Chapter 1707
I was pleased to see that we were let into the castle without much fanfare and shown a receiving room large enough to accommodate our party. It was only five minutes later when the door opened and a familiar face showed themselves.
“Well, look at you. It seems you’ve managed to find all of your women.” A slightly irate voice spoke.
I smiled. “Pait, that’s where you went!”
Pait had entered the room, and right next to his was his trustworthy maid Dav. He was an esmere, which were a short people not unlike dwarves, although they preferred to live on open plains rather than mountains and caves. They’d be closer to a halfling, although they were named after their country Esmore. I had honestly lost track of him when I was dealing with the invasion of King Roth.
He stiffened. “Hmph! You were so busy after we returned from the deep, I thought you had forgotten about us. I ended up returning to Dioshin with Lord Duran. After all, that’s where I was supposed to be before you kidnapped me.”
“Y-yeah… sorry about that.” I laughed. “But it worked out, right? Have you been in contact with Esmore?”
“Of course, I’m in regular contact with them through Gram’s Passage.” He sniffed. “They’ve approved me for this expedition.”
“Expedition?” I blinked.
“Do you think you’re the only one who wants to see Jespain? From what I understand, they need a lot of materials. The mining of Esmore has provided them the necessary ingredients for years, but we’ve always had to trade everything third party because of Dioshin. With this trade route you’re opening up, Esmore had an extremely invested interest in such things. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that it’s the most important thing they’re worried about right now.”
“You shouldn’t be discussing such things with an outside.” A deep, smooth voice came from the hallway.
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