The great elder who had ruled Mahakam for centuries looked very old, but his body was actually much older than an old tree in the forest: the bark was wrinkled, but the branches were still strong and gnarled.

It is said that during the general cleaning this year, the Great Elder personally led the team with a battle axe, and his murderous aura was the most powerful in the team.

The people of Cintra soon felt it.

His eyes were as sharp as torches, and his gaze was sharper than an axe blade.

The other people present had no idea what was going on, they just felt that the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Although they were in the dwarf's territory, the guards of Cintra reflexively grasped the hilt of their swords.

Even though they now know that the Duke may not need their protection due to his bravery, in diplomatic occasions, their guards and followers are more likely to express their attitude and ensure that the dignity of the Lion of Cintra is not violated; and if a guard team needs to be sacrificed to show Cintra's belief of "never retreating", they will die bravely.

But the Cintra guards' hands reaching for their weapons quickly stopped because they saw Lann's gesture to stop them from taking any action.

A bright emerald light emanated from the body of the Cintra Lion, as if a sun had been born in the house; his pupils were also completely lit up, emitting a blazing light as long as the blade, and his skin was hazy, not like that of a real person.

The people of Cintra are very familiar with this gesture, which is a precursor to the Duke's [Flash] or [Teleport].

But the light dimmed again, Lan's position did not change at all, and no one was hurt. It was as if he just saw that the room was too dull and turned on a light to liven up the atmosphere.

…

The dwarven guards didn't react as quickly as the Cintrians, but at this moment they all raised their weapons. They looked at Lann, whose light was on and off, in doubt, waiting for the order from the great elder to capture these humans.

They did wait for the Great Elder's voice, but it was a loud laugh.

The Great Elder's mood changes so quickly that it is breathtaking. The dangerous look just now seemed to be just an illusion, and now only the face with a hearty laugh remained in front of everyone.

The Great Elder showed an admiring look: "I heard from Gabor before that you showed a magical ability when fighting Sharma, similar to the warlock's portal, and you didn't even need to recite a spell, right?"

Lann smiled and nodded: "Yes, after all, you know - my name is Lei Anlun."

"The Age of Frost and Doom... The Blood of the Ancients."

The Great Elder mumbled a few words and shook his head.

He and Lan looked at each other for two seconds, then turned their eyes to the drawings on the table. At this stage of the negotiation, the next opinions could be expressed without words.

So they stared at each other for another two seconds, making sure that both sides could see the change in emotions.

The great elder placed one hand on the equipment drawings and suddenly stopped smiling. "I have made it very clear just now. Mahakam is a completely neutral country, and the dwarves are a people who adhere to tradition. We will not abandon our past way of life just because of a few words from a young man."

Lann also restrained his smile: "Yes, you made it very clear."

"Even if I want to send troops to help you, I can't, Lei Anlun." The Great Elder shook his head. "Mahakan seems to be a united front, but I'm not the king, just the Great Elder. I need to absorb the suggestions of various clans. They often have opinions about me - especially recently, because they are troubled by the poor cleaning of the 'big cleanup', and I even have to spend a lot of effort to appease them!"

"Oh? I didn't expect that an elder like you who has ruled a force for centuries would have such troubles." Lann showed a gesture of listening attentively, "May I ask which clans they are?"

"As many as the rocks on the mountain." The Great Elder continued to shake his head, "The main clans are still Ferenczi, Fuchs, Chiss - and also include Sieglin!"

Gabor Sieglin was stunned. He didn't expect the Great Elder to point out his clan. He opened his mouth to explain, but suddenly fell silent, as if he had thought of something.

"These clans are all very wild and warlike. They are also very curious about the outside world, and their hearts are always flying into the human kingdom."

Lan said sincerely, "That's too bad. For Mahakam, who values ​​tradition, they must have caused you a lot of trouble, right?"

After thinking for a while, Lann suggested: "Why don't I go visit them and help them clean up the monsters that are bothering them, and prepare some gifts at the same time - they should also like the armor drawings, right?"

Lann probed into the inventory, and found a lot of equipment drawings in it, which were intended to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the dwarves. Moreover, Lann had already made a copy, so it was not a loss.

Moreover, for demon hunters, the enchantments on equipment are the priority. For Lann, the equipment recorded in these drawings is far inferior to the griffin armor given to him by Gerald, and is not even as good as the snake suit on Kolgrim.

"They do like equipment blueprints. There is no dwarf who doesn't like steel." The elder said in a rough voice.

As he spoke, the Great Elder slapped his left hand on the stack of equipment drawings on the table, then turned his arm and took them into his arms.

"But this is limited to dwarven equipment." The elder stared into Lan's eyes and said seriously, "Those blueprints that embody the ancient dwarven forging wisdom allow us to recall the glory of our ancestors and understand their thoughts. As for the blueprints of equipment from other races, we don't want them no matter how rare they are."

Lan En was stunned, and his tone slowed down involuntarily: "I understand. This is admirable, Great Elder."

The Great Elder nodded, turned around, jumped off the table, and shouted as he walked.

"I do not want to speak to you again, Lannister. You are like Vizimir and Foltestra. You are evasive."

"I'll take these blueprints. Since Cintra doesn't want money, we can provide you with ores and equipment. Someone else will discuss the specific quantity with you." The elder said without looking back, "In the rest of the time, you can let Gabor take you around to experience the customs and culture of Mahakam. You can get all the help here except military aid - Lei Anlun!"

…

Lann watched the great elder and his heavily armored guards go away, then tilted his head and called out to his attendant, "House."

"Sir." The sword attendant lowered his head and stepped forward.

"You can go and negotiate with the equipment supplier in Mahakam. You know what we need."

House nodded in agreement. Before he inherited the lion-headed silver sword from Sword, he was trained as a butler for the royal family of Cintra. Even now when he was in Brokilon Town, he would occasionally help the old butler Ens. He knew a lot about logistical matters and understood what Cintra needed now.

Watching the great elder disappear from sight and there being no more dwarves in the room, Geralt took a step forward with a hesitant look on his face.

"What are we going to do next? Did you have something to say to Brovar Hogg just now?"

Lann nodded: "I originally planned to appeal to their emotions and reason, but I didn't expect that I would end up using some threats... But fortunately, we have achieved our goal."

Kolgrim also came up and said, "We have achieved our goal? When? I don't really understand what happened."

…

There were no other dwarves around, so Lann thought for a while before explaining. If it could make the witcher's political sense more acute and play a greater role in the future, he would be happy to see it.

In the previous conversation, Lann and the Great Elder explained the pros and cons: If the Nilfgaardians invade the North, they will definitely not let the dwarves continue to live as they do now. This is a foregone conclusion.

This is also the reason why the dwarves later sent troops to support the North under normal historical development.

The Great Elder's use of "tradition" to fool Lann is bullshit from a God's perspective - otherwise why would you send troops in the future North-South War?

But Lann would not tell this analysis to the demon hunters. He analyzed the problem from another angle.

The dwarves appear to be an honest and generous race, and Mahakam's policies are based on adhering to traditions, but the system of this ancient race is far from being as simple as it appears.

The most important of these is the dwarf's training system.

Whenever dwarves reach adulthood at around 55 years old, they will get a chance to leave Mahakam to gain experience outside. Some dwarves, like Gabor, will choose to return to Mahakam to continue building their hometown after seeing the dangers of the outside world. Other dwarves, like Yarpan, Zoltan, and Machete, will stay in human society.

For Mahakam, this is actually a kind of infiltration of the dwarf race into human society. Compared with the elves who have a blood feud with humans, the dwarves have integrated well into human society.

What's even more interesting is that because human society has always had a kind of rejection of dwarves, Mahakam has always had a high status in the hearts of the dwarves who have left their homes. Although they choose not to return to Mahakam, they have nothing but praise for their former hometown, and even their descendants who have never been to the dwarf gathering place will portray Mahakam as a fairy-tale kingdom.

In the words of the poet: "Mahakan is the spiritual home of every Dwarf out there."

This is the problem. The dwarves have infiltrated every aspect of human society, but their hearts belong to Mahakam. If the dwarves of Mahakam get tired of living in the mountains, they can raise a terrifying nation from human society.

The jobs these dwarves do in human society are not the same old craftsmen in other literary works, but are all-encompassing: blacksmiths, adventurers, pharmacists, merchants, and the most important one mentioned by Lan just now - dwarf bankers.

As early as the eighth century of the Human Era - nearly a thousand years ago - a group of dwarves had become leaders in the economic industry.

Nowadays, these dwarves have established several banking families, including the Giancardi family, the Vivaldi family, and the Sianvanelli family. From Vizima, the capital of Temeria, to Vengerberg, the capital of Aedirn; from Kovir, the northernmost of the North, to Toussaint, which has already reached the south, these places have branches of the Dwarf Bank.

From the economic perspective of this era, it seems nothing, and the kings seem to be happy to let these dwarves do what they like because they can provide a steady stream of taxes.

But from the perspective of a modern person like Lann, even if he did not study economics, he could still feel horrified - it is a terrible thing that a country's largest bank is in the hands of another country or even another race.

Lann didn't even dare to think about it. He just felt that those shining gold coins were buried underground in various countries like gunpowder, just waiting for the lava deep in Mahakam to emit a little heat and then explode completely.

Compared to those long-eared elves, dwarves are much wiser.

Lan was absolutely sure that although the dwarves of Mahakam nominally adhered to tradition, saying that dwarves who went out would never return to Carbon Mountain, they definitely had ways to communicate with each other secretly, and only fools like Yarpan and stubborn guys like Zoltan would take this "tradition" seriously.

Didn't Machete contact the Great Elder with Lan's blueprint? He is now doing well in Novigrad, the first city in the North.

So when Lann just pointed out the point of "Dwarf Banker", the Great Elder's momentum suddenly changed.

For the dwarves, this was a thousand-year-old plan. If Lann were to reveal it, I believe the kings of the Northern Kingdom would be happy to confiscate the property of these financial families for "treason" and enrich the national treasury; and even if the dwarf bankers could fight back under such hasty conditions, the damage caused to human society would definitely not be great.

There was absolutely no benefit for Mahakam either.

That's why Lan En said that he used threats against the Great Elder.

…

"That's roughly how things are with the dwarves," Lann concluded.

Kolgrim was still frightened after hearing this, and suddenly felt that it would be better for him to be a simple assassin... No, a demon hunter. It would be better to be a simple demon hunter.

Geralt was also thoughtful: "So Brovar's momentum changed just now. He actually wanted to keep all of us here. And Lan, you have mastered the power of the ancient blood. Do you want to express your unique value?"

Dwarves are a race older than elves, and the Great Elder is the oldest among the dwarves. He must be familiar with the prophecies of "Ancient Blood" and "White Frost".

Lann shook his head. The ancient blood might be used to fool the elves, but it would have no effect on the dwarves.

"Look around, and then look at our feet, Geralt." Lann stepped on his greaves. "The dwarves hollowed out an entire mountain to build their 'Carbon Mountain'. There are warm underground fires, safe cave dwellings, and mushrooms that can be harvested even without sunlight. The white frost on the frozen earth poses no threat to them at all."

"They might even be looking forward to the arrival of the white frost, which would help them clean up the surface of the earth. When the cold winter is over, they will be able to have a world without humans and elves."

Lann sneered: "-If the cold winter will pass."

Cohen looked down in disbelief, his eyes seeming to penetrate the rocks and see the rolling lava below.

"Did you also learn this information about the dwarves through the power of the Ancient Blood?"

Lan nodded without comment. "So I just demonstrated the power of the Ancient Blood to tell the other party that I have the ability to leave here instantly like a warlock, and without lengthy spells. I believe Gabo has already told Broval about the scene of my battle."

"That's why he gave up the idea of ​​keeping us here and started to negotiate a deal in Cintra, hoping to shut you up." Geralt thought thoughtfully.

Lann's analysis almost overturned their worldview. Fortunately, the only two parties involved in the negotiations were the dwarves and Cintra, and Leila from Aedirn did not come.

Otherwise, the other party would have to rush out and risk her life to serve her king. Geralt didn't want this girl to die. He quite liked this little fan who sincerely blessed himself, Yennefer, and Ciri.

As for Cintra... Cintra doesn't have dwarf bankers because Calanthe doesn't like them. Before Lann became the boss, the lion country was inhabited by only humans, and the only special one was the druid Mossak.

……wrong!

Geralt suddenly woke up. So, if the negotiations broke down and the dwarves detonated the economic bomb of human society, plunging the entire North and half of the Southern Empire into chaos, would Cintra be able to reap the benefits?

No, Nilfgaard is now eyeing us covetously, and the dwarves have infiltrated the North far more than the South. If such a situation occurs, the North will be completely finished, and Cintra will not be in any good situation either.

What if we wait until Nilfgaard retreats?