Oswallt opened the door to the inn for me, allowing me to witness one of the more common tropes for reincarnation stories. A nearly full building going silent almost immediately. I continued stepping forward until I passed through the bar area and reached the hostess who was gaping at my group from behind her desk. I lightly tapped my cane against the floor to jar her out of her stupor before introducing myself.

"I am Anwirn, a merchant from The Brimstone Kingdom of the Dwarves. I was informed by a member of your countries nobility that I might find comfortable lodging here. Do you have enough rooms available to house all 10 of my party, ma'am?"

"Indeed we do sir, we may not have enough single rooms for your party but our suite is available along with a fair few of our shared rooms. Our shared rooms can host 8 comfortably and the suite can host 4."

I nodded and signaled to Oswallt, he stepped forward and placed a coin purse on the counter before stepping back behind me. It was full of several golds worth of Denari, that being the name of the coinage used across the continent that was managed by the Commerce Guild. Some countries had their own currency, but Denari was the only currency used for trade between countries since the guild backed it instead of a single country. We had recently received our first transfer of Denari for our exports of excellent quality steel and iron ingots to Traisan, so I had brought quite a large sum of it with me to use. I might as well since we aren't using it for anything at the moment given that we did not need to import anything currently.

"Please confirm if this payment is enough for a month's stay. I shall rent a shared room for 6 and 3 shall join me in the suite and I trust that this amount is sufficient to cover the loss you might take on that shared room not being completely full?"

The woman's eyes went wide as she counted the coins in the purse, it was easily double what these two rooms would go for given what the Duke told me. She met my eyes and nodded her head while the hand holding the purse shook slightly, ah the power of money.

"Perfect, we have left our carriage in the hands of your stablehands. Please do let me know if anything is required for repairs or maintenance during our stay. Now, can you show me to my suite and the rest of my men to their room when they are ready?"

I gestured to Oswallt, Elvinia and the captain of my guard detail to have them join me in the suite while the rest of my men unloaded our luggage, I suspect they would begin enjoying themselves in the parlor with their allowances after they were done. We arrived at the entrance to the suite on the top floor and the hostess timidly handed me a key before informing me that a servant would come to hear our food orders for dinner in roughly an hour.

I sat down on the couch and motioned for my companions to join me on the other couches before placing a map of the capital on the table before me.

"Our first order of business is to drop by the commerce guild and deliver the weapons that the King ordered for his elite troops, our second order of business is to visit the Fairy Tree here in Teyfont. I hope to meet the Fairy that they claim lives there and get their permission to enter the forest. I suspect that is where we will find our counterparts, the elves."

I glanced at Elvinia before continuing.

"As I have said before Elvinia, please do not accidentally leak information about the possibility of another race other than ourselves having appeared. I do not know how the Elves will want to handle interactions with other races and I do not want to be the one to force them into that situation by having humanity learn of it and attempt to find them."

"I understand your majesty, I am still unsure of why you told me in the first place if you were worried about leaks but I will do as you command."

I nodded and pointed to the final point on the map.

"And finally, I will be creating two simple dungeons here in this empty plot of land. The King wants to make use of them to train his soldiers and the adventures of the Teyfont in fighting monsters in a controlled environment. I am glad he will find them useful, as it will allow us to build up wealth and goodwill with the Traisanian people."

I dismissed my companions and retired to my room in the suite to rest until dinner.

—————

Dinner was good, sadly not as good as what Allana was able to cook up back at home but good enough to satisfy wealthy merchants. Though this was not a fair comparison given the higher quality meat offered by the stronger beasts around the mountain and Allana's newly obtained Master Chef job. I stepped out onto the street with a few of my men behind me as I made my way to the commerce guild not too far down the street. Might as well get business done with during the slower hours.

The tapping of my cane on the cobblestones appeared to have enticed some of the more shady residents of this fine capital as I could hear them rustling through the side streets to follow us and my guards were becoming nervous. I stopped in place and sighed.

"I suggest that you gentlemen find another target during these darkened hours, else you may find yourselves in the royal gallows."

I turned towards a man who thought he was hidden, the strongest among this group given the way he moved, he was unnerved by me staring directly at him, a given really since we had superior eyesight in the dark compared to them.

"You must know that meddling in dwarven affairs is punishable by death as ordered by your Royal Family. We shall not give chase and ask that you find other prey to stalk in these dim streets."

The man stepped forward and pulled down his hood, a poor choice given our rather decent memory and drawing skills. One of my men was rather good at drawing criminal sketches, which we used to prevent them from entering had their punishment been banishment from the mountain.

"I am Lailoken, leader of the Iron Knuckles. We hoped to speak with you regarding your kingdom's underground. Perhaps we can come to a beneficial agreement regarding your competitors in... Brimstone was it?"

I chuckled at the man's bravado and shook my head.

"I am truly sorry to disappoint you lads, but our King suffers no underground activities within our borders. You would find yourselves hard-pressed to evade capture should you try. As I am sure you have seen given myself and my companions, we dwarves find it easy to notice such movements in the dark. And as far as my competitors go, I have none neither here nor at home as only I have been entrusted with handling the deals our two Kingdom's make. I do admire the attempt lad."

The man shook his head in disappointment before placing what appeared to be a thin metal plate on the ground and stepping back.

"Please do tell your compatriots or even your King of us should they find themselves needing assistance with the underground in any Kingdom, we shall gladly assist for the right price."

He flipped his hood back up before hurrying back down a nearby alley, his men slowly retreating from our surroundings with him. I twitched my head towards the plate he left behind to prompt the captain to retrieve it for me. On the plate was some information regarding their legal front operations and how to request access to their shadier dealings with a passphrase, how cliche but I did enjoy the Bond spy element to it. Perhaps I could employ them to gather intelligence on other countries, knowledge is power.

I tapped my cane and continued on my way to the guild, though the guild employees were stunned by the capacity of my storage bag they did not comment and the first delivery was completed successfully.

—————

The next morning the entire group made our way to the royal gardens, named so because the royal family maintained them not because they were exclusively used by the royal family. I displayed my commerce license, which granted me access to the gardens, before enjoying myself among the many new trees and flowers found within. Nothing like a natural well of Earth Ether to make a dwarf comfortable. We eventually found ourselves before a massive white tree with golden leaves, it stood easily twice as tall as the tallest pine in this garden as was placed in a seat of reverence in the very middle of the field of green. I enjoyed the golden hue it gave to the sunlight reflecting off its trunk before clearing my throat.

"Representative Fey of Teyfont, I am King Anwirn of the Dwarves and a superior of your bloodline. I politely request your presence by my right as a High Fey."

I felt a slight distortion in space around my group before a woman of normal human height stepped out from the trunk of the tree. She was covered in a sheer dress of white that was covered in golden leaves. She went to a single knee in front of me before meeting my gaze and smiling.

"This one is named Yarrow, of the Moon Dryad clan, lofty one. My sisters and I were told to expect your coming, as we suspected that the High Elf would not be the only new High Fey to join our lineage given our history of evolving in pairs. I suspect that you seek guidance to meet with your fellow High Fey in the Mother Forest?"

I nodded and gestured for her to stand.

"That I do, I wish to meet my kin and ensure that my dwarves are welcome to visit our Mother Tree and her forest to pay their respects as members of the Fey."

"It has already been granted, lofty one. None of us would dare bar a fellow Fey from our Mother, she is the only one who claims that right."

"Very well, I ask that a guide visit me in the Mountain in two months' time so that we may enter the forest. Sadly, we have lost most of our control over plants and do not wish to harm the forest with a forceful entry."

"It shall be done, lofty one. I am sure our sisters and brothers will be greatly pleased to hear of your visit and will argue for the right to be your guide. May we meet again under Mother's shade."

I waved to her as she once again merged with her host tree and the spacial distortion around us was lifted. To outsiders that entire exchange merely looked like we were admiring the tree in silence. I turned to my companions, only one of which appeared to have many questions. I sighed as I began walking to the exit, expecting the long question and answer session that I would have with Elvinia once we returned to the inn.