Ball of Nothing

The room that Zero and Truen were given was spacious and would normally cost a lot. Zero thanked the innkeeper for showing such generous hospitality.

"Now that we are away from the attention of nosy people, how can I be of assistance? I'm one of the most well-informed people in Rocket Mountain. If there is a particular person you are looking for, I have affiliations to the adventurer's guild. We can put up bounties and jobs for you."

Truen shook his head. "No need for that. We just need to know where we can find a master craftsman who can build statues of worship. This concerns the well-being of giants so we need only the best craftmaster. The commissioned work cannot be taken lightly, they need to be capable of crafting cultures of gods."

The innkeeper nodded. "You've come to the right place. Queen Rosalind probably knows that Rocket Mountain has a mastercraftsman who once worked for the King. Unfortunately because of the princess' madness, he left the capital to reside elsewhere. I don't know where he went but you can try asking the crafting guild for the mastercrafter with the God of Art's blessing. His name is Dorgon Flintstock."

"Dorgon Flintstock," Truen noted. "Where is the crafting guild?"

"Down the alley and turn right. Once you pass the bakery on the main street, take a left turn and you will see it after the stone bridge. It's difficult to miss the crafting guild, there will be many broken potteries lying around. What would you like for dinner? I'll have the cook prepare it to be brought up to your room after your shower."

Zero was surprised. "We can eat here? I was walking around earlier and I saw many starving citizens. Isn't food rationed based on the princess' diet?"

The innkeeper was surprised that Zero already heard some things about the madness that was going on and sighed. "That is true for the majority of the citizens in Rocket Mountain. However, it doesn't apply to guests coming from afar. Adventurers and miners are exempted from that rule. I may not look like it but I am also a registered adventure so I'm not following that stupid rule. I heard that it's getting worse but the King isn't doing anything to stop this madness. If the people don't starve to death doing this, they will leave the capital and it will soon be too late if everyone either dies of leaves. When you meet with the King could you help to plead for him to wake up to his senses?"

Zero didn't make any promises but he told the concerned innkeeper that he will try. That was all it took for the dwarf to bow and promise to arrange for all the famous cuisine of Rocket Mountain that Zero said he wanted to try.

Once they were alone in the room, Zero quickly set up a magic barrier to give them privacy.

"Truen! This is bad! I've seen it all. Malnutrition, anorexia, bulimia and gastric. If this continues, everyone's health will be ruined forever!"

Flopping down onto the bed, Truen sighed. He knew this was going to happen. Zero couldn't possibly turn a blind eye to other people's problems no matter how much he matured.

"Calm down. First, we have to gain an audience with the King before we can plan out the next step. Don't forget that we're here as envoys. You cannot pull the same trick on the dwarves like what you did for Magnus Hilda. No more listening to the voice of wandering gods. These dwarves aren't pious and religious. They worship iron and alcohol more."

Zero thought about it. "It's really strange. Why would the Fae King be so hung up on beauty or mortals? Even if the princess did succeed in slimming down, would he even accept her love?"

Truen raised a brow. "Are you a love consultant or something? Don't meddle in other people's business. Besides, love is a complicated thing that fails more often than it succeeds. If the Gods like Athena aren't able to settle their love problems successfully, what makes you think mortals can surpass them?"

Zero pouted. "I wasn't thinking of playing the matchmaker again like for Poseidon and Medusa. I was just thinking of it from a different perspective. Imagine if she succeeds at the expense of so many lives but gets rejected. What do you think will happen to this country? The King obviously loves his daughter very much and will do just about anything for her. If we can win his daughter's favour, don't you think he will be more willing to lend us a hand with what we need to do?"

Truen thought about it. Zero made sense. However, he couldn't understand what Zero was scheming. Did he really want to involve himself as messy as an impossible love? The chances of failure were a lot higher than success. If Zero didn't succeed and the Fae King didn't like the Dwarven princess did that mean the doctor was going to force either party to give in or give up?

"What are you thinking about?" Zero asked when Truen became silent. The archer was so deep in thought that he didn't realise dinner had arrived. Zero took a whiff of the delicious food and moaned in delight, helping himself to the pottage.

As Truen stuffed his mouth with food without tasting them properly, he couldn't help but glance over to Zero.

"What are you planning to do? Surely you don't intend to involve yourself in the princess' troubles. I don't know the princess personally but the royal family here sounds like a pain to deal with. In my opinion, it would be better to look for Dorgon Flintstock secretly and kidnap him for a while. The King would be too busy to notice his absence with his daughter's dieting disaster."

"Truen! How can you say that? Kidnapping is bad. We need to do this through the proper channels. I was thinking of making some slimming potions as a gesture of goodwill and offering my services as a mystic healer to the distressed princess and negotiate for a compromise with the dumb king. This way, you can find out more about Dorgon Flintstock while the citizens get to escape compulsory dieting."

Truen listened to Zero's bad planning and smiled. Zero had great ideas as always but the doctor was a mess when it came to details. "Understood. We will do it the way you want but you must leave the planning and preparations to me. You can't possibly be running to and fro between the princess and searching for Dorgon. It's not efficient. Instead, why don't we do this..."

Zero ate and listened to Truen's plan, asking questions when he had any until it was late at night.