Lynn held the wine at the front of his mouth, letting his tongue pick out its many flavors as he tried to identify the unusual ingredient Hill had mentioned.
At first, he smiled. Then his expression slowly shifted to uncertainty and alarm, as though something had frightened him.
He swallowed, immediately drained the rest of his glass, and closed his eyes to feel the changes in his Mental Sea.
Hill watched curiously. Did Lynn know what the unusual ingredient was?
Lynn slammed his glass onto the table and stared grimly at the bottle of Crystal Mystery. "How many bottles of this do the Elves back home sell each year?"
"This is the highest grade. They only make twelve bottles a year, and it's extremely expensive. You can't buy it with gold coins, and only kings or Legendary Mages qualify to purchase it," Hill said in surprise. "But anyone whose Mental Sea isn't strong enough can't drink a wine of this grade. Even a sip could leave them dead drunk.
"Very few kings buy it.
"The handful of countries that do buy it just put it on display. After all, one bottle costs almost as much as a year's tax revenue.
"Usually, Legendary Mages are the ones who buy it from the Elves. They spend years in the Starry Sky and have plenty of valuable things on hand.
"The Elven God-King still needs rare materials from the Starry Sky.
"I traded a Legendary-grade artifact to William for this bottle. He has no interest in luxuries like this.
"Before William took the throne, though, Salar couldn't afford this wine.
"Later... the Elves gave him a few bottles to apologize to a future god.
"William doesn't like wines with such a strong fragrance, so he traded them all to me.
"There's a fair