Are the dwarves doing this as a whole nation?

Now then. With everything wrapped up in Karkassa, we decided to head to our next destination.

Well, more precisely, we've already departed.

'Healer' is guarding the core deep in the dungeon, but 'Karina Shounin and Company' left town and is heading to the next destination.

And our next destination is the dwarven nation—the homeland of Aishia and Sati-tan.

The catalyst was a story Aishia told me from her memories.

 

*

 

"By the way, Master. There's an incredibly strange weapon back in my homeland."

"Oh～? What kind?"

"A hammer that can destroy castle walls. But it only works on castle walls—it won't put a scratch on a neighbor's fence or anything."

"What the heck, that's weird."

 

*

 

… Something that strange is definitely a Divine Artifact!

Plus, unlike a dungeon, it's useless for daily life—just a weapon specialized for destroying castle walls.

This is basically screaming 'come collect me.' So I will. I'm going.

That casual vibe is how the trip to the dwarven nation was decided.

There's nothing else that needs priority anyway. It's as good a direction as any… Eh, socks? Well, that's more about valuing chance encounters at the destination. Kami-sama probably wants that sort of thing too.

Since we're going to the dwarven nation, we also decided to make a survival report to Aishia's family.

According to Aishia, Sati-tan probably wouldn't bother with that sort of thing.

… I agree. She's definitely got her head full of elven alcohol right now.

"So, we've traveled far enough that we should be reaching the border soon. Is there anything I should be careful about?"

"Well, having lots of alcohol will make people happy."

Aishia answered. I should've bought more alcohol, huh.

The only crawler liquor I stocked up on as Karina Shounin is what Sati-tan made me buy.

"Hm? If you're short on booze, want me to pick some up for you? I'm getting some for myself anyway."

"Oh, would you? Then I might take you up on that. I'll pay for the alcohol and your trouble."

"Don't worry about the trouble fee. You've been taking care of me."

Mashiro-san does use the bath every day, after all. Changing the water has become a daily routine.

By the way, doing large-scale commercial transactions requires a license, but buying a bit extra alcohol for personal consumption and settling up among friends is totally fine.

Selling one or two bottles to an individual is also OK. It's basically under-the-table dealing though.

"Oh, don't worry. In my home country, dwarves don't need a license to buy and sell alcohol."

"Eh? Really?"

"To be precise, they tell merchants 'This isn't alcohol, it's flavored water,' so they can argue 'This isn't an alcohol transaction.'"

"No way."

Are the dwarves using euphemisms like 'barley juice' or 'rice juice' as a whole nation?

"If someone says 'That's not water!' then to prove it's water, you chug it down like water and there's no problem—that's the dwarf way. If you successfully drain it, the person who called you out has to treat you to it."

"… Aren't the laws kind of loose?"

"Of course, it doesn't work outside the country, so every year there are a few dwarves near the border who get punished and have their alcohol confiscated."

But apparently, within the dwarven nation, that actually works.

So loose～

"Apparently Sati got caught for this once in the past."

"Sati-tan, come on…"

I couldn't help but be exasperated.

But from there, she apprenticed under an alcohol merchant, got her license, and eventually became skilled enough to inherit her master's liquor bag.

"Well, even dwarves can't drink things like Fire Liquor like water, so those have to be treated as alcohol, but everything else is basically treated as juice. Very loose."

"Fire Liquor? There's something like that?"

"Karina, I wanna try Fire Liquor too. Sell me a bottle if you get any."

"Sure～ I'll sell it to you at cost."

Incidentally, apparently even at restaurants, what you think is juice can sometimes turn out to be alcohol, so I'll need Dea-kun to be careful.