"Dwarves like to solve all of their problems, including those it's otherwise typical to solve with law, by economic means."

"...?"

"If you're going to go around in a Dwarf-populated area, you subscribe to a dispute resolution service. If someone does something that bothers you, your respective dispute resolution services sort that out."

"...and how do they do that?"

"The services all know each other and have deals worked out for how to cheaply handle disputes in a satisfying way, which can involve fairly ordinary-looking investigations of evidence and so on."

"Sounds bizarre. Does it work?"

"It works for Dwarves, and for visitors who buy in to the system. People who think it's silly find it unsatisfying."

He laughs.

"Some people just don't like being told 'since you got the discount package, your compensation for this pickpocketing incident is a coupon to this restaurant we have a deal with'."

"I can imagine, yeah."

"But there are drawbacks to any system which isn't, uh, 'everybody is perfectly lovely all the time'. Which is a great system but seems really hard for most species to implement."

"Just a little," he agrees.

"It works for Elves!"

"Lucky Elves! The rest of us have to deal with people sometimes not being perfectly lovely."

"It works for Elves internally, I mean."

"Yeah."

"How long do you usually keep people and then what happens to them?"

"Usually at least a few decades, sometimes much longer, and then I kill them. Why?"

"I was hoping not much longer. Melkor ran simulations for much longer than a few decades subjectively and sometimes people try running rescue forks of their uploaded selves and - then they stop doing that."

"I don't actually know if they're that badly off by the time I'm done with them."

"You're probably more... straightforward."

"That does sound like me."

"Why do you kill them?"

"Because it's fun."

"That part you could probably find chipped volunteers for. The leadup would be harder."