"Stillwater, in a minute a gate will be opening in my room. I need someone to come through and convince some elves that I am on their side."

Stillwater says "Understood!"

Then, ignoring the elves for the moment, I close the door and take a look at the room. As promised, it is heavily warded against all types of spying and as far as I can tell there aren't any problems. I was sort of expecting them to try and sneak in something to record what I was going to do.

It seems that I was wrong and Zachariah is playing straight with me, which is good. Maybe telling him and his friend about the peninsula won't be so bad after all. For now, I open the gate and wait as Stillwater and Sheraf come through.

As soon as the elves see Stillwater, they perk up and all start talking at once. Now that they aren't paying attention, I use my mana to unlock their restraints and collars. Then it is simply a matter of waiting for Stillwater to calm them down and get them through the gate.

Sheraf says "Your majesty, I want to apologize again for trying to poison you. I had no idea who you were and how important to my people you had become."

"It's fine and just call me Ash. I take it you have been filled in on everything?"

Sheraf says "Oh, yes, I've been hearing all sorts of interesting things about you. Would you like some fruit?"

"Um, what? No, thank you."

Lin says "Back off, Sheraf, he's mine!"

Sheraf says "Alright, but you and I should talk when you return to the ship, Lin. We can have a nice long chat."

Lin says "Alright, we can do that."

"Wait, what?"

Stillwater says "Alright, we are good to go."

Sheraf gives me and Lin a smile before following Stillwater through the gate. Once they are gone I close the gate, then I remind Lin to recast her disguise before I open the door. The attendant is still waiting for us and this time she leads us up to the fifth floor.

I can smell food before we reach our destination, which is a meeting room. Zachariah is there waiting for us, but he is alone, also waiting is a large table covered in food. The snacks that came with our tea were nowhere near enough, so I head straight for the food.

Zachariah says "My friend should be here in about an hour, so I had some lunch prepared. Please, help yourselves."

Lin says "Thank you."

"So, am I revealing what I am to your friend, or am I playing a human king?"

Zachariah says "I would suggest you reveal yourself to him. That way, if something happens and you get revealed, you have some protection."

"Alright, I will trust your judgment."

After that, things are quiet for a while as Lin and I eat our fill of the delicious food. From the food it is obvious that Zachariah keeps a high quality chef on staff. Luckily, there is ample food, this layout was probably meant to feed a dozen people at least.

"My compliments to your chef. Do you mind if I take some of the extra food?"

Zachariah says "Not at all. I can have more prepared if you like."

"No need for that. I just want to add these recipes to my pouch."

Zachariah says "Excuse me?!"

"This pouch can recreate foods that are put into it."

Zachariah says "That is amazing! Can you make more of those? They would sell for a fortune to adventurers!"

"Sorry, no. It was a gift from my goddesses."

Zachariah says "That's too bad."

Since his friend hasn't arrived yet, I take out the materials for the rings. Zachariah looks over curiously when he sees me taking out the materials. With him watching, I use my mana to pick up the materials and start merging them.

It is actually easy enough that I do all three sets of materials at the same time. I am not good enough to enchant all three at once, but making the actual rings is easy. In fact, I can fuse the materials together much better this way than by forging.

Zachariah says "How are you doing that without any tools?!"

Lin says "He is using mana to manipulate the materials directly. However, it takes a decent amount of concentration. Especially when he is trying to show off by doing three at once."

Zachariah says "Oh, sorry."

Lin's comment makes me smile and almost makes me make a mistake. However, I manage to catch it and fix it, so it isn't a big deal and I finish the rings. I pick up one of the rings and start etching the formation on the inside of the ring.

After the formation is in place, the rest of the enchantments are easy enough. Not only have I done them before, but I have had a lot of practice since then. Thanks to Lin I also have a much better understanding of magic and enchantments.

When I finish the first ring, it can hold about three times as much as the others I made. It can hold more than my current ring, but I still prefer mine due to the other effects. Although, I could probably make a better version now if I got the right materials.

However, it is fine for now, it is not like I am really short on storage space. Once the enchantments are finished I toss the ring to Zachariah and start working on the next one. He examines the ring and after a second he gets a huge smile on his face.

Zachariah says "This is way better than I was told to expect! With three of these I won't ever need to use a caravan again!"

Being in the middle of enchanting the second ring I can't spare the attention to respond. It is actually going much faster and easier than I was expecting it to. It has been a while since I remade something I already knew how to make.

That is why it is so surprising how much my skills have actually improved. Normally, I am just experimenting and trying to make new things. It is pretty gratifying for me to see how much my skills have improved.

When I finish the second ring and throw it to Zachariah, I realize someone else is in the room. I was too focused on the enchanting, and my thoughts, that I didn't notice him enter. He actually looks enough like Zachariah that I am wondering if they are related.

Zachariah says "Ash, this is Almort, Almort this is Ash."

"Hello."

Almort says "It is a pleasure to meet you. I have to say that I have never seen anyone who can match you in enchanting."

"Oh, thank you. So, you work for the adventurer's association?"