Hammer Collar, Molten Iron City

After a day of traveling around the city with Rin, Raven returned to Hammer Castle the next day.

"Hello Mr. Deep, the Grand Duke is already waiting for you in the study. The attendant standing in front of the gate, wearing the armor of the Hammer Leader's unique insignia, said respectfully to the Cursed Raven.

Hammer Keep looks more majestic during the day than it does at night. The special construction process makes the castle look as indestructible in the sunlight as if it were made of a single piece of steel. Following the squire leading the way through the main entrance, the Raven noticed that the fortress of the Hammer Grand Duke did not seem to be guarded by many guards. However, when I think of the kind of dummies I encountered before, the role of these guards is probably just decoration.

Contrary to the Raven's guess, as he progressed deeper into the castle, the Spellcaster was surprised to discover that the Hammer Grand Duke's room was not at the top of the castle. Rather, it was in the basement of the castle!This made the Raven very curious, and although he had heard all kinds of anecdotes about the Grand Duke of the Hammer, this practice was almost the exact opposite of all the nobles, and it was even more exaggerated than the rumors.

But that's just the beginning. Upon entering the underground of the castle, the Raven rubbed his eyes, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. If the above-ground part of Hammer Castle is a decent lord's castle, then its underground part is obviously much larger than the above-ground part!

The Raven had heard that only a tiny fraction of the icebergs in the cold waters were exposed to the water, similar to the situation at Hammerkeep. The hall large enough to fit an entire team of hundreds, with cobwebs leading to the corridors around them, and the faint sound of striking iron coming from the depths of the corridors, was not something that humans would build. The sorcerer had already had some guesses about the identity of the Grand Duke, but what he had seen now confirmed his suspicions even more.

"Here we are. The squire led the sorcerer to a metal door with an intricately carved warhammer with an intricate pattern that looked as if it had just been pulled out of the flames.

Naturally, such a heavy gate will not be opened and closed by manpower. The squire pulled down a leather rope beside him, and then put his hands at his side and stood aside, as if he had completed his task. It looked like the rope was supposed to be connected to some sort of device to notify the inside, as the door soon sank a step inward and slid to the left, revealing the inside.

When Raven entered the room, the iron door closed quietly behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Deep, welcome to you. A deep, rugged voice said. The sound is reminiscent of the sound of a broken bellows when it is pulled. But there is no surprise in this, after all, dwarves have never been a race known for their good voices.

"Hello, Honorable Grand Duke of Hammer. It's an honor to meet you. "Dip, or rather, the Crow, wasn't intimidated by the man in front of him. From the title of the Grand Duke by the lord of the Iron Castle, to the architectural style of the Hammer Castle, and the huge underground space under the castle, these evidences all faintly point to the fact that this Hammer Grand Duke is a dwarf.

Dwarves are creatures with humanoid silhouettes, but much smaller than normal humans. Their height is only about a meter, which is only slightly higher than their waist for most adults, but still a lot taller than their elfs. At the same time, compared to the emaciated dwarves, the dwarves are very robust.

Take the Hammer Grand Duke in front of him, for example, although the dwarf was wearing a heavy bearskin cloak and a gown lined with armor, this did not prevent the crow from seeing the bulging muscles on his body. This is also a characteristic of most dwarves, their muscle density is much higher than that of humans, which makes them inferior in height, but when it comes to pure competition, most humans are not even opponents of female dwarves.

In addition, although many people believe that dwarves have some kind of worship for beards, the fact is that most dwarves have the same habit of trimming their beards as humans are, with the exception of certain tribes or clans, and female dwarves do not have the same beards as men as rumored.

The Grand Duke of Hammer was clearly not in the habit of growing a beard, and although the dwarf had his hair tied up in two braids in front of his ears, his jaw was as smooth as the surface of an egg. Separately, it is worth mentioning that on his head he wore a decorative metal headband. The headband shimmered with magic under the vision of the crow.

"You don't look surprised?" asked Grand Duke Hammer, tilting his head when he saw the calm appearance of the cursed crow. Listening to his tone, he seemed a little disappointed with the sorcerer's calmness.

"Me? Of course I was surprised. However, I am not surprised that you are a child of the mountains, but I am surprised that such an existence of you can become a nobleman in the capital of a human country. I also thought your race wasn't keen on rights. The Raven replied, casually walking over to the desk in the study and moving a chair for himself. Spellcasters who are familiar with the temper of dwarves know that if you wait for a straight dwarf to ask you to sit down, it will not take too long, and dwarves are not used to human politeness.

"Sounds like this isn't the first time you've dealt with us, wizard. A smile tugged at the dwarf's lips, he had been with humans for a long time, and he had to make some compromises in order to integrate into human society. Now that the Cursed Raven was able to communicate with him with the attitude of treating the dwarves, the Duke was actually very happy. As for how he could tell that the crow was the caster, the sorcerer guessed it had something to do with his headband.

"Yes, I have had the privilege of performing some missions with the dwarves of the Iron Hand Clan. The sorcerer said. This is not a lie, the Raven did have a brief collaboration with some of the dwarves during the mission given by the Grey Tower.

"Iron hands, those guys don't know how to do anything but gloves. But their mothers-in-law are very energetic. The Grand Duke of Hammer said this, with a look of nostalgia on his face. However, the Raven didn't want to know what he was recalling, considering that the dwarven females were almost the same size as the males, and the muscular dwarven females were not beautiful to humans.

Fortunately, the Duke's memories did not last long, and soon the dwarf returned to the conversation in front of him. He took a bottle of wine from the cupboard, poured some into his goat's horn glass, and drank it all.

"You know what, I don't really like you wizards, although you are much stronger than ordinary people, but as long as I see you appear, it means that something very bad will happen. But sometimes, you guys in robes really can't do it. ”

As he spoke, the dwarf took out another cup that was the same as the croissant in his hand, poured some wine, and pushed it in front of the crow.

"In short, anyway, since this is the case with the Greylion now, as the Duke of this kingdom, I welcome your arrival. Sorcerer. ”