Seeing the Great Elder's face suddenly turn from stormy to sunny because of the arrival of the foreign guests, the atmosphere in Cintra immediately eased.

After all, there will be negotiations soon. If the other party becomes angry before the negotiations even start, it will be very disadvantageous for Lann.

Helela took a step forward and showed the lead ring in her hand: "Your Excellency the Great Elder, I am here on the orders of His Majesty Demave, the King of Aedirn, and I hope to continue our friendship..."

Heilela hadn't finished her words yet, but she didn't expect the Great Elder's expression to change again.

The ruler who had ruled Mahakam for centuries showed a mocking look at this time: "Ha! Demawi! I understand little girl, I gave the symbol of friendship to that guy, but he gave this treasure to someone else like a kiss from a little girl, do you think this is friendship?"

Helela paused abruptly, and wanted to get angry when she heard the great elder insult her king. But she was not someone who could not judge the situation, so she endured it in the end.

"But it seems that Demave really values ​​Lord Lannister. Did he wear this ring because he was worried that he would be turned away? There's no need to worry!"

The Great Elder began to change his expression for the third time in a short period of time: "Lannister was invited by us, he doesn't need a ring. If he wants, I can always make him a new one!"

Brovar Hogg smiled once again, and with his head full of white hair he actually looked somewhat kind, but the atmosphere among the people of Cintra could no longer relax.

A moody opponent is more troublesome than an angry negotiating partner.

If the other party is really moody, it means the situation is out of control; if the other party is deliberately "moody", the situation will only be worse.

After saying this, the Great Elder stopped paying attention to Helela and turned to Lann: "I'm sorry, Lannister, I didn't expect our first meeting would be in a place like this, but this is the characteristic of dwarves!"

The steel in the arsenal roared, and the weapons that had not yet been forged carried a cold and sharp aura, which was an aura that intoxicated the soldiers.

"No, this is the best place. What we are going to talk about later is probably related to this place." Lan nodded slightly, expressing his respect for the ruler of Mahakam.

"If you like steel, then I will start to like you!" The elder expressed his affection without any scruples or cherishment.

But Lann no longer believed what the Great Elder said, because it was well known that the Great Elder of the Dwarves did not like humans, so he adopted a policy of almost closing the country to the outside world.

…

Then Lann and his party saw the great elder's face change again. He angrily scolded several dwarf officers in the arsenal again.

After venting his anger, the Great Elder asked these dwarf officers to act as guides and lead everyone to a relatively secluded place - at least a place where the conversation would not be drowned out by the sound of iron forging.

Two chairs were pulled apart, and Lann and the Great Elder sat down, and the long-awaited conversation began.

In Lan's mind, the Great Elder has already moved towards the direction of "wily and shrewd", but perhaps still influenced by the traditional atmosphere of the dwarves, the Great Elder's way of speaking is not very "human".

As soon as he sat down, he chose to go straight to the point.

"That little guy Carlo brought me some blueprints. They are all about the equipment skills that the dwarves lost in the past years and wars. He said you have more?"

"Yes." If it was during the Northern Border Talks, Lann, who had dealt with the kings a lot, might be slow to respond to such a direct question. But after the baptism of Skellige, Lann quickly adjusted himself.

"I obtained the relevant drawings through some special channels. What Machete brought to you is a welcome gift. I have more precious drawings here, and those are the focus of our discussion next."

The Great Elder's face turned serious: "I hope to see them with my own eyes."

"You can see part of it." The smile on Lan's face remained unchanged.

Lann did not put his hand into his arms to cover up. It would be better to show the ancient blood properly to the dwarves.

He slapped the table with his left hand, and when he raised his hand, there was a thin stack of drawings on the table.

The elder's eyes suddenly shrank, and for a moment even the blueprint could not attract him. His old but bright eyes looked at Lan's left hand, and then looked at Lan's lion pupils and the sword of the lady of the lake behind him.

"Lei Anlun, Lei Anlun... I should have thought of it earlier. I should have thought of those poems about you earlier."

The elder muttered a few words. He knew that since Lann had deliberately demonstrated this ability, he obviously wanted to talk about it. However, the topic was in order, and the focus of the topic was still on the equipment drawings that Lann had taken out.

"The Mahakam Rune Piercing Sword... is an ancient style that has been lost for a long time. Although it has been restored to about 60% by craftsmen, the rune conduction lines were originally carved like this... If combined with new technology, perhaps a brand new long sword can be created..."

The Great Elder was not born as the Great Elder. He worked as a blacksmith when he was young. He was a blacksmith several centuries ago. Needless to say, his eyesight is naturally very good.

His eyes lit up more and more as he read, and he quickly continued to flip through the pages: "Next is the Carbon Mountain Armor... Uh, why is there only arm armor?"

It's not just the Carbon Mountain Armor. The next stack of blueprints in Lann's possession basically only contain parts of a certain set of items, the kind that an experienced craftsman can tell the value of at a glance, but which are of little value unless you get the full set.

The one at the top, [Ancient Mahakam Rune Piercing Sword], is actually the only complete equipment blueprint.

The Great Elder calmed down and switched his mindset from that of a blacksmith back to that of a politician.

He snorted coldly. "I have heard many rumors about you, Lannister. They all said that you were a true knight. But I didn't expect that you would be infected with the bad habits of those kings and start to act like a woman."

Lan En smiled and said, "Sitting in this position, some changes are always needed. I believe that the Great Elder must have a lot to teach me about this."

The Great Elder snorted without commenting, and stared at Lan's left hand with lingering interest, as if he wanted to squeeze out a few more drawings with his eyes.

"Make your offer, Lannister. You must have more than I have. What will it take to return them to Mahakam?"

The Cintrian behind him frowned slightly.

"What are you talking about, Great Elder? These blueprints are Cintra's property. How can you say 'return them to Mahakam'?" Lann showed a helpless expression, and seemed very sad. "Besides, we in Cintra don't want money. What we need is 'help'."

Lan looked into the eyes of the great elder. "We need the raw ores of iron, tin, copper, and antimony, as well as the forged alloy steel plates. In addition, we also need a large amount of weapons and armor. I know that Mahakam is not completely isolated and will trade with humans regularly. So there must be armor and weapons that fit the human body here."

The Great Elder also looked at Lan's lion eyes and blew his beard: "These are all war consumables. Providing them to someone during the war is equivalent to taking sides. The dwarves will not participate in the struggle of humans, and Mahakam is also an absolutely neutral country."

"I heard that there's only one town left in Cintra now, and you've allied yourself with those crazy green-skinned women? Is that correct?"

"Yes, I stand together with the Dryads and watch over each other. And there are many more non-human races in my country, and we all get along equally."

"You are speaking with more than a grain of salt, Lannister. You desire more than mines and armor, do you not?"

Lan En chuckled and lowered his head, then raised his head again: "I can't hide it from you, Great Elder."

If Mahakam was a completely isolated country that rejected humans like the former Dryad Forest, then Lann might not come. After all, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Dryad Forest was a coincidence and difficult to replicate - Lann didn't want to replicate it here with the dwarves.

But in the future that Lann knew, the dwarves would indeed send volunteers when Nilfgaard swept across the North.

However, the thinking of the current great elder is definitely not the same as the thinking of the future great elder, so Lann plans to artificially build a bridge of thinking for them.

Lann said sincerely, "I also hope to obtain the help of a Mahakam heavy infantry regiment to resist Nilfgaard's invasion of the North."

The Great Elder seemed to have heard something funny. He laughed and hammered the table, causing the drawings on the table to scatter like snowflakes.

"Invade the North? You might as well just say destroy Cintra. Lannister, do you think we dwarves are mercenaries?"

"My lion, don't think you can get a huge reward just by showing off a few lost ancient blueprints! These equipment blueprints are more of a symbol and collection for Mahakam. The new technology we have developed over centuries will only be more powerful than them! You humans are the only ones who blindly pursue and admire ancient technology!"

Listening to the words of the great elder, Lann sighed in his heart. As expected, even the dwarves still pulled a few times. Politics is politics.

"No, it's to resist Nilfgaard's 'invasion of the North'."

"This process will help Cintra, but it will also help you, Mahakam - the Great Elder!"

Lann put his hands on the table and leaned forward slightly. He was very tall, especially for a dwarf.

So the great elder jumped directly onto the table.

"Mahakan is the only country founded by a non-human race, Great Elder." Lan En said quietly, "And the reason why it has been able to exist for such a long time is because the four major countries in the north just happened to surround this mountain range from the east, south, west and north."

"Because of the unique terrain, you don't have to worry about any country being able to attack you alone. Instead, you can take advantage of this to play both sides, sell weapons to various countries, use the natural dangers here to recuperate, and even do something more."

"But what if a unified regime emerges in the North? And it is a military regime with a complete warlock army that is strong enough to weaken the natural barrier of Mahakam to the extreme? How will you, the Great Elders, respond then?"

The Great Elder stood on the table, but even so he was still half a head shorter than Lan.

“I am about to laugh, Lannister. You, the Lion of Cintra, so sung in poetry, have such high regard for Nilfgaard? Do you think, just now, that Emhyr can unite the North?”

Lann shook his head. "I despise the enemy strategically, but I can never take the enemy too seriously tactically. Especially since I have fought against Nilfgaard head-on, I understand them."

"I believe that you, the Great Elder, will not miss any important news from the outside world. As you have preserved the fire of the dwarves for centuries, you must have enough foresight to see this fact: if the North continues to develop in this way, it will only be a matter of time before Nilfgaard invades it."

The Great Elder grinned. He did not refute Lann's words, but said: "If Foltestai heard what you said, I'm afraid the North would fall apart now."

Lann did not respond to this, but changed the subject: "I heard that His Majesty Foltestai once wanted to attack Mahakam, but was dissuaded by His Majesty Demawi. One reason was that he did not have enough troops, and the other was that the three major countries were eyeing him covetously, leaving him with no time to spare."

"But what would happen if Nilfgaard unified the North - even just the half of the North near Mahakam?"

"Nilfgaard's army is best at fighting to support itself. Do you think they will let go of Mahakam's wealth that has been stored for hundreds of centuries and miss out on you, the largest equipment supplier in the North?"

"Lower Soden is gone. If we lose Cintra and Upper Soden, then Nilfgaard can really try to reach Mahakam..."

"I don't know if you've heard that there is slavery in Nilfgaard."

The Great Elder fell silent.

Lann finished his words and fell silent.

He looked at the pair of old eyes opposite him and suddenly felt something was wrong.

Although the elder was silent, his expression was very calm. He did not have the sudden realization of someone pointing out something, nor did he have the rejection of someone who had a different opinion.

It was a kind of calmness.

Nothing Lan said was unexpected to him, he had thought about these issues a long time ago, but he thought more and had more things to weigh.

"Your tongue is more deft than a spring, your tone more powerful than a bellows. Lannister, you are nothing like Calanthe."

The Great Elder's expression did not change. He just shook his head and said, "But you are wrong about one thing, Lannister. The reason why we dwarves have survived to this day is not just because of the natural defenses of Mahakam."

Lann showed a listening attitude, willing to hear more details.

"We dwarves are an ancient race. We lived on this land long before those long-eared elves came to the continent in white ships - and the celestial confluence that brought you humans to this world was more than two thousand years later than the elves."

"Many ancient races of our time have disappeared, but we, the dwarves and the gnomes, have lived hand in hand in Mahakam until today."

"I don't know what happened thousands of years ago, but I know how the dwarves survived the last few hundred years."

"Those long-eared elves have been fighting with you for hundreds of years, and since then the last great elder has ordered the abandonment of all land outside of Mahakam, built high walls, and closed mountain roads. Now look around, do the elves still have any decent gathering places that can be called 'towns'? Not to mention 'countries'!"

"In their last desperate attempt to drive you humans from your land, the elves sent a messenger to Mahakam who spoke passionately about the need for unity among the ancient races. But we drove him out and the gates remained shut for a hundred years."

"By the time I gave the order to open the Carbon Mountain Gate again, the elves had already been completely overthrown by you. The elves were completely defeated, their kingdom was reduced to ruins, and the battlefield from the Flying Dragon Mountains to Anglin was littered with the bodies of the dead soldiers. If I had ordered the war at that time, the dwarves would not have suffered a better fate than the elves."

The Great Elder shook his head and sighed. There seemed to be a little guilt towards the elves in his eyes, but his words showed that he had no regrets.

"And now it seems to me that the same thing is still happening today. But instead of 'humans' and 'elves', it has become 'southerners' and 'northerners'. If you break it down, they can be considered two races."

The elder who strictly abides by tradition and law stared into Lann's eyes and said, "So, Lannister, do you think the current Nilfgaardian invasion will be more tragic than the previous racial wars? Why do the dwarves have to help you?"

The history of the dwarves is much longer than that of humans. According to the calendar, it is now 1265, but the recorded history of the dwarves can be traced back to nearly 3,000 years before the human era.

The Great Elder brought up the great war between elves and humans, and Lann really couldn't refute anything from this angle. After all, he had not personally experienced the war.

But Lane still hadn't been refuted, he still had cards in his hand.

Lann said calmly: "But the dwarves now are different from the dwarves back then, aren't they? The dwarves back then didn't infiltrate every aspect of human society like they do now, such as the huge number of dwarf bankers."

As soon as these words were spoken, the dwarf elder in front of Lann suddenly became more fierce.