Chapter 168

Chapter 29. Things you can afford (1)

Three beers.

I remember up to that point. And I don’t remember anything from the moment I took my fourth sip of alcohol.

“Uh, I’ve been freezing the French fries since then.”

The wizard, whose job it was to put down his timid face for a moment, asked, trying to understand the situation.

“I’m sorry. Did I make a mistake?”

“I froze the French fries.”

I froze my french fries and talked a little too much.

I roughly knew what brought Arsene here. Since I said I was coming here at Kalian’s request, I just thought I’d do it. It wasn’t until yesterday that I realized what the wizard had in mind, who was good at difficult things but couldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do.

Euria asked with a slight frown.

“You really don’t remember?”

“Yes, I really don’t. I only drink three drinks every time, but I don’t know why it happened yesterday.”

Euria eventually chuckled at Arsene’s answer that he always drinks three beers before returning home in front of others.

It’s something Arsene doesn’t want to do himself, but he wants to do it because it’s Calian’s request. So I didn’t refuse and came here to talk with Gray, but the truth was I really hated it. Nevertheless, it was something I wanted to help with.

I ended up drinking because I was caught in the middle of conflicting feelings about wanting to do something even though I didn’t want to, so what would be a mistake if I came out drunk. Freezing French fries was an unforgivable mistake, but whining was not a mistake.

So Euria shook her head lightly and said.

“I didn’t make another mistake. I didn’t freeze the chicken.”

“Have you eaten chicken? By yourself?”

“Why don’t you eat alone? You slept.”

To be exact, it’s because they were marinated, but it’s not a significant difference.

A juice filled with coconut meat was placed in front of Arsene, who was massaging his temples as if he had a headache from drinking too much. It was ordered by Euria to relieve a hangover.

Arsene said, as he was already very thirsty and ate it in one mouthful.

“Do you smell that alcohol?”

“I don’t. If you smell like alcohol after drinking four beers, is that a human?”

The sober wizard, who had emptied two bottles of Himolica right in front of him and still had not a trace of alcohol in him, answered like that. Arsene, who had already used clean magic twice, wasted his magic power once again, as if he was still distrustful after hearing those words.

I’m going to see Gray again.

Euria, who was looking at it, asked vaguely.

“What time did you say you were leaving?”

The sun was already high in the sky. Arsene answered, thinking he would just leave now because he felt sick to his stomach and couldn’t eat anything else.

“I just said I would go today.”

“Then eat something.”

Euria sat Arsene down as he tried to get up and continued speaking in a light tone.

“You can go slowly. That’s better.”

There was no need to rush since Arsene was clearly holding the sword. The more time passed, the more upset Gray would become.

“Little one, I know you have nothing to lose, so hurry up and go. The later you go, the lower his requirements will be, so just play some more and then go.”

If we go quickly, it will only prove that Arsene is also looking forward to joining hands with Gray. So, I just had to go slowly and show him, ‘I’ll stop holding your hand even if I don’t hold your hand,’ so he wouldn’t be needlessly greedy.

“Ah. That would be better. Thank you, Chairman of the Association.”

“I think you don’t have to call me the president of the association for the time being. I’m getting a bit of a scab on my ear.”

Euria replied while spreading butter on a baked potato and scooped up a spoonful of the soft potato filling. Inexplicably, Arsene’s eyes followed the spoon towards Euria.

“Okay. Potatoes have to be hot. I can’t eat frozen ones.”

Euria, who chewed and swallowed a potato while talking about something else for a moment, added a leisurely answer to Arsene’s question, which was still not answered.

“It’s just something like that.”

As soon as those words were finished, the clerk looked for the two again. Then, a spicy stew made with cabbage and beef was placed in front of Arsene. Even though the clerk did not specifically say that it was ordered for Arsene, he quickly found the owner of the dish.

It was clear that it was more necessary food for a man who had fallen asleep after drinking four beers and was taken away the next day, and who was sitting in a state of arrogance, rather than a woman who was eating buttered potatoes the day after eating two bottles of Himolica by herself.

After thanking the clerk, Euria pointed at the stew with the tip of her spoon and spoke to Arsene.

“Anyway, eat that. After eating and resting, come with me.”

“Are you saying you would like to go with me to the meeting with Margrave Briesen?”

Isn’t Euria the one who hates Brisen guys because they are stupid? So, when we met the day before, Arsene met Gray alone. Then, Euria acted on a whim and asked a question.

“Uh, I’m bored. I’ll talk about it today. There’s nothing more to say anyway.”

It’s not that I don’t want to let the junior wizard do something he doesn’t want to do, it’s just that I’m bored.

Arsene’s expression became complicated at the surprisingly delicate words of the association president.

I must have been drunk yesterday and made a mistake when speaking. Otherwise, there is no way Euria would come out like that. Arsene held his head at this thought.

Euria, who was watching, laughed as she took the biggest piece of meat from Arsene’s stew and ate it.

* * *

Calian burst into laughter.

“I thought everything was back, but it really was back.”

Yan, who was putting down two tea cups at the sound of laughter, looked at Calian’s complexion.

I knew that laughing while talking about a Balkan wizard might not be a real laugh, but fortunately this time it was a real laugh. So Yan bowed slightly with a relieved expression and went out.

– It’s nothing to laugh about. I really received 49 blows.

It was said that he had joined hands with Gray under false pretenses and that Gray was not in contact with Randel.

Calian soon became lost in thought.

‘The period is not right.’

The timing of the letter and the period of time he said he would return were a bit strange.

Even excluding the time for the birds to fly, it took a little longer than expected to speak with Gray after arriving at the Marginal Territory from the capital. After finishing work, I saw that he would arrive within this week, so it seemed like he was planning to use the moving magic circle, but the scheduled date was not right now, but within this week.

‘I guess something happened on the way. Even though he had no intention of staying there any longer, he said he would stay a little longer.’

I knew how much Arsene would have hated to do that.

Nevertheless, Arsene was the only person in a situation where he could create a suitable reason to appease Gray to do that. Since it was an unplanned event, it was not possible to prepare a suitable person in advance, even if it was Calian.

So, I asked Arsene for a favor, and Arsene complied with Calian’s request without another word.

Still, since I don’t like what I don’t like, I would have thought about coming back right away after work, but it’s strange that I insisted on coming within this week.

– Knock knock.

As was his habit, Kalian’s fingers slowly tapped the table.

‘Either the magic circle has not been completed yet, or it has been completed but has intervened in Siren’s affairs.’

I don’t know the exact reason why Arsene’s arrival in the Margin was delayed, but those were the only two reasons why his arrival in the capital was delayed. And if it was about Euria, it was probably related to what Sispanian had mentioned to Calian.

Investigation of the Black Stone.

Since he left to do that, it probably means that Arsene will help Euria and investigate together from now on.

It wouldn’t have mattered if he had to wait a bit since the magic circle wasn’t completed yet, but it wasn’t pleasant for Arsene to be involved in the Black Stone affair. Didn’t Alan tell Euria not to worry about that anymore? Because it was that dangerous.

‘If you don’t come by the weekend, I’ll have to do something to get out.’

Calian thought about that for now and used his magic a little.

– Howling!

In an instant, a large flame erupted from Calian’s fingertips and the note was completely burned away. The gazes of the nobles who had not yet left gathered.

“Brother. If you are going to Wilhelm’s coffin, can I come with you?”

Calian said this without paying attention to the nobles, and Plantz’s eyes narrowed. Plantz, who quickly erased the expression on his face as if he was seeing something unexpected, answered.

“okay.”

A flame that was intentionally made bigger.

The nobles did not know that Calian was a wizard. The spark from before was just an action to attract attention, and after focusing attention like that, he received permission from Plantz to go to Wilhelm.

This was an action that implicitly confirmed that Calian, who was also a wizard himself, recognized that Balkan had become Plantz’s.

After Calian finished the short performance using an unexpected note, Plantz stood up from his seat.

The two came out while receiving greetings from the nobles and walked towards Wilhelm’s coffin as they said.

“What is the note?”

Plantz knew that Arsene was away due to work related to the moving magic circle. Therefore, there is no way Plantz would not know that what Calian had just checked was Arsene’s note. Because there was no need to contact anyone who was far away enough to send Jeon Seo-gu.

“It looks like the schedule has been delayed a bit due to Siren Siren’s matter. It looks like he wants to investigate the stone.”

Kalian knew that if he tried to hide the truth, people would notice again, so he simply explained it briefly.

It wasn’t a lie.

It was Arsene’s letter, and I couldn’t tell you about it, but it didn’t matter if I told you about other things I guessed from the letter.

“It’ll be okay. The crazy wizard will be there too.”

Plantz responded like this: No matter how Flanz was, he didn’t doubt Calian’s words just now.

“Yes. Since we have dinner today, it will be difficult to go to the training center in the evening, but I will show you today’s swordsmanship at Wilhelm.”

Plantz just nodded without answering. Calian looked at Planz for a moment and asked.

“Aren’t you curious why Kirie did that?”

I didn’t ask.

Planz did not respond, and Calian, who had been concentrating on walking for a while, opened his mouth.

“It’s a kind of hallucination where you realize a better way to kill someone by getting too much blood on them before you realize it. Once you get used to what you see, it won’t come back, so you’ll be fine.”

“okay.”

“Instead of the note, you should be curious about why Kirie attacked you so intently that day.”

Why do you get so angry at being attacked like that when you fight back? Why is he curious about the message Calian received, but not curious about himself?

This time too, Plantz remained silent.

Instead, Calian opened his mouth again.

“Kyrie was like that. Like my brother.”

Just like the current Kirie, the ‘past’ Kirie was like that too.

I wasn’t curious.

If you tell me to do it, I will tell you what to do. If you don’t tell me, you won’t know. I just said I would understand everything. I just accepted everything.

Then I finally saw Garum. Kirie was stronger back then than she is now, but in the end, she saw the same thing as Bern.

Does it only belong to handling a sword?

“Don’t do that. You get curious and ask questions and get angry about your brother’s work. If you have decided to let go of your guilt and live, you should also be a little greedy. If you don’t, you will end up in trouble all the same.”

Plantz looked at Calian.

And Kalian looked at Plantz with calm eyes.

“You can be greedy.”

Anyway, I thought he was a person who needed a lot of work and needed to be taught everything from start to finish.