In the end, we moved on to discussing the specific stocking of goods with Newlers, and settled on the idea of handling them at the White Wolf Store as soon as a certain number of them were made.

　After seeing off Newlers, who said they'd get right to work on the preparations, and enthusiastically pulled up to the basement, we decided to take a break in one of the branch's rooms.

　It's one of the so-called eating establishments, but it's also a store that provides services in a private room so that you can consult with others who don't want to be heard.

　While having a meal together in such a place, we decided to have a frank exchange of opinions about this matter.

''It's really become a rare thing to be a weapon store that stocks dwarven weapons, isn't it? I'm sure this alone will attract more interested customers.
'Oh, really?　I would have thought it was something not uncommon in adventurer's circles.

　Natalia, the branch manager, reacted surprisingly to the impressions expressed by Florence, the branch manager.

　Although he had been in retirement for a while, Florence was a skilled adventurer who had risen to the B rank.

　Naturally, he had a reasonable amount of knowledge about dungeons and demons.

　In contrast, Natalia, an up-and-coming merchant who was trained at the Sun Dial Trading Company, a large trading company, mainly deals in business between humans, and has little knowledge or experience in dealing with demons.

If it was in the form of an adventurer who hid in a dungeon and purchased from the dwarves living in that dungeon in a private transaction, it wouldn't be that unusual. I've never heard of a weapon shop on the ground stocking up on a regular basis.
I'm surprised. I wonder why. It's not like the dwarves are refusing to deal with humans, is it?

　Natalia is the one talking directly to Florence, but the other three ...... Ezell, Eddie, and Garnett are also listening with interest.

　I wasn't that intrigued by the content itself, since it's knowledge I grasped a long time ago, but I was more than a little interested in what Natalia's reaction would be.

　It was surprisingly hard to get information about what others would think of a fact that was known to them.

'It's not that I don't want to make a deal, it's just that I don't have a(n) taste for it,'
It's meaningless. ......?
Normally, the life of the demon race is completed inside the dungeon. There are cases where they come to the surface due to environmental changes, population growth, or territorial ambitions, but those are the exceptions.

　While lightly shaking the cup filled with non-alcoholic beverages, Florence continued to explain in a tone of voice as if she were giving a lecture.

　He seems to be refraining from alcohol because he has work to do after this, but if the time of day is nighttime, he would surely be pouring per wine.

'What we get in trade with the earth is earthly currency and goods, right?　For most demons, none of them can live without another. If you just want some rare delicacies, the outer (...) coins (...) that you can get through private transactions will be enough for you. ......
So you don't have to make a big deal out of it.
''To begin with, the ground, where magic power is thin, is not a comfortable environment for them. They wouldn't want to go out there unless they had a very good reason to.

　As Florence explained, for a very standard demon race, regular and large-scale trade with the ground is of little benefit to them.

　Even if they have access to ground money, they have extremely limited opportunities to use it in the first place.

　It's not only for business, but also for requesting cooperation, and there is little point in having to go to the ground to make purchases.

　Since I'm taking the trouble to do so, I'll try to add to Florence's explanation from the side.

The adventurer's guild will try to prevent the demons from coming to the ground on their own in the first place. If you don't talk to the nearest branch like this one, it could even be treated as an incident, and the point of following the human side's rules and going through the hassle of going to the ground is .......

　Because life is completed in dungeons, there is little need to trade on a large scale.

　Even if you earn money on the ground, you are limited in what you can do with it.

　And the procedures required to travel to the surface are very complicated.

　As a result of all of these things, even if they are friendly to humans, they are not able to regularly trade with the ground.

　The only trade is with the adventurers who occasionally go underground.

　They sell underground items to the adventurer and buy things from the ground that the adventurer brings in, and if they need to buy something, they ask the adventurer to buy it for them.

　This is the extent of the general business transactions between humans and the demon race.

''So the dwarf ...... Newlers I mentioned earlier were 'serious enough when they came here.'

　Eddie briefly summarized the main points of the series of exchanges and finally nodded his head in agreement.

'I can see why the unusual story of purchasing weapons from the demon race was accepted so easily.
Was that so surprising?
'Yes. I would have opposed it if it wasn't for the mere presence of a witness.

　It was only a serious response.
　'Me and Ezell's relationship isn't that deep, but I know he's serious about it.

'In the case of the Newlers, the situation is the situation. We've just lost everything, so we're going to have to rely on supplies on the ground, and since we're going to need a lot of money on the ground, it's natural to think that we shouldn't put in the time and effort to do that, right?
'Of course, it could be that he was still young. Dwarves tend to be stubborn and conservative in their thinking after they've grown a beard.
Because they're young, they've taken unprecedented steps, even for them: ...... That's about it.

　I agree with Florence's analysis.

　That young dwarf was a young man without a beard, and it would not be a far-fetched assumption to say that this is why he had not developed a dwarven-like hardness of thought.

　While it was true that many dwarves had been killed and taken away, there were still many adult dwarves left in the world.

　Nevertheless, the fact that young dwarves, not adult dwarves, had offered a deal, which meant that this negotiation itself was not the idea of the adults, but the Newlers' own attempt.

　It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for in a new product.

'Hey, hey, white wolf. It's a good idea to support the dreams of ambitious young people, don't you think you're too old to be thinking like that. You said the same thing when you hired Erika.
...... That's not possible. I'm a shopkeeper, and I'm a profit-and-loss kind of guy.
Well, we'll see.

　Garnett casually picks up the figure and extends his fork to the meat on the platter with an amused smile.

　As I quickly sidestepped that meat, Ezell, the brave one, offers me an interesting suggestion.

'Hey, Sir Luke. When the dwarven weapons arrive, I wonder if you could do a mithril alloy job on one of them. I'm thinking of turning it into a new weapon, since it's such a big deal.
'A dwarven sword mithrilized or ...... had a bit of an interesting composition, and I might as well try it out.