scratching his beak

'If it was Veldora's territory anyway, Tempest could just take over the region and border the dwarven nation directly. I think Momo won't have any problems with this arrangement.'

The dwarven noble fell silent for a moment. The area between Tempest and Dwargon was hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers wide and this Lord Peroroncino offered to take over the entire territory as if it was no big deal. The countless undead he saw not only guarding the city but also patrolling the territory gave the idea of a vast monster army, but if it was so easy for them, what prevented Tempest from invading Dwargon as well? Of course, they would fail, but the dwarves would also suffer heavy losses in such a conflict.

"I would like to have my King's council on the matter first before giving a definitive answer."

"Of course. If we are in disagreement with my proposal, we will just have to use heavy escorts for caravans."

"Yes, though that would spike up the prices." Aester said again, lost in thought for a moment. Then, as if remembering something, he snapped out of his silent contemplation. "The next topic I would like to discuss is the question with the beliat ore."

"We have a decent reserve accumulated, so selling it would not be a problem." Beliat, as a mid-tier ore, was just piling up inside Nazarick, not to mention that there were numerous |Creation| users who could just generate it out of thin air. But one of the basic economic laws was that scarcity combined with demand drives up the prices, and Dwargon wanted this new mysterious ore badly.

"I have been authorized to work out an exclusivity deal. What price would Tempest ask to trade this ore only with Dwargon?"

There it was. The dwarves wanted it all for themselves. From what Pero knew, even magisteel was rather rare and expensive, and they could make it just by dumping piles of iron ore inside Nazarick near its most powerful denizens. Beliat was unavailable in the rest of the world, nor did an ore with equal properties exist. The only way to replicate its resistance to heat and hardness was via long infusion of magicules on high-quality gear. In short, Tempest held all the cards in this case.

"Exclusivity deal you say? It depends on what Dwargon is willing to offer."

'Just as the King predicted, they would not undersell it. Still, I should start with a somewhat reasonable offer and hope the price isn't spiked over what is worth paying.'

"We would be willing to pay ten times its weight in gold for ore and forty times for processed metal bars."

"That is a very reasonable offer. Would you like the ore to be processed? It would lower the delivery costs and save your smiths the hustle of purification."

'He just agreed? They must have a lot more of it than we are led to believe. But to have it before any other nation would give us a heavy advantage, especially against the Eastern Empire.'

"Excellent. I will order the scribes to prepare the documents. Would a fifty kilogram delivery of refined metal be possible this month?"

"Yes. Tempest could easily make the delivery. But considering the worth of the material, we would prefer to do the delivery ourselves." Pero said.

The last thing he needed was a missing shipment at the very start. Besides, possible sabotage from the trade partner was not out of the question as well.

"We will be looking forward to the first shipment then." the ambassador said with a wide smile. But then his expression changed back to a neutral one. "Lord Peros, It has come to our attention that a few dwarves have chosen to be in your employment."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"No, not at all. The matter is more of a personal one. You see, the reason for their departure from my home was due to my brother's disgraceful actions. With your permission I, and by extension, King Gazel, would like to offer Kaijin a formal apology."

"As long as you do not try to steal him back, I am fine with it. I can call him in."

"That would be preferable. My only intention is to right the injustice caused by my brother."

As usual, once Pero sent a message that he would like for Kaijin to be present in the castle, the dwarf ran to him as fast as his legs let him. Not even fifteen minutes later, he barged in and bowed deeply while panting.

"Lord Peroroncino, you called?"

"There is someone who wants to talk with you." Pero said as Kaijin looked up in surprise.

"Count Aester?"

"It is good to see you again, Kaijin." the tall dwarf said with an unreadable expression. "I wish to extend an apology on behalf of the House of Laurent for the disgraceful actions of Vesta. I assure you he is no longer part of our family."

Aster stood up and approached the surprised Kajin, and handed him a sealed letter and a small poach.

"After the investigation, it was determined that you were not at fault during the magic soldier fiasco, and thus King Gazel has reinstated your rank of Captain. Additionally, we felt that material compensation was in order."

"Thank you." Kaijin said quietly, accepting the letter and the money pouch. By the weight of it, there should have been at least a few hundred gold coins inside.

'Only now! They are only doing this to give a better impression to my new employers. At least Vesta got what was coming to him.'

Once outside the conference room, Kaijin opened the letter to read it. A formal apology from the King may have come way too late, but it was nice to at least get one at all. King Gazel also expressed a wish for him to have a fruitful career under his new employers and asked him to not forget about his home.

'Better late than never. As if I could ever forget about my home.'

A childish desire to face Vesta and shove the letter in his smug face rose within his heart. The bastard had been a constant pain in the ass for years. But the pragmatic man in Kaijin knew that, with Vesta disowned by both the King and his family, Dwargon had lost a brilliant scientist whose skills weren't utilized to the fullest.

'Should I seek peace with him? Tempest could use a man of his talents, even with his insufferable personality. If his family has abandoned him, Vesta has nowhere to go.'

Ultimately it would be the decision of Lord Peroroncino if he ever suggested seeking out Vesta. For now, Kaijin decided to not mention the fallen scientist's recruitment idea to his boss and let the idea be at the back of his mind.

Edited by Edgy

Additional proofreading by placid_void