"Greetings, Lord Pion!" Lavien gave a polite yet elegant knight's salute, his eyes full of curiosity. After all, he had never met this so-called Beorning lord. His few impressions had been limited to Roland's complaints, but the hulking man before him still left him deeply shaken. If someone told Lavien this was a stunted Half-giant, he would have nodded in agreement. Though he had long known that this man was a skin-changing Druid capable of becoming a Giant Bear, Lavien truly felt that Pion was already no different from a bear in his current form...
"Greetings, guest from afar! Have some hot tea! There are snacks here as well!" Pion smiled, took a wooden cup, poured Lavien a cup of honey tea, and pushed both the cup and the plate of pastries toward him.
"You are too kind!" Lavien respectfully accepted the cup and placed it before himself.
"Alright, let's get straight to the point. It isn't safe here either. Why have you come with all those soldiers?" Pion asked curiously. Had the Lagrange Kingdom finally shown mercy and sent reinforcements to this remote territory?
"Of course, it's to wipe out the enemy!" Lavien looked at Pion and suddenly felt a little sorry for him. Still looking? Here comes the reckoning! Roland has arrived, so the skies are clear... No, that wasn't right! Roland had arrived, so Pion's good days were over. But Lavien certainly could not put it so bluntly and could only laugh it off. After all, while the Beornings' practice of charging exorbitant tolls was wrong, it was also understandable. After surviving the wilderness death run, paying the entry tax on the Old Pass road, and then the ferry fee at Karl Rock, any merchant wanting to come here would be squeezed dry. Only dwarves tirelessly seeking